Dragons

[Sweetcherrie]

OOC: Feel free to join in.

 

A small sliver of light fell through the bedraggled windows. Specks of dust travelled in the beam towards the centre of the room, and a careful observer would be able to see them land gently on a head with blond curls.

 

The girl sat in the middle of the room, so busy that she didn’t notice the sun on her hair, or the how soiled the room was. On the ground before the girl lay a thumbed sheet of paper and the tip of her tongue was just visible between her lips as she screwed her face up in concentration.

 

Sweet was drawing a dragon on the paper, a nice dragon. Gyrfalcon had once promised her a dragon, but of course he hadn’t wanted to give her the big black and red one she wanted, so she had decided to draw one for herself. She had gathered her magical pens, had stolen some piece of paper from Wyvern’s desk, and had taken all of it to the deepest dungeon of the Pen Keep. She had taken, Zira, the kitten Mynx had once given to her along, and had sneaked down all the stairs. At least here she was absolutely sure that nobody would disturb her.

 

With the black pen she had drawn the outline, and had coloured in most of the dragon. The red pen she had used to colour flames on his wings. She had even thought about where to hide the dragon once it had become alive, and had drawn a portal to a different world behind the dragon. They could both hide in the other world and play when she wanted to, and when she had to go back the dragon could fly around freely in that other world.

 

‘Oh darn,’ she mumbled to herself and grabbed for the eraser. She rubbed vigorously and waved the paper around to get the rubbing off again. A couple of number showed on the back of the paper, and some words were still readably through the grime that was now stuck on the back of the paper- ‘Dragonic Underwear $23.995,-’, but the girl didn’t care about the back of the paper, she only cared about the fact that the dragon was almost ready.

 

Behind her the eternal kitten tumbled over as she whacked a couple of Sweet’s pens around, and mewed softly.

 

‘Quiet now, Zira, I have to….there’

 

With a big grin Sweet held up the paper in front of her. The dragon looked awfully mean, but Sweet was happy, and she showed the picture to the kitten.

 

‘I need your help now Zira, you need to make it real’

 

Zira hissed at the drawing and a took a few steps back.

 

‘Aww, c’mon now,’ Sweet grabbed the kitten and rubbed her against the drawing.

 

The air around the drawing sparkled, as if it filled with electricity. Zira hissed again, wormed herself out of Sweet’s arms, and fled to a corner.

 

Sweet put the drawing on the floor and took a step back. She was half-dancing and clapping in her hands, chanting, ‘I will have a dragon, come here little dragon, be my cute dragon.’ A blue swirl opened up above the drawing, and for a moment it looked as if the dragon would materialize into the dungeon.

 

But then the swirl stretched itself out towards Sweet, grabbed her, and moments later Zira was left alone in the room.

 

The kitten mewed sadly, as if she wanted to ask where the little girl had done. With careful steps she walked closer to the piece of paper that still lay in the centre of the room. On the paper was nothing else to see than the portal that had once been portrayed behind the dragon, and both the dragon and the girl were nowhere to be seen.

 

Zira, smart as she was, understood what must have happened, and sprinted out of the dungeon in search of help.

Edited April 9, 2008 by Sweetcherrie

[Wyvern]

Wyvern wanders through the Conservatory shuffling a number of paper scraps in his claws, paying no mind to the bustle of other Conservatory activities as he marks several sheets with a red ink quill. The overgrown lizard seats himself on a never-used table leftover from the Pen Confection Tasting Convention and observes the last of his doodle sheets, which features a stick figure rendition of CheerMynx with her tail curved into a heart position. He checks the sheet off with his quill before pulling out a folder labeled "Almost Dragonic Brand Modern Artsy Exhibit™ Gameplan." Wyvern buries his snout in the diagrams and cost evaluations, and snatches two pages of messy doodles to compare their "artistic integrity." He contemplates if "Variations on Geld Sacks" might work as a thematic hook for drawing art snobs to the pro-profit event, and sets about scribbling thoughts for an interactive exhibit involving an empty geld sack and a donations box...

 

"meow?"

 

Wyvern snorts and lowers his folder just enough to spot Zira sitting a few feet away from the table, staring at him with a pair of cute and innocent kitten eyes. The lizard twists his snout a bit as he feels a brief pang of familiarity, but fails to make the connection between the kitten and her owner and waves a claw in the best "get lost" motion he can muster. He licks his lips as he lifts the folder back over his face, and promptly begins taking notes on possible gift shop doodle merchandise, including original prints...

 

"mewwwwww?"

 

Wyvern clears his throat and pays the kitten no mind, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling and jotting something about about a 20 geld entrance fee for all.

 

"meeeeowwwwww."

 

Wyvern pauses and bites his lip, then lets out a low hiss and scratches something out, marking a clause prohibiting cute and innocent kittens from entering the exhibit.

 

"Meeeowww."

 

Wyvern tilts his head back and lets out a slightly smoky sigh, lowering his folder again for a moment and glaring at the kitty.

 

"What?!"

 

"MEOW!!!"

 

"OK, that'ssss it!"

 

Wyvern tosses his folder to the side and barges at Zira, who promptly turns and dashes off from the lizard. Wyvern curses as he chases after the kitten, following it down several flights of stairs and stumbling after it through some of the deeper dungeons of the Pen Keep. He finally scoots to a halt as he reaches a room with a sheet of blank white paper at its center, which has no exits other than the spot where he stands. Wyvern pants for breath and shakes a claw at Zira as she continues meowling from a far corner of the room, then steps in only to pause as he notices the shimmering portal shape that hangs over the paper. He takes a step back, not risking a planar shift given his scheduled Almost Report deadline, and scratches his chin as he observes the ancient and spacious look of the dungeon chamber. His beady eyes turn towards Zira again for a moment to pass along an angry stare, but then turn to the sheet of paper and its shimmering portal and stay fixed there.

 

"Hmmmm..." Wyvern reaches into his pocket and pulls out a spare quill and a paper scrap, then jots something down. An almost dragonic grin begins spreading across his scaly snout. "Very interessssting indeed. This could be the centerpiece, but what to call it? 'Geld Sack in Sssspace' perhapsss... either way, sure to be a crowd pleassser."

 

Wyvern snickers to himself and begins scribbling new thoughts on dungeon decor for his Almost Dragonic Brand Modern Artsy Exhibit™, still completely oblivious to the entire Sweet situation...

[Sweetcherrie]

The world turned and turned, and little Sweet was starting to feel slightly nauseous. She closed her eyes tight, and hoped that it would soon stop. And sure enough, with a soft thud, she landed on a grassy plain. She carefully opened one eye, and then the other.

 

The world she saw was more colourful than she had ever seen before, and Sweet had seen quite a few worlds before. The grass under her felt soft, and was bright green, the clouds above her in the sky were lollipop pink, and in the distance she saw some purple trees.

 

She got up, and walked towards the nearest bush she saw. The bush had small berrylike things in it that looked like chewing gum. The temptation was too big for a little girl, and Sweet stuck one in her mouth. Thoughtfully she tasted, and that with a surprised little giggle she chewed down on it, it was chewing gum!

 

With both her hands she started grabbing chewing gum balls, sticking one after the other in her mouth to taste all the different colours. Sweet got entirely caught up in the delicious flavours, so much that she didn’t notice what was happening around her anymore.

 

There were so many flavours, strawberry, banana, peach, ice-cream, sulphur….sulphur?

 

She chewed a bit more thoughtful on that one, and found that it wasn’t the gum ball that tasted like sulphur, but that it was something in the air. Then she remembered, and slowly turned around.

 

~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile in the Pen Keep, Zira was starting to get angry with that not entirely a dragon person thing. Why was he just standing there? He should be saving her little Sweet. Zira nervously paced back and forth through the dungeon, and then decided to take action, something had to be done.

 

Wyvern snickers to himself and begins scribbling new thoughts on dungeon decor for his Almost Dragonic Brand Modern Artsy Exhibit™, still completely oblivious to the entire Sweet situation...

 

Then from behind Zira glomped into him. Everything Wyvern had in his hands went flying, and face forward the lizard fell onto the picture. This time the magical pens didn’t need the magic of the kitten, the magic of the almost dragon was enough on its own, and the portal started slurping Wyvern in.

[Wyvern]

"Haaaalllllllpppppp!"

 

Wyvern cries out as he tries to pull the lower half of his body from the vacuum-like portal, scraping his claws against the dank dungeon stone and cursing at Zira's deceptive kitten appearance and powerful glomping abilities. The overgrown lizard grunts as he begins inching his way out of the portal, grinning and cackling to himself as his claws find stone crevices to hook themselves onto. He sticks his forked tongue out at Zira as he pulls everything except his tail from the rift, then notices his notepad lying on the floor and decides that this might be a good opportunity to jot down some measurements for cautionary exhibit tape to avoid lawsuits. No sooner does the lizard reach out and grab the notepad than he loses his grip, and he hisses a shriek before being pulled into the vacuuming portal tail first. Zira blinks and turns her head away as she watches the lizard slip down into the portal, then mewls and sets about calmly washing herself with her tongue.

 

---

 

Wyvern groans as he slowly lifts himself from the bright green plain of grass, his head spinning from what he could only assume was an economy class trip to the foreign plane. The overgrown lizard sits down and absorbs the odd colors of his surroundings until his dizziness has settled, then wobbles over to a nearby bush while examining the geld sack shapes of some of the cotton candy clouds. He snatches a huge clawful of colorful berries and stuffs them into his mouth, twisting his snout up at the unnatural chewiness and going wide-eyed at the huge rush of mixed flavors that runs down his throat. The reptilian Elder scratches his chin and eyes the bush thoughtfully, then flips open his tattered notebook and begins jotting more notes for his upcoming artsy exhibit travel agency/confection stand. Wyvern is so busy trying to think up the prices for Almost Dragonic Brand Gumball Bush Seed Packets™ that he doesn't even notice the lingering stench of sulfur in the air, which grows closer and closer and...

[Quincunx]

Rydia left one hand to prop the door open and glanced down the stairwell. The rift to the Mountain Halls had been unsealed, and one of Gralq's cats was even now oozing through that doorway, half lithe and half plump. Inside the cat basket lay one fresh, newly laundered blanket and one old, rumpled, fur-covered blanket. Three dishes on the floor held dry kibble, wet kibble, and the leftover sardines from Rydia's lunch. The fire had been banked, the skylights admitted sun. A catnip mouse, a jingly ball, a blinking red shiny, and one of Rydia's own feathers had been scattered over the throw rug. All snubbed.

 

Zira, parked dead center in the doorway, meowed again. Rydia's hair spontaneously stress-frizzled. Her ears pricked straight up in exasperation as Zira rose, turned, took two steps out of the doorway, then resumed her former spot and caterwauled. "I'm sorry, kitty, but I have places to go!" Rydia finally sputtered. She stepped out of the house, shut the door on Zira's butt (displacing the cat a few centimeters) and walked into the forest--and Zira leaped down from the rocks and ran ahead a few paces, then chirped a short mew. The curve of Rydia's ears softened. "Just a moment, kitty," she said, "I might need to go back to the house and get ready."

 

*****

 

A short while later, Rydia was glad for that. Any problem bad enough to upset a cat did merit going out armed, lightly armored, and with a snack pack, even at the cost of that cat rubbing increasingly desperate figure-eights around her boots while she packed. Dragon breath would also have ruined the gown she had been wearing; archmage gear was more flame-retardant than that. When your ally liked to buzz you every morning you didn't wake up on time with an overflight of red dragons, you learned not to wear flammables.

 

It flared its wings.

 

This was not an ordinary red dragon.

[Hjolnai]

Suddenly, another portal opens to the strangely overcolourful world. An orc in full-plate armour comes charging through, then the portal closes. The orc appears confused for a moment, looking around, and then growls as he realizes that the mage he was just about to smite has escaped again... The orc, looks around, then takes out what is obviously a human holy symbol, though one from a different world. He speaks, in a somewhat orcish accent, saying "I am here to serve the light. As a Lightblade, I fear no enemy and will battle evil no matter how fearsome!"

The orc looks around to see a huge dragon. He swiftly conquers his natural fear, and thinks quickly. I cannot fight the beast alone... I'll need to find allies. It doesn't seem to be killing anyone at the moment, so I should have time... Unfortunately, when the orc tries to sneak away, the clattering of his armour attracts the attention of the dragon.

[Sweetcherrie]

OOC: Gah, I want to post, have half a reply ready in my head even, just that work and the new house are both trying to kill me atm so I'm struggling with time x_X