Ophidian Vale (IC)

"My name is Flower," Flower replied, "and what is yours?"

Flower just realized that the dragons she was speaking were much, much bigger than her. She scolded herself for not realizing sooner. Guess I'm still not thinking as clearly as I should. she thought. They were probably stronger than her, and could easily outrun her. If they were a threat, she would be screwed. What a reckless move... not only did I reveal my location to perfect strangers, I gave them my name. Gosh, if they attack me, I'm done for.

Then Flower got an idea. She could try to read their minds to see if they were friendly or not. She decided to try the gray one who asked her her name, first. However, when she tried to open up his mind to her, their was a strong mental barrier in the way. Every mind had this barrier, and Flower was experienced at mind reading, being a psychic fox and all. However, for some reason she couldn't get past the gray dragon's barrier. Maybe he's got a strong mind. she thought, so she decided to try the other dragon. But the same thing happened. So, either they're both strong minded dragons, or I'm too weak for this. She hoped it was the latter. If they were strong minded, they could mess with her mind, and she knew all too well the ways they could torture her through mind manipulation.

Well, it was too late to back out. All there was to do was wait and see if they were friendly or not.

"Hello Flower" Cain said, his head turned as he was still laying down, his sides were still hurting a little bit. "Beautiful night, isn't it?" he said looking up at the stars and then back down at Flower. He glanced at Dillusia, wondering if she knew Flower.

"Er... Yes," she said as she tilted her head up to look up at the sky, "Yes, it is a beautiful night." He hasn't answered my question, though. I still don't know his name. She looked at him a little more closely, and realized that he looked a bit injured. She might have been a little concerned, but she still wasn't sure if he was friend or foe, though he seemed friendly enough. Maybe he's not thinking so clearly either. she thought with a little amusement.

"So... you haven't told me your name yet..."

"Oh, I'm sorry" Cain said. "My name is Cain"

He looked up at Dillusia, he didn't give Flower her name yet, in case Dillusia wanted to remain hidden, but he just awaited a response. I hope Flower is friendly... Cain thought, obviously concerned about the recent attack on the temples near the ocean.

"I'm sorry for my appearance, I'm not in the best of shape. Thank you though, again" he said turning to Dillusia.

"Not a problem," Dillusia said to Cain. She then turned to Flower. "...And I am Dillusia!" She did a clumsy roll off of Cain's chest, landing on her feet for once, and then meandered over to Flower to get a better look at her.

Everyone was interesting to Dillusia, especially people who ran into trees at top speed.

Sal leaned forwards on his haunches, and looked perplexedly at Naloma. Plans...since when did the leader of the Hallows have plans to destroy the realm? That made no intuitive sense. The leader was supposed to protect the followers, not destroy them, and Tharan was a kind leader, not an evil one.

"I'm sorry, exactly what plans are these?" Sal asked.

"I wouldn't say that an island like this, full of flora and fauna alike, would be a death trap. In fact, I find the concept of Go-Away-birds cute. Then again, I tend to spend more time out in the forest then in my Clan." Thundrus said. He then went on to explain, "I've heard about Hehkahnah from older dragons, nearly a thousand years of age. I believe they've mentioned the go-away-bird, but not by name."

Thundrus heard a crunching sound coming from the back of his head. Frustrated, he closed his eyes, which brought up an Image of Kehrett, who was lying in mounds of white, puffy substences. He also appeared to be chewing on something.

Kehrett... What are you eating? Thundrus asked. Kehrett gave his host an odd look and finally asked, What? Have you never had cooked corn before? The tip of Thundrus' tail twitched before he slowly opened his eyes.

...Augh... When Kehrett's not annoying, he's an idiot! And he calls me an imbecile!

Arbora gave a slight laugh "Wait until you accidentally trip over a log or something in the woods, then you'd think the entire island was laughing at you. It's happened to everyone at one point or another. The birds we have here are both good and bad, once you've lived here long enough to tell. We have magpies, too, perhaps the most intelligent birds I've ever seen, capable of understanding the concept of their reflection, but for some reason, people think they steal shiny things. I don't really think they've ever done that." As she finished speaking, sound came from outside the cave, and she noted that the morning sun was now pouring in. There came a sound of heavy footsteps, as though from something very large, outside, below the cave's mouth.

"Hey! Arbora! You up there?!" A voice called up. The voice had an accent to it that was unusually similar to the Brooklyn accent that was found in the human world, and the voice's pitch seemed to hover between a baritone and a tenor. Arbora jumped slightly, but recognizing the voice, smoothed down her tail spikes. She walked over to the entrance and peered down at the unusual-looking dragon below. He didn't even have scales, and his skin was a bright magenta, speckled with cyan. It was no wonder some of the other early birds were staring as they went off to fish. "Chris! What are you doing here? I thought you said you didn't wake up until noon!" The large dragon scratched the back of his head with one of his four wings, which appeared to look more like flippers, and were tipped with sharp claws. "Well, I heard you met someone, so I came to check it out. Can't have you wandering into danger again." He said. Arbora rolled her eyes, "Fine, come on up, but please be careful, it's a tight squeeze." Chris shook his head, "Okay, then, I can use my wings to cling to the cliff." With this, the dragon dug his wings into the cliff and scaled it, eventually coming to perch on the ledge of Arbora's cave.

Arbora looked over at Thundrus, "Thundrus, I would like you to meet my friend, Chris, he's the guy who lives on the other side of the island, no clue how he sleeps through the noise, though."

"He's gone corrupt!" Naloma said. "Tharan absorbed the powers of the Ancients and he's going to use said powers to destroy us. He isn't a Desecrate yet, but he will be when he first makes a major strike!" she said getting a grave look on her face. "So I'm making a plan to stop him. Sal, are you willing to work with me?" she asked, smiling and tilting her head to the side slightly.

"I've heard those tales, too. I suppose-" Thundrus was cut off by a voice from the bottom of the cave. His scales flickered between orange and grey, signaling that he was partially agitated, but also prepared for an attack. However, no attack came. He looked down, and discovered a dragon at the floor. He calmed when Abora called the dragon by his name, Chris, but he was still distrusting. There was something about Abora he trusted, but any other dragon would be treated as a hostile stranger. In fact, if It weren't for Abora introducing him, Thundrus would have likely left, or stood his ground in a hostile stance.

Thundrus was nervous, but he greeted himself nonetheless: "Ah, you must be the dragon I was told about. My name is Thundrus."

Chris, looked at Thundrus for a moment, before eventually giving him a toothy grin, "You seem to check out A okay, so nice to meet you." He said. Although his teeth were sharp, and he was a rather gigantic dragon, there was something undeniably silly regarding his manner. "So, what brings you to the island, Thundrus? We don't get a lot of visitors around here, and if we do happen to get any, the all seem to fly off pretty quick. Personally, I thought the dragons here were pretty nice. We're not all that bad."

Sal was perplexed. How did Tharan go evil? Why? And how would they stop the most powerful dragon alive? All of these questions raced through his mind, and he looked around the room for answers. Finding none, he figured that he'd find his own.

"Yes, I will assist you in stopping him." Sal said, bowing his head slightly. "So how are we going to stop him?"

"Well, admittedly, I came to this island by accident. I suppose that it's luck that I managed to come here, and not get lost at sea." Thundrus said. "As for the 'leaving' part... Well, I'm convinced that I'll return. I have unfinished business at the mainland, but I am planning to stay the night, if that's alright with you..?"

"Well, considering you don't appear to be bad, I'm fine with you staying around Arbora. We just don't want another hostile dragon attacking the locals." Chris said, grinning. Arbora rolled her eyes at this, "In case you didn't remember, the last hostile dragon that set foot on this island was you, Thresher. With your bullying, my friends were scared stiff, and I couldn't get them to go outside of their caves, much less do anything fun or social." The gigantic dragon looked over at her, "Aw, come on! Obviously I wasn't scary enough, you walked right up to me, despite the fact that I was beating everyone up, and I thought you were going to chew me up and spit me back out!" He said. Arbora just huffed, "Thresher, you don't push people around anymore, but a lot of dragons are still scared of you, and you're the biggest dragon on this island. They still cower, even though you aren't going to hurt them. Why do you think nobody else has come to visit?" Thresher paused at this, "Well, don't forget nobody knows what to make of me. I'm not a wyvern, or a sea serpent, don't ask me what I should be called." He said. Arbora frowned, "I thought you were more of a drake, myself, considering your wings don't have the usual membrane." At this, Chris just frowned, "Uh, you know what? Never mind, I always get 'em mixed up, anyway."

"Well..." Naloma said. "Surely you're aware of his new mate, Bella. Striking her and killing her would be the best first step. Sal, I need you to find her and kill her sometime soon before Tharan grows any stronger, alright?" she asked, glancing at him. She thought he might need an escort, to ensure he didn't turn on her, but she pushed the thought away. Surely he would help her.

Crystal was a bit stunned. The "good guys" didn't kill someone to hurt the enemy, at least not where she came from. Then again, love and war could be different here, but it still didn't seem right. Maybe it was just her peaceful nature, or her hate for killing. Whatever the reason, Naloma was awfully convincing. Crystal decided to go along with the situation, got up, and approached Naloma. "Since I'm staying here, at least for now, I have a few questions. How does someone actually live here? I mean, this place isn't exactly capable of supporting plant or animal life, is it?" She gestured at the scorched lands below. As if on cue, a burst of lava sailed into the air from one of the geysers. She stepped away from the edge of the tower an recoiled with surprise.

"Well, there's a place where you can get food close by, though I have no clue how bigger dragons get enough. A squirrel is a meal to me, and maybe only a bite for everyone else." Albus said. It was true that he was pitifully small, but at the same time, a lot of dragons could have been his size when they were little. At the same time, though, his big brother was not much larger than him, and Albus knew Tenebris was much older than him, and had stopped growing a long time ago. Truly, Albus had been so young when Tenebris decided to take care of him that he didn't know the difference between being adopted and related by blood, because that was just how much the two cared about one another. Sometimes Albus was surprised Tenebris was as old as he was, because when Tenebris was so small, only slightly larger than him, he would have thought he was only a few years older, and not an entire century.

"Squirrels?" Crystal frowned. Her head lowered slightly as if showing disappointment, or maybe even shyness. She had no desire to eat squirrels, rabbits, mice, or any animal for that matter. Like most gifts, being a Shape-shifter had its pros and cons. The good news is that you can transform into virtually any animal or beast that you know of, others look up to you as a guardian or protector, and you get to live in perfect harmony with nature. The bad news? Your fate is intertwined with prophecies and big events, many will ruthlessly hunt you down to kill you or use your powers for themselves, and eating meat is a big no-no. Even if Crystal wanted to eat meat, she couldn't keep it down and would have to throw it back up. She learned that the hard way when some of her friends tricked her into eating bacon-flavored ice cream (long story), but they realized their mistake and apologized. In other words, squirrels were not an option.

Albus looked over at the dragoness who had been nice to him. "Well, I can't really eat anything else. My brother tells me that my species is probably native to the desert, and there's not really any plants there, either, but I don't know, because we've never seen any others like me, and I seem to be able to eat vegetation just fine..." Suddenly a different thought occurred, "Wait, you're one of the herbivorous dragons, aren't you?" He suddenly lowered his head, embarrassed, "Sorry, I didn't even think about it. Fruit's nice, too. My favorite is pineapple, except I have to ask my brother for help when I try to peel one, because I always scratch my tongue, every single time, but it's worth it because..." He shut his mouth, "I'm sorry, I'm babbling again..."

"Nice to meet you two." Flower replied. Flower relaxed a little, but only a little. They seemed friendly, but still...

Flower thought she might be able to find out more about them if she could make idle chat. "So, do you guys live here?" A simple question, but if they said yes, it would mean they would know the territory better than her, and might possibly, just possibly, help her find her way home.

And help me find Crystal...

The thought came unexpectedly, and it surprised her. She chastised herself for not thinking it sooner. Crystal was with her during the teleportation experiment of Laddy's that most likely brought her here. If Crystal was here too...

There was a chance, but it was somewhat unlikely. She could be anywhere, Flower thought. And even if she was here, how would I find her?

"Um, no I don't. But Dillusia here does," Cain said with a smile. He wondered what Flower was doing and why she was here, but he didn't say anything outright.

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Naloma got off her "throne" and walked around the platform. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're standing on a massive palace" she said. Although the Spire was in the shape of a single tower, it was huge and wide enough to house several castles inside of it. She glanced over at the dead scorched plains.

"I don't see why you wouldn't find yourself at home here. The view is beautiful. Besides, we have plenty of food inside that my servants bring in each day."

Crystal silently nodded at Albus, though she didn't quite understand why he looked embarrassed. If anyone had something to be embarrassed about, it was her. What kind of animal-loving dragon was she, anyways?

"Well, if you insist..." she replied to Naloma. However, she was a terrible liar which could put here in a sticky situation if asked a question that she didn't want to answer. But if she could twist the answer into something true and reasonable, like she did earlier, there was a better chance she could get away with whatever she was doing. Looking over the edge once more, Crystal commented on the view. "You do have a point. The heat from the lava does reflect nicely off the stone palace. Gives it a nice, glowing effect." Maybe Crystal could get on Naloma's good side by agreeing with her, then slip away later. It's worth a try, I suppose.

Naloma nodded. "Indeed. It also repels ice dragons, and most of them have taken Tharan's side in this. For now we'll stay silent but soon we'll have to strike and take him down. The first strike will be against his mate, Bella. I don't care who does it as long as it's done. Now, who's up for it? Sal? Anyone?" she asked.

If Thundrus were human, he would be raising an eyebrow at Chris' first statement. However, he only tilted his head slightly, almost a barely noticeable twitch. As he watched the rest of the conversation between the two, he took a step back, as if to let the frustration pass by him and float out into the night. After their talk, Thundrus stepped forward once more, into his original position. "Well," he started, "Obviously the 'bullying' is out of your system. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time until they get used to your presence, Chris." He stretched a bit, realizing how long he had been sitting here. Wanting to stay awake, he asked Chris, "On another note, how did you get here?"

Thresher shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, long story short, you hatch on the sea floor, able to fend for yourself, but your parent's aren't anywhere near you. I grew up and followed a current and got here that way. Of course, I still say the locals are half to blame for all the violence back then. They were making fun of me, calling me stupid, and then they made it worse and poked fun at the way I looked, and the fact that I can't breathe fire or anything. I just got so sick of it, I decided I was gonna show them whose boss." He pointed a talon at Arbora, "-And then this girl came in, and next thing I knew, I was on the ground bawling about it. I apologized to everyone, and then continued to live on the other side of the island. Been like that ever since."