Ophidian Vale (IC)

"Oh yes I live around here," Dillusia said to Flower, gesturing broadly with one wing. "I like to hang about in the trees."

Well, that was, when she wasn't falling out of them.
A couple of days previous her favorite place had been a small rabbit hole that she could fit into due to her thinness.

Cain looked around at the scenery. "Looks like a beautiful place to live in," he commented. He glanced up at the stars, admiring their beauty.

Suddenly Bella and Tharan swept through the skies overhead and landed on the ground. "Stay here, I'll go find the others!" Tharan said and quickly lifted off and was gone. Bella looked around for any signs of life and saw Dillusia, Cain, and Flower.

"Um, hello?" she asked as she cautiously approached.

"Hai," Dillusia said at once, a silly grin plastered over her face. "You're shiny."

She sat back on her back legs, sitting in an odd, squirrel-like fashion. She cocked her head curiously at Bella, wondering what she was doing out at this time of night, when most people were sleeping.

Bella blushed. "Thank you, I'm a Moon Dragon so that's probably why. I also attract Moon Lillies anywhere I sleep, so if you want pretty flowers just have me go take a nap in your garden" she gave a slight giggle.

"Well, I have to wait for my mate to return before I can go anywhere. So, who are all of you?"

Cain glanced over at Bella. "I'm Cain" he said. He slightly didn't trust Bella, mainly because he smelled dead dragons on her, Desecrates and he didn't want to take an chances. But this might have also meant that she was fighting them, so that reassured him.

Dillusia didn't mind reintroducing herself for perhaps the third time. She faintly remembered doing it the first time.

"I'm Dillusia," she said, yawning in emphasis. The inside of her mouth glowed faintly purple, which most people would have found oddly distracting.

As her multicolored wings folded as she relaxed, her head drooped and the feathers along her back started to lay flat against her spine.

She was falling asleep again.

"Goodnight, Dillusia" Cain said turning to Bella and Flower. "I'm tired myself. It's been a long night for everyone, yes?"

"So long" Bella said. "If only this war would end... It's depressing, and I don't handle it well..."
Cain didn't know what she meant so he didn't ask. "Well, anyways, what's your name?"
"Bella" she said. Cain thought he had heard the name before, but he got distracted. He yawned. "Well, I think I'll go to sleep too."

"I might as well..." Bella replied. Bella laid down by a tree and closed her eyes. Cain remained where he was and simply closed his eyes as well. His dreams were usually peaceful, and beautiful. He couldn't even recall the last time he had a bad dream, a nightmare.

Dillusia flopped over on her side and curled her tail around herself. Her wings formd a glowing blanket over her back, and the sound of whispered snores could be heard if one were to approach her.

As she slept, her colors dimmed and she grew slightly transparent. Sleeping often put a dream dragon half-way to the dream realm, which was sometimes a rather handy safety percation, and sometimes rather annoying for anyone who happened to be nearby.

Halfway-in meant that no one could exactly wake her if she snored too loudly.

One of Cain's eyes opened for some random reason of still being slightly awake. But it got heavy and fell back down again, but he remembered seeing some silver glowing flowers rapidly growing from the soil where Bella was snoozing. She looked very comfy over there.

Tharan clawed the last of the Desecrates in the area and then swooped down, finding Bella asleep. He didn't want to disturb her. He circled overhead a few times, watching them. They didn't seem hostile so he came back down and fell asleep laying next to Bella. He'd introduce himself when he woke up.

Well, that escalated quickly, Kehrett commented, amused. A quick white flash came from the scales on Thundrus' head. He didn't respond to Kehrett; at least this was actually a comment, and not a futile attempt as destroying his self-esteem. Thundrus had gotten over that a long time ago. Thundrus said, "Well, I'm not sure how to respond to that, Chris, or Thresher... I suppose that you all had your reasons. You were just defending yourself, Chris, and dragons are naturally wary of strangers."

Thundrus still couldn't piece together why he was so calm around these two. Was it Abora? He knew that he'd be hostile to Chris normally, but he just wasn't sure about Abora. Was it because he was in their turf?

Chris just smiled his awkward, toothy grin again, while Arbora raised a scaly eyebrow, "Well, I don't know about the hostility towards strangers part. The dragons on this island can be pretty tough if we get into a scrap, but we prefer to just relax and give everyone a chance to make sure we aren't making a mistake, although I'm still a bit embarrassed about the whole story. Maybe it's just me, though, people tend to think I'm too naive." She said, "And they're probably right, but then again, I've never misplaced my kindness before, so I don't know what they're worrying about." Thresher looked at her, "Well, I'm still not letting you out of my sight. Someone's gotta make sure you're safe, and I'm gonna make sure I do just that, whether you want me to, or not." Arbora just rolled her eyes, but seemed to by happy with the statement.

"Well, things are different on the mainland, at least in my specific area," Thundrus said, looking towards the side. "I assumed that this was the same everywhere. See, my Clan mostly kept to themselves."

Thundrus heard Kehrett say, I suppose you learn something new every day, eh?

"Kehrett, I don't need you commenting everything I do!"

Sheesh, the one time I was not trying to annoy you, Thundrus. I really did make you crack.

"Are you serious? I'm not insane."

Oh, but you are. The darkness looms at the very outer edges of your mind. I know everything about you, Thundrus. Once you're driven to the edge, your body is mine for the taking.

"I'll reach the physical edge before that, if you know what I mean. I'd rather kill myself then surrender."

But will you have the time to do so?

Frankly, Thundrus was only slightly intimidated by Kehrett's threats. However, he was familiar with the concept that they were real. His dreams were where he was most vaunerable, and where Kehrett was most likely to strike. He shrugged it off.

Against his better judgement, he decided that Kehrett wasn't planning anything big.

...Oh, Thundrus, you're so stupid sometimes.

Arbora shrugged, "Well, I personally think there's not really any easy way to classify all dragons into one group, except maybe the fact that most of us have scales." Chris cleared his throat at this, and Arbora frowned, "Okay, fine, sharp teeth?" She suggested. Thresher, in fact, did not have scales, but thick, armor-like skin instead. Sharp teeth, though, still probably had exceptions. "Never mind, like I said, no easy way to classify us." Arbora said, waving the question away with a wing. "Eh, I'm just gonna say there are more dragon types than stars in the sky, and get it over with." Chris said.

"That's insane, there are billions of them, and those are only the ones we could see from this island." Thundrus said, glancing outside at the clouds. "Of course, if it weren't for this cloud cover."

He noticed that the sky was pinker, and there was a tiny bit of yellow light on the horizon. Dawn had officially begun, even though the sun wasn't able to be seen. Thundrus commented on this, "Sheesh, I stayed up all night. Then again, I woke up just before midnight, so I'm sure I should be fine. It would be like mid day to me, if it weren't actually night."

"Well, if you were swimming in a strong current, then that would zap your strength pretty fast. Believe me, I know, I got caught in a nasty one, and that's how I wound up here in the first place, like I said." Chris shrugged, "As for the stars, well, you get the idea, there's more kinds of dragons than you could count." He said. Arbora looked at him, "Well, I don't want to sound impolite, but you'd better get back home, Thresher, otherwise there's going to be an uproar. You know how the neighbors are." She said. Thresher just folded one of his wings, "Alright, fine, I can see when I'm not wanted." He said, although the words were sarcastic, showing he didn't take any offense. He was just joking. With this, he turned and jumped from the cave ledge, landing on the ground below and making a loud Thump! He then opened all four of his wings and gave a single flap, before he was airborne. He shot off into the sky, and vanished into the clouds.

Arbora looked after him, before turning back to Thundrus, "It looks like it might storm later. You know the saying, beautiful sunset, a dragon's dream, beautiful morning, a dragon's warning? There's that weird smell, too, like the air is wet and cold, although the real stuff must be pretty far off right now."

Crystal yawned in the darkness. Perhaps it was nighttime, but she couldn't really tell from the layer of mysterious black smog covering the view above them. She was very tired, from both running around and using her powers. How long has she and these two dragons been standing out here? "Mistress, may we go inside and get some rest? We've been standing out here for quite awhile, it seems." Crystal asked, putting on her best attitude. She wasn't sure why she called Naloma 'Mistress'; it just seemed right. She planned to bring the little white dragon along with her, not just for safety reasons, but also because she needed some comfort. Maybe she could convince him to go along with her and leave this... uncanny place. Only if he wanted to, of course.

"Go on." Naloma said to Crystal. I will be out for a while, until I return, Aeon is in charge," she said and then took off into the black smoldering skies. She had a job to do, and an evil one at that.

Crystal sighed with relief after watching Naloma fly away. She felt incredibly tired and was ready for some rest. Inviting Albus to follow with a tilt of her head, she headed down the spiraling stairs. The walls that brushed against her scales were warm, almost cozy-feeling. She understood why someone would want to stay here-- food, rest, and protection of some sort. But offers like these usually had a price to them. For instance, who goes around and offers every dragon he sees a place to stay? Is it from the goodness of their heart? As much as Crystal wanted to believe this, her self-conscious knew better. Her past experiences taught her many things, and if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that you had to be careful who you trusted. She eventually made it into a hallway and plopped down on a pile of hay and furs in the first available room she found.

Albus didn't know where to go, so he just followed Crystal. When he was sure nobody was listening, he whispered to her, "Something is wrong." He was not specific, but even if he was a little kid, he knew better than to trust Naloma. Although her words were very convincing, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something not right about what she had said. Why would the leader of all dragons be evil, and why would reviving the dead in any case justify the means? Pondering this, he went over to a little pile of straw of his own and covered himself with it until only his snout was visible. He smelled it, and immediately remembered the work Tenebris had put into getting fresh straw every day for his bed. Until now, he did not realize how much his brother had done for him. He hadn't been trying to be mean. He had been giving so much of his time to take care of his little brother. Albus felt guilty for disobeying his orders; he cared so much. "I miss my big brother." He murmured, before drifting off to sleep, hopefully dreaming of happier times.


Tenebris had finally shaken those undead dragons, misleading them so that he could get away. He arrived back at the abyss where he kept his hoard. "Albus, you there?" He asked. When he got no answer, he walked over to the bed of straw and turned it over, checking to see if his little brother had not buried himself in it and fallen asleep. He was not there, and the black dragon immediately grew very worried. "Albus..." He murmured, looking towards the exit of the cave. "You didn't..." At the thought, he was filled with horror.

Crystal immediately fell asleep. She didn't have the time or energy to worry about an escape plan; in fact, she already self-consciously knew what she was going to do. In the morning (or whenever she woke up, for that matter) she would use a learned ability to turn nearly invisible. It would take a keen eye to spot the shimmering outline, especially is she wasn't moving. The secret to this defensive trait lay in magic and her scales. At first glace, it would seem that Crystal had no scales, but it only seems that way because a small, white outline covered the edge of all her scales, making them look fused together and allowing camouflage. However, her defense is weaker as a result, and any surprises could shatter the invisibility. While touching other living beings, such as Albus or a squirrel, her touch would render them with the same ability as long as they stayed in physical contact.