[J] The Time Of The Dragons. - [Pa][F][M][Pw]

[Awkward Squirtle]

The arrow was of course dead on target, but there was a blur of motion, followed by a screech of pain. Another dragon; that must have been the one he had seen as they arrived. Even close up the dragon was difficult to make out clearly, though this time he could see it was the blue of a midnight sky. No wonder it had been tough to see clearly.
Any idea who just got in the way of that shot and why?
That's Lux, we were talking about him earlier, remember. I can't see why he'd get hit. Either he couldn't see you, which is unlikely, or he took it on purpose, meaning he's one of them. He doesn't seem like the kind.
Behind them, the pair heard the sound of dragonfire. Kamren's head snapped around to look at what had caused it, and saw another dragon had joined them in the sky, an olive green one. The white dragon he thought he'd left behind had been burned severely, and was forced to drop out of the sky.
I think we might have bigger problems than that. That one behind us makes at least 2 people in this sky who want us dead, and we might just be the only target left.
Let's try to put them off a little then. I don't like this much.
I agree, Kamren responded, not admitting weakness, but secretly sharing his dragon's worry at being in the line of fire. Put some fire into the back of the teal one, I'll take a shot at this one behind us.
Kamren took quick aim at the girl behind him. The target was small, both rider and dragon, but he could clearly see the red-haired girl's exposed head, sharply contrasting to her dragon's green. He loosed the arrow at the precise moment Leigarth propelled his ball of flame forwards, then began to think about where they would have to move to evade the new pursuer.

[SirBlaziken]

The other dragon, the teal one, and the rider, she's one of us.
Let's cut 'em off, then make sure they know we're with them.

Lux then saw the white dragon go down. Katya and Asrael spiraled out of the sky to land. Part of Asrael's head was burning. An olive green dragon looked triumphant as it flew away. Then Lux realized that Myrsky's tail was holding a flame.

I'm not going to even ask how you're doing that. We need to bow out. It's Katya, she trusts us enough. Plus, your tail's on fire.
Hey! It doesn't eve- OW!
We're landing, now.
Fine, but only because you said so.

Myrsky hovered about 10 feet from the ground near Katya and her dragon. Lux jumped down and rolled to absorb the impact.

You know that could kill you.
At least I wasn't set on fire.

Lux winced a bit. Probably something minor, hopefully. Myrsky landed 20 feet from the other two. Then Lux scooped some of the water onto his dragon's tail. The flame went out. Then the rider walked over to Katya and asked, "You both alright?"

[Danatales]

As Stella glanced back, she saw a burst of flame from the back as an olive green dragon burst onto the scene and attacked her white pursuer. She had to smirk; that one she knew was a Forsworn ally.
Trezarex, sensing her Rider's attention to something behind her, also happened to glance back as she shot down towards the ocean. She could see the olive dragon flying off now, but had much bigger issues that caught her attention.
Stella, FIRE! The teal dragon roared in Stella's mind as the dark red dragon unleashed its fireball straight at them. Treza tried to veer up, but while she prided herself on her extremely quick reflexes, her diving position made it too difficult to get out of range. It was up to Stella to disperse the rapidly approaching flame before it struck them.
Stella's eyes widened as she spied the fireball hurtling after them, before gritting her teeth tight. How dare that imbecile fire at her! Did he know what he was messing with? Glancing down at the ocean now getting extremely close, she huffed inwardly. She hadn't wanted to use much magic at this time, but she had no choice. She hurled a hand out towards the fireball and shouted a spell, "Aulon!"
Immediately, a large waterspout launched up from the ocean below her, following the curve of her hand and spraying at the fireball just as it encroached dragon and rider. Stella braced herself as water struck fire, a blast of steam resulting. However, while it may have quelled the bulk of the hurtling flames, a loud hiss from Trezarex alerted Stella all was not well.
Sure enough, as Stella peered over the side of her dragon she saw Trezarex's left hind leg singed from fire, and growled. Oh, you're hit! How dare they?! Those IMBECILES!
H...hang on, I'll be fine, Trezarex huffed back to her, flight slowing down as she finally drifted to the ocean, Just need to...swim a bit...
The large teal dragon flopped down into the ocean, up to her shoulders practically, as she lolled her head back rumbled as the pain of her burned leg dulled. Stella bit her lip, shifting to avoid getting too wet.  Slowly Treza started to move, paddling through the water to the shadows of the cliffs, still huffing a little from her leg.
Hopefully they'll be distracted by now, Stella huffed, going and petting the dragon's leg, Those idiots, that could have gotten nasty.
Well, your water helped. Trezarex twisted her head, nudged her rider gently. Stella had to smile a bit, putting a hand on the dragon's snout.
Just doing what was necessary.

[Wolstenholme]

"You both alright?" The words came from the rider with the midnight blue Dragon, Lux ((Are we still doing the friendship thing?)) he was standing a couple of metres away looking at Katya and Asael who immediately broke their long embrace. Katya cleared her throat "Nothing a bit of magic can''t heal." She replied before continuing "Your Dragon took quite a blow though, how's he doing?" Katya was quite embarrassed that Lux had stumbled in on Katya and Asael's briefly private moment, after all the cove was secluded.
________________________________________________________________________________________

When the white Dragon fell out of the sky, Oz and Fyrn cackled into each other's heads together. I love your foul mind, Osette. He said. Then he pursued the other riders. Oz saw the blue Dragon follow the white Dragon out of the sky and recognised that the 'battle' was not a flat out two on one. When they levelled up behind the red Dragon the rider turned around, almost  as if he knew their exact position and fired an arrow towards them. Fyrn's eyes widened in the shock of the flying projectile moving towards them and swerved away from the arrow. It landed in his foot and he howled in Oz's mind. Owww, don't shout at me like that. I'll get that arrow out as soon as possible, don't you worry, Fyrn. She assured him. She knew it would hurt but she had to do it. Fyrn lowered his flight out of range of the archer and Oz slipped down to the foot that had taken the arrow, his back right. Oz had curled herself around his leg. She gripped the arrow and Fyrn moaned in her head. She gritted her teeth ready to pull it out quickly. It was the best way. She yanked as hard as she could on the arrow and it came out. Oz kept the end because she knew that powerful magic could be made using Fyrn's blood, voodoo magic. She didn't want the arrow to get into the wrong hands. Then she ripped off the sleve of her shirt and bound the wound as securely as she could. Fyrn almost sobbing with pain in her head. She wasn't particularly good at using magic under pressure like this. A healing spell would have to wait until later. Fyrn accepted the pain, gritting his teeth and shot back up into the sky. Keeping just out of range of an arrow. Oz felt like throwing a knife at the rider in frustration but she knew better. They were not close enough to be ensured a hit.

[SirBlaziken]

((Indeed we are Chloe, until I turn on you.    ))

"Just a flaming arrow to the tail, lucky it wasn't a wing or the face, or me for that matter." Lux said.

Lux looked up and the olive dragon was just above him.

Above you, olive dragon. Fire when ready.
They're with us!
Still, gain the riders' trust.
Right forgot.

Myrsky tilted his head up and breathed fire straight into the sky. It seemed to hit the side of the olive dragon, or at least the tip of the wing.

Nice shot.
I love doing that.
Shall we pursuit?
Sure.

"Alright, we're going back up into the skies. See you the next time we're shot by an arrow." Lux said. He winced. Damn, I should be more careful. thought Lux, as he started to walk away from Katya.

[Wolstenholme]

"Bye" Katya said, a little too late for Lux to hear. There was something about him at the moment, a hesitance to his and Myrsky's actions that felt... uncomfortable. Asael nudged the back of Katya's arm.
What next?
Well we could go and see how Doru Areaba and the forest are doing. Talk to some other riders. Re-group.
Sounds good to me.
Katya climbed onto Asael's back and he took off, his nose still smarted a little from the burn but that didn't matter to him. When they could see it probably they noted that the fire in the woods had been put out and most of the fire in Doru Areaba was only smouldering rubble now. Asael landed on the edge of the city, next to the evacuees and a rider who seemed to have just given a speech to the people. Asael folded in his wings as Katya dismounted and ran over to the other rider.
"Everything under control?" She asked, as soon as he was available to speak.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Almost as soon as Fyrn was at the right height for the other two riders eh felt another searing pain, this time in the tip of his right wing. Fire. A burn wound. He roared in anguish, terrifying Oz, she had had no idea what had happened to him.
What's wrong? She asked, urgently.
A burn wound. On my right wing. We can't carry on here.
Oz looked and sure enough there was the burn wound. The sight was horrifying, it had darn near torn through the leathery flesh of his wing. Oz let out a sob at the sight. This would need expert treatment, the sort you could get in Teirm.
Fyrn looked down to see his attacker, the midnight blue Dragon.  He had just taken off back into the sky.
Glide to the sea. Oz said to Fyrn, collecting herself.
He did as he was asked, passing closely by the midnight blue Dragon. When they passed eachother Oz yelled "I hope you know what you're doing." She was so frustrated with him. He was playing good and for what? to attack his team mates. She had recognised him as Forsworn and had known that he was pretending to help the others but she thought that the kid was taking it too far.
After they passed the other rider, Fyrn drew his wings in and darted for the sea. He needed the water. He landed on it smoothly and floated at the top, his wings folded so that the ends dipped in and his four legs kicking to propel them out to sea. With the rush of water onto the wound Fyrn sighed heavily.
He knew as well as Oz did that the best place to get this treated was Teirm, he was going to swim there, right now.

((Yeah basically I made this post just to say "No really, do whatever you want with the plot!"))

[The Macintosh Ninja: SOH CAH TOA]

"Fear and panic make a man say strange things." Grigori explained after a long exhale. "I was able to explain the situation. At least, what we know so far. They've lost...a lot though. Rebuilding will take a very long time. But the neighboring cities will gladly take them in as refugees." He turned to the elven Rider, a young girl who probably hadn't seen as much battle as he had. "You fought with them, right? Did you get any names? Description?" he asked. It was much to expect, but any information would be valuable. The Rider felt some guilt: a battle raged above him and he remained on foot to quell a crowd. His allies needed him.

[Wolstenholme]

Katya took in all the information, still feeling like a student in the shadow of a rider that looked as experienced as this one. Descriptions of the forsworn she'd battled with... hmm... the battle had happened so fast for her. She started slowly "There was two Dragons. Two definite Forsworn members. She looked up at the other rider and met his gaze. "One was olive green and quite small, it's rider had read hair. The other was huge and teal but I wasn't close enough to see it's rider. I didn't get any names of the Forsworn.
There are two of us up there, one on a red Dragon and one on a midnight blue Dragon.
Katya exhaled loudly, hoping that the other rider had taken all that in immediately, she'd gotten quite hurried at the end. Standing around, taking things slowly, not fighting, it was allowing the events to sink in to Katya's mind. Asael had noticed this with the terribly frantic thoughts going through Katya's head.
Calm down, little cub He said.

[SirBlaziken]

((Sorry Chloe, just trying to build trust until the betrayal))

Lux took off. The Rider of the dragon Myrsky had so nicely burnt said, "I hope out know what you're doing." Lux responded quickly, "Don't question my methods. I'm just trying to gain their trust."

Myrsky flew towards the city that the other forsworn had so nicely set ablaze. Lux looked around for the others.

I think I went a little too far that time.
You think?!
Still a nice shot.

Myrsky was silent.

I know, I know. Since when do you care for the safety of others?
Ever since we joined their cause.
I'll make it up to them, somehow. Oz seemed to not like Katya, so I'll being her to the betrayal. The look on Katya's face, priceless!
Even I have to admit that's vile. Nice plan.

Both rider and dragon laughed to themselves as they flew over the town, making sure nothing has burning.

[The Macintosh Ninja: SOH CAH TOA]

"She doesn't look hurt. Maybe she's with the Foresworn?" hissed Xel'lotath. Her voice changed with the last sentence, growing more cynical and paranoid. The emerald colored dragon was like that: spoke like she had two conflicting personalities at times.
"Noted. Until we firmly establish alliances there is no way to know who may–" he thought, only to be distracted by beating wings. He looked up to see a dark blue dragon with a Rider. They were surveying the damage from the looks of it. Grigori recalled the description Katya gave him.
"That one of our friends?" he asked. Without waiting for a response, he whistled loudly and waved at the Rider. If this one was in combat, maybe he had information as well.

[Wolstenholme]

"That one of our friends?" The other rider asked. Katya looked up to see Lux's Dragon.
"Yeah, he's one of us. He injured one of the other Dragons." She replied.
Asael reminded her of what she learnt in Dragon Rider School. Don't be too sure He warned. She realised she was trusting to easily.
"Well he seems good enough, anyway" She added to her earlier statement.
Asael seemed to grin through her mind. He knew how far she had come with him by her side.

[SirBlaziken]

Lux swept through the town a few times, nothing flaming anymore. Myrsky flew down close to the ground and Lux dropped down. He walked over to Katya, "Sorry about earlier, and other than the mass destruction of the town, nothing else of note." he said.

Lux then saw something smoking, and his arm was on fire, likely from setting that other dragon ablaze. Luckily, it was tiny fire, and Lux put it out discretely. "So what next?"

Smooth.
Oh shut it.

Myrsky seemed to laugh into Lux's brain, a dark, twisted laugh. Lux wasn't amused by his dragon's humor this time, due to the fact that he was the butt of the joke.

[Awkward Squirtle]

Kamren looked over his shoulder, trying to figure out what to do about his final pursuer, when its wing erupted into flame. Glancing down, he saw the midnight blue of Lux's dragon, which had rejoined the fray and taken out the final dragon. This injury looked extremely serious, and sure enough the rider gave up the chase and headed for the ocean.
Alright, now Lux looks like he's on our side.
Indeed. Perhaps we judged too quickly. It does seem strange that he wouldn't see us shooting when he was going right between us and that teal dragon though, pondered the dragon.
Kamren looked across the water. Should they pursue these 'Forsworn'? There was one there in sight, and the teal one had last been seen in the water too.
No. We don't need to kill them. We need information. Let's regroup.
I don't like to let them get away, but you're right. ugh, more dealing with these idiots.
What exactly did you expect to do as a rider?  Do everything yourself? Leigarth asked, a little annoyance in his tone at his partner's attitude.

Kamren didn't bother responding as they descended to where the others seemed to have congregated.

[The Macintosh Ninja: SOH CAH TOA]

"You were in battle too, huh? What'd you see? The more we know, the easier it'll be to make a plan." Grigori spoke to the spontaneously combusting Rider. He looked more injured than the elf who approached him, but he didn't seem to be phazed.
"What if *he* is a Foresworn? No one can be trusted." Xel'lotath whispered to Grigori. She was a bit away, near the ruins of the city watching over her friend as he spoke with the other non-dragons. She was alert, standing at the ready in case they needed to leave quickly.

More beating wings. Grigori looked up to see a dark red dragon.
"That elf said something about a red Dragon being with the Foresworn. Or a red-head with the Foresworn. Something red... I need to pay more attention." Grigori thought to himself. The Rider looked like he was preparing to land, so Grigori checked himself for weapons. His sword was still in its hilt; he untied the clasp holding it discreetly so he could more quickly draw it. His knives were secure in a belt, ready to be thrown at a moment's notice.

[SirBlaziken]

"Just so you know, I don't catch on fire on a regular basis." Lux said. Then he looked up and the red dragon seemed to land soon.

I have a feeling a battle's about to start.
Calm down, he's with the riders.
Interesting, the one who shot us a rider.
When we take over the world, can I have that one?
Bit too soon to decide my scaly friend.

Lux knew that his shield has attached to his arm and his sword could be pulled out quickly, so Lux had no worries. He looked up to watch the dragon land.