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 Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:11 pm
Gold eyes narrowed and gold hooves reached out for the ground. The latter connected with a thud and their owner cantered a few paces to lose the last of her momentum. "Well," the red creature said aloud, "yet another town without luck." Shaking her head with a sigh, the wyrm paced over to the lake she had chosen to land by and sipped at the cool water.
A small figure detached itself from her back and slid to the muddy ground with a squelch. When it straightened, it stood a little over two feet high and wore a scowl on its green face. "If you're getting sick of this, Cloelia, please feel free to gallop off into the sunset," it said coolly, turning to regard the light wyrm with unimpressed green eyes.
The tall creature sighed and shook her head again. "Bella you know I wouldn't leave you... I'm just saying that this all seems a bit... a bit farfeatched." She didn't like to point this out to her bonded but... well it was a bit farfetched. At first she'd admired the wiry ranger's tenacity in this matter. Now she was starting to wonder if her little friend was just too stubborn to admit defeat.
The green woman shook her head vigorously and pushed her fingers through her black hair as she started about at their surroundings without really taking anything in. "I know you think I'm nuts but I'm not going to give up. Million to one chances crop up more often than you'd think." Well they did... Right?
Cloelia sighed to herself and bent to take another drink from the lake. No answer she could give to that statement would please her short-tempered bonded so she chose to say nothing at all. Perhaps the ranger would see sense in the end. Then again perhaps not. Oh well.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:32 pm
"Ignacio, I swear to whatever gods there are that if you drop my bags I'll-"
A loud yelp cut off whatever the gruff voice had been about to say, as the voice's owner tripped over her own feet. Cursing her short legs, the dwarf shoved herself back up to her feet and continued on, grumbling and brushing her dark grey hair from her face. "And don't you even think about laughing!" she swore as a rumble that sounded suspiciously like a snicker echoed from her companion.
Her companion towered over her but managed to not step on on her foot as he brushed past, flicking his dark tail at her. "Stupid JinJin. Tripping over your own feet is baaaaaaaaaad..." The fire wyrm offered up a hefty snort and moved right on past, a pair of large bags draped in a harness over his back. "Clumsy."
Jin trundled along after him, moving suprisingly quickly for her stocky bulk. "Yeah, well, don't you dare drop my bags!"
"Ours," Ignacio corrected her smugly, moving to get out of the trees and head for the lake he knew was nearby. "And I'm not going swimming with the bags on," he added snottily. "I'm smarter than that!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:49 pm
Cloelia raised her head as the voices reached her and twisted her neck around to study the trees they were coming from. "Ah," she commented with a smile down at her companion, "company." It had been a while since they'd stopped to talk to other people and the light wyrm had to admit that she'd missed casual conversations with folk she didn't know. Still, she had a bonded now and that was good even if it did mean scouring the world ceaselessly for the time being.
The forest gnome nodded to her companion's words and joined the hooved creature in turning to face the tree line. "Sorry," she sent over the link that connected her to her wyrm friend. "I know this can't be much fun for you Lia but... well I can't give up on him." Sometimes she really wished that she could, sometimes she almost did but then she always remembered something that pushed her on again. "I just know he'll have got himself into trouble without me," she added in an attempt to lighten the mood.
The light wyrm chuckled to herself and gave a brief dip of her head to show her agreement before turning to face the trees fully, her head cocked attentively. Hopefully these creatures, whatever they were, would be relatively friendly. She wasn't in the mood for a fight be it verbal or physical, not after the drudgery of the day she'd just had.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:59 pm
As he had kept his feet beneath him, Ignacio emerged from trees first, looking more than a bit proud of himself. The 'happy feeling' quickly abandoned him as soon as he caught sight of someone--two someones, really--on the edge of the lake. The fire wyrm stopped in his tracks, front legs splayed, head tilted to one side. Oh. Well... this was an unanticipated development. They weren't going to be difficult, were they?
Still fighting her way through the undergrowth, Jin was quite a bit behind, grumbling loudly in her companion's direction. "Mighty inconsiderate of you to just leave me back here. Least you could've cleared a bit for me to walk through!" she grumped ferociously, her voice unusually gruff. While Ignacio continued to stare at the two beings on the lakeshore, Jin finally managed to get free of the brush and fight her way up beside her wyrm. "Fritchin' idjit!" she swore up at him.
The fire wyrm coughed and lifted one forefoot to poke his bonded on the shoulder.
"Whaaaaaaaat?!" the dwarf female growled up at him. Movement at the edge of her field of vision caught her attention, and she turned to spy the two females on the edge of the lake. She grunted softly. "Errrrrr... good day?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:16 pm
Cloelia grinned at the pair of creatures, very glad to discover that the biped was a female. Had it been a male Bella would probably have gone into cranky b***h mode. "Good day," the light wyrm replied with a brief dip of her head. "My name is Cloelia and this is my bonded, Bella. Would you care to join us?" She hoped they did care to join them, if she wasn't careful she'd lose the ability to converse with anyone that wasn't Bella and, much though she loved her bonded, that wasn't an appealing thought in the slightest.
Bella, having already been introduced, wasn't quite sure what to say. If she didn't say something soon however she'd look rude and she didn't want to do that. "It's nice to see a biped who isn't about three times my size for once," she managed eventually, wincing internally at how awkward she must have sounded. Well what did it matter, she didn't care if the dwarf and the fire wyrm liked her or not... Right? Right, of course she didn't. It was nice to be liked of course but by no means necessary. Perhaps the grey-haired creature would even be amused, pleased to find something smaller than herself; people often were.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:31 pm
While Ignacio briefly debated whether to just search for another water source, Jin gave a jerky, brief nod of her own. "Jin. You can call him Iggy," she said, a rough smirk appearing on her face at Ignacio's hissing protest. "And I'm thirsty, so we'll join you for a bit." She moved forward toward the water, not in the least bothered by the other two females. Surprised, yes, but she'd seen enough strange things in her life to not react much.
Uhhh... JinJin? Are you sure they're safe? I don't want them stealing the stuff.... Ignacio said straight into Jin's unprotected mind, his mental tone holding a definite whine.
Letting out a very unladylike snort, Jin knelt by the water's edge to take some of the liquid in her rough-skinned hands and splash it across her face. "Oh, shuddup, Ignacio." She wasn't overly concerned about the females touching any of their cargo. Bella's comment made the dwarf chuckle, and she glanced back over her shoulder at the smaller humanoid. "Yeah.... know what you mean. S'nice to be able to almost look somebody in the eye. Stupid humans get so damned big..."
"Pfft. I never have to worry about that...." Ignacio fairly preened, giving Jin a smug look.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:44 pm
The female light wyrm gave a smug look of her own. "Me either, fun isn't it?" She enjoyed the looks of awe mixed with fear that humans and other such creatures unused to her kind gave her. "Nice to meet you both by the way," she added with a smile.
Bella glanced briefly up at the bags on the fire wyrm's back before dismissing them as none of her business and probably uninteresting in any case. "They do, don't they," the forest gnome replied with a wry smile as she turned back to regard the dwarf. After taking a drink herself, she added, "I always used to think they must have been stretched as children to get so big." Then of course she'd found out that the majority of bipeds were around that sort of height. She remembered being quite annoyed about that as a girl. Come to think of it she was still slightly annoyed about it but then, as her wyrm loved to point out, she was often slightly annoyed about a lot of things.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:51 pm
Ignacio couldn't argue with that. Never having to worry about being smaller than someone was quite wonderful. He bobbed his dark red head, fidgeting a little before edging over by his bonded to get a drink. "Yes. Being larger is good," he agreed readily. Whilst keeping a wary eye on the females to ensure they did not touch the packs, he bent his head and lapped enthusiastically at the water, letting out an undignified and grumpy screech when Jin splashed him.
Snickering at the male wyrm's mildly prissy nature, the dwarf female stood, her thirst now sated. "My da always told me they had the bad luck that way," she grunted, sliding her pack off her back to give her spine a rest. "Can't get underground, can't get up in trees properly. When we're in their world, though, we've got the bad luck. Bit of a challenge being short." She peered up at Cloelia.. "What sort of thing are you, anyway?" she inquired, not quite sure what to make of the wings and hooves. "I know you're like him." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Ignacio. "But what kind?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:24 pm
Cloelia chuckled internally at the mental image provided by her bonded of a human stuck half way up a tree. "I'm a light wyrm," she informed the dwarf a moment or two later, once the shared memory was over. "Starlight to be specific." She'd often been told she didn't look it and, in return, she had often told the people that said it that they were idiots. Most of them had been other light wyrms though and in her book that made them far more likely to be idiots than some other kinds of wyrm.
Bella reached up to give her friend's leg a friendly pat and turned to the female dwarf with a smile. "I'm a forest gnome," she informed the grey-haired creature. "I apologize if you already knew that but very few people seem to have seen one of us before... Suppose that would be because most of us stay hidden away in forests our whole lives." Well duh, that hadn't been obvious a bit.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:31 pm
Ignacio looked mildly disbelieving. Light wyrm? "That's strange. I thought red were normally of the flamey type..." the male mused, eyeing Cloelia's hide. It was patently obvious how few of his kind he had met, but he was unperturbed by this. He was just surprised, as well as a bit befuddled.
Nodding in understanding, Jin quirked a rugged grin at Cloelia. "That'd be it... never seen one of you before. Hooves don't do well underground," she chuckled, watching Ignacio's bemused expression with mild glee. She stretched, tossing her long, dark grey beard back over her shoulder. "A gnome? Hunh. Heard of you. Never seen one, though. Dwarf, myself. He's a fire, if his attitude didn't already tell you that." She rubbed her callused hands against her pant legs, snickering at Ignacio's unhappy snort.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:48 pm
Cloelia gave a crooked smile to the other wyrm and shrugged with her wings, a gesture she'd picked up from her bonded. "I think a lot are I think, my father and my mother both had a little red about them though and I seem to have picked up pretty much all of it and then some. I've been told quite a lot that I act more like a flame than a light, too. Guess I might have some fire blood back in my linage somewhere, wouldn't know though. All I know is that I tend to get on better with your kind than with my own, they tend to be a bit... Hum, a bit do-goodie for my tastes."
Bella just about managed a smile at the dwarf's words. "Ah, yes we're not very common compared to humans and my particular kind are bloody recluses like I said in any case." Damn. Well there went her next question; if Jin had never seen a gnome before then she hadn't seen Ning... Unless she hadn't known what he was; his colouring wasn't exactly normal... "I uh... I don't suppose you've ever seen anyone as short as me, have you?" So far as she knew, forest gnomes were about the only bipeds that stood only slightly over two feet tall; it was worth asking. Worst case, and indeed most likely case, scenario was another disappointment.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:34 pm
Ignacio, a bit overwhelmed by all of the information being liberally poured into his male and shiny-focused brain, simply blinked, staring at Cloelia for a moment. After taking a moment to process what she said, he seemed reasonably more with the program and tossed his dark head. "Oh. Well, I guess lights are s'posed to be that way, aren't they? Do-goodie... I mean."
Jin snorted at Ignacio's ignorance. Gods, he was a tad behind the power curve at times. "Nah, not very. My kind's not too common above ground either. Not that I mind. Never did like my sort all that much," she grunted, not-so-fond memories of kinsmen resurfacing. Bella's question threw her for a loop, and she looked over at the gnome, a bit bewildered. "Short as you? Err... no. No, can't say I have." She adjusted one of her tunic sleeves. "Heard of another short one, though, wandering somewhere around here. Gnome or dwarf or whatever... I don't know." She frowned, mildly annoyed that she couldn't remember. "The water wyrm that lives in the river that way... said she nearly ate somebody short awhile back. Was that you? If you haven't met her, I'd avoid her. She's a bit of a-"
"-an argumentative pain in the backside, with a side of thief, brawler, and cannibal. I thought she was going to eat me," Ignacio grumbled, finishing up his drink and stretching.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:30 am
Cloelia cocked her head curiously at the dwarf's words but made no comment. Let Bella do the asking; it was her friend after all and the gnome probably wouldn't appreciate outside input into enquiries. This decided, she turned back to Ignacio with a smile and a nod. "A lot of us are," she informed him, chuckling wryly at the memory of her family. "I'm just a bit different I suppose. On the whole I think folk should look out for themselves, though I suppose I'm not truly averse to lending my aid if it's really needed."
Bella groaned and shook her head and muttered a curse. "No, no that wasn't me." It sounded just like that idiot; he'd always been obsessed with wyrms. It would be just like him to wander into some angry female's territory thinking to befriend the creature. "I'm looking for a friend of mine see," Bella said after a few moments of silence, realising that she probably owed some degree of explanation for the cuss and the questions. "He's just the sort to get himself into trouble like that. Still, if it was him then at least I know he was alive a little while ago." Hopefully the daft git still was.
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Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:51 pm
Although not a social creature by nature, Ignacio, nonetheless, was not above helping out either. He just didn't go out of his way to fix people's problems. He liked protecting and searching for the shinies much more. "I guess. Most can take care of themselves anyway. They don't really need all the pressing goodwill 'n stuff."
Jin let out a rough cackle. "Sounds like he's a real genius, that one." She resisted the urge to make a comment about males, mostly because Ignacio tended to get whiny when she did, which only proved her point further and made him intolerable for hours. She didn't mind the cursing much. She had a rather foul mouth herself, when she felt it. "Yeah, he probably is still alive, then. He knows to avoid the waterwitch now." She settled herself on the lakeshore, relaxing back on her hands. "Friend, eh? Or lifemate?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:50 am
Cloelia chuckled and bobbed her head in response. "Yes, quite a lot of people get cranky if you try to help when they don't want you to even if they need it. People can be very odd at times, don't you think?" Pride was probably the problem in such cases; some creatures would sooner die than admit they were faced with something they couldn't handle alone. The light wyrm's golden eyes wandered over to her bonded, who appeared to be blushing somewhat, and sighed; pride embodied that one. Well, that and rage.
Bella felt herself colour somewhat and cleared her throat. "We're friends," she said after a moment, hoping she wasn't as flushed as she thought she was. It wasn't even a lie; they were just friends... well mostly just friends. It wasn't the 'mostly' that had brought blood rushing to her cheeks though, just her own damn foolishness.
They were friends, Special Friends perhaps but still just friends and always would be; it was high time she accepted that. ...If she'd had that thought once she'd had it a thousand times but she always ended up in the same damn place, a place mostly defined by the word 'maybe'. Maybe he'd change his mind, maybe she'd finally say something and he'd say he'd felt the same all along. Foolish though she knew her maybes were she couldn't help them. The damn senseless idiot was everything she'd ever wanted and that was not an easy thing to let go of.
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