Scattered flames, powerful shadows. (Private with Oculus)

Her wings ached, she had been flying for hours. The wind battered against her side, the howling tore through her head. Tempest glances down, her eyes sparking in joy as she saw her destination. She curled her wings in a little, diving down and coming to land in but a few moments. Her outstretched claws gripping the rocks firmly as she slowed her speed. She felt the air tear through her lungs as she breathed heavily, the journey to arrive here a taking much longer than she had expected.

She glanced around, and not seeing anyone around, Tempest wandered over to a small lake. Lowering her head, she took great gulps of the water to quench her thirst. Tempest sighs as the water soothes her dry throat, and she chuckles quietly to herself, before looking around again. It was a safe(ish) place to be, somewhere that she was unfamiliar with.. Well, that's what she thought when she saw the trees across the pond.

Memories of her past came crashing over her, and she sadly sighs, her eyes giving away her sorrow, regret and pain. She didn't want that to happen, but it had, and she was to blame. She shook her head, clearing her head from the memories, before she silently looked at her reflection. None of her siblings had looked like her at all, but she didn't mind... She still had their memories...

But she shook her head once more, getting rid of those thoughts for now. That's not why she was here, not to be regretful of the past-not this time.

It was a long flight to meet at the border of the NightWing's territory and the FireWings territory, especially to meet at this lake.  The flight was not terrible, but necessary to be fair in finding an equal distance to fly for him to meet with the FireWing Queen after so many messages being sent back and forth.  It was finally time to meet her face to face.  He had learned that she was no longer Kenina, as she was just recently replaced, and this was her replacement.  Spotting the blue in the land of green and brown, Oculus began his decent towards the lake, spotting an orange object bent over the waters edge.  Assuming it to be the queen, or a contact, he circled over the lake once before landing behind Tempest so she knew he had approached.

Landing gracefully, he only briefly thought of weather he should have let some dragoness's clean his scales and all that, but quickly threw that out of his head as he approached Tempest, giving a slight bow.  "I assume you are Tempest?" he asked, immediately noticing the size difference between the two of them.She was much larger than he, and had more spines.  She seemed to definitely fit the description of a FireWing, almost seeming to be a living inferno, contained by scales.  This whole experience would definitely be an interesting one.  Oreo would probably kill him for once again going to meet a FireWing without a royal guard present, as last time he had only achieved a burn to his shoulder, and a long lecture from Oreo.

Tempest hears her the voice from behind her, and keeping her fight instinct down, she turns to face the newcomer. He wasn't quite what she was expecting, as he was so much smaller than she was. He didn't seem to have as many spines down his back when she compared herself to him. However, his scales were seemingly well cleaned-and Tempest noted how he carried an air of authority around him. She knew that there wasn't too much point in her cleaning her own scales, as the smoke clouds and ashes which can sometimes rain down on the FireWings can often make them filthy.

Realizing she had been staring, she quickly introduced herself. "Yes, I do go by the name of Tempest, and I am sorry that Kenina relinquished her position so prematurely. But I am the new FireWing Queen, I assure you. You are Oculus, correct?" She asked as an afterthought, mentally kicking herself for not asking him that question first before she had told him who she was.

She cast her eyes around, honestly expecting some sort of guard to accompany him. She was, after all, a FireWing who could probably do a great deal of harm to the smaller NightWing before her. "I don't see any guards around you, am I correct in assuming you had come here alone?" She asks, and then kicks herself again. It almost sounded like she wanted to kill him, but she honestly didn't want that to happen at all. They had talked about other quite serious matters.

Still studying her body posture and details, he looked up at Tempest.  Her voice was soft enough, but her questions....were interesting to say the least.  She brought up the topic of Kenina, the old FireWing Queen, the one whom he never really met and broke the laughable alliance with the FireWings back when he first came to leadership.  "Ahh yes....Kenina....she was....and interesting character to say the least," he spoked, taking caution as to not anger the new FireWing Queen, unsure of the details of the transition of power, or if Tempest held Kenina in high or low regard.  "And you have nothing to apologize about.  I hardly knew her.  And you are correct, I am Oculus, leader of the NightWing Empire, glorious Emperor, almighty king....or whatever bogus fancy titles people decide to label you as.  He couldn't help but chuckle at the many fun names that people called him, having purposefully left out the not so pleasing or funny ones.   He sincerely hoped he wasn't sounding full of himself, as he hated all the titles the bureaucrats bestowed upon him.

As she mentioned his guards, he raised an eye, which could probably not be seen as she still was still towering over him.  He wondered why she asked.  Was she plotting something so soon?  Was she worried for her own safety?  Or was she just curious?  "They are nearby, but won't bother us unless needed.  Why do you ask? he questioned, wanting to know why she wondered.  He wasn't worried about the FireWing guards she brought, or at least he assumed he shouldn't.

Tempest took a few moments to consider his words, a small grin forming on her face. She was a little nervous to be around the NightWing, but she did her best not to show it. After he had finished, Tempest flashed a rather large grin to Oculus,"The names of which our kin find to call us are highly amusing, but I haven't had the honour of 'Glorious Empress' just yet though." Tempest joked, trying to break her own nervousness as she joined his laughter. She definitely had to agree, those names for Oculus surely were amusing, and she wondered what her tribe would begin to call her. She imagined that it would be rather interesting to see what they could come up with, but she highly doubted that they would come up with much more than 'Queen'-but she didn't know."

"I am just curious, my guards barely let me go, they didn't fancy the idea of me meeting up with a NightWing, very much less their leader." She explained, a rather apologetic tone to her voice, "I do not understand why they have a fear of you, you were very kind with your messages. She comments rather relaxed. Inwardly, she was a little worried that she may have lost her guards on her way here. Tempest did fly a long way in front of them, and barely had a break on her way to meet the, surprisingly small, leader in front of her.

(Occy is big for a NW D:<)

Smiling and providing a light chuckle, Oculus nodded in agreement with Tempest. "Prevent one crisis, and everyone starts calling you a name, either a good one or a bad one." He knew of the supposed claims that he was a dictator, but until those criers could provide real evidence of this, he would ignore them and let them cry all they wanted. So long as it did not harm anyone, that is. "Time will tell what names they give you. Some remain just Queen, others get titles that cause you to run out of breath just reading them."

As Tempest answered his question of the guards fear, he couldn't help but smile mischievously. He had a pretty good guess as to which guard would have been the most nervous of the meeting, the one that he humiliated most likely. The battle with Steve the rock seemed to have not helped his standing in the FireWing guard, but at least they knew better than to assume a puny NightWing was harmless. "Ahhhh, understandable. I'm the big scary NightWing who slithers in the dark and is going to kill you.... gotta love stereotypes." He had to force himself to not call the FireWings a hothead, as that would have been hypocritical of what he had just said, even though the FireWings guards seemed to love to prove themselves to be hot heads.

( NightWings are small to FireWings )

"I assure you, I look forward to helping them solve the things which they call crisis problems... Finding a lost stick, stopping a hatchling from falling into water, instructing new buildings to be made-all things which I have heard stories about. Can you imagine helping one of them? 'Queen of missing sticks', or 'Hatchling Savior'-although that one may not be so bad..." Tempest said, chuckling lightly, "I suppose that I'll find them out sooner or later, I'll most definitely have to send to you some of the rather creative titles which they decide for me."

Tempest actually found herself a bit remorseful that her guards thought Oculus like that. However, she couldn't blame them, they all had their unique experiences with the NightWing Emperor. "Admittedly, they said worse. But I am not one to judge based on the stories which they have told me. I mean, us FireWings do have a tendency to act rather... quickly, and without thinking situations through" She had a bit of an apologetic look in her eyes, she didn't know much of the NightWings, but all she heard was negativity towards their race, "Do you have any idea why they have such... Superstition? For the NightWings?" She asked, somewhat wanting to know the answer to her tribes distrust.

(Bu-bu... ;-; )

Oculus did chuckle at some of the interesting names that Tempest did come up with. It would be rather humorous to have to identify as one of those, sign official papers with a name like "Hatchling Savior". At least this FireWing seemed to have a sense of humor, but he wondered if it was nervous humor, or if she really was like this? He sure hoped so, because he would hate to have to deal with the stoic expressions of that guard he had humiliated all the time. "Well, if they call you 'Hatchling Savior', then I think you have either done nothing and they want to title you, or they really love their hatching and demand you claim that name," he joked lightly.

As Tempest spoke of the guards talking worse, he shrugged. Let those that cry and bicker cry and bicker while those of action shape the world. "Well, when something happens mysteriously and minds cannot comprehend it, they create superstitious about it. And unfortunately, or fortunately, it has created the murderous image of NightWings. Unfortunate for foreign diplomacy, but, being seen as a bunch of murderers does keep out the majority of threats. Wouldn't you agree Tempest?" he asked, purposefully leaving out any title of Queen or anything, slyly testing to see if she would be peeved by this, or would not care at all.


(Sorry for.....disorganized post. xD I tired, and I gunna be gone all weekend till Sunday afternoon.)

Tempest honestly didn't mind this NightWing, Oculus did indeed seem to have a rather nice nature to him-despite all of the dreadful stories which had been floating around the FireWing tribe. "I do hope that it's not because they want me to claim that title-it's rather ridiculous in my opinion. I rather dislike it, but if my kin decide that that is a name that I shall have, well.. I can't exactly go against that now can I?" Tempest chuckles, a toothy grin wide upon her face.

"I can see why the diplomacy is difficult for you, it was hard enough to convince my guards to even meet with the Emperor of the NightWings. 'Oh no, don't do that! he'll make you beat up a stone!' was one of their many complaints which they whined at me about... Although, I have no idea why they are complaining about a stone, and they refused to give me further information when I pressed questions and demanded answers-which is rather strange." Tempest said with a bit of a grin, "Although, I think the lack of ... foreigners in your land is a rather positive thing."

(Completely forgot about this ._. You wanna continue, discontinue, or start up in another thread?)

(( We can continue, or do another thread, but this is cannon/real/it actually happened... XD ))

(Nah, plot will be created, thats good enough since its only a joint operation)

(( Rebooting to have a plan previous to when the war commences. ))

Tempest flicked her tail, before settling her racing heart. She sat down, her giant form dwarfing the smaller NightWing. "However, I have a rather subtle feeling that you have called a meeting for a different reason. As you know, and you know very well, the FireWings are a brutal race with a rather quick temper. We are strong tribe-or we use to be as we have been rather... Quiet for some time which has damaged our fierce reputation." Tempest chuckled a tiny remark and half insult that she gave to her own FireWings. For a few moments, she was glad that no one else was able to hear her.

She turned back her attention to Oculus, a smile, toothy smile on her face. "So, the main question, why do you seek the council of the FireWings? What is it that you wish for us to do? Don't try to hide this, for I know that there is a high likelihood that you seem to want something from me, but I wish to ask what? There's no other reason for a... private meeting to be called." Tempest half explained to him, before falling silent with a rather expecting expression on her face. Really though, she had no idea as to why she was asked to this place to meet with him.

The very large dragoness was giant compared to his own size, but he showed and felt no fear, having faith in his ability to defend himself if the situation arose. As tempest made a half joke about her own blood being rash and possibly no longer possessing s strength that they used to have. It was amusing, but he held back any visible emotion to avoid upsetting the FireWing Queen. Once she did laugh, he gave a small chuckle too, and raised an eye as she wasted no time and got down to the dirt of it. "ahhh, just my type of dragoness, one who gets down to business immedietly," he spoke, looking up, quite literally, at Tempest, "there is a reason why I asked you to come. As you may have noticed, our distant Earthwing cousins have fallen silent, having been eradicated by the human scum. They have dwelt in dragon lands, tainting the land far too long, and need to be eradicated. That is why I have requested to meet you, dear Queen of fire, as our tribes once used to work together in the past, I figured we could do,so again."

Tempest was somewhat glad that her half joke had amused the NightWing. She had been slightly wary of towering too much over the dragon. This was shown in her decision to somewhat sit down with a rather large bend in her neck to lower her height. At his explanation, Tempest nodded slowly. It was true, their EarthWing cousins had been silent for far too long, killed by the humans in that area. She was quick to put what Oculus was saying together, and allowed her thoughts to build on this. If he were to team up with her, surely the sheer ferocity of the FireWings and NightWings would be able to crush the humans that dared to dwell in their lands."You wish to work alongside my brethren to take down the ones who annihilated a race once before? That task alone is rather... If I must say so myself, it is rather dangerous, especially considering what they would have had to use in order to take down the EarthWings..."

Tempest let her words trail off, her mind deep in thought about how exactly they were going to manage this. If the humans had killed the EarthWings, their weapons would certainly be able to pierce dragon hide... "If... I were to accept, I would need to know the details of a plan. There's no way I can nor will allow my beloved FireWings to be upon the front lines without them knowing what would be happening. However, the NightWings also my not be able to scare humans like us fire wielding dragons are able to... That being said, the very thought of our brothers land being used and abused by some humans boils my blood... So I shall accept your request, how would you like our kin to help?" Tempest asked, not wanting to float around the topic and get straight to business.

Watching the FireWing Queen ponder what he had just said. Oculus did lean upward as he noticed Tempest was slouching and craning her neck in order to be more on an eye level with him. As Tempest seemed to be putting his words together, he watched with a calm smirk, listening to each of her words intently. He opened his maw to respond, but noticed the deep look of thoughts being processed, so decided to remain silent. He had very good confidence in his NightWings to complete the task alone without the FireWings, but he would not yet refute what she said until she finished speaking. Oculus's smirk turned into a smile as he listened to her loyalty in keeping her soldiers alive. Good. He wouldn't be dealing with a tyrant who threw lives away, as long as this was not a facade she was putting up. "Lady of Fire, I can attest that my NightWings could take down the pesky humans alone, but it is as you said, we lack the visual fearsome look that your blood as given you. I fear the pests would not scramble and put up a fight, and I don't want any casualtues. But the main reason why is that there is too much land to defend once freed. My forces would be stretched thin to protect every border, and the humans breed like rabbits." He shook his head, having already thought of this dilema as the humans could not beat a dragon alone, but they could out breed them, and slowly would wittle away their numbers. "So instead of taking all the land, I figured split it with someone familiar, at least in history. And with FireWings, I'm sure you would scare the humans to death before your flame even burned them. My goal is no casualties fighting these parasites. And as for the plan, you don't have to worry, I have done most of the preparations already," Oculus said, then stopped as he faultered, his preplanned strategy for talking wavering as he was a terrible speaker, having only gotten this far by luck and planning.

Tempest suppressed a rather half-hearted chuckled when he tried to convince her that the NightWings were able to take the humans out alone. Although she didn't doubt the NightWings strength, it was more the fact that the humans had taken out the EarthWings which caused her to doubt. Neither of them knew exactly how strong the humans were and that was what made her nervous.

However, at the suggestion of sharing the claimed land, Tempest gave a small chuckle. But she felt as if she needed to prove that she didn't want her FireWings harmed too much in this fight. "Don't be fooled though Emperor, as the looks that we have... They don't necessarily mean that all of our kin are fighters. Some of them still lack the natural strength and horrifying looks that some of us do have. But I must agree, minimal casualties would be greatly appreciated but is a rather hard goal to achieve, considering that they took down our long distant cousins. If you did agree to split the land between us, my FireWings and your NightWings would easily have the numbers to be able to cover the borders."

Tempest slowly nodded to herself, trying to figure out her wordings right to make sure he didn't take offense to what she said. "If you may allow me to, may I know the plans so I can ensure that my dragons are properly prepared for this fight?" She inquired, giving Oculus a kind smile.

Oculus watched Tempest intently as she began to speak, using that moment to try and collect his thoughts while she did all the talking. She was admitting that not every FireWing was a fighter, which was quite obvious. Hatchlings did not fight, along with elders, and many other dragons that had other tasks. He refrained from making any of these comments however, as he did not want to make himself look more of a fool than he had already. "Of course, Queen Tempest of the FireWings, not everyone has a calling for battle, just like not everyone has a calling to be a chef." Yup, he was doing a splendid job of not making a fool of himself. "My goal for the war is no fatalities in the retaking of the land, I do not want death for other dragons by the hands of those vermin. Even if the EarthWing were taken down, I still stand by my goal to keep all those involved in the retaking of dragon lands to none. As for the land," he said as if it were a mere object to be spoken of, not like it was a holy ground or anything. "...I am glad you agree that it would be much easier to defend if the humans came to attack again.

Tilting his head to the side as he looked at the FireWing Queen, he smirked, almost finding it humorous that she had to ask for him to tell her his plans. What sort of military move would it be to have your assistance not know what was happening? None. It was just amusing that she thought she had to ask him. Chuckling, "Of course you may know the plans. I have had trackers and scouts scurrying the lands ever since the EarthWings have been eradicated, mapping and observing. The only conclusion I can come up with for their downfall is that they were not prepared and slow. The humans utilize contraptions made of wood to launch metals at us, which I assume can pierce scale as the EarthWings had the strongest scales. I believe that we, the NightWings, surprise attacked them, we could wipe their weapons of war before they could use them. From there, it would be mopping up the rest." It did sound really easy, but the humans were tiny compared to them. "The only thing to watch out for is that they have numbers, and swarm like ants. So that is where I figured your heritage can come into play, and simply burn the vermin where they stand. From there, its just rinse and repeat. We take their weapons of war, you come and cleanse the area with fire."

Tempest rolled her eyes slightly at what he had said, not really getting at that. She was more implying of the weak natured FireWings that prefer to flee from a fight, but again, she did agree. Everyone had their own differences. He began to discuss the reason as to why they came here in the first place. Nodding as she listened, Tempest took down mental notes to make sure that she could relay the information back to her tribe when they needed to know. However, she didn't exactly approve of his smirking as she preferred to make sure that it was fine for her to know information. But she did understand that the question was rather silly, if she had to admit it herself.

"If they use these contraptions, your NightWings would be in grave danger should they miss a single one. I believe they would even have the power to fell even our gratest fighters if they took down the EarthWings with those devices. If you were to fail, I do believe that our fire could still burn the things to the ground." Tempest gave him a small shrug. "But, if you were to succeed, then yes, the next issues indeed are their incredible numbers. I am sure that they would drastically outnumber us, but if your dragons can strike fear into their hearts, then I have great confidence that we can finish them off with our flames and strength. Do you believe that your NightWings might be able to claim and stragglers that manage to get away from the FireWings? We tend to... Just demolish everything instead of doing a thorough job..." Tempest gave him a bit of a guilty grin. It was true, they weren't exactly... Thorough and she knew that Oculus needed to know that, and before she could completely agree to the plans, Tempest needed to know that he could handle them.

Oculus watched Tempest with a raised eye as she feared the contraptions. It made sense, they were the one thing that could pose an issue to them during an attack. However, he had faith in his trackers to strike hard and swiftly. "Dear Lady of Fire, I would not worry too much. We are masters of stealth and precision. The most any contraption would get is a single shot off before every human on that thing died. I've already scouted the areas, and their forts are weak. The weapons they have are hidden, and will take time to be deployed, and by that time eradicated." Oculus squinted his eyes, as if trying to read Tempest, "I would not worry, I can position a few cleanup crew trackers to watch and remove any that flee. Your firewings can go have fun burning those that remain in the fort. The only thing I do request is that you keep a few humans alive. They can make good slaves."

Tempest had to laugh quietly at the mention of her FireWings somewhat going crazy with their flames. She had to admit, some of them really did like causing their flames to run around and burn everything they could. "One shot is still enough to cause a great deal of trouble to our front line forts, however... It's sadly a risk that cannot be prevented. So it is a risk that I am willing to take. However, you will need to understand that I will be on the front lines. I cannot have my kin fighting while I am at the backlines shouting out orders, that is not how I work." Tempest said, almost as if daring Oculus to question her on that.

"As for keeping the humans alive... I am sure that we will be able to manage that. Hopefully some will try to escape and you can have those, but if none do, I'll make sure to grab a few before they burn to death. It's no less than the pests deserve. However, how do they make good slaves? They can do nothing at all when you compare them to the skill level of a dragon."

Oh, this FireWing Queen was already proving to be a very good potential asset to the war against the humans. It wasn't one of those potbelly's that sat miles away from the conflict and turned tail at the first sight of blood. "Ah, then we are in good accord. Would have been embarrassing for your soldiers to see me on the filed of battle while you sat far away. Been quite....demoralizing at least. But if you are on the front lines, I would assume you have some combat experience, as a fallen leader is no good either." Oculus spoke, lifting a paw to inspect one of his talons. He really meant no disrespect to Tempest, but words were not his forte.

As she then became inquisitive of the human uses, he chuckled. "Well, besides for cowering and whimpering at your very sight, the are useful for their small paws. I would assume once properly trained, that they would be able to scrub every scale clean, clean palaces, buildings, public fountains...and so on. Besides public servants, they can reach places that were previously unable to explore without mass destruction that might require delicacy, like mining out a special ore. Once you get past their stupid way of travel and simple minds, I'm sure they would make some uses, provided the right...motivation is in place," he sneered, lifting the talon he had inspected to his neck and slide it across, as if slitting his own throat.