Trekking On The Snow (Open/IceWings)

Artemise rose higher and higher into the sky, where a chilly wind caressed her scales, and finally she was high enough to land on the ledge of a mountain. The ledge looked more like a cliff, but it was her favourite place to dive from. However, she wasn't going to dive today. She was going to..well, amuse herself by throwing snowballs at nothing in particular. Maybe a dragon would come by and she could talk to him/her. She strode around the mountain, noticing how weird it was: Instead of having steep slopes, where she could lose balance and fall easily, there was a circle of flat, even ground which the ledge was connected to. And then, below the circle of flat ground, was sloping sides which weren't as steep as the other mountains. Wow. A dragon could probably attempt to climb the mountain...and he/she might succeed. She shrugged and made her way through the slushy snow, and finally after a while of wandering about, admiring the scenery, she flopped to the ground. Her left paw grabbed some snow and hurled it into the air, and she yawned, bored.

Swoosh! A plum of snow would suddenly be shot up into the air, as a rather energetic young wolf pup would race through the mountains, following a small, rather blinding figure. Any normal dragon wouldn't have been able to spot it this far away, or in this deep of snow, but Virgo was no normal dragon. In fact, she looked more like a wolf than a dragon, with her powerful hindlegs, and her flowing tail, which had feathers and fur mixed in. She really looked like the kind of dragon you would snuggle with, rather than fight or fear.

The rabbit was making quite the dash for it, but Virgo was simply faster. She could run nearly double the speed of a wolf, maybe even triple, or quadruple. So a pesky rabbit wasn't about to escape her. Before long, she had caught up to the tiny thing, and snapped its neck, wearing a proud expression on her face.

Picking the rabbit up in the heavy snow, which was about six inches deep, she would look around. The wind wasn't blowing very hard today, which was a rare luxury. Smiling, Virgo would rush back to her mother's den, with her prey nestled tightly between her jaws, her paws treading fast, yet carefully, over the heavy, and sometimes treacherous, snow.

However, a figure flying upwards would catch her attention. Curiosity would gnaw at Virgo, and, against her better judgement, twirled around, and decided to dash up after the figure. She stayed relatively silent, not wanting to startle her, until she reached the top of the cliff, where the mysterious, huge dragon would flop down into the snow.

Smiling, the fifteen foot wolf dragon would bounce out of the snow, rabbit still in mouth, and greet the giant, nearly 120 foot dragoness with a peppy smile. "Hrorow twher!" she'd say, attempting to greet her with a mouthful of rabbit. Carefully, she'd set the small thing down, and look back up at the great figure, smiling a wide smile. "Hello there! I'm Virgo!" she said.

For some reason, this big, large dragon looked familiar. Unbeknownst to Virgo, she had actually met this dragon at the winter festivities a couple months ago.

Artemise heard snow crunching under paws and she immediately sat up, assuming a regal sitting position as she stared, no, looked down at the newcomer haughtily, her chin tipped upwards. Of course, all this was just an act; she was bored and wondered how others would react if she acted all high-and-mighty and superior. She sniffed disdainfully as the tiny dragon-wolf-hybrid or whatever tried to speak while her mouth was occupied with carrying the prey she'd apparently just caught.

The female dropped the food and introduced herself. Virgo. She frowned. The name was familiar... She thought for a while before it hit her. Ah! Virgo! She had met her at an IceWing festival quite a while ago. Virgo was still happy and enthusiastic, like how she had been when Artemise met her the IceWing festival. So she dropped her... mask (and lowered her chin) and smiled at Virgo.

"We meet again," she told her, by way of greeting. "Do you remember me?" She raised both eye ridges at Virgo, a pleasant smile making her look less intimidating (because of her size) and much more like someone who needed someone to chat to. Her tail rose slightly, the tip pointing at the snow, and it started to write her name on it. Artemise.

Virgo blinked for a moment, her eyes watching Artemise. The dragoness was quite an imposing figure, especially for an IceWing. She was about the same size as some EarthWings! Then again, Virgo had heard that Earthwings were like.... 600 feet tall, or something! And really buff and mean! Or maybe that had just been her brothers trying to scare her. She never really had been bothered enough to ask her mom if what they said was true or not. But luckily, this big dragon wasn't scary at all! In fact, she was rather friendly.

She barely seemed to notice the formality Artemise struck when she first showed up. Though, Virgo did shrink back a little, gazing up at her huge size. This dragon had to be at least ten times her size! Man, dragons sure were big, thought Virgo, swallowing a bit, but keeping a happy face. She was determined to make a friend, especially when all her brothers and sisters never seemed to be around anymore. Virgo wasn't quite sure where they had all gotten off too, but even her mother almost never seemed to be around.

When Artemise asked if she knew her, drawing her name in the snow. This caused Virgo to tilt her head, racking her brain to see if she remembered any dragons quite like this one. A....r....t...e.....m... was what she would see the dragoness write. Then, like a flame erupting in power, it suddenly came to her! This was the dragoness she had met at the festival!

Her tail wagging happily, Virgo would smile. "Oh yeah! Now I remember you! You were that dragon I met at the festival! Artemise, right?" Virgo would ask, even though she knew her name because she had written it down in the snow.

(Bumpy bump <3)

//may I join?//

(Yes)

"Never thought I'd call a book boring, but Mom sure knows how to pick 'em..." A young dragon muttered to himself, his deep blue plated scales and white feathers making him near indistinguishable against the sky above, if not for the red tinge along his back outline. Having finished his studies for the day (why does he need to study war tactics anyway?), Tezz decided that the day was nice for exploring. It was still cold, but he felt comfortable in this weather for once. "Would be a great day for going out with some friends..." He muttered, before quickly shaking his head, as if to scatter the negative thoughts. He was about to launch in to a mental pep talk for himself, when he got distracted by the strange geometries of the mountain. He was further distracted from geography by the sight of two draconic figures on the mountainside.
"They look like IceWing dragons! At least, one of them definitely does, the other looks like they probably are. I should go say hi, maybe make some friends around here!"
"Oh, but maybe they're busy with something private, bring all the way out here... "
"There's only one way to find out right?"
"And only one time to make a fool of yourself in a first introduction. "
Tezz was too busy debating with himself what to do that he didn't notice himself automatically landing near the other two dragons. "Oh, uh... hi!" He said, surprised at his situation. "I'm kind of new around here, I'm Tezz. It's a uh... really interesting mountain here?" The words came fumbling out, like puzzle pieces that managed to fit together, despite their design. He kept a smile on his face and his composure held, but he was feeling dwarfed by the larger dragon, and the dread of making a mistake loomed in the back of his mind. Absent-mindedly, he noted writing in the snow, but did not shy his stormy eyes away to decipher it. It was sideways to him anyhow.

Artemise nodded. "Yep," she said. "You got it right." Her tail, which had been used to write her name into the snow, flopped to the ground, looking for all the world like a icy blue snake. She wiggled her tail a little. Then she returned her attention to Virgo. Silence settled over them. "How old are you? 13?" she asked curiously, wishing to break the weird silence. However, just as Virgo opened her mouth to speak, another dragon landed on the snow right next to Virgo. He looked about the same age as the wolf hybrid, maybe older. He started speaking before Virgo did, and Virgo closed her maw, probably out of politeness. It was common etiquette not to interrupt someone else when they were talking. As he spoke, Artemise tilted her head to the side slightly, a frown creasing her face. Judging by the way he spoke, he seemed kind of nervous...

The larger dragoness's frown smoothed out as she introduced herself, to avoid giving Tezz the impression that she was not pleased with him, or his presence. "Pleased to meet you, Tezz. I'm Artemise, and this is Virgo," the larger dragoness said, gesturing to Virgo with a paw. "What brings you here?" While waiting for a response, Artemise, out of sudden boredom, made snowflakes drift slowly from the sky. Some of them settled on Tezz and Virgo's snouts, and a pleased smile curved Artemise's lips.

There was a lot for Tezz to take in at once after he finished his introduction. First was the appearance of the ones he was talking to. The one who introduced herself of Artemis positively dwarfed him, and he got a vague air of superiority from her. The other dragon, Virgo, seemed almost wolfish. 'Mom said something about a wolf dragon right? What was it...' he thought to himself. But that wasn't important right now. The second detail had caught his attention now.

His mind found the time to decipher the writing in the snow, despite his awkward angle, finding it to be Artemise's name. Tezz thought that could only mean one thing. 'A written out name has to mean an introduction! That means I'm probably not interrupting anything yet!' Tezz jumped to this conclusion, ignoring all other possibilities as much for the likelihood of it as his own piece of mind. "I had some free time after finishing my studies,  so I wanted to explore a bit! I'm kind of new here, so I thought to acquaint myself with the area. " He said, with a bit more confidence than before. "You two are meeting for the first time here yeah? That means I'm not interrupting anything I hope?

The third observation came a bit after he spoke up. The snow falling on him was not the product of the weather.  'Magic...' he realized.  'I hope that's not a customary greeting, I can barely make slush... He didn't let this phase him however. He was determined to make the best of the situation.

Just when Virgo was about to say something in response to Artemise, asking if she was 13, her wanting to proudly state she was going to be fifteen in a couple of months, another dragon quickly swooped down, their larger body making Virgo jump back a little bit, naturally reflexive. It took her a moment for her fur to smooth out once more, having been taken by surprise by that sudden appearance.

She blinked a moment, listening to Tezz and Artemise speak. She grit her teeth impatiently, as time seemed to go by twenty hours a second. Darn, time is so slow sometimes! It barely occurred to Virgo that it started snowing a magical greeting snow, because she was way too intent on proudly responding to Artemise's question. Once the opportunity presented itself, she dove right in.

"Hey there stranger! Yea, what Artemise said! My name's Virgo, wolf dragon extraordinaire! And as for my age, I'm 14, but I'll be turning 15 in a couple of months! Isn't that exciting? And you have studies? That sounds lame. I'm already graduated as a tracker, so I don't have to do any of that boring stuff, especially none of that crazy philosophical mumbojumbo Scholars have to do! Waaaaay too much work for me!" Virgo would say, commenting all this in what seemed like what breath, causing her to pant, out of breath, when she was done.

Artemise tilted her head as Tezz spoke, thoughts running through his head. How old was he? Probably 15 or younger, since he mentioned that he had to study. What was he doing here? Where was his parents? More and more questions filled her head, and she was literally exploding on the inside while waiting for the last word to issue from Tezz's maw. She had never been one to keep in her questions for long. Opening her maw to voice her questions, her eye ridges pulled together when Virgo beat her to it. Artemise shut her maw, a sigh escaping her when Virgo babbled on and on about herself.

But she did get a little more information about Virgo. Virgo was apparently going to become a Tracker. That was cool - Artemise had always liked Trackers. She'd been one before, actually, before becoming a Semi-Goddess. Maybe she could even teach Virgo some tracking skills...if she could remember them, that is. Virgo finally finished her long, long chatter and Artemise hurriedly put in her question. "How old are you, Tezz? And where do you live?" The two questions were definitely not related to each other, but they were the two most important questions that Artemise needed an answer to.

Tezz smiled widely at the both of them. It seemed like he was welcome here after all, what a relief. He had been so nervous that he was going to be told to go away again! As it didn't seem he needed to immediately fly away, he folded his wings against his side. He listened to Virgo intently, nodding as she spoke at a fast pace. "Aw, but the maybes are the most fun questions! And there's stuff about magic that's really cool too! Not that I'm any good at it..." he said in response to Virgo's complaints about scholars, trailing off at the end. He really did enjoy reading books, despite his lack of focus. The magic portion just always messed up for what an Icewing should be able to do.

Then he turned to Artemise. She had asked him two questions, right? He shouldn't just give out this information to anyone. He wasn't giving it out to just anyone though. He was giving it to Artemise! He knew her name now, so that made it OK, right. "Oh, I'm 12!" He said, enthusiastically. Talking to other dragons was fun! "And I live in a cave, near the border! It's small, but me and my mom manage just fine. Though sometimes I wish it was closer to other dragons though." The smile remained on his face throughout, though it slightly wavered at the mention of home.

"OH! And I almost forgot! It's nice to meet you both Miss Artemise and Miss Virgo!"

Artemise was starting to like Tezz. He was so cheerful, so enthusiastic - rarely did one meet such a friendly dragon in the IceWings. Most of them were cold, composed, and definitely not fun to talk to. Well, except Zaroc... He was the only cheerful adult IceWing she'd met so far, and just thinking about him made a smile spread across her face. But her smile soon froze, and it was soon replaced with a look of shock. "You-you're only twelve?" she spluttered incredulously. Then a few awkward seconds passed, in which she tried to compose herself again. "I thought you were fifte-
en...you're so tall..." she said at last, breaking the silence, as she looked him up and down. Oh well. Clearly she was wrong. Then, out of the blue, Tezz suddenly greeted them both, and Artemise couldn't help but raise an eye ridge.

A little late for that, don't you think so?  

"No need to call me "ms", Artemise is enough. Or even Arte, if you like. I don't mind." Then, after a while, she asked, "What do you guys want to do?" She had come here merely to admire the view from the mountains, but Virgo and Tezz had suddenly appeared, and she didn't know how to entertain them. One was fifteen and the other was twelve. How should she entertain them? Play with snow? Or just talk? But talk about what? Gods, what a hopeless case she was. She didn't even know how to entertain two kids.