Hoping for a Home (Open)

The forest was quiet and calm in the early morning sunlight, the scurrying of small animals and the whisper of the wind through the trees the only noises to accompany the footfalls of a single dragon. Of course, even these natural and often overlooked noises were enough to keep Ardent on edge, her head almost constantly on swivel, every sound new and quite possibly threatening. The first few days in this seemingly titanic forest had been nightmarish for her, every sound sending her into a blind panic that those she was running from were close. With a short huff of amusement at her own antics, which caused her to stop and lift a paw to her chest in pain, she mentally chided herself for the needless risks she had taken in her careless dash, and the damage it had done. Glancing down towards the paw that was pressed to her chest as she felt something brush along her scales that was cold and unyielding, she noted, with a small amount of surprise, the iron bands wrapped around her legs were still there, albeit deformed and contorted beyond recognising. Sighing at the physical reminder of her past, she dropped the paw to the ground before continuing on her way forwards, away from the likely still smouldering ruins that had been her ‘home’ for her entire life.

Feeling her stomach growl, Ardent stopped quickly, a wave of nausea rising up. Her mad dashes and anxiety coupled with her lack of hunting skills was slowly taking its toll on her body. Stumbling around for several minutes, unable to stand properly, she wrenched control back of her body by sheer will, using the same techniques she had used to block out pain on her thirst and hunger. Breathing heavily, she continued on, intent on moving forwards, at least until a deer wandered across her path.  Stopping in her tracks, she lowered herself to the ground. Of course, this was done with more than a small amount of noise, and the deer bounded away almost instantly. Growling in chagrin, she thundered after the animal, even though it quickly outpaced and out-maneuvered her in the forested environment. Skidding to a halt at the edge clearing several hundred feet across, with the deer bounding into the treeline on the other side, she made a small sound of anger and annoyance. Tail lashing behind her, it took several minutes for her to notice the large difference between the trees here and those she had previously seen.

Claw marks. It seemed that every tree she looked at had some sort of damage, ranging from single slashes that lightly grazed the trunks to areas where large chunks of wood had been removed, bleeding sap. With an anxious step, she walked slowly towards one of the less battered trees, having only a single set of mildly deep claw marks. Unsheathing her own claws, she placed them next to the marks and took a quick breath. The creature that had done the damage had talons easily twice her size, possibly even three times. In the few seconds she held her breath, she realized something else. The birds had all but stopped singing, and the many small animals she had heard earlier were silent. Somehow, the lack of noise and life made her feel even more anxious, and she stood, frozen, as her eyes darted around her surroundings. Her apprehension rising, she quickly started walking towards the centre of the clearing, hoping that the thing, if there was a thing, following her wouldn’t want to expose itself. And if worst comes to worst, I can try flying out of here…

A low muttering began to echo through the trees near the small dragon, growing louder and louder with each passing second. Through a gap in the trees, a golden head emerged from the leaves, soon followed by the body of the golden dragon, back wings hidden by his front wings, which were outstretched and bent forwards, holding a letter.

"-And he expects me to write that much? I told him I only had about an hour each day to write and he wants it down in two days?!" He hissed, before outstretching his back wings while he seethed.

A sigh escaped Atrex's mouth, and he shut his eyes for a moment as he turned around, his back to the young hatchling. "Right," he sighed, before shutting the scroll and turning around. His eyes widened, and Atrex uttered a single word.

"Woah."

The claw marks on the once healthy trees sent shivers up the Lightwing's spine, his eyes falling onto each and every injury the clearing suffered from. The four winged dragon fell silent, and for the first time, he realised how quiet it was.

"Shining Water.." he mumbled, his head snapping from left to right, searching for the one who caused this. Immediately, Atrex felt as if he was being watched. Probably paranoia.

Slowly, he stepped forward, eyes trained on a particularly damaged tree. Examining it up close, Atrex sniffed it.

The sound of heavy hoofbeats caused Atrex to whip around, letting out a little yelp. His golden eyes tracked a deer as it dashed right past him. Turning his head over his shoulder other, Atrex followed it's movements with a raised brow as the deer leapt over a fallen log and disappeared.

Suddenly, he realised something. What had scared that deer? A chill ran up his spine at that thought, and Atrex began to panic.

He dropped his scroll and backed away, shaking like a leaf, clasping his wings to his sides as the air seemed to grow colder for him. Rather stupidly, he let out a soft call.

"I-Is anyone there?"

The deer didn't get much further. A silent dragoness stepped into it's path, she was small so even her pale silver colouring hadn't given her away. A long golden spear flashed out and the animal fell to the ground with a neat wound in it's breast.
"Lunch is served."
Imperia had been lucky that the deer had run towards her. Her wilderness survival skills were rather limited, and before now she'd been wary of eating anything she didn't recognise.
She hadn't even noticed most of the claw marks on the trees, she'd been too busy looking at interesting ground plants.

She tilted her head as she heard a male voice call out. The voice didn't sound angry at all, in fact it sounded almost scared. She felt safe enough to reply.
"Hello? I'm here. Who are you?"
She grabbed her newly caught deer and began to walk in the direction of the voice.

As Atrex awaited a reply, his eyes were trained on the spot the deer had come from. Was this a trap? A ploy? Was it a bunch of bandits lying in wait, ready to rob him? Was it a band of widows wanting to slice his throat or sacrifice him? It could be anyone.

His heart was hammering against his rib cage. Atrex.. didn't take stress that well. He was quite a sensitive and panicky dragon, despite his optimistic attitude about things. He abided by many sayings, but fell prey to the opinions of others. This made him, well, sensitive.

Atrex glanced around, and then he heard a female voice. A dark widow! His mind screamed. She's going to sacrifice me! His brain yelled, and Atrex spun around, eyes wide in terror. Why was he so afraid, you ask? Well, the trees were in shambles, and it looked like a carnage had just taken place five minutes ago. What was a dragon to do? Especially one like Atrex?

She asked him of his name, and a few moments later he heard approaching paw steps. Gulping, he debated on wether to answer or not. Give a fake name, he thought.

"U-uh, I'm.. A-Atrex."

You idiot! He cursed himself as he awaited her to appear in his field of vision, eyes wide in anticipation.

Imperia slinked out of the trees, she walked as if she was constantly on a catwalk, sashaying and posing to look attractive. She saw the lightwing male and smiled brightly.
"Hello there Artrex! I'm Imperia. I'm trying to be lost, and I seem to have succeeded."
Imperia seemed completely ignorant of his fears, she tended to be very cheerful. She wandered up to him and looked him over curiously.
"So what are you doing here?"

Ardent had heard the large golden Lightwing far before he had become visible. With no other avenue open to her, she had viciously, and almost literally, thrown herself sideways towards the edge of the clearing perpendicular to the sound, kicking off the ground, using her wings to provide a slight boost. Passing into the darkness between two large tree trunks, she hit the ground awkwardly and tripped, managing to spin herself to land on her back at the last moment, landing heavily on her wings. Stifling a small cry as her wings muffled her fall, hopefully enough to be soundless to the large golden dragon. Breathing heavily, she relaxed as much as possible given the situation and watched the scales that criss-crossed her chest quickly pale from their usual golden-orange colour to a softly muted black, like coal. Slowly rolling back to her feet, she crept forwards, only to freeze as she heard a female voice call out.

With an almost painful combination of fear, anxiety, hunger pulling at her, she crept forward again, and lay close to the ground, letting her head peek around a trunk at the edge of the clearing. Blanching again as she saw the golden dragon, she watched closely as who she could assume was the female, walked out of the treeline, a small dragoness clad in silver scales. What beautiful scales… was Ardent’s first thought, interestingly enough, upon seeing her, closely followed by, she’s so small. As they began to speak, their words carrying only faintly to her, Ardent quickly retracted her head, hoping neither had seen her, and turned to make a less-than-stealthy exit. This was accomplished by managing to break several different sticks with a single paw-placement, turn her head into a large low hanging branch which caused her to utter a loud exclamation of surprise, and brushing one of her wings against a trunk, which caused her to then hiss in pain. Realizing how much noise she had just managed to make in a single fluid movement, she froze. It was an interesting conundrum she faced. She desperately wanted to run, fear closing in on her, but also wanted to stay, some part of her craving the company of her own kind.

Atrex's eyes were trained on the dragoness as she slipped out of the trees like a shadow, appearing before him in all her silvery glory. She was.. stunning. Of course, Atrex was basically devoted at this stage to Cariharn, but he had to admit.. She was beautiful.

Somehow managing to keep his eyes off the rest of her body, Atrex watched her warily as she approached, returning her smile with a more nervous version. Thr female introduced herself, and he dipped his head respectfully, slowly beginning to calm down. She didn't seem to be the type to worship a goddess that demanded a female cult to kill an unassuming male every full moon. Then again, it was broad daylight, so obviously she wasn't going to sacrifice him yet, if at was what she was planning.

She walked up to him, and Atrex felt his cheeks go a bit red as she got close from shyness. "Me? Uh.. Nothing much. Just ranting and reading my scrolls and letters," he smiled gesturing to the letter in his front claw. He was still salty about the dragon asking him to write a five-hundred word thingy-mi-gig on Tempest in two days.

Suddenly, Atrex heard a loud series of snapping twigs. His head whipped around to face the source of the noise-generator. More twig snaps, followed by a sound of surprise and then a hiss of pain. Blinking, he listened to the pitch, and confirmed to himself it was a young dragon.

"Uh.. Hello?" he called hesitantly, glancing at Imperia with a raised brow, asking her silently, what do we do? Of course, she probably had no answer, but he did it anyway, simply because he felt the need to express himself.

Atrex's tail swayed back and forth in his anxiety, his beautiful eyes wide, nervous and twitching, his wings ready to stretch and carry him off, far away from here. His legs felt like jelly.

Imperia was quick to notice the sounds of something moving in the trees, but in noticing that she completely missed Atrex's admiring gaze. By the time she'd decided that the sounds were not immediately important the lightwing dragon has controlled his expression. She came close enough to touch him and tilted her head in a curious pose, glancing at his scroll.
"Scrolls don't tend to reply to ranting. Honestly they've always given me the silent treatment. I don't know what I did that offended them so badly, but they're sure determined to ignore me..."
Imperia smiled to show that she was joking, her voice tended to be light and playful even when she spoke of important matters, making it hard for others to tell if she was serious.

Imperia's head darted up and she looked across as she heard more sounds from the forest. She soon identified the sounds as coming from a dragon, and a quick gust of wind, brought to her the shape of a young dragoness. She used her magic to get a vague idea of what the dragon looked like without needing to see her.
She glanced at Atrex and saw that he didn't seem to know who the dragoness was, or why she was there, either. She walked forwards, keeping a harmless and friendly look, but remaining confident.
"Hello? Are you the one who scared this deer that I caught?"
She paused for an instant.
I think you are." She added a moment later.
The deer had come from that dragoness' direction, although she was merely making a plausible guess.
"I think I owe you some of this kill, dear. There's no need to stay hidden. I won't bite."
She posed slightly and gave a warm smile to the barely visible dragoness.

(Posting as Z since I can't switch my accounts -__-)

Atrex felt his snout heat up considerably when Imperia walked a little too close to be comfortable. He wasn't used to this kind of thing, unlike his brother, Xavier. She then joked about him and his scrolls. "I like reading, and besides, no one listens to me when I rant anyway, so my scrolls are my only companions," he chuckled, smiling back at her while his back wings stretched out for a moment. They often went numb since they weren't moved as much as his front wings, unless he was in flight. Speaking of which, he was eager to do something in the skies.. Racing, perhaps? Atrex wasn't a very competitive dragon, so that was a wash. Still though, he glanced at the sky longingly anyway.

When Imperia spoke to the barely visible dragon, Atrex glanced at her with surprise in his golden eyes at her confidence. Had he been in her position, talking so boldly to a possible opponent, his tone would be shaky and high pitched, and he'd be stammering with each word he spoke.

Then, Imperia did something that surprised, if not shocked him. She offered the dragoness the deer she had caught. The same deer he had spotted a few moments earlier? Most likely.

The puzzle pieces now put together, Atrex tilted his head and sniffed. Young, frightened. She must be a hatchling, he thought, relaxing slightly at this thought. But were were the parents?

At this thought, Atrex glanced around, eyes wide, half expecting an angry mother to leap out at him and decapitate him. Not that he'd blame her. Had it been his daughter, he'd be sworn to protect her with his life as well.

At the call from the who she could only assume was the large golden drake, Ardent froze. Turning her head slowly, she opened her maw slightly, and then snapped it shut as she heard further movement, coming towards her. Rapidly glancing around her immediate surroundings, she did the first thing that came to her mind, and leapt behind a nearby tree. Of course, it was nowhere near enough to actually hide her, and in fact left her more visible from the clearing than she had been. Shivering in fear, she head who she could only assume was the smaller silver female begin to speak. Cautiously, Ardent poked her ash smeared snout around the side of the tree and watched Imperia. She seemed nice enough, wasn’t shouting at her, and even offered her the deer she had caught.

But the large golden Lightwing… He was terrifying. Ducking her head back behind the tree as he looked at her, Ardent whimpered quietly, even as her stomach growled. What am I doing? She thought to herself, even as she sat there. Run you fool! She mentally cried, wanting to run away from these two dragons. But at the same time… she wanted to stay. They were the first two members of her own kind she had ever met. And while the Lightwing was scary, the smaller silver dragoness seemed nice, which was leagues better than any other personality she had been exposed to. Taking a deep breath, she opened her maw to speak, her voice tremulous and quiet.  “I think… I might have been the one who scared that deer…” Holding the breath she had taken, she crept out of her hiding spot. She wasn’t exactly in good shape, a myriad of small cuts dotting her chest and front legs, a wing bent slightly, likely broken, and many of her scales, especially around her head, covered in ash. Standing there, in front of the golden drake and silver dragoness, she had no idea what to do next, her neck bent forwards at what appeared to be an extremely uncomfortable angle and her gaze directed firmly at the ground. To top it all off were the four metal bands, one around each wrist, and the much larger and sturdy metal band wrapped around her throat, all of them warped, as if they had been exposed to an extremely high heat.

Imperia looked at Atrex with greater interest now.
"I like reading too. I'm pleased to meet someone else who is the same."
She took note of his mournful comment about nobody listening to him, filing it away in her mind to think about more later on.

Imperia nodded as she walked towards the dragoness.
"I'm sure you did. And I'm grateful for you scaring the deer. There's no need to be concerned, this big dragon likes books, and I'm sure that makes him nice."
She gave Atrex a playful wink, but kept focusing on the other dragoness.

"So what's your name, young one? Are you out here alo..."
Her voice trailed off in shock as she saw the state that the young dragoness was in.
"Oh darling! You look awful! Are you alright? What happened?"
She stepped forwards with obvious concern.