All that For Naught (Open to All)

Fractera dragged her sack full of discarded trinkets along the grass blanketed in morning dew. She had been up since sunrise looking for interesting items left on the ground. The branches above her occasionally dripped ice as they very slowly melted from the suns gentle rays. She let out a frosty sigh. The sack was a little bit too full; well, 'a little' was an understatement. Her claws were getting sore, and she didn't think she could fly with such a heavy weight all the way back to her cave. Fractera found many interesting things in today's bunch; a small rusted human pair of glasses, a piece of yellow broken glass and much, much, much, much, more... Well, you get the idea. She was hoping she could bring them all back, but was immensely tired. "I can... try to fly.." she mumbled to herself.
Fractera didn't think twice before lifting off the ground. She flapped her wings as hard as she could whilst clutching the sack tightly in her claws. And with another thrust of her wings, a ripping sound could be heard. Every item in the sack escaped through a large hole, falling to the forest floor, one by one. Fractera let out a cry of distress as she threw away the sack and descended towards the ground.
It seems everything had been scattered across the floors of the snow capped forest. "Please don't tell me I dragged all that for nothing..." she wailed. Fractera searched the ground for a while and sat down beside a large boulder.  Her tail curled up in frustration as she fiddled with her claws. She lay there for a bit before failing to keep awake. Abruptly falling asleep, her head leaned against the boulder, snoring loudly.

The Wyvern had just spent a few weeks as a captive in a human city. How? Well, he went willingly, of course. But when Atarijor found out he was going to be killed, he fled. He decided to go back to the IceWings and escaped at night. Trouble was, he was still wearing a muzzle and he hadn't eaten in the last two days. The Wyvern needed to find someone to get this muzzle off.. Luckily, he found another IceWing. Atar flew over a frozen forest and spotted an IceWing laying beside a rock. He circled around and landed nearby, walking the rest of the way. He was nervous to see the IceWing was a Dragon and not a Wyvern, but maybe they would still help him... Cautiously, Atarijor approached the sleeping Dragon and nudged them with his arm until they woke.

Fractera woke up, quite startled. She sensed a presence and whipped her head around. A... Wyvern? She jumped back a little and tried to hide behind the rock before speaking. "Who.. a-are you and...er...what do you need h-help with today..?". Fractera facepalmed herself. She was the worst at socializing, or communicating in general. Usually, her first move was to run away, but she already noticed the Wyvern had a muzzle, and knew they needed help; but was too shy to even stand in front of them.

Atarijor reacted in kind when the Dragon jumped back and hid. And when it didn't the Dragon was going to attack him for disturbing her, he came out, though still nervous. Because he'd just spent a week with Humans, and Human-speech was his native tongue, Atar was having a hard time understanding Dragon-speech.And of course it didn't help that he barely knew how to speak it. "Atarijor.... ne-ned (need).. help with... m-muz.. muz-el (muzzle)." The Wyvern lowered himself to the ground submissively, waiting for the Dragon to help or send him away.

Fractera walked away from the rock and approached the Wyvern slowly. "You.. need help.. don't you?" she replied softly. Realizing the Wyvern's speech was restricted by the muzzle, attempted to get the muzzle off their snout.  It was a bit difficult, but came off loosely and dropped on the ground. She beamed, knowing that she had aided another dragon, and even touched a new human item in one day. "There you go. You can speak now, yes..?" she smiled.

Atarijor stayed still while the Dragon took the muzzle off him. And then he scratched at his short snout, as it had been itching for quite awhile. The Dragon asked him a question; it took him a minute to figure out what she said. "Wyvern must... hav (have)... per-per..mish..on (permission) to speek (speak)." Atarijor had learned as a Hatchling that Humans valued Dragons over Wyverns. They were given slightly more food and given slightly less difficult jobs... sometimes. While Atarijor was an exceptionally strong Wyvern, he'd still gotten the brunt of beatings when something went wrong with whatever job he'd been given for the day. So even though he'd spent a year with the IceWing tribe and learned how Dragonkind was supposed to live, he still felt inferior to non-Wyverns.

That was weird. Fractera thought the Wyvern's odd talk was because of the muzzle. But even with it off, his speech was strange. Fractera learned about Dragons and humans, but only occasionally spoke about Wyverns as they're 'less important'. "You have... permission to speak" she said softly. She didn't want to seem empowering to him. Are Dragons superior to Wyverns? she thought to herself.

"You can speak whenever you please, my friend.. It's a free world, is it not..?" she smiled again.

Atarijor didn't know how to answer her question, because he didn't know the answer, so he didn't. He looked around then, avoiding eye contact with the Dragon. He noticed the objects scattered on the ground, some of them of Human origin. He picked up one and held it up to the Dragon. "Are you... tak-ing... this to... Master? Wyvern help." Atarijor started picking up as many of the items as he could, then his stomach growled. "Atarijor ned... f-food. Atar.. get food... if Atar help Dragon... with work?"

"Oh! Y-you're hungry? I can get you food! Er...follow me". Fractera gestured for the Wyvern to follow her. "And... by the way.. those items are mine now. I'm collecting them. Collecting. I found them. Humans left them here" she said, picking a few up. "But come on, I know where food is".. Fractera walked a bit deeper into the forest and looked back to gesture him to follow her.

"Masters... will be... an-angry... Must take.. back.. to Masters." Atarijor tried to pick up a few more items then started following the Dragon. It terrified the Wyvern to see all these Human items the Dragon had gathered. He knew th Humans would be angry if they found out, and he would be whipped until he couldn't feel his hide. Or worse, he might be sent back to the Coliseum. But at the moment, he really needed some food, so he made a note to come back here later to get the rest of the items. Maybe if he returned them all, the Humans wouldn't be so mad.

Fractera kept walking through the forest and looked over her shoulders. He was following her, that's good. To be honest, she actually didn't know if there was any decent food; she didn't want to upset the poor Wyvern. There is the ice lake for fish, and some bushes may have edible berries, but she really couldn't say for sure.

"You must eat fish, right? If we walk a little bit more, we could get some fish from the lake. I don't want to kill a poor deer or moose for food, so we'll just keep walking and.." looking back a second time, she noticed he was still carrying the items she dropped. A sad frown formed on her snout and she sighed. "Your... 'masters' don't want those anymore... you can leave them or give them to me... you're free now, aren't you?" she asked, she still walking. Fractera had never been more concerned about a stranger in her life. She didn't like the loyalty he had for humans, despite being captured. For a second, her soft-heartedness almost made her cry.

Wake was annoyed. He had heard some other Rouges need help with an attack on some humans, he had flown into the icy territory of the Icewings, he had frozen his wings off, and they tell him "Your tactics make no sense," and "Your too young to be a tactician," and the kicker, "We need you to help us fight." He never wanted to see another human again. They terrified them, save one that was probably dead. His horns frilled out just thinking about it. There only one human he'd ever want The wyvern had been flying at top speed for awhile, and the thick leather of his wings were beginning to go numb, so he decided to get below the canopy and find some shelter. Needless to say, this wasn't his quietest landing as he snapped branches on the way down.

Fractera lifted her head towards the treetops. She heard some cracking noises above her and became a bit cautious. Is someone following us? No, don't overthink it, it could be some birds or squirrels up there. But, birds and squirrels don't break branches... she wondered to herself.

She was about to tell the Wyvern what she had heard if he hadn't already heard it, but he's probably been through some rough times, and didn't want to worry him.

((Ooh, a Rogue in Tribe territory.))

The Wyvern had eaten fish before and hated it. He was used to dried meat, because for all of his life, that was all he had ever eaten. Fresh meat was much better, but he just didn't like fish. So when the Dragon asked whether he ate fish, Atarijor shook his head and said, "Atarijor... eat d-dreye (dry) meet (meat). Masters doe't (don't)... give fish." And then the Dragon wanted Atar to give her the Human items he had. Atarijor held them closer to him. DIdn't she know how much trouble he would get into if his masters found out he kept these from them? Did she want to see him beaten? Thrown into the Coliseum? Sent to sleep without food? The Wyvern wanted to get away from the Dragon then, but a loud sound made him decide he might be safer staying. Atarijor stopped and looked around, trying to see what made the noise.

"If you don't like fish, we could just hunt for some unfortunate moose then. I'd hate to kill the poor thing but, you really need food" she said, smiling once more.
Fractera then turned around and noticed that the Wvyern had stopped. He must have heard it too."I-if you're wondering about that noise, you probably don't need to worry. It might be some owl or whatever.." she reassured. However, she was feeling quite scared, but thought it would be best to just play it cool.

((Poor moose, but not poor fish? What did the fish do to Fractera?))

There were many words Atarijor didn't know, many animals he had never heard of. This was one. "M-M... Moo... M-Moos? Wat (What).. is a... m-m... moos (moose)?" The Wyvern tilted his head to one side. Had he had moose before during his time in the IceWing tribe and never knew it? Did he like it? But before he he could think about it, he learned yet another new word. "Ow-le? Ow..Ow-l? Wat (What).. is.. ow-l (owl)?"

(I actually thought that too XD I guess Fractera's just biased towards mammals)

Watching the Wyvern fumble with words was the most adorable thing Fractera had seen in a while. She couldn't help but let out a giggle. "Yes, moose. It looks like a furry cow. Owls are birds. They're both really cute" she explained. "Do you have a full name? Can you say it? I've only heard 'Atar'. Unless that is your full name". Her tail swayed from side to side happily, ears perking up. Perhaps if she actually tried to socialize, she might not be so lonely anymore. Having to talk to birds and and deers was dreadfully boring. Today might turn out well.

Wake frilled out his horns to check them after the rough landing. Ice. Of course they had ice on them. Wake began to use his hook-claws to clear the frozen build-up on his horns when he heard talking. The wyvern listened closely. "More dragons?" he said to himself. The small dragon then walked towards the voice, and he could've sworn one was a hatchling, but the voice didn't match the way he talked. Soon, Wake had made his way to the voices, finding a pair of Icewings talking about finding food. The wyvern, with his horns layed back as usual, spoke up. Um.... Hello."

Yet another new word was said to the Wyvern. A cow? And then the Dragon asked for his name.. at least he could say that without difficulty. "Wyvern called Atarijor XVI." Another voice came from behind them and Atar turned to see another Wyvern. He perked up ever so slightly. A Wyvern! It was nice to see someone who ranked the same as him. But this one smelled funny, that is, it didn't smell like it lived in IceWing territory. Atar had learned that only IceWings lived and were allowed here... At least, that seemed right. He didn't quite remember. But Atarijor didn't respond to the other Wyvern because he noticed this one didn't have a scratch on him, so he must outrank Atar, like the Dragons.

"Atarijor XVI... well, you seem special! Almost as if you're some famous warrior or something cool like that" she grinned.
She then looked over Atar and saw yet another Wyvern. "Oh, g-greetings!". Fractera noticed Atarijor seemed a little happier when he saw the other Wyvern. And honestly, she was feeling just the slightest bit... jealous. Well, she was obviously a bit overwhelming to him anyway, and it was nice to see that someone lifted his expression. "What brings you to the icy kingdom?" she asked curiously.

Wake looked at the pair. As usual, he was the shortest one out of all of them. He could see the scars on his fellow wyvern, combined with what he expected was the scar covered dragon's voice, Wake guessed he either hit his head a little too hard in a fight, or was a captive dragon. He then looked at the dragoness. She seemed a bit shy, guessing from the stuttering when she first spoke.

He then answered the dragon confidently. "I was going to help some fellow Rouges with an attack on some humans, but then they said I was to young to be a tactician and wanted me to fight. To put it simply, I don't want to be within a mile radius of a human. They...scare me." Wake then shook his head, breaking ice off of his horns. He was curios what the Icewings were doing so he asked. "So.... What are you two doing out here. Seems too cold for anyone."

Fractera was surprised to see a Rogue out in Tribe territory. Wasn't it unsafe or something? "Well, I don't think humans are very scary. I don't understand how they can can take on Dragons, either. They're just... small" she laughed. "And we're Icewings, if you hadn't noticed. We can stand the cold, I suppose. To be honest, it's quite warm today". Fractera then turned her head to Atarijor. "I found this fellow with a muzzle. Must have been captured by the looks of it. We're trying to find food for him" she explained. Fractera took another look at the rogue Wyvern. He didn't seem that much smaller than herself; a 7 ft difference, really.

Wake seemed didn't seem to take the dragon's laughing off at humans well, and his horns slide off his neck slightly until she continued. Wake then perked up some, though his horns again slide when he heard the larger wyvern's story. "Yeah, I'm mostly Seawing with a quarter Skywing, so cold and me don't mix. But I think I can help with the food part, and may you could show me somewhere warmer to defrost before trying to fly back south?"

The Wyvern wandered off while the Dragon and other Wyvern talked. Atar smelled something... kind of. His short snout, combined with an old injury, left him unable to smell very well. But he was certain he smelled... whatever it was. It wasn't familiar to him, whatever it was. He looked around as he walked through the forest. Eventually, he saw something on a trail in front of him; a deer. Of course, he had no idea what a deer looked like or that it was even called a deer. But he had tasted it before. The Wyvern's stomach growled again, reminding him of his hunger. He sat down and looked at the deer.

"My cave has a small bonfire spot. I haven't used it at all actually, since I can't breathe fire; it still has sticks to light too. The cave is a bit of a long walk away, but it isn't far. Besides, we can find food on our way there. Do you want to see my cool cave Atar-" she turned to Atarijor, who was now not present.

"W-what?? Where did he go? Did he get lost or something? Captured? EATEN? FLY AWAY?". Many more ridiculous assumptions slipped out of the panicking Dragon's mouth. She wasn't good at keeping calm, and would often over-panic.