Forgotten? Over my dead body! (Private, Ardent)

The sun was high in the sky, the familiar leaves sheltering her from the weakened rays. Of course, it was cloudy which had hidden a rather large portion of the warmth it provided. Lexia grumbled, unimpressed with that stubborn NightWing that she had just talked with. Of course, he was incredibly stubborn- but what frustrated her more was that he decided to just ignore her. Oh, how she hated that! It was unfair! Just because she was rash, that she spoke her mind without fears, she gained more disrespect than she obtained respect.

Lexia's sharp fangs gritted together lightly. No. Now wasn't the time to think about that sort of thing.

Shaking her head, a sigh escaped her maw, her slow, lumbering gait continuing as she made her way back to her den. For a FireWing, she was rather small. Oh she was so small... But she didn't care. She was faster than they were, her paws were able to carry her distances that they could only dream of. Lexia growled. She'd never live it down if they knew that she was a bad fighter compared to her race- but she'd be even more cursed if she allowed it to stop her. Lexia was stubborn. She was so, so stubborn..

Her stride paused, head perking up. Lexia's hearing was keen as she glanced from side to side... Did she just hear something?..

She waited for a few minutes, listening keenly for any further noises. After not hearing anything else, Lexia shrugged her shoulders, slowly beginning to walk forward again. Whatever it was, it wasn't here anymore. Probably some sort of bird or something. Heh, that weird IceWing might have been able to tell her, as they seemed to enjoy snacking on that sort of fowl thing.

But that's when Lexia heard something. Something. Odd. A.. Cry?

Shivering quietly, Ardent peeked out from the hole she had managed to dig for herself, nested between the gnarled roots of an ancient tree. Pulling herself free, her tattered and torn wings quivering restlessly against her sides, feeling like they would shatter at a moment’s notice. Of course, it wasn’t truly that cold. Even to another Firewing, it would simply be… cool, if that. But to her… every day felt colder than the last, the tears and slashes that cleaved her scales and skin, leaking heat like they had blood at one point. Especially the large one that matched to the largest tear in her right wing… Her lamenting was stolen away as she saw a single, scrawny squirrel skitter across her vision. Freezing in place, she growled hungrily, and leapt at the small animal, hissing in annoyance as her stiffened and slow muscles responded several moments after the growl had left her maw, letting the animal run.

Watching her potential meal run off in front of her, she sat down, heavily, and just… stayed there. She had only just slept, for almost an entire day… but even now… she felt sleepy. Not tired, no… but weary. As if she could just lie down where she was and sleep, forever. For a moment, her mind drifted, oh so far back. A silver dragoness and a golden one. Meeting them, leaning how to speak in ‘their’ tongue… How foolish had she been? Drifting further back, she remembered her time, enslaved. In these tired moments, she looked back on then, almost with fondness. It had been difficult, yes. Hungry, yes… painful, at times? Certainly… but it hadn’t been this. The world wasn’t out to kill her. She had been safe, fed and warm as long as she did as she was told. Not for the first time since she had escaped she found herself wishing she hadn’t left.

It was in this stupor that the creature found her. A battered, ragged manticore, easily twice her size. It saw her simply as an easy meal, knowing a flightless dragon when it saw one. The padded paws silenced its steps, not that it was needed with how dead to the world the hatchling was. The first part was to stun it… Swinging a paw suddenly, Ardent let out a terrified, and cut short yelp, as her small frame was slammed into a tree, her body spasming as several old wounds were torn open, blood dripping without it laying it’s claws on her. Stumbling away from it, she snarled, a thick, black liquid dripping from her maw, almost like venom, dripping to the ground as her talons unsheathed, broken and shattered, but still enough to ignite. Hissing defensively, she felt her tail press against a tree. With little else to do, she slashed her talons against her sides, igniting them quickly, letting off a tiny amount of heat. While to something her size it would have been rather terrifying, the manticore just huffed, and advanced towards her, smiling, predator to prey.

A heavy thud had followed the sound of the cry. Lexia's perked head twisted, a snarl pulling over her muzzle. Silently, the dragoness turned towards the sound, her feet carrying her towards the source silently and as swift as the wind. A series of snarls and hisses aided her in narrowing down whatever Lexia had heard. Lex paused for a few moments, her stride faltering, unable to really hear anything else... Aside from the soft crunching of leaves and twigs under somethings foot. Turning, the grey dragoness pushed her way through the thick and overgrown undergrowth of the trees. It took everything she had not just tear the branches and vines from their places, her anger at them impeding her movements rather great.

Her claws broke through the final barrier.

An angry snarl pulled back on her face, enraged. Opening her muzzle, flames erupted from her mouth, the stream of flames catching the manticore off guard. With a startled hiss, it staggered away from Ardent, wings beating to try and get rid of the flames that burned its fur. Lexia cut them off, diving forward with surprising speed for her race. Her claws tore the skin of the beast, cleaving its hide easily. Four new claw marks peeled open, the monster hissing as it's tail lashed out blindly. It caught her shoulder, the poison injecting into her shoulder. She grunted, before her teeth found the back of its neck.

One quick crunch finished it.

Lexia's head twisted, throwing the carcass backwards, before her attention turned back, her eyes trying to find that small dragon that had made those noises. A sympathetic purr called from her throat, her paws carrying her towards the small and rather scarred and scared dragon. The old wounds bled, the small paws alight with something similar to fire. It reminded Lexia of the being that claimed to be her mother, but she ignored it. No. There was no reason as to why she should think of those sorts of things. Purring louder, she lowered her head a little to the fragile hatchling, teenager? All Lexia really knew was that they really were something that wasn't so old.

"We need to get you cleaned up, little one... How long have you been out here, by yourself? Those wounds aren't so grand..." Lexia's voice was gentle, soft, trying to coax the dragon into a sense of security, to trust her. She stood near the bleeding figure, her head tilted to the side as her magenta eyes shone with worry. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

Hissing one final, pointless time at the manticore, Ardent knew she only had a single hope left to her. Nova… But, given her current situation, even that was bleak. It would simply kill her before she could generate enough heat to keep it away… He thoughts and concentration were torn away the same instant as the manticore's, as a massive, black, grey and red… shape tore through the nearby vegetation towards the creature. Seeing her chance, she dashed away, taking refuge partially behind a large bush, her glowing scales dimming to pitch black, hiding her quite well, at least in her own opinion as she curled in on herself. Watching the carnage unfold with a sick fascination, the splashes of crimson and the snap of bones, she watched the dragoness toss the creature that had moments before been attempting to kill her, a new kind of terror radiating through her. No-one was kind. That, she had learnt the hard way, was truth. No-one went out of their way to help another, especially the likes of her…

Squirming further against the bush as the dragoness approached, she was a little surprised to hear the purring, a sound she had admittedly, only ever heard once before in her life, from a silver dragoness who had shown her the smallest affection. But even that small memory wasn't enough. Watching her lower her head, Ardent hissed quietly, and stepped back, clawing at the air in front of Lexia. She had never known the speech of her kind in any decent capacity… The months she had gone without using it had seen that the last shreds of it had been removed from her vocabulary.

Instead, she answered Lexi with soft hisses and snarls, trying to frighten her off, at odds with her small and bleeding form, a last ditch effort. Combined to that, her body had begun to shake with the effort of keeping her claws ignited, and of standing so much with her wounds torn open. This close to her, it was doubtful that Lexia would be able to miss the cuffs around her paws, and collar around her neck, even covered as they were in layers of dirt and splotches of dried blood, hopefully letting her understand, or giving some indication, of why it was she acted so hostile towards her.

Lexia's gentle greeting was met by hostility, the stubborn dragon simply raising an eyeridge to what she was doing. She tilted her head to the side, simply looking at the smaller dragons outburst until she decided to, eventually calm down. In a mean time, Lexia's eyes trailed across the scars, the black blood that still wept from her wounds. The chains, collars, trapping her neck and arms in a deadly grip, potentially even digging into her. Inwardly, the dragoness snarled. Of course, that would explain why she was so hostile- if she had been kept like that for a long time, then...

Lexia simply stood there, her tail gently swaying back and forth, undisturbed by her rash actions. When she stopped to draw a breath to keep growling, Lexia's paw shot forward. She grabbed the collar, twisting it violently to bring it up slightly. Lexia wouldn't harm Ardent with the movement, but she was sure that she wasn't going to enjoy what she had planned. Flames built up in her mouth, her marks glowing as they built, "Don't. Move." She growled, ignoring any attempts to escape from her that Ardent made. Her other palm grabbed Ardent's body, holding her body away from where Lexia's maw was.

Only moments later, Lexia's scorching flames left her maw. Her hand slipped between Ardent and the collar, acting as a shield, before she carefully pushed the iron into the incredibly hot flames. As it entered the beam, Lexia grunted, feeling the collars heat exceed what she thought. However, she kept her palm on the other side. Time passed, the smaller dragons struggles, Lexia didn't notice. The steel began to burn her paw. But she pressed onwards. It was so close... The glowing iron began to move- and that's when Lexia acted.

Her other paw leg Ardent go as her mouth slammed shut, cutting away the flames. Anger and pain drove her actions forward, her paws grabbing either side of the now moveable steel. With a howl of pain, Lexia tore the collar free from her neck, the metal searing the soft paw pads. She threw the two pieces of steel down into the dirt, her tail brushing the grounds around it over the thing, her front paws aching from the contact of that iron. "Trust me yet?" Lexia asked, before limping over to a small puddle, slamming her paws into the water, the faint sizzle of evaporating water coming from the action.

Man her paws ached from that action and she looked at Ardent, eyes partially narrowed. Thankfully the damage wasn't going to last too long, it'd just be more ginger to walk on for a little, but she'd hide it. "My names Lex. Are you hungry?"

Eventually, the snarling and hissing died off, as the flames on her talons dipped, slowly fading to nothing, leaving a thin, soot-like residue on them. Even standing was getting tiring, her body trembling, but she knew that if she let her ‘guard’ down, there was every chance this dragoness would harm her, or worse. Trust was one of the few things she didn’t have. For anyone or anything. She was on the edge of collapse when the dragoness threw her arm out, the sudden movement taking Ardent several long moments to react to, by which point the collar was already held tightly by Lex. Flailing with little strength she had left in her body, she felt herself grow warmer, even before the first flames had left the larger dragonesses maw. Hearing the command, barely understanding in her panic, she did the opposite, moving wildly, attempting escape.

Feeling a sudden surge of almost familiar warmth, every movement she had previously been making froze. Like a person dying of thirst and finally being offered water, the small hatchling drunk down the temperature, the warmth, feeling some small… spark be reignited deep inside her. Those golden, magma like scales that covered her body, tracing out her veins and heart with unerring precision, including over her throat, the few over her face, and that massive, confused and interchanged web over her heart, all of them bloomed with new light, burning almost as bright as he fire that was so close. It felt… wonderful. Like life. Energy… At the same time, it was oh so relaxing, as if she could fall asleep at a moment’s notice.
It lasted for only a few seconds longer, at least that’s what it felt like to her, before she felt the paw that held and shielded her quickly move, and with a hissing sound, of flesh against metal, and a howl, her collar was torn away. The howl startled her, coming from the larger dragoness, almost as much as the removal of her collar. The thing that she had had, in different forms, since her first days… Looking up at Lexia, silent, as she asked her another question, she lifted a paw to her neck, to softly stroke it as she went to the puddle. It was gone… Trailing her paw over her neck scales, those that had so long been unreachable, she felt… freer.

Breaking from her small trance, once more by the dragoness, she blanched, a little, her glowing scales dimming a small amount, as she saw those narrowed eyes, instantly fearing them, in at least some small part. At being given her name, Ardent cocked her head, attempting to say what she had heard so long ago, unfortunately, in the dialect of humans. "…Arrr-dent." She eventually managed to reply, before nodding to the second question, waiting just a single moment before leaping towards the dead and lightly cooked manticore, tearing into it with ravenous efficiency, her claws igniting within moments as she tore, and cooked, chucks of it, trying to pace herself, and failing miserably as her hunger won out.

The language that Ardent replied with certainly wasn't from a dragon dialect. It sounded off, the letters and general sounds were twisted and partially slurred. A confused look crossed her eyes for a few moments before, slowly, an understanding began to dawn in her magenta eyes. The collar wasn't put on the small and young dragon by her own will, more than likely, it was directly against it. Just as she was thinking these words, the smaller creature decided to snap out of her own thoughts, the paw moving away from touching her neck. Those hungry eyes latched onto the corpse, before leaping onto it, teeth tearing muscle from bone as it ate. Judging by the thin dragon, the ribs and some bones showing, along with those wounds, Lexia could tell one thing for certain. That was how hungry that small thing was. But only one word would describe it. Famished.

The older dragon, after those burns finally began to settle, limped over to the smaller dragon. "Do you know how to say that in the language I speak? Or do you not even understand my words?" Lexia asked firmly, not angry, just firmly. She needed to figure out where they both stood in terms of communication. If they were too far out, Lexia wouldn't be able to help the other dragon much.

Wait. Help?

Lexia was surprised for a few moments at those thoughts, before her tail went to carefully wrap itself around the smaller dragon- not to completely prevent her from moving, just to hold her back for a few moments. After a few moments, Lexia's claws came down across the meat, her flames billowing from her mouth to cook and slice portions of meat. In case she preferred some of the meat uncooked, she pushed it aside, keeping the cooked and uncooked slabs separate. It was then that she moved herself away, letting the smaller dragon get back to her meal. Her eyes went back to the young and glowing dragon's scales, the black blood still there...

"After you're feeling up to it, we're going to get those injuries of yours treated. They aren't so healthy- especially for someone of your size..."

Ardent once more stopped, her maw dripping with blood, small pieces of tendon and sinew hanging from her jaws. Cocking her head once more, it took her a few moments to understand, but eventually she did give Lexia a happy little nod, beaming up at her, following it shortly after by shaking her head. She doubted Lexia would trust those two head movements enough, so she attempted to speak once more. "Dr… Drag… Dragoon… My… lang…uge…" She managed to get out, once more in the only dialect she knew how to speak, that unkind tongue of humanity, followed by, "Und… stand." She finally finished, and beamed happily once more, as the Manticore once more caught her attentions.

At first she didn't notice the tail curling about her form, until she bumped into it by accident. Blinking, looking up, she watched as Lexia tore apart large chunks of the Manticore, that she hadn't got to yet, and began to breathe her flames once more. Sitting with her paws holding onto the side of her warm tail, Ardent watched the flames almost… jealously, wishing she could breathe them properly, instead of relying on her fire mist… Frowning as Lexi moved her tail and body away, to go and stand off to the side, she made a decision. But not before pausing at the offer. She gave a tiny, almost non-existent nod,  before diving into the Manticore.

Regardless of her lack of hunting training or anything, she knew what the best parts of a creature were. Organs… And she was looking for a specific one. Slicing away at muscles with her claws, she eventually pulled her prize out, and happily trotted over to Lexia, the Manticore's heart held in her maw, which she law at the larger dragonesses feet, nudging it towards her. The kill, and meal, were technically hers… the least she could do was let her have the best part of it.