Finding a Tribe (Icewings only)

It was cold. Not the normal cold either. It was really cold! Cold enough that Snowblaze had begun to feel it. Then again, she was only a quarter Icewing. Either way, she was dead set on finding more Icewings. It was clear that just hunkering down wasn’t going to cut it, and if the Icewings were going to survive as a tribe they needed to come together. Sadly, she hadn’t found a single soul. All the strange dragon could do was keep searching. With any luck, she’d at least find clues.

Atarijor ate as if he hadn't had anything in weeks. He had learned to eat that way. In captivity, the Hatchlings were kept together until they were big enough to begin working. They were meant to fight over the food they were given; those who ate fast ate more and thus were more likely to survive. It was just another of many habits the Wyvern would probably never be rid of. When Atarijor finished eating, he wandered off in no particular direction. Though the tribe had suddenly disappeared--Atarijor had only seen a few since the monsters came--he still went looking for herbs everyday. He was--or had been--a Healer in the IceWing tribe. For a brief second he thought about leaving and going in search of humans... but he shook the thought away. While Atarijor often relapsed, he did have some periods of mental clarity, how ever short. At the moment, he wouldn't dream of going back to his old life. Atar wondered if he would see another IceWing today as he stumbled upon some vegetation and stopped to inspect it.

The white and red Guardian continued to walk, already starting to lose hope, when she spotted a good, or ill, sign. Tracks! Her mind was in it calculated phase, so Snowblaze was at least cautious. She walked up and sniffed the tracks and air. The scent was familiar. It was definitely a dragon, and one she new at that. The dragoness was so exited her mind switched its thinking to emotional. The hybrid followed the track, not quiet running, in hopes that she’d find their owners.

It wasn’t long before Snowblaze finally found the dragon who laid the tracks. It was... Atarijor? She thought he had left, or got himself put back into slavery, but he was still there and free. She walked up closer, he mind having switched again, before speaking in a monotone voice. ”Atarijor? Is that you?”

(Sigh.)

((Sorry, Volt, but IceWings Only means this topic is only open only to members of the tribe))

Atarijor was trying to smell the plants he had discovered when he heard a voice behind him. Hearing his name, the Wyvern was quick to turn around and respond. "Wyvern... named Atarijor, yes." The Healer looked at the other dragon, trying to remember her name. For the moment, it was lost to him, so Atar simply went on to explain what he was doing. "Atarijor looking for... heel-ing (healing) plants."

Virgo, the former queen of the IceWings. Once a proud matriarch, now lost within her own territory. It had been a while since the IceWing had seen any of her siblings, or even her mother, let alone other members. She hadn't even seen her teacher. When the monsters had come, Virgo had been taken completely be surprise. Shocked to the core, she had attempted to fight back. But.... alas. Her efforts had been in vain.

Now, the wolf dragoness trudged through the snow, her head held low, her tail dragging. she was hungry, and tired. She had tried going back to the palace, but it was overflown with far too many monsters. The now thirty year old dragoness was at a loss. She.... didn't know what to do.

As Virgo walked, her stomach growling, her nose caught the scent of.... someone vaguely familiar. She turned a bend, a blast of crisp, cool air hitting her in the face. She then spotted not only one, but two other IceWings. Her ears perked, eyes wide. She actually vaguely recognized them, from when she had held her grand ball at her coronation.

Of course, she could vaguely remember their names. Cautiously, she walked forward. "Hello." she greeted softly.

Snowblaze walked closer to Atarijor and eyed the plants curiously. She didn’t know much about healing in general, but at least she usually didn’t have to. She was about to say some until she heard another speak. The dragoness leaped around, her mind switching again, and let out a growl.

Once she finally saw the new dragon, the Icewing Guardian stopped growl, but still looked wary. This dragon was odd, but looked familiar to her. She then spoke, this time with emotion in her voice instead of the cold, monotone one from just a moment earlier. ”You look familiar.”

Atarijor saw the dragon round the bend. She sorta looked familiar but it was likely Atar had only met her once, so he couldn't be sure. Either way, her presence wasn't comforting to the Wyvern. He was now outnumbered, standing before two dragons. He lowered his head, pulled his arms closer to his body, trying to make himself look as small as possible--an impossible task when he towered over them by several feet. Nevertheless, Atarijor tried and took a few steps back to give the females some room. "Atarijor was looking for plants," he said in the language of humans. Greetings weren't something he knew how to do, so he usually  explained what he was doing when someone greeted him.

Virgo immediately began walking more cautiously as she got closer. She... admittedly hadn't realized how much larger these dragons were compared to her. One, the female, was nearly 4-5 times bigger than she was, and the male... he was like, 6-7 times larger! The only comforting thought was the fact that Virgo recognized them a little bit, and they both seemed to be IceWings.... let her just hope they weren't rogues, and definitely hope they weren't hostile.

She swallowed nervously, and reminded herself that she had once been this land's queen. Puffing her chest up a bit, she nodded to Snowblaze, "Ah... yes. My name's Virgo. Virgo Wolf. I was the former Queen of the IceWings." she said, trying not to sound too pretentious. She also noticed that the other dragon, who also looked vaguely familiar, seemed quite awkward.

Why? She wondered. She wasn't exactly very intimidating. When he spoke, Virgo couldn't understand a word he said. Had... maybe it had been in human? She thought she faintly remembered an IceWing who had been a former human slave. She awkwardly offered a smile over at him.

Snowblaze was surprised by just how larger her and Atarijor were compared to the odd dragon. Both dragons were absolutely massive compared to the new comer. Then again, both were quite large for Icewings to begin with, so it shouldn’t have been too shocking. It also surprised her when a familiar name entered her ears. Virgo Wolf. The former queen herself. The hybrid’s mind switched back to calculating when she heard this, and the ice and flame colored dragoness gave Virgo a bow of her head. Her voice almost emotionless this time.

”It is an honor, Virgo. My name is Snowblaze, and this dragon her is Atarijor the....” The ness then let out a sigh as she saw how the larger wyvern behaved now. Her mind once again switched before she tried to lift his head with one of her forepaws. She then shook her head, and spoke in a concerned voice.
”How many times do I have to say it to get you to understand you’re as much dragon as any of us?”

Atar wasn't sure what to make of the draconic smile he was offered by Virgo. Again, it was something to which he was not accustomed. Was it a sort of soundless snarl? A show of aggression? Whatever it was, Atar found it unsettling and tried to make himself smaller still. He listened as Snowblaze spoke. He tilted his head slightly to one side, not unlike a dog, and tried to make sense of her words. Dragon tongue did not come naturally to him as it should have, so it took a long time to figure out what was being said. When Atarijor spoke finally, it was in his broken form of dragon tongue. "Wyvern... not.. Dragon. Atarijor is Wyvern. Wyvern... les-lesser... Wyvern get.. less fo-od... w-weres (worse) werk (work)... " He looked at Virgo, realizing she had given her name. "V... Vi-Vir... Vir-go. Wyvern nam-ed Atarijor XVI."

"Ah, nice to meet you... again, Atarijor and Snowblaze!" Virgo said, her tail wagging a bit. It seemed the wolf-like dragon had been greatly reassured by the two telling her their names, and displaying overall friendly attitudes. Or well, at least non threatening ones. She herself, they would notice, also did not seem overly capable of conflict or combat. Her body posture had relaxed a bit, and she seemed happier.

She had heard Atarijor's comment, but she wasn't entirely sure how to respond. Maybe it was some kind of human thing. Wyverns were just as much dragon as every other dragon was, weren't they? She decided to shrug it off, or at least let Snowblaze handle it or something.

"I... don't suppose you all have seen any other IceWings lately, have you?" Virgo asked, "Ever since the monsters, it's been kind of... chaotic..."

Snowblaze just looked at Atarijor, still trying to understand how he thought that way. She sighed. What could she say that could convince him he was equal. She finally spoke, still with her emotional tone. ”Atarijor. I don’t know if you know this, but being part Firewing in the Icewing tribe puts me lower on the totem pole than you to a lot of... individuals.” Her mind had switched to calculating at the end, leading to her becoming monotone.

Snowblaze then turned to Virgo, not sure how to answer it. She thought for a moment, then respond in a calculating way of speaking.”Only you, myself and Atarijor. And, to be honest, neither of are minds are quite the best.”

It was curious to Atar that Snowblaze would be lesser than he, simply for being a hybrid. In truth, Atarijor himself was not a purebred IceWing. It wouldn't matter if he were. His current state made him lesser than others. Everyone was frustrated with him and probably would have preferred if he just left and never came back. "Atarijor only see Virgo and Snowblaze," the Wyvern said in human tongue.

Virgo was deeply saddened by the news that there had been no distinguished IceWings spotted. In fact, ever since the monsters had attacked, Virgo had even been separated from her former advisers. The former queen's empire had collapsed into ruins. Maybe... maybe it was possible for Virgo to reestablish some kind of control? The former queen wasn't entirely sure if that would be possible. She had addressed herself as the former queen. Plus, it wasn't like she had guards or anything, so she didn't have any way to enforce it...

Regardless, Virgo was older now, and she had more experience. If anything, she was just as qualified to lead them as anyone, right? Well.... who knows. Regardless, Virgo knew that she probably needed to figure out how to gather everyone up and try to find a territory that they could call home, at least temporarily. Out here was... far too unsafe.

Virgo straightened her back, "Well, I'm glad to see you two here." she said, glancing at Atar with another confused look when he spoke what she presumed to be human tongue again. "I... I know things might look tough. The capital is overrun with monsters. I... think we should try to build an encampment of sorts. Perhaps somewhere the monsters don't know about. I've actually know a place we could stay. That way, we'd have somewhere to live and gather others, and potentially find a way to contact the other tribes." Virgo said thoughtfully. She hoped the others might be interested.

"And maybe, find other IceWings, if there are any still alive..."

Snowblaze though about what Virgo said. A place the monsters couldn’t find them? Sounded too good to be true, yet at the same time made sense. Also made sense to fortify and have somewhere to rest. It would also, hopefully, attract some more Icewings. Though one idea did get her mind to switch to emotional.

The idea of working with the other tribes. While tye white and orange dragoness didn’t like the idea, even with her emotional impulsive thinking, Snowblaze knew it was really the only way. The ness let out a slight sigh before smiling, and speaking with a more... normal voice. ”That sounds like a good idea, Virgo.”

The only word Atarijor paid any attention to, the only one to which he related, no matter which language it was spoken in, was build. "Atarijor can help build." It was the closet the Wyvern had ever been to anything resembling excitement.

Virgo smiled at the willingness of the other dragons to cooperate. She was glad that they wanted to help, and weren't being at all stubborn or judgmental of her. She nodded quickly, and turned, "A-alright! Follow me, it isn't far from here," she said, excited, her tail wagging. The sooner they found shelter, the sooner they would be able to rebuild. And the sooner they could regroup and take back their lands.

She was also glad one of the dragons she had managed to find happened to be one that knew how to build, she gave Atarijor a nod of her head, "yes, that would be very helpful." she said in response to him.

Snowblaze smiled a bit at Atarijor’s note that he could build. It was definitely a skill she, for the most part, lacked. She was also happy that Virgo was so will to help them find shelter. It was especially good for her, since she was starting to want some warmth. Once Virgo said to follow her, Snowblaze didn’t hesitate, simply saying ”Lead the way.”

Virgo nodded, and lifted her wings, and began to fly. She would glance behind her several times along the journey, to make sure that they were indeed still following her. She smiled when they were. She was silently glad that, for all the faults of the IceWing former rulers, at least someone had been smart enough to set up a safeguard vault in case a catastrophic event occurred, even if that vault was only meant to be used by the leaders and their family. Well.... Virgo wasn't even sure what had happened to her family, so she guessed they wouldn't be needing that room.

They flew over mountain tops, through the winter breeze. The disparity of the whole situation probably amplified the feeling of dread and made the time it took them to get there feel even longer, even though the flight was only about maybe thirty to forty five minutes. It certainly felt like forever by the time they landed by an almost inconspicuous mountain top.

"Here we are," Virgo announced, even though it just looked like a regular, icy mountain.

Snowblaze quickly took off, but waited for Atarijor to start flying so she could trail behind. The dragoness had kept her instincts as a guardian, even if the Icewing has been more like Rogues for some time. She kept looking around, being sure none of the monsters where around.

After some time, they finally landed on top of a mountain. Snowblaze looked around. This seemed vaguely familiar. She soon walked up to Virgo, asking ”Is there something here I’m not seeing” with an emotional tone.

The Wyvern followed Virgo and Snowblaze. He was excited to have some work to do. Maybe he might even do it well enough to avoid getting whipped. The flight was lengthy but Atar didn't mind. Now that he thought of it, he wasn't sure how he felt about flying. It was convienent, but he had lived his whole life without flying. Eventually, they arrived at their destination. They landed in front of a mountain. "Wyvern work here?"

The dragons around her were rather confused when they landed on the mountainside, only to see no entrance. This had been the reaction she was expecting, but even so, it filled her with mild glee to know that the entrance was unnoticeable to dragons, which only meant detection by monster would be even more unlikely. Not that she needed to confirm this, she had seen it work numerous times before when she had been fleeing from monsters.

“Wait and see,” she said, unable to hide her excitement. Walking over to a more level bit of the mountain, where the mountain suddenly jerked up higher into the sky, Virgo would gently feel the ice by the corner of the rocks. Then, as if by some unknown magic, she fidgeted with something, and then there was an audible click. Suddenly, a large, iron door revealed itself, embedded in the mountain’s surface.

Heaving, Virgo then pushed the door open, revealing the rocky, and surprisingly well lit, interior. She then turned to Snowblaze and Atarijor, “This is the hideaway.” she said, with an almost smug look on her face, wondering how the other two dragons would react.

Snowblaze curiously watched as Virgo did... something. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but the shock of what she saw caused her mind to switch from emotional to calculating. It was a door, and behind it, a well lit cave. The dragoness walked in slowly, her maw wide open. ”This is an excellent location.” Despite her voice being monotone, it was clear just how much she appreciates this new home.