Aftermath (Starlights only)

((So this topic will practically be the new start for the Order of Starlights (or Starlight Order), taken about two months after the fall of the LightWing and SkyWing kingdoms. Previous role play sessions that was done in the land (involved with Attor) will not be canon. But please, do enjoy! ))

An instinct of survival can kick in, but the drive to live can become greater, let it be big or small. In past time, months perhaps, a great invasion conquered the land and its invaders; odd creatures from another world, flooded it. Many had died in the battle against an order of dragons but to no avail as this army of the drake had been overrun. Without choice, many fled their destroyed homes and unfortunately slaughtered by the creatures that flooded them. The remainder had been very few and the aftermath was beyond scarring for the once peaceful dragons.

The end was at hand for all but a small group of dragons. For some time they traversed the jungles of the Light Dragon territory following a map; a location which seemed to promise a new home and safer place for the dragons. The sovereign of the land, Attor, had gone flightless. Conserving energy for the long travel and due to damage wings he could not fly like the rest of the dragons. This small group, out of the survivors of the kingdoms, had not caught an illness that killed off most that had fled.

The illness was caused from one of the creatures, a massive jellyfish-like creature that spread its spores everywhere in the land. These spores attacked most dragon's insides and killed them with either a terrible fever or a brutal cold. Luckily it had been killed, and its spores created alien plants, ones completely unorthodox to this world. The deceased had plants and moss growing from the inside-out, the spores taking over and growing rapidly.

After what seemed like the third day of no rest, Attor stumbled slightly, tired and in a weakened state from the travel. They had been stalked by various creatures, barely killing the ones that attempted to attack. There was no time to rest as the creatures seemed to always keep track of where the group was going. Attor felt like he failed his people, not only was he badly battered with broken wings and a critically injured tail, he was unable to protect the two kingdoms to the onslaught.

For now, Attor was worried about getting this small group of dragons to safety, even a cave would do for the night. Before it was destroyed in the kingdom, the sovereign looked over a map of the land, memorizing certain areas and directions of vantage and what seemed like safety points. He shook his head, certain the group was in the right direction. By now he probably told them to stick together and leave him behind, since the king thought he would be dead weight.

He didn't remember how many times he told them that, with little energy by now he should have fallen over of exhaustion. Instead he drove himself with the simple four words, "I'm Not Done Yet." His remaining subjects needed a leader, and it seemed he had a hole to fill.

Looking around the area, Attor noticed the large rocked split in three, remembering a certain location from the map with the same rock.

"We shouldn't be far from a safe spot..." Attor almost tripped over himself but caught the trip with the slam of his paw. He felt pain shoot up through his front right arm, most likely aching muscles, "I would say we only have an hour to go, perhaps less..."

Destella followed behind the insect-like dragon slowly. After she lost her home to the beast,she managed to find Attor and his group of dragons. She really hated being on the ground right now though. They had already faced some creatures, and her flashes had been coming in handy, but she was already getting exhausted. The thing was, she was more concerned about Attor.

He was injured, yet he kept pushing forward. She really didn't know how he kept going like he did, but it inspired her to keep moving. When the king said they were near somewhere safe, the feathered serpents red colors turned to yellow. She was excited. They were almost safe, and that was something she hadn't had in a long time.

Haneul took to the skies rather than walk. Someone needed to keep watch for trouble. Destella had decided to slither with the king. Attor was grounded after taking damage to his wings and so the going to a safe place was painstakingly slow. The Guardian had given up yelling at the king. There was no point. Haneul circled above the LightWing and half-EarthWing king, making sure they were not being followed and nothing was coming from any other direction. Eventually, he landed beside them. "I see nothing as of yet. How much further do we have to go?"

Oh, how this event had shaken them. Yalaruh, although young, could not recall a single time in the SkyWing nor the LightWing history in which they suffered such great losses. It was truly a spectacle, a great travesty that, if they survived, would change the very foundation of the tribes. The severity of their situation was not something young Yalaruh liked to contemplate. Being only around 16, and having been only about 14 when everything transpired, she was perhaps one of the youngest remaining members of the tribe.

Not that Yalaruh hadn’t known loss. Both her parents had abandoned her at birth, or so her adoptive father had told her, the former king of the SkyWings. She had lived with him up until around the age of 9 or so, when he and his mate, Anila, goddess of emotions, disappeared. To this day Yalaruh had no idea what happened to them, but since the dragon guards of the SkyWings had never found any bodies, she tried to be hopeful, and assume that, perhaps, they were still alive somewhere. Well, she had hoped. With everything that had transpired now, she doubted they were still alive.

Regardless, Yalaruh tried to think of the positive. Why let such troublesome things bother her when she could focus on what was to be done? The only good that ruminating on what could have been and the past did was make her sad and deeply lonely. She tried to push those feelings aside and focus on the now, with what members of her tribe were still alive. But, although she tried…. It was still hard. She found it difficult to stay focused at times, but tried to be a help to her injured and battered tribe.

She had seen it. She had witnessed it herself, while traveling with the mix of SkyWings and LightWings lead by their king Attor. The tribe dragons’ casual loss of faith. At first, it had been slow. When the monsters had initially attacked, and the tribe dragons still confident in their prowess, only a few expressed doubts that the gods still cared for them. But as civilization began to collapse around them, and friends turned feral, many survivors outright disowned the gods. It was a disheartening sight. Yalaruh thought herself the only one to still have faith. But her faith did not come from her belief. She had to admit she still had selfish reasons for her actions. Such as the fact her faith was the only thing she could hold on to that reminding her of her father’s kind words and actions. It was the least she could do for him…

Now, the group was heading to who knows where, through the jungles. Yalaruh didn’t suspect their group was much bigger now than the average patrol of SkyWings, back before the invasion. She trudged along, a bruise on her right elbow from a scrape they had ran into a couple days ago. She stayed behind Attor, head bowed, staring at the muddy ground beneath their paws. She didn’t want to speak, because she felt the effort would exhaust her even further, and she needed all of her strength for wherever their King was leading them.

Meanwhile, as Attor lead his group through the forest, only a mile or a half away from them was Amore. The elderly queen was still alive, barely clinging to life. She had needed to move her camp since her run in with the dragoness Snowblaze, and had been ambushed by beasts. In the attack, much of the equipment she had had was destroyed. Only a few personal items still were in her belonging, strapped to her back in a small, but dirty, sack.

As she stumbled through the jungle, leaping over vines and squeezing through trees, she thought she heard footsteps. Thinking it a savage dragon or monster, she climbed up a tree and hid, pink tail coiling around the branches like a snake. However, to her surprise and joy, she saw not savages, but friends. Haneul, Destella, Yalaruh, and of course, her beloved mate.

Carefully, she dropped down from her hiding space, letting out a slight grunt of pain. Folding her wings to her side, she quietly approached the group, though didn’t try to sneak up or hide from them. Instead, she approached them head on, her eyes wild. Part of her wondered if she was merely being delusional, and if this was another trick, and her death was actually quickly gaining on her.

“A-Attor?” She said in disbelief when she got close enough to be face to face with him.

Indeed, it seemed a bleak time, with only these two or so dragons, a small group would go undetected for the most part. If they ran into anything hopefully it wasn't massive like one of those serpents, if anything, Attor thought, at least let it be one of those one eyed creatures. He hadn't faced anything that strong before, the serpents were massive and quick, but the bipedal monsters had some extreme strength. That was what injured him during a fight, one of those slammed into his right side then clobbered his back with its bulky arms, thus damaging Attire wings in the process.

Had Attor not used his razor sharp stinger on the monsters eye he surely would have died then. He remembered the way it howled in pain as the other creatures had pursued everything not them. He didn't have the proper time to simply pack up, remembering that his own room was left locked and untouched... Attor left everything but that jeweled chrome crown, and he attempted to gather whatever survivors were left and leave. At that time he was filled with panic and was far more alert than now. Now he just pushed himself further to get his survivors to the next place he thought would be safer, the objective that only ran through his mind was survival of both Light and Sky Dragons.

The crown the sovereign saved was smashed by theirs truly, it was an obstacle and he only saved the yellow moonstone for... Purposes. Really, it was a rarity, and in this time he needed something reminiscent to what it was like before, something to help give him the idea he always strode for: peace. A peace that will never exist due to either constant conflicts petty or great, or invasions and eradication like this.

And in this time of the dragons eradication, why weren't the gods present? Why would they leave their worshippers, Their Dragons, behind in an onslaught?! It angered the sovereign to the point he wanted to shout and curse the gods, denounce his faith!! But that is the core reason he lived up till now, faith. Faith that everything will get better, faith for a better future for all, no matter how grim times are...

Attor stumbled again slightly, tiredness beginning to take over. If not for the blood loss and lack of food, then surely Attor would go from exhaustion. He had remained awake even when resting, always on edge and on the lookout, giving his food to the survivors. To Attor, that's all that matters, keeping them alive. And to do that, he must remain strong and keep leading them to hopefully a safe haven.

"Just a few miles, there should be a steep slope to climb up. It'll take some strength but we are nearing the edge of the jungle and entering the SkyWing territory. If so then there might be a suitable hill, steep and requiring energy to climb if you can't fly. It would be flat up top, a bit small but for us its suitable." Attor had hoped that this place was trully what was seen on the map. Most of the dragons, he assumed, would probably fly up said slope while Attor would make the effort of climbing it. Unfortunately that would take all the strength he had, and already his vision blurred in and out. He didn't know what would get him first, the tiredness, the monsters, the wounds, or maybe some stray rogue looking to stir up chaos... or Hanual, due to how much Attor annoyed him... for some reason Attor didn't even know.

The same yellow gem was tucked away tightly in his broken wings, a hard material grinding into his flaps reminding him, "Hey, your still here." As his vision blurred one last time, Attor could have swore he saw... pink...

Pink and what resembled red. Wings, a dragon? Or perhaps those damn giant red birds that nearly shat on him along their track, courtesy from the new creatures, as if saying, "Hey, we're still here!"

But no, it was different, and the strange creature came up to Attor and asked him one simple question that snapped him back to reality.

"A-Attor?" Was what the creature said. He would have raised his stinger to attack, his eyes wild with both fury and anguish... Until they diminished into a look of sorrow and rejoice. Amore,the queen he had searched for some time, was alive and standing before him. The awkward dragon he was, Attor gave her right cheek a quick lick. And sure enough she tasted like... a dirty dragon. That confirmed him.

Attor's voice was nearly devoid of emotion when he spoke, but there was a hint of a quiet happiness, and also mostly desperation as he realized she too had been through the rough.

"Amore... Your dirtier than ever," Attor joked a little, that devoid tone meaning to be sarcastic, "Wow, its you!" He said, his tone now loopy like a drunk and his eyes fighting to stay open with much success, "I would hug you as weird as it sounds... But the butterflies-" He cut himself off, getting off track and slamming his injured stinger into his broken wings, the pain snapping him into reality.

"Amore, listen, not far from here is a safespot. There we can clean up and rest, and we can catch up... I'm happy we found you," Attor then looked up, the sky starting to light up more as the sun pass over their heads and looked in Hanual's direction, "Hanual!" He called, "We found the queen! Fly a few miles ahead and see if you can find that hill... a plateau would do better! Be swift please!"

As Destella slid behind Attor, she looked around and her feathers darkened. It had been a long time since she say her mate and hatchling. They had gotten separated in one of the fights with the beasts that roamed the lands. She had made attempts to hide it, but they never worked. Her feathers did shift back to normal when Attor spoke of the place they would say.

Small. Great. Not what she needed. But when Attor mentioned the climb, Destella immediately figured she could help the ruler with this. She had noticed that the he had been running himself ragged ever since they went on the run. It worried her. If they lost Attor, who would lead them then? ”A-Attor. If it helps, I should be able to help you climb up. Serpents can grip and climb better than normal dragons.”

After this, something else incredible happened. A pink figure flew up towards the group. Des admittedly coiled in fear of who or what the figure was. Was it one of those creatures, or an aggressive dragon. She extended her fangs as her feathers paled, but when the figure landed.... Was that?

Attor’s own words confirmed it. It was Amore. The queen! The king seemed quite happy with her sudden appearance, but his pain and tiredness really showed. Once the king reassured his mate, Destella uncoiled, her feathers returning to normal, and simply bowed towards Amore and said ”Your highness.”

As soon as the king explained what they were looking for, the Guardian took off to look for it. Judging by the description of the place, and taking Attor's condition into account, it would take quite some time to reach the top. Had there been more survivors, Attor could have been carried to the top. As it were, this was not possible. Han sighed as he scanned the canopy for the invisible line that divided this jungle from SkyWing lands. He found it and then began searching for the hill Attor spoke of.

It felt odd, crossing back into his own territory. He was used to being on the other side, making sure LightWings didn't cross over. It seemed like only yesterday he'd had that encounter with a group of LightWings who thought they could just go anywhere they wanted.

Eventually, Haneul found the hill. it was indeed steep and would be difficult for the king to climb without help. The Guardian let loose a breath of lightning on a tree at the bottom of the hill. The lightning scorched the bark and set fire to it. Han quickly put it out with a powerful flap of his wings before the flame got too big to be put out that way. Smoke rose from the tree and into the air. It would serve as a beacon for the others, give them a sense of how much further they had to go.

Han soon returned to the group. He landed behind Destella and Attor. "We go in the direction of the smoke." Han said quickly before turning his attention to their surroundings.

Crescylla laid on Snowscale's back as he easily flew through the canopy of the jungle, his small size helping him immensely. He rose above the leaves quickly, dodging a branch set to smack him in the face. He quickly spotted a huge plume of smoke, and flew like a rocket towards it.
"You okay back there?" the drake asked his daughter, aware her claws were practically digging into his flesh.
"I'm ok. Just miss Mama."
"Me too...." He hadn't seen his mate in what seemed like an eternity, even though he tried to contact her with his Vilidin stone. Which of course couldn't help now that it had been destroyed by a monster pretty early on while he was alone.
He quickly noted the dragons below, Attor first, then Amore and Haneul. At first he didn't notice Destella, until he swooped down into a dive. He landed easily on his feet, his knowledge of surviving in harsh conditions helping him and his daughter stay mostly out of trouble, find shelter, and kept them fed.
He didn't notice his mate, being in front of her. He didn't know either of the royals, having been mostly a self-imposed exile, so he merely said. "Mind if we tag along?"

Raak-tolIs traveled at the back of the group. He was close enough to help if something happened, however. Usually carrying himself with an air of regality, Raak seemed a shell of his former self. So much death and destruction had taken place. For the past two years, the tiny band of survivors had wandered from place to place on their continent, looking for a safe location to call home. The half-IceWing was glad to see two more join them, especially given one was a Hatchlilng. A Hatchling was hope for a future... but also just as saddening, for the world was no longer fit for such young and innocent lives. For the first time since the last stop, Raak joined up with the group. "Of course you can," he said to the new arrival. He then looked at Attor. "My liege, perhaps we should rest a moment?"

((For those involved we are moving the topix here:
http://www.rpgdragons.org/t5336-edge-of-success-aftermath-continued#65492))