History Repeating (Baldi)

Soshi sighed as she sat within her home, made of earth sculpted by her powers. The goddess may have become much more skilled in her control of elements and use of magic over the years, but that didn't make her any braver when it came to what she saw as avoidable. The other gods finding her, a human in a position that they would probably feel was meant for a dragon. She sighed as she finished writing something down, looking at the small flame that flanked her writing hand. She didn't fear it burning the paper. She controlled it. That wasn't the most pressing issue though.

She needed to go get some supplies, which meant she ran the risk of a god catching her. Then again, she rarely let her magic truly show in its raw power. So she got up, walking to the earthen wall at the other end of the room, and commanded the wall the open, revealing daylight to her. The Goddess of the Elements stepped out into the hilly lands she currently called home, and looked back at the large hill she'd carved her home into. She closed the opening before walking away, making her way to a nearby human town. Monsters and dragons made smaller places like this rare, but they still existed, at least now. Those monsters cared more about the dragons anyway.

As she walked, Soshi could hear the sounds of birds and insects singing their little songs. Her mind still wondered to her fear. She looked around, keeping her hood up as if it would hide her. Maybe it was just a matter of time....

The EarthWing moved through the Lush Forest, not terribly far from a human settlement. He wasn't afraid. They probably wouldn't bother with such a large dragon, and if they did, they'd meet a terrible end. Baldirak had come here to get away from everyone. He needed a quiet place to think, and he couldn't do that with Tenebris flying around demanding a replacement for a Tribe he was not a member of.

Not too long ago, the Twilight King had been on the moon--yes, the moon--for a private conversation with Astral. It left him with a lot to think about, on top of everything else on his mind. The remainder of the Survivors and the growing turmoil within due to insensitivity and differences of opinion; his mate; the monsters... How Baldirak hadn't cracked sooner was a mystery to him. Eventually, he found a place to lay down and rest for a while, that place being right in the middle of a seldom used human pathway.

Soshi continued to walk until she felt something big hit the ground. She quickly went on the defensive, and got low. She slowly moved through the brush until she saw a dragon. A massive one! She felt like she’d seen this dragon before, but wasn’t sure where. Either way the dragon was a danger to her. Soshi focused on the earth around the dragon, and quickly shot spires of earth up around them. Close eough to prevent them from spreading their wings. She finally walked out, looking at the large dragon.

“You seem familiar.”

Baldirak felt the vibrations in the earth but couldn't react fast enough to take flight. He suddenly found himself surrounded by earthen pillars. Growling, he spat acid at the base of one and after it broke, used his tail to fell the rest with it. Furious, the EarthWing King looked around, looking for the EarthWing who would dare do such a thing to their King. Or perhaps it was a rogue of EarthWing blood. Either way... But then Baldirak detected the light footsteps of a human. He looked down and saw one emerging from the brush. He recognized it instantly and snarled, spitting acid at it. "You should know me, human. You were there, when your wretched kind destroyed my tribe. You kept me just a few inches from death the entire time I was held captive."

Soshi glared at the massive dragon, hiding her fear. She was the stronger one here. Not him. She had the upper hand. When he fired acid at her a pillar of water shot up, capturing the shot before the entire thing was thrown to the side. Wisps of flame seemed to lick the edges of the goddess's hood as she stopped, looking up at the giant.

"You act like you kind's hands are completely clean in this." The earth seemed to shoot up from under Soshi, allowing her to view Baldi directly in the eye. "And I have more strength now then when we last met."

The EarthWing snarled at the human's words. "EarthWings have done nothing to your kind that wasn't deserved! You stole eggs from our former King and Queen; we took back what was ours. You ambushed our city in the early morning and slaughtered us; we fought back to survive! You dare try to claim my kind is to blame? Your hands are stained with EarthWing blood, my blood! I'll kill every human I have to, to avenge those I lost, starting with you. No human is stronger than a Dragon."

Soshi glared from her earth column, annoyed by this Earthwing.

"And you dragons killed a human king, the one from the kingdom that organized the attack on you. Many will steal from human settlements. And lets not pretend this fighting is anything new. We've long feared your kind." As she said this, the goddess made a plume of fire, but instead of using it on Baldirak she formed it into a bird-like shape.

The Twilight King's snarling hadn't stopped with his last words. If anything, it got louder and to the point where the earth shuddered. Acid dripped from his teeth. As his eyes changed from pale blue to fire orange, wisps of smoke flowed from his nostrils. This human... the lies it spoke. If the deranged NightWing Tenebris had a human counterpart, this was it. Somehow, however, perhaps simply by being a human, it was even more infuriating.

Baldirak had coiled his tail around the earthen pillar before him while the human spoke. He tightened his grip on it now and felt it begin to crack. "And fear me you should, especially when you lie. The EarthWings never attacked you wretched creatures when it wasn't deserved. Your kind isn't worth the time it takes to plan a conquest. You dare to speak as though your actions are just. You condemned my tribe for a crime committed by a single dragon that doesn't even belong to the species you retaliated against. You didn't slaughter us to avenge your king, you did it because we were conveniently close to your little settlement and you're incapable of telling the difference between a snake and a mouse. How a species as stupid as yours has survived this long is beyond me." His words hadn't been shouted, be he did speak with an unsettling, hushed rage that, in the back of his, scared even himself a little.

At the sight of the bird, Baldirak shot a plume of fire, however he aimed right at the human.

Soshi simply lifted her hand at the fire, catching it and adding it to the mini-phoenix she'd formed. This dragon seemed stubborn. He was mad that she'd generalized dragons, then not a breath later he went about doing the same to humans. She shook her head, making the fiery bird rest on her shoulder.

"Oh. So dragons get to generalize humans, but humans can't generalize dragons? You must be so much better than humans at doing that then?" Sarcasm dripped from what she said like venom. "You seems like both humans and dragons refuse to acknowledge that there are distinctions. Sounds like we're more similar than you want to admit." She then proceeded to form a little lizard shape out of earth, letting the fire-made bird fizzle.

Soshi chuckled, as if Baldirak was somehow joking, but his last words hit her a little. Maybe he was right to an extent, but at the same time she felt like this Earthwing seemed to not be understanding at the same time.

'Maybe... maybe I'm not the most qualified, but I feel like you wouldn't accept any human saying such a thing. Even if they saved you or something." She rubbed the little earth lizard she just made, seeming to be quite good at the puppetry required to make the creature convincing. "At the same time though, you neglect that there are many differences in humans. Hair, skin, height, weight, what they usually wear. Though for a dragon of your size, I guess it's hard to see."

She then looked around, sighing a little. "Plus, you level these claims, but are you saying you would have acted differently if a human killed one of your leaders? Would you find the one group of humans responsible first, or just assume it was the closest? If you're saying dragons are so much better, then you'd obviously react differently."