Storms and Mountains [Nelthy]

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The sun had just passed its zenith, when Àlamei got to the western border of the Twilight Imperium. She had already spotted the Guard she was supposed to relieve sitting on the perch they had agreed upon as a meeting point. The tree line here was spotty, giving them enough view into the forest to spot any advance. Of course they were supposed to patrol the woods, but when waiting for their replacement, they always came out to the higher and more open plains.
Mei extended her wings to their full span to slow her descent before landing next to the other dragon, the stones crunching beneath her talons as she held onto the ledge.
"You're late." the other Firewing said, briefly looking at her with a little bit of annoyance in his eyes.
"Just because I'm not early, doesn't instantly mean I'm late. You're just grumpy because you had to take the morning shift." she nudged the bigger dragon with her shoulder, provoking a relenting but annoyed rumble from him. They knew each other, had served on many a mission together and they both knew he wasn't actually mad at her and that she was indeed correct in her accusation. "How's it been?" she asked joining him in looking down at the forest, her eyes scanning the tree tops for any unusual behavior or smoke, but everything seemed quiet and almost peaceful.
"Calm. Didn't spot nothin'. A couple smaller animals, one stag even, but no Monsters, Humans or Rogues whatsoever. Almost boring." Àlamei nodded. They had gotten information about a larger Monster settling down in this area and reinforced patrols here, but so far they hadn't spotted anything. Not even tracks. They would continue their search for a while, but so far it seemed like the info had just been a rumour after all.
The leathery skin of her wings rustled as she adjusted her position on the perch. "Anywhere you haven't been much today?" she continued her questions.
"Western side. Did mostly air patrol over there and didn't see anything, but haven't really been there on foot. Overlaps so much with the other posts, so I thought I'd leave it to you." The dragoness rolled her eyes at his laziness but nodded.
"Alright. I got it from here. Heard they found some new fishing spots, might wanna check that out." The dragon next to her instantly turned towards the dragoness, exhaling sharply. "You're saying that NOW. Should've started with that! Good luck not dying of boredom." And then he left. Mei waited until the sound of his wings flapping in the air was gone, before pushing off the ledge and climbing into the sky herself.

She flew a wide circle over the woods, arching back towards the much neglected western side and slowly set down to landing in a clearing between tall oak trees. A few rabbits fled the spot when they saw her shadow, but other than that the forest seemed undisturbed by her or any other presence.

Seeing the dragoness react to his silly jokes made him chuckle slightly. not wasting time he followed behind her carrying the firewood. He was pleasantly suprised to see that this cave contained a lake beautifully illuminated by glowing moss growing everywhere. "Should've explored this place sooner, it's quite nice." He said to Àlamei with a pleased tone as if a lot of worries have just flown away.

Neltharion walked closer towards the lake and inspected its waters. it seemed nice and clear, perfect for drinking and bathing. Putting a claw onto the ground he raised a small plateau big enough for two dragons and proceeded to place the firewood on there. "Nothing beats a nice and flat piece of ground" He said to the dragoness as he sat down on his little piece of raised ground. "Perhaps I should take a small bath as well..." He said, mostly asking the question to himself.

Getting back up from his plateau he strolled over to the edge of the waters and stepped into the shallows. As he took a step into the heated waters he instantly felled more at ease and relaxed. "This is truly wonderful, you should hurry up and join me" He said to the dragoness before slowly going deeper into the waters to enjoy it even more.

"We definitely should have." She agreed still standing at the entrance to the open lake. It was unexpected to see something like this down here, but honestly quite...beautiful. The dim hues of the moss cast a soft light on everything around and even the water looked inviting, which said a lot considering she thought this.

The Earthwing at her side seemed to be relaxing quite abit too and she watched him walk further into the cave. Scoffing at his take on earthy platforms, she was surprised to see him use earth manipulation. He seemed to be rather powerful for a hybrid, which was very good to know for the future. Neltharion also seemed to be incredibly mesmerized by the cave and when he suddenly invited her into the waters with him, she had to honestly laugh. The cave did have a rather romantic appeal to it.

"If I didn't have goo stuck to my scales, I would think that you are not very subtly flirting with me." She laughed, but did throw him an inviting glance. His relaxation and the warm steams had a big impact on her own mood and even though she hated water, she slowly moved into the warmth. He was right, it was nice and warm. She felt the goo loosening from her scales, wading deeper into the waters and slowly spreading her wings to their full width. She sighed contentedly.

Neltharion just smiled at the dragoness as she waded through the water. "Flirting? If that was my intention I would atleast make sure to bring some food for a nice dinner." He said to Àlamei, He started to inspect the looks of the dragoness a bit more. "Hmm, it may be a shame that I didn't bring along something to eat. You certainly look unique among the Firewing Tribe." He casually said to her before slowly growing a bit more of a mischievious grin on his maw. he thought of something fun he might be able to do. With a single sweep of his tail underwater he would send a wave of water towards Àlamei to splash he completely with water. "Sorry, it seems I couldn't keep my tail under control~" He said with obvious sarcasm as to toy with the dragoness a bit. He took another glance towards the ceilling and agreed with the dragoness that this may had some elements of romance mixed in. He was mostly impressed that such a hidden spring could exist at all in this area. It seems hidden suprises can be found anywhere in this world.

He turned his attention back to the dragoness narrowing his eyes onto her, expecting some sort of retaliation. If he had witnissed something today is that she could be fearless and ruthless. So in his mind he thought it would be very likely that she might try to do something back to him for the little prank he just performed earlier. Readying his every limb for anything, he awaited patiently.

She smiled to herself, putting her head under water for a second to wash off the remaining goo and diving a little bit towards the large Earthwing. She wasn't a particularly good swimmer, mostly because she didn't practice it too much and tried to stay away from water whenever possible, but it was passable enough to close a bit of distance between the two of them. She broke the surface much closer to him, shaking off the water from her head and smiling coyly, still keeping her wings spread to stay afloat easier. "What a shame you weren't better prepared."

She was just starting to enjoy herself again, when he splashed her with a giant wave of water. Panic surged through her for second, but she had herself under control enough to let anything of that slip out. Instead she shot him an angry glance, but immediately saw how he tensed up, getting ready for her inevitable revenge for this splash.
Calming herself, she changed her expression from angry to inviting. "Careful, or you might lose control over more things than just your tail." She said with an amused undertone, leaning back a little bit to put more distance between them.

What did she mean was the first thought that entered his mind as he carefully watched her every move. Even after thinking about it for just a moment he couldn't come up with a satisfying answer for himself. he relaxed himself just a tiny bit to not waste more mental energy for the inevitable revenge act. "What do you mean by...losing control over more things than just my tail?" He curiously asked the dragoness. Wondering whatever she could be up to, for now all he saw was that she backed away slowly. Did she need more distance for what she had to do? if that is the case all Neltharion needed to do was mover closer and so he proceeded to inch closer to her slowly "Whatever you are planning, I can assure you I can react to anything." This wasn't the truth however, he tried a bluff in this situation to see how insightful the dragoness can be and thus how much he needed to prepare for countermeasures.

While moving he noticed he was actually having quite a bit of fun with this dragoness. He didn't expect the first person he met could also be so entertaining to be around. It seems despite everything that has happened to him, he could atleast enjoy the small moments from time to time. This still wouldn't change the fact that he still had a lot of work that needed to be done to make everything better.

Àlamei laughed, letting herself sink onto her back, floating in the warm water, letting it sink into her skin and muscles. She could feel how the water slowly melted away the tension sitting in them after the fight with that monster. It was a very good thing after all that to have found this cave. Not only to get cleaned up again, but it apparently came with a good time as well. Who would have thought that a big, slightly entitled Earthwing landing in her patrol area would suddenly turn out to be actual fun.
She floated on her back for a few seconds, checking if he would say anything more, but he didn't so she glanced up at him, seeing that he indeed didn't seem to have a clue what she was talking about, to which she just chuckled again. This might turn out to be a lot of fun. She turned to him again, when he closed the distance, smiling in an openly flirtatious way but staying silent on his question.

Mei's smile grew more amused, when he assured her of being prepared for anything she might try to do to get revenge on him. "Oh really?" She asked ironically, lifting her tail out of the water to gently wrap it around the neck of the earthwing, closing quite some distance between them. "Anything?" she added almost innocently but with a spark in her eyes. She wanted to see how long it took for Neltharion to realize what she was actually doing.

Neltharion quietly watched as she seems to be having fun in the water. Perhaps the revenge action wouldn't be immediate but at a later date, he took a mental note that he should watch out while going to sleep. That is always a perfect time to strike if one wants to have payback. As the smaller dragoness moved towards him, Neltharion quickly tried to see if there was any hostile intent on the way she was moving...yet there was none, weird he thought for a moment. She must indeed be planning to strike when he was the most vulnerable.

He watched her put her tail around his neck, even then no hostile intent was being detected by Neltharion. Perhaps she sought to check him of his abilities, that must be it. He decided to do nothing and keep what he is capable a secret for now and just see what this cunning dragoness before him might be planning...it must be truly dastardly... "Of course, anything" He said without a shred of doubt. Though deep inside his brain keeps on thinking scenarios on what she might be thinking..yet nothing came to mind.

She could literally see how his brain was working, thinking through every scenario in this situation. It was a natural battle sense she was no stranger to either, but it was slightly displaced in this situation. For whatever reason Neltharion was not seeing at all what she was doing here, didn't even seem to guess her intent, but it was a lot of fun. Mei remembered that he had apparently been away for a while and she automatically wondered where he had been and what kind of life he had been leading there to not be able to detect the absolutely not subtle signs she was sending him. By now it wasn't even about actually winning him over anymore, but rather about how much she could disconcern him.

Slowly, she folded her wings on her back again, tilting her head in a very flirtatious way, even batting her lashes, while searching his eyes for any indication on how he might react. "And how exactly would you react to all of this?" While speaking she started moving her tail, drawing patterns without any meaning on his scales, moving even closer to him, until she could almost touch his chest with hers. By now even the most oblivious dragons would have understood what she was trying to get at, but it wasn't certain he would too.

The gears in his head just wouldn't stop turning, idea after idea being thought up but then being dismissed mere moments later. If you would stare deep into his eyes, his soul you could practically see each idea birthing before being destroyed just seconds later. With his experiences and traumatized mind no idea even neared the right answer of what the Dragoness was doing or even what her true motives are. It seems Neltharion had to rely on another bluff once again to get through this very moment. Normally he wouldn't mind pulling of bluffs as it could be used to gain more insight on the target..However right now his bluffs were used as a last resort since there was nothing he could predict. In the past he may have been able to pick up such blatant and obvious signs but his mind had long since overwritten such useless thought processes and put in place the instincts needed to survive even the most of brutal places. Needles thoughts were eliminated and only those that proved to aid in survival remained. It must've raken an individual or individuals quite some effort to bring him atleast just a little bit closer to normal. Right now that wasn't important though...Neltharion had to come up with a bluff. "By doing nothing of course, you may inspect me as long as you like. Doubt you'll find anything of use though." That was the best he could think of in the spur of the moment and he hoped that was enough.

The hybrid dragoness chuckled at seeing how confused
he was by her actions. It was easy to see through his bluff and calm demeanor to the constantly working battle sense in his head, searching for a reason and a motive behind her actions, even though he wouldn't find one. At least not one remotely close to what he was expecting.
"Inspect you?" She mused, closing the distance between them fully and smiling. It was time to confuse him fully and then get out of the water. Even though it was warm and kind of relaxing, she was still not very fond of spending more time than absolutely necessary in here.
Slowly she moved her head up to his, grazing his scales in a, to other dragons, more than enticing way, nuzzling up to him until her maw was right beside his ear. "But I already found out everything i needed to know." she whispered, her head so close to his that he could surely feel the smile on her draconic lips.
Surely that would send his head spinning in all kinds of directions, none coming even close to an actual answer since she had nothing aggressive about her right now. She wasn't threatening or imposing. Mei wondered a little bit about what had happened to him that he didn't recognize what she was doing.

Neltharion kept a watchful eye as the dragoness moved her head close to his and whispered that one particular phrase. Instant panic and wanring signs went off in his head with only one question. "How!?" Was the first thought that entered his mind. There was no way she could find out so much despite him doing his hardest to show nothing off right now. Perhaps it was just a bluff she thought up to throw him off track..no, she seems too confident and he could just easily tell that she had something that he didn't know. Steeling his resolve he tried the most logical move of avoiding the topic all together. "Whatever, I'll just get a fire going" He said with a tone that implied there were more important things to be done here..yet, that wasn't the case. He needed to buy himself some time to analyze the situation and plan ahead. The large dragon quickly turned away from her and back onto dry land towards the stash of fire, which he promptly set on fire with a puff of fire. "You're more than welcome to use it...it's your wood after all." He said to the dragoness without any hidden meaning behind it for this once.

It was very good to know that retreat was his answer to being cornered. Mei smiled broadly when he brought distance in between them again and headed for the plateau with the fire wood. For just a second she let herself sink back into the warm embrace of the lake, sinking beneath its surface and blowing a few bubbles of hidden laughter. She had never met a dragon so absolutely oblivious to flirting, usually it was quite easy for to engage males in a flirtatious game, which may or may not lead to success, but since Neltharion didn't even seem to recognize her actions, any hidden clues and words with double meaning were lost on him.

She broke the surface again, smile still on her lips, and made for the little island as well. The large Earthwing and gotten a fire going, to which she gladly took. Gracefully she laid down, head on her paws and wings spread out to help them dry much faster, as she watched the Earthwing with a spark of interest in her eyes.
"Retreat is your answer to being outmatched." she stated without sounding condescending. "Good to know." The dragoness had left her advances in the water, remaining on her side of the fire and without any flirtatious sparks in her eyes. She had properly confused Neltharion and was fully content with the extent of it. No reason to push it.

The large dragon called Neltharion just stared at the dragoness who was on the opposite side of the fire he just made. A tiny tad confused as her attiude compared to before has changed completely. "Outmatched? Hardly..I've faced much worse, compared to the likes of you." He said with his usual tone full of confidence of pride, though it was mostly used to hide his wariness as usual. That doesn't change the fact that he had actually faced worse things, much worse. "Atleast, you've ceased trying to look into me more." He said slightly relieved, atleast he could stay partly calm right now. He knew he still had to stay wary for when he was going to sleep but that could easily be resolved by not sleeping at all.

After warming up around the fire he wanted to ask the dragoness something. "So, why did you become a guardian?" It was quite simple question, he was bored is all and with asking a question perhaps the dragoness would ask him something in return to slightly alleviate his boredom that he was feeling. Good thing the cave provided a beautiful sight, It's so much better than the gloomy and dreadful locations from a certain place he was stuck at. Since there is nothing to do at all, all alone with someone else he just decided to keep it at questions as he gazed into the fire a bit.

The hybrid dragoness and slowly closed her eyes, letting the heat of the flames lap away the water on the scales. It was almost comfortable, inviting enough to just let herself doze off or maybe daydream for a little bit, but Àlamei was rarely the type to let herself doze off and just think. She had never had time to do such a thing and found it quite useless, now that she sometimes had the time and the calmness to do so.
Still, her tail lazily swung through the calm waters, rippling them a little bit, as she cracked open one eye to look at the larger dragon.
"And yet you decided to retreat, when you had no idea how to deal with me." She called his bluffs from before, a lazy, confident smile spreading on her lips. "I know someone way out of their territory when I see them." The larger Earthwing probably wouldn't admit, that she had held the upper hand right there and had properly pushed him out of his comfort zone. It wasn't really a meaningful victory, especially since she hadn't tried to fight him, but it had been very insightful.
"And who says such a thing?" she asked, opening both eyes to look at him roguishly and unsettle him a little bit more. It wasn't a complete lie, but she wasn't trying to find out more about him due to some alterior motif. By now it was just friendly conversation she was looking forward to. Neltharion apparently shared her desire for that.

The dragoness lifted her head to properly be able to look at him across the fire, tilting her head just a few seconds, then shrugged. "My father was a guardian." she explained. "Pretty much no easier job to take, when you grow up with two pretty mean step brothers." Since she had learned to fight very early on, the guard quickly took to her and she had liked it there. Sometimes, as a hatchling, she had watched her father and the other guardians train and had been mesmerized ever since.
"And what about you? What place did you vacation at, that made you lose all sense of social interaction?" she asked jokingly with a crooked smile to figure out what had been a question in her head for some while now.

The large lizard Nelthy took note of her tail slowly swaying in the water, he could atleast think of one contigency plan now if something were to happen. Turning back to the dragoness he looked into her eye for a second and just scoffs in return from her comment. "Even foreign territory won't stop me." A statement he said without any ounce of hesistation. It seems Neltharion has decided to stop with the bluffs for now as they served no purpose anymore. The large dragon kept listening to her. "Cause your demeanor has changed very much. I'm not oblivious y'know...I pick up on many things." He exclaimed confidently, while it may have been the truth that he can pick upon many things...there are some subjects where even the most oblivious of dragons could pick up on it...yet, Neltharion cannot. And he stared back into her eyes as she gazed into his. "A half-baked stare like that won't bring you anywhere." He casualy said to her, keeping his resolve.

Neltharion thought to himself that becoming a guardian would've been natural, given her answer. The oblivious dragon did pick up that the description was just a tiny bit vague, but that didn't have to be very intentional. Not everyone has to speak their heart out when you first meet someone, so in return he decided to give a vague answer back that would increase the interest in the subject more. "Well, I can give you the short or long answer...I'll give you the short one now" How this was going it may seem like the story of his name again where it had an anti-climatic ending. "Hell." He said that one little word. One word that seems so very simple, carried so much weight in his voice. All his experiences, all the horrors, compressed. Into. That. Tiny. Word. If one looked closely, they might even see the pupils of his eyes just slitting a tiny bit, as if a feral beast was locked behind them.

She laughed, a quiet chuckle deep from her belly, that was neither insulting nor arrogant, just amused. The battle sense was very strong with this one, so strong that he didn't seem to have any sense for things outside of the battle. Just the fact that he spoke of being unstoppable, was evidence to his complete unawareness of the situation.
"Clearly." Her tone was pretty much overflowing with sarcasm, the single word questioning his whole response. For a second she mused about whether she should tell him, that this was no battlefield and no fight of the kind he seemed to be used to. Leisurely she pulled her tail out of the water, curling it around herself and smiling at the dragon.
"My demeanor is exactly what gives me so much insight." she rebottled, smile growing when he commented on her look, clearly bothered by it.

Tilting her head a bit more she waited for his explanation, wondering if it was going to be a similar story like that of his name, but apparently it wasn't.
Somehow she wasn't as impressed as he might have thought she would be. She could feel the emotions lying behind that singular word, she saw how much passion and how many feeling were behind it, she even noticed his eyes changing, but she wasn't impressed. Maybe because she didn't understand what exactly he meant, maybe because she just really wasn't impressed, but she didn't mean to be rude about it.
"You're going to have to elaborate on that." she said, her voice even and devoid of any critique. "We've all lived through one hell or the other." Her included, most of the guardians had some sort of tragic backstory, they all had their own personal hell.

Neltharion watched Àlamei pull out her tail from the water and just like that, he lost is contigency plan. After seeing and hearing her response he just chuckled a bit and just shook his head. Taking a deep breath to calm himself and to not let his old instincts take over and so he began to speak. "It seems I forgot to mention I was being literal...Have you ever wondered where a portal leads to? Cause I can tell you all about a place where it could lead you, if you so desired." He asked the dragoness, truth be told...that place still haunted him sometimes. No dragon that is in their right mind would visit such a place and come out perfectly sane. Then add the two other mass slaughter parties and you get the perfect recipe for mental illness.

He took another look at the glowing cave and the spring water, just being glad that he could witness such sights again after those couple years of hardship. "Atleast I can appreciate some of the little things now...despite the world probably heading into ruin." He said to her without removing his gaze from the beautiful sight before him. As things were going now, he honestly thought there might be a possibility for everything to go to ruin. For now he had to wait and see, perhaps he could make that particular path of destiny disappear.

Fine, now he had her interest peaked and had acquired a somewhat useful listener. She looked into his eyes, at least for the time she could, searching through them to make sure he wasn't telling her a ficticious story and was trying to make fun of her, but he seemed to be entirely truthful, which made her frown.
Àlamei had never truly wondered where the portals lead, it wasn't important to her, nor did it wake her interest. She was more concerned with fighting what came out of them and trying to finally close them. She was pretty much only concerned with what was, not what could be. One of her many more suitable traits.

But now she was wondering what happened, when you fell into a portal and where it lead to. "You were swallowed by a portal?" she asked to clarify, still frowning. There had been a couple stories of dragons who vanished in the portals, but none of them had ever returned. And to be honest, she had thought them stories to keep the hatchlings away from dangerous, monster spewing things.
"For how long?" Her voice had lost its chuckle, for now she was being rather serious, listening to a war story, instead of a good night's tale.

Neltharion nodded for just a second to her first question. He was indeed swallowed by a portal some time ago and it wasn't a fun experience. Awaiting her second question he listened to her. He had to think about that for a moment. "Here, I was gone for around..two years." He said to her, but he had no clue how long the time was that he spent at the other side was. "However, it may have been longer for me. I have no clue how time works there and I didn't really have a sense of time then." He followed up on his answer from earlier.

He started to recall some of the memories from that place where everyday it was basically a fight for survival almost 24/7. Of course he got some rest off here and there. "So anything else you want to know?" He asked the dragoness, not minding telling more about his experiences. That way atleast someone knew they had to avoid the portals.

It had never occured to her that time might pass differently in other places. Then again things outside of her work and priorities rarely occured to her. Especially such abstract thoughts, for which you'd probably have to be a scholar to actually care and fantasize about. Which didn't mean she thought less of Neltharion's past experience, just that she prbably didn't find the question of 'How' as interesting. She did resepct him for having come back.

"How did you make it back?" She asked, when the thought occured. If it had been literal hell there, getting back probably hadn't been easy, neither would surviving have been. She could only vaguely imagine what he had gone through and what that place was like, mostly bc he hadn't told her about it and her thoughts of hell had nothing much to do with actual fighting. "And what happened there?" She added, gazing over the Earthwing with surprisingly few scars covering his scales.

The lizard pondered to himself for a moment to see how he should answer the question. It wasn't easy to escape such a terrible place, even more so alone. He needed to take some time to see how he'll answer that one question. Same could be said about her second question. Neltharion followed her gaze towards he metallic scales and how few scars there were on there. "I see you may have noticed that I lack many scars." He said to her raising a paw of his. "I may be a big target but, I am also a faraway target. I told you I specialize in long range and then I mean, I really specialize in long range." He emphasized that one particular word in his sentence. After all, almost all of his abilities are most suited at long range.

Turning back to her previous question about Hell itself and deciding to answer the second question first, since he didn't have to tell an entire story about it. Just a mere description of the place itself. "Hmm, I guess I can best describe it as chaos. Not two places are the same...Sometimes the temperature can change from intense heat to intense cold. The very land you walk upon filled with toxin and corruption, the air of death covering everything. The sky an always a blood red. With the sun stuck in everlasting eclipse, the fire of the sun creeping just creeping around the edges." He described the general appearance of the dimension he was stuck in a normal tone, making sure that it doesn't seem that he was bragging and conveying the feeling of Hell as accurate as he can.

Neltharion pondered to himself for a second on where to start this story. Recalling from memory he decided to start from just before everything went down. "So, I was out hunting for food and would go out to find anything edible..from the horrible things that exist in there.." He said looking just a tiny bit disgusted as he remembered the creatures that existed in Hell. "There is so much to find there, creatures with eyes everywhere, Literal eyes with wings that fly about, Salamandes with many legs." While giving an entire list of creatures found in hell the large dragon stood up and started to pace around the fire and dragoness unintentionally. "Hmm, I believe I saw a creature with blades for limbs, which was pretty freaky and it had like ten limbs...So in short, We have all kinds of weird things there. Ranging from, stabber, slashers, punchers, kickers, fire breathers.." Neltharion puffed out a little bit of fire after saying that one. "Oh..can't forget about the chompers." He said quickly afterwards he snaps his head towards the dragoness and bites the air in right front of her nose. "I may have gotten a bit of track." The large dragon exclaimed.

The dragoness didn't flinch when his jaws snapped shut right in front her snout. She did, reflexively, expose her fangs with a deep growl though. Such a threat display automatically snapped her into a fighting mode, her muscles tensing, preparing to lunge at the new found foe, but she controlled herself, forcibly relaxing muscle after muscle, until she sat in almost complete relaxation again. She did, however keep a close eye on the Earthwing. Not out of fear of an actual attack, but because talking about that place seemed to unravel him. She didn't know how sane he still was, a insane dragons were always a potential threat.
"A tad." she responded to his exclamation in a calm manner, looking at him pacing around the fire, until he got close enough for her to reach out and catch his chest with her tail. It was no grip, really, just a tiny barrier to catch his attention and stop him from pacing.
"How did you get out?" she repeated her question, trying to focus his thoughts on his survival instead of the monsters in that other dimension. Maybe it would help him focus more on the here and now.

The large dragon started to laugh a bit, this might've been the first time he got a major reaction out of her. She might ot have flinched as he liked but, it was good enough for the large lizard Nelthy. "Made you react atleast, I'll count that as a point for me~" Neltharion said in jovial manner to the dragoness. After looking at the tail that was blocking his way, he decided that it might be a good idea to just sit down and thus he did, a bit closer to the dragoness than his original position.

Getting comfortable on the ground he started up his story. "So, I was on a hunting trip when I saw some monsters together and they seem to be doing some sort of magic. I may have been unable to think, but my instincts knew it was a way out. Guess I must've somehow remembered how the magic of a portal felt. So I quickly set up an ambush from far away and waited for the portal to be opened. The moment it did I blasted those poor miserable monsters to ash." He told that part of the story with a slight smile on his face. He did like the extermination of monsters after all. "As I saw them reduced to ash, I deemed it to be safe and went over to the portal...but then..." He followed up upon with a more suspenseful tone and stopping the story for just a tiny bit to look at the dragoness and see how well the suspense was working.

Her growl took on a much deeper tone, emphasizing on the vibration in it, so it didn't sound as threatening anymore but definitely conveyed her aggravation. Jokingly almost biting her was a safe way to get bitten themselves, and since Nelthation had seen how she had ripped heads off that monster he should know better.
"So we're keeping track of points now?" she asked, not completely able to hide her amusement. "If that's so you'll definitely need to do much more than just make me growl to get ahead of me." After all she had caused him to retreat after confusing him as much as possible. Definitely worth more points than simple air biting. She didn't even flinch after all.

She listened to his story, but when he paused for another one of his suspenseful breaks, she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. "You do that too much." She commented while he was still quiet for a second, but listened on to find out what happened when he got to the portal. From his describtion of that place, an escape probably wouldn't be as 'easy' as blasting a couple monsters in a feeding frenzy and slipping out. There usually was a catch when things were going too smoothly.
It was a scary thouht to know though, that apparently Monsters in other realms were able to use magic in a much more efficient way than dragons did. Magic here was already dangerous enough, nothing she really wanted to dabble in, but if Monsters were able to use it, it could lead to even worse outcomes. She hoped those things didn't manage to turn up on Pyyria.

Neltharion just smiled smugly at the dragoness. "Of course we are going to track points now, after all. I want to know the exact moment when I get my full payback." He responded to Àlamei just keeping his smile "You have nothing to worry about, I can think up many devious plans." Nelthy said as he started to think about various ways to get some more payback, perhaps just a simple bucket of water would work. For now he still needed to think about what would be perfect for the payback. "Anyway, let's get back to the story, shall we?" He asked insincerely, since he was just going to continue his story anyway.

After he said that, he started again from where he stopped. "As I closely approached the portal, the ground rumbled and shook heavily. Heavily enough to even shake a giant like me. At that moment something truly enormous burrowed out from beneath the ground, it was so large it even dwarfed me. It had the look of a giant hellish centipede in dark colors. For something that large you wouldn't expect it to be fast, but it was..it hit me very fast and hard after all. Believe i broke a few ribs as well...Anyway, from there a huge fight broke out where I really got my butt kicked. I received, slashing, piercing and bludgeoning wounds all over. So I had to cheat a little and give it my literal all. I awaited the perfect moment where it was charging at me, it's gaping maw facing me. I put everything into one blast and shot it straight into its maw and blew it up from the inside. Using the last of my energy I escaped Hell...Into Starlight territory and there I met a lovely healer, she is probably the reason why you don't see that many scars." And thus the story of Hell and how Neltharion got out was finally told to Àlamei. Relaxing himself even more and laying down next to the fire.