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.

Instead of saying anything about the tired remark, he just decided to close his eyes a bit, just resting his eyes of course. No way he was trying to sleep at all. "For once, I won't argue that" just letting out a puff of air as he gets more comfortable with the combined heat of the fire and a nestled in dragoness. At the break of dawn the storm should've passed and he could make his way back to the capital. From there he had no idea on what to do, perhaps become a scholar. He had enough of constant fights for a while and wanted something a bit more...grounded. This didn't mean he wouldn't mind going out from time to time. Cause now he was in control of most situation and not at the mercy of many dangerous beings.

Neltharion just opened his eye slightly to gaze at the dragoness making a comment about waking up in in the pool. "As long as you don't do anything, I won't do anything." Was all he said before closing his eye again. Feeling the pull of sleep draw him closer. Soon he would enter dreamland...or nightmareland. It is yet to be seen for this dragon. Fate shall roll its dice and see which of the two the slightly traumatized dragon would get.

The dragoness woke up to an unfamiliar warmth coating her. For a second she had forgotten where she was and with whom. She couldn't remember having seduced another dragon and sleeping at their home, because this clearly wasn't her bed. Slowly she opened her eyes, surprised to find a huge Earthwing next to her, one she hadn't seen before, yet the dragoness didn't feel alarmed. She wouldn't have gone to sleep here if it wasn't safe.
Slowly her head caught up with what was happening, whispering the events from the last day into her ears and she remembered the big bulk next to her, recognizing him as Neltharion, the dragon that had thrown her into the water yesterday. Quickly she weighed the options of doing the same again to him now, as he seemed to be still asleep, but decided not to. They had come to the agreement of not doing anything to each other after all, so she honored it. For the moment.
The dragoness didn't move away or turned over, she just let herself awaken slowly, revisiting the events of the last day and slowly regaining more and more consciousness. Enough to start planning ahead for this day. It sounded like the storm had passed, so they would most likely make their way back to the capital. The question was to whom she should bring him? A Guardian? Or maybe the King himself? Getting a higher ranked Guardian to deliver him to the King was probably the safest option, especially since she still had to report on the killed monster. It was settled then.
Slowly she started moving her wings, stretching the muscles after their rest, getting herself ready to get up, when the Earthwing awoke too.

After having a long and tired day behind him, you would expect that some well deserved rest is what the large dragon would get, but alas...Fate has rolled its dice and rolled poorly for dear Neltharion. He dreamed of being back in Hell, with all of the monstrosities that can be found there as well...Especially that giant centipede that dwarfs even him, a dragon you could call a titan amongst titans. The large dragoen's eyes quickly shot open with his pupils in a full slit. Gazing around the room in confusion and perhaps even some slight distress that can be caught in his eyes. His mind has yet to convey the message that it was all a dream. One could probably guess this was pretty close to the mental state Neltharion had when he was still residing in one of the worst dimensions around. A mental state that has been buried deep with quite some help from others, that sometimes resuraced when experiences a bad dream. Atleast he lost the habit of blasting anything in sight, since that usually ends in disaster...one way or another.

The Guardian felt her companion waking, yet it didn't seem to be from a good night's rest. She could feel the sudden movements shaking through his enormous body and when he opened his eyes, they were the slits of a hunter in full on survival mode. Confused she watched him a split second, until it dawned on her that a trip to hell probably didn't leave you without nightmares. Àlamei had no idea how to deal with someone having Nightmares, however her instinct told her to be wary and ready to dodge an attack that might come her way. Unintentionally by him probably, but no one could truly fight their instincts in a battle.
Carefully she moved beneath his wing, getting her legs beneath her to have more movement in case she needed to make a quick exit. Softly she touched his chest with her paw, calling his attention to her as she tried to give him a calming gaze.
"Neltharion, hey." She said softly avoiding every tone that could somehow be understood as a threat, trying her best to be a calm influence, but pretty much feeling like a big dummy.

Being in basically stuck in a fight or flight response, means that no sentient thought could be formed at the moment and that he was acting on pure instinct. Good thing that instinct didn't say to blast anything that moves, but analyze everything first. The large dragon merely stayed put as he sensed something touch his chest and call out to him, One thing a dragon could never forget no matter what was their name. He instinctively gazed at the dragoness near his side. She didn't seem hostile at all...But, that didn't matter in Hell at all, yet she knew his name. For now his instincts told him, to just keep watch and so with his glowing red slitted eyes he kept his gaze locked onto the dragoness. Unmoving himself, merely watching what the dragoness might do...

Okay, so she did have his attention now, but where to go next? Àlamei was a trained and skilled fighter, she was not, however, trained in dealing with traumatized dragons or calming them down. Usually when something looked at her like that she was about to attack and kill them. She couldn't do that with Neltharion, so what should she do?
She had never been the most empathic dragon, didn't even know how to deal with crying, so how was she even supposed to deal with this? Guess she just had to try and hope she wouldn't get blasted.
"You don't rememeber me, Im guessing." She said, talking more to herself than him, but keeping the calm and steady tone of voice. "You're okay. You're safe here." She tried to say since that came to her mind first, not really knowing if it actually helped in any way.
"It's me, Àlamei." she continued, trying to spark his memory.

Neltharion kept his unbreaking gaze upon her, his glowing eyes staring deep into her soul. Just after she said something did he move his head ever closer to the dragoness. The Large dragon's head was not right in front of her face, he probably didn't even blink once during this whole ordeal. Neltharion breathed in a bit before letting the air out of his nostrils. Just at the moment where it may seem where the situation couldn't change, did he do something. Out of nowhere he just closed his eyes and put his head on the ground, not quite asleep. It seems more like some sort of meditation for him. He did seem very calm and relaxed now, compared to earlier where every fiber of his body just seemed on edge. It seems that the min recognized that there was no danger to be had here.

After about a minute or so, did the dragon's eyes open up again and he immediatly opened his maw open wide, what might seem like an attempt to blast the first thing in sight..but was in reality but a mere yawn. His normal eyes focussing back on the dragoness. "...Why are you so close to my face? Are you planning something?" The large dragon said, looking at Àlamei as if she was acting very suspicious. Neltharion really did have no idea what transpired a few moments ago and it's pretty doubtful that he would ever remember what transpired.

Every fiber in her being wanted to crouch down and expose her teeth to him, ready to defend herself from the larger dragon, but she fought down this reflex as well as she could, knowing this wasn't truly the dragon she had met the day before. Something was wrong with him, possibly a traumatic episode of some sort, but definitely nothing that would excuse her attacking him, so she tried to stay calm and just return his gaze, while he was moving ever closer to her face.
It took pretty much all she had not to fall into a defensive pose, but she managed, even holding her breath until the Earthwing suddenly closed his eyes and let his head sink down, looking like he just fell asleep again. Mei let out a careful but confused sigh, letting go of the breath she had been holding and started breathing normally again.

Carefully she bent down to inspect Neltharion, fully prepared to jump out of the way in case he made any sudden movements, but he only opened his eyes. Seeing as they weren't slitted anymore she decided to stay put but wary.
"Are you kidding me?" she huffed and went backwards a little bit to put more distance between them. She looked rather offended at the question, naturally since he had literally looked like he was trying to eat her. "I should be the one asking you that question!"

Neltharion merely huffed in response as well, to him it seemed that he just woke up and the dragoness was right in front of his face and considering how she acted before, it was only natural to accuse her of something. “Asking me that question? Why in the nine hells should you be asking that question? What could I possibly have....” He suddenly fell silent as he recalled that he had a tendency to...relapse to his old self. He quickly moved his eyes across the cave walls and ceilling, to see if there were any blast marks on them. When he found none, he quicky inspected the dragoness for anything that might have to do with blast wounds. When he found nothing at all he just sighed in relief. “Seems like I didn’t have an explosive morning, they are pretty rare now compared to when I just got out of that Hellhole.” Atleast with his condition he couldn’t remember the nightmares, which is kinda helpful. “Oh, sorry if I worried you for a moment.” The large dragon said afterwards in what seems to be a genuine tone.

She looked at him in a 'Aha!' kind of way, when he suddenly fell silent while trying to argue with her, but then she saw the worry in his eyes as he started scanning the ceiling and afterwards her. She smiled apologetically when he was analyzing her, softly shaking her head to tell him, he hadn't hit her or anything else for that matter.
Mei laid back down facing him and looked at him questioningly. "So this happens to you often?" she asked genuinely curious about what had happened and whether he had episodes like this many times. Maybe next time she could be better prepared, now that she at least knew what she was dealing with. She couldn't imagine waking up in such a state, although he didn't seem to remember much from it. The dragoness had never had nightmares, although she had lived through a couple things nightmare-worthy her sleep tended to be completely void of dreams. Good or bad.

The large dragon shook his head, these....episodes, as the dragoness weren't quite common. Neltharion just had his usual luck and it happened when he was with someone he just met. Atleast it isn't someone who gets frightened easily...Does the Àlamei even get frightened of something? He quickly adds a new mental note "Find out if Àlamei has fears." He thought to himself, atleast he knows that she doesn't like water all too much, so perhaps that is the base for something. For now it was of no use to ponder too much about this and just get back to topic. "I wouldn't say often, sometimes I just have a very...nasty dream." He paused slighty as to quickly think up another word than nightmare. He prefers not to use that word as it makes the situation sound even worse. Though it can be argued that different wording might not change the impact of it all.

Neltharion took a quick look around the cave again, it was still dark as usual. The moss gave it a nice atmospheric light though, he would never admit but, the earthwing citizen actually quite likes places that are atmposheric...Even if it means that the atmosphere comes from dangerous situation, such as storms. Speaking of storms, This heavy storm might be finally over and thus he decided to qo and have a quick look. As he started walking, he forgot for just a moment that he was not alone and perhaps she wanted to out of the cave as well. "Oh almost forgot, want to go out with me?" Being the unknowningly oblivious dragon, he had no clue what other meaning those words in a very specific order had. Due to it being a serious request to move outside the cave, one cannot even see any deceptions in this one question. Neither would any of his 'evil' aura be around him, of course with evil, teasing is meant. The combination of those two things make it very hard to respond properly to that simple question of his.

Àlamei nodded, as if she understood this predicament. She didn't. She was just trying to be somewhat supportive and the only way she could think of how, was by feigning sympathy for this subject, just as if she was plagued by these things as well. She wasn't, but she did know a couple guardians or even veterans, that were plagued by nightmares and nightterrors, that would sometimes stay up days on end just so they didn't have to sleep. Her father had been one of those dragons. Unfortunately he had always taken to using her as a distraction from sleep. Inside, she shuddered, turning away from the thought and remindind herself, that he was dead. He couldn't do anything anymore.

Lost in these thoughts, she hadn't noticed the way Neltharion had started looking through the cave. Only when he got up to trot towards the entrance of the cave was she startled out of her own head and only followed him with her eyes for a second, until her head had caught up with reality. Yes, leaving would be a good idea.
She was about to catch up to him, when he turned around to ask her such an innocent question, that stopped her in her tracks again. The dragoness blinked, confused. Then she looked at him very suspiciously. He didn't really mean what she thought he meant, did he? Mei had to mull over the possibility of him knowing, or rather not knowing, what those words exactly meant, lastly came to the conclusion, that it was unlikely Neltharion knew what those words meant on a more interpersonal level. Yet, she wasn't completely sure and had to ask, while catching up to him.
"You're asking me to join you in going outside, right?" suspiciously she eyed him from the side, when got closer again.

Neltharion just looked at the dragoness for a bit. Meanwhile in his head he thought it was kind of obvious on what he had said. What else could “Want to go out with me” possibly mean. For this dragon the only meaning it has is literally going out of a cave or building. Unbeknownst to him, it has another more common meaning as well. However, in not knowing the other meaning Nelthy might give a wrong answer once again. Sometimes it is just truly baffling how oblivious one can be. “Should be obvious what I meant.” And that was the final answer the large Earthwing gave to her. “So, what will it be?” He once again asked to recieve an answer to his totally not oblivious question.

The large lizard looked at Àlamei for a bit, waiting for answer before turning his attention to the cave once again. With one thing in mind, that someday in the future he’ll visit the place again. Who wouldn’t want a nice hidden spring where you can enjoy yourself in after all. Might also be nice to show it to other people as well, the people that he liked of course. That list remains quite small though at this very moment.

Wow, that answer was absolutely not helpful at all. The hybrid dragoness was still incredibly confused whether he was being serious or if this was just another extent of his absolute oblivity. Álamei threw a very suspicious glance at him, slightly ducking to get a better angle for her look, just as she stopped next to the large dragon. From here she could hear the silence outside of the cave mound. The rain had apparently stopped, the storm had passed, so it was save again to fly. Maybe they would find her replacement for the next shift already waiting, when they made for the safe zone and current capital of the Imperium. That was, if she was able to determine an answer for his question.

"I guess..." she ventured into a small risk. She had come to the conclusion that he was indeed too oblivious to actually know what this phrase meant in a more inter-dragon context. Even if he knew what it meant, it wouldn't be too bad of a thing to go out with him. After last night it might even be fun and nobody said she had to do it again.
His contemplating gaze drew her towards the sight of the cave as well. It was quite beautiful to look at, even quite relaxing for a while, but she wasn't sure if she would come back so soon, after all she wasn't fond of large masses of water. This lake wasn't too bad, but uncomfortable enough to her. Maybe one day she would come back.

Neltharion smiles a bit at Àlamei before answering with just a simple "Great." And with that he turned away from the dragoness and proceeded to walk down the cave back to the outside world. With there being no stormy sounds it seems that it is once again safe for travel outside. After walking for a couple minutes the rays of the sun entereing the cave can be seen ahead. "Wonderful, it appears we even have good weather." He said to the dragoness as he saw the light from the sun. The large dragon continued his walk to the outside of the cave, keeping his head high to enjoy the immediate moment of feeling the heat of the glorious sun.

Basking in the sunlight the large dragon unfurled his large wings, soaking up more of the heat. "How nice an underground hotspring might be, the sun is a totally different feeling." Neltharion stated to the nearby Firewing. He looks around a bit, looking at the flora and sometimes at the sky. His focus is not on those however, right now some thoughts are going through his mind. Like this would be the time that they seperated and the both of them would do their own things. Nelthy had no clue what he wanted to do, so for now he decided to just take a job with minial physical labour. Scholar seems like an excellent choice then. "Soooo, where would I be able to find you most of the time?" he asked the dragoness hoping that this wouldn't be their last encounter. partly cause of the small game with points. He asked that question at this moment since both of them would go their seperate ways soon enough.

Apparently he did mean just walking outside with him and a little bit of relief flooded through the dragoness upon not having stumbled into an involuntary date. He honestly would have gotten her with that, she wouldn't even have expected him to be so cunning after him being so oblivious all last night. It wouldn't have been bad to actually go out with him, but she would have liked to be less confused about the invitation, that way she could have maybe planned a bit better ahead.

For now she was just relieved and followed him outside, although she couldn't see the mound of the cave and the apparent sunrays that were there according to the large Earthwing. Neltharions form was blocking the whole cave, but she didn't hear the howling wind anymore, so she just took his word for the sun being up as well. Only when he left the cave and she followed, did she feel the rays on her scales. The sudden light blinded her for a second until her eyes adapted, but the feeling of warm sunshine was very nice. She shook her wings a little bit, spreading them just as the Earthwing did, to soak up a bit more of the warm light, before folding them up again and starting to walk around in order to loosen her muscles.

She would have to make her way back to the guard soon enough to report on what happened with the monster, so it would be good to get ready. "Out here on patrol, although you'd probably have to be lucky to stumble upon the right spot. Otherwise just keep an eye out for on the training grounds, or you could just try to figure out where I live and visit me there." She smiled challengingly at Neltharion. Maybe he would actually figure out where she lived, it definitely wouldn't be a bad thing to get a surprise visit from the large lizard.

"But what are you gonna do? It's kind of my job as guardian to deliver you wherever you need to go right now."