A strange vistor (Naaz and Cailin)

Naaz

Naaz

I'm the goddamn hero
The Aleran triangle, as it was called, was a most peculiar landform. On one side, there was the sea, a vast expanse of ocean, home to many monstrous creatures and fearful ships. On another side, a desert, a scorched earth, some depraved gods idea of fun. And onto he third side, a forest. The Aleran forest, as it was known, was a vast expanse of green bordering the sea, a carpet of trees that expanded over the world for many thousands of miles, occupying so much space that it was entirely possible to live ones life in the forest, and never truly see anything but the green leaves and brown bark. That being said, it was known to be the favourite hiding of raiders, should would retreat far enough into the forest to dissuade any sort of law enforcement, but not far enough that they couldn’t re-emerge and steal more stock from a trading caravan making its slow way through the desert.

A few miles in the forest, a ways of the beaten desert road used by traders and travellers, there lay a strange clearing. It was devoid of trees, and there seemed to be no plants either, none of the weeds that usually accompanied the ground. No animals had made a home in this clearing, and no there were no signs of people having made a camp. The only thing that lay in the clearing was a boulder, a boulder the size of a small house, covered in moss and leaves and dirt. It wasn’t particularly high, but was considerably long, seeming to taper off at one end. Clearly, this boulder had been chiselled at at the very least, for nature could not produce such a curious item.

For a few moments, the forest lay silent, the sort of silent where it is obvious that something is going to happen, but only the birds know it. A few more moments, and then there was a cracking sound, and the boulder heaved out the ground, the durst and moss falling from it to reveal a brilliant black surface, a material that seemed to absorb the light, to snatch it out of the air.

Silukar looked around him, the great fog of hibernation still clouding his mind. He tried to remember what he was doing, why he was here.... them. They had sent him here, banished him from his home plane, cast him from his hunting ground, and for what reason? For not obeying their ignorant rules... anger settled, and his long tail whipped around behind him, causing a tree to crash downwards.

He was a dragon. You didn’t banish dragons.... you feared them, you ran from them, you pleaded with them. He would find his way back, and slaughter them all... but for now, he was hungry. He hadn’t eaten in hundreds of years, long enough to let this forest regrow after the destruction his inter-planer travel would have caused, and he could smell.... something.... something new...

The wyrm cast it’s eyes around, shook it’d head violently to clear the fog, and stalked after this new smell.
 
A small brown form brushed past ancient tree trunks as it fled from its pursuer. The young rabbit, plump from spring, stopped and twitched its nose once, swiveling its ears around 180-degrees before scurrying into the heather.

Not far behind, a feline creature observes her prey's movements and steadily but silently trots through the tall grass, masking her scent in the dusty-smelling flora. Her proud green eyes focus on a movement not more than a few steps away, and suddenly she catches a flash of a white bobbing tail. She doesn't hesitate as her haunches raise and she's in the air, then her paws landing squarely onto the lapin's tiny back. With a swift bite to the neck, the pursuit is over.

Carrying her prey in her jaws, the jaguar settles beneath a gnarled oak tree and consumes the still-warm rabbit cleanly and efficiently. Finished, she licks her blood-stained lips before swiping her paws past her muzzle and rises from the ground. She pads to a trickling stream and bends her head down to lap at the water. When she looks into her reflection, the eyes are the same but the face framing them is not.

Khaya stands up and brushes dirt and loose grass off of her arms, covered in faint rosettes, and combs her fingers through her golden hair. She resumes her hike through the scenic woodland, but on two feet instead of four, and stops as she observes a curious sight. She finds herself in a barren and gray part of the forest--devoid of movement and even birdsong, but the massive stone that had stood in the clearing's center had disappeared. Frowning, the girl stepped onto dead and rocky soil. Rocks that big don't just disappear. It had moved, or someone had moved it. Scanning the treeline, Khaya paced around the large scar in the earth where the cryptic stone had been, racking her brain for a logical explanation.
 
The strange scent had been a trading caravan, trundling dangerously close to forest to capitalise on the shade offered by the trees. It had been too easy for the lizard to sneak along the forest edge, before leaping it with a roar, burning the ground with it's breath. The human creatures had ran away, fearful as they should be, and the strange four legged creatures that pulled their wheeled houses along did the same, but were far to slow. It took only a swipe with one leg and a plume of flame to kill two of them: a welcome meal in a new world.

The dragon trudged through the jungle with the bovine creatures in his mouth, one hanging by a charred leg, the other's head clamped firmly in his jaws. The feline creature would not doubt hear the trees cracking and falling as they hit the ground, the dragon's body pushing the greenery out the way, creating a wide path trailed in blood. As it approached the clearing, it dropped the corpses from its mouth, and swiped one of them with a clawed paw, sending it whirling through the air with a strange grace, before it hit the ground, blood spattering from it's open wounds. The second joined it shortly afterwards, the scent of charred flesh filling the clearing.

The dragon emerged from the forest a moment later, not noticing the feline creature, it's, indeed too preoccupied with the coming meal. It prowled towards the corpses, and fixed it's jaws around ones head, a sickening crunch sounding when it bit down. It stood there from a minute, eating, before a new scent appeared..... it smelt similar to something from his homeplane.... the wyrm raised its head, and scanned the clearing, before noticing the feline.

It fixed it's gaze on the creature, but didn't move, opting to stay still. Blood dripped from it's open mouth, and it ran a tongue across red teeth.

"What" it said, it's voice sounding strangly normal, almost angelic "are you?" It's eyes looked the feline up and down, the orbs constantly changing colour in a hypnotic fashion, first blue, then yellow, and then a most pale shade of green.
 
The jaguar looked up at the massive reptile in front of her. She blinked, but held the being's gaze, despite it being more than twice her size. She could smell the bovines' blood on its breath. She had clearly heard something coming, but didn't expect it to be the kind of animal to question its prey before devouring it. Still, she didn't allow herself a moment's relief. She knew dragons can be persuasive.

A low, fearless growl formed in the big cat's throat, but it was meant to warn, not intimidate. If she felt threatened, she didn't show it. "No one," she replied simply. "I'm just passing through. I don't mean to intrude on your..." she averted her eyes away from the dragon's and trained them pointedly on the remains of the oxen, "...meal." The feline rested her gaze back on the kaleidoscopes of color that were the reptile's. She now understood why humans feared yet coveted dragons--they were dangerous but beautiful creatures.
 
The dragon bared it's teeth in something akin to a grin when the cat growled, letting out a low, guttural laugh. Clearly it had some experience being in unwelcome situations..... perhaps there were other dragons in this world? Other creatures of his size and power? It may be useful to know... Silukar moved close to the feline, crouching low to the ground so he was closer to her level.

"A feisty creature....." it murmured, the stench of cows blood permeating the air around it. "But you have interrupted nothing, I was merely eating.... it can wait for a less interesting time... You are far more interesting that those collections of bones of flesh, you may have them if you wish.... but what are you doing?" It said the last sentence forcefully, clearly wanting a different answer.

The dragon's head was mere inches away from the cat, it's mouth partially open. It did not, however, show signs of violence, aside from the corpses behind it. It was an inquisitive beast by nature, and while the killing of this animal had crossed it's mind, it was not yet at the forefront.
 
"You can have your prey, I prefer to eat what I catch myself." The jaguar stretched, causing powerful muscles to ripple underneath shining spotted fur. She still had to tilt her head slightly back to keep her gaze level with the winged beast's. She was small even for an adult. A flick of her tail gestured to the depression in the ground. "There used to be a rock here. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?" After saying it out loud, Khaya realized what a trivial question it had been. What concern would a dragon have over a rock? For that matter, what did she? She had just grown so used to seeing it that it was such a shock when it was gone.
 
"Clearly," said the dragon, twisting it's head around to look at the spot she gestured to, "you have been here before, if you are to notice some trivial thing such as a rock... and I'm afraid that may have been me. I have been sleeping for a long time.... since the foul-tongued warlocks sent me to this.... place..." the dragon's anger was returning now, pushing away the curiosity that was in its mind.

"They banished me here like some dog, some housepet that disobeyed a rule... how dare they..." by now the dragon was seething, fire licking it's teeth. It eyes no longer looked at the cat, but through her, at some invisible enemy. "How dare they throw me to this wreck of a plane, filled with trees and sand, filled with people.... I would slaughter them all if I could lay eyes on them..." it clenched a paw, it's sharp claws gouging deep ruts in the earth, and then seemed to snap out if it's rage, and turned it's eyes back towards the cat.

"So what are you really doing here?" it asked, it's voice blunt, all semblance of patience gone. "Clearly you are not merely passing through. Don't lie to me kitten, I am not in good mood"
 
The jaguar narrowed her eyes, but listened intently to the dragon's story. She watched small red flames licking from between the beast's teeth and and felt the heat on her face. Fire. Fixated on the wyrm's furnace-like jaws, she shifted slightly on the pads of her feet, flexing her claws nervously. She hated fire, and was suddenly hit with the realization that she could die within the next few minutes if she wasn't careful.

Inhaling silently, the feline patiently waited for the end of the dragon's tirade--no matter how much she wanted to tuck her tail between her legs and run. But he calmed down, or at least lowered his voice, and Khaya, masking the quiver in her response, put mildly, "I don't live far from here. I had always felt something was peculiar about that rock, but I would have never thought there could be a living being underneath the lichen. When it disappeared, I knew it wasn't the work of humans; I didn't smell any, and they wouldn't dare come this far in the forest."

She wasn't quite sure if she should try and walk away--the dragon might eat her yet because she possessed knowledge of his existence, so she stepped back just enough to give him some space. They had become very up close and personal through their conversation. Not that the big cat entirely minded, as long as she wasn't close enough to smell like fresh meat.
 
The cat was fearful, which of course it should be. Silukar was accustomed to eating creatures such as her, and he hadn't exactly made a secret of the fact: perhaps bared teeth, fire, and two corpses didn't give off the best impression. The creature was woefully inept in social situations such as these, perhaps because it had never had the need to talk, with most of its conflicts being tilted in its favor merely because of its size.

The wyrm watched the cat a moment longer, and lay down, head still at her level. "I have to admit, I am not quite used to this..... talking. The creatures from my plane are scared of my kind, and rightfully so" at this, the dragon grinned again, "but I suspect that having you fear me isn't the best course of action. So don't worry - eating you is not my first priority, although I cannot promise it will stay that way. For the next few minutes at least, I can guarantee your safety - what is this place? And what is here?"

The black scales of the dragon absorbed the light as it lay down, and aside from the lack of dirt and moss, it once again looked like a rock, albeit one that talked.
 
The cat in question dipped her head in understanding. "Naturally," she meowed, "We're the Aleran Triangle. Named for the three different regions of land--the forest, the desert, and the ocean. As you can see, we're in the woodlands. Humans tend to keep to their villages in the desert and on the coastline. They can't harm you here, not that they would harm you," she remarked, studying the dragon's scaly armor. So black it looked blue in the sun. "Although, some of us aren't so lucky. They prize my kind's fur, but I've found ways to avoid them."
 
The Aleran Triangle... forests were not a new concept to the dragon, as they had been occasionally dotted around his home plane, dessert were not new at all, being ninety percent of what he saw, but an ocean? This was something he had never really seen, only heard of from travellers of far off lands. He had always scorned them at the thought of huge bodies of water, but to think that they were common enough here for this feline to say it without wonder... perhaps he would see if there really was one, it might be an interesting adventure.

As it happened, the reptile was growing tired: it would take more than a hunt and a chat to fully wake it from hibernation. It would sleep for a number of hours, awaken and then likely repeat the process several times until it wouldn't have to sleep for weeks at a time.

"You are lucky" said the dragon, "while humans may prize your fur, they are not your biggest worry right now. Right now, your biggest worry is still tired. It seems you are safe for a few hours more - it will be interesting to see if you are still here afterwards"

The dragon didn't want for are response, and instead turned tail, standing up and moving to the centre of the clearing, only to curl up in a ball, tail around its legs and head tucked against its body, once again looking like a rock.

---

Raal hated teleportation. It made him sick, it was not natural for a man to be in one place, and then another moments later. It was also a shame he couldn't teleport back, but unfortunately, mages were not the sort of person to lend themselves to a beast hunt, and he had no inclination to learn magic himself. He had a known of a dragon in this area for a long time, but had never been to find it. Now however, it had begun to leave traces of its existence - presumably it had been hibernating before, and was now active. It would be a simple task to find it, not so simple to kill it.

The man was dressed in a strange attire: a cloak of sorts that fell to his feet, but without sleeves, but most noticeably, a mask, one that was made metal, and seemed to be just a collection of gears, still and silent, the faint markings of eyes visible. Raal drew in the scents of the desert, the sells tainted by the metal of the mask. And found one that didn't quite fit the others - blood. A few moments of climbing up the nearest dune, and a sight of carnage beheld itself. Several trade caravans had been smashed, leaving silks, spices, and several piles of gemstones lying in the sand. Corpses were also in good supply, with merchants, travellers, and what seemed like animals scattered across the scene. This was almost certainly the work of his dragon, unless some unheard of monster decided to show up. He glanced around, taking in the scene once more, before following the trail of blood that lead to the forest.

An hour later of climbing over fallen trees, scrambling over rocks, and in general, just navigating the forest, Raal arrived at the clearing, and immediately saw the dragon, in what seemed a second hibernation. Lucky magic had found it when it did, or it may have another few years until it was heard of again. Raal personally had no troubles letting the beast kill or murder, but his employer did, so for the purposes of this job, so did Raal.

From the recesses of the cloak he wore, he pulled a knife, long and curved, and made his way towards the dragon.
 
The jaguar smelled the human before she saw it approach. As the winged creature lied down to rest, she slipped into the undergrowth. She prowled along the forest floor, her pelt serving as camouflage in the dense foliage, as long as she kept out of the light. The feline circled around until she was behind and downwind of the human, and from this angle she could see the gleam of the knife he carried. Curious, she watched and waited for the humans next move. She had never been this close for so long before, and she was certain it hadn't seen her nor was interested in her. It was apparent it was here for the dragon--the way it stood before the once-breathing mass of stone.
 
Raal, unaware of anothers presence, carried on towards the beast, and a range a hand along its scales. It carried along until he found the creatures head, which was harder to see than one might expect, as it blended in with its body. He crouched down, and held the blade in two hands, lining it up with the wyrms eye, before stabbing it in towards its brain. The dragon gave one intake of breath, to which Raal responded by pushing the knife in deeper, and then the beast died, exhaling deeply, and going limp, it's tail slumping from around its body.

The whole ordeal was over withing seconds, perhaps the death with the least most dignity, and the least melodramatic, considering the creature Raal had killed. He put a hand to the blood that leaked from the knife woun, and put it to using mouth, under that mask.

"Foul tasting" he muttered, taking the knife out of the creatures eye and wiping on his cloak. He looked in the sky, and decided it would be best to stay the night, before setting off in the morning. For the mean time, some spoils of war would not go amiss. He sheathed his knife, and circled the dragon, looking for some loose scale or bad tooth.
 
The cat watched with morbid curiosity as the human killed and then consumed the wyrm's blood. She would have just told herself it was a blessing that she no longer had to fear the dragon, but something about this human scared her more. The dragon had threatened he would eat her, and humans would surely kill her too, but the dragon would have killed to survive whereas the man killed in cold blood, mocking the dragon's existence by licking its life off of the murder weapon and poking around for souvenirs. The jaguar knew it was time to leave, there was nothing she would or could have done for the dragon and she avoided contact with humans as a general principle.

Still, her race respected the dead, and she felt it was unjust to not pay respects to a being powerful enough to cross into another plane of existence. So, as customary when one of her own kind passed away, she decided to sit vigil in the night, but from her hiding place and not next to the fallen, since it appeared as if the human had the same idea. She stretched quietly, trying to find a comfortable position she could remain in until sunrise. It was going to be a long night.
 
It took Raal only a few minutes to build a fire, he was fairly competent at wilderness survival, and soon he had it blazing, fearing not that other creatures may be attracted by the smoke. He was sure that he was the most dangerous thing among these trees, a feeling born from arrogance, but also a fair amount of experience. His mother had always said: "Everyone must be known for something", and for Raal, it had been both his unusual parenthood and alarming skill with a knife, something that took him many years to perfect.

The fire blazed merrily among the stones that Raal had set out, and he lay back against the dead dragon, letting the heat wash over him. He drew in breath once, drawing in smells out of habit, and failed to recognise one, one that was almost masked by the scent of the dragon blood. He didn't realise it, but it was the cat. He picked up a small stick next to him, and threw it towards where the cat lay, hoping it would scatter, leaving him to his sleep. While he may be arrogant, he was not stupid, and didn't want some jungle creature trying to kill him during the night.
 
The jaguar melted further into the trees after the human built a fire, not wanting to be exposed by the light. But when the stick landed at her feet, she knew her cover was blown. She hadn't realized how acute a human's sense of smell could be. She had never seen them sniffed the air before.

Khaya then became the girl, rolling dirt into her hands and streaking it on her arms and face to mask her spots and to look like she had been camped out in the woods for a while. Her face was gaunt enough She even rubbed some into her hair for good measure. Like a poor, abandoned girl that the human might take pity on. Although her lack of any thread of clothing could make her a runaway or a prostitute, but that didn't really matter. Of course, it was foolish to think that a dragon-slayer would want to show kindness towards any being, but she could get information out of him in this form rather than as a jaguar.

The nagual emerged from the grass, and huddled at the edge of the fire's glow, keeping her head down.
 
The girl stumbling out the forest caught Raal by surprise, especially seeing as she was covered in mud. She had been here for a while, no doubt. Her lack of fear, the fact she just walked up to the fire, this concerned him. While it may seem cliché, he wouldn't put it past some beast to fake weakness, only to get close to what it assumed would be prey. It didn't smell entirely human, but it was to tell with all the mud. Humans weren't to fond of mud as a general rule, which tilted towards thinking this was a creature, but creatures usually weren't so fond of fire... he settled for somewhere in between.

"What're you after?" He asked, somewhat cautiously. He still lay back against the dragon, with no knife drawn, but he was tense.
 
When the human spoke, the nagual looked up, curiosity making her eyebrows raise. She remained sitting for a while, cautiously looking between the fire and the human, before she decided to answer. "Food," was all she said, making her voice quiver. She could understand man's tongue in this form, but her vocabulary was limited. But she knew that would only justify her need for pity.
 
Raal wasn't too fond of strangers. Often, they proved nothing but a nuisance, or, in the worst case scenario, served only to hinder whatever task he was trying to perform. As such, he decided the best course of action would be to try and get rid of this girl.

"Haven't got any" he said simply, tapping the dragons scales with a hand. "Not unless you like the taste of dragon, but it's bitter. Foul even"

The more he thought about it, the more Raal saw this girl as some sort of threat: which person came to the Aleran triangle without food, shelter, or some mount? Perhaps she had been a part of the caravan the dragon had attacked, but surely they would have had food, it would be taking her longer to starve. That, and the clearing was close enough to the fringe of the forest that she would have been here before him.

He let his hand rest on the hilt of his knife, ready to make a move if she did.
 
Khaya nodded, her mouth twitching as she tried not to grimace. He spoke quickly, so she didn't catch everything he said, but she knew enough. She caught the movement of his hand to his knife. This man obviously had no second thoughts about killing her. She could at least try to keep him talking and run away if he attacked. He wouldn't be able to catch her.

"What're you doing with the dragon?" she asked slowly in her broken language, stronger this time. "Waste to eat it."
 
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