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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 2, 2010 8:20:44 GMT -8
Ride? Her? Shail smiled and nodded quite pleased that she was allowed to play this along... like a sort of farce that the minstrels and bards could create in your mind. Is she was being herself, Shail would allow for herself to recede, allow for herself to become the fae dust that many people gave little thought to but some humans claimed was just pixie dust. Formless as it was, it allowed her to move through the forest at a far faster rate that humans could by foot, but this was interesting, and dare say she, it was fun. She trailed the contours of Strider's neck with the tips of her forefinger and middle finger, thanking him for permitting her to climb atop his magnificent back. "I'm not hungry, thank you though." She was never hungry, but he didn't need to know. She was elven for all he knew, and that meant she could pretend to be one just like she had hoped so long ago. To live among them, perhaps not, but with him, she could be a Dur'hini, she could pretend for only a few days, but it was long enough. "I don't imagine you will come up as well... riding doubles will keep from slowing."
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Post by Hellion on Nov 2, 2010 10:42:24 GMT -8
Marcus pondered it for a moment. There really wasn't room for two people on that saddle. Marcus merely shook his head. "No, there is no need. Even if I walk alongside Strider, we'll still make it to Drouth before evening falls." He took the reigns in hand, smiling slightly as Strider leaned his great head forward and nipped Marcus's hand affectionately. Marcus reached into a small pouch on his belt and brought forth a one inch by one inch cube of sugar, feeding it to Strider and rubbing the horse's cheek. Marcus could hardly be called a kind or tender man, but he did love his horse. Tugging on the reigns gently, he led the horse to the rode, ready to begin the long walk.
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 2, 2010 11:31:03 GMT -8
Shail stayed silent for most of the morning, watching the things around her and whispering little nothings to the horse. She twiddled with his reigns at times rubbing his hide that was under them, trying to make sure he didn't get rubbed raw. The trees the farther they went seemed more angry than others, complaining about fires and burnt wood. She could smell the burning chips as they moved along and she slid off the stallion when the burned thicket came into view. A wide open field of flames licking the sky high enough it was beginning to catch the trees on fire. "What... happened?" Voices screamed at her from all directions, the pain, the fire. Trampling foot steps that crushed everything beneath them. Scales, pounding drums of footfalls and claws, "A dragon..."
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Post by Hellion on Nov 2, 2010 11:40:57 GMT -8
Marcus had been smelling the smoke for a while. At first, he had assumed it was merely a residual smell from the camp fire the previous night. Then he saw the smoke rising into the sky over the trees. He had hoped that the fire would not be so close to the road. He had hoped wrong. The fire was massive, encompassing a swath of land before them. Marcus grimaced as he guided Strider away from the flames, the horse prancing a bit and tossing his head nervously. When the elf girl dropped from the saddle and began babbling, Marcus knew things were about to get very ugly. As the ground began to shake with the rumblings of massive feet, Marcus grabbed the girl, tossed her back up onto the saddle, lashed her legs to the stirrups, hopped up behind her, and dug his heels into Strider's sides. The horse wheeled around and charged up the road, galloping at top speed. Marcus had heard the girl say 'dragon'. Could Marcus beat a dragon? He didn't know. he doubted it. He didn't want to find out. He simply drove Strider onward, running up the road as fast as they could...not that it would help. If the dragon could fly, then it would be on them in seconds. And that was no a very big 'if'...
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 2, 2010 15:18:02 GMT -8
The roar that followed them shook the leaves and trees around them, it shook her senses. But what was a dragon doing so far from Draconia? Why would the beast just torch the area? Her thoughts were interrupted by the dragon's tremendous bellow, close behind and it stormed on it's four stumpy legs. It seemed at this point, interested in the chase, the land chase, for dragons were well known for their speed in the air, or perhaps this dragon was one that had not mastered the sky. A land dragon so far from home? Unlikely.
Shil felt herself gripping tight with her legs, and her eyes closing tight. Just because she was a faeborn wouldn't stop her from being eaten. This form was just as capable of feeling pain and dying as any other person was. Yes she could dissipate into the area, but that would leave her free for the dragon to gobble as well, they enjoyed the consumption of rare things, including a fae. "Mayhap she doesn't have wings?" Shail's voice was almost lost in her throat, fear welling up for the sake of Marcus and herself. Strider was in a frenzy to get the dragon free of his trail, the ground shaking with its every step.
It had to have been a young dragon, small enough that the tree tops hid it well enough, but it had a flame no man could scoff at. A female of course, with its size and its stamina. There was only one male dragon and he was larger than the sun some said. A grayish blue maw snapped out at them, roaring again as it began to gallop as well.
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Post by Hellion on Nov 2, 2010 15:59:06 GMT -8
Marcus cursed, jerking the reigns hard to the side. Strider lurched left, narrowly avoiding the snapping maws as a gout of flame singed the fur of his tail. Marcus turned his head and got a good look at the dragon. It was Large, but not undoely so. At least ten feet long, with scales ranging from dark, midnight blue, to pale sky. There were no wings on its back, so Marcus assumed it was a Jestic. Sharp spikes ran down its back, and its neck. Its tail was long and whip like. Marcus wondered if he could take it. They were unlikely to outrun it, and with one blast of fire it could kill him, the girl, and Strider. He decided he had to try. Forcing Strider to pull alongside it, he thrust the reigns into Shail's hands, and leaped from Strider's back at the dragon, drawing his twin blades in the process. He got lucky, landing on the Dragon's back while narrowly avoiding the sharp spines. He dug his legs in, wedge himself between two spines, and held on for his life.
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 2, 2010 19:47:21 GMT -8
Marcus' jump the dragon's back went almost unnoticed aside form the dragon seeing it. There was little weight to a man and the scales were to hard for her to really note his leap, but she knew his presence and swung her head wide to knock the horse from its feet. With a human on her back so he had to stop the chance, making sure that the man would not have chance to strike her glimmering scales. Dragons were very egotistical beasts, just because she was sure his blade wouldn't hurt didn't mean she wanted him to.
The strike to Strider's side knocked the horse clear off his feet, and thanks for Marcus strapping her to it, Shail went with the the stallion, clear into the trunk of a eligular tree. It was reflex though, before the crushing blow of the tree her fear managed to take her from her body. Sadly Strider was not so lucky but her dusky particles drifted for a moment while the dragon whipped its head about attempting to get between its own spikes to get at Marcus. It took Shail more that a bit of a struggle to reconfigure herself, and with a curse she could already feel the marred flesh of her failing skin. Her leg would look the worse for wear, but at least instinct had saved her from a gruesome kind of crushing death. She looked up in time to see the dragon swing its vine like tail, and slipped behind a tree to think how she could help her battling friend...
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Post by Hellion on Nov 2, 2010 20:12:45 GMT -8
Marcus cried out as the dragon smashed Strider and Shail aside. He saw Strider hit the tree, hard, and saw Shail vanish from his back. It could have been a trick of the light, and Marcus convinced himself that she was thrown. Strider, rolled to his feet, screaming in pain and favoring his left hind leg. Marcus grimaced, noting the horse's injuries were probably worse than they appeared. His attention was torn away from his friend by the dragon's snapping and thrashing.
"Keep your stinkin' fangs off my horse ya lousy excuse for a rock lizard!"
His rage caused him to draw deeply on the internal reservoir of magic, and he felt strength fill his limbs as he drove both of his titanium blades, points first, into the back of the dragon. They bit deep, going halfway to the hilt before grinding to a halt. Marcus grit his teeth and hung on, cutting off the flow to his reservoir to conserve his strength. If the dragon kept thrashing, it would only cause the blades to saw and sink deeper into its flesh.
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 3, 2010 6:17:54 GMT -8
The dragon thrashed and bellowed in pain, massive thorns on its whip like tail swinging wildly. If it didn't hit him then the dragon was going to soon be out of luck the way it was throwing itself about, the blades biting in deeper the more she struggled. Shail ducked to avoid the tail and clung to the trunk of the tree as it stumbled closer. It had every intention of knocking Marcus free to devour him, the horse, and Shail. Drastically it threw itself into a tree, knocking the whole thing over as it attempted to beat him from its back even if it was doing damage to itself. Again, she threw herself over and over into nearby trees, but while the hubbub continued Shail gripped the reigns of Marcus' friend, attempting to lead him quietly a little farther from the fray. It was the least she could do for him.
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Post by Hellion on Nov 3, 2010 7:11:55 GMT -8
Marcus held on as long as he could, his blades slashing into the flash as the dragon hurt itself even more. Finally, his blades came free, and Marcus was thrown from the back of the dragon. He tucked and rolled, coming up crouching and holding his blades inverted in his hands. He bolted at the dragon. The fight was now kill or be killed, and Marcus intended to walk away from this. As he neared, he gathered magic from his core and flooded his muscles with it, using it to power a high leap over the dragon's back. The dragon's tail was still thrashing wildly, and it slammed into Marcus's gut, the spikes barely missing him. He fell hard, grunting in pain as he staggered back up again. He glared at the dragon, grit his teeth against the ache spreading from his midsection, and cursed the beast vehemently. "C'mon...come on you filthy snake, Ogres hit harder than you! They're smarter too!" He held his stance, flourishing his left sword and holding his right sword above his head, waiting for the Dragon's next move. "I'm gonna skin you and make your hide into my new suit of armor..."
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 3, 2010 8:04:09 GMT -8
Blood oozed from the wounds in the dragons scales, like cooled oil, but the way that the beast shook its head, it caused the liquid to splatter the surrounding area with its hot stink. The roar that spurred from its lungs echoed, and sounded more of grief than anger anymore. It was obvious that the animal was regretting its choice to chase and not torch, Marcus, and to remedy that, it was rearing up, lowering its head took take in a massive breath that sucked in leaves and dust from all over. The dragon's tail came over its head like a scorpian, defending the seeping wounds while it prepared to burn away Marcus to a crisp.
Teeth as sharp as razors and as large as most people's arms dripped on saliva on the ground in anticipation of its meal, and its slight under-bite made the bottom teeth stand out to Shail. They looked like ragid swords that were ready to envelope her new friend. And that was indeed what he was. For whatever its reason for not reacting soon, Shail couldn't stand by and merely let the animal torch Marcus.
With a swell of light she gathered her own magik, a kind long forgotten by the creatures that walked Terra, and allowed herself to revert back to the fae form that she was created to. It had been far too long since shail had used her magik for others, but that was what the fae were made from and to loan. Marcus' mind was purely on the fight, but his openness to magik allowed for her to seep her own into his, giving him the ability to use her reservoir for the time. Fae were made of god's magik, and for him, she hoped it was what he needed. It would have felt like a tidal wave hitting him, but recovery from that was far too important as the beast's mouth began to glimmer from its charring breath.
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Post by Hellion on Nov 3, 2010 8:21:44 GMT -8
Marcus was caught by surprise as the flames erupted from the Dragon's maw, a column of raging fire that would engulf him and burn him to ash. He couldn't grab onto enough of his own magic to move fast enough, and though he was running, throwing himself to the side, he knew it wouldn't be enough..or so he though.
An explosion of magic, foreign magic from a source he couldn't place, suddenly caused his body to move faster than he had ever moved before. The magic seeped into his pours, lit his muscles ablaze, and filled him with strength he'd never known. It wasn't solely powering him, but bolstering his own reserves, uniting with them to grant him more than his average limit. He tucked and rolled, cutting away his now burning cloak. He came up on the Dragon's left and immediately resumed the attack. Where this magic had come from, he had no clue. He did know that it probably wasn't permanent, so he had use it while he had it.
Running in, he flanked the dragon's left, leaping high and stabbing down, one blade going for a point just above the dragon's kidney, his other going for a place where Marcus knew there was a fat artery. The combined force of Marcus's new strength and the weight of his falling body would hopefully drive the blades in deep enough to seriously wound the beast.
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 3, 2010 8:39:40 GMT -8
Gnashing teeth came at him after the dragon's breath was cut short. The pain of Marcus' blades driving into her kidney and the assault on her femoral artery was enough to cause the beast to throw itself around i a blind rage. It yanked itself away from Marcus, blades still stuck in the monster 's flank side. It reeled in pain, blood spurting in bursts over the grass as it stumbled. Clouds were filling its eyes, but even as it began to fall it took a swipe with one of it's tree sized legs toward the man's chest. The claws were fast still and sliced like a hot knife through butter, if it even grazed him damage would be done.
It felt good to do what she was meant for though, and Shail was pleased to know that at least she had aided him in some way. She knew after this, she would be lucky to be able to retain her shape at all considering how strongly Vie and Ru had been fighting, but at the moment Marcus was more important. It was a fae's job to aid nature and certainly he was part of it. She kept her thoughts quite though, keeping herself steady until the last moment.
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Post by Hellion on Nov 3, 2010 8:54:50 GMT -8
Forced to relinquish his blades, Marcus kicked away from the dragon, vaulting through the air and landing behind it. As its leg lashed out, Marcus drew on the magic flowing through him and moved, turning at high speed to avoid the claw as it slashed over his chest, slicing through his leather jerkin and grating over the chainmail he wore beneath it. He had been lucky. The Dragon could have skewered him with those claws. he watched as the dragon stumbled about. From the amount of blood gushing from its wounds, he guessed that he had indeed been accurate with his strikes. He wondered about going in and getting his swords, or waiting until the beast fell. It wouldn't be long now. He marveled at how much damage the dragon had done to itself. Really, all he had done was stab it four times. The thrashing and fighting beast had done the rest. Marcus remained ready to move, watching in case the dragon attacked again.
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Post by ExlMagician on Nov 3, 2010 12:10:46 GMT -8
The dragon;s eyes were malicious and it reached out again for Marcus' over and over, finally in despair, it stood on its back feet, tumbling from side to side from the wound to its haunches, but that didn't stop it from spouting another rain of fire down on them. Shail felt fear yank at her as she listened to its moaning, sweeping it's tail around toward them. like a serpent of its own, the spikes crashing around and catching on everything around them. There was no way that it could continue on this way, but out of rage, it spotted the horse, snarling loudly before hurling itself toward the animal.
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