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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:36:57 GMT -6
The sarane on the other hand stared only at her. He could see her only from her chest upwards, spinning in a way that made him think of startled prey, of something that he could drag down and top off his earlier meal with. But he made no move to, also aware that there was something about the lizard that unnerved him, something that warned that a leap at her would only end with him between her jaws and not the other way around. It was the same reason he had not attacked her when she was distracted with the paper, her back turned towards him in a tempting target. The noises were not enticing either, hisses and snarls promising pain should he try.
So he watched, not moving even after her eyes slid from him and her back was turned. The planter was forgotten, his back towards it as if he had never been interested in it at all. 21
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:37:13 GMT -6
The expected challenge never came. There was no roar as a dragon ripped it’s way out of the soft-skin dwelling in a fit of rage, no cocky soft-skin insulted enough to come out and yell at her. She felt no invisible talons grip her heart in a threat to remove it, nor tendrils of something worming its way into her mind as she had heard fungal leeches could do if allowed to remain on their prey for too long. Nor did her hatchling suddenly spout fire and grow to the size of an equillion, nor any other silly possibility that coursed through her mind as she wondered what she had expected.
The house had not acted against her the first time she had intruded on it’s property, and what building would respond to a challenge, especially if it was directed at an assumed living being rather than a magical construct? The sarane snorted as if he had heard her thoughts. 22
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:37:26 GMT -6
That he could have was considered, then dismissed. She did not want to gut Barrel’s offspring without a reason beyond a snort, especially not after he had already shown himself prone to sneezing. She already felt silly enough about her unanswered questions and challenge, having no one to direct them at other than the very property she stood on.
The warnings outside had stated that the house could do a great many terrible things, but they had also mentioned that the acts tended to be completely random. A mind might be enslaved for hours, or a beast might appear bearing gifts for the wanderer, much like Juggler had done when she had first encountered the living skeleton. The mansion might have a mind beyond some shriveled soft-skin weaving magic, beyond their godlings strutting and showing off their power, and it was not likely to respond to her. What does a stone care about those who trod on it after all? 23
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:37:42 GMT -6
There was a chance that some predator still roamed the grounds and intended to strike out at her and the hatchling when she least expected it, but she was inclined to believe that any such creature would go after the tiny creature wandering the garden rather than the one with the walls of roses. Seeing as nothing had harmed the hatchling, she figured she was safe for the moment.
That left the problem of the lack of insects. The house might have been keeping out all manner of creatures not native to it, an idea supported by the lack of jibiji fluttering around the property that were so common in the rest of the city. It did not make her any more comfortable to know that there would be no insects to take her back to Yasog should the mansion claim her life. To be consumed by the house would be a monstrous fate, one that made being taken back to Yasog infinitely preferable. 24
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:37:56 GMT -6
Yet she did not leave. She was already cursed by the soft-skin hive, the scars on her body testament to how it had dug its claws into her very life. If the mansion took her it would be horrible, but no more horrible than any other death that awaited her in the hive. So she would not leave. Not until she had seen more of this twisting place, not until she found evidence of the soft-skin godlings that this place seemed to be built in worship of.
The sarane hatchling had no such thoughts as these, turning away from Haix to launch himself up at the planter one last time. A single claw dug into the stone, scoring it as the claw failed to catch on anything, the rest of his limbs unable to aid in pushing him up either. He hit the ground with a squeak, the once again unblemished stone appearing to mock him, the lip of stone appearing lower than ever before. 25 ((Haix-181.6 Iago-5.0))
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:38:08 GMT -6
She decided to name the sarane. It would be an early naming, given that she had considered waiting until her drakes grew to their full size and showed traits beyond gorging and sleeping. Having a name to call him with in a place that could twist the mind might be the difference between holding onto him until he would be useful and watching him trot to an easily avoided death with no attention paid to her. She considered a few different words to call him by, ranging from Common words to the few she knew of the fae language, with meanings as simple as his color or a call for attention. When she finally decided on the name, she called to him with it, and was of course completely ignored. There would be plenty of time to get him to respond completely to the name later, but for now she would settle for repeating it in low tones and hoping he would at least hesitate in hopping to his doom. 26
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:38:19 GMT -6
Iago, as she had called him but he did not recognize yet as himself, had given up on climbing up the planter. He glared at it suspiciously, beginning a slow walk around the planter on perfectly kept ground. When he disappeared behind the rounded edge of the planter, hidden from her sight, Haix decided it was time to fetch him and finally venture into the house proper. If the house had wanted to cause them harm, it could have done so the moment she stepped on the property, sending out more skeletal beasts like Juggler to chase her and the sarane hatchling away.
The sarane hatchling did not respond to her calls of his new name, which made perfect sense as he had been given it only a few minutes ago. It left her the unpleasant business of navigating the rose walls, and she watched them with narrowed eyes for any sign of movement. 27
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:38:31 GMT -6
The bush was just thick enough to make jumping over it seem to be impossible, at least with the lack of space on the path for her to build up speed for such a jump. Nor was she entirely comfortable with forcing her way through the thorny stems despite the apparent ease Iago had navigated through them. She would not let Iago disappear without any sense of what had happened to him though, and with a gritting of her teeth, she looked over the wall for any sign of a less populated spot of the wall. The roses appeared just as numerous as they did in any other place, and so she stood at roughly the spot Iago had forced his way through, looking up at the planter for any sign that he had returned. He did not, the seconds stretching on as Haix hesitated to make her way through the bushes.
28
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:38:42 GMT -6
Then, chiding herself with a snarl, she began to force her way through the bushes.
Each step was made with exaggerated care, legs lifted free of the plants and set down a second later in spots that almost appeared to open up as she moved. Her tail was the only thing that allowed her to keep her balance with each step, and she tried her best to avoid letting it drag against the purple petals. The thorns scratched at her as she had expected, but never breaking through her scaled hide for all that they dragged across her scales. Despite the sarane’s earlier apparent ease of traveling through the thorns, she continued to move slowly, carefully, not wanting a lucky thorn to catch and tear away a scale somehow.
The sarane still did not appear on either side of the planter as she walked, and had it not been for the awkwardness of pivoting in a bush of thorns and magic, she might have turned back. 29
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:38:58 GMT -6
The sarane lacked any of the abilities the crossbreed had later shown when it fled across the grounds. He could not sink into the shadows like a diver into water, nor could his tiny wings carry him more than a few feet off the ground for a few seconds, less if he was not flapping them so quickly as to be a blur. Nor was he venomous, or at least he would not be until he had grown larger and the growth on his tail hopefully revealed itself to be a stinger like his sire had.
He could scream though, the loud and shrill squeaks he filled the kennel with when she had made the mistake of leaving his cage near a raging Dirt-Eater would just as easily carry to her in the open air as they had through the sterile corridors of the kennel. And she had not heard so much as a squeak from him yet. 30 ((Iago-6.0))
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:39:08 GMT -6
Of course, that did not mean the mansion was not capable of suppressing sound as it did insect life. She might find the sarane hatchling bleeding and broken, jaws open but any sound he made muted by the magic of the house. Or if one of it’s constructs desired to end the hatchling quickly, it might have taken him before he had time to make a single whimper. She just hoped she would at least find his body somewhere around the planters, for even a dead sarane could be useful if it was not a brown.
Luckily for him, Iago was not dead, nor was there any manner of magic muting him. He had instead paused behind the planter to stretch out and consider a nap. The food still weighing him down made a very convincing argument in favor of rest, settling as he stretched out on the ground, legs stretched out behind him. 31
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:39:30 GMT -6
Haix, completely unaware that the sarane hatchling had decided that taking a nap was on the top of his priorities, finally reached the end of the rose wall. With a little hop and twist, she pulled her other leg free of the thorns, and had a quick look at them for any sign of red blood or any other goop. She squatted, feeling around her legs for breaks in the scales or warm blood leaking from an unfelt cut. There were none to be found. Her legs looked as untouched as the sarane had been though, without a single scratch or suggestion of poisonous liquids. Once she had finished that check, she stood back up. If this was some show of power by the mansion, she would ignore it for now. She wanted to find the sarane hatchling before the house became riled up and locked itself. She doubted it was merely sleeping through their intrusion. 32
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:39:41 GMT -6
On the other hand, the sarane was sleeping peacefully, eyes shut tight against the light of the sun as he soaked in the heat. The spot he had chosen had a particularly comfortable patch of grass that cushioned him, not would it grow as unbearably hot as the pristine stone surfaces nearby him. The calls of his brand new name in the old, well known tones of the lizard were easily ignored as he snoozed. Even had he been awake, he would have felt no compunction to return back to her, the soft grass a welcome resting place after his failed attempts at jumping and earlier travels.
Haix felt no such need to rest, and bounded towards the planter she had seen the sarane disappear behind. If he was not there, she was not sure if that would be a warning for her to leave or the house accepting him as a gift in return for her safe passage. 33
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:39:55 GMT -6
When she found him, her first thought was that he was dead, some unnoticed scratch by the rose thorns having delivered a poison that caused him to collapse shortly after having gone through it. He certainly looked as though the poison had stilled his heart mid-run, legs outstretched and wings drooping onto the grassy ground. His snore was enough to send her skipping back a step as he rolled slightly to one side, then back to his original position as the new one proved less comfy.
A sleeping poison then? Should she expect to collapse herself, trapped in a sleep that she might never wake from? She barked the name at the sarane, curious to see if he would wake. He shifted slightly again, but his eyes did not so much as twitch at the mention of his new name.
Concerned, she inhaled deeply as she tried to pick out any sign of damage on his hide or harness, something that would prove that she, unmarked by the thorns, had nothing to fear. 34
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:40:08 GMT -6
There were not obvious marks on him, or at least none she could see on his back or legs, and released her inhaled breath with a screech. And as if that wordless noise was a powerful spell of its own, the sarane leaped straight into the air with a squeak of his own.
His wings fluttered, but he had just been asleep and was not entirely aware of the world beyond the mind-breaking terror the loud noise had inspired. Rather than the wings allow him to hover in the air, they cause him to spin uncontrollable, smacking back down into the grass with such force that not even the cushioning effect of the grass was enough to stop his grunt of pain.
Then he started squeaking, the same shrill and annoying sound he had made when confronted with a full grown and fully hungry drake. His head swiveled around as he stood back up, eyes rolling wildly as they searched for the source of the noise.
35 ((Iago-7.0))
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