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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:40:18 GMT -6
The golden eyes did eventually lock onto the green lizard standing beside him, though they did not perceive the amused state of the lizard as he continued to spin and squeak. That amusement vanished a second later as he charged at her with a squeak, tail waving in the air behind him as he lunged at her.
Haix waited for him to commit to his jump, and stepped aside. His wings fluttered as he fell past her, and she turned, expecting him to catch himself in the air and lunge once more at her. He hit the grass instead, charging back at her with more squeaks erupting from his tiny mouth of needle-sharp teeth. This time she did not dodge, instead pulling back one foot as she prepared to kick him back. Had the mansion gotten into what little mind that the labs had built into him? Could it only slip in if one fell asleep?
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:40:28 GMT -6
Distracted by her thoughts, she failed to deliver a kick to the charging sarane hatchling, the creature forcing her to slam that leg back down as he bowled into her other leg. There was none of the flurry of scratches and bites that she expected as he made contact, the sarane instead shivering and wedging himself between her legs as he let out quieter squeaks, head still twisting side to side. Nonplussed, she did nothing but stare at him for a few seconds, the threat of the mansion briefly forgotten as she looked down at the cowering offspring of Barrel.
Iago seemed to feel the weight of her stare, and looked up at her, twisting his neck so that one bright, golden eye was staring back up at her. He let out another squeak, this one so muted compared to the others that she was not sure she had actually heard it, and curled himself into a ball. 37
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:41:09 GMT -6
Haix started chuckling.
She could not help it. The beast she had brought as bait, as a way to buy her time to escape should anything go wrong, was looking to her for protection. And what had scared him so that he cowered beneath her in hopes of hiding from it? A screech from her own throat. Nothing more than a noise. She would have to train that out of him when he grew up, or else he would flee whenever something screamed at him
With that, with the cowardly creature trying to hide underneath her, she decided she would break him as well. A second drake could end up being useful, and his colors would blend with the environments she hunted in much better than the flashy gold and blue of her other drake. Although breaking him relied on him reaching the correct stage of life, which required getting him out of the mansion alive. 38
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:41:20 GMT -6
She let him take his time, waiting for his body to stop quaking as if he was caught in an ice storm, his mewling squeaks growing farther apart and more muted. With a final squeak that was little more than a wheeze, he painstakingly uncoiled from the ball be had formed. His wings were raised, stretched out so that they were parallel to the ground, then folded onto his back. The til of his tail slid away from his face, the rest of it naturally following until it pointed behind him. His head did not raise immediately, one eye opening up into a narrow slit, then sliding shut, then opening fully to look up at Haix. The other eye opened to join the first, and he slowly stood up, glancing warily around the grounds.Though he was no longer cowering as obviously as before, he did not budge from his spot by her legs. 39
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:41:31 GMT -6
She took a few steps and he followed, pressed so firmly against her leg he might have been tied there. It was a welcome difference from the other drake hatchling she owned, the one that had fled through the mines in such a panic that she nearly lost him several times. That the chase had saved her and both the sarane and the mining crossbreed from the cave-in was the only upside to that frantic chase. Having to chase this one in a place of thorny, dense brush and plenty of unseen magical threats would not have been a positive experience in the slightest.
Haix wondered what their reactions to things that spooked them warned of. The blue and gold sarane would not be able to flee her if she clung to him, and there was no way Iago would seek protection from her while trying to gut her for daring to exist. 40 ((Iago-8.0))
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:41:42 GMT -6
With his fear of the loud noise compelling him to stick as close as possible to Haix, it was almost pointless for her to retie the rope around his makeshift harness. He would eventually snap out of it, or at least she hoped he would not remain a coward as Dummy had, and the sight of any of the small creatures she remembered from her last visit might be enough to rebuild his courage and send him running where she could not easily follow. For now it was easy to knot the rope, a tug proving it would not soon come loose. Then, careful to not allow the slack of the rope to trip her as the hatchling stuck close to her, she started walking alongside the wall of roses. Without the urgency inspired by the potential unknown loss of the hatchling, there was time to examine the hedge further for an easier way through. 41
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:41:53 GMT -6
The wall of roses would have seemed oddly uniform if anywhere else. Each rose was caught in the perfect moment of its bloom, not so early that petals still pressed tightly together, nor so late as for the flowers to droop and the petals to brown and fall. Without insects to feed on the leaves, each serrated leaf was also perfect in color and shape, looking sharp enough that they might have challenged the thorns over which could draw the most blood from a soft-skinned hide. Her scales had proven more than hard enough repel the worst they could offer, as had the sarane’s who had not maneuvered as carefully as she had through the bush.
The thick stems hidden under the leaves and perfect blooms were thick and covered in more spikes than she recalled earlier, an obvious deterrent for crossing through the wall. Had it be so obvious when the sarane had run through, she doubted his wings would have made it through intact. 42
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:42:10 GMT -6
The thorny wall presented a new problem, as it appeared the manner in which she and the sarane hatchling had made it over had been either the work of luck, that particular patch of roses being less damaging than the rest could be, or the mansion had decided that she and her pet would no longer be allowed to move through the roses unscathed. She might have forced her way through, scales deflecting the worst of the damage if she was careful and the house not particularly malicious, but Iago would never make it through. The stems were woven together, twisting and closing off any path he may have crawled through. The threat of the thorns to his eyes and wings would cripple him forever if he tried.
And, for all his current meekness, carrying him would result in both of them falling to the thorns, the sarane’s struggles more than enough to unbalance her if she took the same careful steps as earlier. 43
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:42:21 GMT -6
They walked back to the gate, keeping a foot away from the rose wall as they did. There was no sign of a location better suited to crossing, the area they had passed through seemingly filled with thorns and stems of equal thickness as the rest. The roses reached the very fence surrounding the property, the stems shown to be pressed against the wall itself when Haix brushed the leaves and blooms aside for a better look. There would be no easy crossing there.
So back down the path they went, each look into the bush revealing more of the same impenetrable thicket. During all this time, the mansion was nearly silent, the lack of buzzing bees or droning gnats obvious alongside the near silent sound of her own breathing. She considered throwing the sarane over the roses the close they got to the house, thinking that she might escape the worst of the scratches if at least she was not encumbered by him. 44
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:42:32 GMT -6
Thankfully for the sarane hatchling, Haix held off on acting on that idea. He slowly started to distance himself from her, at first falling only a step or two behind, then eventually testing the limits of his leash once more. He did not run and pull as much as he had earlier, content to peer into the rosebush and try to make out any manner of tasty treats that could be hiding in them. That he could not pick up any new scents did not overly bother him, and he continued to poke his head close to the wall of thorns whenever Haix brushed the leaves aside.
He never tried to force his face into the thicket, the large thorns enough of a warning that even he would not be so foolish as to force his way through. The lack of possible prey to make braving the threat worthwhile helped too. 45 ((Iago-9.0 Haix-182))
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:42:44 GMT -6
They drew closer to the porch of the house after a few minutes, the designs wrought upon the metal railing easier to pick out with every step. It was a masterful creation of flowing lines, no obvious weld marks to show where one piece ended and had been attached to the next. IT was if the entire thing had been cast in a massive forge, the work looking equal parts delicate with it’s thin strands and strong with the polished top of the metal rail looking as if it could support a ton of soft-skins sitting on it.
Or one ssashirk and her pet sarane climbing it.
Hopes of finding a way through the rose wall now abandoned, Haix rand to the porch of the mansion, looking over the railing for the thickest and strongest looking part. Iago was dragged along behind her, a single squeal of protest being all he had time for before he was forced to run to avoid being dragged. 46
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:42:55 GMT -6
The railing and its delicate metal sculptures were stretched between metal posts, one of the stakes making a ringing sound as she knocked her knuckles against it. Something that was hollow might crumble or bend beneath her, a thought that did not matter too much to her as it would not impede her progress in reaching the path. The mansion likely had either reinforced the metal somehow, likely in the same method it had sprouted the walls of roses that lined the path, or it would be able to repair it through the same means.
Loosening the rope around her arm, she grabbed the sarane, ignoring his sharp squeal of protest that made her ears ring, and dumped him over the other side of the railing, Iago landing on the wooden porch with a thump. He did not protest further, too busy examining his new environment as Haix examined the pole in front of her. 47
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:43:05 GMT -6
It was smooth, as perfectly made as the intricate metalwork that formed the bulk of it. There were handholds on the delicate portion of the fence but, regardless of the gifts bestowed upon it as a part of the mansion, she could not shake the feeling it would snap off at the slightest bit of weight hanging from it. No, she would find no help there in climbing up onto the porch.
She loosened a few more loops of rope from her arm to ensure the sarane would not pull her off balance at a crucial point, the sarane sniffing at random slats of wood, then backed up a few steps, eyes focused only on the pole. Then she was running at it, leaping up to catch the rounded top with her arms and push upwards as her legs bent and her body twisted to keep her legs above the rest of the fence. 48
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:43:21 GMT -6
She landed in roughly the same spot at the sarane had, legs bending on the impact before straightening out to allow her to make a few, momentum-eating skips. The sarane hatchling watched her with wide eyes, scuttling backwards as she made her first step, reaching the end of his new slack as she finished the last and stood still.
She had made it. The roses could not prevent her now from reaching the path again, from leaving through the front gate or going through the massive doors that were the entrance to the magic soft-skin hut. And, still high on adrenaline from her successful hop, she had every intention of going into the house as she had upon taking her first steps onto the mansion property. She wanted to see what hid within its depths that might hint at where she could find the godlings. If nothing else, she simply refused to go back when she was so close. 49
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:43:35 GMT -6
She dragged the sarane from where he was scratching at the floorboards, not willing to wait any longer now that she was so close to seeing the inside of the mansion. The wreath caught her eye as they approached the main door, unusual in that the lavender-colored flower woven onto it was actually lavender, though dried and long dead. The silver serpent that snaked in and out of the greenery was a slight comfort, though she knew it likely was meant to represent the soft-skin godling of harvest rather than any of the true gods or spirits that existed. The golden bells were a bit more worrying, and she held a hand to them to keep them quiet as she attempted to open the door.
The door slid open as easily as if it had not weighed more than her, the bells she tried to silence still ringing and announcing her presence to whatever dwelled within. 50 ((Iago-10.0))
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