|
Post by Renathan on Aug 30, 2020 22:51:28 GMT -6
Azarius x Nataraj (Aster/Ridelys) This room can look however you wish it to look, within reason. Only the two whose names appear here may post within this thread. -
Do not post in this thread until September 1st 2020. (12:01 am CST at the earliest.)
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 1, 2020 20:21:02 GMT -6
Azarius sighed as he looked up at the sky. It was a rare occasion for him to be out alone. Usually he spent all his time in the company of his twin brother, Zethos - such was the way of it ever since they had been hatchlings. They weren't identical twins, but their eggs had been laid almost at the same time, and they had hatched within seconds of each other; and there was an uncommon resemblance between their features, if not their colors. And they were almost inseparable. But this fact wasn't so absolute as it had been when they were younger; now occasionally Zethos had his own business, and his own secrets to keep. And loath as he was to admit it, sometimes Azarius did too. It was a strange mood that overtook him, driving him from the expansive caverns of the clan home out for a walk, alone, without anyone the wiser. But he felt that if he kept meandering, he might get to the bottom of what was making him feel out of sorts.
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 1, 2020 20:47:51 GMT -6
Dusk. Dusk was her favorite time of day. Not quite night, because the moon's shadows never struck just right. Probably why she preferred the sun shadows. Not quite day because the sun shadows didn't last in hte same direction. She watched the moon rove over the skies on more then one night during her hatchhood. It never stayed in the same place. Up in one direction, down in the other. Same with the sun, but you couldn't watch that for more then a few seconds before the heat burned the eyes.
The lone makiyan, who looked nothing like her blood relations, resided alone in the darkness of overlay. One would need to look closely, because she barely could be seen, only the glints of eyes from the darkness. Occasionally a cave mouse would scuttle by, shortly being slammed upon wiht a nearly sightless blood paw, and made into lunch. Or dinner.
Swirls of dark fog seemed to spill briefly from the overlay...
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 1, 2020 20:54:11 GMT -6
It probably had to do with his mother, if he was being honest. Most things came back to his mother, in the end. Azarius wasn't the type to resent her; when he was younger they had been very close, and he would venture to say that they were still quite close now. And it wasn't that he disliked his mother, or failed to appreciate what she had done for him - which was a great deal - but as he came into adulthood, even Azarius couldn't deny that she was a little... overbearing. She liked everything to be a certain way, and just so, and woe be to anyone who gets in her way.
And lately, his grandfather, head of the clan, had been speaking of finding a human again.
Shaking his head, Azarius continued to pace along the canyon path, mindless of his surroundings. A human - always a touchy subject at home...
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 1, 2020 21:30:46 GMT -6
Single little mice didn't do much for an appetite. Inserting a Scarlike monologue, but not lamenting the lack of being king, but a lack of decent prey in the area. She had tried to fish, really had tried. Her grandmother on her mother's side had been a fisher. Forgoing the red meats of mice and rams and even birds if one could catch them, for just fish and the fat canyon fowls. The latest victim, another cave mouse, scuttled around on her paw as she regarded the little creature, the shadows preventing it from escaping, like some strange wall of darkness. 'and you... shall never see the light of day.' the mouse squeaked in terror as the paw beneath them flipped upwards and darkness was its last existence. Mice weren't even chewed, just swallowed with one bite. A bored hiss escaped the overlay... but something she seemed to pick up on. Footsteps. From above. Something was coming down the path?
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 1, 2020 21:44:49 GMT -6
Azarius knew what the elders wanted, of course. Grandfather had spoken of it often - a human was good luck, a human in the family was an auspicious thing. They so rarely came to the Canyons anymore, nothing like how it used to be in the old days - and Marric was very old, to be saying such things.
They'd found a human once, when Azarius was still young, and it had thrown Marric into such a frenzy of hopes and planning... But Azarius's mother hadn't liked the man, and in the end the feeling seemed to be mutual. The human left, and in his wake his mother's uncharitable feelings toward the topic only grew.
But she did believe it, to a point; and so her own conclusion was that that human had simply been inadequate.
Here, Azarius breathed a sigh. "And where are we supposed to find a 'suitable' human anyway?" he muttered to himself.
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 3, 2020 13:37:23 GMT -6
By the sounds of the footsteps, it had either one with four feet, or two with two feet. There didn't exist anything she'd seen in the canyon, or heard of, that had one foot or three feet. The creature of shadows waited, listening. It was... making noise. Talking to itself? The blessing of her grandmother to manipulate her own shadow as a second body wasn't possible, using it, would work. The darkness of the cave thickened to the point that nothing could see through it, and could step through it, quite literally. She'd accidentially gotten stuck in a rock at one point, somehow stepping through it vs over it. However it hadn't done anything lasting. To walk into a walk and through it, she had to keep focused, and follow the sounds of what came above. The thing above was talking still... but what was a 'suitable human'? Humans were something that was a myth, right?
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 3, 2020 14:13:03 GMT -6
On the face of it, it really shouldn't have been a difficult thing. Humans that came to the canyons might have been few and far between, but even just further down the river there was a city filled with them. Surely, they could put out some sort of... advertisement, some sort of notice. Aster couldn't have been the only human in dire enough straits to wish for the patronage of a Draconic clan, and the clan's position was stronger now than they had been back then.
The problem was the whole idea of suitability. What grandfather wanted, and what his mother wanted... Some of the qualities would have been easy enough to specify in a notice, but others were too nebulous.
"Maybe I should do it anyway... No, but then mother might just get angry," Azarius said, pacing back and forth now in greater agitation, his steps echoing his words as he waffled back and forth.
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 3, 2020 14:33:42 GMT -6
Climbing steps that weren't actually carved or even there, the one with the earth climbed to the elevation of where she could hear both singular voice and footsteps. Not going down as she originally had assumed, but back and forth. Pacing. The stone was sightless and she only could sense the sounds vs actually hear or see anything. Aha, a dark alcove. Perfect exit point. Closer and closer, until the stone and her body separated. A tremor of excitement ran through the makiyan of darkness. How clever, but it felt very trying to do. Like a wrung sponge on her abilities to concentrate on something that was surrounding her. The alcove had enough shadowing to let her blend in, and watch the creature on the path now. What unusual coloring. From the sound and the build, also a male. Muttering to himself as he moved backward and forward. What was this about humans and his mother? Was he still nest-bound?
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 3, 2020 14:41:25 GMT -6
In theory Marric was the head of the clan, but Arianza, Azarius's mother, was the one who ran things on a day to day basis now. Azarius sort of felt that this had always been the case, but he also hadn't been paying attention until he was older. Zethos said it had been different when they were younger, and Azarius took him at his word.
Either way though, he had certainly always done as he was told. When his mother told him to meet a nice girl and have some children, he did. And now those children were older and giving her headaches, because as it turned out, they weren't quite so malleable as their father had been.
Probably what she wanted was a malleable human... But Azarius hadn't the first idea as to how one would look for such a thing. "I'd best ask Zeth," he decided. "Maybe he would know."
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 3, 2020 14:52:38 GMT -6
She took a quiet but deep inhale of the scent of the male as he passed. He smelled... well male, obviously. The vague scent of another female clung to him, just barely. If she weren't paying attention, the dark-hidden makiyan would've missed it. Not nest bound. It wasn't uncommon for taking multiple partners for making the clan bigger. Or in this case the family. What kind of family did this male have, what kind did he come from? His vague words didn't make much sense. Every clan is different; from loners like her to those who stay with family forever and get fat and lazy. having children for life. It was boring. Part of why she had no clan to call her own anymore. She didn't strike out for finding company, like her aunt or siblings. Company in the form of another clan or even of humans. Was this male seeking human companionship? Why?
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 3, 2020 19:44:59 GMT -6
Almost immediately, Azarius felt better. He always felt better when he decided to consult his brother. Zethos would shake his head over it, call Azarius too easily led or dependent, tell him he ought to make his own decisions sometimes... But then Zethos would give the matter some serious thought, and come up with a better answer than Azarius would have arrived at on his own.
And they were twins. There were things Zethos consulted Azarius for too. So there, it wasn't a one way street.
Brightening, Azarius turned on his heel and began walking for home. He knew he would get to the bottom of it if only he kept walking and thinking. Only, he realized as he had a look around that he had walked rather further than he had anticipated, and wasn't sure exactly where he was anymore.
Oh, Zethos was going to scold him for that.
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 3, 2020 22:05:46 GMT -6
Now, who was this Zeth? A friend? Companion? Mate? Parent? No, even grown draconics don't refer to their parents by name alone... Sibling? Possibly. This Zeth sounded to be a consult more then anything else. Was it the thought of humans, of suitable humans that was causing this male some confuse? Now its a very bad idea to be distracted while maintaining the ability to walk through things. Because when or if it breaks, problems pop up very quickly. The intrigue of watching the confuse that was this male let her tail swish back and forth, through the rock. And then the rock became very solid to her again, and it HURT. Looking back, she saw the reason why. Her body, now fully 'thereal' again, had the tail stuck partially into the stone, and poking out about six inches across again. The concentration had broken while both entrance and exit was enough to make someone scream. Which she did. A very loud scream.
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Sept 4, 2020 14:47:35 GMT -6
Azarius didn't believe in ghosts. It wasn't that he disbelieved ghosts either, but if he had to say one way or the other... Well, it wasn't like he had ever seen one, right? There were spirits, sure, and creatures that were intangible, but ghosts...
... Still, that didn't prevent him from experiencing a brief but all-consuming moment of terror when he heard a scream in the middle of the night.
Fortunately it didn't last. He spotted the source soon enough - a fellow Draconic, whose coloring was pale enough to mark her out against the stone. "Gods' grace... Are you alright?" he asked, hurrying over to her side. "Are you hurt anywhere? I don't have healing abilities myself, but my clan..." Did they have anyone like that? Well, even if they didn't, someone would find a healer, he was sure. He didn't see any blood, but it was dark now, after all.
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Sept 5, 2020 5:54:19 GMT -6
Never become distracted. Simple enough to live by. She had a one track mind on occasional things. So ...'observing' this male wasn't distraction, was it? Now that she considered it, yes yes it was distraction. The male looked like he belonged in the bottom of the canyon, with the fishes by his coloring. But her scream had, in a sense finally, given her away. To have him come over and start babbling questions at her and mention a lack of healing abilities. Well gee, thats a nice thing to know. Was she all right? NO, her TAIL was STUCK in the WALL. Hurt anywhere? Just the TAIL and her PRIDE, otherwise NO. IT didn't help to have a rather distinct cutoff of feeling in her spine and then have it appear again six inches away. Couldn't he SEE that?! Biting the inside of her upper 'lip', the makiyan hissed as she tried to pull away from the wall. Not doing herself any favors here. But her tail was not coming free of the wall. She didn't speak, but her hisses of pain ought to spell a message.
|
|