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Cocoa is a shy, reserved dragon who is, to be perfectly frank, a little too timid for her own good. She's very easy to scare and quite a bit gullible, too; so naturally she'd want to find out if this myth about Hazel was true. Of course, she'd be much too scared to do it alone.
Unfortunately for her, she ended up being stuck with a stuck-up huntsman and the constantly annoyed leader of the clan.
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Gaston forced his way into the adventure, determined to show his tracking prowess and to boast about how fearless he is. However, this narcissistic young bogsneak is going to get the scare of his life in due time.
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Starcatcher, perhaps also a bit too protective arrogant for their own good as well, also follows on. Their age isn't precisely known but they definitely haven't passed their prime yet, so they tag along despite the myths being, well, just that- myths. If this "Hazel" dragon does exist, Starcatcher may as well make sure that she isn't bothering their clan any time soon.
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Gaston saunters from tree to tree in the clearing, not bothering to conceal his movements.
"What're you
worrying about, Cocie? Hazel doesn't exist, and if she did, I would've tracked her down by now."
"Shut it, Gaston. For one thing, you're being the loudest out of all of us, and secondly, you're overestimating yourself by far. If this Hazel woman exists she'd probably be driven off, or driven to puke, by your disgustingly huge ego." Starcatcher says, keeping her voice low. "Now, if you are as good of a tracker as you say you are, you'll shut your mouth and actually slink around a bit more quietly."
Cocoa is watching this exchange, fidgeting with her frills and looking around. She'd jump at every other movement in the crowns of trees or chirp of a bug.
"A-are you
sure that Hazel d-doesn't exist..?" She asks, tentatively.
"Of course, and I'll prove it to you. Stop listening to hatchling rumours, you're nearly a grown dragon, like
me. That droopy old hag doesn't exist."
The three are considerably offset when they hear an incoherent mutter; Gaston lets out a yelp, and Cocoa clings to Starcatcher. Starcatcher just starts snorting.
"You're both wimps! For such a supposedly brave dragon, Gaston, you're handling this.. 'perfectly'."
Gaston snaps at Starcatcher, who flies out of reach easily with Cocoa still clinging to them.
"A-are we just going to i-ignore the fact t-that was a
V-VOICE?!" The brown fae looks around nervously, wishing she'd brought her searing jackalope with her.
"Yes, because that clearly
wasn't a voice, my dear, misinformed Cocie. It was simply the wind! If Hazel lives here, I could easily track her down; it would be no sweat!" Gaston responds, puffing out his chest.
"Ah, yes, no sweat, when no other clan in the area has actually managed to find this supposedly existing Hazel person. And I'd like you to keep in mind they actually brought competent trackers with them to help." Starcatcher snaps. Gaston looks rather offended and hurt, so Cocoa decides to take a go at.. Mediating the situation.
Glancing from the piebald fae she was meant to see as leader
even though she never saw Starcatcher outside of clan meetings, and the great huntsman
even though he had the skills of a dazed Bumble, Cocoa takes a breath and says quietly:
"E-erm, let's just all take a breather here; Gaston, y-you should listen to your clan leader, and Starcatcher, you should… e-erm.. M-maybe, uhm.." Cocoa trails off once she sees the expression on her superior's face.
"M-maybe, uhm.. Stop being quite as.. B-blunt?" The brown fae continues at her bold attempt.
Even the odd liquid seeping from Starcatcher's eyes was disapproving.
"Are you... Telling me what to do? Are you, dare say it, questioning my methods?" There was a sharpness in the larger, leaner Fae's voice that meant business. And, Starcatcher did. After all, they hadn't led the clan fiercely through trial after trial with neighbouring clans and attacks from beastclans for
nothing.
"N-no, not at all, I-I didn't mean anything like that, S-starcatcher, I-I'm sorry, I really didn't-"
"It doesn't matter. It's not like your beliefs aren't… Universal throughout the clan. Guess I'm just sick of hearing that I'm not doing well as a clan leader." Starcatcher turns away slightly, pointing their head up to stare at the stars through the thick leaves; a painfully common habit, and also one they used so that nobody could see their face with any sort of 'sad' or positive emotion on it.
However, Starcatcher's quaint reminiscing is quickly cut off when they feel a yank at their neck; they down to see their precious pocket watch on its chain disappearing into the darkness. The piebald dragon lets out an infuriated screech, making Gaston stumble and land on a rotting branch in his panic, and Cocoa goes down with the grey bogsneak as they fall to the forest floor with a loud thud.
Starcatcher breathes in.
"WHATEVER CRYPTID OR BEASTCLAN MEMBER STOLE MY POCKETWATCH IS GOING TO REGRET IT BECAUSE I WILL FIND THEM AND PERSONALLY MAKE THEIR LIVES AS HELLISH AS POSSIBLE, DESPITE CLAN DUTIES OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT MAY GET IN THE WAY!"
Starcatcher's eyes quickly pick up a creature with green, phosphorous spines lining its back running off with their pocket watch. In a dive and a tumble of limbs, the fae has the considerably larger creature pinned against the ground in a surprisingly strong grip. It yelps as they take the pocket watch from it, letting out a snarl. They claw the animal's face as a warning, claws dipped in its blood.
Starcatcher lets go, lip pulled back in a small snarl as they watch the creature scamper away. The small dragon swings through the trees over to their companions, hopping down onto Gaston's head.
"Are you unconscious or just concussed?" They ask, seemingly nonplussed about any answer the bogsneak could have given.
Gaston gives a small groan.
"I'm alive, Starcatcher… Barely. What on earth was that sound-"
He's promptly cut across by Cocoa, who says:
"W-WHY DO YOU H-HAVE B-BLOOD ON YOUR CLA-CLAWS?!"
Starcatcher mutters something under their breath, before responding; they were clearly irritated.
"Some emerald cave jewel tried to take my compass. I let it go.. With a warning. That's also where the screech came from." They explain, keeping their voice low again, with a hint of a growl in it. However, they instantly freeze and shush the other two, just before they could make a cutting remark about Gaston's bravery. Their ears twitched, as Starcatcher looked down and around at the clearing, slowly.
The others follow Starcatcher's lead, though looking a bit less confident than the piebald fae about what they were meant to be hearing.
The fae then flaps up, glancing at the others, and beckoning Cocoa over. The other small dragon flaps over nervously.
"..I could have sworn I just heard the clicking of some sort of insect's mandibles, and, judging by the tracks, there's clearly been some Corpse Cleaner activity around here... Strange. I can't pick up any lingering scent or trace of a corpse, so why would one remain here when there's no food for it?" Starcatcher pauses, considerably baffled still. They wave over Gaston, who gets up obligingly.
"Before you start with your expert opinion stuff, I want both of your thoughts on this. There are recent signs of corpse cleaner activity, and yet nothing to signal any sort of death in the area. So why would it stick around?"
"The
obvious answer, my dear Starcatcher, is that the creature drags its victims someplace else to kill and feed on them. But worry not! Gaston knows how to deal with some dumb insect." Gaston responds, puffing his chest out for the trillionth time that night.
However, Starcatcher seems to genuinely consider this. The piebald fae then turns to Cocoa, gaze unblinking.
"What do you think?"
Cocoa begins to stammer out a response, something along the lines of 'Oh, I'm not sure', as she wishes she was back home with her searing jackalope again- Wait! That was it!
"M-maybe, erm, there's… T-there's a dragon here who has a-a Corpse Cleaner as.. a-as a familiar." The spined little dragon seems very proud of herself for thinking of something of a decent quality, her frills fanning out and perking up.
"That… Is likely. I forgot about familiars- don't like them myself, never had a need for one anyway. Well, that rules out everything but Gaston's suggestion, Hazel existing, or some other dragon existing that imitates Hazel." Starcatcher sighs.
At this point, Gaston tries to get away, but is promptly stopped by both faes. He sighs, sitting down on a thick bough and turning his head away from the two like a disdainful poodle.
He then lets out a yelp and ducks behind a thick branch, winding around it and pointing down at a figure by a nearby cave. It was another bogsneak, body illuminated strangely by the patches of glowing blue mushrooms. She slowly turns around to look at them, letting out a dark chuckle before disappearing completely; shrouding herself in the darkness, apart from two pale, glowing green eyes which retreat into the cave.
Starcatcher glances from Cocoa and Gaston to the pinpricks of light.
"You two can go back to the cave. I've got someone to deal with." They say, simply. Both Cocoa and Gaston glance at each other, before nodding and traversing back to their cave-lair through the trees.
If Starcatcher had sleeves, they'd be rolling them up right about now. The piebald fae flutters their wings, flicking their tail and ears irritably. They wipe the strange goo seeping from their eyes and use it to cover their translucent, slightly sparkly wings. They pause, staring down at the eerie green eyes bobbing in the air, before having an idea. Waiting for a moment when the eyes seemed to grow almost bored and disinterested, Starcatcher becomes fully invisible.
The fae slinks through the trees, not making even a leaf stir in their wake. They carefully slip down from a gap between the boughs, gliding silently down into the cave...
Landing right in front of the two glowing eyes, beginning to speak.
"Touch my clan and anyone from it, and you will die. I could care less about your intentions. I saw the way you enjoyed scaring my
friends clan members, and the fact that you employ a corpse cleaner says enough, even if your meaning isn't fatal."
Starcatcher simply flies off after this, slinking off through the trees in the silence they'd used when approaching Hazel.
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