Creative Corner

----- [center][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414#post_28871276]Previous[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414#post_2249414]Main Page[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414/2#post_28908459]Next[/url][/center] ----- [center][size=6][u]Day 5[/u][/size] [item=stag figurine][/center] ----- [i]I'll apologize for the double ping now! I've got two days to share with you all, and I didn't have a chance to post this one as of yesterday because I was super busy, saw a new dentist.... and my tablet for whatever reason wasn't working. This is an art day however! And since the writing's gonna be in today's, I'll just share some art! Without further ado:[/i] [center][img]https://orig03.deviantart.net/6e72/f/2017/228/b/a/meredian_locke_portrait_by_minthuu-dbkajq8.png[/img][/center] ----- [center]@Silverhame @Legetha[/center] ------

----- [center][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414/2#post_28907746]Previous[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414/1#post_2249414]Main Page[/url] | Next[/center] ----- [center][size=6][u]Day 6[/u][/size] [item=scholar][/center] ----- [i]You'd think that I'd have gotten food items by now from Pinkerton. Materials and trinkets, yes. Food items, shoulda coulda woulda? Battlestones.... supposedly not common, but okay. Anyway.... this roll for a death streak, you ask? Well... HEADS. We'll see below how this went for our poor wayward heroes, yes? Tarrey is fine for now, and yes, we're going to be joining groups soon! But for now, back to our intrepid duo and their struggles. Without further ado:[/i] [center]---[/center] Dawn was barely peaking over the edge of the horizon, and its rosy pink rays hadn't even quite reached the camp where Meredian and Hayate were quietly trying to regroup. Blood was already soaking through the nocturne's bandages, and she certainly was favoring her leg, but at least she was [i]alive.[/i] [center][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/349293/34929271_350.png?mtime=WZAIVQACYpM.png[/img][/center] "Thank you again, Hayate," she hummed quietly, rolling the hurt shoulder with a wince and a faint twinge. "I'm sure it'll heal quickly enough." "It will," he replied. Silence. And then... "How do you know how to wrap someone up this well, anyway?" "Mm. Practice. In case of emergencies, travelling alone. It was the one thing my...previous clan insisted upon before my departure. And you know the stereotype." "Plague-eyed dragons are the best healers, despite being born of the wyrmwound themselves..." "Correct." It was quiet for a while, after that. Neither dragon said anything as they listened to the hideous screeching and flapping of wings from somewhere outside, waiting for their unwitting draconic prey to make itself known from their cover. From where she lay, tail curled over her forepaws, Meredian watched Hayate pace the small area, the crinkling of paper and dull thump of scroll cases bouncing off of his hide following him. She didn't say anything for a while, opting to just watch and rest her own wounds. But eventually, the curiosity got to be too much. "Hayate, what [i]are[/i] you doing?" The snapper paused and looked over at her for a moment. But it was only a moment, before he pushed another curled scroll into his currently open case, turning back to press other carefully organized items into a large carrying bag. "We're leaving the area. It isn't safe." "What!?" She froze for a minute before bounding to her feet, only hissing in pain momentarily before approaching. "We're leaving Dragonhome!? But- but what about--" "Lords, Meredian, I didn't say we were leaving the territory. Just [i]here.[/i] Something isn't settling with me about those birds. We're low on provisions anyway. It would be best to find a clan- preferably a large one. I can keep working as you heal there. Now, if I fold these sheets, can you carry them as a sling for your arm?" She nodded, and the conversation was lost. The silence grated at Meredian, even as she patiently stayed silent, moving only to help pack what she could, and to move positions so Hayate could gently strap bags over her waist and sling her arm with the furs they'd been resting on all week. The silence dug at the edges of her mind, and after awhile, Meredian frowned. [i]Silence.[/i] There were no birds- or sounds of...anything. Dawn light struck at the edges of the tent, lending a dusky glow to the now eerily empty camp. "Hayate...do you hear that?" "I don't hear anything." "Exactly. They're gone." The snapper stopped moving for a moment, face impassive, and she knew he was focusing, listening. Eventually, he let out a quiet sigh, and nodded, turning away. "Let's go then. There's no time wasting around like this. We don't know when they'll be ba-" [i][b]RRRRIIIIIIIIIIPPP[/b][/i] Hayate's words were lost as he and Meredian spun around, the canvas over their head torn open by vicious claws. He hunkered over as the claws tore in again, [i]again and again- rrrrriiiiippp[/i] until a head poked through, snarling and snapping. A Ceanothus Brawler - but something wasn't right about it. The monster's eyes were crazed, and it dove in again to the canvas with a raged howl. Hayate glanced at Meredian, and took initiative. He sprinted forward suddenly, and slammed into the brawler. It screeched, startled, and fell backwards, claws caught within the canvas - and then it was tumbling over the ground and they were outside, Hayate standing his ground steadily against it. Another snarl came from his right - a mith bruiser. With a flap of her wings, Meredian was up on the ground beside the snapper, teeth bared threateningly at the bruiser as the brawler shook its head and picked itself up off the ground. "What's wrong with these things, look at them!" "I don't [i]know.[/i]" The mith bruiser was twitching as if possessed, eyes glassy and dull. Something tarry and black matted the fur of the creature, and it stayed hunched, as if void of life itself. The same substance was spattered over the brawler as well, and it too, seemed.... off. It lunged at the snapper again, with bone crunching, jittering movements, painfully unnatural-- And Hayate reared backwards as it latched itself to him, violently throwing his weight side to side before slamming his shoulder into the ground. The brawler squawked in pain, and its grip lost, Hayate twisted and bore his weight down into the beast again and again and again - slam after slam, until with a shuddering squeal, it stopped moving. He glanced up to see the bruiser throw itself into Meredian, who danced back in the air, hissing and clawing at the creature as it mindlessly pursued the nocturne. The snapper's heart raced in his chest - they had to get out of there. Away. [i]NOW.[/i] "Go!" he yelled, as he then slammed his weight into the bruiser, which reeled back, momentarily stunned. "Hurry up, run! I'll be right behind you!" Meredian squeaked in fear, her shoulder and arm burning in pain, and leaped forward. Snapping her jaws around the bruiser's wings, she tore through the membrane, and clawed into its shoulders before she sprung away as it swung at her, roaring. The moment she touched the ground, she began to sprint. [i]Curse these legs![/i] The short appendages weren't doing much to keep her going at the speed she needed, and curse her oversized wings too, that kept threatening to trip her as she used them to propel herself forward. She glanced behind her. Hayate was indeed behind her, but the snapper was slow in his gallop, and the bruiser, whilst bleeding - [i]dripping[/i] the black tar substance, was gaining on him quickly. He was going to get caught if she didn't do something! And mind made up, instinct kicking in, Meredian did. She jumped into the air as high as she could, ignoring the protesting screaming in her shoulder as she flapped her wings. And then she curled her body downward as if to pounce, and when Hayate was running beneath her, she dove down, wrapping her hands tightly under his armpits. And then, willing all the wind magic in her body to not fail her, she swung her legs down, and sprung them both into the air. He was so [i]heavy[/i]! Meredian knew she couldn't carry the snapper for long if at all, and ignoring his pained protests, she wrapped her legs around him as well, digging her claws in hard to his soft underbelly. Him plus her plus the weight of all of their gear - it was too much-- "Oh, Windsinger, help me please--" A strong gale blew under the two, and drove Meredian's aching wings forward, and she pulled herself higher and higher under the strength of her magic, the unnatural green winds buffering them - and then she hit a hard slipstream, and they were away, her wings bearing them as if by some godly miracle, away from the bruiser that couldn't keep up with her, away, away... She wouldn't stop flying until her breath wouldn't come and her wings gave out, crashing them hard into the ground. And even then, Hayate would pull himself up and scoop the bleeding nocturne onto his back, and continue running. And he'd run until the smoke of campfires from a dragon clan rose into the distance - when the sun was well into its daily climb into the sky. [center]---[/center] [i]You have no idea how lucky I got with this death streak. Nobody aimed for Tarrey at all, surprisingly, save for what, one hit? Most of the damage went to Meredian and Hayate, and Hayate took it like a trooper my dudes; I'm so glad I put points into defense for him. Yikes. We almost lost Meredian though - there was a mith bruiser that got in a couple critical hits and it was super chancy for a bit there... but then there ended up three or four battles that were literally just one monster in a row and that was pretty much what got us through the death streak. So yay! Nobody died! And again, sorry for the double ping, I just want to be on track and caught up with everything. Hope y'all enjoy![/i] ----- [center]@Silverhame @Legetha[/center] -----

I love your story, can't wait for the next update!

@Legetha
Aaaa thank you, I'm so glad to hear it! This has been a lot of fun for me to do so far c:

----- [center][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414/2#post_28908459]Previous[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414/1#post_2249414]Main Page[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2249414/3#post_28950408]Next[/url][/center] ----- [center][size=6][u]Day 7[/u][/size] [item=chickweed][/center] ----- [i]Apparently if you grumble enough times about Pinkerton never giving you food, he gives you food. I should grumble about him not giving me any familiars or apparel, haha! Anyway, this is just plants, so 10-20 matches! Nothing too bad, right? Right! (Honestly, I'm kind of waiting for something for Tarrey but dang, we'll see. For today, it's a little late so I'm gonna talk another backstory today before we get back into the meat of it all.) Without further ado:[/i] [center]---[/center] [b]HAYATE:[/b] Hayate may have been born of the wyrmwound, but he has the intelligence and fervent desire for knowledge of a light dragon. Strangely enough, though, he doesn't much have the warm passionate disposition of the nature dragon his mother is - nor the strong magical nature of the arcane dragon his father is. What Hayate [i]is,[/i] is clinical, cold, serious, and very, very analytical. It's thought that the snapper doesn't have a sense of humor, nor a compassionate bone in his body. He has his curiosities, and he follows those curiosities and questions with the one tracked mind of a pitbull, refusing to give up or let it go until his questions are sated, no matter what it takes. He's incredibly logical, analytical, and everything he does is backed up with logistics, facts, and proof he has conjured. Out of all dragons, he's strongly an atheist. This may be due to the fact that his grandfather on his mother's side was a bogsneak whom underwent the horrid mutation that had occurred some years before. His mother had been born under the mutation herself - and his grandfather's teachings had trickled down to Hayate himself. A breed shunned, turned away from the other dragons with a snarl and a disgusted noise. Something unnatural. Not born of the deities, how... [i]foul.[/i] Dragons that had rallied under the old alchemy master Baldwin, who took in the children as his own and gave them shelter and love and understanding... Who was to say that the deities existed [i]at all?[/i] Dragons turning away dragons at the thought of them not being born of some fabled gods that nobody had ever seen, ever had any actual proof of. 'A long time ago huge giants were born of the wild chaos of nature itself, and they hated each other, and they created dragons themselves in their images to fight for control. They brought the Shade from above, and held Sornieth together by turning into a magical tower so long ago that nobody had any proof of it actually happening. It had been before dragons, afterall. [i]How ludicrous.[/i] Beyond his disgust at how dragons treated each other over some silly fairy tales, there was no actual proof of the deities existing. Maybe Hayate would believe when he had [i]evidence.[/i] But it was when he was somewhere between hatchlinghood and adulthood that Hayate had heard his arcane snapper father humming some old mining tune. He'd asked the old man about it. And the snapper told him a story about a world beneath the world. Some... paradise, some huge beautiful world far away from the politics and fear and wars of Sornieth, created before even the very gods themselves. And even better, there was both physical and cultural [i]proof[/i] of it all. Every flight - [i]EVERY[/i] flight, had different stories and riddles about this fabled place... The Catacombs, they called it. And there were maps. Maps, journals, entire diaries from explorers of old that had documented everything they knew about it. 'Yeah,' his father had told him, 'they got all that archived up at the Observatory, in Arcane territory.' And so Hayate left. His parents knew he'd leave. Once Hayate had an idea in his head... they gave him what they could, as the little explorer left, but none was more sad about his departure than his little brother, who [i]had[/i] inherited the bogsneak gene. He'd... he'd miss the little guy, maybe. His brother had always relied on Hayate - been a brilliant research partner, tagged along everywhere, carried what Hayate couldn't and recorded when the snapper's claws were full. It would be a little more difficult to not have a research partner, but Hayate would make do. Some weeks later, Hayate had found himself at Arcane's Observatory itself, and among the many other clans who both lived and worked there. A week and a half after that, he'd gotten what he wanted. Borrowing copies of these manuscripts and maps, and some of the old journals that some of the librarians had just scoffed at with an amused, 'lords, take it, we don't need these silly fables...' he'd been off. And about a month and a half later, he was hot on the trail of the most viable tip he had. The entrance to the Catacombs under the Pillar of the World. And the rest, you know the story... [center]---[/center] [i]Well! That was a good bit of fun to write. I love giving a little more insight about our characters, especially since things are gonna start picking up. But anyway, until then, let's hear a little bit about how the coliseum training went today! The first fight picked up a new familiar, and since it was a Janustrap, and Hayate defeated it, I miiiiiiiight give it to him. But if my dragons get apparel, or familiars, I want it to make sense to their person, y'feel? But otherwise, jesus the enemies of the woodland path were hitting HARD today. Almost lost Meredian twice - again. Cockatrice's are very rude with getting critical hit after critical hit. I'm glad I have an inordinate amount of health potions saved up because of mire grinding. Anyway, see you next time![/i] ----- [center]@Silverhame @Legetha[/center] -----

I liked learning about Hayate!

I can't wait for the next installment!

@Legetha
I'm glad you like Hayate! He's probably one of the more interesting characters I've decided to explore. You'll certainly know when the next update comes around later today!

@Petall
I actually made the most happy inhuman squeak ever I'm so so glad you like it so much, of course I'll add you to the pinglist!!

(Don't tell the others but Dia's my favorite too - her optimism is so....contagious? I feel happy writing her ahaha)