Roleplay

Dolderra and Setsuna searched around for the water dragons that had escaped the canisters frozen fury.

Setsuna stopped and rose her head up. "I'll never forgive them for what they've done!" said a voice in the distance.

"Dolderra I hear something! Stop!" she demanded. Dolderra snorted and swooped back to her sister.

"What is it now?" She asked pouting at the dragon she was stuck with.

"Asriel!" Another voice had called out.

"That way! Southeast from us."

Setsuna took off, leaving Dolderra in her wake. "C'mon!"

Dolderra wasted no words following after Setsuna as close as she could.

It took a few minutes to catch up with her gembound sister. They watched as it seemed to be two guardian dragons conversing.

"Let's get closer." Setsuna said, Dolderra shocked at her taking lead like this outside of a business transaction. "Wait a second!" She hissed but Setsuna had already snuck close to them behind a rock. She followed stealthily, steeling herself for a fight.

---

Aurora had finished setting up camp she had made sure that the rations of today's catch would be enough for her sisters when they got back, Dolderra especially was a big eater.

Aurora decided to check with the ice dragons. She gracefully took herself into the sky and placed herself just above the frigid air. She saw that all seemed fine so far until one of the dragons called to her attention.

When he motioned towards the frozen dragons she was surprised. SHe wanted to take a closer look but the cold was hard to delve into as soon as she landed, she clamped her wings shut and took a closer look as she shuddered from the cold. They were hooded but she had no idea to tell if they were exactly part of that fae's group as they were frozen solid.

"I'm sorry to say, I'm not quite sure...." Aurora told Wilhelm.

"I think we should all get some rest..." Taliki admitted as she let out a high pitched yawn.

Owento immediately stared at her like she was crazy before having give him a few fans of her frills which was the Fae's equivalent of shaking their head but since most dragon's don't understand the silent language of Faes it worked well as a secret message. He sighed, "right...I'm sure many of us are tired from our journeys today...we should continue to move in the morning."

"Yes, I suppose your right." Sygibelle said. She curled onto her mentor's head and drifted into a blissful sleep.

The night was without moon and as still as a photo.

"Well, should I move them over to your camp?" asked Wilhelm

At that moment, Elena returned with the supplies, and she and Niklas got to work constructing their base camp, not ceasing their work until the base camp was completely built.

"We'll begin our search in the ruins tomorrow." Said Niklas as he looked towards the setting sun, "For now, we should all get rest."

At the Shifting Expanse...

Aureole finally caught up to her emotional step-brother in the Shifting Expanse. As soon as the golden Nocturne landed at her destination, she immediately became hit with a wave of nostalgia.

The Expanse...my home...I wonder how Mama and Papa are doing...I hope they're ok..., Aureole gazed around the Highland Scrub as tears of homesickness began to well up in her eyes.

But, she quickly wiped them away and began to search for Asriel. The search wasn't that long for she easily found him right away- hiding behind a cactus.

Before Aureole could say anything, she gazed up in search of the others. Luckily, they weren't so far away from them. From a distance, the calm-as-ever Iris nodded, assuring Aureole that she should do what she must.

"Asriel?", she gently whispered as she quietly crept up behind him.

"What do you want?! Don't you have anything better to do?", Asriel scoffed with his signature catchphrase.

"Asriel, I understand why you're upset. I understand your concern for our family. But...swearing revenge and running away isn't going to make things better!"

Refusing to even look at his stepsister, he replied, "Oh please, what do you know? You were there witnesing our family almost dying? Wouldn't you want revenge too?! " He was seemingly unbothered by her sudden boost of confidence.

"Well, I admit that I'm a little angry about the whole situation too, but, I'm pretty sure whomever caused that giant blast of ice had a perfectly valid reason too. Besides, Mother always said that making friends is better than making enemi-"

While Aureole was talking, Asriel suddenly got up and lifted up his head in confusion, his nose twitching like a rabbit's own.

"Hey, do you...smell something?"

"Stop trying to change the subject- you always do this! I'm just trying to...well, not that you mention it, something does smell a little odd. I think it's coming from over here."

As Aureole followed the strange smell, Asriel quickly followed behind her. It didn't take too long before the duo came to a stop at a large rock. Iris and Kanata immediately caught up behind them, curious as to what Asriel and Aureole were looking for.

"Excuse me, is someone there?", Iris questioned, boldly standing in front of her children as she slowly led them towards the rock.

Morning came eventually over The Tangled Wood. With the morning dew cooling her body, Sygibelle awoke with a chill. She looked around. it seemed that dragons they had camped with were still sleeping.

"Milady we must continue with our mission." She whispered as she tapped her mistresses snout gently. "We must find our lair mates that have gone to find the map pieces." Lofty, roused from her slumber, stretched.

"You...are right...Let's head... deeper... into the woods...." Lofty told her.

Sygibelle's face turned into one of shock "But my lady!" SHe nearly shouted" What about our lai-"

"No need... to worry... I sensed... their presence.... deeper in..." We might... be able... to find them... but first....we need.... some things...bring... me a.... Swimming... Anole... and... a Glow... Mushroom..."

"Yes my mistress, I shall bring you these two items immediately." Sygibelle disappeared into the gloom to find her mistress her reagents.

---

Aurora had pondered what to do. On one hand they could get their lead immediatly on the map piece taken from them onv the other hand she nor anyone know what these 3 alone were capable of.

"Leave them frozen for as long as you can. We'll interrogate them late." she stated

---

"Crud we've been spotted!" Dolderra tensed up even more. She turned her head to Setsuna "Now what, chicken brain, this was your idea!" she hissed to the nocturne.

Setsuna froze there before clearing her throat and smiling as sweetly as possible, "Uh... hello, how are you fine dragons?"
Dolderra smacked her forehead. She couldn't believe what that idiot nocturne was doing.

Iris couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Heehee, why aren't you just charming? I hope we didn't startle you two.", the pink Guardian giggled at the Nocturne and the Mirror dragons.

While Iris was having her little giggling fit, Kanata cleared his throat and stated, "Umm, pardon me mother, but, we should probably introduce ourselves..."

"Oh yes, of course. Excuse me...", she replied, quickly wiping tiny trickles of happy tears. After calming down, she kindly introduced herself and her team.

"My name is Iris- leader and founder of the DiaAuroraDX clan residing in the Sea of a Thousand Currents. The lovely Nocturne hiding behind me is my step-daughter, Aureole. Say hello, my dear. I'm certain they won't attack you"

"Umm...h-hello.", Aureole's cheeks turned a nervous beet red as she shyly tucked herself under Iris's beautiful mulberry wing.

"Anyways, the two Guardians also with me are my sons- Asriel and Kanata. As you can probably tell already, they're twins.", Iris pointed to the boys respectively.

Being the gentleman that he is, Kanata calmly bowed his crimson head and smiled a warm smile. Asriel, however, turned away and muttered, "Nosy plague freaks..."

"Asriel, please! That was inappropriate! I do apologize for his behavior; he doesn't appreciate when dragons he doesn't know listens in on his conservations. Not to mention, we were almost turned into frozen sculptures back at the Sunbeam Ruins.", Iris quickly scolded her miserable son before apologizing to the two Plague dragons.

"But, enough about us? What are you two doing her in the Shifting Expanse? No, let me guess. Is your clan searching for a map piece as well?", Kanata calmly jumped into the conversation, questioning the unknown dragon's presences.

"Alright." said Wilhelm, "Keeping them frozen shouldn't be a problem."

Wilhelm then took the three frozen dragons to the Ice dragon's base camp, where the frozen dragons would stay for the time being.

At the very moment of sunrise, the three ice dragons began to pack equipment and provisions.

"Father, if this block of text is correct about the map pieces," said Elena, "Then we could use them to guide us to the next piece."

The passage in Elena's book on the treasure (obviously old, as the parchment pages were incredibly worn, yet not destroyed completely) stated that the map pieces were magically bound to each other, and would give off a yellow glow when one was nearby, growing stronger as the piece gets closer.

"Should we wait for the plauge dragons to awake, father?" asked Wilhelm

"We're not in a position to wait. Every minute we wait is a minute the plauge's adversary gets closer to another piece, if not the one we're after." replied Niklas. "If it makes you in better spirits, Wilhem, I'll leave them a letter on where we've gone."

As soon as he finished writing the letter, he left it at the plauge dragon's camp and the three departed; the letter read:

We have left for the interior ruins. We should be back by dusk. The prisoners are in a ice cell, and as long as they remain within the Frost's radius, they'll stay frozen. If you want to interrogate them, the keys are hanging on the door by the cell.
- Niklas

Sygibelle came back to her mistress's location. she was holding some anoles who were twitching and wriggling in her claws and some Glow Mushrooms. She brought them to her mistress.

"Here you go my lady, your reagents." She gave the glow Mushrooms to the mirror, she continued to clutch the swimming anoles.

"Now....we are....going... to make..... a....magical guide.... with....the essence....of these....glow...mushrooms..."sleepily she sat on her hind legs and used her hands to slowly suck the shadow magic from the mushrooms. As the mushrooms' light began to sputter and they began wither to nothing, a concentration of shadow magic in its purest form was now undulating in a black light.

"You...are going...to channel... your magic... into....this... shadow magic....I... will shape... it... and it...should.... guide us....to... the.... location... of Aurora and... the others..."

"Understood my lady" With no hesitation Sygibelle began to channel her own electric magics into the dark orb. After a bolt was let into it, Sygibelle eyed the orb curiosly.

It pulsed rapidly, it's core disturbed by the shock it had taken. It slowly came to a stop. Shining through the dark were shafts of light. Letting off some energy the orb slowly shifted away from them.

Getting from her upright position Lofty followed the orb with Sygibelle in tow.

"If we continue....this way...we...will find them...eventually..."

---

Aurora was basking in the eternal sunlight. Noting the ice dragon's leaving she watch them fly away and leave behind their camp.

"I do hope those two would hurry up soon....I'm beginning to become worried." she scanned the horizon as a breeze began to stir.

---

Setsuna continued to talk to the water dragons hoping that she didn't guaranteed their death. They seemed nice enough.

"Hello, I'm Setsuna the nocturne and this is my clan sister, Dolderra. It's nice to meet you!"

"Yeah.... such charming dragons." Dolderra muttered under her breath. "Better hope they don't decide to drown your butt...."

Dolderra earned a small smack to face from the nocturne's tail. A hint for her to go along or at the least shut up.

"Anyways, we were hoping we could talk to you after we noticed you during our landing. You see we've been on the look out for some suspicious, hooded dragons and were wondeing they've crossed your path. They've be-"

"Setsuna!" Dolderra growled at her looked ready to chomp on the little nocturne's neck "May I REMIND you that we don't need other dragons looking for the retreasuay. That'd be adbay!"

"They won't know what I'm talking about." she whispered back. "We need to track those dragons down and get the map piece back besides if those ice dragons have a piece I won't be surprised if other dragons have them and that means those dragons are in just as much danger." A breeze that had been blowing got slightly harsher. It was beginning to howl in the nocturne's sensitive ears.