Quests & Challenges

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/battle_items/676.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence Also @Airwarrior, as requested. Eltanin comes in on page 16. :) I knew something like this was going to happen. I freaking knew it, after the long period of food and material drops! Argh! -------------------------------- Aurelia fancied herself a hunter, a scout of the forest - and what she lacked in camouflage, she made up for with impeccable marksmanship. As such, Ambrosius and Rashada had brought her along for this job: clearing a path through the Hewn City. "Just keep close to us," her father had cautioned. "It's easy to become lost here." "Mhm," Aurelia had nodded back. But she hadn't been able to keep that promise, and now she was well and truly lost. "Mother! Father?" she called out into the darkness. No one replied. Aurelia's last vestige of bravery finally crumbled now, hours after losing her parents, and she curled into a ball, shivering like a hatchling. [i]Why me? Why now?[/i] Noise pricked at the edge of her consciousness. Throwing caution to the winds, Aurelia raised her head, glancing around. A plumed tail vanished just out of sight. "Wait! Wait for me!" Aurelia cried, bounding after the owner of the tail. When she rounded the corner, she skidded to a stop. A horrific roar seared her ears. "No, nonono-!" -------------------- [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=52068527] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/520686/52068527_350.png[/img] [/url]

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/food/82.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence And rng says Group 2 - poor guys just can't catch a break this week, I guess. --------------------------- "Aurelia? Auri, where are you?" "Auri!" Rashada and Ambrosius' cries quickly attracted the wandering spirits in the area, but they didn't care. On some level, even an angry pearlcatcher dragon spirit was preferable to not knowing what had happened to their daughter. Ambrosius tore the spirits to shreds, Rashada taking a little longer to shoot down her own attackers. "Where is she?" he gritted. "We've retraced our steps three times. If she isn't here, she must have wandered off the trail," Rashada replied worriedly, not noticing the rhetorical question. Ambrosius let out a bestial snarl, bashing an already broken column in an explosion of anger. "That's impossible! She was right there! Right behind us!" "I know!" Rashada screeched back. Ambrosius froze - he'd never heard her raise her voice like that before, not even during Aurelia's hectic juvenile escapades. Head bowed and wings close to her body, she looked very much like a hatchling herself. Something inside Ambrosius cracked. "Lets try looking again later, when it's light," he said, voice rough and small. "Maybe we'll see something we didn't see now." "M-maybe." The single-word reply held enough tears to form a small stream at bay. Battered, bloody from the constant attacks against spirits, the two dragons trudged away from the ruins.

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/trinket/12943.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence Hehe, sorry for missing a couple days - I had my cakeday the other day! I am one year older, woot! Anyway, on to the meat of the story: hatchling time. And boy are they pretty. ----------------------------- Two of the eggs in the next were moving, one so ferociously it had already managed to cover the eggshell in cracks. The other one was taking its sweet time. The other two were not moving at all. Mercuria was trying to ignore that. She did not want to face what that meant, not now. White, armored limbs finally burst through the cracked eggshell, and a ridgeback tumbled out. The little thing flailed as if it were fighting some sort of invisible enemy. [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/526323/52632235_350.png[/img] "D'aww, I never knew ridgebacks could be so cute!" Maielle squealed. She looked up at Thorir. "Were you that adorable as a hatchling?" A collective chuckle went up at the father's expense. "No, don't do that! It's not something to attack," Mercuria chided the hatchling, moving it away from it's sibling's shell. The hatchling let out a high-pitched kitten-cry of complaint. "Oy, play with this," Fraxina said, rolling a round piece of mica in the hatchling's direction. It happily pounced. "I've been looking for that mica. How did you get it?" Maielle asked suspiciously. "I found it," Fraxina replied. "Ugh! I knew you stole it! This is why I bring Emerald to the beach and not you anymore," she sighed with disgust. "Ok, lets sort out the ownership of this rock later, shall we?" Sakurako suggested as the next egg hatched. [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/526323/52632234_350.png[/img] Like its sibling, it was a Ridgeback. Thorir confirmed the genders: a brother and sister pair. The elder sibling, whom they named Markus, immediately proceeded to playfight. However, Kara (as they named her) refused to engage at all, hiding in her mother's wings. "Sometimes the aggression doesn't come immediately," Thorir supplied by way of explanation, but even he looked somewhat befuddled by his new daughter's behavior. Meanwhile, the last two eggs didn't move. "Mama, eggs bad." Little Toshi spoke up. "What do you mean?" Fang asked in confusion. "They bad. Not nice." "But eggs are good, Toshi. You came out of an egg," Fang pointed out gently. She cast a confused glance at Sakurako. "They bad." Toshi refused to budge on his position. "How do you know they're bad, little mite?" Emerald asked, his tone of voice humoring. The hatchling's answer was even more improbable. "I see them. They... they get big! Some be big'n'tall'n'green. But some bad." "You [i]saw[/i] them," Sakurako restated, unsure if she'd heard the hatchling right. Toshi nodded confidently. Slowly, reluctantly, Mercuria broke one of the eggshells. Black goo seeped out of the crack. "It's back," Arya whispered. The blue Spiral looked at Maielle with pity and horror. "No - it never left. There just weren't any siblings to kill." Ariox advanced, guiding his daughter out of the lair. He cast an apologetic glance over his shoulder at his great-great granddaughter as he did so. Maielle drew her wings close to herself, even as Emerald wrapped his own flowered wing about her in comfort. She still felt cold. --------------------------- I did something a little different this time. While for lore purposes both hatchlings are goop, one of the dead is actually in @kkaebiss 's lair as part of a dragon trade! Everyone check out their as-yet-unnamed sibling! [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/526323/52632232_350.png[/img]

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/trinket/9660.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence I have a trinket. And I have no trunks to open. REEEEEEEEEEE!

@Farsidejr Thanks for the notice.

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/trinket/194.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence Nesting time, nesting time! Woot! We're on the 9th generation already. I just hope there's some sort of upgrade in this batch - I'd like a little Imp to finish off with. ---------------------- [img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/10/3healthy_0dead.png[/img] The choice had been a surprisingly easy one, honestly. Maielle had debated about even continuing her relationship with Emerald for a while, after Toshi's revelation. As it turned out, the Imperial was a seer despite his blindness, and his visions were terrifyingly accurate. Toshi had told her one day that he'd seen her sleeping atop three bushes, two of which weren't blooming. Here she was in the aftermath of her decision to live without fear - 3 eggs at her side, and utterly terrified. "Will it be worth it, I wonder?" Maielle asked aloud, not directing the question at anything in particular. "We'll make it so," Emerald promised. She let herself slip away to sleep. Even in the relatively short time she'd known Emerald, he never broke a promise. -------------------------------------------- [img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/10/3healthy_0dead.png[/img] Rashada and Ambrosius are nesting too. Lets hope they have some luck.

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/battle_items/674.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence Aaaieee! Thank god the coin flip favored me for once.

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/trinket/1049.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence @Drakessis for reasons :) ------------------------- Scant days before another generational cycle began, the blood curse was very much on the minds of Kurozuki and his companions as they traveled deeper into the Scarred Wastelands. By sheer chance, they'd heard an announcement on one of the communication devices the lightning dragons were so fond of using. [b] "Do you find yourself with an at-risk spirit or being? Are they harming you or others, or at risk of great harm themselves? Are you an undead individual that finds yourself in need of better living conditions- in need of a sanctuary? If so, feel free to call 1-800-[REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES] or come to [REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES] to find your well-needed haven for the undead. Sworn to find peace or offer security for our members, we can help with nearly any undead conundrum. In dire cases, ask for our priest, Elysium. Operators available 24/7. No Emperors allowed within the clan."[/b] "You think they could help us?" Seacrest had wondered. "With the curse, you mean? What makes you say that?" Lunus had asked him curiously. "Well, you did mention that this Darkmage character appears to survive death. They might know of an undead creature that can do such a thing, as well as cast spells. If they are advertising using such nonspecific terms, there must be more than one type of undead than a mere zombie or Emperor." Lunus had shivered at the Skydancer's intonation of the feared enemy. "Now that is a very, very good idea," Kurozuki had stated. "All in favor?" Not one had voiced an objection, despite three fourths of their number being of the polar flight to Plague. Luckily, they'd avoided sight from most clans. The spires of a massive decaying stone cathedral grew close. Hopefully, the dragons within would be able to provide some answers.

[img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/equipment/27819.png[/img][img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/battle_items/676.png[/img] @fenshae @TheAwesoMew @Farsidejr @ZippoFeuer @Coexistence I flipped tails! Yay! ------------------------------ Three little skydancers snuggled in a pile of blue wings and green runes with Maielle. Two of them, all male, bore their father's brilliant stripes, though only one looked remotely like him. [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529636/52963573_350.png[/img][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529636/52963574_350.png[/img][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529636/52963577_350.png[/img] "Care to suggest names?" Emerald asked. "I've already thought of some," Maielle replied. She nodded towards the hatchling who looked like he couldn't decide what color he wanted to be. "Jasper." She lifted a wing, revealing earthy green spots. "Beryl." She twisted her neck to glance at the sandy skydancer on her back. "And Koralo." "Gem names, like mine," Emerald realized. He was touched. "They had to have some way to tell they were yours," Maielle joked. * * * * In another area of the cliffside, a different clutch had hatched. In contrast to their first nest, this one was a bundle of joy for Ambrosius and Rashada - not a single egg had been lost. [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529636/52963590_350.png[/img] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529636/52963591_350.png[/img][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529636/52963592_350.png[/img] A seafoam and purple Imperial tousled with a purple Pearlcatcher, and their gold and blue brother. Of all of them, he was the only one with his mother's stripes. Ambrosius and Rashada leaned against each other blissfully. It was hard to imagine that just a few weeks ago they'd been grieving a child.