Quests & Challenges

@sedge122

Thank you!! Added you to the pinglist c:

>> Entry 5

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"****." I woke up propped up against the wreckage of Kunda's cart. One of the wheels had fallen off, and the whole cart was peppered with arrows. As I turned to look, I felt... I don't like being dramatic, but the only word for it is agony. Like a thousand knives biting into me. Turns out I wasn't far wrong. I had five arrows stuck in my side. There was... a lot of blood. Too much. My wings were full of tattered holes. My fur was matted, stinking and muddy. Flies swarmed around me. I shuddered, and it hurt. Well, there was nothing else for it. I removed the arrows. I won't waste time detailing how much pain it caused -- that, I'd rather forget. Gods, I felt tired. I bled more, and I guess I must've passed out again for a bit, because the sun seemed to blink across the sky. But I came to eventually. And I kept going. What else could I do? All around, the mud had been trampled into a big, sodden mess. I could make out the tracks of who I assumed to be Hather and Kunda -- and a whole array of rounded hoofprints. Between that and the arrows, I could make a good guess as to what had happened. Damn centaurs. I considered leaving the cart, but it still had all of our basic supplies on it; the herbs and medicines were gone, but there was the tent, the beds, the food. The others must have left in a hurry. Left you here to die, some part of me thought, but I ignored it. Somehow I mustered enough strength to lift the cart and, with all my weight behind it, I shoved the missing wheel back on. The rest was... intact enough. With some effort, I hitched myself up to the front of the cart -- it wasn't very comfortable, and I'm pretty sure I was too small for the damn thing, but I started to haul it along anyway. I told myself the tracks left by my companions must be fresh. In truth, I didn't have a clue. But that's what I told myself anyway. I followed the path. The sun began to set, but I continued on. The others can't have gone that far, surely. And they probably would've found somewhere to camp early on, since the tent was here on the cart; they'd need to have found a natural cave somewhere, or something like that. I don't know how long I dragged that damn cart along on my aching shoulders. Stupid cart. Stupid broken body. Stupid Hather and Kunda, leaving me behind. Eventually I saw a light in the distance. The tracks headed in the same direction, so I followed. By then I was so exhausted, it was like I was moving in a trance. I noticed the light resolve itself into multiple smaller lights, small fires -- campfires, and torches hung on high poles. I gave myself a shake as I approached, forced myself to wake up a bit. This was clearly some clan's home, and I could only hope they were friendly. A few dragons stared at me as I passed. I smiled weakly at them, trying to indicate I wasn't a threat, but they just stared. The tracks I was following were gone now, overwhelmed by the marks of activity around the entrance to the clan's main cave. It was nothing like the cave we'd cleared the jerboas out of -- this one was... well, majestic in its Plague-iness, with great fangs of bone arching out from either side. There were tents around the entrance braced with large bones, and the skulls of beasts mounted on pikes, and bones hanging from strings like windchimes, as... I guess some nice Plaguey decoration? Something to add to the ambiance? But I was too tired to be intimidated. Besides, I hadn't been attacked yet. And what could I do if I was attacked? I was in no state to fight. "Hather!" I yelled out in no particular direction. "Kunda! You here!?" There was a long pause. The dragons of the clan just stared, unblinking. I was almost considering turning and leaving -- the silence was uncanny -- but then there was movement. A familiar face emerged from the clan's main cave. Hather. But they didn't look happy to see me. They looked... terrified. They actually took a step back, as if something had hit them. "No. NO!" they finally yelled, pointing a claw at me. "You DIED! You are DEAD! How are you here!? I SAW YOU DIE!" Well, they certainly seemed convinced of that, at least. But I was tired, and hurting, and it solidified into anger. "YOU left me for dead! You abandoned me!" "You were dead! You had no pulse! Your blood was everywhere! How are you here!?" Hather practically screamed. I saw someone else behind them put a claw on their shoulder, then Kunda appeared, and Hather retreated into the shadow of the cave. I could almost see the shaking in their limbs as they backed away. "Hey Kunda," I said, my voice now a bit hoarse, and weak. "I brought your cart." Kunda didn't answer. He hesitated for a minute, then ran over. He didn't care about the cart. He immediately, wordlessly started to look me over, checking my pulse, my eyes, my tongue. I was so ******* tired. I just let him do it. Didn't have it in me to question him. "Not possible..." he muttered, then stepped back. "How are you alive?" "I don't know. I just am," I sighed. I was too tired for... whatever this was meant to be. Kunda went back and spoke to some wildclaw dressed in what I guess classed as finery in Plague territory -- which meant mainly bones, with some armour plates mixed in there, held together with tattered red cloth. They wore a crown made of, you guessed it: more bones. The wildclaw glared at me with barely concealed hostility, but somehow Kunda managed to reason with them I guess, because nobody attacked me and I was allowed to stay the night -- albeit in our tent, on the outskirts of the settlement. I just want to sleep. Today has been too... painful, and too weird for me. Just going to sleep. And hope I wake up in the morning. -- Zari Turn: 4 @Uyi @sedge122 Omg, I'm not even finished round 4 and already so much has happened. So I'm gonna break this one up into a few entries. I don't want to cram loads into one entry. Tl;dr of how this round is going so far, Zari has "died" a LOT! Poor guy!

I decided to draw Zari looking all beat up. It's a bit too graphic to post here (there's uhhh blood) but here's a link to my tumblr if you want to see: ART.

>> Entry 6

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"Oh good, you're awake," said Kunda as he hurried over to me. The sun was only just peeking over the mountains that surrounded us. I was lounging, eating a sweet granola bar for breakfast, and longing for some tea. Alas, it had all been stolen along with the rest of the herbs on Kunda's cart. "Hey," I said, feeling weirdly awkward after yesterday's... ordeal. I was about to say something more, but Kunda spoke first. "We need to leave. Soon." "Yeah, I figured I might've overstayed my welcome," I muttered as I stood and stretched out my ragged wings. "Everyone keeps staring at me. It's okay, I'll go." Kunda nodded. "I'll pack up the cart." "Wait, you're coming too? Why? You could rest up more here, surely..." Kunda may not have been in quite as sorry a state as I was, but he was still clearly exhausted. A few raw scratches marred his hide, and his tail seemed to bend at an odd angle. But more than that, he just seemed so weak -- his head and tail hung low, and his eyes were dull. But Kunda shook his head vigourously. "No, no, I must leave also." He hesitated. "These dragons, this clan. They were hostile to us. I had to... call in a favour. I acted rashly. I need to leave just as much as you do -- soon." He seemed to be... hiding something, maybe. Skirting around some truth he didn't want me to know. That's okay. Everyone's got secrets, I thought to myself. I wasn't going to waste energy being curious. Wasn't my business. We quickly packed up our belongings. There was tension in the air; the dragons around us were watching, their faces ominously inexpressive. I noticed most of them were well-armed, and they were certainly all in much better condition than we were. If they turned hostile, it wouldn't even be a fight. We wouldn't stand a chance. Hather joined us on the edge of the clan's territory. I noticed how they kept their distance from me, and the coldness of their gaze on me. They really didn't trust me. Were they scared of me? Or was I just some affront to them? Either way, they still came with us as we left. We trekked for a half hour in silence, getting as far from the clan's territory as we could -- hurried on by Kunda's urging. I wasn't going to pry, but his desperation and fear were... concerning, to say the least. "I'm going to scout ahead," said Hather, breaking an uneasy silence. They left before anyone could argue. I glanced at Kunda as they disappeared into the crags ahead of us. He shrugged. The sun crept across the sky. Finally, Kunda spoke. "I'm sorry... for leaving you behind." He sighed. "Truthfully, we were in a dire situation. I think if we had stayed, I would have died. Maybe Hather too." I noticed, for the first time, that he was lacking his creepy companion -- the janustrap that used to follow him, or perch between his wings. Must've been lost in the fight, I guess. "It's okay. I was dead, right? You abandoned a corpse. Can hardly fault you for that," I said with a forced smile. But deep down, I think I still felt betrayed. Even if it was irrational. There was another silence. Then Kunda began to speak: "the Plaguebringer says that the undead are horrible things. An affront to the natural order. A vile attempt to persist beyond the ultimate natural end -- selfish and cowardly and wrong." "So you think I'm undead?" "I don't know. You seem alive, but you weren't before. But if you were undead, you would be my enemy. And I... I don't think you're my enemy." He stared at me for an uncomfortably long time. "No. I don't think you're undead. I don't know what you are, but you're no monster." I... something about that made me jerk. Like some instinctual part of me believed, or knew, that it wasn't true. I tried to rationalise it -- I had done nothing wrong. I was just a dragon, right? Despite my stubborn reluctance to die, I was still just a dragon. But still, the phrase put me on edge. It repeated in my head, but twisted. You're no monster. Or are you? The sun edged towards the jagged horizon. Hather returned, thankfully unharmed; they wouldn't speak to me, or even look at me much, but they spoke to Kunda. He asked if there were any caves nearby we could spend the night in. Hather led us to one, a small natural cavern barely visible between the twisted vegetation that surrounded the entrance. "Perfect," said Kunda. "I was worried about camping in the open." Still, he insisted we not light a fire. It was a warm enough night, but I did regret not being able to cook some food up; it was a pitiful meal of raw forage for me that evening, mostly mushrooms and berries that I could only hope were actually edible. We sat in the dark for a while, me and Kunda occasionally trying to make conversation but failing miserably. Kunda's asleep now, and I cast a small light to write by. I hope he didn't notice. -- Zari Turn: 4 @Uyi @sedge122 I'm really glad I added in that rule about familiars counting as an extra life, because Kunda very nearly died this turn. Thankfully he had his janustrap to take his place. Ahhh I get so attached to my dragons, I think I would've legit cried if he had died!

ooh wow that's lucky! im really curious about why Zari doubts that he's a dragon. love the conflict that's building up between him and Hather, drama is always delightful in a story

[color=#6E4135][size=6][font=courier]>> Entry 7[/size][/font][/color] [columns][color=transparent]..........[/color][nextcol][color=#6E4135]We'd been travelling for a few days. We were far from that clan's territory, but Kunda still seemed on edge -- he seemed jumpy. We kept a steady pace with his encouragement. He said we'd be fine once we hit the Rotrock Rim. [b]"Hard to find anyone in that craggy wasteland,"[/b] he said. Hather still kept their distance. They wouldn't talk to me, though I tried. I wanted to find a way to make peace with them somehow, but it was hard when the only thing I'd apparently done wrong was... live? I wasn't sure how to rectify that. Still, we were mostly doing okay. We were surviving, and that was enough. Then, today, after an uneventful morning, we were ambushed by a trio of Shade-taken gryphons. Disturbing creatures. I'd heard of the Shade causing animals to go mad (I think most dragons have, ever since the gaolers emerged from hiding); never thought I'd have to see it with my own eyes though. There wasn't anything odd-looking about them, though the way they moved was... jittery and subtly wrong in a way that's really hard to describe. Their eyes were dull, and they had a kind of aura of... emptiness. I don't know if a non-mage would pick up on it. It was like they didn't have souls -- they were just husks. Seriously unnerving. They ambushed us. Maybe it's just me, but they seemed smarter than an animal had any right to be, and they worked together in perfect unison. Tough fight, that's for sure. At one point they managed to split Kunda off from the rest of us, cornering him against some dense vegetation and attacking savagely. He tried to fight back, but it was three against one. On instinct, I barrelled through the gryphons; I surprised myself a bit with how much force I managed to hit them with, forsaking magic in favour of just hitting them away with my paws. I may not be large, but something must've been fuelling me, because I managed to knock one straight over and pushed another one out of the way. The third, I hit in the face with a contusion, and it reeled back. I flared my wings, and the creatures actually [i]hesitated[/i] for a second. Long enough for Kunda to get back on his feet. As he did, I glanced back to check on him. Our eyes met. The moment seemed to stretch out way longer than it should have. I didn't blush. It was just the heat of battle. I was just protecting my friend. I wasn't blushing. Nope. Then the corrupted gryphons were on us again, and I was almost thankful for the distraction. Hather charged in and hit one like a battering ram, and Kunda darted out to efficiently dispatch another. For a herbalist, he sure is a ruthless fighter. The last one squawked in rage but began to retreat. [i]Oh hell no,[/i] I found myself thinking. I chased it down, blasting it with contusions then whacking it with my claws when I was out of Breath. It fell, and didn't get back up. [i]Bet I made my distant gaoler ancestors proud with that,[/i] I thought to myself smugly. We were all a bit battered after the ordeal, especially Kunda. I tried to help him bandage himself up (thankfully, there was still some simple gauze left on the cart). Turns out, I have no clue how to properly tend a wound. But Kunda patiently showed me how, and we patched up his wounds, then mine. I offered to use the last of the gauze to bandage Hather's scratches, but they just glared at me. I looked at Kunda and shrugged helplessly. [b]"Plague dragons, we're a superstitious lot,"[/b] said Kunda. [b]"They don't know what to make of what happened the other day. Once they realise you're still the same dragon you were before, they'll come around -- I'm sure of it."[/b] I nodded. [b]"I really hope you're right."[/b] We set up the tent, started a campfire, sat around it for a while. Me and Kunda chatted while Hather just sat in silence, listening. Kunda ended up rambling extensively about the janustrap he'd lost, how he'd been researching the medicinal properties of janustrap bile. I didn't really care, but I listened anyway. Everyone else is asleep now. Guess I better turn in for the night. -- Zari ----- [color=#AE8272][b]Turn:[/b] 5 @Uyi @sedge122 sadgkjashdgas I decided to give Zari the guard battlestone because logically it makes sense right, since he's my only dragon that can't permanently die? And mostly he ends up guarding Kunda because Hather is a tank. But this had the unexpected consequence of me now having a new OTP... I ship it so much guys. I love gay dragons. [emoji=rainbow size=1] Also fun, little-known fact: the enemies our dragons fight in the coli are canonically all tainted by the Shade and that's why they're hostile! (Except the beastclans, they're hostile because they're at war with the dragons).

oh that's adorable! i am all for seeing how Zari and Kunda develop, and if Hather is going to stop moping around about Zari's "will to live"

@chippertowns

YOU ARE RIGHT HE IS SUCH A GOOBER xD
Added you! Thank you!! ^^