Roleplay

@shynereid
@LeahR95

The blue Guardian felt his lip curl as the stranger wheeled over them. Was he scouting for someone? Was he curious and would eventually go away? Or did he simply want Thundercracker's deer? Let him have it, the smaller dragon thought. I'll have his fish. He had half a mind to offer, but he couldn't find his voice. The end of his tail twitched. He was frightened. If he could, he would run. Fly. Anything.

And he was annoyed. Thundercracker knew what the new dragon was thinking. What could anyone who saw him step in front of Shikashi think? This dragon was an Imperial. Perhaps the markings on his side meant nothing to this stranger. To any other Guardian, they were plain as day: Stay away, this dragon is a traitor. That basically negated any romantic attempts. Or even offers to give shelter.

At the same time as the dragon spoke, not unkindly to him, Thundercracker too found he was able to speak. "You aren't supposed to offer me help. I am not allowed help," he rumbled. "And this female is not my mate. She offered me food and shelter." He finished with a frown.

@shynereid

By the Stormcatcher, this dragon cannot be silenced. Shikashi seemed largely disinterested in either of them, and perhaps might go her own way soon. How was he to know? As if he mattered enough. He didn't mind. Shikashi surely had her own business to attend to and it was a credit to her that she would even spend this much time around him.

This new dragon, apart from the constant passes at Shikashi, also rambled. A lot. Someone who used a surplus of words irritated relatively quiet dragons like Thundercracker. Well, probably only Thundercracker. The ignorance was also annoying. Did he have to explain his Honorlost marks again today? Would he really be forced to admit his own foolishness once more?

"They will stop bleeding on their own", he growled through gritted teeth. As a test, he set his front left foot against the wound, and despite all his hopes, the wounds showed no sign of slowing in their oozing of blood. "Really, it isn't my choice to say no, but I must. If you were from my Flight, perhaps you'd understand. If you were a Guardian, you would understand..."

His words, rare already, died away as he swooned but didn't lose consciousness. His legs had simply lost all resolve and crumbled underneath him. A few of his claws were twisted painfully underneath him, but the young Guardian hadn't the strength to shift himself off of them.

"I-I deserve these wounds..." he wheezed weakly, more pale than ever.

@shynereid

The emotional turnaround of the other dragon had sort of hit Thundercracker like a pile of bricks. He acted like he was mature, that he would take any punishment he received, but the reality was that he was still young. Still more naive than he could imagine. Wait, what? After all that, you'd just turn around? He was confused. He hadn't met a dragon yet who hadn't forced hospitality on him. Provided, Shikashi was not willing to let him heal at all, but at least she had decided to associate with him.

No. He couldn't die. Not yet. He hadn't gone through the abuse his family put him through to throw it all away for honor. He would lock those feelings away. Keep his secret. He would be better than those who cast him out. He would be better than he was the night he tried to kill his father. He still remembered that night, tears in his eyes, the rain pounding outside, the hesitation which had caught him in the end. No... That is history. And it will be buried with the dead.

"Wait..." he hissed. His heart pounded with excitement and fear of what he was about to ask. "Please... Don't leave me here. I don't want to..." his words died again. With his last bit of strength before the world turned black, he reached out his claws in supplication.

@shynereid

Thundercracker wasn't dead. Not yet. Though the young dragon's breathing was shallow and his flank barely stirred, this was a beneficial sleep. Any more movement from him, and he would have met his end. Perhaps when he woke, he might believe it was the Stormcatcher taking mercy on him. Perhaps the great storm dragon had decided to forgive him where he couldn't forgive himself. The sleep, while needed, was far from peaceful.

Thundercracker dreamt he was back at his family's layer. It seemed far less crowded than usual, and he was puzzled by this until he realized he was looking at the very egg from which he had hatched. But there were more than just his egg... Strange. I was from a single-egg clutch. His mother and father were fighting. They had always fought. But this fight was different. His father looked... different. There was a different light in his cyan eyes. Sneering, snarling at his mother. And then his father's tail lashed out, and very purposefully, destroyed the egg next to his own. His mother howled with rage, and leapt for his father, but before she reached him, the other egg next to him was destroyed. And he was next.

Thundercracker wanted to go forward, to ask what was going on, but he couldn't move or speak. His father's tail lashed once more- but the strike was interrupted by a bolt of lighting, which touched down in front of Thundercracker's egg. Thunder growled in the sky, as if admonishing his stunned father. And then he could hear his parents' words.

"Fine. This little slug will be spared. What will you call it?"

"He shall be called 'Thundercracker', after what saved him from you."

All at once, he was pulled out of the dream violently, but not without hearing some parting words in a voice that belonged to neither of his parents. "I saved you that night. Do not end so easily here." And just like that, he was awake again, in the shade of a fallen tree. There was no sight of the Imperial that had saved him, but there was a note explaining where he had gone.

"Great..." the young dragon sighed. "Now I just need a note explaining what that dream was all about. Those were some things I didn't need to see."

@shynereid
((Nah bro, that's fine. I totally understand the stress of schoolwork.))

Thundercracker had dozed again in the time the blue Imperial dragon had been gone. He hadn't dreamt of anything during his nap, but he felt wonderfully refreshed. The sunlight was so warm, the sky was cloudless, and small songbirds flew overhead, paying no heed to the great scaly beast beneath them. Today is a good day for a new beginning, the young dragon decided. He stretched his wings wide, showing off the Seraph pattern he had been born with, and folded them again. He didn't get up, but he shifted his legs under him, in order to get rid of the pins and needles that had developed in them.

His head perked up as the sound of wingbeats approached. He knew without seeing that it was the Imperial who had saved him. He wasn't sure how he knew, but perhaps feathered wings sounded different to him than wings without. New beginning or not, Thundercracker was still a shrinking violet and couldn't bring himself to say hello first. He acknowledged the older dragon's presence and watched him set up his camp. The preparation of the fish made his mouth water, and also made him wonder where his deer had gotten to. Carried off by a scavenger, no doubt.

Thundercracker's brow furrowed as he saw the row of shining medical instruments being laid out on the sun-baked ground. He had never been to a healer. Somehow, despite being a runt, he avoided the curse of poor health in his early youth. His fearful gaze was shaken by the dragon speaking directly to him, introducing himself as Oceanus. "Oceanus," the Guardian repeated quietly. "When I was worth- I... I mean, my name is Thundercracker." He had almost said the traditional introduction for a shamed dragon, forgetting for a moment that to himself, he was no longer shamed, and that nothing else mattered.

"You... Are you going to use those tools on my side?" he asked, steadying his voice against the nervous waver it had.