Roleplay

@DoppelBia @Loquaciousky
Creepiness warning for what comes ahead; Blackberry finds his clan... sort of.

---Blackberry---
Blackbery felt the water around him grow colder as he descended. Black, cold, but not entirely dark, especially not to one who had been born and raised in the territory of the Water flight. He swam close to the reef until he found an opening, and then he ducked inside. A tunnel curved through the plants and coral, just big enough for small dragons.

Blackberry paused for a moment, his slowly beating wings creating currents around him. Something seemed strange, abandoned and ghostly. Narrowing his eyes, he moved forward again.

Then he moved into a larger space, and he saw the bodies.

He let out a nearly silent scream that bounced off the walls and through the tunnel, growing slightly louder as it hit open water. Flapping and twisting, Blackberry darted to the nearest dragon and stared at the markings. Barnacle! Banana! Stingray! No, no no... Panicking, he backed into some of the coral, and bumped into a larger dragon, then panicked and raced back up the tunnel, bubbles streaming from his open mouth as he tried to scream, but it made no noise in the water.

He swam back up so fast that the instant lack of pressure almost hurt, but he had to get out of there.

Blackberry finally burst out on the surface, still screaming, to see Jagiya talking to two other dragons. He raced over to her, leaping like a strange, scaly dolphin to be faster, and then tried to attract everyone's attention, but he was moving so quickly and was so high-pitched that no one hearing him would have been able to understand. Finally he just gasped and choked out the word, "Dead!" and then things went black.

@DoppelBia @Hurricanesong @101Nightshade101 ??

At the other Fae's sudden appearance, Arash shot back up into the sky; Patariki, though, dove down, flaring his wings at the last second to grab the unconscious dragon out of the water. His momentum carried them forward, but he was forced to flap for altitude or risk both of them sinking. (Arash, hovering at a safer distance, snorted; of course the feathered idiot would find a patient, even literally in the middle of the ocean.)

"Madame Guardian," the Skydancer called, flying low circles around the glittering dragon, "might I land on you? This Fae seemed to be concerned with getting back to you, but I'm not exactly made for hovering and I'd like to make sure there's nothing terribly wrong with him." He held the black Fae with his front paws, close to his chest. There was no point in accidentally dropping the poor dragon back into the water.

@Loquaciousky
(Looks like everything's coming together now! I'll wait until DoppelBia responds to have Blackberry wake up.)

@DoppelBia

Ursa’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “So she is one of them.” She began to recall the words she had read in the ancient tome.

“The book explained how some Arcane dragons are born with various abilities that are almost always unique to them. These are usually powerful spells or strange powers that can seem sometimes unexplainable. It’s incredibly rare to have these powers, and it’s probably a good thing. The magic doesn’t awaken unless there is darkness in the caster’s heart, so the power is often used for evil.”

Ursa looked at Starbeam, who was still sleeping peacefully on the moss bed, deep in dreams. But that’s impossible. Starbeam is the sweetest dragon I know. She would never want to harm anyone unless she was defending herself. To Cephei she said, “But the book could be wrong. Starbeam is definitely not evil, which is probably why she doesn’t remember what happened.

By now the sun had risen enough to be late morning. Nadya had woken up and was boiling some chestnuts and insects in a pot of water for breakfast. A strong aroma of food wafted around the hut.

(( This headcanon started with Starbeam. An idea popped into my head during the battle and I rolled with it. Now there are two others that I know of that use this magic: a Pearlcatcher in my clan has mind control, and a Spiral I gave to a Plague friend can think an action and it happens without her actually doing it. Once I get this headcanon all fleshed out and written properly, I’m going to add it to the Arcane Headcanon Library. ))

---Cephei---
@DarkDragonfly

"Them?"
Cephei was curious about this kind of magic. His general half wanted to know how to fight it, but his other half - the one that had gotten attached to the two - wanted to help them. He too looked at Starbeam when her sister mentioned it was an originally evil power.

"She was trying to protect you. Sad, maybe confused, irate even, but I wouldn't say evil."
The Skydancer tried to assure Ursa things were ok. The Fae seemed a little worried... and he did too. But that thought didn't hang long on his mind, as a smell came from the inner parrt of the hut. Cephei couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, but it was really good.

((It's an awesome idea, and I might just fit some of mine into that headcanon when I re-do their bios... go for it! ^-^))

--Almighty--
@Loquaciousky @101nightshade101

Arash caught hia attention just before another Fae - or was that a dolphin? No, too dark - lmost crashed into him. The Spiral flew up as quickly as he could, almost leaping out of the water himself.

"Nice catch, Patty! But who's that? Is he ok? Oh my Warden, he's a Water-born! Shouldn't he be down there? What ya doing? Guardian, do you know what happened? Is he ok?"

His questions flew one after the other, quickly and loudly, and Almighty coiled himself at every word, which meant he was a tangled - but still airborne - mess by the time he ran out of breath. He had completely forgotten the Tundras by the beach could see them.

---Jagiya---
@Hurricanesong

Everything happened really fast in her point of view.

First an Ice Fae dove after the Spiral that had called her, and the Skydancer above them seemed hesitant about something. Jagiya's protective instinct kicked in, and she would have attacked the smaller dragon if something with the speed of a bullet hadn't leaped over her.

"Blackberry!"
The Guardian quickly rose to the surface, not so agressive at the second Fae - he seemed to stop his attack? - and a lot worried at the first.

"Wait, did he say dead?! Oh... Sure, kite. Check his head for me?"
Her head raced for a few seconds before she could answer the Skydancer, nodding affirmatively.

@DoppelBia

(Heh, now I'm stuck with Blackberry unconscious xD. I'll wait until Patariki finishes looking him over before having him wake up.)

@DoppelBia @Hurricanesong @101nightshade101

"Thank you," Patariki murmured as he landed on the Guardian's back as gently as possible. He lashed his tail absently as Almighty peppered him with questions, more concerned with checking the strange Fae over.

"He's a patient--" that ought to do for both 'is he alright' and 'who is he'-- "and I've no idea how the Water Flight's breathing-spells work, but Fae certainly don't have gills, so I'd rather like to keep him from drowning and make sure he's not done any harm to himself with those acrobatics. Aquabatics? Hm." He sat back on his hind legs, considering the small, dark dragon.

"He doesn't seem to have taken any physical harm, beyond aspirating a bit of water he'll likely cough up on his own when he's awoken and a few scrapes." Patariki snorted, eyeing the coral and sea-caves visible even from above the surface. "Madame Guardian, you seem familiar with him, is he prone to fainting? What were you two even doing down there?"

While the medic blathered on, Arash rejoined them, hovering within eyesight but with plenty of distance to escape if the Guardian should take exception to his presence. Banana-yellow fins flattened, but he didn't interrupt, well-used to Patariki taking on any and every dragon with so much as a cough.

((Apologies for the lag, RL got hectic for a bit D:))