Roleplay

@ZenithDragon

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The kite snapped and cracked in strong gusts of wind while rain pelted her blue hide like tiny, chilling needles. Below, she could hear shouts but nothing was coherent as she clung to the mast for dear life. Suddenly, she felt the world moving, leaning sideways. Before she could dig her claws into the wood, she was falling....
Ripley awoke with a gasp, her heart pounding in her chest like the beat of a heavy drum. She started to move but every muscle in her body hurt, as if she'd been beaten into unconsciousness.
"If Ripley moves, she will not recover," a voice hissed nearby.
That's when she smelled old leather and the faint stench of something rotting. She lifted her head to glance around just as her odd shipmate trotted into view. Except one thing was apparent: They weren't on the ship anymore.
"Tendon," the word came out slow and enunciated, like she was using it for the first time. Her gaze swept the area that she could see. Green grass, a small grouping of low shrubs nearby, and the sun beaming warmly upon them was what she first saw. Then she heard it, the distant crash of waves.
She glanced at the skin-clad mirror, confusion and concern apparent on her blue features. "Where are we and how did we get here?"
A single line of drool had started to dangle from his chin. If the mirror had lips, Ripley would have thought he was smiling because of the amusement that danced in his crimson eyes.
"He has discovered that the two mirrors are in the Windsinger's territory," he started, pausing to shake his head and send droplets of saliva flying in different directions. "Tendon is surprised, though, that Ripley does not know how they arrived here. After all, she spotted the cliffs to the plateau and--
That's all good and well, but where's the ship, Tendon? What happened to the Crowned Thresher?" she interrupted, frustrated as she started to remember how they'd arrived.
He shrugged and answered, "It has sailed away."
It wasn't unheard of to have sailors lost at sea. Yet, there was no mistaking them for anything but pirates, and landlocked pirates found more trouble than they did on a ship or at the docks.
"Tendon, we need to get back to the ship," she stated matter-of-fact as she tried to get to her feet once more. Her muscles screamed in protest and when she put weight on her left hind leg, it buckled out from under her with a wave of pain that caused her to groan.
"He warned you not to move," Tendon remarked as Ripley raised her head to examine her hind leg. It sat at an odd angle and was dark and swollen.
"Ripley fell and hit her leg on the rail. Tendon was going to rescue her but neither could stay above the waves for long. They would have died if not for hugging a barrel that floated," he explained, concern lacing his words as he watched her.
"Thank you, Tendon," Ripley said after a heartbeat's silence. She never felt comfortable around the odd dragon but now, she had her life thanks to him.
She wasn't prepared to ignore their current predicament though and she was of no use lying on the ground in the open; neither of them were. "Tendon, we need to go. If we can at least get back to the auction house, we have a chance at finding our ship again, and maybe, I can get this leg fixed from a passing clan," Ripley explained. When Tendon opened his mouth to protest she said, "We aren't going to live if we stay here. I'm useless like this and we're out in the open. The whole Windswept Plateau is in the open. There's no chance of survival here."
"Tendon will help you then, Little Seeker," he murmured moving alongside her as she struggled to stand up.
Ripley grit her teeth as she felt her hind leg pulse with a pain the rippled through her body yet she managed to get to her feet. "Where do we go from here?" she asked, panting from the pain.
Tendon glanced around as Ripley leaned against him. "He does not know. North, he thinks, which might be this way," he explained leading them away from the crash of the waves.
This isn't going to be easy.

@ZenithDragon

"One moment, Tendon," Ripley growled. She wasn't prepared to admit to him how much pain she was in and if they didn't stop, she was likelier to start gasping for air. The sound of the ocean was gone and replaced with birds, insects, and the soft hush of the wind as it rustled nearby shrubs.
Tendon interrupted that brief calm with a sharp hiss that caused Ripley to look up. In the distance, a distinct purple form was coming towards them.
"Get down, Tendon, maybe they won't see us!" she snapped but the odd mirror didn't do as she told him to.
"Ripley should stay low. Tendon might distract it," he suggested with a shrug.
Ripley glanced at the purple form, her keen sight catching the distinct fins and loping gait of a mirror. "It is a mirror and..." she paused, watching the distant dragon. "I don't think it sees us."
"Even so, lie down. Ripley cannot run and so Tendon must do something else," he explained and before she had a chance to argue he was slinking towards the purple mirror, low to the ground. Surely Ripley would understand him chasing away a single dragon.
He froze when he was close enough to get a good look at the mirror. He could faintly smell that it was a male and even so, it didn't look like the purple mirror would pose any real threat based on his round exterior.
Tendon shot a glance over his shoulder but he didn't see Ripley. Good. She'd done what he had told her to do. When he glanced back, he blinked as he started to see more than one heat signature dancing around, but these weren't mirrors. It didn't look like he was scaring any dragon today.

@ZenithDragon

This is foolish, Ripley thought to herself irritably as she watched Tendon disappear into the grass. If his appearance didn't frighten the mirror she hoped the ensuing battle might be in their favor.
Her leg still hurt and she was cursing it more-so now than before because of her uselessness. She wasn't going to be able to help Tendon in case the purple mirror could fight back except--
Ripley's sharp eyes caught sight of more dragons further away. Had they been any smaller, she'd have missed them but the grass was short enough, when she raised her head, to see above it.
The gods take them all! she swore to herself. If Tendon was caught and they didn't scatter, he'd probably die! She had to do something.

Tendon watched him come closer and closer. If this was what hunting was like, he would've survived well in any clan! When he sneezed though, Tendon wasn't watching the mirror but what he expelled. He'd never seen a dragon do that.
Perhaps there is pollen, he thought to himself dismissing it. That seemed the likeliest reason. He strained to hear what the mirror had muttered. Even so, though, that meant he was letting the dragon get too close. Any closer and it would be far too late to do anything.
He prepared to leap, bunching his muscles up to spring at the dragon. To the Abyss with the rest of the dragons here. Perhaps he'd make such a disturbance that they'd flee!
A loud groan forced him to freeze, breaking the silence that had settled over the area. Tendon clenched his teeth in irritation when he realized where the groan had come from. He couldn't move now, otherwise he'd break his cover but what if the others arrived and started to attack her? She was at the mercy of whatever creature decided to approach her.
Tendon started to slowly back away, teeth clenched in frustration and tension as he tried to avoid being caught and return to Ripley.

@ZenithDragon

Ripley listened.
She couldn't see anything because she'd laid her head down and it annoyed her. Except she had to keep Tendon from killing himself and this is the only way she knew how.

Tendon continued to back away, keeping low to the ground as he wove his way backwards through the grass. His eyes remained focused on the purple mirror until he heard Ripley's breathing, or at least something breathing.
When he turned around, Ripley was laying there head down and nearly limp. For a moment, he'd thought she passed out until she raised her head and looked at him.
"Ripley does not know what she has done," he growled, clearly irritated.

"Tendon, did you manage to find something to gorge yourself on while you stalked the mirror?" she asked, her voice low and her eyes narrowed with concern.

"No, Tendon was occupied with trying to save Little Seeker," he nearly snarled. How could she joke at a time like this?

Before Ripley could respond, though, a new scent welcomed itself to the area silencing both of them. Ripley's eyes swept the grasses looking for anything out of place. The smell wasn't unlike Cain's. A tundra though without the smell of salt and blood.
She spared a quick glance at Tendon to see that, even in his cloak of skins, his muscles were taut as if he were preparing for a fight. If he'd had lips, they would have been curled back but all he was doing now was drooling.

The skin-clad mirror was low to the ground, eyes darting back and forth as if he were waiting for an ambush. There was more than one dragon in the area and Ripley had to bring them all to one place. This wasn't save for pirates, or any dragon that wasn't used to Wind's open ground for that matter.
The thoughts swirled through his head like a tornado while, unbeknownst to him, his stomach was still slowly expanding, already grazing the ground where he crouched. To Tendon, though, the discomfort it had started to cause had been pushed to the back of his mind as he waited.

"Tendon, we need help," Ripley said, her calm voice piercing his thoughts. She knew she was right and her attention snapped ahead just as she caught a flash of brilliant blue.

@ZenithDragon

Ye 'ave me apologies fer th' confusion. I meant t' imply th' sound might attract th' other crew that Ripley saw (though I wasna payin' attention in this last post o' who saw 'em). I've nary an intention o' powerplayin' I assure ye.

I'll reply once I be off o' work, mobile phones arna a pirate's bucko, heh.