Roleplay

"Well, yes. She just sits -- well, stands -- in front of the base. She's been doing it since she's born. It's kind of worrying, actually." Carmin added, a scoff hidden in her tone.
Chisu resented any idea of talk or speech, and simply just started on his way. Though the furthest he got was a couple of metres before his Mirror companion snatched him up and dragged him back into position by the tail.
"You'd be welcome in our Clan, but I'm not sure how many of our dragons would be happy to see another dragon nosing around, even if they're allies." Carmin pointed out, before adding with a mumble, "I'm sure Grapevine wouldn't appreciate it."
"Well... Who wouldn't want help when it comes to missing children of all things?" Chisu mused, before throwing himself back onto Carmin's head.
The Plentiful breed rolled her eyes, before going on,
"I don't know if it's a good idea if you particularly come into the Clan, but you can talk to Komoku who stands at the front -- she's the one we're talking about here. Come along."

Carmin begins bouncing off before either of Wildclaws can reply at a terrifying pace, Chisu just barely clinging onto her scarf and looking as if his scales were about to get peeled from his face.

---

@Nicolas
Sorry I'm late! I had to sleep, and then I had school. @~@
But this is a relatively short post and whatnot. v .v Sorry again.

"We definitely don't want to cause any more distress to your Clan with the recent disappearances still on their minds," Dahlia replied, but before she or Jaf could say anymore, the Mirror was bounding away. Dahlia's brows furrowed and she heard another scoffing noise from Jaf, but this time didn't smack him for it.

"What do you think of the case, Lia?" Jaf asked, his sharp eyes turning to appraise his companion. The look he could see on her muzzle, no matter how much of her face was hidden by her hood, meant that she thought this case was another one that would get thrown to the wayside after some fruitless poking around and dead-end questions. Those were the cases that gnawed on Dahlia's mind the most, and with this one dealing with rapidly missing children? She was more than a little irritated. She was seething. But professionalism refused to allow her to show that, and she simply let out a huff before starting her trot forwards to follow the two Alphas, the obsidian Wildclaw following behind.

"I think this case is going to give me a raging headache," she grumbled, ignoring the male's snorted laughter.



@/CookieMayhem
Both are completely fine! c:

The path to the Clan fell down a few levels onto a broad flat blanketed in grass, a tall cliffside bordering the backward part of the Clan. The area here was strangely decorated with plants. Thickly leaved trees grew in clumps around the edge of the flat, bamboo stalks growing in fronts around the bases, with even more flowers poking out of the ground in colourful arrays. Carmin bounced up to the entrance, an archway of marble with ivy and vines curling around it, stopping to have a chat to the local statue - or rather, a dragon. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/276293/27629227.png[/img][/center] The dragon stood deathly still, golden eyes not even blinking as the two Alphas told her about the guests and how they planned to help with the predicament. Her bright green wings reflected the sunlight in a blinding shimmer, her horns upturned slightly more than regular Wildclaw. Her underbelly was like quartz, glittering ever so slighty, and she stared ahead in stoic determination. In a split second, the Alphas had returned to the visitors. "That's Komoku. She's the watchguard." Chisu noted flatly. Carmin gave him a brief nod, "Yes, but I'm not sure how you're going to talk to her at all." The Mirror turned back and gave the pair a questioning glance, before her tail made a sweeping motion over the grass and she frowned, "I mean, she never talks to anyone, and as far as I'm certain, she's never spoken a hint of dragonspeak in her life anyways. So, yes, good luck with that." Chisu twitched his frills in agreement, shy to say more to whom he considered strangers. ----- @Nicolas

Both Wildclaws approached, and Jaf's eyes immediately looked the female over for any signs of potential danger -- even in Clans that would do them no harm, it was a hard habit to break. Following Dahlia like a shadow, he stopped when she did in front of their new acquaintance, his eyes shifting from Mirror to Fae to Wildclaw silently.

Dahlia inclined her head to show she heard the two Alphas, her wings ruffling as she twisted to her side so she could dig through the pouch there. "You say she can't -- or won't -- talk, but would she be adverse to writing, perhaps?" Dahlia asked, pulling out a weathered-looking journal and a stopped inkwell and quill. She straightened herself, posture relaxing slightly as she held the items in her hands.

She hated admitting it to herself, but if this didn't work she feared they were going to forever be stuck in square one of this case. Without leads, they had nothing, and with nothing, this mystery would remain unsolved.



@/CookieMayhem

Carmin inched a few steps back as the statue-like dragoness actually averted her eyes to peer at the visitors. The watchguard tilted her head and opened and closed her jaw with a grating noise, before in thudding, heavy steps, she moved to get closer to the guests. Moss was torn from her feet and snakes slithered in fear as the Widlclaw clunkily circled Jaf, noticing his careful examination. She came nose to nose with him, staring a challenge into his eye before turning away and plodding over to Dahlia.

Carmin and Chisu were surprised at this, considering the statuette rarely budged an inch for what she seemingly considered trivial matters. She ignored the book in Dahlia's claws, before she trudged over to a bare patch of mud. She stared at the other she-Wildclaw, and scored straight line marks into the ground with her sharp, metal, arched claw. Unphased, the dragoness settled again back into her previous spot, setting her Light-element eyes straight forward and resuming her immovable state with one final soundless shift of her iron jaw.

It left the two Alphas befuddled, though even less puzzled at the words written in the mud. They were more so distracted by the Wildclaw's sudden mobility, but they turned to Dahlia and Jaf with an expression of utter confusion.
"Fantasia...? What do you think, detective?" Carmin mumbled, flicking some sweat from her forehead with a swift shake of her head.
Chisu grunted in recognition, pressing his frills against his neck in slight annoyance. It was easy to say that the two had their own theories, but it was better to ask the professionals first and foremost.

---

@Nicolas

Jaf met those challenging eyes with a passive expression, rumbling slightly and turning his head to watch her move away towards an open spot. Moving forward silently to stand next to Dahlia, he didn't turn his head at the ruffle of pages and squeak of a cork getting removed from glass. The scribbling sound of a quill followed after as Dahlia jotted down what Komoku had scratched into the earth for later reference, her expression a mixed one of multiple warring emotions. She corked the bottle once more and stored it away in her bag along with her quill, leaving the book's pages open to allow the ink to dry.

"Fantasia, hm? Perhaps she does have a part to play in this after all. But why after so long? And is this tied with the disappearing hatchlings?" Dahlia mused, one paw moving to tap on her snout again, the emotions on her face settling on confusion for the time being. "And what's this about being 'untouchable'? A ghost? A spell? One to mislead, or one to scare? If she is behind this, what use would she have for stealing children?"

The male Wildclaw's face was unreadable during his companion's rambling, though his eyes held a sharpness that hadn't been there beforehand. If Jaf had any thoughts to share on the matter, he kept them to himself, though his feathered crest flared slightly in irritation at Dahlia's mention of ghosts. He hated dealing with spirits that refused to pass from the world, even more so when they became malevolent. He had the power to deal with them, but doing so left him drained, and was generally an unpleasent expereince altogether.



@/CookieMayhem

"Fantasia's dead." Chisu flicked his tail dismissively. "I don't believe in spirits coming back to life, unless you count reincarnation. But that's a different story entirely."
Carmin shook him off, "Just because you think they don't exist doesn't mean that they actually do... if... that makes sense."
Komoku flared her nostrils behind them, a huff sounding much too similar to that of nails scraping a chalkboard escaping her jaws. Unsettled, Carmin took a few paces away from the dragoness.
"What do you expect us to do from here on out anyway? It's not like we have much else to go on." Chisu drawled, sitting on Carmin's back with his legs tucked under him and his wings pressed to his sides. "These clues are nothing. To be honest, I'm surprised Komoku can even write!"
"Wait, tell me you didn't think she was an actual statue?" Carmin blinked at her Fae companion.
Chisu chuckled sheepishly.
"Well anyway, it's not like I have any information about ghosts to begin with, other than them usually being on an otherworldly plane. There may be something in the Archives, but most of the actual books there are just fiction novels and whatnot." Carmin pointed out. "And if Fantasia has any records, she'd be written off by now as dead, by Scribbles. Not the one you know by the way."

---

@Nicolas

"Written off as dead, perhaps, but those records could still exist," Jaf finally spoke in place of a still-muttering Dahlia. The male had taken his usual hand-clasped stance, tail swaying slowly as he spoke. "I know a thing or two about dealing with spirits, but what kind of spirit Fantasia may be and how powerful is a different matter that we don't know yet, which complicates things. Her motives are also a mystery we need to figure out, before any more children get stolen. The last thing we need is a Clan war breaking out during the middle of our investigation because the neighbors decide things have gone too far."

His crest flared for a moment before smoothing back down, a sudden, slight show of unreadable emotion. "The library back at the castle has tomes from across the world on many different subjects, but that's a far flight and it's not worth it to leave if we aren't entirely sure who, or what, we're dealing with." His eyes flicked to where Dahlia was still mumbling to herself and storing her journal back into her satchel. Her face looked weary already, and Jaf knew that this entire situation they'd found themselves in was bothering the female greatly.



@/CookieMayhem

"Well, it definitely relates to Fantasia in some odd way," Carmin twitched a claw, tilting her head as if it wasn't obvious enough. "But I think it's time we regard the first line that Komoku wrote for us... 'edge of bamboo forest.'. That could help us in some way, do you not agree?"
Carmin appeared quite proud of herself, though honestly, it wasn't much of a feat. Chisu's frills vibrated in agitation.
"I want to go to sleep. It's only midday or something, isn't it? This mystery is already a pain on my nerves."
In fact, it appeared that neither of the Alphas wanted to bother anymore. Despite her cheery demeanour, Carmin seemed weary and tired of the whole of the situation. Children were going missing left and right, and something had to be done, but none of it would be achieved through laziness.

Carmin bucked the Fae off of her back and gave him a disappointed glare, he rolled his eyes and slunk into the shade of a tree, hiding under his large, translucent wings. While he wasn't much for sun nor the cold, he was here and he was too lazy to toddle back to his den. Both of the Mirror's crests twitched in frustration, as Komoku watched on silently from her position.

---

@Nicolas

"Perhaps. It's odd that she's only been seen around the bamboo, if that means she hasn't ventured further. It brings up the question of how she steals the children. Lures them away, maybe?" Jaf said, partially musing to himself for a moment as his eyes dipped to stare at the ground a moment before being drawn back up by the Fae slinking under a tree. "It would be worth it to check all the same, since maybe whatever is keeping her here may be in the forest. Spirits normally don't wander far from the worldly thing that binds them here."

The male twitched and turned his head when he heard Dahlia move beside him, but relaxed back into his normal posture when he realized that she was simply pacing, still muttering and growling to herself. He managed to catch the words 'poltergeist' and 'malevolent' before he tuned her out with a huff, turning his head to regard the female Mirror. "How far does the bamboo forest stretch? If Komoku has seen Fantasia clear enough to identify her, then maybe the edge closest to us is a good place to start."



@/CookieMayhem