Roleplay

“Upset with himself, for sleeping so long, and possibly upset with me for not waking him up,” Jorn whispered to Ren. “And, while many prefer to be alone, it’s not uncommon to see small groups. Ciar did occasionally join in with the others when we had some free time.”

Ciar huffed at the question, feeling rather annoyed as he remembered falling asleep to her little tune. Despite his hunger, he resolutely shook his head, sitting down beside Jorn.

“Oh, go on,” Jorn laughed, sounding a bit exasperated. “I think last night showed that we can trust them. Go and get yourself something to eat.” The dragon appeared to ignore him, instead settling down on the cave floor.

“Ciardubhan,” Jorn said with a much firmer voice. “You need to hunt. You can’t live off of whatever little supplies we still have, and if you keep starving yourself, you’ll be too weak to protect anyone.” At that last jab, Ciar turned to him and snarled loudly, eyes narrowing at his rider.

“You know I’m right,” Jorn responded, not even flinching at the snarl. He pointed to the entrance of the cave with his good arm, commanding, “go and hunt. That’s an order, Ciar.”

Ciar immediately stopped snarling, drawing back with a chastened look. Relenting, he got to his feet and finally responded to Aeira’s question.

”I will come.”

(Oh goodness I feel so bad for Ciar [emoji=spiral sad size=1]) [i]How stubborn,[/i] Ren thought with a slight smile, [i]and protective, Jorn must be his Charge, and if he isn't, he might as well be.[/i] He moved himself away from his dragon as she rose to her feet, waiting for Ciar to budge. Seeing the Guardian's determination to stay, though, she began to grow impatient, swishing her tail and stamping the ground every now and then. She nearly snarled back at him, but managed to restrain herself. [i]How stupid do you have to be?[/i] She wondered, [i]for you to starve yourself and stay by your human, some protection you are...[/i] Though, once the Guardian was ordered to go hunt, he seemed to obey. Aeira chuffed softly, then flicked her tail as she sauntered out into the open. She turned to make sure he was following. [b]"Great, let us be off at once."[/b] She spread her wings and leapt into the air, determined to find food. [i]At least there's no worry about what he can and can't eat,[/i] she mused while circling. Trying to find food in the Sea would be futile, what ever sea life that had survived the war would have been killed by the aftermath. They would have to venture farther inland. Perhaps the border of the Water and Shadow lands would harbor something tasty?

(Yeah, he's kind of... broken.)

Ciar briefly glanced back at his rider before reluctantly walking out of the cave. He spread his wings, wincing at the slight soreness. He jumped forwards, getting a short running start before finally leaping into the sky. He spotted Aeira overhead, speeding up his ascent to catch up to her.

Once he reached her altitude, he glanced around. His gaze lingered on the sea not far away, but he turned away from it with a snort. "Where will we hunt?" he questioned, not certain which way to go.

"God I hate doing that," Jorn spat. It had gotten the message across, sure, but he didn't look forward to the aftermath.

"You ought to stretch more, the dragoness noted gently as she slowed her pace, letting the Guardian catch up as she rode the wind. "Let us move inland, the Shadow lands may still have enough wildlife to sustain us. The border is where we will begin."

With Ciar flying steady by her side, she turned wide for the hazy, murky land in the distance. It was a short flight, though she wasn't sure how well her partner would do given his last hunt was days ago. With that in mind, she flew low and slow, while also searching out the most favorable winds along the way. "...Do you miss the ocean?" She wondered out loud upon seeing him glance at the ruined Sea.

Ren sighed, "at least he listened. Aeira's just as stubborn, but probably won't take my orders." He took a seat across from Jorn, "you're worried about him, aren't you?"

”I cannot miss what I have never experienced,” Ciar said, glancing back at the ocean for a moment. He beat his wings, keeping up with Aeira fairly easily. He noticed that she had found a favorable wind, something he had never been particularly good or fast at achieving.

”You aren’t a Sky Dancer... Imperial, right?” he suddenly observed, uncertainty in his voice. He thought he remembered his rider and the other human calling her that, though he couldn’t remember seeing a dragon like her before.

“I am. When I sent him off for training... I never imagined that this would be the result,” Jorn muttered. “I should’ve just done it myself. He might be more like Aeira or old Glasair if I had...”

(Having one of my other OCs make a ‘cameo’ lol)

Aeira turned. "You've never been to the Sea? Or any of the oceans?" She asked, a little saddened. She could not imagine what it felt like to have never been to her ancestral home.

"Imperial, yes. Have you not heard of our kind?" She responded curiously, that's odd. It's normal to have not seen an Imperial, but to have not heard of one at all? She shook her head, "you haven't missed much, if I'm being honest."

"I...see," Ren said slowly, he had heard little about how dragon riders trained their mounts, but he had heard horror stories, saying how the tamed dragons were little more than brain dead puppets. Certainly that had never happened, had it? "Glasair? You had another dragon before Ciar?" Now that was news to him.

"I have seen them, maybe," Ciar answered, "but we never stayed long. My rider promised he would take me after the war, but..." He shook his head, falling silent for a few moments.

"I... think I have heard of Imperials, and that's what my rider and yours called you," he replied. "But I don't think I've seen one like you before. You can read the winds as good as the Sky Dancers I knew, though. Is that normal for your kind?"

"Oh, Glasair wasn't mine. He belonged to a friend of mine, a dragon trainer, but a good one," Jorn explained. "He was this old green guardian that'd been in my friend's family for centuries. Wouldn't listen to anyone but his rider, but their relationship was more akin to yours and Aeira's. That old green had no master and pretty much came and went as he pleased. None of the other 'trainers' could get Glasair to even acknowledge them."

"I'd have asked him to train Ciar, but... I never got the chance. He got tangled up in and eventually died in the war and his dragon, well..." Jorn said, "I imagine he went after his rider's killers and, if he survived that, probably went off to live somewhere in the wild."

Aeira frowned a little, "well, we can change that. The ocean off the coast of the Sunbeam Ruins is still serviceable, and once you go out a bit further, it's practically untouched!" She said, feeling excited. "I think Ren made me learn some things not many try to teach... I guess this comes naturally to Spirals and Skydancers, but it took quite a bit of time for me to learn how to read the wind." She gazed into the distance, seemingly reminded by something, "same thing with fighting, I was never a great fighter..."

"A good one?" Ren wondered, as opposed to what? He almost asked, but stopped himself. "Sounds like he was still wild at heart," he chuckled, "but that is such a shame. You say it as if there were few good trainers. That can't be true, can it? How can one be bad at training dragons?"

He looked out of the cave into the distance, even though the two dragons were long out of sight. He couldn't help but wonder if he had been a good trainer when Aeira was young. He didn't know if he wanted to know the answer.

"Maybe," Ciar answered simply. "I never really learned how to read the wind, but I can fight." He noticed that they were nearly at the border and began keeping an eye out for any movement below. He felt a little anxious heading back to the area where his rider was attacked, wondering if the thing that attacked was still around.

"Yeah, a good one. He didn't break them, like most," Jorn responded. "Let me put it this way... Ciar would follow any order I gave him without question. If I pointed at you or Aeira and said 'kill,' I don't doubt that he would do it without hesitation."

"I'm hoping to get him out of that mindset, eventually, but every time I need to get him to do something for himself, it feels like we go two steps backwards," he said.

"Oh," Aeira managed, crestfallen. She wondered why he seemed so stoic about seeing the ocean when he clearly longed for it? "There ought to be something for us here," she said, swiveling her head to scan the scattered woods below.

"Aha! Right there." She said, sighting a bear moving through the hazy underbrush. While the vegetation granted the bear near invisibility on the ground, from the air, it wasn't so lucky.

Ren tensed at Jorn's words, unsure if he was simply joking. "That sounds terrible..." he said, unsure of himself, but also a little worried, "I mean, at least he's a good fighter and protects you well."