Roleplay

"Hi Calendula," he greeted back warmly as he sat down. He glanced towards the sleeping form of Eira before making his voice softer, as if he was afraid to disturb her after a long needed sleep. "You are very welcome, has for how long it's been...perhaps about a couple of hours or so since Sirius left," he said after a moment of tapping his tail against the floor, as if each tap measured a unit of time.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked when he saw her gently set the carcass down on the ground. "The last time you slept, you seemed to be plagued by nightmares," there was genuine concern in his voice as he spoke. He worried for Calendula's health, given everything she had endured those four years locked away.

Calendula nodded her head a few times, “I think I did. I had a dreamless rest. I didn’t even notice myself falling asleep, but I think we all do that.” She too followed suit in lowering the volume of her voice. “That nightmare though... It really... Wasn’t fun. I dreamt being pushed towards the humming thing. I did have a few nightmares like that before, but it usually wasn’t that bad. Sometimes I just escape or the humming thing turns out to be something stupid, like a big ol’ hummingbird, but that nightmare was just... Scary.”

Unconsciously, she felt her grip around the ermine tighten. “Sometimes I’d like to think I’d actually get out and find Cinder, my friend who got taken, and get out of there... But sometimes I hear his weird little coatl singing in the humming. I can pretend all I want he’s okay, but I know he’s dead.” Her voice went off kilter towards the end, almost like she was about to cry. “If only I had known my stupid clan was going to kill him. My friends and I could have taken our group and ran as far away as we could...”

"We all have something we regret," Hermes said gently, moving to sit next to Calenduala, unfurling his wing slowly to wrap around her smaller form.

The pain in her voice tore at his very soul and he wished he could ease the pain she felt, but nothing would ease it til justice was carried out. "We will get to the bottom of this," he promised her. "We will find what your clan is doing and make them pay for it...and whatever they are feeding...we will make sure it never takes another life again, this is my oath to you."

Calendula nodded, before sniffling. It was when she felt the slight burning of her eyes that she reached up and began rubbing at them with her only arm. Though she had long come to terms with that revelation, it did not mean she wasn't upset about it. The death of Cinder caused many bad things to happen, starting with how their small group of friends began to break apart and now going up to the multitude of sacrifices made unknown to the rest of the clan.

Eira snored loudly. Calendula paused and glanced over at the one who ruined the moment. "...I forgot how much Eira sleeps," Calendula made a face when she realized how long it would take for her to get up in order to eat the stoat. "Once I tried to wake her up with every means possible and she never woke up through all of them. I even threw water on her and she just slept through that!" Without knowing it, the tone shifted, as she went on a rant about Eira's deep sleeping habits.

Hermes smiled as he listened to Calendula go on about Eira's snoring, glancing over at the sleeping Windclaw as the softer hued one continued talking. Hermes was glad that the change of topic seemed to lift her spirit and gave her something more positive to talk about. The Tundra kept his wing around her in a comforting embrace as he nodded his head as he listened.

"She sounds a lot like Sirius," he said with a chuckle. "When he sleeps he sleeps quite hard."

"BACK!" Sirius called out from inside one of the upper tunnel's. He jumped down, landing silently on the ground and folding his wings to his side, shaking the snow from his clothes as he walked forward and sat before the two of them, glancing towards the sleeping form of the Wildclaw, tilting his head slightly when a loud snore came from her and he couldn't help but snort, Hermes shooting him a look to stifle his laugh. The black Tundra then looked back at the others, preparing to give them a report from his scouting mission. "I found the Clan, and it was just like you explained it. They ushered in a large group of dragons inside and I found four sealed small entrance ways," he took one of his claws, dragging it along the icy floor and drew a copy of the symbols he had seen. "They have a regular changing of the guard."

Calendula giggled at Hermes' comment about Sirius, nearly choking down her laughter with the announcement of Sirius' arrival.

She listened in, watching him sketch out the backup doors situated in Cryosta's walls. Looking over the drawing, she piped up, "Oooh! Ooh! Those are one of the lock runes we placed to make sure none of the non-clan members get in through the entry way. You are supposed to breath on it and it knows if you are a part of the clan or not. I don't know how the locksmith did it but it must be a really complicated spell." As if to demonstrate, she cupped her hands around her snout and puffed out a breath.

"There's also a curfew set for everyone except for the authorities and the night guards. Even if you were hungry, no one really leaves the burrow because you might get caught and punished for it. No wonder why nobody knew, they were sneaking in and out past curfew!"

"...What about sneaking past curfew?" Eira let out a yawn, lifting her head up as she looked towards the trio groggily. "Eira!" Calendula would squeak, "Sirius just came back and apparently the cult dragons were up past curfew time!"

"...Yeah? They do worse things than violate the curfew time."

"No... That's not what...!" Calendula then stared dumbly in front of her. Eira sat up with a groan. Even with all these years, Calendula has not ceased to be the most childish dragon she's known. She glanced over at the doodle of the smaller doors and spoke, "I'm guessing you found Cryosta?"

Sirius nodded his head as he watched Eira stretch and wake from her slumber, shifting his weight as he was feeling the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins from the scouting mission. "It was exactly where you said it would be, too big to pick up and move I assume."

Hermes looked down at the symbol that had been drawn, thinking about what Calendula said about the symbols. "So, we won't be able to use it to sneak in and out unless we have one of you with us?" He asked as he looked back up as he scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "Well that could explain somethings about how they can sneak dragons out, you said so yourself that they take you to another location to sacrifice to this monster."

Sirius nodded his head to his brother. "That would be my assumption, but we don't know a lot about either the Clan or the Cult...but from what you two have said, I wonder if both really are one and the same...that the Clan is just a front for this Cult."

"A Clan is suppose to protect each other," Hermes said with a snort and a shake of his head that made the dragon shift where he sat. "But...also tricking dragons into thinking they are part of a family to drag them off to be some monsters meal, it just makes it easier then hunting."

"You don't even know how to forage for anything that isn't a medicinal herb," Sirius said with a low chuckle, which made Hermes smack his tail onto the ground and point with a claw to the ermine that he had managed to catch. Sirius looked at it for a moment before blinking slowly and he turned and looked at his brother. "You...caught that?" he asked, unable to keep the surprise out from his voice as he never expected Hermes to hunt.

Hermes sat proudly at that and nodded his head. "I did, but that is because I need to take care of my patients, and that includes making sure that they have something to eat so they can regain their strength and be able to come back to help us."

Eira's eyes shifted over to the ermine sitting in Calendula's claws and she softly let out an "oh." Said dragon holding the dead weasel nodded in turn, "It's still something although it's not a lot, and we are thankful for that!" It was then that she dug her claws into it at last, flaying the meal of the hide once more. As she worked to separate whatever meat there is to share with Eira, the recently woken wildclaw began to speak once more.

"Yes, not to mention the fact that last I checked, this clan has been in that exact spot for the past fifty years or so. One of the elders told us so. I don't think they'd want to move into a more dangerous area, which is a given... But I do think that makes it harder on them since their cult basement is located in those mountains. Still, keeping their base in a low risk area can lure strangers into a false sense of security I suppose..." Eira began tapping at the cold stone floor with her big claw without realizing it as she thinks. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"Ermine!"

Calendula looked up, pausing from eating her share of the ermine. "Do you want to eat it now?" Eira shook her head, groaning as she did so. "No, not that! Ermine, do you not remember him?" The look of realization dawned on her younger friend quickly as she let out a drawn "Ohhhhhh."

"Ermine!" Calendula parroted back, "Erm... What about Ermine again?" Eira crossed her arms, "He's most likely alive AND has not turned into an unpleasant sod. They can tell Ermine about our predicament and he can help them get in!"

Hermes listened to them, at the mention of another Dragon he nodded his head. "Any assistance we can get will really help make this easier, especially someone with more recent insider knowledge about the clan, could even vouch for us to get us inside the gates far easier."

"Do you really think it's wise to involve another Dragon into a dangerous situation?" Sirius asked, sounding uncertain.

"Well...it might not be the best thing to do, and we can make sure he is aware that he can say no, but we need help if we want to stop this Cult. We are in danger because eventually its going to reach a point where they are going to come looking for dragons to sacrifice to this monster...and we don't have a clan to defend us, it's just the two of us right now...we need to stop this before it becomes an even greater danger."

Sirius flicked his ear, as if he was still uncertain about that but he also couldn't argue the logic behind that. "Alright," he turned to the girls. "Who is this Ermine guy?"

Hermes couldn't deny that the mention of a possible ally helped to remove some of his worry. The more help they had the better a chance they had to stop this from claiming anymore lives, and he can make sure that Calendula did not look so sad or hurt anymore, seeing that made the Tundra hurt. "We are going to make this work, I promise, even if Ermine doesn't want to help us, you two trust him so he must be a good guy."

"Ermine is a childhood friend of ours," Eira would explain, back straightening slightly as she did so. "He's the foster brother of Emont and I believe one of the clan's defenders. If there's anyone we can trust, it's him. I'm sure that if he catches whiff of this cult business, he'll be ready to pitch in. After all, his adopted brother is a wind dragon and he would be willing to do anything to protect him." There was an air of certainty to her words.

She then turned to look at Calendula. "He's also Calendula's cousin. Ermine is a family guy and even if we have drifted from him over Cinder's death, I know he would be really worried over Calendula's disappearance. And if Emont turns out to be really dead, this situation will even be more of a motivation for him to get involved." The said dragon gave a solemn nod. "You don't have to bring him down to meet us if you feel it's necessary, that might endanger you two after all. But I can promise you he is what we say he is," Eira added.

The monochrome wildclaw looked over to the brothers, anticipating their response. Not only could they gain another dragon to help fight against the cult, there was also the chance that they could reunite with an old friend. It's not going to be like before, but it's something close to that and she's willing to take it. She could also learn the wellbeing of the wind dragon from Ermine. He would know his movements well enough and there's no one else she could think of that would give a more direct answer.