Once Upon a Dream

((fff fail I'M SO SORRY AUGH I'll go change it. And make it longer.))
((Also you could've put that the leech neutralized it with his icy breath or something or dodged it? I left that open so if you wanted that fight to continue you could do that.))

G'reth glanced at the creature carefully, not thinking for an instant that a create of darkness would fall so easily. He snaked his neck forward and sniffed it but he still couldn't tell.
Get away from it... his rider said. The dragon took his eyes off of the thing for a moment and looked towards his rider. She was still standing next to G'reth, a frown visible on her face. He growled a soft laugh, knowing she was disappointed with the turn of events.

I think its dead he replied.

I don't think so.. you and I both know they don't fall that easily... Nothing ever does

Except humans..

His rider rolled her eyes and then stared straight into her partner's eyes. The red dragon spit one last fireball at the leech-thing and obliged his rider by returning to her side. He growled still not sure of the creature's fate...

Darkness.... Sam said quickly looking at Darkest. G'reth snorted in agreement.

Darkest looked the creature over carefully. It was dead...he quickly muttered a spell, and checked the creatures vitals. It wasn't quite dead, just in shock, like a troll, after you stab it in the heart. Slowly, the viscous dark liquid that filled the ice was seeping into the creatures organs, refreshing them. He frowned, and chipped off a piece of ice with a forcefull blow, carefull not to touch it with his hands, he slipped it into a leather pouch.

"Guys, help me get it over into a shadow. We need to send it back. Soon."

"Thyrsta" Sam said quietly and the air compressed around the creature pushing it towards the nearest tree. Eldor sat perched in the tree like a bird and watched as it slowly moved. The elf felt her strength draining quickly and her dragon added a boost of energy to her own throwing the leech-like thing the last seven feet under the tree and into the shadow.

"Be quick Darkest..." Sam said noting a small twitch from one of the creature's feet.

Nick simply followed Pedro's suggestion and cast a spell on a nearby willow. Slowly, the tree pulled its roots out of the ground and it crawled beside the dead monster, shielding it from the light. It buried its roots right there and fell back to sleep.

Darkest nodded in thanks and then began to weave a spell, once it was finished, he reached for his black fire and hesitated.

'Graendl?' He felt warmth and happiness flood into him and he smiled, remaking the spell in the elven tongue and muttering it under his breath. As soon as he released it the creature melted into the shadows and felt his own strength drain considerably, but it felt...cleaner, somehow, than fueling the spell with Fire.

"It's done." He said roughly, then whirled around to face moth and swift. Graendl flooded their link with reproach and alarm. Darkest pushed those feelings away as he reached for the flame inside him and drew one of his twin Riders blades, he walked towards them.

"Do you know the forces that you are dealing with? Do you have any IDEA, what the consequences of playing with fire are?" The flame raged within him, urging him to strike, thirsting for the kill. His countenance grew dark, and strained.

Sam felt a sigh of relief when the creature disappeared and her body shivered lightly. Darkness was not her comfort zone. Her dragon sent a small reassuring nudge against her concious.

Oh shit.... the elf said under her breathe as she watched Darkest's temper rise. Sam stepped forward and stood behind him. Her dragon growled in a warning, his tail swishing in uncertainty. She reached out and grabbed his shoulder gently. "Darkest...." she said equally gently.

"Fire is who we are, Rider," Swift replied. "We cannot be harmed by our soul, can we?"

Sam's touch and voice cleared darkests head. He sheathed the blade and turned his back in one smooth motion. When he whispered his answer, Sam was the only one close enough to hear.

"Yes....you can be consumed." He strode into the shade, and for a moment, stood alone. Then, Black flame swirled from the ground at his feet, twisted around him and blocked him from view. When they receeded, the ground was half scorched, half frozen, and he was gone.

You can be consumed...

Sam watched Darkest go, glad at least that it hadn't come to fighting at least... The only bright side of this predictament. She brushed her bangs away from her face and stood still, trying to sort out what to do about this. G'reth had stepped up beside her and nudged her softly with his nose. His amber eyes didn't shine. They contained a bit of sorrow. Sam thought about Darkest's words once more and looked up at Swift and the rest of the company.

"You all should come up to the castle... but if I were any of you, I wouldn't go near Darkest right now." Perhaps not ever... Sam thought to herself and she recieved a small laugh-like growl from her dragon. She glanced at him.

I'm going hunting but I won't go far. Tell me if you need me.. the red dragon said looking around the lake. He stepped back from his rider and with two beats of his wings, he was out of sight. Sam watched him go and then spun on the spot. A grey wolf stood in her spot and took off into the forest, heading towards the castle.

(( This site keeps disabling my internet for some reason... :/ Anyone else? ))

ooc/ Not with me....What are you running it in?

Graendl sighed and sat in the water, Her Rider had been getting moody lately, and even she couldn't help him. She sank in the lake, just her nostrils above water, worrying and thinking.

Darkest sat with his back against the cold stone at the top of the tower. He put his head back against the ancient stone of the castle and looked up into the darkening sky.
'You have no home.' A voice whispered inside his heart.
'You have no love.' He stared at a bottle, sitting next to him, and picked it up with both hands. The smooth, brown glass had grown cold up here in the wind.
'You have no life worth living.' He rubbed the smooth surface with hiis thumbs.
'You'll never be more than a murderer. A tool.' Darkest bowed his head. Tears welled up in his eyes.
'You can't help them. You send every one you train off to their death. A warm tear rolled down his cold cheek.
'Rogue. Thief. Thief of lives.' His shoulders slumped. He stopped rubbing the bottle.

'Darkest?' Graendls voice filled his mind, he could feel the warmth of her concern and her love for him.
'You'll let her down. Let them all down, in the end.' The voice said.
'I'm fine, Graendl, Go, finish your hunt, I'll meet you back at the castle, Okay?'
He felt her hesitation, but she bowed to his will.
'They will never love you.' The tears fell freely. He sat up there, alone, in the wind, with nobody but doubt and an empty bottle to keep him company.

"Funny, that. How does one consume themselves?" Swift muttered to himself, then winced when Moth punched him in the shoulder.
"You jerk! Making him go off like that? Who are you?"

(( Internet Explorer 8 :/ That's probably why but I'm thinking that's not it. Cause I am not on wireless I'm actually hooked up to the internet. Hope nobody is splicing it.. :/ ))

Was there nothing she could do? Always the middle person, always the peacekeeper...
How boring... Sam thought with a growl as she raced through the forest on four dainty paws. She couldn't help but feel a stab of exhileration as she ran, jumping over trees, shooting past smaller creatures... She let out a loud bark for the hell of it and increased her pace, a grey bullet in the forest. Her mind was working as fast as her body was. Why had that creature appeared? Where had all these new riders come from? Who did they think they were messing with the council members? She growled softly. As always, she was thinking about everything, trying to solve all the problems and keep things running smoothly. One of the few reasons she was probably on the council in the first place.

The grey wolf darted out of the underbrush and out into a field. She could see the castle and remembered all the paperwork she still had to do. That can wait... Sam thought, deciding instead to go practice with her bow or daggers on the training ground instead to clear her mind.

G'reth watched his rider go from high up in the air. He saw her change with his keen vision and felt a glimmer of her excitement as she took off running. The red dragon tipped his left wing, turning into another thermal. He rose into the air effortlessly using the warm air to push him upwards. Glancing down at the lake once more he spotted the hatchlings. He was amazed they weren't an incinerated lot, a black sooty spot on the ground. He also spotted Graendl'd form in the water. He swooped down lower in the sky and reached out a soft tendril of thought to the other dragon.

Do you want to go hunting huntress-of-the-sky? Or come along for the flight? There is a small herd of those four legged deer nearby. Not exactly plump but good enough for a light snack. The red dragon drifted from thermal to thermal as he waited for an answer.

Graendl smiled, pleased with the invitation. 'I would like that very much. She replied, pulling up out of the water with barely a ripple. 'Shall we see if your fangs are as sharp as your tongue is glib?' She leapt into the sky with grace and circled around towards him.

OOC/It might be the browser. IE8 just rubs me wrong. try firefox just in case.

G'reth laughed and snorted out a small jet of flame. My tongue is less talented than that of my fangs and claws, that I know for sure He turned into another thermal lazily lifting his body ten more feet in the air. He glanced around quickly towards a forest about a half an hours flight away. If he was lucky the four legged creatures would be out grazing in the field rather than cowering in the underbrush. Though they should be cowarding, G'reth thought smugly. But still, it was tricky to snap at them between the tall trees.

'Just be careful not to leave your fangs in a tree, almighty hunter.' Graendl glided over to him, staying close, but not so close that a freak wind could send one of them into the other.

The red dragon laughed once more and pumped his wings steadily to move into the next thermal which lead into a jetstream. I'll try my best.

---x

Thud-thud-thud Sam's daggers lined up on the target in a perfect line, but they were not quite on the center. She pursed her lips and strode forward to remove the blades from the target. SHe threw one of the silver daggers into the air and caught it nimbly in her fingers, letting it twirl over her knuckles. The elf looked at the remaining two daggers still embedded in the wooden target. How long had it taken her to learn the proper techniques for throwing them? She stopped the motion of the one dagger and grabbed the rest. Standing in front of the target once more, Sam let them fly once more. The blades buried themselves deep into the target. Two in the center and one to the left.... damn breeze...

Darkest sighed, got up and went to his room. A large bed, built for two rested against a window overlooking the training grounds, the small field behind it and the forest as it led up into the Spine. He almost laughed as he remembered something his father had told him.

'All rank does is give you a room with a view. A room with a view just makes it easier for the assasins to find a man of rank and plug him full a arrows.' Darkest missed the little man, and wondered how the city of Newhaven was doing, and whether they had bothered to be put on any maps yet.

He pressed a stone in the cold empty hearth and a section of wall popped out just a bit. Darkest gripped the edge with his fingertips and pulled the closet sized door out. This lead into what looked like another wall.

"Be true to my eyes." Darkest said in the ancient tongue and almost regretted it as he felt the spell drain a bit of his energy. The wall vanished, and the magical darkness set into the other room didn't hinder him. He looked down at the floor and made sure to step only on the stones darker than the others, lest one of the pressure plates go off and he got skewered by the hidden crossbows set into the wall at varying heights and angles. The bolts were poisoned with a few varying paralytics that all lasted until an antidote was given, or the victim dehydrated and died. Through another door with no handle. (There had been no purpose for one, and he figured that by now anyone who survived the crossbows would think it was false and concealed something nasty.) Gently pressing into the door it creaked and swung open. A broom and dustpan were leaning in one corner, a big desk with a sleeping familiar and a bunch of boring papers was sitting against the wall. The wall on the right held a large Fairth(sp?) Featuring Darkest, Sam, Sasoix, The Twins, Blaze and Their dragons standing behind them proudly. The wall on the left had daggers and shortswords of nearly every size and description, and a rack on that side of the wall held polearms in readiness. It had cost him a small fortune to wall off the two rooms next to his and combine them without anyone but sasoix's knowledge. He went to the desk, and pulled about half the papers off, knocking a mewling midnight to the floor, and went back into his room, where he sat on the bed and slung his swords on a small dresser and shuffled through the papers.

'Land dispute, Land dispute, building permit? What the heck, we don't even have the authority...bah. Land, land, land, property...concerning a carrot? odd. Land, land land, ooh, protection request for a small frontier village at the base of the spine...I'll keep that one.' He stuffed the one paper into a pocket somewhere and looked out the window at the training grounds. He smiled when he saw Sam.

Leaning out the window, Darkest began to yell "HELP! HELP!"

Sam's arm was cocked back and ready to throw and just before she released her dagger she heard Darkest yelling. The dagger went off its path and landed on the far left side of the target... no where near the center. Damnit she couldn't help but think as she turned towards the castle.

Darkest yelling for help? ... What the hell had he gotten himself into now that he couldn't solve on his own? Sam held one of her daggers in her hand and muttered a spell to levitate her off of the ground. As she rose into the air, she checked her wards that were still intact from earlier. She approached Darkest's window cautiously, unsure of what mischief he could have possibly gotten himself into.

"What?" the elf yelled back, levitating ten feet away from his window. Sam looked around him into his room just waiting for something to dart out, spit acid, explode, burn...

Darkest hastily reached under the dresser and pulled on a leather vest with odd hooks and rope on it, then, he made a flying leap out the window. As his innards fell away and he looked down he hurridly reached an arm out to Sam...

Swearing loudly and looking dreadfully confused and scared, Sam grabbed Darkest's hand, holding him tight. She dropped slightly in altitude and felt the drain in her strength instantly. She encouraged the spell more, lifting her to her previous height."What the hell do you think you are doing! And what's going-" Sam shouted aloud in alarm and then sawing his innards falling....? She choked back the last of her words and looked into his eyes with a tad bit of fear.

Darkest quickly shove the papers into Sams pocket and let go of her hand, and the illusion. His 'innards' (Really just more boring paperwork) gently rode the breeze to the ground. Darkest fell for about two feet before the climbing harness caught him and slammed him into the castle wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him. "They're your problem now!" He yelled up to Sam as he quickly began to repel down the castle and escape death by boredom.