Once Upon a Dream

Sam slipped off of G'reth's back, swimming around in the cool water. Her dragon on the other hand, kicked hard, propelling himself towards the beach. He climbed out of the water and went to a sunny spot to dry off.

Spoil sport
I don't care much for water. The fish can have it. I rule the skies the dragon responded in turn, kneaded his talons into the dirt. He growled softly, enjoying the sun's warmth.
... Baby the elf responded snidely with a wink towards her dragon. The dragon rolled his eyes in mock anger but Sam could see the small smile that crept to his face. The rider contiuned swimming in the water, but stopped, staring through the water at the fish. Their minds were dots of brightness compared to the the energy of the dragons. The elf let her mind sink into the realm of the fish as she treaded water above them. Their fins and their grace in the water astounded her. Maybe she could devise a spell to give herself fins and try it out.

I'd have to resist the temptation to eat you.. the voice in her head replied. Sam could hear G'reth's rumbling laughter behind her but she only smiled and did not loose her focus.

At first Heir wasn't sure why Salah was asking this, but figured there was no point in not answering. "Sure, why not? A swim sounds nice." Heir looked to Skolifr, asking if she had any objections and she shook her head. Skolifr looked pretty excited now, and lost her drowsiness.

"Well then let's go!" Salah said jumping on Eldor's back with gusto. She grinned, her fangs glinted in the sunlight, and they were off. As they shot into the air, the vampire let out a whoop of joy.

Blaze shrugged and watched as Sam and Darkest went under water. She wasn't a daytime swimmer. Something about the water made light seem stronger to Blaze, at least during the day. She settled down deeper in the shade of the tree.
'Wimp.' Exxon snorted up at her.
"You try being allergic to light." She retorted.
Exxon shrugged and paddled around the lake a little more, cooling off his scales.

((Would it be weird if I changed Moth's and Swift's species?))

(( At this point, I am pretty sure it does not matter. ))

((Okay. Now I just have to design it.))

Eldor shot forward, high over the trees. He beat his wings hard to gain altitude, heading into a patch of clouds in the sky. Salah sat on his back, enjoying the coolness of the moisture. Then, the dragon tilted his nose down, and dove for the lake. He roared in delight and pinned his wings straight to his sides to gain the most speed.

Wait for it... wait for it.. Salah said to herself as the lake appeared closer and closer...Now! The vampire leapt from the white dragon's back and fell past a tall tree. She reached out a grabbed a branch, doing a neat twirl around it, before letting go and falling to the ground next to G'reth. The red dragon just pulled a wing over his face, waiting for the splash of Eldor.

There was no large splash. The dragon had streamlined his body and had hit the water in a perfect dive. The water rippled where he had entered but other than that, there was no sight of him.

"Show-off.." Salah muttered under her breath, enjoying the sand much more than the water.

G'reth sent Sam an image of Salah right beside him, looking at the water with distaste. The elf grinned and slipped under the water once more.
Thrysta she thought very carefully while moving her glowing plam through the water. The water seemed to follow her hand and she formed it into a small ball. She felt the power in the little orb and looked up, targetting the area where G'reth had shown her. Sam resisted the urge to laugh as she postitioned the orb.
Ready? she asked her dragon.
Yes he said as he covered his head with one wing.

Sam released the orb and it zoomed up out of the lake and collided with Salah's stomach, drenching her. The elf sawm up to the surface and took a breathe of air before laughing and darting back underneath the water's surface. G'reth laughed, a throaty growl, his wing having deflected any of the water from his body.

The vampire stood there with a O of surprise on her face. "Ah!" she said, shaking her arms to dry them.

"Sam!!"

Swift sputtered and surfaced again. Moth surfaced a moment later, laughing. Swift glared at her.
"You know elves like us don't mix with water," he said.
"Shoulda thought of that before you pushed me in, yeah?" she countered.
Swift muttered something under his breath and clambered out of the lake. Small streams of fire dried off the long hairs at the end of his tail. Moth followed, doing the same.
Having fun?
A small, slender green dragon landed before them. The elf girl ran up to him.
Falcydior! Where were you?
Hunting. His knowing smile revealed long rows of pointed teeth. You do realize I told you beforehand, right?
Mngh.

Darkest grumbled and walked up outta the lake. His leathers made various squishing sounds as he walked over to blaze.

squish squish squish squish he sat down next to blaze and the wet clothes made a loud SPLORCH!.

"I've been thinkin....there's an opening, a chance, over in the Imperial lands.... A chance to get close to HIM." Darkest trailed off and sighed. "I'd be gone for a while...a long while, and i seem to be one of the only people here willing to dabble with the powers of darkness...some students of mine, they'd be lost, and probably try something stupid and end up getting sucked into the abyss, would you mind lookin after them? There's only seven, and only one has a pure elemental connection to darkness. I wont be gone for a month, so you wouldnt have to start right away."

'What? You never told me about any of this!' Graendl said, hurt.

'I just did, didn't i?'

Graendl sputtered, angry, and took off in a huff, making sure that she hit darkest with a blast of wind as she ascended into the clouds.

Nick watched Salah and Eldor fly off into the air. He looked back to his dragon and patted her on the back. "Come on, Skolifr, let's catch up to them." Nick hopped up on her saddle and they took off towards the lake.
They arrived a few minutes later; Skolifr landed so Nick could get back on the ground.

Salah glared at Sam as she came back up to the surface cautiously. Their eyes met and the vampire's face broke out in a small smile. The elf laughed and swam to the edge of the lake. She got out and went and sat behind her dragon, using his natural warmth to dry her clothes.

"New rider?" Sam said quietly to Salah and the girl nodded.

"Nick and Skolifr,"

They both looked towards the lake to see Eldor contently gazing at them. His eyes and nostrils were out of the water, but his body was submerged making him look like a stalking crocodile.

Skolifr noticed the nose peeking out of the water and jumped back a smidgen before she noticed it must've been the dragon she met earlier (or a dragon, at least; she couldn't tell through the water).
Heir waved a hand to the girl Salah was talking to, "Nice to meet you," he said.

Moth leaned against Falcydior's hide, and the light green dragon curled a long, slender tail around her. Swift came and sat down next to her. His left eye was a stern gold, the other bloody red. Black tear-tracks streaked downwards across his right cheek. Her own eyes were similar, bright gold and glaring crimson, but her fire-eye was ringed with black spikes.
Who are those people over there? Those Riders? Falcydior asked.
I dunno. Moth replied. Let's go meet them.
"Let's go over to the other side of the lake," the elf said aloud. She stood and began trotting lightly around the lake, Falcydior walking sedately behind her. Swift scrambled after them.

Blaze watched as more people came to the lake. Salah and Eldor, some new rider and his dragon, and then of course there were the other people coming around from the other side of the lake. Darkest came to sit next to her, bringing with him his wet leather. Inevitably she got splashed by a small spray of droplets when he sat down next to her. She mainly ignored that cause Darkest didn't give her a chance to say anything. He just launched into a speech. As she listened she wiped her hand on the grass getting a water droplet off of it.

"HIM..Dabble in the powers darkness..."

Did he really just say dabble?

"just seven of them..pure elemental connection"

Can you really be pure when it's darkness?

"month...won't have to get started right away."

A hot gust of air shot by aimed at Darkest, which Blaze found amusing. Except for the fact that since Darkest had chosen to sit next to her, she got hit by a little bit of the wind too. Now she had a hair out of place. As she put it back she reached out and thought to Exxon in their private mind channel. 'What do you think?'

'It may be fun.' Was Exxons reply as he doggy paddled around the lake.

'He didn't mention if they were riders or not, they might have little dragons that you need to watch after. And I know how much you love little annoying baby dragons.' Blaze teased.

Exxon snorted. 'At least they are not baby magicians who think that they know best and end up getting sucked into the shadow lands.'

'Hey. Going into the shadow lands is a gift.' Blaze reminded the dragon. She always thought he was sore on the subject because unlike her, he had to have a warmth spell placed on him when he went in or he'd freeze to death. She told him so.

Exxon snorted again. 'Take those students on then. I bet they are dead by the end of the first week.'

"I will watch over your students." Blaze said out loud. She knew Exxon could hear. "When do I meet them? How long is a long time. And what all will I be required to do."

(Meaningless dialog. Enjoy.)

Darkest laughed. "To hell if I know. Just watch over them, show them a shiny trick or toy once in a while, and try and see that the competent ones dont kill themselves...To be honest. I have no idea how long it'll take. Either way, I'll introduce them to you before i leave, whenever's convenient for you...Thank you." Darkest watched the people on the other side of the lake. "does it look like we're going to have visitors?" He asked.

(ooc/sorry about the dialog blaze '^_^)

"Pleasure to met you. I'm Sam and this is G'reth," the elf said with an affectionate pat on the dragon's scaled side. She looked at her dragon's face. One of his amber eyes was trained on her.

Now? he asked.
But I just comfy... let me at least dry off a bit of else I'll freeze
You chose to go into the water...
I know. We'll fly right away. And you can hunt

Sam felt a ripple of enthusiasim, gratitude and happiness flow over their mental link. G'reth nudged her side gently and she rubbed nose.

"Hello!" Moth said cheerfully, waving a hand towards the strangers. Swift muttered something about her being an idiot, but she paid no heed.
-----
An azure dragon dropped out of the sky, thumping to the ground near the castle. A tall black-haired boy slid off her back to land on his feet in the grass, but his left leg gave out and he lunged towards the ground.
Anaklusmos gently closed her teeth on the back of his shirt and hauled him back up. Are you all right?
"I'm okay," Percy answered. "No worries. Thanks." He rubbed a hand on the dragon's nose. "Where did Blaze and the others go?"

"Whenever is fine." Blaze said with a slight shrug. She kept her eyes fixed on the new comers. When Darkest said something about them Blaze let out a bark of laughter. "It's a guild, there are always vistiors." She rolled her eyes. "At least this one has a dragon and isn't a farmer angry that some kid stole a carrot. Oh one carrot! That's going to make a difference." Blaze went on in mutterings.

Exxon got out of the lake and placed himself by Blaze, just in case the newcomer meant harm. Then the new comer shouted "Hello"

"Well, hello would be such a weird way to start a surprise attack. I bet people wouldn't even see it coming. This should be tried. I'm going to try it on your students." Blaze stated to Darkest.
( Dialog is fun.)

"I dunno, seems a bit obvious to me, but I bet you're right, Nobody lacking paranoia would see it coming....shall we try it out on the waving one?" His eyes glinted, and he smiled murderously.

Blaze shrugged. "Do you think they could take us? I mean, this fight might last one second." Blaze picked up Mara. "Lets do it."
Blaze stood up and waved back. "Hello!"

The gentle snick of a blade caught Moth's ear, and she turned to see Swift take out his knife. "What are you doing?"
"That one's gotten out her whip, you idiot, they're going to attack us," her brother hissed back.
"And if you take out your knife, then they're going to think we're going to attack them, and we're not," Moth pointed out. "So put it away, yes?"
Swift grumbled, but sheathed the knife.
Moth called out experimentally, "My name is Moth, this is my brother Swift and the dragon's Falcydior. We're not going to attack you, no worries there, right?"

(Mara is a whip that can make people see their worst nightmare when wrapped around them.
Leiko and Endoh are the Blaze's swords. They are twins.

So basically, she picked up her whip. and I edited that post, cause I did it wrong.)

((Oh, my bad. I'll change my post then.))