Challenges

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira didn't say anything as he drank some of the contents of the waterskin. She stuck it in her cloak, keeping it close by.

She sat alert, prepared to do whatever necessary to keep him safe from here on out. A dozen questions brewed in her mind that she shoved away, they could be asked at a later time. She glanced down. His complexion was getting better, that much was noticeable. She nodded to herself, scanning the forest for anything that could be potentially dangerous, sorting out what were long shadows and what was trees. She was glad there was light enough yet - if it was dark, the danger would increase tenfold.

[Omio]

Len laid there for a while; about half a bell before he got up, a bit slowly. He seemed a bit dazed, but perfectly fine. "I'm capable of moving on. We should, before we lose all light. It sh--" And he stumbled slightly back, nearly blacking out. "Okay, got up too quick... ...Nonetheless, it should still be clear. It smells clear."

His vision was clear. Almost perfectly fine. He was more accustomed to the darkness than Saira was, evidently; then again, with all the dark alleys and such, no wonder. He was definately more capable in the dark. He regained his posture. "I'll just need a moment to kinda get the blood flowing right again..." Happens every time I lay down for a while after having trouble breathing...

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira stayed in her crouched position until Len stood up. She reached out a hand when he stumbled, but he caught himself. He seemed relatively okay. She would rather he rest for a bit longer, but didn't think he'd be too keen on that, so she said nothing.

"If your sure that your okay," She said a bit uncertainly. "But if you need to rest, say something, all right?" He did look considerably better than he had not long ago.

She looked around, a look of concentration on her face before turning back.
"Any idea which direction to go?" She;d gotten a bit turned around among all of the fighting and the smoke.
"I think it's that way, but..." She said, pointing through the trees. "I can't be totally certain." She didn't check the connection with Sarora, which, even blocked off, would tell her exactly which way to go. She wanted to make it the whole way without having to depend on her for anything. And she was a bit curious on how good her sense of direction really was.

[Omio]

Len looked around, noticing the pattern of things - still, he checked a few trees for moss. "Eh... ...so far, that's a little off..." And then he sketched things out in his mind for a bit, before finally setting the direction correct. "You were close. We would've wound up a half-mile north from where we're supposed to be at." And then he pointed out the direction. "We were heading slightly south from Northeast. That much I remember, and I set that direction last night with an arrow I drew on the dirt there." And then he slowly began, picking up speed with every step until he was at the old walking pace.

[WolfEnchantress]

Sarora opened her eyes, catching something on the air yet again. This time, though, she recognised it. Saira. She let out a short rumble from her chest, sending all of the birds in the surrounding trees into the air in an explosion of twittering bodies. They were still somewhat far our, but with a dragon's sense of smell, she knew she was there.

And there was the other one that was with her, the Dragoon. She narrowed her eyes, inhaling deeply. She wouldn't really know much until she could see him.

They are close, She said to Kimara. I can smell them. She glanced over to his figure, then the woods.

**

Saira followed Len, who was back to normal in a relatively short time.
"A half mile north.." Shhe said. "Not as bad as it could be, I suppose. I could have started us in the worng direction completely." She looked at the sky and the position of the sun.

"I wish I could tell direction from the sky. Maybe I should learn, it's bound to some in handy someday." Today would have been one of those days.

They continued without much issue, and Saira thought of something.

"When we get back, Sarora is bound to say something to you, unless you wish her not to. Since she uses mindspeak, you will hear it in your head, of course. It takes a lot of time to be able to answer with your mind, though, for those who don't know how and if you try enough, you are opening your mind to hers, and it would be as easy as breathing for her to see what you are thinking."

She frowned. "Not that she enjoys doing that. In fact, she rather dislikes it, thinking it a huge invasion of privacy, but it isn't something that can be helped really. Trying to say something and failing is kind of like slowly pouring your every thought into her mind. I'm just warning you now," She added.

[Omio]

Len shrugged. "It's not as if I have much to hide; best to be honest about a majority of things than to be caught and tortured on a lie that you made. Though that means I can't rely on hiding small slips of detail. To each, their own on that. Also, with the sky, you can usually tell time from it until you have the stars out; but that's a fat lot of good in a forest, where most of the stars are barred from sight. In a forest, the moss generally grows thickest on the northern side of things. From there, you have your directions."

It also means I'll have to be a bit careful about what I think of saying, and don't actually say... ...Hopefully, there isn't too much peeking around, but if worse comes to worse, I'll have to give an explanation - be that sooner or later. Until then, I'll just wait and see. Knowing my luck, I'll end up rejected just because of my past - but it's possible for me to tag along... ...I hope... if not, though things'll be sour down here, I'll have to manage on my own.

[WolfEnchantress]

"It really shouldn't be an issue," She said. "She may be curious about who you are, but won't go so far as to invade your mind to find out."

At least, she was pretty sure.

she thought about it for a moment, hoping that she was right. It was pretty hard to stop a dragon from doing something it wanted to do, but she was 99 % positive that the dragon would mind her manners. She may have been banned from the rest of her race, but she still had a dragon's sense of honor, wchic was very, very hard to break.

The shadows lengthened as the sun began to drop in the sky, and she glanced over.
"We're almost there," She commented. "Remember, Sarora isn't the only one we're meeting. Kimara is there too," She said, her excitement of meeting the two mounting. "I suspect he will be easier to please, however, so that meeting should go more smoothly." That at least she could say with confidence.

[Omio]

Len shrugged. "One or many, I only care if I get eaten, and with the way you're making things sound, I probably won't. Nonethele--" He was cut off by the squeak of a small bird. He blinked, before standing still, a medium-sized bird carrying a vial showed up. The vial was labelled. 'Firedust For Len' was what was written. He blinked, before taking the small vial, and dismissing the bird. "Who in hades could be sending me Firedust...? ...And how'd that person know I was running low?" And then he ran across a thought, holding the vial some distance before opening it, and spilling the slightest amount. The end result hit ground, and flared on impact for an extremely brief moment. It wasn't long enough to set anything on fire.

Len nodded, before opening the Firedust pouch, and gently putting the new supply in. After that, he closed the small pouch up. "Sorry about that, just wanted to check if it was genuine, and not a trap. Apparently, it wasn't." Still, I'm also surprised that the vial wasn't disturbed enough to end up flaring, and setting the rest of the dust off... "Let's get moving. Don't let the shadows freak you out too much." And he resumed, almost as if it was a walk in the park. She seems a little different, and a bit more positive. We truly must be close if she's so happy.

[WolfEnchantress]

Well, at lease I can guarantee that you won't be eaten. That makes things easier." She grinned, then stopped with Len at the sound of a small 'peep'

Saira was startled by the appearance of the bird holding the vial of what Len called Firedust. He spilled a bit onto the ground and watched it flare for a moment before adding it to a pouch. She looked around, but saw no one nor the little bird any more. She looked on the ground where he had let it touch the leaves, but there was no burned spot or anything.

"Is this a normal occurrence?" She asked as they resumed walking. He seemed a bit surprised at first, but now he acted like this was a normal part of life. Maybe it was for him. She'd never gotten things delivered by bird. Then again, who was there to send her things in the first place?

Vaguely she wondered how the bird knew where to find Len. Overall, she found the whole thing intriguing. She looked around at the shadows, which stretched and distorted the figure of the original object and shrugged.

"As long as stalkers or something aren't present, I'm good," She said with a half - grin.

[Omio]

"Stalkers? Out in these parts? Pff, you have to be kidding me..." Len lightly chuckled. "You'd sooner find a hut out here." And then he went back to the topic of the bird. "It's not extremely normal, but I'm used to it, myself. They're the best way to send things discreetly and quickly. Kinda fishy, though. With the way Firedust works, you'd expect it to kind of... explode mid-travel, with all the flying that the bird has to do..." Len shrugged. "It's why I tested it first. If someone wants to send a small helping hand to me, then thanks to them, whomever they may be, but as long as I don't know who it is, I can't exactly thank that person - or necessarily trust them quite that fully, either."

[WolfEnchantress]

Sarora let out a short roar of greeting. They were still a good distance away, but as they drew closer she became somewhat restless, fidgeting and shifting, occasionally flaring wings impatiently. Humans were so slow . . . She wished they could fly, or run fast. She grinned, waiting.

**

Saira frowned.
"I wouldn't trust it." She said. "Well, I suppose if it happened regularly, I might. But I would definitely test it first, like you did." She shrugged. "I don't have to worry about that though, so I'm not going to think too hard about it."

The roar cut through her talking, a faint echo that bounced off of the trees to meet them. It was quiet, meaning she was far away (A dragon's roar can be heard for ridiculously long distances) but it was there nonetheless. If she hadn't known better, she probably would have thought something was going to come eat them.

"Sarora says hello," She said to Len, breaking into a huge grin. 'hello' was a simple way of putting it - the sound contained an elaborate greeting. But, 'hello' was easier than explaining.

[Omio]

Len was on edge, ever since the roar. F-for that long a distance...? T-that can mean a lot of things... ...Easy to call allies... ...B-but what a-- Oh yeah, they're hunted... ...I-I-I really hope I'm not made into a small snack... ...I... ...I don't... ...Help...? He took a while to actually talk. His voice was already termbling with hesitance, and fear. "U-u-uhm... ...alright..." And he resumed, as reluctant as he was. You could easily tell he was scared.

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira glanced over to Len, who was quite obviously scared. She grinned back reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I can keep her in line," She said, unable to hide her own excitement. For the duration of their journey it had seemed that she'd been able to ignore the longing for the dragon, but now she wanted to tear over there as fast as she could and meet her again. Their mental connection was still closed, but she could feel Sarora's anticipation just like she could feel her own.

After a long while more, she stopped, about a football field's distance from the clearing that held the dragon and Kimara. She turned to Len.
"They are both right through those trees," She said. Even an idiot could tell something was there - there were absoloutely no animals whatsoever to speak of - the forest was eerily silent. The ground rumbled with Sarora's impatience.

"Whenever you're ready, we can go," She said quietly. "She won't hurt you, I promise."

[Omio]

Len was a bit pale. Not quite ghost white, but getting close to it. After a bit, however, he managed to go on, though slow. Almost every part of him was screaming to turn back and run, but he didn't. He didn't exactly know why he was going on, but he was. He wasn't even capable of thought at the moment, too gripped by fear to do much more. It was just a better idea to drag him, at the rate he was going at.

(( Yes, he's actually afraid of dragons, so far. ))

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira grabbed his hand and began to proceed. Slowly. Len seemed pretty much terrified, and she was pretty sure the last thing he wanted to do was even take a step forewords. After about five minutes, they reached the final few steps and went through the screen of trees and leaves.

Before she could do anything she was knocked to the ground - gently, if that was the right word for It - and held there by Sarora's massive talon, longer than her arm, curled under so the point was tucked away. Her scaled flashed brilliantly, and she squinted. The dragon grinned and thrummed in pleasure as she inspected every inch of her, noticing the light scars and scratches but ignoring them in her glee. When she finally wormed free, she stood, hugging the dragon's nose. Simultaneously, both of them let the other back in their minds and there was a rush of emotion that staggered her. They both were still for a second, sharing memories that had happened in the past few days - a few details excluded, on Saira's part.

I have missed you, Sarora said to her.
"I have missed you, too," She replied aloud for the sake of the others present. She returned to Lens side and led him over to Kimara. She grinned and clasped him in a hug before, catching herself, pulled back and bowed.
"Kimara, this is Len; Len, this is Kimara," She introduced him. A snarl, very quiet, broke through the introduction. She got the meaning behind it - it was a 'so this is who he is' kind of sound. She rolled her eyes, but was unable to hide her borad smile of happiness.

"Yes, Sarora, this is Len. He pretty much kept me alive," She added. The dragon reared to her full height, towering above them and glaring down.
"Sarora. Stop that." Right now. Look at him, he's afraid enough already, she added in her mind. Sarora lowered her head and rested it on the ground so she was eye to eye with him. She bared her fangs, but a look of curiosity shone in her eyes, and Saira knew it was just for show - the dragon was genuinely curious. Sarora thrummed - which was easily mistaken for a growl - in wonder.

"How were both of you while I was gone?" She asked Kimara, the same time Sarora spoke to Len -
Who are you, Dragoon? She said to him, lashing her tail back and forth and adding a flare of her massive wings, though she made it heard by everyone. She knew who he was, though not more than his name and that he had traveled with her. Saira guessed it was some sort of evaluation that she didn't get. She moved closer to Len nd whispered, "Remember what I told you," She said, referring to him answering out loud or attempting the mindspeak. She hoped he was okay - he was pretty pale even thinking bout meeting her, and the real thing was probably worse, not helped by Sarora's false nasty attitude. She was suspicious, but saw a few things from Saira, and Saira made sure to show the dragon the many times he'd saved her life. Sarora stared, her crystal eye focused on Len's.