Emergence

[Swix]

"Hurrrrmmm..."

The Elder Dragon Inferno made the strange, guttural and rather loud sound deep in his throat as DP landed beside him. He walked down from the top of the rocky hill, his claws clicking on the hard material until he reached the middle of the room.

"The last of us to see the creature was in the Nursery, though you'll find no eggs in there, the largest hollow on the right"

Now they were down here, Inferno spoke normally and his voice echoed strangely around them. Each time he pointed out an area he lifted one of his forelegs to point out of habit.

"The one to the left leads to the Selection chambers, and behind that is the hollow where Ebony and I rest. The area this river leads into is where we bury or submerge the dead. The other, smaller hollows you see all around us are individual sleeping rooms"
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Furnace snorted and landed next to Pitch, Dralacour and Supaiku. He tentatively approached a hole as his lips began to curl over his fangs instinctively. Despite all his talk of finding the two and asking them what was going on, even with the others up here he knew Inferno would be least pleased to see him down there again.

The young Dark Fire Dragon shook his horned head.

"I wouldn't go down there, not with a human on your back anyway"

He said as he began to back away.

[Mitsukai]

((Whew! Finally back from my trip. Not done my homework though... ))

Jun had remained quiet during the flight for she knew that the dragons ahead of them were of some sort of higher ranking. She frowned at Furnace's comment though, but knew that it made sense. Without a word, she slipped off Pitch's back.

[Panther385]

Supaiku, after staring down into the abyss for a while, looked up at Furnace.

"Is this where you're from? Those other dragons look a lot like you, so I'm guessing you're the same species?"

[Swix]

Furnace slightly bobbed his head like a lizard would as he looked at the bronze dragon.

"In a way, yes. He and the others are Dark Fire Dragons like me, we're born beneath the ground with fire and rock. Although he's much older than I am, and there are only a few, very young ones that were born here. We're from a planet called Earth, but we all had to leave when the humans started encroaching on our territory"

"If you want to go down there, be my guest. I'm going to be staying up here"

[Mitsukai]

"I doubt it would be a good idea for me to go down there..." Jun muttered quietly, pondering on what to do next.

[Swix]

((*Prods everyone who showed interest in this thread, which includes prodding Danikat and DP ))

"No it wouldn't"

Furnace then turned around and eyed the human.

"Come back with me, I need to bury Crimsas body"

The Dark Fire Dragon said, and with as little enthusiasm as anyone could imagine he held out his right foreleg.

"You can... ride... But don't get too comfortable, I'm not in the habit of carrying soft-skins around with me"
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Inferno stood in the middle of the underrealm, his spiky tail slightly swishing from side to side.

"Have a look in the Nursery first, there will be hollowed out empty nests and a few lava pools in there. Look for black fog, that is the only form we have seen it in... Except when it possesses us"

The Elder snorted, brilliant crimson flames were sent high from his quintuple horned head and sent some of the black diamonds sparkling from the firelight.

"There are places here too small for one of my size, you will have to search through without me... There is also another of us here who refused to leave"

The Elder said, before looking pointedly at the God of Insanity.

"You will know him. His unique abilities sent him mad"

[Danikat]

((Sorry for the delay in posting, I erm...kind of forgot I was involved in this thread. ))

*Alzaranth found it relatively easy to move through the tunnel thanks to being much smaller than the Elder dragon. She opened her wings slightly to ease her fall from the hole and was able to glide down the slope to land next to him. She sniffed the air and looked around her, but her attention was quickly drawn back to Inferno as he finished his explaination*

A mad dragon? Didn't she remember a mad dragon before? Yes, one of her clutch mates had gone mad, along with his rider, but then they had gone between. She wondered why this dragon hadn't done so, why would you want to stay alive if you were broken?
Danikat: These dragons can't go between remember? And he might not know he's mad.
Alzaranth: Your voice is so faint, are you ok?
Danikat: I'm fine, just a long way away. But I'll be with you soon. For now work on finding the problem, and keep an eye on DP for me.

*Alzaranth nodded seemingly to herself, trying to ignore the sensation of Danikat withdrawing a little bit from her mind as the conversation ended. She would be here soon, she had said so. Shaking herself so her armour clanked together the gold dragon snorted and headed cautiously towards the nursery, pausing near the entrance and peering inside*

((Edited text size for accuracy.))

[Swix]

((No probs Danikat, I think I'll prod the others with PM's. Thanks for continuing though ))

The Nursery that Alzaranth would find herself looking at is about half as large and spacious as the main chamber. The hollows on the ground were simply bowls scooped out of the rock, differing in size, where eggs had once been housed. There were a few, very old and broken eggshells scattered in and around these nests, and their edges had the remains of small claw marks. The nests were dotted around large lava pools that gave the room an intense heat, enough so the younger ones inner fires would not go out through cold.

Right at the back of the room was a floor devoid of both nests and pools, where the mother and father would teach their hatchlings the basics of being a Dark Fire Dragon.

In a corner, obscured by smoke and the distance was what looked like a large lump of ruby embedded into charred and blackened rocks.

[Danikat]

*Seeing no immidiate threats inside the nursery Alzaranth moved slowly into the room, the armour on her tail clattering and is dragged against the wall. She moved to one side of the door, sniffing at some of the hollows where the eggs had lain and a few of the old egg shells*

*Finally the ruby in the back of the room caught her eye and since it seemed to be the only object of interest in the room she moved towards it, still keeping a look out for the smoke monster Inferno had mentioned*

[Mitsukai]

((My appologies for the lateness. ))

Jun raised an eyebrow, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, but she said nothing about Furnace's behavior. Effortlessly, she climbed onto Funace's back, lightly placing her slender hands on the Dark Fire Dragon's neck.

[Swix]

"Don't fall off soft-skin, splattering on the ground would be messy"

Furnace said before he spread his relatively large wings, and taking an awkward running start this time before taking off. He ascended into the sky rather rapidly, although he tried to avoid turning too much either way so his 'passenger' wouldn't fall off.

As they approached the water again the Dark Fire Dragon unconsciously slowed down and eyed it distrustfully. He still hated water.

Furnace landed close to the dead female and put out his foreleg again so Jun could get down.

"You got a name?"

He said whilst he craned his neck to try and find a suitable spot.
_____________________________________________________________
The 'ruby' twitched as Alzaranth approached, sending a small tremor through it and the charred and blackened rocks that surrounded it. As the queen approached it, a light snoring (for a dragon) could be heard coming from behind it.

It wasn't a rock or ruby cluster at all. It was another Dark Fire Dragon, although this one was laying belly-up so all it's red underscales glowed like rubies in the Nursery. It had also managed to crane both it's neck and tail so far to one side that they were completely hidden by it's body. It's black scales seemed to lack the sheen the others had, and what had looked like jagged pieces of the rock were now revealed to be sprawled out legs.

This Dark Fire Dragon had either lost it's dignity or no longer considered it important.

The snoring abruptly stopped with a snort, a heavy sounding thud as horns and tail hit the wall they'd been so close to and a loud curse as he rolled his body over.

Now at least lying down in a form close to straight, it's neck out in the right position while the tail remained curled, the rest of the dragons features could be seen.

He had a barely formed nose horn coming along, as well the third and fourth beginning to make themselves shown from behind his ears. His black scales looked more charcoal and gritty than the sheen of the Elders or the others, making him look like he belonged more with sooty rock than anything else. Apart from this he was just like any other Dark Fire Dragon.

Except for one thing. This one was blind, his eyes had been gouged out long ago, leaving empty sockets. Yet he turned his head so it pointed straight at where Alzaranth was standing.

"Oh dear, do come down and up. Terrible business this. Rock, hmmm... "

He said, switching between talking to himself and her.

"Oh? I'm Coro, Alzaranth. I've been expecting you"

[Danikat]

*Alzaranth let out a short trill of suprise as the 'ruby' turned out to be yet another dragon. It took her a moment to realise what he had said*

Alzaranth: You...you have? How do you know who I am?

[Swix]

"No, no, no. That's not right, not right at all"

Coro said, shaking his his head and absently jumping to the side for apparently no reason.

"I've seen you. I still see you. I can see you really well. That's why they call me a Seer"

As though to demonstrate the point he seemed to be trying to get across, a lump of loose rock fell from the ceiling and landed directly where he'd been moments before.

[Danikat]

*Alzaranth tilted her head on one side, her eyes starting to whirl slightly faster as her confusion grew*

Alzaranth: Your a seer? What is that?
Danikat: It means he can predict the future, he sees things happening before they do.
Alzaranth: Oh. Hey I can hear you well again, are you back now?
Danikat: Yes, nearly there.

*A minute or so later faint scrabbling noises could be heard from the tunnel the others had entered through, they continued for another couple of minutes, getting gradually louder and then suddenly a figure, dressed entirely in red appeared through the hole and with the aid of her wings dropped gently to the ground*

Danikat: Hi everyone! Hmm...probably best to explain this now. I'm able to be down here because I'm wearing magic armour, borrowed from a friend, which protects me from extreme heat. Its erm....its made from the skin of a red dragon but he was evil, he slaughtered baby dragons to keep himself alive. My friend killed him with the help of a gold dragon and was given the armour as a gift. Not going to be a problem is it?

((If anyone has played Neverwinter Nights that story should sound familiar, its one of the quests in the game. Hopefully it won't be a problem, this dragon really was horrible. But if Inferno - or anyone else would be upset/offended feel free to get angry with Danikat.))

[Mitsukai]

((Hmm... I've never played Neverwinter Nights... but I've seen it referred to in an online manga I used to read... ))

The return trip was quite a bit easier for Jun than the first one. Having already ridden on a dragon a little while prior, she knew had more of an idea of how to position herself, and thus she was more comfortable.

When they landed, Jun let out a sigh of relief. Soaring in the air was certainly exhilarating, but it was good to be back on the ground as well.

Slipping of Furnace's back by means of sliding down the dragon's foreleg, she replied, "Jun," in answer to the dragon's question. Softly landing on the ground, Jun took a deep breath. Her legs felt a bit like limp noodles, but she remained fairly balanced nonetheless.