A small boy pokes his head into the tavern, looking around for anyone inside. Sweat pours from his face and he seems to be trembling from nervous excitement. His voice cracks from anticipation as he shouts out to any who'll listen. "I saw it! He's real! And his wings were THIS big!" The small boy extents his arms out as far as they can go and jumps a little for effect.
Katri's head lifts from the nearly complete annotation of a rather large tome as the child enters. Gaze barely flickering to Solas as he moved to the child, before fixing her eyes on the boy once more.
When the blind man began to gently question the little boy, Katri laid aside her quill and turned completely around in her seat to face the pair, forearms resting lightly on her knees. Her voice was quiet and calm, not at all her usual harsh and unpleasant tone, when she spoke, "Yes, child, vhat has happened?"
Lifting his head from his book he watches as the little boy busts though the door and the townspeople being to talk to him. Listening very intentlly to what the little one has to say. He sheaths his sword dons his helm and shield moving closer to the child as to listen to the rest of his story.
There came a low grumble from somewhere underneath a chaotic litter of mugs, empty pint glasses and the weak croaks of deformed frogs which had once been used as a living flask for a wide range of alcoholic beverages. Just as the grumbles and groans slowly began to take shape into intelligeable words, so did the pile of scattered debris soon reveal the hunched and sore form of none other than a still intoxicated dwarf as he stumbled and shuffled to his feet.
"I see now why you never drink anything that also comes with a free tombstone slab included with the price.." he grumbled aloud to nobody in particular as he produced from his satchel a thick slab of cured badger meat and began to tug and rip at it's impossibly tough flesh. Blisdon allowed his blurry eyes to drift and wander off into open space until they fixate upon a small child further away, flapping his arms at the crowd and excitedly jumping in excitement.
Blisdons eyes bulged out in a mixture of awe and utter terror, his mouth so agape in surprise that several pieces of badger flesh spill out and fall to the floor. " It seems all the spirits in my murder water be turnin' against me. There seems to be a small lad' in this hear tavern flappin' about liken' hes some sort o' bird. " Called out the dwarf as he moved closer to the small child, his wild eyes appraising what the shaman takes for a hallucination with interest and curiosity.
"Well...looks like ya finally lost it, ya shroombrained dwarf.." The dwarf muttered under his breath as the stroked his beard in deep thought.
The small boy sheepishly reaches up and places his hand on Solas as he kneels down next to him. His curiosity getting the better of him he reaches up and tugs at the cloth wrapping his eyes and stares at the face under the mask. A little giggle slips past his lips as he raises the cloth again covering the man's eyes.
He turns to Edwin and smiles immediately recognizing the man. He turns to him almost immediately as he stops next to him and gives him a giant hug. "Momma told me to say thank you to the nice man that saved me from the witch and all those skeletons the next time I saw him. Oh, and thank you for the firewood too. I didn't need to go back to that scary place again for weeks!"
As more people began to surround the child, he remembered why he had come into the tavern in the first place. His eyes widened and his voice grew very quiet, so only the people near him could hear. "I saw it, it was a giant lizard. It was SOOOO cool!" Spreading his arms out to pantomime wings he continues, "I watched it fly over my house. Momma screamed at me, told me to come inside before it swooped down and picked me up to eat me for dinner. I've never seen a lizard eat a person before, so I went outside to follow it."
The little boy stops for a second and scratches his head, "Then again, I've never seen a lizard fly before either..." His voice draws on for a second, clearly in though as he realizes what he saw, then screams excitedly again, "Did I just see a dragon?"
Katri watches the boy and listens to his babbling, eyebrows raising when he finally got to his point. Dragon in Jastrey is very much what it sounded like. The Uordeq stood, gathering her things and heading for the door. As she passed the child she paused and looked down, her face was blank. Katri's voice still calm and somewhat softer than before when she spoke, "Perhaps you should listen to your mother..."
With that last word and a look of concentration and thought in place on her face she left the tavern, seeming to move with purpose.
Blisdons eyes focused on the excitedly innocent child.
"The mighty and revered birdlord of the spiritual ancestors warns of dragons!" Exclaimed the shaman, Raising his hands as high as his stout stature would let him and flapping them about as excitedly as the boy had done previously as he allowed himself a final celebratory sip of the foul liquor before turning back towards the boy.
"Tell us, mighty warrior and ageless messenger of the world beyond, What did it look like? What color of it's scales did the sunlight reflect in your fateful visions?"
Binx had been making her way to the tavern for a drink but the small crowd in the doorway stopped her before she even stepped through the doors. Spying an unfamiliar child in the mix, she raised an eyebrow and leaned against the door frame. It didn't make a difference to her if the others noticed her or not, or even considered her to be eavesdropping on the conversation; the Uordeq was curious as to why this child was interesting to the men.
Solas was admittedly stunned as the strange boy lifted the blindfold revealing the empyrean's bright blue eyes. He smiled as he fixed the piece of cloth back into place. 'dragons' he thought to himself. 'how curious.' He chuckled at the boy. "yes, dragons are very. Very real." His expression fell as he thought on the subject of dragons. He had never personally seen one, but he had heard legends, tales of their escapades throughout the shards. He knew the destruction they could bring and it worried him.
Nirvianae, tired from a long day of hard labor, decided to go to the tavern to drink and read. On the way towards the entrance, he hears a young boy say loudly, "and it was THIS BIG!" Slightly intriguged, he continues to the tavern. By the time he gets closer, the boy is elaborating on his story. Nirvianae isn't even all the way to the steps when he hears the word "dragon." He halts in his tracks, filled with a mixture of nervousness, joy and anxeity. Once he recovers enough, he moves forward so he can more clearly hear. He has to use all of his will power to not burst out in to a frantic fury of questions about the dragon. He stands there quitely clutching his book tightly as the young boy continues his story, hoping that all of his questions will be answered.
Morzoth pulls back just enough so the boy can not reach and says in a stern voice. "Yes they are and no human boy should ever touch an angoris horns" Morzoth sees that the boy was just curious and smirks "but ill let it pass if you tell me more of this dragon you saw"
The little boy reaches up just as Morzoth begins to pull away, but stops as he's scolded and draws his hand back sheepishly. "I'm sorry mister, I've never seen real horns on a man afore. I'll tell you all about the dragon. He was SOOO big! He didn't get too close so I couldn't get a good look at him. He had really big leathery wings, like a bird that had all his feathers plucked out, and he smelled really bad as he flew over my house. Momma saw it and pulled me back inside and told me to hide, so I climbed out my bedroom window and followed him as best as I could. It did some circles around that old walled off place out in the woods and then flew off into the mountains and over the void."
The black clad figure of the Uordeq rested with her arms crossed against the door frame as the boy re-told his story, her expression apathetic aside from a single raised eyebrow. Her gaze lifts from the boy to Morzoth as he suggests following the dragon. "Maybe you are right, but there is no guarantee that the dragon will not return while you are there." She says from the doorway, just loud enough for the group to hear.
Solas stands from his crouched position as the boy scurries off after the angori. He places two fists against his lower back and pushes, hard. After a series of cracks and pops he stands straight again. "ugh, I'm getting too old to do that." He half groans. He glances back toward the boy, his mind on the dangers to come. "Yes," he says, almost miles away, "I think we should send the boy home."
Seeing as no one is asking any of the important questions, Nirvianae walks to the boy, kneels down and opens up the book he had in hand. He flips to a particular page, and shows it to the boy. On the page is drawings of each of the four dragon types.
"Boy, which of these did the dragon you saw look most like? Please answer this as best you can as it can help us to know what we are dealing with."
The young boy stares at the pictures of the dragons and smiles gleefully at Nirvianae before firing off an unending series of questions. "This is so cool. Does this mean there's more types of dragons out there? Are you going to fight it? Can I go with you? Does it have treasure? Can it breathe fire? If so, can we roast marshmellows?"
The boy takes a quick breath before continuing, "If I had a pet dragon, I wouldn't need to get firewood anymore. I'd keep him as a pet and I'd let him live under the stove, and he could keep the house warm and cook breakfast for me, and chase away all the bad guys, and go hunting for momma, and....."
"Whoa, whoa there kid," Nirvianae interjects. "Yes, there are more than one type of dragon. Four known types to be exact. But that is beside the point. I need you to identify as closely as you can which of these dragons the one you saw most resembles and how big it looked. If you can do that for us, we can know how big of a threat we are dealing with. Also, I can let you know whether or not it breathes fire, or something other than fire."
Nirvianae finishes talking with a warming smile. Afterwards, he flips to another part of the book then slowly flips from one page to the next, each page with more detailed sketches of each dragon. Each sketch breaks the dragons down showing wing size and shape from the top and bottom, profile views of the head and neck, frontal and profile close-ups of the head, and an overall sketch of the dragon flying and sitting with a comparison to how large an adult dragon is compared to an averaged sized human.
Nirvianae looks back to the child and asks, "Do any of these look familiar to you?"
Al-Rassad sat sipping on a drink left unnatended during the commotion and shuttered, his ancestral aversion to dragons keeping him from wanting to speak up. "well," he thought to himself "a crisis is the best opportunity for profit" than standing and proclaiming loudly to nobody in particular "I Al-Rassad of the Seven Sands shall take up the reins of my pheonix ancestor before me and personally slay the dragon!"
Chataya, sitting towards the rear of the tavern, didn't make a sound or react in any way until she gave an incredulous snort at Al-Rassad's comment."You're no Tamar," she grumbled under her breath. She stood, gathered her sword and went to stand near Morzoth.
She looks down at the child, and says, not unkindly, "Little boy, you are being very foolish. Dragons are not something 'neat' or 'interesting'. It will kill you if you go near it. You should go home to your mother; I'm sure she is quite worried. Go home and put the dragon from your mind, or it could very well mean your death." Turning to the others around her, she says "Well? What should we do? We have so many troubles brewing right now. I hate to add a vile dragon to the list." She rubs her eyes with weariness and looks around at each of her fellow townspeople in turn.
"Well first," Nirvianae replies, "I'd like to know what type of dragon we are dealing with because if a dragon has decided to make its home here in Jasery then there isn't a damned thing we can do about it except exterminate it."
Nirvianae closes his book and looks to the child again and says "Forget the pictures. What color was it?"
The young boy finishes flipping through the book and shrugs. "He looks like this one," he says while pointing to the picture of the red drakes, "but he's not red, he's white. He looked more like a giant skeleton with huge patchy holes in his wings. Oh yeah, and he smelled really really bad, if that help." The boy shrugs and goes back to flipping through the book looking at more pictures of dragons.
Nirvianae leaves the book in the child's hands and stands up. "Well, its a drake we're dealing with. A fire dragon. Fire doesn't hurt it at all. And it has a nasty fire breath as well. But from the sounds of it, this dragon is no longer among the living. I could tell you all about a living drake, but an undead one is a different story. Being undead, he may have gained new powers or lost some old ones. Does anyone here have any knowledge about the undead?"
Solas snaps out of his half trance. He shakes his head slowly at Nirvianae. "I'm afraid I can't be of any use to you here." he says calmly. "I've never personally met this dragon. I've only been here for a short time. Although..." he glances away. "I have heard stories of this undead drake... Terrible things..."
Blisdon nodded along with the Empyrean "Aye, I've never met the beast either. But his mirage appeared once recently as the Paladin Doran led us to some ruins more wrecked up than a faerie givin' birth to angori octuplets."
Blisdon scratched at some stray beardhairs by his ear as he scowled at the floor in a moment of deep thought and concentration.
"But If it bleeds, Then we can bring it down! Thats the dwarf way...hell! Thats the Jastrey way!" Said blisdon, his voice booming with drunken courage and blind optimism.
"Ooooh, you're going to kill it?" the boy questions excitedly dropping the book and standing next to Blisdon. Tugging on Blisdon's shirt sleeve and looking up at the dwarf he asks innocently, "Can I help?"
The young boy picks up a large serving tray and a knife from a nearby table and pretends to use them as a sword and shield, dancing around the tavern and stabbing into thin air. "I want to be a great dragon slayer! I'm going to be an ADVENTURER!"
"that probably aint' the smartest Idea, mighty bird-lord of the ancients. But do ya like TREASURE? I'll bring ya back more loot and booty than a dwarfette in mating season. You manlings tend to call it "happy hour" but..." Blisdon began to lose his focus and trail off into low grumblings about manlings misunderstanding proper dwarf culture before turning back to the small child.
"How's about a nice tooth from the one and only...SCORCH THE RISEN, LITTLE BUDDY?"
The kid nods his head in agreement. "Who doesn't like treasure Mr. Dwarf? And I'd like the tooth more if I can pull it out of his face all by myself. Then I can go back and show momma that I'm a big boy and I she doesn't have to worry so much when I go out looking for firewood all day so our house doesn't get cold at night." The boy stabs the air a few more times for good measure before his stomach begins to gurgle.
"And a dragon of that size should have enough meat to feed a small army too. Wouldn't it?"
Azrael strides up the road into town, returning from a journey that has kept him away from Jastrey for quite some time. Seeing no one out and about he heads towards the noise he hears coming from the tavern.
As the boy mentions "a dragon large enough to feed an army" Azrael quietly slips into the tavern, taking his place in the shadows so as to remain unnoticed. Two gleaming scimitars hang from his belt, replacing his customary long swords, and strange, intricately detailed sword is strapped to his back. Anyone who inspects him more closely can see cuts and bruises from recent battle.
"A dragon" he whispers to himself. It seems I have returned just in time for some fun
"Define your meaning of war; to me it's what we do when we're bored."
Nirvianae takes back his book from the child then tells him, "That dragon is undead. I don't think you want to eat anything off of that."
He then turns to everyone and asks, "Alright, so what do you think we should do about this? According you some of you, this Scorch has been here and defeated before. If that is the case, then I feel it is back for revenge. That means this dragon will be filled with an undying rage towards all of Jastery." Nirvianae pauses for a moment, then continues. "Therefore, I feel it is best for us to analyze this from afar. If possible, I would like to converse with someone with knowledge of the undead. Maybe we can get some ideas on what might be the best method of defeating this dragon."
As if on que, the stray jingling of heavy iron keys can be heard clanking ever closer until the tavern door creaks open. The dark hooded woman raizes long thin pale fingers to the rims of her hood and slowly lowers it to rest along her thin framed shoulders. Her red hues dully wander along the taverns occupants, as a natural check to spy upon any unrulley behavior. Her words come as a calm reply. "The power of the prime shall be your greatest ally in this trial. He shall not be compelled, nor turned from his path of destruction. The spirits rage and holler of his wrath due upon us." Her eyes then settle on the questioner himself, staring at him with a cool intensity, continuing with a tone of monotony. "Yet should you have a rellic of this creature, I could yet learn more. Perhaps some of the older inhabitants hold such an item."
She knew of the undead, but Binx had never heard of an undead Dragon and did not speak on it. Akon had a much more useful answer than her guessing and musing would have been anyway. A tiny snort of mild amusement escapes her as the boy took up arms...er, table wear. "Maybe we should postpone this adventure until we can aquire some holy items."
At the mention of the undead dragon Azrael's hand immediatly move to his scimitars. He then chuckles to himself and lets his hands slip away as he mutters "Maybe those blasted paladins will have some use for once," looking back down at his scimitars, "and maybe they'll have something more suited for crushing bone than these things.
~Define your meaning of war; to me it's what we do when we're bored.~
Solas sat, nursing at the bar, nursing a drink. It had been a long while since he had gotten any time to relax. He sighed as the boy burst into the bar. He could almost feel that coming right as he had finished his thought. He turned toward the disturbance.
The blind folded seer stands from his seat at the bar. He slowly approaches the boy, and then kneels to be eye level with him. "Calm down." The Empyrean says with a soothing tone. "Start from the begining, What happened?"