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[npc_kun]

Characters: YOU! Confused new (or old) arrivals and current ES characters alike are all welcome!
Date/Time: Sunday, July 10th, all day
Location: All over the Sphere- if you need a refresher, please consult our handy World Map and the Events Calendar for a description of the current Wilderness! Remember, however, that new arrivals can appear ONLY ON

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Woods on Melee; open

[dragon50times]

She flew through a forest where the light was smothered. A massive spider scuttled out in front of her and she landed, four feet planting on the ground as she reared her massive head back and unleashed fire--pure, cleansing fire from the soul. Behind her, the humans fought with steel and magic. Axes, swords, spears, lightning, fire and shadow cut the air all around her, biting into the flesh of things that ought not be moving.

The rain woke her. Or had she been sleeping? She looked around and then down at the book in her hands. Huge drops of water fell intermittently as thunder rolled up above, but no lightning yet. Woods, but even in foul weather they did not seem as dark as the one she had seen just now. She pulled her wings in tighter as the rain hit them.

Where was she? Who was she? That was important. I was the dragon in Darkling Woods. The name came unbidden, but nothing else followed. Just her, the book, and nobody else. The humans were not here. Could they fight without her? There had been so many of them, but the darkness

[catoutofwater]

Water droplets hitting his face woke him and he sat up, yawning and arching his back in a stretch, arms reaching up above his head. He blinked a few times, blearily, as the fog of a deep sleep began to lift from his mind and it registered that he was outside in the pouring rain. What was he doing out...

...Out where, exactly? The last lingering remnants of drowsiness abruptly dissipated as he realized that this was most definitely not where he'd just been. It had been cold there, he remembered, the ground covered in fresh snow, and there had been stone statues everywhere he looked; statues of cats, tigers, hawks, beorc, and they had spoken in his mind... ah, but that must have been a dream. Statues couldn't speak.

That didn't explain why he was out here, though, or where here was... and he noted with a growing sense of trepidation that he couldn't recall where he was supposed to be or what he was supposed to be doing. The tip of his tail twitched nervously. He didn't even know his own name

[dragon50times]

The dragon of Darkling Woods stopped abruptly when she saw the man with cat ears and tail. He didn't look like one of the monsters... she didn't sense anything foul from him, but surely he wasn't a human. They didn't look like that. Did they?

She backed up a step when he called out. There was nobody else here he could be talking to. That, and he was looking directly at her. I fought with the humans. I protected them. I am a dragon. Why am I so frightened just to speak?

"Hello," she said in quite a small voice. A thousand questions crowded into her mind, but she waited for him to ask his own.

[catoutofwater]

He stopped, as well, once he came within sight of her. He had noticed her backing up a bit, and he didn't want to scare her off. He didn't question why she might be afraid of him; on the contrary, it felt almost like an expected reaction. He stayed where he was, several paces away, keeping his body language relaxed and non-threatening as he got a good look at her.

Those wings look like dragon wings, his mind immediately supplied... but he didn't think the rest of her looked very dragon-like. It was hard to be sure, though... it was hard to be sure of anything right now, with his memory as lacking as it was. But, dragon or not, a cute little kit like her shouldn't be wandering around alone in a forest during a thunderstorm, surely

[dragon50times]

The dragon looked the strange man up and down as he spoke. He certainly looked and sounded friendly. And his hair, light blue--it didn't even register as a conscious thought, but for some reason it bolstered her confidence. Whatever kind of creature he was, she could believe that he was a nice one.

But she couldn't give him a good answer to his question. She might have known the other forest well, but she knew no more about this place than she did about herself.

"I'm lost too," she said, deciding to take a step or two closer. "I just... found myself over there." She pointed back in the general direction she had come. "Um... what's your name?" Does he not know anything either?

[catoutofwater]

His grin faded at her response, to be replaced with a concerned look. She just found herself here... she was in the same predicament that he was in, wasn't she? A sweet little thing like her, lost and alone in the rain... it wasn't right. It unsettled him, deeply, that whoever or whatever had cast this spell over him (for what else could it be?) would not even spare what looked, to his eyes, to be a helpless child.

If she was in fact a dragon, of course, she might well be older than he was... but he still wasn't sure about that. She reminded him of dragons, but she also reminded him of young children, and that was all he was certain of at the moment

[dragon50times]

He didn't even know his name. Like her. What had happened to them? Was this an enchantment of that forest? Maybe none of this was real...

Fish?

...What a strange name. She had to smile just a little at his sheepishness and tail-twitching, and she was quite sure she had never known any humans named fish. But as for her own name, what should it be?

I was the dragon of Darkling Woods. How she knew that name and not her own, she couldn't say. But it was still something, and an important something. "Darkling," she said after some moments thinking. "Call me Darkling."

[catoutofwater]

Still grinning, Fish gave her an exaggerated, flourishing bow. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, my lady Darkling." He decided that he liked seeing her smile, even if it was only faintly, and so he would do what he could to keep her spirits up. To keep both of their spirits up. Even if caught in the grip of a powerful spell, they couldn't allow themselves to despair. Spells wore off, or they could be nullified. They needed to remain optimistic and just focus on one thing at a time

[dragon50times]

Darkling's smile grew wider at Fish's bow and chivalrous manner, even if it seemed like a temporary affectation. She could tell that it was meant kindly. And right now--she was happy that she wasn't alone, but even happier that the first person she'd met was a decent man.

She looked up at the sky sharply when she saw the white flashes. Maybe this place was unafflicted by darkness, but that didn't meant it couldn't be dangerous. She decided to hold in an offer to fly up to see the shortest route to the nearest village.

After a moment of staring at his hand, Darkling stepped forward and took it. She nodded, but didn't speak, just curling her fingers around his.

[catoutofwater]

Fish gripped Darkling's hand firmly in his own, although not too tightly, and the fact that the quiet little dragon-girl had accepted it at all made him feel a bit warm and fuzzy inside. He'd look after her, he promised himself, no matter what they happened to encounter beyond this forest. For all intents and purposes, Darkling had now acquired a big brother

[dragon50times]

Darkling looked around curiously, feeling much more secure now that Fish was accompanying her. She could rely on him, and if some threat emerged she was sure that she could protect him. But that didn't seem likely right now. So far she couldn't see any signs of human civilization, but she didn't see or smell or sense anything badly wrong with this place.

"You... can really smell something?" she asked, looking up when he pointed something out. "If it isn't... if it isn't too rude to ask, what are you?" Humans couldn't sense things that well, could they?

She clutched at her mantel with her free hand as a fresh feeling of unease came over her. Being around one person was fine, but what if they were going into a square with huge crowds? Darkling didn't know what she would do around that many humans.

[catoutofwater]

Fish smiled at her reassuringly. "I sure can! And it's not rude, don't worry. I don't mind at all. I'm a cat." He swept his tail from side to side and twitched his ears for emphasis. "That means my senses are all pretty sharp."

There was another word, he was certain... Cats were just one variety; there were also tigers, hawks, dragons... he'd seen them clearly in his dream. They were kindred, and there was a word for all of them, but it wasn't coming to him - his mind was, as with most other things, drawing a complete blank. But don't worry about that right now, he reminded himself. One thing at a time.

"What about you?" he asked Darkling. "Can I ask you the same question? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

He noticed when she clutched her free hand to herself, seeming to draw herself in, and his brows creased slightly with concern. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked kindly, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "Are you okay?"

[dragon50times]

"I'm... a dragon," said Darkling. That much was obvious from what little she remembered--she hadn't just been a girl with wings on her back. She had been powerful, filled with fire, towering over the humans with her in the forest. She had no idea how she got from one to the other, but she was sure it was real. "I only remember a few minutes before I was in this forest, but I know that."

She looked up at him a bit nervously when he asked what was wrong--yes, what was the problem? But... so many... "I'm fine, but... I suppose I shouldn't ask you how many people are there, since you can't remember either." Still, she squeezed his hand in return. It was reassuring. "I'll just try not to get separated from you if there are too many."

[catoutofwater]

So she was a dragon. And here he was treating her like a young kit when she'd probably been around for centuries... ah, but she was clearly still young in dragon terms, so maybe it was all right? Fish wondered why he hadn't been able to tell for sure what she was, though. He felt like he should be reasonably familiar with dragons... maybe he'd just never met one this young? Or maybe Darkling was a type of dragon that he'd never seen - there were different types, right? These were questions he was fairly sure he should have the answers to, but thinking about them just made his head hurt

[dragon50times]

"...All right." Darkling didn't have much choice but to trust Fish's instincts. And for that matter, her own. Despite her uneasiness, she still couldn't sense anything evil or dark about this place. She just felt afraid of--of people. Not Fish or maybe not even a different stranger, but people.

She did trust Fish, though. And if something bad did happen, some trouble... she was a dragon. She had fought in the darkness; she wouldn't lose Fish and--

--and--

When she saw the tree, her jaw dropped. Enormous didn't even begin to describe it. "I... I'm sure I've never seen anything that huge," she said. "Or are we just that small?"

[catoutofwater]

Fish thought about Darkling's question for a minute, brows furrowing and tail twitching as he continued to stare in awe, but soon shook his head slowly. "I don't think we're small... I mean, the rest of these trees look pretty normal-sized to me. It's just that one that's... well, huge." It must be special somehow, he concluded. Important... maybe magic. He found himself eager to get a closer look.

And, as luck would have it... "The scent leads in that direction." He looked back down at Darkling, smiling encouragingly. "What do you say we find our way out of this storm and into some shelter?" His grin grew wider and more amused. "I must look like a drowned cat by now, you know?"

Never mind that it was a pretty lousy pun... if it helped keep their spirits up and took Darkling's mind off of her uneasiness for a moment, Fish really didn't care in the least - he'd gladly make more of them.