Re: Wandering Through Wolsic - 119 4A

[Nara-pyon]

The fire broke just before it would have engulfed Kyrie and Ponydash, and the dragon roared its displeasure as it changed direction suddenly, veering up into the air again. Mailon spread his palm towards the dragon, and icy shards burst out of it, flying towards the dragon. They tore through the dragon's leathery wings, and a sharp squeal of pain escaped the great beast.

Earendil was still waiting for a good shot, but the smoke from the fire in the forest was burning his eyes, making his sight worse than it already was, and he could hardly see to find a target.

The tent door burst open and Cael and Lancaeriel ran out, eyes on the sky as they searched for their attacker.

[Kara Winters]

Suki bounced around, chirping because she couldn't reach the lumbering beast that just tried to fry everyone. It didn't help that the smoke was hampering her sight, and she had to call on more fairy wind to push the smoke out of her way.

All she needed was a glimpse, so she could call down the moon's power unto the thing. The moon could help her, even if she couldn't reach.

[Nara-pyon]

"Ponydash, protect!" Andarien shouted at the Ponyta as the dragon circled around again for another attack. "Zeus, when it comes back, Thunderbolt!"

Ponydash raced back towards Andarien, and Zeus prepared himself for the attack. His fur snapped and crackled with collected electricity, and he braced himself as if to pounce.

Then the dragon was back, but it had learned; rather than coming straight at the group, wings spread, mouth agape and spreading fire, it kept its wings close to its body, safe from Mailon's razor ice, and only when it was close did it breathe fire again.

Kyrie began shooting it at it the moment it was in range, one arrow after another, and she didn't even pause when the fire came towards her. Zeus released his charge, thundering a bolt of lightning into the dragon, just as the flames engulfed Kyrie, and again the flames lasted only a moment before the dragon roared in pain and flew off again.

[Kara Winters]

Suki could see it, the fire had lit it up and even though it was flying off again, she wasn't going to give it a chance to attack them again. She cried out calling down a white light that seemed to come from the sky down towards the flying creature.

Miyuki coughed a bit from the smoke, she wasn't so close to the fire where she had to worry about being burned (and Ai was protecting her), but she was very worried about Kyrie.

[Nara-pyon]

The moonlight energy hit the dragon but glanced off its scales, doing little more than slowing it down. It wasn't flying strongly anymore though: the tears in its wings, as well as the multiple attacks, were taking their toll on it, and it couldn't get the altitude that it had previously.

Kyrie was still running after it, miraculously uninjured, and Zeus was powering up for another attack. Shoneah realized now that her pistols would be useless, and she holstered the one that was out and instead pulled out an arrow and nocked it.

The dragon circled around again, but this time rather than swooping over them, it landed just in front of the trees. The fire behind it made it little more than a massive silhouette. On all fours, it lowered its head and roared at them, and though the ground was shaking again, both Kyrie and Shoneah took advantage of it to loose several arrows into its gaping mouth.

"Zeus!" Andarien shouted at the Jolteon, pointing at the dragon; and without hesitation Zeus let off another lightning bolt, this time hitting the dragon in its vulnerable mouth.

[Kara Winters]

"Suki!" Miyuki commanded, also pointing to the dragon's gaping maw.

She knew that fairy types were strong against dragon types but she wasn't sure about an actual dragon. Still, with an open target like that, they would be foolish not to take it. Suki set another wave of fairy wind racing towards the open mouth. Should it hit it's target it would probably hit the back of the throat.

[Nara-pyon]

Earendil also shot at the same time, and Lancaeriel and Cael each lanced a lightning attack at it. With all of the attacks hitting the dragon at once, and all hitting its vulnerable point, the dragon didn't have a chance. The head burst apart, and after a few thrashes the body fell still.

The sudden silence was chilling. The fire still raged in the forest, and Cael and Lancaeriel went off to deal with that, but everything else was very suddenly very still.

"Is anyone hurt?" Kyrie asked, quickly taking charge of the situation.

Shoneah blinked at her. "What about you? You're the one who was in that fire blast!"

[Kara Winters]

"I'm fine, Ai was there to protect me," Miyuki assured the woman.

She figured Uruoki had something to do with why Kyrie wasn't burned to a crisp. At least she vaguely recalled something about him.

Lin checked Earendil over, before herself and affirmed they were alright before checking on Andarien.

[Nara-pyon]

Kyrie nodded at Miyuki and looked at Shoneah. "I was protected," she told her. "I'm not suicidal."

That of course left Shoneah confused, since she didn't yet know about Uruloki, but Kyrie didn't elaborate. Instead she turned to the others to make sure they were also fine.

Andarien was distracted. Eon, Zeus and Kaede (poor Kaede hadn't been able to do anything during the fight) were gathered around Andarien's feet, and the four of them were staring at Ponydash - or rather, where Ponydash was standing. He was engulfed in a bright light at the moment, and after the light faded away and Andarien's sight returned to normal, he stared. Ponydash was no longer a Ponyta, but a Rapidash: a fiery unicorn.

"Whoa," Andarien breathed, reaching out a hand towards the newly evolved Pokemon.

[Kara Winters]

"Ah!" Miyuki bounced up to her brother to check out the newly evolved Pokemon, "I guess that fight pushed him to the limit. He's quite handsome."

And much larger now than he was before. Still, a lovely Pokemon.

[Nara-pyon]

Andarien stood next to the Rapidash and stroked its nose gently. "He is," he murmured, grinning. "You hear that, Dash? Mi thinks you're handsome."

Ponydash snorted softly at the compliment, pleased with it.

Meanwhile, the others were heading over to check out the dragon that they'd killed. Daeron emerged from the tent and looked around anxiously, and after making sure that the others were all right, he also went to look at it. Iorlas and Amir didn't appear, though Shiro and Kaito were only a few steps behind Daeron.

The dragon was black, which explained why it had been so difficult to see, even when it wasn't blurred by the smoke (which was dissipating), and it was enormous, even larger than it had seemed in the air. It was still bleeding from what was left of its head, but the body lay on the ground, lifeless, its wings tattered and sprawled out at its sides.

"I hope we're not in a rush," Kyrie murmured thoughtfully as she looked at the beast.

[Kara Winters]

"Well... the last I checked we weren't," Lin replied getting a better look at the beast, "Though it's going to be a long night."

It was best to try and process the dragon now rather than later. Though it was so large, Lin figured it was going to take a while.

[Nara-pyon]

"It's going to take at least three days just to get what we can off it, let alone prepare the meat for keeping," Kyrie murmured.

"Don't forget about Miyuki's cold storage," Earendil reminded her. "If we just cut it up and put it in there, we can eat fresh for as long as there's any left."

"True," Kyrie mused. Suddenly she frowned, and then she sighed. "Uruloki doesn't like this part," she confided to the others.

"That's probably why Iorlas isn't out here either," Earendil pointed out with a shrug. "We didn't initiate the fight, and we can't waste it."

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki nodded and she had to admit this was the hardest part. There was this fine line when it came to creatures that could talk, and make their feelings known. However, it did attack instead of talking it out (it struck her as odd how dragons were so different from each other, some more animalistic than others).

"So what is the plan for tonight?" Miyuki asked.

[Nara-pyon]

"It's tempting to let Mailon and Andarien have a nice long talk," Kyrie frowned. "But I couldn't vouch for Andarien's safety by the end of it. I suggest a slight change in plan. One person watch at a time, and one person work on the dragon - or more, if more are up for it. But soon it will start to stink, and then it will attract scavengers, so we have to deal with it as quickly as we can."

She turned to look directly at Miyuki. "Can you bring your box runed to keep things cold?" she requested. "The sooner we can get the meat in there, the better. I'll also need something to keep the other useful parts in, if they're small enough for us to use."

As valuable as the scales would be, especially ones of this size, they would probably be too big to fit into any of the bags.

She looked around. Cael and Lancaeriel were still off taking care of the fire - though she could tell, even in the descending darkness of twilight, that they were making good progress - and she had a feeling they might be too tired to watch by the time they got back.

"Lin, do you mind taking first watch, then?" she asked, looking to her. "I'll do what I can with the dragon."

[Kara Winters]

"I can bring the cold box out easily," Miyuki nodded in agreement, "The smaller parts, we can use someone's bag, or make a make shift pull string bag if there is any fabric," she looked thoughtfully.

The large scales were too big for a bag on the storage room was meant for old equipment and wood mainly.

"If you give me a day I can make a new storage room for the bigger scales, because it won't fit into any bags we have currently," the kitsune murmured.

Lin nodded, "And I will take first shift. I recommend that Earendil talk with Andarien. Besides the fact that Mailon would no doubt be upset, it won't do either of them any good, because he'll probably yell and Andarien will shut down."

She glanced at her son who was more distracted with Ponydash, which was just as well.

"As stupid as it sounds, he thought we were out of danger, which was foolish yes, but that means Earendil and I need to teach him better about what to expect."

Eron had warned them they would have to, at times, spell things out for Andarien. Speaking of which, did they ever have that talk about Andarien with Kyrie? She knew they didn't have Mailon because it slipped everyone's mind.

[Nara-pyon]

Kyrie nodded at Miyuki. "That would be good. Thanks."

Then she turned to Lin. "It doesn't sound stupid, it sounds inexperienced," she said, a bit puzzled about the way Lin was talking about Andarien. "I'm just not sure how Mailon will handle it. If he's as calm as he's been since he showed up in Shiezin I'm sure it would be fine, but if he handles it like he used to handle me, then I don't want him anywhere near Andarien. That being said I have no idea what would happen and I'm not in the mood to find out, that's all."

[Kara Winters]

"Fair enough," Lin murmured.

She just hoped Andarien wouldn't dwell on it, it seemed to be a habit of his. One she still wasn't sure how to overcome.

"At any rate, Earendil will talk to Andarien, and we'll teach him about what to expect next time. Maybe it'll be a chance to see if he can learn sign language, Earendil needs more people who can use that if we run into a situation like this again. He can't hear us speaking in hushed tones."

So they could kill two birds with one stone. Though she hoped teaching sign language wouldn't be as bad as teaching a verbal language.

[Nara-pyon]

Kyrie nodded. "I'll leave that to you. And someone might want to check on the others still inside. I haven't seen Iorlas, Amir, Eron or Wren."

She turned and approached the dragon, pulling a knife from her belt as she did so.

Earendil put one hand on Lin's shoulder. "I'll go speak with Andarien," he told her. "I'll see you in our room later." He smiled and squeezed her shoulder lightly before heading towards their son.

[Kara Winters]

"I'll go check on the others since I have to grab the box anyways," Miyuki told her mother, "Since you have first shift too."

Which was a change, not one that Lin minded but it couldn't be helped. Miyuki disappeared into the tent to see how the others were doing. She assumed they stayed inside because it would be safer(ish) than heading out.

Indeed, Eron had done just that, but he had waited in the kitchen. He was useless as a fighter, so there wasn't much he could offer in that regard.

[Nara-pyon]

Iorlas was also in the kitchen with Eron, sitting at the table with Amir in her lap. She was quite pale, and was holding Amir rather tightly, and though the boy was as silent as usual, he was squirming.

"Miyuki," she murmured with relief when the kitsune entered the tent. "Is it over?"

[Kara Winters]

"It's over," Miyuki nodded in confirmation, "Is everyone else alright?"

Fortunately the dragon didn't get near the tent or the attacks. Even if the fire had come close to it, Miyuki did put in runes for protection against fire on the tent itself. She had always figured if anyone wanted to attack them setting their tent on fire was a sure bet.

"As far as I can tell, everyone is fine," Eron replied, "It's just Iorlas and myself wanted to wait in the kitchen rather our rooms."

They could hear more in the kitchen.

[Nara-pyon]

"Is everyone outside all right?" Iorlas asked anxiously. "No one was hurt?"

Knowing dragons as she did, having formerly been one, she knew that they were dangerous and that it was almost impossible to come away from an encounter with one uninjured. Still, these were her friends and her family, and she was hopeful that they would all be fine.

Suddenly Wren ran into the kitchen from the hallway, bow in hand, in the process of slinging her quiver over her back. She stopped short when she saw the three of them sitting there, unhurried and for the most part unconcerned. "Am I too late?"

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki nodded slowly and glanced behind Wren just in time to see Yasu trotting out from behind Wren.

"Everyone is unharmed, fortunately," she replied, "But there's been a change of plans. Mom and Kyrie will take first shift, because well... the body..."

She knew that the idea made Iorlas uncomfortable, and wondered how her aunt would feel about eating dragon meat.

[Nara-pyon]

"Needs to be taken care of," Wren said softly, glancing at Iorlas.

Iorlas let out her breath slowly and relaxed her grip on Amir, who also calmed down. He turned around in her lap and put his arms around her neck, and she hugged him gently.

"How long?" she asked quietly, her eyes closed.

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