Carja stopped eating for a moment to stare at Pelt before continuing, gobbling down the rest of her meal before she stood up and stretched, humming softly at how good it felt on her muscles.

"You have to pinky promise you won't hurt anyone else, either," she said, approaching the cube, "Funny name, right? Well... you know what happens when you break a pinky promise?"

Carja held up her mangled hands, wing-walking for a moment until she was right in front of the cube, "This. Promised my friend I'd go to her party and I forgot the date. Suddenly I burst into flame and I couldn't stop it, not until my whole hands were burnt."

She put a clawed hand against the ice and stared Pelt down, "Blink twice for yes, once for no. Do you pinky promise that you will leave me alone and never hurt anyone else ever again?"

@Pelt

Pelt's first instinct was to laugh in Carja's face. That didn't come to pass, both because she was still trapped in an ice cube and because the dragon looked oddly--serious. There was no way that the stuff she was spouting wan't BS, right?!

Right?! (She did look rather burnt...)

Pelt narrowed her eyes. What kind of unspecific promise was the dragon asking for?! What if not hurt anyone else meant she couldn't even hunt anymore? Was she just going to burst into flames every time she did that? Besides, even if it was just 'spend a few hours in ice' or 'never be able to bully anyone ever again', it was still obvious what the choice should be.

She rolled her eyes in the most condescending way possible while frozen in place, and stuck out her tongue the few millimeters it would go. How's that for a pinky promise, huh?

@Carja

Carja looked at Pelt, unimpressed, "... I could just throw you into the sea. With any luck you'll float very, very far away."

She stood up and glared at Pelt before inhaling. Her eyes flashed and she suddenly roared, breathing out a large jet of flame, circling the seal as the ice started to rapidly melt and turn to steam.

"Promise," she hissed, "Or I won't stop."

She continued, wings flaring as she breathed fire until her throat started to burn, too. As a dragon she was resistant, but too much flame for too long hurt anybody.

@Pelt

Electrum


Leo.

Warm, calm (ish. Debatable,) and distinctly not smelling of disease.

Much better than the Black City, or ... the ruins of it. He can appreciate Master Farina's drive for having to get her claws on the stone of someone dear to her, his own rage at the suffering if his mate reminding him of that kind of passion.

Yeah, he's pissed they weren't warned of fighting some sort of angry monster a great deal beforehand, but he is a fan of her gift, so he forgives her quite easily, to his own surprise. The dragon knows he's petty and angry. But, he's bedecked with gold as his scars, nodes that generate some low shocks at the right flex of his fins and spine, and markings across his body light up when he spots his family or gets a good scratch on one spot.

So, yeah. He can forgive the pain against himself, but he's more than willing to make a new grudge about the pain of his mate and daughter.

Anyway, anyway.

Electrum recognized an outline above his head, and he sticks it up from under the water to watch ... Cargo? Anja? Carja! There we go, she was from the Quest! A friend of the disease dragon, Blight. Friend of a decent ally, is an ally of his in his humble opinion.

Especially someone who knows a good look when she sees one. Her scales are painted with... something, and he appreciates the design and aesthetic quite happily.

But then, as he follows from deeper in the water, bauble happily on his neck and allowing him to breathe sparingly under the surf, he realizes she's butting head with... someone else. Who is now a hunk of ice. That gets a snort of amusement, some bubbles along with it.

The fire, though, once he draws closer to where they've settles, really catches his attention.

So, he decides to draw out of the water and simply... linger nearby, watching with his fins folded flat and head tilted down, so that he looks more like a judgmental snake than a dragon.

"Now, why leave someone like that? We both know that it only results in dragons looking bad, leaving someone to de-frost over the Kraken."

Hopefully Carja picks up on what he's putting down, in that he's trying to take her side but offer some more ompfh behind a so called merciful route.

@Carja
@Pelt

Throw her into the sea? Oh, yes, please! Pelt made a muffled noise that sounded like she might be trying to laugh scornfully. Oh, no, please don't throw her into the water and wait for her to melt! She most certainly was not a sleek and agile predator, the greatest sea monster Carja'd ever meet! And Pelt certainly didn't spend 99% of her time in the water! Oh noes, whatever would she do if Carja threw her in the sea?!

As it was, all that came out was a few contemptuous grunting sounds. Darn not being able to talk. This was taking away all the fun in life, not being able to mock stupid people.

She abruptly stopped laughing, however, eyes widening as Carja began to roar out a jet of flame. Oh, fuck that! If it was fire either way, she'd take the fire that was probably a lie anyway. Probably. Pelt "mmmmf"ed loudly, giving the dragon her most scorching glare in between frantic blinking as she felt the ice around her begin to melt rapidly.

Electrum, surrounded as she was by a haze of distorting ice and flame, went unnoticed for now.

@Carja

Carja looked on in amusement at the situation Pelt had pigeonholed herself into. She looked over at Electrum as he arrived, fins bristling for a moment, prepared for another territorial dragon.

She was so relieved when Electrum seemed nice, and practically deflated, her tail swishing back and forth.

"You're right... but I think the Kraken might only think of her as a snack, to be honest," she said, and looked over, "I'm trying to get her to pinky promise to never, ever hurt someone again."

Carja shot him a knowing look, "You know the one, right? If you break a pinky promise, you burn. She jumped out of the water and snapped at me! And then she was so mean to me!"

She held up a paw and wiggled it, knowing that Electrum probably knew the origin anyway. Hopefully he followed along, though.

Carja dispelled the ice and loomed over Pelt, blocking her immediate route to the sea, "Say it out loud. Promise you won't scare or hurt anyone ever again!"

@Electrum

Electrum

He chuckles at the display, and keeps his fins tight to his back so that he doesn't wind up in a scrap with Carja- he knows that bristling anywhere, he'd be doing the same thing honestly.

But... Never let it be said that he wasn't a bit sadistic, at times, so after and to Carja, while peering at her burned hands with some confusion, he speaks.

"Ah, you got burned? I think I've heard about that - though mine went different. The gold on my throat is from where I broke a spoken promise," he shakes his head almost sadly, and follows her to block Pelt's other route of escape. "Though, I don't think she realizes how much trouble she'd be in from that. I mean, look at her." The lapis dragon gestures with one wing almost scornfully at the seal. "She doesn't seem to realize that we're small compared to some of the friends we have, and being cruel gets you the whole group of us."

With a yawn, he decides to activate one of his more favorite spells, the one that charges his drool and phlegm with a static charge that sounds like pop rocks through a megaphone when does right, and the spell kicks in with fantastic success.

The crackling builds up his throat, then begins to arch slightly out of his mouth as the charge makes his saliva pop and hiss in the heat as it drips to the sand. Electrum bares a smile that can only very barely be called that, it's more of a threatening baring of teeth behind the static biting the air.

"Though, maybe she's just too weak to make a promise. Only reason I've seen someone back out."

@Pelt

Normally, top predators preferred to avoid fighting each other. The risk and energy expenditure was just not worth it. Given 1) their sentience, 2) the copious amounts of literal magic going on, and 3) Pelt's inclinations toward highly unreasonable actions, though, this was obviously not a normal gathering of predators.

Maybe if she was the cunning type, or if she wasn't reeling from first being frozen and then nearly being roasted alive, Pelt might have thought of a clever trick to free herself. Trying to turn the dragons against each other, perhaps, or pretending to promise and running away before finishing the binding words. But neither of those were the case, and Pelt's natural reaction to a threat this serious was to eliminate it. Violently. And so, eyes burning with hatred, Pelt lunged at Electrum, aiming to snap down her jaws on a limb or tail. What'd he even have, fancy sparkly spit? The blue dragon's weapons were much more deadly-seeming, but she'd like to see Carja try to roast her again while she was latched on to her ally.

Did it say something about her that excessive violence was both the only solution that came to mind and that she found acceptable? Yeah, probably. Pelt liked what that something was, though.

@Carja

Carja was about to reply before she saw movement in the corner of her eye. She lunged forward to block the attack, breath fogging as she prepared an ice wall.

Ice formed swiftly, rising up at her call to help block Electrum.

"I knew it!", she hissed, scales raising up in an aggressive display, "You are no good! The second you get the chance you bite and you hurt."

Not only was Pelt a bully, but she was a violent one.

"Now I know why James hated you," she hissed, remembering the stallion's spat words.

@Electrum

Round: 1/5
Attempt: Ice shield for Electrum
Defense: N/A
Injuries: N/A