Winter watched the dragon and looked at the other pup. Her head lowered and she whimpered some as the dragon talked and looked at her. All she could do was watch the big creature. He was big and scary but Winter wanted to protect herself and the other pup. The dragon blew hot smoke at her and she took a step back.

Entertain? The giant creature wants us to entertain him? Why would we even dare to? If he can make our flames grow brighter then it could be a trick. she thought. The white pup wasnt too sold on the whole idea but she didnt have a choice. For her new friend had suggest tag and that tag was fun.

Winter never heard of the game ta nor had she ever played it. "If this tag game ish fun, I wills play along, but whats if he is lying...I donts like lying. I donts trust him." she said nervously. All Winter could do was watch the giant creature to make sure that he really was telling the truth. A creature like him could eat the both of them.

The owl fluttered just ahead, as quiet as could be, landing to hop along the floor of the tunnel. Behind him, Baratheon and Leon followed--but Dark couldn't see them, wasn't sure just how big or how fast they were, and so he'd stopped repeatedly to be certain that they were still with him.

Finally the air began to warm, a harsh gust billowing down the tunnel and ruffling his feathers.

"Ahead," he murmured quietly, glancing back at the others. He pressed himself against the tunnel wall, still some thirty yards from Polaris's entrance. "Everything is on fire, I think, and the thing is in the middle. There's water, on the other side." He spoke very softly, afraid that whatever it was would hear them--but then, over the crackling flames, he heard something else, something unexpected, though distant.

He swivelled his head back toward Polaris, staring unseeing as his extraordinarily keen owl's hearing picked up the sound of voices.

"Careful. Someone is talking. ...Someone big."

________________

@Baratheon , @Leon

Leon felt uncomfortably naive heading in to meet his fate - to meet the massive dragon that everybody had been talking about. The bear hadn't even bothered going to Polaris to investigate. His priorities had been on Maji Walezi, ensuring that his rank would be returned to him and that his groupmates would see that he was worthy of them. Not only that - he was busy spending all of his time, when he wasn't patrolling, with Makyna, and he'd much rather be with her and ensure his own safety than venture out into the dangerous realm of the dragon. Still, he supposed that it was inevitable - he'd have to encounter the beast some day, and today was it. He followed Dark as though walking to his potential demise, keeping his head low as they made their way through the tunnel.

The heat rolled in from Polaris, he could feel it on his skin. Leon cast a glance back at Baratheon, lips drawn into a taut, grim line. The owl stopped and pressed against a wall, hushedly explaining the room that lay before them. Leon furrowed his brow and nodded, slowly slipping forward to peak his head out of the tunnel. The baritone vocals of the massive dragon shook the ground, and he too pressed against the wall as he watched the seething shadow amass before one of the other tunnels. From between his legs, he could see two small creatures, both canine. At that point, his protective instinct had kicked in - he found himself cursing himself for not realizing just how dangerous this dragon could be, especially for young Gembounds like those two appeared to be.

"We have to help them." Leon shot over his shoulder at Baratheon. Without waiting for a response (or a game plan, really) the bear ran forward. If he was lucky, the dragon would be too focused on the two canines to notice - he burst forward as fast as he could, sucking in a long breath and brewing that ever present heat within his lungs.

Post-Roll Edit:
When he realized that the heat he was summoning was lost in the sudden excitement, Leon snarled and skidded to a halt behind Raheerah instead. "Hey ugly, I heard you wanna play a game!" He shouted, raising his head to peer up at the gargantuan monster.

When he'd first heard about the dragon in Polaris and how the owl planned to show Leon where it was he couldn't be held back. The dragon was with them and offered to lend his strength to help remove the dragon if need be. Well, his companions probably didn't want to remove it but he did. He had a score to settle and he planned to do it now! So, off they went down the tunnel with the bear lumbering ahead and Baratheon right behind. His legs were short and so he was fine with letting the others lead.

They went right to Polaris and hid behind a few rocks. Baratheon could hardly keep his gaze from the great black beast. Anger boiled in his gut even more when he realized the bully was messing with two newborn pups. A growl bubbled in his throat, he hardly heard the words of the owl and as Leon said they had to help the pups he nodded his head. "You're damned right we do!" He was alone. His Bonded safely nestled back in Pisces. As such, he wasn't afraid to get down and dirty with this dragon.

While Leon lumbered forward Baratheon took to the air, he let out a loud and challenging roar to Raheera. "Don't waste your breath, Leon! I think that guy is far too stupid to play a game! Look at him! Why, he looks absolutely DENSE with his STUPID, UGLY MUG!" Well, that should certainly catch his attention. If there was one thing that Bara loved, it was antagonizing his opponents. Just for good measure the dragon opened his maw as he flew closer to the dark dragon and aimed to release a blast of fierce energy at him. Form his mouth a few sputters of pink energy festered while from his nose smoke billowed. Not what he wanted but he could work with it, he exhaled furiously and attempted to blow the smoke at the draogn instead.

---

words: 331
tagged: People
ooc: ---
muse: 7/10

"Speech"
Thoughts

Unfortunately, it would seem that the two canines weren't as bright as the massive dragon would have hoped. That alone would throw a wrench into his plans - but when the little husky suddenly quipped about playing tag, which would be a fun way to entertain, the dragon found himself curling his lip back in a sneer. Fury bubbled within him, and he didn't even pay any attention to what the albino wolf had said before he erupted in an angry roar. "Fools!" He rumbled, snaking his head back as a breath of wicked hot air churned inside of his lungs. His patience for them had lapsed, and the dragon prepared a mouthful of fire before a pair of loud voices had rung out from behind him.

Raheerah sneered and whipped his head around, coils of smoke rising up from his nostrils. The first one he saw was the white, furry dragon - the one that had challenged him, only to be attacked by the rhino. Raheerah delivered a wide, wicked smile at the sight, but then he'd noticed the bear below. Oh. So there were two of them. Even better - the more gnats for him to destroy at the same time, the better. His attention left the two canines cowering in the tunnel - he oriented his body towards the dragon and the bear, pulling a mouthful of burning hot bile from the pit of his stomach to spit at them.

The roiling mass of lava-like bile sputtered from his lips, shooting forward in a blazing spray of hellfire from which his two new opponents were unlikely to be able to escape.

@Athena

very sorry for the delay, school started again - final year!

Athena Ignis

Everything is hard before it is easy.

It seemed like Athena had, unwillingly angered the dragon to a degree that one should never ever anger a dragon. While the white pup next to her agreed to play along with her and the huge creature, said creature had apparently no intend to play a childish game with them.
Smoke rose from the dragon's nostrils but after that, many things seemed to happen at once.

First, an owl flew in, behind it a large brown bear and a white dragon, quite like the thing before them! The bear and the dragon challenged the monster and suddenly red hot liquid shot at them. "No! No!" Athena cried out, she and the other canine caught in one corner of the cave, with the dragon between them and their apparent saviors. "Bad thing! Rude, rude, RUDE!" The pup barked, unaware of the danger it put itself in.


"Listen to me."

Winter looked over at the three creatures that showed up. Winter had never seen an owl or bear before and she didnt know if they were friendly. The little gembound didnt even know if the white dragon was friendly. The white wolf whimpered and her tail lowered in between her legs. She didnt know if the other three gembounds were friends of the big mean dragon or what not. "Please go away...please we are to young to eat." she said. She ducked down and watched the other three and her new friend. Maybe if she closed her eyes they would go away.

Dark heard heard the rampaging pawsteps as Leon lumbered in, the beating of wings as Baratheon flew inside.

But he could hear the voices of something young--something small. Two somethings... Were they in danger? When the cry of "FOOLS!" rang out, the owl perked up, ear-tufts pushing forward.

He lifted his wings, hesitating, trying to gauge a safe flight path to the voices. There was a bellow, a splash of heat and hissing, and then Dark was pushing past his terror, the feel of his heart racing in his chest. A clatter of talons, a spread of broad-feathered wings and he was shooting toward the little-voices, coming in talons-out, spread, ready to grip. He could feel the searing heat of rock-sweltering flames licking at him from below, but he had this one chance--maybe only this one chance--to help, while the others were distracting the monster from Monoceros.

I hope I don't hurt them.

He nearly missed, landing with only one foot impacting woolly puppy fur--and then he paused, settling his wings only briefly as he hissed as loud as he could, words coming fast.

"Come with me," he said, blind gem eyes staring unseeing at Athena and Winter Snow. "To the tunnel. It's safe there. Hurry!"

Maybe he couldn't fight, maybe he could barely help at all--but he could try and guide the young Gembound to safety.

Releasing his talon's grip he turned, winging his way back into the tunnel's mouth, hoping beyond hope that they followed--into the tunnel, into the darkness, and away from the dragon.

________________

@Leon

Warning for mature language :')

Leon and the furry white dragon had been successful in gaining the attention of the demonic fiend looming over the two canines - he didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad one, though. The bear bristled as the massive black dragon boomed out and swung his head towards them, and he felt those bright orange eyes burning holes in his fur - there was nothing but pure hatred in the gaze of the hellbeast, to which Leon narrowed his eyes and snarled. Off to the side, he caught sight of Dark soaring towards the trapped canines; he could hear them shouting at the dragon, but it likely wouldn't do any good. They needed to keep Raheerah distracted so that Dark could lead them to safety. Glancing up at Baratheon, Leon snorted and started to run in the opposite direction of the canines. "Haha Baratheon, you're right! Stupid jerk can't even think of a good comeba- AHH!"

The bear had shouted over his shoulder, just in time to see a spray of burning lava shower over he and Baratheon. He ducked his head down and picked up the pace, but it wasn't fast enough to escape the hellfire cast over them. Bits of magma-like bile speckled his fur, sparking small flames as they burned into his skin. Leon found himself panicked at the sensation of another's fire tearing through his hide, pain boiling up over his back. It would leave several charred pockmarks on his fur and black scars where the lava had burned into him, but scars didn't matter to him. Gritting his teeth, Leon threw himself onto the ground - he did a tuck and roll into the dust and dirt, smothering any small fires in his hide before popping back up and whirling around to face the dragon.

"TRY AGAIN, ASSHOLE!" The bear shouted and once more willed the heat in his chest.

Post-Roll Edit:
Thankfully, it worked this time - it churned in his lungs, burning his insides and begging for escape. The bear erupted in a stream of fire, shooting massive tongues of red flame at the dragon that loomed over them. He didn't hope to do any serious damage to the dragon - after all, you couldn't beat fire with fire - but maybe that would be enough to really distract him and get him mad. One could only hope.

@Baratheon

The dragon was vigilant and a good flier but was not good enough to dodge the flaming bile from the dark one's mouth. Baratheon gave a sharp hiss as he was struck across his wings and face. He managed to keep the missiles from landing in his eyes but where they did hit it managed to sink below into the skin because of its lava-like properties. He knew it would easily heal later but for now it stung and hurt like hell but he wouldn't stop his advance. He wasn't fighting for himself but for those canines being assaulted by the bully. He wouldn't stop until they were safe.

The dragon shook his head, trying to cool the burns on his face. "AH HA HA! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT? I AIN'T SCARED 'A YOU UGLY! KNOW WHY? I'VE SEEN CAVE DEER WITH MORE BRAINS AND TWICE THE MUSCLE!" He gave an exaggerated laugh and flew higher, aiming to fly near the dragon's head if he could. His mouth opened and he attempted to release one of his signature blasts at the dragon's face or his eye if he could. That should piss him off nice and good, if not put out his eye. He could hope right?

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words: 208
tagged: People
ooc: ---
muse: 7/10

"Speech"
Thoughts