The Dragon and the Coyote had traveled for a long time to reach this new area. Macawi had never been somewhere with so much color, and this place seemed so much bigger than any of the other areas in the Cave. She knew her purpose was to help the Father find his Daughter, but her True Calling was an explorer, a wander. She locked this area away in her mind to return to at a later date when she would have more time to look around in every nook and cranny. For now, she continued on with her nose to the ground, clinging to that memory of the pup’s scent.

She had so far been unable to pick up the girl’s trail, which concerned her a little, and it was also why they had traveled so far from the tunnel they had been in before. The Dragon had been silent company, but Macawi had sensed his agitation at not finding his daughter. Macawi, who was usually so happy, was finding it difficult to retain her chipper mood when something potentially bad had happened to the pup. She tried to shake off the feeling. She hated being unhappy (no surprise there).

Eventually, her snuffling took her to a large fast-flowing river in the center of the Room. She heard the roar of the water in her ears, and sat down to give her paws and nose a rest. She looked to her side, at the Dragon. “Do not worry, my friend!” she said to him. “Macawi does not think your daughter drowned. Only… Macawi cannot smell her anywhere… Coyote wonders where she went.”

@Baratheon

BARATHEON

"the world is mine for the taking"

The dragon had followed dutifully behind his new friend right from Pisces, all over the tunnels. His faith never wavered in her but he couldn't help but worry more and more about his lost daughter. Hopefully his fears were unfounded but he couldn't help but worry that she'd gotten into some sort of trouble. It worried him to no end not knowing where she was when she was such a tender young age... and so small too. Anyone could have hurt her or one of the many predators could have eaten her... Oh, he didn't like to think of that but it was a distinct possibility. Hopefully though she would meet a good Samaritan and after all this was over she would be waiting for him at Pisces.

As he and Macawi walked a trail to a new location he couldn't help but feel it slightly familiar. The ground, the scents... even the air. Something was too familiar, so familiar that it was starting to make his head hurt. It was like when his friends insisted on calling him "Baratheon". That name caused him pain and as such he didn't like to associate himself with it. After all, if it was painful it couldn't be good, right?

Like this area... Soon enough they happened upon a huge room with glowing gems and a huge blue spire in the center. It should have been gorgeous but for some reason... It was tainted. It caused pain like nothing else had. Something was off with this place and he didn't like it one bit. Why did it hurt? Why did thinking about certain things do this to his mind? Still, this was the worst pain yet...

The dragon's head lowered, ears pinning to his skull and the white showing in his one pupil-less eye. He made no verbal complaint but the fear scent that rolled off of him should have been a dead giveaway that this area set him ill at ease. The roar of the water and the reassuring words of his friend fell upon deaf ears. The dragon heard only roaring and the cries and shouts of battling and injured creatures. In his nose he could smell nothing but smoke, a choking suffocating smoke. His eye rolled in its socket as he peered intently around, sightless to what was really there and only seeing what was in his mind. Or rather... Someone else's mind. The Dragon didn't know where these strange memories or this fear was coming from but something else did... That something however was someone he did not know.

His fearful eye landed on the Spire, his nostrils flared as he puffed in more air to his lungs to fight the suffocating feeling of smoke. Legs tensed as his body pumped full with adrenaline, preparing him to fight or to run away. Why was this happening? What was wrong with him? The blood... Oh... The blood... The pain! His eye! What was wrong with his eye? Was it there? Where had it gone? What had he done?

He was completely in his own mind, the blood and smoke taking over his mind as he tried to claw back to existence. "Booker? Booker! What's happening? I can't... I can't see! My eye! MY EYE! It hurts! Oh God! What's happening?!" His voice was hoarse and hollow as if he weren't speaking to the coyote in front of him but instead the demons inside his own mind.

Shakily one paw reached up to touch the eyepatch while the white still showed in his other pink eye. He was gone for the moment but perhaps the simplest touch would bring him back.

610
@Macawi
---
8/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Macawi should have sensed her friend’s pain and fear much sooner than she did, but she supposed she had been so focused on finding his daughter that she had stopped being able to sense his feelings like she had before. But now his discomfort washed over her like tumbling wave and all her fur stood on end as she turned to look at him. He seemed to look around nervously, as if he expected a monster to pop out from behind a rock at any minute. Her brows furrowed as she continued watching, wondering what it was about coming here that had caused him to suddenly grow so nervous.

The Coyote watched in alarm as the Dragon’s eye rolled back in his head, and he swiveled from side to side, looking around, but not really seeing. The scent of Fear rolled off of him, and Macawi squatted down, unsure of what was happening. All her instincts told her to run, but her brain commanded that she stay. Her friend was going through… something, and what kind of friend would she be if she just left him there by himself? She pinned her ears to her head, watching intently. She needed to figure out what was wrong before she could help him!

And then, he spoke, which shocked her. She had assumed he couldn’t speak, or chose not to. To hear his voice, and in such pain, was difficult to take. She grit her teeth and made herself listen to the words, trying desperately to understand. He called her Booker, or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t talking to her at all! He screamed and cried out for his eyes, placing a shaking paw upon his eye patch. And she realized… he wasn’t here. He was somewhere far away, in his mind. Coming here had triggered… something in him. He was trapped in… a memory. And she realized what she had to do.

Touching a creature so distraught could be very dangerous, because one never knew how said creature would react. He could very well stomp her or fling her away if she tried, but she had to, even if it killed her. She could think of no other way to bring him back to the present. She reached out her two front paws and pressed them against one his own paws, pressed down hard. Not enough to hurt, but enough so that he would feel the pressure. She needed to ground him in the Present. “My friend!” she said, loudly, so that it might break through his thoughts. “Listen to Macawi! Listen! You are Here! Come back! Come back to This Place! You are scared, Macawi knows! But you are not your fear! Do not give it power!”

@Baratheon

BARATHEON

"the world is mine for the taking"

The dragon didn't know how he ended up on the ground but he was there, caught halfway between a bad dream and reality. His eye rolled back and forth, seeing but not truly seeing what was around him. There! Right there on top of the spire was the black dragon! He wanted to destroy all. Chaos. He was Chaos! Destroying any and all who stood in his way... Including the dragon... The dragon? Who was he? Where were these memories coming from? What was going on? From his mouth where he'd formerly made words now only a stream of pained groans escaped.

Like through water he heard the voice of his tiny friend speaking to him, he couldn't make out the words only hat they were trying to pull him back. Away from he foul visions that caused him so much pain...

The dragon's eye was still rolling around as he tried to see everything around him. However, the terrors which had caused him to break down were starting to abate. The visions fading to terrifying ringing in his ears. The trembling began to stop as he felt the paws pressed on his own. He held onto it, using it to pull himself out of the nightmare... But... Was it a nightmare? It had felt so real? He didn't remember calling out as it had just felt like another facet of the vision but he could remember the black demon on the spire.

His eye, whites still showing with terror, focused finally on the coyote in front of him. His ears were pinned and his coat slathered with sweat... but he was back, more or less. He lifted one of his paws and touched the coyote's face gently with one of his claws... a gesture of thanks for sticking by him.

then, another moment passed and his eye turned onto the spire as he stared at it intently. The fear scent starting to build up again as he felt the terror in his belly. As he stared his mouth started to move as if he wanted to speak or say something but only unintelligible grunts came from his maw.

359
@Macawi
---
8/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Macawi stared up at her troubled friend as he seemed to writhe on the floor. Briefly, she wondered if he had the Crazed Sickness (rabies), but he smelled fine. Had he been sick with such a terrible disease, she would have easily been able to smell it on him. After a time, his eye flicked back to her, and he came to his senses a little. He was sweating profusely, and he was still terrified, but there was a part of him that had… returned to himself. He lifted a paw and slowly, carefully, touched her face with a claw, and she understood that he was thanking her. But this calmer side did not stay for long. The Dragon turned to look at the Spire again, and started making odd grunting noises, as if he were trying to speak again.

Macawi’s tail wagged, but in concern. She wondered how in the Cave she was going to bring her friend back to himself completely if he couldn’t focus on the Present long enough to return. The Coyote hummed in thought, looking around for something to help. She only knew one trick, at the moment… Ah! That might actually work… She glanced at her friend for a moment, and then took her paws away from his big one. She snuffled at the ground for a moment, until she came across a slightly pink-ish stone by the river’s edge. Perfect! It was pink like her friend’s eye and stone.

She picked it up carefully in her teeth, and then turned and set it down in front of the Dragon. Then she leaned down and pressed her nose to the pebble, concentrating on her Light Magic. After a moment, she felt some of her own energy flow into the stone and envelop it. When she pulled back she was looking down at a glowing pebble, with a slightly pink tinge to the Light around it, reflecting the color of the stone itself. With a grin, she pushed it between her friend’s giant paws and gave a yip to get his attention.

@Baratheon

BARATHEON

"the world is mine for the taking"

The spire... the spire... Why did he remember such terrible things about it? He'd never seen another dragon in his life! But here that strange vision was to warn him of terrible things! He shook his head, attempting to clear it but it didn't work. His brain was firmly rooted in the past, in a headache that refused to abate. He couldn't get away from it. It wasn't so simple to just not think this time... Something had changed, something deep in his mind. A faucet had been opened and it wasn't so easily closed.

The dragon blinked and continued to stare in fear. Unable to fully bring himself back to the present... Until he felt something becoming wedged under his paw along with a sharp yip. With some effort he was able to pull his eye from the spire and look at what was under his paw. It felt like something that was firmly grounding him in the present a literal rock, a special glowing pink one that Macawi had just given to him.

The dragon lowered his head and turned his so that his eye was focused fully on it, for a moment he lost itself in its beauty. Pink just happened to be his favorite color and now with the glowing tone it took in his strange gaze, it looked otherwordly. A strange new stone that would help keep him rooted in the present in these upcoming months... He would certainly need it. His friend had come to his rescue again.

He could feel something burning in his throat. Not only tears but another thing as well... His mouth began to move again like he was chewing on words but still he was unable to speak. He looked down at Macawi eye starting to cloud over with emotion as he again attempted to speak, teeth clicking together until finally he was able to say form his grunts and teeth clicking into something. However, nothing came of it as he shook his head. To the coyote he gave an appreciative grin as he pulled the stone in closer and curled his paw around it.

The spire he glanced at once more before he began to click his teeth nervously then after a moment of contemplation opened his mouth. This time... Something did come of it. "Bad..." It was a quiet, barely audible sound halfway between a growl and a grunt but if one were careful they'd be able to detect the words.

The faucet's flow increased...

418
@Macawi
---
7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Macawi stepped back a bit to give the Dragon’s head enough room to bend down all the way. He was massive, after all. She smiled in relief at the… almost-loving gaze he gave to the pebble. To her, it was just a small thing – the only thing she had thought to do in that moment. But she could tell he thought it was much more than that. Perhaps she had given him what he needed… (This thought would later snowball into the idea of Baubling many things to give to many Gembounds, and the beginning of her fortune-telling career. She filed it away carefully).

She focused once more on her pink-eyed friend as he seemed to try to speak again. Her brows furrowed as she watched him struggle, wishing she could somehow help him again. But this was now something he would have to work through himself. She had brought him Back, and Grounded him. Now the next move was his. He made a bit of noise, and she pushed her ears forward, but no words came from his maw. Finally, he seemed to give up for the moment, and flashed her a grin as he pulled the stone closer. She grinned back, turning her head to the side so that the light would catch her gem and “wink” at him.

The Dragon turned back to the Spire, and Macawi padded forward to sit beside his giant fluffy leg. She looked at it, too. In fact, she seemed to view Polaris differently than she had when she’d first come in… Perhaps it was because she’d been so focused on finding the pup that she hadn’t noticed the destruction everywhere… But now she saw… things that had been melted, as if blasted by fire, and gave off an odd, gross smell. She saw that the ground was uneven and there were dark patches where something had burned parcels of land. What had happened here…?

@Baratheon

BARATHEON

"the world is mine for the taking"

Why was this all happening? Was he someone else before all of this? It made his head throb just thinking about it. Too much... This was too much... He also didn't think his daughter was here. She couldn't be... Not in this foul place. This place of bad... visions. Not memories... They couldn't be memories, right? He was only Dragon... Nothing more. He was not this Baratheon that everyone seemed to call him... He was just Dragon. Or... Did he have something else? A name like Rauslin or Macawi or Leon? His brow furrowed as he thought... but in this place of Bad he could not clearly come up with a name.

His head shook. Not here, not now. Instead his gaze turned back to the coyote as he opened his mouth again, this time the word came more easily and more clearly. "Bad. Bad. Bad." Less grunt and more words this time. He still only had a vocabulary of one but he would soon remedy that. For now, he was happy that he'd broken his long silence.

Then, on a compulsion to do so he raised his free paw to his head and said, "Bad." Because, yes, his mind and head were bad right now. Painful and bad images about this area... Perhaps... Perhaps he was blocking something out. But what? Really and truly though... He didn't want to know what.

---
@Macawi
---
5/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Macawi sighed as she studied her friend. He seemed so… confused, as if his entire world had been flipped upside-down just by coming here. But what was it about Here that caused him so much pain? She nodded along as he repeated the word Bad. “Bad, Bad, Bad,” she repeated, nodding some more, eyebrows scrunched as she stared out at the landscape before them. Her eyes noticed when he lifted a paw and brought it to his head and said the word again. She nodded yet again. Yes, there was… something in his memories, in his mind, that had triggered when he’d come Here. And now it was time to get him out of Here.

“All right, my friend. We need to get you out here. Clearly, you are going through something, but whatever it is, it wants to come slowly. Being here is making the memories come too quickly. One cannot force such a thing. Macawi does not think your daughter is here, so there is no point in lingering, anyways. Let us go now, yes?”

The coyote stood, tail wagging slightly in concern, waiting to see whether her Dragon friend would follow…

"Speech"

@Baratheon

BARATHEON

"the world is mine for the taking"

As always he understood him flawlessly. Oh, he appreciated it so much. She was the perfect friend. Baratheon sat up with the pebble still held in his paw. Her words made a lot of sense so he nodded his head. Yes, Rauslin certainly was not here. It would be best if they leave... Perhaps later he would be able to come back without his mind freaking out... But... Memories? Who was he?

The dragon rose to his paws and followed dutifully along behind Macawi to wherever she may lead him.

-end thread?-

---
@Macawi
---
5/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...