Sigil [IC]

[Aix]

~OoC~

OST - When I First Met You

It was snowing. The sight of millions of snowflakes descending from their retreat in the heavens made Lily feel like she had wandered into another world, and even the rumbling drone of cars rushing by did little to dim the feeling of being removed from conventional reality. This was the only magic she would ever know, she thought to herself. Even so, Lily sighed contentedly, letting her breath form a white mist before her face. It was truly a beautiful day, and despite the snow, the sun peaked from the clouds to the west, bathing the world in light.
 
Reaching into her jacket pocket, Lily retrieved a small mahogany box. She opened it to reveal a beautiful pink diamond necklace within. It was her parents' twentieth anniversary today, but her father had left for Switzerland a few weeks ago on a business trip. To let his wife know he hadn't forgotten this important occasion, he deposited a few thousand dollars into Lily's account for her to buy his wife a gift. It was rather irresponsible of him to let his daughter pick out the necklace for his beloved wife, but Lily didn't complain, she enjoyed the occasion to look at all the beautiful pieces at the jeweller's shop. With great care, she picked up the necklace from the box, and held it up to the light. As she stared, mesmerized, into its pale fuchsia depths, the diamond's sparkling beauty seemed to warp the world around it.
 
Blinking herself out of her trance, Lily realized it was no illusion. The very fabric of space-time was being distorted around the gem, and the world was speeding up around her due to errant relativistic effects. A rip appeared in space, rooted in the diamond, and she quickly let go of the gem, backing away from it. However, it hung there suspended in the air, with an unnatural void tearing the space around it. The void crackled with unstable energies, and suddenly, an arm burst from the it, breaking the spacetime even more. It retreated back into the hole while another hand appeared alongside it. Grasping the edges of the hole, the hands forced the tear wider. Suddenly giving way, the gash burst wide open with the beautiful pink diamond shattering into a thousand pieces while a torrent of unknown energies poured out. Then, a thin figure tumbled out head first from the void.
 
It was a young boy, who could only be a few years younger than her at most, and he stood up, uncaring for the stares he got on his nude, exposed form. The cold seemed to bother him not. Rather, his purple eyes lit up as they caught sight of the world around him.
 
Lily slammed her jacket around his shoulders, and swiftly ushered him along. She knew not this boy's origins, or what strange magic brought him here, but she realized now was not the time to interrogate him. Her heart beating an excited melody, she and the boy, who had vaguely caught her drift, rushed from the crowd, taking a back alley shortcut towards her house. This was her chance to encounter the supernatural and she clasped it with an iron grip.
 
Whatever unknown forces shattered the fabric of space had shattered her perception of reality as well. By a split-second decision, she had decided to dive into this new realm and out of the mundane world of ordinary society. What foolishness. How uncharacteristic of her! But just for this moment, she had broken out of her shell of realism. That mischievous, pink-haired boy boy looked amusedly at her animated visage and smirked. How interesting, he thought to himself, the deviousness appearing on his face as they ran.

 

~Opening - Innocent Sorrow~

 

One Week Later - January 31, 2014
"Come on, now, Tex," said Lily, bending over to pat her dog on the head. "Stay home with Mom. Be a good boy." She was at the door already, about leave, but the diminutive harrier barked in a way that said there was no way it was sitting tight with this decree. Lily creased her eyebrows in exasperation as she attempted to appeal to the dog. "Now, now, Tex." But, the dog only barked louder as its desperation grew. Then, suddenly, it stopped, ominously, and spun around 180 degrees to take a defensive stance before Lily. It growled threateningly at the figure approaching them.

"Hey~"

Lily looked up to the person who spoke. "When did you get that?" she said, raising an eyebrow at the boy's outfit.

He was dressed very nicely, clad in a very expensive-looking leather jacket atop a fine blue-grey sweater, and coiled around his neck was a grey scarf tailored to the weather, but Lily only ever recalled buying him basic, cheap T-shirts and jeans to wear as he came in butt-naked into this world. The boy gave a childish grin at her question. "Gotta dress nice for the ladies," he said cheerily, and Lily shook her head. "Don't worry, I didn't steal anything," he continued. "Bought it with my own money." His own money meant that he had probably pawned off another one of those diamonds that he kept pulling out of nowhere. It was alarming how well he had accustomed himself to the modern world and its culture, and how easily he made his way through it.

"Come on, Tex, he's nothing to be scared of, he's just a purple haired little twat," said Lily, deciding to ignore the boy to bend over and stroke her dog instead. Tex was usually extremely friendly with strangers, and the boy had freeloaded at their house for a week now. Nevertheless, every time he approached, Tex would go into full-on danger mode. There was a concern gnawing deep inside her, too, that she should be wary of him. After all, animals were said to be more perceptive than humans.

And the boy. The boy, although he looked harmless, was called Mammon, eerily the namesake of one of the seven princes of Hell, and the truth was that he was an ancient and powerful dragon, thousands of years old, sealed into a human form by the magical tattoos now covered up by his fancy new clothes. He had been trapped in another dimension for more than two thousand years until he broke free only a week ago. In only a week, however, he had learned the English language enough to speak it, and figured out the basic workings of the 21st century world. It was fearsome indeed, but was only achieved due to his child-like eagerness and curiosity. Yes... he was just a kid, no matter how she looked at it. Maybe a bit of a brat as well, but he was her only link to the world of the supernatural. A chance for something amazing to happen in her life.


The two realized that Tex was not so insistent on following them when he realized that Mammon was coming along, so they escaped easily. Taking a taxi, they arrived to the busy streets of Chinatown, Manhattan, where Lily's friend was supposed to greet them at the street corner. It was Chinese New Year, and the festivities were in full swing. The bang of firecrackers resounded through the streets, accompanied by the chattering in numerous foreign languages, and loud, traditional Chinese music. Mammon eyes caught, amusedly, a dragon dance going on. "Ah, dragons are still worshipped in this day and age," he commented, looking over to Lily.

"Don't expect me to worship you," said Lily, half-mindedly as she scanned the crowd for her friend. Giving up, she pulled out her phone and called, walking off to the side for some silence, leaving Mammon to his own devices.


At that moment, a massive shadow flew overhead. A cry broke the air and drew everyone's attention upwards, where a brilliant emerald-scaled dragon streaked across the sky, flying a curved route around the city. In a deep voice, it spoke the language of dragonkind. "Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"
 
Mammon glanced over to Lily who stood looking dumbfoundedly at the sky. "My God..." she breathed. The purple-haired boy smiled at the fascination in her eyes. Perhaps he should treat her a little, she still seemed a little suspicious of him so being nice never hurt. He cared not for revealing himself to the other dragons, he left all the opposing mankind business to the hotblooded ones, but coming close with Lily to have a look at what the other dragons were up to could be beneficial in the long run.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Some time ago...

 

It was a dark, starless night that saw a particular man in a particular suit returning to the states after a business trip abroad and he was most certainly glad to be just a few steps away from getting home to his loving wife and child.  A tired yawn escaped his mouth as he made his way through the parking structure near JFK International Airport, mentally taking note of the lights going on the fritz and wondering if he should bother contacting someone about it.  Ultimately he decided that it would be best to not bother, and pulled out his cell phone to make a call home and let his family know he'd be there soon.  Of course he couldn't get a signal, and so he rolled his eyes while mentally noting that he should do it as soon as he got out of the structure...and then it hit him.

 

It felt like he'd just been caught right smack in the face by a punch from a heavyweight boxer, and the sensation sent him to his knees even as he looked around for the source and saw nothing.  Well, nothing except for some sort of distortion in the air a little ways in front of him.  He could only barely make it out, some sort of transparent circle or maybe a sphere a meter or so off the ground surrounded by wavy lines in the air akin to what might be seen above a hot surface.  Just as he was trying to make it out again, he felt another impact that sent him reeling and he winced as he expected to hit the ground...and didn't.  Shaking his head out showed that he was still kneeling on the ground just like he had been before the strike, though he still felt like he'd been punched.  Another look at the phenomenon before him showed that it had become more opaque, and another impact hit him.

 

This went on for several minutes, the strange object becoming darker and darker as the psionic pulses emerging from it came at ever more frequent intervals.  Six and a half minutes in, a particularly forceful one came out and the man dropped to the ground in a semiconscious state with blood flowing from his ears, nose, and eyes while a moment later everything went dark.  He thought he'd died or passed out for a moment, but the feeling of shattered glass falling on him proved he had not and started him awake...as did a fresh bit of light added to the mix.  The harsh, red glow brought his gaze up from the ground to see the figure of a muscular, naked human man before him with the glow coming from his eye.  Weakly, the male lifted a hand and tried to ask for help but the words never left his mouth.  A sudden hemorrhage of the brain saw him laying dead on the ground, and his killer taking the clothes from his body.

 

Kalameet was quite obviously unhappy with the situation, emerging some place he did not recognize and the first thing he sees being a pathetic monkey in a suit instead of one of his kin.  Still, he had his uses.  After all, as long as he was trapped in this weak and frail form he would need clothing and he'd been brought it.  A bit of stripping later, a few moments to figure out how to get the shoes on, and out into the outside he went.  He needed to see this new world, and learn what he could to get the hell out of this prison of a body.

 

An uncertain amount of time later...January 31, 2014.

 

Things were...starting to look up for Kalameet.  True, he hadn't been able to find a way to release himself from his current prison but still things were starting to go well.  He'd learned that, in spite of his original belief, he was not the only Dragon to be released from that odd extra-dimensional place they had been sent to at the end of the war in ancient times.  He'd not succeeded in finding any of the others yet, but then he hadn't been focusing on that.  Through the course of a great deal of thefts, he'd managed to acquire everything he needed to set up a proper lair in the region he'd learned was known as "Queens" in this strange city.  A building that had at one time been used to store wares had been adapted.  He'd insulated the walls to prevent sound and heat from escaping, sealed the holes in the roof, and set about furnishing the place as best he could.  Sure it would have looked like a disorganized mess to anyone else...and that was because it was.  A grand assortment of mattresses, cushions, pillows, sheets, blankets, a couch or two, and other soft things to lay on were arranged about the room into not-so-neat piles.  About a dozen of them, each one meant to accommodate a dragon in human form while they stayed there.  He had gathered other supplies as well, mostly food stuffs without much in the way of things to cook the, in a few large coolers he'd intermittently spread about the area so that at any given time one was not more than 20 paces from such a thing.

 

Satisfied with his work, for it looked perfectly fine to him, he turned away from the sight and made his way towards the door.  Heavy chains and a lock upon it kept it shut, obtained in every bit as illicit a way as the rest of his current possessions, as he exited the building and locked the doors tightly behind him.  He wore that same set of business attire he'd acquired so many days ago, he hadn't bothered counting, plus a coat he'd acquired since then and made certain to dye a different color than it had been when he'd taken it.  Today was the day he would begin searching for other dragons...and then he heard a familiar tongue and perhaps a familiar voice in the air.

 

Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"   Well that was certainly interesting, and a quick scan of the skies brought the slightest hint of emerald into his view for a moment.  Though, seeing what he had just seen certainly made things clearer.  He would go to this place where there were false dragons, some sort of celebration elsewhere in the city he'd heard about in his ways around, and seek out the others that had arrived in the city.  If nothing else, he could be certain that the other dragons which heeded the call would be of similar mindset in joining together.  Still, he found himself on guard as he remembered the war.  His people had most certainly not united, and he expected that many might be mistrustful of him or even outright hostile.  All the same, it was more hope than he'd had in a long time and so he made his way in the direction of the festival he'd been told about.

[Ren✧]

About three weeks ago...

 

A group of clamoring children pressed their noses to the glass, their eyes alight with youthful innocence as they eagerly searched the zoo exhibit for the snake that the sign promised. "I see it! I see it!" One particularly snot nosed brat shouted out, pointing to the corner of the enclosure. The rest of the group looked to where the boy was pointing, but they would find nothing there.

 

"Ugh, David is always looking for attention. Even if he has to lie to do it." A woman behind the group of children muttered to the accompanying chaperon. The other woman nodded in agreement, her nerves having long since been strained to their breaking point. She hadn't realized that volunteering to chaperon a kindergarten field trip to the Bronx Zoo would be so frustrating.

 

As the children were searching the corners of the exhibit, their eyes did not detect the strange phenomena that seemed to be occurring in the small pool of water that was at the forefront of the enclosure. The water began to glow a shifting shade of violet and began to swirl about, splashing water against the glass. At this point, many of the youthful eyes had noticed this and were completely transfixed.

 

The bratty kid from before rudely shoved his way to the front of the group, wanting to get a better look. "What's going on? I wanna se-AAHHHH!" The small kid cried out as a serpent-like head erupted from the water. Covered in gold scales and equipped with pearly white fangs, it writhed about, causing a great deal of chaos to ensue. Just a second or two after, three more heads emerged from the water, followed by the head of man.

 

Slowly, the naked form of a man rose from the small pool, a rift in spacetime open at the bottom of it. Snapping his eyes open, the three dragonic heads quickly retracted back into his body. 

 

"Oh my..." One of the chaperon's said aghast, completely forgetting the fact that a dozen young kindergartners were staring at a nude man.

 

"Oh my indeed." Her accompanying chaperon agreed. Suddenly, the trip to the Bronx Zoo had turned out to be much more rewarding, she thought.

 

January 31st, 2014

 

It had been several weeks since Ladon's arrival into this world, and what an arrival it had been. Emerging from the prison-like dimension, he found himself put on display for a bunch of human children. Of course, several questions had been raised as to how he had gotten into the exhibit and why he had exposed himself to very young, and very impressionable children. Ladon had, of course, been wildly confused by everything that was happening and had quickly escaped from authorities.

 

Once he had time to gather his head, Ladon made sense of everything and one thought dominated his mind. HE WAS FREE! No longer was he bound to that golden apple tree, he was free to experience all the joys that life had to offer. One of which, he was enjoying right this moment.

 

...

 

"So," The beautiful woman said pulling up from the passionate make-out session she was having with the man she had met earlier that day, "you're name's L?" She asked, too which the man gave a grunt in affirmation as he moved to kiss her again. "Does it stand for anything?" The woman asked, momentarily stopping any answer the man may have had by shoving her tongue in his mouth. When she finally did pull up for air, the man answered with one word.

 

"Large." He said devilishly, ripping off her flimsy cardigan. The woman let out a giggle and immediately began to work to undo the man's pants. The positioning would be a little awkward, they were in an alley after all, but she had done it before and she was more than willing to do it again with this hunk.

 

However, just as she was preparing to pull down the man's boxers a terrifying roar erupted from the sky. "Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!" 

 

With a screech of terror the woman ran off, frightened by the dark shape that circled the skies. That left Ladon alone in a deserted alley, his shirt lying in a puddle of filth and his pants around his ankles. "You've got to be kidding." Ladon complained to himself, hiking up his pants and moving to follow the dragon that flew about the sky. 

[Mugendramon]

OST - Shinji

There was no telling how much time had passed for the norse dragon Nidhogg before he regained consciousness. How long had it been since the last time he could think straight, he did not remember. The dark, how long had he spent in this dark?
 
Wait, this was not the dark. It was not the usual dark. But, somehow he could tell, it was not the Old Dark either –he was not home. His thoughts raced back and forth, feelings he had long grown to forget and ignore, were rushing back. Nidhogg was suddenly feeling cold –the familiar cold –but it felt erratic, not like the ground –wind –yes, that's what it was –and then pain –a flash of stimulus –he reacted–
 
"Ow!" came a cry in response. Nidhogg's eyes swung open and at once he felt pain again. A voice yelled at him from above, making strange mimicry of language. The dragon's face turned upward into –bright flashes of yellow in repeated patters. He cried out, covering his eyes with his hands.

 

Human hands. Nidhogg panicked. His screaming became a confused wail, and the human standing before him kept yelling, incomprehensible, in what Nidhogg would have thought confusion. He tried lashing with his tail –but it seemed to move in two separate directions –of course, it was human –no tail, it was legs –yes, legs –he rolled onto the ground –the yelling human –his own screams –more pain– and then finally dark again.The next time he woke up, he knew what to expect. Thankfully, there was still a comforting darkness surrounding him as he flung his set of human eyes open once more. There was snow in the air, and a light wind blew. Nidhogg sat up, his fleshy hands feeling the wood beneath. Floating orbs of light illuminated the treelines around him. Still in front of him was the human who had (now with enough clarity to think of it) knocked him cold –how long ago?

 

It started speaking again. Even lucid, Nidhogg could not understand a word he was saying. Doing his hardest to remember the Language of Humans, he spoke in imitation of kings. Perhaps it would quieten the loud bother. "What is it that you want? Why must you scream so much?"

 

Indeed, the human did grow silent. This gave Nidhogg the chance to look up at his face –it was covered in thick facial hair and wore a confused expression. It uttered a single, short sound next. It sounded confused, and repeated itself twice in the same fashion. Could it not understand the language of kings?

 

"Do you really not understand a word of what I speak?"

 

The confused sound did not come again. Instead, the human raised some sort of weapon on him, and pointed down toward Nidhogg's– oh Odin above. That's what this is all about.

 

Niddhog opened his mouth hastily to explain his position, but quickly dismissed the idea as it would evidently not help. He looked like a starch-naked human and this one in front of him could not even understand basic language. And was armed. The dragon did what he could, and civilizedly covered his dignity by crossing his legs over the wooden platform he sat on.

 

Now how could he get the hell away from this problem –and what would he do? He was free of the dark, but he knew nothing beyond that. Now he simply stared at the human, and the human stared back. There was not anger in his eyes, but rather some sort of impatience.

 

The human uttered some other incomprehensible thing, and then lunged to grab Nidhogg by the shoulder. Resigned and still somewhat in shock, he ultimately decided this human might take him somewhere more hospitable.

 

Not fighting back seemed to ease the human in dark clothing, for it put away the black weapon and offered Nidhogg some of its garments. As he looked back he realized however that it still carried an annoyed grimace as they walked. Dismissing it as inevitable, Nidhogg started looking around to try and get his bearings somehow. He could see nothing but trees, floating spheres of light, and the occasional wooden structure on the side of the path which he had woken up on.

 

And then a gate that seemed to signify the end of the forest –and beyond it, there seemed to be only horror. Bright lights, but not the dreaded daylight. These seemed to be arranged, and he saw now that the floating lights had not, in fact, been floating –they hung from long metal structures, rather. And then to both sides of the path in front of him, gigantic trees not made of wood and carved with lights towered to both sides. Nidhogg stared up in disbelief, and could barely make out the top of the huge nontrees through the snow.

 

The human who had been escorted him gave him a short kick in the back, and the dragon's wobbly human limbs could not support him. He dropped on his knees and the other human yelled a final time before pointing at a white rectangle and walking back into the forest.

 

Nidhogg could not read the black characters in the rectangle, but could tell they were related to what had just happened. His mind only remained on it for a second, because another human –a female this time, it seemed– bumped onto him distractedly and walked on. Nidhogg turned, but she did not pay heed.

 

"MIND YOUR DAMN MANNERS!" the dragon yelled, causing several to turn their heads in the night to look at him. He immediately remembered he was naked except for the long garment he was given, and so instinctively moved away to avoid the unwanted attention. As he walked, he overheard the same nonsense the first human had spoken –had humans forgotten their language?

 

–How long had he been in the dark?

 

It made perfect sense now, all of it. He must have spent a long time there, for this much to change. Their language was different! His own memory could not be trusted anymore! What could he possibly do in these circumstances –and in a human body?

 

Nidhogg could feel despair starting to take over, until a hand on his shoulder brought it to a creeping halt.

 

"Having a hard time there?" the voice accompanying the hand spoke. Immediately Nidhogg had turned and almost laughed with relief.

 

"You... speak human?"

 

"Human?" the human chuckled. It was a pleasant chuckle, there was no mockery in it; and so Nidhogg shrank with embarrassment. (He was showing embarrassment to a human?) "It's norwegian man, and it's not common around here. You really speak no english at all?"

 

Nidhogg tried to mimic the foreign sound best as he could. "Innnn... gleesh?"

 

"None at all, wow;" the human seemed amused, but awkward at once. He scratched the back of his head and let out another small chuckle. "I should not be doing this for a hobo by the park," (Nidhogg tried once again to mimic the foreign noise, helplessly) "but you seriously look like you need a good night's sleep. I can let you sleep in my home for tonight. In exchange," he added with a lifted index finger, "you tell me about yourself tomorrow. Deal?"

 

Absolutely fatigued and almost brimming with gratitude to a lone dumb human who was offering him sanity and now shelter, all Nidhogg could do was nod.

 

"Not even a single word in English... Man, are you lucky I of all people was taking a stroll. Who knows what kind of depraved soul you could have ran into?"

[Andx]

A day is a long time to walk. There was so much to look at and think about. So many new feelings and such a mystery to it all. Perhaps new wasn't the right word. But just moving around felt foreign. Viintaas had been moving towards the large objects he saw in the distance for a whole day. How long had it been since last he'd been free to move and think and walk? He couldn't recall much of anything about being sealed away. The fact he looked like a human perplexed him and every once and awhile he had to look himself over to remind himself he was human now.

 

Everything felt different. The sun was still there which was comforting. And though he felt some strength coming from it's rays it was nothing like he was used to. And even though he had the light he felt cold. As a dragon a little light had been all he needed to stay warm but now the cold sensation was all over his body and he didn't much care for it at all. He still hadn't made any connection of this to his complete lack of clothing for while he knew humans had worn animal skins he had no idea why they did. And travelling was so slow on foot like this. Viintaas' head still felt rather mixed up so feelings of frustration came and went into his thoughts easily as did any other thought or feeling.

 

As the day turned to night and the objects came closer into view, Viintaas' head was starting to clear up a bit too. With that his thoughts focused more on what he was seeing and how he might go about figuring some more things out. And yet at the same time he could feel fatigue setting in as well. How could his body be tired after only a day's travel?

 

"How can humans live like this?" he thought as he slipped away into sleep.

 

With the dawn of the sun the next morning Viintaas jerked awake. The cold feeling was almost more than he could bare at this point. He wanted it to go away and so he picked himself up and journeyed into New York City.

 

The sounds and the sights quickly overwhelmed him but he didn't have much time to focus on it all. There were so many humans in sight as well. He'd never seen such a large human settlement and could hardly believe what the humans had made. He very quickly began to suspect that perhaps he didn't look as human-like as he had originally thought. Anyone he moved towards acted strangely. Some screamed and ran, others stared at him awkwardly, others yelled at him with a lot of anger in their voices but he couldn't make out anything they said. Eventually one man tried to grab him forcefully by the arm saying some strange word like Poh leese. Regardless it made little sense. By this point Viintaas began to panic and, jerking his arm loose, began to run.

 

He did his best to stay out of sight from that point on. He convinced himself it was because, though human-like, he obviously didn't look enough like a normal human to fit in. Why else would they have responded how they did? Thankfully there were many little side paths in between the buildings, practically a maze of stone. With these Viintaas stayed out of sight as best he could and tried to rest a little here and there. The cold feeling still constantly nagging him was really starting to wear him down mentally and emotionally.

 

Right as he felt like he would have to give up and leave this human settlement he heard something strange that despite his circumstances caught his attention. Some weird rustling sound was coming from nearby. Viintaas looked and couldn't believe his eyes. A dragon! It was a dragon! It was really long and just kind of sitting there. Viintaas had seen a few eastern dragons during the war and could tell that this was one of them. His desperate mind grasped on to this hope that he wasn't alone in this strange place. He quickly moved over to talk with the dragon.

 

"Hello fellow dragon! Could you help me? I-" Viintaas began saying as he approached. But he quickly realized something was wrong. This dragon was hollow. It was like one layer of skin with a head in place. Either a corpse or some sick trophy. His heart sank with the thought that he really must be alone. Still out of curiosity he felt the need to touch this strange dragon figure before him. The skin had an odd texture to it and felt nothing like any dragon scales Viintaas had felt before. He examined the whole thing feeling the various designs on the outside of it. He began to try and force the mouth of the dragon to open a little wider to see inside it a little more clearly and before he knew it he was holding the lower jaw in his hands. A little shocked from the jaw giving he fell backwards and knocked the whole of the dragon over resulting in quite a bit of noise.

 

Viintaas heard what sounded like angry people yelling and soon he was looking at two human men pointing and yelling at him in some other tongue that he didn't understand. His first impulse was to run and so he was running again. In the panic and with the men pursuing him he neglected to stay out of sight of anyone else. He saw flashes of what looked like other of the hollow dragons and didn't want to really know what was going on anymore, he just wanted out. He looked back and seemed to have a good lead and even thought he saw the men giving up. While turning his head back he slammed his shoulder into a person ahead of him, stumbled and fell face first onto the cold stony pathway, his large sigil tattoo plainly shown to anyone looking at him.

 

He didn't try to get up. His body was so tired and so cold. He just wanted it to stop. He didn't want to be here anymore. He just wanted to be with his tribe in the mountains. He was scraped a bit from the fall and the pain helped him focus a little more just in time to hear a voice. It was in the dragon tongue and just hearing it cleared the storm running through Viintaas' mind. It was a call to gather where "false dragons" were dancing.

 

"I'm not alone." he said as he sighed a bit in relief.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

OST - Fairy Tail Main Theme (Piano)

 

 

Before...

 

Darkness...nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see. No matter how hard he tried to rebuke it and attempt to lighten the area around him up...he just couldn't. He was afraid of his fate now...and he was saddened from the events that had proceeded this long godforsaken time within the darkness...

 

Aerog, a young Fire Dragon, would finally see some glimmer of hope...as his consciousness slowly returned back to him. His eyes slowly opened, but he was met with even more darkness...no...there was more. Small lights in the sky which he remembered being the stars...but they were so much different then when he last laid eyes on them. He slowly groaned as he placed a hand at his head...

 

Wait...a hand? Aerog was a dragon, so why would a hand...? Aerog scrambled to look at his current form...and saw that he was now a human, starch-naked...but more importantly...covered from his arms, shoulder, neck (front and back) with a strange set of markings. However, he couldn't stay where he was at to try and figure out what was going on. He needed to find some shelter and nourishment...and soon.

 

A bit later...

 

He kept walking, no longer naked as he had liberated a bedsheet from a nearby laundry line. Aerog could only see in blurs as he stayed the path he walked on...heading deeper into the city known as New York, or Nu...Yaorc...at least from his vision and his pronunciation. The further he went in...the more looks he got from the denizens of this realm. It had been all but too long since he had seen a human again...

 

"Um, excuse me young man." a voice was heard, as Aerog swiftly turned around, seeing an elderly old man standing behind him.

 

He wanted to back away and possibly run...but he could see a small glimmer of compassion in the man's eyes. Aerog only pointed a finger to himself, seeing the old man nod.

 

"Yes my dear boy...are you alright? You seem to be either sobering up from a party, or lost." he said as he he put a hand on Aerog's shoulder. The old man waited for an answer, but found silence within the young man, as the red haired youth just looked at the ground. "Come with me...you must be starving at least."

 

And with that...the elderly old man took Aerog off the streets, and retired back to his home....

 

 

OST - Break The Chain (Instrumental)

 

Present - January 31st, 2014

Lower Manhattan, New York

 

"Think you've had enough to eat, Aidan?" the elderly man sighed as he was behind a grill preparing more food...while on the other side of the room, sat the familiar red-haired youth: Aerog...or being better called now as his current alias "Aidan Drake".

 

Sprawled out on the table was empty plate after empty plate, with Aidan finishing off the last little bit on the last plate he held. The remains of the spicy curry and rice were gone within an instant. He slammed the plate down in his usual fashion, before belching out loudly. "Ahhh! That hit the spot! Thanks for the meal old man! Delicious as always!"

 

"I hope it was...now how do you plan to pay for all this?"

 

Aidan stood up from the table as he fixed his punk rocker appearance a bit, before tossing a guitar case over his shoulder. "No worries. I've got a gig tonight and it should be making me quite a bit of money. So I'll make sure to pay you back ten-fold!" He simply smiled at the old man, before pulling out a pair of shades, tossing them on his face as he was out the door.

 

And now I'm bored...AGAIN... the lone thought ran through the Fire Dragon in human form's mind. Unfortunately, Aerog constantly would become bored and finding things for him to keep himself busy usually consisted of him strumming on the guitar he had on his back or eating any sort of spicy foods. There has got to be some sort of cure for this...

 

As if the fates heard the red-headed youth's hope, something interesting did indeed come along....

 

A shadow flew and loomed above Aidan as he saw above him...a brilliant emerald scaled dragon appeared as it streaked across the skies. The people around him started panicking, but Aidan remained still as he watched the dragon.

 

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"
 

A small smile appeared on his face, watching the dragon still flying across the skies. Aidan could hear this dragon's words loud and clear in his own native tongue, as he could only nod slowly. Heh, well this might definitely cure me of my boredom! he said, as he headed in the direction the emerald dragon flew.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Around a month ago...

 

It was a busy night in Shibuya, as always. Tens of thousands of people come and go, each of them minding their own business. It was rather monotone, but the sheer volume of people and bright lights still made the place feel lively. One occurrence follows a well-dressed man making small talk and handing pamphlets to any young woman unfortunate enough to come across his path. It wasn't an abnormal sight in Shibuya. Once night falls, the place is basically filled with prostitutes and cabaret club promoters, and that night was no exception. 

 

The man found a rather attractive young woman, and immediately went after her so he could get his quota finished. The woman, like every other one he's tried to approach, ignored his advances and quickens her walk. In response, the man gets more pushy with her. Afraid that the man might soon resort to more drastic measures, she tried to run away from the sidewalk and found herself on the street, just several seconds away from a speeding pair of lights. Her dark clothing made it difficult for the driver to avoid her, and she would've been killed for sure.

 

That is, if it wasn't for a certain trans-dimensional incident. The space in front of her started to crumble, creating a black hole tall enough for a human to enter. The sheer surprise from seeing a rift in space caused the driver to suddenly swerve to avoid it, but hit another car in the process. This chain reaction of crashes went on for several more seconds, with drivers braking suddenly and accidentally hitting cars behind them. The sound of metal crashing against metal and shocked gasps of bystanders filled the air as the woman can only look on in sheer bewilderment. 

 

It felt as if time had stopped for her. When she finally returned to her senses, she noticed that the black hole is gone, and in its place was a stark-naked black haired girl with an intricate tatoo on her back. The girl was lying down on her back, looking up towards the black sky. 

 

Ouroboros has woken up. She didn't know how long she was sealed, nor what she was actually sealed in. Looking around, she was taken over by a wave of confusion and anger. The sky is black, that means it's nighttime. If so, why is it still so bright? What are these abnormally tall grey rectangles? Why are there so many weak humans around her, holding extremely bright torches that flicker an abnormal white? She curled her back upwards so she's now sitting down, and what she saw angered her even further. Her great, serpentine body was gone, and in its place was the body of a hairless monkey. The realization that she was now trapped in a human's body only angered her even further. 

 

With great difficulty, she tried to stand up and walk towards the human female in front of her, stumbling several times in the process. She didn't realize this, but since her naked body in full view of everyone in Shibuya, countless pictures of her had already been taken by lonely guys, and that there's at least 10 new threads in 2ch titled "Cute naked girl appears in Shibuya after car crash" by the time she reached the human. 

 

"What is this place? Are you one of those who sealed me?" Ouro asked the woman in a language so old, it has been forgotten by history. The girl simply looked confused in response. Could it be that she doesn't understand human language? Maybe dragonic language has replaced it in her absence. Ouroboros asked the question again, this time in dragonic. Again, no response. Frustrated, Ouroboros moved in and tried to eat her just as she had done to countless humans that angered her in the past.
 

Before she could sink her teeth in human flesh, she suddenly felt her new limbs restrained by a cold and uncomfortable object. The cops finally arrived at the scene and restrained Ouro before any casualties happen. Of course, she trashed wildly as she was taken to the police car, and even managed to bite one of the officer's hand. 

 

This incident was made the morning news, and pictures of Ouroboros went viral on the internet, with Japanese netizens nicknaming her cannibal-tan. 

 

-------

 

Chinese New Year, 2014

 

The so-called Cannibal-tan had moved on biting people's hands off to biting off large chunks of Subway's signature Foot-long sandwich. The fad didn't last long, and despite a KnowYourMeme article of her being put up and several fanarts of her surfacing in pixiv, Cannibal-tan died out in a week and a half, just like most other memes. 

 

Ouroboros, or rather, Sherry Mavery, had spent the last month or so living as the adopted daughter of a New Yorker, but she ran away from her new home around two nights ago. None of that's relevant now, however. She's happily munching down a delicious sandwich as she makes fun of the hilariously inaccurate depictions of her kin the humans had created. Her "father" already told her of the upcoming Chinese New Year and what the event will be, so no misunderstandings were had in her case. She's happy with her new body, and killing random hobos in the dead of night is more than enough as anger relief for her. 

 

Just as she finished the sandwich, she felt her sigil behaving weirdly. Throbbing and pulsating, it's generally not a pleasant feeling. The skies above her suddenly darkened, and when she looked up, she saw one of her kin circling in the sky directly above her. The dragon roared, and in her native language, called the other dragons to gather at the spot where she is. Following this, Ouro couldn't help but feel excited. While living as a human is acceptable enough, but knowing that there are other dragons around re-ignited her original plan of showing the weak, pitiful humans who the real rulers are.

 

"This's gonna be good." She said with a grin, showcasing her fang-like teeth. Ouro then pulled down the hoodie covering half her face, revealing her sulfuric yellow eyes as if to say "I'm a dragon!" to her kind.  

 

 

 

[The Warden]

January 14th, 2014

 

On the outer edges of New York, everyone was going about their day, same as usual. Cars runs, people walked, and occasionally got mugged and shived. Yea be the normality of the world, until, in a dank little alleyway, reality just gave up on life. The crack was small at first, but grew wide like Oprah’s pant size until a swirling nether of energy encircled the far wall. 

Sliding out head first came a pair of little girls. The blonde one came out first, followed curtly by the one with black hair. Their immodest bodies were splayed in a pile until the two confused creature disentangled themselves from each other. In a daze, they both staggered out of the alleyway into the bright sunlight of midday New York. They had to squint from the bright light, as they hadn’t seen sunlight for roughly four thousand years. Their presence hadn’t gone unnoticed, as many of the adults around the area rushed to their air. Though unseen by theme, these humans all had an internal fire that glowed a bright pink, the colour of love and concern. Even the local paedophile felt some form of concern as they draped the young girls in a pair of coats volunteered by some businessmen who were passing by. The girls were overwhelmed by the confusion of what was happening, and promptly passed out. 

 

 

They were rushed to the nearest police outpost whilst the alleyway was investigated for sign of a rapist. As they awoke, the girls were questioned about what happened. Such an alien language they thought as they could barely understand the humans. They had learned the dialects from long ago certainly, but this new language was something else. Sadly, these humans wouldn’t know the tongue of dragon kind; so they remained silent. The officer questioned them a bit more, but the girls were more interested in their reflections. Such a strange custom to have a mirror in a room where you’d question someone. Maybe it’s so they could reflect on their actions? Either way, it gave them a good way to inspect themselves curtly. Glory rather liked her appearance, it was the one she had adopted when she joined humans for their feast. Fatality didn’t mind how she looked, Glory had picked it out anyways. And if Glory was happy, Fatality was, well, not happy, but less miserable. The officer attracted their attention with the million dollar question. “Do you have any parents?” the officer inquired.

They looked to the other in surprise, parents? “Should we mention Tiamat?” Glory inquired.

“Umm, no, best not. The humans never liked her, and by their fancy outfits they’ve probably forgotten here. How long do you suppose we were sealed?” Fae replied.

“I can’t say. Humans always advanced erratically, so who knows how long we were gone” Glory said sadly.

The officer was certainly bemused by the strange language the girls were using. It certainly wasn’t American, or, anything he had heard by patrolling in the Bronks. These girls were clearly foreign, maybe somewhere Asian. Their words sounded Asian, so, maybe they escaped the Sex Slave Trade or something like that. “Sadly, the police can’t hold such young children in custody for too long. And if you don’t have parents, I’m afraid we’ll have to send you to the local orphanage” he explained.

The girls had a glib expression, as they had absolutely no idea what this man was talking about, or what an orphanage was.

 

 

Turns out, and orphanage is where you go to deposit children you don’t want. The police department had supplied the girls some clothes from their lost and found, though the blonde one looked amazing in whatever she wore surprisingly. The black haired one just seemed to suck the life out of everything. These were the thoughts of the administrator in charge of the orphanage as she looked over the girl’s files she was writing up. What peculiar cases they were; as they spoke such an alien language, probably one they made up. The admin idly wrote down the names of the two after she inquired about them. That was a strange little meeting she thought as she remembered how it went down.

The two were brought to her office, and she asked for their names. The officer admitted that he neglected to ask, so, kneeling down, the admin inquired about it. “Glory” Glory answered.

“Gloria?” the admin repeated.

Glory though to protest, but, humans were simple creatures, best not to confuse them. So, she just nodded instead. The admin inquired from Fatality, who was a bit quicker on the draw than Glory. “Fae” she answered.

What always bothered the admin was that she could have sworn she heard the girl say glory. But that’s silly, whoever heard of someone called Glory? The admin smiled to herself as there was a buzz from her intercom. “Yes?” she inquired.

“The Oxhams are here with their paperwork” the box buzzed.

“Send them in” she ordered.

The doors opened wide to field in a rather well-dressed and how to do couple. Benson Oxham had a pale blue business suit on. It was pressed immaculately, and his white shirt was so smart it had a degree from Harvard. Elizabeth Oxham was dressed in a thick padded coat with a fluffy hood. Her amber hair gently caressed her shoulders as she tiled her head to sit down. “It’s nice to see the two of you again” the admin smiled woodenly.

“Indeed Ms. Hilary. We have our documents already, so can we dispense with the false sentiments and choose a child already?” Benson said commandingly, handing the documents to the admin.

She cleared her through lightly as she inspected the documents. The police check was all in good order, and their essay on parenting was rather, insightful honestly. Wow, the man seemed like such a hard-ass. Well, the two of them checked out. The admin rose from her desk as she presented the door. “Please, follow me. The children will be eager to see you, and we have two recent arrivals as well” she explained.

Elizabeth teased her hands together as her lips forms a small smile. “I’m so glad. We’ve both been waiting so long” she said contentedly.

 

 

One of the assistants was already in the children’s play area, making sure the children looked smart. However, she couldn’t help but pause at the two new arrivals. Somehow, the girl Gloria was already perfect. Perturbed, she skipped Gloria for Fae. Again, the peculiar feeling, but this time, it felt as if no matter what she did, she could not salvage this girl’s appearance. She sidled away to the entrance to playroom, where the admin and the Oxhams entered conveniently. Gloria and Fae eyed the couple carefully, and they nodded to each other. “This is our ticket out of here” Gloria whispered.

“Indeed, these children are so dreary, even without my influence” Fae whispered back.

“Then look presentable, this seems like some form of market for children.”

 

The girls stood up straight as the Oxhams’ eyes were drawn to the two. The two just couldn’t explain it, but, they just felt more happy and in love than ever before as they stood in Gloria’s presence. With a quivering heart, Benson Oxham knelt down to stare eye to eye with Gloria. “Hello, what’s your name” he inquired.

“Glory…a. Gloria” Gloria replied.

The age old wear and tear of business and age broke away as a content smile spread on Benson’s face. The first sincere one he had had in a long time. “Fae” Fae answered to a question none had asked.

Benson stood up straight and faced off with the admin. “We have a decision” he decided.

The admin’s eyes fluttered a little bit. No one had ever decided THAT quickly, especially not with such an early arrival. The trio returned back to the office. “We’d like to adopt Gloria” Benson declared.

“Curious” the admin remarked, her mind occupied with a peculiar feeling.

“I’m sorry, but, what is curious?” Elizabeth inquired.

The admin swivelled around on her chair, so that the back would face the pair. “Well, those girls have only been here a total of forty-five minutes. This is, some form of record honestly. But, are you sure you JUST want her” the admin inquired.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the two came in a pair, and, as you know, separating siblings tends to be rather heart-wrenching” the admin explained.

“She’s right Benson” Elizabeth agreed, “and, raising an only child tends to create spoiled and selfish feelings. If we adopt Fae as well, then I’m sure that would make them, and us, very happy” she added with a sunny smile.

Benson nodded thoughtfully as he rubbed at his stubbled chin. “I see, we would have the resources. I’m certain we can do it, Elizabeth” he smiled.

“Oh Benson” Elizabeth cried, throwing herself off her chair and into Benson’s arms.

And that, boys and girls, was the story of how Gloria and Fae became an Oxham.

 

January 31st, 2014

 

It had been almost three weeks since the girls had surfaced and been adopted into the human world. Thankfully, being adopted into an English couple had their benefits, including being taught proper English. The two had been remarkably surprised by how fast the two girls picked up their language, to the point that they were already speaking fluently.

They were also surprised by how few needs the girls had. They didn't want, or desire much, just love. Well, that’s not true, they wanted a ball. They had wanted one ever since they had witnessed the phenomenon that was, Soccer. In fact, they were playing it outside their Brooklyn block right now. Gloria and Fae were having a blast kicking the ball at each other as they ran across the lawn. “This is remarkable” Gloria declared in English, punting the ball at Fae.

Fae caught the ball between her legs, before dropping it and racing towards Gloria’s goal. “Indeed, to think it took four thousand years for them to develop such a wonderful use for the wheel” Fae replied in English as well, giving the ball a fierce kick.

Gloria missed her mark as the ball batted against the fence, signifying a goal for Fae. The two girls were panting, their hearts racing as they gave a hearty handshake. “Excellent game Fae” Gloria smiled.

Fae took Gloria’s hand and shook it. “Indeed, most fun” she panted.

Just then, Elizabeth walked out the front door and onto the lawn. “How are you girls doing?” she smiled serenely.

“We’re having fun playing soccer mommy. Care to join us?” Gloria smiled.

Elizabeth laughed in that soft and sensitive manner. “Oh no, I can’t. I tried to play soccer with Benson once, and I kept tripping over the ball. Oh, I made such a mess of my dress that day. But, mommy has a surprise for the two of you” Elizabeth declared.

The girl’s eyes lit up. Mommy always had such wonderful surprises. “Oh what is it mommy” Fae’s whined.

Elizabeth knelt down to the girls. “How would you two like to see the Chinese New Year parade? It’s happening today in China Town” she smiled.

The girls were drawing a blank on the word China. It certainly seemed familiar, but they couldn’t explain why. “What’s a parade?” Fae inquired.

Elizabeth laughed again. “A parade is where a bunch of important people march down a road. There’s also cars, and a marching band. And my favourite part, the floats. They’re vehicles that are done up all pretty, and have people on them. But that’s for normal parades. Chinese New Year has people in funny outfits and neat tricks, plus the most important part, the dancing dragon” she explained.

The girl’s eyes went wide as somehow, Fae managed to pale even more. “D-d-dragon” Gloria inquired, “not a real one, surely?”

Elizabeth smiled as she soothingly kissed Gloria’s forehead. “Don’t worry silly, the dragons aren’t real. They’re just a costume full of people in them. See, dragons are very important to the Chinese people. They regard them as special omens and the bringer of good fortune” she explained.

The girls released their held breath as their feelings of dread escaped them. Of course it was a silly idea to think that the humans had a real dragon. But, you could never be sure. “That sounds most fun” Gloria decided, Fae nodding in agreement.

Elizabeth clapped her hands as she giggled lightly. “Then get your shoes on and we can go now” she declared.

 

 

The Chinese New Year parade was quite lively. The humans had certainly learned some remarkable tricks over time. The fire eaters were particularly interesting. To think humans themselves had finally learned to breath fire, or, they at least learned to emulate it. That dragon dance was also pretty silly, though unusually spot on. The worm-like body was a good emulation of an Eastern Dragon, but that strange head design was rather silly. No dragon had ever looked like a dog-face, ever.

 

A flicker of shadow. Gloria and Fae looked skywards, and they were terrified. The crowd slowly followed suit as the shadow flew overhead, revealing the girl’s worst fear: A fully unsealed dragon.

 

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"

 

Elizabeth screamed loudly as she clutched the girl’s hands tightly. “Mother” Gloria commanded, but could reach her through her screaming. “MOTHER!” she repeatedly forcefully.

The woman stopped screaming as she stared down at Gloria. “Calm down, and let us calmly flee. It won’t hurt us” Gloria said using her rather peculiar tone.

They turned, and very calmly left through the screaming crowd.

[Lunar Origins]

= Six weeks prior =

 

The air conditioning in the drab apartment had been shut off for some time, now, and with the cold weather came a freezing environment.  Ted, a lonely architect with a knack for screwing things up, really didn't mind the cold.  The view more than made up for the lack of central heating in his area of the complex.  That, and the price simply couldn't be beat.  

 

He let out a yawn.  Come a few months, the view from his bedroom would be that of spring colours; not of the winter's last snow.  The pungent smell of... coffee, was it, filled his apartment, accompanied by a loud thumping noise.  He perked up, looking from his morning newspaper dealing with the ins and outs of this holiday season.  He didn't drink coffee, and so far as he knew, he was the only tenant living in this area of the building.  What was going on?

 

He wandered through the apartment, eventually coming to his door.  He opened it, going into the hallway, and found himself with the... oddest sight.

 

It was a woman, probably in her mid twenties, sprawled out in the nude about halfway down the hall.  She was beautiful; exotic looking, probably middle eastern of descent, or possibly Indian.  Her hair was an unkempt short, black in colour.  A large trident tattoo came from her neck, tracing along her entire back, with curvy runic designs coming from the shaft.  She smelled, oddly enough, of a very heavy coffee.

 

Seemingly unaware of her own indecency, she stood up, facing Ted.  Ted averted his eyes, his face turning a slight flushed red.  She spoke.  "Fos lost koros? Kolos Zu'u? Saraan. .. los hi. .. mun?"  A perplexed look crossed her face and she turned her eyes to herself, examining her arms, breasts, and legs.  Her visage twisted into something percievably more angry.  "Fos los seik do daar? Daar los ni dii kopraan. Fos eylok do kras yirt los daar?"

 

She started tearing at her arm, her nails ripping deep into her flesh.  Looking on in horror, Ted decided that the only logical thing to do was to, well, tackle her, and so he did.  "Gaav vau , krastov pusojur!" She barked.  Acknowledging that this woman sounded rather angry, Ted got off, but grabbed her by the arm where she had drawn blood.  He uttered something; she couldn't fully understand what he was saying.  The language was confusing, not a language she had ever heard before.  She growled - or, at least, tried to - and the man loosened his grip.  Realizing that she was still in the nude, he gestured to her that he would be right back;  this, she understood.  He returned several moments later holding one of his bathrobes, to which she put on.  She purred at the feeling of warmth it brought;  the cold did not suit her, apparently.

 

= Now =

 

"Season of cold, when does end?"  Said the dark skinned woman.  Her English was far from perfect; her speech was slow and filled with stutters, but she was improving.  Certainly a miracle that she was able to hold a conversation nearly a month and half after appearing out of nowhere.  She was dressed in semi-normal attire, though all of the clothes were fit for males.  They didn't fit very well on her frame.

 

Ted simply laughed, as he did whenever she spoke.  "Is all you do complain about the cold, Amita?  It's almost February, now - it'll end in a few month's time, so you have a little bit more to go.  Don't worry, you're going to be fine."  Ted sighed.  "Bonté, j'ai parfois l'impression que vous êtes à sang froid."

 

Amita's brow morphed into a scowl.  "Refrain from words I get not."

 

Ted nodded, as he did many times before.  Amita was a fiery one;  she loved to assert her dominance over Ted whenever possible, and Ted was okay with that.  She confused him, though; in his research, he had found not one record of her existence, and seeing as how some major s*** could go down if any agency would find out about him hosting something akin to an illegal alien in his household for a month and a half, he opted not to take her to get her fingerprints researched.

 

He kicked up his feet onto the table, staring out the window.  "So you say you're a dragon, huh?"  He mused, sounding sarcastic.  She wasn't able to pick up on that, and he felt it to be a little victory every time that he pulled off a comment of that nature.  "You know, I could take you out to dinner tonight.  There's supposed to be a celebration in the way of 'dragons' down in Chinatown.  While I'm not really a big fan, I will say that the food is pretty fantastic."

 

She was uninterested.  "No, your false idols are not of my taste."  She was eyeing the dragon statue that sat on his mantle.  It was crafted by Ted himself; he was a talented sculptor.  "I long for one of my own type, and reminders of home bring pain."

 

Ted frowned.  For someone that sounded insane, she was rather genuine in her manner of speech.  He found himself believing her at times, having spent a majority of the past month and a half tending to her needs, teaching her how to actually live.  He was also genuinely surprised at how well she retained and used knowledge;  whether or not she was faking it, she certainly did learn like a savant.  He reached across the table and grabbed her arm, scarred by her first attempt at drawing blood when they met.  "Amita, I think it'll be pretty cool to get out of the apartment.  You've been cooped up in here, learning about the world.  Why not get out and see it?"

 

She placed her hand on his, both of theirs resting on her arm.  "From window, I do not see things I like.  I see narrowness.  I see created lights.  It stinks, here.  I do not like it."  

 

"Please?"

 

She closed her eyes.  "Fine.  I will go."  She huffed rather angrily, obviously reluctant to comply with the man.  For all his worth, however, he had been the most loyal caretaker.  She liked him.

[Maeriberii Haan]

A woman clad in a frilly black dress walked away from athe John F. Kennedy International Airport, dragging a medium-sized suitcase behind her. She was definitely not in a hurry, as she took her time for sightseeing liberally.

 

It was still winter, the season where she used to hibernate a long time ago. Not really a fan of it, really. The sea became colder, and fishes migrated into god know where. Well, she could also just move to another ocean back then, but really, she was too lazy for that, and the cold temperature just made her laziness worse. Not that she was weak or intolerant to cold, though.

 

“Nostalgia, huh? That kinda makes me feel old.”

 

Well, she was indeed old.

So old, in fact, that she was there when those inferior big lizards went extinct. Saying that she was old felt like a gross understatement. Not that she minded that much, really. Living for that long wasn’t really that nice, though it was definitely not that bad too.

 

When she came across a bench, she then realized that she was already tired from all the walking, and thus she decided to sit and take a quick rest, while admiring the nice sunny winter day.

Her iPhone suddenly then vibrated, indicating an incoming message. She checked the message excitedly, but much to her disappointment, it was not a message from the person that she was really concerned about at that moment.

 

“It’s only been a month, though a lot of things had happened already.

Can’t believe it all happened that quickly.”
 

Speaking of that person, the woman was reminded about her recent awakening after several millennia of slumber. It was one month ago, in the city of Cordoba.  She suddenly appeared in the middle of a street, completely naked and covered with tattoos. While she naturally had no such consideration about the so called nudity taboo, her time with the humans made her realize that they wouldn’t really appreciate it if she walked around in public naked. Thankfully the street was mostly empty for some reason, but then she stumbled upon a man in a nice suit. After a period of her trying to talk to him and vice versa with their own language (which failed miserably), the man decided to just take her in.

And then, a lot of things happened between them. Let’s leave it at that, really.

 

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"

 

Much to her surprise, an emerald dragon streaked around in the sky, roaring something with his own kind’s language. Something that she had slowly despised as of recently. But what made her even more annoyed was the content of the message. The dragons had enough of humanity’s rule on earth, and decided to take control back as fast as they can.

 

“…Fools.” The woman uttered. Seeing her own children being this arrogant and idiotic was painful. They were far from ready to take over nature from humanity. They’re a shame, really. Millions of years of evolution to prepare them to reign over mother earth, yet they wasted that chance.

 

On the other hand, humans managed to wrestle control from them in a blink of an eye, with far less preparatory stage. As a mother, she was saddened by that fact, but when she realized that it was the dragon’s own fault, she decided that she must forsook her own children, her own kind. While she did realize that humanity’s method of overpowering dragons was by basically violating the law of nature, and how they over exploited nature during their reign, she saw that as less of a problem compared to the dragons’ incompetence. Humans still had a long way to go, while dragons had wasted their millions of years of chances.

 

Not long after the emerald dragon passed, the clouds slowly turned black. Realizing what this means, the woman immediately try to find a taxi to avoid a heavy rainstorm, and to go to the place where the emerald dragon might have referred about. Chinatown. It was the Chinese New Year that day, and the woman knew about what would be put in display during that time.

 

On the taxi, the woman just realized about how fast she had adapted to the modern day human society. She was able to speak one of their main languages fluently enough, while still learning about another, she managed to actually get a job and stay low, and in general, she had an odd lack of awkward situations during her time so far in today’s world, her first days aside.

 

While looking at the dark clouds outside, Tiamat, no, Elsa hummed to herself, humming a song that she used to hum to her children. A dragonic nursery rhyme, though for some reason, she felt that the more she repeated it, the more it sounds like a requiem.

 

How fitting.

[Mugendramon]

OST - Innkeeper

Chinese New Year

Nidhogg woke up for the third time in less than a cycle. Immediately he hissed and covered his eyes, sunlight burning into them. "TOO BRIGHT! TOO BRIGHT!" he began screaming, shaking inside whatever had kept him covered at night. He must have spoken draconic, since the same human he recognized from yesterday made a confused grunt.

 

"Something the matter, man? Oh, oh!" He definitely noticed his gesture, if not his writhing pain, because at a moment's notice the bright light had subsided. "Didn't know you were that much of a night critter."

 

He could take his human hands off his face, finally. First thing he did was look down at himself. He was still covered by the 'longcoat' the 'guard' had given him the prior night, as the human had explained on the walk to his –what did he call it? 'Appartment', right. He suddenly remembered, with a little chagrin, that he was inside one of the holes in the gigantic stone trees. "Thank you," he muttered nonetheless; "it is... incredibly kind of you to help me in this fashion."

 

"Think nothing of it, heheh," the human said briefly before crossing his legs and sitting next to Nidhogg. "You slept really well, it seems to me. It's almost midday by now, a good twelve hours of rest I believe. I prepared you some clothes and I have a shower in case you wanted a bath maybe. Do you want coffee– you smell like coffee, perhaps you–"

 

Nidhogg smelled himself without a second thought, and found the odor to be strange but not unpleasant. "Perhaps I would like this koh-fee. Thank you, again, for your kindness. Humans as I remember them were not this... allowing with my kin."

 

"Kin?" the human twisted his face into an amused smile, while getting up and walking away through a threshold into the darker reaches of the appartment. His voice rung louder and reached him as clings and splashes were heard from there. "You from some sort of tribe? It would certainly explain the markings. Never heard of any Norwegian tribes with tattoos though. And definitely none which prefered being in the nude.

 

"In fact," he said, returning to Nidhogg with a small white cup, filled with a black and smoking liquid, "it doesn't explain what you were doing in Central Park in the middle of the night. You remember our deal, I imagine. I'm free today, so do tell me about yourself, okay?"

 

Nidhogg was baffled. He had completely forgotten to look at himself. The Sigil was there, he was sealed in human form. The human had no way of guessing what he was, and the Sigil did not seem to give him away. This human must have simply thought of him as another demented homo sapiens. Explaining himself would be awkward now, he realized for sure. Yes somehow, he was almost certain this human would hear him out.

 

"I do. My name is Ni–Nidhogg."

 

"Nichol? As in Nicholas?"

 

"N–Nicholas, yes, exactly. These marks on my skin do indeed mark me as one of my kin. You have heard of–" he hesitated– "dragons, have you not?"

 

A chuckle. "Oh, man, of course! This is 2014, anybody with an internet connection knows what a dragon is." Then on seeing Nidhogg's confused expression; "But you would not know what the internet is would you. Well, more for later. Go on, you were saying about dragons?"

 

"Basically..." he was hesitant now, and scratched the back of his head in the dark, "I'm a dragon. The marks on this skin keep me in human form."

 

Nidhogg had expected an initial reaction of disbelief and laughter. After all, even back in the old times, saying something like that openly would either get a human shamed or a dragon killed. But all this human gave him as a response was a kind, dismissive smile. "Right you are, buddy." He stood, apparently having lost all interest, and stretched his back. "Well, do get dressed. I'm buying you lunch and then you can go back to burning villages."

 

Ah, there it was, he was being dismissed as crazy. "For your information, I do not burn villages. Did not, at any rate; what could I possibly burn now with this appearance? But HEY! Don't just smile like an idiot like that. I would not speak the ancient tongue of humans as I do if I were from this time, would you not say?"

 

"...you do have a point," he said reluctantly, "in that you speak old norse in a way nobody would in this day and age... much less in Manhattan like this. –And perhaps you don't actually care to know, but the reason I even understand you at all is that I study Norse Mythology in college."

 

"Whatever those big words you use are, you can understand me and that is what matters. I was sealed by those damn humans with spiky headgear–"

 

"The vikings?" said the human.

 

"Right, them. I dwelled under Yggdrasil, the World Tree. I–" He shut his mouth as the human's expression seemed to light up and go blank.

 

"So you're saying you are the Nidhogg, under the World Tree. –Here, here, let me just–"

 

The human drew a small square from his garments and it lit up. With his fingers he nimbly made small figures dance around inside it for a while. Once satisfied, he went to show the dragon what seemed to be an artistic render of his draconic self. "This you?" he asked. Nidhogg nodded.

 

"That is just incredible. You are claiming to be an ancient Norse legend having slept under my roof? Show me one thing– just one– for me to believe you, and you can crash with me for as long as you want. –oh how silly of me, crashing means living, as in making your home– you get it. Just– just show me. Anything."

 

Nidhogg wondered just how he would do that. "Perhaps if I bite off a tree? I cannot promise the World Tree in my current state, but surely an average tree will be proof enough."

 

"Rip it right off its roots with your mouth?"

 

"Can be done."

 

"...works for me." he said finally. "Get on those clothes and let's head for Central Park again. –I never did introduce myself. My name is Ivan."

 

Ivan, thought Nidhogg. How much would he end up owing this human?Nidhogg did not, after all, need to bite off a tree to be believed. Right as they walked through the still somewhat terrifying 'streets', with the dragon wrapped up as tightly as he could manage to avoid the sun's rays, a deep bellow made Ivan stop and look up. Nidhogg did not, since he was pretty sure of what he would see.

 

"...Okay, I believe it now– Nidhogg it is. Now you have that much more to t–"

 

"Thank you for everything. I need to go now." And before Ivan could say another word, Nidhogg had left him, sprinting in the direction of the booming emerald dragon's voice. A place where false dragons dance...

OST - Mad Bailador

"This the place, Juancito?" the manliest voice you have ever heard boomed through the alleys of the Bronx like nothing you have ever damn heard. Sparkles could almost be seen spread around the owner of the voice. The mighty Quetzalcoatl did not repeat his question, and merely stared up the building.

 

"Yes it is jefe," replied one of the mexican men accompanying him in equally broken english; "mami has lived here since I can walk, and has few money. She is very enferma jefe, very."

 

Quetzalcoatl flashed his best smile, and the entire alley seemed to brighten. "Then we will help, yes? It is what Dios do, no?" He noticed some of his men flinch at the word God, but it surely was out of fear of him. "Let's go up."

 

One flight of stair later, Quetzal banged on the door whose number Juancito had mentioned earlier –funny things, these numbers. His old humans never used a system this practical to count the number of tributes they gave him, perhaps that's why they were so few. Of course, when we mere mortals say banged, Quetzalcoatl was bringing the door down with a slight tap of his knuckle. A faint woman's voice cried out then.

 

"Who is? You are not taking me with life!" That must be Juancito's mother, Quetzal told himself and then a horrid metallic cough confirmed it much to his satisfaction.

 

"¡Cálma!" soothed the muscular dragon, "Easy! I come with Juancito. We are here because you are enferma, and he worried about you." Now coming onto full view, the expression on the old lady's face seemed to soften and she lowered the wooden bat she was holding. Like all the others, Quetz noted, she was eyeing him out. Very good taste she had, the old lady.

 

Then suddenly she began to cry. "It's the irishmen! They threaten me! Make me pay protección! I no have the money! They–"

 

Quetzalcoatl was wrapping his mighty, loving arms with just enough pressure around the woman, and her wheezing and weeping stopped at once. He looked down with a kind half-smile, and her face became nothing but joy. "Then tell us where these gringos are, mami. And then Juancito and me will fuck them up for you."

 

"Oh Juancito! Where you find this amazing macho? He is... a trrrue man!" She clung to Quetz tightly by now. "They say they wait at Chinese New Year parade today, until sundown... Can you get there for me?"

 

The dragon broke their embrace and very nearly looked like posing. "Of course I will, for Juancito's mami. Let's go boys, we have gringo ass to kick."

 

The gang left, the spell passed, and Juancito's mom nearly wept again from all the sparkling dust she now had to sweep from the floor.The chevrolet was rolling once more, with all of Quetzalcoatl's gang riding the back. Finding the parade was no trouble for Juancito, who had lived in New York as a kid. How much the world had changed still surprised Quetzal, but he knew it was beneath him to care. He was still a God, in the physical sense and whatever other sense there was. The old humans were not wrong to choose gringos as their figures for God after all, looking at his own current body. Every inch of it was nothing short of divine. And the world would know. Those damn gringos would know.

 

What the fuck is that a giant– another God? And it made a strange noise, like it was talking. BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER GOD! And it flew free like Quetzal had once done. A vein very nearly popped from his bald forhead, and he yelled deeply for all of his entourage to look up and see. He tried his hardest to sprout his old wings, but all he got in return was the usual sting in his back from the tattoo. Why had he ever wanted it to be bigger than it was supposed to be? He could not fly to meet this false God now.

 

"FOLLOW THE GIANT GOD, FOLLOW!"

 

"Jefe, it's gone. And we have to kick gringo ass, remember?"

 

"CAN WAIT, CABRÓN! GO STRAIGHT TO THE BIG GREEN THING!"

 

And so, scared for his life the puny mexican kept going in the exact same direction, toward the parade, except with a mad muscular man yelling at the top of his lungs for him to fucking gas it.

[Aix]

Seeing pictures cannot hope to compare with the feeling of seeing the real deal right before your eyes.
 
That was... a dragon.
 
No matter how much proof you have of something's existence, it doesn't really hit you that it's real until you see it fly by right over your head.
 
That was... a real, live dragon.
 
But, it was impossible. It went against everything she knew about reality.
 
But it was reality.
 
It was a dragon, with emerald scales sparkling dimly in the sunlight, and massive webbed wings stretching over twenty meters wide, soaring across the skies of Manhattan. The people around her screamed, at the fear of the unknown, at the notion of a mysterious monster appearing in the middle of their safe and comfortable world, but Lily stood in silent awe and appreciation. She finally broke her eyes from the empty sky where the dragon had been just moments before to see Mammon staring at her with a crooked, amused smile on his face. Was she really that entranced by the spectacle? Yes, she supposed she was.
 
"Hey, I can do that, too," said Mammon, walking over. "Once I get this seal undone, I mean. In fact, my true form's much more impressive than that." He puffed his chest out in a mock display of manliness.
 
"Be sure to show me then," said Lily, actually rather eager to see another dragon. Mammon, in turn, looked surprised.
 
She raised her eyebrow at him, wondering what he was so surprised about, but he turned his face to a grin. "You better look forward to it," he said, and this time, Lily rolled her eyes and nodded.
 
Turning to her phone, Lily dialled her friend while Mammon merely stood passively by, occasionally taking peeks at everything around him. As she waited with the phone at her ear, Lily realized Mammon seemed to be waiting for something. Rather, he still had something else to say, evident by the awkward way which he just stood there in silence as Lily made the call. Her friend picked up and Lily turned away, but hung up moments later. "She's sick, she's been helping her family with the celebration on top of her school work and caught a fever," said Lily with a resigned look on her face.
 
"Ha, that's too bad, she doesn't get to enjoy all this stuff she's been preparing for!" said Mammon, smiling, and Lily creased her eyebrows at him. "But, let's still have a look around without her."
 
"That was the plan," said Lily drily.
 
Mammon was unperturbed. "But, we'll stick around these parts, where the dragon dance is," he continued, and now Lily looked uncertain.
 
"Why..." she said, and Mammon broke into an even bigger smile, if possible.
 
He huddled her in, and glanced around as if he were about to disclose the world's biggest secret. "Because this is where all the dragons will be gathering," he whispered, not very quietly, but no one else was paying attention anyway.
 
"What?" cried Lily. Mammon shushed her, putting a finger to his lips, and spoke again.
 
"The green dragon told everyone to meet 'where false dragons dance', which presumably would be here," explained Mammon, glancing over to where the dragon dance was still going on in full fervour.
 
"Everyone?" asked Lily, trying to keep the interest out of her voice. "How many of you are there?"
 
Mammon shrugged. He didn't really care. "Who knows how many escaped so far? The prison wasn't going to last forever, nothing you humans build last very long... but enough of that!" Mammon grabbed her hand. "We're at a festival, let's enjoy what you humans have built while it lasts," he exclaimed, pulling the Lily along.

[Jolta]

"Hsssss...(It is cold... I am...)"

She felt odd. She was in an odd void, not knowing what was occuring.

"Hsss...(what? huh?)"

When her vision cleared, she found herself in an odd alleyway. She looked down. Fair, fine skin, instead of dark, solid scales. And hands. She then noticed that her vision was a little different. "Hssss... (my heads, where are they?)" she then looked into a puddle, shining under the moonlight. She had long black hair, and was in the shape of a completely nude human. She then looked at the magic circle of her mdriff.

Yamata no Orochi was no longer a great beast of legend.

"Hssss....(This must be what is preventing me from unveiling my true form.)"

She walked out of the alleyway, only to see a some sort of odd, bug-shaped giant metal creature with four wheels, probably a mode of transportation instead of a being. From it, emerged an odd human in black, holding an odd device. He spoke in a bizzarre language, then put down his weapon and smiled. As he continued to speak in his language, the man grabbed his hands out in a groping manner. Orochi did not speak his language, but she knew very well what was going on.

"Hsss...(Not today.)" she spoke as she conjured a fireball in her left hand and smashed in in his face, then an ice blastin his mouth to halt his screaming. As he fell, she stepped on him, giving him an electric shock. It wasn't strong, but it was sufficient to knock him out.

She looked at his weapon and immediately took interest in it. "Hsss..."

She explored her vehicle, and found a bag. She decided to take it with her. She then hugged her body as she walked away.

~~~

2 weeks later

~~~

The alarm sounded. Orochi rose from her slumber.

"What? I didn't have enough beauty sleep," Orochi spoke in Japanese. Next, she looked out of her window, and heard a loud voice. It was in dragon speech.

Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"

"Hssss.... Hsssss!(False dragons? Hmmmm... OH RIGHT! CHINESE NEW YEAR!)"

Orochi removed her pyjamas and got changed into her cute outfit fit for a little kid - hoodie, mittens, scarf, boots. For someone who was a few thousand years old, she looked like a kid. Her petite size would've made her blend in.

"いってきます!" she said to no one as she left the apartment and locked the door.

[Reinforce]

Two Weeks Ago - Midnight

Amid the waves of the Upper Bay, a small patch of water started to twist around in the spot, forming a sort of whirlpool that quickly deposited a body out of it. Completely naked, and with a single tattoo stretching around his stomach and back, the old man floated, not yet fully awake from his long sleep as the tides carried him around.  Eventually getting caught up in a sweeping current, his body was dragged over toward the shore, depositing him on the rocks at Liberty State Park. It wasn't till morning that anyone found him, a jogger coming across his body as he lay there, groaning in pain after being slammed against the rocks he was now lying on. As he lapsed into the bliss of unconsciousness, the jogger held up some sort of rectangular object to their ear, and strangely started speaking to it.

 

Skip to a few hours later, and he was lying in a hospital bed, courtesy of the jogger calling an ambulance, with doctors trying to figure out who he was. As the man's conciousness came back slowly, they started asking who he was and how he ended up on the beach. Jormungandr didn't understand what they were saying though, the strange language they were speaking was foreign to him, but they hadn't tried to talk to him yet anyway. As soon as he'd had that thought though, one of them seemed to realise he was awake, and the doctors turned to try and talk to him, though he didn't understand the words they were trying to say to him. Seeing as they seemed to be waiting for a response, he opened his mouth and spoke, lapsing into the Nordic language of his old home as he did so, "Where am I? What is this place?"

 

A couple of hours and multiple visits from people wearing Navy Uniforms later, and they'd finally managed to get someone who spoke Nordic to translate. Still unsure as to what was going on, and confused by the metal constructions around him, Jormungandr decided to make use of one of Loki's favourite tricks, pretending to have memory loss. It seemed to work too, by the looks of it they had decided on what happened, and thankfully used the translator to explain what they thought had happened to him. Something called Amnesia, which he gathered was just a fancy term for memory loss, caused by hitting his head on the rocks he'd washed up on after getting caught in a rip after swimming in the bay. Not exactly what had happened but he'd go along with it. It was better to get the humans to make up a cover story for things that happened after all, they'd be more likely to believe his story if one of their kind had come up with it.

 

After that, and with a lack of any match on something they called DNA and with nothing to indicate identity, they decided to set him up with a temporary life while trying to figure out who he was. With that came ID, registered to the name Jordan Gand after they'd mangled his name when he tried to tell them it, as well as an apartment and a small fund of money, and sent the translator with him to reteach him about the world and to teach him to speak English in case he was stuck here for a while.

 

31st of January, 2014 - Midday

Two weeks had been a good amount of time to get him accustomed to the new lifestyle and world he was in, and to the surprise of the translator, enough time for him to learn enough English to get along in the world on his own. With his new identity registered, and a small stream of money being provided for him, he was getting along pretty well. Learning about the technology rampant among the current age was difficult to say the least though, and he still didn't understand how people could talk over a distance through the things they called phones.

 

Currently, the old dragon was walking around the festival going on, enjoying the sights and the delicious food around him. Who'd have thought the humans could learn to pack so many flavours into such a small item, it was rather amazing to him. 

 

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"

 

So there did exist more dragons than the couple he'd met, that could be interesting. Hopefully the green dragon would have a solution to the seal that was still preventing Jordan from returning to his dragon form. In any case, the old man wandered towards the performing part of the festival, wondering on the legitimacy of those words. Sure, dragons were strong in the full forms, but he expected that the humans had advanced their weaponry since the days his kind could terrorise the world. In either case, for now he'd just show up to see what was going on, for which point he just kept weaving his way through the festival, stopping to buy a few more pieces of food as he did.

[Lunar Origins]

Some say that the Irish Dragon was a menacing man; the one behind the strings that pulled off many a heist in the city of New York.  Others say that he is a coward, the man who sits back and lets his cronies do the dirty work.  While both of these thoughts are true, in a sense, the Irish Dragon is not what appears to be a man; the Irish Dragon had the visage of a small girl, and none were more oblivious to the thought than those people that the mob deals with.  

 

It's not like anyone would actually be scared of a little girl threatening them; to keep up the moniker of fear, she's required to fabricate the lie that she is not the Irish Dragon; hilariously enough, just telling people that they have an obscenely powerful head named the Irish Dragon is more than enough.  She takes a bit of pride in that; she likes seeing people in fear.

 

However, she claims not to be a she.  What she is, however, is a dragon, and she has made sure that the rest of her mob believes her almost to the point of worship.  Though, it's not telling them that she's a dragon that gets to them; it's her powers.  She regularly demonstrates these in order to keep this fear up;  she once killed a man for simply doubting her by electrocuting his body right in front of the rest of her associates.

 

She, or, rather, he, goes simply by Saint Yorick.  Known to the rest of the mob and gang world as simply another crony of the Irish Dragon, not much attention is ever brought to him.  He seemingly acts as a simple entourage with the associates when they're out dealing their deeds.   It is him that has pulled the strings within the mob as of late, reviving the impact of the mob in various parts of New York city. Their numbers had been dwindling for quite a time, until he showed up.  Then business started booming, with the planned heists and sheer genius in criminal activity that Yorick brought along.  To them, Yorick really was a saint.

 

In fact, here they were, waiting at the Chinese New Year's parade, waiting for some fool to bring them protection money.  One of the easiest tricks in the book, really;  strike fear into their hearts, demand payment.  Yorick remembers using that very same tactic thousands of years ago.  He was rather proud that it still worked.  He sat on a bench, with two of his associates on either side. Yorick was listening to some of the modern Irish music through an iPod.  It impressed him, that humans were able to be this creative at times.

 

Something interrupted his little haven of gaelic music.  Booming through the air, a thick voice cried.

 

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"
 

Yorick's eyes furrowed, and he looked around to see what the hell was calling that, but failed to catch anything within his sight.  Instead, he found a Chinese Dragon driven by humans in a dancing motion; however, it had stopped and people were beginning to pour out of it, staring at the sky.

 

Yorick smiled, and placed his headphones back over his ears.  Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a girl with a slight frame wearing loose clothing that barely covered a large trihsula tattoo that extended towards the top of her neck.  She was accompanied by another man who looked absolutely daft.  Could she also be...?

[Asriel Dreemurr]

To the naked, untrained eye, the situation would have seemed perfectly bizarre.  One man, running as fast as his legs would carry him, released a sharp grunt and came to a halt.  Another, holding a smoke casually, shot a quick glance at the first with a hand to his chest.  The gaze from a single eye soon met that from a pair, tightly shielded from the sun above.  The runner held his mouth slightly agape now, and without another word walked back to the smoker.  It took only a moment or two for the men to come within closer proximity of one another, and though the smoker had at first worn an expression of confusion, it softened into something approaching a smile.

 

Nidhogg had found another.

 

Kalameet had found another.

 

The cigarette found itself on the sidewalk, and stamped out by a leather sole as the lips it had set between parted to speak, though it was not like any language the tongues of men could produce.  “Well, I don’t suppose you’re trying to find our loud-mouthed summoner as well, are you?”

 

For a moment, all the other man could manage was a pant. Then he straightened out and in his eyes shone what one would likely associate to a lost child who had just found their parent. “I thought I was the only one. Nevermind the one already flying, how are you this comfortable with all –all this, human thing around? And moreover what did you just do? How could you tell? I– I certainly can’t.”

 

The man in the suit kept that smile on his face, before lifting a hand to gently tap the side of his head.  In the same moment, his eye shone for less than a second with a baleful light focused upon the one in front of him as a sort of physical manifestation of the momentary psionic pulse directed at his confused associate.  “Firstly, if you felt some sort of sensation around the strange marks on your body I had nothing to do with that.  I suspect it is a vagary of whatever curse it is that binds us in these… husks.  Secondly, one learns to play the part when it is better to go unnoticed.  As for how I could tell for certain, I couldn’t.  Your mind felt different from those of these monkeys, and so I took a little leap of faith.”

 

“My mind? –nevermind, I can ask about that later.” The bright look had faded and now the hooded man looked nervously around. “This is not a safe place to speak draconic, I don’t believe. I got all sorts of weird looks at night for speaking human– I can’t imagine what they’d do if they caught us with this.” He started walking away, shooting a glance over his shoulder in hopes the other would follow. “Surely if we walk we will attract less attention?”

 

Those hopes were certainly not in vain, as the other in question did indeed stride after the runner with intent to catch up.  “Look around you,” he began, gesturing to the crowds about them, “they’re paying us little mind.  To them, we are just a pair of humans from another land conversing in our native tongue.  A shame they no longer recognize the language, I would love to see them quake with fear at the knowledge that two dragons walk among them.”  A hearty chuckle escaped into the air as a hand clapped itself onto Nidhogg’s shoulder and the grip was used to turn him off in another direction.  “Right your course, our destination lies across different winds.”

 

“Don’t talk to me like I were a wretched ship, you– whatever your name is, again?”

 

“As my kin know me, so shall you.  I am Kalameet.”

 

“I see,” began Nidhogg, “you can call me Nidhogg then.” Now feeling less pressured, his walking resumed and his stare aimed down. “The one in the sky spoke of false dragons dancing. I suppose you know what it means.”

 

Kalameet let out something akin to a growl before he answered, “The eastern ones have a festival on this day, in which they make mockeries of our kin and parade them through their streets.  Perhaps they celebrate some victory in the war, but whatever the reason for it I know where it is.”

 

“Lead the way then.” and after a beat, “I don’t suppose you have met any others. I, at least, am by myself.”

 

“That, my friend, is why we are following these directions–”

 

“Which now that I think of it, you know how exactly?”

 

“I did not call our summoner ‘loud mouthed’ without reason.  I suspect every one of our kin in this city heard him,” said Kalameet.

 

“Oh, I heard him. But how do you know where this place is?”

 

“I have been in this city for quite some time.  You learn to find your way.”

 

'City', huh… “Fine then, do lead the way. You might have noticed,” Nidhogg added, shading his eyes with the hood he was provided with, “But I am not overly fond of sunlight.”

[Super Chaos Sonic]

I can't believe I missed where the heck that dragon went!! Aidan sighed as he leaned up against a building shop's wall/window. One minute he's following the emerald dragon, and the next minute he takes a longer route because of some sightseeing old people. Humans...god...no wonder he usually hated the elderly like that.

 

"A place where false dragons dance...damn guy...can't even talk out of riddles." he groaned as he shoved his hands back into his pockets, leaving the wall/window he was leaning on, returning to try and find where the emerald dragon could've gone. He couldn't think straight...he needed something to help him think. Fishing for the IPod he...*ahem* "acquired"...Aidan put the headphones into his ears as he placed the device on shuffle.

 

IPod Shuffle Powers GO!!

 

A smirk came across his face as he slipped the IPod back into his pocket, as his head started bobbing to the music. He kept listening to the song, as he walked the path he chose. Though it wasn't too long when he entered a place he read about with living with the old man: the Chinese New Year Festival. Without a second thought, Aidan was about to walk away...until something caught his eye.

 

Is that...a dragon...prop?

 

Indeed, it was a dragon prop that those in the festival would dance under. The points were finally meeting...as another smirk appeared on his face. "Well...this might be even more interesting than I thought." he said to himself with a chuckle, as he headed into the direction of the festival.

 

Hey, it was a festival, the least he could do was enjoy it some!

[BANZAI!!!!]

-22 weeks ago-

=Central Park, Manhattan=

It was strangely quiet that morning. The absence of movement left the area with a palpable stillness, a silence so wholly unnatural that mother nature herself dare not break it for fear of stirring some otherworldly force from its slumber. Not an animal or person was present as the first apprehensive rays of morning light gently rolled over the treetops, bringing a small dose of warmth to an otherwise cool, damp world. As time passed, the rays of sunlight grew more bold, covering steadily larger areas with their warming glow.

Suddenly, a slight crackling noise broke the silence as the individual rays of light seemed to coalesce momentarily, giving life to a small, golden orb of light that hovered but a foot above a park bench. The orb began to grow in size as its presence seemed to cause the wind to pick up, the breeze now strong enough to rustle leaves. As it grew, the airflow increased, and a visible swirling vortex took shape around it as a humanoid form took shape within the sphere.Then, the sphere began to recede, leaving the form of a young man suspended in the air for but a moment before gravity took hold of him.

There was an impact, like someone had dropped him. An instant of pressure, then pain coming from his back and head. It awoke him with a start, like waking up after being killed in a dream. Then there was light in his eyes, blinding him as if he'd been immersed in darkness for hours. The next thing he felt was the breeze on his exposed flesh and the rough, damp wood underneath his back. He shivered, the morning air sucking the heat out of his body as it washed over him. He rolled over, making a groggy attempt to remove himself from the cold, only to have gravity violently jolt him out of his daze as he fell off the park bench and onto the grass below.

It was then that he noticed it.

Five fingers. No longer a claw, but a hand. Flesh where once there were scales. His gaze then shifted to his arm, upon which was emblazoned a black tattoo resembling two diamonds touching each other at their points. He felt different, too. The familiar weight of wings and armored spines no longer hung on his back, replaced now by goosebumps and the pain of a splinter from the bench. He could now feel the air moving over his body, every inch of him now so soft... so exposed. No longer protected by the scales that had once covered him from head to toe, the minor sensations that humans are accustomed to overwhelmed him, his brain struggling to process the alien sensory information as he lay there, vulnerable and shivering in the cold of the morning dew and the breeze.

It took him a few minutes to regain his composure, and then more still to figure out how everything worked. Moving his fingers and toes came first, then his arms, soon he was on his knees, at last able to function on a basic level in what was for sure not his body anymore. He then attempted to stand, only to fall down again as he was painfully made aware that his legs no longer possessed the reptilian, digitigrade knees that he was accustomed to. Eventually, he was able to balance himself somewhat as he adjusted to bending his joints in the opposite direction. A crude and unwieldy form of locomotion to say the least, this required almost constant concentration on his stance so as to keep himself level, and with each step he risked falling over again.At last, he began to take in his surroundings.

"Where.. What is this place?" He wondered aloud as another chill went through his body.

Indeed, the familiar desert landscape of his home had been replaced by plant growth and uniform lines of black stone that ran along the ground before him. In the distance, huge monolithic structures gleamed in the early morning light. Despite the obvious presence of nature in his surroundings, everything seemed so uniform, so artificial, like it had all been placed there by some precise hand. It was utterly alien to him.

As he made his way forward, memories, like fragments of forgotten dreams, came coming back to him. His name, his home, the war, his ideals, everything began to crystallize in his mind, and his stupor began to fade, replaced by an acute awareness of his situation just as a ray of morning light reached Kaitolos Alecsavra's face. At last, it came back to him. The ambush, the mage, the strange incantations, the sigil made of energy which was now branded onto his arms. A strange smile came over his face.

 

"It seems nothing lasts forever, does it."

---

-January 31st, 2014. Present Day-

=Chinatown, Manhattan=

"I appreciate you giving me all this extra work, Dolph, but are you sure the Super won't mind you paying me without putting it down in the books?"

"You're a good kid, Alex, and you put in good work. Plus, its mostly minor interior stuff anyway. Its either gonna be you or one of my own guys who does it, and you at least don't show up an hour late and hung over, you know?"

 

"Yeah, right." Kai let out a bit of a laugh and took the large wad of cash from the larger man's hand. "Anyway, glad I could lend you a hand. Just let me know if you've go any more work for me to do, alright?"

 

"Sure thing. Now get outa here. Kid your age should be enjoying himself on a Friday."

 

"I'll do that."

With that, Kai left the construction site, wad of cash in hand. On his way out he dropped off his hard hat on a table, letting it spin. When Dolph came upon it, it was still spinning.

It had been this way for roughly a month now. Through a mutual acquaintance, Kai had met Dolph, a foreman with a subcontractor located in Brooklyn, and managed to land semi-steady work under-the-table whenever Dolph was in need of an extra pair of hands on a construction project. It was probably due to his punctuality and good work ethic more than anything genuine, but Dolph had taken a liking to him, and in the past week or so Kai had spent over 40 hours on-site in Chinatown, and in the process had netted himself the largest paycheck he'd received since arriving in New York. Today he'd let him off early since there wasn't much to be done, plus coincidentally the Chinese New Year parade happened to be that afternoon, and so Kai was summarily paid in cash and told to have himself a good time.

Of course, fun really wasn't something Kai knew all that much about. At least, not what humans called fun.

He'd spent most of the past few months trying to make sense of the new time period he'd found himself in (once he learned that he was, in fact, in a different time, that is). He tried to blend in as best he could, adopting the human name "Alex" and attempting to learn as much as he could about his new surroundings and those that inhabited them. Needless to say, the preceding millennia had changed the human race vastly. They were taller now, for one thing, and their obsession with land and gold had now been replaced with green parchment called "money" or "dollars" as well as devices called "computers" of which there were many shapes and sizes, all serving basically the same plethora of functions. There was a lot more to it than that though, some of which Kai managed to understand, though at other times he found himself at a loss.

Still, held managed to carve out a niche for himself, working and volunteering when he could while searching for a more permanent residence. Currently he resided at a boarding house in Manhattan, though he would very much like to find somewhere less cramped for himself. He didn't mind the stability, but his nature made him crave some excitement, which he'd been (other than the occasional outing with an acquaintance) denying himself. This was in part due to his work schedule, but moreso due to a sort of mission Kai had been on for atonement and enlightenment since he'd arrived in 2014. This was a second chance for him, an opportunity it make up for his past sins and right some of the wrongs he'd committed by doing good, and so far he'd stuck to it. Still, some part of him desperately wanted to indulge his id, no matter how hard he suppressed it. Luckily, today provided Kai a rare window of absolute freedom, and for once, he planned to enjoy himself a little bit.

It was around 1:00 p.m., roughly time for the new year's parade to start its procession. The streets were already packed with locals. Occasionally Kai heard a sentence or two in English, but for the most part these people were speaking a language called Chinese, which Kai could not even hope to comprehend at this point. Still, he could tell that most of them were in a good, celebratory mood, and the positive mood of the whole scene put a tiny smile on Kai's face. Usually New Yorkers seemed so perturbed, but there were rare occasions when many of them came together, and this was one of them.

As Kai made his way along the streets, stopping briefly at various locations to ogle a food vendor's wares before summarily deciding not to waste his money on such frivolities, a strange wind blew through the streets. Kai looked up before most of the other onlookers, instinctively familiar with the sight that soon astonished them all.

A dragon.

Its emerald scales glittered in the sunlight as its circled overhead, speaking in a language that Kai thought he'd never hear again.

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"

"You've got to be f***ing kidding me" was the first thing that came out of Kai's mouth, spoken in draconic as Kai's mental filter was lost in the sheer absurdity of the moment. Luckily, no one was paying much attention to him, and as Kai began to make his way away from the area toward the dragon's flight path, he began to feel a strange buzzing sensation on his forearms and back, much like the "pins and needles" humans described after their limbs had gone numb. This was slightly different though, as it grew in intensity the further toward the flight path he walked, and was only limited to his sigil tattoos. Suddenly, it heightened in intensity, almost painfully so, with his right side even stronger than the left. Reflexively, Kai looked down, coming across a rather unusual sight this far outside of central park: a naked man. Stranger still, Kai thought he heard him mutter something in Draconic, though it was only the tail end of a sentence and he at first dismissed it as rubbish… until he spied a rather familiar looking tattoo on the man’s back. Curious, he tapped him on the shoulder and, figuring he had nothing to lose, spoke in his native tongue.

 

“Do you enjoy the taste of that stone or do you need a hand?”

Viintaas shot up at the tap on the shoulder. He thought he’d been feeling something on his back but more importantly he heard his own language being spoken. To his surprise he saw what looked like a normal human.

“How do you know this language?” he questioned in disbelief.

A brief look of shock came over Kai’s face before the thought of the third member of their kind flying overhead came back into his mind, after which he put on a more reassuring expression. “Its my native tongue, just as I imagine that it is yours. Here, let me help you up.” With that, he extended his hand, offering it to help his kinsman stand in his presumably new body.

 

Viintaas gladly accepted the offered hand. He could tell he still had some strength of his own, perhaps from his extended stay on the ground but it was nice to have the help.“Then you must be a dragon as well. That’s incredible! You look like so much more human-like than I do.” he said with a curious tone to his voice.

 

“Have you looked in a mirror at all? You look just as human as I do.” Kai paused for a moment, then let out a small laugh. “Minus the clothes, anyway. People don't take kindly to others running around in the nude here.”

 

Viintaas sort of instinctively looked himself over again at the comment. It was beginning to click in his mind why the humans always covered themselves in animal skins. “Wait so humans don’t like looking at their own bodies? How sad. Suppose that might explain the weird reactions I’ve been getting.” He said with a smile. Something about having another dragon to talk to was helping his overall mood. He was still very cold but was putting it aside for the conversation. But he also figured it was sort of important to warm up again. “By the way, I don’t suppose you’d know of some place warm around here? I can’t believe how cold humans get so quickly.”

Kai immediately removed his hoodie, brandishing the twin sigils on his forearms now that he wore only a short sleeve shirt, and tossed it to Viintaas. “Nowhere near here that will let you in looking like that. Put that on, for now, and lets see if I can’t get you some clothes. You’re lucky I got paid today.” He waited a moment for Viintaas to don the sweatshirt, hoping that it would cover enough of him for the time being, as he looked around for a thrift store, or at least some place that he’d be able to buy a few articles of clothing for the other dragon to wear.

After a minute fumbling around, Viintaas figured out how to put on the hoodie and felt the edge of the cold subside around his upper body. “So that’s how they stay warm!” He almost yelled out cheerfully. His situation not so hopeless now as it had seemed his curiosity was shining through. He’d spent so many days thinking of different reasons the humans covered themselves and now he finally had figured it out. It was an experience worth celebrating. Thankfully the hoodie was a little baggy on him and he was mostly decent by human standards. “You’re amazing… umm… now that I think of it I don’t know who you are. So I’ll start with introductions. Name’s Viintaas!” he said smiling.

“Not amazing, I've just lived here awhile. Kaitolos, of lineage Alecsavra.” Kai responded, speaking a tad formally but at the same time wearing a casual, friendly smile. “Anyway, we should get get going. If there’s two of us, there’s bound to be more, and that idiot in the sky’s going to bring plenty of us here.”

With that, Kai ushered his newfound companion off, taking back alleys and avoiding the crowds until they eventually came across a small thrift store a few blocks away. It took Kai a few minutes of searching, but he eventually found a shirt and a pair of pants that seemed to be able to fit Viintaas, handing them off to his companion outside after purchasing them.

“These should fit, I hope. At least now you won't draw too much too much attention to yourself. At any rate, I’m guessing you want to find out what that green idiot is up to, right?”

After some more fumbling around Viintaas was now fully clothed and feeling much warmer which was a relief. He handed back the hoodie after he finished changing. “Well, I really don’t know. I mean, I think I’ve only been like this for a day or so. I would like to find out if any others from my tribe are here though. That big green dragon probably knows more than we do anyway.” He said trying to organize his still somewhat foggy thought process.

 

“Yeah, I suppose he does, though quite frankly I’m surprised he hasn’t caused a mass panic, flying around in broad daylight like that. Guess he’s lucky its the one day of the year around here where a dragons aren’t that odd of a sight.” Kai's face contorted into a bit of a frown. “At any rate, If any more of us are around, they’ll be coming. Though I’m honestly surprised there are more of us at all. I thought i was just the lucky one…” He trailed off, the possibility of what he just said now sinking in.

“Well we’re here now! And we’re still alive. It’s all we can do to keep moving at this point. So despite the fact I still have no idea what’s going on I want to figure things out a little.” Viintaas said. He wanted to be a little motivational maybe as a way of reassuring himself or trying to help Kai be happy for helping him. Regardless there were so many things to figure out and so many questions to ask and really only one potential source of information.

“Guess we’d better get going, then.” Kai said as he put his sweatshirt back on, taking less than half the time Viintaas did. “You’re gonna need a hand getting around. Besides, I’ve got nothing better to do right now anyway.” He put his hands behind his head for  moment. Kai was perturbed, much moreso by this strange, unsealed emerald dragon than by anything Viintaas said or did, but that didn’t stop his sour mood from showing up on his face. He began walking toward the direction of the flight path, gesturing for Viintaas to follow. “Don’t fall behind and get lost now, ya hear?”

[Lunar Origins]

= Amita, sometime ago =

 

Sensations overwhelmed her; a sharp and sudden release of energy engulfed the old dragon, and the feeling of all reality collapsing was, at best, what could be described.  This sharp, stabbing feeling lasted for what seemed like an eternity.  Her form felt as if it was undulating, changing sporadically into alien shapes.  The entire experience was painful, and even for a dragon, unbearable.  She tried to cry out in anguish, only to find that her mouth was melting in and out of phase, just as the rest of her body was.

 

With a sickening thud, the feeling stopped, yet the alien feeling was sustained.  Crisp, cool air filled her nostrils, and it licked her warm skin, bringing an odd and unfamiliar stinging feeling across her body.  She rubbed her hand over her elbow, to which she had landed on;  then, she stopped.  She had arms.  She flailed her entire body in a panic in an attempt to move away from this alien feeling, but it was a foolish endeavor.  The sensory overload granted by these extra limbs was a complete shock.  Only then did she notice that things were different.  No longer was she a long, graceful serpent perched upon a high rock, surveying her surroundings, searching for prey.  No, this was different.  Her body was not long, anymore, but short, covered simply in skin.  It had limbs as opposed to none that her other body had possessed, and it felt much, much smaller.  What caught her attention that, in it’s alien feelings, it still felt… familiar, like this was something she knew of.  She looked around, observing her environment, taking in the smells - it still smelt of her home, thankfully - and the sights.  She was in a drab corridor, with dim lighting not unlike her homeland.  The hallway was short and looked rather abandoned, save for a single door with a light shining from under it.  Further down there was a single window, where a sky filled with countless beautiful lights could be seen.

 

A single thought crossed her mind.  This was her real home; this wasn’t the prison that she had been placed into hundreds of years ago.  This was Earth, and she was one of them now.

 

Rage consumed her and she threw out her fist, smashing it into the wall next to her.  She was one of those flesh-bags that had imprisoned her early on in her life.  Was this some sort of sick joke?  To seal her into one of their own weak and frail bodies was the worst insult that she could have ever…

 

Footsteps.  A human had appeared from the room that was lit;  instantly upon seeing her, he averted his eyes.  The dragon-girl stood up.  She was much shorter than this man, another feeling she would have to get used to in the coming months.  “What is the meaning of this,” she barked madly, her visage angry.  “Where are we?  You are human, right?  Answer me!”

 

For all her effort into twisted her tongue awkwardly to form those words, the human did nothing but step back, baffled.  “What is the meaning of this, human?  This is not my body; this perverse joke is just…”  In a fit of rage, she tore at her arm, ripping deeply into it with long fingernails.  Pain shot through her body and she began to scream.  Pain was another alien feeling that she would have to get used to.  No longer did she have any scales to protect her skin from attacks.

 

The human made a rush and leaped on her, holding her bloodied arm.  She fumed.  “You insolent insect!  Get off of me!”  With a push, the man was off, and she was sitting alone again.  The human gestured to his room and left her alone in the hallway.  She got up, holding her arm, wincing at the pain that shot through it.  Disgusting.  Humans were disgusting.  This body, she thought, was absolutely disgusting.  She felt fat, lacking the sheer muscle that accompanied her old body.  This body didn’t have that; instead, she had those disgusting mounds of fat on her chest that female humans get for breeding purposes.  The man had been staring at them for a prolonged amount of time.  She was utterly disgusted.

 

The man returned with a coat and gestured back at her.

 

= Amita, circa now =

 

Some time later, the two were walking around the Chinese New Year festival with hands locked.  Her understanding of the human language had increased exponentially over the past week alone, and she actually felt rather proud of that fact.  Certain things - double negatives, sarcasm, and the like - those are the things that caused her trouble, but the basics were of no problem.  Ted, the man that had taken her in, was a fairly good teacher, though he struggled with the basic facets of learning her language.  At the very least, they were both thankful that they were able to converse.

 

Amita was her name, or so she was dubbed by this man.  It meant endless and infinite.  Why Ted chose this name for her, she wouldn’t know, but Ted simply claimed that it was a funny joke and it kind of fit her.  They bantered a lot over the past month and formed some sort of basic friendship; again with the jokes, Ted claimed that she was his mate, which was often met by a clawing from Amita.

 

Nevertheless, she felt content at his side at this festival.  Her claustrophobia got to her in these narrow streets, as it did in caves and the hallway outside of Ted’s apartment, but it was overshadowed by the sights and smells that were brought along with the festivities.

 

“So, you enjoying yourself?”  Ted was speeding up, eyeing a food stand selling fried rice.  He hadn’t paid any attention to Amita all afternoon like he said he would, and had instead been dragging her all over the place.

 

“I am,” she said, greatly exaggerating the phrase in a sad attempt at sarcasm.

 

“You’re really bad at that.”  Ted chuckled.  “Hang on a moment, babe, I’ll be right back.  I’m way hungry and that fried rice ad isn’t helping.”

 

She nodded, watching the man wade through a sea of people in order to obtain his food.  Personally, she wasn’t a fan of the food created by the Chinese culture; she much preferred mediterranean food, which thankfully was what Ted had been serving her for the past few weeks.  Coffee was also on her list of staple foods as the smell reminded her of home, but Ted didn’t drink it, claiming it to be bad for the body.  Bad for the body or not, Amita couldn’t help but drink to her heart’s content when she found any.

 

These thoughts about coffee were cut off as a voice boomed through the city.  Amita looked up, wide-eyed and terrified; there, hovering above Chinatown, was a large, emerald coloured dragon.  She didn’t quite catch the message it had broadcast, but her back flared in pain as it spoke.  It must be the tattoo, she thought.

 

Ted rushed back to her side, with all of Chinatown in a fair bit of panic as well.  He quickly grabbed her by the arm.  “Amita, that’s…”

 

Her gaze was still fixated on the great green beast.  “Dovah,” she whispered.  “Dragon.  There are others…”  Her smile twisted upwards, and she held herself closer to Ted.  “What did it say?”

 

“I wasn’t really listening, the voice caught me off guard.  I was ordering.”  He stopped for a moment, thinking.  “Something about false dragons, and dancing.  He wants others like him to meet up somewhere…”  He loosened his grip on her arm.  “Are you thinking of…?”

 

She nodded, now looking at him, whose gaze was now in the sky.  “I am, but I’ve no idea where this gathering place could be.  It’s just…  I was not expecting it.”  She sighed.  “I do not think any one was expecting this.  I had given up hope on things like that.”  To be quite honest, she was liking the lazy life that she lived with this man, being taken care of and served.  It reminded her of the old days, where humans would do this as well.  However, then, it was out of fear.  Now it felt different, genuine, like this man wanted to do it.  Amita felt an odd, tingling sensation around him as well.  Perhaps it was the same feeling?

 

“I will stay with you, for now.   I do not want to rush in to anything, as that would not be smart.”

 

“Oui,” responded Ted, whose eyes were still wide in amazement.  People shuffled past them, panicked, as they stared at the green dragon.  Amita smiled.  That was ‘yes’ in French.

[Mugendramon]

The chevvy has been rampaging through the streets for a good bit now, with Quetzalcoatl yelling at the top of his lungs to give chase to the monster in the sky which had all but disappeared now. The dragon's gang now incidentally found itself surrounded by the unfamiliar chinese new year decorations, and it generated even more confusion for him. Everywhere around them were paper imitations of himself, but decidedly uglier and without his majestic wings. Having already seen a different God a mere moments ago, it did not take long for Quetzal to realize these were not constructed in worship of him. But then whom? Who had been as great as He, who had those, err, pointy things made after him? (Damn, he had forgotten to ask the humans what the word for those was.)

 

His admittedly loose concentration was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder by one of his mooks. His instinctive, lightning-fast reflexes responded to the touch with a fist which would have no doubt shattered the other in contact had the dragon not caught himself in time. He let out a hearthy chuckle in response to the other's dead-pale expression. "Sorry, sorry! What is?"

 

"Jefe," the mexican pointed ahead,

OST - Brewing Brawl

                                                       to a park bench not two blocks away, closing in fast. Two men and a woman were sitting on it, a few others standing around in a clearly protective fashion. They all wore different outfits, yet something in their style somewhat put them together in a crowd. "The irishmen. They must wait for the protection money. We should go kick their gringo ass now?"

 

Up until now, Quetzal's mind had not for one second gone back to what he was doing in this city at all. Now, his trance over the green figure in the sky had dwindled enough for him to cast his eyes in the direction he was being pointed to. "Hit the brake Manolo," he said dryly; "we pass right by otherwise." Quetzal cracked his humongous knuckles, then hit his bare chest with one of his gargantuan fists. The mexican behind the wheel brought the crew to a screeching halt.

 

Yet as they stopped dry, so did Quetzalcoatl's immense murderous instinct. –He was now staring down an unbelievably small human female. She just sat there, without a care in the world, surrounded by these gang members! The sight would have, under normal circumstances, made Quetzal jump out jovially and pat the woman in the back, summarily beating everyone around her to a pulp within a moment. And yet this female had a certain look in her eyes. Quetzal stared, and her eyes did not grow any warmer in that interval. Holding himself on one arm, Quetzalcoatl jumped off the rear of the truck; his feet very nearly ruptured the pavement under them since he was just that buff and massive.

 

Before he could say a word his back was stinging monstruously. It was not the same pain Quetzal experienced when he tried releasing his restraints –it felt more specific, in waves rather than a solid block of pain. With every inch he closed in on the irishmen, the waves became more rapid, more pronounced. His face probably threatened to lose some of its manly composure through the sheer discomfort it was causing him.

 

Now with his entourage down from them truck and outnumbering the well-dressed white people, the half-naked dragon Quetzalcoatl addressed the men sitting to either side of the small female. No need talking to the sacrifice, he'd learned during his time as God. "You been messing with Juancito's mami. You wanted trouble?–" sting– "Well trouble find you."

[Lunar Origins]

===

Yorick

===

 

Yorick looked up at the rather imposing, handsome man.  His sigil flared up at the mere sight of him, the pain causing his back to arch up ever so slightly.  Another dragon, he thought with a smile.  Certainly interesting.  However, now was not the time for questions.  This man was a member of a rival gang, here to pick a fight with the Irish over some stupid protection money.  He looked down.  Looks like Plan B was an option this time.

 

Yorick’s associates spoke up, talking directly to the dragon-man.  Connor, the larger of the two men flanking Yorick, spoke up, his smooth baritone voice contrasting starkly with the Spanish man’s.  “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t think you and your little gang know just who you’re getting involved with.”  He chuckled.  “Sure, you’re coming out to play hero, to save his little helpless mami?  Sir, just where do you think this is going to get you?”

 

Riley, the other, more lanky man, interrupted him, his accent that of a thick New Yorker.  “Now we’re not looking for trouble.  Never are.  Not a violent group of people.”  Riley gestured towards Juancito.  “We’re sorry for the trouble, and we won’t bother your mami again.  Now, could we maybe talk out a deal in order to further avoid confrontations such as this?”

 

On cue, Yorick got up, leaving the two groups to talk out whatever deal they may make.  It was irrelevant, really, but Riley and Connor proved to be rather adept at solving situations without unnecessary bloodshed.  This was one of those situations that would solve itself.

 

When he was out of earshot, he produced a small cell phone, and, with a few punched numbers, he called up a friend.  “Hit on 14,” he said.  He still couldn’t get used to the high-pitched female voice that this body carried.  “And make it quick.  We don’t want mama’s boy finding us at the scene.”

 

A few minutes later, Saint Yorick received a text message confirming the hit.  How wonderfully efficient, this mob could be.

[Astolfo]

OST - Spiritual Awakening

January 31, 2014
Darkness…

And then…

A bright light seeping into the world of vision…
---
To any possible viewers, they would've seen a brilliant blue-light suddenly erupting from what seemed to be a completely empty patch of snow, and felt rippling waves of energy that didn't disturb anything else, not even the slightest particle of the snow falling down in the millions. As the light contracted inwards, into a cocoon-esque shape, it grew continually brighter, until it was too bright to look at, and then dissolved away into petals of light, which soon disappeared afterwards. In its stead, what appeared to be a young girl was lying on the snow, dozens of perfectly formed blue diamonds surrounding her body. Awakening a few moments later with a groan, to any possible viewers' surprise, the figure was a male, not a female.
---
Where am I…? Minori slowly opened his eyes, taking in the world, which grew large as he saw the snow. "It's… beautiful…" When he realized he had spoke out loud, he looked at himself briefly, in surprise. Seeing how his form had changed, he grew even more surprised, and started touching himself. "Is this the human form?" Standing up, he realized he was completely alone, and shivered briefly, from the cold.

Wandering off by himself, he slowly trudged through the snow, leaving the large pile of diamonds behind, which would make its own strange newsflash soon enough. Eventually making his way out to the roads, where more people were, heads turned as a naked child-like figure slowly dragged himself along. Within minutes, the police had arrived.

“What’s your name? Who are your parents? Where are you from?” They got nothing but a blank stare back from the young person. Realizing this was getting nowhere, they grabbed Minori’s arm roughly, to drag him to the orphanage, who started to make an unusual high-pitched whining sound, but stopped when the man had cuffed him across the cheek. Nursing his quickly-bruising cheek, he followed the officer to the police station.

“I found another one of them darned naked people, and just like the others, this one can’t even say a thing. She’s certainly young enough to be at the orphanage still, might as well throw her in there with the rest. Maybe she’ll get lucky and get a family like the Oxhams to adopt her, just like those two kids did.” Not understanding a word, Minori just sat in the chair, with a curious expression. Just then, the officer finally remembered the kid didn’t have any clothes on and reprimanded the kid, throwing his winter coat at him. “Oh fer god’s sake kid, put something on!” After a few more business calls, the officer seemed to reach a conclusion, and started to drag the kid out to take him to the orphanage, when a deafening roar boomed across the sky.

"Ye, who have escaped to this day and age, wait for me where false dragons dance! We shall join together and never will the humans be able to imprison us again!"

OST - Whisper of Hope

At the sound of dragontongue, Minori’s head immediately snapped up, and with a burst of strength that was almost inhuman, he ripped himself out of the officer’s grip, and started running towards where he saw the dragon disappearing, the oversized coat flapping behind him. After running for almost several minutes, the officer hot on his pursuit and cussing like a sailor, as the human’s endurance ran out, Minori eventually managed to escape.

Trudging into the festival, heads started to turn as a kid wearing nothing but an oversized jacket walked through the aisles. Looking around desperately for a clue, he saw a gold Oriental dragon dancing with a large host of people gathered around it and ran over excitedly. ”Hello, fellow dragonkind! I’m Minori, twin of Mammon, seven hundred and seventy seventh son of Tiamat!” Yelling loudly as he greeted the dragon, he cocked his head when he wasn’t getting a reply. Peering at the dragon closer, it was made out of what seemed to be shiny paper, and was just a mere shell for humans carrying it along. When he realized he just spoke in dragontongue in front of a huge crowd of people for a false alarm, he buried his head in his hands. Luckily, or not so luckily, someone would take him away before people realized what happened.

The officer pushed his way through the crowd, muttering obscenities. When his eyes locked onto Minori, he yelled at the boy to come down, and started running over, his face red with anger. Grabbing him roughly, he put handcuffs on the boy, not willing to risk another escapade, and started dragging him back to the station, not caring whether he was going too fast. Completely confused, Minori was just barely managing to keep the brisk pace, almost tripping and stumbling over.

Mammon got the strangest feeling as he and Lily approached a dumpling stand, not too far from the dragon dance. His tattoo felt like it was moving, edging around on his skin, under some sort of tension. Letting go of Lily’s hand, who was all too happy to stop running, he stood still for a moment and looked around.

“What’s wrong?” asked Lily, but Mammon was entranced in whatever he was doing and did not reply. Then, out of the crowd by the dragon dance, the was a distinctly high-pitched yell which he very much recognized.

“Minori...” he uttered subconsciously as he matched the voice to a face. Moments later, a cop pulling a girl with handcuffs appeared out of the crowd. Girl? No, no, that was a boy despite what appearances may suggest. And it seemed the boy was in trouble. Mammon, of course, was half-tempted to just let the situation play out on its own, but there was no time, he probably wouldn’t have the time to go rescuing the boy later.

The boy? He was Mammon’s twin, Minori, the blue diamond dragon, and Mammon supposed as the older twin of the pair, it was up to him to get take care of his younger sibling, getting him out of trouble and the like.

Sighing and leaving Lily behind, he quickly jogged over to stop the red-faced policeman, who still seemed quite out of breath and angry. “Ah! Thanks for finding my brother!” said Mammon, greeting the officer with a smile.

At the sound of Mammon’s voice, Minori looked up surprisedly. ”Brother…? You came for me… I knew you would!” Smiling in relief, he reached out towards his brother tiredly, but the sum of all that had happened began to catch up to him, and he started to sag with exhaustion.

“Brother? I got a girl here, can’t you see?” said the policeman, putting a hand on his hip while keeping the other hand firmly on Minori.

“Girl? No, he’s a boy,” laughed Mammon, and quite casually, he pulled up Minori’s jacket. “See, he’s got the family jewels down here!”

The police officer noticed them for the first time, and he was completely frozen with shock for what seemed to be an eternity. “What the actual fuck, wait no, no, no, I mean look at the kid, how the hell is he a…” Faltering, he seemed to be in a meltdown, unable to process what had happened. “It’s been a long day already... good god...”

Deciding to take advantage of the officer’s shock, Mammon snatched the keys from the officer’s belt and opened up his brother’s handcuffs. “Well, we’ll be going now, officer! It was a pleasure talking with you~”

“Great! I got another naked dragon kid on my hands, I’m assuming,” remarked Lily as the pair returned. She decided she would rather not get entangled with the police for the time being and had stood back while Mammon handled it all.

“I’m afraid so,” said Mammon cheerily.

Minori interrupted, looking confused. “Brother, who is this girl? She’s a human, isn’t she? What are you doing with her? Are you pulling one of your tricks again?”

Mammon paused to think for a moment before answering. “She’s a dragonslayer!” he said in a happy tone. “And we’re her captives!”

Believing his older brother, Minori started to panic. ”Brother, what are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed? You-I-wha-” Completely at a loss for words, it was Minori’s turn to have a meltdown.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” said Mammon. “It’s okay, she’s a friend. She was the one who found me when I appeared here as well.”

Realizing he had fell for the joke, hook, line, and sinker, he pouted, glaring at his brother. ”Brother, you dummy! Hmph.” Crossing his arms, he sighed, realizing that this wasn’t the first time this kind of thing happened, and nor would it be the last.

“We’re going to need to buy some clothes for... um... him...” said Lily, deciding to break up their sibling drama with the awkward fact that Minori was basically naked. “Let’s go to the shopping district.” She started walking away, expecting them to follow, but Mammon stopped her.

“We’re waiting for the dragon to return,” reminded Mammon. “Aren’t there any clothing stands around here?”

Lily paused. Doing a cursory scan of their surroundings, she proceeded to smirk. “It’s not every day you get to see a trap,” she said to herself, decisively marching over to a stall that was indeed selling clothing. Except... it was only selling female apparel, specifically the very form-fitting traditional Chinese dress called a qipao.

Still not used to this world, Minori didn’t think anything was wrong, not realizing there were gender-based clothing styles. So, the three of them continued on their tour of the festival, with Minori fitted rather uncomfortably in the tight dress. As a dragon, Mammon felt there was some humiliation being dealt here to his race here, and his brother no less, but he had Minori’s reaction later to look forwards to when the effeminate dragon found out.

Minori, who had been rather quiet for a while simply absorbing the sights, finally spoke up.

OST - Determination

”Brother, who was that green dragon from before?”

Mammon slowed his gait, as he suddenly realized something. “I believe I recognize that dragon actually...” he said. He narrowed his eyes. “Wait... that dragon was calling everyone to gather in order to fight back against the humans.” He stopped completely. “That was Siegfried.”

Minori’s eyes widening in horror, he spoke frantically. ”Does he mean for our kind to slaughter these humans?”

“Why of course, these humans were the ones who imp

risoned us,” said Mammon. “The standard dragon train of thought is to simply massacre anyone who would stand against us.”

Trembling, Minori replied. ”But these are not the humans of old, these are humans who had nothing to do with it! Are you going to just let them slaughter everyone? What if they slaughter the girl?”

“Now wait a minute, there’s something not right here, however,” said Mammon. “Siegfried, in days of old, was known as the Dragonslayer. If anyone, he’d be the one defending these humans.”

”Then what on earth is going on?”

“What on earth is going on? Mammon, what are you two talking about?” asked Lily, noticing the smaller dragon’s panic.

“I think we’d best keep a certain distance from here,” said Mammon, looking dead serious for once. “This is a trap.”

[Ren✧]

Ladon was beginning to wish he had thought to grab his shirt from where he had discarded it in the alleyway. Even damp and covered in the grime of the street, it would have been preferable to the biting cold that permeated New York during the winter. Fortunately, the sun was shining, but it did little to fight off the chill in the air. Goosebumps began to appear on his soft, human skin and uncontrollably shivers began to rack his body. 'Brought to the point of shaking by just the mere weather' He scoffed to himself, it was amazing how weak the human bodies were. Of course, he shouldn't complain. It was this body that had freed him from his prison, and he wasn't talking about the sealing ritual. Becoming human was the best thing that could have happened to him, he was finally free of his past life.

 

He was also very lost. He had thought it would be easy to keep track of the loud mouth dragon that had summoned him to the place 'where false dragons dance', but he had miscalculated just how large human settlements had become. Dragons may be large, even huge, but most of them couldn't compare to the immensity that was New York City. Worse, Ladon wasn't too great with directions, he had no idea where he was heading, let alone whether or not it was in the right direction. He would need another plan of action. 

 

He examined the street, looking for someone that might be able to show him the way to where the emerald dragon had described. Spotting a[acronym='Aiden/Aerog'] wild-haired individual[/acronym], he made his way over to the human male. As he approached, the sigil on his back, something that the humans had taken to calling 'tattoos' began to itch furiously. It felt almost as if it was trying to peel itself off of Ladon's skin. He chose to ignore it, he would never understand the workings of human magic.

 

Ladon took a moment to gather himself, he didn't want to scare off this human by saying the wrong thing. Already he was shirtless and New Yorkers weren't exactly known for their outright compassion. "Excuse I," Ladon said, trying his best, and yet failing terribly, to use the English language, "do you know the place where dragon's da-?" Ladon stopped in the middle of the sentence, catching sight of what the individual was looking at. Another dragon. At first, Ladon's heart began to race. However, he quickly realized that it was merely a cheap imitation. He was about to resume asking his question, but then it dawned on him. "A false dragon..." Ladon said in the dragon-tongue. Little did he know that the individual next to him would understand what he said perfectly, for he was indeed in the presence of another dragon.

 

===

 

Jean's Blackberry was ringing constantly, although today more than usual. She had ordered that she be notified of any spacetime disturbances that may indicate magical influence, particularly that of a powerful seal breaking. Over the past month, the wizards of the House of Yaga had noticed this was an indication of some of the seals holding the dragons back breaking. Over this time period she had received a good amount of reports, but today, it seemed like New York was a hot bed for mystical activity. She simply couldn't keep up with it all.

 

"Do you even understand what you are trying to tell me? To say that there is a disturbance of that scale would indicate that there is a full size dragon flying over New York City! Don't you think I would notice something like that? Now quit wasting my time, and do your god damned job correctly or we will find someone who will. Do you understand me?" She angrily pressed the 'End Call' button, wishing she had never upgraded from her previous flip phone, it had been so much more satisfying to slam shut than this phone was.

 

"Stupid, incompetent, waste of my time..." Jean continued to mutter to himself as she threw her phone back in her bag. However, just as she did so, a dark shape passed overhead, momentarily blotting out the sun. Instinctively, she looked up to see what had caused the disturbance. "Son of a bitch!" She cried out as an emerald dragon flew overhead. She would have to apologize to those morons now. 

 

Jean immediately took action while those that surrounded her were still marveling at what they had just seen. Knowing she would need a faster mode of transportation than on foot, she quickly shoved a small man that sat atop a moped to the ground. He cried out in surprise and protest, but Jean didn't notice. She was already speeding, well relatively speaking, through the crowded streets, weaving in out of cars in pursuit of her ticket to success. 

[Aix]

Out of the foreign buzz of New Yorkers going about the festival and chattering amongst themselves, a familiar dialect popped out to Ouroboros’s ears. The voices of two young ones speaking carried over the voices of thousands others all around her, and Ouroboros gravitated towards them, enough to listen in on their conversation, which had now shifted into English.

“A trap? What are you saying? From the start please, I don’t speak Lizard,” said Lily.

“Indeed. What do you mean by trap?” Ouroboros suddenly popped up in their midst, making Minori jump.

“No Lizard,” spoke Lily sternly to the stranger, ignoring the fact that she had just abruptly walked into their conversation.

“Oh? Who’s this little girl? Is she your lunch?” Ouroboros retorted with a slight look of disdain towards Lily.

Lily promptly ignored her, making a gesture out of it to show she didn’t think much of such a short girl calling her little. “What of the trap?”

“The dragon calling us out is, most likely, trying to lead us into an ambush,” said Mammon, reverting to a cheery facial expression not quite appropriate for the serious business matter he was discussing. “Look at all these humans here. Who knows how many of them are enemies in disguise waiting for us to reveal ourselves.”

“I thought you dragons were all buddies,” said Lily. She paused for a moment. “What lead you to this conclusion?”

“Just a hunch.” Mammon smiled. “Actually, quite simply, the dragon who was just flying with us a moment ago is not exactly known for his loyalty to dragonkind.”

“So you’re saying this dragon likely betrayed you and is working with humans,” said Lily. “Working with the very organization that sealed you guys hundreds and thousands of years back. Isn’t he going to get sealed as well?”

Mammon nodded. “He’s not the type to care, he’d sacrifice himself any day of the week.”

“A dragon that’s working with humans, eh?” Ouroboros crossed her arms and closed her eyes, looking to be in deep thought. “I don’t care. Even if it does turn out to be a trap, it’s not like he’ll ever be able to match my power anyways.” She paused, taking a deep breath before opening her eyes once again. “This is our chance to get back at the lowlifes who imprisoned us and you’re throwing it away?” With a sharp gaze aimed towards the two young dragons in front of her, Ouroboros spoke in Draconic so the girl won’t overhear her intentions.

“Dragons never got along well enough to cooperate anyway, in fact we just end up fighting amongst ourselves,” said Mammon, staying in English as he noticed Lily’s frustration. “I was never the sort to involve myself in these serious matters. Watching the chaos from the sidelines sounds more amusing, one’s view is much limited if one is thrown about in the currents himself.”

Unsure of what was exactly going on, only able to understand Draconic, Minori squirmed uncomfortably. [font='lucida sans unicode']”M-miss? I don’t really have a-anything against humans, and I think you should maybe l-listen to my brother.”[/font]

Ouroboros felt somewhat angry when she found out that her kin has been reduced to cowards, a far cry from the primordial serpents of her time. “Know your role and shut your mouth, you damned brats.” She growled in a mix of annoyance and disappointment.

Flinching, Minori shied away, retreating behind his brother slightly. Mammon looked unimpressed.

“Enough of this gecko-talk, as I understand it, either way there’s going to be hell in the center of Manhattan, involving you oversized reptiles?” asked Lily. “Whether this green dragon is working with the humans or not, something big is going to happen.”

“I’m almost certain that he is,” said Mammon, and he looked to Ouroboros. “If you are willing to walk to your death, I’ll be sure to grab some popcorn, and a toast to your valiant suicide.” He raised an imaginary cup and did an exaggerated gesture of a toast.

“You really shouldn’t underestimate your elder, brat, lest I devour you right here and now.” She hissed out.

Poking his head out from behind Mammon, Minori spoke up hesitantly. [font='lucida sans unicode']”Miss, you most likely have just entered the world, and in your bound human form. Siegfried has access to his full draconic form as well as a powerful human form renowned as the Dragonslayer. Please reconsider.”[/font] Before she could reprimand him again, he ducked back behind his twin brother.

”Dragonslayer…?” She paused for a bit, before manifesting a miniature version of her dragon form’s head over her shoulder, large enough for the twins and the human girl to notice, but small enough so that strangers won’t notice anything. “A brat with a title like that… Would be a feast to look forward to.” Licking her lips, Ouroboros looked towards the sky where she last saw Siegfried.

“Come on, Lily, let’s find ourselves VIP seating for this event,” said Mammon, beginning to skip off.

“Wait.” Mammon paused, and creased his eyebrows slightly at the seriousness in Lily’s tone. “What will happen to all the civilians in the area?” she asked, although from her grim demeanour, she clearly already knew the answer.

“Lily...” said Mammon, giving an attempt at pleading eyes. “We’ve spent enough time here already. Any more would be dangerous. While I’m sure I can at least take care of myself, Minori and you will be a problem. The civilians are going to flee the moment they see a dragon coming.”

[font='lucida sans unicode']”Wait, brother, don’t leave me behind, please.”[/font] Minori looked at Mammon with pleading eyes.

Very well. If you’ll continue to associate yourself with your human ‘girlfriend’ or whatever the phrase you hairless monkeys use, I’ll take my leave.” Ouroboros turned her back on the twins and their female companion, still determined to meet up with the so-called “Dragonslayer”. Best case scenario, it’s not a trap and she’ll get her wish of showing the humans who’s boss, and in the worst case, she gets to eat a dragon after such a long time. With her large glowing sigil just slightly visible under her yellow cloak, Ouroboros pulled up her hoodie and dashed off towards where she thought the dragons would meet up, but not before a word of goodbye to the young dragon who opposed her earlier. You’ll soon remember… Why I was called the Eternal Serpent Ouroboros.


Siegfried did his rounds of the city, calling out for the dragons to gather. It was massive ground to cover, but with his full dragon form unleashed he zipped through it within minutes, slowing down only to deliver his message to those below. There were a lot of dragons gathered in New York, but that was about as much as the divination could reveal, the sigil tattoos making the trace of draconic presence too weak to properly pinpoint. What they did know was that there was a great number of draconic presences in this city, a great number of his people here. It was time to go meet them now “where false dragons dance”, and hopefully many of them will have gathered there already.


The humans screamed at his approach. He hated this form, he hated the fear it instilled, he hated the meaningless, wanton destruction that it could deal, but he needed to use it for now. Slowly, but surely, he descended towards the streets of Chinatown, allowing the humans time to flee. The men dancing in the fake dragons dropped the props where the stood and ran. It was best not to get them involved and to minimize the casualties here.

Landing securely on top of a tall building, he let out an ear-shattering roar. "Come ye who are dragons! We stand together now! The humans and their magic shall stand not against us!"

[Super Chaos Sonic]

"A false dragon..."

 

This response came from a [acronym='Ladon']individual[/acronym] who asked Aidan about where the dragons would dance. He knew the language...his own native tongue...the language of dragons. Thankfully one headphone was out of his ear as he turned and smirked at the man. "Indeed. Seems like I've already found another..." he responded in his native tongue, as he immediately felt his seal...this tattoo start to itch and even burn.

 

"First name basis...I am Aerog..." he smirked as he held out a hand, before switching dialects. "Currently known as, Aidan Drake."

 

While he waited for this man's response, the ear shattering roar was heard. A quick turn around revealed that the emerald dragon that soared above their heads only moments earlier had now rested is tired wings atop a tall building.

 

"Come ye who are dragons! We stand together now! The humans and their magic shall stand not against us!"

 

It did indeed feel good to hear the language of the dragons being spoke out after his few months of speaking as a human. Though he could only smirk more, seeing the emerald dragon's invitation being within reach once again. "I believe he's wanting us to go now." he smirked as he nodded at the individual that was beside him, before making his way.