Peoples, not Food

The sun was dying away to the cruel hand of the night crushing it down and down into the banks of the river. Struggling against this fate the sun spread colors across the sky and water. Reds and oranges as it weakly persisted and then fell at last below the horizon in one last golden hurrah. Darkness swallowed that light up greedily, and left nothing in its wake but a few flakes of color which fade quickly without the sun to give them life.

Upon a rock, sitting in the lengthening shadows, stared morosely at the water, is a tiny golden figure who at first glance might be mistaken as a statue of gold shaped into the form of a dragon. However, so small and great the detail of this figure, that closer examination reveals it to be of flesh and blood. The dragon, perched precariously on the rock heaves a mighty sigh and stares out at the river longingly.

Faranth slowly meanders up the beach from downriver. She wades through knee deep water with her companion bull elephant youngling following behind her. Every now and then the elephant dips it's trunk into the cooling liquid and sprays a shower over himself and his traveling companion, eliciting a snort from Faranth. "You'll get your food wet." she states flatly each time.

GAME: Faranth rolls perception: (19)+8: 27

Percy gathered her things she forgot at the river and once again got a glance of inspiration to paint but as they searched their bag of belongings it was to no good fortune for Percy ran out of gold paint when she had painted for Auranar earlier in the same spot. Percy furrowed her eyebrows. Whispering to herself. "That's a shame, I'm out of gold paint… Maybe I can buy some from a shop that's still open? Or maybe I just draw the dragon, I need to ask first either way."

Jinks' boots scratch noisily on loose debris as the gnome descends the last stone steps from street above. As noisily as little gnome feet driven down to kick irritably can manage, anyway. He carries a shovel in one hand, mid-haft and parallel to the ground, and a small burlap sack in the other. Onyx eyes sunken for want of sleep narrow as he scans the bank, seeking out a good place to bury something it would seem. He chews deliberately at some sustaining morsel.

The tiny dragon heaves another low sigh, eyes drifting over the now-black waters of the river. It seems an effort to tear her gaze away from the sight of the deceptively slow-moving current, but when she does she perks up noticing the various individuals who have gathered on the shore. She shifts her weight, trying to catch the dying rays of the sun which has passed to glint off her golden scales and bring attention to herself.

The purposeful posing of the golden dragon does not go unnoticed. The Sith-makar in the water leads her companion up onto the shore and towards the tiny golden form that looks suspiciously to her like a dragon. Her sweeping gaze takes in the other denizens of the evening's shoreline, noting both the budding artist and the gnome with a purpose as she hauls up just a handfull of feet shy of the golden dragon who is still posing to get attention. "What brings a beautiful young matron such as yourself to our shiny shores?" <draconic>

Percy, watching in awe as the golden light reflecting on the small dragon, she shook her head to get out of her traze. She cocked her head to the side to see the water in front of the dragon, Percy couldn't tell why the pretty dragon was unhappy. Percy's heart sank when the dragon shed a dramatic tear. Percy asked quietly. "Uh what's wrong? Did you lose something in the water?" Percy had completely forgotten the painting; she was now focused on the dragon in the dark.

Busy about his business, Jinks has yet to notice the whelp what threatens to out-glitter his assorted jewels, gems, and baubles. He pads to the edge of the bank and searches out the last subtle hints of the sun's dive, turns a quarter-turn widdershins, and takes a half-dozen long, leaning steps. He drops the sack and rips into the earth with the shovel, struggling to tear through the uppermost layers of grass and growing things. There's an awkwardness about the little dandy at honest work, the sort of thing that might make you think looking up would find the stars out of order in the heavens above.

The dragonling looks up at the sith-makar and beams brightly, shifting her weight and flicking her tail so as to bring it into view. "Fish!" She says this determinedly, and with enthusiasm. The golden dragon shifts her gaze toward Percy then and places her head on her claws. "Ihavenofish." In spite of how quickly she speaks, rushing her words together in a frenzy, she's clearly - very - upset about this situation.

That is until she spies Jinks at work. Her head swivels. Her eyes glow in the faint light. She sniffs the air and leans forward. Toward the unsuspecting gnome. A tail lashes and that's all the warning that's given.

Faranth ponders to herself, smelling the frustration in the air. She understood the word fish. "Fish." She repeats to herself quietly Ihavenofish a couple times, slowing the word down as she ponders its meaning before it occurs to her what the dragonling is saying. Just as it appears to be preparing itself for pouncing. "Oh, you have no fish!" <draconic>

The hole doesn't need to be deep and, really, deep has an entirely different meaning when you're just over three-feet tall, anyway. A few noisy, scraping shovelfulls of dirt and rocks piled to the side and the gnome kicks the burlap sack into the hole with the inside of a boot. Jinks then tosses the shovel down and pulls a dagger from somewhere beneath his fancy coat, slicing open his thumb and holding it out to bleed down into his little pit of offal.

He's really not the most observant person on the best of days. Sleep-deprived, haunted, and a little intoxicated he's no chance of noticing the runaway wagon barreling his direction.

Percy was surprised that the dragon ignored her question leaving her confused and baffled she followed the little gold dragon to the gnome digging the hole in the sand. Quietly talking to herself Percy mumbled. "What was it that distracted them....Wait why am I following the dragon instead of running from them?? Never mind that this is the first time I even met a dragon in person! Hey, wait until I tell Auranar about this, she won't believe me!" Finally stopping at the hole the gnome is digging in a hurry, Percy could only think of one reason for why the dragon would track the gnome. Did the mini dragon want jewels and gold?

With a launch she was airborne, easily flapping the two wingbeats necessary for a dragon her size to make it to Jinks. She landed neatly on his shoulders/back area and dug her claws in a little bit for purchase. "HELLO!" Her voice is pitched in such a way that makes it clear that she's a female, and one very pleased to see the gnome. "Isthatforme?" She sounds hopeful.

Faranth watched with a smile as the dragon hurled itself toward the busy gnome. She stayed planted however, not moving from where she and the bull elephant youngling had hauled themselves up to speak with the sunning golden streak. Instead Faranth reached up onto the back of the elephant and pulled half an armful of dried long grasses from underneath a blanket she had there and began feeding the stalks to the elephant who trumpeted quietly in victory before eating the greens. The watchful Sith-makar watched the dragon's antics while feeding her companion, curious at the visitor.

Percy snorted humorously to hold back her surprised laugh. The thought crossed through her mind. ‘Did they just say 'hello'? Oh my gosh she is so cute! Wait, do they know each other?’

Why are they so spooked?" Percy's mind continued to overflow with questions but managed to ask one. "Um miss dragon? Do you know them?" Percy's face was clearly dumbfounded.She sat on the ground outside of the hole and pulled out a book and began writing. While patiently waiting for an answer.

Jinks would announce his surprise with a panicked shout truly impressive for a being of his size if he weren't too busy choking. Startled, the gnome inhaled whatever he'd been chewing and now finds that halfway down the wrong pipe. He wheezes, blue-black spittle falling from his lips, even as he tries awkwardly to stab at his assailant with the dagger. He chokes out what might be 'off!' but comes as a quiet gurgle and 'ff' noise, stumbling perilously close to the hole he's just dug.

Helpfully, or unhelpfully as the case might be, the little dragon flaps her wings to keep her balance. Nearly getting cut by the knife in the process for her efforts. She's attached to his back now, so the added oomph of her wings added to his sway only really serves to unbalance them both further. So... she flaps harder, trying to keep them both upright... It's a disaster in the making. "Whatsthat?" She asks semi-furiously.

Sensing things going downhill, Faranth drops the last of the handfull of grasses on the beach in front of MalGein and strode forward, ready to lend a hand to the choking gnome if needed.

Percy's eyes widened in shock as the gnome in the hole attempted to harm the little gold dragon. "Hey, if you don't mind me asking what are you doing? You almost hurt the dragon and if you didn't miss that would probably be extremely bad for you! Percy grabbed another colored pencil and drew on the pages of the book. Waiting for something else to happen. Not used to the stabilizing efforts coming from a pair of wings awkwardly mounted on one side of his body, Jinks stumbles. One foot finds the hole and he lurches forward, tweaking his ankle and falling down onto his side. The good news is that hitting the ground hard produces a cough to dislodge the fungal bulb he'd been chewing. He coughs a few times for good measure and spits between breaths. "What curse brings every shape of you vile scaled things into my every waking moment?" The gnome all but growls, venom and desperation playing for majority vote in his tone. "The elf wants your company, whelp, go to her." He coughs again, rolling into a seated position as he gestures towards Percy. Someone isn't having the best day.

As Jinks comes to a rest, the dragon ceases her flapping. Climbing over and more calmly onto his shoulder where his words reach her ears. She STARES at him. GLARES at him. "VILE!?" She fumes and warms on his shoulder. "WELP?!" She's distinctly getting hotter.

"IamTanithariairisixchel! IAMNOTAVILEWHELP!" Far to the contrary of his desire for her to leave she tries to head-butt him. Gently enough really, but seriously irritated. "Howdareyou! Thatisnotnice!!!"

Faranth approached the hole and reached down with one hand, offering to help the seated gnome up. "It is wise not to question the ways of the gods. The ancestors can be fickle if offended." She seemed to be addressing the dragonling as both a god and an ancestor. "My name is Faranth, can I offer you assistance out of that offal you were trying to bury?"

Percy says, "Tanithariairisixchel." The name floated through Percy's head, Percy quickly put her things back in her satchel. Stood up looking down in the hole. "Why are you so bitter towards her?"

Jinks takes his face in his hands, issuing a groan as he wipes roughly at his eyes and inadvertently smears the blood from his cut thumb across his face. He's grinding his teeth by the time he looks up at Faranth, flaring his nostrils at the head-butt. "No. Thank you."

The gnome takes a shaky, slow breath and cocks his head. He stares straight ahead and tries to ignore the growing heat come from the little dragon as he speaks to her. "I don't care to know your name. I don't care if you fell from Mulria's sideways smile or crawled loose of Bauglir's ass." He looks up at Percy and his frown deepens. "I haven't slept in weeks. There's a kobold army gathering under a dragon's banner and they dragged us into their cannibalistic rituals. The whole fucking region is falling."

It's been a pretty rough go recently.

It seems for a moment that what the gnome says might /really/ set off the little dragon but... Apparently even she is sensitive to the plight of others and her heat winds down and she more gently nudges the small guy. On him she almost looks reasonably sized. "Dragonbanner? Whobanner?" She snorts and smoke rises from her nose. "Peoplesnoeat! Thatsbad! Whatdragoneatspeoples?"

Faranth regards the gnome, she straightens slightly, but her hand is still offered. "Is that a goblin ritual then to pour blood on offal on the beach?" As she looms over the gnome, MalGein lumbers up behind her, his trunk slipping over her shoulder to let her know that he is there, and ready to be led somewhere.

Percy head cocked at the gnomes' funny words such as 'ass' and 'fucking', she smiled in a confused way. "Um what's ass? I seriously don't understand. I have seen people use that word when unhappy but I have no clue what that means. Aside from that?" Percy crossed her arms. "I'm sorry about your sleep, people and the region, I now understand your displeasement with a dragon on your shoulder, if there is any way I can help you please let me know."

"Some idiot Tsuran sineating ritual," Jinks corrects with a shallow shrug. "From the same witch who's had the numbroot." His frustration and anger has deflated into exhaustion and impotence. The gnome tucks his chin and takes his head on both hands, elbows propped up on his knees. "Buttocks," he answers Percy.

The gnome pauses before responding to Tanith, muttering "Uskvutha" and shuddering at the memory as he does. "You can do nothing, whelp. That dragon is great and you are so small."

The dragonling pulls herself up to her full height. "Notawhelp." This time not yelling, but correcting. "AndIdon'tcare. Eatingpeoplesisbad. Uskvutha." She nods. Mostly to herself and then launches herself into the air. It's a careful thing so she doesn't hurt him and she hovers there. "Evensmallthingsmakeadifference." With these cryptic words she vanishes into thin air. Gone without a puff of smoke or fire. Just gone.

Faranth tilts her head. "I can heal your wounds, or find you dinner if you wish, but I suspect that all you want is a good night's rest. If it's protection you need, and you don't want to be in this scar of a city, MalGein and I can help you with that." She sits down at the edge of the hole, pushing a rock aside with one hand and the other wrapping around the elephant's trunk at her neck.

Percy was shocked that the dragon just disappeared into thin air. Pulling her eyes from the night sky. "Well I wish you all the best but must leave." Percy walked away toward an inn and headed inside.

“I'm at my limit for lizards. Well-intentioned or otherwise,' Jinks answers honestly, blinking up at where Tanith has disappeared. He blinks and takes a steadying breath, pushing his uninjured thumb past both his eyes. He stands and starts back towards the stairs after Percy, pausing momentarily to offer a quiet "Peace on your nest, anyway." to Faranth before trudging up. <draconic>

Faranth watches the gnome walk away, then scuffs her feet to push the rocks and dirt back into the hole. She uses MalGein's foot to compact the soil before stabbing the gnome's spade into the dirt where the hole was, then turns, leading the elephant away towards the water.

-End