Second Detention [Kenna, Scratchet and the ViTs]

[Troutface Hemear & Moddy]

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

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[blue]CAN YOU FEEL IT CALLING?[/blue]
[green]CAN YOU FEEL IT IN YOUR SOUL?[/green]

[/b][/i]

As Troutface heard Kenna's voice call for order, his dwindling rather one-sided conversation with Sylica ended. He turned his attention to the blacksmith, the one who would be teaching them today. He wondered again what could be in store, he hadn't a clue what to expect. He listened intently in curiosity, hoping today's challenge would be announced. 

But just as the instructor began, in squabbled a farmiliar face. Ah- Ulrika! He had been wondering where she'd gotten off to, she was always up to something, most often involving getting herself into a mess. And it seemed she had managed to do just that. The girl reeked of Zippleback gas. As she strode in, the smell settled. Troutface wrinkled his nose.

[green]"Hey, Ulrika!"[/green] he shouted, greeting the lat trainee. She stopped short and he saw her wielding a knife, twirling it around her fingers. He smirked and stared with overly dramatic widened eyes, nodding in agreement to Grima's comment, trying to seem cool. But The red-haired Viking-in-Training knew she was capable with that thing, and as much as Troutface knew the girl was relatively clumsy, he still didn't want to be on her bad side. He had seen the size of some of the deer she'd hauled in before, and he didn't want to end up like them. His smirk disappeared and was replaced with pursed lips. He tried a nervous thumbs up, trying to stay on her good side. 

Something about Grima's next comment struck him as incredibly funny and he began laughing very loudly. He elbowed him [green]"good one!"[/green] he said between chuckles. When he finally stopped, he realized nobody else was laughing. He looked around and shut his mouth, griping his spear awkwardly and straitening his helmet. He cleared his throat. [green]"ha, yeah...."[/green] he was quiet for a while after that.

[green]CAN YOU TRUST THIS LONGING

[/i][/green]
[BLUE]AND TAKE CONTROL?[/BLUE][/center][/size]

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

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[Kenna & Fenrir]

Kenna watched as the teenagers talked to each other. She found Ulrika’s uselessness when it came to keeping her stuff to herself annoying, but she knew she was someone that could hold her own. She watched for a bit more, seeing if they were going to finish off by themselves and then desided to start up again.

“As I was saying,” Kenna said loudly. “You need to be able to fight the truly unpredictable. Which is why you will be playing with the Deadly Nadder, Scratchet. This may look like a old test used by the old trainers,” she said, pointing at the wall map, “but it’s not going to be like anything you might have gone though. Especally with Scratchet being the dragon. So, stay where you are, I need to do one last thing.”

Kenna walked over to one of the three Vikings which were posted around the edge of the arena. “How good’s your aim?” she quietly asked him.

“Good,” Kenna smiled and passed him one of her pebbles.

“When I give the cue, throw this at the black spot on the floor over by them.” He nodded and Kenna’s face gleamed. Kenna ran out of the arena and ordered the doors to be shut. She then ran up into the seating above. “Okay,” I loudly said to them from above, “Before I open the gates, I should say one more thing. Do it!”

The Viking threw the pebble at the spot hard. It hit the spot perfectly and the spot exploded, “The maze you are about to enter has a few of them in. they aren’t strong enough to hurt you, but they make a loud noise and they’ll knock you off balance. Open the cage up! It’s time your training to start.”

[Ulrika]

Ulrika's glanced to Troutface as he greeted her loudly. Grima's next comment about her looking psychotic distracted her, losing the knife from her grip. Her stomach cringed as she quickly side stepped, dodging a potential knife in her precious foot. Before she could retort angrily about him almost making her lose her foot, she noticed Troutface laughing awkwardly at what Grima had said. She gave him a death glare as she awkwardly scooped up the knife and returned it to her belt. What humiliation! She was already late.

Grima could smell the gas on his rival, and he taunted her about it. She continued her scowl, her eyebrows unable to furrow further. She really hated this guy. They didn't see what happened, did they? "At least I can deal with Zipplebacks! Only one head listens to you, I hardly call that success!" Well, she thought it was a good comeback anyway.

She quickly scanned the other Viking-In-Trainings. She noted Sylica, a fun person to be around. Ulrika found her habit of poking things really funny and amusing. There was also a new girl, but she towered over everyone. Was she older than everyone else? Ulrika didn't really care much. The other girl didn't appear to care either.

Ulrika finally noted the arena. Sometimes Chad would set up obstacles that she could easily overcome. "Oh cool a -"

“As I was saying,”, Kenna interrupted, which made Ulrika stop with her mouth half open like a fish. She quickly shut it close. She had enough humiliation as it was. She listened to Kenna. She didn't want to get on her bad side. Ulrika had an intuition that one day Kenna would finally burst and no longer sell her products, or worse - kill her.

Ulrika didn't like the verb 'play'. With her frequent encounters with dragons, of which most end disastrously near-fatal, she found the verb unsuitable. Especially when it came to Scratchet. She hadn't encountered the dragon much, since Nadders tended to avoid the meat she hauled in because it made them sick. It was because of The Great Viking Hat Scare caused by Scratchet that made Ulrika never take her helmet outside ever again. She didn't want to lose that, seeing the rate she loses knifes and other weaponry per week.

Then Kenna and another Viking warrior made a demonstration. He threw a rock to some vague spot, visible to the children. Ulrika jumped in fright as the mine exploded. Kenna began to explain what the hell that was. But Ulrika had stopped listening, eyes wide.

This was it. Ulrika was certain Kenna was going to kill her. Today. Looking up at the maze, she had an idea. A glimmer of hope! She could still live! With her dextrous climbing abilities, she did a run up and scaled one of the planks that composed one of the boards. "Heh." She said triumphantly under her breath as she reached the summit. Getting her balance, she balanced on the narrow edge and looked over the maze. Well damn.

She turned her head slowly towards the maze, gulping a little. She heard the familiar clunk, as the huge logs that kept the cage doors close began to slowly open...

[Grima, Stahl & Flint]

Grima smirked when she dropped her knife and jumped out of the way of it. it disappear as Troutface laughed. I just looked at him, annoyed and perplexed.

When Ulrika sent her jibe, it hit hard. He was going to react straight away, but then stopped himself. He’d make her pay in training. He wasn’t sure how, but he would. She then noticed the maze in the centre. She started to comment when Kenna started up her talk again. Grima smiled at that. Fail.

Kenna continued with her explination before passing a pebble to the nearby Viking and running out. The gates shut behind her and she appeared above. Grima looked in wonder as the Viking set the trap off. He’d never seen anything like that before.

From above, Stahl perked up a bit, “That was our kind of explosion there,”[/color][/i] he said, “She got a Zibbleback to help her make those traps.”[/color][/i] Grima thought to himself. He had some ideas.

He watched Ulrika and the others as they moved. When he saw Ulrika start to climb, he smiled. He ran in after them, keeping to the sides of the walls (his logic was that Kenna wouldn’t place traps too close to the walls for fear of sending them toppling and crushing someone on the other side.

As he went in though, he grabbed the pebble that the Viking had thrown. It would be useful…

[shatteredecho]

Sylica snickered a bit as Ulrika dropped her knife, but not loud enough for it to carry; after all, Grima was right, she did look just a bit crazy doing that... She stopped as soon as she heard Mr. Awkward Pants laughing. It wasn't that funny, she thought. She noticed when Ulrika looked at her, and gave a short wave. She liked her, being the only person that would put up with her yelling for long.
The long- haired VIT jumped as the mine went off, letting out a small yelp. She recovered just in time to see Ulrika racing up onto the top of the maze, with Grima following her. What the heck are they doing, she wondered, as the dragon' gate was opening.

Above, her two dragons watched. Treble was perched near the top of the dome, with Taz clinging to his head; after all the smaller dragons would probably hurt himself in the gaps of the wiring, as hyperactive as he was. The two chuckled at the antics of the VITs, though Taz not as much as he would have with the catmint beginning to take affect. They both jumped with Sylica as the mine went off, Treble agreeing with Stahl; that mine was definitely Zippleback gas.

[mhire]

Mhire sighed as he leaned against the wall, away from the other vits. He held his axe loosely in his hand, resting the blade against the ground. He watched as everyone greeted each other, rolling his eyes at the antics of the others. He listened when Kenna finally spoke up, though his eyes widened when the pebble one of the other vits threw landed on a mine. Was she insane? He swung his weapon up and hung it loosely against his back, hardly feeling the weight.

He frowned and raised an eyebrow when Ulrika scrambled up a wall, looking like a little blonde monkey. He had to admit, it was a good idea. But she would be in trouble if she fell. He scratched the back of his neck and followed the others into the maze. He looked up at the dragons watching them, feeling a tiny stab of jealousy. He was quickly snapped from his thoughts when he heard the door containing Scratchet began to open. "Here goes nothing." He reached back and rested his hand on the handle of his axe, his fingers tightening behind it.

[dmytri]

Today was not off to a good start for young ViT Varin. First he almost lost his father’s dagger, and then he couldn’t find his way to the arena, to top it all off no one seemed to notice him in the back corner of the training area. Sure he was not a fan of attention and had no expectations of a warm welcome after years of being away but maybe a “hello” or a “who are you, what are you doing here?” would have been pleasant. Actually, he had no idea what to expect after seven years away or how his first day of training would go but he wasn’t too happy to hear that Wavebreaker had to leave the arena and the loyal Thunder Drum wasn’t thrilled to hear that either. “It’ll be fine, trust me, you can go watch from above” said the boy to his dragon. The dragon muttered his discrepancies under his breath and climbed to the top of the enclosed arena with the others.
Varin listened contently, or as best he could, as the instructor continued on explaining the exercise but nearly jumped out of his skin as the pebble struck the ground releasing the explosion. It wasn’t so much the sound of the explosion that alarmed him, in fact he hardly heard anything, instead it was the force given off from the blast which he could feel quite well beneath the soles of his shoes. He thought he heard her say something about a deadly scratch or something like that as well as facing those nasty mines which smelled of Zippleback gas. Then he assumed the woman’s speech was over as he watched everyone around him race for the maze. As Varin was about to take off running along with the others something in his head said he should stay back, let the others run through fast and trigger more of the explosions. That way when Varin ran through there would be less of an obstacle to face. Now if only he could figure out what this deadly scratch was….

[Asvora]

Ignoring the other ViTs was quite easy, considering she was there to learn, not to make friends; on her own at least. Griping her knife to stop it from spinning, the tall Viking slid it back into her leather belt, running her fingers over to assure that none of the daggers were missing. Taking a glance over to the late trainee, Asvora rolled her eyes, unamused at having the lesson interrupted. Having looked away from what Kenna was doing the smell of Zippleback gas had Asvora twitching her nose, topaz eyes turning a half glare toward their teacher. She was highly unamused at the small explosions they now had to deal with, seeing as they would blind anyone once surrounded.

Asvora didn't even know what type of Deadly Nadder they would be fighting; never hearing about a 'Scratchet' before, even the few times she's been in the village the name 'Scratchet' had never reached her ears before. Spotting two of the Vikings scalling the planks that created the maze; watching as the other Vikings followed, Asvora closed her eyes and took a deep breath to relax herself before following. Scalling up the blanks, she threw herself over the top to land on the other side. Limbs shaking from the force of the landing. The creaking of the metal door opening had Asvora sliding out one of her smaller daggers, Now it's time to find out who this Scratchet is.

[Troutface Hemear & Moddy]

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

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[blue]FOR A MOMENT[/blue]
[green]ALL THE WORLD CAN WAIT[/green]

[/b][/i]

Troutface's eyes Widened when he saw the mine explode. Green Gas swirled upward from the wooden panels that formed the maze. The sound of one of the dragon encolsures opening echoed over the stone hollow. He saw all the other Viking Trainees rush towards the maze, right Into the brewing mess. Ulrika scrambled up one of the panels  and perched at the top while everyone else brandished their weapons and took long, confident strides and delved into the incoming brawl as they dissapeared into the smoke and panels.  He was the only one left standing at the start. 

His eyes darted around The arena. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Had he missed something. He whirled around and looked up at Kenna who was Watching the session casually from above. He called her name and flailed his arms around trying to get her attention. When she finally glanced his way he yelled up to her [green]"WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!"[/green] He yelped as another mine exploded behind him and a dragon's cackle sounded in the distance. [green]"KENNA! WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!"[/green] he stared up waiting for an answer. He quickly became impatient though, and if she had said anything, he couldn't hear it over the din. He yelled up [green]"ALRIGHT I'LL JUST FIGURE IT OUT THEN!"[/green] and with that, he turned around and took a few steps toward the maze. Giving it a good look-over he took a breath and charged forward letting out a (not-so) mighty scream, holding up his spear and plunged into the unknown.

His feet rushed over the groud as he sprinted into the twisting maze, unsure what he'd encounter within. At first the path was relatively straight, it soon beacame much more comlicated to navigate while trying to keep up a speedy pace. The first sharp turn he took resulted in a faceplant on the ground, but he recovered undaunted and scampered forward once again. His journey through the maze continued. It was strange because he didn't meet any of his classmates on the way, though he could hear the other scuttling around on the other sides of the panels. At first he would try to shout through the walls and get a responce from them, but when he only got groans, he decided to stop.

 At the next turn, Troutface made the unfortunate mistake of not looking where he was going and tumbled upon a mine. The sound boomed and he tumbled forward, rolling on his side a few times. He stood once again and sprinted off, again forgetting to look where he was going and running into a mine. He let out a frusterated squeal and trod onwards. To ensure that he didn't set off anymore, he peeked around each corner before skittering to the next turn, but soon  stopping at every corner got boring, so he sped up once again. He took several turns this way because he found it kind of fun to rip around the corners going way to fast, he would use his hand against the corner of the maze he was passing to steady himself with each turn. It never really occured to him that it wasn't a great strategy.

 He skidded to a halt halfway down the next corridor and stared ahead. Before him was a gaping hole in the side of the arena wall. He grinned. This was the end of the maze, but there was no dragon. He laughed before shouting out to his fellow classmates saying cockily [green]'HEY GUYS! I FOUND THE END ON THE MAZE... AND THERE'S NO DRAGON"[/green] He smirked as he walked causlly into the cave-like hole with confidence, whistling do show his ease and satisfaction. He liked the way it echoed againt the walls [green]"Ha! Kenna thought she  could trick me with a stupid maze with stupid mines and a stupid FAKE DRAGON!"[/green] he chuckled again. 

 He continued walking forward, planning on lurking in the back and scaring the pants off of the other Viking in Trainings when they found him, but he hit a scaly wall a little too soon. He gasped, running his hands over the rough surface. His shaky hands readjusted the grip on his weapon, but the spear fell from his hand and clattered to the stone groud, and instead of retreiving the item, he accidently kicked it farther way from himself- now it was lost in the dark. He floundered around in attempt to find it, but was unsuccessful. Then he heard the dragon make a sound and that only confirmed it. Troutface let out a long shrill scream before crying out again to the others [green]"IT'S A DRAGON!!!! HELP ME I WAS WRONG THERE'S A DRAGON!!!!! IT'S GOING TO EAT ME!!![/GREEN].

[green]

[/green]
[BLUE]LET GO OF YOUR YESTERDAY[/BLUE][/center][/size]

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

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[Scratchet]

Deep within the bowels of the cage, Scratchet could hear raised activity going on outside. It must be time. She grinned, getting herself into a position so that she could see the door, in case children came wandering blindly into her clutches, but enough far away to prove she wasn't like the other dragons locked up. She could hear her neighbours getting riled up from the outdoor activity, raring to be free once again. The Nadder was also eager, but she was going to have some fun with it.

A heavy clunk signalled the opening and unlocking of her cage. The walls vibrated slightly as the huge logs that kept the cage closed bristled past the stone, slowly weakening the thick door's strength. The weight of the doors opened by themselves - usually they didn't have the opporunity as a raging dragon would normally burst out with a fiery wrath. This time, they swung without dramatic pyrotechnics accompanying them, the creak of the hinges ringing through the bated silence.

Scratchet grinned, hoping this would work. The idea was to play stubborn. If a Viking-child was to enter her domain, well... She could perhaps blackmail them into letting her go, unless they were one of those strange angry-viking offspring. She shrugged her wings, getting comfortable on the stone floor. She'll just have to find out. She closed her eyes, pretending to sleep. That will make things fun if they thought she was asleep.

The sound of the first mine going off startled her, but she quickly took some breaths and regained her composure. A lot was at stake here. She wondered what the explosion was. Her mind clicked to an answer - Meddler, the woman who makes traps. The dots connected as she realised that the arena was going to be dotted with mines. She realised why Meddler told her to avoid the lumps on the ground. They would explode.

But that just confused Scratchet. Why would Meddler aid her, the one who caught her, paralysed her and shifted her here to be a gimmick in some children's lesson? She was too deep in thought to react to the next explosion, which was a lot closer. She could hear the scuffling of feet outside, she tried to count how many were in the arena, but it was abnormaly muffled.

Suddenly, louder footsteps echoed around the cavern walls. Scratchet made extra sure to stay still, lurking in the shadows. She didn't need eyes to know there was a boy at the entrance of her cell. Nadders rely mostly on hearing and smell, anyway. He began to shout in the human tongue that there was no dragon, with an extreme sense of satisfaction. Scratchet could barely contain twitching her mouth into a smirk as he said that. He began to whistle, the high pitched noise not friendly on her ears, especially as it resonated around the walls. He then called her stupid. And fake. She gritted her teeth, not wanting to move. She mustn't react to the horrid insult! He hadn't seen her, this will be gold if this works. She could pay back later, after all. You can't escape from the arena, unless the gate was open.

Suddenly, she felt the human bump into her. She tensed up. She had misjudged the distance? How? Then she realised - it was the whilsting that had knocked her senses awry. Oh well. Now or never.

Her gleaming orange eye flitted open immediately. She twisted her head around slowly as she felt the boy prodding her body and glamourous scales, distracted. As the boy finally realised what he had bumped into, he dropped his spear, which she found funny. He couldn't seem to find it anymore as well, especially after kicking it away by accident. From a Nadder's point of view, who could see in the dark, it was humourous. He was now unarmed - and Vikings were fun when they are unarmed.

"Welcome... to my lai-"[/i][/color] The boy screamed.

"IT'S A DRAGON!!!! HELP ME I WAS WRONG THERE'S A DRAGON!!!!! IT'S GOING TO EAT ME!!![/b]

Scratchet titled her head. Well that didn't end well. The boy seemed to be funny enough without her help. She made a grumbling noise. It seemed this kid didn't know dragonese to interrupt her as such. She stood up and with one motion grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck. That wouldn't be fun if he got away.

Being used to hauling fish, the boy was barely anything to her. She could feel his weight swing slightly beneath him as she made her way to the light, the suns rays flooding onto her brilliant turquoise hide. She squinted a little at the change of light, but she quickly realised that her desired scenario wouldn't go as planned at all.

She was surrounded by wooden boards, pathways leading off to several locations. She instantly recognised it as a maze. There seemed to be enough space for her to run down them. Indeed, she saw little mounds of dirt on the floor. The mounds blended in well with the solid ground.
She couldn't see Meddler, but she was definitely sure she would be able to hear her. She gave a short cackle. The back of her mouth zipped open, her voice slightly muffled.

"Hey! Meddler! How about a trade?"[/i][/color] She started. She wondered if Meddler would fall for this or not. "Your Orange Boy for my freedom? Sounds fair to me." She ruffled her wings slightly. "Otherwise I could just fling him down this mound-infested alleyway here... And find out what happens.

This was a harsh move, even for herself, but it wouldn't hurt her much if the idea went bad. Well, at least she wouldn't get hurt. The boy on the other hand, had called her fake and stupid. As a threat, she stomped the ground very hard, the vibration in the earth making one of the mines closest to her explode by itself, as a warning.

[Kenna & Fenrir]

She leaned forward to see the gate as it opened. While she didn’t like to due to her balance issues and subsequent fear of hights, she felt safe enough up there that she could lean forward. She could see no Scratchet. Since it was quite light and it was midday the inside of the cell was too dark to actually be visible. Kenna had half expected Scratchet to rush out. But no. That’d be obvious, Scratchet isn’t obvious.

Kenna sighed as the kids seemed to not quite get the point of a maze with traps, You don’t stay outside of it idiots. When Troutface asked what to do she facepalmed and then shouted to him “Get in maze! Try not to get hurt!”

She smiled at the mad girl that Ulrika was, anyone mad enough to try and climb those panels when fully erect is idiotic, anyone that can pull it off is actually quite good. Though she won’t last long if she stays up there, she leaves herself open. She started to hear the bombs go off, she Troutface set off a few, but he wasn’t the only one (OOC: well, I hope his isn’t the only one).

After a fit of the wondering, Kenna saw Troutface get to the enterance of Scratchet’s cave. She perked up and watched, wondering what would happen now. She frowned when he started shouting that there was no dragon. How could she not be there? Kenna knew she hadn’t left through the gates, and she knew she had been in there since Kenna had talked to her. Of course she could have gotten some tunnel dug. Knowing Scratchet she had a whispering death to hand, but they’d have felt a whispering death trying to dig into the arena. Another possibility then could b…

Troutface started screaming, Or he just has crap eyesight.

Scratchet trotted out of the cage, carrying Troutface like a cat would a kitten. She looked around realising whatever she’d been wanting to do she couldn’t. She then called out as well as a anyone can while holding something in their mouth. Kenna smiled as her nickname, and was intrigued that the dragon was offerning a trade with wasn’t really a bargaining chip anyway.

She did however know that letting the dragon hurt the boy would be bad. She’d probably get into deep trouble with his parents and she’d have no chance in talking people into letting her try and train Scratchet. So…Now was time for tact, good word pacing and hoping that she can stall long enough for any of the other teenagers to get to the dragon.

[Asvora]

How did that women even get the position of teacher? This may have been her first training lesson but seriously!? That person had serious issues with putting them in an enclosed space with a crazy dragon that would do who knows what to them. Asvora's feet pounded against the ground as she ran through the maze, an explosion knocking her forward with a yelp as she stomped on a mine. Great, that was the fifth time she's landed on one during the run.

Where the hell where they supposed to go anyways?! What were they supposed to do? Find the dragon? Yeah, the lady was crazy. But the viking in training would never say that out loud. Boots slid against the ground as Asvora skid to a stop. "That was close. Too close."

Turning, she bolted down the way where the sound was coming from, feet sending off mines every which way. Now where was the dragon and her fellow trainee?

"Oof!" She was sent sprawling onto her back as she collided with a large scaled form. "Ow." Rubbing her head, topaz eyes gazed up, widening at the blue Nadder. "Shit." She was as good as gone as Troatface, who hung from her jaws.

[dmytri]

Varin’s original plan had utterly failed him. He had planned on the other ViTs to dash into the maze hard and fast, setting off most of the mines in the process, so he could skate by unscathed. For some reason though every time the pale blonde haired boy turned around he would set off yet another small explosion. Eventually Varin realized that everywhere a mine was placed there was a small raised surface directly above it. This led to another insane idea which he dubbed his plan B. Varin still had no idea what this scratch was or what deadly thing he might face later on in the maze so the tall Viking in training figured he’d better stock up on some fire power. He quickly unsheathed his dagger and began using it as a spade to turn over the loose soil above the obnoxious gas mines. On his first attempt he plunged his dagger directly into the mine which immediately exploded in his face, only further messing up his hair and hearing. It took several tries to figure out depth and the sensitivity of the mines but after a while of peddling around he finally uprooted three whole bombs. This couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, for he had just finished pulling out the last mine when he saw a deadly naddar clutching onto a fellow ViT. Maybe that was the task at hand; perhaps they were supposed to scratch the dragon or something. Either way it seemed the ginger Viking had failed in his attempt and the dragon seemed to be focused on Kenna at the moment which allowed Varin to get into the dragon’s blind spot. He wasn’t quite sure where the other ViT’s were but he figured he should try to help the squirming Viking hanging from the dragon’s jaws. So after quickly analyzing his resources at hand and the situation Varin simply flung one of his three mines at the dragon around the corner of the maze, careful as not to hit his fellow ViT. He didn’t figure it would do any damage to the dragon but it might at least draw attention to him and perhaps drop the ginger haired boy. In truth Varin just hoped he aimed well enough to hit the dragon and not just the wall beside it.

( I gathered from RKB’s earlier scratchet post that there are raised surfaces associated with the land mines, id also like RKB to determine if the mine actually hit or not )

[shatteredecho]

((nevermind, I found a way it would work XD))

Sylica watched as all the other VITs dashed into the maze, as if they couldn't get hurt. No one had seemed to notice her, though... She waited a while to see how often the mines where going off before deciding to walk along the outermost edge of the maze, occasionally throwing her ax at the mounds she saw to set them off. She stopped, however, when at one point it almost buried itself in her head, causing her two dragons to snicker above her.

She started and nearly dropped her ax on her foot when she heard Troutface screeched like a little girl, prompting her to hurry on. After running through some mines (and setting them off), as well as climbing over some walls, she arrived there just in time to hear some bombs going off around the corner. Skidding to a halt, she peeked around to see a very angry nadder staring at the quiet boy. Looking at the light blue and yellow dragon, Sylica guessed this had been why Treble had whistled earlier when Troutface had started screaming. Looking closer, she also saw Asvora at her feet... She guessed this was as good a time as ever to show off, but how? She thought for a moment, then remembered that Scratchet was not only using Troutface as a hostage bargaining tool, but that she was a nadder. And nadders cared oh so much about their outwards beauty... Sylica smiled to herself and stepped out from behind the wall, calling upon some Imperial dragon poetry in the process...

(pretend all this rhymes when in dragonese...)

"Oh Thief, dear Thief,
In your beautiful blue scales
And your magnificent crest
Thou are truly a site to behold
But alas Thou hast a downfall, Thief;

Your heart is ugly, Thief, vile thing you.

How Dareth Thee,
You monstrous beast,
To use a childe as a ploy
And what's a clever mind when used
In such an ugly way

Your heart is ugly, Thief, vile thing you

And on the topic of intelligence
You've seems to have had a lapse in
For not only are those mines quiet useless
But your bargaining tool is
At most,
Inferior"

Throughout the entire thing,, Sylica had been backing away, and gripping her ax ever tighter, just in case the dragon decided to turn hostile...

[PIME2]

Okay, wow, I failed masively there. I only realised today that Varin had already done his post...sigh. Anyway, So we don't need to edit people's posts for continuity errors I'm going to say there are two enterances to where Scratchet is, one in front of her door (where Asvora and Sylica came out) and one paralel to the arena wall (which Troutface and Varin came through). It probably wasn't what the latter two thought when they were writing their posts, but it fits what's been written and works in a way that doesn't cause continuity errors.

Also, I must comment Varin on his ingenious madness. Being a flint based presure mine it'll be hit and miss on wether it hitting stratchet (or indeed a wall) will set it off. knowing the strengh of the explosions, if it hits her it won't do any serious damage, though it will cause pain. Oh and Varin's extra hearing damage will be temporary .