Ripples in the night (open)

[ayracalaenlen]

The air was cool and crisp, not terribly chilly, but still chilly enough for it to be obvious that the sun was receding beyond the horizon even if the dark form couldn't see the change in light. Valkyrie, like all Skullions, saw the world in a much different way, if 'saw' was even the word to use. Her species, long adapted to living beneath the earth in burrows, had lost their sight, as well as their hearing, long ago. In return, however, their senses of touch and smell had improved far beyond the capabilities of most.

She turned her head abruptly as she felt a presence at her side, though she relaxed as the familiar scent of the mixture of various wildflowers filled her nostrils. It was her partner, Eydis. Long ago they had settled on a scent for the woman to adorn herself with to make her easily recognizable, which was a pleasant scent to both humans and dragons.

Eydis let her hand come to rest gently on the dragon's side, a warm purr escaping the reptilian beast's throat as she quickly traced the form of a half-circle along her sensitive, ebony hide: sunset. It was just another adaption they had come up with to make up for the fact Valkyrie couldn't understand the world as Eydis did.

"Careful you don't stray into the water..." it was rather pointless for Eydis to speak to the dragon in a recognized sense, as Valkyrie was incapable of hearing her, though it was a habit that had remained all the same. As she spoke she traced a wave form along the dragon's hide, though a quick, indignant chirp seemed to give enough indication that Valkyrie didn't need the warning. She stopped easily a few feet from the lakeside and settled down, curling her tail around her claws. She had smelled the water, felt the change in texture in the ground beneath her feet. She didn't need the warning.

"Right, right, I know," Eydis commented in return, shifting the grip on her spear as she brushed auburn hair from her eyes. She approached the water side and narrowed her eyes as she searched the surface for the tell-tale signs of fish feeding in the twilight. She found seeing at night rather difficult, especially with her failing eyesight, thus it was difficult for her to even recognize the small ripples that showed the aquatic animals were near the surface. It was unfortunate, therefore, that they tended to seek out the deeper, cooler waters during the day, otherwise Eydis may have found the task of skewering one much easier.

She bit her lip, and abruptly heaved her speak forward, watching as it cut easily through the water...

And missed. She sighed, a somewhat frustrated tone rising in her breath as she waded out into the water to retrieve the spear. It would be a long night trying to fetch her dragon's favoured treat, though unfortunately Valkyrie wouldn't be of much aide. The dragon specialized in dry land, when it came to water her abilities tended to be considerably less than adequate.

[shadowinthewind]

The air was crisp, clean, and calm up in the sky. Never mind the chill factor, they were both used to that. Their favorite time of day was fast approaching: Night. The bright blaze of the sun was receding rapidly from the earth, leaving a trail of orange and pink and blue blaze of fire through the sky, casting a reflection of the waters surrounding them. The rush of wind, combined with the withdrawls of heat felt perfect against the White Fury's scales. Wishing for more of the feeling, the cloud-colored dragon folded his wings and dove deep into the sky, plummeting quickly to the earth below.

As the dragon dove closer and closer, his master simply stared straight downward. He kept a firm, unwavering line of sight on a focused point deep in the water, deep within a canyon the pair had not seen in years. They continued to swiftly dive, silently as the sun set under the water. They dove closer, the dragon increasing speed as he angled his wings, forming an arrow, streaking down at its target.

The dragon kept getting closer, now visible by anyone who happened to look up. That is, if they could see a small black dot in free-fall. Suddenly, the distance shrank as the dragon opened its wings and burst downward, now more like a missile than an arrow. Still, his master kept staring downward.

Shadow's eyes were locked on target. He was staring deep down at a single fish, swimming peacefully right in the middle of the lake, unaware of the fate hurtling towards it. He moved his hand from the dragon's back into his shirt and pulled out a single piece of wood with a sharp tip, and a piece of string exactly one hundred meters in length. He knews this only by careful, tedious measurement. He held the wood between his pointer and middle finger, with his thumb on the bottom for support. Shadow took one slow, deep breath, and connected his mind with his dragon.

In that instant, all of their thoughts became one. There was, and had never been, a need for verbal communication. All of Shadow's thoughts were now the dragon's thoughts. And only one thought mattered at that exact moment. "Viking, Flash Dash to BFWB and double back. Second on signal."

Viking's eyes flashed to combat mode, dilating immensely in preparation to execute his master's commands. With a silent roar of wind, the sky left between the hunting pair and the pool decreased rapidly, going to at most half the distance. Viking then opened his mouth just slightly and shot out a small speck of black flame. The distance then shrank again, now only a quarter of the distance remaining, the jet of black flame chasing Viking's tail.

The distance now seemed to shrink even faster, Shadow now measuring in meters. When his count reached close to a thousand, he flicked out his dart. As the dart fell, Viking braked slightly, allowing the flame to catch the dart, igniting it in white flame. In a motion almost too fast to see, Shadow whirled the dart in a circle as Viking burst downward to exactly one hundred meters, and burst back upwards the moment the dart touched water.

Shadow began pulling the dart up towards him as Viking climbed and stabilized high enough to not be seen. He smirked, satisfied even though he had not yet seen his success. As he pulled up his kill, he noticed that there was not one fish on the wood. Instead, there were three.

He connected his mind to Viking, and threw a fish into the air. Viking caught it with perfect timing, having known his master's thought. Having let his dragon eat, the two of them flew off and perched on the highest tree they could find to briefly rest.

"Time of flight today was six hours, forty-four and a half minutes, with a total catch of fifteen fish from an average distance of ninety-four point eight meters high. All in all, a good day Viking. Tomorrow will be better."

[ayracalaenlen]

Eydis narrowed her eyes further, distantly aware of the fact that her dragon's eyeless head was pointed in her general direction in a manner that showed she was waiting expectantly. Maybe it would have been a better idea to just let the Skullion stalk deer or some other large game in one of the forests on Berk, Thor knew the dragon certainly seemed to be more capable of bringing down such game than she was at fishing at night. She really wasn't sure just how pathetic on her part that was, but all the same, it was the truth in the matter. If only her eyes didn't insist on failing!

The viking-in-training, even if she had looked up from her work, probably wouldn't have seen the dark speck in the sky. Even on a sunny, clear day, such a small image would have blurred in with the blue of the heavens, and now that it was rapidly approaching nightfall it would have been unrealistic to expect anything better of her. However, the sight of a blur diving and the flare of dark flames was enough to attract anyone's attention.

Valkyrie's head shot up immediately as the scent of charred air reached her nostrils, and she instantly bared her fangs, her blind head turning back and forth as she tried to pinpoint the scent while her long, whip-like tail thrashed back and forth in her agitation. She knew there was something in the canyon now that hadn't been there before, and the fact that Eydis had given no indication that she had known about the new arrival was immediately putting the dragoness on high alert. Sure, she certainly preferred to have others do her bidding whenever she could, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to make use of the large, serrated fangs that lined her jaws and the hook-like claws that adorned her hind legs when they were needed.

"What...?" Eydis hissed to herself, doing her best to follow the quick shape as well as she could through squinted eyes. She couldn't tell for sure from this distance, though there wasn't any flying creature she knew of that was that size other than a dragon of some sort. If only she could try and identify who it was riding it, if anyone at all....

The shape suddenly flitted upward toward the branches of a tree, and Eydis backed up, gently brushing her fingertips along Valkyrie's side to let the Skullion know she was nearby before she gazed skyward. She really wasn't sure if she was in the mood for company, to be perfectly honest, had she known for sure that the rider, if there was one, was a fellow Hairy Hooligan she would have simply given Valkyrie the indication to slip away into the growing shadows with her, though, at the present moment, in the growing dusk, she wasn't sure if she wanted to turn her back to something that could very well prove to be a frightful enemy.

"Who goes there?" she barked suddenly, adapting the harsh, to-the-point tone of voice she tended to use when addressing most others save for Valkyrie. If she had a choice between an ambush and a head-on fight with a wild dragon, she certainly preferred the latter.

[shadowinthewind]

*A/N: Just to clarify for future posts:
This color is for when Shadow and Viking are mentally connected
This is for when Shadow is speaking to others.
This is when Shadow is thinking on his own*



Just as Shadow was beginning to enjoy his freshly cooked catch, a distinctly feminine voice reached his ears. Normally, this wouldn't attract his attention, as he was used to hearing a female voice. What caused him to turn and look was the inflection of this voice.

The normal ear would have only heard the rough, tough-as-nails pitch she was giving off as she shouted up to him. A dragon ear would have heard a bit of a garble that seemed like it was supposed to be menacing to a human. Shadow, still being connected slightly to Viking, heard much more than that. He heard the normal toughness and wariness that comes with approaching someone unknown. He also heard a very well concealed hint of fear, as though there was something stopping her from assessing him.

Shadow turned his head to look for the source of this voice. With his perfect vision, he spotted the girl down by the lake he was just at. He rolled his eyes and mentally cursed himself for not noticing her earlier. Looking at her, zooming in on her face, for he could care less what she wore, he saw exactly what he was looking for. He could see, from that distance, that she was squinting in the general direction of Viking's body, not directly at him.

Having seen many different types of people in his travels, he knew that she must have near-sightedness. Not surprising, he figured, as he met numerous people with the same condition. He melded his mind fully with Viking, joining them completely. He brought a single thought to his consciousness, so it would stick out to the both of them. "Stay here Viking, I'm gonna go check this out. Be ready with a Black Arrow if we need to, I don't feel like fighting tonight.

Viking sent off a vibe of understanding, and Shadow dismounted his dragon. He stood on a branch and continued staring at the girl. Suddenly, he jumped down off the branch and plummeted from the very top of the tree. He fell, not even attempting to stop himself, in a perfect free-fall for several seconds. Finally, as he neared the bottom, Shadow caught a long, sturdy-looking branch and swung himself forward, taking the branch with him.

He rocketed forward and caught himself by jamming the stick into the ground and sliding along it until he stopped, exactly two meters away from the girl. Even knowing the risks of getting so close, Shadow also knew that most people with near-sightedness can only see clearly for up to two meters. Even if that skullion, who was so obviously her dragon, decided to attack, he had ways of disabling it.

Shadow tossed away the stick into the water, dusted himself off, and stared straight into the girl's eyes, knowing that she could now see him.

"Funny, normally you should introduce yourself if you do not wish to initiate combat. If you did not seem like a little Vikie-in-training, I would have struck you down already, as I'm normally a hunted person. However, I will let that slide. But, my name is not the concern of a child of Berk. I suggest we leave each other alone, and go our separate ways now.

What say you, little-one-in-training?"