Coastal Winds [OPEN]

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven was sitting upon a ridge overlooking the main port of Berk. A ship had just arrived from a trip, a frenzied action to secure the boat to the docks. There was a crisp, fresh breeze ruffling through his blonde hair, and he closed his eyes for a moment to enjoy it.

Suddenly, a whooshing sound came from above; opening his eyes in surprise he saw his dragon - Hermes, flying overhead gracefully. Her feather-like scales along her wings were catching the sun and reflecting a deep blue colour. It seemed she was enjoying the wind as well. He smiled at the thought.

Sven felt like Hermes was putting on a private air show just for himself. Dives and swoops and loop the loops in such a graceful way, the human admired this creature for it's skills. He was sure that Hermes' fancy aerobatics would attract some attention.

Hermes hadn't really made herself apparent to the villagers yet, as far as he knew. He was hoping that he could finally introduce some of his new friends and colleagues about his dragon.

[Sven & Hermes]

(OOC: I'm going to assume that Noah told Hermes his name when they were on that mountain

One of Hermes' ear-crests flicked upon hearing the cry of recognition over the breeze. Pinpointing the voice, it hadn't come from Sven. It was from Noah, a human he had met when she was scouting for a temporary shelter. She decided it would be good to speak again, especially since Sven was here.

Not too far from the ground, she spun down towards the landmass, opening her wings slightly at the last moment to cushion her landing. She shook herself, razor-sharp scales slotting themselves neatly into place like a jigsaw. Then, folding her wings and tail-rudder delicately, she approached Noah.

She dipped her head in recognition. "Greetings, Noah. I suppose you're doing well?"

Sven heard a voice call out behind him, something to do with Hermes. Lying onto his back and looking upwards in an upside-down fashion, he saw a dark haired man greeting the dragon, further in the distance. She must be feeling at ease here knowing that dragons are welcome on this island, he thought. Rolling onto his front and getting up, he decided he would also meet this individual, in which Hermes and the stranger already seemed to be acquainted.

Walking up the grassy bank, he gave a warm smile. He had no idea if this guy was friendly or not, but he sure had a large sword on his back, so he better play nice. Finally reaching Hermes' side, he placed a hand on her neck.

"Hello-"
"This is Sven, the human I spoke to you about when we first met."Hermes interrupted, reveling in the upper hand of introductions for once. She cocked her head to look at Sven smugly, betraying a small smile. "Sven, this is Noah."

Sven nodded in courtesy, tearing himself from the looming sleek mass of a dragon and stood in front of Hermes. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Noah." He held out a hand, hoping such formalities would translate across to viking culture. If not, then he would have learnt something. "If Hermes here hasn't told you already, I'm a travelling Dragonologist - I study dragons."

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven watched with interest as Noah executed his signal, wondering what would come of it. Before the claymore was even thrown Sven had spotted a purple, serpentine dragon slink it's way from behind a building, creeping up behind Noah. Both Sven and Hermes quickly figured the dragons intentions, and kept their expressions mute, which was much easier for Hermes.

As Nightrode made his presence known to Noah, Hermes stifled a small laugh at the human's reaction. As Noah turned around, Svan was itching to draw out his notebook, but it would be rude to ignore Noah. Sven nodded at the dragon. "It's nice to meet you, Nightrode."

"And I'm Hermes." The dragon chipped in.

However his intrigued face became a small frown - Hermes wasn't that common of a dragon, but she wasn't the only one. He looked up at her, a small smile at the corners of her mouth, but with troubled eyes.

Sven finally brought out his notebook, scratching in a very quick sketch and a note stating 'unique'. Asking for basic details, like species name and age, he wrote down a couple of information. Hermes ruffled her wings, itching to ride the air again. Sven noticed this, and looked back towards Noah and Nightrode, with a good idea.

"Hey, how about we ride our dragons together?" Sven suggested. "My saddle is still at the leather-workers, but I can ride bareback..." He look yet again at Hermes. "As long as you don't puff up your scales." He gave a nervous laugh as Hermes gave a taunting grin. Her scales were mighty sharp, he had often cut his fingers on them if he wasn't too careful. He didn't want that happening in mid-air, sitting on all those potential daggers.

"You can trust me." Hermes stated blandly. Sven, crossing his arms, still slightly unsure of what Hermes would do, managed to show a smile.

"So? What do you think?"

[nightrode]

The dragon watched Sven scribble hyperactivly in his little book. It was quite interesting to watch. Figuring that the sketch was about HIM, he lifted his wings and made an impressing pose. He's got to get him from his best side, right? Nightrode grinned towards Noah, as if "I'm awesome, and that guy knows it."

But he quickly quit being such an arrogant idiot, after the invitation for a flight came. He returned into a normal stance, and looked with large, deluded eyes towards Noah.

"It doesn't seem like a bad idea. We could show off all the tricks I can do in the air." the dragon said, hiding his actual enthusiasm.

"I'm up for a round or two. I've still got plenty of power left."

Not awaiting Noah's response, the serpent picked Noah up with his maw by his back and carried him on his back. Immediately after wards he took off with a rumble into the sky, very smoothly and like a flying snake.

Snickering, he moved his head towards Noah.

"This is going to be a wild ride. You'd better be prepared."

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven laughed as the duo's tumbling antics into the air. Without his saddle, Sven would have found it harder to mount Hermes, but she lowered herself for him.

"You really better not get spooked by anything, Hermes." Sven warned as he positioned himself on her back, just after her neck where the saddle would have usually gone. Scales laid flat, Hermes' appearance looked glassy and smooth. With a few starter flaps, she shot into the air, rudder held wide for lift and stability. Now riding Hermes, he could feel the wind rippling under the beast's powerful bird-like wings. It really was a good day for flying.

"Come on Hermes, let's show them some stuff!" Hermes complied and followed the serpentine dragon, which twisted and turned gracefully with each flap. At a reasonable height now, Hermes closed her rudders, allowing for instability, and in consequence - daring stunts.

Sven knew what she was doing, so held tight and let Hermes get on with it, leaning one way to the other with the creature. She was vertically circling Noah and Nightrode now, with the occasional barrel roll. It had been a long time since he had flown bareback, and tucked his legs behind Hermes' elbows.

The dive surprised him, not expecting it. The momentum allowed for Hermes to pull up and perform an amazing loop the loop, all the while spinning. All accompanied by whoops of adrenaline from the human. After that, Hermes spread her rudders out again and flew against the incoming wafts of wind that came from the sea. Sven could relax now and feel the wind ripple through his hair.

"See? You haven't fallen off yet. Besides, since when have you stopped trusting me?" Hermes said over the wind. Sven shrugged, but of course the dragon couldn't see it. Seeing where the wind was coming from, Hermes wouldn't be able to hear him anyways. He patted her on the neck in comprehension. "Let's see what they're capable of."

[nightrode]

Due to the harsh wind, Nightrode didn't understand much what Noah was saying. But he sure was ready! He understood that.

Waiting for the feathered dragon, he fully observed their moves. It was only shortly then, that the dragon opened its maw in awe. What Hermes performed was quite good! If not... TOO good.

But the dragon had some things up his nonexistant sleeve aswell. Grinning almost devilishly with his teeth packed mouth, he started beating his wings shooting straight up into the sky whilst turning like a spiral. It was when they reached the clouds that he...

... suddenly stopped!

It was as if Nightrode started dropping dead out of the sky!

Not moving an inch, having his eyes closed, the dragon and his tamer tumbled towards the ocean.

Only in the last second he turned around, opened his wings again and spiraled upwards. Afterwards he flew loopings around Sven and Hermes, displaying his absolute control over his flight - even if it's not as fast as most dragons.

As a tease, Nightrode landed shortly with one hind leg on Hermes forehead, putting barely to no weight to him, and afterwards spiralling off again.

Huffing proudly harmless green smoke, he looked at the two.

"How was that, birdbrain?!" he scoffed, with a playful understone.

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven had to shield his eyes from the sun as he watched Nightrode and Noah become a speck in the sky. Then, as they dropped out of the sky, Sven's heart skipped a beat - did they stall in mid-flight? He watched them plummet - and Nightrode caught himself almost last minute.

"That was impressive." Sven said, oblivious is was all part of the trick. Hermes snorted, obviously in a competitive mood now.

"What the hell..." Catching a thermal, Hermes glided her way over to Nightrode. "That was alright, I guess. I've done it before - it's no easy feat. But as a constructive criticism, you could've gone a bit further down before recuperating." With a boastful chuckle, she propelled herself high into the air.

"Like you said, Sven, we'll show them. Stay as flat as possible, okay?" Hermes stated blandly, beating her wings powerfully. It was now Hermes the speck in the sky, and if you didn't look carefully you would have thought it was a giant bird or gryphon.

"Hermes, what are you-" He couldn't finish his sentence as Hermes snapped wings, rudders, everything tightly shut. Head first, she immediately plummeted like a black missile, shooting past Nightrode and Noah. Within a couple of hundred metres of the water, her wings rudder and tail piece fanned out in the blink of an eye, the forces straining the dragon's strength.

"Come on, winds...." Hermes said through gritted molars, the blue getting ever closer. Drafts of air that were created by the waves created a sufficient upward thrust to keep Hermes in the air. She made it. Within feet of the waters. Her tail lapped some of the higher waves.

"Only just..." Hermes said shakily. That was the first time she dared to go to dangerous levels like that. A miscalculation and they would have hit the water, and not come out again.

"HERMES YOU'RE CRAZY!" Sven shouted. The rushing of wind made his ears ring and throb, along with a pounding heartbeat. He swore he could feel Hermes' heartbeat too. The dragon plucked a large fish out the water, before gently flapping her wings, and soon joined back to the thermals that she was riding before.

"That's how you do it." Hermes exhaled in exhaustion to Nightrode. The force of the air had really taken it's toll - she knew she was going to be in a lot of pain tomorrow morning. "I don't recommend it. It was Sven who told me how waves make the wind ride up." Hermes explained, glancing at a petrel flying low over the waves, without beating a single wing. "That's why the birds can fly for ages without wing beats so close to the water. I figured it would help stop me falling."

"Don't do it ever again, Hermes. You scared the Valhalla out of me!" Sven gasped, adrenaline still pumping in his blood.
"Don't worry. I won't." Hermes replied. "Ugh, I've pushed myself too far now - I don't think I'm going to do any death-defying stunts like that for a while."

[nightrode]

Nightrode watched the duo COPYING his trick. Yes. Nightrode can be arrogant like that. And seeing them actually SUCCESS too took the icing of the cake. The dragon started growling in anger. Baring his teeth, he tried to stay in control, but his shuddering body made it obvious that he wasn't.

"Good work, giant feather. I thought you were going to DIE there for a moment. I. Was. Worried." he said the last words with rising anger.

"Ah well!" he scoffed, moving his head away from them. "Atleast you aren't some wannabe who thinks they're the hotshots!" he huffed, obviously enraged that someone could beat him in control. He didn't realise that it was a mere fluke, since by then, he only saw red.

He opened his large wings to glide, and at the same time, look with a devilish expression at Hermes. It was enraged for sure, but there wasn't this "I'm going to kill you" atmosphere. Just... a dragon that can't stand losing.

"Well... here's something you definatly CAN'T do!" he proudly scoffed.

The dragon barrel rolled downwards, and opened his maw with distance from his body. He let out streams of his green acid, whilst spinning, which displayed a colorful show of spins and turns.

He stopped quickly though, flying upwards again. He WAS throwing around with acid. But he trusted that Noah was still squeezing himself tight against his body.

"Well, you'd better not go and steal THAT move." he chuckled, again sure of himself.

[Sven & Hermes]

Hermes was too tired now to bother arguing. Besides, it wasn't really her thing. She just grunted at him, noting the sarcasm. Well, if he didn't want advice, that was his problem. She ignored the names. She found it quite funny, actually, since he was mistaking her scales for actual feathers.

She perked up a bit as Night created an acidic display, tiredly avoiding stray droplets. Some spray appeared to have hit home though, as one of Hermes' secondaries dislodged itself - which only happens when a scale gets damaged, so that only top-quality scales remain and continue the streamlining and efficient flying of the dragon. She wasn't too bothered. Being with Sven and his ways, she had begun to value fair game.

"Do you wanna keep that scale? Hermes asked Sven. She was ignoring Night - but she'd rather not provoke a fight. With a shake of the wing, the shard fell from the limb.

"I don't see why not. Maybe one of the villagers could find a use for it. With a nod, Hermes followed the shard, dropping beneath it so that Sven could easily catch it. He tucked it away in his bag. That was when he caught Noah's voice.

The duo agreed, and they made their way back to the grassy banks where they first met. Once dismounted, Hermes collapsed. Sven knelt by her side, but realised she has fallen asleep. With a sigh of relief, he sat next to her head, and retrieved the scale from the bag.

Brandishing it, he noticed a singing hole where the acid had been. It was slightly smoking and smelt of burnt air. Pouring a flask of water over it to wash away the remaining acid, he inspected it some more. It was still sharp, and the hole the acid had created made it quite flexible. It was about the length of a short sword.

"Humans hunted Ambassador dragons for their scales." Sven explained, looking at Hermes. "They're sharp and rarely dull, lightweight and are very durable. As soon as there is a fault with a scale,, it drops off, like this one. Most of the time they're still useful, I myself have made a knife out of one of Hermes' rejects." Placing the scale on the grass in between him and Noah, he pulled out a short pointed oval-like knife. A wooden handle was fastened onto the base of the scale. He put it away again, knowing about Night's foul mood, and not wanting to provoke him.

[nightrode]

A rest? Something he needed. Nightrode has the tendency to not show when he needs something... so...

When they had landed, the dragon let Noah down. Afterwards he coiled himself together to a spiral and closed his eyes. His wings were burning from the stress, but it was worth it. Sven and Hermes knew who were boss, and even though he acts this way towards Noah aswell, the boy knew he was TRUELY in charge.

Sighing in exhaustion, he gave a quick lick over Noah's face, before lying down to sleep aswell. A nap will do.

Whilst Sven started explaining about that race of dragon, Nightrode snoozed off. He didn't really care if they got hunted or not. HE WAS HUNTED. He doesn't need a second sob story to fill his mind.

Out of exhaustion, the dragon went into a soft sleep. A strange noise would still wake him up, kinda like a cat, but he's sleeping.

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven smiled at Noah's interest in the knife. "I think I'll take this new scale to the blacksmith's later, and see if I can't make a short sword out of it.

"I come from far, far, away. I don't really map where we're going, Hermes is a nomadic dragon, so wherever she goes, I go too. It gives me the chance to see dragons in all sorts of habitats, and study them too. For all I know, I could be next door to home and not even know it. I know it's a lot warmer than here, though." He gave a small laugh at this - hoping he didn't wake the dragons. Reminded, he pulled out his notebook and scribbled some extra info on Night, mainly on his flying style.

"So yeah, we were flying, Hermes goes wherever her instincts take her. We were flying for days without land, thank goodness I had the foresight to laden the poor girl with salted meats - we finally arrived a cluster of islands. Hermes spotted some dragons, and in my interest we came down, and realised that there were more here than I originally thought. He stroked the blade-like scale in front of him, feeling it's black glassy surface, reflecting tints of dark blue.
"I don't know how long Hermes intends to stay here - when she decides it's time to go, she's not going to wait long, so I have to do all the researching I can whilst I'm here. So that's pretty much my story; what about you? Are you from these parts?

[nightrode]

The dragon got slightly woken up from his trance by the laughter Sven did - which wasn't a distaster. He was doing a soft and easy nap. Mostly snoozing. As he opened his eyes slightly, he looked over to the two talking in such a fast human speech that he barely comprehended.

It didn't matter though, his interest shifting quickly as Sven began waving the scale-knife around, which reflected a dark blue tint. But it also reflected the light towards the floor, which made it a twitching little circle of light on the grass.

Feeling his playing and hunting instincts activated, the dragon unspiraled, letting Noah drop down, and went down like a cat, looking at the circle.

His eyes deluded, watching the light go on the grass. He waved his long and sleek tail left and right. Growling in a playful manner, he suddenly pounced at the light, slamming it with both of his claws.

Looking now confused, he lifted his head towards the now towering Sven and Noah. Where did the light go?

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven smiled again as Night's cat-like antics brought the atmosphere back to one of playfulness. With intention now, he reflected light off the knife a few centimetres from the side of Nightrode's clutches, moving it every time the dragon would attempt to catch the little reflection of light.

"He's a playful little thing, isn't he? Sven laughed at the antics. A big sigh from the dragon behind him erupted. Hermes was still resting, unamused. "In comparison to Hermes, anyway."

Deciding the space between them was insufficient for playing with a huge dragon like this, Sven stood up and let the light lead away from where they were sitting.


(OOC: Sorry it's short =/)

[nightrode]

The light moved steadily. Always just a few inches away. And no matter how many times he clutched it, it seemed to always manage to escape him! How does it do that?!

Fully concentrating on the light, he didn't notice Noah's and Sven's laughter, or a reasonable explanation. He wanted that light - no matter how many times it thinks it can escape!

As it moved further away, the dragon was sure that the light was scared of him. Pressing himself against the ground, he sneaked slowly towards it... slowly...

...and then pounced so hard against the light/ground that a loud noise could be heard. This time he had it... right?

Seeing it move away again, he gave the entire situation one last try. He jumped up, started to fly and took some distance from the "Object" he so wanted. Doing a few circles to adjust his angle, he suddenly flew down like a hunting eagle. Only with his front claws first.

As he landed, his entire body and claws skidded across the ground, making the grassfield into a mess. The dragon quickly searched in the dirt after the light, and figured, that it was next to him AGAIN!

Huffing in disappointment, he laid down again, whilst slamming his head against the ground once.

"Damn unfetchable objects..."

[Sven & Hermes]

Watching the dragon slump to the floor in despair, Sven pocketed the knife, the shimmering light disappearing.

"Aww, it looks like you've tired yourself out!" Said Sven, with a muffled laugh from the previous playing. He began to rummage in his bag, finally withdrawing a freshly caught fish from this morning. Holding it up by the neck and making sure no beasts had entered it, he stepped forwards hesitantly.

"Hmm... I don't know whether you eat fish, but if you want, you can have this for your efforts." He lay the carcass on the ground near the dragon's nose. Withdrawing the knife and making sure the light wouldn't distract the dragon, he gave a rough filleting of the fish, removing the majority of bones, save a couple of the tricky ones.

"Here, see? I even took out those nasty bones for you. I know they get stuck in both mine and Hermes' throats." As a joke, he reflected a little light onto the fish, making it's scales glisten like little sequins.

With his other hand, Sven was slowly withdrawing his notebook, ready to write extra information about the dragon's eating habits, curiosity sparking him as the dragon's did for the speck of light.