Curious little Dragon - [OPEN]

[setsuna]

A light breeze blew through the village. It was a (for Berk standards) sunny and calm day. Seagulls played on the docks as Vikings prepared for them to leave, or just arrived from fishing. Nothing unusual was happening...

Besides maybe one dragon observing the entire scene with his dark blue, oval eyes. Moving his fin-ears a little, he listened to whatever they said, even though he didn't understand a word. Setsuna was sitting on a rock near the docks, but just cleverly behind the gigantic cliffs that he wasn't seen if you weren't looking for him. As much as he enjoyed watching the Vikings do their thing, he still grew tired at some point.

Yawning loudly, he turned around on the rock, facing away. Curling together on the rock, he didn't watch his large tail-fin. It simply hung down, on the rock, facing the docks. The Vikings were way too busy to notice...

Sighing once, the dragon closed his eyes.

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven had finally got his saddle back from the leather-workers. It had a shiny new everything on it, and both he and Hermes were itching to try this out, making sure it was comfortable to both of them. Gearing Hermes up, making sure that no scales got caught in the underside, and tightening straps. He hoisted himself easily up onto the dragon, as if it was natural. With a nod of a blonde head, Hermes shot herself into the vast blue sky. Flapping her vast wings, and the twitch of her rump-rudders to correct herself, they were soon circling the entire village.

With a laugh, he cried over the winds to the dragon. "Haha! Yeah! This is the stuff isn't it, Hermes?"

"It sure is." Hermes replied, executing a brief barrel roll. With the saddle, Sven could hold on much easier than before. "Fancy a sudden vertical drop?"

"What? - " Sven couldn't ask any more, as Hermes had sailed right off one of the tallest cliffs around the port, and had changed her direction by 90 degrees. Downwards. She pulled up before hitting the jagged rocks below, weaving her way down the coastline through a natural slalom course made of archways and pillars. Sven said nothing more, merely enjoying the ride.

Hermes suddenly slowed down dramatically, shocking Sven. He had to dig his heels into the stirrups to keep himself from flying over the dragon's head. "What was that?" Hermes began to turn in a wide arc to face where they had come from. Sven, confused, remained silent as Hermes scouted the cliff side for something.

They both saw it at the same time - a colourful dragon was basking on one of the jagged rocks below. It didn't appear to have any wings as far as they could see. There was not really any place to land where Sven could dismount, so Hermes thought it best to leave him on the cliff above. He reluctantly agreed - it was for the best, and Hermes could always report back to him. He also removed the saddle, since they had no idea if the dragon would be friendly or not.

Free of burden, Hermes slid off the cliff and circled the dragon, who had not yet noticed her arrival. She saw a large rock near where the dragon was, and she set herself down on it. She cleared her throat, making her presence known.

"Hello?" Hermes said, cocking her head in curiosity. She quickly glanced up at the cliff, seeing Sven's legs dangling over the edge, pencil poised for the other dragon's every move.

[setsuna]

Hearing a voice so close by, the dragon opened his eyes again. What could possibly be happening? He sat up, yawning, rather clueless of the situation. Blinking a few times, he lazily looked over to the source, Hermes, and suddenly froze in his stance.

Somebody, or rather something was too close for comfort and TALKING to him. He didn't understand WHAT Hermes was supposed to be - a bird or dragon - but he still started to shiver.

"Uhm... h-hello?" for his appearance, he had quite a youthful voice.

"S-sorry if you wanted THIS rock... I'll be going then..." he said with a rather shaking voice.

He shortly scratched one of his ears with his incredibly human hand, and dove under the water before Hermes could really react. Because he didn't notice Sven, the dragon stayed rather close to the surface, making his back-scales twinkle rainbow in the light.

He moved himself away, to another out-sticking jagged rock, and eyed Hermes with a fiendish look. He didn't really like her, as he just "stole" his rock, but at least she didn't go and try to eat him.

"The-There you go! Now leave me alone..." his voice got quieter with every word.

"Man, she's huge..." the dragon thought, whilst making a rather pitiful look.

"If she gets too close, I'm going to swim away. Big winged creatures are quite menacing..."

[Sven & Hermes]

Hermes was about to open her mouth to speak, when the dragon had slipped itself into the waters. Her beak-like mouth stayed agape, slightly confused. Realising this, she quickly snapped her mouth shut. Judging from the dragon's voice it was quite shy, and although she only had teeth at the back of her mouth, she didn't want to appear intimidating. Hermes stayed put on the rock she was on, lowering herself to lie down. The rock she was on was much higher than the one the rainbow-dragon was on, and with crashing waves all around, she wasn't too keen on getting wet.

"Uhh... I'm fine where I am, thanks..." Hermes replied when the dragon resurfaced, revealing only it's head above the iron waters. Not sure what to do now, she busiest herself, scratching at a loose part of rock with a short stubby claw.

"So... You're a water-dragon? I've never really seen your kind of dragon before..." She didn't really want to get into random questions on behalf of Sven, like height, age, diet, etc. Especially since it was clear neither of them were comfortable at this conversation; one out of inexperience, the other out of possible fright.

[setsuna]

He eyed the winged creature for a while and relaxed a little bit when he figured that she wasn't going to do anything suddenly. It was even delighting that she was interested into his origin - it at least meant that she didn't want to harm him... yet.

Cocking his head slightly to the side, he answered: "Mhm. I'm a... water dragon. Name Setsuna... Erm, the name is Setsuna. I... Hrrm?!" The dragon abruptly stopped when he saw a boy watching them from afar. Due to the changed angle, he was able to notice the kid with book, pencil and saddle. Counting one and one together...

"Y-You're the dragon of that kid, r-right?! What d-do you want from me? D-Do you w-want to trick me i-into something?!" he was clearly scared out of his mind, but he stood up on his hind legs on the rock, clearly displaying the digi-grade legs, and roared straight to wards Hermes.

"Yo-You're not going to get me alive!" With that, he threw a shard of ice out of his mouth, to wards Hermes, but aimed that it doesn't hit her, but rather the rock, as a warning. He tried to rear his shoulder-fins to stand up, but they didn't listen, and continued to stick down. Waving his tail left and right, he continued:

"C-Come on, now! I-I'm not scared of you!"

[Sven & Hermes]

Hermes quickly felt at ease now the dragon knew she meant no harm, no longer fiddling with loose stones on the rocky surface. She was listening intently to the dragon introducing himself, nodding as her suspicions were confirmed that Setsuna was, in fact, a water dragon.

But then Setsuna noticed Sven, and her eyes widened in shock as his personality shifted dramatically from relaxed but cautious to outright fear. Hermes' crest fell back from it's casual position, as the spectrum dragon exploded with panic.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down-" Hermes started, rising slowly from her position, head kept low in a submissive state, to try and appear harmless. Setsuna's roar cut her off, and Hermes took a hesitant step backwards. Hermes wasn't fit to fight - and she was worried this dragon may turn hostile.

"Look, just a sec-" Hermes stared in disbelief as the water dragon was taking the situation to the extreme. He threw a shard of ice at her, luckily missing and shattering into millions of pieces as it hit the rock. Now feeling threatened by the warning shot, all the scales along Hermes' black body slowly began to raise up.

Hermes could tell the dragon was scared, trying to appear brave. Knowing this, she composed herself, flattening her scales again, clearing her throat just like she had done before. She suddenly spoke, ignoring any further remarks and not allowing the Dragon to interrupt her again:

"We're not going to hurt you okay? If you're not going to listen to reason I'll MAKE you listen!" Hermes frowned slightly, bending her joints, preparing to dodge any incoming ice bullets at any moment.

Up on the cliff side, Sven facepalmed.

[setsuna]

Although Hermes said that she was not going to harm him, she went into a defensive - no, downright a position where she's ready to pounce him. Originally thought to dodge him, but his paranoid mind told him otherwise.

"So, you'll make me listen by preparing to fight me?! What logic is that you... you... WHATEVER you are!" he yelled, making the waves sound like tiny squeaks.

He inhaled loudly, and cold mist escaped his shut mouth. The dragon jerked a little with his head - and suddenly released a well formed spear of ice. This time well aimed towards Hermes!

"Graaaagh! You'll pay for deceiving me, you murderous pet!

Diving under afterwards and trying to get out of view, he prepared a heavy speed boost, leaping afterwards out of the water. Flying many meters high with ease, he landed at the hang Sven was "hiding" and growled heavily at him. He lifted himself again on his hind legs, and showed his teeth.

"You betrayers - you damn creatures with swords and shields! Sometimes I don't understand what I found fascinating about you humans...!" roaring once loudly, he went back on his front legs again - and went on a defensive position.

"You and your dragon would better leave me alone!... Or... Or else!" he yelled at the boy, whilst eying his body for an potential weapons he may hold.

[Sven & Hermes]

Oh, great, thought Hermes sarcastically as the water dragon translated her defensive stance as an agressive one. She made a mental note for the future that body language isn't the same for all dragons.

"Please just- WHOA!" Hermes' reflexes made her body flatten itself against the stone, wings spread as if she was hugging the rock for her dear life. The shard flew harmlessly over her head, but she felt the air pushed by the object rustle overhead. She was breathing rapidly now, scales completely erect in surprise and threat. It seemed diplomacy had failed.

"HERMES!" Sven fearfully shouted as he witnessed the attack upon the dragon. It seemed the dragon had heard him, though, as it almost flew right towards him, clinging to the cliff below him. Despite the precarious situation, Sven found the dragon incredibly pretty, and he bared his teeth at the human. Standing up and backing away, he held his arms open - showing he possessed no weapons and meant no threat. Then he saw it - he'd left his notepad - his ever so precious notepad on the grassy banks next to the field, right next to where the dragon was. The page was still open where he had drawn a picture of the dragon and written some information about it. He didn't know whether the dragon could read human, but he had marked that the dragon was timid but easily provoked.

He had heard the dragon's words, and he was hoping that maybe the dragon would listen if he spoke in the same language, noting that the dragon seemed to be interested in humans.

"Looklooklooklooklooklook! You're interested in humans - I'm interested in dragons! Maybe we can work something out!" Sven reasoned desperately, hoping that Hermes would recover from the shock and come to his side. He still kept his arms open, switching his focus from the threatening dragon to the threat of losing his entire work in one go. The thought of losing all the work he'd done from this career struck him like lightning. His knees began to shake.

"We'll leave you alone if you really want! All I ask in return is for that book that's in front of you." He bowed his head, shaking it. His voice was breaking slightly, and whispered "...Please...."

Down below, Hermes was still taken aback by the dragon's reaction. She daren't go back up there, since she felt it was her fault for turning this once shy and somewhat friendly dragon into a ice-spitting paranoid hostility. He hoped Sven would be okay. She'd seen him get out of sticky situations before without her help. So she stayed where she was, trying to block out the sound of the roaring sea-serpent, and letting the ocean waves lap against the tips of her wings.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered, sullen.

[setsuna]

Growling heavily, the dragon actually listened to what the boy was saying, waiting for a possible threat which would give him a reason to attack. But Sven moved backwards, hands held high, and worrying about a book with strange things written in it instead of harming him.

Setsuna shifted his look for a moment over the notepad - it was inscribed in a language he didn't know even remotely. But he figured that the scribble was supposed to be him, and figured what was going on - he just wanted to know about himself, as he's most likely not known about his breed before. Also adding to the fact that the kid seemed weaponless...

The growling ceased. He stopped showing his teeth and suddenly had a rather curious look on him. The kid could speak his language, was interested about him, and Setsuna was interested about humans. What a strange coincidence!

Picking the notepad up with his humanoid hands, the dragon started to carefully look through the book without damaging it. He quickly stopped though - as he couldn't read a word it was trying to tell him. Walking carefully over to Sven, he slowly handed over the book, whilst having deluded eyes. He afterwards went down on front legs to be less threatening and eyed Sven carefully, whilst staying rather close to the kid. The dragon wanted to know what he's going to do now, how he's going to react.

Setsuna lowered his head to a level that he was about the height of Sven's chest. Looking upwards at him, he said:

"I understand now. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do this, I was just so scared and..." he looked away, ashamed of his behavior.

"My name is Setsuna. I'm pleased to meet you, human." He still sounded rather shy and scared, but atleast not threatening anymore.

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven dared to look up once more at the dragon, it's growls slowly fading away. It had listened to him - and was now interested in the book. He was breathing heavily, scared for his documents. He winced slightly as the creature picked up the book in it's human-like hands, but relaxed at how the dragon seemed to take care of it.

Setsuna advanced towards him, but Sven no longer retreated, but still cautious. He hesitantly accepted the return of the notepad, hiding it into a secure pocket inside of his jacket. He hoped this wasn't a trick, seeing the way the dragon had acted beforehand. he read the dragon's apologetic stance, but Sven didn't know what kind of face to make.

Setsuna's apology softened Sven's features immediately. "Hey... hey, there now..." He whispered softly as the Setsuna turned his head away. "Everyone makes a mistake or lack of judgement, don't beat yourself up. My name's Sven, and that dragon down there is called Hermes."

Sven frowned slightly as Hermes seemed to not want to make her appearence known. She must have been feeling guilty for aggravating the dragon or something. "Setsuna, I'm sorry on behalf of Hermes for threatening you; she's a solitary dragon, so she's not used to speaking to others. If she has hurt you in any way, she never intended it." He held a hand to his chest as he said this. "Would you be okay with it if I called her up here? She might think you've killed me or something since you're not angry anymore."

At the jagged rocks below, Hermes heard the angry grumbles of the dragon cease. Oh gods... Please don't tell me what I think has just happened... She gave a puff of flame in self-hate.

[setsuna]

It relieved the dragon to know that Sven wasn't angry at him. Huffing through his nose a few times, mostly to think, he answered:

"Alright. You can call 'Hermes' up here. I don't want to make her think that I hurt you or anything. I hate to fight - really, I do. I'm really bad at it." It took quite a bit of his courage to admit this, but he lifted his head towards Sven and smiled.

"You seem like a good guy. I like you." the sentences sound rather dull and unprofessional, but the dragon was still rather nervous and jumpy.

Taking a few steps away, he was making space for his... "Bird" to be able to return to her master. Still smiling, the dragon sat down, curling its large tail-fine around its body.

"You said you were interested into dragons? Well... ask me anything. I hope I can suffice an answer. It's the least I could do after attacking you folks."

(OOC: Sorry for short post, seriously didn't know what to write here.)

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven broke into a smile as the Dragon allowed for Hermes to appear. He walked past the dragon, calling over the edge for Hermes.

And Hermes heard him, raising her eagle-like head to the skies. She saw the familiar silhouette of Sven peering over the edge, calling her name. He was still alive. Within a blink of an eye she was at the top of the cliff, and tackled Sven to the ground.

"Don't you DARE scare me like that again!" Hermes spat at him. She wasn't an aggressive dragon, and quickly composed herself, seeing Setsuna no longer hostile. Sven was half-expecting that reaction.

"I'm sorry, Hermes!" He knew she would forgive him quickly; it wasn't the first time this sort of thing had happened. With a grunt of acknowledgement, Hermes stepped off him and allowed him to stand up again. Brushing himself off, he turned once more to Setsuna, Hermes standing a way behind him.

"Well I'm glad that you see me as a good person, Setsuna. It's a pleasure to get to know you." The duo could tell the dragon was still a little nervous, so he wanted to appear confident and friendly. He also invited himself to sit down, cross-legged, on the grassy plain.

"Of course," Sven replied, withdrawing his notepad and pencil again, "Likewise, feel free to ask any curiosities you may have about the human race." Sven proceeded by asking a few basic questions that he always wrote for each species he met - Species name, height, length, habitat and diet.

[setsuna]

Setsuna grinned a little. He was going to talk about himself as if he's a scientific project - but that's fine. He barely knew anything anyway.

"Well..." he started, whilst scratching the side of his face with his hand,

"I'm a Rainbowscale. We can in an adult age become as big as a whale - but we only grow really big when we're really old. Before that, we don't really exceed in size. I live in the ocean, rather close to the shore, eat fish and seafood. Erm... I really like shells. Well, the contents of them." Stopping for a moment, he had to think. Maybe the next thing was going to be valuable information.

"We get born in single huge eggs inside an underwater cavern. After we've hatched we already know our name and how we need to live - as if certain knowledge is imbedded with us every generation. My original name was Shadowblare, but I rather call myself Setsuna, as Shadowblare sounds really menacing." chuckling a little, he continued,

"I've never seen anyone of my breed before, to be honest. It might be because I really hang around that place around where the ships are - You call them "Docks" right?" Even though he only said a single human word, he still failed at the pronounciation.

"But enough about myself right now. I want to know something too. Do you guys only eat fish too? I always see these humans that go out and fish... which is rather annoying, to be honest. They're fishing so much right now, that I get trouble finding good amounts of them. I need to go FAR out the ocean to find good fish, but there's a giant dragon there that scares me..." Lowering his head a little, he looked at his belly. He was hungry since a while now, but he didn't dare to ask Sven if he had something to eat.

"Oh, and sorry for before, Hermes! It was all my fault." he huffed a little. Now he was surely on their good side.

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven smiled warmly as he noted down all this extra information. He laughed internally - reminding him of a psychiatric session. He looked up from his notes every once in a while, taking in more details about the dragons appearance; eyes here, nose there, claws such and such a length etc.

He paused and looked up up at the human word Setsuna pronounced. Sven had been listening to him speak in dragonese for so long that his own mother tongue sounded foreign and strange!

"Yes, we call them 'Docks'." He repeated the word a few times for the dragon, so it could hear the pronounciation better. "We can also call them 'Harbours', but that's usually for when it is built in stone and has a wall surrounding it." Sven explained briefly. The dragonologist was definitely intrigued - he had never met a dragon so interested in humans before.

"Humans are omnivores, that means they can eat both meat and plants." Sven started, hoping to lay things clear for the dragon. "Most humans live in communities, so they have to gather food for everyone by any means possible. You know how hard hunting is by yourself, so if you can imagine hunting not only for yourself, but for everyone else in the community too? It is hard to grow vegetation in this climate, since it is nearly always so cold. The Vikings here rely mostly on meats they hunt in the forests and the fish they catch in the sea." Sven frowned out of concern.

"If you wanted, I could go speak with the Viking chief about this over-fishing. The problem is, I'm not really considered a 'resident' of their community, so my pleas might be ignored. How long has it been since you've eaten?"

Hermes was generally bored with the exchange of information, and after the ordeal, had begun to bask in the sun behind them. She raised her head blearily from the grass with a groan. "No problem." Hermes replied. "Misunderstandings seem to be an occupational hazard for this human. I knew you weren't a bad guy from the start." Hermes had been secretly eavesdropping, under the guide of not really caring. She also noticed the dragon glance at his belly. "If you want, I'll go get you some fish? They can't see me from above the water - so they're easier to catch. Think of it as a peace offering or something, a token of friendship."

[setsuna]

The dragon frowned a little. It's understandable for him that if you aren't in a certain group, that you have nothing to say to them. He sighed.

Setsuna looked out towards the ocean. His skin has dried out by now, but he didn't notice that because of the heated conversation he was holding. Thus, feeling no need to return yet. His scales started looking rather dull because of the lack of H²O, and the dragon started to steadily smack with his maw a little, as if someone is thirsty.

"It's fine, Sven. You can't really do anything. I can also live on seaweed and such - it's just that for a good diet I need fish aswell." He smiled a little - Gotta keep a good attitude, right?

As Hermes started talking his ears twitched a little, to fully understand her.

"That'd be nice, Hermes. I didn't eat any fish since 3 days and the seaweed is kinda thin in this area here. I could have gone hunting but... I really enjoy watching humans, hahaha. I kinda suffer for my passion." giggling a little, he returned towards Sven.

"But after that, you two should get going. The sun is slowly going down, and I'm sure you have a home or atleast a place to sleep. I don't want you two running around in the dark. That's kinda dangerous." the dragon said with rising concern. Although he didn't know them for a long time, he already had the feeling of having to care for them. Also a little heritage from their breed, which makes them heavily social.

The dragon tried to stand up to shift his position a little, but he had to figure out that his skin was so dry at this point, that turning around was a real pain. He moved slowly, and with no elegance. Lieing down now, he curiously looked up to Sven again. The dragon was showing his back now - revealing the scales that shine in beautiful rainbow colors. He also fully revealed his coral-shaped shoulders where his large fins come from. The dragon thought that it would be interesting for Sven to see this.