[The windows there aren't large, so by the time the shadow has hit Lee's field of view, it's already too late to catch a glimpse of anything.
...But that was far too big even to be the hulking form of the paladin Lee has taken to being in the company of. Too big to be anyone from her party, in fact, and it has her darting instantly and quietly to the door of the Inn. It parts a crack, giving her a sliver of view to the outside, and she glances intently out...]
[A great snout, its nostrils flaring, pushes against her now unlatched door, pressing inwards with the same lazy determination as a stray dog. He can't see her - the door to the inn is too small, too insignificant - but he can certainly smell her, taste her scent in the air, that unmistakeably tang of humanity.]
[And he'd very much care to know what it is he's found. Or, more to the point, what's found him.]
[Sean looks up from the pile of maps and graphs and does a double take. Was that a dragon.....a dragon now.....dear god how could his life get worse. Sean sighs and heads out of the department onto the street tracking the dragon with his keen senses.]
[Lee gasps in shock, jumping back instinctively and landing on her toes, ready to run. To or from? There's windows behind her, she could squeeze through one of them if she can make it that far. The door is fully blocked by a scaled snout that must be-- except that it can't possibly be--
Lee swallows, stubborn. It's still a few moments before she can bark out a question.]
Who are you? [Because while this creature may be sniffing the air like a 'what', Lee's suspicions are telling her this is most certainly a 'who'.]
[The dragon in question appears to be out for nothing more than a stroll. Draco pads quietly down the street, only the brief slither of his tail raking across the ground and soft scratch of his claws disturbing the silence. He pauses when he reaches the end, arching his neck to look briefly up at the sky, before rounding the corner and, with a final sweep of his tail, disappears from sight...]
[A pause. The room stills and Draco seems to stop breathing altogether. It's been so long, so many lifetimes and ages, that he's almost forgotten what it's like to have the opportunity to talk to someone, to share his thoughts. His tongue snakes out anxiously, wetting his muzzle and giving him a moment to prepare an answer before he draws away, only far enough that he can speak to her properly.]
[His voice is a rumble, a vibration in her ear.] Do you think yourself very brave?
[Sean raises an eyebrow his only sign of surprise and follows. None of the
humans on the street seem to be reacting and he is now wondering if the
dragon is trying to get his attention. He comes around the corner his own
hidden wings now longing for flight.]
[The voice that issues from the mouth in her doorway rattles her ribcage, and Lee feels her heart pick up pace in concern. His question is so unexpected and commanding that Lee doesn't think to not answer. But how to answer?
Her spine straightens and she plants herself a little more squarely, less poised to run at the first sign of smoke.]
I try to be. But I have a long way to go before I can have the honor of saying that. [She takes a step back towards the door, cautious but curious and now acutely aware of being focused on.]
Are you-- Are you a dragon? [And if that answer is 'yes', how is she still alive?]
[A crumbling old fort is a perfectly legitimate place to nap - after you've settled your differences with any inhabitants still creaking about the place. It's out of the wind and out of the rain, and Felix has managed to clear the undead bodies out of his tower, which makes him much more comfortable.]
[He's just dozing off when that shadow swoops across the room. The dozing conjurer rolls onto his feet again, disoriented, purple energy flaring from one hand. Felix presses up against one of the cracks in the wall and peers through. He's not actually sure what woke him, but he hopes he didn't leave any draugr standing - or worse, wake up something bigger...]
[He huffs, his breath warming the air, apparently pleased with her reply.] I suspect you're braver than you realize.
[With that, he retreats from the doorway, his muzzle lifting away and being replaced instead with a fore-paw, easily twice as wide as her shoulder. His toes flex, his talons raking into the earth like a contented cat before that too disappears from view with only a whisper of movement.] Why don't you come and see for yourself?
[Draco snorts derisively without so much as turning his head, wisps of smoke curling up from around the corners of his mouth.] I daresay better than most of your kind.
[His eyes, their pupils narrowed, follow the people toing and froing without so much as glancing at the beast towering over their heads. Oblivious. Pitiful.] You've lost all your imagination.
[Draco has never much liked it here, in this tumbledown ruin with nothing but the dead to keep him company. He's always found it disquieting, setting his stomach to trembling even as he approaches from overhead, the faint groaning of long-forgotten ghosts whispering so faintly on the edge of his hearing that he might almost believe it was all in his head.]
[Tonight, however, only a heavy silence greets his return and Draco isn't entirely sure which he prefers. He sweeps cautiously over the rotting eaves of the tallest keep, the tips of his vast wings grazing across rubble, some of it scattering like dust in the air. There are no souls here tonight, no restless murmurs and he cannot understand why.]
[Warily, he eases himself down into the ramshackle courtyard, his talons clacking uneasily against the hard cobbles, sniffing at the air. There's something amiss...]
[He's left a noticeable pile of singed undead in the yard below his napping spot, and the air still feels subtly warped in the wake of his art. But he's not thinking of that. He just hears the beat of wings - enormous wings - and his heart skips a beat as he narrows down the possibilities. There really aren't many left. Felix moves from one tumbledown gap to another, trying to get a view of what's landed in the courtyard. It makes him wish his familiars weren't so limited. Right now he'd give a lot to see through the eyes of something small and inedible.]
[Then he reaches the remains of a real window. The broken arch lets him glimpse what he's missing. Enough to realise what's arrived. And he can't help it: he peers closer for a minute, mouth open. Common sense is screaming 'get the hell down!' but the only thought he can muster is: who in the Void has he angered this much?]
[Draco, meanwhile, concerns himself with a stray corpse, its remains as mangled and inanimate as the rest of their surroundings. He lowers his great head to peer at it, his spiked tail sweeping anxiously behind him, sniffing at the lingering traces of magic still clinging to it. It seems to fizzle in the air and he snorts uncomfortably, drawing back to rub at his snout with his forepaw.]
[Still relatively fresh, he'd wager, a few hours old at best. A sound thrums from deep inside his chest, discontented, and he raises narrowed eyes to the windows of the fort.]
[That spurs him to drag himself down, huddling against the stonework. He's barely seen a dragon before - mere weeks ago he thought them extinct for good. But he's sure this one isn't happy.]
[He can conjure some vivid images of what'll happen if it tries to burn him out of these confines. Not a chance he's waiting for that. He'll have to risk a distraction. Not a familiar - it's too weak and a dragon too clever to waste much time on it. Better idea, then.]
[Felix flexes tense fingers in his leather gauntlets and reaches out to an old ally. He opens the way and the atronach takes shape across the little room from him, a feminine figure of shimmering elemental fire. He urges it hastily toward the stairs. If it goes up and he goes down, maybe it'll keep their scaly friend occupied...]
[The faint shimmer of amber light, like a small fire dancing in its hearth, draws Draco's attention. He watches, his head cocked curiously, as it moves from window to window, curling up the tower steps. His wings flex restlessly and he draws them in closer to the row of spines along his back, lowering his head.]
[It's clear to him now. He may not know how or why but there are men here and, where hunters gather, Draco prefers to be elsewhere. Toes curling, he shuffles back towards the main gate of the fort, intending to slink away as quickly as possible.]
[Ironic, isn't it? That something so large, so seemingly powerful, is still cowed in the presence of man.]
[Once he reckons the daedra's near the top of the broken tower, Felix takes a deep breath and scrambles for the nearest hole. There's no teeth on the other side, which seems like a good start. He just has to be very quiet climbing through onto the walls. But it's only while doing so he realises it is quiet. Really quiet. Wasn't his atronach supposed to be drawing fire right about now?]
[He looks around in sudden alarm - and promptly slips back onto the rubble, scattering stones under him. Crap, crap, where's the- oh. There it is. And it's... leaving?]
[Felix hesitates, even as his hands grasp at the rock to pull him up. His instincts are tingling. This picture isn't right. What's going on here?]
[Sean chuckles and shakes his head glances back at the street.]
I am nothing like most of those people. I notice...in my line of work you
have to...it keeps you alive. However I don't need imagination to see the
weird I just see it.
[She feels as though she's passed a test, and a small flutter of relief shivers past her nervous heart. Curiosity is kicking into gear now, beginning to help her override any lingering doubts. Lee steps through the door, glancing down at the ground where his great claws dug in the dirt. Her entire left foot, as she walks past, fits perfectly into one of the created hollows.
When she's come from around the door, Lee's eyes widen in shock but she sets her jaw tightly to keep in a gasp. He's massive but nothing like the dragons she's seen in her parents' paintings, their long bodies like ribbons in the sky. He looks like the dragons the folks around here portray, stout and square. Is he a source of wisdom or a scourge for this town?
He's surely, obviously older than her though, and of an unquestionably higher rank.
Lee bows and is very aware of the bare back of her neck before she straightens once again.]
Elder. [It's the only form of address Lee feels is appropriate.]
[At the crumbling of stone from somewhere above, the clatter of them as they impact the ground, Draco turns his head, spying Felix as he scrambles to gain his footing on the ledge to which he clings. For a moment Draco thinks he might lose his grip and stumbles a step towards him, to catch him if he falls, before thinking better of it.]
[A human, especially one imbued with magic, is unlikely to be travelling alone. Draco suspects a trap and, with only a huff of smoke, the barest warning, he backs away a step, followed hurriedly by another. Once he's free of the walls hemming him in on either side, able to stretch his wings to their full, magnificent extent, he'll be gone and Felix will likely never see him again.]
[Chest rumbling in approval, a deep purr that resonates and sets the air trembling, he rises above her like some magnificent statue, tilting his head to peer down the length of his snout.] I can't remember the last time I met someone with your impeccable manners.
[He bows in turn, the horns crowning his head casting long shadows over her.] Or known anyone to accept my offer. Foolish perhaps but... [He leans down, bending at the knee so that they are almost eye to eye, the corner of his mouth quirking into his approximation of a smile, inadvertently flashing teeth.] I prefer my humans to have courage where possible.
[Oh gods above and daedra beyond. He flinches for an instant, expecting to be snapped up like a tasty Cyrodiilic snack. But it doesn't happen. Instead Felix finds himself staring in surprise at a retreating dragon, with the sudden sense of something about to slip out of reach.]
Wait! [Later he'll reason that if the dragon wanted him dead, he'd already be a little black smear on the wall. This isn't reason speaking. It's instinct, sensing indecision and latching on to it. He's met hostile people and vicious monsters and beings who simply see his kind as prey, but this feels different. It isn't an attack - it's not even an enthusiastic threat, really.]
Don't- [Go? Eat him? Set anything on fire? There are a lot of things he'd like this dragon not to do right now.] Uh. Please... excuse my intrusion?
[Wings ruffle anxiously, eager to stretch and escape this whole unpleasant situation. It is only a grudging, lingering respect - a tradition Draco upholds for nostalgia's sake - for Felix and his kind that keeps Draco in place. And, after all, he did say 'please'.]
Speak of this to no one - [Draco's deep baritone resonates lowly through the air, shuddering through the enclosed space.] - and you may consider yourself excused, knight.
[He's lived here for years, skulking in the depths of the ruins, his solitude undisturbed except for the restless souls that, despite their heavy groans, seemed to pay him no mind. He'd very much like to keep it that way, to live the remainder of his quiet life in peace, without living in fear of the next sellsword come to claim his hide.]
[Felix swallows, ducks his head beneath the voice ringing in his ears. What he's agreeing to seems a small detail beside the thrill of success - and relief. He scrambles down to a safer footing, eyes on Draco to make sure this provokes no agitated response.]
You have my word, though I'm no knight, sir. [He bows as much as his perch allows, just for good measure. Are dragons normally so secretive? Not in the stories - but in the stories, he remembers, those dragons end up dead. He's not clear on how the dragons were driven from Tamriel long ago; it's obvious though that this one is a survivor.] Just a humble mage, passing through on my travels.
[He has armour, it's true, but only leather, and the only steel he carries is a short dagger. In that respect, at last, he's no threat to Draco.]
[Lee knows that, even in their folklore, dragons can play the part of a villain or a trusted (if reclusive) advisor, and shying away from the monstrous force in front of her won't help her case. What would she have done, to try to refuse his offer? No, she's going to have to give him the benefit of the doubt, no matter how instinct wars with intrigue as she watches his great head bow back at her.
Her mouth even twitches at one corner, unsure about smiling back but in a bit of giddy awe at what's happening.
--What was that he just said? 'My humans' has her stiffening a bit, suspicion gripping her chest tight and stealing her words for a moment. She doesn't shy away when she speaks, though.] 'Your humans'? [Your humans for eating, for friends, just for talking...?
Her staff might as well be miles away right now, inside the Inn, and no force that Lee can provide would make a dent in dragon hide anyway.]
[Robin was actually on his way out that very window because he needs to sneak back into the forest before anybody notices he's visiting his old manor, and he pauses, blinks, and tilts his head. Had that been a-
He shakes his head, thinking that he's just being ridiculous. Dragons don't even exist! He lifts a leg, throwing it over the sill, getting ready to crawl out onto the ledge outside.]
Holy crap, I was literally -just- telling my friend about this movie
...But that was far too big even to be the hulking form of the paladin Lee has taken to being in the company of. Too big to be anyone from her party, in fact, and it has her darting instantly and quietly to the door of the Inn. It parts a crack, giving her a sliver of view to the outside, and she glances intently out...]
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[A great snout, its nostrils flaring, pushes against her now unlatched door, pressing inwards with the same lazy determination as a stray dog. He can't see her - the door to the inn is too small, too insignificant - but he can certainly smell her, taste her scent in the air, that unmistakeably tang of humanity.]
[And he'd very much care to know what it is he's found. Or, more to the point, what's found him.]
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Lee swallows, stubborn. It's still a few moments before she can bark out a question.]
Who are you? [Because while this creature may be sniffing the air like a 'what', Lee's suspicions are telling her this is most certainly a 'who'.]
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[His voice is a rumble, a vibration in her ear.] Do you think yourself very brave?
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[Sean raises an eyebrow his only sign of surprise and follows. None of the humans on the street seem to be reacting and he is now wondering if the dragon is trying to get his attention. He comes around the corner his own hidden wings now longing for flight.]
Hello....can you speak?
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Her spine straightens and she plants herself a little more squarely, less poised to run at the first sign of smoke.]
I try to be. But I have a long way to go before I can have the honor of saying that. [She takes a step back towards the door, cautious but curious and now acutely aware of being focused on.]
Are you-- Are you a dragon? [And if that answer is 'yes', how is she still alive?]
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[He's just dozing off when that shadow swoops across the room. The dozing conjurer rolls onto his feet again, disoriented, purple energy flaring from one hand. Felix presses up against one of the cracks in the wall and peers through. He's not actually sure what woke him, but he hopes he didn't leave any draugr standing - or worse, wake up something bigger...]
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[With that, he retreats from the doorway, his muzzle lifting away and being replaced instead with a fore-paw, easily twice as wide as her shoulder. His toes flex, his talons raking into the earth like a contented cat before that too disappears from view with only a whisper of movement.] Why don't you come and see for yourself?
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[His eyes, their pupils narrowed, follow the people toing and froing without so much as glancing at the beast towering over their heads. Oblivious. Pitiful.] You've lost all your imagination.
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[Tonight, however, only a heavy silence greets his return and Draco isn't entirely sure which he prefers. He sweeps cautiously over the rotting eaves of the tallest keep, the tips of his vast wings grazing across rubble, some of it scattering like dust in the air. There are no souls here tonight, no restless murmurs and he cannot understand why.]
[Warily, he eases himself down into the ramshackle courtyard, his talons clacking uneasily against the hard cobbles, sniffing at the air. There's something amiss...]
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[Then he reaches the remains of a real window. The broken arch lets him glimpse what he's missing. Enough to realise what's arrived. And he can't help it: he peers closer for a minute, mouth open. Common sense is screaming 'get the hell down!' but the only thought he can muster is: who in the Void has he angered this much?]
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[Still relatively fresh, he'd wager, a few hours old at best. A sound thrums from deep inside his chest, discontented, and he raises narrowed eyes to the windows of the fort.]
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[He can conjure some vivid images of what'll happen if it tries to burn him out of these confines. Not a chance he's waiting for that. He'll have to risk a distraction. Not a familiar - it's too weak and a dragon too clever to waste much time on it. Better idea, then.]
[Felix flexes tense fingers in his leather gauntlets and reaches out to an old ally. He opens the way and the atronach takes shape across the little room from him, a feminine figure of shimmering elemental fire. He urges it hastily toward the stairs. If it goes up and he goes down, maybe it'll keep their scaly friend occupied...]
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[It's clear to him now. He may not know how or why but there are men here and, where hunters gather, Draco prefers to be elsewhere. Toes curling, he shuffles back towards the main gate of the fort, intending to slink away as quickly as possible.]
[Ironic, isn't it? That something so large, so seemingly powerful, is still cowed in the presence of man.]
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[He looks around in sudden alarm - and promptly slips back onto the rubble, scattering stones under him. Crap, crap, where's the- oh. There it is. And it's... leaving?]
[Felix hesitates, even as his hands grasp at the rock to pull him up. His instincts are tingling. This picture isn't right. What's going on here?]
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[Sean chuckles and shakes his head glances back at the street.]
I am nothing like most of those people. I notice...in my line of work you have to...it keeps you alive. However I don't need imagination to see the weird I just see it.
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When she's come from around the door, Lee's eyes widen in shock but she sets her jaw tightly to keep in a gasp. He's massive but nothing like the dragons she's seen in her parents' paintings, their long bodies like ribbons in the sky. He looks like the dragons the folks around here portray, stout and square. Is he a source of wisdom or a scourge for this town?
He's surely, obviously older than her though, and of an unquestionably higher rank.
Lee bows and is very aware of the bare back of her neck before she straightens once again.]
Elder. [It's the only form of address Lee feels is appropriate.]
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[A human, especially one imbued with magic, is unlikely to be travelling alone. Draco suspects a trap and, with only a huff of smoke, the barest warning, he backs away a step, followed hurriedly by another. Once he's free of the walls hemming him in on either side, able to stretch his wings to their full, magnificent extent, he'll be gone and Felix will likely never see him again.]
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[He bows in turn, the horns crowning his head casting long shadows over her.] Or known anyone to accept my offer. Foolish perhaps but... [He leans down, bending at the knee so that they are almost eye to eye, the corner of his mouth quirking into his approximation of a smile, inadvertently flashing teeth.] I prefer my humans to have courage where possible.
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Wait! [Later he'll reason that if the dragon wanted him dead, he'd already be a little black smear on the wall. This isn't reason speaking. It's instinct, sensing indecision and latching on to it. He's met hostile people and vicious monsters and beings who simply see his kind as prey, but this feels different. It isn't an attack - it's not even an enthusiastic threat, really.]
Don't- [Go? Eat him? Set anything on fire? There are a lot of things he'd like this dragon not to do right now.] Uh. Please... excuse my intrusion?
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Speak of this to no one - [Draco's deep baritone resonates lowly through the air, shuddering through the enclosed space.] - and you may consider yourself excused, knight.
[He's lived here for years, skulking in the depths of the ruins, his solitude undisturbed except for the restless souls that, despite their heavy groans, seemed to pay him no mind. He'd very much like to keep it that way, to live the remainder of his quiet life in peace, without living in fear of the next sellsword come to claim his hide.]
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You have my word, though I'm no knight, sir. [He bows as much as his perch allows, just for good measure. Are dragons normally so secretive? Not in the stories - but in the stories, he remembers, those dragons end up dead. He's not clear on how the dragons were driven from Tamriel long ago; it's obvious though that this one is a survivor.] Just a humble mage, passing through on my travels.
[He has armour, it's true, but only leather, and the only steel he carries is a short dagger. In that respect, at last, he's no threat to Draco.]
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Her mouth even twitches at one corner, unsure about smiling back but in a bit of giddy awe at what's happening.
--What was that he just said? 'My humans' has her stiffening a bit, suspicion gripping her chest tight and stealing her words for a moment. She doesn't shy away when she speaks, though.] 'Your humans'? [Your humans for eating, for friends, just for talking...?
Her staff might as well be miles away right now, inside the Inn, and no force that Lee can provide would make a dent in dragon hide anyway.]
OMG I adored this movie as a kid
He shakes his head, thinking that he's just being ridiculous. Dragons don't even exist! He lifts a leg, throwing it over the sill, getting ready to crawl out onto the ledge outside.]