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[CloakAndDagger]

The specter woke to the sounds of childlike laughter, but, as she opened a far seeing eye to the dark of her temporary lair, the creature knew it was only an echo. It was something long gone, dead, and, perhaps, her memory had come to pay her a visit. Had she dreamed the laugh? Probably, but who knew what were in these old mountains. Maybe there really was something laughing at her from the shadows. She liked to laugh at others from the shadows, so, it was only fair. So, as she rose to her gas engulfed talons, the ruinous creature shook herself out and reshuffled her wings to a more workable posture before casting a glance down the dark, winding thorofare and blaring a very sarcastic boom of a laugh. Three voices rose from her unmoving jaw, a woman and a man and a girl like the one she’d heard. The sounds rang, all her own sounds, but seemingly made by different people with the same sort of bitter sarcasm.

Then, with a sweep, she was upon the wing. Pale green and violet trailed behind her. The twin gasses marked her as an elder of her breed, and the way they seemed to cover her very limbs now spoke further of the years spent allowing them to grow and swell around her body. In the years to come, though, she was over 90 now, the creature would just seem to vanish within her own vapors like a shape within the mist. Only her crystal and scarred, white mask would remain to be seen while her element covered her thinning, emaciated body. No ruin had ever lived long enough to see what happened after that. Some said they’d just turn to vapor entirely and flit between the lands of the living and the dead to prey upon the weak souls in transit. Some said they’d just disappear and fade away into nothingness, with nothing left behind but a tarnished stone of a crystal. That was years, many years, away. And for now, her broken, golden crystal shone brightly upon her cloud-mantled chest.

Weaving in between stormclouds, the revenant slipped and slid and rode the winds like the progenitor air that, perhaps not too long ago, was her breed’s ancestor. She would never be fully as skilled as her cousins, but, it didn’t matter to her about such trivial things when she could melt a man’s face off if she sat on him right. What good was it to ride the air if a single puff of cloud could just as easily turn your lungs to scars and jelly? Well, she wasn’t quite there yet, unless someone got close enough, but she was sure that there would be fools enough to try with or without war. Unlike her tainted kin, the ghostly creature was not so much broken by the loss of their leader, but, nor did she revel in it. One way or another, she couldn’t even be bothered to care, though, a little part of her certainly did grasp the feeling of freedom well. She never much took a liking to voices in her mind, especially ones that swayed her this way and that. It was something she’d grown up with, yes, but that didn’t make it any less foreign. It was easier not to have any alliances in these trying times. It may have made her a pirate, but, arrr, she’d take what she needed.

With a broken chuckle, the creature slipped to the bitter looking grass below as the rain began to pitter down and, on long toed claws, she padded over to the edge of a deep looking pond. The surface trilled and swayed with the drops as the pregnant clouds could bear their weight no longer. Her reflection was a monster, surely. Her face was a facade of old bone and marble carved in the long shape of a fearsome, demonic woman and the gasses that dappled her horns and mane gave the carved shape that much more of a strange, alien quality. She breathed out a puff of lavender looking vapor and shook herself off. Her four wings reset themselves again, as was becoming habit, but her ears were perked and wary. Without a voice to guide them now, the tainted horde was unruly and many had taken to attacking their own in either confusion or purposeful violence. She prefered neither. Instead, she intended to pass onward and perhaps hover near any sort of nearby encampment to bully them for sweets.

“You sassy old hag.” She said to herself as she pulled her head from the edge of the water. “There’s no denying that face. Ha.” She’d get what she wanted, one way or another.

[Chirpadee]

The water was quiet. It wasn't often creatures ventured into the twisted forest, but Irukandji wasn't most creatures. He liked the stillness when he did not want to be disturbed, he had come here to heal after all. His side was finally scaring from where that wretched earth had torn into him with her spiked tail. His neck now scared thick with curving claw marks where the larger beast had gotten the better of him. He was still sore about that, still hateful, still plotting revenge. It was these thoughts that consumed him as he lay in the mud in the depths of a small lake. Normally he preferred deeper waters, but not many wandered these forests and he felt safe here.

His lure twitched in the murky water, deep below the surface, drawing fish to his gaping jaws. His length was coiled tightly over itself making him a twisting pile and nothing more in the dark depths. Glimmers of blue light flitted from under the mud which he had ensconced himself in, all except his head that is, and his tail. The tip of which flicked, sending the jelly that capped it dancing in the water. Just above the cap sat his shattered crystal, a green pyramid which split from the point and gaped like an unhealed wound. Many dead fish hung coiled in the tentacles, some had been drawn right up into the cone as if the jelly were alive and truly eating. He had no allegiance right now, however when a new leader rose high enough, or the tainted lord returned, he knew his side well. He would rather eat a Sekkian then help one.

He was content in his musings, happy to feel safe in his little hole; when the surface rippled indicating there might be a meal above. His glowing eyes lifted upwards, towards the half light that filtered through his stagnate pool. The voice that did not belong in his mind whispered softly, one word, small and soft as a butterflies wing, but he heard it.

kill. It demanded.

He uncoiled his oily mass, unwrapping himself in the sludge he had been resting. His limbs were stiff with ill use, but he did not need them to swim. Translucent wings folded tight and stiff to his sides. His arrow shaped head lifted towards the surface. Iruk undulated his coils, pushing his body upwards. He stilled as he grew closer to the light, lilting upwards like driftwood. If the female on the surface was observant she would see the glow before she saw the monster, two lines of soft luminescent blue spots growing larger as he neared surface. Even his eyes illuminated the murk around him, beacons in the depths.

The nearer he got to the surface the more he could see. He parted his jaws, well more then they already were. His jagged teeth protruded upwards, lengthened by the tainting of his body and soul. Like a roman phalanx had come to rest within his skull, spears all pointed upwards. It didn't trouble him he that he could not close his mouth, longer teeth were better for hacking apart unwary dragons, like this one. He tipped his head, watching the beasts reflection through the surface of the water. At first he could only see a shape, it was clearly a dragon, and a smaller one at that.

It would be a quick and easy kill, a simple trick of lashing out of the water fast enough. His belly would be full for several days and he could consider hunting larger prey with the new found energy. He was a long best, swollen with the vile humors that had once been the dark lords influence. He was starting to lose weight in the dark one's absence, not able to catch as many dragons as he had under the mighty taint. Now here was a chance at a fine meal. It was no earth dragon, but the size appeared easier to pull beneath the waves. The voice whispered a little more urgently.

rend... rip... it echoed inside his skull in time with his sluggish heart.

He slowed about twenty feet from the surface. Noticing something that marked this dragon inedible. There seemed to be a gaseous cloud enveloping his would be meal. It was hard to tell without the sun but even in the veiled light that shifted through the clouds, it was clear. This dragon would poison him. He knew the ruins. They were not to be trifled with. A young one he could take down, but the older ones? He had seen what their gasses could do to lesser dragons upon the battlefield. He recoiled slightly and frowned, if you could call it one, just the corners of his mouth turned down around his jagged jaws. This was not what he was hoping for. Still there could be alliances made. There was always need of the false lull of security in these trying times.

He reworked his plan. Deciding not to attack—what could have been a fine meal—and he took to ignoring that pounding voice inside his head. It would wait. He could wait. Unlike most of his brethren he was patient. Content to ambush and assure his victory instead of simply charge like an enraged bonasus. He was above such trite behavior. Let the bulkheads be the lumbering fools. He would find a meal later. For now he must play at niceties.

So he kicked his thin legs, using his webbed fingers to propel himself upwards, and he broke the surface about twenty feet from the edge of the pond. The murky gray fin broke the water first, signaling the dragon with more then just his slight bio-luminescence, which in the half light turned the water soft blue around him. Next came his arrow like head. It parted the surface fangs first. They were the lightest thing on his body, and drew attention to their somewhat yellowed surface. Irukandji was younger then the female, but old enough to know to keep back from her vaporous cloud. Bright blue eyes hung like stars in his skull, slitted pupils drew on the much smaller ruin. He was larger, but she had the advantage of being labeled 'not food'. Which was all one could ask for from the twisted water.

He parted his jaws as if to speak, but instead gave a horrible wretch. His chest and neck heaved as he arched it downwards like some hideous carousel horse straining against a bridle. He wretched again throwing his head and compressing his lungs. A great wave of water shot between his teeth. He was large enough each gush between his fangs might be a waterfall down some rock face. He gave another wretch and a second wave came spilling forth, frothing the water below as he cleared his lungs. He hacked and tossed his head as if mad until a white pus like substance coated his gills. Lung surfactant, it sealed the gills from drawing in air. With a final chuff the same substance shot from his nostrils and he took a deep breath of air into his lungs, making the switch from water to air. It was not pretty, but the trick was useful. It meant he could spend years without ever surfacing.

As soon as this was done he swung his beady eyes around to stare back at the ruin. In the half light cast by the storm clouds rolling over head he could tell his decision was the right one. Her twin smokes signaling he was wise to prevent himself from attacking. He would have ended up with another fortnight of healing in a pit, if he was lucky. So he let his length coil somewhat at the waters surface, feeling the waves lick his thick hide. The light from his spots cast the water around him into an eerie glow.

”Hello little sister.”He cooed to her. If you could call it a coo. His voice was harsh, and croaking. It sounded like it rarely saw use. He cocked his head so he could fix her with one lamp like eye.

He was known to some taints, but mostly the dragon had kept to himself. He did not know this female,and ruins were known to him as a tricky lot. Usually cunning and sly. He would need to be careful. He flashed his tongue against the back of his teeth, the thick pink appendage pressing through the gaps here and there.

“Do I find you wish us or them?” The question was vague, and rather obtuse. Still it's meaning was clear enough, what side have you chosen now. Sure he did not currently answer to the taint, but that did not mean he still allied with them. If there was one thing he disliked more then a Sekkain, was a taint who had turned simpering to the celestial lickers after the war was over.

He drifted back into the water until just his jutting, gray-brown spine and his head lay above the water. If she attacked he could retreat in the depths. Down there her vapors would be mostly useless. It would be his world. Beneath the waves he could coil around her and fill her with boiling water until her scales blistered away and he could feast upon the tender flesh beneath. The thought made him grin, a Cheshire look that reached far past his eyes. “Or do you play with no one little sister?”

The title was something he called all smaller taints, well the males got brother. Larger ones got the same title with big instead of little. It was strange, but he saw them all as a family. Sure their father had been ripped from them, but they could not keep the dark lord in chains forever. He would find a way to free himself, or another would rise.

[CloakAndDagger]

The vapors of her body floated like a billowing cape from her body. It sank, a heavy and caustic mantle, to roll upon the edges of the lake with tentative fingertips. Hands and claws seemed to come in and out of it to taste the surface of the water, but, none left any ripple nor touch upon the placid surface. The creature, with her own ghosts like servants ready, stood like the hellborn steed of some apocalyptic rider, but, partnerless, she stood alone against the pitting drops of rain that fell as if spears. Her gas began to flatten somewhat with the pummeling as the water drank of it and fell, acidic, to brown flecks of the grass beneath. Even the pond, serene at first, began to ripple and chime with the growing storm and, perhaps taking advantage of such a thing, another creature seemed to stalk, unnoticed, from the deep.

There was little cue above water. Rolling rings of timid waves riddled the water with complexity too extravagant and detailed to give notion of what was lying under its facade. However, from the ripples, a subtle glow of the silent stalker edged upon the rim of grey light. The ruin, careful, but not anticipating company from that sort of venue, rolled her ears this way and that to catch what she could otherwise. Her three sets of wisping, lamplit eyes burned like candles over a bone alter, but, as they crowded from one socket of her mask to the next, they skirted most of the water’s area. However, outside of sight, a shadow had contemplated a dinner enough to satisfy. Thankfully, probably for the both of them, that plan was passed over for a more amiable sort of scheme.

The ruin, herself, had not eaten a full meal in some time. Times were hard and, around her true lair in the farther reaches of the mountains, there was little sugar to be had and even fewer to steal it from. She had subsisted on that which was easy: the land, the air, and those who lived in it. No longer could she bring her jaws down on some poor wretch before she devoured them, but, her breed was not the brash sort that needed teeth for everything. Instead, she simply took what she needed and peeled the bark from tree, the flesh from bone with her very element. Her talons made the cut, but her vapors drew it up. They oxidized, festered, and rotted her meal until every particle she needed had been removed. It was not a pleasant process to manufacture that death, but, it staved off her own hunger well enough. The fangs on her mask were for show, the ones in the clouds about her were real and just as deadly. Now, however, here and there she picked at the earth, as if tasting. Grass, land, water... all were well enough, but, none of it sated her quite as well as sugar. Sucrose, Fructose, what have you, it was meant to be devoured and feasted upon with a fervor unequaled. If there was anything in the world that truly did please her, it was pulling the sweetness from anything she could get a hold of. Once, she had taken an entire town hostage and ransomed a girl so that they would pay her tribute with candies and pastries and chocolates. ...Then some fool fire had to get in the way and accidentally ignite her gasses. A poor choice, leaving the town razed and her without a sourceable meal. He’d probably been labeled a hero by his peers, you know, taking on that nasty wench of a tainted creature, but, the fact was, she’d never hurt anyone by this... he had. Oh the irony. Oh the loss... she could almost taste the delicate flavors on her tongue. Sure, there was sugar within the living to be taken, but, it was more trouble than it was worth.

Lost in thought, her eyes slowly turned to the pond. Though she had but two eyesockets in her mask, it seemed now and again they would just have far too many eyes. Four bright spheres, ghostly in their own right like disembodied flames, viewed the surfacing creature with some guarded interest and suspicion, though, she did not move from her place upon the bank. The unmoving mask of her face let on little to the thoughts behind it as she watched the monster within slowly pull itself from the darkness below. A glow seemed to filter through the pond as its body neared the surface. The markings were like small beacons drowned. His teeth seemed to be the first to come up in the open air, but, the rest of him followed. And then, it seemed he wanted to talk but hacked up a lung instead. Choking and heaving, the watery creature bubbled and spat out a bubbled, mucus lining from his body and, with breath, turned the water in his lungs to air and, then, to words.

“Hello little sister.” The words were somewhat raw, but, had a sort of soft, conning quality. Licking the inside of his mouth, he continued. “Do I find you with us or them?” And then, slipping back into the pond more fully, he seemed to let the waters nearly engulf him and smiled, possibly with eerie thoughts upon his mind. “Or do you play with no one little sister?”

The ruin shifted her eyes equally between the two sides of her mask and looked at him with all six will-o-wisp lights. She’d not moved much as he’d come closer, but her wings flicked off gathering rain and her tail rolled lightly behind her like a cat either anxious to play or playing at anxious. The quills that made up her mane stood at attention, pricked as her ears and their own tufts of needle spines, but the rest of her body lacked the same sort of tension. Reading the words, however, she got the idea and turned a single eye from the floating mass of frothing expulsion that rode the top of the water near her. “Hello big brother. Good to see you. I hope you are doing well.” A childlike voice returned the interesting favor she’d been given and continued as if they actually were kin. Gas puffed lightly at the words. “Us or them? I play with both.” The little girl continued plainly and curiously, and then a second, young male voice overshadowed her. “But I play only for myself.” A third voice, an older woman. “I find that fair. Take what I need and all that. And I do what I do.” She chuckled with many more voices than what she presented. She, though, standing, made sure not to stray farther toward the water in case the creature or she wanted to tempt fate. She had little idea what this one was thinking, especially when most of him was under water. Though, that smile was devious enough. The ghost couldn’t blame him too much, though, if she had a face like that, she’d be more inclined to smile widely too.

“And what of you, big brother? Who do you play with? What brings you out here to the pines and the grass and away from the edge of the world?” There were three, then five, then two voices. And she looked at him with bright, inquisitive eyes... most of them.

[Chirpadee]

He swiveled his head the other way, his lamp like eyes mirrored by the spots along his face. The only difference between his actual eye, and the spots that mimicked them, was the pupil, which expanded and contracted quickly with his moods and the light. Rain pelted his slick, oily flesh, sliding down his sides and showing the contours of his muscular body. Giving rise to just how vast he was. He shifted his body, to keep himself from drifting. Coils rose and vanished beneath the waves like a vast sea serpent ready to swallow ships whole. The glow cast odd colors over the water's surface, but under it they were strange, foreign lamps lighting the waves in murky glow.

His lure flicked above the surface, curling in towards his teeth, beckoning. The glow flashed of his incisors, sending his face into macabre, angular light as it drew near. It made his obsidian flesh gleam with all the color of an oil slick, making him look toxic, and sent what the light did not touch, into deep abyssal pits.

Pale eyes took in her fog again. Watching what appeared to be fingers, and at times limbs, protruding from it. Twisted souls, lost in the mists. His grin spread. If he could keep his victims trapped for an eternity, screaming in discord and agony, his life would be better. The symphony of their cries would fill his mind and quiet the one scream he could not forget. The one that echoed in his dreams, a faceless figure falling. Just another dead meat he told himself. Just another body to be ripped and torn. Yet it haunted the dragon, a sector he could not shake. His own personal ghost he did not understand.

Realizing he was distracted he drew his eyes back to her mask, pondering the lights that seemed to come and go like fireflies. He gurgled thoughtfully. Her words sunk in as he tasted them with his mind. His inner voice rattled against his skull harder, mimicking his increasing heart beat, showing his state of heightened awareness. He was always on his guard around other taints, they were... unpredictable at the best of times. Without Nidhogg to keep them in line the twisted dragons took about handling things their own way. Which usually meant violence.

“I do not play with my food.” He rasped back, snapping his jaws to demonstrate his own opinion of the proper use for sekkains. His nostrils flared as she asked him his opinion and he drifted backwards under the surface, dropping completely below the water for a moment. Bubbles drifted from his eel like nostrils and he closed his second eyelid, a thin membranous bit of flesh that protected his eyes during dives, which made him look dead. Drifting just under the surface; as he was some poor fool might have made the mistake. He let the different voices fill his mind, curious to the sounds that echoed from under that emotionless mask. All those voices drifted through his mind, drawing him into strange mental places. His own voice responded against the walls of his mind.

Kill. the voice demanded with each pounding of his heart.

Wait, he whispered to his psychosis. The time would come. He would take his meal, but not this one. This one was corrosive, this one was danger. It would not turn out in his favor. He rose his head over the surface again, now he had dealt with his inner demons. Water pooled out of his ever open jaws, but there was no repeat of the awful expulsion that had occurred upon his first surfacing.

“I play with no one little sister. Not anymore.” He was quiet for a moment then pulled himself up out of the waves, the rain pounded on his narrow head, and he spread his wings for balance. They were still large enough to carry him, showing he hadn't gone anywhere near becoming an abyssal yet. The translucent skin of his wings let his lighter blue veins stood out against the thin skin like cracks in a glacier. Across his chest ran vivid scars, a very pale gray against the deep nothing that was his hide. He indicated with a clawed foot showing the damage carefully. It was healed an no longer a weakness, but it wasn't his flesh that needed mending now. It was his pride.

“One of them. She was cruel to me. An earth.” His lips pulled back revealing pale purple gums and just a hint more of those deadly fangs. His muzzle wrinkled with hate. “I will turn her. Make her as we. Take that meat off her back and make her eat it.” He snapped his fangs and then dropped back into the water until, just as before, only his head and spine were visible. His wings folded back to his sides and he shifted them until they lay as flat as he wanted.

“Here was safe. They don't come sniffing here. They are afraid of the trees.” His eyes darted to the branches as if, perhaps, there was a reason to be afraid of the towering forest sententials. He had flown directly into the lake upon his arrival. “What brings you to the forest little sister? Do you find it soothing? Do voices call you here? Or is it an echo of someone who used to be in your head.” He spoke of course of the dark lord, he had been in all of their heads. Touching their thoughts softly and whispering sweet lies to guide them. Mind you with this female, and her many voices, perhaps there were others that once rested in her head.

[CloakAndDagger]

Her voices weaved in and out, as if threading a strange, eerie tapestry. Now and again, one voice would rise above the others to speak for the whole, but, it would soon be overshadowed by a dissimilar tone from unmoving lips within the creature’s misty face. It was not quite clear how many souls spoke for her, but it was clear that there were quite a few and all very diverse. Perhaps seven, perhaps more or less. Men, women, children. It seemed as if she’d eaten them alive and now they were a part of her, we her. Their souls claimed by the dark mistress. Likewise, her eyes seemed to have a strange flickering quality as if alive in their own right and not quite her own. The six glowing, golden baubles moved independently from one another to and fro between the sockets. Each may have been taking spy on a different point within the scene before her, and for good reason. This older brother of hers seemed a slippery one. Nothing about him was outwardly antagonistic, but, if it was a hand of friendship he bore, it was a spined, uncomfortable one.

The creature slunk, a serpent slithering to some secure place in the darkness, though, something odd about him seemed tantalizing. The lure, the glowing spotted eyes, the sleek movement, the qualities were a lighthouse to draw others in, she saw. It would be easy enough for prey to be deluded, entranced as they watched nothing but the otherworldly luminescence dance beneath the ripples. The teeth, though, were sure to follow. She knew the trick well enough and, now and again, had been guilty of using a shadow of the same technique on those she played with. Ghosts in the mist made the foolish curious. Ah, but, weren’t they both doing the world a favor and ridding it of stupidity one miserable little life at a time?

He watched. She watched. They were both, seemingly, on guard, but, the words still came just the same and with the same curious twinning of voices. “No? Why?” She appeared to muse, though, it was only through eyes and tone. “Playing with your food is the most fun you can have with it! Else it’ll just be gone and a mess soon. Might as well take advantage of a toy when you have it, Big Brother.” His teeth looked plenty capable of devouring food, however. However, as the scene went, he’d shifted to slip beneath the gently trilling ripples. The rain seemed to be coming down at a steady pace now, neither hard nor soft, but it sank into every available fold of grass, tree, and, in Geist’s case, hide and feather. Her needles perked in a querulous method as they became dappled in water from the weather. Her eyes continued to follow him, but, this time, she turned her head so only a single socket was aimed his direction. Five bolts of light stared into his luminous, brushed form while it lay under the shadow of the water. And then, like a monster rising from a darkened room, his head slipped above the waves again. The ghost was thankful for no more gagging.

He answered her question in his own way and, as he went, took himself more fully out of the water while the other dragon kept her place. His scars showed well enough and the story they told was as obvious as they were. Violence. Pain. His claw trailing them seemed to retell it with every pass. Nothing was more open than light against dark. His story, though... well, she had no way to prove such a thing, but to every great lie there was a grain of truth. And grains could be of so many sizes. He seemed to prize the striations like medals of valor.

“Playing with no one makes for a lonely life, brother.” She knew that well enough and had felt such a bite for a long time now, though, that feeling was quite different than the one she’d receive if she came any closer to those lovely teeth of his. He was back in the water by the time she answered. “It seems, though, you have aims to toy with this one, this earth.” It was a male voice now. “War is war. Fair is fair. Do unto others before they do unto you. That sort of thing.” Then the woman and child were together and alone. “Turn her? That means nothing now with no evil to set in her soul, but I’d be curious to see how that goes. I’ve always wanted to snap flesh between my teeth and let the juices run down my maw, but, alas, as you can see, that’s not to happen.” And who’s to say the earth wouldn’t enjoy it too, especially if she was as hurtful as you said. “You’ve got the right idea, though.” She chuckled wryly, like a soggy old woman though her voice was young.

“Oh yes, here.” She twisted her eyes around to the vines and grasping branches of the world on all sides. “I suppose they are, but, not all of them, as you can see. We are not all afraid. Though, not many have the distinct pleasure of being able to break apart unwanted gropes before they touch or clasp.” Her gasses made sure to take care of willful vines seeking to cling to her heels. “As for me, though,” she looked back at him curiously. Her ears swiveled. “I was just bored. Most of the voices I hear nowdays are my own. I do suppose its soothing in its own right, but, in a sort of vengeful, vegetative way. To be caught here is to be returned to the soil. A most modest of places.” If she could have pursed her lips, she would have. “The only echos I hear often lead me nowhere, but, criticize well enough. Nothing can ever be truly done until someone can loudly comment and pick out a mistake. Then all is well.” She’d so missed the voice of her rider that she’d found a twin in her own throat. “But I never fancied wolves in my head to lick at my thoughts hungrily. To be sure, treason or not, I am well enough by myself without a worm upon my thoughts. The only voice I will ever miss, I carry myself.”

“But, Big Brother, what big eyes you have, what big teeth and claws. What of you? Surely you didn’t need an umbrella like him shielding you from the sun. What do you do now that you are-” Free was too strong a word for creatures like them. “-modestly liberated?” Upon thoughts of it, she became wary incase a rider for this one should appear, but she had her theories. “And, is it just you, or you you also swim alone these days?”

Flicking her wings to remove some of the sheets of water, she resituated herself and paced a bit alongside the grassy edge of the pond. Her claws pricked like little mouse feet. “And where is this earth now that you hate so very much, yet seem to pride yourself in the torment she gave you?”

[Chirpadee]

Iruk couldn't help but watch the mists. They were curious. Even more so then other ruins he had met. Then again he could guess this one was older. She was twisted and warped to the point only her ghosts spoke. He wondered if she had ever had her own voice, one she claimed above all the others. One that spoke for the whole as an overruling queen among her mortal victims. A keeper of the flock. It soon was dismissed as the voices came and went, hands flickering out of the mist. He wondered distantly if they were the same hands that belonged to the voices. This one had clearly eaten so many it could be anyone.

His mind wrung with an echoed scream, a cry that made him ache in loneliness. Solitude had its price. Still something told him he liked it, better then the alternative, better then the masses of his own kind. Their screams did not drown that sound. That voice never went away, always haunting. The deep water quieted his mind, it was why he lurked so deep waiting on pray. In the darkness and the depth the voice was quieter and he could forget.

“I play with meat.” He said with one of those twisting grins, “I like to play with meat. Soft little things. So many parts to rend. Their screams are music.” His eyes rolled in glee at the thought. Humans were interesting to play with. He killed dragons quickly, they could tear his thick skin to ribbons and harm him with harsh breath. The meat was the part he cared about. The tiny humans who rode his kind like would be gods. Mortals upon the backs of greater beasts, pretending they themselves held strength. It was fool hearty to give one self to a human like a pack mule. If he remembered the truth he might have mourned it. Instead he had a vision of a faceless man being rent in twain. Screams that invaded his thoughts, tore through every corner of his vast form and turned him more vile and cruel then he had once been.

“I tear, I rend, I rip, I listen. A symphony of agony, a cacophony of pain.” He gurgled happily, a sound that replaced the thrum that was common in many dragons. His eyes closed a moment at the memory. “But not the dragons. Must be careful. Rip them apart quick like.” Under the waves his slender forepaws pressed against the marks on his chest. Remembering the violence and the danger. He snorted, the gurgle ending.

His eyes rolled back to the mist cloaked female with thought. He was lonely, to some extent. He had that empty ache in his soul, but was losing it worth the pains that might come from trusting. The death that might walk on the quiet feet of friendship with the mask of trust. He hummed softly, a harsh sound that rattled out of his windpipe.

“It is lonely. Lonely, but safe little sister.” His head cocked and swiveled, showing his teeth from the side, gaping and spear like. One bright eye landed on her and the rest of his spots took on a slightly gold tinge still blue, but another color joined. His teeth twisted upwards like crags at the bottom of an ocean cliff, ready to dash the unwary ship to pieces. “She harmed me. Took my pride, and my flesh. I will give her agony.” He pulled back his upper lip in firm distaste. Talk of that earth left a foul taste in his mouth.

His glowing eyes flicked to her sealed maw and he slipped a little closer, rising up so he could be above the mists to peer at her mask cautiously. He could not imagine the inability to use his teeth to rend and destroy. His fangs were his favorite weapon, made to destroy anyone who thought perhaps his breath wasn't enough, not that super heated water did not often suffice. “Then let her mourn her own loss and hate herself every moment for all the rest of her life. Let her feel the sting of being ripped from her meat, being left alone in the dark.” His tongue darted against the back of his teeth and he gurgled happily at the thought. Carefully he blocked the feeling that perhaps he understood. That would suffice for the pain she had put him through. That would work.

He listened to the female speak of the dark lord and he frowned just a little. He didn't know how he felt about that blow. There was loss there, but also freedom. “We are directionless little sister. We have no cause, no clue. We drift like the world in dream time. Forever milling, worms in the muck.” He gurgled thoughtfully. “I lay like a rock in the seabed, nothing to do, no goal to achieve. I miss the time when we had purpose, I do not miss his fingers tangling my thoughts, I miss his sense of purpose.” It was a fair enough response. They were growing fat and lazy, they had forgotten their dreams of ruling the world, now all they had was the desolation to shelter in. If they did not forswear their old ways and have their crystals healed, they were still enemies. Still hunted like beasts. He had no want to be fixed. In his warped mind he was fine the way he was. He was whole in his current state. Even with his own personal demon haunting his twisted skull.

He let the water run in thick rivulets down his body as the rain pounded on. It was soothing. Much like the deep places the water calmed his soul. He liked the sensation. It had been a while since he had surfaced in a storm. Thunder roared above his head and lightening flashed sending his form into a glimmering oil slick as if he had been set on fire, the he was abysmally dark again. The sky quieted again and he glanced upwards lazily. “All things must by as they must though. There will be direction. For now my mind is on justice. Destroying the earth that left me scared.”

[CloakAndDagger]

His face seemed all smiles as he answered her. “I play with meat. ...I like to play with meat. Soft little things. So many parts to rend. Their screams are music.” And something about each word rising to the surface of his mouth and cascading through his spear teeth just seemed to please him all the more. The revenant, though, did not quite share his sentiments, though, far be it from her to contest his peculiar likings. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t taken her unfair share of slaughter in days past. Now, though, she saw the scope of things beyond just the enjoyable moment of gutting a particularly irritating bystander. The living were of far more use than the dead and, to this, she treated both the minute little humans and her dragon kin much the same: future use. She’d seen the rise in power of men and knew well enough not to underestimate the strength or potential of their numbers. Though, more than often, they were just as dumb as they were weak. But, then, if she couldn’t get anything out of them, for the most part she just didn’t care enough to threaten or maim. Neither kill nor help. There was always the future, so, she just let them be for the off chance that things would change. Why waste the effort anyway?

Then again, when she could pry what she wanted out of someone, be it human or dragon, she milked it for all it was worth. It was just nature that blackmailing, kidnapping, and general underhanded dealing was easier done on humans, so, thats just who she prefered to deal with. And they were so much easier to deal with when they were alive and able to continue to provide her with whatever she’d bothered to press them for. Even then, if the deal or whatever they’d called it seemed mutually beneficial, all the more likely that the foolish creature would keep giving and giving, even if it’s at their expense in the long run. Though, the whole thought of all this just gave her lingering irritations from the Cadbury debacle. If only that hadn’t gone to the shitter...

From his laceside sanctuary, the water’s voice just continued into elated, ever so thoughtful musings. “I tear, I rend, I rip, I listen. A symphony of agony, a cacophony of pain.” “I’m sure you’re right big brother. They certainly do squirm one way or another.” She chuckled the way a young girl does when she’s thinking about ruining her mother’s flowerbed later. “I’m afraid my ears are more attuned to praises and supplication then they are to deafening shrieks and wails. There’s only so much annoyance I can take before I just stop it all together.” A head off its shoulders was one that spoke very little and annoyed even less. “Agony does well, but, it won’t feed me or bejewel my talons in gold.” Though, on reflection, that was a poor choice of words. Gold didn’t do her much good either.

Those glowing orbs, like stars submurged in ink, rolled to her. Perhaps he was sizing her up. “It is lonely. Lonely, but safe little sister.” The deep creature twisted his maw this way and that, as if showing off the toothy expanse of his mouth and, as if following up the shine of his teeth within the rain, his bright bands and spots luminesced to other spectrums. Water seemed to fall off him in colors. While he spoke, the revinant stood and eyes seemed to follow him from her mists as he slipped closer, like a ghost ship sliding above the fog to raise a pirate flag of pearly spear fangs. These words here, this idea, seemed to please him most of all. Something like that had pleased her once after the torment of many years. It was a natural response, blood for blood, pain for pain, and she’d taken the same path to carve revenge into a warm hide... but her bonded had been alive then. Her mists gathered, paced in the murky outlines of hungry wolves stalking. Now and then, one seemed to pace awfully close to this other she spoke with. In the time before, to share such a thing with her rider, it made it all the sweeter to dwell on now, but, the bone who had tried to keep a slave hold upon Len was gone, dust. Nevermore. “Not all of us are alone in the dark without our meat, big brother. Some of us have plenty of ghosts to spare. I’m sure I could lend you one or two as a haunt, if you felt sociable.” Something small seemed to step forward from the swell of vapor pelted softly by rain, and it stood in the shape of a little girl before stepping across, into the cloud of Geist’s forelimb. The female seemed not to notice.

Though, he had frowned at her previous questions about their former lord and, to it, seemed not to take the side of anguish or delight. “We are directionless little sister. We have no cause, no clue. We drift like the world in dream time. Forever milling, worms in the muck.” Bubbles seemed to come from the back of his throat to coat his voice in seafoam. “I lay like a rock in the seabed, nothing to do, no goal to achieve. I miss the time when we had purpose, I do not miss his fingers tangling my thoughts, I miss his sense of purpose.” It was poetic and, in a sense, true enough. And, as he sat with the rain streaming over his body in rivers, things seemed to ease. “All things must by as they must though. There will be direction. For now my mind is on justice. Destroying the earth that left me scared.”

“As is your right by natural law. You should take as you please when it suits you.” Though, he had not spoken of where this creature was, nor of his rider, and she wondered if either of them were alive anymore. His rider was looking pretty easily six feet under by the way he was talking. And, perhaps he had deluded himself into revenge against a spectre. Of course, either one could still be alive. There were few things that shocked her in this world these days. She’d seen too many dramatic things. “For ourselves though, all of us, what are we if we are not able to choose our own paths for ourselves. The sekkians do it with no power but their pride and foolishness. If we needed those meddlesome fingers so badly, then we are weak from it now. If we are idle, then it is our own faults.” She, too, had to get used to doing things on her own will, but the freedom was fresh, breathable, and she wanted as much of it as her mind and body could hold. She could not bear to give any inch of it back. If ever that black worm came to weelde inside her mind again, she’d be there, proverbial shotgun in hand telling him to get off her lawn.

“You have purpose now, brother. Why not finally set it to motion? Though, that begs the question...what about afterward, after you’ve taken sweet victory? How do you want the world to be?” Whispers seemed to vent through her mask like her vapor and, like this water, she seemed to seat herself contentedly on the slowly dying grass. The rain slid over her feathers and pooled into her needle mane while her eyes flecked around once, then came to rest back on him. She had not talked this well in a very long time. That pleased her.

[Chirpadee]

Irukandji watched her, quietly. The way the water ebbed off her feathered wings, dribbled through her mask as if she weren't really there at all. It was like staring into the face of a ghost. Yet this specter could kill you in the blink of an eye with her grasping fog and calculating grace. Honestly he doubted you would know you were dead until the blackness hit. A nictitating membrane drifted, horizantally over his eyes, translucent and white. It cast the pallor of death around him. However the image was revoked the moment the membrane slipped back.

“Praises only last while you are looking sister. Meat has no sense of loyalty. It leaves you and curses your name once it is freed.” He cocked his head as water drifted over his lamp like lights. The lure twitched in an unconscious gesture of thought. The great eel hardly had a use for them. Right now there was no information he was required to find, no task he was set to. Those he caught he tortured to pass the time, to ease the passage of the hours alone, of that lone wail that echoed endlessly through his skull. To quiet the voice that pressed him to do the worst he could. To be honest Niddhogg's capture had rid him of one compelling voice, but his mind had it's own demons to contend without the great dark lord looming in his consciousness like an adder over a rat.

“I have no want of gold, or precious metals. They become lost in the oceans, forgotten by all. I have no interest in their help finding food. I lay my traps and food comes to me.” He was not a needy beast when it came to the lives of others. If he found use in another, he would leave them alive, pretend he liked them, then when their usefulness vanished so would he, that or he would rip them apart piece by piece. Mostly he had no use for anything, he wallowed in boredom and self pity much of the time.

Today he was enjoying the conversation. She forced his brain to shake off the cobwebs of ill use and forced him to bring words to his thoughts. He was content to use his mind, for it was a powerful thing most of the tainted army seemed to lack. They were too concerned with filling their gluttonous bellies. He was patient, content to wait and entrap. He liked the psychological torture as much as the physical part. Now that the tainted lord left his mind alone he was trapped, in a way, forced to ignore strips of memory that came back little by little. His truncated rider and the face that was slowly returning him. Guilt wracked his conscious, but only about that single torn man. Haunting laughter, and a feeling of warmth his soul had lacked for a mans age. He let it pass though, filling his mind with new screams, new sounds to wash it away. To forget what he was only starting to remember.

The form in her mists did not go unheeded by the great sea serpent. His muddy gray brown frill rose above his spine, short and hardly intimidating, and he fixated on her as she drifted like a shadow. The human was young, hardly of age yet she clung to the dragoness like the ruin was her rock. He forced his eyes away from the misty figment and focused on the demon masked ruin. He hummed softly, considering her words, they had truth in them. “The Sekkain's move out of love for their great celestial. A leader coalesces them.” He gurgled carefully. “We should not be forced to the land they do not want. It is not fair or right that we be segregated for having different views then them.”

For a moment he was silent and a peal of thunder echoed distantly overhead, signaling the storm's passing, and the rain fell softer on his oily hide. He glanced skywards, narrowing his beady eyes against the onslaught. It wasn't that he didn't like the rain, but it made conversing hard. He considered again. “I want a place to call mine. Not to be driven from each new hole by an encroaching hoard of dragons who believe only their way can be right. Is my way not valid? We keep the plague of humanity at bay. Keep them contained, keep them from destroying the world with their progress. Yet the Sekkain's protect that covetous, greedy world. I would see their world fall to pieces and the natural way return. Why do we bow to such weak masters little sister? What gives them the right to ride upon our backs like fallen gods?”

He stared a moment then snorted. “I am no leader though. I do not pretend to be. I can not rally people to my cause.” He flicked his lure like a pondering cat might flick it's tail making the blue, twin tipped length dance hypnotically below his chin, “I will join one I feel worthy of my talents. If their goals align with my own.”

[CloakAndDagger]

The ghostly figure, seated just out of comfortable reach of either vapor or slick, watery claw, watched as the slippery creature blinked with a second lid. She could almost see his mid churning in the fathomless depths of his lamp pit eyes while his voice slid out from between his spear teeth in oily syllables. “Praises only last while you are looking sister. Meat has no sense of loyalty. It leaves you and curses your name once it is freed.” Behind him, the false gelatin mass flicked it’s long tentacles. He’d be one of those lovely long, dark, and handsome creatures, if only parts of him weren’t so grotesque. The ruin blew a green ring from her mask, somehow able to form it with only her wicked tongue. It drifted upwards like the halo over a volcano. [b“I have no want of gold, or precious metals. They become lost in the oceans, forgotten by all. I have no interest in their help finding food. I lay my traps and food comes to me.”[/b]

“Ah, a lucky one Big Brother is. If only sweets and sugars had legs so that I may catch them of my own accord. Just to spite me, they can only seem to be grown and harvested and made by delft little fingers, but I have no patience to do that all myself when I could take it just as easily.” Her eyes watched the rain dappled jellyfish upon his tail for a moment. “Hmm... I suppose you’re right in a way, though. All that sparkles will not satisfy like filling oneself, but, just like anything else, it’s a means to an end. Gold and minerals buy things, things we cannot make ourselves. It’s trivial and it’s oft ill fated, but, necessary. Though, I can say from experience, it is quite uncomfortable to sleep on.” The elder dragon laughed gruffly. She’d heard tales in her younger years of the great hoards some ancient creatures had amassed and, when she’d had a small one of her own, she’d slept on it as they had in their tales, but, the dragoness had received a bad night’s sleep from it. When she’d woken, she’d also found that her vapors had destroyed and rusted most of what precious things she’d gathered... all but the pure gold. That and that alone remained pristine. No ruin, no matter their years, could ever have an easy time with gold. Gold resisted.

As the ghost’s ghost had made her appearance, Geist saw her ‘big brother’ linger on the figure. The membranes along his spine pulled taut. He, though, stole himself away from the misty child as she wandered in and out of shape before vanishing. “The Sekkain's move out of love for their great celestial. A leader coalesces them. ...We should not be forced to the land they do not want. It is not fair or right that we be segregated for having different views then them.” The rain began to simmer away, losing force and power as the clouds shifted to the wind for better hunting grounds. Lightning crackled against the expanse of trees. She did not look to it, but she could feel it, hear it. The trickles of rain slipped down around her endlessly open maw. Her stalactite fangs seemed to glisten, wishing to be used instead of stand as sculpture. As the storm went on, though, the eel shaped creature broke his paise to continue, and he spoke of what he wanted and who he wanted pushed back. “Humanity a plage?” She shuffled, considering, but, how she considered was not very evident on her stone features. In the end, though, she drew a chuckling noise from her many voices. “And what would we do with them gone? Can you honestly say that us, all of us, wouldn’t just be the same. Progress on, grow greedy, eat more than our share. The fact of the matter is, no matter how different in size and shape we are, we’re just the same. There are those among us that would drive others on to just the same things. The natural way is vice, not virtue.” She snorted, great pools of violet steaming from her eyes. “They are no more our masters then we are theirs. They are fools, yes, who take too much pride in what they are and not enough in what they can do for others. They are too entitled. They take to our kin’s backs like a mouse to a horse, but, any sort of creature would be like that if they’d had the world handed to them so easily. They are young. They will learn.”

“Or, we will have to teach them.”

The revenant rolled her tongue in her mouth and twisted an eye upward for a moment. She was amused by the fact that he did not meet all of her questions. “We will never be rid of them, just as they will never be rid of us. Sekkian or tainted, dragon or human. We must be. And we must beat one another down to protect eachother in a game of checks and balances. So long as my lair is left alone and my hoard is untouched, I don’t care which side rises.”

Her tail wound like a snake behind her while the grass grew brown and died. “Did you hate your rider as much as you hate the others now?”

[Chirpadee]

For a time the great serpent was quiet. His ragged breathing hardly anything above the soft clamor of rain. His frill rose and lowered with each sweeping thought as he took in her words. He needed to be careful in his answers, to think over what she said. Without the dark lord guiding his thoughts things were harder. Decisions had to be weighed and thought upon. That membrane drifted closed then open again several times over his low slung eyes before his actual lid dropped.

“Little sister.” He breathed. “I see no need for sweets and gold. They drive your passions, so be it. Gather what you will. Take what you want.” He weaved in his croaking voice, “Yet I stand nothing to gain. The sea bed eats what I bring to it in slit and grime. The harsh waters tarnish what pretty things I collect. Fish carry off what is small enough, and abyssals ever search for things they want.” It was true. In his world shinny tidbits did little except to draw favor from beasts like this grim little ruin. If he had use of her, he now knew how to sway her to his needs, if she was interested in his task anyways. Geist was like himself, crafty. She thought before she acted. It was a functional piece of information none the less.

“I think I see your starting point little sister. I see that we balance each other. I see that there could be need, that you want them for your own reasons. I...” he trailed off, his eyes turning skyward at a particularly loud peal of thunder that shuddered the trees about them. Drops that had been clinging to the pine branches quivered and fell in one large deluge, pounding upon the ground, then he continued. “I have a distaste. They drive me from their livestock, and force me from their lakes. Little sister, they bind us to the dark places. How is that good for any creature? Am I tainted because of what I am? Or because of what they make me?”

He thrummed curiously, thinking on the human he had drawn deep into the tainted lands. He still did not know why he had not eaten her. He thought to gain an ally in his hunt. However that would be years down the road. Perhaps he did not hate the humans as much as he liked to think. This would require mulling at the base of a lake or the ocean. He needed to let his thoughts coagulate into a fixed picture.

Her talk of a rider caused him to slide down towards the surface of the water. His eyes narrowed darkly. The blue spots shifted towards red, still holding all their cool color but something blood like mingled in their hue. The only spot that remained a constant, gleaming topaz were his eyes. Bright stars in a murky field. “My rider.” He mused. The cogs worked, turning slowly. “He was...” His lip curled as a face flashed across his minds eye, a face he had not known in many years. A face that had fled the monster and returned baring horrible memories. A body being torn, ligaments snapping, limbs being rent from flesh, then came the screaming at a level Irukandji had long forgotten. His lip curled back and he let out a roar that was somewhere between pained and hateful into the stormy sky. Then he fell, like his body was too heavy to hold, back into the darkness of the lake. For a moment, the water churned and boiled , rocked by the sound in his skull he shot jets of superheated water to release the pressure building inside . Above the reverberating death wail came the thread of a voice. Madness gripped him as it sometimes does dragons who have suffered the loss.

kill it hissed urgently, stop the sounds

He forced the voices back, all of them. He had years to practice the way of it, to hold back the tide of his own madness. The darkness that writhed inside his skull, the memory he had almost found. More composed his head broke the surface again. His lips twitched and the red color remained. “let us not talk of such triviality. Rider or not, I make my choices now. No human yanks my strings, no deft fingers,” He repeated her words, “Control my actions. Just me now. I chose. I decide. I hate as I will.”

[CloakAndDagger]

This one was a methodical monster. He seemed to take his time to answer, to taste every word before it left his harsh lips and slipped passed prickled teeth to the open, misty air. They were wholly, completely different beings: One of water meant to take his share of the depths, one born from the sky breeds and left to corrupt the very air. But, they were of similar mind in some ways, it appeared. Acknowledging differences was one of the similarities. It was strange how accepting this other monster was of her own vices even as he condemned and seemed to seethe in hatred for anything pink and squishy. Neither one seemed to be swayed one way or another, like rocks battered by the wind, but, even rocks needed company, and the talking seemed to continue as a curiously cordial discussion. They were as doctors concurring over a patient.

Somewhat like a fish trying to breathe out of water, the pond dwelling serpent spoke a harsh, throaty grind about the differences between the land and the watery corners he spent his life in. It was truth, though. Even without living there, she could imagine what sort of an ever changing, dynamic landscape it was, even in the far reaches where light could not touch. Currents there were stronger than wind. Eyes were observant, creatures were hungry for all things. And the world of the deep was ever changing because of all things above and below. It seemed only fair that he would be the type to cling to what he had left or, at least, not regret what he could not save. It was pragmatic. “I suppose we both fit the different worlds we live in, Big brother. Or we fit them to us. Personally I prefer the latter, but only if it’s worth the trouble.”

“I think I see your starting point little sister. I see that we balance each other.” She seemed to muse at his words, though, her face couldn’t form the expression to show it. Her ears swiveled to face the serpent and her eyes listed on him. “I see that there could be need, that you want them for your own reasons. I...” Oh yes, she did to some extent. She chuckled to herself. His words lingered, perhaps waiting to slide from his tongue as a crashing boom warded itself through the trees with explosive persuasion. Though the rain was seeking greener pastures elsewhere, the remnants holding tight to the pines loosed in a torrent with the shockwave and broke on the ground below in a vain effort to make a sibling pond among the larger trees. Greedy, though, the ground was want to let such a draught go to waste and left nothing but sopping dirt. The masked creature shook herself likewise and let her needles rattle against one another in a minor imitation of the thunder that had passed. “I have a distaste. They drive me from their livestock, and force me from their lakes. Little sister, they bind us to the dark places. How is that good for any creature? Am I tainted because of what I am? Or because of what they make me?”

“Thats up to you, brother. But, were you them, would you also not drive predators from your family and livelyhood? Would you not shoo off the things you fear with burning torches and set them to reside in the dark corners you cannot be afraid of them? It is not good for any creature, but you mean them harm, one way or another, and they know it. It seems silly to fuss about something as natural as protecting territory from rivals. If you mean to correct it, don’t give them reason to push you away. Lie to them, if nothing else. Or eat them. That would also take care of the problem.” The spectre laughed with an old voice and informally turned her head to bear all six of her eyes upon him from a single, gleaming socket. “We’re all animals.”

Her other question had left him humming almost thoughtfully, but, after a moment, as if smelling something rank, the water seemed to backtrack into the murks. He looked as if fire had been struck in the ethereal lights that dappled his body, but his voice seemed to rise and fall. Teeth bared themselves naked to the world as the machinations of his mind rumbled on, but, instead of pulling back the words to explain himself, the beast roared an angry, tortured noise nearly like a howl of pain. Was he reliving it? The loss? The ghostly dragoness watch speculatively as Iruk sank like a mob informant left to swim with the fishes. She paused, but, as the water along the surface began to sputter and boil, the creature narrowed her eyes and rose to her feet. Her long toes crumpled the dead grass beneath them while she watched, but did not near the mess of violence. As if being cooled by the lake around him, the serpent’s head rose once more from the secretive underworld below and he found his voice among the lingering red of anger in his body.

“So be it.” She did not apologize for what she’d done, she only looked at him most curiously and, after fanning her wings out for a moment, sat back down. It must have been awful for him to react that way to the mention of his rider. Now, more than ever, she was curious to know more, but, there had been enough poking the bear for the moment. “Hate, love, fear, greed, compassion, hope, will power... whatever it is, you cannot live without some passion to drive you. Without it, you’re not worth the skin you carry around.” There was a moment of pause before she continued. “Big brother, when will you leave this pond and sate them? I wouldn't like to see you become old and pruney like me while your enemies skip around in life like little urchins in a cornfield.” She chuckled again.