Original forum post by Shian on January 22nd, 2008

This was a really amusing day that was way too funny not to share! Sadly, it took a long while to type up. I often got so caught up in re-reading the transcript and laughing that I forgot I was supposed to be working on typing it...
Hence why the current stoyline's a bit far from this point.

I couldn't find a good RP way to explain the channels, so I just left them in as is :/ Besides, the thing's long enough without having to explain all that too. I know it's not very RP-ish but oh well. I claim no mastery of grammar.


Shian yawned and put her tail over her eyes. Maybe she could get away with 5 more minutes if no one noticed…..

“Morning Shian.”

Shian grinned to herself as her hunting partner called her name. He had been helping her train for the past few days and she was always eager for company. Training was quite boring alone and when she raced out of her lair to find him the want for ‘five more minutes’ was completely forgotten.

She ended up in Heather but Nidhogg was nowhere to be seen. She poked her nose in the guildhall that was his recall spot but she didn’t see him. Frowning, she turned around to look elsewhere… only to end up with a face full of snow.

Shian sputtered and shook the snow off and looked at the general direction of where the thing came from. Nidhogg was standing on top of the guildhall with another snowball in his claw. Shian, delighted at the fact the stoic Nidhogg was playing a game with her, sneered at him and jumped, flying straight up and landing on the taller dwarven structure on the opposite side of the narrow path.

“This is my mountain!” She declared triumphantly. “I will smash you and your guildhall down with my mighty pile of snowballs!” She was then met with a hail of snowballs. The pair had been hunting in Trandalar for the past few days so it was no surprise that either of them had quite the collection of snowballs.

Nidhogg jumped down from his terrace and shot back a challenge. “You will have to find me first!”

Shian peered over the edge of the building. Nidhogg was nowhere to be seen. Curious on how a large dragon could seemingly disappear, she hopped down and circled the house, peeking into one of the biped machine structures. She could certainly hunt down the great spotted Nidhogg as her A’meo so often teased. “Oh, I know the great Nid-General is in one of these buildings,” Shian teased as she searched for him in the dwarven house, “for I did not see him from my perch.”

Shian was rewarded with a wet backside and tail from being pelted with snowballs. She yelped a bit and jumped in surprise and whirled around to face a khutit Nidhogg.

“Ohhh. That was a dirty shot!” She cried a bit indignant. Nidhogg grinned at her.

“Got you again!” he exclaimed.

“I’ll get you yet!” Shian reached into her scalepack to grab another round but to her dismay she was out of ammo. She turned her scalepack upside down to make sure there wasn’t one stuck somewhere.

“I’m out too.” Nidhogg admitted. Shian was still preoccupied with her empty scalepack when Nidhogg pounced on her, changing back into a full grown dragon.

“Rawr!” she cried back playfully and the two eventually settled down.

Nidhogg chuckled, “I’m sorry Shian. I couldn’t resist earlier.”

“That was fun! We need to do that again!” Shian grinned. “Next time though…. More snowballs!”

Nidhogg nodded, “Deal!”

Shian could see that Nidhogg’s thoughts were racing. “Hmmm?” She tried prying, “What are you hatching now?”

“Nothing,” Nidhogg replied and grinned at her to clearly show that he had something in mind. Shian stuck her tongue out at him.

“Don’t give me that nothing. Tell me!”

Nid pondered for a few moments then smiled. “I have a better idea.” He jumped up into a glide to reach the portal a few meters away. “Head for Kion.”

Shian could only guess at where they were going. Nid had gained altitude quite quickly as they stepped off the pad. She reveled in the warm air of Kion as she followed Nidhogg as it was so different from her home. Dralk’s heat was almost uncomfortable to her, but dry climates like Kion and Tazoon were a little more tolerable and very nearly pleasant.

It did give her cause to wonder though as Nidhogg started circling the volcano’s edge.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

Nidhogg only grinned and continued a decent. “I want to show you something and it’s in that volcano.”

The thermal updrafts coming from the heart of the volcano made it a bit difficult for the pair to make it in and required a bit of tactics - Fold your wings in, beat halfway, spread them out and ride the current when it goes down and then repeat. It did give Shian a bit of an ego boost as she was still able to keep up with Nid. She had not had her wings as long as Nid has and had not had to do such a strange maneuver before.

She nearly ran into him though as she landed though as the current carried her a bit more forward than she had calculated and nearly ran her nose into his side. Thankfully though, he didn’t seem to notice as he looked at the flame wisps that inhabited the volcano.

The expert crafter quickly pulled a small handful of essence from them, producing a good amount of fire essence and sat up on his haunches to better show Shian what he held.

“Look. I have never seen a formula for them, but they would make most excellent anti-snowballs if one knew how to make orbs with them.”

Shian pondered this theory and as an afterthought, pulled a bit of essence from another nearby wisp. She turned it over in her claws as if it might reveal some secret to her if she looked at it long enough.

“I wonder what it’s for.” She said aloud. It was a most interesting puzzle. Surely it fit somewhere.

“I can answer that.” The two looked around for the owner of the voice, puzzled thinking that no one else but them was around and neither of them had said a word.

Ainura, Shian’s grandmother, was in one of the family lair channels. Shian smiled and listened intently as Ainura was going to give them something new to do today other than training. Perhaps it was a good day for something new and exciting.

“There is a Sslik in their city- Sshranu I think that wants it, but you need to talk to whoever the head of the militia is down there first.” Ainura paused a bit before speaking again, but Shian heard little of her next few words. “But you need to be careful, there is a liquid you find later and you should be careful with it as it promotes fertility in the egg laying species.”

“Let’s go!” Shian cried, not really paying any more attention to Ainua and quite eagerly rode a thermal quickly out of the volcano. She used the momentum to head south.

Ainura clawed at her own face with the apparent disregard of a warning and muttered. “Just like a youngling. Tell them to beware and they run at it nose first because you told them to be cautious.”

“What?” Shian questioned. Ainura had spoken so softly and she was so interested in doing something new she realized that Ainura had been speaking for quite some time.

Ainura sighed at her granddaughter. “Nevermind. It’s not important. I need to head out there to do my Chicken slayer quest anyways.”

Nid however, wasn’t with Shian as she had run off in a hurry said “…. All this running around…”

“Hmm?” Shian questioned.

Nid responded, “I’m going to make a quick stop in Augendell and get more of that biped drink. I’m quite thirsty.”

Shian grinned, reminiscing on the day before where she hunted in the Bitter Pickle with Ainura, quite forgetting the fact that it made her argue with a mountain for an hour. “It was quite delicious.”

“Did you want some?” Nid questioned.

Shian was too busy looking around the Sslik city for someone that might help her or give her something to do. “Nah I’m okay. Thanks though.”

Ainura grumbled, “I think that farmer has no idea who his chickens are….. El Caliente just gave me four eggs….”

Shian jumped a bit as Ainura had landed near her and was no longer mind speaking, but speaking aloud. “Hello Ainura.”

Ainura produced a small number of chicken tail feather trophies. “Want some?”

Shian shook her head. “You know, even when I was younger, the trophy hunter would not take them.” The snow colored dragon looked around and was getting slightly irritated. “No one in this city will talk to me…”

Ainura changed into Khutit and disappeared into a building, her words slightly muffled from the inside. “Did someone already give you something to do?”

After filching around in her scalepack for a few moments, Shian opened a small scroll, certain she had checked already, but sure enough someone from this city had asked her to find ferocious gruoks. “That sounds easy!” She kicked at the ground as the city had little room for a running takeoff. The sheer number of trees both inside and outside of the city made it difficult for taking off but nevertheless Shian soon found herself high above the outskirts of Sslanis, circling around and eventually reaching the farm. She had seen three types of Gruok and none were the ones she needed.

Thinking trying to find them on the ground would be best she landed and looked around, quite wondering where these gruoks might be. They should not be too far.

Shian curled her lips over her teeth and gave her best attempt at a pig call.

“Are you alright?” Nid’s voice came from behind her. “Did you swallow something?”

“Are you choking?” Nid looking a bit more worried with each question.

Shian blushed as she did not hear him land. There were a few days she wished she was not such a light colored dragon… this was one of them as she was surely turning quite a noticeably different color. She stammered a bit for an answer.

“W-well, I was looking for gruoks so maybe…. If I sounded like one…” Shian trailed off unable to come up with a decent excuse for the odd display.

Her embarrassment was forgotten as she creature she sought came into view on the top of a small hill. She whooped in excitement and started running up the hill. “It worked!”

Indeed there were many as Shian got to the top of the hill. It was enough for both of them. She turned to call to Nid who was walking up the hill and downing a Knut’s Fire Whiskey. “Come look!” she cried, thrilled that her call had worked. For a dragon who did not have the same mouth shape as the tiny animal she was impressed with herself.

The two flew back to Sslanis where they met a khutit Ainura. Nid gave her one of the Fire Whiskeys which Ainura gulped down in one drink as Shian finished talking to the town marshal for her payment.
“I got a different drink for you Shian.” Nid offered and handed her a pitcher of dwarven ale as soon as she joined where the other two were sitting on the grass.

Shian sniffed the liquid curiously and took a small drink. It did not taste bad and she reflected that she must have been as thirsty as Nid was as she was soon staring at an empty container. “I like that one!” she exclaimed and put her snout in the small container to try and lick the bottom. Nid gave her a few Fire Whiskeys which she happily put in her pack for later.


“So where are we going?” Shian asked as soon as she was certain the bottom was clean.

“Beetles,” Nid responded as he downed another drink. “At Bridgeview. North I think.” He stuffed the empty pitcher in his scalepack and nearly tripped over his own feet as he tried to get up. “Which way is north?” He questioned with a small hiccup.

“That way!” Shian exclaimed as she pointed north.

“Past the sand ogres... and the water elemenhphh.. uhm... water golem thingies.” Ainura offered.

“I had two of those Fire Whiskeys.” Nid noted. Shian nodded.

“Perhaps we should walk then.” She was not in any hurry to start arguing with trees as they tended to be a bit more hostile than mountains.

For most of the journey though, Shian was having a tough time trying to herd Nid back onto the path.

“You know,” she stated, “If you walked on the path we could go faster.” Nidhogg hiccupped.

“I have been… but it keeps moving.” He stated and nearly stumbled off a cliff. Nidhogg stopped and turned his head to Shian, “Are we being followed?”

Shian turned around to see what Nid was referring to and indeed Ainura was trying to keep up with the two.

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “No leaving the two footed dragon urp…. Behind! I’m coming with you two to make sure you behave.” Shian shrugged and tried to look at where they were…. But the horizon seemed to be a bit blurry.

“We need to turn around, Nid. The water needs to be to our right.”

“Which side is right?” Ainura said, a bit louder than necessary.

“This beach?” Shian asked as they had found another sand bank. “There are too many beaches on this island.”

“More further” hiccupped Ainura “Past the living water.”

Shian groaned. “So in Kion practically?” Ainura downed another whiskey.

“Urp… thank ye fer tah drinks Nid.”

Shian started to hiccup and decided to cure them by downing a whiskey herself.

Nid frowned at his scalepack. “Hmm I don’t have any more things left.”

“We can get more if we get firsty.” stated Shian as her speech was starting to slur. “Where are the beetles?”

Ainura started running over to a different sand bank. “dis… gurk…. Way” Shian was getting tired of all the walking, but with as often as the ground was starting to move, she was glad she was not in the sky as surely it would be even more difficult.

“I don’t see any.” Shian grumbled. “Maybe the creature was wrong and there are no...” Shian was cut off by the sight of sand beetles near the water. As the three made their way down the sandbank, Shian immediately decided she hated sand. It moved even more than the hard ground did and tried to eat her claws.

“Wait a minute!” Shian cried to the khutit who was making better progress than the other two larger dragons. “So you dunna steal our *hic* beetle butts. We need them.”

Ainura pointed to one she just killed “Dat bug has a carapace.”

Shian lumbered over to it and plucked the carapace, quite pleased. “Yay! I hash one!”

The three stayed in different spots for a while, slaughtering beetles as they came near. Shian was having a bit of a hard time as another wandered just out of her range and her claw swiped empty air. Shian frowned. These bugs were not that quick… “They won’t sit still!” She yelled at the other two.

Nid, however was staring at her. “Are you glowing*, Shian?”

Shian tried looking at her wings “Hmm?” then examined her paws and belly scales. “I suppose I am.” She stated as she did indeed was glowing a bit as was Ainura. She shrugged and went back to killing beetles.

It felt like they were there for hours. “These beetles sure don’t like giving up their butts.” lamented Shian. Nid’s questioning did not help her sour mood.

“How many do you have so far?”

Shian growled as she got another clawful of sand instead of killing a bug. “One. One lousy beetle butt,” Shian blinked. “And…. We need five?” Nidhogg nodded,

“Each.”

Shian counted on her claws. “So we need ten?” Shian looked a bit sick. “We’ll be here all day.”

“Two over here!” called Ainura from the other side of the beach.

“Yay!” Shian exclaimed as she hiccupped and tried getting over there as fast as she could. Nidhogg was busy examining something.

“Hmm… what’s this?” Nidhogg showed it to Shian who stared at the tiny vial of Thick and Sticky Liquid and just shrugged.

Shian found the last of her carapaces but she had to count them and make sure. She ended up with a small vial similar to the one Nid had. “Heeeyy! I got one too! Wonder if the creature wants this too.”

Nidhogg nodded “Should we return to Sssssssss….. that biped city?”

“Yesh.” stated Shian quite happily. “I *hic* hate sand” she grumbled as it constantly tried to eat her feet. The three came up on a steep incline that they could not simply climb, so they had to wade a bit more in the sand in order to find a way off the beach. “Shtupid mountain.” Shian grumbled at it. “It’s just like the one that attacked me the other day. Do we have any more drinks?” Nidhogg fought through a wave of hiccups before speaking.

“I drank the last. I’ll go get more.” He offered.

“After we give that city thing what they wanted,” Shian said a bit too quickly. She did not want him to just leave her and Ainura out on the road. Shian looked at the road they used to get there. “Walking is long.” She stated as she referred to the road. Nidhog nodded.

“Perhaps a recall and port back?” Nidhogg offered. Shian was only too happy to accept.

“Then you can get ush more drinks.”


Shian recalled but Ainura grabbed onto her tail and held on.

“WHEEEE!” exclaimed the elder dragon. Shian shook her tail once they reached the pad. She was still irritated at hunting stingy beetles and playing in sand that stuck to her scales and got underneath some of them, making her itch.
“Hey!” she snarled “Pay yer own port fees! You’re rich enough!”

Ainura hiccupped and tried to get up from the ground. “Respect yer… eldest.”

Nidhogg hiccupped. “Greeting Tsargoth,” He said to Favoran who had entered the lair channel. Shian mood was instantly escalated as she turned to Favoran.

“Hello Tsargoth!” She exclaimed and peered through blurry eyes. “When did you grow stripes?” It dawned on her that Tsargoth must have completed his ancient rites and grew them as an ancient. “Congratulations!” She exclaimed happily.

Ainura hiccupped and clung onto Shian’s tail again staring at the blurry figure. “Hi… urp… Tsargoth.”

Favoran blinked at the three of them, obviously not happy at the mix up and tried to clear things up with a little hurt in his voice. “I’m Favoran….”

“Oh.” Shian hiccupped. “Have you seen Saar goth?” Nidhogg looked bewildered.

“Where did Tsarogoth go then?”

Favoran looked around. “Don’t know…. Don’t see him anywhere.”

“I have the drinks everyone.” Nid exclaimed happily as Shian prepared to jump the portal back to Sslanis. She paused for a moment to talk to Favoran and try to shake Ainura off her tail again before porting.

“Well if you see him, tell him I want to learn how to grow stripes.”

Nid was standing on the other side and passed more Fire Whiskey to the other two. Favoran frowned as he really only was able to watch at this point.

“I think drinks are the last thing you need right now,” Favoran stated sternly at the group.

Ainura blinked and pointed to her hoard pile. “Is that him?” Shian thought that was the silliest thing she had ever heard.

“No,” she hiccupped. “Your mate is not shiny.” She realized as she said it that the shiny gold blur must be their missing Tsargoth. “Oh! You meant Tsar…. Tsar is shiny. But… I don’t think he is that round.”

“My mate is Flavoran!” Ainura argued.

“I know that!” Shian shot back and downed a whiskey.

Ainura took to bouncing a coin off of Shian’s belly so that it landed in her cup.
“Oops,” Ainura hiccupped “Guess I drink!” She grinned as she picked up the large mug that nearly dwarfed her Khutit form. “Over the lips through the gums... urp... look out liver... here it comes...”

“Ainura, you’re going to make yourself sick…” Favoran seemed to be quite concerned with his mate’s health as he should be. Ainura had a habit of hunting a bit too often at the Bitter Pickle.

Ainura blinked and looked at her back “Heyyy…. Where did my wings go?” Shian laughed.

“I fink you ripped ‘em off.” She gigged to herself at some private joke that was only funny to her. Ainura shook her head irritably at Shian.

“I would never rip mah wingies off.... too hard work... to get them.”

“They’re still right there Ainura.” Favoran offered. Ainura fell on Shian’s paw and started giggling while Shian tried to figure out where to go.

“Fillet,” She stated. The creature said to talk to two different people. “His name is easier to say, so we go see him first.” Shian looked around “But I have no idea which square he lives in.” It took them three missed houses to find Fillet who did not have anything interesting to say. The other Sslisk they were looking for was in the larger building and Shian did not feel like trying to fit through the tiny doors, so changed into Khutit to try and follow Ainura.

Ainura had run ahead and almost made it through the doorway, but ended up a little too far to the left and rubbed a bloody snout as she had hid the wall instead. Shian meanwhile, was struggling to figure out how to walk with fewer legs.

“The wall punches me!” Ainura frowned and peered at it. “What a rude wall!”

Shian laughed. Surely the wall did not intend to?

Climbing up to the second level was difficult with only two legs, but Shian could not fit through the doorway when she had four. Why don’t bipeds make their doorways bigger?

Nid soon found his way up to the Alchemist Sshranu to join the other two. Shian giggled.

“Turn ‘round.” She said with a bit of glee.

Nidhogg blinked. “Me?” Shian hiccupped in response.

“Yesh you! Who else?” Shian was a bit impatient, but Nidhogg hiccupped and turned around, quite confused at the request. Some of Nidhogg’s back scales had turned red when he had changed into khutit. This delighted the hammered Shian who giggled as she touched them to make sure they were his scales and not some he borrowed from another dragon. Ainura hiccupped and started talking a bit louder.

“Look out! She’s going to pour the liquids on yer tail!”

“Am not!” Shian shot back. Hatchling-ish but she thought she might as well finish it. She stuck her tongue out at Ainura in defiance and turned her attention back to Nid.

“They’re pretty… I like you this color.” Ainura was obviously getting bored at just standing around and started skipping around the two.

“Duck...duck... *buurp* duck... goose!” She chanted, but at the last word, she tripped over Sshranu’s tail and fell over the wall that guarded the slope to the second floor.


Shian’s eyes widened at the sight of her kier A’mea disappearing over the wall that was a good story high. This wasn’t funny anymore and she rushed over to see what had happened to Ainura. She wasn’t sure what to do if she was really hurt.

“Anru…?” she called as she got to her side. Ainura wasn’t moving. “You okay Anru?”
To Shian’s relief, Ainura pushed herself up off the floor and rubbed her now broken snout.

“Heeyyy…. Did you know this floor is hard?” Shian sighed, quite glad that she was okay, but this pitfall did not deter Ainura as she ran outside looking for the next part of their puzzle. Shian tried her best to keep up as she ran out into the courtyard. “Sugar cane…” Ainura pondered. “Iea think I know where that is.”

A hiccup from behind them got Shian’s attention. Nidhogg has reverted to his dragon form too early, leaving only his pink belly and feet visible from the courtyard in the doorway. Shian decided this was a good time to tickle it- after all it was there…. Nidhogg churred at Shian’s touch who tried to offer advice.

“Maybe you need to shrink again.” It took Nid a few minutes, but eventually he was able to get back to khutit and conquer the doorway. “What are we doing here again?” he questioned the other two. Shian could no longer read her journal and instead took the time to play with Nid’s red backscales again.

“I forget” Shian stated. The quest they had taken sure involved a lot of running around. “I’m hungry!” Shian announced loudly.

“Let’s go get some beef.” Nid agreed, but stopped at the vault keeper. “Did you want something sweet?” All three dragons changed back into dragon form. It was getting too difficult to walk on two legs.

Shian grinned, happy at the impending gifts. Nid handed her a piece of gelatin and Shian frowned a bit at the gift and sniffed it.

“And you?” he asked the four Ainuras standing near him. Nid turned back to Shian and saw that he had given her the wrong item and quickly handed her a piece of chocolate. “Whoops. This is what I was supposed to give you.”

Shian put the chocolate in her mouth. She had not had it by itself before and churred at the sweet. Ainura was bored again and tried bouncing coins off of Nidhogg’s chest, trying to get it in her own mug, but it ended up in Shian’s instead. Ainura cackled and pointed at Shian.

“Haha! You get to drink!”

Shian sneered at the challenge. “Okay,” she retorted and downed the cup, hiccupping as the coin also entered her gullet, which obviously did not sit well with her as she started to feel a bit unwell and groaned.

“What are we doing again?” Nid asked.

Shian tried to read her blurry scroll which made absolutely no sense to her. “Dyart….figs? How are we going to figure out where to go?”

Ainura pointed to the blurry Favoran.. “Let’s ask Zex over there.”

Shian hurried over to Favoran and pulled at his wing, trying to give him her parchment scroll to read to them. “Uncle Zex, where are we going?”

“Im not Zex,” grumbled Favoran who pulled his wing back from Shian’s grasp. “I’m Favoran.”

Ainura obviously had other ideas. “’Cmon Tsargoth… where are we going?”

“Then Where did Zex go?” pondered Nid, who was sure that it was Zex a moment ago.

Shian turned to yell at Ainura who was obviously too drunk to correctly ID a dragon. “That’s Zex! The short round one is Tsar!” Nidhogg covered his ears as Shian was standing too close to him, but that gave Shian an idea and she bounded off to Ainura’s hoard pile. “Maybe he knows where we are going.”

Shian touched the pile to try and get Tsar’s attention but ended up with a claw full of coins. This troubled Shian quite considerably.

“Tsar…. You’re shedding…. A lot!” Shian turned to one of the family lair channels where Ssiscor, a sslisk friend of the family and a studying dragon doctor, was sleeping.

“Ssiscor! Tsar is shedding! What do we do?” Shian was quite afraid for her uncle…. She had never seen any dragon shed this badly. “Look!” she called, trying to get the sslisk’s attention again. “His scales are falling off…” Shian started to cry. Nidhogg nuzzled her in an effort to calm her.

“Don’t cry Shian. It’ll be alright.” Shian sniffed and hiccupped, still shedding tears while Favoran tried logic.

“Shian…. Shian, that’s a bunch of coins. It’s okay.”

“But what about Tsar….?” Shian hiccupped. Nid roared at the Sslisk, effectively waking it. Ainura tried roaring like Nid, but it came out as a squeak belch. Ainura was just as confused as Shian.

“Coin? Where did Tsar go?” This got Shian wailing.

“Aww… Tsar shedded away!” and cried louder while Nid tried once again to get her to calm down.

“What the…” Ssicor was startled and became wide awake at the noise and at the smell of the dragon’s breath. It was not too difficult to figure out what was going on. “I have just the thing for that.”

Shian sniffed and hiccupped, still quite upset. “You can put Tsar back together?” She then turned to nuzzling Nid for her own comfort. It really did make her feel better…..

Ssicor began casting a Tier 2 purify spell on all three of them. “I do not envy the headaches you three will have, but this should help clear up the matter.”


Shian lay down and blinked at the spell “What was that?” Nid, who was not quite affected by the spell yet, was still nuzzling Shian.

“Don’t cry anymore Shian.” Shian blinked at Ainura’s hoard pile quite confused.

“What the…. Coins?” Nidhogg, noticing where he was, quickly backed away from Shian the minute the spell took effect and was quite speechless for a few moments. “Hello Favoran.” She greeted as she noticed the large, striped dragon. “When did you get here?”

“… I’m so very sorry Shian….” Nid looked a bit hurt. Shian wiped her eyes, which were still watering a bit perplexed at what could cause her to start crying.

“Clearly….I was upset about something.” Ainura seemed unaffected by the spell.

“Can’t catch me! Nya nya!” she taunted the other two. Ssiscor sighed.

“I think a stronger purify is needed….”

Shian tried reading her scroll again. “We’re looking for sugar cane.” Ainura was already running down the path, downing another Fire Whiskey.

Shian and Nid was only able to follow the khutit for a short while. Nid was in front and had come to a complete stop. Shian considered putting her head on his back and just sleep standing up, so she was a bit grateful when he announced, “I’m tired”

Nid shook his head and swayed a bit to the left, his feet following to keep him upright. “I’m heading back to the lair.”

Shian yawned and voiced an agreement, recalling as a reflex. It took her a bit to get to the lair as she didn’t feel up to flying and the ground kept moving, sleep threatening to overtake her and leave her sleeping on the side of the road in the snow, so it was no surprise to see that Nid had gotten to the entrance of the lair first.

He looked at Shian, his mind obviously fuzzy from the alcohol/spell combo and the need for rest. Were Shian not also suffering from the same condition she might have found his next few words a bit endearing as he shook his head at her in helplessness.

“I forget where I’m going.” Shian grinned and nudged him off the mouth of the entrance into the lair below.

“You’re going down.” She announced as she dropped down after him, nosing him toward the lair he had used a few nights ago. When he was at least facing the right direction, Shian spread her wings and glided down two levels into her own lair chamber.

It would not do to fall down and break something.

Lying down, Shian realized how exhausted she was, but she lifted her head and yelled up to Nid. “Did you find it?” She called, hoping he wasn’t sleeping in one of her silos.

“I think so,” said a voice from nearby. Shian glared at the black and pink blur standing at the entrance to her chamber.

“I’m so not walking you back up…” Just thinking about having to walk up two spirals made her feel ill and a bit dizzy.

“Hmm? Oh. This is yours….”

“Yes, but it’s a long walk up.” Shian put her head down, somewhat relieved that Nidhogg had chosen to lay next to her instead of walking back up to his own. She’d have one heck of a guilt trip to face if he fell and broke something.

“I’m sorry for being any trouble.” Nid mumbled as was fighting to keep his eyes open and constantly shaking his head to try and stay conscience. Shian nuzzled his side.

“I think it’ll be okay if you stay here.” She wasn’t sure if the next thing she said was for reassuring him or herself “It’ll be okay.” She couldn’t lift her head up anymore and noticed she was fighting to keep her eyes open just as much as he was. The last thing she heard before a dream overtook her was his voice.

“Good night Shian.”


* The use of a sunscope to make a dragon glow. The dragons involved in our storyline use it to indicate a female dragon is “in season” ala the Riders of Pern series. As this is Shian’s first season, she really does not know what it is. It is also possible Ainura triggered Shian’s glow.