Blood, sweat and tears [open]

[Ravager]

Time and Date:: January 19th, late morning - early afternoon
Weather:: A faint thaw has hit, everything is trying to start new life.
Previous Threads?:: Colder Than Stone

It had been just another day, the human boy had come out and brought food for him once again. They began their usual routine of feeding, the boy trying to be friendly and petting, following by wrestling. But something had changed, the human had cried out. He grunted a bit and dropped the boy, nostrils flaring as a new scent began to flood his sense almost to the point of blinding him.

Blood, it was a thick smell. The beast blinked and nudged the now immobile human. «Human, are you that weak?» Nostrils flared as he rolled over the limp viking. «Rise!» He stood over him and snarled. «Get up!» He lay down beside him and snorted. «Fine, we will rest until you stand again.» His tail swung idly behind him, a dull thump echoing through the forest as it connected with the trees behind him.

Lifting his head he tilted it to the side. Even over the scent of blood, he could tell another human scent was approaching. They had the same Berk stink too, but was also overpowered by fish. A snarl growing in his throat, he stood up and curled around the boy. «Who goes there?» He roared and flared his wings out. «Who dare interrupt me?!»

[Spitnose]

It was a nice day to be out, but Spit wasn't out to enjoy the fresh weather. Everything had been a bit overwhelming. It certainly was an interesting birthday, her mother had told her she was about going to have another child. Not sure how to deal with it she simply fled into the forest. But it seemed like she wouldn't get getting a break. There was a yell, and dragon roaring. "What?!" Heart racing, she ran towards the noise.

But when she got there, her heart sank. It dropped right out of her chest when she saw what had happened. Gunnar, on the ground with a dragon curling around his body. "WHAT?!" It wasn't hard to see the blood, and she could only assume the worst. "Get away from him!" She ran towards the beast, arms flailing. But the dragon moved between her and him, but that wasn't going to stop her. With a quick bend of her knees she leapt onto the dragons back, and slid off the opposite side. "What have you done?!"

The beast snarled a bit. «He is merely resting. He will awaken.»

"No he wont! You killed him!" Pulling her arms under Gunnar's, tears welling up in her eyes. She pulled him in tight not caring that blood was soaking into her clothes.

«Dead? Hah! His chest still moves.» The dragon huffed and stared at the two.

"He's... not dead?" She loosened her grip slightly, and sure enough she could feel a faint heartbeat. "Odin's Ghost! We have to get him to Ari!" She struggled to her feet, refusing to let go. "Like, NOW!" While she was clearly urgent and trying to rush, she couldn't manage anything more than a shamble.

«Ari?» The beast snarled and tilted his head, slowly following behind. «Will they aid in his rest? Make him stronger?» He would only agree if this would improve his human.

"Yeah, sure. Plenty stronger." To her surprise, the dragon moved out of her way. Nodding a bit, she began the slow trek to the village.

--LATER THAT DAY--

With the edges of Berk under her feet, panic in her eyes Spit began to do the only thing she could. "Help!" She bellowed, as loud as her lungs would permit after having hauled him through the forest. "Some one, any one!" She grunted as she readjusted her grip. "I need a healer! Urgently!" As she continued speaking, her voice grew more desperate and obvious that she was fighting back tears.

Meanwhile, Ravager had followed the entire way. The dragon wanted to know that someone else wasn't going to play with, or potentially eat his human. Only he was allowed to do that.

[Hammerfist The Boar Rider]

Hammerfist had been busy for most of his morning helping out Mrs. Jensson with fixing her fence. He figured he had to make up for the incident from a while back. He did a pretty bang up job if he said so himself! Unfortunately with the fence being fixed, the boy didn’t realize that Dusty had wandered off.

She had been shuffling through the snow around town for a while now, digging through the snow for any snow-covered food. With the approaching spring, this was easier than it had been previously. The few new shoots of greenery trying to start life once again had no way of knowing that their efforts were in vain this day. One after another, Dusty unburied and made quick work of the young flora. It wasn’t enough to satisfy her however, just a snack to keep her going.

It wasn’t until the sun was higher in the sky that something more appetizing wafted into her nose. It was a smell no boar could ignore. Blood, and lots of it. Her instinct told her that this was an easy meal, and she had to get to it before anything else. With her lead trailing behind her, she sauntered through the snow eagerly towards the inviting scent.

The scent was getting closer, but there was something else as well. She didn’t care though, whatever it was she could take it on! She had powerful muscles and tusks to take on ANYTHING that tried to take what clearly belonged to her.

… That was the plan until she got close enough to see the giant dragon trailing behind the source of blood. Screw this! This isn’t worth the effort! She’ll have to find food elsewhere, but not before fleeing like a boar out of Hel!

Squealing she turned tail and barrelled right through Hammerfist, who had been following her tracks for a good few minutes now. Grunting in pain, he picked himself off the wet snow. “Dusty! Get back he-”

“Help!"

The boy paused. ‘That doesn’t sound good.’ He began moving towards the source of the voice, breaking into a run as he heard whoever it was saying that a healer was needed. ‘REALLY not good!’ Dusty could wait, he had a feeling that whatever this was about was more important.

He stumbled a few times but managed to regain his balance. He saw what looked to be Spitnose carrying someone else, and the giant dragon known for ravaging the village just behind her. Naturally he assumed the worst, the dragon was obviously out to feed, and although he didn’t know it that is something the Scentipede was in fact thinking — just not for the same reasons he was assuming. “Hey you! Dragon! Get back!”

Then he finally took in the horrific sight. “Oh Thor! What happened?” Unthinking he whipped off his fur cape to wrap around the boy. “He’s gonna need all the heat he can get.” Then he looked into the young girl’s eyes. He knew the look on her face a bit too well, he’d seen it in his own reflection multiple times, but now was not the time for this. The limp boy’s life was ticking away fast.

“Spit, may I?” He gestured his arms outward, hoping she would understand his intent. “You look like you’re about to fall over, and it won’t do much good if you can’t continue.”

[Ravager]

A snarl erupted from the dragon as he smelled a wild beast coming towards them. He knew well enough to tell it intended on stealing his killfriend. But as soon as the boar was likely close enough to see him, it turned heel and ran. A satisfied grunt escaped the dragon. Normally, he would have given chase, but today he had slightly more important matters to tend to. His human smelt delicious, and was apparently severely injured. If he couldn't be saved, then he would reclaim what should have been his long ago. And if they managed to repair the boy, then he would have to scold him for being so foolish in the first place.

But as the boar ran away, a human scent got closer. Likely due to the small ones yelling. A burst of air escaped him as the new boy told him to back off. «No human, it is you who must get back!» He flared his wings aggressively but cocked his head to the side as the boy seemed to be here to help? Folding his wings tight once more he simply snorted. How many humans did it take to save one? His tongue flicked over his teeth for a moment. The weren't far from the village now, he had never been here with intentions other than stealing their livestock. It was strange, and even now he still had a burning desire to steal their food.

He was having a hard enough time following what the two were doing, their scents were all mixed together over the bloody boy now. And his eyesight only gave him a vague idea of the situation. Shoving his head beside them, he growled. «The boy does not need heat, his innards are still warm.» If his eyes were able to focus, they would have been fixed on the newcomer. «You are no bigger than he, yet you think you are so smart?» The was a shrill hiss to his tone, clearly getting annoyed with the situation all together.

[Spitnose]

Hearing the dragon growl, she looked around a bit. There was.... nothing? Oh wait! Something caught her eye, it was a wild boar. "What???" Why was there a boar leaving Berk? She hadn't had the chance to see the saddle through vision blurred from tears. But sure enough as soon as it noticed the hulking beast behind her, it turned tail and bolted. She just kept dragging, both arms almost on the verge of giving up. But before she lost all will to go on, she heard a voice answering her. "Oh thank Thor!" Suddenly the boar made sense, and she managed a very shaky and unconvincing smile.

"That thing happened." She gave a rather sharp nod of her head at Ravager, who snorted at the comment. She glared at the dragon as he tried to say what they were doing was wrong. She didn't care what he had to say on this, he was the reason this was a problem at all. But when she looked at Gunnar, it took everything she had not to break down. "I... n-no. I can do this..." He was right though, her knees were on the verge of collapsing beneath her and it took everything she had to keep a grip.

But if nothing else, she was stubborn. She tried to continue, but her next step she stumbled. "He was so far... way out in the forest..." She just now realized how far she had made it on adrenaline alone. Her knees shook a bit, hitting each other as her feet splayed out to the sides. "And the stupid eel with legs isn't helping at all." Her voice grew louder with each word. Ravager was very offended by the comment, and recoiled at the mention of eels. His tail began to swish in annoyance.

Being aware of her own pain made progress slower. And despite Hammerfist's best intentions, she had determination and ignorance on her side. Or perhaps, not so much on her side after all. She also had a large dragon breathing down her neck, that certainly wasn't helping the situation any.

[Hammerfist The Boar Rider]

Yelling angrily at a wild dragon to get back was usually a bad idea if you’re a young viking. Yelling at the town menace on the other hand was just about suicidal. The boy flinched involuntarily at the aggressive display of the Scentipede, but that didn’t stop him once he saw that someone else’s life was on the line.

As fate would have it though, today he wouldn’t die a heroic death. Why the dragon didn’t strike him immediately he’d never know, not that he would think about that anyway.

Hammerfist listened to the girl’s explanation as he swiftly wrapped his coat around the severely injured boy. He glared at the dragon who seemed to be getting increasingly angry at the situation. “Then we should hurry and make sure it doesn’t keep happening.”

Shortly after refusing his help, the distressed girl proved his point by stumbling with her next step. ‘How can I make her go faster?’ While listening to her further details on where she found the boy bleeding in her arms, he quickly scanned the area for something, anything that could help with this.

Just as his eyes caught something, he laughed at Spitnose’s comment about the “stupid eel with legs.” “That’s alright, we don’t need the stupid eel’s help!” He bolted towards a nearby wooden cart and dumped out all the contents, wincing at the sound of something breaking. Later he would make it up to whoever's cart this belonged to.

He wheeled the cart over to where the Scentipede and fellow vikings were. “If the dragon won’t give us a ride to the healer’s then we can at use this cart.” Though not exactly the time or place to break out into a grin, he couldn’t help it, he had fond memories involving cart riding. “Look, it’s even big enough for two people if you wanted to stay by his side."

[Ravager]

Snarling the dragon turned his head away. Instead he began to survey the village, it had a constant pungent smell of fish overlapping with hundereds of individual scents from dragons and vikings alike. Tongue flicking out he tried to build a mental map of the land. It was fairly easy, every scent was thick and old. Anything fresher he could easily pass off as something that wasn't stationary. But his attention was pulled back to the foolish young humans. The scent of blood was still rich in his nostrils and his urge to eat the boy was rising with every second.

And yet somehow, he was able to resist. What was it? Attachment? To a simple prey animal? He snorted at the thought and scuttled ahead of them. No there had to be something else, some other reason he wasn't eating the boy. Perhaps because it wouldn't be a fair fight. He had not been killed, and hardly put up a struggle. That was it, clearly. But even now, the dragon licked his teeth unable to contain his drool.

But when the not bloodied boy suggested something, a strange wooden object, he growled. Wings lifting from his sides, he lifted his front legs slightly off the ground with a low rumbling hiss erupting from him. He was not prepared to accept this strange device, and certainly not anywhere near his human! It got to the point were his front legs rested on cart, and his wings spread out further. The rumbling in his throat only grew louder. «You shall go no further.»

[Spitnose]

Blinking a bit, Spit looked at the dragon. "Oh... right." He was looking at Gunnar in a way that made her feel extremely nervous. It only made her grip tighten, to the point she did't even hear Hammerfist as he took off to the cart.

"Ah! Wheels!" She grinned a bit. Why hadn't she thought of that! Then again she never took the fish cart out into the forest... that was probably why. "But we don't have a yak..." With a great deal of effort, she hoisted Gunnar into the cart trying to be as gentle as she could. Unfortunately, he would still likely have some bruises when he came to. "Oh! You mean... me and..." She glanced down, biting her lip. "Are you sure?" She didn't want to put this on him, she had a strong feeling that she had to deal with this.

But she yelped, stumbling falling over the cart in the process as the dragon put his weight on the back of the cart. On the ground beside it now, she glared at him her eyes red from tears. "Listen here, you big bully!" Rubbing her eyes, followed by her nose she tried to act brave. For herself, and for Gunnar, she had to. "Go away!" She tried failing her arms, not realizing that his species didn't rely on eyesight. "Go terrorize some one else." Unfortunately for her, the growling only deepened and the beast put another set of legs on the cart now hovering over the injured boy.

"Oh Thor, what do we do?!" How did you deal with... THAT?!