Innocence and Sudden Curiosity (Luna, Ayer.)

[Luna Hieler & Ayer]

DATE & TIME : Early Morning, Late July
WEATHER CONDITIONS : Warm and sunny
CHARACTERS INVOLVED : Luna, Ayer. This is a Self-Thread
PREVIOUS THREADS ? n/a
ORIGINAL THREAD: berksdragons.proboards.com/thread/1387/innocence-sudden-curiosity
SOUNDTRACK: Explorers by Sky Sailing Click to Listen

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    A dark, form galloped through the forest late at night. Heavy feet sped over the ground, though he was unsure of the terrain. He dodged pine trees and stepped over boulders like they were pebbles. The reptilian claws crushed the undergrowth in his path. It was glorious to feel soil beneath his feet again, it had been too long since he had run freely like this. Stretching his legs again was extraordinarily relieving. He felt the cool night air gliding against his scales as he tore along the forest floor with surprising fluidity. Without warning, he found himself grappling for ground that wasn't there. He fell headfirst down and down until his body struck the ground with a violent crash. The surprised creature let out an angry roar, letting his growls echo through the moonlit forest. He stared up. The ground he had only moments before been running over was high above his head. He had fallen right into the cove. After a few moments of attempting to scale the walls and failing, he discovered the large lake within the natural enclosure. Seeing no other option, he slithered into the water, submerged himself and unhappily slunk to the bottom of the dark, cold lake.

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    Luna opened her eyes and squinted against the grey morning light. She looked beside her and to her surprise, Curtis was still asleep. She sat up and smiled, it wasn't often that he was still asleep when she awoke. Normally, he was the one to wake her up. Luna realized that he must be exhausted to still be sleeping.

    Every day the past week, Luna had been working nonstop to get herself moved back into town. Between moving in and getting back to a healing schedule, she had been very busy. She wanted to get a little time off, and she decided that taking an early morning swim would be a nice way to take a break before beginning her duties.

    Looking over at Curtis, She saw his eyes flutter a little when she stirred. She leaned down, kissed his cheek and whispered "Shhh, stay asleep. I'm going for a swim in the Cove, I'll be back in a little while." She pulled the blanket over his shoulders and slipped out of bed. After dressing herself and taking a piece of bread, she walked out of the house, through the village, and into the woods.

    Luna trod through the forest until she reached the familiar place where the undergrowth gave way to mossy stone and the cove formed a canyon. She found her usual access point and crouched down as she made her way through the tunnel-like paths in the rock. She stepped out into the open area within. She searched her surroundings carefully, making sure that she was alone. When that was confirmed, she walked towards the water's edge and stopped a few feet before the ground became water. She undressed and waded into the cold water. After she was used to the chilly temperature, she went deeper until she could submerge herself. The water closing in on her body felt good. She swam quietly around the pond for awhile, enjoying the serenity.

    She moved into deeper waters and closed here eyes. She laid back and kicked her feet lazily, propelling her floating body. After a few moments, she felt something loosely wrap around her leg and then slide off. She looked down, but seeing nothing, she ignored it. Likely an overly curious fish. A few minutes later it happened again, but this time it didn't let go. Before she could think, it wrapped twice around her waist and dragged her down into the depths of the pond.

[Luna Hieler & Ayer]

    In the morning, the disgruntled dragon awoke to a disturbance on the surface of the lake. He glared up at what he saw floundering ungracefully above.. He couldn't tell what kind of creature it happened to be, but anything disturbing his peace was unwelcome.

    He swam up. The dragon had every intention of throwing it out of the water, but as he got closer, his curiosity was peaked. Upon further observation, he realized that it was a creature the likes of which he had never set eyes on, at least not that this close of a proximity. A human. Living most of his life beneath the waves, and the rest on deserted isles, he had never met a human. He could smell a female scent on the human. It knew it was far too small to pose a threat to him. His interest was aroused. Making sure it didn't see him, he observed it quietly from below. It really didn't seem to be doing anything.

    After a few minutes of silent watching, he became braver and cautiously reached his long tail up and wrapped it lightly around what seemed to be an appendage hanging down toward him in the water. When it flinched, he recoiled and sunk down a bit, anxious to see how it would react. It didn't do much beyond thrashing it's leg for a moment.

    Floating up again, he observed it once more. It simply resumed what it had been doing before. Now he was more curious than ever. He reached up his tail again and wrapped it around the leg more tightly and pulled the small body down into the water. Only then did it start to flail, but he was too curious now. Drawing her close to his face to get a better look, He turned the struggling human, giving it a look from each side. It had orange hair coming out of its head and white flesh covered all of its body. The features on its face were foreign to him. He couldn't get a really good look at it, since it was moving so much- it seemed to be trying to claw its way back to the surface, but he wasn't done looking, so he held on to her.

    After a few more moments the human finally ceased its struggle, but when it did, it's body flopped around strangely in the water and couldn't hold itself up at all. Only then did he realize he could only barely sense its heartbeat. The terrifying thought came to him that the human might not have gills. A low rumbling came from his chest as he stared at it guiltily. It was a beautiful creature. Thinking quickly, he swam to the surface and brought the human above the surface. He propelled himself to the shore where he deposited her on the bank. Then he slunk back into the water and watched it laying motionless from just below the surface, hoping desperately that it would move again.

[Luna Hieler & Ayer]

    After Luna pulled under the surface, she opened her eyes and frantically looked around. She looked down and saw a scaly tail wrapped firmly around her waist. In seconds, she was eye-to-eye with a massive black dragon. But... it had no wings. It was swimming! She had only seen a few water dragons in her life, and never one this large. Again, she struggled to loose herself from its grip, but it held fast. She was running out of air. She coughed up the last bit of air before slipping into unconsciousness.





    Luna opened her eyes. Her body was hot; The sun beat down on her from above. She took a breath and coughed up water, body trembling. She cleared her throat and looked around. Everything seemed quiet she sat up and brushed dirt off of herself. She thought about the dragon that she had just encountered. It had been so large, about the size of a Nightmare if she'd have to guess. She must have passed out under there. Had it dropped her up here? The alternative was unpleasant. The idea of a passerby finding her body in the lake made her cringe.

    She wondered how long that thing had been in there. Had it been living there for years and nobody knew about it? But how could that be possible? People had been visiting this spot for years now, someone would have noticed at SOME point. But water dragons couldn't just up and move, they live their whole lives in the same water they're born in. How could this have happened?

    She rose to her feet and walked halfway around the lake, assessing the situation. She was extraordinarily curious, but investigating further may not end well. Taking a step closer to the edge, She peered into the water, pondering about the creature beneath the surface.

    Then, throwing caution to the wind, she waded a few steps into the water. Her eyes scanned the surface looking for a disturbance on the lake. She stood still as the water settled around her calves. She hadn't been this curious about something in a long time- she had been so paranoid lately, it had become usual for her to be so brave, especially when she was alone. And even though the creature had almost drowned her, something about this made her feel this dragon wasn't an enemy.

    She took another step into the water, she was in almost up to her knees. But that was when her feet were swept out from under her. The same tail that had pulled her down into the water before had wrapped itself around both of her legs and was now dragging her to the other side of the lake, where boulders broke the surface.

    Her body cut through the water as he towed her and she struggled for a bit of composure or control, yet succeeded in gaining neither. After a few moments, they stopped. The dragon whipped her out of the water and pinned her against an up jutting rock. She let out a cry as her body struck the stone. Muscles rippled beneath the scales of the giant foreleg that pinned her down. Long, curling talons grazed her tender skin. It held her there forcefully as the black tail slithered out from around her. It was then that she realized she may have been incorrect. This creature may in fact be an enemy, and she was defenseless.

    Enormous green eyes stared at her from an arm's length away. Its jaw was parted a little, revealing a maw brimming with knife-like teeth. A growl formed in the dragon's chest as a look of anger on its face seemed to darken.

    Luna took a deep breath. She couldn't move- the giant paw covered her body almost in entirety. Her head and shoulders along with her feet were the only things not clamped down. She was held securely upright against the cold stone. She looked up at the dragon, eyes full of fear.

    She gulped and began speaking in dragonese, hoping the beast would spare her life. "My name is Luna. I can speak your language. I have no means of harming you, I hope you will chose not to bring harm to me in turn." She waited nervously, unsure what to expect.