Breaking the ice [Nightrode, Sven]

[Nightrode]

Time and Date:: Afternoon, Winter
Weather:: Clear, but cold.
Previous Threads?:: /

Another clear, beautiful day. The snow had settled, the wind had lessened, allowing for the landscape to shine in its more fascinating light. Up above, in the skies, an unfamiliar figure was travelling, searching for a new spot to claim his temporary home. Hidden away for most of the time, this dragon had now set the goal for himself to finally fulfill his ambitions. He had spent enough time sulking away about a friend long lost, or about the past he had endured when he was but a wee hatchling. It was time for a change. Something that would impact his life forever.

Circling the snow covered woods, the serpentine dragon searched for quick meal. However, with his unfortunate luck, most of the inhabitants were hiding away, disallowing Nightrode to fill his empty stomach. It seemed that he needed to go back to the ground.

With how he was able to direct and control his flight, Nightrode was able to land upon a tree, which soon bent away at his weight. Quickly, he coiled himself around the branches, slithering his way down as the tree creaked and almost snapped. Only as he neared the ground did the wood relax under his muscles, finally stopping the earsplitting noises.

With his small feet on the ground once more, the dragon took a few careful licks of the air, trying to see if there was anyone nearby. The wind disallowed him to get a good allround smell, but he felt confident to not hide immediatly. His body pressed onto the ground as he brought his hands to his body, soon slithering across the cold, yet forgiving snow. His 'footprints' in the snow soon became only a long, wavy line, as he continued to plow his way through in the search of food and shelter. It was unfortunate how his last home had been too contested, as the smell of human vanished.

Just the thought of that made the dragon frown. How could the one person he had managed to benfriend suddenly leave him? At first, Nightrode didn't think much of it. The boy had wandered around a lot, perhaps he had been on another journey. But days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. He had been in his cave for a long time, waiting anxiously for his human friend to return to him. All he had done was eating quickly, in fear of missing the visit. But it was clear to him now... he wouldn't return. He wouldn't ever return. Such was the way of life... and perhaps, humans. All they did was leave and hurt him.

With a glance upwards, he could see a birdnest within a tree, hopefully containing something to eat. The serpent coiled his way around the tree, spinning his way up, untill his long neck could reach it. Three small eggs. Not even enough to be called a snack. Yet, he swallowed them away, before making his way back down. There, in the snow, he laid down on a fallen tree trunk. His magnificent crest deflated in sadness as the dragon allowed his eyes to close. He missed him. He missed everyone. He missed companionship.

At the same time... would he even be able to befriend somebody with how his fear gripped him? The fear of betrayal, the fear of lonliness... two opposing sides that waged war since years. Ever since he could remember, really. What was he to do? How could he finally manage to break himself out of his mental cage?

[Sven Vellyn]

Sven trudged through the snow. Snow was absolutely everywhere, it was so thick it had managed to get through the overhead canopy of pine needles and made getting through the woodland a nightmare. He stumbled clumsily over roots and rocks hidden in the snow, sometimes sinking knee deep. It made him cold and slightly miserable.

Sven had wanted to try and make himself useful by making some traps for small creatures like rabbits, but with the overnight snow, he doubted his poor crafting attempts would have survived. He found one tree he had marked, and brushed under the snow.

Just as he had suspected, the trap was damaged it could barely even be considered one anymore. They were of simple construction, simply of sticks and twine, but it was practice. He sighed. Halldor was going to be mad if he didn’t bring anything back…

He found another one of his traps an hour later- but he was surprised to have been successful! Except there was no rabbit, but instead a crow. He bitterly took it. Perhaps a dragon could have it. He grabbed some string to wrap around the carcass’ neck and strung it on his shoulder, as he used to do with seagulls he used to catch with Beorn.

He kept trudging, though he really didn’t know why he bothered anymore. Half an hour passed, when he was about to round a boulder, and he saw a flash of bright red, which quickly made him retreat and almost glue himself to the rock beside him.

Dragon?! He quickly but quietly dumped his bag and bird on the ground, and hesitantly took another peek. It was a dragon alright, and one that he hadn’t seen in a while, but recognised nontheless. It was Nightrode, Noah’s dragon. He hadn’t seen him for months, especially after that… incident.

Though he himself hadn’t been hurt in the incident, he instinctively went to scratch his side, where his fresh scar was. He had seen how volatile Nightrode had been, how quick he had been to change from playful to deadly on the turn of a coin. he remembered how he befriended him last time, and took a small foreign coin out of his bag. Thankfully the snowstorm had rid the skies of the clouds, and there was a little of of sunlight he could take advantage of.

Sven took another peek, and then realised something wasn’t right; he wasn’t really moving much. He didn’t know too much yet about the species, but he had seen enough snake-like dragons that would ‘play dead’ to find prey. He decided to play it cautious, and stay close to this rock as a potential, but terrible hiding place.

With a deep breath, he stepped from his cover, and approached, but being sure to not get in range of those jaws. He kept the coin hidden in a pocket for now. If he held onto the coin it might look like he was making a fist, which would probably make the dragon upset.

“Nightrode? Are you okay?” He asked, gently. He’s rather not get on this particular dragon’s bad side.

[Nightrode]

It felt to him as though he had rested for just a moment before the quiet voice called near him. For a moment, he had sworn it to be the one he had waited for so eagerly, which caused the dragon to lift his head in almost childlike curiousity and glee. His crest inflated, signalising strong curiousity. However, whom he saw was rather unfamiliar to him, almost strange. It had been too long for him to recall, but he had seen this viking before in the past. Although his name passed his mind for now, Nightrode was sure to recognize the boy by his scent. His tongue flicked the air a few times in quick succession, before the blood red dragon huffed, his eyes growing more to slits. Out of cautious and defensive instinct, his body grew tense, his soft claws grabbing the trunk as though he could jump and fly away at any moment.

Yes, he remembered the boy. He was the friend of that pride-obsessed beaked freak. What was her name? He didn't recall. He had been too busy trying to best her, and best her he did... even if it was through underhanded means. Surely, this viking would be more than upset over what he had done, putting him not into a good position. At the same time, the boy was alone, significantly reducing his danger output.

This didn't mean he doesn't have weapons. He'd play it safe, like always.

"As great as I'll ever be..." He hissed, immediatly defensive. His pristine, blazing eyes fixated themselves on Sven as his head turned, directly facing him. "And what do YOU want...? Back to give me hell about what has happened...?" He scowled, before taking a tentative step back. Every feather on his body shuddered, causing dangerous rustling noises to emit from him. With how he was standing sideways, he was clearly trying to threaten Sven in submission, instead of getting ready to pounce him onto the ground. A mere defensive reaction.

[Sven Vellyn]

At first, it looked like things might be okay. But the dragon recognised him, and that hope quickly vanished as the dragon began to tense up. For now he was being defensive, but it was hard to tell, Sven was wary that it could go either way.

At least the dragon was willing to converse. Yes. Sven Was upset about what happened to Hermes, but he wasn't one to take a grudge. Dragons are dragons, things like that happened all the time. The dragon rustled it's feathers, Sven mused at the similarity that Ambassadors had with that, except with scales more rigid than feathers, the noise was more of a rattle than a rustling.

Sven took the signs though and slowly and gently bowed his head slightly. He hoped that submission didn't mean an invitation for attack. "Not at all, Nightrode. This encounter is merely coincidence." He spoke truth, but he had a good feeling that the dragon wouldn't buy it. "I'm not mad at you. Not in the slightest." He pocketed the coin and held his hands out, showing they were empty and meant no harm.

Seeing Nightrode, Sven was beginning to wonder where Noah was. Well, unless he arrived and called Nightrode off, he would have to deal with the dragon himself. Right now he was too busy trying to save his own neck to ask the whereabouts of Noah.

[Nightrode]

Well, that was unexpected. Instead of showing malicious intent, the boy seemed to be rather neutral to him. Almost friendly. Humans are known to be the must begrudging creatures, so how could he drop that incident so quickly? Was he perhaps lying? It would take more than simple words to get him to believe him.

The following motions from the human perplexed the dragon. Those dangerous, grabbing limbs were exposed, empty. His gaze was turned away, to the ground, showing submission. What was he trying to achieve with this? What was his ulterior motive? It was impossible to tell for the dragon, who began fighting with his almost neurotic, fearful thoughts. Crimson eyes averted themselves from the boy's face, only to wander across his body, searching for hidden weaponry that he could use against him. Despite the gestures, he still feared an oncoming attack.

However, he soon figured that his eyes wouldn't be enough. With his body relaxing more, and the threatening rattling stopping, Nightrode lowered his long neck to start sniffing at Sven. The cold air blew quickly from his nostrills, as he took quick sniffs each time. Like a cat, he tentatively drew his head closer, before jerking it back in fear. He did this a few times, before giving up, not daring to draw closer.

The scent of a fresh carcass managed to get to his nose, which caused the dragon to turn his head in curiousity. With how poorly he had been managing to hunt, the thought of food made him almost want to get close. The previously slitted eyes seemed to relax more, turning more oval shaped.

"You're not...?" He asked, clearly in surprise and disbelief. For a moment, it seemed as though he'd fully relax, but he remained atleast sightly tense. His head was lowered, around the same level as the boy's height.

[Sven Vellyn]

Sven heard the dragon move, approaching towards him slowly. Though he felt marginally safer that the dragon wasn't as tense, he was still wary. Any sudden move with the dragon at this proximity would probably end him up at Ari's again, or worse, dead. The stop of the rustling feathers seemed like a positive sign though.

He felt his hair ruffle a bit as the dragon inspected him, blowing air his way. He saw the dragon move and realised Nightrode had spotted his abysmal catch. He was tempted to offer it to the dragon, there was little the village could do with a bird like that. Keeping his head down he could see the fiery red of the dragon's body, its smallish feet sturdy against the white snow.

He dared to look up, Nightode was in front of him, craning his serpentine neck to his level. Sven lowered his arms slightly as the Toxic Hell asked for confirmation. He was obviously surprised.

"No, I'm not." Sven confirmed, and smiled. He could still see that he was wary. "Don't be afraid, I'd never hurt a dragon... I'd never hurt you." He decided to play on the dragon's memory. "Do you remember? We played together."

[Nightrode]

The sincere words of the boy seemed to rouse something within Nightrode that he hadn't known or felt since a long time. Was it relaxation? Was it the feeling of being safe? He had forgotten, the memories blocked away due to the overwhelming times that he had to run, hide, flee. It was a nice sensation, and yet, the dragon was not to trust it. It didn't seem real - no, it couldn't be real. Just another fake, doubtful thing that he had to mistrust.

The question of their previous time together made the dragon think. Usually, he'd gladly abandon any memory that weighted upon him, sparing him the emotions that came with them. As he looked precisly back, however, he could faintly remember a time where he had been with Noah and the boy. Whilst he didn't remember the specifics, he remembered the emotions that were connected to the images. So much different than he knew now... He had been allowed to be himself, be relaxed. His prideful, cocky self that enjoyed fun and attention. No danger around, the only worry he had was to outdo his partner. He remembered now, the name of the boy, whom he had played with back then. Sven, wasn't it?

It seemed so silly to him now, but he had truely forgotten, in fear of feeling the sadness that followed with the rememberance of such joyful memories.

"I think I remember now..." He answered after a moment of silence. His feet shifted idly on the snow, due to the cold. Although he was well insulated due to his feathers, the cold made him shiver and tense at times. It was almost unbearable to the dragon. "Sven... that is your name, isn't it?" His tail shifted across the snow. "Yet... why should I believe your words...? Words are empty." He scowled, before giving a strong huff through his frigid nostrills. "I have made enough experiences to know that humans are perfect liars."

[Sven Vellyn]

There was a moment of silence. Sven could see the dragon's pupils moving as it tried to remember. Sven almost sighed of relief when the dragon indeed remembered, but he knew he wasn't out of safe waters yet.

"Yes that's right, I'm Sven." But the dragon still doubted him. He obviously didn't trust Sven. He didn't seem so distrusting before, did something happen? The absence of Noah in the apparent vicinity was slightly unsettling, it was rare to see the two apart.

Nightrode called Sven, and the human race, liars. The dragon huffed, senting a waft of smelly dragon-breath air in his face. Sven didn't flinch. "Then I won't speak. I'll just let you be." He said simply.

And he did just that. After a moment's silence, he broke contact from the dragon, and left to pick up his crow carcass, and moved to a wooden stump where he sat down and began to pluck the sorry creature. He figured perhaps ignoring the dragon for a moment would instill Nightrode's desire to show off and seek attention, something he showed quite clearly the last time. He hoped he wouldn't be met with acid rain again. He shuddered slightly as the cold breeze bit into him, putting colour into his cheeks. No longer trudging through the snow, he had cooled down quite a bit.

[Nightrode]

Curiously, the human answered with barely any words, before leaving the dragon standing where he was. His head followed Sven, observing his every movement, as he simply sat down to pluck the bird. Feeling himself in the right, Nightrode proceeded to look away, wanting to pay no more attention to the boy. The pain of betrayal sat deep, practically paralyzing him to the spot. What was he to do? What action seemed the most logical at this very moment? He could always stick to the safe option and blast the boy away, eliminating the threat... but was that even neccessary? There sat Sven, simply readying his kill. Although, admittedly, he didn't understand why he had to remove the feathers first. The stomach of the dragon silently growled, reminding the serpent that he had to get food, and soon.

A wind howled over the forest, blowing some fresh snow off of the branches and onto the ground. Instinctively, the dragon brought his mighty wings around him, sheltering his ill-protected body from the cold. Yet, he felt his muscles spasm, causing him to shiver, in order to generate some warmth. The only heat source that he could accompany himself with was the boy... but that was out of the question.

Small claws patted through the snow, getting himself carefully closer to Sven once more. With no ill intentions visible, his more instinctive side began showing itself, proving that he was not only a fear and mind controlled beast. His nose drew close enough to barely touch Sven's back, giving it a few careful, warmth sniffs. Afterwards, his head curiously arched over the boy's right shoulder, making sure for no physical contact to happen. Diluded eyes looked at the bird, eyeing it like a prize. A low, grumbling noise rumbled through his throat, speaking of a desire to eat the food.

[Sven Vellyn]

It seemed positive that the dragon hadn't killed him yet. He could hear the dragon shuffling and moving behind him, but he didn't really know what he was doing. Sven had expected him to either back off and go back to what he was doing, or be really offended and destroy him. He thought about the possibilities as he plucked his bird, realising that turning his back on an angry dragon would definitely be the mark of a real trust exercise.

He gained a little hope in that. He wondered what Nightrode would do. It was silent for a moment, and Sven began to concentrate as he got to a finnicky part ot the bird. The cold had made the skin contract, making it a lot harder than it should be.

Sven could suddenly hear and feel a breath behind him, but tried to act natural as if he didn't notice the dragon. In the corner of his eye he saw red - it was Nightrode! This was the closest he had been to him so far in this encounter, so he took this as a positive sign. He was still a bit nervous.

Nightrode was interested in his bird. "Are you hungry, boy?" He didn't move his head as he said this. Quickly getting rid of the bigger feathers, he presented it to the dragon, with flat palms in case the dragon decided to bite his hands off. "You can have it if you want. I don't think the humans will be satisfied with something like that."

[Nightrode]

Suddenly presented with the small bird, the dragon cocked his head back for a moment, the feathers on his head immediatly flaring to their full size. He wasn't sure whether to believe the offering or not, but soon shoved his lingering distrust aside. The stomach of the dragon had been empty for too long. Opening his maw wide, Nightrode revealed his mouth to be lacking any teeth, besides the four fangs that sat in the front. The upper ones were far larger, and thankfully, partially retractable. Due to his missing dexterity and sense of motion with his maw, Nightrode opted to simply engulf the boy's hand in his soft, wet mouth before pulling back, gently sliding the bird off of his palm. A gulp afterwards signified that he swallowed the carcass in one piece.

Atleast slightly pacified, Nightrode brought his head more around, now hanging with his head over Sven's shoulder. His quick sniffs were more centered around his chest and waist, as the dragon looked more closely for hidden weaponry. Not finding anything, the dragon had to painfully realise that this boy really had nothing to defend himself with. Not to mention, that he apperently had no reason to harm him in any way. That, and he just gave him something to eat! This was all very perplexing to Nightrode. The only time something similiar had happened was when he first met Noah...

A deep huff escaped the dragon's nose as he thought about that. It was a painful memory, no matter how he wanted to spin it. Perhaps, this was a moment to talk about what had been ailing him, seeing how Sven should still remember his former friend.

"... Humans lie. I say that out of experience. Noah had been visiting me everyday, and we would go out, explore the world. The bond that was between us should never have been broken... but, one day, he simply stopped coming.

I waited.

Waited too long."

He managed to croak under his breath before his head lowered itself, his crest deflating aswell. His chin barely touched Sven's shoulder.

"Why must you creatures be so nice and deceitful... only to hurt again?"

[Sven Vellyn]

Nightrode was hesitant, but he quickly accepted the small gift. Sven almost flinched, however, as the dragon enveloped his hands in his mouth. Sven dearly hoped that the dragon's saliva wasn't acidic like it's breath, but thankfully it just felt warm and sticky, like it usually does. He felt his hands brush against the ridged roof of his mouth as his now gross looking hands left Nightrode. He kept them as he had placed them, fear of wiping his hands out of disrespect. The dragon craned his head around and inspected him.

"I don't have anymore, sorry." He said, not realising Nightrode wasn't looking for more food.

The situation took an unexpected turn as Nightrode explained what had happened. Sven's face changed to something sad, his mouth opened slightly in shock. He had heard of dragons abandoning their humans, but never the other way around. This was a first, and he could imagine how a loyal dragon could find that devastating.

"Oh, you poor thing..." As the dragon retreated back behind him, he discreetly wiped the slime from his hands on his trousers, and turned slightly. So Noah had left? Had he left Berk? It would explain why he hadn't seen either of them for a while. Noah had seemed like a nice person too!

"That's terrible, I feel sorry for you... I really do." He wanted to carress the dragon out of comfort, but he understood now why the dragon was having trust issues. He stood and faced the dragon, and held out his palm. If he accepted food and trusted him enough for this tale, surely this would be enough? How much would it take to gain a betrayed dragon's trust?

"I'm sorry what happened between you and Noah, Nightrode. Humans are terrible people, I can agree with you on this. I've had bad things happen to me by bad people too. But there are many, many good people too. One idiot does not mean that all the good people are also bad. I can show you."

[Nightrode]

Suddenly, the boy stood up, and held his palm right to him. The words he said seemed to touch the dragon, and yet, his instinct was to retreat, his tiny feet bringing him barely backwards. How was Sven to understand that even his young years had been ridden with the fear of humans? It wasn't just Noah... everyone else untill then had been cruel to him. Everything in him screamed to back away, to just turn and fly, stick to his old methods and habits. At the same time, Sven felt genuine to Nightrode. His calm demeanor let him know that he wasn't blowing his words out of proportion. The lack of a weapon on him, his actions untill now... truely, there had been not a single sign of danger.

His eyes changed, shrinking a bit together as Nightrode gave a rare display of fear and sadness. A high pitched whine managed to escape through his nose as he cautiously stepped closer. With every bit of his might, Nightrode fought the desire to flee or fight, and instead lowered his head at a snails pace. Crimson orbs soon focused upon the palm, before letting his smooth, yet hard muzzle push into it. There the boy's hand now rested, on the crease of his nose. The contact was almost too intense for the dragon, as he shivered for a moment, muscles tensing repeatedly. With another whine, which mixed into a hiss, crimson eyes closed in clear fear of retaliation.

"I'm trying... I'm trying to trust you."

[OOc: sorry for my eternal long absence i came down with a horrible flu that was super crippling hahaha i suck]

[Sven Vellyn]

Sven watched at the dragon contemplated his actions. He was worried for a moment that he had pulled out the gesture too early - but he let Nightrode make the decision. Gaining a dragon's trust was always a gamble.

However he could see the dragon was incredibly nervous. His eyes were closed as if he was expecting some kind of strike, even though hurting a dragon was the last thing Sven would want to do.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm not hurting you..." He said quietly and gently, in a reassuring manner. Despite the dragon's skittish behaviour, the nose-touch was a positive sign. There was leeway into gaining the dragon's trust. "You don't have to do that if you're not comfortable."

He didn't want to retract his hand until the Toxic Hell did first - he didn't want to look like he was afraid or come off as offensive. He was playing on the dragon's terms. After all the dragon was still in striking distance and could easily snap him up if he so desired. He had to be cautious. Just cause he managed to do the hand thing did not mean they were friends for life just yet.

"See? You're completely unhurt!" Sven said encouragingly. He really wanted to prove that not all humans were bad. "We'll get there. I'm sure we could be good friends! How does that sound?"

[Nightrode]

Friends? That word rang in his earholes for a moment, as the dragon stood there, his anxiety gradually passing. Truely, this human had not hurt him, had fed him, had played with him in the past... what more could a dragon ask for? Slowly and carefully, Nightrode opened his eyes once more, looking with oval pupils up at the boy. Perhaps he had been misjudging Sven untill now... But he could only truely see that if he gave him a chance. An actual chance. One where he'd spend time and effort into their friendship. For a moment, Nightrode doubted that he was still capable of that. At the same time, he was wholly tired of being alone, waiting for someone that won't return...

His body lowered itself to the snowridden floor, his small feet drawn close to his body, as the dragon pushed into Sven's hand. For a moment, he was able to enjoy the warmth and softness that the human hand provided. Whilst the weather seem to cool the boy down, the meaty skin was more than capable of spreading warmth, as opposed to his scaled body. It was such a long time that he had a human touch him, that the dragon had forgotten what it was like.

"Friends... that sounds... nice." Nightrode husked after a moment. His crown relaxed, and yet stayed inflated, as the serpent let out a small, rumbling noise. A sigh of relief.

His head pushed carefully further, slowly sliding Sven's hand over his small nosehorn, then over his nosebridge and over onto his forehead. After a few blinks, the dragon closed his eyes once more, raising his head subtly to strengthen the contact.

"Would you... really want to...be my friend...?" He asked, with uncertainty in his voice.