Ugly... Pretty... UGLY {{ open }}

[Dalla Ragnarök & Vanum]

Time and Date:: January 29th.
Weather:: Sunny and warm.

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Dalla sighed slightly, eyeing the dragon in front of her as he showed off his shinny scales that she had just spent two hours polishing for him. Vanum had insisted since he felt like it was almost mating season. Though Dalla had said he timing was off.
"They will love my shiny scales!" Vanum rambled quite happily. "I just hate these white ones! They mess up my blue hue!"
"Well, I think you should stop complaining, Vanum. I think they make you unique!"
"Well... you're a human! Not an Ambie like me! We have standards!"
Dalla rolled her eyes at the males antics, as she looked to her bow and quiver.
Before shunning up Vanum, she had taken all his small and loose scales off, making a new batch of arrows with some nice white wood that she had already carved. Vanum had gotten the feathers whilst finding a snack, misting being a white hawk.
The dragon in front of her nudged his face, licking her cheek only for her to fall back, rubbing her face frantically as Vanum erupted with laughter, even falling on his back.
Dalla sighed, looking to her bandage covered hands and wrists. She had taken to wrapping up because she had cut herself way too many times on her companions scales.
"I don't think females would like a silly dragon like you! Too immature!" Dalla teased.
This made Vanum jump to his paws, hissing and snapping at her unhappily with a loud stomp as he lowered his foot to emphasize his point.
The ground below Dalla shook slightly and she wobbled, regaining her balance not a moment too soon as a huge tail came swishing at her. Dalla managed to jump over it as they soon started fighting, rolling around on the ground and creating quite the loud notices of yelps, squawks and whatnot.

[Grima the Brash]

Grima was out hunting with his dragon, as always. Today he was riding his Zippleback as they silently flew through the forest, searching for a decent prey to pounce on. Stahl grumbled slightly, “We would do much better if we did this at night,” she muttered, “It’s not like there’s much day time this time of year, we could do it any time at all, why now?”

“You know why,” Flint retorted, “the chief expects us to start living by Vikings time rather than expect Grima to live by ours.”

“But we’re ‘meant’ to hunt at night.” Stahl complained, looking up at the light poking through the canopy, “We should be asleep right now.”

“Would you two quit arguing about this,” Grima finally said, getting rather annoyed by the exchange, “you’ll scare the dear away.” Stahl grumbled slightly but the Zippleback stopped talking. They finally saw a deer minding its own business up ahead. It hadn’t noticed the dragon yet. Grima notched an arrow in his bow and started aiming at the beast.

Just as he was about to fire, they heard a thump from some distance away, which spooked the animal into running away. Grima sighed, “there goes another one.” Flint was about to give some supportive comment when they heard some calls from nearby. Grima and Flint turned their heads in the direction of the cove, while Stahl just sighed, knowing what the rider and other head were going to do.

Indeed they flew as quickly as they could over to the cove. Landing on the edge the looked down to see what looked like a fight between a human and a dragon. The Zippleback jumped down to take a closer look. Grima then realised the dragon was an ambassador, causing him to tense up a bit, bow still in hand. His experiences with Hermes had taught him to be very weary of Ambassadors.

It was only then that he noticed the white markings on the dragon, and looking down at the human realised it was Dalla and Vanum, rider and dragon. Flint realised this two and said, “Erm, is this play fighting or does someone need to break this up?”

“And why should we care either way?” Stahl muttered.

[Jokul & Starkad]

Jokul wasn't his happiest today. He'd trudged through a mile of snow and mud with his annoying seeing-eye dragon, and had nearly fallen a grand total of 12 times. Like his other routine "adventures" into the forest, his mother had sent him to do some chores. This time, it was collecting berries.

He would've chosen to go alone, except for the fact his couldn't do the job without his dragon. Starkad at least provided a good lookout for him.To the best of her ability, she sniffed out where berries might have been. She wasn't always right, but it was better than nothing.

"I wanna play!"

"Not with me you aren't." The teen continued feeling around the bush for more of the round seeds. "I'm busy."

"Come on!"

"No!" He growled back at her. "Once I'm done here I'm going home. No running. No jumping. No playing. So you'll have to find something else to do." He picked another berry and placed it in the bag around his shoulder.

"But-!"

"Stark. Not in the mood. Don't push it."

As she whimpered at the moody teenager her scales' tones shifted to blue and purple. Jokul, knowing exactly what she was going to do next, reached out and grabbed her around the neck. The dragon was left squirming around in his hold, clawing feebly at the ground in an attempt to escape him.

"EH EH!" He 'tsked'. "I said no running. Just give me a few more minutes. Then you can run to your heart's content." Satisfied that he got his message through, he released her. At first, she regarded him, trying to decide if his threat was actually something to be afraid of. And then she slumped down into the muddy ground with a 'plop'. Some of it even splattered onto Jokul's fur vest, but he didn't acknowledge it.

It didn't take much longer to fill the satchel enough for the trip back home, so when he snapped it shut, Starkad bolted up to a standing position. But just as they were about to make their way back, when a deer sped through the undergrowth not too far away.

Dragon dung. Jokul knew his day was just about to get longer. "Starkad don't-!" He thought that if he used her full name it might make her hesitate, but he had no such luck. She was sprinting before he could even move. Swearing under his breath, he chased after her.

Unfortunately for the small dragon, the deer easily bounded away and out of her sight, so she resorted purely on smell. Except she started to follow it's trail in the wrong direction. Instead of using the fresh one, she ended up backtracking to where her prey had been before. This eventually led her close to the cove. When she lost the scent, she switched senses again. This time, to her hearing.

When a series of squawks and squeals echoed off the rock walls, she ran over the edge and looked down to spot the larger dragon and its human.

A little bit behind her, Jokul was still trying his best not to fall on his face. "Hey! You stupid-!" His foot caught on another root and he barely caught himself in order to continue running. "Stark!" By the time he caught up to her, she was leaning her upper body over the edge of the rock she sat on.

The teen made a move to forcefully drag her away from the cove, but ended up slipping into it himself instead. Starkad, to the best of her ability, had tried to catch him at the last second, but both his momentum and weight brought her down with him. The fall wasn't far though. Maybe only the height of a yak. But it was still enough to knock the breath out of the viking. Jokul knew the moment they landed, all the berries he'd collected had been squished... along with his pride.

Once the dust settled, metaphorically, he croaked out, "I hate you." His only response from her was a happy croon as she went to greet the ambassador and the girl.

Even over the sound of the two play fighting, Jokul heard a familiar voice, or voices, to be more exact. Two draconic ones, and one human. Grima. Great. There's another thing he can put on his "Stupid/Clumsy Things Jokul's Done" list.

Starkad, on the other hand, bounded over with her frill fully extended in anticipation at joining in on their playtime. Through her breeds' senses, she knew that's what they were doing. So she had little to no fear at getting closer. "I wanna play too!"

---

[OOC - I've honestly no clue if berries actually grow that far north...
Also, I'm guessing Grima and Jokul's relationship... since this is one of the very few times I've RPed with him]

[Dalla Ragnarök & Vanum]

Dalla hissed in annoyance, batting at the males head in attempts to get him off. No luck.
Vanum, not wanting to hurt her too much, used his wing talons to pin her down, grinning devilishly at her before he ran his tongue up the front of her face.
"My mouth was open!" The female screeched, finally managing to push him off as she spat on the ground, rubbing her face right after.
"Don't leave it open next time!" Vanum laughed, sitting on the ground with a final chuckle, making his trainer turn and glare at him with stilted eyes.
Vanum's 'feathers' twitched and he looked to see a Zippleback watching them, he gave an uninterested snort, blue eyes scanning the area for their rider, seeing the small male with a bow in hand. He gave the trio a warning hiss and a glare that said 'harm my rider and I will personally see to your end'. He hoped they got the message as he turned back to his rider, jumping at her again with a roar, surprising the female and making her jump as he tackled her again.
"Don't think I'll let you off easy for what you said!" He growled playfully, tugging her back to the ground.

At that moment, the pair both paused as they heard a dragon call out, 'I wanna play too'. Vanum's eyes slitted as his head snapped in the dragonesses direction. ONce he realized who it was, the male calmed, greeting her with a playful bow as Dalla finally managed to get to her feet, giving Jokul a slight wave as she noticed him.

[Grima the Brash]

Grima sighed slightly as he watched Vanum pin Dalla down and lick her. He was kind of glad Flint didn’t have the tempermant to ‘play’ with him like that and Stahl was grumpy to be like that. The ambassador looked over at them, not really caring about his Zippleback but giving him a warning hiss. He tensed up at this and slowly unnotched his arrow and put it back in his quiver. At this point Grima assumed all as psychotic as Hermes until proven otherwise.

He then heard the clatter of people falling, and turned to see Jokul and Stark collapse into the cove. He laughed slightly at the faint sound of a dragonese complaint and got off of his dragon. Flint watched as the Hobblegrunt went to join in in the play fighting, while Stahl started to look around to see if there was anything more interesting to destract herself with.

Grima walked over to his class mate, “Good day, Jokul,” he said as he extended a hand half reluctantly, “Let me guess, Stark started chasing a deer?” After Jokul gave his surprised affirmation (I assume) Grima shrugged slightly, putting his bow away as he did, “Sorry for not being a second faster in releasing, you wouldn’t be here right now had I.” He looked back as the two dragons, “how much distance do you think we’ll need to be to not get dragged into their games?” he whispered.

[Jokul & Starkad]

Jokul propped himself on his elbows just in time to see Grima make his way over. Oh good. Just in time to see me try and get back what little pride I had.

"Good day, Jokul."

The teen huffed and narrowed his eyes at his friend's hand. To a lot of people, he may have looked a bit reluctant to accept Grima's help, but in this case, they'd be wrong. Yes, Jokul isn't usually a friendly-type, and sure, he doesn't always like being helped, especially if it's at all related to his sight. The dark-haired teen, did, however, want to appear somewhat normal in front of someone who'd notice a sudden change in his actions.

Which is why Jokul tried so hard to focus on how far away Grima's hand was. Odin forbid if he misses. With an internal sigh of relief, his hand makes contact with another. As he hefts himself up, he hears Grima, "Let me guess, Stark started chasing a deer?"

"Wait, how-"

"Sorry for not being a second faster in releasing, you wouldn't be here now had I."

"Of course. And to think we were this close to going back home too." He grumbled. "Have I ever told you berry-picking is tedious work? Because it is, especially if you have a reptilian pest trying to help."

Upon remembering what he was doing out there in the first place, he opened his bag to see if any berries could be salvaged. And (un)lucky him, a few survived.

"Knowing her, there's no limit. We could go back to the village and still get sucked into whatever she's doing." The teen crossed his arms and refused to watch his dragon as she started bouncing around Vanum.

The frill around the hobblegrunt's head spread out when she made a playful hiss. All her other playmates were bigger than her. Starkad was sure she was going to win this time, regardless of size. After crouching down to all fours, she pushed herself up onto the ambassador's face and wrapped her small form around his jaws.

---

[OOC - So I'm assuming that Grima (if he was Jokul's friend beforehand) that he'd know about Jokul's bad eyesight, or at least know something was wrong.]

[Dalla Ragnarök & Vanum]

Dalla laughed rather happily at this... er, interaction between her dragon and Stark. She, of course, loved playing with Stark. She wasn't sure if the other fifteen year old liked her playing with his companion, but the Hobblegrunt was just too cute! As Vanum thought about his options, Dalla did a quick sketch of the scene and put her leather bound book away.
She then looked to the males whom seemed to be having a conversation and walked over, giving the fifteen year old a smile before glaring daggers at Grima. As she got closer, the pulled out her favorite dagger, one that was made form one of Vanum's scales, and pointed it towards him. "Now... Grima," she started, standing over the younger male, "If you ever, and I mean ever, point an arrow at my rather annoying butt of a dragon, I will personally send you to Valhalla myself!" After seeing his reaction, she laughed, putting her dagger away and looking to Vanum whom seemed to be struggling.
"Healp... please!" He warble to the humans, faking a crawl towards them. Vanum, although he was a pain in Dalla's side, was rather nice to the smell dragon, much to Dalla's annoyance since he wasn't always that kind to her...

[Grima the Brash]

The teenage Viking waited patiently as Jokul tried to grab his hand before pulling him up. Grima chuckled at his complaint about berry-picking, “You haven’t, but I agree. I much prefer hunting to picking berries.” It was at that poing Della came up to them, brandishing her knife.

Grima raised his hands in surprise at the threats from Dalla, “Wow wow wow, I wasn’t ‘aiming’ at either your or your dragon, I was hunting, heard the commotion and came to investigate.” He said in a slightly rushed voice, “I just hadn’t put my bow away, it’s not like I had the string drawn back, ready to fire.” The woman laughed and turned back to the dragons. Grima lowered his arms and glared at her slightly.

He nodded when Jokul commented on his dragon’s ‘exuberance’, watching the interaction between dragons for a moment before turning to him, “Probably, though if we were to sneak of now we might get a couple of minutes of freedom…probably not worth it though.” He said jokingly.

Stahl sighed, unable to find anything interesting in the cove and decided to lie down, curl up slight and close her eyes. Flint looked as her ‘twin’ and nipped at her neck. Stahl hissed but didn’t move. Flint looked back to her rider, “well, we’re probably not moving for a bit now.”