The Norkari Mountains

Once more, the mountains would shake with a sky-shattering cry from the Wrymling. The beast trampled forward, growing in size as it marched in a half-sprint towards the mountains, stumbling at the sides and surfaces of the mountains, climbing up towards the smaller mountains. And so the feasting would begin then.

Clawing with screeches, stone exploded around the tip of the mountain peak. The Wyvern suddenly covered the peak with its mouth, clamping down and ripping it off, only to digest it? With that, a heavy thumping occurred, making the beast grumble in pleasure. It continued to smash its head into the mountain, opening its mouth hundreds of times to swallow more and more stone from the mountains.

And to some viewing such a beast, drawn to it by the ground's seizure and the skies vibrating with the roars of such a mighty beast, those would see the beast grow. The spikes upon its back increasing in size. The arms growing claws that appeared to form to dig into the stone easier. The teeth... growing more flat at the sides, massive fangs at the top to break off the segments of the earth, continuing to crunch down and swallow. After literally half of the small mountain was gone, the dragon arched its back, screeching into the skies once more with an ear-piercing screech this time, obviously a sign of success of sorts.

With that, small, insignificant voice, came the sensing of life. That, was what stopped the wyvern, rocks falling off like crumbs of bread from the beast's maw, turning its body, crawling around, massive sounds of its movement to face the small one. The beast kept eye contact with Arya for a good minute, before slithering around the mountain, hissing along the way as the head and chest of the beast disappeared behind the rock.

Then the entire mountain moved. The arms parted from the mountain, the upper part snapping off of the rest of the structure, resembling a face now. And then it would be obviously seen, the mountain's arms snapping off of itself, that this was no ordinary wyvern. Oh no, this was something far worse.

The grinding of metal emitted from its mouth, staring down now upon the molecule-sized warrior, marching forward with eyes continuously staring down, opened up as much as possible, a ceaseless stare of excitement. And from there, the arms clasped onto the sides of the platform she stood upon, and a roar was emitted, crackling all of the ground she stood upon, boulder falling out of the beast's mouth, shaking the chests of any who dare heard such a monster's cry.

Then, an unexpected action occurred from the wyvern. The beast continued to look at her, eyes swollen in interest as she stormed forward, obviously sensing the magic building in her blade. From behind it, a massive tail would now be seen coming into play, literally falling over the beast's left shoulder, smashing down nearby Arya. From there, the ground would've rippled intensely, a wave of stone bending upwards and preparing to fall on top of Arya's position if she didn't act upon it.

While this occurred, however, the Wyvern slithered around in a small rotation, winding itself up as it watched the warrior slowly decrease distance between the two. After looking for a while, the dragon snapped its maw lightly with a gentle screech, launching itself forward into the ground, exploding anything that contacted with its massive head. Eyes narrowing onto her, the beast was now only twenty meters or so away from crashing into her.

And from there, the back of the beast curled up, and a massive roar was heard. But not of pain, more of annoyance. The strike had stabbed into the dragon's eye, which surprisingly was as hard as diamond. However, the eyes of the beast closed now, catching the sword as the beast launched its head up. The speed was a at a constant pace in Arya's eyes, but the dragon felt like it jerked up. Roaring into the sky, his head swayed from side to side, trying gently to shake the sword out of its eye. It was at this point one could guess that this beast was either young or just naturally unintelligent.

However, the roaring grew louder, as it went suddenly quiet, stretching its neck out as much as possible towards the sky, before sending it back down to slam upon the ground. At this point, once contacting with the ground the eye of the beast grew grey, no, grew to stone? As if dying itself, the eye fell out of its socket, with the sword if it hadn't been removed yet. Replacing it was another eye, glowing with pink energy for a moment. This seemed insignificant for any weaknesses, but as this occured, there could be a sudden size change in the excess rock growing upon the wyvern's back, at a fairly noticeable rate as well. The beast grumbled, pushing its head up as it looked down to Arya, obviously emotionally hurt as it stared at the paladin, twisting its head to the side, only to screech loudly, its tail swirling around his backside to try and knock her. However, it was a defensive state of attack, as the monster continued to march towards yet another mountain, leaping downwards onto the lower parts, the rocks he stood on now crumbling from the combination of his size and weight. A massive, bumpy tongue came out, grinding against its maw as it stared at the tip of the mountain.

So with that decision to let it feast, it did. Its hunger did not sade, as if it was endless. The more it continued to eat, the larger the spikes upon its back grew, the longer it grew. The wyvern dug into another mountain top, this time succeeding in finishing it off, digging downwards into the center of it, escaping the view of the paladin.

However, the ground would suddenly shake, blasting heard below her in the depths. Soon seen, the wyvern was twice its size, until it couldn't grasp onto the side of the wall, crackling as the dragon roared loudly, falling towards the depths. Then, its back exploded, wings now seen shattering out of its back as it soon flew upwards, heading straight towards the sky. Swirling around, the dragon formed a circular formation around Arya. The beast was now surely larger than the mountain. It roared violently, soon changing course, its wings spread out as it glided constantly downwards, eyes narrowed down to Arya as a crazed, possibly even gaging smile was viewed, mouth parted as it landed upon the ground.

At this time, it was visible to see it had changed form. Turning from wyvern to dragon, it now had four legs, as well as its wings. It crashed onto the massive ground, galloping forward as it roared once more, its tail flailing around behind it, smashing into the ground. Then, suddenly, a chunk of that tail broke of, launching itself towards the nearby ground, giving the dragon an idea. The rest of its tail fell off, growing it back as the entirety of the dragon shrunk, now not as large as the mountain, but nearly. It turned its neck, facing her now only 40 feet away, that sinister grin upon its face once more as its mouth opened up, snapping at Arya for a swift attempt to bite her, possibly even eat her.

With the blinding light, however, the dragon's neck retracted, its eyes adapting to the sudden spike of light before it, screeching with confusion. The beast's eyes grew more, staring down at her, its chest puffed out, its eyes widening and its wings flapping to attempt to stagger the being with another gust of wind. But it failed, her legs pillars, immune to his attempts. As she spoke, the dragon screeched even louder, roaring at her, legs emitting a stance as its head launched forward in a roar of rage, and then, it hit.

At first, the blinding light effected him. This made the dragon stand upon its hind legs, wings spread out and neck shooting from side to side, roaring in pain as its eyes were exposed to the sudden intensity, upper legs curled up. It looked away to the left, closing its eyes tight as it roared once more, a tail swinging to the right. The second thing to occur was the strike itself. Now, at first, the explosion was the main distraction. And then, the slash itself. As the one impervious to the light, she would be nearly faltered in vision with a separate form of light. However, this was much different.

Where the slash struck against the standing dragon, the entirety of the body of the dragon coated a pink, shield-like armor suddenly, as if a force field. The dragon hissed and roared even louder, trying to stomp backwards, making the ground shake and shudder at its presence. However, the pink limbs were seen to crack and fracture, the slash soon continuing through as the sound of glass shattering was heard, and then, the dismemberment of the beast.

Roaring in pain, the limbs of the dragon fell down from the sky itself, a leg, part of the second joint in the leg, and the majority of the tail. Losing leverage, the beast soon slammed onto the ground, hissing and roaring out loudly, what appeared to be grey blood spewing from the center of the limbs. It was now apparent there was some form of physical structure to the beast. But soon, however, the bleeding would soon be halted, and the dragon began to regenerate its limbs, shrinking in overall size.

It grew to its full potential once more, however, halving its size, standing upon its hind legs, the beast roared into the skies once more, looking more prideful than before, whereas it seemed terrifying and godly. The beast's eyes glowed pink for a moment, hissing out at the paladin, staring at the blade with obvious intimidation. Its old limbs twitched and squirmed on the ground, eventually failing to continue. The dragon was now seen with a more detailed figure, rather than a Goliath of rock.



The beast looked down to the knight, looking to the sword as a strange hissing purr was emitted. With that, the throat was appearing to glow pink, inside, at least. The skeletal structure glowed, to be exact. After a moment of that, the choking and gagging of the dragon was emitted, and shooting into the air from its mouth was a yellow fire, forged from the magic that crippled it.

Staring down to Arya, yellow smoke escaped its mouth, a grin continuing onto its face as it slowly marched forward, cocking back its head to gasp monstrously, then extend at full range to launch forth a massive, engulfing yellow fire, attempting to at least singe Arya, unknowing if Arya was impervious to her own magic. Either way, the shaking of the feet stomping forward seemed minuscule to that of before, but the closer it came the more the ground shook.

The great metal carriage rolls up into the Nokari Mountains, following the rough roads to its destination. The rhythmic clopping of eight iron hooves and the creaking mechanical sound of the massive wheels turning signify swift movement.

Madame Naoki is seated in one of the frontal compartments with Artemis, Kate, and the fairy. Her right arm is wrapped about Kate’s shoulders where she sits adjacent, and in the other hand a small, well worn, blue tome sits propped open between her thumb and forefinger: Dr. Brindley’s Guide to The Wild and Whimsical world of Fairies. It chronicles the adventures of Dr. Richard P. Brindley, on his quest to encounter, observe, categorize, measure and record every type of fairy and fairy-like creature in the known world. As a firsthand source from an author of questionable sanity, its accuracy is debatable. However, the depth with which each specimen was observed and recorded is excellent, and the quality with which each species is documented and illustrated is… much. A lot of quality, I mean to say- good book. In reading it, Naoki hopes to learn more about their new glowing friend by successfully determining what sort of fairy they are. Every so often, she’ll hold the book up and compare one of the diagrams with a fairy , attempting to find a positive match.

Atop the carriage, the roof hatch opens, and up peeks Jax, a man of middling age with a close-cropped auburn beard. It’s time for him to survey the surroundings, part of his duties as a carriage attendant. Stepping partially up the ladder such that the upper half of his body protrudes upwards, he takes a spyglass from his belt. Raising it to his eye, he pans around, checking the road ahead, the road behind, the great mountain faces rising up to either side of the road. If anyone would be following the carriage, watching it from above, if anyone moves to block their path, or otherwise to complicate their journey, it is his job to be aware.

And- at least for the time being, everything seems fine. Hardly a well traveled road, the roadway ahead is rough, but empty of enemies, or indeed, any other traffic at all. A few examples of the local wildlife can be seen in the mountains around, a few goats here, a few birds there, but none that Jax categorizes as a threat.

But then, far off in this distance, a low rumbling echoes through the mountains, reverberating between the peaks stretching up to either side of the roadway, and through the ground itself.

Lowering the looking glass, Jax spins about, attempting to pinpoint the source of the noise, but finds it impossible to do so. The sound seems to emanate from all around, the left, the right, even the ground itself. The shape of the mountains and the trees serve to diffuse and obfuscate the origin of the sound.

A brief mental communication between the two carriage operators. Stan hears it too.

At a whipping of the reigns, the rhythmic clopping of hooves increases in tempo, and the wheels turn faster. Pulling himself fully up out of the carriage and securing the hatch behind him, Jax moves across the roof to stand behind the mounted weapon. A quick check to ensure the advanced magical device is in proper working order, and the spyglass comes back out to sweep the terrain with heightened urgency.

Within the carriage, the passengers would likely be insulated from the sound and the vibrations by the vehicle’s armor and suspension, respectively. However, the carriage attendants, as ordered, immediately inform Madame Naoki and Artemis of the disturbance.

Within the carriage, Naoki receives their message with no outward showing of distress. Eye contact and silent communication with Artemis, and a consensus is reached. Naoki sends a message to Lum'Valia and Maelik The Fellblade , out in the main compartment.

Pardon me, you two. It seems that there’s some manner of disturbance outside. We’re not sure what it is yet, but it seems to be something very large, pounding the ground and causing the mountains to tremble. If I might, I would like to suggest that one or both of you head out, and take advantage of your ability to fly to determine just what sort of beast or individual is out there, causing the ground to shake so. It might be something powerful and hostile, so please exercise all due caution, and keep us posted on what you see.

Having informed the pair of them, Naoki continues just as she was, not meaning to alarm Kate or the pair in the adjacent cabin. (Those two are already probably already going at it anyway.) Once again, she compares a fairy to one of the diagrams in the book, and seems to have found a positive identification.

"This one seems to match reasonably well... What do you think?"

She speaks to the small room at large, attempting to solicit the opinion, if not of the fairy itself, of Kate, or Artemis.

The carriage ride was a cathartic experience for Maelik, the feeling of moving from one place to another without the exertion of effort was alien to the former Lord. Not to say that he wasn't enjoying himself, far from it in fact, it was just a weirdly... lazy, thing for him.

Since climbing into what Maelik refers to as, 'the overblown snuggle buggy' with snack components and the twins in hand the demon had fallen into a sort of lethargic trance. He did work up enough motivation to put on pants but without something to keep him focused he fell into a mini stupor. One could surmise that there was a reason he always seemed to be trying to keep himself busy.

Occasionally he would would get up and make sweets but generally speaking he was a big scaly lump that took up a great deal of seat space on one half of the Mae/Lum/twins compartment.

He wanted to probe Lum for more stories, mostly as an excuse to get to know her even better but he felt that with Klur resting and the twins... well being the twins, now was not the best time. He sighed and slumped into his seat, maybe he should go and make hot coco or something?

That's when Naoki's message reached him, and boy did that brighten his day! In a split second the demon called his armor to him and prepared himself for combat. Seeing that Lum was putting the baby down however reminded him that they had another issue to handle as well, so he turned to the twins and patted their heads.

"Now girls, me and Lum are going to have to leave for a bit and it'd be swell if you took care of Klur for us while we're gone. I assume that I shouldn't have to point out the obvious here but I'll just go ahead and say it anyway for clarity's sake."

He bent down and looked them each in the eye with a uncle-y smile, one that said 'yeah I'm friendly but you'd better do what I say or else.'

"I will tolerate no harm coming to that child, not a single hair on his head. Nor will I allow for any trauma either mental or psychological to mar him, are we clear?"

Assuming that the twins nod and assure him in a believable way Maelik calmly slips out the door and soon after exits the wagon, taking flight in pursuit of his angelic counter part.

It didn't take him long to figure out the mess that was unfolding before them, a massive dragon of some sort was seemingly engaged in mortal combat with a sizzling slab of people jerky. As he got closer to the problem though he began to make out more precise details, namely the armor and weaponry of the Kentucky Fried Paladin.

"Oh damn, it's a crispy crunch Arya," he muttered, his eyes following Lum's descent down to the scorched combatant's side. His gaze didn't linger for too long though, the massive dragon not too far off beckoned for Maelik's attention far more pressingly.

"Well, that's a big one... With Lum so close to that thing I can't take the time to gather enough energy to properly handle things," he said, verbally going through his available options.

"So in the interest of preventing any harm to Lum I guess I'd best draw it's attention... Hmmm, but how to do that?"

The demon flapped a bit closer and began to gather his aura within himself, stockpiling it to fuel the strength of his future spells. Currently however he didn't have to option to expel any of that energy to any notable effect so he did what any hot blooded male would do if given the option.

He lobbed a sizable rock at it and called it a name.

"HEY BOULDER BALLS! COME AND GET SOME!"

Should the rock fail in its intent to garner the beast's attention Maelik would resort to a larger rock (about the size of a tree) and then a flat out demonic fireball.

"EXCUSE ME! I'M TALKING TO YOU PEBBLES, ARE YOU DEAF OR JUST TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND ME!?"

Lum'Valia has gathered Arya into her arms, and most of her mind is oblivious to the outside world. To the dragoness Ary, and Jun are the daughters she never had. She would not permit them to die, not so long as she had strength. When the larger dragon begins to speak, she is only dimly aware of it. Still clutching the girl in her arms, she diverts some of her strength to surround them in a bubble of light magic. When the stone cracks and falls away the bubble remains floating. At no point did Lum stop working on repairing the damage to Arya. As she works she begins to sing, gathering more and more power.