Raven walked along the beaten path quietly, as he had since his return to Fiore. He'd picked a good time... it was spring and the deer were plentiful. He'd taken one or two as he needed since he did his best to avoid cities. Not that he didn't go into any, he did, but he simply preferred not too at the moment. He readjusted his coat and sniffed the air. There was a dryer warmth hinted in the air. The cloudy weather was going to clear up by the afternoon he was sure.
The trees, and Raven's crimson hair swayed in the wind as he stopped. There was a flock of deer grazing in a field not far from the path. He slowly crept over to watch them for a bit. He wasn't hungry, but that didn't stop the instinctual urge to watch where the prey was going. Not that he intended to stay and make it his territory. Fiore belonged to Kotone. Even if it was too big for her to cover right at that moment. He was simply passing through
He stayed crouched by a large tree that had some bushes growing next to it. He steadied his breathing an focused on not being picked up by the deer. His breathing slowed, as did any movements he made. He simply watched and waited...
She couldn't resist. How could she? He was just sitting there, watching the food walk by. Humans were funny like that, even ones that sort of smelled like dragons. She'd never actually had an opportunity to say hi to a real dragon slayer before, so why squander the opportunity? Tyr had been napping in a nearby tree, using her own magic to mask her scent from everything around her so that maybe, just maybe, a deer would be close by when she woke up. Nothing better than breakfast in bed, right?
Breakfast... or lunch... or... what was it again? had been swiftly forgotten when the new scent was picked up, and now she was creeping up slowly, surely. It was easy to mask her scent even from other dragons - her special ability disrupted magic, and even though it wasn't your average type of magic, it would do a good job of masking her from a dragon slayer's senses. Good thing she wasn't some crazed stalker murderer, huh?
"Boo!" The dragon in girl form popped up on a branch beside the man with red hair and closed eyes. Whether he properly fell for it or not, she was already laughing. "Hahah! You shoulda seen how easy that was!" she giggled, "Heck, I should too! I forgot to pay attention to your expression. Could you make whatever expression you made again?"
The deer were slowly grazing forward, the wind was blowing around him. Raven felt at ease and at home. Until he realized something was off. He was being watched. But by who, and from where? He was concealed in the bush! That's when it happened. A loud voice behind him him made him spin around. Immediately flames erupted on his hand as he reached forward, as if his hand were a claw.
And abruptly he stopped, the magic dissipating. Not because of something she did, but he slammed on the breaks in a proverbial sense. He lowered his hand and stood up. The commotion made most of the deer run off, leaving just Raven and this girl. He sniffed the air subtly and realized he couldn't smell her. The idea unnerved him.
"This was the face I made," Raven said, his face neutral. He folded his arms against his chest as he stared at the girl. Something wasn't right... but since he had no information to go off of he might as well start moving forward again. And ignore the part where it'd been easy to sneak up on him. That was the most infuriating part. "Are you out here alone? Where are your parents?"
"My parents? Who knows?" Tyr shrugged, looking completely unconcerned. "Last I knew Mom was in Sutan somewhere, and I never met Dad." The wind dragon watched the much taller man with a curious, amused expression. "And that's a really boring face. You aren't supposed to do *nothing* when I sneak up on a dragon slayer so successfully."
Tyr sighed dramatically, her arms dropping to her sides. "You don't have to be eyeing me like I'm some sort of crazed killer. I'm a pacifist, you know. I don't like hurting people. Surprising people, sure, but hurting people isn't fun."
The wind dragon grabbed her ponytail and fidgeted a bit before smoothing it out and then shifting her stance a bit. She was full of energy after such a good nap, but had no idea what kinds of games she could get a dragon slayer to play. She kind of hoped it didn't involve slaying any dragons.
"So what are you doing here? Were you getting hungry too? Do dragon slayers eat like humans or dragons? You're not like a vegetarian are you? Yech, I hate vegetables." Tyr made a face at her own mention of vegetables.
"Sutan..." Raven murmured quietly. That was pretty far away. Not to mention it didn't look like she was from Sutan. Though her parents easily could have moved in or something. But all he had to go by was appearances since he still couldn't smell her. Which really bugged him. He'd always had an edge in situations because he could smell. He could know about a person before they spoke. But not this time!
He frowned when she mentioned he was a dragon slayer. Now how did she figure that? He had his sunglasses on. And he hadn't used any magic. At least within the last couple weeks. And she was too young to be some magical hot shot prodigy. This only added to his internal layer of frustrations.
He pushed his sunglasses up his nose and pushed a smile onto his face. It was genuine, but he hadn't smiled into a long time, so he had to think about actually smiling for a change. He didn't like outright llying about it. But she was rather suspicious, so better to play it safe than sorry. He didn't want to go mucking up Fiore if he could help it. "I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I'm not a... dragon slayer. I don't even know what those are little on."
"Psh, everyone knows what a dragon slayer is. It's self-explanatory." The girl sat down and stared up at him like he was some sort of celebrity. Or maybe like she was just really interested in what they were talking about for no good reason. "Though, I have to say, I'm not the biggest fan of what it means. I don't really feel like there's any need to slay most dragons. Dragons can be nice."
She suddenly looked more thoughtful, placing a finger on her chin. "Well not all dragons, some of them are jerks. There was that one, what... like ten or thirty years ago?" She thought aloud. "It's so hard to keep track of time."
Tyr's stomach rumbled as she sat there, audibly growling as her eyes flicked to where the deer had run off to. She was going to need a snack soon. "So how old are you? I can never tell with humans. You grow up so quick it's not even fair, you know?" She blinked and then looked back up to him. "you don't even get to be a kid for all that long."
"I guess..." Raven said rubbing the back of his head slowly. He was iin an awkward position and he didn't like itt. However,, he was willing to swallow his pride for now. He was stranglely confident after everything was said and done... But for now he would find a way to figure the girl out.
"I'm Twenty four," Raven admitted with a small shrug. He didn't see the harm in being nice to the strange little girl he knew nothing about. Though, her words did sting a little. She seemed fond of the dragons... but he wasn't sure how she'd react to him having killed one. Draco was a good dragon.
"Being a kid huh?" He noticed her choice of words and frowned. She spoke as if she wasn't human herself. A belief Raven had held until he killed Draco. Grabbing his bag from the bush he rummaged around until he found some smoked jerky. He held out some to the seemingly hungry child. "I bet it's nice."
"I have fun," The girl responded as she nibbled on the dry meats. "Why do you people dry out your meat so much? It's not like it's that hard to catch a deer." She paused for a moment, glancing at him again. "Thanks for the food though." Raven was a curious guy. He smelled strangely strongly of dragon, though it was obvious there was human in his scent as well. She wondered: Did he like playing games? She was enjoying her 'get to know the dragon slayer' game. Some humans were just so stuffy though. He kind of sounded like he was one of them.
With a small breath, the dragon released the spell she was using, allowing her scent to fill the air again. Of course, to the dragon slayer her scent would be instantly recognizable. "So which dragon slayer are you? I'd heard there were several from around here. You kinda smell like ash and stuff. I dooon't really know any of the dragons from here though."
Something had happened with dragons around here, she remembered a lot of the older dragons hiding. Apparently she hadn't been strong enough to attract the negative attention they had... or something. She couldn't remember how they'd explained it - she'd been thinking about dinner when she'd been talking to the older dragons then. "Oh! I didn't ask your name! I'm Tyr. It's nice to meet you."
"When it's dried out like this it lasts a lot longer without rotting," Raven explained with a small nod. However, the way she spoke was as if she hunted... but that wasn't what norrmal people did. Did the other dragons start training children again? Or was she making things up? He couldn't tell just yet. And the temptation to pry was there. Fortunately for him she decided to just let him find out.
The scent hit his nose and he dropped his food and stared, mouth ajar slightly. His mind came to a screeching halt as he stared at the young girl. She smelled one hundred percent dragon. But how... why? Thoughts began racing to and fro in his head as he tried to wrap his mind around the startling development. But it did make sense.
"R-Raven... I was raised by Draco, the fire dragon..." His voice was quiet as his mind was dazed. He knelt down so he was eye level, forgetting his scrap of dried meat. His eyes shifted to the side, though with the sunglasses on it was likely impossible to tell. "I'm sorry I lied before. I didn't know you... I didn't know Dragons could take human form."
"Well, not every dragon can." Tyr was obviously not acknowledging an apology. But she was also not acting like he owed one. "I mean, we sky dragons are known for being tricky, so I think we're more likely to learn the spell, but a few other dragons know it." She blinked, looking at herself and then back to Raven. "Now, it's not a normal spell. I can't look like just anything. This form is as much me as the one with scales. It's kinda hard to explain. Like, for instance, I'm about as old in dragon form as I look in human form. Relatively speaking of course."
She stood up, using her wind to nudge Raven to do the same. All this weird kneeling was weird. "Raven Dracoson or something then." She wanted very badly to see what sort of eye color he had, but for the moment she was being mindful of the fact that humans didn't care to be probed without their permission. She'd have to keep it to verbal instead of removing his protective eye barriers.
She grinned at him. "I bet you're impressed I have such a neat spell for someone who's only three hundred, right?" She wasn't exactly trying to brag, but being part dragon, himself, she wanted to show off that she'd been learning things in her short life. "I bet I could sneak up on anyone who relied on scent or magical detection. Maybe even scare a few of them before they saw this adorable face. Did you know it's harder to stay mad at the face of a young girl than a young dragon? I experimented once."
"Th-three hundred!?" Raven looked shocked for a moment before reigning himself in. He never really knew how old Draco was. Probably very old if Tyr was still a child as she claimed at three hundred years old. At her urging with her magic he stood up. He foldedd his arms against his chest andd looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I think I understand," Raven nodded slowly. He might be young compared to her, but he was pretty quick to catch on to magical theory. Something he had a little pride in himself about. "The magic is interesting. And it's certainly harder to be angry at something one would instinctively want to care for."
"But... if you don't mind my asking," Raven looked down at Tyr, a slight worrying expression crossing his face. He had the feeling if Tyr's parents knew what he'd done he'dd be a snack in a heartbeat. "Why are you out here alone? It's dangerous for dragons, especially young ones like yourself, to be wandering around."
Tyr seemed to have stopped paying attention during the part where Raven started re-explaining what she'd just said. Oh, she heard him, she was just also rather interested in the scenery around them. One could never get enough appreciation for natural beauty in. At least, that was what she'd told herself more than once while not paying attention in conversations. Fortunately for her she did have great hearing, so it wasn't like she actually missed his words.
"It's dangerous?" Tyr had to think about that for a moment. "Hm, I guess people could get pretty mad if I scared off their dinner like earlier." She didn't see it. Maybe one of those bad dragons were around here. She knew there were some that hated dragons being in their territory. But then weren't there dragon slayers around specifically to help combat the dragons that had been so bad eons back? "Besides I'm old enough to take care of myself. I'm your elder, after all. I think. Yeah you said you were twenty-four." Not to mention the fact that dragons got kicked out of the nest pretty quickly comparative to humans. Did she really need to say that? Nah, surely people knew that. "I haven't seen Mom or my brother and sisters in over a hundred years. Dragons aren't very prone to family reunions all that often. Can you imagine what people would say if there were like, eight dragons all just having dinner in the nearby forest?"
Raven sighed quietly as she naively brushed him off. She chattered on about family and not seeing them in a long time. Something he couldn't really relate to anymore. Closing his eyes he did his best o keep himself calm. He could feel his temper flaring up, but it wasn't her fault. She didn't know any better.
"That's what Draco and the other dragons here in Fiore thought too," He said pointedly as he he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and fiddled with the random bits in there to keep his hands busy. Mostly to help him keep his temper in check. "I don't know if you heard about what happened three years ago. But people found a way to control the old dragons that lived here. We dealt with the people that did it but we never found out the details behind what they had and where they got it. And I'm sure there still oother people looking to get a hold of a dragon like yourself for less than nice things."
"Well yeah. I'm not dumb," Tyr insisted at Raven's warning. "There's plenty of things that would be dangerous if I wasn't careful enough, but I am! And I'm really good at getting away from danger. If that fails I can still fight. Not that I want to." She had thrown a couple of mock-punches that probably would have annoyed more than stung had she actually thrown them at anyone.
Things could happen to anyone, as far as she had been told. Technically she supposed someone could hurt her, but she was always careful, and even if she got hurt, couldn't she just sleep it off until she got better? Even weak dragons were good at recovering from non-mortal wounds. "Though, I suppose Mom tried to tell me the same thing when I left the nest before my older siblings." She'd just been worried because Tyr wasn't strong like other dragons. She was better with her magic than most her age though, so that counted for something. She'd proven that!
"If anyone seems to be a bad kind of dragon slayer or they're carrying a big spear pointed at me, I know to use my magic to get away." she assured him in what was probably not the most reassuring kind of way. "I've done it for like... When did I leave home the first time...?" She blinked, counting a dozen or so years on her fingers before giving up and shrugging. "I haven't seen any humans survive this long, you know."
Raven visibly sighed again, her naivety bordering on outright arrogance. But he physically bit his tongue for the time being ad shrugged. It was all he could do to not shout angrily at her for being stupid. Instead he closed his eyes as he spoke. "Fine. Fine. But I haven't run into any evil dragon slayers in Fiore."
"At least if you don't count me as evil," Raven chuckled, but it was a bitter laugh. He had done some pretty bad things with his powers. The things he tried to avoid doing in the first place. Shaking his head slowly he stretched. "You never did answer my question though, Why's a young dragon like yourself roaming the lands alone. I'm confused because well... I don't know much about dragons."
