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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 12:50:11 GMT -5
"I probably should... else my thoughts my drive me mad. If I'm not already."
She looks at him, head tilted a bit, and ruffles her wings. "A head start? So the chase is on, in that case?" She looks around, as if assessing the surroundings, and wonders to herself what precisely his goal is. Better to assume and not to hesitate, though, I guess, she thinks.
"Very well," she says. "I shall take my head start."
She turns on her heels, but instead of leaping into the air, she darts into the trees. She canters under them, choosing to run under those with branches high enough for her to duck under, but too low for the larger dragon to easily follow. She saves her speed for the moment, unsure of what Kroth intends, and unwilling to waste effort that may be better used in another way.
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Post by Thal on Jul 12, 2005 17:02:47 GMT -5
He nods at her and starts to get up as she announces that she would take advantage of the head start, It usually made it more interesting that way. He'd have to be more careful though, he didn't wish to cause undo harm especially since he figured that she would not appreciate more scars, even if someone thought they were pretty.
Enough though, she had gotten a several second head start, and had chosen the woods A good, and bad choice. It limited flying and visibility but it did so for both parties... And his eye sight and sense of smell were rather accustomed to picking out the location of otherwise hidden dragons. "|23@|)'/ 0|2 |\|07..." he said then sped off in the direction she had taken, leaping into the air and flying low enough that it seemed like he was almost runnning along the tree tops, a few branches were no barrier between him and his 'target'... It was pretty obvious when he was above her because he purposefully knocks down a small bunch of leaves...
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 17:41:46 GMT -5
Querryth speeds up, darting closer to the tree trunks themselves, and aiming for a copse of rather large, thick-boughed pines. Though, she thinks to herself, I'm sure he'd be just as willing to smash through those. I doubt splinters matter that much to a half-metal dragon... All the same, I doubt I can outfly him. Though...
An idea strikes her, and she veers off to the right, keeping to the low-boughed pines, and trying to remember the lay of the land. If I remember correctly, it should be near... she sped up, though the land was starting to slope upwards. Claws dug in for traction, and she kept her wings tightly furled against her, to avoid getting them snagged.
Soon, she heard the sound, a stream who's intensity increased as she raced along, finally reaching it, and running alongside it, though being careful to keep under branches. She could sense him above her, and she doubted that her attempt would do too much to escape him, but it was worth a try.
The stream's sound becomes a low rumble as it plummets over the edge of a sudden waterfall and into a basin rather far below. Querryth nears the cliff, and breaks free of the trees, straining to keep her speed fast enough to avoid him for one more moment... and then, she reaches the edge and dives off, mane streaming behind her as her wings snap open. She dives nearly vertically, which is quite impressive, but she's well aware that he's probably just as capable as she is at the maneuver... she just hopes that perhaps her smaller size gives her a slight agility benefit over his larger frame...
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Post by Thal again on Jul 12, 2005 18:05:19 GMT -5
It was indeed lasting longer than he thought, several times when he had almost dove down upon her she had changed directions and he was forced to continue, one of the reasons he disliked chasing smaller dragons. When she veers off from what he guessed she was aiming for, he knew she was headed to the river... Since well, that was a rather overused tactic to remove the scent from the air and such, but she didn't dive in it, probably because she knew it would take just moments for him to squash her into the riverbed.
So where was this one headed? down the river, it ended in a waterfall but that would leave her open for awhile untill she reached the bottom and then she'd have to veer up or face a bubbling rocky death... But he did follow her over the edge, but not at the same angle... She wouldn't have enough room to get out of the way once they reached the bottom since he dove slightly faster it looked like they both may end up taking a short swim if she didn't figure out something very quickly.
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 18:18:05 GMT -5
She didn't intend to pull up.
Querryth, a bit of an anomaly among the dragons she'd known in the past, and, while she tended to dislike the rain, she rather loved bodies of water and swimming. And while wet wings could be quite annoying to dry, countless times spent diving through water in her lands had helped Querryth figure out how to best use her wings while swimming... or at least how to best keep them out of the way.
She hit the water smoothly, and while the basin wasn't overly deep, it was deep enough that Querryth had soon reached the cooler, darker depths of it. Holding her breath, she could swim underwater a decent distance before needing to come up for air.
Using her limbs to push herself through the water, she veered to the side of the bank of the basin, though she was unsure of where Kroth was, and whether or not he'd bothered to dive in, or if he'd pulled up. She knew she had to go up for air soon, though it would be preferable to know where he was first...
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Post by Thalron on Jul 12, 2005 18:43:22 GMT -5
Kroth heard the splash and was momentarily confused, then remembered... He would have gone and sank straight to the bottom but a smaller non metal clad dragon would most likely be able to avoid that... However now that he wasn't at such a high speed he veared up and did a simply backwards loop losing no time in correcting his course and action, his eyes quickly identified the shapes in the water and dove down upon the rather dragon-ish one.
His flaming wing however did not like that, not at all... and it made loud hissing and screeching noises at it became submerged, although Kroth did not seem to care. Well, he was good at diving upon things in the water as he sank very quickly... But he could only swim along the bottom so he normally avoided water. that and he was always afraid of rust.
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 18:49:55 GMT -5
Querryth hears the muffle sound of a splash, and pushes off the bottom of the basin, veering straight for the bank ahead of her. The odd sounds that come to her through the water alert her to the fact that Kroth must be quite near, and she hopes that she can outswim him, and reach the bank before he gets to her. However, she's still a ways away, and he's closer to her.
With a burst of energy, she propels herself upwards through the water at an angle, attempting to get as far from the other dragon as she can.
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Post by Thalron on Jul 12, 2005 19:08:11 GMT -5
He was still fast, and while he didn't land directly on her he still managed to pretty much glomp her hind legs and latch his jaw onto her tail, dragging her back down with him... And rather than just slicing open the arteries in her legs with his metallic arm he just held on. "Mmmph*bubble*" he said in a muffled underwater kind of way.
He hasn't done anything that painful yet, but he hasn't allowed her to reach the surface yet and hopefully he'll realize that she has been underwater longer than him.
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 19:34:18 GMT -5
She squirms as she's caught, and jerks to a halt in her upwards-movement. She knows that she'll be low on breath soon enough; she can feel her lungs starting to ache, warning her of the need for oxygen.
Luckily, she's spent enough time underwater that her lung capacity is quite a bit better than it was before she'd first decided to dive into a pond. She turns, wriggling back towards him, and lashes her tail back and forth. Avoiding his sizzling wing, and knowing that biting back would risk filling her mouth with water, she smacks at him with a wing, attempting to pry his head off of her tail. She knows that she's on extremely limited time, though, and as a last resort, stops lashing her tail around, and pokes him hard right between his nostrils.
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Post by Thalron on Jul 12, 2005 19:47:28 GMT -5
Kroth's grip is rather secure, and the only way it would be more so would be if he really used his metal arm, but that would be very painful (for her) and the tail thrashing just causes his teeth to cut the bit he had latched onto a bit more than it would otherwise.
However after that rather vicious poke (XP) he lets go barely managing to keep himself from snorting water from laughter, though he does lose most of the air he had left... So he soon followed her to the surface, having to clamber up to a slightly shallower part and stand on his hind legs to get air... He was not a good swimmer, mainly because metal wasn't very Bouyant as things go.
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 20:09:23 GMT -5
Querryth breaks the surface, remaining in the slightly deeper water, and watching Kroth. She paddles slightly to stay afloat, shaking a bit of sopping mane out of her eyes. "I can see why you might not be the biggest fan of water," she says, with amusement. "Now, must I continue running, or is there time to dry off a bit?"
She attempts to lift her wet wings out of the water, sending sprays of water up as she manages to do so, and awaits his response, wondering what else he might have in store.
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Post by Thalron on Jul 12, 2005 20:27:21 GMT -5
He snorts, sending a small spray of water and steam out from his nostrils, before trudging/wading his way over to the shore "7|-|@7' 3|\|o|_|9|-| |2|_|\||\|1|\|9 |=0|2 |\|0\/\/..." he said with a grin, pausing momentarily to breath a gout of fire onto his wing, causing it to explode into flame once more. kind of like a stove which had the gas running for afew seconds before getting lit.
he shakes slightly but almost all of the water had already gone from him, darn hairless dragons and their ease of drying... He seems to have slipped back into his lazy mood after being doused though...
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 20:38:55 GMT -5
"Good," she replies, and follows him to the shore. She stands there for a moment, dripping, and then shakes, water flying off of her and out of her mane, sending sprays towards Kroth. She twitches her tail slightly, as is her custom, but before she can curl it around a back leg in one of her common habits, the sting of air on the fresh cuts alerts her to their presence. She glances back and down and them, bringing her tail closer for observation, and then disregards them, letting her tail rest normally. "Didn't escape unscathed," she comments, though with a touch of humor in her voice.
She spreads her wings to help dry them, making sure that she's standing in the full sunlight.
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Post by Thalron on Jul 12, 2005 20:54:18 GMT -5
He snarls at her and glares slightly then moves over a tiny bit so that he is in the sun aswell, immediatly losing that threat that his features had portrayed for that brief moment "This'll help you dry off..." he said as he glanced around as if looking for something he misplaced... Turning back to her and emitting a sudden FWOOSH of flame which lasted a second or two, but luckily he aimed them to be atleast afew inches short of her... So it acted pretty well as a hairdryer, if not a bit startling and potentially hazardous  ; |
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Post by Saturnalia on Jul 12, 2005 21:17:11 GMT -5
She blinks as he snarls, but doesn't comment.
At the blast of fire, she jumps back slightly, so as to avoid singing her mane or any feathers. "Thanks," she replies, though, for it was true... she was a bit dryer, though it would probably take a bit more time spent in the sun for her feathers to be completely free of dampness.
"May I ask... why the chase?" She settles her wings in a comfortable position where they'll still be in the sunlight. "Entertainment?"
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