Dragon Hunt [Darren]

[Rhea]

“Be careful what you
set your heart upon--
for it will surely be yours.”
– James Baldwin

Land of Dragons had to be one of the most exciting-sounding worlds Hotaru had ever heard the name of. C’mon – dragons?! What could be more fun than dragons? They flew, blew fire, were magical, and were just plain awesome! Hotaru had never met a dragon, and as soon as she heard about such a world she summoned her staff and directed her teleportation powers to the place. So here she was, in Ancient China, quite expecting to find herself a fire-breathing beast.

The part she hadn’t been expecting was to end up in a snowy mountain range. In her mind she had been picturing a barren volcanic wasteland, maybe even a dark scary cave. Instead she was shivering, sneezing, and trekking through the wet slushy ground. It was almost miserable, and someone other than Hotaru might have given up by now. Obviously, however, this was the auburn-haired illusionist, and she had her mind set on a dragon.

Cheerful as ever, Hotaru spoke as the wind whipped her partially-frozen hair into her face. “I wonder what kind of dragon it’ll be? The kind that gives you all kinds of wisdom, or the evil kind that you have to slay to become a hero? Imagine me, a hero! Or a heroine, rather. Though a wise dragon would be cool as well. We could have long meaningful conversations!”

That was Hotaru alright, rambling even though no one could hear her. There was a joyful grin on the woman’s face. She was practically skipping. “This is so exciting!” she sang. The twenty-year-old was (luckily) wearing a thick, lavender sweater with a pair of black pants. Her locks had been up in a pony tail at some point, but the wind had managed to free them and send them flying about. Her favorite weapon, the staff, was being used as a walking stick to help pull her along through the weather.

Actually, it was not snowing. The ice that was flying around came from the ground and was simply being thrown about by the strong gusts. For being near the top of a mountain, it wasn’t all that bad. The sky was blue and cloudless, and the sun shone brightly. At the base of the mountain, where a city lay, it might have been a nice day.

“I bet when I get to the mountain peak, there will be a cave with a dragon!” Hotaru was smiling, of course, daydreaming of adventure and excitement.

[Darren]

His body shivered in the cold, the chilly breeze sapped Darren of what little strength remained in his body. He'd been journeying with this girl called Hotaru for at least a couple of days now, She claimed she was on a expedition about Dragons and came to mention that some of them are usually very wise and have answers to everything.

Answers.

Just the thing Darren was looking for, he had to find her, even if it took him the rest of his life time.. He would be in her arms yet again. Searching from Planet to Planet trying to find her... that's what his goal is.

" You sure do talk alot... Hotaru.." He said quitely stepping next to her after listening to her longest rant yet, his breath visible due to the temperature.

[Rhea]

[In the future, please try not to control my character so completely without asking me first, alright?]

While wandering, Hotaru had come across Darren. Once she’d mentioned that she was searching for a dragon, the SOLDIER (she wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded cool) had agreed to trail along. Hotaru was painfully oblivious to the more silent personality of Darren, and she’d rather taken to rambling on and on about nothing in particular. He seemed like a good listener, though his lack of responses could also be due to simply not caring.

“I do talk a lot, don’t I?” Hotaru laughed. “Does it bother you? I like talking. I think it annoys some people, but who cares what they think? It’s fun! I like getting to know people. Y’know, if you talked more I’d get to know you better too. In fact, you’re too quiet!” Hotaru took a deep breath, preparing for her next action.

“AHHHH!” she yelled loudly, her voice echoing from the mountainside and the rocks. Somehow, there wasn’t an avalanche.

“You should try shouting sometime! It’s liberating.” Again her joyful laughter filled the air.

That rant was longer than the first, in fact. Hotaru and Darren were quite opposites when it came to personality.

Hotaru’s breath crystallized in the freezing air when she exhaled. Her teeth shattered and she was left shivering whenever a fierce wind cut through her sweater. Even her lips were turning blue. Despite everything, Hotaru’s smile never faltered, her joy never wavered. It had been a while since she’d been in the snow, after all! She was truly an optimist driver by her goals. Luckily Darren, who had his own goals it would seem, didn’t seem too upset about the weather either.

“Soo... you never told me why exactly you wanted to come with me, Darren.” Hotaru was suddenly serious – not in a grave sort of way, for she was still cheerful, but in her voice there were undertones of true interest. She could be oblivious, but Hotaru wasn’t an idiot. She knew her stoic companion wouldn’t have come with her without a reason.

They crested a hill of snow, and a beautiful view of the land below entered Hotaru’s view. Without further ado Hotaru ran forward to the rocky ledge which jutted out of the mountain, only a thin layer of snow covering it. Thoughtlessly she stood precariously close to the edge, staring in wonder at the view. It was picturesque and wonderful, this scene of ancient China. One could see the buildings of the city, which from such a height looked like little toys. There were bamboo forests, rivers and streams, and fields stretching to meet the clear blue sky. It made one feel small and insignificant compared to the vast and endless world, yet powerful and giant when looking at the individual things that seemed so small from the mountain. It was a strange, powerful emotion that left Hotaru feeling wiser than before.

“Amazing,” she whispered, turning to look at Darren, to share this with him. “Isn’t it?” Then her eyes moved to their destination, the peak of the mountain. It was much closer than she’d thought, filling her with that excitement she was known for. “We’re almost there!” she cried happily. “A dragon, a dragon, a dragon~” she chanted in a singsong voice. Her attention shifted easily back to why she’d come.

[Darren]

( I wasnt aware I was controlling your character, I was just providing some back story as to why they were together, but point noted. )

He folded his arms across his chest and lowered his head as he prepared for another rant from the auburn haired girl. He felt berated like a little child being mentored by its parents or teacher or something that think it knows everything better than it does.

" I should talk more..?" He questioned her, chuckling slightly. " I never get a chance to put a word in.." a grin spread across his face, he also raised an eyebrow as the girl let out a rather large shout.

Thanking the powers above that a avalanche wasnt cause due to this rather spontaneous act. He let out a sigh of relief and walked up towards her but not in a threatening way.

" I'm here for answers.. " he said bluntly looking out at the land scape. " I hear Dragons are wise... maybe I could find some answers from one of them..".

[Rhea]

[Sorry, this is terrible...]

“Then we’ll just have to get answers from that dragon, won’t we?” Hotaru winked, having already turned to look at her companion. “Well, what’re we waiting for? We’re almost there!” Of course she had been the one to stop them in the first place, but Hotaru didn’t dwell on such things. She continued up the incline.

Within another few hours, they had reached the summit. There was such a view in all directions! Yet there was no cave and there was no dragon. “Aww,” Hotaru sighed, sitting down in the snow. “I really though we’d find a dragon up here.” She allowed her back to fall into the snow, and spread out on top of the frozen water. “Now what should we do?” she wondered. “If there isn’t a dragon all the way up here, where else could one be?” She gazed at the sky silently.

Hotaru was daydreaming again as she stared at the azure skies, imagining a dragon flying overhead. The dragon flew on and as Hotaru watched it she began to realize that she wasn’t daydreaming. That was a real dragon! She jumped to her feet again, pointing at the flying creature. “Look, a dragon!” she cried. “We’ve got to see where it lands.”

[Darren]

[ It's Better than Anything I can cook up, Beleive me..]

They'd been walking (and partially climbing) for at least a good few hours, his feet hurt and his muscles ached from the expedition to find this.. Wise Dragon. On Rhea's hunch of a Dragon Lair being ontop of a summit being the "hook" on Darren's climbing he was disheartened to find out that there was no cave whatsoever, just snow, rocks and the occasional patch of grass.

There were only two good things he thought he would gain from this. Experiencing such a nice view, and the good excercise.

Rhea, who was now laying down on the snow looking up at the clear sky, possibly day dreaming about a Dragon or something, seemed quite content with the outcome of the climb.

He sighed and sat down on a rock which was now improvised as a stool for Darren to sit upon, resting his chin on his hand as he looked down at the ground, he closed his eyes just for a moment before Rhea's voice awoke him.

Looking up he saw what they'd climbed for, A Huge winged creature, quite possibly a Dragon was soaring through the skies peacefully, he nodded at Rhea and was ready to follow her if need be.

[Rhea]

[It’s Hotaru, not Rhea. XD I do that too sometimes.]

She lifted her hand over her eyes to block the sun’s rays. The beast flew farther and farther away, and Hotaru began to worry it would go too far for them to follow. Just as she was thinking about trying to teleport onto the dragon’s back it angled itself to the side, turned 90 degrees, and descended into the forest.

“Well, let’s go,” she said suddenly, a big smile on her face. Hotaru grabbed Darren’s hand without pausing. Focusing her magic, she pictured the location the dragon had landed. “Ready?” she asked with a laugh. Poof! Silently and instantly the mountain, the view, the sky all vanished. Replacing that sight was the bamboo forest – surrounding them. There was bamboo everywhere; some places in thick clusters and others there was space to move around. The leaves blocked some light, giving the area a twilit feel. Sunlight peaked through in some places, leaving spots of brightness on the ground amongst the shade. It was really quite beautiful, but Hotaru was feeling too disappointed to notice it. There was no dragon in sight.

“I really thought it landed here...” the illusionist sighed.

After spinning in a circle to look around for any sign of a fire-breathing dragon (again), she kicked a pebble. It flew out of sight among the foliage. “Well... what should we do now?”

[Darren]

He watched Hotaru as she focused intently; wondering what was going to happen. His facial features turnt into one of surprise as she smiled and reached out grabbing his hand, she spoke saying only one word “Ready?” with a little laugh following up. His breathing went out of control and distorted as everything, the ground, sky and the landscape features slowly vanished, before being replaced by a bamboo forest.

“I really thought it landed here...” Darren heard the illusionist say with a sigh in her tone. Darren however was too busy holding his stomach, he felt really ill for a couple of seconds, he struggled to hold the contents of his stomach open but succeeded in not throwing up all over the grass.

Regaining his posture from a slouched position to that of standing up straight and having a quick look around, turning his head left to right just get an idea of where he was, unfortunately the sight wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. “Bamboo to the left...” he said looking to left “and” he said before turning his head to left “Bamboo to the right... amazing..” he muttered, his voice full of sarcasm.

His sarcasm was cut short however when a small cluster of bamboo began to rustle madly in front of him, raising an eyebrow he stepped forward, on guard for whatever might be lurking behind the shoots. “Hotaru...” He said quietly, “Over here...” he whispered motioning her to come over.