[PRP] Dacj's Big Adventure - Reprise [FIN]

[AnimeEyeshime]

Dacj glanced over at the directions lying on the passenger seat as she navigated the streets in the van borrowed from her mother. Maybe she ought to ask for a car of her own...well, she didn't usually drive quite often enough to warrant it, and Mena didn't exactly take the van out on joyrides often either. Best to share the one, probably...

She made a right turn, and then another--ah, this was the right street, wasn't it? She'd gotten the address straight from Seth... Dacj double-checked the house address and pulled over to park, getting out of the van before stopping to get a really good look at the place. Well, from the front, it seemed normalish enough--but she knew better than to judge a house by its front. How many'd be fooled by the Cottage if they just admired the well-kept front lawn? As she moved forward and up to the door to knock, she could vaguely hear noises coming from within--the sorts of noises she'd expect a lively, packed-to-the-gills-with-fantastic-creatures sort of place to have. Looked like she'd managed to find Elf's home all right then...

She knocked on the door, and braced herself for whatever ruckus might spill out, just in case.

[Seruphim_Mule]

From inside the home there were indeed quite a variety of sounds to be heard, the main one of which at the moment sounded almost like bickering. As soon as the kraken Hyte knocked on the door, however, the bickering ceased and was replaced by an excited frenzy of squeaks and trills and other such noises. It wasn't until about thirty seconds later that the door was finally opened.

"Heya, Dacj!" Seth's mother greeted enthusiastically. "I'm glad you could make it! Please, come in." As she had opened the front door, out had flown four winged lizards, a brown one, a red one, and two green ones. They were all chirruping and trilling in an excited frenzy, sending out feelings of both happiness and curiosity concerning the guest. The group followed the human and Hyte back inside and continued their fluttering about happily. "Ah, sorry, you'll have to ignore them," elf said apologetically. "We haven't had any guests over since I've gotten them, so they are rather excited at the moment."

Off in a cage in the corner sat the infamous truffle duo, Kaoru and Hikaru, with the cage currently being watched by a third truffle Byte, Tamaki. Riding up to Dacj on a fluttering kitty-like thing was the resident orange Byte, Orenji. "Good afternoon!" he greeted with a smile, his voice carrying a bit of an accent. "Orenji desu! Ah, I mean, my name is Orenji." Down on the floor, another little reptile creature approached cautiously and gave Dacj's tentacles a curious sniff. From the way he eyed the wriggling masses, he appeared to be considering them very carefully. Meanwhile, on a nearby couch sat a small rabbit and sheep-thing watching the proceedings from a safe distance away.

"Bouken, no nibbling on guests," elf said in a warning tone to the reptile on the floor, seeming to sense his motives. The saurian pouted before dashing off back into another part of the house to do who knew what. "Can I get you anything to drink, Dacj? Seth's out back playing referee between some of the larger animals."

[AnimeEyeshime]

Though she had experienced some of these creatures by Seth-dream-proxy, the reality of the situation was something more than could be realistically captured by secondhand experience. The little flying dragon-flits were just as pretty as they'd been in the dream--and she hadn't any idea they could project emotions--like Eli! That was a funny idea, Eli with a little shoulder dragon that could put out emotions the way he did... "Oh, it's nothing I'm not used to, generally," she told elf with a smile. Perhaps not on the same scale, but excitable small creatures were excitable small creatures, and Mena's domestic tentacle monsters were rather much the same in temperament.

Dacj drank in her first view of the interior with intense consideration--for one thing, if she didn't pay close attention, she felt she'd likely miss an inhabitant or three amongst the decor. She waved to the cute little orange byte--there was one at the Cottage too, but all the Cottage's Bytes were a rare sight...she was inclined to believe they had secret little rooms between the walls--and gave a polite nod. "It's nice to meet you, Orenji. I'm Dacj."

She hadn't noticed the saurian danger until he dashed away at the warning, and the kraken offered elf a relieved smile. "I do prefer not to be nibbled on, thank you...and I'm fine for the moment. Ah, is this routine refereeing or did something happen...?" She realized she was being polite on the side of awkward, but she also remembered she had not had a great deal of contact with Seth's mother...alone. And she was Seth's mother. And--god, did she know too? That particular thought sent the kraken into a mental tizzy, and she laced her hands behind her back tightly as she tried to think of exactly what image she wanted to portray to Seth's own mother...

[Seth_Avi]

"Routine... I think," she added off-handedly. "Although it may be best not to leave them alone for too long. Come, I'll lead you out back." If elf knew anything, she gave no indication of it or of even noticing the kraken's sudden nervous behavior.

The pair had barely taken two steps when a very familiar rabbit-hybrid zoomed in from another room. "Dacj!" The bunny boy exclaimed excitedly, practically bouncing up into her arms. "You're finally here! You gotta ride on the dragons with us!"

"After we go check on things outside," elf said, unfazed by the energetic entrance of the youth. "The dragons are out back anyway."

Terry practically beamed as he hopped back out of Dacj's arms, and he quickly took charge of leading the party. "This way! This way! Hurry uuuuuup~!"

Once the group finally made it outside, they were met by a rather interesting sight. Not too far from the house, a group of widely varied animals had converged in a semi-circle. On the one side there was a black raven-like mare, a brightly colored winged stallion, and a brown stallion. On the other side was a black and red modifox along with a similarly colored dragon, which was about roughly the size of a small horse. In the middle of the semi-circle, Seth stood as a barrier between a rather large starry-patterned modideava and a young blue dragon. All parties looked rather agitated, and the cheetah Hyte's clothing was rather tattered. Fortunately, everyone appeared uninjured and no worse for wear. For now.

"HEY! Break it up you guys!" Elf commanded in a surprisingly authoritative voice. The creatures were momentarily startled out of their fighting stances, but then most of them quickly dispersed.

"Ah, hello, Dacj," Seth greeted with a weary smile, straightening up and dusting off what was left of his tattered shirt and jeans. "Erm, seems you got here at an interesting time."

[AnimeEyeshime]

"Terry!" Dacj said, glad to see the bunny-boy--and gladder still for the reminder. No way was she going to miss out on dragon riding. She was amused as he lead them out determinedly, his enthusiastic herding reminding her of Phoebe...though Phoebe'd be a lot more bossy about it. "We're hurrying~" she reassured him as she moved to keep up, watching her step as she went.

The sight of the circle put her in mind of a stereotypical school playground fight--though it seemed not to have progressed beyond jeering, if in fact that was what it was at all. And everyone seemed uninjured yes, but--why was Seth's clothing looking so ragged then? Not that it was a bad look on him, per se, the kraken mused, as she offered him a bright smile. "I think any time I got here would be bound to be interesting in one way or another. Are you all right? Your clothes look a little worse for wear..."

[Seth_Avi]

In truth, the trio had actually just missed the initial fight. Natsuhiboshi had lost her patience with the baby blue and had gone on the offensive. Fortunately Seth had been able to interrupt the violent exchange, but his clothing had taken most of the damage. The rest had gathered afterward and a small squabble had ensued. "Ah, yeah, I'm fine," he assured. "Lemme, um, just go get changed."

While Seth went back inside the house with Ruby in tow (the little red firelizard had left the fluttering group to follow after him), Terry ran over to Lifth and squatted down next to him. "Are you alright?" he asked curiously, figuring that the deava was likely the aggressor-- as she usually was.

Yes, I am fine, the dragonet replied, soon turning whirling eyes onto their visitor. I am unfamiliar with you.

"Lifth, this is Tsq'ali'fhtagen Dacj'hai'gotha. A friend of Seth's," elf explained. "Dacj, this is Lifth. He is the youngest of the dragons here. Adorable, isn't it he? heart "

The blue dragonet ignored the woman's gushing over him and kept his attention focused on Dacj. I see. Well met, Miss Dacj.

[AnimeEyeshime]

Dacj chuckled as Seth took off, very briefly tempted to tease him about keeping his new look but then remembering the presence of the others...well, she probably ought to behave. She started at the mental voice of the dragon's in her mind--though she'd been talked to mind-to-mind on various occasions, it still tended to leave her jumpy at first. She supposed she should've expected it though, most of the creatures here probably had to use some form of mental communication with humans and humanoids like Hytes, said creatures lacking vocal chords capable of human speech and all.

She was suitably impressed by elf's fairly flawless handling of her name, and offered the blue dragon what passed for a kraken-curtsy-bow--a deep nod and a vague lowering of her human torso (she knew better than to ever attempt the sweeped out leg intricacies of a proper human curtsy). "Well met to you as well, Lifth." She could see the resemblance between the dragons and the smaller flitting variety--the dragonet before her was a scaled up, more muscular version...well, of course if he was going to grow big enough to carry a human adult's weight...actually, how large were the adult dragons anyway? Youngest of the dragons--that meant plural adults?

Practical questions aside, her fingers were itching to touch that dragonhide--unlike "traditional" dragons it didn't look to be scaly at all, and she had the feeling it would in fact be quite soft. Not as soft as fur, sure, but definitely preferable to the average reptilian... And, now that she thought about it, the patterning had been pretty striking on the tiny shoulder-dragons too. She was definitely feeling a desire to acquire one of those little pretties--probably a bit easier to keep around that a giantish dragon that ate how knew how much a day. Did elf get giant delivery trucks in or something? "Are all of your kind so differently and striking patterned?" she settled for asking. Maybe some were drabbish--well, compare her to the other mer-Hytes and she looked a bit drab in comparison too!

It was clear to any observer that Dacj was rather fascinated by the dragonet and she was curious about far more than she'd actually asked.

[elfgurl1234]

If one was familiar with dragon eye colors, they could see that Lifth was mildly amused by this question. Each dragon is unique. Be they plain or patterned, he answered simply.

"The other two are on their way," elf remarked cheerily. "They won't be too difficult to spot from the air." Nor were their greeting bugles at all hard to miss. All heads turned to see the large incoming duo who had just blinked in from Between and were preparing to land. "See what I mean?"

The first to land was a large and bulky green. She held herself up proudly and practically oozed confidence out of her entire being. We have company? she remarked, lower her head to the humans' eye level and getting directly in Dacj's face. Hm. She reminds me of the furry one. Only without the fur.

Give her some room to breath at least, Taith, the much larger brown one said in an amused tone, staying a small distance away only so as not to overcrowd the humanoids. To Dacj he said, Greetings. My name is Tereth.

Terry, meanwhile, was making quick work of hoping up on Taith's back. "Come on up, Dacj!" Flying is really awesome!"

"Not so fast, Terry," elf replied. "You know you can't flying without the proper riding straps first."

The bunny boy's ears fell as he pouted. "Aw man.... I'll be right back then!" He easily slide of the green's hide and darted back into the house to find the straps.

Lifth didn't say much, merely nodding to the older dragons in greeting.

[AnimeEyeshime]

The little blue was either a diplomat or not inclined towards flattery, Dacj thought with a smile, but her attention was quickly captured by the bugling dragons in the sky. She'd been expecting fairly large of course but actually seeing was a little different from the abstract concept! And the green at least wasn't shy about getting right up close--not that Dacj minded the invasion of personal space particularly, but it did make her itchy fingers somewhat worse and she wasn't certain of the proper etiquette before going around touching giant dragons that could probably eat you in one gulp. Maybe two or three if they stopped to chew. "Seth and I were created at the same place...much as I suspect you and...ah, Tereth share a similar origin, even if Seth and I don't quite look it..except for the eyes, of course." And she wondered how much genetic tinkering had gone into the dragons' creation--you didn't get perfectly scaled replicas like the dragons and the smaller lizards without either a very strict breeding program or a lab like Mena's. "It's nice to meet you both. Um. Thanks for the opportunity?" she offered shyly. She wasn't quite sure if she'd been expecting fully sentient beings or not when dragons were mentioned, but clearly it was something they had agreed to doing, now that she met them properly. And she had to chuckle again at Terry's enthusiasm, but she wasn't surprised you'd need straps to stay on--the only place to perch looked just around the wing-shoulderblade and riding "bareback" would probably be tricky at best and extremely dangerous at worst.

[Seth_Avi]

Taith snorted in amusement and pulled back to give Dacj some space. "Opportunity"? That's an interesting way to phrase it. Glad to hear that you are not as disinclined toward flying as the furry one then.

His name is Seth.

Whatever. The point is that he's a stick in the mud. Like our tiny blue friend here.

Never in the mud. I would be a stick on dry land at best, Lifth remarked nonchalantly.

... Point proven right there.

The blue didn't say anything back to that, not overly concerned with what the others thought of him. They were simple-minded in his opinion anyway.

"Hey, I flew with you guys once before," Seth answered, returning from the house with Terry, both carrying riding gear for Tereth and Taith. "You make it sound as if I haven't even tried."

You haven't tried riding on me. I'm way faster and better than Tereth.

"You are also far more reckless, Taith-love," elf replied with a small giggle. "I don't think many can ride you without threat of falling off."

[AnimeEyeshime]

"I'm inclined to try most things at least once just for the experience," Dacj answered honestly. She just happened to like most of the things she tried, which could be good or bad depending on how you looked at it... "I've been in a hovercar before but being in what amounts to a steel cage isn't the same sort of thing at all, even before taking into account the difference in achievable altitude..."

She was amused to hear Seth had given dragonriding a try, but a little disappointed she wouldn't be able to witness the spectacle for herself. And as she listened to elf and Taith she spoke without thinking, interjecting matter-of-factly, "The threat of falling off in any circumstance is likely to be less for someone like me as opposed to Seth--I've got a better grip, literally, and more limbs to grip with. Though I don't think that would be a good idea, on account of my suckers and hooks and all..."

[elfgurl1234]

Taith snorted lightly at Dacj's remarks. Well, so long as you use those to cling onto the saddle and not my hide, you are welcome aboard. I'm the best flyer anyway.

Seth rolled his eyes at the green's overly large ego as he began to fit her saddle on her. It didn't take him very long to do, and he was soon able to move on to Tereth to fit his gear. Even though he didn't ride them, he had still helped with such things plenty of times before.

Terry and already hopped up on Tereth's back before Seth had even finished securing the straps. "Hurry uuuuup, Seth~!" he whined. "I wanna fly~!"

"Just a moment," he replied, securing the last of the straps. "There. Now you guys just need to put on your flying gear."

"Actually, Seth, I need to take Lifth inside and feed him," elf replied with a smile. "Would you mind very much flying with Terry instead? I'll be a while."

The cheetah hybrid's ear flicked in irritation, but his expression was neutral as he said, "Very well then." Honestly, his mother was not much less of a schemer than Shimy sometimes-- it was just on a smaller scale was all. He grabbed up an extra jacket and helmet and took it over to Dacj. "Here, you'll be needing these. It gets very cold when you're high up," he explained. And then with a faint smirk said, "Among other things." Perhaps if the opportunity arose, they might make a small jump Between somewhere to take advantage of the easy transportation.

[AnimeEyeshime]

"Right, of course!" Dacj replied hurriedly, wondering why she even bothered to open her mouth sometimes. She tried to pay attention as Seth put the saddle on the green, noting the combination of straps and buckles that was going to be more or less the only thing keeping her on said dragon. Well, she'd done heights before with much less--it shouldn't be too bad...

She plopped the helmet on her head straightaway, feeling like a humanoid bobblehead as she slipped into the jacket as well. Hmm, if they were going high enough for it to get pretty cold, mightn't the oxygen level change too? Pressure--or was that just the ocean? Could you get an air equivalent of the bends? There were people who had trouble in airplanes all the time... Though her questions were of the kind enough to make most sane people begin to doubt their present course of action, she ran through her mental tally calmly. Probably there would be ear popping, at the least. It ought to be interesting.

"Other things?" she echoed, mistaking his "hint" entirely--after all, she knew little enough about dragons, let alone Pernese teleporting ones. "Other things in the air, you mean? I have it on good authority there are Air Krakens. Make it right difficult for airship pirates, you know."

[Seth_Avi]

Seth chuckled at her remark, finishing putting on his own flying gear. "You'll see," he replied with a mysterious smile before walking over to the large brown and climbing up. Terry was already bouncing impatiently in his seat, his own riding gear equipped. "Everyone settled in then?" Once the cheetah Hyte was sure that all of the riding straps were secured, he gave Dacj some brief riding advice before signalling the take-off.

At once both dragons made the jump and pumped their powerful wings to become airborne. Terry let out a shout of joy as they rose, and even Seth couldn't help a faint smile at the rabbit boy's excitement. I don't know why you won't fly with us more often. I know you enjoy it too, the brown remarked to Seth alone.

The cheetah Hyte shook his head ever so slightly. It is fun, I will admit. I just prefer to keep my feet on the ground is all.

Fair enough.

Meanwhile, Taith raced ahead of the three with Dacj in tow, showing off her superior speed. Having fun yet? she asked the kraken Hyte, mental voice smug. Things were only just getting started.

[AnimeEyeshime]

Getting up in the saddle had been an interesting proposition--mindful of Taith's warning, Dacj tried very hard as she scrambled up and over not to rely on her hooks to help as she did when tree-climbing. As soon as she was settled enough--these saddles had not been built with krakens in mind, but she'd deal with the discomfort of sitting "normally" to get a flying session--she subtly (or so she imagined) brushed her fingers across the even smoother than she'd imagined dragonhide. It was almost like suede--almost as good as fur, and possibly better depending on the fur in question... She was drawn out of her musing by Seth's last minute tips, and she nodded along at each exhortation.

But even with the warnings and watching Seth give the signal herself, Dacj still wasn't prepared for the lurch that launched them airborne--up, up, and fast away. It was not really smooth--she had a suspicion some of it would be due to her own inexperience, and the rest to the inevitable fact she was perched just above the powerful muscles making this flight possible--but it was exhilarating, and she let out a happy, surprised cry of her own as the wind whipped her long ponytail out behind her. "Very much so!" she told Taith, beaming. Dragonriding was definitely worth the hype.