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Alexander keeps a straight face and looks away, showing not much emotion-wise. He shrugs his shoulders to the boy's questioning and then glances to his mother as she says "this man probably has something he needs to do". He shakes his head. "Well, all I am awaiting for is my ride to show up and pick me up... I was promised to be met upon return at this time... but, since he isn't here, I have enough time to answer a few of the boy's questions." He says to the boy's mother before going to one knee and looking to the boy.

"... Right, yes... I have seen and slain dragons... though, nothing quite like I wish to take on. So far, just a number of smaller sized dragons... though, I have seen a number of larger sized dragons with more strength and abilities than those smaller to them... those shall be a challenge, even for true dragon slayers like myself. In general, dragons are sort of a lizard with wings that also breathe fire... But that's just a very generic dragon. I won't go into depth on it, but when it really gets down to it... They're something else... and yes, the stronger dragons are magical." He says before finally standing up and looking to the distance.

He sighs. "Welp, looks like my ride isn't going to be joining me..." He mutters before looking back to the two and nodding. "... I think I'll walk back towards the nearby town, then." He says as he turns and begins walking at a moderate pace. "See ya around."

Karinda eyed Lael for a moment as an ominous howl floated to them on the wind.

"Convince me? Thou hath already provided such a method." She gestured for Lael to go first down the tree's center.

Karinda held her breath for a moment before going over to the opening within the tree. The sun was fading fast, the darkness creeping upon the land like a snake devouring a mouse.

"Secure thyself, Saiirin." Karinda stepped up to the opening as Saiirin's claws dug into her shoulder, drawing a hiss from the girl.

'Tis what thou deserve for trusting so easily, Saiirin replied with a growl.

"Remain up here, then, if thou art so sure that she is not to be trusted. She complied to my request quick enough."

The dragon snarled as Karinda leaped into the hole. Her back hit a smooth surface as she slid down a fairly wide tunnel. As quick as her slide had begun, it was over as her feet landed on the ground waiting below. She stumbled forward, falling to the earth.

"Aaaaye!" she shouted as as Saiirin flung from her shoulder, the dragon's claws creating a couple gashes in her skin. "Fie on thee, wretched creature!"

Moving to push herself up, her hand came in contact with a pile of coral fungus, its yellow glow turning red at her touch.

Grumbling, she moved her left hand to her opposite shoulder where blood had begun to soak into her clothes.

'Tis no fault of mine! Saiirin snapped her jaws before sniffing at a group of lit morel mushrooms.

Scowling, Karinda stood and brushed the still-glowing particles from her free hand and turned to examine her surroundings.

The ceiling and walls looked to be made from nothing more than the roots of the tree above them, the fairly large cavern lit by mushrooms and many other forms of fungi clinging to and growing from all around.

"What is this?" Karinda asked, turning her gaze to Lael while being sure to keep pressure on her shoulder wound.

"This is Templum," Lael replied after glancing to the preoccupied dragon. "The glowing stuff is fungi."

Karinda scowled at the girl's wry comment. "I am quite aware of the fungi," she said with slight irritation as Saiirin dared to eat one of the morels she had been sniffing. "Though I find I cannot say the same for 'Templum'."

Lael took a deep breath. "Would you like a full explanation here, or would you like to head into the main city? Maybe... maybe find a healer."

Karinda glanced to her shoulder as Lael gestured to it.

"I hath suffered greater wounds. A healer may very well prove unneces--" Her words were cut off as Saiirin gave a shocked yelp. Karinda spun around with great speed, fearing the worst.

Still standing near the now red patch of morels, Saiirin's silver scales were aglow with the same yellow light that was cast about the room. The dragon's eyes were wide in horror, her body stiff.

She could not help it; laughter escaped Karinda's mouth as the dragon turned and growled at the morels.

"Thou hath scolded me for trusting too easily," she said aloud to the dragon as her laughter subsided, a broad smile still resting upon her face, "and yet thou chose to consume a strange mushroom? I shant hear another word from thee on such matters!"

With her mood lightened thanks to Saiirin's small, glowing body, Karinda turned to Lael.

"Prithee, lead the way."

Xerxes had made his way to the library shorty after he joined the army, and that is where he has resided ever since, he was walking down the rows of old dusty books, and was taking random ones out. He was putting them in a small pouch he brought with them. The books were in fact random, they were cook books, story books, alchemy books, bibliographic books, you name it, he at least got one book of it. He sat down after collecting quite a few books, and he put his feet on one of the old dusty tables as he pulled out one of the books and began to read it.

Garthen's body shifted from one shadow to the next as he followed Xerxes to the library. The Corrupt's eyes narrowed as he watched the man take books from the shelves and place them in his bag.

Sweeping across the floor and to where the man had chosen to sit, he let a mangled hand form for just an instant, allowing him to pull two books from the pouch before returning his arm into the shadow, the books following suit.

"These aren't yours," he said in his nasally voice, his shadow floating to the ceiling.

The woman in green waited ‘patiently’ while Theodore hid himself in his tankard, her green nails drumming a tattoo of impatience upon the counter that she still so elegantly leaned upon. Her brilliant eyes narrowed in irritation as she stared towards the door one more.
Theodore wondered if, indeed, she was meeting someone here, and his stomach flipped. If there were two of these women, heaven help what was left of this world.
But something in him thought that perhaps it was wonderful, perhaps creatures like this needed to exist, to keep the humans in line. Humans, a race that he really, now he thought of it, didn’t belong to.
His parents had often spoke of what it meant to be a Peacekeeper, drummed into him the importance of humanity, and how even monsters couldn’t wipe out all of them, because they were cattle. Beasts to the slaughter. Even through all of the lectures it had been impressed upon him that he, too was a human, but being born to Peacekeepers, he wondered if he ever was.
Was a person born to this life of violence even a person anymore? Or were they just a weapon to be used as seen fit.
The woman’s attention returned to Theodore as he spouted his textbook answer to the question that he had so carefully been avoiding, her expression unabashedly amused. Green eyes glittered as they looked him over, no doubt taking into account the worn boots, the muddy trousers whose original colour was no longer apparent, the disheveled jacket covering the obvious bulges that were his personal arsenal.

The way she looked at him made his mouth dry. He wet his lips as the woman leaned forward, braving the stink to whisper."It's because of statements such as that that your kind are dying out," he had to strain to hear her, step closer to make out her voices. He forgot how close he was, that he was supposed to stay away. That she was dangerous.
“You protect the humans, and what do they show you in return? Kindness? Respect? No, I should think not. I doubt they even know of what you've saved them from. They're selfish, take more than what they need, and only look out for themselves. Yet those you hunt, those who you've killed, look after those they call their family and take only what they need. Save them, and you have a place with them. Can you say the same for humans? Without them, would you be in the same shape as you are now?"
She gestured with a tinkling flourish towards his injuries, his puffed eye that was still tender when he touched it out of self consciousness, his matted hair that was cacked in dry blood and was still sticky under his fingers.
For the first time in a while he really realised what he must look like.
When he was a boy, he use to see the veteran Peacekeepers, sitting in their houses with their guns trained on the doors. Their places always smelled like a mixture between cigarette smoke and human leavings, and the men looked worse. He once asked his mother why the were like that. He never understood the answer.
‘The world is wrong with them, Teddy. The world is wrong.’
He looked up at the woman, eyes full of what he couldn’t say.