Welcome to Gaia! ::

”Something… yeah, that’s a good way to describe her… she’s something like you.” He teased with a bit of a cheeky grin at his friend and at his friends wink earned a quirked eyebrow in return though. Ah yes, they were quite the pair… but a pair of what was the question…
Ryuu squirmed a little uncomfortably as his horse trotted along, causing his newly enlarged assets to bounce and move around. He frowned, how the hell did girls do this? It was going to drive him insane if he had to continuously feel this. It wasn’t the world discomfort that he had ever experienced, but the consistency of it made it the most infuriating. Ryuu squirmed a little bit again and tried to use her shoulders to adjust her leather armour to try and keep his new ‘friends’ in place with limited success, once they got comfy they would pretty well immediately bounce right out of place. Ryuu sighed in frustration under his breath and gave up. Ryuu’s hair was also starting to lengthen a little more, slowly but noticeably crawling further down the length of Ryuu’s back, the hair was becoming far more silky and lush. Tobi may have a hard time keeping his eyes to himself after a while. Though still a far way from being transformed fully but the curse, Ryuu was starting to look pretty hot, and it was only getting more attractive. Perhaps part of that was the mysterious heir that Ryuu cloaked himself in, especially sense he got his new armour.

Ryuu decided to focus on Tobi’s suggestion and the conversation at hand. ”Yeah, we’ll definitely poke around with the traders and even if they don’t have one, we can ask if there are any rumours of people having one and willing to part with it. It would probably be the best way to go about it. We’ll get the rest of the ingredients first and then focus on hunting down the Unicorn Horn. Hell, maybe we can even find one in the wild while we are looking for our other ingredients.” Ha! Not with the luck that he had been having. It was beyond wishful thinking that he was going to just happen across one of the rarest and sawed after item known to alchemy itself. Ryuu decided to abandon that hope right there and then, almost embarrassed that he had suggested that he have any sort of luck what so ever at this point in time. ”Ready for an adventure, Buddy?” Ryuu asked in a mocking tone. To think… Tobi had given up a vacation of princess bed surfing for this.

”It means probably what you think it means, Tobs.” Ryuu replied with a bit of a grin. Oh his friend and Alexandra were so similar it was kind of scary, though really, if Ryuu had to place money on who was worse… he would probably have to put it on Alexandra, Tobi could control himself when he wanted to, though Alexandra usually gave into her carnal desires. As Ryuu continued to bounce along, desperately trying to get his giggling assets to calm themselves down so that he could go along his merry way and NOT feel discomfort every horse trot of the way…
Ryuu was slightly started when Tobi cleared his throat and Ryuu’s head snapped over to the side to see Tobi smirking slightly. Ryuu’s face burst into a deep shade of red when Tobi hit the nail on the head with his little problem… yeah… Ryuu should have known that Tobi would have noticed something that obvious and picked up on his bigger boobs right away. Still, he wished he got a little more time before it was noticed.
”Sh-shut up Tobi!” Ryuu replied, clearly flustered that he got caught both with a bigger bust and trying to desperately trying to be discreet. Obviously he had failed miserably. With a heavy sigh he looked down at the growing few with a bit of a souring face hidden under the wrappings of his face. ”No… as much as I would love to not be bothered by me new Bff’s, it just getting to painful to bind them anymore. So it looks like you get to have a nice view for the rest of the trip… just don’t get any funny ideas. Besides, I would rather get this trip done and over with as soon as possible and just get rid of them all together.”

Ryuu gave a bit of a dramatic frown, turning his torso away from Tobi and covering the top of his bosom in an equally theatrical way when Tobi made a pointed look at his boobs. Normally he would try and punch Tobi off of his horse, but; A) He didn’t have enough power to knock Tobi a** over tea kettle anymore. B)His arms were too short to reach and C) He just got one of the major ingredients for his potion so he was in a decently good mood. At Tobi’s excitement, and his declaration of the adventure, Ryuu brought his hand heavily into his face, creating a slapping sound that echoed softly in the immediate area. Dear Lord… it would be no small miracle if Ryuu had any sanity left by the end of this journey. ”Lets… just try and forget this happened all together, shall we. I’d rather not be the laughing stock of children, illegitimate or otherwise.”
Ryuu paused for a moment, staring ahead slightly and letting silence build up between then for a few minutes before he rolled his shoulder and twisted his arm. ”Okay, seriously! How do women put up with this?!”

At first, Ryuu shot Tobi a bit of a look before he paused, letting his facial expression soften somewhat. Ryuu thought for a moment before looking down. ”You know Tobi… I might just take you up on that offer if these things get too out of control…”
He listened again to his friend as he went on about the story telling, Ryuu gave a silent chuckle at the thought of himself and Tobi sitting in front of the fire, half senile with age and telling this tale to the younger ones who would still listen to it… though Ryuu was having a hard time picturing himself with a wife at this point. It was so hard to find the right girl, and just because he had strong feelings for her, didn’t mean that she held the same for him… he learned that the hard way. At Tobi’s next suggestion Ryuu turned his head with a bit of a surprised look in his eyes.
”You mean my previous chest bindings? The maids took those away at Lady Isabelle’s, it was just too damaged to take with me even washed, and the bindings on my face are too small and not strong enough to hold back my funbags. I would rather save the medical bindings for an emergency… Thanks for the thought though.”

The rest of the ride was spend just talking and poking fun at each other, for the most part, the best thing that came out of Lady Isabelle’s disastrous encounter was that it provided fuel for conversation (the ingredient not withstanding) and it you bet that Ryuu brought up Tobi’s drunken ramblings among the trip, reminding his best friend about what exactly he said about the state of Ryuu’s body. Though Ryuu was tempted a few times, he never did take up Tobi’s offer to hold the girls while he rode… much to Tobi’s dismay, we’re sure. When they finally hit Alicia valley they were quick to hit the small village for some information and they were told of where Ryuu could find his next ingredient. The town went smoothly until some drunk guy grabbed Ryuu’s a** in the bar the night before they were going to set out and look for the ingredient, after Ryuu all but kicked the guy across the room, the pair of them decided that it was just best to leave while all the commotion was going on, apparently the guy was the nephew of the mayor or something like that. It felt good to put that jerkwad in his place, but perhaps it should have been done away from the view of the sheriff… granted, he was laughing so hard while picking up the unconscious man that they probably wouldn’t have had much trouble anyway. Despite this, the pair didn’t want to possibly get into any more trouble than they already had. So their trip was moved up to the later evening, though it was a little tricky to find in the dark, the pair of them made camp and found their ingredient after a few hours of searching.

After that they went to Namia Valley where Ryuu had a miserable time trying to get to the ingredient, the thing that they were looking for was underwater, and when the lake was connected to the mountains… it made for a bloody cold swim. It had been a long, cold and miserable hunt for the boys, though they were more than happy to reward themselves with a hot meal, hot chocolate and warm clothes afterwards. Ryuu was more than happy that this particular ingredient was found. Though sadly, there was still no trace of the Unicorn horn that was so badly needed. Still, Ryuu wasn’t in too poor of a mood, after all, he had just gotten about two thirds of his ingredients and he only had a few more to go. Luck seemed to be on their side, at least for now, and because of their early departure from Alicia valley, they were ahead of schedule once more.

When they started to trek into the Grimore Mountains, Ryuu noted that something was a little… off… with Tobi, he didn’t seem his usual self. It was as though he was on edge or something. Ryuu respected that perhaps he was getting homesick or just had the same feeling of ‘something was wrong’ that Ryuu also had in his gut. Whatever it was, they soon found their destination. Ryuu dismounted his horse and looked around, tying her to a tree before starting to look around.
”Well, what we’re looking for is fairly common in this area so we should be able-“ Ryuu was cut off when an arrow lodged into the tree near his head. Snapping his head around he saw a bunch of pale green skin humanoids roughtly the size of children. ”Goblins… Ryuu replied dryly, then as if summoned by the lack of an introduction, a tree was toppled over by a massive, bulky humanoid wielding a huge club. ”…great… and they brought an ogre with them…” With high pitched squeals, the goblins launched forwards and started to attack with crude weapons. Goblins themselves weren’t all that much of a threat, though the problem that Tobi and Ryuu would have was the sheer number of them that poured from all around them.
And the Ogre… that Ogre was going to be a problem too…
Ryuu had little trouble with the goblins, his abilities with the sword far outweighed the numbers and limited tactics that goblins employed. When the Ogre pushed his weight into the fray though, that’s when things turned sour for Ryuu. While his distraction was occupied by the goblins, the Ogre charged over to Ryuu and with a mighty swing from his club he smashed Ryuu over the edge of the mountain and towards the valley far, far below.
Ryuu’s world was rocked by stars and darkness after the Ogre came over to say hello. He could virtually do nothing as he plummeted towards his death in the valley below.

Ryuu was pulled out of his little black out by a sudden jerk and a strange sensation of weightlessness as Tobi had snatched him from certain death. Ryuu groaned a little and winced at the pain that was making his whole body throb. When he managed to get focus in his eyes again, he startled and began to kick his legs frantically and squirm out of the creatures grasp. Not knowing that it was really his best friend that was saving his life, all that Ryuu could think at the time was: Well… this dragon was going to be in for a surprise when he got this ‘damsel’ back into his layer…
”Ack! Put me down you over grown lizard! I am not going be some trophy for your damn cave!”
The ride, though terrifying at not knowing his fate, was actually really exciting, though at the time the transitioning Prince was more concerned about other things… namely how not to get eaten. Much to Ryuu surprise though, the dragon perched them on an empty ledge and let him go. Ryuu crawled backwards away from the dragon, not taking his eyes off of it for a moment. When the Dragon slowly turned back into his best friend in the whole world, Ryuu could do nothing but stare in shock and awe. All of this time, his best friend was a dragon… There was a silence that built up as Ryuu took this in and digested it. He wondered why Tobi had never told him this, or why it was such a big secret for him. Eventually a light went on in his mind when he put two and two together. Of course! This was why Tobi acted different in battle, he was a dragon. The attitude, the voice the ability to shrug off attacks by those bandits and the aggression, it all made sense to him now.

Still unable to find words, Ryuu relaxed and eased himself up into a more stable sitting position. He noted the look of despair on his friends face, as though he thought that this would likely be the end of their friendship or something. An arm lashed out and gave Tobi a playful shot in the arm.
”Dude… why didn’t you tell me you were a dragon?” Ryuu replied, there was amusement in his voice, nothing to indicate any sort of hurt or betrayal, only a sense of amusement and wonder. Ryuu pulled the bandages down from his face… though now it had gotten even more feminine sense Lady Isabelle’s place. His lips were pulled back into an amused smile. Ryuu’s eyes then dropped and he looked away, suddenly turning a little red in his cheeks. He quickly unfastened the clasp of his cloak and offered it to his friend. ”Erm… h-here. Wear this until we can get some clothes for you again.” Boy… this was awkward… When Tobi placed the cloak over his shoulders Ryuu looked at him again with that smile. He couldn’t believe it. How cool was it that his best friend was a dragon?

Suddenly that smile totally dropped off his face and his eye widened in heartbreaking realization. ”The ingredients!” Ryuu bolted upwards, just about head butting Tobi in the process of launching himself to his feet. Yeah, it was pretty obvious that Ryuu wasn’t put off at all that his best friend was a dragon. Granted, he had a lot of questions to pester his friend with, but right now there was something a little more pressing on Ryuu’s mind. Ryuu made it to the edge of the ledge and looked across the way and then downwards, looking for a way to get down, but the cliff face was too smooth, making it impossible to scale down barehanded. Ryuu dropped to his knees, now it was his turn to be defeated, all that work, all that sacrifice and favors asked… all of that was gone now. All of it. Taken by a horde of goblins and an Ogre. Ryuu punched the ground in frustration, even if they could find the Goblins and catch up with them, there was no guarantee that they could get back what was taken from them. Ryuu felt like crying, in fact, tears bubbled in his eyes as he quickly whipped them away.

Ryuu was still somewhat pouting over at the edge of the cliff when he heard Tobi ask him if he was afraid or at least mildly concerned. Ryuu tossed a looked over his shoulder, giving his friend a quirked eyebrow. ”Should I be afraid of you? C’mon Tobi, we’ve been friends forever, and during that time we got in the most heated arguments over the stupiding things when we were younger… if you were going to Dragon Rage and eat me, you would have done it already when you didn’t have as much control over yourself as you do now. Besides, if you came after me with the intent to eat me… I would so take your sorry a** down with my darkness element and have you crying like a little girl. You and I both know that for sure. Besides, just because you’re a little different, doesn’t change the fact that you’re my best bud. You’ve been with me through so much and now you’re helping me find ingredients for a potion. How can I not trust you?” Ryuu stood up and brushed himself off and made his way partially to his friend again. ”Where did all this doom and gloom come from? If you keep this up you know, you’re going to have your own personal raincloud… Normally I’m the broody one but I think you get the trophy today.” Ryuu was trying to tease his friend back to his old self again. It… bothered Ryuu to see his friend like this. ”Why would you being a Dragon affect our friendship? We have a stronger bond than that, don’t we?”

Ryuu then turned his attention back to the ledge, wondering how they were going to get down and looking to brainstorm a means to get across. That was when Tobi handed him his cloak back and turned back into a dragon. Ryuu didn’t get on right away. He just… had to study his friends true self for a little while longer. The silvery scales were truly a sight to see, Ryuu gently ran his fingers over them as he made his way to get on his friends back, he stopped at Tobi’s right eye though, he looked into those orbs and saw only his friend in there. No… Ryuu wasn’t afraid of Tobi. Tobi was Tobi and that was all that there was to it, they were friend, brothers even and there was nobody in the world he trusted more than him… it truly didn’t matter what sort of flesh or skin Tobi wore, they were buds, and he would be foolish to throw such a friendship away because of something so trivial.

Tobi’s scales were interesting, they were hard and warm, kind of like a mix of a snake’s skin and scale mail armour. Admittedly, it took Ryuu a few minutes to get on Tobi, and it wasn’t just because he was admiring this new side of his friend that he was never shown in the past, but because… Ryuu wasn’t totally sure where to get on his friend to ride or how he should even get on. After a few moments of humming he climbed on Tobi’s shoulders. He hoped that it wouldn’t get in the way of how Tobi flew…
When they did take off, Ryuu was fill with that thrilling feeling in the pit of his stomach once again, when they reached the other side Ryuu was quick to give his friend a grin and a quick shot in the shoulder… which he immediately regretted… note to self, dragon scales were hard…
When he took a look around though, the smile dropped off his face and he worried his lip as he looked around. Tobi’s temper burst through, but Ryuu wasn’t about to give up those hard earned items so damn easily… nor his horse dammit! Ryuu though back to when Uncle Vidor taught him about tracking… who knew it would actually come in handy being a prince and all. Ryuu got to the ground and examined the footprints, it was a little slower than a master at this stuff would do, but more because he was trying to recall information. Ryuu looked around for a moment before looking over to Tobi and pointing. ”They went that way, let go, maybe we can catch up to them and take them by surprise!”

After putting out the fire that Tobi started in his frustration, Ryuu led the way, stopping periodically to get a new direction that they goblins had gone. It was nightfall before they stumbled across what appeared to be an absolute slaughter. The goblins that had attacked them were dead, the crumpled corpse of the ogre was not far off from a figure, sitting in front of a fire, their horses were tied to trees and looked unharmed (thank god) and… their tent was set up? Ryuu raised his hand and then looked to Tobi, raising a finger to his lips before slowly and silently drawing his saber. They inched their way towards the man who had his back turned and seemed to be going through Ryuu’s notes on his alchemy ingredients. When Ryuu got close enough, he lunged, only to have the man quickly stand up and brandish a huge sword to catch Ryuu’s blade. He raised his other hand and blasted Ryuu with a pulse of Darkness, knocking him off his feet, but not hurting him. Ryuu knew immediately who it was from the blast and looked up with mild surprise. ”Uncle…Vidor?”
”You boys must be hungry, why don’t you have a seat and take a load off… those green skinned bastards didn’t get a thing. Nice armour by the way.”
Ryuu, obviously flustered stood up and brushed himself off. He would have to asked what his Uncle was doing here and… why he didn’t seem so put off with the fact that he was looking more Princess than Prince. Ryuu looked at Tobi and gave a bit of a grin. ”Looks like our luck is still holding on, Tobs.

Vidor gave a half smile as she turned back around to take a seat by the fire and poke the embers to make sure that they were still being fed well. ”I noticed you two boys a while ago fighting bandits so I thought that I would tag along from a distance to make sure you boys were alright… Queen Anastasia is a huge worrywart so I thought I would make sure nothing happened to her eldest. She’d never let me hear the end of it otherwise.” Vidor chuckled a little bit and threw another log on the fire, letting something bubble away in front of him, he looked over his shoulder a bit at Tobi’s next question. ”I saw enough Tobius, anyways, come and take a load off boys, you’ve been working your asses off, let me take watch tonight and help yourself to some stew… just don’t ask what meat is in it.” Vidor asked with a jesting, yet ominous tone in his voice. Ryuu was quick to take a seat not far from his Uncle Vidor.
”You take some good notes boy, no wonder your finding things at a pretty good rate.”
”Thanks Uncle Vidor… but… do you know where I can find a Unicorn horn?” There was a deep hoping tone in Ryuu’s voice as he asked. Honestly, he was a little self-conscious about his uncle seeing him this way, but if he was following from… wait… was it the first bandit attacks that he followed from or was it the second? Whatever, anyway, if he was following him for a while now, he would know all about it. At the question though, Vidor closed his eye and thought.
”Sorry Ryuu, I have no idea where you can find one. But let me call on some old friend and favors for you and see what I can find out.”
Ryuu tried to hide the disappointment in his face, but Vidors metallic arm came down on his head and messed up his hair in a means of comfort. He gave a weak smile at his Uncle instead, he… held out hope that now that his Uncle was here and helping them that things would turn out alright. He knew his Uncle had a lot of connections from his life as a mercenary, so maybe something would turn up. Ryuu looked over at Tobi and gave a bit of a grin, they might just be going home sooner than they thought they might.

Ryuu was the second to help himself to the stew that his Uncle had made for them, he didn’t realize just how hungry he was until he actually caught a smell of it bubbling away on the fire. The mountain air was getting cooler and he was seriously welcoming the warmth of the meal that was offered to him freely. It was pretty safe to say that the boys hadn’t been eating all that well on the road, spare when they would go into villages, but that in itself was a rare thing. Tobi and Ryuu didn’t catch many things other than the odd rabbit, and trail rations were starting to lose their flavour and appeal. So when Ryuu tasted the stew, it was almost the best thing that he had in months, and because it was so good, he ignored the fact that he had never tasted meat like this before… and he didn’t want to ruin this meal by asking a question that really didn’t matter right now, and getting an answer he possibly really didn’t want to hear in the first place. Vidor entertained them with stories of when him and the Queen were on their adventures, and even a few of his personal adventures. All in all, it was one of the most fun experiences he had on the trip. Tobi was a blast, but after months of traveling, it was hard to keep up topics that were of interest after a while, so it was refreshing to have someone who could take the monotony of the journey away for a while. Ryuu felt genuinely safe now, he trusted his Uncle Vidor whole heartedly and knowing that he was allowed him to relax. It was safe to say that Ryuu looked up to Vidor, perhaps as a second father figure, he respected him a bit more than Thomas more because he just… well… Vidor just understood him more than Thomas and perhaps that was the thing that created a stronger bond between the pair. Having a shared element that was largely misunderstood was also a huge contributor to the pairs understanding of one another.

With Ryuu so relaxed having the security of Vidor around, the fatigue of the adventure started to creep up on him, it had been so long sense he had an honestly to god good night sleep, between the pressure and the stress of finding ingredients and the constant need to stand watches at night because of bandits or worse, it left the pair with a lot of broken, rather sleepless nights… if they happened to get any sleep at all and they weren’t simply searching for ingredients. So, after Vidor’s story was finished, and his belly was full, Ryuu retired for the tent. It had been a long day of riding and near death, so he was happy to have the chance to kick his feet up and get some much needed sleep. Ryuu stripped himself of his armour, leaving his undershirt and boxers on. Ryuu found out quickly that the armour he was wearing was really uncomfortable to sleep in, so he opted to take it off and sleep in his bare necessities. Tobi would tease him that it was unbefitting of a ‘lady such as him’ to wear such things in bed, and jokingly offered to get him some sort of nightgown while they were in town.
Tobi was lucky that Ryuu didn’t have the strength that he once had…
Regardless of sleep attire, Ryuu fell asleep pretty well as soon as his head hit the pillow, he stirred ever so slightly when Tobi came into to join him in slumber land, though that was just a moment of consciousness before he once more found himself fast asleep. The cool, mountain air creeped in on him during the night, and unconsciously, Ryuu started to find the closest heat source that he could manage and wrapped himself around it. Holding it close to ward off the cold that the mountains were bringing with them, it was just starting to enter autumn now, and the nights were starting to get longer and colder. Hopefully, they would make it back in time before winter set in because they didn’t have the clothes to properly ward off winters chill. Ryuu snuggled into his mysterious source of warmth and comfort and sighed quietly. It would be the first good sleep he had in a while.

While Tobi was untangling himself from the transitioning prince, a soft, sleeping moan of displeasure came from Ryuu as the warmth that he was snuggled up with starting leaving. Though when Tobi left the tent, Ryuu grasped Tobi’s blankets and cocooned himself in the blankets that were discarded in a restrained panic. Ryuu continued in his slumber, now warm once more after the stolen blankets were now in his possession. Tobi was sitting alone in front of his campfire for only a few moments before a sack landed on the ground beside him.

”Good, you’re up.” Vidor said as he walked over to Tobi, he didn’t take a seat, and looked as though he had gathered his stuff and was ready to go. ”I’m going to head out and start looking for that Unicorn horn, I’ll send you work if and when I find it. That should be enough food to keep you two for a while.” Vidor looked over at the tent with the Prince inside. He sighed heavily before looking back to Tobi. ”Tell Ryuu I’m sorry I didn’t stay to say good bye, but I think I need to get started as soon as possible, I hope to get you boys home before winter. Good hunting.” Vidor walked by and clapped Tobi on his shoulder before standing in the shadow of a tree, the shadow came up and Vidor started to sink into it. He paused when he disappeared up to his shoulders before delivering one last message to Tobi. ”… no funny business with the Prince either, I got my eye on you boy…” Two fingers pointed to his eyes before he pointed one finger at Tobi… then he finished disappearing into his shadow, leaving Tobi to guard over the sleeping Ryuu.

Ryuu stayed sleeping for another couple of hours, it was the best sleep he had sense he started off on the journey. Ryuu cracked his eyes open to the filtered light from the tent flap, before closing them again for a few more minutes. When he did decide to start to get up, he untangled himself from the blankets that he was wrapped up in and began to get dressed, even though his sleepy stupor he was able to identify Tobi’s blanket twist up among his own. So Tobi, loaned him his blanket last night? That was nice of him. Ryuu slowly put on his armour and adjusted the buckles where they were needed. God, he was getting chesty now. He hoped that he stopped growing soon… well, he supposed that it would be Tobi’s reward for loaning him his blanket. When Ryuu finally emerged from the tent, his mid-back length hair an utter mess and he was still trying to wake up. He took a seat by the fire, noticing Tobi he looked over and rubbed his eyes. ”M’rning… where’s Uncle Vidor? He paused for a moment before lowering his hand. ”Thanks for loaning me your blanket last night. I don’t think I would have been as warm without it…