that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar

[faderifting]

WHO: Dragon-slayers
WHAT: The three Inquisition teams face their dragony foes
WHEN: Guardian 28
WHERE: Emprise du Lion
NOTES: Violence, gore, etc. This log contains closed threads for the 12 characters who were assigned slots on the dragon-fighting quest. Each team has an info pack-type starter about its dragon below. From here it is up to you to coordinate OOCly and decide how you want things to go down, and to NPC the dragon as needed. It also has an open thread for post-dragon-slaying tavern boasting.

By the end of Guardian Judicael's Crossing is repaired, at least enough to send Inquisition agents across on foot. But there is another obstacle preventing them from reestablishing a link between Sahrnia and the outside world: three high dragons have taken up residence across the bridge in an area called the Pools of the Sun. Here, the only road out through the mountains winds between rocky hills, ruins, and statuary. The remains of three structures dominate the landscape, arenas commissioned by Orlesian nobility in ages past.

Each of the teams has been assigned a dragon, and given as much information about it as the Inquisition has been able to gather from a few cautious scouting missions. This consists of where it sleeps and its primary method of attack. Though Inquisition resources are not great, they have had mages working overtime preparing at least basic protections against the dragons' elemental magic. While not enough to prevent injury altogether, they do significantly increase chances of escaping without dire casualties. They have also been provided with a small stock of healing and lyrium potions.

The three teams have been chosen from among the most-suited of the volunteers, and are dispatched across the river together. They split off on arrival, each making their way to the dragon's location and, at a roughly simultaneous moment, beginning the attack.

Comments

[make_my_mark]

There was a new cut on her cheek, and her knuckles were raw, her palms scratched. There was blood on her armor. But she was alive, and her mind was still racing. With lingering adrenaline, with the wonder of what she'd just done.

She'd fought a dragon.

She had won.

A part of her was sad - guilty, that it had come to that. That something that... miraculous was now gone, but she recognized what it had to be done, and that this wasn't her world, they weren't her rules. (And even in her world, there were times difficult choices needed to be made.) And she couldn't deny that it was exhilarating.

And fascinating.

Sitting by the fire, light playing across her strange armor, she turned a piece of the beast's skin over in her hands. A small cutting, but whole and real. Tangible proof.

She smiled.

figured I’d toss him at her since they were teamed up!

[dragoon_pride]

It really is quite a feat, battling a dragon and taking it down. Kain, for all his enthusiasm over fighting them, also finds himself pretty well worn out afterward. He’s not in the best of shape, but if he can walk and stay upright, he intends to keep doing so for now. Collapsing can wait for later.

“That was some battle,” he says, approaching Lara, since she’d been one of his teammates and all. One who’d fought quite well, from what he’d seen. “Had you ever fought a dragon before this one?”

[make_my_mark]

She couldn't help a laugh, low and dusky, as she looked up, long hair sliding over the collar of her armor with the shake of her head.

"No," she said.

It was even funnier considering the things she had faced. How much crazier was a dragon really, compared to Himiko and her Stormguard. To the Deathless?

It felt stranger, more impossible somehow, even if it really wasn't.

"That was definitely my first dragon." She looked him over, replaying the battle back, recalling the sight of him high above - flying. "...Yours?"

[dragoon_pride]

Kain now takes a moment to observe the claw that he'd taken, holding it up. It's like holding a piece of the world he knows, a deeply familiar object to him. That's good, that's important, but it also makes him almost feel more homesick than he'd ever have expected. He feels this huge swell of pride in himself, in showing what the dragoons are truly capable of.

Then he glances over to her. "Not my first ever, but my first in this world... They're just as much of a challenge here, though. It really did take all of our combined strength to defeat it."

[make_my_mark]

Her eyebrows went up.

"You're a Rifter?" she asked. She had wondered, but everything was still new enough, strange enough, that she didn't feel comfortable guessing. There was magic here.

Her gloves were still off, after checking the small wounds, and she turned her palm out toward him.

"Me too. Though I take it, not from the same place."

[dragoon_pride]

Kain can understand that, sometimes he has trouble distinguishing the rifters from natives, himself. "I am. The world I come from... there are some things similar to here, such as magic and dragons... but there's a lot that differs, too."

He shows his palm as well, the mark there just the same as hers. He's always been interested in talking with other rifters, wondering what they might have in common. But it seems things are more different than he'd realized.

"What's your world like?"

[make_my_mark]

Normal, was the first word that sprang to mind, but she held it on her tongue, knowing that wasn't fair.

"Different," she said instead with a little bob of her head. "Very different. There's no such things as dragons, for one." She gestured with the piece of skin, rough and pebbled and strangely beautiful, the blue catching the firelight. "Or magic. And no one flies - not without a great deal of help."

She brought the dragon skin back into her lap, thumbs rubbing over it.

"It's all so different."

[dragoon_pride]

"No magic at all? How strange that would be..."

To someone like Kain, who's met a lot of offworlders in both the gods' war and now here, he can hardly imagine such a world. How do they heal people without white mages? How do they battle monsters without black magic or superpowered warriors? Though, no magic, no dragons... he can imagine that's a no for the monsters too.

"Ah, it's not flying, though, it's more... jumping. It's not magic, but a specialized ability. Still, it's effective against enemies like dragons."

[make_my_mark]

"Falling with style," she replied in a murmur, mouth twitching with the joke, unable to help herself. "Even so, it's still not something you'd see where I'm from."

The twitch turned into a small smile.

"But I'm glad you can here. That was hard enough as it was."

[dragoon_pride]

"I like the sound of that." Kain even manages a little smirk to the idea, a little more relaxed than usual just after a battle of this magnitude. He nods agreement. "I'm gathering it's not typical on more worlds than I'd assumed..."

He shrugs a little, he's learned over time the value of fighting as a team. Thanks to all of Team Cosmos, pretty much. "I may have the dragon experience and the jumping, but we did this together. Your bow was impressive."

[make_my_mark]

Her eyes light, a small touch of pleasure. Proud of the ability, if not for how it had been honed most recently.

"Thank you." Holding the skin in one hand, she reached with the other, leaning slightly to lift the bow into her lap. "It's a compound - an advancement in my world that allows for more power and precision."

She may have received a few questions about it's shape and style already.

[dragoon_pride]

What matters most to Kain is that people hold their own in battle, prove their worth, show themselves capable. As far as he's concerned, she'd done that.

"It's very unlike the bows in my world... I know of one archer from there who'd be very fascinated by the structure of this one..." Though Rosa is a White Mage primarily, her main power, she's also quite skilled at the bow as well. Kain finds himself missing her deeply for a moment. "It's a good weapon in a dragon fight especially. You need that range when battling them..."

[make_my_mark]

"So I gathered," she nodded with a soft sound like a chuckle, winding the bowstring idly through her fingers. "As it was there were still a few moments where I think I'd have liked to be even further away."

She looked over at Kain.

"Do you do this often, where you're from? Hunting dragons?"

[dragoon_pride]

Kain can appreciate that sentiment. By their nature, his skills force him to attack dragons pretty head-on, but it's also helpful for getting quickly out of harm's way after making a strike. All in all a wild, angry dragon isn't something anyone wants to be around much though. Even him.

"Not as often as I'd like... though I've gotten to fight quite a few in my time." Enough that he felt he knew what he was doing in the battle. "Still, we dragoons are trained to be able to fight them especially..."

[make_my_mark]

"Dragoons," Lara echoed, curious. As with templar, it was a term she recognized, but she somehow suspected it didn't quite mean the same between worlds. "Is that a - military unit?"

[dragoon_pride]

"It is," Kain agrees, used to explaining it to everyone by now. It's not a problem, though, since it means talking about what he is, something that connects him back to home. "We're knights with a long and proud history where I'm from. We dragoons emulate the dragon in battle with our jumping and wind-element attacks... we favor the lance, usually, and wear this armor... truly, we're a force to be reckoned with in the air."

And because he's curious when it comes to battle... "What of your training? Was it military or otherwise?"

[make_my_mark]

Another soft laugh.

"No. No, not exactly. A friend of mine, who trained me, served in the Marines, but I never did." She had smiled, for a moment, but as she pictured Roth (lost him again, in that echoing loop), it faded again. "He thought I should know how to take care of myself."

[dragoon_pride]

That's still quite impressive in a way, having the discipline to train in a combat skill without being part of some military or the like. It's also in Kain's mind something essential. "He thought right. Everyone should know how to defend themselves... especially in a world like this. But all worlds have their dangers, even the ones without dragons."

[make_my_mark]

She nodded, a silent agreement.

"It's served me well." Perhaps too well, even. "Both at home, and since I've arrived here. I'm sure I wouldn't be here without him."

Not just the training, but the man.

She still missed him, deeply.

[dragoon_pride]

That’s a sentiment that Kain understands entirely, her words getting that idea across. He has people who he’d say he owes everything to, himself. The feeling of being separated from someone so important is a difficult one.

“That’s someone worth keeping around. Perhaps you’ll meet again someday…” Whether here or in their own world, who knows? It’s hard to tell what may happen, if they’ll ever be able to return or not.

[make_my_mark]

She made a small noise, something between a laugh and a snort, both happy and sad at once.

"Someday, maybe." A smile twitched at her mouth. "But not for a long time, if he trained me well enough. I think he'd appreciate that more than seeing me again sooner."

[dragoon_pride]

The way she says it definitely hints at what probably happened. It's something Kain can understand. He's been through that before, the one person who taught him all he knows is long gone now.

"Ah... I'm sorry, if he's no longer among the living. I understand all too well what that's like. At least you can carry on his legacy by using the skills he's taught you."

[make_my_mark]

Her expression gentled, appreciating the sentiment even if was never really enough.

"Thank you," she said softly. "And my condolences to you, as well."

Then she took a breath, and willed the heaviness in her chest away. It had been a good day, all things considered - too good to allow herself to sink into that particular mire again.

"But dragoons - where I'm from it's a cavalry unit. Mounted horsemen." She offered him a wry smile. "Not nearly as exciting dragon fighting I'm afraid."

[dragoon_pride]

"My thanks," he says simply. It's been a long time since he lost his father, but the man taught him everything he knows about fighting, and even now he seeks to be as good as he was, to surpass him one day if he can.

He makes a bit of a face. "Horses." He's not really ridden them a whole lot, but he's still not quite adjusted to them. "Where I'm from, we have no horses... it's far more common for most people to ride chocobos. Giant birds." He adds the latter part on realizing she likely won't know what in the world he's talking about. "Still, it seems we dragoons have the mounted part in common. I'd much prefer dragons. Though the dragons of this world seem even more hostile than my own."

[make_my_mark]

"Not a fan, I take it?" She couldn't help a little smile, watching his reaction. "We have giant birds, ostriches, emus... but they're not for riding."

The Swiss Family Robinson was not to be taken literally, however much her childhood self might have enjoyed the thought of zebras and ostriches for pets.

"They'd enjoy it, and tolerate it, just about as much as the dragons here would, I imagine."