[ORP] The Dragon Temple

This is where the Kingdom of Fenia's main Inn is.

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Lorthem

[ORP] The Dragon Temple

Post by Lorthem »

Lorthem had been gone for a long time. Much had changed in Fenia since he was last there. As he flew over his home he headed towards the mountains where his roost was. He was nearly starving and noticed a lovely little sheep farm below. He dropped in and ate his fill before flying on to the mountain range not far from Fenia city.

He reached his roost successfully. The waterfall still covered the entrance fairly well. He went through it and headed for his hoard intend to nap with his treasure. As he reached the room he curled up and laid down and gently sent plumes of smoke wafting from his nostrils as he settled down to sleep. "It is nice to be home again!"
Last edited by Lorthem on Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
Lorthem

Re: [ORP] The Dragon Temple

Post by Lorthem »

After a long a joyous evening in the tavern meeting old friends, and new, Lorthem returned to his mountain outside the city. Landing on the edge of the of the entrance to his crag he transformed into his purple haired human form. It had been a long time since he used his first human form. He peered around the entrance decided it would need some improvements, especially given that there would be a party at the crag in a few days.

"How I miss living in a temple like back in the days of Wyr when I was worshiped as a God in my very own temple. But those days, and that land are long since lost."

He stood their thinking, rubbing his chin as he did. He had a sudden idea. He may not be worshiped as a god anymore, but that didnt mean he couldnt live as one. He began using his power to carve the entrance of the crag, and change the inside. He worked diligently through the night but at long last, as the sun rose the entire crag has been transformed into a new temple. Perhaps one day he may even be worshiped again, if ever so slightly.

As the sun shined down the once plain hole in the mountainside next to a waterfall was now a gorgeous crafted temple of marble, and shining gold. The rear of the temple podium backed up into what was once the crag. Now a beautiful arched room supported by red marble pillars extended deep into the mountain. At the rear on a raised dais was a throne of sorts for Lorthem to lounge upon. From there several corridors broke off deeper into the mountain in different directions. A vault for his ever growing dragon hoard was built deep inside the mountain, along with an open sky garden, several rooms, a dining hall, a kitchen for entertaining beings who prefer their meats cooked, a stately bedroom, and an area for keeping livestock so Lorthem would always have fresh sheep on stand by.

He smiled quite pleased with his work. He promptly changed back into his true form and flew off towards to lake near the city to take a refreshing morning swim.
Vhagar

Re: [ORP] The Dragon Temple

Post by Vhagar »

Shaking off the last remains of a rather pesky xanthareel, Vhagar filled her wings, darting through the sky. Droplets of shiny blood shimmered on her scales as she climbed higher into the sky, satisfied and gleeful in ways she had not been for some time. At least, as far as she really knew. Consciousness when you took up mind space with another was a tricky thing, and memory holes happened so often. The beast snorted. The girl was still weak. Vhagar wanted nothing more than to be beast all the time. Strong and wild, not meek and obedient. Though, she could not deny that girl afforded them some advantages. Like fitting in smaller spaces. She laughed a big dragonish laugh as she tipped her wings to fill them with air.

There! A sparkle in the sunlight. A flicker of shiny in the mountainside. She'd heard rumors of a dragon temple which sat currently unoccupied. Well, why go through the trouble of finding her own cave to hoard her treasures, when one was so ready to go and just sitting there...not being used. It really would be a shame to not use it.

Tipping her wings slightly, she began slow circles to descend on the opening. Once inside she tipped a mirror, which suddenly filled the inside with light. Grand indeed! The beast was giddy with satisfaction. So, the previous occupant had thought to create a temple. A place of worship. It was marvelous.
Silence

Re: [ORP] The Dragon Temple

Post by Silence »

So, the first thing to do was to find out where in the world this 'cave' was. Somewhere between Imperious and Fenia was the answer he'd gotten from Vhagar when he'd suggested that it might be in Bravia. Whether or not that had been on purpose was not something he intended to find out.

Long story short, the changeling had apparently messed up last he'd seen the dragon woman, or at least, according to a friend of his, he had. He still didn't see it, but to hell with it all, if he'd done wrong to somebody, then it was the least he could do to try and make right on that. Apparently he'd said a few things that were wrong, although even with the benefit of hindsight, he couldn't see the problem with anything he'd said. Damn it all though, he was no good at this. He'd never claimed to be any good at this 'courting' thing. She was the one who'd gone after him, after all, not the other way around.

That didn't change that he had wronged somebody and that he would probably need to make right on that. Towards that end, he'd set off from Widu, his home, left a courier with a letter for Vhagar and then gone in search of this 'cave' of hers... or maybe it was a temple from what she'd said before. Either way, he intended to find this place, even if doing so would be far from easy with how little information he had to go on.

He still wasn't totally sure what he thought of Vhagar, but, to her credit, she'd managed to weave her way around being put off by his arguments about why them courting was a terrible idea. With no more counter arguments, he'd given in and at least agreed to give this whole concept a chance.

Alder had no idea what he was doing other than trying to mimic what other couples did, and he'd previously been uninterested in that sort of thing all together, so even his ability to mimic was somewhat lacking. It felt almost like he was learning to fight again, watching those who he knew were good at this, but not totally understanding their movements, barely being able to track what they were doing, let alone understand why. Any attempt to copy them just was hamfisted and clumsy.

Well, if his experience learning to fight was anything to go by, eventually he'd start to recognise patterns. Sooner or later, he'd start to develop his own style of going about this 'new challenge' he'd come upon, but... it wouldn't be a quick process and right now, he was at the very start of any potential development in that direction. What's more, this wasn't a competitive matter like combat, when it was just him against somebody else, but instead, the rules of this game were more like... the two of you are working together to gain as many points as possible. Get enough points, you both win, but if you don't get enough points, game over.

It helped to think about both romance and combat as games, doing so made both more enjoyable.

Fortunately, for all that he was terrible at this new game, he was rather good at some of the old ones... like tracking down a dragon's cave. Farmers would report a large creature flying overhead, travellers on the road told stories, sometimes fabricated, but sometimes filled with truth and then there were more obvious signs, such as boulders that seemed to have been transported here recently for no good reason. Fairly quickly, he narrowed his search down to one area of the mountain range. After that, it became a matter of spreading himself out, looking for signs that an area had been occupied by a large creature. Scratches on rocks, a lake that showed weathering signs of rapidly changing water levels, and of course, the rumours of a temple hidden behind a waterfall, along with Vhagar's earlier comment about a dragon temple was enough to lead him to one potential location.

As he looked up, he almost regretted ever setting foot out of his hometown.

The climb didn't really bother him. It was far from easy and a fall from the top of that mountain would probably kill him. A sheer rock face all the way up was fairly standard of the sort of places that dragons often lived in. After all, that avoided unwelcome visitors. Still, the climb, he could deal with. What really bothered him was the fact that all the way up, he'd have to deal with droplets from that waterfall, wet rocks that he wouldn't be able to touch, and then, somewhere around the cave itself, he'd have to find some way past that wall of that substance, more deadly than molten lava to him.

The changeling muttered darkly to himself, then removed a pair of climbing spikes from his pocket dimension.

Well, might as well try and enjoy the challenge of it if nothing else. Alder removed about three quarters of his already fairly low weight before he started. Something told him he'd be glad of not weighing as much not too long after this climb was done.

Alder ran at the cliff and jumped, driving one spike into the cliff, then yanked downwards, pulling himself upwards so that he was able to swing his foot up to a slightly outcropped rock a little way up, then jump off that to land with both feet on the climbing spike. He took a moment to balance himself, finding himself wishing that, like humans, his mind had an actual subconscious element that could control his balance for him as opposed to having to consciously feel it out, which was a pain, especially since it was all too easy to forget to do that and just topple over at the slightest poke. A moment later, he'd leaped off of that spike and was reaching for the next handhold, slightly to his left and a bit out of his arms' reach.

Youken's parents would probably be turning in their graves. After all, they'd taught him a simple rule. When climbing, always keep 3 out of 4 limbs holding something. But, he wasn't Youken. Alder reshaped his foot to better fit into the crack below him, jammed it into that and then shifted his weight a little onto that.

Well, he still had a long way to go. There was a small crack that was just a bit above him that he could use to clamber up a quarter of the way or so, then he reckoned he could use a zig zagging path up for a short way, that would give him a break before he'd have to go climbing again. Getting through the waterfall was still going to be a nightmare.

About two hours later, he finally managed it and collapsed on his back, panting in the entrance to the cave, as soon as he was out of range of splashes from that damned wall of water. It didn't even occur to him to check that this was the right place until about 10 minutes later, when he finally bothered to get back to his feet and turn that mirror around to illuminate this cave. Once he was satisfied that something with a lust for treasure lived here, he backed away from the entrance once more and again collapsed to the ground.

Alder didn't even want to think about how he was going to get back down.
Vhagar

Re: [ORP] The Dragon Temple

Post by Vhagar »

Why are we doing this again?

We like him, you find him amusing.

In all honesty, Vhagar hadn't really thought that Alder would make it to the temple. The place she'd made her second home. A place the beast rather preferred but it was a dragon's way to have a place to store her treasures. It was much easier to reach on wing than on foot. But the girl had insisted that Alder would make it, he was resilient. The beast had only thought that perhaps she'd get a laugh out of it and get to play the rescuer. Usually a dragon's shadow overhead made the peasants only nervous and then they would hide.

Nooo...peasants are NOT for eating you!

The dragon let out the closest thing to a chuckle that she could as she glided through the air, her massive wings spread wide.

Fear not little one. Was the fond reply.

Over time the two of them were beginning to learn each other better. To not fight among control so much and to embrace the things the other had to offer. Slowly, the beast was learning temperance. Still, at times she took advantage of surprise or pain to come forth and claim the sky. Getting back to the girl? They always simply end up waiting that out. Attempting to force the issue often led to some embarrassing antics. All in all, the beast had to admit, giving control back up once she had it was infuriatingly difficult for her. All she wanted was sky and food and sun. Though, she had to admit the girl allowed them doors that otherwise might not be open to them, and not just because doors are generally very small and a dragon is very large.

Though, that was also true. The girl was indeed, very small, and could get treasure from small spaces. That, at least, was an admirable thing a dragon could envy.

While in many ways, the two of them fell more in sync each day, there were still many things that tugged them apart. That threatened to split the tenuous hold they had on each other. These things threatened to send the two of them hurtling back to the time of memory holes and blackouts and danger. For both of them.

Memory still remained a tricky thing.

And what will we do if he IS there when we arrive?

Vhagar realized then that perhaps she'd not thought this whole thing through. But often the dialogue in her own head distracted her and she said or suggested things that made little sense. Had Alder ever even seen her this way? She realized that she did not remember that either. The beast was more about satisfaction than about recording things in their memory for future reference. And cared little who was where and when.

There. The familiar glint of light dancing on the mountainside. A welcome sight always, for it betrayed from the air the location of the temple. At least with the arrival of new dragon types lately, none of them had found her place as of yet. They were themselves distracted with their own worries. The dragon huffed out a puff of smoke.

We are still unique.

The dragons split the air with her wings, then tilted to the side, spinning into a slow spiral that would bring her down to the ledge. Indeed. No others seemed to suffer the same affliction as they. Though, one was very similar. A thing which piqued their curiosity to no end. Finally, claws gripped the stone of the ledge and Vhagar only stumbled slightly this time. See. They were getting the hang of this. Becoming less distracted by it.

It was only a momentary back pat for the two of them however. The white dragon sniffed the air and noticed what seemed a lump of clothes laying across the stone, not far within the entrance.

It seems he made it after all. Interesting. Hush you! Is he alive? Smells dead so...yes?

Vhagar sniggered. Or at least, the closest thing to a snigger that a dragon may manage! Walking forward, she shook her large body, light reflecting off some scales and danced on the walls of the cavern.Well...it was unlikely they'd be able to change back into the girl at this time. Vhagar the dragon was far too interested in however Alder might react to this. And so, once close enough, she leaned down and nudged his crumpled form lightly with her snout.
Silence

Re: [ORP] The Dragon Temple

Post by Silence »

The changeling had been asleep when the dragon burst through the waterfall and landed with a small, but still noticeable stumble, or at least, it would have been noticeable if he was conscious.

The sound of such a large creature landing near him woke him up, but he couldn't be bothered to move at first. It was only when she actually nudged him that he felt that he should probably respond, so he rolled onto his back and looked up at the much much larger creature who he was supposedly courting.

Ok, maybe that sounded a little weirder when you contemplated it that way, but still, this dragon was a part of the woman who'd kissed him out of nowhere in the tavern... and even if they hadn't been, he was a weird individual, so he just blinked a few times and then raised his hands up towards the dragon's snout to affectionately rub it. He honestly hadn't seen her this way before other than at a distance once, but he had seen dragons and other large creatures before. Hell, he'd stared dark mages in the face... when that was the world he lived in, there really wasn't anything to be scared of here... ok, that wasn't quite true, the dragon was still as dangerous as ever, but luck and logic had carried him through worse situations than a fight with a dragon... and this one probably didn't intend to fight him.

"Heya there Shiny. You have any idea how much more difficult that waterfall makes that climb?"

He didn't keep his hands on her for long, given that the water on her would probably start to hurt him if he touched it for more than a few seconds. Instead, he pushed himself to a sitting position.

"If you were my daughter, I'd be makin a comment about how much yeh've grown. Anyway, it's one hell of an impressive place yeh've got here."

Could she even talk in that form? Was she going to turn back any time soon or was she just going to stay that way for the next few hours? Why was he even here? Seriously, it wasn't like she was in trouble or needed his help or anything, usually he wouldn't have even given her the time of day, let alone going this far out of his way just to see her. Hell, he'd already done far more than he usually would have just by agreeing to court her, even if he hadn't had any more arguments left for why it was a bad idea.

For that matter, why was she actually here? He'd half been convinced that this whole thing on her end was just some ploy to get him vulnerable. After all, he was fairly sure that she hadn't much liked him before that time in the tavern when he'd put his face too close to hers. She'd even been saying until that moment that she didn't want him anywhere near her and that she'd set him on fire if he did come too close.

He didn't get this at all... but, at least he could improvise. The changeling's hands fell to his side and he looked down at his feet.

"Alright... I was the one who asked yeh teh come here, so I should probably start off. Question: did I upset yeh last time we met? Cause I got told that I might have. I mean, I reckon I probably explained it all in that letter I sent yeh, but... well, I probably owe yeh an apology in person if I actually upset yeh."

There was also the matter of a free meal potentially that she'd promised him, but he felt now was not the best time to bring that up.
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