Post by Delashano on Apr 15, 2014 0:03:06 GMT -5
“Well… well… well... another little mouse finds itself before a tiger.” A booming voice rattled off the walls echoing in such a manner that it made discerning where it had begun from nearly impossible. “But perhaps this one is a bit more than just a mouse; we can feel its presence, usually the mice are too far below our notice.” the room shook as the sound of great footfalls echoed throughout heralding the arrival of the one the voice belonged to “So we ask the mouse, what has brings you before us, what drives the poor foolish mouse to throw it’s life away so readily.” Through the massive archway a massive reptilian behemoth strode into the room with far more grace than one might imagine from a creature so massive blue scales glinted like sapphires in the torchlight as the behemoth craned its neck down bringing it’s maw to rest on the floor before her angled just a bit to the side to allow its massive eye to stare at her, she could hear a dull rumble coming off the beast like the sound of an approaching storm as it took her in examining her briefly.
“You would think the great Abednego would be more welcoming to a guest.” She said squaring her shoulder slightly as she let out a calming breath, despite why she was here it was extremely nerve wracking to be so near to him, it was clear the dragon was not one to receive guests, his lair was well hidden for great reason but she needed to show that she would not accept being treated like this, while it was clear the ‘Sapphire Storm’ held a significant power advantage over her they were in a sense rather similar to one another and she was of course not here to take from him as many sought to do, she was here to HELP. “So the little mouse of mist knows our name, quite fascinating little mouse as for our chosen means of receiving the mouse as guest. You are no guest, you are an intruder upon my land the only reason we have not ended your meager existence is because you have made it this far into out lair, a curious thing to be so capable. Not since Olibu the Great dared enter has someone reached as far. Of course if you know the tale, Olibu the Great never made it back out.” Abednego’s lips curled into a cruel grin as he took a moment to reminisce over the battle his last confrontation before the mice descended back to mediocrity.
She steeled herself as she looked Abednego right in his massive eye, showing any amount of fear would be a bad move the dragon would notrespect the words of someone cowering before him. “I am not like the others who have ventured into you’re lair Abednego, I don’t want you’re riches or to free your princesses, to steal away whatever magical trinkets or lost artifacts you’ve obtained, I don’t even want to fight you I know as I am now I would stand little chance against you’re power.” She said taking a long moment to gauge the reaction. The great eye of Abednego narrowed slightly in what she hoped was interest as he appeared not to be preparing to attack. “No Abednego, I am here to help you."
“You would think the great Abednego would be more welcoming to a guest.” She said squaring her shoulder slightly as she let out a calming breath, despite why she was here it was extremely nerve wracking to be so near to him, it was clear the dragon was not one to receive guests, his lair was well hidden for great reason but she needed to show that she would not accept being treated like this, while it was clear the ‘Sapphire Storm’ held a significant power advantage over her they were in a sense rather similar to one another and she was of course not here to take from him as many sought to do, she was here to HELP. “So the little mouse of mist knows our name, quite fascinating little mouse as for our chosen means of receiving the mouse as guest. You are no guest, you are an intruder upon my land the only reason we have not ended your meager existence is because you have made it this far into out lair, a curious thing to be so capable. Not since Olibu the Great dared enter has someone reached as far. Of course if you know the tale, Olibu the Great never made it back out.” Abednego’s lips curled into a cruel grin as he took a moment to reminisce over the battle his last confrontation before the mice descended back to mediocrity.
She steeled herself as she looked Abednego right in his massive eye, showing any amount of fear would be a bad move the dragon would notrespect the words of someone cowering before him. “I am not like the others who have ventured into you’re lair Abednego, I don’t want you’re riches or to free your princesses, to steal away whatever magical trinkets or lost artifacts you’ve obtained, I don’t even want to fight you I know as I am now I would stand little chance against you’re power.” She said taking a long moment to gauge the reaction. The great eye of Abednego narrowed slightly in what she hoped was interest as he appeared not to be preparing to attack. “No Abednego, I am here to help you."
-Three Days Prior-
Jenn smirked as she knelt atop the roof of one of the taller buildings in town, she wasn't entirely sure what the building was for but it was quite large and provided an excellent vantage point. Presently she was enjoying a great bit of freedom from the drudgery of her normal life, she'd managed to spook her current summoner enough that he wasn't likely to actually try summoning her again any time soon and she was more than fine with that, the idiot had tried to use her to kill someone and had even dared to be foolish enough to try and order her to personally do the deed when she told him that he could not wish for such, putting an end to his guards and informing him that the next time he dared to summoner he had best be worth her time had done QUITE a good job of spooking the bastard. She smirked a bit at the memory of his petrified face after she'd done away with his guards. Surprisingly she was actually using her bit of freedom to actually continue to interact with humanity on some level. Granted at the moment it was an effort to ruin someone's plans but still it was quite the step on an odd direction for her, often her time was spent exploring the world but utterly avoiding contact with people.
But not long after her great escape from her current summoner she had realized that she was in a town that belonged to an old acquaintance, one of her previous summoners in fact, the man had barely been worth the effort to screw over and he'd been enough of an asshole that she just wanted their dealings over with as quickly as possible and thus she had given him for the most part what he had wanted, of course she'd done a few tweaks. He'd wanted to be important wanted to own great amounts of land and a title to go with it, she'd given him all of that but the land he gained was devoid of anything important or useful and the title was barely of any importance to anyone who had actual power. But yet somehow he had managed to turn all of that into something much more, she knew after a look around that this was the very land she had given him now bustling with activity as the ruins that had once claimed this land as home were transformed into a rather impressive city.
A day of exploration had yielded that the man was now rather old, he'd been rather young when they had first met probably in his twenties if she had to guess which was of course a man by the standards of the people of Earth but still quite young to her, now he was wrinkled and gray and apparently his lust for power had not abated and his encounter with a mystical being such as herself had given him the idea that he could reign in such powers such as he had when he had become her summoner and do with them as he pleased, he boasted a mighty 'zoo' featuring all manner of beasts even a fully grown manticore. She almost pitied those who had to tend to that nasty creature, presently she was working out a plan to set the creatures free it satisfied her urge to be a bit petty and screw over her past summoner a bit more while also being a good deed in a sense, many of the creatures he held captive were intelligent beings that simply communicated in a manner that most outside of their species could not understand, the Manticore while vicious and quite deadly was once such example and caging that thing up would just make things all the worse when it inevitably escaped, the creature would slaughter dozens before eventually someone found a means to put it down.
All of the beings imprisoned here deserved much better than this and as well while she detested the thought of actively helping them there WERE still some fairly innocent humans, children were mostly what she was willing to concede to be unlikely to be near as bad as she considered the species as a whole, they simply suffered from being raised to become as such, truly rather unfortunate. The zoo of course was a hotspot for parents to bring their children, the young ones enjoyed seeing all of the exotic creatures and when something like the manticore eventually broke free they would all be dead. Of course he need to on some level avoid the beginnings of a slaughter meant that her breakout would need to be staged later at night, for now she was overseeing the zoo from her vantage point picking out the best route for the breakout, the manticore was the centerpiece of the zoo but unfortunately would need to be the last of the creatures released while intelligent the manticore would be more than willing to just start up a fight with any of the other creatures to get a quick meal before making it's escape. It was even fairly likely that she would need to subdue it first which would be QUITE the pain. Letting out a sigh Jenn stretched a bit and adjusted her clothing.
Because of her appearance and the possibility of being recognized she had manifested a cloak with a high hood and thin lower face mask, just enough to hide the most of her face but not too much to make the already sweltering heat even worse. A few trips into the zoo had also thankfully made it clear that nobody appeared to mind her admittedly rather shady style of dress, perhaps because of how hot it was nobody could be bothered to care why she was doing everything to at least appear to be keeping her head out of the sunlight. The cloak also did a wonderful job of hiding the majority of her skin and a pair of gloves did the rest of the work. Overall it wasn't actually a bad look but of course she could not wait to be done with this so that she could get back to her normal style... Night came frustratingly slow, as the Zoo closed up for the night Jenn kept her sense active seeking out how many of the staff would remain active in the Zoo hour after hour passed as Jenn kept an eye on it until eventually the energy signatures fell into a fairly stagnant pattern, this would be all for the night, barely a handful of pathetically weak energy signatures and two somewhat notable ones, those were likely the men tasked with keeping the more dangerous creatures under control. Jenn smirked at the thought IF the manticore escaped not even the whole crew would be enough to take it down. "idiots..." jenn muttered to herself as she switched out her clothing swapping all of her normal clothing out for more form fitting and dark-toned clothing to aid in the stealthy approach she would be taking.
Slipping down to the street unnoticed had been simple and by keeping her sense active she had managed to slip through the gates and into the building that the majority of the guards passed through it appeared at first glance to be some sort of record keeping building combined with a guard station, taking out the few men that had been in the building upon her arrival had taken all but a few seconds so easy was it that it had actually been more difficult to find somewhere to deposit there unconscious body's, eventually Jenn had decided upon storing them downstairs as she had found a set of stairs inside one of the rooms... however not long after she ventured below did she realize that there was perhaps a bit more to this place than she had anticipated, entering the basement of the building and lighting a few torches she found that this room was some sort of planning room with maps that covered large tables, upon the maps were expertly crafted figurines of various beasts, some mystical and others more benign but still rather rare, notes were written all over the maps indicating times and plans of action on how to subdue the creatures, some maps even expanded out far past the desert the notes on the capture of those creatures being far less detailed, there was however one map that gave her pause the map was clearly quite old so much so that parts were entirely missing from it though in those sections were sketched rough estimations of what could be found. This map was not of a area of the desert but rather of some sort of impossibly large building or cave system at it's center Jenn found a singular figurine that had her jaw nearly touch the floor.
Dragons. Somehow they had secured a map of a DRAGONS lair, and not just any dragon but an OLD one a creature even she knew of through legends and stories she had read in books taken from library's she had visited. Abednego the Sapphire Storm, a dragon said to be as old as the desert itself he had once plagued the lands slaughtering livestock and disrupting trade, he was in fact the very reason that the city that had lay here before her old summoner had revitalized it had died out, he had bled the town dry on supplies, taken their livestock, taken their women. Jenn of course also knew WHY Abednego had done this, or at least had read why. There had been a thief, the son of the man who ruled the city who had taken to a thief life out of the thrill of it. He had found Abednego's lair and stolen something from it, something precious to the Sapphire Storm and when the city refused to hand over the thief Abednego chose to pass his judgement upon them. Even the thiefs death hadn't been enough, the city's destruction had been a major factor in the end of thrill seekers trying their hand at finding his lair, the price was proven to be too high and Abednego was left to his devices from then on. Would these fools really be so arrogant to plan an attempt on Abednego? Jenn scanned over the map and found that yes they WERE that foolish but the plan... it was actually quite solid and it was rather eerie how prepared they were to deal with something as powerful as Abednego. They weren't necessarily after Abednego himself, but rather after one of his eggs, dragon eggs could lie dormant for hundreds of years and it was theorized that before Abednego's mate met her end that a clutch of eggs had been laid, Azhara had been nearly as formidable a being as Abednego himself and the battle that had taken her had been far too easy, but childbirth could very much have taken quite a tole on her enough to give the dragon slayers who had come for her the chance necessary.
Nobody truly knew as before any actual raiding could commence Abednego had found the men responsible and killed them all only allowing a few bards that had accompanied them to ride away, shortly thereafter the city that had funded the expedition had been razed by Abednego, unlike the thief's excursion this had been a quick end, a single day had been all it had taken for Abednego to earn the name 'Sapphire Storm' he'd rained bolts of lightning and and torn buildings apart for the full day until there was nothing more but rubble and corpses. "And they actually want to take this sort of risk.." Jenn muttered, the plan was to steal as many of the eggs as possible and replace them with fabrications she'd even found the false eggs in another room, they certainly looked the part if the tales of what a blue dragon's eggs looked like were to be trusted. "The plan might actually work though..." Jenn muttered to herself as she returned to the map, looking it over for more details and what she found upon closer inspection sent a chill down her spine, she looked over the other maps to ensure that her guess was correct, everything appeared to line up right... the plans were set to be initiated in three days, three days and these idiots would be making an attempt on Abednegos lair, normally she wouldn't have actually given it much thought if she had simply heard that someone was going to try and attack a dragons lair let alone one as grand as Abednego... but the plan and the map, an actual physical map of a dragons lair... it indicated all of the little traps that they would need to face and someone had even gone to the length of writing out potential expansions to the traps that could have been made in the years since the maps creation.
There was a scarily good chance that this might succeed, what terrified her the most perhaps was the idea of her old summoner getting his hands on Dragon Eggs, they had to have been dormant for a LONG time now which meant they could hatch at any point. The idea of a man like him having DRAGONS at his disposal and not just any dragons but the spawn of a dragon a fearsome as Abednego. "I cant let that happen.." Jen muttered to herself as she walked the length of the room grabbing up the still unconscious guards as she made her way back upstairs depositing each man at there former posts manifesting a few glasses of the hardest alcohol she knew to make it appear that they had simply passed out on the job, once that was done she made her escape. The zoo would have to wait, it was unlikely it would fall apart in the immediate future as the manticore had seemed content enough for the time being having food delivered to it, she could stage that escape whenever she wanted. Now however she needed to prevent what was perhaps the biggest heist of the era. In order to do so however she would need to meet with Abednego, give the dragon the forewarning necessary in order to prevent the theft of the eggs. Jenn groaned over the thought it meant that she was going to have to survive an encounter with Abednego long enough to explain and then hope that he would be grateful enough to not just try and kill her anyway.
But not long after her great escape from her current summoner she had realized that she was in a town that belonged to an old acquaintance, one of her previous summoners in fact, the man had barely been worth the effort to screw over and he'd been enough of an asshole that she just wanted their dealings over with as quickly as possible and thus she had given him for the most part what he had wanted, of course she'd done a few tweaks. He'd wanted to be important wanted to own great amounts of land and a title to go with it, she'd given him all of that but the land he gained was devoid of anything important or useful and the title was barely of any importance to anyone who had actual power. But yet somehow he had managed to turn all of that into something much more, she knew after a look around that this was the very land she had given him now bustling with activity as the ruins that had once claimed this land as home were transformed into a rather impressive city.
A day of exploration had yielded that the man was now rather old, he'd been rather young when they had first met probably in his twenties if she had to guess which was of course a man by the standards of the people of Earth but still quite young to her, now he was wrinkled and gray and apparently his lust for power had not abated and his encounter with a mystical being such as herself had given him the idea that he could reign in such powers such as he had when he had become her summoner and do with them as he pleased, he boasted a mighty 'zoo' featuring all manner of beasts even a fully grown manticore. She almost pitied those who had to tend to that nasty creature, presently she was working out a plan to set the creatures free it satisfied her urge to be a bit petty and screw over her past summoner a bit more while also being a good deed in a sense, many of the creatures he held captive were intelligent beings that simply communicated in a manner that most outside of their species could not understand, the Manticore while vicious and quite deadly was once such example and caging that thing up would just make things all the worse when it inevitably escaped, the creature would slaughter dozens before eventually someone found a means to put it down.
All of the beings imprisoned here deserved much better than this and as well while she detested the thought of actively helping them there WERE still some fairly innocent humans, children were mostly what she was willing to concede to be unlikely to be near as bad as she considered the species as a whole, they simply suffered from being raised to become as such, truly rather unfortunate. The zoo of course was a hotspot for parents to bring their children, the young ones enjoyed seeing all of the exotic creatures and when something like the manticore eventually broke free they would all be dead. Of course he need to on some level avoid the beginnings of a slaughter meant that her breakout would need to be staged later at night, for now she was overseeing the zoo from her vantage point picking out the best route for the breakout, the manticore was the centerpiece of the zoo but unfortunately would need to be the last of the creatures released while intelligent the manticore would be more than willing to just start up a fight with any of the other creatures to get a quick meal before making it's escape. It was even fairly likely that she would need to subdue it first which would be QUITE the pain. Letting out a sigh Jenn stretched a bit and adjusted her clothing.
Because of her appearance and the possibility of being recognized she had manifested a cloak with a high hood and thin lower face mask, just enough to hide the most of her face but not too much to make the already sweltering heat even worse. A few trips into the zoo had also thankfully made it clear that nobody appeared to mind her admittedly rather shady style of dress, perhaps because of how hot it was nobody could be bothered to care why she was doing everything to at least appear to be keeping her head out of the sunlight. The cloak also did a wonderful job of hiding the majority of her skin and a pair of gloves did the rest of the work. Overall it wasn't actually a bad look but of course she could not wait to be done with this so that she could get back to her normal style... Night came frustratingly slow, as the Zoo closed up for the night Jenn kept her sense active seeking out how many of the staff would remain active in the Zoo hour after hour passed as Jenn kept an eye on it until eventually the energy signatures fell into a fairly stagnant pattern, this would be all for the night, barely a handful of pathetically weak energy signatures and two somewhat notable ones, those were likely the men tasked with keeping the more dangerous creatures under control. Jenn smirked at the thought IF the manticore escaped not even the whole crew would be enough to take it down. "idiots..." jenn muttered to herself as she switched out her clothing swapping all of her normal clothing out for more form fitting and dark-toned clothing to aid in the stealthy approach she would be taking.
Slipping down to the street unnoticed had been simple and by keeping her sense active she had managed to slip through the gates and into the building that the majority of the guards passed through it appeared at first glance to be some sort of record keeping building combined with a guard station, taking out the few men that had been in the building upon her arrival had taken all but a few seconds so easy was it that it had actually been more difficult to find somewhere to deposit there unconscious body's, eventually Jenn had decided upon storing them downstairs as she had found a set of stairs inside one of the rooms... however not long after she ventured below did she realize that there was perhaps a bit more to this place than she had anticipated, entering the basement of the building and lighting a few torches she found that this room was some sort of planning room with maps that covered large tables, upon the maps were expertly crafted figurines of various beasts, some mystical and others more benign but still rather rare, notes were written all over the maps indicating times and plans of action on how to subdue the creatures, some maps even expanded out far past the desert the notes on the capture of those creatures being far less detailed, there was however one map that gave her pause the map was clearly quite old so much so that parts were entirely missing from it though in those sections were sketched rough estimations of what could be found. This map was not of a area of the desert but rather of some sort of impossibly large building or cave system at it's center Jenn found a singular figurine that had her jaw nearly touch the floor.
Dragons. Somehow they had secured a map of a DRAGONS lair, and not just any dragon but an OLD one a creature even she knew of through legends and stories she had read in books taken from library's she had visited. Abednego the Sapphire Storm, a dragon said to be as old as the desert itself he had once plagued the lands slaughtering livestock and disrupting trade, he was in fact the very reason that the city that had lay here before her old summoner had revitalized it had died out, he had bled the town dry on supplies, taken their livestock, taken their women. Jenn of course also knew WHY Abednego had done this, or at least had read why. There had been a thief, the son of the man who ruled the city who had taken to a thief life out of the thrill of it. He had found Abednego's lair and stolen something from it, something precious to the Sapphire Storm and when the city refused to hand over the thief Abednego chose to pass his judgement upon them. Even the thiefs death hadn't been enough, the city's destruction had been a major factor in the end of thrill seekers trying their hand at finding his lair, the price was proven to be too high and Abednego was left to his devices from then on. Would these fools really be so arrogant to plan an attempt on Abednego? Jenn scanned over the map and found that yes they WERE that foolish but the plan... it was actually quite solid and it was rather eerie how prepared they were to deal with something as powerful as Abednego. They weren't necessarily after Abednego himself, but rather after one of his eggs, dragon eggs could lie dormant for hundreds of years and it was theorized that before Abednego's mate met her end that a clutch of eggs had been laid, Azhara had been nearly as formidable a being as Abednego himself and the battle that had taken her had been far too easy, but childbirth could very much have taken quite a tole on her enough to give the dragon slayers who had come for her the chance necessary.
Nobody truly knew as before any actual raiding could commence Abednego had found the men responsible and killed them all only allowing a few bards that had accompanied them to ride away, shortly thereafter the city that had funded the expedition had been razed by Abednego, unlike the thief's excursion this had been a quick end, a single day had been all it had taken for Abednego to earn the name 'Sapphire Storm' he'd rained bolts of lightning and and torn buildings apart for the full day until there was nothing more but rubble and corpses. "And they actually want to take this sort of risk.." Jenn muttered, the plan was to steal as many of the eggs as possible and replace them with fabrications she'd even found the false eggs in another room, they certainly looked the part if the tales of what a blue dragon's eggs looked like were to be trusted. "The plan might actually work though..." Jenn muttered to herself as she returned to the map, looking it over for more details and what she found upon closer inspection sent a chill down her spine, she looked over the other maps to ensure that her guess was correct, everything appeared to line up right... the plans were set to be initiated in three days, three days and these idiots would be making an attempt on Abednegos lair, normally she wouldn't have actually given it much thought if she had simply heard that someone was going to try and attack a dragons lair let alone one as grand as Abednego... but the plan and the map, an actual physical map of a dragons lair... it indicated all of the little traps that they would need to face and someone had even gone to the length of writing out potential expansions to the traps that could have been made in the years since the maps creation.
There was a scarily good chance that this might succeed, what terrified her the most perhaps was the idea of her old summoner getting his hands on Dragon Eggs, they had to have been dormant for a LONG time now which meant they could hatch at any point. The idea of a man like him having DRAGONS at his disposal and not just any dragons but the spawn of a dragon a fearsome as Abednego. "I cant let that happen.." Jen muttered to herself as she walked the length of the room grabbing up the still unconscious guards as she made her way back upstairs depositing each man at there former posts manifesting a few glasses of the hardest alcohol she knew to make it appear that they had simply passed out on the job, once that was done she made her escape. The zoo would have to wait, it was unlikely it would fall apart in the immediate future as the manticore had seemed content enough for the time being having food delivered to it, she could stage that escape whenever she wanted. Now however she needed to prevent what was perhaps the biggest heist of the era. In order to do so however she would need to meet with Abednego, give the dragon the forewarning necessary in order to prevent the theft of the eggs. Jenn groaned over the thought it meant that she was going to have to survive an encounter with Abednego long enough to explain and then hope that he would be grateful enough to not just try and kill her anyway.
--Two Days Later--
Preparing for her venture into Abednego's lair had taken a bit longer than Jenn had liked she'd needed to slip back into the building in order to make a more accurate recreation of the map for her own use and then of course there had actually been the matter of locating the place, even with all the work that had been put into the plan the map lacked a definite indicator on the entrance point of the lair or at least if they DID know it the actual location of the entrance was not something they kept out with the rest of the plans, perhaps in order to ward off any idiots who might try to back stab him and execute the plan earlier regardless of why there was no noted entrance Jenn had eventually found it hidden deep in the sand, she had managed to get a better lock on the location of it through a bit of luck. Abednego while capable of suppressing his power was still just powerful enough even while suppressed that Jenn had managed to get a lock on him and it placed her in the general area of his lair, the entrance to which was hidden behind the veil of a powerful illusion, something that was likely not created with someone as powerful as Jenn in mind as she had managed to see through it after a few passes around it's general location.
Now Jenn stood at the entrance of the lair steeling herself for what was to come, she wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this excursion, a part of her actually hoped that Abednego had simply abandoned this lair and set up shop somewhere else, that when she did open it up and step inside that the place would be all but barren, maybe a few lingering traps that would prove annoying but ultimately amusing once it was revealed that this place was a false lair, that the energy signature was just a trick left behind by Abednego to fool would-be thieves... Jenn knew when she got to that thought that her wishful thinking was simply that, she was certainly not that lucky the reality would likely be that she would enter and have to do everything within her power to not die, likely multiple times, even before actually meeting Abednedo. As Jenn prepared herself to enter she felt an energy signature enter her immediate range, she'd not been keeping her sense nearly as active as she normally had been because she had been so focused on the task at hand, the signature was strong and coming in from... above?
Jenn looked up slowly and the sight she was met with had her jaw drop and her blood run cold as a massive sapphire reptilian behemoth was swooping in directly for her a few moments as the beast drew nearer gave Jenn the time necessary to realize it was time to move and as the behemoth landed slashing at where she had been Jenn rocketed off to the side narrowly avoiding the massive claws of the creature, at first her heart was racing a massive sapphire reptilian near here could really only be one being... but then she remembered the signature that she was certain belonged to Abednego had still been far below ground, and she took a look at the creature and found that while it very much resembled an artists depiction of the great dragons it was lacking certain features, it was large yes but not nearly as such as Dragons were described, it was likely in the thirteen foot range maybe fifteen if it stood perfectly on it's legs, as well the legs were an issue it only had two, two powerful back legs armed with massive talons where on it's upper body there should have been another pair of legs that could act as arms if necessary were instead it's wings though as it hunched over the entranced it brought the wings forward revealing that its wings appeared to be a fusion of wing and arm. It let out a powerful and very bestial hissing growl at Jenn as she looked it over clearly quite displeased with her being here.
Jenn smirked a bit as she finished her inspection, this beast was thankfully little more than a wyvern, a creature of draconic blood but not nearly as fearsome as a true dragon and in that same vein not nearly as smart, wyverns despite their heritage were far more like animals, a few stories did mention the concept of true dragons such as Abednego keeping a few around as protectors, perhaps it was trained to attack those who got too close to the entrance? That seemed quite likely as the beast began stalking forward baring its teeth at her and puffing its body out in an effort to intimidate. A quick read on the wyvern told Jenn what she needed to know, it was powerful more so than even the manticore and likely possessed a number of tricks if her knowledge of beast-lore was accurate. But she still had a few advantages of her own, namely her mind. "You don't want to do this" Jenn said slowly as she began moving backward as the wyvern approached stepping to the side every now and then to see how well it could follow and move on land. Wyverns were not known for intelligence but did posses some, perhaps enough that she could convince it to leave. "I am strong" Jenn spoke as she formed an orb of energy in her left hand, a display of power that would likely catch it's attention and perhaps spook it. "You will die." Jenn spoke trying to keep things as simple as possible.
Unfortunately for Jenn she accomplished exactly what she wanted, the creation of the energy ball and her words DID manage to spook the wyvern... unfortunately this wyvern's fear response was on the 'fight' end rather than 'flight' and it lashed out suddenly and violently, with a flap of it's wing it spring forward swinging its hind-claws at Jenn managing to slash her arm just as Jenn realized her mistake and began moving to avoid the oncoming attack, Jenn hissed in pain but kept the sphere of energy stable rolling with the blow and putting herself under the wyverns wing a flick of the wrist sent the ball whizzing into the wyverns chest eliciting a sharp screech of pain as it stumbled backward giving Jenn the opportunity to launch another attack, she dashed forward launching into the air and delivered a few quick kicks to the wyverns chest throwing the already off balance reptilian completely over the way and sending it tumbling backwards the wyvern screeched in anger and pain as it scrambled back to its feet lashing out at Jenn with it's long and powerful tail in order to keep her from pressing forward with another attack.
The tail caught Jenn in the chest but much to the wyverns dismay Jenn managed to grab hold of the offending limb the whip-like tail snapped around in her grasp as Jenn planted her feet into the ground to avoid being thrown about, the creature certainly had a lot of physical strength and a lot of it seemed to be located here removing one hand from the tail Jenn began slamming her fist into it a few times before the beast finally managed to slip out of her grasp now turning back to face her it puffed itself out again standing as tall as it could before charging at Jenn swinging at her with its wing-arms, at first Jenn found the action to be humorous... until one of the arms landed a hit that sent her tumbleing and she realized in that moment just how powerful those arms would need to be if they were also the beasts means of flight, springing back to her feet Jenn began charging another ball of energy the energy taking visual form was enough of a surprise to leave the wyvern wary of attacking for long enough for Jenn to begin backtracking away, she wanted this attack to have a bit more impact than the last maybe it would be enough to take the beast down even.
Once Jenn started retreating the wyven regained a surge of confidence feeling less worried about the glowing ball of hurt if the prey wielding it was trying to run, the wyvern batted at Jenn with all of it's might crumbling rocks as she ducked and rolled using the environment to aid her defense as more of her smoke-like energy flowed into the sphere in her palm, she could feel the ball had grown to about the power she felt would be necessary to deal with the wyvern... now all she needed to do was deliver it properly, the more she ran from it the more bold the wyvern grew, it didn't care that it hadn't landed a single solid blow since she hard started running all it knew was that CLEARLY the prey was afraid and that its power was so mighty that not even the rocks she sought refuge behind could save her, deciding to get a bit fancy much like it's master liked to the wyvern took to the sky for a moment only to dive back down landing behind Jenn on a tall rock the wyvern let out a mighty roar as it loomed over it's prey its mouth beginning to crackle with energy as it took in a breath, it was prepared to use its most deadly maneuver on it's prey a gift bestowed upon it by it's master to deal with beings such as this creatures powerful enough to stand against it.
Jenn watched carefully as the wyven took in a breath and then felt it's energy begin to spike and shortly thereafter saw the energy crackling around it's mouth 'it can use energy' Jenn thought rather astounded by the idea, it was not unknown for Dragons to have that ability, they often expressed it by expelling some form of breath-weapon that often took the form of an elemental attack, Abednego and most blues specialized in electricity and from the looks of things the Wyvern had picked up a similar ability, with a roar that shook like the boom of tunder the wyvern let loose a bolt of lightning aimed at Jenn, Jenn responded in kind by hurling her energy ball at the bolt the ball impacted the bolt and the two seemed to almost mingle the bolt likely attempting to pass through the orb but rather getting caught within it instead, Jenn watched as the ball dragged the bolt with it at the Wyvern and the two attacks impacted the reptilian beast at once, where a dragon would be immune to it's power the wyvern appeared less lucky as it screeched in pain for a few moments as the technique did it's job and then finally collapsed off the rock falling to the ground in a heap. Jenn let out a heavy breath as she walked over to check on it, still alive if only barely likely it would be up within a few hours if it had a constitution anything like a real Dragon. Hopefully just enough time to accomplish her mission. With that in mind she bolted back to the entrance passing through the illusion once again with ease. "Here we go..." Jenn muttered to herself before taking her first step into the dragons lair...
Now Jenn stood at the entrance of the lair steeling herself for what was to come, she wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this excursion, a part of her actually hoped that Abednego had simply abandoned this lair and set up shop somewhere else, that when she did open it up and step inside that the place would be all but barren, maybe a few lingering traps that would prove annoying but ultimately amusing once it was revealed that this place was a false lair, that the energy signature was just a trick left behind by Abednego to fool would-be thieves... Jenn knew when she got to that thought that her wishful thinking was simply that, she was certainly not that lucky the reality would likely be that she would enter and have to do everything within her power to not die, likely multiple times, even before actually meeting Abednedo. As Jenn prepared herself to enter she felt an energy signature enter her immediate range, she'd not been keeping her sense nearly as active as she normally had been because she had been so focused on the task at hand, the signature was strong and coming in from... above?
Jenn looked up slowly and the sight she was met with had her jaw drop and her blood run cold as a massive sapphire reptilian behemoth was swooping in directly for her a few moments as the beast drew nearer gave Jenn the time necessary to realize it was time to move and as the behemoth landed slashing at where she had been Jenn rocketed off to the side narrowly avoiding the massive claws of the creature, at first her heart was racing a massive sapphire reptilian near here could really only be one being... but then she remembered the signature that she was certain belonged to Abednego had still been far below ground, and she took a look at the creature and found that while it very much resembled an artists depiction of the great dragons it was lacking certain features, it was large yes but not nearly as such as Dragons were described, it was likely in the thirteen foot range maybe fifteen if it stood perfectly on it's legs, as well the legs were an issue it only had two, two powerful back legs armed with massive talons where on it's upper body there should have been another pair of legs that could act as arms if necessary were instead it's wings though as it hunched over the entranced it brought the wings forward revealing that its wings appeared to be a fusion of wing and arm. It let out a powerful and very bestial hissing growl at Jenn as she looked it over clearly quite displeased with her being here.
Jenn smirked a bit as she finished her inspection, this beast was thankfully little more than a wyvern, a creature of draconic blood but not nearly as fearsome as a true dragon and in that same vein not nearly as smart, wyverns despite their heritage were far more like animals, a few stories did mention the concept of true dragons such as Abednego keeping a few around as protectors, perhaps it was trained to attack those who got too close to the entrance? That seemed quite likely as the beast began stalking forward baring its teeth at her and puffing its body out in an effort to intimidate. A quick read on the wyvern told Jenn what she needed to know, it was powerful more so than even the manticore and likely possessed a number of tricks if her knowledge of beast-lore was accurate. But she still had a few advantages of her own, namely her mind. "You don't want to do this" Jenn said slowly as she began moving backward as the wyvern approached stepping to the side every now and then to see how well it could follow and move on land. Wyverns were not known for intelligence but did posses some, perhaps enough that she could convince it to leave. "I am strong" Jenn spoke as she formed an orb of energy in her left hand, a display of power that would likely catch it's attention and perhaps spook it. "You will die." Jenn spoke trying to keep things as simple as possible.
Unfortunately for Jenn she accomplished exactly what she wanted, the creation of the energy ball and her words DID manage to spook the wyvern... unfortunately this wyvern's fear response was on the 'fight' end rather than 'flight' and it lashed out suddenly and violently, with a flap of it's wing it spring forward swinging its hind-claws at Jenn managing to slash her arm just as Jenn realized her mistake and began moving to avoid the oncoming attack, Jenn hissed in pain but kept the sphere of energy stable rolling with the blow and putting herself under the wyverns wing a flick of the wrist sent the ball whizzing into the wyverns chest eliciting a sharp screech of pain as it stumbled backward giving Jenn the opportunity to launch another attack, she dashed forward launching into the air and delivered a few quick kicks to the wyverns chest throwing the already off balance reptilian completely over the way and sending it tumbling backwards the wyvern screeched in anger and pain as it scrambled back to its feet lashing out at Jenn with it's long and powerful tail in order to keep her from pressing forward with another attack.
The tail caught Jenn in the chest but much to the wyverns dismay Jenn managed to grab hold of the offending limb the whip-like tail snapped around in her grasp as Jenn planted her feet into the ground to avoid being thrown about, the creature certainly had a lot of physical strength and a lot of it seemed to be located here removing one hand from the tail Jenn began slamming her fist into it a few times before the beast finally managed to slip out of her grasp now turning back to face her it puffed itself out again standing as tall as it could before charging at Jenn swinging at her with its wing-arms, at first Jenn found the action to be humorous... until one of the arms landed a hit that sent her tumbleing and she realized in that moment just how powerful those arms would need to be if they were also the beasts means of flight, springing back to her feet Jenn began charging another ball of energy the energy taking visual form was enough of a surprise to leave the wyvern wary of attacking for long enough for Jenn to begin backtracking away, she wanted this attack to have a bit more impact than the last maybe it would be enough to take the beast down even.
Once Jenn started retreating the wyven regained a surge of confidence feeling less worried about the glowing ball of hurt if the prey wielding it was trying to run, the wyvern batted at Jenn with all of it's might crumbling rocks as she ducked and rolled using the environment to aid her defense as more of her smoke-like energy flowed into the sphere in her palm, she could feel the ball had grown to about the power she felt would be necessary to deal with the wyvern... now all she needed to do was deliver it properly, the more she ran from it the more bold the wyvern grew, it didn't care that it hadn't landed a single solid blow since she hard started running all it knew was that CLEARLY the prey was afraid and that its power was so mighty that not even the rocks she sought refuge behind could save her, deciding to get a bit fancy much like it's master liked to the wyvern took to the sky for a moment only to dive back down landing behind Jenn on a tall rock the wyvern let out a mighty roar as it loomed over it's prey its mouth beginning to crackle with energy as it took in a breath, it was prepared to use its most deadly maneuver on it's prey a gift bestowed upon it by it's master to deal with beings such as this creatures powerful enough to stand against it.
Jenn watched carefully as the wyven took in a breath and then felt it's energy begin to spike and shortly thereafter saw the energy crackling around it's mouth 'it can use energy' Jenn thought rather astounded by the idea, it was not unknown for Dragons to have that ability, they often expressed it by expelling some form of breath-weapon that often took the form of an elemental attack, Abednego and most blues specialized in electricity and from the looks of things the Wyvern had picked up a similar ability, with a roar that shook like the boom of tunder the wyvern let loose a bolt of lightning aimed at Jenn, Jenn responded in kind by hurling her energy ball at the bolt the ball impacted the bolt and the two seemed to almost mingle the bolt likely attempting to pass through the orb but rather getting caught within it instead, Jenn watched as the ball dragged the bolt with it at the Wyvern and the two attacks impacted the reptilian beast at once, where a dragon would be immune to it's power the wyvern appeared less lucky as it screeched in pain for a few moments as the technique did it's job and then finally collapsed off the rock falling to the ground in a heap. Jenn let out a heavy breath as she walked over to check on it, still alive if only barely likely it would be up within a few hours if it had a constitution anything like a real Dragon. Hopefully just enough time to accomplish her mission. With that in mind she bolted back to the entrance passing through the illusion once again with ease. "Here we go..." Jenn muttered to herself before taking her first step into the dragons lair...
