A lean silver male was curled up under a pile of leaves, pondering Tasal’s quest. Look for eggs and others like Tasal. Well, he’d sensed something in the area nearby, and couldn’t smell anything other than the mingled scent of elf and human in one body.

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Tirr poked around the edges of the forest closets to the lake, currently sticking his hand where it absolutely did not belong- an old, deep den underneath the root of a tree. Not that he thought there would be a dragon down there, the half elf huffed aloud, but just something interesting, perhaps.

He knew the den was long abandoned, thankfully, but he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched. He pushed forward, up to his shoulder in the dirt pit. Grabbing blindly, his fingers closed on rough cloth. Tirr yanked the object out of the den, excepting a bag or maybe an article of clothing.

Instead, he fell backwards as a greyish-green egg was practically launched into his chest. He hit the ground with a thud, instinctively clutching the egg carefully to his chest. Sitting up, he examined the egg. Perhaps it was some kind of decorative ornament?

"Oh no." He sighed, turning it over in his hands and noting the blue sheen, "Someone definitely stole this..."

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/Jedish/ Mialöldrí said through the bond. /look/. Pointing towards a human (tirr) who had an egg. /dragon egg!/ Jedish said with surprise. /he shouldn't be in possession of that. It looks stolen/ she said, turning and landing near Tirr. Mialöldrí Unlaced the straps holding her legs in the saddle before dismounting, her hand drifting towards her sword."did you steal that?" She questioned, a cold edge in her voice as she approached Tirr

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Tirr jumped to his feet as a massive dragon landed beside him, stumbling backwards. He watched anxiously as the elf dismounted and came towards him. He realized that he had unconsciously moved to protect the object in his hands, and, maybe he was just crazy, but he could swear it felt warm in his hands and had shook when the elf spoke.

"Steal it?", he repeated, slowly regaining control of his voice and his footing, "Perhaps you can tell me what it is?"

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Tigimdarr had just finished grabbing the biggest fish he could out of the waters of Lake Isenstar - it hadn't taken him long to get there, with his massive wings. However, the fish, despite being big enough to sustain an average sized dragon, was much too small for him. He swallowed it whole before he banked, deciding to head south once more. Bodies of water seemed to yield better results than land.

If he got desperate, however, he would head out to sea - burning villages and cities were a last resort, but if he had to, he would. He snorted, a puff of smoke filling the air as he passed over Gil'ead, heading towards Leona Lake. The last time he had been there, some idiot humans had tried to shoot him with ballistae. It had been about as annoying as a pinch, so he had left, heading back the way he came.

He didn't particularly like humans all that much. They were stupid sometimes. Not that he blamed them - they were intelligent, and that led to many of them being quite cocky. Not as intelligent as dragons, mind you - but he still gave them credit for when credit was due.

He could see people scrambling below, and he let out a loud, bellowing roar that seemed to shake the earth beneath. Just a warning - he really didn't want to deal with getting shot again. Besides, he had shed a few scales on the underside of his neck; if anyone noticed, and somehow managed to get him with a ballista bolt, it could cause real damage. He decided not to dwell near the settlement, passing over it and heading towards his destination.
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Rao had just begun to circle back towards the ground when something seemed to fly out from nearby, near Dras-Leona. Rao hissed in her mind, attempting to dart clumsily down towards the mountain range to the west of the lake. A dragon had come into their line of sight, and it was much bigger than Rao. Relnin wrapped his arms tighter around her - this could potentially become a very, very bad situation if they managed to catch the eye of the dragon. They didn't have time to notice the Rider on the dragon's back - Rao noticed it, but she didn't comment on it, instead choosing to find a way to get them both to safety.

They managed to bank downwards, towards the treeline. As they entered the canopy, Rao's wings struck a limb, and she wobbled in the air. Relnin slipped off of her back, scrambling for her spikes and cutting his arm in the process - he felt himself falling, and then a flash of blue-green.

Rao snatched him out of the air as he fell, turning so she smacked down into the leafy ground on her side, holding Relnin against her. As she stopped moving, leaving a large trail behind her, she snorted in annoyance. Her talons were almost digging into Relnin, she was holding him so tightly - he didn't complain, though. She had potentially injured herself for him.

She finally let go, getting to her feet clumsily as she hissed at herself, shaking her head and dislodging the leaves and debris that had stuck itself to her horns and face. She then turned towards Relnin, sniffing as he scrambled to his feet, her eyes centered solidly on his arm. He frowned at the cut - it was deep, but not enough to be threatening to his health. Taking a knife out of his pocket, he cut a section of the bottom of his tunic off and proceeded to wrap it around his forearm and tie it, like a bandage.

Rao made a soft purring noise, nudging his side. He could feel the worry and concern emanating from her as she stepped up next to him. "I'm okay. Thank you." He rubbed her snout, "Little Bird."

She seemed to smile in response, "You are welcome, Dear One."

Normally a term of endearment like that would make him uncomfortable - almost belittled, he supposed - but he appreciated her saying it. They both turned and began to move slowly on foot through the trees, one of Relnin's hands planted firmly on Rao's shoulders.

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Hecate raised his head as the hummingbird-colored dragon and a human rumbled past his hiding place. The silver dragon hissed, baring his teeth at them and rising from the leaves.

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"It's a dragon Egg, one that's rare to be seen. How did you come by this egg?" Mialöldrí Said, her tone suspicions and bordering on cold as she watched this...human... carrying and holding the dragon egg.

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Ais' eyesight was quite good. He had been flying for a while now, and he could see Dras-Leona on the horizon, with Lake Leona near it. I should stop at Lake Leona for a drink. He flapped harder, flying towards Lake Leona and descending slightly, though he still wasn't close enough to see that there were others there.

Kaezier had just set out for a hunt. He still had some meat in stock for himself, but he needed to sell some meat to get money to buy different resources. His cabin wasn't far from Gil'ead, so he could trade and sell there. He walked silently through the forest close to his cabin, careful not to step on any twigs.

Zaekor was still an egg. The blood red egg lay silently in a dense part of underbrush. His parents had disappeared, but he didn't quite need them. He just needed his rider to come along.

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(oof sorry for how sorta long this one is; on another note, Imma put up the plotline Reikier came up with in a bit :3)

"I'll go."

Korvaskkrr had been dragged into a very, very boring conversation - dwarves never left the mountains and ventured into human cities if they could help it. However, the King - the actual king of Alagaesia - had requested an audience with them. Why? The dwarves had no idea. Quite frankly, most didn't really care. The humans probably just wanted to find a way to weasel resources out from underneath them.

At first, when the leader of his Clan asked for volunteers who would be willing to journey Uru'baen as messengers, Korvaskkrr wanted no part of it. However, now that he had been thinking about it, the idea was interesting - he hadn't ever been outside of the mountains, and quite frankly, he had always wanted to see the world around him. Of course, that would mean going through the Hadarac Desert, which would be Hell on Earth, but he had always wanted to take a gander at human cities.

The fact that Korvaskkrr, of all dwarves, had volunteered seemed to leave most of the other dwarves baffled. Then again, Korvaskkrr was also a formidable warrior, despite his friendly attitude. His King seemed to notice that, and within the next hour, he was on the back of a Feldunost goat and getting packs of food and provisions ready. Four other dwarves had also volunteered- the prospect of crossing the desert was getting more and more heavy, as their goats wouldn't be able to make it through. It was either going on foot or buying donkeys - and dwarves weren't very friendly towards equines.
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Gil'ead passed under the shadow of the mighty black dragon's wings, and he let out another roar, the noise like lightning splitting the sky open. He was moving faster now, the lake disappearing behind him rapidly. Of course, as he was so big, he couldn't fly as fast as he used to, but he was able to move at a relatively fast pace with little excessive movement from his wings. He really wasn't one for fishing, but as stated before, his only chance at finding food for a dragon his size at times was looking underneath the water.

If he ran into other dragons, hopefully they would decide to fly the other direction. He could always threaten to eat them, though. Not that he would, of course. Cannibalism was not something Tigimdarr condoned. It was just a good way to get the younger, more headstrong dragons to mind their own damn business.

He was no longer paying attention to what was passing beneath him - he couldn't care less. Unless he found an elephant out here, there was no way he would find something to eat that was bigger than, say, maybe a horse. A whale sounded great about now, though.

He snorted again at the thought, replaying one of his memories as he fly on what could've been considered autopilot - he reviewed himself catching a whale when he was younger, bringing it back to his cave, and eating it with -

"No. We do not review such memories."
-----
Relnin was still clinging to Rao like a lifeline, when she stiffened. The female dragon whipped around as a snarl erupted from the brush - she hissed loudly, hackles raised, wings spreading, one of them stretching out to cover Relnin. Her growl seemed to rumble the Earth beneath them, and in any other circumstance, he would have pulled out a blade - however, he knew better than to get in the way of an angry dragon, and he had a feeling that whatever made her pissed was not something he wanted to cross.

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Hecate snarled the the hummingbird-colored dragon, pushing his way out of the bush with a snarl. His tail lashed, and he hissed at her.

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Ais had finally gotten close enough to see the others. Instead of flying directly towards them, he swerved around slightly, landing a distance away from the other dragons...some with their riders. He folded his wings against his sides. A surge of sadness started to swallow Ais again, but he thought determinedly, Not here, not now. He kept an eye on the others as he drank from the lake.

Kaezier had just ventured deep enough into the forest that there were barely any traces of humans passing here. Through the branches and bushes, he could spot a deer's pelt. He strung his arrow, preparing to fire, but a movement in a bush near the deer alerted the deer and it bolted. Kaezier muttered, "There goes this week's money." Annoyed, he walked towards the spot where he spotted the movement in the bushes.

Zaekor moved in his egg, causing it to rock slightly. He could sense his future rider close! He had to get his future rider's attention! Little did he know that his rider may not be the same as he had always imagined.

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Tirr began to speak, but broke off as the egg rocked and upstaged in his hands. He gripped it closer to himself, locking eyes with Mialöldrí.

"An Egg? A real one, and a dragon's at that?!", he sturrted out with a faint laugh, "Huh. I though it was some uppity scholar's centerpiece."

The boy paused as the egg rocked again, spider-webs of eggshell raising slightly as it hatched. Inside the egg, meanwhile, a hatching storred at the touch of it's rider. The dragon inside had exchanged hands many times before: the soft, gloved hands of nobles, to the rougher more worn hands of smugglers and merchants, but he had never hatched. Something deep inside his heart and mind had somehow, someway known what he was waiting for- and it was this. The hatchling pushed against the egg with his small talons, cracking it further.

"Is-", Tirr said quietly, "Is it supposed to do that?"

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Mialöldrí nodded."your it's rider. It is enchanted to only hatch at the hands of its rider. It may take houndreds of years, but they will wait for their rider. Your this ones rider." She said with a smile. "In my 168 years of life, I've only seen this happen once. My dragon, Jedish, hatched when I was less than a year old." She said with a smile.

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Tirr sighed with relief, although still loaded with anxiety.

"That's...wow.", he breathed nervously, eyeing the dragon, which he now knew as Jedish, "So you and Jedish are a rider pair? In all honestly, I thought that they were myths."

The dragonet pushed impaitlently in his egg, tiny green claws poking through the eggshell and he burst through. Shrondurn pulled at his shell from his claw hold bursting a hole large enough for part of his head to fir through.

Tirr's eyes widened, "Do I need to help it? Or is it like a chicken?" He asked hurriedly.

At the word 'chicken', the hatchling made a sound like a cross between a hiss and a squeak.

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Mialöldrí Nodded."yes. We're a pair, and you and your dragon are now a pair too." She said."you can help it if you wish. It's your dragon, not mine" she said

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