Aether
She was still admiring the carvings, noting the work that had gone into them. Staring at them, she felt like she could almost feel the emotions in them. When Yuri asked her the question, her head snapped around, and she said “Oh, yeah, i’m coming!” She hurried over, accidentally knocking down a carving, but she caught it with her tail and hoisted it back up to the place where it was. She hurried the rest of this way and let out a somewhat humorous sigh “I wouldn’t have taken you for the clumsy kind, but I almost feel bad for the carvings!” She nudged him quickly and gently, keeping the contact to a minimum.

Hoko
He almost clawed Cotton’s face off. He grew the slightest bit larger, covering it with him puffing out his fur. Sensing his agitation, the wind spirits bridled up, preparing to protect him….or attack. He thought of hundreds of ways to rip out the cowboy’s tongue, glancing up at Beryl. The wind spirits whispered in his ears, telling him to be patient, and about the dragon circling down. He told them to make it harder for the dragon to approach when the time was right, and he slowly smoothed his fur down a bit. He slowly calmed, turning into an icy state of planning. Maybe… if he was so obsessed with no magic, he should revert to his cougar size. His original size. Then, he could claw his throat, and rip it out.

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Yuri
|Yuri blushed. He really wasn't clumsy, just feeling uneasy. Words were fountain from him like a river. Suddenly, he realized. He had just...lied. The whole room pitched and flared a dark purple color before moments later returning gray. |"Ah, n-never mind. Here..."| Opening the door, he nearly fell inside, and quickly shuffled out of their way, sitting down a few feet from the door. To say this was a room, however, was a huge misconduct. It was a chamber, a huge sprawling chamber. The room was well lit from hundreds of glowing mushrooms that dotted almost every surface, besides a large circle that resided the center of the room. It was about a hundred twenty five, maybe a hundred fifty feet across. Conquering this space was a tree. At first, it was unremarkable. A tree. Sure, it had an interesting bark patter, but it was imply a tree. Then, details began to pop out. the tree was fitted together with thousands of pieces of wood. Some the size of a nail, others obviously full-grown trunks of once mighty trees. Each shade clashed violently with it's neighbors, providing stark contrast while still being one blended whole. Moments later, smaller details exploded into view. Each inch of the bark was a story, each story scrolled together to form a narrative. A narrative of a dragon who looked very much like Yuri, with the exact same horn patterns, the same kind, but sad smile. Although this dragon was obviously not Yuri, as this dragon was wearing an armour of what looked to be birch bark, and this dragon was fighting. Blood and gore, on certain scenes, dripped from the horns of said dragon. The viscera and carnage forming disgusting and awesome (as in inspiring awe) landscapes. Others, shown this dragon in a field of meadows, apparently growing a whole forest. Eventually, about half way up the tree, it showed the dragons death. Impaled by his own horn, broken and beaten, by what looked to be a simple human. And from his body, a tiny tree. The rest of the tree showed multiple Kurlyan dragons seemingly falling from a tree while curled up in a tiny ball and covered in resin. it showed them growing up, and seemingly dancing across the sky. It showed them healing, it showed them dying, it showed them honoring the tree they seemingly fell from, a tree that no words describe. It was huge, easily towering above the mountains, it's leaves comfortably sitting three full grown Kuryans. Nearest the top, it was unfinished. Suddenly, after about a minute of inaction, where Yuri stared down at his feet, lost in thought, he sprang up and padded to the tree. Without any other word nor motion, he set a hand agaisnt the carving and sat still for a heartbeat. Then, light. the entire tree, each crack in every detail on every figure glowed with a bright light. It was as if a campfire suddenly lit underneath the darkest of skies. Beautifull. As Yuri provided the light, hidden between him and the tree, he murmured something, and shed a single tear. AS quickly as the excrement came, it was gone. Wiped away by his other paw.|


Cottonmouth
|Cotton sat for a few minutes, before laughing. A deep belly laugh, a guffaw if you will. |"You don't get it do you? I am a human, my life is forfeit the second I enter yours. With a single punch, I will be six, naw, seven feet under. No amount of money, no amount of bullets, no amount of panic nor fear nor begging will save me. But yet, I live in defiance of you. Tell me, princess. What can I do that you cant...? I know what your gonna say, look purdiest, or shoot Spitter better. But hun, thas after years of selective breeding from my ancestors. Careful, meticulous fucking between differing families until the purdiest face appeared. And for my shootin? 20 damn years of practice. 20 damn years, for a talent you can learn by a wave of your hand. So don't give me that "All you do," crap, or the "that wasn't me." It couldov'e been yew for all I know. And yes, this is all I do. This is what I enjoy. I love me some whiskey, I love me some smokes, and I love me some purdy girls. It might be pathetic, but I am jus a human, aint I missy? And us humans are dity, disheveled cow shit compared to the high and mighty likes of yew."| Sitting back, he finally revealed his face, taking yet another long draw from the bottle. By this time it was empty, he shattered it on the table, and went back to his game. |"Now, if you don't mind, I was having a pleasant evening. One of the only three hundred and six five hundred I get, given I live a hundred years. And considerin yall get more than 1000 time that, makes my blip of an existen kinda short, huh? But most likely, on a whim, yall snap my neck, or that kitty right there will claw my throat. So ill only get about nine thousand five hundred before my soul goes wherever the hell it end up. After a few silent moment, he returned his glare back to Beryl for a second. |"And this aint me tryin to get yall all feelin about lil ol me. Jus tellin you this so you might get upand leave me the hell alone."|After a few moments, he laughed to himself, as if they werent there. |"Ha, im purdy damn smart foa cowboy, huh. All them numbers."| What he didn't say was Tumble calculated them.|

Tumbleweed
|He could feel the winds around him tighten and tense, but Cotton didn't give the "code red" yet. So the dragon was content to loft above the town, lazily gliding from one warm patch of air to the other. Suddenly, he got a weird order. Calculating, he did it, and returned to gliding.|

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Eclipse gasped her exceptional eyesight taking in the entire thing before focusing on each tiny detail, she walked around the tree touching the bark and wood in certain places where they met the bark rough in some places and smooth in others.
"How long have you been working on this?" she asked finding certain stories she liked the most

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Aether
She stared at the tree too, eyes wide open. She circled the tree, tail swishing, reading the stories on the tree. “Yuri, is this the history of your kind? Did you carve it out?” She asked, eyes not leaving the tree. She stared up, the depictions coming to life in her mind. She could almost see the dragons and their surroundings in her mind, hear them. But, alas, she knew what happened to them in the end. She wondered if Yuri was one of those he depicted. The light that came from the tree had a certain feel to it. One that made her want to take it with her. But it was Yuri’s light, and the tree…it seemed more complete with that light.

Hoko
He quickly strode forward, brushing his body against Beryl’s. His tail lashed in agitation and his eyes were no more than slits. He hoped it was enough for her to remember why they were here. He called to the wind spirits, telling them to form a tempest of gales. That dragon needed to stay away…or be held back. This…was getting dangerous. He flexed his claws, and jumped up, nabbing the gun from cotton, scratching his hand. Or at least that’s what he wanted to do. He would do it if cotton so much as thought of using his gun.

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Yuri
|Yuri simply nodded, and stepped back from the tree. Padding away a few feet, he whispered, his usual melodious voice a hoarse whisper, |"I started carving this since I was young, only a year or two after Grandfather..."| Yuri felt naked, why would he bring these two random dragons deep into his home to show them...carvings? They were just pieces of wood to them, how could they understand. |"It's the story of the Kurlyan race. Starting with, in our beliefs, born of the womb of the Great Earth and the Sky, he rises. He has no name, for naming him would be a label, would be a description. The Great Mother never game him a name. And so, he is simply him...The first Kurlyan, though, was born without the empathy, without the power of feeling others. All he could feel was the scrape of flesh, the tear of ligaments, the shattering, breaking of bones. He raged, for years, before falling to his own Heart. The heart the Earth gave to him, to stop her son's rampage. But his mother grieved her sons life, and instead of letting him pass on into the darkness. She raised him into the light and bathed him in sun. Borne from his never rotting body, a sapling. Some say it is the first, although that does not necessarily make sense to me. How would he get his armor...? From this seed, the Evertree. My birthplace, my mother."| Turning his head to the sky, he took a deep, Shakey breath. |"The tree, you could not understand unless you see it, feel it, hear it. It holds up the sky and braces the mountains below...It is not a tree, it is a being. A being of immeasurable gentleness and purity. Or...it was."| Returning his gaze to his feet, he murmured,|" I am sorry....I will leave you here. Keep looking if you wish....I need a moment."| Standing up, he padded away back into the other room, and back out into the hallway.|

Cottonmouth
|Suddenly, his head was snatched, and the witch started her whole speech. Inside, his fear was starting to rise, so instinctively, his hand dropped onto Spitter. He didn't unholster his baby yet, but kept his grip loosely on the reassuring handle. Realizing nothing he could say would change her mind, Cottonmouth simply glared. His eyes stoic despite how he narrowed them. |"Go ahead, got your feelins hurt, so yew take it out on them thats smaller. What else would yew expect from the law."| His voice was low, almost a growl, and complexly emotionless. But despite thoes few words, he just sat...glowering, but without any emotion. He wouldn't allow himself to be angry, that just fed the bitch. So Cottonmouth just coiled in on himself and glowered, much like a snake when it knows it cant take on the prey in front of it.|

Tumbleweed
|The winds kicked up further, and the sky itself seemed to tense. Another one of them witch powers. Why couldn't they just leave them alone! they just HAD to follow them and attack Cotton AGAIN. Growling, he dove. But, the dragon didn't make it more than fifty feet before the wind snatched up his huge wings and sent him rocketing upwards. His wings, built specifically to catch and ride even the meagerest winds were overwhelmed by the raging inferno of sky. Fear. Tumble was afraid. Especially since his right wing was still weak from the fight. But suddenly, he had an idea. Raking the ground below for any body of water, he soon spotted one. Folding his wings in, he formed a sort of arrow shape, and dove straight for it. As he fell, all he could think about was what would happen if he missed. Splat. But he didn't, and dove straight into the water with a -sploosh-. Seconds later, he submerged, and without even shaking himself off, he ran. Ran straight for the Town, ran for Cotton.|

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Yuri
|Pogchamp walking away moment|

Cottonmouth
|The cowboy slouched back down into his chair, and beckoning one of the near scared to death waitresses, he ordered another whiskey. Rubbing his welt laden neck, he grunted. |"Now thas gonna leave a mark, but don't worry love, not the first time I been choked by a lady. Although, jus "checkin up on you," wasn't really the reason."| With a sneaky smirk, he straightened again and kicked his muddy boots onto the table. Cottonmouth still felt uneasy, and as such, he told Tumble to hold. Realizing his hand was still on spitter, he slowly unclenched his fingers. After a few pondering minutes, where every single half tipsy braincell of his was trying to think, he spoke. |"Now, you tellin me you jus come in the middle of hells'where to....see what I was doin? Awwww, I see what this is darlin. Jus couldn't get enough of me, could ya...Thas jus damn cute"| Eyeing the wine glass, he took the bottle the waitress had given him (his what, third one?), and poured about half of it into her glass. |"Don't be drinking that baby shit, here, have a REAL drink. Might as well cause aint nothing else to do in this damn town. Don't even have no damn bounties."| Somebody from the table next to the cowboy stood up, and without even knowing what he was doing, Cotton's hand snatched out and grabbed something from the man's pocket. Unless you had the eyes of a hawk...or a snake... you would not see it. But Cotton had grabbed a fat cigar, and after nursing it to flame, he pulled on it. As he did so, he hacked out a violent cough. |"Fuck, what this filled with, vinegar?"| Biting the end off, he had a few more tentative drags before he got used to it. When tumble showed up, he simply glanced backwards, and soothed him with a few mental probes.||

Tumbleweed
|He had just reached the end of town when Cotton gave the okay. Grunting in anger, he stopped back to one of the fields he ran through, stole a random sheep, and flew up into the air with it. When he was high enough, he dropped it, then caught it, then flew up. in this manor, he let out all of his pent up anger and frustration. then, weirdly, he set the obviously shocked sheep gently down on the field, and gave it a little head pat. Then, the dragon marched into the town, made it to the Taven, and shoved his head up to one of the windows near Cotton. All that showed was a giant eye, and a sudden deep growl. Being reassured by Cotton that everything was okay and that the little human was not on fire or anything, he curled up and backed up from the window a little bit. From the way he was sitting, all you could see from the window was an eye and a little bit of his face. But he could watch and listen better to what was happening from here.||

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Aether
*worried but respectful moment*

Hoko
His wind spirits reported back to him, notifying that they were surprised by the dragon. He gave them a curt nod, disguised by him grooming his chest. He nudged Beryl gently, letting out a soft purr. He willed her to be less awkward, or at least feel better from his nudge. He glared at the dragon at the window, letting out a quiet hiss. That wing of his…it was a bit patchy according to the wind spirits. Perhaps he could tear it apart with his claws if it came to it. Maybe he should get Fuyumi here if they got into trouble. He mentally told one of the wind spirits to get help if they got into danger. He noticed cotton taking the cigar, like a snake striking.

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Yuri
|Yuri felt bad as soon as he crossed the threshold into the other room. he had abandoned them, just because he had gotten a surge of emotions. Sitting, he calmed himself; breathing deeply, he started to meditate in order to calm his pulsating heart. After six hundred thirty nine heartbeats, he felt his heart slow, felt his blood thicken, felt his body relax. *Why am I so jumpy? This is not normal...oh I messed it all up back there....I'm a freak....can't even spare a gaze at my own carvi-* Banishing all thoughts from his mind, he let his soul float lose, joining the souls of the millions of plants around his physical form. Focusing on drawling and exhaling breath, he was lost in the darkness. Peacefull, quiet, and serene.|

Cottonmouth
|"You a bitch, sipping whiskey. Pshaw. And naw, jus stronger than I'm used to, this burns like shit."| After puffing on it for a few minutes, he settled his eerily blank gaze upon Beryl, then looked at the cat. |"Want me to skin it? It's been fallowing you around, and I could always make a cheap buck of it's pelt."| After examining the cat closer, he commented. |"Very low price...And how long you gonna be sittin there, I was in the middle of a game missey."|

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Hoko
He arched a brow, as much as a cat could. Was she seriously flirting back? He couldn’t tell if she was passive aggressive or if this was turning into a love story. When Cotton mentioned skinning him, he simply stared into his eyes with an icy cold look. One that said “I could skin you and make a pretty buck out of you.” Then, he suddenly spat, puffed out his fur, arched his back, unsheathed his claws, and gave a ferocious hiss, hoping to startle Cotton. He then sat down smoothly, ignoring Cotton. He returned to grooming his paw, ears flicking nonchalantly. He was the size of a big maine coon, so he had to be careful here.

(Is Yuri that starved of friends?)

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(changing the timing of this)
Eclipse smiled sadly for a second before looking away. Now that the light from the room was dimmer it allowed her to open her third eyelids and look at the tree without some blur. She walked closer to the tree touching certain places again in full awe. As her talons contacted an older piece of bark she gasped her eyes showing a full moon and emitting more light than the full moon her eyes glowing, before her body now seemingly empty beside the light in her eyes as she saw a memory held in the bark of the tree of a much greater tree and yuri seeing it and carving a smaller version of the tree. She could feel Yuri's emotions strongly but not only his there was a strong emotion coming from the tree but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

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