[GD] Titan, Riva, Storm & Lancelot | PT 1

Round One: Strength Trial
4 Show your dragon impressing another. This may be through battle, contest, general action, or some charismatic flirting.
The day was what might have been nice but in certain spots the sun scorched down upon the land turning what might have been a nice day into something unpleasant. However, if you were smart enough to not stand directly in the sun, it was still a nice day. However these dragons just so happened to be out in the open, in the sun and it was unbearable, at least to the dark female. Her wings stretched out, hovering above her head to give herself even a little shade. She stood on a ledge or red dirt, watching the dragon in front of her as best she could. He was…unique. She wasn’t one to judge but the way he could creak every once in a while, when he wasn’t even moving made her mane ruffle in an unpleasant way. The whole time they had been here he hadn’t spoken either, adding a bit to the unease. Stardust was a rather patient dragon but she had been here for a while and this strange dragon still hadn’t made his move. She hoped whatever he was going to do didn’t involve fighting, her eyes darted away from the blue dragon, eyeing the other dragons around before resettling on Lancelot with a barely audible sigh. As if that was a queue, the male’s ears perked up and he pawed at the ground, wooden hooves digging light indents into the dry dirt. He tossed his head like a horse would before rearing up onto his hind legs, Stardust watched with a bit of interest, she would admit, amazed that what seemed to be flimsy limbs could support all his weight on just two of them. She blinked and the area behind Lancelot exploded into color, there were many colors and Stardust realized it was a rainbow. She nodded approvingly and he settled himself back on all four wooden hooves. While Lancelot still didn’t say anything she could tell he was rather proud of himself.

Artemis was not what one would call a fighter, sure she could if she needed to, if pushed her hands were rated E for EVERYBODY but she really truly preferred not to. She wasn’t quite sure what her place in her current predicament was to be completely honest. She was to be a companion, yes, to help…Storm complete his displays but she felt a small amount of unease around the other dragon. She eyed the green dragon cautiously, the air around him crackling with visible electricity and she wasn’t particularly sure she wanted to get any closer than she already was. When they had first met and gone through introductions she had gotten right up next to him and the literal shock she had received wasn’t on her list of things she wanted to experience today. She was sure he didn’t mean to do it and it didn’t really hurt, it just…well…shocked her a bit. There was something in the electric dragon's eyes that told Artemis he had already figured out what he was going to do for this trial. Perhaps the gleam made the brown dragon a little uneasy but he hadn’t tried to pick a fight, so Artemis was rather hopeful. The edges of his mouth pulled back into a slightly bigger smile before he lifted a sharpclawed foot before slamming it down on the ground. The loud crack that echoed around them, made all the dragons pause to look at what was happening. The earth split where Storm had slammed his foot down, Artemis’ eyes were wide as she peered into the hole. She quickly moved back from the hole as water came bubbling to the surface like a pot overflowing. It spilled over the top of the new crack, washing over her feet with a welcomed coolness. She would admit, that was indeed very impressive.

Riva seemed also a bit pleased with the water that had resulted from Storm’s display. It made the scorching day feel just a bit better but the sound had distracted him from his own display, which wasn’t particularly happy about. He turned back to his companion, who had also been distracted by the loud noise. The strange opossum like dragon tilted his head at Riva but his ears still twitched in the direction of Storm and Artemis. He was related to this strange creature, he didn’t particularly see it but oh well. Gizmo’s eye twitched ever so slightly, as if he had heard Riva’s thoughts and perhaps he had, he was a Metal dragon after all. If that was the case then two could play at that game, Riva focused intensely on the more animal-like dragon, honing in on what Gizmo was thinking but there was nothing. Well not entirely nothing, it was a lot of white noise, a high pitched static kind of noise. Did…did this dragon actually think? Like ever? What was happening? Hello? Gizmo tilted his head curiously and the static changed to a quick alert sound before shimmering back into static. Perhaps he just needed to dig deeper, think harder, perhaps this was some strange blockade to stop telepathy being used on him. Gizmo didn’t move from where he stood, eyes locked onto Riva’s, his ears twitched again, wings shifting as his eyes narrowed. Riva almost smiled, was he getting somewhere? Was he correct? ‘Ha.’ The word or noise? caught him off guard and he lost his concentration, jolting him back into the static. He blinked and noticed that Gizmo was smiling, just a little and Riva realized with annoyance that this was all just a game to Gizmo. How was he supposed to impress an animal like that?

The last pair that were a part of this trial was an odd one. The other dragons and their companions were all relatively the same size but these two were most definitely not. Titan’s companion was perhaps more worthy of his name than he was, as the other dragon was indeed a titan, colossal to be exact. He towered over the green dragon, ominous and powerful, body partially hidden with dark celestial. Luckily, this behemoth of a dragon was a gentle giant and had settled himself down, and now he lay watching Titan with such happy interest that Titan immediately felt calmer. However, even laying down, God had to tilt his head down to watch Titan and Titan himself had to look up quite a bit. The smaller dragon hummed silently to himself before tapping the ground lightly with his foot. The ground easily shifted, lifting him higher into the air, until he was comfortably at eye level with the giant dragon. The magnificent feathered crest on God’s head lifted with what might have been amusement before resettling down. It was clear God needed no flirting, or fighting or ridiculous feats of strength to be impressed. He seemed content just to be spending time with Titan but Titan knew not all dragons would feel the same, so he was going to do what he had planned to do in the first place. He shifted around the cliff he had made to be eye level with God, and another one shot up from the ground and he leapt onto it. More and more earth came to him, bending to his every wish, it took him a little while but when he was finished it was absolutely stunning. He had carved out what appeared to be a rock carving of God’s very own head. The colossal dragon’s crest shot up with absolute delight at what Titan had done. The green dragon nodded to himself, a bit smug perhaps but it was completely warranted.

Round Two: Flexibility Trial
2 Show your dragon guiding their companion through unexplored terrain.
Terrain: Dark
How fun this was going to be. NOT. Although out of all the potential terrain options that could have been chosen for their second trial, perhaps dark was a blessing in disguise. At least it wasn’t fire terrain, they had had enough of being overheated in their previous trial thank you very much and the worst part was that that wasn’t even fire terrain. The companions however, were definitely worse than their companions during the strength trial, well, almost all of them.

The group met during the darkest part of the night, the moon was shaded with clouds and the stars, while there, barely shed any light upon their surroundings. Titan’s companion was the first to arrive, a majestic creature, with great transparent wings and flames dancing around her body. The flames were on the tips of her feathered crest, tail, wings and the top of her neck to the end of her belly. She lit the area around her in a warm glow that seemed to put everyone at ease. Accompanying her was her own adorable companion, a tiny replica of herself. Suzaku’s companion raced around happily while the rest waited for their companions. Storm and Lancelot’s companions showed up together, sisters from the same clutch, owned by the same rider. They went by the names Aphrodite and Venus, they were rather pretty and moved through the night like they owned it and perhaps they did. Lancelot’s companion, Aphrodite had two heads that playfully nipped at one another, butting heads affectionately with each other when they were done playing. Storm’s companion, Venus had two heads as well and three mouths. One head was a part of her tail, one head was on her neck and the other companion was a mouth on the pink dragon's chest. The large eyes above the third companion eyed Storm curiously and a large forked pink tongue darted out, like a snake smelling its surroundings. The final companion was Riva’s and when she arrived it was without sound, she emerged from the shadows like smoke. She was related to Aphrodite and Venus as well, full siblings from a different clutch. Her movements were both smooth and janky and it seemed to make even her sisters uncomfortable. The transparent second head creaked uncomfortably, a sound that seemed to rival Lancelot’s own creaking. The difference was that Lancelot had wooden limbs, creaking from him was inevitable. The creaking coming from Prism was incorrect, out of place in a way. As she walked past there was a strange hissing sound, like something being dragged but there was nothing there except herself.

As uneasy as prism might have made some of them feel, it didn’t matter because they had to complete this trial and the faster the better. The began to move, Storm taking the lead, as he passed his companion her head tail got a little too close to his own tail and she had received a shock in return. This only seemed to amuse the strange female but she didn’t do it again, perhaps now was just not the time. Aphrodite eyed Lancelot with varied degrees of interest, the creaking sound he made as he moved every once in a while seemed to amuse her. She watched the ribbons on his wooden legs dance in the night air and it was almost mesmerizing. When Prism began to move again, following rather closely behind Riva the bipedal dragon almost shuddered. The awful sounds she made as she moved and the general aura she gave off was almost sickening. The most normal companion in this group was Suzaku who followed happily at the back of their little group, following a foot or two behind Titan. The little carbon copy of her flew around the group, completely unfazed by Prism, even as the transparent head made a grab for her, the loud SNAP of her jaws slamming shut on nothing split the air uncomfortably. Riva felt almost concerned, why had this dragon been chosen to be his companion?

After that near accident, the journey seemed to become a little smoother, now that everyone had gotten a bit more used to one another. Although was getting used to Prism truly something everyone could do? Especially when she seemed to faze in and out of the shadows as they passed. One of Aphrodite’s heads was leaning closer to Lancelot, eyeing him with great curiosity, one of her extra hands moved out carefully to gently touch the wood of his legs, as if to admire the craftsmanship. The blue dragon didn’t seem to particularly mind, or even notice but that was okay. Aphrodite eyed the large spikes on his tail, she bet those would hurt even if they were swung warningly and not hard. Her heads butted together again as if one head was trying to push any strange thoughts away before they could manifest any deeper and said head earned a nip in reply. Lancelot watched this display through the corner of his eye before moving slightly away from the strange female.

In the front Venus and her companions were perhaps having a similar struggle to Aphrodite. This wasn’t about any spikes or anything but an urge to get close to Storm’s tail again. She was fascinated by it, drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Before she could make any moves the green dragon shifted his tail, moving it a bit further away from her as if sensing her thoughts. She pouted a little but said nothing. Still at the back, Suzaku and Titan walked, they spoke to one another about this and that, enjoying each other's company more than the others were enjoying their own companions' company. It probably helped that wherever Suzaku was, there was the ability to see, thanks to the fire she produced.

Their journey led them onward, to what was an unnervingly large graveyard. They could go around it if they really wanted to but that would take extra time and nobody wanted to spend extra time in Prism’s company if it could be helped. So through the graveyard they would go and they were perhaps a quarter of the way through it when they started to regret going through the graveyard. The world began to chill, growing colder than it had been, even to the dragons closest to Suzaku. The wind seemed to still, the surroundings became quiet in a way that should never be possible, not even Lancelot’s body made noise. There was something near, hiding in the shadows of the graveyard, creeping closer as each second the stood frozen ticked by. In a quick decision, the small bits of fire on Suzaku exploded into magnificent bright flames, completely eradicating any lingering shadows. As if on queue the whole part turned tail and fled from the graveyard, all except Prism who moved at a normal pace, something akin to a snickering coming quietly from one of her heads but no one was close enough to hear it. Eventually she picked up the pace to catch up with the group, they exited the graveyard breathless. “Are we there yet?” The words came from Aphrodite, her flirtatious nature gone and replaced with irritations. She had not been planning to get spooked and have to run on this venture. “Almost.” It was Storm who answered and he wasn’t lying. They needed to only walk perhaps a mile more before they would arrive at their destination.