[PA] Shéar Rebellion | A Safe Route

The snow was soft today. Not freshly fallen, but settled into a quiet crust, light enough to walk across, but heavy enough to hold the shape of their feet. Meethuran moved first, slow and deliberate. Her breathing caused low clouds that curled from her nose and drifted behind her before vanishing. The forest around them held its silence. Fur trees creaked gently, a calming sound. Somewhere above, a bird called out and was gone again. Rathiel walked behind her, steady as a statue.  His yellow eyes tracked the trees with constant glances, as if he was checking for something only he could sense. He didn’t hurry. That wouldn’t be useful for this task. Even his breathing stayed level.

Mercy walked at the back, where the snow had been disturbed but not yet settled again. Every once in a while he did a little hop to avoid the deeper snow and stay within the footsteps of Rathiel. His antennae seemed to twitch at every soft crunch, every whisper of breeze through frozen leaves. He looked now and then to his companions, making sure he wasn’t losing them or falling too far behind. They had a mission today, one assigned to them by their rider’s affiliation and one that both dragons and riders intended to do with utmost importance. They needed to secure a route for travelers because what they assumed to be a wild dragon had decided that same  route was to be it’s new territory and that just wasn’t going to work. So even with the task at hand, they began to decline into a slower pace as they drew nearer to where the sightings had been and it wasn’t long before they spotted the problem dragon.

She was a bit on the younger side, full of anger and spite, a normal teenager one might say. She was dust purple with a black splotch, blurry white stripes, the skin of her underbelly showing and when her wings were opened it looked like a night sky. She was pretty but her attitude was anything but. She hissed as she spotted them as well, her large gills seemed to flare, a warning sign the trio supposed. She was sizing them up and in terms of size she had the advantage, not by much but enough that she could overpowered them, if they were just one of the medium sized dragons and not the whole trio. Mora wasn’t too bothered by the human that had been hidden from view by her two dragons. She was more concerned about the two dragons, she knew eventually someone would be sent to chase her off after all her chasing of innocent bystanders from her, yes HER territory.

“Leave now. Before this gets ugly.” It was the rider who spoke and Mora scoffed at the audacity. This was her territory, she won it fair and square and now this rando decided she had to move off of it? Absolutely not. She flew a bit higher before dive bombing the group, her attempt to scatter them went unsuccessful as she averted from her dive bomb to avoid the swing of Rathiel’s dangerously spiked tail. Mora remained airborne while she reassessed the situation, they didn’t scatter and the red/orange dragon was dangerous. She noticed the yellow dragon also had spikes along the end of his tail, she then glanced at the rider. The second her blue gaze zeroed in on the rider Mercy dipped before shooting off into the sky faster than Mora could keep track of. It took all the purple dragon's focus to dive out of the way as the yellow dragon swung his tail at the stranger. The spikes on this dragon's tail were smaller than the other dragon but that didn’t make them any less deadly. She hissed and the other dragon greeted it with a hiss of his own. They watched each other for only moments before they clashed again, all claws and teeth mostly. He swung his tail and she dodged it barely before taking the opening to sink her teeth into the back of the yellow dragon's neck. She latched on like it was a fight for her life and perhaps it was. The male dragon hissed out a pained sound that was quickly covered with a growl.

Rathiel and Meethuran watched with bated breath, no longer feeling the cold lick from the frosty air. Rathiel spread his wings slightly, prepared to take to the skies himself to help the other dragon. However before he could Mercy swung his back end forward and his long tail whipped forward as well. The sharp spikes on Mercy’s tail hit Mora squarely on her side, digging into her velvet scales and she squealed, immediately letting go of the other dragon as the pain echoed through her body. She panted, a small trail of blood leaked from her side as she pondered what she should do next. If this was the damage those small spikes could do then she didn't want to imagine what the other dragon’s tail might do if she went for their rider. Before she could fully think up a new plan Mercy’s tail grazed her cheek and she tucked her wings in just fast enough to miss the full blow. She opened her wings back up and caught herself before she could fall into the waiting trap below her. Without much fuss after that, she turned tail and fled. This stupid piece of land wasn’t worth this much trouble.

When the purple dragon was out of sight, Mercy landed beside his rider, lightly pushing his snout into her hand and she gave him a small pat. She also reached up to pat Rathiel in a quiet thanks for his part in the task as well. Now that that was cleared up, the merchants could travel this path safely once again.