[GD] Freya, Asmodea, Anomaly & Bhramari

- PROVIDENCE TRIAL - 

It was dark, the trees around were dense with vines of all sorts, illuminated only by the stars and the moon. Eight figures could be seen, the most obvious was a rather small but bright dragon, beautiful in color and color alone. This dragon was playful and excited, nearly chomping at the bit to complete her task and win her rider’s favor even more! The second dragon was a wyvern, bigger than the bright bug dragon but not the biggest dragon there. She was pretty herself, dark with reds and oranges splattered across her body like a painting. Her treasure scales hard and sharp, her jeweled parts sparkled temptingly in the bright moonlight when she stepped out of the trees. The third was a two headed beast. It was a beautiful dragon, the largest of the group, he was dark with a stunning nebula of deep reds across his body that looked more like dripping blood than anything. He had spinal bones protruding from his dripping body and his beaked heads clacked loudly as they opened and closed in quick succession, the sound echoed around the group like loud gunshots. The other dragons seemed to flinch slightly at the horrid sound before recovering quickly. The fourth was a large dragon, smaller than the beaked dragon but still large in her own right. She was a dark, dusty brown, her insect wings were big and beautiful but the rest of her wasn’t the nicest to look at. She looked like a beast straight from the pits of hell, tormenting you while you sleep, unable to move or speak, only able to watch. Like Freya, she had treasured scales, sharp and dangerous, especially on a dragon as nasty as her. Her bright pink eyes narrowed as she watched the much smaller bug dragon. She knew the bright dragon, they belonged to the same rider and she hated that the other dragon got the same amount of attention from their rider as herself, when SHE was there first.

The dragons also had companions who were here so they could prove themselves worthy of being able to breed. Freya’s companion was a dragon whose personality was… not the best. She clearly looked like she wanted to be literally anywhere else but she had showed up, so thank your lucky stars. Asmodea’s companion was a dragon she knew, owned by her rider’s only true… friend… she wasn’t sure if Javar was capable of truly making friends but alas. Her companion was Circuit, a small night dragon that had run out of usefulness and had been sent to fight in her rider’s fighting pit. Asmodea might have felt bad for her, if Asmodea had the ability to feel anything good emotion, and the whole thing wasn’t Circuit’s own fault. It was ridiculous to think otherwise, this world was eat or be eaten and Circuit lost the game. The look of disgust the bug dragon gave the much smaller dragon was bad enough to make any dragon shudder. Anomaly’s companion was a fun one, a creature that looked like it was born from chaos itself, Mischief. He clicked both his beaks, in quick succession, perhaps it was excitement? Mischief clicked her own beak back, not as loud, not as quick but kindly nonetheless. Finally Bhramari’s companion was probably the sketchiest dragon there, the small bug-like dragon tried to find the upsides to this match up but something about the other jungle dragon made her uneasy.

Before any good interaction could be had between the dragons and their companions, a tension seemed to grip the air tight, like a rubber band waiting to snap. The two dragons, of near equal size, both treasured, had seemed to get off to a rather rough start. All Asmodea had done was use her rather large arm and hand to push Circuit over, rather cruelly but that had nothing to do with Freya. The large bug dragon clicked her mandibles angrily as Circuit righted herself before scampering a ways away. She had seen enough dragon fights to sense when one was about to happen. She was a good fighter but she did not dare pick a fight with Javar’s prized dragon. She would be in an even bigger world of shit and she knew it. Freya moved slowly, baring her teeth, the sharp spikes on her tail standing at the ready. Asmodea eyed the tail, that would be the thing to look out for if this did break out into a fight. The problem was Asmodea didn’t fight, she had never needed a reason to. She was a kept dragon, not one of Javar’s filthy pit dragons. Freya lifted her tail slightly and while Asmodea was focusing on the other dragon's tail she barely noticed the wyvern opening her mouth before blasting a jet of fire right at the jungle dragon. She lunged out of the way just in time to avoid the full blast but the heat she felt from it was immense. She stared, wide-eyed at Freya, unable to comprehend why this stranger would pick a fight with her over something as stupid as pushing around a dragon who deserved to be pushed around.

Bhramari let out a horrid sound as she shoved her own companion out of the way of the fire Asmodea had just dodged. Moving out of the way herself at the same time. She chittered angrily, clicking loudly, twitching her wings to further portray her unhappiness. When she glanced at her companion, her eyes would have bulged if they weren’t already bulged. Grimsby had… fallen apart? She squawked in alarm, a noise she had never made before, she had no idea what to do. She poked and pushed parts of his body closer together and jumped back, mandibles clicking in surprise as his limbs, body, head, every part of him fell back into place and stood up, giving himself a shake, that looked very strange in Bhramari’s opinion but she kept that to herself. She was glad he wasn’t… permanently damaged? She decided to ignore the singeing on the tips of some of the feathers on his tail.

Hecate watched the fight between the two equally sized treasured dragons and quickly noticed that one of them was clearly better at battle. She found what started the battle to be something insignificant and petty. Boohoo a smaller dragon got pushed over, that was no reason to try to kill a dragon and injure the other dragons who aren’t even a part of the fight. She snorted a short burst of fire from her mouth, smoke leaving her nostrils right after. She caught something out of the corner of her eye and took to the skies to avoid a few sharp scales that had been flung at Asmodea and had missed, nearly hitting Hecate instead. That was ENOUGH. How stupid, this was just proving to the tentacled dragon that neither one of these idiots deserved to breed. She landed between the two bickering brats, her size difference giving her the upper hand in a way and they broke apart, still glaring at each other.

While this was going on Anomaly and Mischief had found a quiet spot, away from the battle. They could see the fight but they were mostly out of harm's way. His huge beak brushed carefully against the much smaller dragon’s beak, chittering happily and to his joy Mischief seemed to understand him and made a quiet noise back at him.

- STRENGTH TRIAL - 

The sun was just beginning to rise over the rugged peaks of the mountain range, casting long shadows across the once snow-dusted landscape. The group had gathered in a small clearing, away from their path but a good place to get their bearings. Despite there being no snow the cold air still nipped, causing visible clouds to form as the group breathed. Anomaly stood at the front of the group, he was the biggest in the group and his mere presence seemed to command attention and tell anyone that may bother them that that was a bad idea. In reality Anomaly was practically harmless, huge? Yes. Could he cause harm if he really wanted to? Yes, again. But he didn’t, he didn’t really like fighting but luckily his size and the way he looked kept most dragons from even approaching him. Beside him stood Kovaithe, a medium sized female and while she was here Anomaly got the feeling she really didn’t want to be. He could understand that there were far better things to do than keep younger dragons company.

Rather close to Anomaly and Kovaithe was Bhramari, perhaps the smallest of the group, closer to small rather than medium like all the companions. She was a strange thing, a giant bug would be a good way to describe her and you wouldn’t be far off. She chittered, keeping Anomaly between her and the other two dragons that were here to complete their displays. Her companion was Belthir, a brown dragon with three sets of legs, one of Kovaithe’s kids ironically. Anomaly tilted his odd heads at her and chattered his beaks, perhaps to try and reassure her? The other two dragons completing their displays had gotten off to a rough start on their first trial and it would seem they still had bad blood between them. Freya growled lowly, glaring at Asmodea with outward contempt. If looks could kill, Asmodea would be dead indeed. Freya’s companion tilted his head at her and the object of her ire, he was a tiny bit curious but he kept it to himself, instead moving to be with the other two companions, his mother and brother.

Asmodea’s dislike of Freya was also very obvious, her mandibles clicked and her antennae pinned to her head, as the ears of an animal would. Her companion was a bengal tiger sized dragon named Titan, who seemed blissfully unaware of how hostile the two females were to each other because he comfortably walked in between them. His tail brushed against Asmodea, as if to soothe her rising temper and he nearly got a jab from Asmodea’s incredibly long arms, the elbows of which were covered in hard sharp scales. But still the smaller male was unbothered by her, but seemed to make Asmodea infuriated at him rather than Freya which was perhaps a good thing. Freya however had not forgotten but there wasn’t much she could do with Titan in the way, so she would let it go for now.

Ignoring the subsiding but still very present tension, the eight dragons started on their journey. Bhramari took the lead, wanting to be as far away from the bickering pair of dragons as she could but she knew when she got home she was going to have to listen to Asmodea complain about it until something else upset her. She walked, setting a rather slow pace thanks to her size compared to everyone else. She could sense the beginnings of a complaint from Asmodea but something stopped the bigger bug-like dragon from starting a fuss. Bhramari decided to not turn around to see what it was. Slightly behind her walked her companion, Belthir, he spoke no words but seemed content with the speed of which they walked. The cold hard dirt they walked upon could be a curse on hot days but the cool air kept the ground from heating up. Behind them was Anomaly, he had seen the way the smaller dragon tried to stay away from the other two and he made sure to keep himself between them as much as possible. Kovaithe walked beside him as the hard dirt turned into open fields of yellow grass and barely any trees in sight. He couldn’t quite get a read on the female dragon as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Perhaps she wondered why they weren’t just flying? All of them had working wings… probably… So why walk when you could fly? But if this was the way the group wanted to move, who was she to challenge that? This was their trial, not hers or something like that.

Asmodea was next, making sure to stay in front of Freya at all times, as if to rub it in that she was still better than the younger dragon any day. Her companion, Titan, wasn’t the brightest of dragons but even he could read the room sometimes. He had decided to walk nearly directly behind Asmodea, hopefully removing any chance of Freya doing anything to her and Asmodea to Freya. He just hoped it would work and he didn’t end up getting spiked in the process. His wings jolted a little and a shiver ran up his body at the thought. Yeah… that wouldn’t be fun. His ears twitched back as he heard Freya growl, a noise that seemed to bubble up from somewhere deep inside her. Rathiel glanced at Freya, he had no idea what had happened to cause this dislike but he spoke nonetheless. “It’s not worth it. Once you complete these displays, you’ll never have to see her again.” The ‘hopefully’ in that sentence went unsaid. He wasn’t a prophet after all, he just didn’t feel like dealing with dragons bigger than himself starting a fight and making this task take longer than needed. He looked forward, when Freya sighed and gave a nod, keeping an eye on his mother and brother.

Even with the cold in the air, the sun began to beat down on the large group of dragons. Freya, a dragon with fire in her blood didn’t seem bothered at all but the other dragons had it a little worse. Anomaly, who looked to constantly be melting, looked as if he was melting even further if that was at all possible. Bhramari had taken to resting on the only part of Anomaly that wasn’t practically goo, which was his head; it seemed that she could barely lift her wings. Thankfully the red and black dragon didn’t seem to mind. The group seemed to tense, as if sensing something was going to happen and then Asmodea opened her mouth, most likely to start complaining. Before she could even start Bhramari let out a loud, excited chitter that mixed with a strange buzzing. “We’re almost there! I see it!” And she was right, they were so close and all the dragons that had started to slow down seemed to get the pep back in their steps. They could do this and when they were done they could rest and then go home. The two females at the back of the group glared at each other but they did not start to fight again.

- FLEXIBILITY TRIAL  -

The good news about this last display was that the dragons didn’t have to see each other to complete it. Anomaly wouldn’t have minded the company of most of the dragons he had met but alas, he would complete this part alone. For this task he had to think a bit more than the other tasks. A valuable treasure to start a hoard but what would count as valuable? Did it have to be valuable in human eyes or just valuable to himself? He pondered quite a bit, until the sun began to set, which might have been a problem for some but he didn’t mind the dark and the location he wanted to go was going to be dark anyway. He found it not too long after looking, after all mountain caves were quite common where he was.

What he was not expecting was to meet one of the dragons he had completed his other tasks with, Freya. He clattered his beak together, the loud sound bouncing around the cave and then echoing out of it until there was no more noise. Freya smiled kindly at him, dipping her head in a greeting of sorts before speaking, “Same idea hmm? I guess great minds really do think alike.” She winked at him through the dwindling light of the setting sun. “What are you looking for here? Gems, crystals… gold?” He tilted his double head at her before making a motion that might have been a shrug and Freya chuckled. That was fair she supposed, he’d know it when he saw it and all that. Until then she figured she’d tag along, perhaps she’d find something he wasn’t interested in that she liked or vice versa. They walked together a while, both seeming to enjoy each other's quiet company. The cave seemed to be a bit bigger than either dragon had expected and the further the went the warming it seemed to get. The walls began to shimmer, red rubies, Anomaly ran his hand over some of the bigger ones tucked into the cave walls. They were nice but not really what he was looking for but he might resort to those if nothing else caught his interest. They found an open bit of the cave where a sliver of bright moonlight slid in, lighting up the room ever so slightly and there he spotted it. It seemed easy to miss for anyone not specifically looking for it but luckily for Anomaly he spotted it before the moon was obscured by clouds. He ran his hand against it, letting his claws graze it ever so slightly before wrapping his hands around the cluster and giving it an almighty tug. He strained a little but in the end it broke away from the main piece, which wasn’t exactly what he wanted but it would work. He held it up, letting the moonlight catch it and when it did it was very pretty, a dark gemstone with dusty red through it. Natural onyx. Nice.

Freya watched as Anomaly clacked his beak together in excitement, she was happy for him but now it was her turn. Anomaly turned to glance at her, holding the gemstone up for her to see and she nodded. He then gave her a little bow of his head before turning to leave the cave, the way they had come. “Bye!” She called after him before returning her mind to the task at hand. She would have to venture further in, she supposed and further into the mountain’s cave she went. Then, what luck, she found something that seemed to appeal to her greatly, a chunk of something deep blue and glittering ever so slightly when she let out a puff of fire to check her surroundings. Her eyes lit up and she began to claw at the crumbly rock around it before it popped out, a fat piece of blue sapphire. She picked it up in her mouth before turning to leave the cave.

Asmodea seemed to be having trouble with her task. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what she wanted, it was that she didn’t really need anything. She had a comfy bed, she could have whatever food she wanted brought to her and same with gold or silver. What use did she have for a hoard? But she supposed that to complete this display she must, at the very least, pretend to find something to start a hoard with. What she wasn’t happy about was Bhramari deciding to tag along with her. After all… why wouldn’t she? Asmodea rolled all eight of her pink buggy eyes but she didn’t tell the smaller bug dragon no, so along she came. Bhramari chittered and talked almost the whole time they journeyed. They walked along a river for a while until the river ended in a rather big waterfall. The two bug dragons flew from the cliff to land at the bottom of the water fall. Bhramari watched the surprisingly clear water in the large pond that the waterfall led into, she made a sudden abrupt sound that seemed to be pure excitement before diving into the water near the roaring waterfall. When she came back up after romaging around she had a rather well polished nearly pink ruby gem. It wasn’t the biggest but it must have been there awhile for the waterfall to have naturally tumbled it to this near perfect condition. Bhramari held it out to Asmodea, clicking a few times before remembering to say words out loud. “This matches your eyes!” She smiled or what Asmodea assumed was a smile and tried to hold the gem out even further, the bigger of the bug dragons hesitated for a moment. She was used to the people her rider hired bringing her stuff but she had never actually had another dragon give her something of their own free will.

She took the small gem from Bhramari and while she didn’t say thank you out loud, she clicked her mandibles gently a few times and the smaller bug dragon took that to mean thank you instead. It was getting late and the sun that had been sharing the sky with the moon, a neat phenomenon, was starting to set, further and further but Bhramari dove back into the water. She had spotted another ruby and was determined to get one for herself. She caught hold of it before kicking off of the pond floor to break the surface of the water with a loud splooshing sound. She swam to the edge and pulled herself back out of the water, gem in her mouth. Her mandibles clicked together happily, now they could both start their hoard! Or something. They flew back up the waterfall, the sun getting lower and lower casting the land into dimly lit shadows. Bhramari pressed herself rather close to Asmodea, antennae brushing against the bigger female as if to make sure she was still there, even though she was literally touching the bigger of the dragons. Any other day and any other dragon would have been thrown for touching her without permission but she supposed just this once she would let it slide, after all, she could see better in the dark than Bhramari and the colorful dragon had done something awful nice for her.