Memory Lakali and the Doodle-Dragon

[Khafra]

Lakali
Summer 55 123

Lakali had himself a pitched tent, gazing over the hot, burning wastes of Veiðrbrand from a thicket of charred trees. Elementals rarely came this far, but the Gnoll was hunting, hoping to snag something with a nice hide that he could skin and sell to fund a Warband. Maybe the other Gnoll would not call him Stupid if he could take down a - what's it, a Maentyker?

Today the Other was acting up, as he punched the stakes into place. "Heh. Heh-hah," he giggled. It was like holding back a sneeze, and he had to stand tall and bray his chest. "Hah! Hah-heh-he-hah-heee-haaaa!" he shouted to the wind. Then, he pawed at his teeth, making sure that dumb little clown in his soul had gotten it out of its system before he could focus on the task at hand.

Shwoop. Up went the tent, and he pitched it well enough. Then, he gathered stones for his firepit. Lakali could have done so with magic, but a shaman once told him not to rely upon his gifts too much, and so he was taking the man's word. It wasn't very fun to live like this, though.

Lakali gazed upon his shitty tent, half-fallen down, and that disarray of rocks. "Mneh. Lakali could do better with magic," he growled to himself, eyes rolling up. Raising his paw, he curled his fingers, and gave rise to an arch of stone that rumbled from the earth, and then dragged those forces down into the pit. With his other hand, he raised a great whirlwind into the air, plucking the branches of trees and dumping them haphazardly onto the pit. Then, with a wiggle of his tail - he was happy, he loved setting things on fire - he conjured a great, burning bonfire as tall as he was, and it flared even higher before dimming back down.

The light twinkled on the horizon, for miles, but Lakali didn't care if trouble found him. He was the trouble, after all.

 

[Kahli]

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Kahli Peridot Ævergreen
Summer 55 123
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What in the blazes was he thinking? Any which direction he looked, for miles, the wastes of Veiðrbrand stretched beyond what his vision was capable of. The wastes had seen better times, described in history as a dense and lush forest before the land was scarred by violence and war. All that remained was an eyesore upon the territory of Ælheim, overwhelmed with beasts, monsters, and Luxiem elementals. Kahli could not shake the feeling that the branches upon his head would be lit ablaze at any second. How adventurers and thrill seekers saw promise in this land was beyond him.

His head throbbed, slowing to a halt to clasp a claw over his forehead. Suspended in the air above the badlands, he was reminded that this was what he Sought. An answer to his curiosity, obtaining the perspectives of these brave adventurers. How could someone foolishly risk their lives and venture into the scorched earth below him? The eastern dragon had eavesdropped and heard rumors that the soil, despite how dry and ruined it was, was rich enough to transform Veiðrbrand back to what it used to be.

A spark. No, a plume of flame, from a charred thicket of trees. A single slitted eye focused towards what he saw out of his peripherals. With vision as precisive as his, he laid his eyes upon the... dog? Was that a dog? It was certainly no dog he had ever seen, nor a wolf. Wolves and dogs do not stand on two legs. With the mild ache of what he Sought pounding in his head, this may as well be an excuse to take a detour and rest. The dragon grabbed at the air, pulling himself down at a forty-five-degree angle and propelling himself down. Descending from the sky above the wastelands, the heat washing through his fur, the scent of sulfur and years of destruction and fiery ardor guiding him towards his destination.

Whoosh! With the clatter of claws upon soil, the dragon made his uninvited entrance, crashing upon the earth and landing behind the mysterious dog-thing. ...And simultaneously, the gust of wind that followed behind the dragon would scatter Lakali's stone pit and extinguish the flame with his arrival.

 

[Khafra]

Lakali
Summer 55 123

Lakali felt the wind before it hit him, that lumbering reptile clawing its way through the sky. Wind sang to him, and he laughed again as he turned and saw it, flame from the bonfire leaping into his paws as it danced upon his body.

The rocks might have scattered, but the flame the gnoll held just above the surface of his skin did not, whipping in the wind. At least his stone 'igloo' of stacked boulders remained strong.

Lakali's heart was racing. A dragon? This was not good news. Dragons were never kind to him.

Locking eyes with the great green reptile, he did not see the flighty, bristling scales nor the snarling teeth. Though his own did smile, perpetually, locked in that smug grin. "Lakali would like to know why the dragon so rudely spits air on him!" the Gnoll called in irritation.

Seven feet tall, muscular, hunched forward with imposing teeth, Lakali did not look like any kind man of the woods. He looked rather like a monster. "Lakali is hunting, if there is a problem, then be warned Lakali will win, he is Chosen by the Aether!"

To posture further, Lakali turned and yielded his paws outward to the stone hovel he had built. There was a great flash, and then a thunderous roar as a dark cloud puffed up in the sky and then shot down a bolt of lightning.

Lakali's eyes peeled, and he brought a finger to his ears, which were now ringing. "Has Lakali made himself clear? The dragon should announce its intentions or run away." He couldn't hear himself talking - could the dragon? Oh dear. Maybe he had gone too far.

 

[Kahli]

✿
──・──・・ ── ・・──・──
Kahli Peridot Ævergreen
Summer 55 123
──・──・・ ── ・・──・──

Indeed, Lakali's observations were correct. The green, eastern dragon before him was not coated in layers of durable scales, and neither did he show off his fangs. In fact, the dragon lacked any form of barbarism, falling astray from the stereotypes and the stigma that his kind has received. His long, seemingly mammalian ears, flit up and swivel around towards the broken language which Lakali accused him with. Kahli rears his head around and turns to face the weird dog thing.

"Aeris? I am not capable of breathing Aeris. Through my Grist, I channel Geomena! Why would I be so audacious as to attack for sport?" Kahli would interject dryly at Lakali. The creature the dragon was looking at was no creature he had ever read upon in the many archives which he had digested. It was tall, and its fur betrayed just how brawny it was. Its fangs could be quite comparable to the incisors of a dragon, and the crooked smile was beastly and...rather befitting.

"Chosen by the Aether?" His inquisition would be answered in a literally striking fashion. The creature before him turned towards the stone hovel, a makeshift den in his eyes, and displayed his palms out towards it. Kahli followed with his eyes, and watched with fascination at the dark cloud manifests into being before erupting with a thunderous bolt of lightening. His vision lot of with a flash, afterimages of the direction which the bolt took, and the deafening roar of thunder clapped his own ears. They flatten out over his head, ringing all the same as Lakali's would. He squints towards the beastly creature, watching as it mouthed words that fell upon deafened ears.
Kahli waits for his ears to regain their senses. The dragon did not seem angered, nor intimidated. He might have been a young dragon, but Lakali was, indeed, a threat. ...but he did not have to be.

"There is no problem to be had. I was seeking an excuse to rest, and you gave me that excuse. ...Just...what are you? ...Lakali, is it?" The dragon would ask the gnoll, his fur standing on end from the static left in the aftermath of that powerful display of intimidation. The dragon carefully lowered himself down, curling his lower end around and letting his head fall to eye level with the gnoll. The dragon did not look as intimidating, practically comical, with his fur puffed out into disarray.