An Unusual Herd

[Djute]

Djute could do little more than watch awestruck as the herd of horsemen moved over the hills. A mix of feelings gathered in his gut as he watched them, an odd mixture of fear, respect, and just a touch of nausea. They were certainly a sight to behold. Their movement was somewhat unnatural, with the horse body in full gallop, but the human torso seemingly uninvolved in the whole process. It was one of the more unnerving things that he had seen during the expedition, and, now that he had seen it, he was hoping they would disappear just as quickly as they had come. Much to his dismay, however, they seemed to be heading straight towards them, with no sign of changing course. It was then that Djute remembered that he was supposed to be recording their movements. He quickly dropped back to the ground and grabbed his quill, dipping it in the inkwell that he had left next to his bag. He quickly referenced the direction the herd had come from, and began sketching rapidly on the parchment.

As he drew, someone approached the group from behind, stopping a few feet behind them. "What's all the commotion about," came Hammond's rough, sleep weary voice. Djute turned to respond, but stopped short when he caught his teacher's expression. While normally, the man kept a look of either self-assured smugness or uncaring boredom, now all his eyes showed was fear and shock. For a moment, he seemed to be frozen in spot, almost a statue. Then, sense seemed to return to him and his face turned towards Djute. "I thought I told you to wake me if you saw something!" He shouted, his voice shaking slightly. Djute tried to stammer a response, but Hammond cut him off. "There's no time for excuses. Grab your stuff. We have to run. Now!" Djute nodded quickly and stuffed his materials into his satchel. Throwing it over his shoulder, he took off after his teacher, fear moving him faster. He had never seen Hammond so perturbed in all of the time he had known the man. If something was bothering him, the situation had to be bad.

[Yukaida]

Yukaida had been so engrossed by these new creatures that she hadn't really registered Djute or Zach's reactions. It wasn't until Garrett began pulling on her hand that she snapped herself back to reality. The herd was charging right at them, and even in her natural form such confrontations would not be wise.

Of course, she was not in her natural form, so getting out of the way sounded like a very good idea. Before she knew it she was tugging on Garrett's arm again, practically dragging the poor boy back towards their allies. It was a brilliant plan except for a pair of problems.

One, Garrett was easily the slowest of the group. He seemed weak, perhaps sickly, but he tired very easily. Yukaida would have carried him, but that would take time to focus that she didn't have right now.

The second problem would be that in this form she wasn't the most graceful one either. Walking was easy enough, but sprinting in this form? She'd probably fall before twenty paces. She began weighing her options in her mind as they moved, falling further and further behind Djute and Zach every moment. Those options were quickly dissolving. One way or another she would have to make a choice soon if something didn't change.

For now, she silently ran with Garrett, trying to get to a safer area by these mundane means afforded her.

[Garrett]

Drat it all, looks like he was right. His eyes grew wide with worry, and his laugh grew nervous and perhaps even a little bit... giddy. There was something about the dangers of the situation that filled his chest with a certain... rush he wasn't quite used to. He liked it. Of course he wasn't planning on dying today, so whenever he felt a violent tug at his arm his body responded naturally. He moved as quickly as he could, his steps heavy with great effort and his chest heaving as it desperately scrambled for air. He felt his body growing heavy, but he bit his lip and squinted his eyes and he forced his self through the pain and all the signal telling him to stop, to slow down. He was being dragged, but it didn't really matter because even then he was having a hard time keeping up.

Yukaida was trying her hardest, running faster then Garrett could keep up with, but she herself falling behind the others as well. This was his fault, wasn't it? He was slowing her down, he was going to get her killed, he was going to get them BOTH killed. Stupid body! Stupid! Stupid! Keep moving! This was just so dumb, why on earth did he even bother to join a guild like this if he couldn't even keep up? Now he was hurting people because of his own incompetence. He didn't want to be that guy who couldn't do anything, he didn't want to be a burden on everyone he knew. This isn't how he wanted things to be, and he didn't want to die before he could fix that.

[Yukaida]

Yukaida heard the hoof falls coming up behind them rapidly. They'd never make it out of their path in time. They would be trampled, or just cut down by their mighty weapons. Damn this flimsy human legs! How could they stand walking with only two legs, it was so slow! Yukaida acted, rather then thinking, as she began drawing on her power, along with pulling the arm that held Garrett forward. The result was almost like throwing the poor boy, and she did fear that she might injure him. Any injury he did suffer would likely be less then what the Tavros would have done to him. She turned around, for the first time looking at the creatures as they charged at her. They did not seem to have any intent of slowing down, and Yukaida knew that her disguise would not last.

And so, she released all restraint on her power, the air distorting as waves of magic pulsed out from her. Her body seemed to gleam, her hair and clothing melding into her body as her skin took on a dark purple hue. Expanding size, bulging muscles, thickened scales; her new form was a terrifying sight for those who had never seen a dragon. Her wings spread out majestically as her tail slipped back, her standing to her full height.

She was much taller then the Tavros, but she knew that a confrontation here would be unwise. She was not strong enough to fight them, but she had no desire to. She kept her wings spread, as if a shield between her and Garrett. She was unsure exactly where the rest of her allies were, but she would not let any of them come to harm.

Dragons were protectors, after all. The Tavros, for their part, did stop their charge. Not in fear, not even in a challenging stance, more like they were considering this change. If Yukaida had to guess, they didn't want to fight a dragon any more then she wanted to fight them.

At least she could hope that was the unspoken agreement they had reached. Silence was what reined currently, her standing at her full height and blocking their path, and the Tavros looking at her as if weighing their options.

[Zacharia]

The sudden high tide of magic sent chills up Zacharia's spine and made him stumble to a halt behind Djute. He turned and lo and behold, a great big purple dragon had its back turned to him! The magic was obviously coming from the beast, but where'd the dragon come from? The mage opened his mouth to speak but no words would come and just left him spouting gibberish. He'd never seen a dragon, not from this close before. Djute said something like that earlier too, didn't he? It was a sight to see that one evening all those months ago he trudged up the road to the golden walls and glimpsed one taking off out of the city. And now it was even more enchanting, but this dragon was different. He could read one or two of its many runes, but the rest were completely foreign to him. It really came out of nowhere, didn't it? It spread its wings wide open and maintained a blank expression, if they could even express. There was something behind it too, a small white bundle of-- "Djute, that thing's got Garrett!" he cried out. Wasn't Yukaida supposed to have been with Garrett too, though? Where'd she go--oh. Oh no. Ohhhh no. Purple scales, and magic too. A magic dragon, it just seemed too unreal. Nowhere in any book did he hear of a Mage Dragon, if she even was a mage.

At the very least, the Tarvos had been stopped in their tracks. "Since when do monsters act like that? I mean, I would too but aren't they all 'kill first, questions later?'" Some of the guild members started to come out and get a look at the scene too. And how could you miss it? Yukaida as a dragon was clearly visible over the top of the hill the guild was parked at even if the Tarvos weren't.

[Djute]

Djute had barely gotten up to a sprint when something happened behind him. The exact nature of what happened was a mystery to him, but it had a noticeable effect on the events unfolding in the plains. It was almost as if something had exploded behind him, but with more force than anything the physical world had to offer. The sheer surprise it created stopped Djute dead in his tracks, his companion almost crashing into his back. As quickly as his body would allow, he wheeled around to see what the cause of such an event could be, and, needless to say, what he found was shocking. Where he could have sworn Yukaida had stood moments earlier, a great purple dragon stood, its wings outspread to form a barrier between them and the Tarvos. He had seen dragons before, but never this close. It was an awe inspiring moment and the sight of it sent a shiver down the young man's spine. Beside him, Zach shouted something about Garrett and it was only then that Djute realized that while he could see the cleric, Yukaida was nowhere in sight. And then it hit him. Yukaida. The dragon was Yukaida. A mix of emotions flooded him as he struggled with this new revelation. On one hand it was an exciting moment. They had been traveling with a real dragon. This was a new experience for him. He had never even been near a dragon, let alone talked to one. It also explained a lot about her behavior. It made sense to him now that certain things didn't make sense to her, because they were human traditions. However, mixed in with the excitement and shock was a tinge of anger. She had told them another lie. While it was true that they had never asked her if she was a dragon, she had also never made an effort to tell them either, and it felt a little like betrayal. There would be time to confront these feelings later, however, because, at present, there was still a much greater problem facing them, that of the Tarvos.

"Since when do monsters act like that? I mean, I would too but aren't they all 'kill first, questions later?'" Zach's revelation caused Djute to raise an eyebrow. It was rather unusual that the Tarvos had halted their charge and were now locked in a stare down with Yukaida. For all he knew, though, this was usual behavior, as he knew very little about monsters. He shrugged as a response and turned his attention back to the Tarvos, as one of the monsters separated from group and approached the dragon. It was larger than the rest and carried a deadly looking greataxe in its hands. This was most likely their leader. It pointed at Yukaida and spoke up in a very broken version of the human tongue. "You intruders. This Tarvos land. Go now or we kill you."

[Garrett]

He couldn't drag Yukaida down with him, that wasn't fair to her. She shouldn't lose her life just because he was bad at running, so that's why he decided to let go. He'd let go of her hand, and while they would likely prey upon him, at least everyone else would be fine. It wasn't that he was suicidal, he just realized that if things kept going the way they were he was going to die anyways with Yukaida being strung along for the ride. That wasn't fair, he never wanted to hurt anyone, he just wanted adventure. It figured it'd be the death of him, still it was a preferable fate to dying in his bed, never having seen outside his home.

Just as he was about to do this (stupid) act of (unnecessary) self-sacrifice he felt his entire body jerk forward against his will. His legs lifted off the ground and his eyes grew wide with surprise and worry as his entire frail form was almost launched forward. He landed a bit away on the ground, and while he couldn't see the spectacle happening around him, he could feel it. It was a tingly fizzly feeling, kind of like that feeling of pins and needles you get after your sleeping foot is woken up, except it didn't hurt and prickled all over his body. He didn't recognize it, or understand it for that matter, never having felt anything like it. He turned his head around, ignoring the pain in his arm that would usually be on the forefront of his mind. What he saw was a surprise. Of all the things he could have guessed would happened, this was close to the bottom, and he had a hard time even registering the whole thing.

It was a dragon. Alright then. He knew exactly who that dragon was as well, she had been standing next to him just a moment ago after all. A few of the things she said earlier to him, that was a little odd, suddenly made a little more sense. This wasn't the time to think about that, so that little epiphany went ignored and no 'ahah' was said. Instead he was scrambled back to his feet, he was behind the dragon and could see her scaly backside and long tail. He could hear the rampage slow down, and eventually stop. He stood, holding his arm with a wary smile. They were still in danger, Garrett knew about Tarvos, probably more then most people here. They were not afraid of a challenge, and they were more then strong enough to give a dragon a run for their money. In a group like this? Even Yukaida would surely perish, unless she was a significantly powerful one. However, they were also respectful, especially to the non-humans. Taguel especially, but dragons as well. They weren't like the other monsters, they were intelligent. Easily as intelligent as a human, which is what made them truly dangerous.

"You intruders. This Tarvos land. Go now or we kill you." It was as Garrett thought. He seemed a bit more confident in his already wavering smile, but stayed silent. They wouldn't listen to him, in fact if he spoke chances were he'd mess things up. The only person they would listen to is Yukaida. It was up to her to defuse this situation, or they would all end up dead. Once again his life had been saved by someone else, it was embarrassing. He would have to find a way to thank her later.

[Yukaida]

Yukaida heard the commotion behind her, but paid it no mind. They were obviously shocked, maybe angry, but they were still alive. That was better then they would have been if she hadn't acted.

She kept her eyes on the Tavros leader, nodding slowly. His broken human tongue was clear enough, though she remember to restrain her own language so as not to annoy him. Agreed," she spoke softly, backing up slowly, but keeping her eyes forward. She glanced backwards, still keeping the Tavros heard in her peripheral vision. "We should retreat from this place. I will guard the back until we are free of their land." Yukaida jerked her head back towards the direction they had come. Well, they had wanted to see Tavros up close and personal, they got what they wanted she supposed. They were lucky that Tavros were intelligent. Yukaida knew she would lose a fight with them, but she would have taken three or four with her, and that wasn't a risk the Tavros were willing to take.

She began backing off as she heard the others behind her doing likewise, watching as the Tavros began doing the same. It seemed they would honor their deal. "We should make haste out of here before they change their minds. Please be still Garrett." Her words came out as a soft rumble as one of her claws reached out, carefully picking up the injured healer. She placed him back by her neck, much like her father used to carry her when she was younger. She would not be a pack mule to humans, but there was no harm in helping these young ones when they required it.

[Zacharia]

He stared down at the scene, just like Djute. Yukaida was defusing the situation, and that was pretty gutsy considering the massive bows they carried. Maybe dragons weren't so bad like the stories all said they were. That was only Yukaida, though. She did enjoy her secrets after all; could be hiding something she really didn't want to let slip. He'd look into that after potential death was out of sight. The tarvos moved really fast for a bunch of man-horse things with weapons as big as them. The axes really made you think though. "Where did they get axes that big?" Zacharia thought aloud. "Wonder if they forge them themselves, because I don't know of any human that could hold one of those humongous things." Monsters usually ended up with weapons in their hands, didn't they? Assuming equivalent exchange was in effect (and it was always in effect) they'd find one instead of starting with one right off the bat. It took much more energy to give a skeleton a weapon than for it to just rip someone apart and---euugh. Let's not go there.

It was pretty surreal to see such mythical beasts go just as fast as they came in. Not counting Yukaida, of course. Zacharia was still a little confused, but he knew one thing for sure-- don't backtalk a dragon. With a "swish" of his cloak he turned around to find..some of the group on top of the hill--well really only the mercenary and one or two others--just as bewildered as he was. The mercenary had just slid his sword back into its scabbard; apparently he had fancied the idea that he could take on a bunch of tarvos.

[Djute]

Though one could hardly tell from its expression, the Tarvos seemed satisfied with Yukaida's response and pointed off in the direction they had come from, as if signaling the direction they should go. Then, it whistled and continued past the group, the herd following after. It seemed that, for now, their small crisis had been averted. As the last of the herd passed them by, Djute realized that he had been holding his breath, and let it out in a relieved sigh, his hand dropping from the hilt of his sword. It was lucky that Yukaida had been here. If it hadn't been for her, he wasn't so sure the Tarvos would have stopped, instead trampling them into the dust. He didn't want to think on how painful a death that would have been. Just the mere thought of it sent a chill down his spine. Yukaida spoke up again, shaking Djute from his thoughts. "We should make haste out of here before they change their minds. Please be still Garrett." In this form her voice was different. It was surreal to think that this great beast was one and the same as the beautiful young woman he had only met a day prior. "Right," Djute responded, "We should head in that direction," he continued, pointing towards where the other half of their group had gone, "And hopefully, we'll run into Garoche and the rest."

As they moved across the hills, it struck Djute that, just then, he had little problem speaking to Yukaida. Normally, he would have had to struggle to get one word out, but he had been very clear and concise just a moment ago. It dawned on him that, perhaps, it was only her human form that troubled him. An interesting thought, but one for another time. For now, he focused on the path ahead as the group moved on.

[Garrett]

He winced slightly in pain, but he ignored it as the dragon quite literally swept him off his feet. It felt weird, he was atop the dragon that was just a human maybe five minutes ago. She had yanked him around by the arm, and then she yanked him onto her back. That wasn't what was important here though, what was important that the Tavros decided to spare them. A painful and horrid death was not what they received, and these creatures were more then capable of dealing such a thing. Her body was hard, like stone. The scales that glittered a dazzling amethyst were as hard as steel, he felt embarrassed though. He had forced this, he would find a way to make it up to her if he could. He turned his neck around to see behind them, looking at the horsemen watching them with powerful and stern gazes. Perhaps it was awe that they felt? In such, they were no different then the humans when they beheld dragons.

He had nothing to say, nothing to do, instead he just sat there in embarrassment. His mind dwelling on a thought that was sure to be something he thought of often. He wondered what the others could have possibly thought of him, this was not what he wanted. He couldn't say anything, at least nothing of worth. It would be nothing but empty words. Apologies, appreciation, shame, guilt, relief, surprise, none of them could be put into words with any sort of weight. They were all things he felt though, as they swirled around in his mind. He wanted to assure Yukaida he'd be fine, and he didn't need to be carried, but that was a lie if he ever heard one. He would just slow everyone down, so it was all he could do to just sit there and simmer in his own thoughts.


He needed to not be so down on his self, he knew that this wasn't his fault. They were faster then them, if they weren't caught when they were they would have been caught a short bit later. Even if he hadn't been here at all, things would have turned out the same. Or at least similar. Yukaida would have turned into a dragon to save Zach, or Djute, or one of the other men and the Tavros would have stopped and the same situation would play out. This was something he knew in his mind.

That was it, he needed to do something about this. He couldn't sit around forever and drown in self-pity. That didn't do anything useful. He needed to train his body, or something. He didn't want this to ever happen again. "Thank you, Yukaida."

[Yukaida]

Yukaida calmly brought up the rear, perfectly aware of the brevity of her companions. Her change must have come as quite a shock to them, but for now they seemed to be taking it well enough. Djute actually looked at her, which did amuse her slightly. She began walking at a leisurely pace behind them. Leisurely because one of her foot falls covered as much ground as a dozen of theirs. When she heard Garrett speak up, she addressed him without turning back (which made sense considering where he was.)

"Think nothing of it. I don't know how you run on two legs like that, it is very awkward." She continued plodding along, her tail swishing back and forth as she did so. She finally considered something, and spoke up to nobody in particular.

"What were you planning to do when you eventually found the Tavros?" She didn't wish to insinuate that they were stupid but... well. They had just nearly gotten themselves killed for knowing next to nothing about their prey. Hopefully the more 'experienced' of the humans had a plan, and the others just deviated from it. Yes, that would be the safe thing to assume.

[Djute]

It was still odd to hear Yukaida's voice coming from the body of a dragon, though, in this form, her voice did sound a bit different. Despite that, her question was a valid one. To the casual observer, it would appear that they had come entirely unprepared for their mission and even Djute had to admit that things certainly hadn't gone as planned. The Tarvos had easily spotted them and would have certainly run them down had it not been for Yukaida's timely transformation. Still, he had at least gotten a slight idea as to the movements of the Tarvos and their sudden appearance gave a general area that would be dangerous for merchant caravans to travel in. Regardless of what they had gained, however, they had certainly done something wrong, as Hammond's earlier fear and shock had indicated. What it was that they had done was still a mystery.

He turned to the dragon with the intent to fill her in on the purpose of this part of the expedition, when Hammond cut him off. "It was our original goal to observe the Tarvos from a distance and try to gain some sort of insight on their movements and activities in the area. We're working for a merchant guild, so naturally they would be interested in the movements of these beasts so they can best know how to move and protect their caravans. However, I seemed to have placed a bit too much faith in my young pupil here," he added, shooting Djute a disapproving glare, "He was supposed to come and wake me when he first saw any sign of the Tarvos so we could move to a safe location where we could observe them without being seen. As I'm sure your aware by this point, we were spotted before that could be done. Now that we've failed that objective, the best we can do now is meet up with Garoche and the others," Hammond finished, sounding none too pleased.

[Yukaida]

Yukaida listened to the senior human speak. He seemed annoyed, which made sense, she supposed. Still, his annoyance with Djute confused her. What could have possibly changed if they had not been seen? I mean, if she wasn't there than it could have been a fatal error, but there was no sense in dwelling on what could have been.

There were a lot of 'could have beens' in her life.

"I do not pretend to understand your 'job', but I would assume that traveling through this territory would not be worth the risk, no matter the gain one could have from it. The Tavros and I, we did not speak it, but the truce was reached on a feeling of mutual fear. I could not have killed all of them, and they knew it, but I could have killed a few of them. If you wished to travel near this region you'd have to bring an army of warriors with you, and who is to say they don't have further allies?"

She mused the situation in her mind, considering the options. She didn't really understand everything about the situation, but she had enough of an idea. "If you wanted to get a gauge of their land, then perhaps it would be better to attempt by air?" she suggested. "Most creatures of the wild use natural boundaries to mark their territory, like forests and rivers. Would it not be a simple matter to scout out such boundaries from the air to devise a basic idea of where they roam?"

[Zacharia]

Zacharia quickly pulled the hood on his cloak over his face so the man wouldn't see his face flushing. Partly from embarrassment, partly from anger. It wasn't really their fault they hadn't gotten to Hammond in the first place. Trying to spot them on foot would be like trying to spot an earthquake before it happened. In the air was another story altogether. "Yukaida," his voice quivered a little. "We had nothing to scout the air with before you transformed." Why had Yukaida decided not to say she was a dragon? It wasn't so deadly to be one in this day and age. He figured she was worried simple people like them would panic at the sight of it. If anything, he was still upset she wasn't a mage like she said.

"You saw those giant bows they had too, right? Anyone would be target practice for them if they got too close to those beasts." Going on this trip started to sound kind of silly when he thought about it. Yukaida was right even if he didn't want to admit it, they'd need an army of warriors for this adventure. Or at least more than one bloke with a sword. "If we were meant to see them coming, the Tarvos would've let us anyway Hammond." Zach grumbled. To add anything more than that would be hazardous, even if he was under Garoche's immunity it would spell ill for Djute.