The Saga of Rossby Cystenian Remir RhysChaptersPrelude: Agate HillsOf Sky, Steel and SeaThe NegotiationsStranger ThingsPrelude: Agate HillsOne of the gnolls ran forward, waving a curved samosa'uxi in its charcoal-colored paw, cackling in the way that its kind did during battle. Aedan relished the opportunity, tightening his stance and preparing to send his sword through the repellent creature's eyeball. His chain-mail clanked about on his torso as he snarled in anticipation. Come, puppy-stealing bastard. Come meet one of the sons of Fenner and then go merrily to meet Death in his Dark Forest. The gnoll leaped to the Diamond Dog's left, jabbing with his machete-like weapon. Aedan met the blade with his black and blue shield, barking his fury at the gnoll even as his sword arm near instantly sent a counter-blow, aimed for the hyena's eyes. It succeeded. Blood poured out over gasping mouth and ruined face, the jaws shivering for a moment as the beast's soul departed its mortal body. Aedan chuffed, a soft huh noise to the crisp taiga air, as he slashed forward to his Pack-Mate Laika. "Took your arse long enough!" the white female spat in mock-anger, her blue eyes gleaming like a puppy's on Long-Night's Eve. Good, Aedan thought in the back of his mind the blood-lust is on her, that makes the two of us.. Aedan smiled as he took her back, taking a moment to nod appreciatively at the slain gnolls he had left in his wake, all ten of them. "Bastards seemed to want to delay me, dovie!" he replied cheerily as he blocked a crossbow bolt with his shield. Laika snarled back as she shot off an arrow from her longbow, a gnoll aggressor falling to the ground struck dead with the arrow through his bone-and-leather armor and through his heart. "Well, I can't take the blame for that can I fuzz-butt?" she cheekily replied as she lowered her bow and wagged her white plumed tail about. Aedan winced in mock pain. He hated when she called him 'fuzz-butt' in front of the others; what was said in a bed-room kind of needed to stay in the bed-room. Thank Vrik the Star-Pelted the rest of the pack were making short work of the rest of the gnolls. "Anything else these fellows wish to throw at trained soldiers of The Balance?" he asked casually as he sheathed his sword, as he had just seen Fikkin slay the last gnoll, who, from the look of things was an old grizzled male. Aedan frowned. Where was Dorth? The answer came quickly. Dorth had a prisoner in front of himself. It was a female, and probably the leader of the clan that had attacked the village. She was big, much bigger than the other gnolls. Aedan smiled. A Matriarch. Ol' Jarvga is going to be happier than a wolf in a hen house when he hears this. Suddenly Caelina landed, her light-leather armor and general griffin stealth making her land upon the fir-needle riddled earth with a minimum of noise. She slowly took off her claw-blades, all eight of them (One for each of her eagle talons) and stretched luxuriously as Dorth kicked the prisoner in front of Aedan. He added as he panted from his exertions; "Captain, here is the clan's leader. I bound 'er jaws so that she couldn't do no spells now, did I do good?" Dorth wagged his blonde tail expectantly as he looked at Aedan with an earnest expression. Aedan nodded and gave the orders, as everyone seemed to be expecting them now. Aedan gave a thumbs-up and a nod to Dorth, which made the blond smaller dog wag his tail so wildly it nearly hit his ribs. "Dorth, good job. Be sure the village is alright, I suspect Head Watch-Dog Orin is about to shit a wild boar if we don't tell him we're done here." A general round of laughter accompanied this frivolous statement to Orin "Hammer-Jaws" Tysun, Elder Magistrate of Agate Hills Watch-Dogs. The Matriarch snarled through her bounds. Aedan wagged a knife-sharp pointer claw at the captive, tut-tutting at the creature as though it were a naughty pup. This also led to laughter. Caelina was there, in much the way that her kind could be. "Is anyone hurt, Captain Aedan? I have my herbs and potions at the ready." The griffiness reached into her leather pouches, and scanned about with her keen eyes over the battlefield. It was Laika who answered the herbalist. "When they first stormed in, Uden caught a bolt to the arm. He is going to need that removed." Caelina nodded and went to see to the young tyro, who was currently trying to laugh through tears of pain running down his muzzle, trying to be like the rest of the lads and lasses. Brave little Diamond Dog, I'll give him that. Aedan cracked his shoulders after the thought, his chain-mail rattling as he shook out the stiffness from a hard battle. As some of the other Diamond Dogs rushed over to assist Uden and Caelina with his bolt-removal, Dorth walked over to Aedan. The still bound gnoll had stopped snarling, and seemed to take in the dead bodies of her kith and kin in a detached sort of fascination. But then, thought Aedan, who under the stars knew what gnolls thought? This helped distract him from Uden's wild yelping as Caelina drew the arrow out of his arm's flesh. Aedan never liked being in Orin's office. The room was roomy enough, so perhaps it was just Elder Orin. Also, having to wear his clan robes and medals made Aedan feel ridiculous. Give me my chain-mail or just my civilian clothes any day. The medals are the real shits, though. All heavy and having to be pinned in, and blast it if I don't always prick a finger... The young dog's reverie was cut short by the heavy bass voice of Orin, who had gotten up to look out on the street, and possibly at the pyre where the gnoll invaders' bodies were burning, leaving the acrid-sweet scent of burning flesh and fur. Orin motioned at the smoke as he talked, "How many of them came at us, this time?" Aedan quickly got up to stand beside him, showing his throat submissively briefly to the Elder dog before standing by his side and answering. "About ten spear-wielders, a pawful of crossbow gnolls, maybe twenty of them wielding them funny curved swords of theirs.." "Samosa'uxi, they're called." Orin corrected gently, his yellow eyes taking in the smoky skies and cobblestone streets in a wise and contemplative air. Aedan nodded. They stared out at the street, still collecting their thoughts. Then Orin turned to Aedan and smiled, revealing old and worn teeth, and few that had been capped with the same steel used to make the typical Watch-Dog uniform of bluish-black chain-mail. He clapped the younger Diamond Dog upon his back, nearly earning a surprised yelp from Aedan. "You did good, son." Son!? Aedan ruminated on that with an air of wonderment. Within the pack hierarchy of a typical Diamond Dog village, for a non-related dog to call another 'son' or 'daughter' was incredibly high praise. The old dog, his eyes smiling along with his mouth, sat back down in his chair, motioning Aedan back to his chair with good-natured humor. Once Aedan had sat back down in the briefing chair, Orin continued on, "The gnolls are growing increasingly bolder. They are beginning to move more and more about. Why do you think this is, Captain Aedan?" The Elder Magistrate then looked at him expectantly, like a teacher expecting an intelligent pup to answer a history problem. Aedan cleared his throat and voiced some ideas. "Well, all we know for sure is that they typically don't bother us at this time of the season. Winter is coming up, and by then they typically have moved further south after the caribou, wherein they occasionally molest the ponies' caravans and plundering the country side for game." Aedan noticed Orin nodding, as though this were expected. He then leaned over his white fir wrought desk and asked Aedan a fairly simple question, "Aedan, you have any idea how long I've been a Watch-Dog?". Aedan fumbled about in his brains' filing cabinet for the proper answer and then spoke "Nearly sixty-three years, by the Emperor's tail I think." Orin nodded, his golden fur shining in the sun's dying rays before night was upon the Earth. "Yes," the old dog said, his steel-capped fangs clanking together audibly "and for much of those years I was fairly good. Wasn't as swift as those Ikulas dogs from farther south, wasn't as big as those Rock-Gnashers who look like a gnoll painted by Vrik in Diamond Dog colors. But I was smart, kept my mouth shut even when when some screw-dicked Captain told us to do something stupid. But," Orin sighed wearily, his erect brownish-golden ears emanating his tiredness, "I have never seen gnolls in these numbers. Ever." Orin pulled a map out of a drawer in his desk and pointed at it. "I have gotten messenger eagles from everywhere; from Hilldenshire to even the Everfree Forest Outpostings. The gnolls aren't just attacking willy-nilly, lad, they're trying to make us go to war." Aedan was shocked. "But what of our allies, the griffins? And those bison tribes?" Orin shook his head again. "Same. Even worse. Bison calves taken in the night, whole litters of griffin cubs slaughtered. Food raided, good warriors left half-eaten and for the vultures and ravens." The Elder snarled, "But it isn't the savagery, lad, 'tis the tactics. Where once all you had was some savages in leather and bone armor, now they have steel." Wherein they worst they had were those wood arrows, now they have siege weaponry. I tell you lad, the marauding gnoll tribes have finally banded together, and Larka the First-Mother help us, they're trying to wipe us all out." Aedan was silent, his green eyes blazing in wonderment at this. Those Darkness-worshiping bastards. His voice cracked slightly as his confidence tried to regain a paw-hold. "Any reports from anybody in Equestria?" Since the return of the Crystal Empire, the Diamond Dogs of the northern Cities had tried to gain the Crystal Princess's favor. Trade with ponies was always lucrative, and the worked jewelry, wrought metal and of course their gems gave the Diamond Dogs quite a good reason for having trade with the ponies. Orin snorted, clearly agitated at the mention of the word 'ponies'. "Well, as Emperor Ralkuh and Empress Frelki continue to try and shore up our 'appearances' to that Crystal Princess and her stallion, it seems that other Watch-Dogs, Wise-Nobles and even some Imperial Corps members been hearing how the shit is rolling merrily down the old fucking hill. As far as I know, the gnolls are pretty yellow-piss afraid to incur the wrath of the Moon Goddess and the Sun Goddess, and if I were some bone-biting hyena I'd be in the same way." He shifting his weight and pointed at the map again. "Gnolls compete with us because we got resources and we're close. To fight the ponies? What for? Ponies don't have rabbit warrens, pheasant farms and tasty farm-fat mammoths and boars to eat. We do. Ponies have a military mighty enough to level a good-sized dragon flock like a couple of drunken ducks against a couple of falcons. Gnolls want the easier target; we're the lemmings and they're the foxes. Equestria is one big old surly mastodon cow, angry as hell once you try to mess with the calf." Aedan gulped, "Well in that case I guess we need a miracle." he deadpanned. Outside he heard a nightingale begin to sing. It was already nightfall. Orin got up and showed Aedan to the door. "Well, an old dog has kept a young dog far long enough under a tirade of pseudo-intelligent musings, eh? Go now, lad. I'm going to go home and eat some good boar and tomato stew, and I suspect the rest of you ass-biting mutts we are forced to call 'Watch-Dogs' are down at the The Lonely Oak". And with that and a cheery laugh, Orin was out in the red Mage-Fire lit roads, as well as Aedan with his stark blue and black robes and gray pelt being brushed softly by the cool night air. Aedan walked with his head craned downward in thought. Wonder where a miracle can be found... Frik and Larka, Gods of my Fathers and Mothers to the First Wolves of the Ice, please send us a miracle. Never being the sort to make such a request of the gods, Aedan shook his gray pelt out and snorted, heading over to The Standing Oak with a cross expression on his lupine face. Of Sky, Steel and SeaOn the thermals over a calm ocean, near her adopted island home, Kylura hummed in contentment. The sun shone brightly, the thermals undulated and turned just right for easy maneuvering above the wispy white clouds, and the cries of shear-waters, albatross, gannets and pelicans hunting in the azure depths below sounded to her sensitive ears like an orchestra playing upon her part of the world. She folded her left wing closed, giving a 'Grah!' of amusement and giggled like a school girl as she righted herself after pulling out of her dive. 'Truly, she thought languidly, this is what I was MADE to do!' She looked below herself, her sharp hunter's eyes seeing the dramas below in the ocean play out in the subtle and yet dramatic dances of Nature. The birds where diving at a prey ball; the small fish were panicking and schooling near the surface to avoid underwater predators. Kylura recognized the forms of large gray shapes underneath the hapless school of fishes; Most likely some dolphins, but might be some sort of seal or maybe even sharks! Kylura felt her claws twitch at the thought of seals; she had found them to be most delicious, especially the fatty blubber they had upon them. She felt her tongue begin to slaver. 'Just like me to think of the next meal. My father was right, I am basically a stomach with hands!' She laughed at her sire's old joke. She suddenly noticed a large ship on the ocean. 'By the build, appears to be Diamond Dogs. Might be griffin.' The ship flew a large red flag near its crow's nest, and after further study she noticed it had a familiar symbol upon it; a mug of ale with a yellow orchid growing out of its frothing contents. 'The Mugflower's merchant flag? I haven't seen Nivec Mugflower in ages! What has it been, sixteen years?' That was when she noticed a flurry of movement below her. Her instinctual wariness noted that the animal life below had fled, none of the prey nor the predators remained in their respective places. A lonely brown pelican was winging away back to Aylura's island in a hurry. That was when she noticed the shape. It appeared at first to be a large whale, Aylura noted with growing dismay and panic, but it was moving much too fast and unfortunately, the larger cetaceans about her island were not a dark shade of red, dark as blood. And straight at the vessel of her friends, the Mugflower ship and its myriad crew. Aylura felt her wariness being overtaken by a new emotion. Protective rage. She dove, her spined tail streaming behind her, rows of ivory-colored teeth being brought into display from within her large jaws, as her chest-flame; the draconian breath-weapon organ, pumped in preparation like a third lung or second heart. Below, she noted as her massive form began racing closer and closer to the underwater monster, that it had large and luminous eyes and two fins upon what she had first mistaken for a main body but was actually the head. 'Cephalopodic in nature...'; her subconscious mind, ever-feeling the need to be scientifically accurate, commented. Her eyes scanned it as she began to widen her wings and slowly changing her center of gravity back into a less steep dive, her wing joints snapped into attention as she began to beat her wings powerfully, her claws tensing and eyes narrowing as her body prepared for combat. A roar unleashed from her golden-scaled mouth, her nape scales lifted in exhilaration at the promise of blood and death. She heard cries of terror from the ship. Fools! 'Maybe your navigators and crow's nest attendees need to get new jobs; a fucking KRAKEN is out and after you and then all of a sudden OH NO A BIG GOLDEN DRAGON QUICK SOUND THE ALARM! Probably some fool got into his ale too deep...' and with such vitriol and heavy aggressiveness to mind, Aylura attacked the sea beast, foam and blood spraying as she sunk her sword-sharp claws into the kraken's red hide. Her claws sought purchase in the slimy, boneless and rubbery skin. She felt the large and violent animal tense in surprise; here it was expecting a nice and easy prospect in sinking a ship, pulling crew members into its great beaked maw and feeling the destructive joy of breaking apart the ship like a toddler smashing a house of blocks. Now, here was an new challenging force, one far older and more cunning than it, who resided upon the breath of the clouds and the weightlessness of the free skies, as opposed to his more skulking and shadowy peregrinations through the inky blackness of the deep. And before the battle had really begun, it was over. Aylura snapped her jaws just as she released her dragonfire; the kraken knew intense pain followed by nothing. One of its large red feeding tentacles, covered in pony-sized suckers and filled with jagged and disturbingly razor-toothed edges, caressed her back like a slimy tail, which made her shiver in revulsion before falling limply back into the water to twitch about spasmodically. Aylura began to breath more fire upon it, breath after breath until her more animal nature allowed her to relax. 'Now to see to the crew.' She folded her wings, falling into the ocean with a tremendous PLOP!, which made her smile. It reminded her of the sound of a whale breaching. Still some cries of panicked fright (in addition to fevered and whispered prayers, which made Aylura further have to hold hers jaws to avoid laughing out loud and further terrorizing the poor crew-mates) came from the deck of Mistfire as the dragoness could now see was the name of the ship. It had a black-stained hull which look quite nice, and coincidentally enough a dragon's head bobbing majestically at the prow for decoration. Aylura felt twin jets of flame escape her nose as she snorted in wry amusement at how other creatures of the world treated her race; one minute with mythic symbolism and the next with fear and distrust. But then again, certain dragons did little but reinforce the tired old 'I'm-going-to-steal-your-belongings and snatch-your-virgins' nonsense that the shorter-lived kind subscribed to her race. She decided to start the proceedings with a heartfelt and apologetic sounding shout, "A thousand pardons, but I saw the big nasty kraken heading towards your Mistfire here and thought I'd catch it before it caught you!" She smiled brightly, noticing as the griffins and Diamond Dog crew members began to blanch. She heard many hissing, rapid breaths. "Oh don't worry," she stated while paddling closer to the gunwale, her large amber eyes taking in the sailors one at a time, "I don't tend to eat friends." She inwardly sighed as the crew mates began praising her, one large black and tan Diamond Dog even going so far as to say, "Praise be to the First Ones!" and falling to his knees in relief. "We erm, well uhm... thank you of course, Miss, uh?" a younger male griffin stumbled out the first thanks while his leonine back legs shook furiously in adrenalin-doused excitement. Aylura answered the unspoken question, "I'm Aylura. This boat belongs to the Mugflower family of Griffincan's port city of Talonbeach, yes?" Many of the sea dogs and griffins nodded. "I take it that none of his family are upon this vessel, then?" Emphatic head nods said no before a griffin lad wearing a red bandanna on his head said, "You mean old Nivec Mugflower, right? He's the Harbormaster now, Mistress Aylura. He owns this and many other boats." The griffin clacked his beak slowly and ruffled his head feathers before asking, "If you don't mind me asking, how do you know him?" Several of the crew began to wander slowly back to their jobs, as though every day large dragons swam to starboard side of their ship. Aylura answered as she looked forward at her island, seeing if any of the island's other inhabitants were out and about. "I know him from the War Of Pikespeak Reach, back about... what was it, fifty years ago?" A Diamond Dog with a badly scarred muzzle nodded, lifted his head and squared his shoulders proudly before smiling a maw full of pristine white teeth. "Well paint spots on me and call me a gnoll! Ya mean to tell us ya be the Roaring Tempest, lass?" His accent placed him as a Northerner among Diamond Dogs, the vowels seemed to be slowly chewed before being rushed out. Aylura thought it sounded like... what were those fellows called again, from her Before? Oh right, Nords. From that... video game? Yes that is right... I think. She nodded at the grizzled old veteran, who smiled even wider as he tapped his chin with his thumb. "You and yer band of dragons in your flight definitely scared the yellow piss out of the big black drake those rebels hired. He ran away like a scalded cat, howling for a matin' in a back alley, and then you set fire and frost from yer mouths to them aerial infantry the Hellcat sent forward. 'Twas glorious to behold, lass." He smiled and spread his immense arms to his sides, then thrust them akimbo while grinning even more. ""Course, I was just a volunteer draft soldier, mostly defending me mates and mine own arse from the Glorious Ones or whatever weird name those griffins was calling themselves." The Diamond Dog smiled and turned to his crew-mates of the same species, "No offense to any present company, of course!" Many of the griffins grunted and waved it off, before a female with green eyes added fiercely, "None TAKEN. 'The Glorious Ones!' PAH!" She spat on the heaving deck, then hovered above it on her white eagle wings while lashing her lion tail about it anger. "What was so glorious about Baron Kestrelwise? Bastard didn't acknowledge the Perched Council, and said that the griffins needed to dissolve the Balance Pact, saying Diamond Dogs are 'mud-slinging mongrels unfit to be allies with sons and daughters of the original Great Sky-Cat!' (The Diamond Dogs of the crew snarled at this, and Aylura suppressed her own similar reaction) Then, and this was more proof of his insanity, he proclaims himself to be the 'King of Griffins' to the Equestrian princesses and begins amassing his Barony for war. Then he recruits gnolls, outlaws, and even some minotaur mercenaries and finally some dragons to fight for him, hoping to prove his letter to the pony goddesses true. He gets most of funding from some addle-brained old colleagues of his from his politicking days in Saddle Arabia and then he attacks the Winged Mountains..." Aylura suppressed a yawn as the various crew members rehashed and rehearsed the war, some adding that such and such was because Kestrelwise was insane, some admitting the rogue griffin leader to being a genius yet full of folly as to ally with such ill-regarded beasts as gnolls while having low judgments upon the race of Diamond Dogs. Her opinion was asked for often, and she dutifully answered questions about the conflict as she and her band, the Tempest Dragonflight, recalled it. The elder former Diamond Dog soldier, whose name was Marteck, especially liked to tell the others about the time he served. He told them how the griffin hoplites would take to the air, roaring and shrieking in blood lust as they took off their enemies' heads with their spears and swords, how the Diamond Dog light infantry would pounce from the ground to wrestle a savage rebel to the ground while swinging an axe at the griffins' neck, the din and blood and violence. Aylura felt the flames in her chest rise, as her mind relived the old memories. She finally thanked them for their opinions as paddled further from the ship, bidding farewell and good luck to the merchantile vessel and its load of wine tuns, barrels of salt and pepper, and grain and merry Balance Pact ship-mates. Nice enough sort, she thought as she flapped her wings, fanning the water upon the sea with the force of the air being displaced. With a departing bugle of happiness, she flew back to her island, her brain basking in the light of her good deed for the day. The NegotiationsTirruz was in no mood for the male's nonsense. She paced back and forth snarling and snapping her jaws angrily, as the male cringed and tried to look anywhere but near her. She could scent his fear, as he lowered his bushy tail and rested on all fours, attempting to not anger her further. His grey-brown coat, dotted with black spots, was covered in mud and blood as well as the tough steel cuirass her people had only recently begun to use. He was missing half of his left ear, and his shield was sheared in half. The damned fool had also lost his samosa'uxi. Indeed, young Kyrleez was in for a tongue lashing if not an outright dismissal from the Honored of Skana by his Matriarch, and Tirruz took a deep breath, stomping her left paw as she did so. Kyrleez winced. "Well, what do you think I should punish you with, Kyrleez?" Tirruz asked, her green eyes flicking up to look at the cowering male, who she swore to herself looked like he was about to urinate himself. Kyrleez cleared his throat and responded, looking her in the eyes with his own amber eyes as he did so, "Whatever my Matriarch wills, so be Her decision." If Tirruz had been a cat, she would have purred. Whoever had been this cub's mother had whelped a fine male in terms of manners, to be so formal and reasonably terrified before a Matriarch. Her shimmering cloak, which seemed to be cut from the night sky itself, blew behind her as she moved closer to Kyrleez, who had shot his eyes back to the earth floor, his face a picture of uncertainty. She reached out her paw, stroking the head of the male with her claws gently. She could feel through his short-cropped black mane his uncertainty of her sudden shift in moods. Kyrleez looked bewildered as she kept stroking his head, suddenly feeling his chest racing with cautious optimism and even a slight lifting of his lips into a toothy smile. Tirruz was now massaging her paw through his chin fur, rustling his whiskers ever so tantalizingly. Kyrleez rose, and acting on instinct, planted a kiss on the Matriarch's lips. Before much longer, they were passionately going about the act of mating, sighs, grunts and growls of pleasure peppered the rustle of clothing being removed or torn and the warrior gnoll's armor and damaged shield were dropped to the earthen floor like discarded trash. Kyrleez was going about his business with a furious passion. Tirruz did things to him he had never experienced with any other female before, and then some upon the Matriarch of Jikaln's Head bed of pony pelts, their multicolored hides making a soft backdrop to their acts. He felt as though, truly, this night had gone better than he had anticipated. Truly, his retreat from the Agate Hills would be seen as clever at the time, even though he had (truly) ran away as soon as the battle broke out as the wretched Injuvn, ancient enemies of the gnoll people, had leaped from the trees, and that damned Reefalt, the lion-eagle, had pounced on two of his fellow gnolls like a ferret on a mouse. It was when he had just began to drift off to sleep, satisfied with his place in the world and spent from his love-making, when suddenly he felt a tugging sensation on his wrists. Then a sensation, like slugs made of living ice were crawling over his entire body, causing him to gasp in sudden horror and acute pain, his eyes bolting wide open in horror and astonishment. Tirruz was now dressing herself, her robe, the starry and glimmering darkness it exuded owing to it having been cut from the skin of a great Ursa Major, began to swirl even more about her on breeze of near impossible cold. As he was about to ask what was happening, she suddenly rounded on him. Her eyes were seemingly over flowing with a shadowy material, Kyrleez noted, as he was bound and struggling desperately from the binding spell the witch had cast, that Tirruz was drawing an ornate brass-handled obsidian dagger, a star garnet on the shining hilt. There was only one reason Kirruz would use such a thing. Sacrifice. Kyrleez nearly screamed before the dagger found his throat expertly, his fresh corpse twitching as scarlet blood dripped on the ground after the first pumping spurts. Tirruz gasped in delight as she used her magic to tear though the male's rib cage with a wet crack!, the heart coming out after she snatched and slashed it out with her claws. Using her teeth, she shred the pericardium and swallowed it down, and ate at her treat contentedly, feeling to energy she had gathered from the oaf work through her body, making her dark magic work more efficiently within her, like adding oil to an already deadly war machine. She booted the now useless corpse away, licking blood from her claws and arms. A tap suddenly sounded at the door. Tirruz let her voice project with command. "Come in." A female warrior dressed in fur and leather armor bounded in, saluting smartly and being careful to avoid casting her eyes on the fresh corpse. "The Lord Nauros and his allies wish to speak to you of their terms, my Clan-Mother." Tirruz daintily washed her blood-soiled lips with her long pink tongue and lapped at her paws. "So," she said finally, straightening up and crossing her paws across her chest, "he finally has deigned to notice the spoils available, and like the gigantic turkey vulture he is, has come in anticipation of the feast. Enough of that, soldier!" she snapped, noticing the female's jaws go slack at her Matriarch's seemingly insane accusation of a potential ally, "Nauros is well-renowned to be an arrogant bastard, even among his own kind, and that is saying something. Lead on... I didn't catch your name, little soft-pelt?" "Uh, Garsa, my Matriarch." was the shaky reply. Tirruz drew upon her best smile, "Then lead me to our newest ally, my Daughter-of-the-Clan, and let us see what Lord Nauros wants." Nauros was growing impatient upon his stony perch. He was already rather angry he had to deign to deal with such lower creatures in the first place, and now that he and his stewards were here, they were bade by the little fools to wait. As though he were a mere rank-and-file grunt in their miserable little army, not a mighty Lord and his most trusted confidants! He felt the tips of each of his fangs with the end of his bifurcated tongue-tip, contemplating whether or not to merely burn the whole army down to cinders or to lay waste to them with tooth and claw. And then, as he was contemplating setting the whole forest up into a raging inferno of destruction and death, with not even carrion birds remaining in the area to clean up the remains of his rage, the gnoll leader stalked forward onto the ridge of basalt from the surrounding piney hills. She could have fit into one of his great ebony-scaled paws with room to spare. She was wearing a cut of Ursa Major pelt as a cloak, and that lightly impressed him. Ursa were powerful prey, and for such mayflies to hunt such a creature was no small feat. His rage slowly won over to casual aloofness. "Finally, for a moment I had thought you were making sport of me and my generals, and that was making me... a bit upset" he rumbled in words soaked with honey with a slight touch of sarcastic venom, his serpentine neck gliding over the form of the gnoll female. The gnoll didn't even blink. More and more heartening signs., thought Nauros. The gnoll spoke, her voice equally as sweetened and barbed, "Greetings, O great Chief of Wyrms. I hope you understand you could not very well meet me down in the village, as you and your warriors wouldn't fit." She spread her arms akimbo, indicating the great cliff they were all upon, above the village. Nauros heard Jaagon, his blue-scaled general, hide a hiss of disgust. Roaster didn't sound like he was too happy with the little bone-biter's words either, judging by the way his yellow paws were tightening into the stone like an owl's talons around a vole. And like that, she's earned little more than my typical contempt for her race. Not worthy enough to clean up my feeding cave, the impertinent little mayfly! Jaagon spoke this time, his deep resonant voice sounding out like a crash of thunder over the hillside. "We have come to treat with you as potential allies upon your own request, and this is how you repay my Lord, with your barbarous pettiness, you little primitives!? You slime are unfit for anything but a quick devouring, but I would fear I would be vomiting up your tick-riddled pelts for hours on end I do so right this second!" Twin bonfires lit in his nostrils as he snarled at the gnoll lead female, advancing forward on muscular legs the width of great pine trees to the witch. "Now have done with your insults, or I shall end you and your miserable fortification like the mere ants you really are." Roaster had his wings already at half-mast, awaiting his Lord's orders to fall upon the foolish little gnolls like a lion among sheep. Nauros, while proud of his subordinate's quick defense of his honor, held a paw aloft, stopping both of them. They were full of fire and had magma for blood, but they didn't yet understand the way to deal with lesser beings. "I thank you, Jaagon and Roaster, my trustworthy commanders, for your defense, but I have decided we shall help these little beasts in their conquering. After all, their enslavement of the other races is to our advantage." Suddenly a gout of purple flame erupted from the great dragon's mouth, and he caught a scrap of paper in the palm of his right claw. He lowered his massive hand in front of the gnoll. "My terms, written by my trustworthy unicorn thrall Diction, to be read and agreed to by you." He reclined yet again, peering at Kyrleez with his eyes like coals as his two lackeys tried to copy their liege. Tirruz read the fancy printing; From the cave of Nauros the Black Lord, This agreement is to lend to the gnoll people of Northern Aureus and Equestria the support and to be allied with the properties, entities and other owned objects of Nauros. In the event of gnoll victory over the nations of the Griffin Kingdoms and the Holdings of the Emperor and Empress of Diamond Dogs. Their nations shall pass into the holdings and under the banner of Skana, the Matriarch of Matriarchs of the gnoll people at this time, and in turn for the allegiance with the dragons of Nauros, they must agree to help, provide succor and support any and all dragons who ask for help/sacrifice/offerings to their person(s). Other negotiations are to be discussed with Quavaarik, Master of Law within the liege-ship of Nauros. Tirruz felt like screaming at the arrogant dragon, telling him to shove himself and his slave-printed letter into the most demon-infested pit in Tartarus. Instead she smiled and nodded, "I'm sure Skana will agree." The dragons all nodded at once, their bright scales flashing in the moonlight as they agreed with the decision. Nauros yawned expansively, revealing massive teeth. "Very good, gnoll. I look forward to your answers. Try not to disappoint me." Then, in a sound like sails on a boat suddenly coming to meet a strong breeze, he and his commanders spread their wings, flapped so powerfully Kyrleez had to crouch and hold the ground with her fore-claws, and watched as the dragons flew against the night, Nauros especially nearly blending in save for blotting out the starlight with his immense body. Tirruz stalked back to the village, slammed the door to her cabin and stared angrily at the walls from her pony-hide covered bed. She would give the message to Skana when she returned with new members of the Greater Clan, who would sweep over and take back from the Diamond Dogs, the griffins and their allies what they were owed by her kind for their evils. Now she just wanted, along the way, to see proud old Lord Nauros stumble and fall along the way. But not before serving the gnoll people as best as the old tyrant could. She savored the thought as she went to sleep, dreaming of the great wyrm's pleas and screams for mercy among the usual chorus of piteous wailing she thought of every night. Stranger ThingsThe two combatants locked horns, surging against one another. After much straining, one was able to throw off his opponent, his great black nostrils snorting and blowing the air, as the thrown warrior, a great minotaur with a pelt of bronze, locked again with the big bull bison he was fighting against. Above them in a great granite coliseum, the crowd cheered raucously, bets of many Diamond Dog chips, Equestrian bits, Griffin aurei and Minotaur drachmas were exchanged, insults, advice and encouragement was roared, and vast quantities of ale, mead, and other such drinks were quaffed in great qualities alongside food ranging from seasoned hay to roasted boar was for sale. All in all, just another night's games at the Public Arena in Diamaric Alps, Capitol City-State of the Diamond Dog race. Finally, the bison had managed to pin the minotaur on the dirt floor of the arena, and while the referee, a small Diamond Dog who was black with white facial markings charged in to count down from ten to make the pin legal, the crowd was ecstatic as he reached the full count. As the minotaur got up, he smiled and laughed heartily. He bowed to the crowd, then the bison, and as a show of no hard feelings, they went back into the back rooms as one, discussing battle tactics and horn care amiably. "Who fights next, Nyles?" A bat pony stallion asked his Diamond Dog companion as he stuffed his muzzle back into his honey oatcake-laden feedbag he had purchased at the confection stands. Nyles stuck his tongue out slightly as he read the names off the program card, "It say that next fight between Tuatha the dragon and Diamond Dog named Ross." Nyles frowned, showing the paper to his friend and biting a chunk out of his own purchased trout on a stick. "Usually when fight dragon, for fairness make more than one fight. Otherwise too easy for dragon, as dragon big, strong. Must be brave Dominant to attempt such feat." The bat pony looked up at this and gaped his mouth. "Poor mutt, and pardon my Equestrian Nyles on that word, but he must be crazier than a manure-house rat! Even though these are exhibition fights, it doesn't always mean you leave with everything you go in with! By Luna's withers, there have even been a few deaths here before!" Nyles nodded, taking another bite from his fish, suddenly standing up. "I go ask around, see if Ross have any victory before. Perhaps make more bets!" He jangled his leather purse of chips, the gem-based currency his people used, in his belt, then padded off into the upper crowds, away from the more ring-side seats he and Euderma, his bat pony friend and fellow employee in the Wandering Yonder Trading Company (Or WYTC, for short) had gotten. Euderma watched as the dragon went into the ring. She was colored orange, with yellow belly scales. Her neck was supple and looked strong, and she had, he noticed with wing-fluttering and mane-raising realization, retractile spines in her serpentine tail that she was currently practicing sheathing in and out, much to the crowd's approval. She spread her wings and gave a roar, and that got even more attention. She briefly flew about the ring, buffeting the audience with her wing-beats, which gave an impressive view of her claws, teeth in her half-open maw and the ivory spines on her back, as well as the tail spikes. She, even without the threat of her flames to be unleashed on an opponent, looked formidable and scary as Tartarus. Just then a grey-blue blur was suddenly beside him, it was Nyles. From the way his face was lighted up, he seemed most excited, like a child with a new toy. "EUDERMA! Place your bets on Ross! Do it! It guaranteed win!" The Diamond Dog bounced on his paws, enthusiastically punching at the air before finally setting down, his tail beating a salvo against their bench. Euderma looked down at Tuatha, who seemed like the clearer victor. He turned his slit-pupil eyes to his friend. "Nyles, I trust you ol' buddy ol' pal, but that big lizard ain't messing around, she means business!" Nyles waved a paw, "Pssh, have nothing on Ross. Just asked about him. Ross had twenty victories since he's fought here. He can Dance Stone." Euderma looked confusedly. Nyles went on after a finishing bite to his fish. "He can use old Pack Magic, rare today, to interact with rock, make it move. Also, rumor has it that he Ice Wolf of old." Just then the applause started again, as the dragoness had finally resettled herself in her designated corner of the arena. Euderma, as the crowds began to chant, "Snow-PELT! Snow-PELT! Snow-PELT!" whispered into his friend's ear, "Ice Wolf? What's that? I thought he was a Diamond Dog!" Nyles whispered hoarsely back, "Yes, Ice Wolves long thought gone, original Diamond Dogs, from long time back. Without them, no modern Packs exist." And then they saw him. He was BIG, that was for sure. Euderma had seen bigger, but still this Diamond Dog was both muscular and tall. He had a coat that was white-silver, and eyes that were coppery-gold. His nose, lips and claws were stark black, and his tail was bushy and straight. The paws were big on both his hind and forelegs, and as he entered the arena, the crowd still howling for him, Nyles and Euderma both noted him bouncing in a strange little way from paw to paw, rolling his shoulders and throwing his neck from side to side. He wore no clothing save what appeared to be a pair of rather shiny shorts. Euderma snorted. "What is this Stondancer going to do, pop and lock that wyrm into submission?" Nyles patted his friend on the back, yelling "YES! Show her how we do in Diamond Dog country, Ice Wolf!" For her part, Tuatha began laughing, pointing her left pointer claw at the figure of Ross. "This is my challenger? One Diamond Dog? Sure he is big for his kind, but ONE?" She gestured to stadium, her grin mocking. "Surely, there is but some more who would face me? Or are you Diamond Dogs and guests simply too cowardly to join in a match against me, Tuatha the Magma-Fired?" Whatever cheers had now turned into angry barks, shrieks, yells and roars. Suddenly it was Ross who regained the crowd. He stamped his left hind paw twice, then raised his hands and clapped. He waited, then did it again. This time, the crowd picked it up. BOOM-BOOM CLAP! BOOM-BOOM CLAP! BOOM-BOOM CLAP! Ross then furthered his counter-argument with a long, drawn-out howl, which many Diamond Dogs in the stadium and even beyond in the city began to take up, until it rose like a great winter gale blowing through a piney canyon. Euderma shivered, his ancestral pony memory recalling great dire wolves, dholes and gray wolves who once pursued his cave pony ancestors for food across ancient steppes, tundra and grasslands. Nyles even pitched in his deep hound bass to the call, and he had to poke him with his right wing in annoyance to make him stop, as it appeared the fight was starting now in earnest. Tuatha had now borne her teeth, had gritted her talons into the ground and was whipping her tail back and forth like a cow swatting persistent flies. Then she charged, hissing like a great teakettle, her tail whipping towards Ross fast. Ross quickly ran, using all four paws to move. And by Celestia pearly ears, was he pretty fast! He made greater ground speed than a pony! Euderma watched as he bent down, touching his paws to stadium's pea gravel and dirt floor. Suddenly a tidal wave of pebbles and dirt was in front of him, moving by the movements of his paws as he manipulated them from afar. The tidal wave rose and hit the shocked dragoness on the side, folding over her like an ocean wave over her barrel and forelegs. At the gesture of Ross, the wave went stiff, then molded into a solid piece of rock before everyone's eyes. Tuatha laughed, "I eat rocks for BREAKFAST!" and with a snap of her jaws and a terrible crunching and crashing cacophony that left the more sensitive hearing gifted members of the audience reeling, she pounced at Ross, who seemed unconcerned. Ross moved at the last moment, and now Tuatha was bugling in alarm, as her claws sunk into what appeared to be quicksand. Then as it reached up to her elbows, at another cutting motion from Ross it hardened. Tuatha this time roared, rearing up and smashing the rock form cast upon her to smithereens, "You have humiliated me ENOUGH!" and with that, she breathed fire. "Illegal! Illegal!" the referee said, bouncing out onto the dirt. Yelping as he dodged a short jet of flame by tunneling down rapidly, he peeked over the edge of his newfound safety, watching with ire-laced eyes. Ross was doing another spell, and his fists were now clothed in rock, that moved as he flexed his paws like great giant gloves. Racing towards Tuatha's head, he deflected a tail swipe, then a claw strike, and brought up another 'wave' to block the fire Tuatha's internal furnace produced. Then he PUNCHED her, right in the lower jaw, which sent her head reeling. As she tried to recover and hit him with flames, she received another rock-enhanced punch, which sent her back. A wing-slap was slapped back with a counter-slap from his paws, a tail-smack pounded into the ground painfully and any attempt to use fire was met with another vicious hook to her face by the Stonedancer. Finally, her dragon's fire burning low and her body becoming broken and bruised, she wailed, "I s-SUBMIT! I SUBMIT! Just, just no more!" she begged. Ross stopped, his paws shedding their stony casings, the fans were cheering, and already the City Watchdogs were dragging out their dragon chains to lead Tuatha to lock-up for violating the Arena's rules. Euderma was stunned. Never in his life had he seen such a thing. "Nyles?" he queried in a tone of voice that bespoke of wonder. "Yes?" Nyles replied, already on his way to earn his winnings at the betting counter. "We need to hire that Diamond Dog, Ice Wolf, Dances with Stones, whatever, for our body-guard."
Prelude: Agate HillsOne of the gnolls ran forward, waving a curved samosa'uxi in its charcoal-colored paw, cackling in the way that its kind did during battle. Aedan relished the opportunity, tightening his stance and preparing to send his sword through the repellent creature's eyeball. His chain-mail clanked about on his torso as he snarled in anticipation. Come, puppy-stealing bastard. Come meet one of the sons of Fenner and then go merrily to meet Death in his Dark Forest. The gnoll leaped to the Diamond Dog's left, jabbing with his machete-like weapon. Aedan met the blade with his black and blue shield, barking his fury at the gnoll even as his sword arm near instantly sent a counter-blow, aimed for the hyena's eyes. It succeeded. Blood poured out over gasping mouth and ruined face, the jaws shivering for a moment as the beast's soul departed its mortal body. Aedan chuffed, a soft huh noise to the crisp taiga air, as he slashed forward to his Pack-Mate Laika. "Took your arse long enough!" the white female spat in mock-anger, her blue eyes gleaming like a puppy's on Long-Night's Eve. Good, Aedan thought in the back of his mind the blood-lust is on her, that makes the two of us.. Aedan smiled as he took her back, taking a moment to nod appreciatively at the slain gnolls he had left in his wake, all ten of them. "Bastards seemed to want to delay me, dovie!" he replied cheerily as he blocked a crossbow bolt with his shield. Laika snarled back as she shot off an arrow from her longbow, a gnoll aggressor falling to the ground struck dead with the arrow through his bone-and-leather armor and through his heart. "Well, I can't take the blame for that can I fuzz-butt?" she cheekily replied as she lowered her bow and wagged her white plumed tail about. Aedan winced in mock pain. He hated when she called him 'fuzz-butt' in front of the others; what was said in a bed-room kind of needed to stay in the bed-room. Thank Vrik the Star-Pelted the rest of the pack were making short work of the rest of the gnolls. "Anything else these fellows wish to throw at trained soldiers of The Balance?" he asked casually as he sheathed his sword, as he had just seen Fikkin slay the last gnoll, who, from the look of things was an old grizzled male. Aedan frowned. Where was Dorth? The answer came quickly. Dorth had a prisoner in front of himself. It was a female, and probably the leader of the clan that had attacked the village. She was big, much bigger than the other gnolls. Aedan smiled. A Matriarch. Ol' Jarvga is going to be happier than a wolf in a hen house when he hears this. Suddenly Caelina landed, her light-leather armor and general griffin stealth making her land upon the fir-needle riddled earth with a minimum of noise. She slowly took off her claw-blades, all eight of them (One for each of her eagle talons) and stretched luxuriously as Dorth kicked the prisoner in front of Aedan. He added as he panted from his exertions; "Captain, here is the clan's leader. I bound 'er jaws so that she couldn't do no spells now, did I do good?" Dorth wagged his blonde tail expectantly as he looked at Aedan with an earnest expression. Aedan nodded and gave the orders, as everyone seemed to be expecting them now. Aedan gave a thumbs-up and a nod to Dorth, which made the blond smaller dog wag his tail so wildly it nearly hit his ribs. "Dorth, good job. Be sure the village is alright, I suspect Head Watch-Dog Orin is about to shit a wild boar if we don't tell him we're done here." A general round of laughter accompanied this frivolous statement to Orin "Hammer-Jaws" Tysun, Elder Magistrate of Agate Hills Watch-Dogs. The Matriarch snarled through her bounds. Aedan wagged a knife-sharp pointer claw at the captive, tut-tutting at the creature as though it were a naughty pup. This also led to laughter. Caelina was there, in much the way that her kind could be. "Is anyone hurt, Captain Aedan? I have my herbs and potions at the ready." The griffiness reached into her leather pouches, and scanned about with her keen eyes over the battlefield. It was Laika who answered the herbalist. "When they first stormed in, Uden caught a bolt to the arm. He is going to need that removed." Caelina nodded and went to see to the young tyro, who was currently trying to laugh through tears of pain running down his muzzle, trying to be like the rest of the lads and lasses. Brave little Diamond Dog, I'll give him that. Aedan cracked his shoulders after the thought, his chain-mail rattling as he shook out the stiffness from a hard battle. As some of the other Diamond Dogs rushed over to assist Uden and Caelina with his bolt-removal, Dorth walked over to Aedan. The still bound gnoll had stopped snarling, and seemed to take in the dead bodies of her kith and kin in a detached sort of fascination. But then, thought Aedan, who under the stars knew what gnolls thought? This helped distract him from Uden's wild yelping as Caelina drew the arrow out of his arm's flesh. Aedan never liked being in Orin's office. The room was roomy enough, so perhaps it was just Elder Orin. Also, having to wear his clan robes and medals made Aedan feel ridiculous. Give me my chain-mail or just my civilian clothes any day. The medals are the real shits, though. All heavy and having to be pinned in, and blast it if I don't always prick a finger... The young dog's reverie was cut short by the heavy bass voice of Orin, who had gotten up to look out on the street, and possibly at the pyre where the gnoll invaders' bodies were burning, leaving the acrid-sweet scent of burning flesh and fur. Orin motioned at the smoke as he talked, "How many of them came at us, this time?" Aedan quickly got up to stand beside him, showing his throat submissively briefly to the Elder dog before standing by his side and answering. "About ten spear-wielders, a pawful of crossbow gnolls, maybe twenty of them wielding them funny curved swords of theirs.." "Samosa'uxi, they're called." Orin corrected gently, his yellow eyes taking in the smoky skies and cobblestone streets in a wise and contemplative air. Aedan nodded. They stared out at the street, still collecting their thoughts. Then Orin turned to Aedan and smiled, revealing old and worn teeth, and few that had been capped with the same steel used to make the typical Watch-Dog uniform of bluish-black chain-mail. He clapped the younger Diamond Dog upon his back, nearly earning a surprised yelp from Aedan. "You did good, son." Son!? Aedan ruminated on that with an air of wonderment. Within the pack hierarchy of a typical Diamond Dog village, for a non-related dog to call another 'son' or 'daughter' was incredibly high praise. The old dog, his eyes smiling along with his mouth, sat back down in his chair, motioning Aedan back to his chair with good-natured humor. Once Aedan had sat back down in the briefing chair, Orin continued on, "The gnolls are growing increasingly bolder. They are beginning to move more and more about. Why do you think this is, Captain Aedan?" The Elder Magistrate then looked at him expectantly, like a teacher expecting an intelligent pup to answer a history problem. Aedan cleared his throat and voiced some ideas. "Well, all we know for sure is that they typically don't bother us at this time of the season. Winter is coming up, and by then they typically have moved further south after the caribou, wherein they occasionally molest the ponies' caravans and plundering the country side for game." Aedan noticed Orin nodding, as though this were expected. He then leaned over his white fir wrought desk and asked Aedan a fairly simple question, "Aedan, you have any idea how long I've been a Watch-Dog?". Aedan fumbled about in his brains' filing cabinet for the proper answer and then spoke "Nearly sixty-three years, by the Emperor's tail I think." Orin nodded, his golden fur shining in the sun's dying rays before night was upon the Earth. "Yes," the old dog said, his steel-capped fangs clanking together audibly "and for much of those years I was fairly good. Wasn't as swift as those Ikulas dogs from farther south, wasn't as big as those Rock-Gnashers who look like a gnoll painted by Vrik in Diamond Dog colors. But I was smart, kept my mouth shut even when when some screw-dicked Captain told us to do something stupid. But," Orin sighed wearily, his erect brownish-golden ears emanating his tiredness, "I have never seen gnolls in these numbers. Ever." Orin pulled a map out of a drawer in his desk and pointed at it. "I have gotten messenger eagles from everywhere; from Hilldenshire to even the Everfree Forest Outpostings. The gnolls aren't just attacking willy-nilly, lad, they're trying to make us go to war." Aedan was shocked. "But what of our allies, the griffins? And those bison tribes?" Orin shook his head again. "Same. Even worse. Bison calves taken in the night, whole litters of griffin cubs slaughtered. Food raided, good warriors left half-eaten and for the vultures and ravens." The Elder snarled, "But it isn't the savagery, lad, 'tis the tactics. Where once all you had was some savages in leather and bone armor, now they have steel." Wherein they worst they had were those wood arrows, now they have siege weaponry. I tell you lad, the marauding gnoll tribes have finally banded together, and Larka the First-Mother help us, they're trying to wipe us all out." Aedan was silent, his green eyes blazing in wonderment at this. Those Darkness-worshiping bastards. His voice cracked slightly as his confidence tried to regain a paw-hold. "Any reports from anybody in Equestria?" Since the return of the Crystal Empire, the Diamond Dogs of the northern Cities had tried to gain the Crystal Princess's favor. Trade with ponies was always lucrative, and the worked jewelry, wrought metal and of course their gems gave the Diamond Dogs quite a good reason for having trade with the ponies. Orin snorted, clearly agitated at the mention of the word 'ponies'. "Well, as Emperor Ralkuh and Empress Frelki continue to try and shore up our 'appearances' to that Crystal Princess and her stallion, it seems that other Watch-Dogs, Wise-Nobles and even some Imperial Corps members been hearing how the shit is rolling merrily down the old fucking hill. As far as I know, the gnolls are pretty yellow-piss afraid to incur the wrath of the Moon Goddess and the Sun Goddess, and if I were some bone-biting hyena I'd be in the same way." He shifting his weight and pointed at the map again. "Gnolls compete with us because we got resources and we're close. To fight the ponies? What for? Ponies don't have rabbit warrens, pheasant farms and tasty farm-fat mammoths and boars to eat. We do. Ponies have a military mighty enough to level a good-sized dragon flock like a couple of drunken ducks against a couple of falcons. Gnolls want the easier target; we're the lemmings and they're the foxes. Equestria is one big old surly mastodon cow, angry as hell once you try to mess with the calf." Aedan gulped, "Well in that case I guess we need a miracle." he deadpanned. Outside he heard a nightingale begin to sing. It was already nightfall. Orin got up and showed Aedan to the door. "Well, an old dog has kept a young dog far long enough under a tirade of pseudo-intelligent musings, eh? Go now, lad. I'm going to go home and eat some good boar and tomato stew, and I suspect the rest of you ass-biting mutts we are forced to call 'Watch-Dogs' are down at the The Lonely Oak". And with that and a cheery laugh, Orin was out in the red Mage-Fire lit roads, as well as Aedan with his stark blue and black robes and gray pelt being brushed softly by the cool night air. Aedan walked with his head craned downward in thought. Wonder where a miracle can be found... Frik and Larka, Gods of my Fathers and Mothers to the First Wolves of the Ice, please send us a miracle. Never being the sort to make such a request of the gods, Aedan shook his gray pelt out and snorted, heading over to The Standing Oak with a cross expression on his lupine face.
Of Sky, Steel and SeaOn the thermals over a calm ocean, near her adopted island home, Kylura hummed in contentment. The sun shone brightly, the thermals undulated and turned just right for easy maneuvering above the wispy white clouds, and the cries of shear-waters, albatross, gannets and pelicans hunting in the azure depths below sounded to her sensitive ears like an orchestra playing upon her part of the world. She folded her left wing closed, giving a 'Grah!' of amusement and giggled like a school girl as she righted herself after pulling out of her dive. 'Truly, she thought languidly, this is what I was MADE to do!' She looked below herself, her sharp hunter's eyes seeing the dramas below in the ocean play out in the subtle and yet dramatic dances of Nature. The birds where diving at a prey ball; the small fish were panicking and schooling near the surface to avoid underwater predators. Kylura recognized the forms of large gray shapes underneath the hapless school of fishes; Most likely some dolphins, but might be some sort of seal or maybe even sharks! Kylura felt her claws twitch at the thought of seals; she had found them to be most delicious, especially the fatty blubber they had upon them. She felt her tongue begin to slaver. 'Just like me to think of the next meal. My father was right, I am basically a stomach with hands!' She laughed at her sire's old joke. She suddenly noticed a large ship on the ocean. 'By the build, appears to be Diamond Dogs. Might be griffin.' The ship flew a large red flag near its crow's nest, and after further study she noticed it had a familiar symbol upon it; a mug of ale with a yellow orchid growing out of its frothing contents. 'The Mugflower's merchant flag? I haven't seen Nivec Mugflower in ages! What has it been, sixteen years?' That was when she noticed a flurry of movement below her. Her instinctual wariness noted that the animal life below had fled, none of the prey nor the predators remained in their respective places. A lonely brown pelican was winging away back to Aylura's island in a hurry. That was when she noticed the shape. It appeared at first to be a large whale, Aylura noted with growing dismay and panic, but it was moving much too fast and unfortunately, the larger cetaceans about her island were not a dark shade of red, dark as blood. And straight at the vessel of her friends, the Mugflower ship and its myriad crew. Aylura felt her wariness being overtaken by a new emotion. Protective rage. She dove, her spined tail streaming behind her, rows of ivory-colored teeth being brought into display from within her large jaws, as her chest-flame; the draconian breath-weapon organ, pumped in preparation like a third lung or second heart. Below, she noted as her massive form began racing closer and closer to the underwater monster, that it had large and luminous eyes and two fins upon what she had first mistaken for a main body but was actually the head. 'Cephalopodic in nature...'; her subconscious mind, ever-feeling the need to be scientifically accurate, commented. Her eyes scanned it as she began to widen her wings and slowly changing her center of gravity back into a less steep dive, her wing joints snapped into attention as she began to beat her wings powerfully, her claws tensing and eyes narrowing as her body prepared for combat. A roar unleashed from her golden-scaled mouth, her nape scales lifted in exhilaration at the promise of blood and death. She heard cries of terror from the ship. Fools! 'Maybe your navigators and crow's nest attendees need to get new jobs; a fucking KRAKEN is out and after you and then all of a sudden OH NO A BIG GOLDEN DRAGON QUICK SOUND THE ALARM! Probably some fool got into his ale too deep...' and with such vitriol and heavy aggressiveness to mind, Aylura attacked the sea beast, foam and blood spraying as she sunk her sword-sharp claws into the kraken's red hide. Her claws sought purchase in the slimy, boneless and rubbery skin. She felt the large and violent animal tense in surprise; here it was expecting a nice and easy prospect in sinking a ship, pulling crew members into its great beaked maw and feeling the destructive joy of breaking apart the ship like a toddler smashing a house of blocks. Now, here was an new challenging force, one far older and more cunning than it, who resided upon the breath of the clouds and the weightlessness of the free skies, as opposed to his more skulking and shadowy peregrinations through the inky blackness of the deep. And before the battle had really begun, it was over. Aylura snapped her jaws just as she released her dragonfire; the kraken knew intense pain followed by nothing. One of its large red feeding tentacles, covered in pony-sized suckers and filled with jagged and disturbingly razor-toothed edges, caressed her back like a slimy tail, which made her shiver in revulsion before falling limply back into the water to twitch about spasmodically. Aylura began to breath more fire upon it, breath after breath until her more animal nature allowed her to relax. 'Now to see to the crew.' She folded her wings, falling into the ocean with a tremendous PLOP!, which made her smile. It reminded her of the sound of a whale breaching. Still some cries of panicked fright (in addition to fevered and whispered prayers, which made Aylura further have to hold hers jaws to avoid laughing out loud and further terrorizing the poor crew-mates) came from the deck of Mistfire as the dragoness could now see was the name of the ship. It had a black-stained hull which look quite nice, and coincidentally enough a dragon's head bobbing majestically at the prow for decoration. Aylura felt twin jets of flame escape her nose as she snorted in wry amusement at how other creatures of the world treated her race; one minute with mythic symbolism and the next with fear and distrust. But then again, certain dragons did little but reinforce the tired old 'I'm-going-to-steal-your-belongings and snatch-your-virgins' nonsense that the shorter-lived kind subscribed to her race. She decided to start the proceedings with a heartfelt and apologetic sounding shout, "A thousand pardons, but I saw the big nasty kraken heading towards your Mistfire here and thought I'd catch it before it caught you!" She smiled brightly, noticing as the griffins and Diamond Dog crew members began to blanch. She heard many hissing, rapid breaths. "Oh don't worry," she stated while paddling closer to the gunwale, her large amber eyes taking in the sailors one at a time, "I don't tend to eat friends." She inwardly sighed as the crew mates began praising her, one large black and tan Diamond Dog even going so far as to say, "Praise be to the First Ones!" and falling to his knees in relief. "We erm, well uhm... thank you of course, Miss, uh?" a younger male griffin stumbled out the first thanks while his leonine back legs shook furiously in adrenalin-doused excitement. Aylura answered the unspoken question, "I'm Aylura. This boat belongs to the Mugflower family of Griffincan's port city of Talonbeach, yes?" Many of the sea dogs and griffins nodded. "I take it that none of his family are upon this vessel, then?" Emphatic head nods said no before a griffin lad wearing a red bandanna on his head said, "You mean old Nivec Mugflower, right? He's the Harbormaster now, Mistress Aylura. He owns this and many other boats." The griffin clacked his beak slowly and ruffled his head feathers before asking, "If you don't mind me asking, how do you know him?" Several of the crew began to wander slowly back to their jobs, as though every day large dragons swam to starboard side of their ship. Aylura answered as she looked forward at her island, seeing if any of the island's other inhabitants were out and about. "I know him from the War Of Pikespeak Reach, back about... what was it, fifty years ago?" A Diamond Dog with a badly scarred muzzle nodded, lifted his head and squared his shoulders proudly before smiling a maw full of pristine white teeth. "Well paint spots on me and call me a gnoll! Ya mean to tell us ya be the Roaring Tempest, lass?" His accent placed him as a Northerner among Diamond Dogs, the vowels seemed to be slowly chewed before being rushed out. Aylura thought it sounded like... what were those fellows called again, from her Before? Oh right, Nords. From that... video game? Yes that is right... I think. She nodded at the grizzled old veteran, who smiled even wider as he tapped his chin with his thumb. "You and yer band of dragons in your flight definitely scared the yellow piss out of the big black drake those rebels hired. He ran away like a scalded cat, howling for a matin' in a back alley, and then you set fire and frost from yer mouths to them aerial infantry the Hellcat sent forward. 'Twas glorious to behold, lass." He smiled and spread his immense arms to his sides, then thrust them akimbo while grinning even more. ""Course, I was just a volunteer draft soldier, mostly defending me mates and mine own arse from the Glorious Ones or whatever weird name those griffins was calling themselves." The Diamond Dog smiled and turned to his crew-mates of the same species, "No offense to any present company, of course!" Many of the griffins grunted and waved it off, before a female with green eyes added fiercely, "None TAKEN. 'The Glorious Ones!' PAH!" She spat on the heaving deck, then hovered above it on her white eagle wings while lashing her lion tail about it anger. "What was so glorious about Baron Kestrelwise? Bastard didn't acknowledge the Perched Council, and said that the griffins needed to dissolve the Balance Pact, saying Diamond Dogs are 'mud-slinging mongrels unfit to be allies with sons and daughters of the original Great Sky-Cat!' (The Diamond Dogs of the crew snarled at this, and Aylura suppressed her own similar reaction) Then, and this was more proof of his insanity, he proclaims himself to be the 'King of Griffins' to the Equestrian princesses and begins amassing his Barony for war. Then he recruits gnolls, outlaws, and even some minotaur mercenaries and finally some dragons to fight for him, hoping to prove his letter to the pony goddesses true. He gets most of funding from some addle-brained old colleagues of his from his politicking days in Saddle Arabia and then he attacks the Winged Mountains..." Aylura suppressed a yawn as the various crew members rehashed and rehearsed the war, some adding that such and such was because Kestrelwise was insane, some admitting the rogue griffin leader to being a genius yet full of folly as to ally with such ill-regarded beasts as gnolls while having low judgments upon the race of Diamond Dogs. Her opinion was asked for often, and she dutifully answered questions about the conflict as she and her band, the Tempest Dragonflight, recalled it. The elder former Diamond Dog soldier, whose name was Marteck, especially liked to tell the others about the time he served. He told them how the griffin hoplites would take to the air, roaring and shrieking in blood lust as they took off their enemies' heads with their spears and swords, how the Diamond Dog light infantry would pounce from the ground to wrestle a savage rebel to the ground while swinging an axe at the griffins' neck, the din and blood and violence. Aylura felt the flames in her chest rise, as her mind relived the old memories. She finally thanked them for their opinions as paddled further from the ship, bidding farewell and good luck to the merchantile vessel and its load of wine tuns, barrels of salt and pepper, and grain and merry Balance Pact ship-mates. Nice enough sort, she thought as she flapped her wings, fanning the water upon the sea with the force of the air being displaced. With a departing bugle of happiness, she flew back to her island, her brain basking in the light of her good deed for the day.
The NegotiationsTirruz was in no mood for the male's nonsense. She paced back and forth snarling and snapping her jaws angrily, as the male cringed and tried to look anywhere but near her. She could scent his fear, as he lowered his bushy tail and rested on all fours, attempting to not anger her further. His grey-brown coat, dotted with black spots, was covered in mud and blood as well as the tough steel cuirass her people had only recently begun to use. He was missing half of his left ear, and his shield was sheared in half. The damned fool had also lost his samosa'uxi. Indeed, young Kyrleez was in for a tongue lashing if not an outright dismissal from the Honored of Skana by his Matriarch, and Tirruz took a deep breath, stomping her left paw as she did so. Kyrleez winced. "Well, what do you think I should punish you with, Kyrleez?" Tirruz asked, her green eyes flicking up to look at the cowering male, who she swore to herself looked like he was about to urinate himself. Kyrleez cleared his throat and responded, looking her in the eyes with his own amber eyes as he did so, "Whatever my Matriarch wills, so be Her decision." If Tirruz had been a cat, she would have purred. Whoever had been this cub's mother had whelped a fine male in terms of manners, to be so formal and reasonably terrified before a Matriarch. Her shimmering cloak, which seemed to be cut from the night sky itself, blew behind her as she moved closer to Kyrleez, who had shot his eyes back to the earth floor, his face a picture of uncertainty. She reached out her paw, stroking the head of the male with her claws gently. She could feel through his short-cropped black mane his uncertainty of her sudden shift in moods. Kyrleez looked bewildered as she kept stroking his head, suddenly feeling his chest racing with cautious optimism and even a slight lifting of his lips into a toothy smile. Tirruz was now massaging her paw through his chin fur, rustling his whiskers ever so tantalizingly. Kyrleez rose, and acting on instinct, planted a kiss on the Matriarch's lips. Before much longer, they were passionately going about the act of mating, sighs, grunts and growls of pleasure peppered the rustle of clothing being removed or torn and the warrior gnoll's armor and damaged shield were dropped to the earthen floor like discarded trash. Kyrleez was going about his business with a furious passion. Tirruz did things to him he had never experienced with any other female before, and then some upon the Matriarch of Jikaln's Head bed of pony pelts, their multicolored hides making a soft backdrop to their acts. He felt as though, truly, this night had gone better than he had anticipated. Truly, his retreat from the Agate Hills would be seen as clever at the time, even though he had (truly) ran away as soon as the battle broke out as the wretched Injuvn, ancient enemies of the gnoll people, had leaped from the trees, and that damned Reefalt, the lion-eagle, had pounced on two of his fellow gnolls like a ferret on a mouse. It was when he had just began to drift off to sleep, satisfied with his place in the world and spent from his love-making, when suddenly he felt a tugging sensation on his wrists. Then a sensation, like slugs made of living ice were crawling over his entire body, causing him to gasp in sudden horror and acute pain, his eyes bolting wide open in horror and astonishment. Tirruz was now dressing herself, her robe, the starry and glimmering darkness it exuded owing to it having been cut from the skin of a great Ursa Major, began to swirl even more about her on breeze of near impossible cold. As he was about to ask what was happening, she suddenly rounded on him. Her eyes were seemingly over flowing with a shadowy material, Kyrleez noted, as he was bound and struggling desperately from the binding spell the witch had cast, that Tirruz was drawing an ornate brass-handled obsidian dagger, a star garnet on the shining hilt. There was only one reason Kirruz would use such a thing. Sacrifice. Kyrleez nearly screamed before the dagger found his throat expertly, his fresh corpse twitching as scarlet blood dripped on the ground after the first pumping spurts. Tirruz gasped in delight as she used her magic to tear though the male's rib cage with a wet crack!, the heart coming out after she snatched and slashed it out with her claws. Using her teeth, she shred the pericardium and swallowed it down, and ate at her treat contentedly, feeling to energy she had gathered from the oaf work through her body, making her dark magic work more efficiently within her, like adding oil to an already deadly war machine. She booted the now useless corpse away, licking blood from her claws and arms. A tap suddenly sounded at the door. Tirruz let her voice project with command. "Come in." A female warrior dressed in fur and leather armor bounded in, saluting smartly and being careful to avoid casting her eyes on the fresh corpse. "The Lord Nauros and his allies wish to speak to you of their terms, my Clan-Mother." Tirruz daintily washed her blood-soiled lips with her long pink tongue and lapped at her paws. "So," she said finally, straightening up and crossing her paws across her chest, "he finally has deigned to notice the spoils available, and like the gigantic turkey vulture he is, has come in anticipation of the feast. Enough of that, soldier!" she snapped, noticing the female's jaws go slack at her Matriarch's seemingly insane accusation of a potential ally, "Nauros is well-renowned to be an arrogant bastard, even among his own kind, and that is saying something. Lead on... I didn't catch your name, little soft-pelt?" "Uh, Garsa, my Matriarch." was the shaky reply. Tirruz drew upon her best smile, "Then lead me to our newest ally, my Daughter-of-the-Clan, and let us see what Lord Nauros wants." Nauros was growing impatient upon his stony perch. He was already rather angry he had to deign to deal with such lower creatures in the first place, and now that he and his stewards were here, they were bade by the little fools to wait. As though he were a mere rank-and-file grunt in their miserable little army, not a mighty Lord and his most trusted confidants! He felt the tips of each of his fangs with the end of his bifurcated tongue-tip, contemplating whether or not to merely burn the whole army down to cinders or to lay waste to them with tooth and claw. And then, as he was contemplating setting the whole forest up into a raging inferno of destruction and death, with not even carrion birds remaining in the area to clean up the remains of his rage, the gnoll leader stalked forward onto the ridge of basalt from the surrounding piney hills. She could have fit into one of his great ebony-scaled paws with room to spare. She was wearing a cut of Ursa Major pelt as a cloak, and that lightly impressed him. Ursa were powerful prey, and for such mayflies to hunt such a creature was no small feat. His rage slowly won over to casual aloofness. "Finally, for a moment I had thought you were making sport of me and my generals, and that was making me... a bit upset" he rumbled in words soaked with honey with a slight touch of sarcastic venom, his serpentine neck gliding over the form of the gnoll female. The gnoll didn't even blink. More and more heartening signs., thought Nauros. The gnoll spoke, her voice equally as sweetened and barbed, "Greetings, O great Chief of Wyrms. I hope you understand you could not very well meet me down in the village, as you and your warriors wouldn't fit." She spread her arms akimbo, indicating the great cliff they were all upon, above the village. Nauros heard Jaagon, his blue-scaled general, hide a hiss of disgust. Roaster didn't sound like he was too happy with the little bone-biter's words either, judging by the way his yellow paws were tightening into the stone like an owl's talons around a vole. And like that, she's earned little more than my typical contempt for her race. Not worthy enough to clean up my feeding cave, the impertinent little mayfly! Jaagon spoke this time, his deep resonant voice sounding out like a crash of thunder over the hillside. "We have come to treat with you as potential allies upon your own request, and this is how you repay my Lord, with your barbarous pettiness, you little primitives!? You slime are unfit for anything but a quick devouring, but I would fear I would be vomiting up your tick-riddled pelts for hours on end I do so right this second!" Twin bonfires lit in his nostrils as he snarled at the gnoll lead female, advancing forward on muscular legs the width of great pine trees to the witch. "Now have done with your insults, or I shall end you and your miserable fortification like the mere ants you really are." Roaster had his wings already at half-mast, awaiting his Lord's orders to fall upon the foolish little gnolls like a lion among sheep. Nauros, while proud of his subordinate's quick defense of his honor, held a paw aloft, stopping both of them. They were full of fire and had magma for blood, but they didn't yet understand the way to deal with lesser beings. "I thank you, Jaagon and Roaster, my trustworthy commanders, for your defense, but I have decided we shall help these little beasts in their conquering. After all, their enslavement of the other races is to our advantage." Suddenly a gout of purple flame erupted from the great dragon's mouth, and he caught a scrap of paper in the palm of his right claw. He lowered his massive hand in front of the gnoll. "My terms, written by my trustworthy unicorn thrall Diction, to be read and agreed to by you." He reclined yet again, peering at Kyrleez with his eyes like coals as his two lackeys tried to copy their liege. Tirruz read the fancy printing; From the cave of Nauros the Black Lord, This agreement is to lend to the gnoll people of Northern Aureus and Equestria the support and to be allied with the properties, entities and other owned objects of Nauros. In the event of gnoll victory over the nations of the Griffin Kingdoms and the Holdings of the Emperor and Empress of Diamond Dogs. Their nations shall pass into the holdings and under the banner of Skana, the Matriarch of Matriarchs of the gnoll people at this time, and in turn for the allegiance with the dragons of Nauros, they must agree to help, provide succor and support any and all dragons who ask for help/sacrifice/offerings to their person(s). Other negotiations are to be discussed with Quavaarik, Master of Law within the liege-ship of Nauros. Tirruz felt like screaming at the arrogant dragon, telling him to shove himself and his slave-printed letter into the most demon-infested pit in Tartarus. Instead she smiled and nodded, "I'm sure Skana will agree." The dragons all nodded at once, their bright scales flashing in the moonlight as they agreed with the decision. Nauros yawned expansively, revealing massive teeth. "Very good, gnoll. I look forward to your answers. Try not to disappoint me." Then, in a sound like sails on a boat suddenly coming to meet a strong breeze, he and his commanders spread their wings, flapped so powerfully Kyrleez had to crouch and hold the ground with her fore-claws, and watched as the dragons flew against the night, Nauros especially nearly blending in save for blotting out the starlight with his immense body. Tirruz stalked back to the village, slammed the door to her cabin and stared angrily at the walls from her pony-hide covered bed. She would give the message to Skana when she returned with new members of the Greater Clan, who would sweep over and take back from the Diamond Dogs, the griffins and their allies what they were owed by her kind for their evils. Now she just wanted, along the way, to see proud old Lord Nauros stumble and fall along the way. But not before serving the gnoll people as best as the old tyrant could. She savored the thought as she went to sleep, dreaming of the great wyrm's pleas and screams for mercy among the usual chorus of piteous wailing she thought of every night.
Stranger ThingsThe two combatants locked horns, surging against one another. After much straining, one was able to throw off his opponent, his great black nostrils snorting and blowing the air, as the thrown warrior, a great minotaur with a pelt of bronze, locked again with the big bull bison he was fighting against. Above them in a great granite coliseum, the crowd cheered raucously, bets of many Diamond Dog chips, Equestrian bits, Griffin aurei and Minotaur drachmas were exchanged, insults, advice and encouragement was roared, and vast quantities of ale, mead, and other such drinks were quaffed in great qualities alongside food ranging from seasoned hay to roasted boar was for sale. All in all, just another night's games at the Public Arena in Diamaric Alps, Capitol City-State of the Diamond Dog race. Finally, the bison had managed to pin the minotaur on the dirt floor of the arena, and while the referee, a small Diamond Dog who was black with white facial markings charged in to count down from ten to make the pin legal, the crowd was ecstatic as he reached the full count. As the minotaur got up, he smiled and laughed heartily. He bowed to the crowd, then the bison, and as a show of no hard feelings, they went back into the back rooms as one, discussing battle tactics and horn care amiably. "Who fights next, Nyles?" A bat pony stallion asked his Diamond Dog companion as he stuffed his muzzle back into his honey oatcake-laden feedbag he had purchased at the confection stands. Nyles stuck his tongue out slightly as he read the names off the program card, "It say that next fight between Tuatha the dragon and Diamond Dog named Ross." Nyles frowned, showing the paper to his friend and biting a chunk out of his own purchased trout on a stick. "Usually when fight dragon, for fairness make more than one fight. Otherwise too easy for dragon, as dragon big, strong. Must be brave Dominant to attempt such feat." The bat pony looked up at this and gaped his mouth. "Poor mutt, and pardon my Equestrian Nyles on that word, but he must be crazier than a manure-house rat! Even though these are exhibition fights, it doesn't always mean you leave with everything you go in with! By Luna's withers, there have even been a few deaths here before!" Nyles nodded, taking another bite from his fish, suddenly standing up. "I go ask around, see if Ross have any victory before. Perhaps make more bets!" He jangled his leather purse of chips, the gem-based currency his people used, in his belt, then padded off into the upper crowds, away from the more ring-side seats he and Euderma, his bat pony friend and fellow employee in the Wandering Yonder Trading Company (Or WYTC, for short) had gotten. Euderma watched as the dragon went into the ring. She was colored orange, with yellow belly scales. Her neck was supple and looked strong, and she had, he noticed with wing-fluttering and mane-raising realization, retractile spines in her serpentine tail that she was currently practicing sheathing in and out, much to the crowd's approval. She spread her wings and gave a roar, and that got even more attention. She briefly flew about the ring, buffeting the audience with her wing-beats, which gave an impressive view of her claws, teeth in her half-open maw and the ivory spines on her back, as well as the tail spikes. She, even without the threat of her flames to be unleashed on an opponent, looked formidable and scary as Tartarus. Just then a grey-blue blur was suddenly beside him, it was Nyles. From the way his face was lighted up, he seemed most excited, like a child with a new toy. "EUDERMA! Place your bets on Ross! Do it! It guaranteed win!" The Diamond Dog bounced on his paws, enthusiastically punching at the air before finally setting down, his tail beating a salvo against their bench. Euderma looked down at Tuatha, who seemed like the clearer victor. He turned his slit-pupil eyes to his friend. "Nyles, I trust you ol' buddy ol' pal, but that big lizard ain't messing around, she means business!" Nyles waved a paw, "Pssh, have nothing on Ross. Just asked about him. Ross had twenty victories since he's fought here. He can Dance Stone." Euderma looked confusedly. Nyles went on after a finishing bite to his fish. "He can use old Pack Magic, rare today, to interact with rock, make it move. Also, rumor has it that he Ice Wolf of old." Just then the applause started again, as the dragoness had finally resettled herself in her designated corner of the arena. Euderma, as the crowds began to chant, "Snow-PELT! Snow-PELT! Snow-PELT!" whispered into his friend's ear, "Ice Wolf? What's that? I thought he was a Diamond Dog!" Nyles whispered hoarsely back, "Yes, Ice Wolves long thought gone, original Diamond Dogs, from long time back. Without them, no modern Packs exist." And then they saw him. He was BIG, that was for sure. Euderma had seen bigger, but still this Diamond Dog was both muscular and tall. He had a coat that was white-silver, and eyes that were coppery-gold. His nose, lips and claws were stark black, and his tail was bushy and straight. The paws were big on both his hind and forelegs, and as he entered the arena, the crowd still howling for him, Nyles and Euderma both noted him bouncing in a strange little way from paw to paw, rolling his shoulders and throwing his neck from side to side. He wore no clothing save what appeared to be a pair of rather shiny shorts. Euderma snorted. "What is this Stondancer going to do, pop and lock that wyrm into submission?" Nyles patted his friend on the back, yelling "YES! Show her how we do in Diamond Dog country, Ice Wolf!" For her part, Tuatha began laughing, pointing her left pointer claw at the figure of Ross. "This is my challenger? One Diamond Dog? Sure he is big for his kind, but ONE?" She gestured to stadium, her grin mocking. "Surely, there is but some more who would face me? Or are you Diamond Dogs and guests simply too cowardly to join in a match against me, Tuatha the Magma-Fired?" Whatever cheers had now turned into angry barks, shrieks, yells and roars. Suddenly it was Ross who regained the crowd. He stamped his left hind paw twice, then raised his hands and clapped. He waited, then did it again. This time, the crowd picked it up. BOOM-BOOM CLAP! BOOM-BOOM CLAP! BOOM-BOOM CLAP! Ross then furthered his counter-argument with a long, drawn-out howl, which many Diamond Dogs in the stadium and even beyond in the city began to take up, until it rose like a great winter gale blowing through a piney canyon. Euderma shivered, his ancestral pony memory recalling great dire wolves, dholes and gray wolves who once pursued his cave pony ancestors for food across ancient steppes, tundra and grasslands. Nyles even pitched in his deep hound bass to the call, and he had to poke him with his right wing in annoyance to make him stop, as it appeared the fight was starting now in earnest. Tuatha had now borne her teeth, had gritted her talons into the ground and was whipping her tail back and forth like a cow swatting persistent flies. Then she charged, hissing like a great teakettle, her tail whipping towards Ross fast. Ross quickly ran, using all four paws to move. And by Celestia pearly ears, was he pretty fast! He made greater ground speed than a pony! Euderma watched as he bent down, touching his paws to stadium's pea gravel and dirt floor. Suddenly a tidal wave of pebbles and dirt was in front of him, moving by the movements of his paws as he manipulated them from afar. The tidal wave rose and hit the shocked dragoness on the side, folding over her like an ocean wave over her barrel and forelegs. At the gesture of Ross, the wave went stiff, then molded into a solid piece of rock before everyone's eyes. Tuatha laughed, "I eat rocks for BREAKFAST!" and with a snap of her jaws and a terrible crunching and crashing cacophony that left the more sensitive hearing gifted members of the audience reeling, she pounced at Ross, who seemed unconcerned. Ross moved at the last moment, and now Tuatha was bugling in alarm, as her claws sunk into what appeared to be quicksand. Then as it reached up to her elbows, at another cutting motion from Ross it hardened. Tuatha this time roared, rearing up and smashing the rock form cast upon her to smithereens, "You have humiliated me ENOUGH!" and with that, she breathed fire. "Illegal! Illegal!" the referee said, bouncing out onto the dirt. Yelping as he dodged a short jet of flame by tunneling down rapidly, he peeked over the edge of his newfound safety, watching with ire-laced eyes. Ross was doing another spell, and his fists were now clothed in rock, that moved as he flexed his paws like great giant gloves. Racing towards Tuatha's head, he deflected a tail swipe, then a claw strike, and brought up another 'wave' to block the fire Tuatha's internal furnace produced. Then he PUNCHED her, right in the lower jaw, which sent her head reeling. As she tried to recover and hit him with flames, she received another rock-enhanced punch, which sent her back. A wing-slap was slapped back with a counter-slap from his paws, a tail-smack pounded into the ground painfully and any attempt to use fire was met with another vicious hook to her face by the Stonedancer. Finally, her dragon's fire burning low and her body becoming broken and bruised, she wailed, "I s-SUBMIT! I SUBMIT! Just, just no more!" she begged. Ross stopped, his paws shedding their stony casings, the fans were cheering, and already the City Watchdogs were dragging out their dragon chains to lead Tuatha to lock-up for violating the Arena's rules. Euderma was stunned. Never in his life had he seen such a thing. "Nyles?" he queried in a tone of voice that bespoke of wonder. "Yes?" Nyles replied, already on his way to earn his winnings at the betting counter. "We need to hire that Diamond Dog, Ice Wolf, Dances with Stones, whatever, for our body-guard."
