Quest for the Shifter's Soul ((RP!))

Aengus looked a little confused at this. "......That is an incredibly hurtful & totally baseless accusation. Not only because it implies that I would do something as fiendish as hunting intelligent creatures such as yourselves, but also because it implies I would be stupid enough to set a trap HERE. Right outside of an entire DEN of your fellow River Dragons."

As he continues, Aengus takes off his boots & pours the water out of them, then sets them by the fire pit, hoping that they'll be able to get a fire going after all of this is sorted out. "It would be suicidal to set a trap for a River Dragon such as yourself so close to home. Of course, it's suicidal to try & trap a dragon in the first place, but more so on their own turf, & with all of their friends & family just seconds away. Whoever DID set that trap is either ignorant of this, or foolhardy enough not to care. Either way, it wasn't me."

William stood as solid as the rock he manipulated as the wave washed over him, only really succeeding in getting him drenched. He was just about as offended as Aengus at the accusation. "Honestly, how stupid do you think we are? I wouldn't stick around if I was planting a trap. Ugh." He relenquished the struggling dragon and returned the rock to the earth.

Just then he noticed the spider woman. William made a sound like "Euaaagh!" and stepped back a few paces. "Wha-- Who are you?"

Taryn heard another loud exclamation of terror and turned patiently. Obviously this creature was used to being screamed at. She smiled warmly at William, taking a few steps forward and extending a hand down to him (she stood a little taller than Angel when at her full height). "I'm sorry I startled you," she began, smiling friendlily down at him. "My name is Taryn. I noticed your friend there was caught in the water, so I thought I'd come help."
Lydia was still comforting her brother, trying to get him to focus on the curvaceous and appealing upper half of the creature, pointing out her "pretty" features, like her hair and her eyes and her shoulders. But Angel couldn't take his eyes off of the massive abdomen that was now facing him, and the eight hairy legs atop which the "pretty lady" perched.
"Are you going to start a fire?" Taryn asked congenially, trying to make conversation. She turned to the little pile of sticks and twigs that Aengus had gathered and reached a hand toward it. All that happened, though, was a smallish spark and a puff of steam. Taryn wilted. "Oh, I'm afraid your firewood got wet." A rather obvious statement, but it was all she could say at the moment. It disappointed her that she was unable to perform a favor for her new companions.

The other dragon grumbled about how Aengus had been snooping around the den, but this, after a moments consideration, Dee decided to keep to himself.

Hearing the fuss over the wet wood, Dee bundled up all the water from the logs and sent it flying over his shoulder. There he 'kicked' it with a hind leg, making it 'bounce' into the other dragon's face.

"If they were trouble, the Elder wouldn't have allowed them in. Or the Leader." Simple as that.

The other dragon growled a response in the dragon language"Yeah, they can't do anything wrong in your eyes even when you were caught in a human trap. You're just a tribe-abandoning wannabe human, aren't you?"

Well, he wasn't going to stand for that! With a feirce yowl the friendly Dee was gone and he leapt at the stockier dragon, fur bristling. In seconds the two were a tangled ball of claws, teeth and scales.

Taryn ignored the dragon's fussing and instantly set the campfire ablaze, pleased to be able to do something constructive. "There," she said proudly. "That's better. Now you can dry off." This newcomer seemed to be a simple creature, the smile on her face too serene to be concerned with the violence going on to one side of her.
Lydia had finally gotten Angel on his feet, and, assuming he'd be all right on his own, bounced over to the group. Unfortunately, Lydia didn't have Taryn's selective observation skills, and could not ignore the fact that her favorite dragon was getting in a fight. "Hey!" she screeched. "Stop that! Stop it! Why are you fighting?" she ran to the scuffling dragons and tried to pull them apart, being wary of their flying claws. "Stop it or I'll zap you!" she threatened in a high-pitched squeal, stomping in place in frustration.

William quickly checked his composure. "R-Right, very... nice to meet you, Taryn...? And uh, oh, yes we are trying to start a fire, thank you." He watched as Taryn lit the fire, a little put off by the spider legs. Very large insects made him a little squeamish, and this was no different, maybe a little weirder. He was about to get to work cooking the turtle when the fight broke out. He ran forward and tried to find a place to erect a wall, but couldn't. "Hey, whoa! Everybody relax! What the hell's going on?!"

Watching the dragons go at eachother, Aengus decided that it might be best to let them settle things on their own. After all, this had clearly turned into a personal dispute between the two, & he had no desire to get involved. At least, until little Lydia got involved.

"Hey, guys, come on now, enough with the fighting. Look, I don't know what you're arguing about, but why don't we all just take a second to calm down, huh? We're all probably tired, not to mention hungry. Let's just sit down, have some breakfast, & start fresh afterwards, huh?"

The two dragons continued their fight, paying no attention to the others nearby. Execpt for a brief moment where dee dug his claws into the ground to prevent the pair of them from tumbling over ontop of Lydia. Unfortuately his opponent took the brief distraction as a moment for him to bite at one of Dee's hind legs. Dee screeched in pain and tried to bite at the other's neck, only go get a mouthful of mane.

Well, if he couldn't get anything else he pulled on the thick hair, trying to rip it out while kicking and clawing at his opponent.

Weanwhile the nearby water rippled and hissed, leaping up in the air in a strage way. Each dragon was trying to get ahold of his element, while trying to supress the other's. The result was an indescribably chaotic effect, with the water dipping into bowls, lifiting in geysers and forming floating orbs that fell to the ground before they ever reached the shore.

Lydia did not take well to being ignored. She screamed louder, trying to get them to at least glance at her, but their screeches and yelps overrode her. Well, she had had enough of this violence, which was as far as she could tell, completely senseless. "Imma count to three!" she shouted, remembering how her mother would sometimes discipline her.
"One!"

Looking swiftly from the dragons to Lydia & back again, Aengus tried to find those magic words to diffuse the situation. Shit was going down, & it needed to cease said downward movement. How to accomplish this was, sadly, beyond comprehension.

"Um, guys? I think that you should listen to the little zappy girl. You're both covered in water. Electricity & water make for a VERY PAINFUL combination."

He briefly contemplated asking the spider girl if she might be able to do something about restraining the dragons, but her focus seemed to be on the fire, & it didn't seem like there was much time to get her attention, explain the situation, & request assistance. Man, this day really isn't going well.

"TWO."
Lydia prepped her hands in front of her, pointing the bases of her palms menacingly at the scuffling dragons. She glared at them seriously, waiting for them to stop. She always stopped her own misbehavior whenever her mother reached two. No one wanted to know what happened on three.

((So, yeah. Looks like we're on pause for the moment. But not a dead stop, just a pause.))

William took a few steps back, making sure he was grounded properly and coating his armor with a thin layer of stone so as to avoid being shocked himself in case the lightning ended up hitting him again through reaction. This wasn't good, and those dragons were getting fried. Lydia seemed completely set on electrocuting them at the count of three. William wished he could squeeze a wall or pillar between the dragons, but the only thing he would succeed in doing is hurting one of them, and Lydia seemed like she was going to cover that part just fine. The most William could do is make sure he doesn't get hurt himself, as well as the others. "You guys might want to back up. A lot."

The two dragons knew nothing of the mysterious mothers enchantment of 'counting to three'. But in that moment a heavy spray of water crashed upon the pair while Dee took a bite to the leg. The resulting wave soaked everyone nearby, and soaked the ground with a small wave for several feet in every direction.

After the second splash, Aengus decided that this was probably a lost cause. With one final warning of "Don't say I didn't warn you!", he scrambled, trying to get as far away as he possibly could before Lydia reached 3. Unfortunately, as he attempted to use his HOPS to escape........he slipped. The wet ground had resulted in unreliable footing, & Aengus, in his panic, had not accounted for that. There was no more time to escape.

"Well fuck."

At this sudden turn of events, William literally planted his feet in the ground, sinking a good few inches into the ground, as well as covering his legs from the ground to his knees in rock. He slammed up walls around anyone that wasn't Lydia or the dragons to prevent the impending arcing electricity from getting to the others. He gasped and slumped a little. He'd never used this much majyk in one day without rest or food to replenish his energy. There wouldn't me much else he could do after this, maybe raise a small pebble a few feet in the air. He tried to brace himself and hope for the best.

Lydia squealed when she was soaked, but since she was still just in her light underdress, it didn't bother her too much. She shook herself off and prepped her hands again.
Taryn again dashed away from the water, followed by a small shower of ice crystals. She frowned in depair when she noticed that her fire had been put out, though.
Lydia gritted her teeth, and once she noticed that everyone else was protected by walls of stone, she let the two tustling dragons have it. The blast wasn't nearly as big as the one she'd used against the giant monster the previous day; it was just large enough to blow the two of them apart and give them both of them a nasty shock. "Now you STOP IT!" she shrieked, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Dee. "You two are acting like babies! No fighting!"

The two dragons fell away from each other, covered in scratches and bites, manes bristling from their shock. The two glared and growled at each other for a moment, Dee limping his way to stand between Lydia incase the other attacked her.

The other dragon visibly smirked and couldn't resist growling a parting shot. Dee bared his teeth with a hiss, making his foe laugh.

The other dragon turned to leap into the river, but something strange happened. The water suddenly pulled away and he smacked face-first into the muddy bottom. When the water came rushing back it washed him away and out of sight.



Dee looked very pleased.

Grateful as he was for William's protecting him from the shock, Aengus couldn't help but be a little annoyed at how things were going. He was tired, wet, muddy, cold, hungry, & had been accused of being a poacher. Maybe joining up with these people wasn't the best idea?

Still, as chaotically troublesome as they were, these people were still his best option. And, as painfully depressing as that might be, he knew that he had to make the best of it. After all, it would cost more gold that he could carry to hire mercenaries this capable. Besides, it wasn't all bad.

Picking himself up, Aengus did his best to clean the mud off before heading over to Dee & Lydia. "Those were some impressive displays of power. It's a bit annoying that we couldn't avoid a fight, but at least nobody was seriously hurt. Still..." Aengus crouched down to check on Dee's leg. "We should probably get this patched up before it gets infected."

Dee sniffed at his wounds, and recieved a small shock on the nose from a little remaining electricity. "Sorry about that" He huffed, shaking his head to clear out the tingling pain from the electricity. "I'm not the most popular member of the pack..." He laughed. "Oooh I'm going to ache tomorrow..."

He looked a mess, smeared with mud and blood. The worst was the bite on his leg, but he also had a deep row of scratches on his snout and shoulders. A few trinkets and tufts of fur littered the ground.

Lydia, ever the little child that she was, was quick to forgive Dee for his infraction on her personal code of conduct, and soon she was smiling again. She trotted happily about, gathering the trinkets that had fallen to the ground. The ones she recognized as Dee's she laid at his feet; the rest she kept for herself as prizes and promptly began to decorate herself with them, hanging them from her ears and braiding them into her ponytail.
Taryn patiently approached the re-soaked fire and examined it for a while. Eventually, the wood was surrounded in a cloud of steam, and soon after flames were crackling in the pit again. That taken care of, she approached Dee and examined his wounds. Reaching around to a pouch that sat atop her arachnid abdomen, she produced some salve and a roll of bandages. "Here now," she said, kneeling (which was quite a spectacle with eight legs) until her furry body rested on the ground, putting her about eye level with Dee. "Hold still." She gently spread some salve on his leg wound and wrapped it.

Aengus admired Taryn's handiwork as she saw to Dee's wounds. Between that & her magic, she was already proving to be yet another exceedingly helpful companion. He briefly contemplated striking up a conversation, but thought it best to let her focus on Dee.

Seeing as William had exhausted himself protecting everyone from Lydia's electrical shock, Aengus decided that he should probably take over cooking breakfast. Besides, doing so would let him dry off by the fire. Collecting the first, &, unfortunately, only turtle that Dee had brought to shore, he began to prepare some turtle soup. It wouldn't be enough to fill everyone up, but it was a start.

"Dee, I know you're probably aching & tired, but do you think you might be able to get a few more of these little guys? If not, I can probably find some game around here, but it might take a while."

William returned the earth to its' natural state with the last of his strength, then collapsed on one of the stone benches, gasping heavily. "Yeah, no, that's... that's cool, you can cook... I'd throw up but I think I'm too tired for that..." Everything hurt, this wasn't the best day. All he wanted to do today was to have a beer or something and maybe ask around for information, but instead he had to end up here, throwing walls in front of electricity, listening to squabble this, squabble that. If finding this damn thing wasn't so important he'd have given up then and there.

"Just... don't burn iiii-- zzzzzzzzz..."

"Oh... Right. Sorry about that" He glanced at the river. "I'd hate to ruin this bandaging by taking a dip..." He chuckled, remembering too well the feeling of the noose from in the deep stream.

"Oh here." He hopped over to a gathering of reeds further down the bank, nosing among the shallows. Tugging and ripping, he managed to uproot (though it was more like mutilate) a number of river plants- starchy cattail roots, fresh watercress, and even found a number of small box turtles that he tossed ashore- not as much meat as the snapping turtle, but it was something.

"Oh! Oh!" He bobbed his head excitedly, rolling ashore a stinking glob the size of a soccer ball. A Quick wash of water showed it to look similar to a giant frog egg- transparent, and stinking worse than ever.

"A Bunyip egg!"

The so called egg might have smelled a bit offensive, but anybody who sticks with adventuring for more than a week learns not to be too picky about where their meals come from, or what they consist of. As long as it's not poisonous, & you can keep it down, nearly anything can be seen as a viable food source. Still, it's usually wise to ask about a new food before eating it.

"A Bunyip egg, huh? Can't say I'm familiar with it. You sure it's safe for us humans to eat? Don't mean to be a pain, but people tend to be substantially less capable when they're spewing bile every five minutes."