"I Can't Stay Long. I Have My Reasons."

[themunflower]

She Figured Out What Year It Is

"OH, FUCK YEAH!!"

[themunflower]

Goretober 2023: Day 15

"Ghh… This isn't good… I need a tourniquet or a medic… "

-----

Prompt used: Animal Instinct

The good news is she has regenerative abilities. The bad news is that much blood loss is still gonna be a problem without medical attention…

Chewed her own arm off to free herself, and she's barely even tearing up. Damn Nune, you scary.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

How to Dress Your Dragon

AVERT YOUR EYES, DRAGON NUDITY!

Just kidding, it’s all barbie-doll anatomy.

Nune’s annoyed face is a fucking mood.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang pressed her lips together and nodded. The demon girl decided to not repeat her question about Nune’s exact plans from now on, figuring she had already pried enough and that Nune just needed a moment. She was probably going to know sooner or later anyway, along with how long she would stick around.

“So…quite the backstory indeed,” she remarked. “And once again, my lips are sealed.” She did a zipping motion over her mouth.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small smile in return.

“Thanks… And sorry I dropped all THAT on you after… Well, THAT. It’s just that I can’t afford to be too trusting. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. “

Nune looked back in the direction of the commotion, which was still going strong.

“The good news is that those guys are not from my home kingdom. My guess is my family hired kidnappers from a settlement close to this one, since I keep taking out their homegrown agents quickly. That being said, that DOES mean there’s probably someone with ties to them in a village too close for my comfort.”

She swung her arm in the direction of the village gates, off in the distance.

“There’s a few travel routes to neighboring villages, but I’d rather avoid the straight routes there. Too easy to set up an ambush. So if we’re going off the beaten path, we’ll need a map, first.”

[ellenimationz]

At this point, Xiao Tang was gradually beginning to nod off again. “Sure, and not to be pushy, but could actually we get to the, uh, backup hiding place or something first? I’m gonna need *YAWN* at least 12 hours at this point. We probably need to, like, recuperate as a whole anyway, and I have some backstory-digesting to do.”

Hm…where are we gonna get a map of this entire area? …If we can get a hold of one, I wonder if I can find what I’ve lost…

She he shook her head to clear it for the last stretch and said,  “But uh, if it’s not too far away from here at this point, then I think I can *yawn* make it on my own two legs.”

The demon girl proceeded to stagger up from the floor, scooping the bags of meat off her lap. She then held the bags and paused for a moment. “…Sorry about this.”

The alley wall didn’t really have any protruding structures, so despite Xiao Tang’s best efforts, the meat was now slightly wet.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Standing back up to her full height and stretching before taking the meat, Nune gave a nod in response.

“Sure we can. And don’t worry about the food. It’s wrapped in more than one layer, so most of it shouldn’t be damp enough to make it unsafe to eat.”

She turned back to the direction of the market where everything had first gone down.

“There’s an abandoned building back that way. I use it as a vantage point for stealing food. It’s condemned due to shoddy construction, but should be safe enough to sleep in. Just avoid the parts of the floor with undisturbed dust. THOSE are not stable enough to walk on.”

Nune knew this from personal experience after one occasion way back when where she had almost gone through a weak spot in the second floor. As a matter of fact, the hole the dragon had jumped away from as the floor crumbled away was still there. Un-coincidentally, the paths she had walked enough to dispel the dust all seemed to be straight lines over support beams.

“And I’m sorry in advance, but there’s not really anything there we can use as bedding. So you may have a less-than-comfortable rest, unless we make a detour to steal someone’s laundry or something.”

[ellenimationz]

“Nah, it’s fine. I honestly feel like I could lay on a bed of cacti or something and still fall fast asleep anyway,” Xiao Tang grunted as she got off the ground. She also stretched, but she remained very much slumped over.

They trudged back to where this all started, and sure enough, a large crowd was still present at the site of last night’s ambush. Thanks to the rain, it was difficult for them to actually inspect the rubble, but they were in the process of recovering one of the bodies.

The two of them steered clear of the crowd and took a different path to the abandoned building, and eventually, it loomed into view.

The market place in front of it was also pretty trashed–a lot of stalls were burnt to ash, a lot of merchandise got knocked down onto the ground everywhere–and the faintest smell of smoke lingered in the air. There were still people on the streets trying to clean up and get those hurt medical attention, but it certainly felt much less chaotic than when the two had left it.

At least there weren’t enough eyes and ears about to make it even a little risky if they entered the abandoned building in an un-sneaky way, but sneak in they did.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Looks like they’re still cleaning up after yesterday.” Nune said. “So we shouldn’t have anyone bothering us in here.”

She motioned over to the stairs to the second floor.

“But just in case, I’m standing guard until the marketplace closes. If we have to flee and we can’t get to the staircase, the window to our left when we get up there is directly over an awning. Should make it easier to jump back to ground level without injuring ourselves, even with the food in tow.”

Nune was pretty tired, herself. But she knew damn well that having them both asleep was too risky. There was no WAY two major accidents in the same small village like that in the same day hadn’t gotten attention from neighboring villages.

She motioned out over the floor of the second story.

“Try to stay over the support beams. See that hole over there? THAT’S what happens if you don’t.” Nune warned.

[ellenimationz]

“I see,” Xiao Tang replied drowsily.

She proceeded to levitate to the second floor through the hole instead of up the staircase, and upon spotting a safe place to rest, she instantly fell on her face and snored.

***time skip of about 12 hours ig***

Ah geez, what happened to my neck? was the demon girl’s first thought when she woke, rubbing the spot where it was cramped. Ugh, maybe I should’ve taken one extra second to lie down on my back or something.

She began rolling her head around in attempt to soothe the discomfort. As she was doing so, she got a chance to glance around. It dawned on her that, thanks to some windows and holes in the building, outside was dark–or rather the sun was almost done setting. Based on her memory, she predicted that tonight’s moon was going to be more-or-less full.

“So I did sleep for twelve-ish hours. Makes sense. It’s not like I have a consistent sleep schedule or anything anyway,” Xiao Tang mused. Then her empty stomach made itself known again with a loud rumble. “… Skies, I could EAT the moon at this rate if I could.”

She tried her best to ignore her stomach and did some final stretching, though her neck was still cramped, and levitated back downstairs through the whole again.

“Guess who’s awake? Did you miss me?” she announced with a hint of sarcasm.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune was at the window, watching the sparse few people who remained until she heard Xiao Tang’s voice.

“You really WERE tired! I was actually starting to worry.” She said, half-jokingly.

The last few rays of light were fading on the horizon, and the moon was on the rise.

“Good news. Looks like we should have plenty of light tonight for whatever we decide to do. So we probably won’t need to use a candle.” Nune said.

She then turned to face Xiao Tang head-on.

“Okay… So: We should probably come up with a plan. Crossing between villages out here is NOT something we wanna do unprepared. Once you get out this far, villages are spread out FAR from each other. It could take days to find another on foot.”

[ellenimationz]

“Mm,” Xiao Tang agreed. “and like you mentioned earlier, we need to get a map, one that shows at least the entire surrounding area of this village.”

Her stomach continued to growl quietly–though she refrained from asking for some of Nune’s rations–reminding her that whatever they were going to do, they needed to acquire more rations one way or another. Which gave Xiao Tang an idea.

“Say, I know the whole thing that started this was a food heist-gone-wrong, but…watcha say, right before we leave this village, we do a heist TOGETHER at another place around here, preferably an actual store, not a stall?” The demon girl didn’t actually know of any stores in this village, but she was hoping Nune did.

Xiao Tang continued, “Perhaps if we both do it, we can make it go more smoothly. And if we do get caught, the people will probably expect us to go for the nearest exit, but in order to avoid your family’s hired goons, we’re probably gonna go a different path anyway. Right?”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Hmmm… “

Nune looked out over the shops further away. They had been untouched by the flames, unlike the stalls in the open-air market.

“Risky, but I think we might be able to pull it off. A few of those shops actually have doorways into each other. Apparently a lot of them were converted from unused houses.“

Standing, the dragon stretched one arm sideways across her chest, pulling it inward with the crook of her other arm, before switching to stretch the other.

“We’ll need to be careful. Some of the shops with such doors put shelves in front of them instead of just a ‘keep out’ sign. Now, were you thinkin’ do this when they’re open, or break in at night?”

[ellenimationz]

“Break in at night,” Xiao Tang decided, her enthusiasm clearly showing. “under the cover of darkness.” The growling of her stomach actually stopped, now that she knew that food was very much within reach.

Xiao Tang excitedly sprang up from where she was levitating; perhaps too excitedly for this little mission of theirs, because she immediately doubled over a bit due to her neck pain. Sure hope THAT isn’t gonna affect my heist-ing abilities.

“Oh yeah, and we’re gonna need a bunch more bags, aren’t we?” she asked, back on the ground and motioning to their already-existing rations.

“…And maybe a couple backpacks or something if we’re feeling extra, I guess. Is that asking for too much to steal? It’s probably too much to steal,” the demon girl matter-of-factly thought out loud.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Bags, I think we can do. A backpack... I’d say don’t go out of our way for that. If we see one, grab it, but the food should be our top priority.”

She pointed twice, to both ends of the line of shops closest.

“We should avoid the two shops on the ends if we can. They have side windows. More windows means more visibility. Same with the front and back rows of shops, because of more foot traffic around them.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang pressed her lips together and nodded. The demon girl decided to not repeat her question about Nune’s exact plans from now on, figuring she had already pried enough and that Nune just needed a moment. She was probably going to know sooner or later anyway, along with how long she would stick around.

“So…quite the backstory indeed,” she remarked. “And once again, my lips are sealed.” She did a zipping motion over her mouth.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small smile in return.

“Thanks… And sorry I dropped all THAT on you after… Well, THAT. It’s just that I can’t afford to be too trusting. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. “

Nune looked back in the direction of the commotion, which was still going strong.

“The good news is that those guys are not from my home kingdom. My guess is my family hired kidnappers from a settlement close to this one, since I keep taking out their homegrown agents quickly. That being said, that DOES mean there’s probably someone with ties to them in a village too close for my comfort.”

She swung her arm in the direction of the village gates, off in the distance.

“There’s a few travel routes to neighboring villages, but I’d rather avoid the straight routes there. Too easy to set up an ambush. So if we’re going off the beaten path, we’ll need a map, first.”

[ellenimationz]

At this point, Xiao Tang was gradually beginning to nod off again. “Sure, and not to be pushy, but could actually we get to the, uh, backup hiding place or something first? I’m gonna need *YAWN* at least 12 hours at this point. We probably need to, like, recuperate as a whole anyway, and I have some backstory-digesting to do.”

Hm…where are we gonna get a map of this entire area? …If we can get a hold of one, I wonder if I can find what I’ve lost…

She he shook her head to clear it for the last stretch and said,  “But uh, if it’s not too far away from here at this point, then I think I can *yawn* make it on my own two legs.”

The demon girl proceeded to stagger up from the floor, scooping the bags of meat off her lap. She then held the bags and paused for a moment. “…Sorry about this.”

The alley wall didn’t really have any protruding structures, so despite Xiao Tang’s best efforts, the meat was now slightly wet.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Standing back up to her full height and stretching before taking the meat, Nune gave a nod in response.

“Sure we can. And don’t worry about the food. It’s wrapped in more than one layer, so most of it shouldn’t be damp enough to make it unsafe to eat.”

She turned back to the direction of the market where everything had first gone down.

“There’s an abandoned building back that way. I use it as a vantage point for stealing food. It’s condemned due to shoddy construction, but should be safe enough to sleep in. Just avoid the parts of the floor with undisturbed dust. THOSE are not stable enough to walk on.”

Nune knew this from personal experience after one occasion way back when where she had almost gone through a weak spot in the second floor. As a matter of fact, the hole the dragon had jumped away from as the floor crumbled away was still there. Un-coincidentally, the paths she had walked enough to dispel the dust all seemed to be straight lines over support beams.

“And I’m sorry in advance, but there’s not really anything there we can use as bedding. So you may have a less-than-comfortable rest, unless we make a detour to steal someone’s laundry or something.”

[ellenimationz]

“Nah, it’s fine. I honestly feel like I could lay on a bed of cacti or something and still fall fast asleep anyway,” Xiao Tang grunted as she got off the ground. She also stretched, but she remained very much slumped over.

They trudged back to where this all started, and sure enough, a large crowd was still present at the site of last night’s ambush. Thanks to the rain, it was difficult for them to actually inspect the rubble, but they were in the process of recovering one of the bodies.

The two of them steered clear of the crowd and took a different path to the abandoned building, and eventually, it loomed into view.

The market place in front of it was also pretty trashed–a lot of stalls were burnt to ash, a lot of merchandise got knocked down onto the ground everywhere–and the faintest smell of smoke lingered in the air. There were still people on the streets trying to clean up and get those hurt medical attention, but it certainly felt much less chaotic than when the two had left it.

At least there weren’t enough eyes and ears about to make it even a little risky if they entered the abandoned building in an un-sneaky way, but sneak in they did.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Looks like they’re still cleaning up after yesterday.” Nune said. “So we shouldn’t have anyone bothering us in here.”

She motioned over to the stairs to the second floor.

“But just in case, I’m standing guard until the marketplace closes. If we have to flee and we can’t get to the staircase, the window to our left when we get up there is directly over an awning. Should make it easier to jump back to ground level without injuring ourselves, even with the food in tow.”

Nune was pretty tired, herself. But she knew damn well that having them both asleep was too risky. There was no WAY two major accidents in the same small village like that in the same day hadn’t gotten attention from neighboring villages.

She motioned out over the floor of the second story.

“Try to stay over the support beams. See that hole over there? THAT’S what happens if you don’t.” Nune warned.

[ellenimationz]

“I see,” Xiao Tang replied drowsily.

She proceeded to levitate to the second floor through the hole instead of up the staircase, and upon spotting a safe place to rest, she instantly fell on her face and snored.

***time skip of about 12 hours ig***

Ah geez, what happened to my neck? was the demon girl’s first thought when she woke, rubbing the spot where it was cramped. Ugh, maybe I should’ve taken one extra second to lie down on my back or something.

She began rolling her head around in attempt to soothe the discomfort. As she was doing so, she got a chance to glance around. It dawned on her that, thanks to some windows and holes in the building, outside was dark–or rather the sun was almost done setting. Based on her memory, she predicted that tonight’s moon was going to be more-or-less full.

“So I did sleep for twelve-ish hours. Makes sense. It’s not like I have a consistent sleep schedule or anything anyway,” Xiao Tang mused. Then her empty stomach made itself known again with a loud rumble. “… Skies, I could EAT the moon at this rate if I could.”

She tried her best to ignore her stomach and did some final stretching, though her neck was still cramped, and levitated back downstairs through the whole again.

“Guess who’s awake? Did you miss me?” she announced with a hint of sarcasm.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune was at the window, watching the sparse few people who remained until she heard Xiao Tang’s voice.

“You really WERE tired! I was actually starting to worry.” She said, half-jokingly.

The last few rays of light were fading on the horizon, and the moon was on the rise.

“Good news. Looks like we should have plenty of light tonight for whatever we decide to do. So we probably won’t need to use a candle.” Nune said.

She then turned to face Xiao Tang head-on.

“Okay… So: We should probably come up with a plan. Crossing between villages out here is NOT something we wanna do unprepared. Once you get out this far, villages are spread out FAR from each other. It could take days to find another on foot.”

[ellenimationz]

“Mm,” Xiao Tang agreed. “and like you mentioned earlier, we need to get a map, one that shows at least the entire surrounding area of this village.”

Her stomach continued to growl quietly–though she refrained from asking for some of Nune’s rations–reminding her that whatever they were going to do, they needed to acquire more rations one way or another. Which gave Xiao Tang an idea.

“Say, I know the whole thing that started this was a food heist-gone-wrong, but…watcha say, right before we leave this village, we do a heist TOGETHER at another place around here, preferably an actual store, not a stall?” The demon girl didn’t actually know of any stores in this village, but she was hoping Nune did.

Xiao Tang continued, “Perhaps if we both do it, we can make it go more smoothly. And if we do get caught, the people will probably expect us to go for the nearest exit, but in order to avoid your family’s hired goons, we’re probably gonna go a different path anyway. Right?”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Hmmm... “

Nune looked out over the shops further away. They had been untouched by the flames, unlike the stalls in the open-air market.

“Risky, but I think we might be able to pull it off. A few of those shops actually have doorways into each other. Apparently a lot of them were converted from unused houses.“

Standing, the dragon stretched one arm sideways across her chest, pulling it inward with the crook of her other arm, before switching to stretch the other.

“We’ll need to be careful. Some of the shops with such doors put shelves in front of them instead of just a ‘keep out’ sign. Now, were you thinkin’ do this when they’re open, or break in at night?”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang pressed her lips together and nodded. The demon girl decided to not repeat her question about Nune’s exact plans from now on, figuring she had already pried enough and that Nune just needed a moment. She was probably going to know sooner or later anyway, along with how long she would stick around.

“So…quite the backstory indeed,” she remarked. “And once again, my lips are sealed.” She did a zipping motion over her mouth.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small smile in return.

“Thanks… And sorry I dropped all THAT on you after… Well, THAT. It’s just that I can’t afford to be too trusting. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. “

Nune looked back in the direction of the commotion, which was still going strong.

“The good news is that those guys are not from my home kingdom. My guess is my family hired kidnappers from a settlement close to this one, since I keep taking out their homegrown agents quickly. That being said, that DOES mean there’s probably someone with ties to them in a village too close for my comfort.”

She swung her arm in the direction of the village gates, off in the distance.

“There’s a few travel routes to neighboring villages, but I’d rather avoid the straight routes there. Too easy to set up an ambush. So if we’re going off the beaten path, we’ll need a map, first.”

[ellenimationz]

At this point, Xiao Tang was gradually beginning to nod off again. “Sure, and not to be pushy, but could actually we get to the, uh, backup hiding place or something first? I’m gonna need *YAWN* at least 12 hours at this point. We probably need to, like, recuperate as a whole anyway, and I have some backstory-digesting to do.”

Hm…where are we gonna get a map of this entire area? …If we can get a hold of one, I wonder if I can find what I’ve lost…

She he shook her head to clear it for the last stretch and said,  “But uh, if it’s not too far away from here at this point, then I think I can *yawn* make it on my own two legs.”

The demon girl proceeded to stagger up from the floor, scooping the bags of meat off her lap. She then held the bags and paused for a moment. “…Sorry about this.”

The alley wall didn’t really have any protruding structures, so despite Xiao Tang’s best efforts, the meat was now slightly wet.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Standing back up to her full height and stretching before taking the meat, Nune gave a nod in response.

“Sure we can. And don’t worry about the food. It’s wrapped in more than one layer, so most of it shouldn’t be damp enough to make it unsafe to eat.”

She turned back to the direction of the market where everything had first gone down.

“There’s an abandoned building back that way. I use it as a vantage point for stealing food. It’s condemned due to shoddy construction, but should be safe enough to sleep in. Just avoid the parts of the floor with undisturbed dust. THOSE are not stable enough to walk on.”

Nune knew this from personal experience after one occasion way back when where she had almost gone through a weak spot in the second floor. As a matter of fact, the hole the dragon had jumped away from as the floor crumbled away was still there. Un-coincidentally, the paths she had walked enough to dispel the dust all seemed to be straight lines over support beams.

“And I’m sorry in advance, but there’s not really anything there we can use as bedding. So you may have a less-than-comfortable rest, unless we make a detour to steal someone’s laundry or something.”

[ellenimationz]

“Nah, it’s fine. I honestly feel like I could lay on a bed of cacti or something and still fall fast asleep anyway,” Xiao Tang grunted as she got off the ground. She also stretched, but she remained very much slumped over.

They trudged back to where this all started, and sure enough, a large crowd was still present at the site of last night’s ambush. Thanks to the rain, it was difficult for them to actually inspect the rubble, but they were in the process of recovering one of the bodies.

The two of them steered clear of the crowd and took a different path to the abandoned building, and eventually, it loomed into view.

The market place in front of it was also pretty trashed–a lot of stalls were burnt to ash, a lot of merchandise got knocked down onto the ground everywhere–and the faintest smell of smoke lingered in the air. There were still people on the streets trying to clean up and get those hurt medical attention, but it certainly felt much less chaotic than when the two had left it.

At least there weren’t enough eyes and ears about to make it even a little risky if they entered the abandoned building in an un-sneaky way, but sneak in they did.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Looks like they’re still cleaning up after yesterday.” Nune said. “So we shouldn’t have anyone bothering us in here.”

She motioned over to the stairs to the second floor.

“But just in case, I’m standing guard until the marketplace closes. If we have to flee and we can’t get to the staircase, the window to our left when we get up there is directly over an awning. Should make it easier to jump back to ground level without injuring ourselves, even with the food in tow.”

Nune was pretty tired, herself. But she knew damn well that having them both asleep was too risky. There was no WAY two major accidents in the same small village like that in the same day hadn’t gotten attention from neighboring villages.

She motioned out over the floor of the second story.

“Try to stay over the support beams. See that hole over there? THAT’S what happens if you don’t.” Nune warned.

[ellenimationz]

“I see,” Xiao Tang replied drowsily.

She proceeded to levitate to the second floor through the hole instead of up the staircase, and upon spotting a safe place to rest, she instantly fell on her face and snored.

***time skip of about 12 hours ig***

Ah geez, what happened to my neck? was the demon girl’s first thought when she woke, rubbing the spot where it was cramped. Ugh, maybe I should’ve taken one extra second to lie down on my back or something.

She began rolling her head around in attempt to soothe the discomfort. As she was doing so, she got a chance to glance around. It dawned on her that, thanks to some windows and holes in the building, outside was dark–or rather the sun was almost done setting. Based on her memory, she predicted that tonight’s moon was going to be more-or-less full.

“So I did sleep for twelve-ish hours. Makes sense. It’s not like I have a consistent sleep schedule or anything anyway,” Xiao Tang mused. Then her empty stomach made itself known again with a loud rumble. “… Skies, I could EAT the moon at this rate if I could.”

She tried her best to ignore her stomach and did some final stretching, though her neck was still cramped, and levitated back downstairs through the whole again.

“Guess who’s awake? Did you miss me?” she announced with a hint of sarcasm.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune was at the window, watching the sparse few people who remained until she heard Xiao Tang’s voice.

“You really WERE tired! I was actually starting to worry.” She said, half-jokingly.

The last few rays of light were fading on the horizon, and the moon was on the rise.

“Good news. Looks like we should have plenty of light tonight for whatever we decide to do. So we probably won’t need to use a candle.” Nune said.

She then turned to face Xiao Tang head-on.

“Okay... So: We should probably come up with a plan. Crossing between villages out here is NOT something we wanna do unprepared. Once you get out this far, villages are spread out FAR from each other. It could take days to find another on foot.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang pressed her lips together and nodded. The demon girl decided to not repeat her question about Nune’s exact plans from now on, figuring she had already pried enough and that Nune just needed a moment. She was probably going to know sooner or later anyway, along with how long she would stick around.

“So…quite the backstory indeed,” she remarked. “And once again, my lips are sealed.” She did a zipping motion over her mouth.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small smile in return.

“Thanks… And sorry I dropped all THAT on you after… Well, THAT. It’s just that I can’t afford to be too trusting. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. “

Nune looked back in the direction of the commotion, which was still going strong.

“The good news is that those guys are not from my home kingdom. My guess is my family hired kidnappers from a settlement close to this one, since I keep taking out their homegrown agents quickly. That being said, that DOES mean there’s probably someone with ties to them in a village too close for my comfort.”

She swung her arm in the direction of the village gates, off in the distance.

“There’s a few travel routes to neighboring villages, but I’d rather avoid the straight routes there. Too easy to set up an ambush. So if we’re going off the beaten path, we’ll need a map, first.”

[ellenimationz]

At this point, Xiao Tang was gradually beginning to nod off again. “Sure, and not to be pushy, but could actually we get to the, uh, backup hiding place or something first? I’m gonna need *YAWN* at least 12 hours at this point. We probably need to, like, recuperate as a whole anyway, and I have some backstory-digesting to do.”

Hm…where are we gonna get a map of this entire area? …If we can get a hold of one, I wonder if I can find what I’ve lost…

She he shook her head to clear it for the last stretch and said,  “But uh, if it’s not too far away from here at this point, then I think I can *yawn* make it on my own two legs.”

The demon girl proceeded to stagger up from the floor, scooping the bags of meat off her lap. She then held the bags and paused for a moment. “…Sorry about this.”

The alley wall didn’t really have any protruding structures, so despite Xiao Tang’s best efforts, the meat was now slightly wet.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Standing back up to her full height and stretching before taking the meat, Nune gave a nod in response.

“Sure we can. And don’t worry about the food. It’s wrapped in more than one layer, so most of it shouldn’t be damp enough to make it unsafe to eat.”

She turned back to the direction of the market where everything had first gone down.

“There’s an abandoned building back that way. I use it as a vantage point for stealing food. It’s condemned due to shoddy construction, but should be safe enough to sleep in. Just avoid the parts of the floor with undisturbed dust. THOSE are not stable enough to walk on.”

Nune knew this from personal experience after one occasion way back when where she had almost gone through a weak spot in the second floor. As a matter of fact, the hole the dragon had jumped away from as the floor crumbled away was still there. Un-coincidentally, the paths she had walked enough to dispel the dust all seemed to be straight lines over support beams.

“And I’m sorry in advance, but there’s not really anything there we can use as bedding. So you may have a less-than-comfortable rest, unless we make a detour to steal someone’s laundry or something.”

[ellenimationz]

“Nah, it’s fine. I honestly feel like I could lay on a bed of cacti or something and still fall fast asleep anyway,” Xiao Tang grunted as she got off the ground. She also stretched, but she remained very much slumped over.

They trudged back to where this all started, and sure enough, a large crowd was still present at the site of last night’s ambush. Thanks to the rain, it was difficult for them to actually inspect the rubble, but they were in the process of recovering one of the bodies.

The two of them steered clear of the crowd and took a different path to the abandoned building, and eventually, it loomed into view.

The market place in front of it was also pretty trashed–a lot of stalls were burnt to ash, a lot of merchandise got knocked down onto the ground everywhere–and the faintest smell of smoke lingered in the air. There were still people on the streets trying to clean up and get those hurt medical attention, but it certainly felt much less chaotic than when the two had left it.

At least there weren’t enough eyes and ears about to make it even a little risky if they entered the abandoned building in an un-sneaky way, but sneak in they did.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Looks like they’re still cleaning up after yesterday.” Nune said. “So we shouldn’t have anyone bothering us in here.”

She motioned over to the stairs to the second floor.

“But just in case, I’m standing guard until the marketplace closes. If we have to flee and we can’t get to the staircase, the window to our left when we get up there is directly over an awning. Should make it easier to jump back to ground level without injuring ourselves, even with the food in tow.”

Nune was pretty tired, herself. But she knew damn well that having them both asleep was too risky. There was no WAY two major accidents in the same small village like that in the same day hadn’t gotten attention from neighboring villages.

She motioned out over the floor of the second story.

“Try to stay over the support beams. See that hole over there? THAT’S what happens if you don’t.” Nune warned.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang pressed her lips together and nodded. The demon girl decided to not repeat her question about Nune’s exact plans from now on, figuring she had already pried enough and that Nune just needed a moment. She was probably going to know sooner or later anyway, along with how long she would stick around.

“So…quite the backstory indeed,” she remarked. “And once again, my lips are sealed.” She did a zipping motion over her mouth.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small smile in return.

“Thanks… And sorry I dropped all THAT on you after… Well, THAT. It’s just that I can’t afford to be too trusting. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. “

Nune looked back in the direction of the commotion, which was still going strong.

“The good news is that those guys are not from my home kingdom. My guess is my family hired kidnappers from a settlement close to this one, since I keep taking out their homegrown agents quickly. That being said, that DOES mean there’s probably someone with ties to them in a village too close for my comfort.”

She swung her arm in the direction of the village gates, off in the distance.

“There’s a few travel routes to neighboring villages, but I’d rather avoid the straight routes there. Too easy to set up an ambush. So if we’re going off the beaten path, we’ll need a map, first.”

[ellenimationz]

At this point, Xiao Tang was gradually beginning to nod off again. “Sure, and not to be pushy, but could actually we get to the, uh, backup hiding place or something first? I’m gonna need *YAWN* at least 12 hours at this point. We probably need to, like, recuperate as a whole anyway, and I have some backstory-digesting to do.”

Hm…where are we gonna get a map of this entire area? …If we can get a hold of one, I wonder if I can find what I’ve lost…

She he shook her head to clear it for the last stretch and said,  “But uh, if it’s not too far away from here at this point, then I think I can *yawn* make it on my own two legs.”

The demon girl proceeded to stagger up from the floor, scooping the bags of meat off her lap. She then held the bags and paused for a moment. “…Sorry about this.”

The alley wall didn’t really have any protruding structures, so despite Xiao Tang’s best efforts, the meat was now slightly wet.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Standing back up to her full height and stretching before taking the meat, Nune gave a nod in response.

“Sure we can. And don’t worry about the food. It’s wrapped in more than one layer, so most of it shouldn’t be damp enough to make it unsafe to eat.”

She turned back to the direction of the market where everything had first gone down.

“There’s an abandoned building back that way. I use it as a vantage point for stealing food. It’s condemned due to shoddy construction, but should be safe enough to sleep in. Just avoid the parts of the floor with undisturbed dust. THOSE are not stable enough to walk on.”

Nune knew this from personal experience after one occasion way back when where she had almost gone through a weak spot in the second floor. As a matter of fact, the hole the dragon had jumped away from as the floor crumbled away was still there. Un-coincidentally, the paths she had walked enough to dispel the dust all seemed to be straight lines over support beams.

“And I’m sorry in advance, but there’s not really anything there we can use as bedding. So you may have a less-than-comfortable rest, unless we make a detour to steal someone’s laundry or something.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang pressed her lips together and nodded. The demon girl decided to not repeat her question about Nune’s exact plans from now on, figuring she had already pried enough and that Nune just needed a moment. She was probably going to know sooner or later anyway, along with how long she would stick around.

“So…quite the backstory indeed,” she remarked. “And once again, my lips are sealed.” She did a zipping motion over her mouth.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small smile in return.

“Thanks... And sorry I dropped all THAT on you after... Well, THAT. It’s just that I can’t afford to be too trusting. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier. “

Nune looked back in the direction of the commotion, which was still going strong.

“The good news is that those guys are not from my home kingdom. My guess is my family hired kidnappers from a settlement close to this one, since I keep taking out their homegrown agents quickly. That being said, that DOES mean there’s probably someone with ties to them in a village too close for my comfort.”

She swung her arm in the direction of the village gates, off in the distance.

“There’s a few travel routes to neighboring villages, but I’d rather avoid the straight routes there. Too easy to set up an ambush. So if we’re going off the beaten path, we’ll need a map, first.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were… rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that… There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing… ”

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang tilted her head back, making eye contact with Nune, her tone somber once more after hearing the sad truth. “I did notice, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. And me being your garden-variety demon, I personally don’t ever remember having trouble with killing, but…the transition must’ve at least a bit rocky.”

By looking up, the demon girl also began to notice that the thunderstorm was beginning to fade. The once-massive downpour had been reduced to light drizzling, and thin rays of pale, morning light had begun filtering through the silvery clouds for what felt like the first time in forever.

She found it to be a bit odd considering the conversation at hand, but whatever. She shifted back into her usual nonchalant-ish way of speaking.

“Hey, and uh, one last thing. For how long has this been going on? Cuz’ like, if it’s been several years since your escape, why would your family still want to capture you just to marry you off? Shouldn’t there have been, like, someone else who took power by now?…That kind of spiraled into 3 different questions, but still. If you don’t mind answering, that is.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune’s expression turned serious.

“They’re afraid. That someone who defects is gonna come back with an army and overthrow them.” She said.

“It’s ALWAYS about control with them. Even in our own family, if you stray from the way things are, you might as well be jumping into a nest of vipers. It’s just as safe. At this point, they’re not after me to marry me off. They want to make an example of me. They’ve probably put the word out in my home kingdom that I either died or was assassinated by whoever they’ve been thinking about declaring war on this time.”

Nune’s voice dropped to a pitch that sounded calmly angry.

“If I’m caught, they’ll bring me back quietly JUST to have me tortured and executed in the prison they expected me to call home.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn't risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

"Hmmm... I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?" Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today...

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune looked at the ground, her tone taking a wistful note.

“Not quite. I couldn’t go back to the school. That would have been the first place they looked. And my first few months were... rough. Thievery is much harder when you have to do it to survive. My first few towns I lived in, I wasn’t even living in them a week before I had to flee each because I screwed up stealing food. One shopkeeper even shot at me.”

She glanced to one side, where beneath her short shirt she still sported a faint scar where the bullet had grazed her.

“And on top of that... There were close calls with goons my family sent to re-capture me. Even closer than tonight.”

Nune looked up at Xiao Tang.

“I’m sure you noticed how comfortable I was with dispatching those three men. That should give you an idea of how persistent my family has been with trying to capture me. My first time killing a hired goon? I threw up from the stress and shock. Now I can do it without feeling a thing... ”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Slowing her pace, Nune looked down at Xiao Tang, noticing how winded the poor girl was.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Uh… Yeah, we should be safe resting for a while. I think the whole town is too occupied with that building to worry about us.”

Nune slowed her pace to a gradual halt and squatted down to rest, not comfortable with sitting just yet. If the two were unlucky enough to have to run again, having to get up off her rear would waste precious seconds of escape time. She could easily carry Xiao Tang on her back, if anything happened before she had time to recover. Dragons had truly impressive stamina, even outside of True Dragon. Something she was REALLY grateful for being blessed with, given the current situation.

“Shoot, we didn’t have time to grab any water, did we?” Nune panted

[ellenimationz]

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Xiao Tang replied, also panting. But unlike Nune, she sat down completely with her back against the wall of the alleyways so that she wouldn’t sprawl out on the ground. She didn’t really care that she was soaked and rather dirty right now. She just felt extremely tired, her heartbeat slowing down, sleep gnawing at the edges of her mind once again.

The demon girl tilted her head slightly upward to glance at the sky as if they could trap this source of water that’s falling right down on them. That actually wouldn’t have been too bad of an idea if they currently didn’t have anything to carry water.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a sigh and a tired smile at Xiao Tang.

“Don’t worry about it for now. I have a small amount of money saved for an emergency like this. It should be just enough to get us a gourd to carry water in before we leave this village.”

Internally, she felt a bit of a pang of sadness at having to leave. So far this had been the village she was able to stay in the longest out of all of them. It had almost started to feel like an actual home.

“I… I suppose you have questions… “

[ellenimationz]

“Give me a moment please,” Xiao Tang said. She sat in silence for a moment longer, bags of meat now placed in her lap, as she continued to take in deep breaths whilst thinking.

“Ok, uh,” she began slowly. “first off, who are you running from? And second, why exactly are you running?”

Whatever the answer to the second one was, it ought to be much more serious than what she has gotten herself into in her lifetime.

“Third, are you, like, planning to try to stop them or are you gonna continue being on the run or…?”

Then again, she’s like really good at combat and everything, so in any case, she’d be fine, right?

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune sighed.

“I won’t give too many details. For your own safety, it’s best I make sure you aren’t even CONSIDERED as a source of usable info to them.”

Nune lowered her voice to JUST being audible.

“My family… well, they’re powerful people. Powerful people who are also corrupt. They also didn’t think much of me until a year or two ago. I got lucky enough to be shipped off to boarding school as soon as I was old enough, so I wasn’t raised to be like them. That changed when my brother was assassinated. He was lined up to take my father’s place, but he was found dead in his bed. Official cause of death was sleep apnea, but no one was fooled. The odds of dying young in my family rise considerably if you’re next in line. And he’d made a LOT of enemies in our own family he was such a spoiled bastard.”

Another sigh, this one more wistful.

“As much of an immature, entitled idiot as he was, I still can’t help but feel a little sad. I mean, he WAS my brother. And that’s when they decided they had use for me after all.”

[ellenimationz]

Oh, it’s more political shenanigans, happened to be Xiao Tang’s very first thought–there used to be a lot of that where she came from–but she shoved that to the very back of her mind.

She was still pretty tired though, so in terms of expression, all she really did was raise her eyebrows at Nune in mild surprise, eyelids halfway down.

“Hm, that’s unfortunate,” Xiao tang ended up whispering. “but I personally think it’s great that at least your family didn’t manage to rub their bad influences onto you.” Then she fell silent in anticipation.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune continued. “So the plan was for me to be his replacement, but… Not a true replacement. I was basically pulled away from my old friends at the boarding school who were my own found family to be their puppet.”

She narrowed her eyes, visibly angry at the memory.

“It wasn’t just that, either. I know enough about the history of my own family to know that since I was just a puppet ruler, I was eventually gonna be married off to someone who’d play their game, only to probably conveniently die as soon as I produced an heir or two. That tends to happen to anyone who’s too sympathetic to the common people.”

[ellenimationz]

“Darn, that really sucks,” Xiao Tang said out loud. “corrupt and cold-blooded people out for their own kin’s blood and all that. Tsk.” She might not have looked or even sounded the part, but she was being genuine.

Especially the child-rearing part in my own opinion, I can’t imagine being around babies, let alone giving birth to them. But then again, I suppose I’m ALWAYS around young children every Halloween , they’re the whole reason why neighborhoods put out bowls and bowls of candy every year. And mentally, I might as well be one myself…

Xiao Tang caught herself internally rambling again, and she had almost rambled herself to sleep. Skies, don’t fall asleep NOW. Her eyelids also drooped dangerously low, so she quickly forced them back up before stating, “Well, I bet your escape was just as interesting then.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a small shrug and smile.

“Kind of... It was the night before I was to be announced as the next in line before the people. They made the mistake of only having ONE guard keep an eye on me. I think since they never visited me at the boarding school, they just assumed all us girls were doing was tea parties and fashion and stuff.”

Nune’s smile became a proud smirk.

“Nope. We were a mischievous lot, and spent a lot of time sneaking out of the dorms at night to go play in the forest. Or hang out in the nearby town when we all got older and cause some trouble. What I’m getting at was that they didn’t know I knew how to throw a punch. The guard ESPECIALLY didn’t, because he never saw that sucker punch that knocked him out cold coming.“

She snickered at the memory, STILL proud of herself for how quickly she had been able to plan and carry out her escape.

“I dragged him into my room, bound and gagged him, tossed him in my closet and stole his armor. ALL while he was still knocked out. Running away was easy once I got past the castle gates. The commoners just assumed I was after a thief or something. He had rations on him and everything, so I didn’t even need to stop to nab food before I fled.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Slowing her pace, Nune looked down at Xiao Tang, noticing how winded the poor girl was.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Uh… Yeah, we should be safe resting for a while. I think the whole town is too occupied with that building to worry about us.”

Nune slowed her pace to a gradual halt and squatted down to rest, not comfortable with sitting just yet. If the two were unlucky enough to have to run again, having to get up off her rear would waste precious seconds of escape time. She could easily carry Xiao Tang on her back, if anything happened before she had time to recover. Dragons had truly impressive stamina, even outside of True Dragon. Something she was REALLY grateful for being blessed with, given the current situation.

“Shoot, we didn’t have time to grab any water, did we?” Nune panted

[ellenimationz]

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Xiao Tang replied, also panting. But unlike Nune, she sat down completely with her back against the wall of the alleyways so that she wouldn’t sprawl out on the ground. She didn’t really care that she was soaked and rather dirty right now. She just felt extremely tired, her heartbeat slowing down, sleep gnawing at the edges of her mind once again.

The demon girl tilted her head slightly upward to glance at the sky as if they could trap this source of water that’s falling right down on them. That actually wouldn’t have been too bad of an idea if they currently didn’t have anything to carry water.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a sigh and a tired smile at Xiao Tang.

“Don’t worry about it for now. I have a small amount of money saved for an emergency like this. It should be just enough to get us a gourd to carry water in before we leave this village.”

Internally, she felt a bit of a pang of sadness at having to leave. So far this had been the village she was able to stay in the longest out of all of them. It had almost started to feel like an actual home.

“I… I suppose you have questions… “

[ellenimationz]

“Give me a moment please,” Xiao Tang said. She sat in silence for a moment longer, bags of meat now placed in her lap, as she continued to take in deep breaths whilst thinking.

“Ok, uh,” she began slowly. “first off, who are you running from? And second, why exactly are you running?”

Whatever the answer to the second one was, it ought to be much more serious than what she has gotten herself into in her lifetime.

“Third, are you, like, planning to try to stop them or are you gonna continue being on the run or…?”

Then again, she’s like really good at combat and everything, so in any case, she’d be fine, right?

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune sighed.

“I won’t give too many details. For your own safety, it’s best I make sure you aren’t even CONSIDERED as a source of usable info to them.”

Nune lowered her voice to JUST being audible.

“My family… well, they’re powerful people. Powerful people who are also corrupt. They also didn’t think much of me until a year or two ago. I got lucky enough to be shipped off to boarding school as soon as I was old enough, so I wasn’t raised to be like them. That changed when my brother was assassinated. He was lined up to take my father’s place, but he was found dead in his bed. Official cause of death was sleep apnea, but no one was fooled. The odds of dying young in my family rise considerably if you’re next in line. And he’d made a LOT of enemies in our own family he was such a spoiled bastard.”

Another sigh, this one more wistful.

“As much of an immature, entitled idiot as he was, I still can’t help but feel a little sad. I mean, he WAS my brother. And that’s when they decided they had use for me after all.”

[ellenimationz]

Oh, it’s more political shenanigans, happened to be Xiao Tang’s very first thought–there used to be a lot of that where she came from–but she shoved that to the very back of her mind.

She was still pretty tired though, so in terms of expression, all she really did was raise her eyebrows at Nune in mild surprise, eyelids halfway down.

“Hm, that’s unfortunate,” Xiao tang ended up whispering. “but I personally think it’s great that at least your family didn’t manage to rub their bad influences onto you.” Then she fell silent in anticipation.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune continued. “So the plan was for me to be his replacement, but... Not a true replacement. I was basically pulled away from my old friends at the boarding school who were my own found family to be their puppet.”

She narrowed her eyes, visibly angry at the memory.

“It wasn’t just that, either. I know enough about the history of my own family to know that since I was just a puppet ruler, I was eventually gonna be married off to someone who’d play their game, only to probably conveniently die as soon as I produced an heir or two. That tends to happen to anyone who’s too sympathetic to the common people.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Slowing her pace, Nune looked down at Xiao Tang, noticing how winded the poor girl was.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Uh… Yeah, we should be safe resting for a while. I think the whole town is too occupied with that building to worry about us.”

Nune slowed her pace to a gradual halt and squatted down to rest, not comfortable with sitting just yet. If the two were unlucky enough to have to run again, having to get up off her rear would waste precious seconds of escape time. She could easily carry Xiao Tang on her back, if anything happened before she had time to recover. Dragons had truly impressive stamina, even outside of True Dragon. Something she was REALLY grateful for being blessed with, given the current situation.

“Shoot, we didn’t have time to grab any water, did we?” Nune panted

[ellenimationz]

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Xiao Tang replied, also panting. But unlike Nune, she sat down completely with her back against the wall of the alleyways so that she wouldn’t sprawl out on the ground. She didn’t really care that she was soaked and rather dirty right now. She just felt extremely tired, her heartbeat slowing down, sleep gnawing at the edges of her mind once again.

The demon girl tilted her head slightly upward to glance at the sky as if they could trap this source of water that’s falling right down on them. That actually wouldn’t have been too bad of an idea if they currently didn’t have anything to carry water.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a sigh and a tired smile at Xiao Tang.

“Don’t worry about it for now. I have a small amount of money saved for an emergency like this. It should be just enough to get us a gourd to carry water in before we leave this village.”

Internally, she felt a bit of a pang of sadness at having to leave. So far this had been the village she was able to stay in the longest out of all of them. It had almost started to feel like an actual home.

“I… I suppose you have questions… “

[ellenimationz]

“Give me a moment please,” Xiao Tang said. She sat in silence for a moment longer, bags of meat now placed in her lap, as she continued to take in deep breaths whilst thinking.

“Ok, uh,” she began slowly. “first off, who are you running from? And second, why exactly are you running?”

Whatever the answer to the second one was, it ought to be much more serious than what she has gotten herself into in her lifetime.

“Third, are you, like, planning to try to stop them or are you gonna continue being on the run or…?”

Then again, she’s like really good at combat and everything, so in any case, she’d be fine, right?

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune sighed.

“I won’t give too many details. For your own safety, it’s best I make sure you aren’t even CONSIDERED as a source of usable info to them.”

Nune lowered her voice to JUST being audible.

“My family... well, they’re powerful people. Powerful people who are also corrupt. They also didn’t think much of me until a year or two ago. I got lucky enough to be shipped off to boarding school as soon as I was old enough, so I wasn’t raised to be like them. That changed when my brother was assassinated. He was lined up to take my father’s place, but he was found dead in his bed. Official cause of death was sleep apnea, but no one was fooled. The odds of dying young in my family rise considerably if you’re next in line. And he’d made a LOT of enemies in our own family he was such a spoiled bastard.”

Another sigh, this one more wistful.

“As much of an immature, entitled idiot as he was, I still can’t help but feel a little sad. I mean, he WAS my brother. And that’s when they decided they had use for me after all.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Slowing her pace, Nune looked down at Xiao Tang, noticing how winded the poor girl was.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Uh… Yeah, we should be safe resting for a while. I think the whole town is too occupied with that building to worry about us.”

Nune slowed her pace to a gradual halt and squatted down to rest, not comfortable with sitting just yet. If the two were unlucky enough to have to run again, having to get up off her rear would waste precious seconds of escape time. She could easily carry Xiao Tang on her back, if anything happened before she had time to recover. Dragons had truly impressive stamina, even outside of True Dragon. Something she was REALLY grateful for being blessed with, given the current situation.

“Shoot, we didn’t have time to grab any water, did we?” Nune panted

[ellenimationz]

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Xiao Tang replied, also panting. But unlike Nune, she sat down completely with her back against the wall of the alleyways so that she wouldn’t sprawl out on the ground. She didn’t really care that she was soaked and rather dirty right now. She just felt extremely tired, her heartbeat slowing down, sleep gnawing at the edges of her mind once again.

The demon girl tilted her head slightly upward to glance at the sky as if they could trap this source of water that’s falling right down on them. That actually wouldn’t have been too bad of an idea if they currently didn’t have anything to carry water.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a sigh and a tired smile at Xiao Tang.

“Don’t worry about it for now. I have a small amount of money saved for an emergency like this. It should be just enough to get us a gourd to carry water in before we leave this village.”

Internally, she felt a bit of a pang of sadness at having to leave. So far this had been the village she was able to stay in the longest out of all of them. It had almost started to feel like an actual home.

“I... I suppose you have questions... “

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn't risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

"Hmmm... I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?" Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today...

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Slowing her pace, Nune looked down at Xiao Tang, noticing how winded the poor girl was.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Uh... Yeah, we should be safe resting for a while. I think the whole town is too occupied with that building to worry about us.”

Nune slowed her pace to a gradual halt and squatted down to rest, not comfortable with sitting just yet. If the two were unlucky enough to have to run again, having to get up off her rear would waste precious seconds of escape time. She could easily carry Xiao Tang on her back, if anything happened before she had time to recover. Dragons had truly impressive stamina, even outside of True Dragon. Something she was REALLY grateful for being blessed with, given the current situation.

“Shoot, we didn’t have time to grab any water, did we?” Nune panted

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Closed Starter for @ellenimationz

In a crowded market in a crowded town, on the balcony of a currently-unoccupied dwelling; an interesting figure sat, eyeing one of the larger stalls.

A scaly red hand cupped her smooth, bronze-skinned chin in her hand in thought as her tail gently flicked like a metronome. The smell of that mutton cooking over that fire was enough to make her just go for it, but she couldn’t risk being identified as the thief. This town was the first stable hiding place she had found in a while. Attracting attention to herself MIGHT mean having to run. Again.

“Hmmm… I think my best bet would be to cause a commotion, but what?” Nune thought.

To her dismay, the crowds were so thick she could not get a good look for anything she could use to start enough chaos to steal the meat when no one was paying attention. At least not from here.

Ducking back into the dwelling, she deftly exited through a side window, jumping down into an empty alley. Casually, she made her way into the crowd, no one really paying any mind to the dragon woman. After all, there were quite a few Draconic people in this land. To a casual observer, Nune was just another whiskered face in the crowd.

If only any of them had known that the golden eyes on said face were observing the crowd for anything she could use to unleash chaos.

If only Nune had known that she was about to get a bit more chaos than she had bargained for today…

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“*YAAAWN… Good night… “ Nune followed shortly after extinguishing her lamp, first.

***

Sometime later, Nune stirred. In her half-asleep state, she internally acknowledged how weird this was for her, as she usually slept pretty well unless-

“… Oh, FUCK… “

It was faint, but she heard a steady two-beat rhythm of feet scuffing across the floor. Correction: There were three. They sounded scattered, each in different places in the room.

She wasn’t sure if Xiao Tang was still in the bed, but in her current fight-or-flight thing, she was sure Xiao Tang had to be working with them. The coincidence was too perfect.

It was pitch-black. She had to use her knowledge of the room and everything in it to her advantage.  As slow as these guys were moving, she could tell her dwelling had not been properly reconned beforehand.

She VERY carefully pulled her blankets down off herself, quietly rolled over, and began creeping across the floor. As dark as it was, she had to use her ears to get an idea of where every one of the intruders were. Right now, her current intention was to flank and attack as soon as she could get them into an ideal position…

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang was still fast asleep on the bed, albeit no longer snoring. She would’ve continued to sleep if one of the intruders with actual bad intentions bumped her tail which was dangling off the side of the bed. It took her a moment, but she awoke with a grumble and held her tail in her hands. However, due to the place being pitch-black and her being groggy, she couldn’t really make out what was going on.

“Nune, is that you?” she whispered, but there wasn’t an answer as the person beside the bed was doing their best to not move a muscle in fear of being discovered.

“Hello?” she asked in a still-hushed voice but more wearily, the silence becoming suspicious to her. She also became more aware of the faint footsteps elsewhere in the room. Surely Nune isn’t the only one in here?

The demon girl quickly but noisily got off the bed from the side opposite the intruder and stood at the ready.

“Who’s there?”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

“Shit, they know my alias now… There’s no way I can let them leave alive… “

In addition, all three had stopped dead where they stood, leaving Nune with no way to tell where they were in the dark. The rain outside was still going, meaning she couldn’t even listen for breathing.

One was right next to the bed, she could tell that much. Nune would have to be silent, but if she could get juuust close enough to hook her tail around his legs…

As silently as possibly, Nune began creeping towards the bed…

[ellenimationz]

I’m usually a fan of creepy settings, but this is getting weird real fast.

Xiao Tang redundantly looked around some more as she slowly creeped away from the bed.

What do I do? I’ll probably just get lost outside again if I decide to book it. But I don’t even know which way to-

A bolt of lightning struck close enough to the building to illuminate the inside for less than a second, but Xiao Tang could very well see that the person across the bed was in fact not Nune.

“GAH!” she exclaimed loudly, literally jumping into her levitation powers, her mind beginning to race. WHO’S THAT? WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE? DOES NUNE KNOW ABOUT THIS? DID NUNE PLAN THIS? Her mind did however settled on one thing: to not book it.

Pointing a finger at the intruder, she demanded, “Hey, what are you doing here?”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune took the opportunity that had presented itself.

Now distracted by Xiao Tang, the intruder by the bed began drawing his weapon.

He never got the chance to use it, as Nune rushed him so quickly in the dark that his death was instantaneous. One slash to the back of his neck had obliterated his cervical vertebrae in a spectacular crimson fountain.

Nune frowned a bit, feeling his blood get all over her. That was going to be a pain to wash out of her clothes and mane later.

Another lightning strike briefly illuminated the room, giving both his cohorts and Xiao Tang a good look at Nune and the aftermath of what she had done to their friend.

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang’s finger was now pointed where Nune’s bloodied figure stood, but curiously, she didn’t look as shocked as one would normally be if someone had murdered in front of their eyes. It’s not as if she hadn’t witnessed those of her kind straight-up devouring humans before… Her expression quickly turned into one of calm realization as she lowered her arm.

So, they are unwelcome. Now let’s see what I can do.

The last few lightning strikes also revealed the locations of the other two intruders, and one of them happened to back himself into a corner. She may not have had claws, weapons, or lots of physical strength, but she could still help out.

After a moment, she zipped around the foot of the bed over to him, still levitating, and grabbed him by his arm, pulling him up towards the ceiling before slamming him against the ground face-down. She hoped she hadn’t damaged Nune’s floor.

“Go get the other one!” she called out to Nune.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Now convinced Xiao Tang was not involved, she whirled around to face the other, who had turned and was trying to flee. “OH, NO YOU DON’T!“ Nune took off at a sprint, launching herself after only a few steps into a flying tackle. The two hit the floor roughly, Nune’s claws digging into his arms. He was struggling. Hard enough that Nune was having a hard time keeping him restrained and uncaring that this was shredding his arms. She’d kind of expected this. Being a dragon, she’d had her fair share of hunts. Prey animals left with nothing to lose tended to fight with everything they had to avoid death. There was so much blood around… There was no way she could stay here after this. It was too risky. “Xiao Tang!” She called out. “I need you to grab as much as you can from that crate by the door and get outside!”

[ellenimationz]

“On it!” Xiao Tang called back. But first, she picked up the person from underneath her and slammed him to the ground again, this time much harder, for good measure. Turns out they weren’t gonna stay anyway.

She then used the next couple lightning strikes to guide her way towards said crate. Upon opening it, she dropped her arms in to feel around, then scooped up dried meat wrapped in cloth and paper. True to Nune’s word, her rations were running out–they didn’t even fill up to half the crate–but at least it’d be easy to carry.

Rudimentary bags in her arms, Xiao Tang proceeded to get in front of the door and kick it open, the rain and winds blasting in and pushing her back some. For a second, she hesitated, but braced herself and flew into the storm nonetheless.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune. too, braced herself but for a different reason.

“Gotta make this quick… If anyone sees this, they’ll be looking for us… “

And with that, she began focusing…

From the outside one would have seen nothing at first. Before cracks began to mar the surface of the outside of the building, growing wider and wider until the whole dwelling cracked like an egg.

Which was quite fitting, given what the cause was revealed to be once the walls crumbled to the ground. Due to the rain, there was very little dust in the air to conceal the giant, serpentine red dragon that had appeared triumphant amongst the wreckage.

[ellenimationz]

Xiao Tang was still trying to make her rain through the downpour. This meat better not get as soggy as me by the time we- CRASH! …WHAT WAS THAT!?

Then the demon girl saw the debris falling all around her, so she glanced over her shoulder before skidding to a halt, almost dropping the precious foodstuff in her arms. She laid her eyes upon the absolutely wrecked building, her gaze slowly following the twists and turns of red scales until she made eye contact with the dragon woman herself.

“Woah…” she mumbled, her expression genuinely surprised this time.  “Now THAT’S a transformation.” She then had to step a couple steps to the left when what remained of a window came hurdling towards her, but her eyes were still big and her jaw still open.

“What do we do now, and where do we go?” Xiao Tang called from below after a  moments, realizing that she had basically no idea.

[nomadic-and-draconic]

The man she’d had pinned below her was now dead, courtesy of True Dragon being CONSIDERABLY heavier than Nune’s un-transformed state.

Speaking of which, Nune immediately reverted back,trundling out of the wreckage of what had once been her home towards Xiao Tang. She skidded to a halt in front of the demon. “There are other abandoned buildings.” She said, panting a bit from the exertion before. “We need to regroup there and plan our next move CAREFULLY before we do ANYTHING else.”

He voice had taken on a note of actual fear. But there was something else. Remorse. “I am so sorry… I did NOT want to involve anyone else, but it looks like you are now… “

[ellenimationz]

Until now, the demon girl didn’t really think about why they were randomly attacked in the night, but it quickly dawned on her that Nune’s past must’ve not been a particularly good one as she had people gunning for her. Which meant that she could also become a target by proxy.

With a solemn nod, she said, “I understand. And even though we’ve only known each other for less than 24 hours, I’m staying by your side for as long as you need.”

Deep down, she admittedly felt a little bit thrilled that she was going to be a part of a mystery adventure–at least it was still a mystery to her–but she could tell that the mood of the situation was more serious than that.

Still, the tiniest hint of glee made its way into her voice when she added, “Plus, I can be careful when I need to be. I’m not gonna go around rambling our secret plans or something on the streets, you know?”

She cleared her throat and adjusted her tone once more.

“…So in that case, lead the way, Nune.”

[nomadic-and-draconic]

Nune gave a nod, jerking her head in the direction where she knew they would be free to talk privately. “This way. And we need to hurry, there’s no WAY there won’t be guards or someone coming to investigate the tremors that caused... “ Sure enough, while distant and unseen, the sounds of rapid footsteps were approaching, as well as a few shouts that it sounded like a building collapsed. Nune took off, slightly slower than normal as she was not sure if Xiao Tang could keep up with the impressive speeds that a dragon at a full sprint could achieve.

“If she asks, I have to tell her. I can’t lie to her now that she’s involved... “