Location: Community Care
Starter for @blackcatxmagic
"Hey Doc, sorry to bother you, you got a second?" Xander usually would have kept it to himself and fixed himself up when he got home but he had a long shift ahead of him. "Sorry about crowding your waiting room though. Patient insisted we brought him here instead. Seems like he trusts you more than anybody," Xander admitted with a shrug. He most knew Doctor Adams in passing from their work. But people in the community seemed to like him and Xander had great respect for that. "It's just the guy was a little agitated when we arrived, he might have thrown a few things, I didn't think it was much but he nicked me here," Xander told him and pointed at the cut on his neck. "You uh mind just checking it out to make sure it doesn't get infected? You'd be doing me a real solid."
The inhabitants of Kallah’s grove. A secret orchard cared for by the strange dragons, kept secret and secluded within the ruins and thriving under the care of various magics. It helps provide the clan with fresh water and foods that wouldn't normally be available in the ruins.
The skydancer, Kallah, is actually a dryad (as is the ridgeback Carya). Kallah's life force is tied to the grove, and it was through her that the grove thrives.
It had to be at least 2 a.m. A singular bottle of wine sat between the two girls. Two glasses sat adjacent. Pippa’s hair was thrown up into the messiest top knot she’d ever created and her small frame was cloaked in her cat sweatshirt and matching whisker pj bottoms. “Alright,” she began, her accent cupping each syllable. “Time to wine it out.” her voice like a proclamation.
Emotions often seemed too hard to deal with - but the second tragedy struck, they must’ve bottlenecked within him, because after tossing and turning for two entire nights so far, with nothing but an agonizing yearning that consumed his entire being, Miah was left with what seemed more like a crippling void of feelings - a void so bad, it made him sick... sick enough to straight up decline to deal with almost anything.
The bare minimum was taken care of - almost - but that was all he could handle. Fortunately, Miah had the means he needed to fuck off to to virtually anywhere he wanted, and turning his phone off easily gave him the inaccessibility that he absolutely needed for the sake of his own sanity. So he fucked off with their car that, thank fuck, was reliable enough so that Miah’s leaving Albuquerque ((to San Diego - which is where Brook lives, if thats cool)) didn’t have to involve a ticket counter, or a bus driver or a load of other passengers. All he had to do was simply get in the car and drive, stopping at a Best Buy to pick up a GPS navigator so he could avoid turning on his phone when the highway signs became too specific, and eventually at a gas station, where he could refuel both the fully loaded, royal blue sedan and himself - opting for caffeine instead of calories which the terrible, burned coffee the rural gas station had on hand would provide - though he also bought a bag of unsalted sunflower seeds for dinner, or rather, whenever Miah’s body decided to swap out the hunger pains for a headache and an intense enough dizzy sensation to made him feel unsafe to drive.
Miah pulled up to the club at which Brook works and parked the comfortable sedan as far from the lot’s own contribution to the light pollution as the as the large square of concrete wold allow. Dusk was begging to settle in, gradually blanketing with the whole surrounding with a calming wash of blue-grey, along with a pleasant coolness that correlated with the dimming of the vivid radiance of the afternoon. ((I say that ‘cause the HEAT is the actual cause, the brightness just causes the HEAT - and yes, i took 10 minutes to decide how to word that)). The blue-grey dusk turned into night, where the stars barely showed up through the light pollution that to some degree saturated their surroundings within a distant radius.
Watching the clock evoked the English proverb ‘a watched pot never boils’ because time apparently slowed down to a crawl before Miah decided ‘fuck it’, he’d she what he could do about get in with his typical tactic of a plausible story and/or tears and pleading... or (as Miah decided after he’d made it to the proverbial fork in the road, allowing him the choice of heading towards either side of the building), he could just head to other side of the building and go in through the back... which was both unlocked and unguarded.
He took a seat and en empty booth, doing his best to act like he belonged there waiting for security, for a server, a stripper, for Brooklynn herself to approach him. ((Approach him w/ any of the above... and feel free to assign a staff member to me!))
Spotting the blond knockout he’d left home looking for stabbed Miah in the stomach with the nearly overwhelming flutter of pain, though despite the sensation that the sighting of her provoked in him did very little to disrupt Miah’s outwardly calm demeanor as he sat there, trying (and succeeding) not to stare.
“Brooooook,” Mark sang out as he entered her apartment, arms full of bagels and muffins, two coffees in his other hand. “Wakey, wakey, it’s Friday and I’m demanding some quality Mark and Brook time, it’s way overdue.” He smiled as he stood in her kitchen, “I would say I’m way too cheery for the morning but I haven’t slept so here I am.”
Brook is a young water guardian who finds her way into Kallah’s grove from an underwater tunnel, leading Kallah and Mirth to discover that the lake in the grove leads down and out into the sea. Brook realizes that the grove itself is her charge, and Kallah/Mirth basically adopt her and raise her as their own.
Naz is a maren princess who belongs to a kingdom that has a long standing feud with dragons. Naz gets into a fight with her parents about her responsibilities and runs away angrily. She finds an odd pearl, that curses her. She can shift from maren to PC, but her form is now monstrous in either shift, and she must be in contact with water to change.
Brook senses a strange presence at the edge of her senses, and patrols the grove, eventually going down the tunnel and finding a strange pearlcatcher who doesn’t seem to understand draconic but can speak maren (Brook, having been raised by water dragons near a friendly maren tribe, can fortunately also speak it). The dragon is injured, and Brook offers to help her but the other seems hesitant to allow Brook to touch her, and eventually Brook tells her that she is always welcome to return if she needs help. The pc nods and vanishes.
Brook continues to return to the spot for a few days, but doesn’t encounter the stranger for two weeks. During these two weeks, Naz spends her time getting used to her new form, eventually managing to shift back into her maren form. Naz returns to her tribe, feeling regretful over how she left, but instead of being welcomed back she is attacked. She flees, but takes a spear to the side.
She flees to the tunnel, and runs into Brook again. Brook is shocked to see this maren but quickly realizes it’s the same dragon from before. Brook tries to get Naz to take her up the tunnel so Kallah and Mirth can tend to her wound, but Naz panics and tells her that she will stay in the tunnel but only if Brook will keep her a secret. Brook agrees, and tends to Naz’s wound and visits her in secret.
At first, Naz is unable to shift into her dragon form, but once her wound heals a bit she’s able to again, and Brook begins teaching her draconic and other things. Naz is curious, but torn, unsure where she belongs now.
As time passes, the two form a strong bond, and eventually Naz agrees to come with Brook up the tunnel to the grove. Kallah and Mirth are shocked, but welcome her easily, and it works out for Naz since the grove is a secret even to the clan, so few will know of her existence.
The two currently live in Kallah’s grove and ridiculously pine over each other, much to Mirth’s irritation and Kallah’s amusement.
This took forever but finally the second part of Brook/Naz’s arc
The pearlcatcher stopped hissing at Brook’s question;
“Who are you?”
Instead of answering though the other dragon just continued to stare at Brook blankly. Brook frowned, hadn’t it understood her? She cleared her throat and took a tentative step forward (a move the pearlcatcher didn’t hesitate to echo with a step back).
“What are you doing here?” She tried instead, trying to seem as unthreatening as possible. Despite her attempt to make herself appear friendlier the pearlcatcher was still visibly fearful, eyes flickering around for any openings to escape. At Brook’s new question however it got somehow more nervous, taking another shaky step back.
All apprehension Brook might have felt was overpowered by how…wrong, the situation was. Aside from the dragons weirdness it didn’t seem aggressive and in fact was so frightened of Brook is disturbed the guardian. Trying once more Brook spoke as softly as she could.
“Where are you from?” She asked, nearly begging for a reply.
The pearlcatcher took another step back, but to Brook’s surprise the dragon opened it’s mouth finally.
“I don’t know what you’re saying, please don’t hurt me.” The pearlcatcher’s words were not spoken in draconic, and Brook was surprised once more, even more so when she realized the dragon was speaking in the tinkling, pleasant language of the maren. Not only that but the dragon’s voice was weird on its own, heavily accented with something Brook found herself unable to describe, almost song-like in nature.
Brook found herself shocked into silence for a few long moments, moments in which the pearlcatcher stared up at her with an increasing apprehension. Brook struggled to wrap her mind around what was going on but abandoned her attempt to make what was happening logical to instead flounder for a reply. She quickly thanked her mother for teaching her the maren language.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” Brook replied in choppy maren, her own voice rough around the soft syllables of the language. The pearl catcher looked somehow more surprised than Brook, staring at her with wide eyes. Brook frowned at the reaction. “Don’t you speak common?” She asked, maybe a bit too harshly as the pearl catcher grew nervous again through the shock, looking away.
“…I..never learned.” The pearlcatcher replied, and Brook frowned at the unsure tone, almost spoken as a question. She felt a million questions bubble into her mind at once, but the tang of blood in the water forced her to hold her tongue.
“Let me heal you.” She said suddenly, wincing at her lack of tact but eyeing the still bleeding gash on the pearlcatcher. Already she could feel magic gathering at her claw tips, ready to heal instead of harm.
However, the pearlcatcher somehow seemed to pale in the dim light of the underwater tunnel, eyes darting obviously to Brook’s claws. Brook thought distantly that if it were possible the other would be sweating.
Before Brook could insist the pearlcatcher finally regained her composure, shaking her head no, wide eyes still trained stiffly on Brook.
“No, no… it’s okay. I-I can heal myself.” She said nervously with the same unsure tone, as if she wasn’t sure if she could or not?
‘So she can do magic?’ Brook noted. She could barely contain her questions, but she could feel the strange energy of this dragon tensing up. She was sure that this nervous creature was getting ready to bolt, and again Brook found herself worried at why this dragon was so outrageously scared of her.
But also, she found herself desperately curious and…well, a little worried for this strange dragon’s well being. She wanted this dragon to trust her, wanted to learn the mystery, wanted her to come back.
Brook spread out her palms in a non threatening gesture. “Hey listen, I don’t know what’s going on right now but I’m not going to hurt you.” She explained gently in rough maren. The pearlcatcher stilled and regarded her more thoughtfully.
“What’s your name?” Brook asked, emboldened at the other dragon’s slightly calmer stance. She cursed as the pearlcatcher immediately stiffened again though, every subject seemed tense.
Still, she wasn’t running yet, and she regarded Brook with a curious gaze. “…Naz.” She said after a few seconds pause. The name sounded weird, as if Brook’s understanding of the language couldn’t properly grasp the sound of it.
“I’m Brook!” She replied with immediately, offering the best smile she could manage. Naz didn’t seem impressed, and her eye darted around anxiously again, looking for a way out. Brook’s smile waivered.
“Look, I’m not going to keep you here or anything, you’re free to come and go as you please, you just can’t move beyond this border.” Brook explained gently, indicating the tunnel around them. She flashed another bright grin at Naz, who seemed considerably more relaxed, but who was also still tensely watching Brook and keeping a careful distance. Brook realized it was as if Naz didn’t know how to talk to other dragons, didn’t know how to read body language that seemed to translate naturally for most dragons. More questions bubbled into her mind.
“And I mean hey, if you do come back, I’ll teach you draconic?” She offered in a joking tone, trying to get Naz to relax, to stay, to reveal her secrets. The pearlcatcher didn’t smile, but Brook could sense the tingle of amusement in the dragon’s magic aura and felt accomplished.
When Brook meets her eyes though, she finds herself pinned by those unnatural silver eyes. She’s sure she imagines it, but for a moment she feels strange magic brush against her own. It’s gone in the span of half a breath though, and Naz suddenly actually does manage a smile. Barracuda sharp teeth glint in the glow of the tunnel as Naz takes a few steps back into the waiting darkness of the passage behind her.
“…Maybe.” She says simply before she vanishes into the darkness, beyond the reach of the magic glow Brook is putting off.
Brook doesn’t follow her, she turns around and goes back to the pond, back to Kallah and Mirth. She doesn’t tell them that there was a strange dragon in the area.
She does go back to the same spot the next day. And when nothing happens, she starts patrolling the tunnel every day, swimming all the way to the mouth where it lets out into the open sea, not even trying to act as if she’s doing anything but checking for evidence that someone has been by.
