Enemy of my enemy

[Bloodwing]

A day or so had passed since he had revealed his presence to the town of Avaren. The city was still in disrepair and every one was on edge. They took things far too seriously. The city would have heightened it's defenses by now. With ballistae, and catapults. and a fair amount of archers. It was as if they didn't want their friendly neighbor hood reptile around, how sad.

During his trip to Avaren he had found out a few things that where too his liking. For one the knight that basically refused to help the city if he wasn't offered gold. And there was that Odd gil that he had allowed to ride on his back. It proved that there where some that appreciated his work. and his company. He had also seem the Towns warriors in action as well as a paladin that really really got on his nerves. Not to mention, the queen of Avaren was quite attractive for human standards. These, along with the fact that he had a home in the nearby mountains and Avaren had proved to be a fun form of entertainment , where all reasons he had elected to stay.

He wasn't quiet sure what he wanted, he guess he could become the ruler of the city, and watch the city rot under his tyranny. That would be sort of entertaining he guessed. but that would take a while. Maybe he could just visit every once and a while pay his respects to the place just to stir some fun. But that paladin would probably come looking for him after a wile and that knight would find the appropriate fee and he end up loosing sleep, and having unexpected dinner guests that wanted to kill you was never any fun. Well it was if the said dinner guests didn't have the means to kill a red dragon, but that Paladin did have those means.

Bloodwing came upon a new idea however. He knew that a city as large as Avaren had to have a good amount of criminals, from thieves to assassins, and having just finished a war with a neighboring kingdom, Avaren must have a good amount of enemies. So here he was In full dragon form, standing in the middle of what use to be Aesir city square. Aesir was a city that had relied on magic over muscle. it had only recently lost a war with Avaren and Bloodwing was curious to know if there was anyone left. He wasn't here for blood in fact he was looking to make some friends.

He wondered how many could see the profit in turning Aethir into a criminal capital, where thugs ran the streets. He sat down on his haunches then lowered the rest of his enormous bod to the ground and waited to see who would come to investigate the new arrival.

[Dante]

Bright sun was shining into Dante's closed and once sleeping eyes. With a reluctant frown, her eyes opened to show her pupil-less turquoise eyes to the sky through a dull brown coloured ceiling that rose above her, holes in the thatch letting light into the building. Dante sigh tiredly. She had managed to find the ruins of some kingdom she could already tell she wouldn't care about. Dante pulled herself up into a seated position, stretching her shoulders that creaked with a few loud pops. "I really need to stop sleeping on the floor," she groaned.

With that complaint, Dante pushed herself to her feet, dusting off her animal hide cloak that she had been sleeping on and readjusting it over her body. Such a skinny frame she had, not having much in the way of money to spend on the luxury of food. She sighed, snatching up her staff from the far corner of the room. "Such a useless item," she complained, hoisting it to her shoulder. She moved lazily across the fire torn building, ducking under a few low beams and out the open doorway. She wasn't straight in front of the center of the town, but she could see the back of a large beast.

"I thought those things went extinct," she mused. Dante raised the hood of her heavy cloak and began her journey across the destroyed landscape. Although it was exactly what she thought it was, Dante approached with caution. "Why hello there," she said with a musing smile, turning to the square and barely entering it. Dante watched in light anticipation as she leaned herself against a bare beam of a building, crossing her arms as she awaited a response of sorts.

[Bloodwing]

Bloodwing, with his head resting on the cracked cobble stone of the destroyed street, Heard the sound of foot steps as someone approached. curiosity killed the cat He mused in thoughth to himself. He didn't move except for the steady exhaling in inhaling. He could tell that the thing walking toward him was bipedal; So he assumed who ever it was was human, since humans where the main species of the area.

Human's seemed too easily startled and for once he didn't want to scare any off so he didn't make any movement until the human made the first move. He hadn't heard the comment but he did here the greeting. His wing unfurled and stretch out and up to their full length; his tail straitened, smacking over the free standing support beam of a dead building in the process; his neck lifted and stretched to its full length, and finally his mouth opened stretching wide, baring all is razor sharp teeth, and his abrasive tongue in a silent roar as he yawned.

He refolded his wings and curled his tail around his body. Then, closing his mouth he arched his neck around and looked down at the approaching woman. He found himself wondering why he had expected some a male to approach first. "Greetings, what is you name, human?" He said. He sounded rather rude but part of him didn't really care. He smelled magic in the air mingled with her own scent. She most deal with magic he concluded.

[Dante]

Danted watched with an unamused face as the dragon stood, she found the gesture to be filled with a tasteless dramatic tone. Dante tapped the staff on the ground a few times in a mild boredom. "You ask my name blood dragon?" she inquired, arching a brow under the shadows of her hood, "Wouldn't it be polite to give your name first?" she mused, her mouth giving way to a wry smile.

Dante didn't care for a name in all honesty, naming things just to name them was always a curious past time she had seen in men. With that thought, she removed the hood from her head and dusted her hands free of any lingering dirt. "You may call me Dante," she said, running her hand through her short red-brown hair. Dante's turquoise eyes wandered over the lumbering body of the dragon. "You've faired many battles," she said bluntly.

[Bloodwing]

This human was indeed strange she seemed neither intimated nor truly curious. She seemed almost disinterested as if the great beast wasn't really that big of a deal to her. In a way that hurt his pride somewhat. Maybe he should teacher the proper manners and care one should use around him, Later he told himself.

"You may call me Bloodwing, Human" He said out loud. he Didn't use he name hoping to get some kind of reaction out of her other than this melancholy disposition. "Why do you not fear me?" He asked curiously.

[Dante]

Dante yawned, covering her mouth with her slender hand. The look in the beast's eyes at her appearance amused her. "Bloodwing, eh?" she asked, pushing herself off the bare beam and striding over to the beast. "I do not fear what is merely an animal, you have four legs, a tail and a mouth, simply an animal by nature," she mused wrecklessly. His distain for the fact she didn't show fear to him was just pulsing throughout his aura that she could see.

Dante brushed her hair from her face and sighed. "Are you the destroyer of this town or was it some unforseen battle?" she questioned, her velvet voice peaking with curousity.

[Bloodwing]

ANIMAL! He lost control for a moment and a burst of blazing fire bust from his nostrils, disintegrating a pile of rubble as it made contact. "First, Dante, if you're going to consider me an animal remember this I am the predator, and to my animal instincts you are prey." He growled as he reined in his rage. To him she had made a point. He had called her human so he called him an animal, it was about the same level of disrespect so tis time he used her name. He took a deep breath, and exhaled; being careful to keep from ignite the air coming from his lungs as he did so.

"As for this town," He said and then paused and looked around. "This destruction is not my doing, and I am sad to admit that I missed the war that this city lost." If he had been there he probably would have helped even to odds for Aesir just so he could see the war go on for longer. "However I did cause the crater in Avaren." He said proudly

[Dante]

"Remember though, the prey isn't always helpless. Sometimes it's the other way around too," Dante mused. Her auburn hair blew across her face in a strong cold breeze that came from the north. The mention of war made Dante feel almost warm inside. The destruction of cities and towns, the blood and entrails across the ground so thick that it made the ground slick and hard to stand on. Oh how beautiful the sight of hysteria could be.

"Avaren," Dante said outloud in thought. Hadn't it been that ugly little village that she had come across earlier? Oh yes, that battle with the red dragon and the unfortunately good looking fire breather knight. Dante chortled a laugh, "You must have exhausted quite an energy supply for that crater," she said, her tone wasn't mocking or anything, it was just a dry, velvet tone that could send shivers up anyone's spine.

[Bloodwing]

"Indeed some prey is trouble some but that makes them all the more fun to tear apart in the end." This woman was very intriguing. As big and a vicious as he looked and as threatening as he acted he could not smell even the slightest hint of fear. Any other human would have been quivering in fear and begging him not to eat them.

There was a part of him that was angry about this. He wanted to show her just why she should fear him. Maybe he could pin her to the ground with one claw. Then, cut open her belly, and slowly pull out her intestines with the other. Even at the side he knew how to deal out torture, and oh how her screams would be ecstasy to him.Just the thought of it bade him want to get on with such a lesson of humility.

There was a problem with that however. He didn't have away to reverse such a procedure, and for some reason, a part of him liked her attitude. Maybe her bloody end would come at his hands, or claws. However her demise would not be met today.

"Does a painter complaint about how much paint he uses to make a masterpiece?" He asked in response to he comment on the crater. "No," He answered, "And I would have done more if that Paladin hadn't shown up." He said with some annoyance. Then some what happily he asked. "What did you think? Wasn't the crater a nice addition to the boring kingdom of Avaren?"

[Dante]

"You do realize that letting them survive with only a depression in the earth will only give them pride, right?" Dante said, then stiffling a yawn. Oh how Dante lothed pride, one of her main goals was to cut down the prideful. Here she was though, talking to another embodiment of the term "pride". How ridiculous it was .

Dante pulled her hood back up as a frozen wind came in from the north, carrying along with it freezing rain. Dante was privately snickering as the clouds snuffed out the light from the sun. Cold weather and reptilians don't exactly mix. "I suggest you get out of the rain before you become so sluggish you can't even defend yourself properly," she said with a laugh as she hoisted her large sage's staff over her shoulder, "Theres a cave up the hill from here," she mentioned. Oh, how it made her laugh. A soaking wet dragon caught in a lightning storm in a valley covered in metal. So comical to her.

[Bloodwing]

Rain, he could handle he could swim after all but the rain was a bit cold and as the sky growled down at him he quickly decided that Flying was a bad idea. "Oh it would take a while for this rain to cool my blood enough to slow me down but I do hate the cold. Show me this cave." He said as steam and smoke began paring from his nostrils with each breath.

All dragons where proud and none more so than Bloodwing. It was what fueled his desire to kill, to destroy and to inflict pain. Human's where under him, they where prey, prey that could fight back but prey none the less. the only reason they could fight back is that they didn't understand that they where prey. He needed to make sure they knew their place.

And here he was looking to make allies of his food. Part of him was perplexed as to why he would even try, but his intelligent side knew that this would end in more fun for him in the end. Maybe even another small war.

[Dante]

Dante laughed to herself as the dragon asked for her aid in finding the cave. The rain was already beginning to pour down heavily. Thunder crashed and lightning flashed, giving both creatures an ominous glow when the lightning did strike. Oh how Dante knew this blood dragon assumed humans were food for him. Prey was all the predator kind thought about.

Refraining from mocking the dragon about his unhealthy diet, Dante approached the large cavern. "The idiots closed it up," she muttered with distaste. Dante simply, just like she were batting away a fly, rolled the huge stones from the ten story tall entrance. "Get inside if you don't want to be struck," she said in a dull but humors tone towards the huge dragon.

[Bloodwing]

He could just change into his human form. A magic that most dragons his age had mastered. He could shape shift into to his more vulnerable human for to keep from being struck. But he liked looking intimidating and being beg wasn't much trouble yet.

Her sow of magic wasn't all that impressive, he watched as the rocks floated through the air and wondered if he should melt them just because he could. He decided against it... for now.

He looked down into to the cavern which was basically a hole in the ground. "I like my holes free of vermin." He muttered. Before opening his mouth and breathing out a thick tongue of fire into the cavern. Which was partially a mistake the heat used for the flame was no longer in his body and he could feel his energy start to fall.

The walls of the caver where now glowing red, and he, as quick as he could, turned around and backed into the cave. he didn't think he wanted to trust this woman just yet. Under the scorched earth he was warmed and revitalized. "I want to know, did you like my fireworks in avaren would you support more?" He asked curiously.

[Dante]

Dante found the dragon's apprehensiveness to be funny even if it was well placed. She watched as he backed into his cave and yawned boredly as she deflected a bolt of lightning. How difficult it would have appeared to the human untrained in magic, but to those trained in magic it was rather simple to do. Dante felt no need to prove herself to an over grown lizard.

"They weren't entirely spectacular, but they did the fine job of scaring people," Dante commented. She entered the cave and so boldly took a seat on the dragon's front claw. For here, she was the safest. If he wanted to attack her, he would have to do so while harming himself. No self respecting beast would do that unless they were incredibly stupid.

Dante lowered her hood from her head, shaking out her now flattened auburn hair. "Hm, self heated, but for my tastes too hot," she remarked with a frown, stayin where she was at the entrance to the cave. Within the few minutes of being in the heated cave, Dante felt her clothing become annoyingly humid. She tugged off her cloak and found a small spot upon the cave wall she could hang it.

After having done so, Dante returned to her seat on the dragon's front claw. There could easily be a conversation here, but there was no alcohol present to start it.

[Bloodwing]

Dragon scales are fire proof. And Bloodwing could swim in lava he would have no trouble incinerating this little human. That seemed to think she was safe sitting on his claw. Well if he wanted to waste what fire he had left. Where he lying in a magma bed he wouldn't have to worry about fire but with it raining outside he had to conserve his heat.

But he comment did feed his ego, a small bit. "And the people that actually got caught in the flames where rather entertaining. If that paladin hadn't shown up I would have had my self a nice roasted dinner." He though out loud. "Well at least you sort of understand what I was trying to do. Not a single thief went looting during the party. I guess the people in Avaren aren't to smart. So, what reason do you have for coming to Avaren or Aesir for that matter."