Fantasy Ashen IC Thread

[Selee-01]

The sun rose over Arioch like a dragon’s fireball, burning away the cold ocean mists that clung to Guardian City like a shroud. Normally, this would be a rest day for the young Ashen, but that was not to be.

The spartan tower chambers where the Ashen sleep, located just above the Dragon Pits, ring with the sound of Captain Kerian slamming open the doors. He stormed through the barracks banging a pan with a hammer, making as much noise as humanly possible.

“Up and at ‘em boys and girls!” Kerian shouted. “Up, up damn you! The Marshal needs you all up, or you’ll be mucking out the pits for a week!”

It was not an idle threat.

 

[mysteryxio]

"Gods damn it I'll never get used to this" Azera groaned. He'd been here for years now. So many mornings started out this way and he always hated it. Azera wanted to go back to sleep, to spend the day and enjoy himself, maybe find a handsome man to fool around with, but realizing that Kerian likely meant what he said, he reluctantly rose up.

His room was filled with the various trinkets and souvenirs from his life and travels. The people who'd taken him where kind enough to let him retrieve and keep them. He'd received stares from many when he first got here, once a criminal to protecting the kingdom. Many didn't trust him and thought him a disgrace some still feel that way. Many also found him endearing and alluring. Which had led to some fun... and occasional trouble especially when Kerian caught him. As he got ready and presentable he heard a roar close by and knew it was Craven. "Guess I'm not the only one who still can't get used to these early mornings."

 

[RoninN7]

One moment, Namira was dreaming about walking through a scorched mountain with a blood-red sky above her; the next, she was awoken by a loud, metallic banging coming from outside of her room. Her first instinct was to smother her face with a pillow to attempt to drown out the noise until it stopped. I definitely need to get earplugs in the future. As soon as the sound became somewhat more bearable, a groggy Namira placed her pillow beside her and sat up on the bed. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, psyching herself up before throwing the covers off of her and jumping onto the cold ground beneath her. It wasn't often that Namira had a hard time waking up, but her recent dreams were so vivid it felt nearly impossible for her to shake herself awake sometimes. As much as she hated to admit it, her time as an Ashen was starting to get to her.

"I'm up, I'm up!" The blonde girl's words echoed out from her room as she slipped out of her nightgown and began getting dressed. Her room was mostly devoid of anything meaningful, other than some of her clothes littering the floor and her weapons neatly stashed in an open chest. Most of her belongings were lost when she was kidnapped all those years prior, and she never really kept anything of value since. A slight twinge of anger and annoyance flashed through Namira's mind, which indicated to her that Rax had awoken and wasn't too pleased. Namira grabbed her knife and clipped it onto her hip, where she always kept it, before stepping out and closing the door behind her. As the young female looked around and heard her fellow Ashen stirring, she sighed, realizing that the day ahead would be a long one.

 

[Evarius]

The sun shone through the frosted windows and woke Lyra up earlier than usual. As she opened her eyes to her cluttered room she couldn’t place the feeling that nagged at her. Nothing should be out of the ordinary but something was. Everything in her room seemed in its place, the pictures of her family still stood bright and polished with their smiling faces looking back at her. Her armor was still draped across a chair from training, and the sowing supplies were still left strewn across her desk from mending part of a ripped shirt. So what was wrong? The feeling again tugged at her guts.

Oh. Everything suddenly started making sense again. She remembered last night. Nidhogg didn't get any dinner because he was recovering from a slight wound and decided to sleep through mealtime. He was annoying her because he was hungry.

With a huff, she luged herself out of bed and quickly dressed to escape the cold. As she made her way down to the dragon pit, she avoided the other dragons. She trusted Nidhogg not to bite her hand off but she wouldn’t risk waking the other beasts. As she reached her destination, seeing Nidhogg looking at her furiously, she heard the Captain start to bang his pan.

 

[noil]

Aigo^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - >}

As usual, Aigo was up and about before the light of dawn had begun to sneak over the horizon. Even on a so-called rest day there were still tasks to be looked after. In his mind, rest day meant a day for preparation. It was best in the hectic life of the Ashen to take what chances you could get to get your life in order rather than be taken off guard by the sharp eye of the Captain. And so it was that the new day found Aigo well absorbed in the task of maintaining Umbraxis' saddle harness.

The pits were quiet this time of day. Thought there were plenty of nocturnal dragons in the world, those that had come to live with the riders of Arioch had learned at least in some part to abide by the diurnal life of its human inhabitants. It was a unique sort of hominess that lay over the resting forms of the dragons within. The heated breath of the fire-breathers warding away the night air and stirring it into something warm and heavy with the strangely comforting scent of charcoal.

A sleepy stream of disgruntled-unfair-fond eased its way along the bond between dragon and rider as Aigo nudged her left wing so that he could access the leather strap that snaked its way around her chest. It was beginning to wear at an old join here, he noted, an old patch job that would need to be replaced outright before too long. Aigo pulled at the buckle that rested there, trying to project a sense of relaxed determination back to the dragon. He still wasn't quite used to the strange sort of connectedness he now shared with the beast, though he was getting better at understanding Umbraxis. At least he hoped so.

"You'll thank me later when this doesn't chafe so bad," he said, ducking back out under her lifted wing. He kept his voice low. Umbraxis may have come to tolerate her rider's early mornings, but he doubted many of the other dragons were so forgiving of having their sleep interrupted.

Umbraxis merely huffed in response, tilting her head where it rested on the floor of the alcove in good-natured imitation of a human eye roll. She perked suddenly, then, raising her head as dragons around them began to stir. Such a coordinated wake could only mean their riders were being roused.

"Looks like we may not be getting the day off after all, eh?" Aigo commented, gathering up his bundle of waxes and repairing supplies. He considered pulling the saddle harness back off to return it to its storing place, but decided to let it stay. If they were being summoned it likely meant it would need to be used soon anyway, might as well not have to go through wrestling it back onto the large dragon again.

He hurried his way back up to the tower chambers, items tucked under his arm for the climb up the winding staircase leading up from the pits.