Dragon Warz IC Thread

Aeolous shook his head at the question, "I am afraid, I don't know the answer to that question. I know little about the lives of the followers of The Lord of War." He informed Thorn, "True, the two of you are far too stubborn and prideful to get along." A brief smile crossed his face at the thought, they truly were more alike than either would care to admit.

When the blue dragon spoke his name, Aeolous looked up at him, curiously. "It is indeed what I say. I have no doubt that is what our god referred to when he spoke of it to you. As for the Hotaru, I doubt he will speak to me either, as the last I spoke spoke to him, he called me a 'fucking lunatic' and fled. But... perhaps the healer can convince him to reveal some information as the Awakening is an event that will affect the world in its entirety. Arandur is much more caring than he will ever admit. He does not strike me as one who would see a life wasted and certainly not brutalized as these ancient dragons are sure to do in their efforts to end the world and bring about their lord's dream."

He stood then, sapphire eyes downcast, "I am afraid I am little help in this, Oceanwalker. I am sorry for that." The regret in his voice was palatable when he spoke those last words. He did not like being useless, even less, he disliked not knowing. I will learn what I can from the Hotaru on my own time, I will also attempt to learn what the wizard healer might have learned from him. It is essential that we get all the information on the time-frame and mechanics of the Time of Awakening as we can. If our god says that it is near, then we must act quickly, agreed?"

He cleaned and he cooked, and slowly, inch by inch, his temper and turbulent emotions would still themselves back to something more manageable. He sat down on one of the sofas, kept so nice over the many years, his hand running over the cushions he had made, his gaze looking around the place. It was really nothing but another part of a prison and he was struck, as sometimes it did, how much he wanted out.

He could barely even remember what it felt like to walk in the sun, or feel proper grass under his feet, to touch a living tree and feel its life beneath his fingertips, to sense the life in the sunlit world, and the star-studded one as well. He wanted out. He wanted out so badly that the small table beside him started to shake again for a few moments before he crushed his feelings back into submission.

He would not be escaping, not now, and especially not after he was rebelling against Oceanwalker like this. There would be nothing worth looking forward to after this most likely, though perhaps Oceanwalker would be so angry he would just kill him. It was a possibility. He had always pushed his luck far with the dragon, but never like this. It felt almost childishly good to do it despite knowing the repercussions that would come. The dragon did not make idle threats, and even this gilded cage would be taken away, destroyed for his rebellion. But perhaps it was better for it to end like this, in one glorious rebellion than to lose more of himself over the centuries of being trapped here.

The Hotaru didn't seem to realise just what sort of position he was in with this transformation. He barely even recognised the same person any more. He had respected the fierce warrior that never gave up, who wanted nothing from others, who had earned his skills and was glorious in the savagery of them. And yet now all that seemed to have gone when his body finally echoed his personality. He had tried to talk to him, but like a petulant child had been dismissed as boring and heretical. Well, there was little he could do about the man's attitude if he would not even listen enough to hear what he was saying. The most he could do now is just keep his silence with Oceanwalker long enough, because that particular wrong far outweighed the casually cruel dismissal that the Hotaru had given him.

<<Hotaru>>

Eventually, tempers cooled, leaving Hotaru standing untouched in the center of devastation. His muscles felt pleasantly used, but there was no answering self-satisfaction. He was alone; he'd always been alone, but never like this, never with this painful knot in his chest that throbbed and ached without relief.

He walked over to the window, setting his claws in the magical barrier, gritting his teeth against the discomfort, but it was no use. There must be something wrong with him to feel this way. Hotaru preferred solitude. He always had. What need had he for fancy robes, jewels, and the perpetual fawning obeisance of those in the Church? He was a weapon. He knew his place, and his duty. Or he had, anyway.

Frowning, Hotaru left the little room and went in search of Arandur. He limped slightly with each step, the broken spike on his heel still very tender. Sweat, strips of shedding skin, blood, feathers, fluffs of fabric, and other miscellaneous things stuck to him, but Hotaru cared not. He stood before the healer and announced, "Take me to the dragon."

He did not intend to sound presumptuous or demanding; he had never learned differently, and he automatically assumed that Arandur would know exactly what he intended and wished, for what other reason could Hotaru have for speaking with the master of this city, the creature who held the other end of Hotaru's leash?

Hotaru was tired of playing games. He was the Dragonslayer.

He would look up from where he sat as the other made his way slowly down the stairs. The sight of him was a state, but he could already see the difference in his eyes. Rising to his feet, he would turn and move towards him, his own gaze troubled. "But you aren't ready yet" he said, his voice worried and hushed in the expanse of the room. "Can you not wait at least until your scales have hardened?" he asked, panic bubbling up from inside him. What if H got himself hurt badly, killed even. Despite their argument, or perhaps argument was a false word, but despite whatever it had been between them, he still worried about the other.

If the other was insistant on going now, he would feel that resignation within himself. Perhaps it had all been for nothing. He didn't want the man to go like this, hurting both inside and out. Wounds, he knew, were not that quickly healed. "Let me at least clean you up, and see to the wound on your foot before you go." He didn't like the tone in his own voice, that was almost begging, but so much rode on the outcome, not so much for himself, but for the man's life and future. If he walked away now, thinking, as the look in his eyes told, that he was alone in this, what damage would that do? "I made some pies.."

<<Hotaru>>

He looked down at himself as the healer spoke, realizing that perhaps he ought to clean up some, but he didn't have his armor! How was he to present himself if he couldn't be himself? He started nodding, contemplative now, but he would not be dissuaded from his mission. He could not just sit around idly, waiting. Hotaru was a tool, and he needed used or he was going to go mad. His previous thoughts were just indicators of that. He couldn't ... He just couldn't explain it. He needed to do . . . something!

His eyebrow (or what was left of it) swooshed upward, and he broke off the beginnings of a rebuttal to say, "Pies? What are those?" Curious as ever.

He was desperately thinking of what to do with the other, what he could do to get him into the best shape possible for the fight that was to almost inevitably happen. "Oh, Pies, well since your talons are not retractable, I thought it would be easier for you to eat something that you could easier picked up." He would move over to the kitchen, hopefully with the other, where the smell of the pies would possibly rise above the fluff and blood and tempt the other's hunger.

"Help yourself. Ill just go and get some stuff to clean you up." He had made the crusts thick enough that they would hold at least a little against those talons.

Moving quickly he would heat some water in the sink and get the scrubbing sponges again. Assuming the other let him, he would take time to scrub the other of more skin, cleaning the feathers and such off him to before taking a moment to compose himself, getting the other to sit while he started to heal the spike on the other's heel. "I worry" he said as he slowly regrew the spike on the other "that if your new spikes are still this soft to break like this, it cannot be good to go into battle so soon." he said softly, his gaze breaking from looking at what he was doing to up to the other's eyes from where he was knelt in front of him. "Why not train for a few days, even just a couple, and let your body become stronger before you force this confrontation? Your scales will mostly be hard by then from what I can predict. Can you not at least wait that long? Train for that long? You used to train like that while healing in the palace. Will you not do so now? Once you force this confrontation there will be no time for healing, for getting stronger after that. This place will likely not hold after you do so and you will be forced to the surface."

Looking down, he continued to work on the other's foot, sweat beading on his forehead.

<<Hotaru>>

"You ... are a strange elf, Arandur," Hotaru conceded, muffled, as it were, by the meat pie shoved in his mouth. The pies were each about the size of his hand, if he stretched out his fingers, and the thick crust held just long enough before being sliced to ribbons that Hotaru didn't have to lap the pieces out of his palm. And they were so good! His stomach rumbled quite happily as he ate, and the more he ate, the hungrier he seemed to get.

He only set the food down long enough to let Arandur clean him off, arching his back into the rough sponges as they scraped off the latest layer of dry, itchy skin (along with everything else). He winced when the healer began working on his heel, unable to sit very comfortably with the knobby things on his shoulders. They itched bad enough to ache, too sensitive to scratch against anything, but feeling ohhh so good when Arandur attacked them with the sponges.

"I am not foolish, Arandur," said Hotaru eventually. "I cannot train like this! I cannot ...!" He grasped helplessly at the words he didn't know how to say. "I ... I'm not ... me! I need ... to get out! What am I doing here? I can't ... It's not --" He shut his mouth, falling back on sulky distance. "It's none of your concern. Just take me to him!"

"I am a mage more than an elf" he said by way of explanation as he rubbed the other down, refreshing the water again before going back to dealing with the other's back. It was getting better, he noticed, now that the skin was off. Some of the patches of scales were already harder, which was good.

He would spend some time, once the heel was dealt with to using his skills in healing to try and move along the coming-of-age the other was going through, at least physically. He would attempt to help the growth of things that needed growing, and the strengthening of things that needed strengthening. He might, he conceded to himself as sweat started running down his forehead, and trickle down his spine, that he might not get another chance to do so, and H needed all the help he could get.

"So you are going to do what, go to the palace and get yourself killed instead? You think that I am going to be party to a suicide mission when a few days of training could make the difference?" his voice was tight. "If you can train while being so weak you could barely stand up, then you can train now. I will clear the space in here so you can have extra room to menouver. You may not feel like you right now, but you were never stupid. Going up there now, when you admit that you are in no state to fight would end up with you losing." He stood, his hair now pretty much plastered to his head a bit from the exertion of the extended healing and struggle he had put into helping the other along a bit "I have cared for you for a long while now. You can repay me by putting aside your childish intent and train like the warrior you are. The warrior you always have been."

Brushing his hands over his robe he straighened himself before moving and pushing all the furniture, what little of it there was, back against walls and out the way, leaving a rather large space for the other to train. "Now" he said, looking to the other "I am going to wash, and you will train, warrior, and when you are done for the evening, I will have made more pies. Once my power strengthens again, I can help you train." He would turn away and move upstairs.

About an hour later Arandur would move down the stairs once more. he was dressed in a clean robe, his hair still damp from the water but combed out, his features placid and controlled again as he looked around, though whether to find an empty house and the child gone, or to find the warrior waiting for him was yet to be seen.

<<Hotaru>>

"I am not a child!" Hotaru snapped, scowling. "It is not my judgment you should be questioning!"

He paced back and forth in agitation after Arandur left, his thoughts a chaotic mess. "You're the one who said to confront him," he muttered darkly. And training! His lips turned the thought into a sneer.

Arandur had seemed so wise and understanding before, like an actual ally ... but lately everything Hotaru did made the elf chastise him. It was unfair! Hotaru didn't understand what he'd done to bring about this change, but he certainly wasn't going to take orders from an elf! He didn't owe anyone anything! He was the prisoner here!

After pacing a few more laps in the kitchen, he shoved an errant chair from his path and stomped his way from the healer's home. There was no set direction; he wasn't even really thinking about his destination. Anger and confusion mixed to send the city's populace scattering from his fiercesome visage, curled fists, and clicking spikes, but there was more.

If he had names for what he felt, Hotaru might say hurt or betrayed, a little lonely perhaps, and depressed. But Hotaru couldn't remember ever feeling this way, had no companions who might have confessed or discussed similar notions, and he could not read, so this was his first discovery of heartbreak.

Not remembering his own adolescence, the emotions tugging at him were completely disorienting. He was a solitary creature and wanted to be alone, he thought, until he found himself back in the little, grassy garden, completely alone. There was nothing to do, nothing to attack, just a little empty space with the bottom of the lake above him as a sky. Bottled rage and frustration fought for release, but found no outlet, and he stood there, gulping deep breaths of air and shaking with exertion. Every muscle tensed and his toe-claws dug into the soft earth, preparing for something, something that built into a wordless roar that echoed in the space carved out of the city.

He shouted twice and then dropped to the ground, clawing at the grass as his strength seemed to drain away.

He was still getting dressed when the roar was head at the bottom of his garden where he grew all manner of different plants for food and health poultices. The roar shook him more than a little, for it was not a light thing to hear such a sound. Hurrying down, he would pull his robes around himself and step past the door to stare down the figure at the bottom of it.

He was not naturally a very empathic person, nor was he given to bouts of emotion since he had had to train himself to shut it away in order to control his gifts, but that roar had such a vast swell of outrage and pain that he could not be anything but moved by it, even if he did stay at the open doorway of his house. He was no good with pandering to people's emotional outbursts wth anything other than firm efficiency and truths and the current situation with the Hotaru left him floundering. He was certainly not the person to be going to for sensitive issues, but then he had never thought the dragonslayer would need such a thing, so driven was he.

He would turn and move back into the house, leaving the door open and the light beside it on. He could not offer weak lies of condolence, but he could offer warmth, shelter and food.

Oceanwalker growled quietly, his gaze sliding off, and his head lowering slightly in thought, "Perhaps I have been harsh with those under my care." He stood, his gaze darkening a bit, "I have never had a problem being a tyrant, I know that is what I am, and I accept that about myself, but I find the beast of a dragon I am, cooling in the face of your logic, Aeolus." He knew what he had to do, he knew it more than he let on, he just simply didn't want to, his pride was a terrible thing to fight, even within himself.

"I know full well what must be done, and I know I need Arandur to do so with me." He rubbed the back of his neck, "I need Arandur's help. And to have him against me is detrimental. I need to see him, possibly swallow my tongue and apologize." He made a face as though the very thought made him ill. He sighed again, "Aeolus, go, will you do me a favor? Can you send Arandur my way?" He leaned against the window, looking at the liquid landscape before him.

Aeolous nodded at Thorn's words. He had been harsh, but that was to be expected of the blue dragon. He was known for his short temper and Aeolous had come to expect it from him. He smiled at Oceanwalker, "I am glad to be of some help." He knew that was probably the closest to a thanks he would get from the other and that was alright. Pride was a trait that he expected of the other. Part of who the great blue dragon, Kagarithorn Oceanwalker, was.

He nodded again, "I will inform him that you would like to speak to him and encourage him to do so." A smile crossed his face, "I believe I have some apologizing of my own to do, so I was going to the healer's home anyway." He added as he turned to leave. He paused at the door, but didn't turn around, "Our god trusts you to prevent this, Kagarithorn... I, too, will place my faith in you. You have any support I can offer you."

With those words, Aeolous left Thorn to his thoughts and made his way from the palace, to Arandur's residence. He rapped lightly on the door when he arrived, doing his best to mask the excitement he felt at possibly seeing how far the Hotaru had progressed in his transformation. He managed to contain a wide grin, although his lips were still turned up and his sapphire eyes sparkled with the depth of his excitement.

Having left the back door to his house open for the Hotaru to come in if he wished, he would have come back in, only to hear the front door. Moving over to it, he opened it, his features schooled, as they usually were, to a netural impassiveness that none-the-less gave the slight impression of being put upon. He took in the vision of the slightly smirking dragon at his door, but he did not, this time, move aside to invite him in.

It was still the same day that Oceanwalker had made the mistake of showing his true intent to the healer, and he could only guess that this dragon was here, much like a more important elven servant, to do Oceanwalker's bidding. "You have something to relate to me?" he asked, no real form of welcome in his voice. Clearly the healer was not going to be won over so easily as with sparkling eyes he knew were hankering after knowledge he might possess. "I have no news for Oceanwalker yet, so if you have come about that, you are premature."

His face fell at the sight of Arandur's face when he answered the door. Clearly the the wizard was still upset about whatever had sent him storming from Oceanwalker's audience chamber. Although, he showed little outward sign of his anger, the brusque words said all that was left unsaid. Aeolous sighed. It would be difficult to get him to go speak to Oceanwalker, he knew that. Probably even more difficult to be allowed to see the hotaru.

After a moment, he shook his head, "No, I am not here for that, I would like to speak to the hotaru, if I may. Although, I do believe I was asked to send word that Oceawalker would like to speak with you. Something more important than your disagreement has come up, I think it best that you see what he has to say." He stopped there, waiting to see the other's reactions. Perhaps, if he were asked, he could give some details on what would be more important than the blue dragon's pride. Aeolous did, after all, enjoy teaching others. If only others were more interested in learning.

He would stand there, taking in what the other said, his face as blank as he could make it. He would not move away from the door, keeping a hold on it as he looked at the dragon. "That will not be possible." he said, quite truthfully "He is taking some excercise and did not seem particularly interested in conversation. As for Oceanwalker, something is always more important than whatever he has done to anger or offend me. You truely do not know him as well as you think if you consider otherwise. I care little for whatever he has decided requires my personal attention, for it is almost never within the bounds of my ability or wish to deal with. Despite this, I will go and hear what he has to say."

Turning a bit, he held out his hand and his cloak floated over to where he would grasp it before drawing it around his shoulders. His gaze levelled on the dragon once more. "If I were you, scholar, I would get as far away from Oceanwalker as was possible, before you to are drawn into his selfish and egotistical schemes." With that, he stepped outside, closing and locking the door behind him and heading up to the palace.

[Note: back door is still open for Hotaru]

Aeolous frowned when he was told that the hotaru was unavailable to speak to him. That was too bad as speaking to him and seeing how far he had progressed in the change since he last saw him would be a wondrous thing indeed. The smile slowly returned to his face when Arandur spoke of Oceanwalker.

"Perhaps I do not know your lord Oceanwalker as well I may believe, but I know this much. This time, at least it is about more than his ego or need to keep you here. You will care about this, you will have no choice." He told the other while he was donning his cloak. He didn't respond to the wizard's warning only flashed his teeth in a smile and stepped aside so that Arandur could exit. He had spirit, Aeolous could admire that.

"Perhaps I will take some time to try to convince your captor that time to travel above would be for the best. He might hear me better to me as a fellow dragon and a learned one at that." He called after the wizard as he left. He would, of course have to remember those words when he next spoke to Thorn. He did not like to go back on his word, but sometimes he simply forgot. He watched until Arandur was out of hearing range and then waited a little longer, not necessarily hiding his intents to look around and try to catch the hotaru in the midst of his practice. If he could find the hotaru and convince him to trust him then surely Aeolous would be the luckiest (not to mention happiest) dragon on Synn.

Once Arandur was completely out of sight he walked to one side of the house, peeking though what windows may be there, trying to find the little dragonling. The wizard hadn't said he wasn't in, simply that he wasn't available and so he peeked around and snooped. Hoping to catch some tell-tale sign of the one he sought. He walked around to the other side of the house, still peeking in where he could and pressing his ear to the door for a moment or two. He knew any elves passing by might give him odd looks, but besides Arandur, few would think to question him unless they had a reason for speaking to him. When he reached the other side and still found no sign of the hotaru, he decided it was time to check behind the wall that separated the front of the house from the back. He was easily able to get over the wall, as it wasn't very tall to begin with, and careful not to trample anything, he made his way around to the back. What he found there was beyond his wildest dreams.

The hotaru sat with his back to the house mostly black scales now, even from where Aeolous stood, he could tell that larger, sturdier scales were already coming off. Small nubs were sticking out of his back... those would grow and develop into his wings and there were spikes growing from his elbows and it looked like... his ankles? It was amazing... beautiful... perfect. In Aeolous' eyes, Hotaru was the epitome of perfection at this very moment. He couldn't stop the excited gasp that escaped him when he saw the hotaru. Of course he meant to speak to him anyway, so he would have to seen or heard sooner or later.

<<Hotaru>>

Fatigue settled over Hotaru's shoulders as he sat, alone, in the garden. His throat was a little sore now, too, and he felt no happier than he had before he shouted; he just felt tired, worn out. He was still confused -- dealing with people was so complicated and . . . vexing. His anger was gone now, though the frustration remained.

He clawed at the ground at first, digging deep furrows until he grew more fascinated with the claws on his fingers than causing damage. He concentrated, and managed to big up a fairly mangled blade of grass after a few tries. Sticking his toes out in front of him, he dug into the ground, and found he could pick up the grass easier with his toes than his fingers, which made him laugh a little.

He was concentrating so fully on plucking the petals off a flower (his claws kept ripping through the fragile things) that the gasp from behind him, sent Hotaru leaping to his feet in surprise. He landed poised to attack, startled anew when he saw the crystal dragon. How had he not sensed the dragon's approach?

Hotaru berated himself on his carelessness even as he relaxed a little. "What do you want?"

At the sound, Hotaru bolted up and took up a fighting stance. So he hadn't been focused. Aeolous could have sworn Arandur had said the hotaru was training. He lifted his hands, palm out, showing he had no weapons on him or any intent to attack. He didn't like to start discussions where one or the other was on edge. It always led to very unnatural answers and he much preferred the... natural... His thoughts trailed as he realized the other was completely naked, but just as quickly as he noticed, he averted his gaze and focused on Hotaru's face.

"I only wish to speak to you, Hotaru." He answered with a reassuring smile, "But I so rarely get the chance to see you without your healer about." He paused for a moment and cleared his throat, calming himself, "I see you've been progressing in your transformation nicely." He nodded toward the other, indicating the scales, "Your wings are even beginning to come in. You're moving along faster than I expected, which is good. But..." He eyed the hotaru, his expression sobering, "I must admit I was worried that you would be taking the changes much worse and I would like to speak with you to determine whether these fears are founded." He knew that, for the most part, being honest with Hotaru was the better choice than avoiding the issue. Of course there were other things he wished to discuss with the hotaru, but he would get to them later.

<<Hotaru>>

The dragon's haughty, know-it-all, patronizing tone immediately brought Hotaru's frustrated anger back to the surface. He scowled, crossing his arms over his chest, but the mention of --

"Wings? Did you say, wings?" he asked, startled out of his funk and twisting, craning his neck to see behind him. "Where? Damn, Arandur," he added in a growl as a claw skimmed over a sensitive hump, making him wince. "I am, too, turning into a dragon. An ugly dragon." He glared at Aeolus. "What were you expecting?" he demanded coldly. "Arandur, he ..."

Hotaru stopped, eyes narrowing as he stared speculatively at the dragon. "You know what this is. Fix it! Stop ... whatever this is, and turn me back into what I was!" He advanced a few steps, toes and heel spikes gripping and digging into the ground with each step. "Do it!"

Having left the scholar dragon to his own devices, not having even considered the other would be as astoundingly rude and insulting as to go sniffing around his house and even climb into the back garden, he stomped his way up to the palace. He was worried about the Hotaru, but there was little he could do if the other kept pushing him away.

The Palace loomed large in front of him, but he was so used to its appearance that it did not even rate a lingering look as he made his way inside and through the halls to wherever Oceanwalker was. His anger had grown with each step closer to the palace until it settled in his heart like an icy fist that spread its frost into his eyes as he waited for the dragon to deem him significant enough to make an appearance.

Oceanwalker stayed in the tower for a little while, until he saw Arandur arrive, his gaze following the other before he turned, trotting down the stairs to meet the other. He appeared not long after the other arrived, his hair wasn't up, nor was it in one of the extravagant hair-do's he was so fond of. For once it was down, pooling somewhere around his ankles, and trailing behind him, "Good afternoon Arandur, apparently I have a problem." He said softly going to meet the other, rather than sitting on his throne and allowing the other to come to him.

He pushed back a lock of hair from his face, "My god spoke to me and threatened me with the end of the world. Or at the very least a potential for bad violence." He said, "The Time of Awakening could possibly be drawing near, and from what Aeolous said, that's bad. I need you to go to the archives and look it up? I would appreciate it greatly. I need it to be stopped. Or not happen at all. I'm not terribly concerned about the hotaru at the moment, how is he coming along, by the way? Well, I hope?" He asked.

He watched with not very well hidden anger and hatred in his eyes. They had always clashed, but Oceanwalker had outdone himself this time with their last meeting. He watched as the other came to him. Such a concession, not to make him walk even further to hear whatever it was the dragon wanted to tell him.

It took every ounce of his willpower not to say something snide and insulting in return to the greeting, but he managed, somehow. His clothing and hair wasn't really reacting to gravity as much as it should though, swirling around him as if he was underwater or something. Once Oceanwalker had stopped talking, he would just stare at him. Over a minute he stared, incredulous as to what he had just heard, before he finally spoke.

"So, after knowingly setting us at odds earlier, you now send a dragon to interrupt what I was doing, to just drop everything and come up to the palace so you can tell me you want me to go to the archives and look up a reference for you? " His gaze didn't know whether he should stare incredulously or be angry, or both. Both was good, so he did that. "Has something addled your mind 'Lord' Oceanwalker, or did you forget I am a HEALER? The dragon you sent to demand my presence here is a scholar, or did you forget that to? He would be far more suited to such a task, and might even have found the answers you seek if you had sent him to do that instead of bothering me."

His eyes narrowed, and there was venom now in his gaze mingled with the anger. "I am not subject to your Gods, merely to circumstance. Deal with this problem youself, 'oh mighty one'. Surely a trip to the archives would do you good, or is it beneath you to sully yourself with such a lowly task?" He straightened, his jaw set in a resolute fashion "You cannot ask me for favours any more, dragon. Your credit is far beyond expired and I am not a slave to your whims."

Aeolous only nodded at the hotaru's question. Of course he had wings, what else could he mean? Honestly, he didn't expect anything less did he? He'd told Hotaru what he was, hadn't he? Aeolous sighed in defeat, apparently he hadn't been listening, which would only mean more explanations and probably more cursing on the hotaru's part. He seemed to get very angry whenever something happened to make him more like the dragons he so hated... even though he was only becoming more like them to be better able to fight them.

When the other had finished his shouting and demanding, Aeolous took a long breath before speaking, "There is nothing that can be done. No knowledge or magic in the world can change what you are... and you are the last remaining hotaru. Not dragon by nature, merely dragon-like. You will still retain a mostly humanoid figure. The weapon you were found with... it was made to be handled by your kind and your kind alone. Be as angry as you like, it will change nothing." He stopped for a moment, watching and gauging the other's reaction, "You say you are becoming ugly, I find that I quite disagree." The sapphire of his eyes melted when he smiled, "I believe that you are the single most beautiful being I have laid my eyes on. Of course," he laughed quietly, "that could just be the sentiment of an old scholar."

<<Hotaru>>

"You are a dragon," Hotaru spat, eyes narrowing. The claws on his toes dug into the turf and Hotaru wanted nothing more than to rip out the smug, condescending dragon's throat; it was just like a dragon to ignore all else in order to indulge in its own pleasure.

Crossing his arms over his chest, face turning cold, Hotaru walked away from the stuffy dragon and his too-bright eyes. He didn't quite feel comfortable with his back to Aeolus, so he kept his shoulder pointed back the way he'd come, staring at the invisible walls of his prison beyond the graceful edges of the buildings towering overhead. By not looking directly at the elves' home, Hotaru could see that the buildings had been designed to mimic some kind of plant, a plant that was all leaf-blade, supposing such a thing lived naturally underwater. Fish cast their shadows on the sides of the buildings, and this lake must be huge to allow for the feeding of and survival fish large enough to swallow a person whole.

He let the silence stretch between them, his thought wandering, until thoughts of murder and rage had lessened to something he felt he could control. There were new scratches on his upper arms where he'd grabbed himself, some bleeding, most not. He picked at the peeling skin, one claw even snatching out a small scale, about the size of a fingernail, causing Hotaru's to blink back tears from the sting. He swore in a low growl and turned back to the dragon.

"I am Hotaru," he stated. "This," he gestured to himself, "cursed affliction is none other than your God Tezcacoatl's idea of a joke, and I am not amused." His claws clacked against the scales growing on his palm as habit tried to make a fist. Skin and scales and claws did not mix well and Hotaru winced, purposefully relaxing his hands.

"You will take me to That Dragon, the one who imprisons me." If Arandur wouldn't, Hotaru would find another way.

He watched Hotaru as he walked away. It wasn't as though he wasn't used to this distrust, especially from the hotaru and his healer. He allowed the other some silence, time to calm himself, in hope that the other would take his words into consideration. But, those hopes proved vain when the other spoke again and Aeolous sighed. Would he never accept what he was?

"Lord Tezcacoatl does not joke. He did not force this change on you. It is who you are, but I suppose there is nothing I can say or do to make you believe that. You will have to come to accept it on your own." He shook his head at Hotaru's demand, "Oceanwalker is currently speaking with Arandur, it would be best not to disturb them at the moment."