The Dragon and the Rabbit

[Nightshade Eld]

Ashan 83, 718

Slowly the little creature stalked forward, her body weaving through long stalks of grass. Her nostrils were flooded with the scent of grass. There was also the scent of a rabbit! It was a little strange. Almost as if the creature itself wasn’t exactly normal, but none the less the little creature continued to creep towards the scent, keeping her stomach barely brushing against the earth as she curved this way and that. Her jaws parted slightly, mouth watering at the scent. The idea of fresh meat, warm with the blood still staining it crimson, causing the little creature to focus even harder on her task.

Her claws sunk into the earth as she caught sight of the rabbit. It looked a little strange as well, but she was certain that it would still taste good! Wiggling her rear end and raising her tail, the scaly end peaked out of the grass ever so slightly. Luckily her scales were red and green today, easily matching the coloration of the tall grass which was completely full of gorgeous red flowers. As soon as the little creature was in position she tensed her muscles and prepared to leap. With a ferocious screech a little dragon, barely under the size of a house cat, came barreling out of the grass and pouncing upon the form of a rabbit.

A half-avriel sitting on a nearby rock as she read remained none the wiser until she heard the screech that the little dragon gave. Sitting straighter she looked around in confusion, trying to make sense of the noise as she quickly shut the book and rested it in her lap. “Cissia?” She instantly caught sight of the mess that the little dragon has caused. “Oh, Cissia! No,” the half-breed cried as she rushed over to pry the little dragoness off the rabbit.

As fortunate was seemingly kind the little dragoness’ teeth were dull. In truth, they were rather smooth, like river polished stones. Her large paws seemed to posses no claws at all whatever and simply kneaded at the rabbit as she gnawed on it, doing about as much damage as a baby kitten could do to a full-grown dog. If not less. The dragon whimpered quietly as her supposed master rushed over, removing her maw from the rabbit and considering her attack ineffective.

“I’m so sorry,” the half-breed said quickly as she yanked the dragon into her arms, using the tail to lift it. It gave an indignant screech as she did such, flailing slightly as it flapped tiny but equally useless wings against the perceived assault. After screaming for a couple moments to make sure its displeasure was properly voiced it fell still and allowed itself to be placed upon the shoulders of the woman where the tiny creature easily curled up around her neck.

[Faith Augustin]

"I already told you!
Did you not hear what I said?
We're not going to hunt dragons,
They'd eat us till we're dead!"

Faith sang as she skipped along the path, clutching on to PB's hand as they skipped together. PB, the chalk bunny who was her constant companion in dreams was his usual mostly-transparent self. It was hard to be anything else when one was a chalk-drawn outline of a bunny. However, he was wearing full platemail armour, including a helmet. With bunny ears. Faith looked at him and she grinned.

"You know, my bunny chum,
You really are quite sweet!
If I'm ever feeling glum,
You cheer me up a treat!"

"Wot in the name of Xiur's bouncy sack are you talkin' in rhyme for?" PB asked and Faith looked at him with a frown on her face.

"I don't know what you mean,
Don't be so obscene!
You swear a lot and curse Immortals too!
They might well hear your words,
It isn't too absurd
To think that they might be listening to you!"

"Right, so you've evidently lost the plot, you rampant nutter," PB said, cheerfully, and then the path they were skipping along seemed to come to a turn in it and, around a corner they went and there....

"VELMA!!! OH NOES!! VELMA!!"

It appeared that PB knew the rabbit victim and as he charged forward, dropping Faith's hand, he scooped up said rabbit in his arms. The skies above him (but only directly above him for about a foot) darkened and his voice cried out to the heavens. "TALK TO ME, VELMA!"

"Who're you?" whispered the rabbit and PB spoke out of the corner of his mouth. "Play along, love, there's bunny-love in it for you later"

'Velma' swooned in his arms. Faith skipped up, wondering why she seemed incapable of walking at the moment and smiled at Nightshade and her dragon.

"Hail fellow traveller, tis good to meet,
Both you and your small pet.
My name is Faith, and my bare feet
Have not walked here, yet!"

"Yeah," said the chalk bunny, suddenly very seriously. "I'm sorry about her. She'd had a really difficult season."

[Nightshade Eld]

The half-breed was a bit taken off guard by the entirely unexpected reaction. Cissia as she looked at the rabbit made out of chalk, puffing up her chest at it and its armor coated form. The half-breed held onto the dragon just a little bit tighter and the little creature's chest soon deflated as she focused on breathing. Nightshade blinked at Faith and PB for a moment, listening to the pair and watching them quietly, her eyes wide and her head tilted with curiosity. Her lips were slightly parted as though she was lost for her words as she listened to the rhyming of Faith. She thought for a moment about matching the speech of the woman, but Nightshade wasn't very good at rhyming.

"I see. I am Nightshade and this little devil here is Cissia. She acts strong but I promise you she's completely harmless. And unreasonable. Not to mention uncontrollable. And generally unwanted," the half-breed muttered the last part and the dragon turned to gnaw upon her supposed master's arm. It almost seemed as though the pair were at odds. The little dragon wanted freedom from the tight grip, not to mention acknowledgment. She wanted to be proud and fierce, feared by all. While the half-breed seemed rather content to go unnoticed. "Again I'm... sorry for her actions," she sighed heavily.

The dragon moved around and fidgeted in the constrictive arms of the half-breed who tried to hold on even tighter. "I swear I'll muzzle you!" She threatened the little creature who actually changed colors into a brilliant scarlet. A trilling screech erupted from the creature as she tried to claw her way free. But she had no claws with which to use for clawing. The little dragon had no intention of giving up those as she flipped around in the arms of the half-breed, wrenching her entire body this way and that at a desperate bet for freedom.

"Miss, you wouldn't have any idea as to how I might control this little monster, would you?" Nightshade asked Faith with a look of concern. She just so despreatly wanted Cissia to behave and be quiet, not act like this!

[Faith Augustin]

"No clue, I'm afraid,
It really isn't funny!
I can't even put paid,
To the antics of my bunny"

She sounded serious as she replied to Nightshade, who had asked if she had any idea what to do with her dragon. PB, meanwhile, looked between the two of them, the half-breed avriel and the human and he shook his head. "Right, so you's both stupid. Stoo.oo.oo.pid." Faith looked down at him and he patted her knee, reassuringly. "Sweet'eart, have you not worked out that I'm a part of you what you deny an' push away an' stuff? Have you really not worked that out? It's as obvious that this is exactly what's happenin' here too." When he said that, he gestured to Nightshade and the Dragon. Faith frowned thoughtfully.

"So, you're the behaviours I deny?
When I laugh and sneeze and snore and cry?
Those are not good ways to behave,
Especially when one is an Athart slave."

"Yeah, but you're not one of them no more, love, are you?" PB asked and Faith nodded. Then shook her head. Whichever was agreeing with him anyhow, no, she was not. PB looked at her and sighed, fondly. "It's alright love, you're not dreamin' it. It's all real."

"You seem to know my inner thought
Hiding those was what I was taught. "

"Yeah, I know love," PB said, rolling his eyes and then looking at the bunny called 'Velma' which he'd temporarily forgotten about. He kissed her quickly and his ears shot chalk-sparkled out of them, then he turned to the hybrid and the dragon. "Right. You're conflicted. You want attention, don't want it. Want freedom, scared of the big, bad world. The whole thing. You can't control her cos you can't control yourself. An' if you' don't sort it out, you're gonna have an avriel lookin' woman in your dreams all the time. So stop angsting an' get on."

Apparently, PB was talking to the dragon and Faith smiled at Nightshade, helpfully.

[Nightshade Eld]

The half-breed fell into complete silence. What the rabbit was saying kind of made sense. Until it turned out he was addressing the little dragon who snorted and huffed out a response. A low group began to rumble in her chest as she continued to apparently speak to the rabbit in a language the half-breed most certainly couldn't understand. Feeling even more confused she glanced at Faith looking for some kind of answer to the many questions that PB had now left spinning around her head. "You used to be a slave? How did you get over your teachings then? I was always taught..." The half-breed fell into silence as she turned away from the pair. There seemed to be something she refused to say. Her memories bombarded her for a moment with thoughts of Ivan and The Master and then her thoughts turned to the townspeople of Etzos and how they treated her.

Cissia, on the other hand, was refuting the assessment of PB. With a flick of her head, she was hopeful that she would be able to get across to the chalk rabbit what she was trying to say. That wasn't what she was! She puffed up her chest and tilted her head upwards, her scales shifting in color to a brilliant crimson and gold. She hoped the rabbit would understand what the half-breed couldn't.

"Prideful little beast," the half-breed muttered as she glanced at the creature. There was a tone of shame at that one word in particular. Pride. A crimson that was a couple shades too muted to reflect the dragon quickly claimed the cheeks of the midnight shaded creature. "How embarrassing a little creature you are. Oh please, just be quiet for once," she pleaded with the dragon. This dragon was a bad creature. She shouldn't exist, she really shouldn't exist. Everything about her was all wrong. She didn't belong. Her actions flamboyant and fierce at their most tuned down.

Her eyes turned back to Faith and PB. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she said as she took a couple steps away from the pair as she tried to hide Cissia like she was some kind of dangerous secret. She was fully prepared to throw the dragon in a lake the next chance she got. But it never seemed to work. No matter what she seemed to do with Cissia the little dragon always came back, returning like some kind of ghastly plague and demanding the attention of everyone in the air as she puffed out her chest and strutted around. The half-breed shivered slightly as the creature fell slightly still for a moment, and her head told her to flee from the pair before Cissia could leave a bad impression. Surely they'd hate her anyways after this...

[Faith Augustin]

"Why's pride such a bad thing, ay?" The rabbit asked Nightshade. He seemed to be genuinely perplexed at her behaviour and he shook his head. "I mean, you probably 'ad a bad childhood. I get it. No worse than her, I promise you." He motioned towards Faith who was currently picking flowers and talking, in very complex rhyming gibberish, to a frog wearing a crown. "But you still know what good parentin' looks like. A good parent praises their child, prepares them to be proud of their achievements. Now yeah, I get it. Sad. Sad, sad story, an' my heart, if I had one, would bleed." He hopped over to her and looked at her as seriously as once he had looked at Faith. But Faith looked up at Nightshade's question of what she had used to be and her silver eyes were kind.

"PB means well, but he doesn't understand how hard it is to overcome the teachings. The belief that you are less than everyone else. That you are not worth what everyone else is, your thoughts, opinions and very life do not matter as much." Faith was sitting and making a daisy chain, concentrating on it but speaking too. She stopped, then, her hands pausing in their movement and she met Nightshade's gaze. "I stopped being a slave when I realised that I'm not special." She smiled, a most genuine smile. "I'm not better or worse than anyone else and I have no right to believe I am. An individual, taken and treated differently from all others, told that they are a wonderful, marvellous, perfect and utterly precious mortal is as wrong about themselves as an individual, taken and treated differently from all others, told that they are nothing, worthless and totally expendable, a bane to society and worthy only to wipe the shit off the floor. Neither of those are true."

Holding up the daisy chain she had made she smiled. "Not one of them, or us, is special. You're neither less nor more. You just are. So am I." Just daisies, one after another and determining, by their own actions, what they did with their life. PB stopped and turned to look at her with a smile on his face. "When'd you work that out, love?" He asked and Faith shrugged.

"I think somewhere between when I was born and now. Padraig probably told me. I didn't know it before him. I thought I was special," she smiled and gestured in an 'over there' sort of way. "But then I met him and I realized what feeling special feels like. I'm sorry, though, because you're in love with an evil man," Faith said to Nightshade, entirely seriously.

PB raised a single chalk-bunny eyebrow. "Or maybe Noth's just in love with you. Either way, he murdered my friend Aeon. If he makes you feel special, that must be very hard for you." Faith was entirely serious and PB was starting to wish she was still speaking in rhyme.

"Because you can't shake evil's hand and say you're only kidding. Especially if you know. But maybe that's a reason for continuing to think you're special, if you want to. It's very difficult, isn't it?" Holding out the daisy chain which was no a circle, Faith offered it to Nightshade. "Would you like it, it's a crown."

PB slapped a single chalk paw against his forehead, shaking his head as he did so.

[Nightshade Eld]

the half-breed fell into silence at PB's question, her eyes cast downwards. Pride was a bad thing because Pride made her into an avriel. That was the hallmark of the avriel after all. Pride made her mean and loud and vicious, she'd be just like any one of those rancorous monsters who decided she wasn't good enough to be one. If she wasn't good enough then she didn't want others to think she was one. So she couldn't be Prideful. Pride was bad, horrible and terrible and bad. She knew for certain that it was the one thing she should never ever have. Her father had even told her that it was bad to be prideful like an avriel.

The half-breed watched Faith quietly as the woman spoke and wove her daisy chains. The word special hit her in a way she couldn't describe. The woman wasn't using it like it was a good thing. Quite in contrast. the way that Faith said the word special made it sound bad. Extremely bad. And the thing was? The half-breed couldn't say that she entirely agreed with the philosophy of this other woman. It made sense. But she wasn't sure if it was completely right. Because there were people that the Half-breed believes were better than herself. There were awe-inspiring generals who could rouse armies, there were political leaders who could usher the world into something better. There were doctors who save lives and musicians who made them better. And then there was Nightshade. Nightshade wasn't all that special. She knew that wholly and truly she knew that. So while she understood what Faith was telling her and she could agree to an extent. She couldn't find it in herself to agree completely.

She did weigh the words of Faith heavily though. Perhaps one day she'd be able to think like that. But a mind and earth changing epiphany wasn't going to come from a couple minutes of conversation. There was no 'right thing' to say in such a short amount of time that could change Night's perception so drastically. None the less, the words that the other woman had spoken were important to think about and the half-breed would take them into due account while moving formward.

At the mention of Noth the half-breed entirely recoiled, her expression changing and shifting in ways that couldn't be properly described. She turned away for a moment, unwilling to make eye contact with Faith, before she turned back to Faith. "I apologize for whatever he has done. He's not a good man, I know this, and to say he Makes me feel special isn't entirely appropriate. In fact, it might be something else entirely. He makes me feel like nothing. Like the world is nothing. Like nothing matters. And it's comforting for short spans of time. To sit there and pretend that I don't have to face reality. To pretend that I'm not the only half-avriel in the city fighting against the prejudice of the citizens. To pretend that Noth isn't a bad person and he understands what I'm doing and what more is trying to do good himself. He makes me feel like nothing. And dear Immortals, I hate it. HIs presence is painful and hateful and I know that being within a hundred feet of him is wrong. But I can't get away. I want to so badly. But I'm not strong enough. I'm a fool," the half-breed whimpered as she fell into silence, not having the courage to meet he gaze of Faith.

"Yes, I think that I would," the half-breed said as she took the crown carefully in gentle and hesitant hands like she was scared she would very well break it.

[Faith Augustin]

"That could be it, you know," Faith said with a smile. "I used to be nothing, for a lot of long times." She smiled at Nightshade as the half breed took the crown of daisies. "I didn't enjoy it, although at the time I thought it was what I was meant to be." So had it been comforting? Well, she had to admit, it probably had. "When I was a slave, I had no responsibility. Nothing was my fault, I controlled nothing. There was no guilt. No overwhelming feeling that, when I get something wrong, innocent people die because I'm not good enough." She sighed slightly and PB looked at her with concern - somehow - in his chalk eyes.

"She's too 'ard on 'erself. I tells her that all the time, don't I cupcake?" Faith nodded and smiled. "He does. But I don't listen because he's my knitting teacher. What do knitting teachers know about being a slave?" She beamed at PB and he grinned back.

On the subject of Noth, though, Faith looked at Nightshade and smiled, a little sympathetically. PB motioned to the crown on her head. "It's pretty, love. Look." He whipped out a mirror from behind his back and showed Nightshade the daisy crown, nestled there. Faith, meanwhile, seemed to be knitting something and she was quite wrapped up in it. "I'm making a jumper for Padraig. He doesn't wear them, but I made one for Malcolm once and I don't think Padraig would like that. I thought that I was in love with Malcolm. He showed me the University. I was in love with that."

It was an awful thing, she knew, to want something so much and not be able to have it. All her life she had wanted to learn and the first time she set foot in a university it was as a slave, not allowed entrance or to study.

"I wish the world was nicer, I really do. I mean, it is. It's a wonderful place. But sometimes, people are all messed up inside, all twisted around." Holding up the jumper, it turned out it was a pair of slippers. "How'd that happen?" Faith asked PB and he shrugged his bunny shoulders.

"People get all churned up inside and twisted out of shape, but inside they're still beautiful. It's a shame when that happens, but it means they hurt others. I wish I could fix it for all of the people, you know. Don't you?" Faith looked at Night and nodded. "It's because you're trying to be a good person, too. That's all we can do, I think. Try."

Turning, she looked up suddenly. "My babies are awake. Where did I put them?" Looking at Nightshade she gave a sudden smile. "I'm dreaming. I have to wake up. It was nice to meet you again, Nightshade. Be careful of him."

Off Topic

All done? Great fun!

[Nightshade Eld]

The half-breed listened to the other woman quietly, the crown of daisies somehow feeling simultaneously heavy and liberating. A strange woman, but Nightshade wasn't one to judge, was she? With an even stranger set of words, she suddenly left in the blink of an eye. The half-breed, however, lingered a couple moments longer. Her thoughts a chaotic mess that her sleeping self couldn't possibly begin to sort through. Heavy but liberating. Heavy but liberating. She couldn't possibly begin to understand what those mix of sensations meant or why she currently felt thought so deeply in the center of her being that it almost hurt to think about.

There was an uncomfortable twist in the center of her chest as logical thought seemed to scatter her eyes stung and she looked around for answers. All she found was the mental image that had seared itself into her thoughts. Her own reflection proudly sporting the daisy crown. There was something odd in that image. Something she couldn't place a finger on.

Faith would perhaps never know exactly what the interactions the pair had meant to Nightshade. Dreams or no. The half-breed's fingers shook as she tried to understand the little ball of iron that sat in her stomach and the painful pull at the back of her eyes. Heavy, but still liberating. She didn't know why her head stung so much. Daisies don't have thorns. It wasn't the crown that hurt. Perhaps it was something on the inside. A though, a feeling, a something that she couldn't explain which pounded at the walls of her skull and demanded freedom.

There was no more time to be thinking about something the half-breed couldn't begin to understand. There was no more time to waste in hoping that she'd eventually realize what that terrible sensation that claimed her entire body meant. Heavy but liberating. That phrase refused to leave her as it resounded over and over in terrible rings. The little dragon cooed as it curled around her legs.

It seemed pleased with itself.

It was time to wake up.

Off Topic: Sorry this took so much time to finish up. School. Life. Bah.

[Kesindir]

Thread Rewards!

So this is the first dream thread I've reviewed, and man can things be weird. A dragon with smooth teeth like pebbles?! A chalk lined bunny in plate armor?! This thread was an excellent read, the both of you are fantastic writers. Your styles, while different, are both engaging and immersive. I enjoyed this very much, so thank you to the both of you! Enjoy your rewards!



Faith
Points: 15
Knowledge:
None
Loot: None
Injuries/Overstepping: none
Renown: None for me!



Nightshade
Points: 15
Knowledge:
None
Loot: None
Injuries/Overstepping: none
Renown: None



If you feel I've missed anything or have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me here or on Discord and we can chat! I'll add a stamp to your review request found here!