1x1 with sugarbird

[sugarbird]

-----Everyone headed back downstairs into the cellar, and Orion slowed down quite a bit before coming to a full stop just before the staircase downward, knowing what Alphonse meant when he told him "not to worry about her." Chances are, he wouldn't want him back down there a second time. He wasn't sure why, exactly. But, that wasn't about to stop him from sneaking down there anyway. While Orion strayed from the others and laid on the floor nearby, trying to look like his normal, miserable self, Alphonse had approached the same cellar doors downstairs.

-----They were opened the same way he opened them last night, and he was greeted with the faint scent of ash and smoke. This only worked in the dragon's favor, as it appeared to him that there was sign of resistance in here. If she was getting angry and tired in this room, then it would work perfectly for tomorrow's gathering. Though there was no damage done to this room, there were still black streaks on the floor showing where her red hot body trudged across it. Alphonse was by now fully expecting a calm, tired dragon by tomorrow, with how swimmingly this all went for him. Oh, how wrong he would be. "Tonight will be your last night here, promise." he spoke as he ushered her inside the room. After she was escorted back in, it was sealed off by a ward again, just to make unnecessary precaution, and then closed the doors. Before he did so, he grinned at her.

-----"Have a good afternoon, my dear." he hummed before closing the doors shut. After, he then dismissed his guards with a flick of his hand, and they immediately headed up back to their positions prior to coming to his aid. He was confident enough to leave Amber here without any supervision. The suffocating misery of that room he placed her in would be enough to keep her in check.

-----It took no time at all for Alphonse to walk back up to the main floor, where he was greeted with a typical looking Orion. He paid no mind to the drake as he walked past him towards the kitchen by the main lobby. He didn't make it too far, as a servant was quick to stop him. He seemed a bit tense. "So.. you told them, didn't you?" he asked, trying to get his master to stop. "Not yet." "Sir- we can't just keep hiding this away from them! They'll need to know eventually, this will not just affect your business, it will affect theirs as well. We need to let them know that we can't just keep doing what we're doing or--"

-----The wizard stopped and held up a hand to silence him. "Relax. I'll tell them all about it tomorrow." The servant shook his head, and was quick to respond, albeit timidly. "We can't keep this hidden from them, I promise you. You haven't told them anything in a month now." Orion turned his ear towards the conversation, growing a little curious at the serious tone it had. What were they talking about, anyway? His potions? Probably. That man seemed almost like an advisor, but he doubted that was really the case. He was certainly playing the role of one right now, though. And stuff like that makes the lord angry. Very angry. Interested, Orion fully turned his head to face them while they forgot that he existed there on the floor not too far away. This could get entertaining.

-----"No one you hired has found many dragons to harvest out there, and it's been weeks! They found eight dragons. Eight dragons total, in five weeks. I'm telling you, we need to tell them to back off from production now!" Alphonse snapped back almost immediately. "We don't need to tell them anything yet." he snarled, causing the servant to shut himself up instantly. "For all we know, we could've just run them into hiding. They are still out there. If they, not just my family but my customers, were to learn that we can't produce potions anymore for a while, they'll kill me! People rely on us to keep them living for hundreds of years more. And if the business halts immediately, and people out there die, then the respect my family has for me as well as my money dies with it. We have to ease them into it." "We can have them slow production to a stop for a time. And it won't take too long, we can just return to business as usual. Nobody has to panic, then."

-----Knowing that he wasn't possibly going to win an argument, the servant fell silent. Orion was silent too, but for a completely different reason. "Get out of my sight." he barked, heading off towards the kitchen to talk to the chef. They both departed, and Orion took that chance to fully change his expression to shock. That. That, was what she meant all this time. That was why her kind has been disappearing, why she claims that they run them out of their homes. Is that what those potions were made out of? Her kin? His.. kind? Dragons?

-----He laid there dumbfounded in near complete silence for a minute. Humans were capable of doing things that disgusting after all. His own master started all of this. And the only reason, the one reason at all that he was kept alive and not used for his business, was because he was his pet. A ring on his finger to keep selfishly for himself. His white face contorted into realization, and he slowly got to his feet. Turning to and fro, he checked to make sure he wasn't watched while he descended the staircase. Did she know in particular why her kin was dying? For this little elixir that made humans live longer? Part of her hoped she knew already, because having to tell her would be the last thing he wanted to do. But perhaps, he may have to either way.

[Bronzewing]

Lehra looked back at him- was he staying? That was a shame- now she wasn't sure what she would do alone in that room, doing nothing except staring at the walls and thinking about her life. She wasn't looking forward to that, but at least it would lessen the men's suspicion. Besides, it did make sense that they wouldn't want him watching her a second time, after the performance she gave with the visitors. They probably jumped straight ahead and guessed she was trustworthy.

Letting them push her into the cellar, showing resistance as if she didn't want to go back in there, she watched as they closed the doors. The air inside was still warm- even warmer once the wards were put up, and she craned her head downwards to look at the markings on the floor. It seemed like her angry strikes had done at least some damage, but not enough to actually have much of an impact on the room. There was no chance she could do something drastic like say, burn through the floor. Of course, she would have tried to do that before she made the plan.

That got her thinking yet again about the plan- was it real or just some plan to get her to listen to whatever the men wanted? Was Orion planning to mess it up and then be left with a calm, obedient dragon who thought they were still trying to escape? The feathered dragon had so much power at the moment- it depended on how good they were at leading her on. Maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was something else, but they could do just so much... even tell the man what she was planning to do and probably get rewarded for it!

And then there was the issue of the dragon-slaying. Did Orion know what the men were doing? Did he approve of it? If he did know, then was he just happy that he wasn't being killed or was he somehow helping the man do his vicious deeds!? Fire licked from her scales in anger- she didn't have any confirmation of the matter or even anything to go off of, just blind hope and fear. If Orion didn't know...then the realization of what he had escaped and been a bystander to all those years would probably break them. Maybe, she mused, it would break them enough for them to fight and help the group escape. She hoped so- she wanted to see two angry dragons rip apart the guards to the door, making a path of blood in their wake!!

Most of her thoughts eventually spiraled into violence, and she was okay with this.

She curled herself up at the floor, heating herself up with her scales. Soon...soon they would be getting out of there, or she would know if the feathered one couldn't be trusted. Orion she thought, reminding herself of their name yet again. If they were to be either her partner or worst enemy, she needed to know what they were called. Extending her neck to look at the door, she wondered if he would find a way to come back down- she did want to speak to him again, although she doubted they would.

[sugarbird]

-----The only noises he heard were the click-clacks of his talons against the marbled floor, and his veins ringing and heart beating. He didn't know why the news was so devastating to hear. It's not like he would be the one to be ground into mush and put in some potion, right? Alphonse still placed some sort of value on his personal dragons. But somehow, for some reason, he thought about all the other wild dragons out there that were probably just hiding away in fear of these hunters, possibly too afraid to go out and hunt for their own food and thus starving themselves. The hardships of wild dragons never once crossed his mind before now. He thought about how wonderful the wild must be, how complex and deep the cultures of wild dragons were, but the struggle against people was not something he's thought about before. Oh, thinking about it for the first time was absolutely terrible.

-----As he descended quietly, he kept an ear out for any guards that were possibly still in there. His heavy breathing couldn't be helped, though. Why was he so scared all of a sudden? His master never hurt him before. The intimidation factor and strong magic he had were really the only things about him that scared Orion. Not anymore, though. Alphonse was always a stuck up, greedy old man that lived far longer than he should've, but he never thought he was capable of such a disgusting, horrible practice. Sending people out like hunting dogs to slaughter dragons and harvest their parts for profit.. his own species. Orion's mind was far too busy to really concentrate on keeping entirely quiet, and instead tried to keep heading towards the door.

-----Orion stopped before the doors and turned back around just to make sure no one saw him for the millionth time. Never has he felt so suddenly paranoid, like at any moment he could be found and threatened to be turn into some concoction for people to drink. "You weren't lying." he breathed out shakily. "N-now I know what you meant before. They- they-- Lord Alphonse he.. he sends--" His already pathetic stammering was even more annoying this time around. So much so, even he caught onto it and tried to fix it. Taking a breath, he continued with a far clearer voice.

-----"He doesn't just run them out of their homes, he slaughters them! Hunts them down like prey a-a-and.. uses them for alchemy! That's what his business has been running on for all these years..! Dragons!" Despite all this overwhelming emotion, he did manage to keep his voice lowered. Even when fearful, his nerves still allowed him to be hyper aware of how loud he was talking. Still, it didn't weaken the panic in his tone. The drake's feathers bristled from the sheer amount of excitement that was rushing through him at once. A mixture of anger, and of deep fear. This should've been common knowledge to him, since he's been around that man for so long. But learning about this now made it seem like everything he knew was a lie. It seemed to make him realize just a tad bit more how little he was valued, truly. He might be rare in the eyes of men, sure, but that was the one thing keeping him safe from them. Even then.. he's been out of Alphonse's sight and mind for so long by now. Who knows how long that protection will last.

-----"That man was in charge of it all. N-not just your desert, he's been having hunters comb the entire region t-to poach as many of them as he possibly could. H-he was told that there's almost none left!" Orion was pacing back and forth in front of her door at this point. "Who knows how many of his men are still- still out there.." He was about ready to proclaim doom right then and there. He knew beforehand that he'd have to deal with the challenges of nature, but he didn't even consider the human threats still out there as well. Stupid, Orion, stupid. Of course there would be people out there to deal with! There's millions out there! Still alive and going to remain alive for ages on end thanks to this terrible little potion. Dragons are the reasons these people are living. As long as there'll be dragons, there'll be humans thanks to this. "Are there even any other dragons l-left out there? W-what if- they're all.. gone?"

[Bronzewing]

Curling herself into a ball yet again, folding her wings over her body, Lehra laid there just like a scared animal would. Keeping her eyes wide open- she didn't need to blink very often- she stared straight at the wall, eyes darting from one side to another as if she was watching it. Of course, she knew nothing could hurt her in there except the men. No walls would jump out, no snakes underfoot, no enemy scorpions to battle... it was such an easy life, but at the same time such a hard one.

She heard the footsteps approaching before he officially reached the door, but she wasn't yet familiar with what Orion sounded like- so she just guessed the hurried steps were from one of the guards. Even the quadrupedal nature of dragons didn't tip her off- sand didn't make many noises, and he definitely wasn't familiar with what human steps sounded like. Therefore, she stayed curled up just the same way as she was before.

She only realized who it was when he started to speak- she stood up and started to trot towards the door. Lying about what? was her first thought, moving closer to hear him better. "So...he actually didn't tell you? she began, a bit surprised by that. "Haven't you been here for years with him? There had to be a reason why he was living so long...I guess you never needed to make the connection, eh?" She paused a moment just to let her words sink in, and also to take in what he was saying. He knew...then if he was this horrified about it, he definitely wouldn't be sticking around.

This brought back her trust of her partner- he knew of the evils the men were doing. He didn't approve of them. They would be gone- two of them, working in tandem to accomplish freedom! Oh, it was going to be glorious- now she felt the full excitement, realizing that it was happening. She was escaping from almost certain death, at least certain death for the rest of her kind, and along with somebody else to keep her company and teach the way of the wilds to.

"Most humans wouldn't come to the desert unless they were desperate." she mused. "I didn't think they were desperate since everybody else was dead, though..." Were they really all gone? They had already wiped out the forest, the mountains, the rivers, the seas? They had already slain the plains and the tundras, the skies...her scales started to heat up again from the rage of it, and she had a feeling that the room would fill up with gray smoke yet again.

"How dare they! This isn't something they need- it's something to make human money off! They're trading our lives for coins- and they had the nerve to hide it from one of their own kin." She bared her teeth, snarling behind the door. ""At least you know now. There's probably a ton of them out there, still hunting us down and combing the world for any more of us, but it's a lot easier to fight out there than in here." She opened her jaws again to speak, the words It'll be fine almost coming out before she stopped herself. Was it going to be fine?

[sugarbird]

-----He was glad she already knew at this point. But was it really that obvious? He suppose he should've known himself. While he knew that the man was living for as long as he did thanks to his potions, Orion never knew that those potions were made from dragons. He never connected any dots, since dragons were so out of his mind for ages now, even when he read a ton about them. He wasn't quite sure how up-to-date those books really were by now. They've been there for years. However, there were just as many new books in that library as old. Alphonse loved to read just about as much as Orion did. He supposed that's one positive thing he could say about him..

-----He could almost hear the faint sizzle of her scales as they grew hotter with rage. He guessed that she was still infuriated over it, despite knowing this already. "Oh, I hope I heard wrong.. that w-would mean that all the dragons that lived around here are.." He gulped hard after trailing off. He continued to pace back and forth, unsure if they even had a chance of living at all. Well, if he would have a chance of living. If he somehow managed to escape this place with her in the first place, then he had to worry about being slaughtered right out in the wild by some hunters. Those would be their worst threats, easy.

-----"I d-don't know if I can afford to fail this.." he spoke shakily. "If there are others out there in hiding, th-then we have to.. help or something. Alphonse said nothing about s-stopping the hunting. Just 'slowing it down.' I'm not sure what he means by that, but it d-doesn't mean he'll stop." He slowly started to regain his composure, but just barely. "Stupid.. that won't work. How could we possibly do anything to stop this?" he scolded to himself.

-----This was starting to feel more hopeless by the minute. The more he thought about it, the more his nerves ate away at him. It was stupid to want to stop anything of what was going on here, considering how massive this problem has gotten. They were just two little dragons against hundreds and hundreds of men. It was stupid.. to just think he could survive out there. People must've been crawling all over the place these past centuries he's been in here. All that time passed, the population must've gotten so much bigger. Was there any corner of nature left to hide in..? He doesn't know, he's never seen nature.

-----There was the mountain. There was still a forest over there. And if the desert was only a place for desperate people to come, then that means that no human in their right mind would stay there for long. Maybe it could be empty and relatively safe? "How in the world could he possibly.. do this?" he whimpered. "How could the master be so cruel?" His mind was clouded with negativity, overwhelmed with the obvious yet devastating news. But, he still had to remind himself, and he for sure was doing so right about now, that it didn't matter what the outcome would be. Either way, he would no longer be here. And they had to help themselves first and foremost out there, that was the original plan anyway. "Well.. I suppose it won't help my case stewing over this and getting upset." he mumbled quietly.

-----"The plan- the original plan." he repeated to himself aloud, trying his hardest to keep his motivation. Despite this, his dedication to the plan of escape still meant the world to him. "The plan is what matters.."

[Bronzewing]

She guessed the men had done their best to keep the knowledge of what they were doing away from Orion. After all, if he had known maybe he would be more inclined to escape- to save one of the other dragons that was on the line to be killed and fly out of there in a similar manner to what they were planning to do now. Or maybe they didn't want him to know because they felt bad about it...no, she doubted it. The humans felt no shame, no shame at all.

"I don't see other dragons as often as I used to, especially not the ones that used to roam the deserts. Years back, I had known fifty names. Now I know very few." She went silent for a moment in thought, lowering her head. Finally, finally he knew the truth of the matter. Nobody should be kept in the dark about the fate of their kin for this long! "If we get out, we would have to go pretty far from here, so it would either take them a long time to find us or someplace they can't even reach." That sounded like the best plan- but they would have to fly far and fast.

"Are you able to fly?" she blurted out. "I mean, of course you can, but can you fly for a long time? That's probably what needs to happen once we get out of those doors." Likely they would get dragon-catching materials to bring them down. They needed to be out of there quickly. "Step one: saving ourselves. Step two: we can try to help out the others. Nothing we can do if we're just caught again." Lehra shook her head just thinking about it.

"If he's been doing it for this long, he won't stop. It benefits him- there's no need at all for him to cease what he's doing. He'll continue until all of them are dead or until he has to farm hatchlings in his backyard!" Smoke billowed out of her jaws just speaking about it, and she went quiet for a moment to let it dissipate into the rest of the room. It was already getting stuffy in here, just the same as before. She already hated it in here.

"Also, men are flammable. Really wonderfully flammable. If they don't have magic or any tools I don't know about, we can probably fend off small groups of them." She had to say SOMETHING to make Orion feel better- she wasn't even sure if they could even take out a group of twenty. Her only idea for once they got out was to go far and fast, maybe someplace over the mountain or so far that they couldn't even see the desert or the human towers. She would miss it- the desert, not the towers- but eventually she would get there. There had to be at least one place out there that was untouched by the horrible hands, one place where dragons were still breathing and not made into elixirs.

"Sorry to break it to you, but your master has always been cruel. He's always been doing this. He was never, never a good man, only wanted dragons for his own uses...after this he's no longer going to be your master." The sooner she could break any last ties the feathered dragon had to the wizard the better. There was no use in calling such a horrible figure a "master" or anything worthy of respect. They were a murderer, and that was it. "Get upset, but not reckless."

Her tail twitched as he mentioned the plan. Soon...soon they would be out of there, and then it was time to formulate another plan of where to go. There were going to be a lot of plans, one after the other until they finally got out of there...but it would be a long time before they could finally relax.

[sugarbird]

-----Fly? Can he fly? Oh.. no. Orion paused after she was finished talking, thinking deeply about that. He doesn't know. He honestly doesn't know if he can fly or not. He can flutter from perch to perch, or use his massive wings to flap him from one pillar to another in the indoor garden. It took one or two flaps at most, nothing that required actual work. Oh gods, how long has it been since he's flown for real? Never. Quite literally never. He tried thinking all the way back to his time as a fledgling all that time ago, and learning to fly in the first place was all he retained. He knew how to fly, sure. Just flap your wings, right? Let the wind carry you occasionally? How hard could that be? But who knows how weak the muscles in his wings were. Well, he could flutter occasionally, right? So that means he's still capable of flying.

-----But he couldn't remember the last time he actually used them for real. He's never flown for more than a few seconds his entire life living here. He suddenly remembered what Alphonse told him at least a hundred years ago when he hopped around in the garden, trying to reach the top of one of the decorative pillars in there. "Quit trying to fly. You'll scatter your feathers all over in here, and I'll have you clean them up." He remembered him turning back one more time before leaving the garden. "Don't think about trying in my mansion, either. You'll just get your feather dander and.. other crap all over my floors."

-----But thinking back, that surely wasn't the only reason the wizard wanted him kept on the ground. Perhaps it would've been harder to keep captive a flying dragon. But that shouldn't have been a concern of his in the first place- his palace was always heavily guarded with wards and guards alike. So, why? Was Orion just too big of a dragon to let fly around in this confined space? Or did he really want him to feel as trapped and hopeless as possible in here? Who knows. "I.." he began solemnly. Another pause weighed his voice down before he could finally break it again. "I think.. I know how to fly. I was just told never to do it once. He was the master, so I didn't really disobey that."

-----Thinking about it now made him feel so pathetic. What dragon couldn't fly? A feathered dragon, no less? He's read so much about giant dragons flying high in the sky for miles on end to migrate, sometimes even going as high up as above the clouds, or even just barely within the confines of breathable air. They were mighty, powerful forces of nature that ruled the skies when they weren't ruling the ground already. "But.. he won't be later, right? I-I'm sure I could still fly." Gods, she must've felt like he was such a heavy burden now. A dead weight, a waste of precious air. "Well, either way, you'll be fine at least. Once I get us out that door, i-it's goodbye to this place for you. Hah hah.."

-----The thoughts of what could be out there returned. The dragoness did a good job of keeping his motivation strong, not because of her words in of themselves, but simply because she spoke with such a blatant confidence that told him yes, they had a chance to do this and still live past the finish line. He's never heard anyone speak to him as an equal like this, and it was reassuring to be reminded that he was not going to be escaping on his own. She was willing to help him, that much was for sure. With her around, he could say that they stood a chance against any hunters out there. "Well, whatever happens, we can say we tried. A-and thank you. For everything. Amb-- uhh.."

-----A thought suddenly occurred to him before he finished that name. What was her name, actually? He figured he ought to know that at least, since he might not make it out of this escape plan anyway. He could afford to know the name of his best friend so far before he died, anyway. "What is your name? Your real name? I know it's not Amber."

[Bronzewing]

His hesitation greatly worried her. Could he fly? That was one of the most important parts of this whole thing- if he had to hop along the ground, nothing would come of it. She wasn't able to carry him, of course, since that would just bring the both of them down. And furthermore she had no clue if she would stick with him if it turned out he couldn't fly- she would feel bad, of course, but would still probably lift up into the air and head out with or without him. She would prefer it to be with him, but Lehra had no plans to give up her freedom if she was already out there.

There was barely any space to fly in the human dwelling, anyway. From what she had seen only a few hops would be possible until you reached something- nowhere to fly upwards and nowhere to fly downwards. And the feathers- she didn't have any, but she guessed they would make a mess if one or two happened to fall out of the dragon's wings. She wasn't too familiar with feathers apart from the ones on birds- did they leave trails as they flew? No- probably not. They needed those feathers after all, and there was no use to drop that many of them if they were sailing through the sky.

"So then either way, you're abysmally out of practice." she said with a shake of her head. "That's not a good sign. You should at least be able to get into the air- I can't really teach you inside a place like this." She gestured to the room around her with a wing before pulling it back in, realizing that her conversation partner was unable to see her either way. "The wind comes into play once you get higher up. You can glide, but we're going to want to go high and fast- let's just hope you don't tire yourself out. Make sure you're well fed before heading out."

She could deal with eating little at a time, but she was used to that. Orion probably needed strength to fly, especially if he had been told not to do it. They needed to be energized and ready, ready to go as fast as possible... But she couldn't shake away the feelings of doubt. She didn't want to admit to Orion that she would ditch him as soon as he was becoming a drag, a dragon that would impede her chance of getting away and survival. She, and maybe him too, would definitely be killed if they were recaptured. After one escape the wizard would make an example out of them.

"Once we get out that door...I won't be coming back." she said with a small smile. "I have no plans to, after all! They took that long to find me, and they'll take even longer to get me again." She would make sure it was as hard as possible for them to get their claws on her. Oh yes, it wasn't going to be easy at all. Both her and Orion would be far gone, and maybe she would teach him how to fight... "Most likely they'll come after us even if we get away. I might have to teach you how to fight."

Somehow she was already getting used to being called Amber- although it still felt wrong to be stealing a name of an old colleague. "I never told you my name?" she asked, eyes widening. "Well, that must've slipped my mind! My name's Lehra the Warmaker, not Amber- Amber was actually the name of somebody I knew once." She paused, wondering how much she should say- before she decided to just take it easy. "Call me just Lehra. I don't feel like much of a Warmaker in here."

[sugarbird]

-----Lehra.. Lehra the Warmaker. What an intense title. He wondered how in the world she earned such a title- though, he supposed he shouldn't be too surprised. She was a fiery thing, that much was clear the first moment he laid eyes on her today. So it probably wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that she's participated in some 'wars' in her time. Did wild dragons have infighting? They must've, right? He's read about territorial battles between tight-knit groups of dragons before. Maybe she had to deal with some of those.

----- "It's nice to have met you, Lehra." He slumped down against a cellar door and lowered himself to the floor, trying to stop thinking so negatively about their upcoming mission. Whatever happens, happens. So long as she got out fine, it wouldn't matter. Just get your mind off it for a second. "Warmaker is a bit intense though, aha." he chuckled. Things paused for a second after that, as he was unable to really lift his spirits from the grim reality that he very well won't make it. He supposed he had something new to live for after all, if he was so concerned about his death all of a sudden. Did Lehra just give him more motivation to live? Or did the indications of the wizard single-handedly killing off the dragon race was what did it?

-----He couldn't avoid talking about their mission for more than a minute, he was so hyper-fixated on it. "So I might not be able to fly, and I might not be able to train." he began. "But, I can try. It's really all we can do, is just try." Orion's dead-eyed stare focused on the wall opposite to him as he talked and thought about his probable fate. "I mean, I can ascend off the ground just fine. I can hop from perch to perch. The worst part will be maintaining my air time. I can figure it out."

-----He then lifted his head up and turned it towards the doors upon realizing something. "What should I do in the meantime?" Orion was a bit clueless as to what Lehra wanted him to do at this current point in time. She might not be able to do much of anything, what with her being stuck in that room and all. But maybe she would prefer if he prepared or something for the break out tomorrow. He was used to just aimlessly walking around all day, awaiting orders from either Alphonse or his servants. He didn't just want to do that again for his last hours before the escape. He might not make it, anyway. So better to spend time efficiently rather than waste it.

[Bronzewing]

She hoped that he would be at least a little impressed by her title. After all, she did earn it- at least among the dragons she knew, she was a warrior above all the rest. A wild, savage fighter. A dangerous beast that tore up the desert! Ripped up the sands and uncovered the secrets! The bringer of death!!

But of course, Orion wasn't a wild dragon, and he wouldn't be familiar with titles more than that of "master" and maybe "servant". A shame- every dragon worth their weight should have a title, something that encapsulated them and struck fear into somebody's heart! Who wouldn't fear a dragon called the Warmaker? But who would fear a dragon that was just "Lehra", just "Orion" when you killed dragons for a living? If she could pull this off, the humans would declare war against her- and then she would really be the warmaker she wished to become. Oh, it was going to be glorious.

"It's nice to have met you, too. Looks like we're going to be each other's ticket out of here." she said with a small laugh. "Warmaker is intense for you? That's the point! Hah- some of us wild dragons love having some sort of fancy title. Strikes fear into the heart of your enemies and maybe even your friends!" She puffed up her chest. Thinking about it, she wondered if she should have told her name a while ago- maybe he would feel a bit more confident if he knew what he was dealing with.

"Well, we don't need to fly for the first part of the plan. At least we can get that done." she said with a nod of her head. "Maybe the pure adrenaline of escape will help you out. At least I'll make sure you get to a good air draft- that should help you out if you can figure out what to do." She was a bit worried, but mostly for her partner over her. She didn't really want to have to leave them behind, although if it turned out they couldn't fly, that was what she would do.

"What to do now- I have no clue. I guess we just wait- this is the worst part, with just the pure anticipation of it all." Smoke billowed out of her jaws- there was nothing at all she could do in there.