Ascent of a Dragon

"Ready?" "Ready!" "Set?" "Set!" "Fight!"

The match begins with a bang and a stomp as the dragon shoots towards her glowing friend. Scales brush against foliage and claws sink into roots as she rapidly approaches the spider. Opening her jaws wide, Aleph seeks to clamp down on the unmoving spider, rendering her immobile and thus sealing the victory in their sparring match. However, Lyly has other plans, jumping just moments before they intersect and hooking threads around her horns.

Aleph bucks her head, wildly flailing in an attempt to throw the spider off. Yet each motion only serves to provide her extra momentum as Lyly spins around, muzzling her snout. Aleph leaps, nearly reaching the canopy. As the spider reaches the apex of her ascent, Aleph latches her tail onto a tree and flings herself downward, digging her claws into the trunk as the spider crashes into the ground. "Fuehehehe!" The spider snickers, having successfully wrapped a full muzzle around Aleph's snout, horns, and neck rendering it all but impossible to remove without slicing and thus cutting off one avenue for victory.

Leaping down, Aleph spins, building up momentum to slam her tail into the ground. Dirt and debris scatter into the air, yet the spider is nowhere to be seen. Flaring her Aether, Aleph spots the sneaky critter sneaking behind a tree, climbing up to attack from above. Feigning ignorance, Aleph continues looking around to 'search' for the missing critter.

Poised to attack, Lyly hops down, spinning a thread to begin wrapping around the dragon's body. As soon as she's in range, flick! Squeak! Plonk! Swiping her into a tree with her tail, Aleph moves in for the capture, only for the spider to yank herself up by a thread she stuck at the top. Time for me to start using some actual techniques.

Aether soaks into her limbs, violet bubbles forming a vortex around her as she condenses all her force into one leap. The air cracks, the sound startling all wildlife within range, causing a cacophony of distant squawks and squeals. Aleph launches into the air after Lyly, leaving behind an explosion of dust and splinters. Reaching the canopy, she swipes at the branch holding Lyly's thread, a strong force pulling the shattering bark into her claws as she tears through, leaving the branch to fall atop the spider.

Lyly skitters around the falling branch with deft agility, hopping into the brush with a flaunting wink and the closest thing a spider can do to a peace sign, then proceeding to sprint around the area haphazardly. Cheeky little... Deciding to take this personally, because it kind-of is, Aleph flares her Aura to its limit, coating the jungle in violet as she lands. Lyly responds in kind, splitting the world between violet and cyan as their Auras bare against each other.

Aether soaks across the ground, into the trees, and throughout the air. A tempest of violet swirls around Aleph as she grasps hold of her surroundings, pulling them in. She leaps, poised to land atop Lyly, yet before the critter can hop out of the way, the world is yanked. Plants uproot, tree-trunks warp, and a tiny white spider is pulled into the air, all falling towards the black and violet dragon who in turn is pulled down at tremendous speed. Thooom!

The ground shakes, crevasses forming around the crater surrounding the dragon. Hah! Picked that one up from our old pal the rock lizard! Lyly is barely able to escape being completely submerged in dragon by tugging on a few emergency threads she'd scattered around, leaving her half poking out from beneath the belly. Prying herself free, she skitters back to the brush, continuing her manic sprinting.

It's about time to end this. Though lacking the words to express this, the look in her eyes speaks a thousand words as Lyly... completely fails to understand why the dragon is giving her a weird squint. Aleph stomps, readying for a charge as Lyly meets her gaze, now standing her ground. Seems she completely understood my intent. Let's see what tricks she's been cooking up. Best hope it can make it through my next technique.

Aleph bounds forth, Lyly hopping back with a single thread in her grasp. Both wear a wide, victorious grin, or at least whatever passes for a grin within the repertoire of facial expressions held by dragons and spiders. Aether swirls through limbs and Mana surges through thread. A wide net surfaces from the foliage around the crater, winding tight and pulling around Aleph. Her body tightly bound, she tumbles and slides towards the confident spider. I win! Aether bursts forth, hammering against the Mana within the threads muzzling her and pushing it away, rendering them mundane. Lyly stays put as Aleph slides towards her, already certain in her victory.

Rip! Chomp! Squee! Spit! Thonk!

Aleph stands victoriously over the spit-soaked spider, draped in torn threads and her tail wagging a storm. "I win! I win!" She celebrates.

Through the eyes of a sore loser

"Gah! I would've won if I had access to my true power!" Lyla complains. "True power?" The dragon tilts their head quizzically. "File that one away under the list of words you don't have the words to explain with." "..." "I'll tell you later." "Okay!" Dammit! Why are you being so adorable?! How am I supposed to complain when you respond to me so eagerly? Let me be salty!

Lyla slumps down, defeated in both body and spirit as the dragon nudges her with their tail. "Water. I'm thirsty." the nudging continues, Lyla eventually relenting and hopping up. "Fine, fine. I could do with a drink... And a bath." She begrudgingly responds, shaking the drool from her fur. You know, I feel like this is happening a lot lately...

With a final shake, Lyla hops onto her perch, and the pair set off in search of the nearest source of water. A brief exploration reveals a small stream, weaving gently between and through the surrounding roots, a soft trickle filling the air.

Lyla skitters into the stream, letting the turbulent flow wash away all the accumulated dirt, and drool, from her pale fuzz. She basks in the soothing rush of water, only for it to abruptly cut off as the dragon sticks their snout upstream, guzzling the entirety of its flow. You know, I'd normally be concerned about the hygiene around drinking what's clearly kinda murky and a little mossy water, but... This dragon has clearly eaten way worse and somehow come out even stronger for it. I wouldn't even be surprised if they suddenly gained moss powers or something.

The flow once again resumes, and Lyla is almost knocked off her feet by the sudden torrent upon her small body. Still, the tiny claws on the tips of her legs hold strong to the streambed as she settles into the soothing massage of running water.

Satisfied that she isn't getting any cleaner from the murky water shower, Lyla hops out and shakes herself dry, little droplets of water splashing onto the dragon's obsidian scales and swiftly running off the hydrophobic surface and into the ground.

"So what should we do about food? I don't feel like waiting so long every time we need to eat." The spider muses to herself. "Food? Maybe down?" Lyla pauses, not expecting the reply. "Right... I'm not used to you being able to actually respond now. And what is it with you and going down? We got here just yesterday!" "Down. Wanna go. More food?"

Lyla sighs, rubbing her pedipalps below her eyes. "Fine! We can go down. But still, I know it's part of our initial instincts, but your fixation on going down is ridiculous! Have you never heard of pacing yourself?" "Pacing... Don't understand. Too many words, don't know. We can go down?" "Right... Wrong question for the wrong person... Sure, we can go down. Just need to find where down is first."

Clambering up to her perch, Lyla directs the dragon in a well thought out, highly calculated, completely random direction and they set off. Dense jungle becomes thicker, becomes thinner, opens out into wide rivers, and closes up against enormous stone pillars. Last time I was here I practically skipped this floor, having found a city-sized hole leading below. If we can find that it'd be great, since I could then navigate the rest of the way from memory, but I don't even know what direction that is... Smack! "Huu!" What?

The pair stare at the monkey before them, having face-planted into the ground from the canopy. Okay, seriously I have questions! Why are they following us?! Why do they keep falling out of the trees? How did I not see any last time I was here? "Hoh!" The monkey shoots up and scrambles away through the trees as an idea strikes the spider. "Follow!" "Hm?" "Monkey! Follow!" Lyla points towards the scampering primate.

With a nod, the dragon bolts forward, easily able to keep pace without even needing her signature violet glow. Red bark and green moss blur past as they keep up the chase. "Hah!" Turning back to see a charging mass of obsidian predator hurling after it, the monkey startles, changing direction to sprint around a large lake.

Across the lake, an enormous tree comes into view, devouring half the horizon as the ceiling pushes upward as if displaced by the arboreal megalith. The jungle fades out around the under-story of the colossal tree, unable to compete for light and leaving a large, shaded gap above and below the shimmering canopy.

Through the eyes of a charging dragon

Aleph chases the creature around the lake, keeping a consistent distance as they approach the colossal tree. The closer the pair get, the more it dawns upon them just how massive it is. Pillars of house-sized bark plunge into the jungle floor, warping the terrain into uneven, soil-covered waves. The creature expertly navigates the hills and bumps, before disappearing into a small nook between the roots.

Halting in front of the man-sized hole, the not-man-sized dragon peers down. Safe to assume this leads down a layer. Would be nice if I could fit more than my neck down though... Her gaze shifts up, falling upon the perceptually flat wall of tree before her. If only trees had a will... The amount of Aether something this old could cling to would be...

The pair take a moment, both staring in awe at the sheer scale of this tiny fragment of the world. With a shake of her head, Aleph pries her eyes and thoughts back to the problem at hand. Flaring her Aether, she maps out the winding tunnel, finding a diverging path below. There may be other ways down. Hopefully one that's me sized.

Aleph takes off, pushing her Aether below in search of a sizable enough way down. The pair circle the trunk of the giant tree, occasionally sending Lyly down to scout a promising looking hole, and eventually finding a tunnel the dragon can fit through. Barely. Onyx horns scrape against the solid roots around them, leaving tiny marks on the surface as Aleph squeezes herself through. The tunnel waxes and wanes between being plenty large enough to stand, and just large enough to not crush her wings.

The final stretch proves the most troublesome, the twisting roots condensing to a narrow spiral, leading to a small, dimly lit opening. Aleph presses through, needing to use a bit of Aether to force her way out from the grip of the tremendously hard tunnel walls. Plop! Thunk! Rustle! "Made it!" "Made it! Now sleep." "What?!"

"King! King!" "What is it young watcher?" "The emissary has done battle with the bright one! A tremendous match of might and wit!" "Hoh? A disagreement perhaps? I imagine the emissary won?" "Yes! But the match was close! The bright one nearly had the emissary completely entrapped within the vines! Victory was but assured, yet the emissary broke through with its mighty strength! Now they traverse the tunnels reaching to our domain." "Broke through you say? I hear those vines are yet to be broken by even my son. Have they perhaps grown stronger in such a short time? Good. I anticipate our encounter evermore. Send word for the scouts to return, and call the veterans to take their place! Inform me the moment they approach!" "Yes, my king!"