Ascent of a Dragon

Through the eyes of a battle-ready spider

Three monkeys descend the centre rope, speckles of gold fur adorning their yellow coats, reflecting the light above into a bright glimmer. The first lands, a short creature with gold patterned across its face, standing with its weight on its hind legs, and looking forward with an intense gaze. The second lands, standing bipedally on its long yet toned legs, gold spattered across its limbs and completely coating its hands and feet. The third lands with a thoom. Kicking up dust as it rises to its full height, matching the dragon even on all fours, with gold patched across its entire body.

Finally, from behind the trio, Thwoom! A fourth monkey lands, kicking up a mountain of dust, having leapt from the canopy itself. As the dust settles a silhouette is revealed, showing a slender yet toned figure... lying prone with its head resting on its hand and donning an aloof grin. Its coat shimmers, more gold than not as the ground around it is patterned in a light-show of bright-yellow light. Amber eyes watch the pair, regarding them with an unwavering confidence. The three in front grow restless, the small one thrumming its chest, the lanky one flexing its arms, and the large one lightly thumping the ground.

"Hey... I'm gonna feel bad for those guys if you just keep doing that... Look, they're even posing and everything!" Lyla's concerns fall on deaf ears as the dragon gathers sticks into a sizeable pile by the moss-croc. "Hungry. I just ran a lot." Lyla peers at the dead reptile, her own stomach growling in turn. Well, what's my excuse? I just sat on their head the whole time... "Fine... Lemme help." Lyla begins weaving then spinning her bow drill, eliciting confused gazes from the monkey trio. The canopy grows restless, the sound of confused and frustrated hoots and howls filling the arena.

"Hoohahahaa!" The three turn in unison, watching the fourth monkey laugh at the display before standing and clapping its hands together. Sticking a pinky in its mouth, the monkey whistles loud, silencing the jeers above. "Wheeee! Hoo, hoo, hoot!" On cue, a series of smaller monkeys clamber down the ropes, carrying a variety of tools and pots. Only three of the seven face-plant, which frankly feels like an impressive turnout. Gathering around the moss-croc they begin to help prep the meal.

"Hey, wait, what?" Lyla looks up at the dragon, who just goes with the flow and holds the reptile high to bleed dry, catching the blood in a bowl while the monkeys expand the fire and set up various cooking implements. "Oh whatever..." Lyla joins in with a sigh, binding their make-shift constructs with her thread. It's not like i know any cooking techniques beside spit-roasting. And I only know that because of my one over-eager friend who's way too into camping and spit-roasting birds, and thinks it's a good idea to teach this to a spider. The Croc is sliced and diced, filleted and ground. Different cuts are split across the stone pots and pans as more ingredients are brought in and added.

Stews are cooked, legs are roasted, and steaks are fried. All being laid out in a small buffet before them as the scents of cooked meat seep across the jungle above. Everyone sits in a circle around the food, eagerly digging in. "I guess we just eat now?" Lyla looks again to the dragon, only to see them choking down a whole roasted leg, much to the amusement of the younger monkeys. "Forget I asked..." Lyla snags a steak of her own and begins nibbling, ignoring the curious pokes and prods of the younglings around her.

As the feast comes to a close, the golden monkey stands, firing off another whistle signalling for the smaller monkeys to reluctantly pry themselves from their poking and prodding of the two curious looking guests and clean up. The golden monkey, the large monkey, and the short monkey take a distance, leaving behind the lanky monkey, who begins stretching and eyeing up the pair, taking their measure.

The dragon lies down, watching the younger monkeys clamber up the rope with dirty pots and pans in hand. Are we really doing this? I don't really wanna fight, but I feel like it would be rude to say no at this point. Lyla peers back at the dragon, who yawns in total disinterest. Fine... I guess we're doing this one on one. And I am starting to feel kinda like a chump, being carted everywhere for free all the time. Not like I'm gonna stop, but still. I'll go first.

Lyla squares up against the lanky monkey, who in turn looks disappointed, clearly anticipating a bout with the larger beast. "What? Am I not good enough for you? I'll have you know, I'm the Divine Beast Lyla, master of threads, and grandmaster in the centuries old art of spider-fu! Come at me scrub!" Waving her pedipalps like fists, she taunts the monkey who, despite not understanding a single chitter, decides to take it personally. Winding back its long leg, it throws a whip of a kick, punting the spider.

"Fuahaha! You fool! You're five hundred years too young to face me!" Always wanted to say that. Lyla clings to its foot, skittering up its thigh to plunge her fangs into its fur. "Take that! My mild paralytic venom will have you wobbling for hours!" And wobble it does, unable to hold any weight on its leg as she skitters away victorious. "Who's next?"

The large and small monkeys regard her with renewed interest as they watch their companion wobble around like a drunkard, the small one pointing and laughing at the poor fool. The golden monkey simply grins, maintaining its aloof attitude as it nudges the small one with a hoot. Large picks up lanky, settling back besides gold as small shuffles over. With a thrum of its chest, the small one begins spouting off what must be a truly obscene array of taunts and trash talk. One can even spot a few hands poking out the canopy above to block the ears of the eager youths dangling for a better view.

So is it actually a gorilla? What was the difference anyway? The tail? Lyla might react if she understood even a single word, but alas, of the languages she's learned, monkey is not one of them. Taking her deadpan stare as an admission of defeat to its trash talk, the small monkey sprouts a smug grin, crosses its arms, and waggles its finger provocatively. "Okay." Lyla sprints over to the monkey, pulling out a thread as she leaps for its head.

As she shoots towards the monkey, its hand appears before her, blocking its face. Lyla pivots to instead attach her sticky thread to its palm and hop away to bind it to the floor, only for it to grab hold of the thread and spin her around, slamming her into the ground. She lets go of the thread and bounces back, watching as the monkey plunges its hand into the stone below to pull out a rock and attach it to the other end of the thread in its hand. Grasping the thread midway, the monkey spins it like a lasso, grinning wildly as it charges Lyla.

Lyla stands her ground, awaiting its approach. Making it in striking range, the monkey releases its grip, letting the rock fly and, smack. Right in... the monkeys face. Having seemingly forgotten the fact that the thread will stick to both hands, instead of releasing the built up momentum of the swing, it simply kept going and circled back with enough force to knock itself out cold. Lyla stares dumbfounded at the moron before her, before raising her legs in victory.

The wobbly-legged, lanky monkey howls in laughter mocking the smaller fool back for its earlier taunts. Even the gold one fails to hold back a snort at the display as the large one walks over and unceremoniously tosses the unconscious primate back to the others, eliciting even louder howls of laughter.

Lyla squares off again as the large monkey towers over her, blocking the light above and staring down with glowing yellow eyes. The first strike lands, shattering the ground as Lyla skitters up its arm. Maybe I should've saved my venom for this guy... Seems like it can just break the ground if I tie it down. Then again... Lyla easily dodges the slaps and whacks as the monkey desperately flails around, trying to remove the giant arachnid crawling all over it. So slow! Why am I even worried?

Climbing around it with deft agility, Lyla simply wraps the giant in a bundle of tough threads, systematically immobilising it. With a victorious waggle of her front legs, Lyla hops off her defeated foe. "Fuahaha! Three-zero to Lyla! Which chump is next?" The gold monkey stands with a calm grin, walks over to Lyla and claps its hands. The earth around her shifts, rising up to encase her in a dome. "Well shit. I think I've just fallen prey to at least three tropes here."

Through the eyes of a well rested dragon

Aleph yawns, standing up with a stretch as she calmly walks over to the dome, eyes locked on the gold one before her. With a whip she shatters the top of the dome with her tail, letting Lyly skitter out. "What's going on? Did I win?" "My turn." Lyly peers between the dragon and the gold one, a disappointed sigh escaping her as. "Aww... Avenge me!" She skitters off as Aleph tries to figure out what the word 'avenge' means.

This could be kinda fun. I'll have to hold back though. Unlike Lyly I doubt this thing can just tank a full force blow without flinching. The gold one meets her a mere breath apart. Standing tall as it looks down tauntingly. Responding in kind, Aleph rises from her crouched position, shifting onto her back legs and spreading her wings for balance. Easily standing over twice its height without even fully stretching she looks down, meeting its hesitant, amber gaze with her own calm, violet eyes.

Thump! Thump! Thump! The gold one slams its chest, beating a loud rhythm into the air as excited rustles and howls fill the canopy. "No fair... Dragons get all the love. Where are my spider fans when I need them?" Aleph ignores the jealous chitters behind her as she lowers down, ready to fight.

Crack! The ground splinters as golden fists plunge into rock. Aleph leaps to the side, dodging the spike of earth breaching the ground she stood on. The gold one lifts its hand, fists clenched as it winds back and shoots them forwards, releasing a cluster of rocks at the dragon. Aleph jumps, closing the distance as she glides over the spread. She swipes her paw at her foe, who in turn backs away, kicking up more rocks which bounce harmlessly off obsidian scales.

The canopy bustles with the excited howls and laughter of their audience. A few over-eager observers almost fall from their resting place, only to be caught by larger hands and pulled back up. Aleph swipes again, this time though the gold one slips through, grasping her leg and twisting with an almighty effort, cracking the ground below as she is hoisted into the air. Flaring her wings to increase drag, she slams herself down, ploughing her feet into the ground as she throws her opponent into the air in retaliation.

Aleph swipes her tail at the falling creature, only to miss as a gust of air brushes her foe into a safe landing. "The Avatar!" The what? She shakes her head, ignoring the sardonic chitters behind her. As the gold one raises its fists, once again aiming to slam them into the ground, Aleph charges, tackling it to the ground. As she winds up for the final blow it inhales deeply, then shoots out a stream of fire from its lungs. Hey, aren't I supposed to be the dragon here? "Hey, aren't you supposed to be the dragon here?" My thoughts exactly!

Rearing back to protect her eyes she lets it escape her grasp. As the flames clear she turns back to see it plunge its hands into the ground and lift. A plate of earth is lifted, casting a wide shadow over the dragon as it falls, threatening to crush her. With a flip, she slams her bladed tail into the plate, rending it in half and landing face-to-face with her worn out opponent.

Flop! Her opponent falls on its back, breathing heavily as it taps the ground with the backs of its hands. Did I just win? Go me! "I win!" Roars of excitement erupt from the canopy, cheers and jeers filling the jungle above.

Thoom!

The canopy shifts, a wave spreading through the leaves as silence takes over.

Thoom!

Another ripple across the trees, accented by quiet whispers and excited rustles.

Thoom!

Small hoots escape the leaves, building up and growing into a loud rhythmic chant. """Huu! Huu! Huu! Huu!"""

Bang!

Dust covers the arena, the chants growing into an uproar as a golden glow shimmers through the dust, amber eyes peering at their new opponent.