RP:A Heated Hunt

Part of the The Dawn of a New Era Arc

Summary: At the behest of Brynhild, the White Dragon heads to Venturil to capture a herd of dinosaurs, which will be studied, trained, and later put to use, should war arise. The thick hides, massive bodies, and longevity of the dinosaurs will be an asset to their saurian cause. Neferet belatedly decides to include Scandal on this excursion, though the two are unable to mask their sheer hatred of one another. Approximatley eighty of the dinosaurs are captured and transported into holding pens for the time being. The mixed-dragon and the cryomancer part, as always, on less than good terms.

It’s the strike of dawn when the dragon touches down on the edge of a cliff in Venturil, her stark blue eyes eyeing the valley below with a calculating glare. Each movement of the reptilian forms that stalk through the tall grass is noted, and the white scaled woman gleefully smirks, imagining the taste of their flesh. However, now was not the time to act, and she couldn’t be foolish about this hunt. Brynhild said it was of the utmost importance to gather several of these thick-skinned dinosaurs, so they could be studied, and later put to use as warriors, to assist in their saurian endeavors. They’d need all the attack and defense forms they could gather, as there was always strength in numbers. Neferet waits, greedily taking in the scene before her, and hoping that Scandal had received her letter via ice falcon. Blitz wouldn’t let her down, of that she’s certain, though it was likely that the half-breed wouldn’t heed her call and leave her to round up the dino’s by herself. It wasn’t a bother if he didn’t show up, as Neferet preferred to handle things on her own, reveling in her loner lifestyle. Still, she knew little about these beasts and if they combined their efforts, they could donate more bodies to Bryn’s cause. “Where is he?!” Nef hisses, her iridescent wings glimmering in the sunlight, as she cranes her neck to search the sky. It’s a real treat for Scandal, as she rarely, if ever, went anywhere in her dragon form, though today she thought it best.

Scandal’s presence in Venturil was one of caution and awareness, if need to be somewhere in a dragon form, he made haste to do it after carefully planning ahead. For the most part as Brynhild had asked for, was the dinosaurs that were beasts of burden, and their predators. In his own opinion he was readily acceptant of that plan of action as dealing with the Razurath on the other hand was a whole other ocean altogether. The Razurath in opposition were not, dumb, if anything, they were on par with dragons and mindflayers for their intellect and cunning, and that was something he wanted to avoid until Brynhild made it a priority which would have him likely reach out his connections to Allura the lone Gray of the Razurath, but for now he settled on the dinosaurs. Flying overhead Scandal had made an effort of estimation of what size he believed Neferet to be of, and as he appeared he found himself to have underestimated, being almost a good twenty percent smaller than she was. He chose these sizes out of convenience rather than necessity, as it would have been very inconvenient to have been flying as a dragon the size of entire mountain range, especially when he landed, he'd have likely caused a ground quake that would have caused mountains to sink beneath their foundations. Landing he, despite the form he was in, sat back on his back claws, and moved on them as such. It was his nature, the nature of dragons of Uldenbraug to do so, and had he had their pride, which he didn't have, he might have looked down on her for her choice of movement. But he was not that person. "I got your message, perhaps when I send a reply next time, you'll tell me now what species you prefer to deliver." He eyes her appearance, working hard to not show an interest, even if he might have had some. Scandal by his appearance was a well crafted dragon with well defined muscular appearance. He appeared no older than her in his dragon maturity despite the fact that his actual age was tremendously older. He might have been handsome, for a dragon despite the fact that he was a mixed breed. Under normal circumstances he might have even sported a cinnamon aroma, something that would natural emanate from him, but he had gone to certain lengths to prevent it at least for the time being, a loss of focus however might cause it to return. He eyes her with those red eyes, watching and waiting for her response. His mouth opening to reveal several sharp teeth along his bottom and top jaws, exposing also the bright cyan color of his interior flesh. He would close it and repeat as he attempts to wait and or listen to the response.

Neferet squints as Scandal’s form appears in the skies, her expression shifting from one of boredom to respect as the mixed-breed makes his landing. The earth quakes, and were she not a formidable creature herself, she surely would have tumbled from the cliff’s edge. Masking her approval with a look of sheer disgust, she inclines her head in the direction of the valley below. She doesn’t mind that Scandal is eyeing her muscular physique, because she was rather lovely to gaze upon in her scaled form. Neferet is large, lean, and tone in all the areas that were vital to being a fearsome white dragon. Her claws impatiently click against the ground, as she accepts his statement with an exaggerated eye roll, though there’s a hint of a grin on her muzzle, which shows ebony sharp teeth. The interior of her mouth is a sky blue, which perfectly matches her cornflower gaze, and her white scales hold an iridescent sheen to them, with flickers of silver, sky blue, and gold reflecting with each of her movements. Some would find the woman attractive, a couple would find her draconian form appealing, though –all- would be enchanted when she’s in her fully fledged dragon form. She truly was a breathtaking sight to endure, and right now she’s eyeing Scandal in his form, finding it rather appealing, despite him being a half-breed. Were they close in age? Neferet was nearly seven hundred years old, though her appearance in human form wouldn’t make her a day over thirty. Slowly, she creeps nearer to Scandal, her tail whipping from side to side, as several large dragonflies buzz about their massive bodies. “I’m always in human form, though I thought it went without saying that we should both be in dragon form. After all, we’re corralling dinosaurs, are we not? There are quite a few down there… I’m sure we’ll work up an appetite, so save that one for me. Brynhild said we are each allowed a kill, and that one with the long neck will make an excellent snack.” Opening her maw, she flicks her tongue out, as though tasting the brontosaurus’ flesh.

Scandal turned his focus from her scales and form. Yes she was attractive, no he would not say it. He assumed she knew it. But he didn't know how she felt about him so thats why he didn't say anything about it. "Oh so you like a long spine slding down your throat." he says in her choice of dinosaur she just called Dibs on. He makes small snicker in his chest. At heart scandal might have been her age, he certainly looked it, but he wasn't a deep sleep had pressed him to sleep far longer than any dragon could have naturally done on their own,especailly without aging despite physical growth. Scandal had very well given trying to solve the mystery of how he was what he was now, it hurt his brain to think about, much less explain it. Scandal nodded, "I rarely take human form, dragon in my time were terrible shapeshifters, we were better at being ourselves, and changing our size, rather than passing as another being. In a way, I like to believe that being oneself is being true to oneself and showing your not ashamed to be you, and only in convience to yourself and others do you take a more draconian form, at least thats how I think, but then when does my opinion matter?" He said. Observing the dinosaurs they needed to coral he continued, "Personally I'd prefer snacking on those raptors, their is something just splendid about having something still alive in you and squirming." He coughes a second, forgeting himself, and says, "Of course the bigger the meal that squirms, the more joy comes out of it." He eyes the open fields over the cliffs eyeing the area of forest, that nears the plains. "Think you should ice wall their only exit, or should it be simply terror to keep them in line." He didn't offer to use his breath ability, lessons learned had told him his breath ability was much more powerful than your average dragon, as it had two effects and the secondary he knew was something barely he could get away from without injury no matter what size he took. His thoughts returned to the flesh of her mouth and its sky blue color, he cursed in his mind, dragons of odd internal colors always stood out as attractive, he thought damning his instincts.:"There's enough raptors that if 100 went missing i think we'd still have a hundred left over."

Neferet ignores the jest about the spine sliding down her throat and merely eyes the brontosaurus with a yearning gaze. It had been a long time since she fed on something so filling, and the raptors that he mentions dining upon wouldn’t even fill her cavity. If she was going to hunt something worthy of a meal, she’d pick the largest specimen, as it would put up a good fight and later quench her appetite. There’s always a motive behind the White’s actions, though she’d finding it hard to concentrate as the mixed-breed continues to speak. Did he think himself a philosopher? An annoyed glare is given to Scandal, as Neferet cants her head to lock eyes with the male, “I care not for what form you choose to appear in, as you are one of the most docile dragons I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. We are here for a purpose, not idle chitchat, and you’d best remember that we’re –not- friends, we’re merely working together for a greater cause.” Nef returns her attention to the dinosaurs below, having said her piece, though she can still seeing him eyeing her form out of her peripheral vision. The White chose to remain in her human disguised form when in view of the public, however, when she was taking a meal, or at home in the tundra, she preferred her true form of a dragon. Narrowing her hues on the valley, she studies each angle, calculating the distance from one end of to the other, and she counts in her head the speed at which the dinosaurs run. The wall of ice is a damned good idea, and it earns Scandal an appraising look, before she gives a slow nod. “Alright… Here’s what we will do… I will soar above in the sky, and you will land on the ground in the east… I need you to chase, chomp, and create all kinds of chaos down there. Push them towards the west, where I will prepare to blast my ice breath. The wall will form, and the dinosaurs will be knocked unconscious, as they will be racing to what they hope is safety. I think this will work. Of course a few will try to turn tail and escape through other means, but by that time we both will be on the ground and rounding them up using our own means. I’d prefer to only take a few kills. This isn’t snack time, it’s a wrangling.” She sighs, hoping the male would agree to this plan and not screw it up, as she didn’t have the utmost faith in the mixed-breed. “Once our mission is complete, we will regroup and discuss how to transport them to the pens that have been built near your home. Sound good?”

Scandal knew the comment about his docileness was an insult. "Oh don't worry I haven't forgotten," His voice taking on a colder tone. -How could I not.- he thought, -with you telling me every time we meet we're not friends, pray you never get to the point that you want to be friends and I will be the one saying we can't be.- he continued in his thoughts that he kept from her mind. He ignored her appraising look, his mood quite soured from the start of this meeting, so he lets her finish, "Done, see you when we are done." He spread his wings and leapt. As he did though he stopped holding his more smooth form, his scales becoming more and more sharper and more jagged, more befitting of components more commonly found amongst black and red dragons, He landed to the east of the plains just behind a curtain of trees, and flora. He watched with his eyes, and then finding use of the area, he moved forward letting loose a low growl forcing the herds towards the west. As some tried to move towards the trees, He breathed out a stream of glowing green like liquid like fire, which immediately within microseconds of impact carved a trench impeding the herds from being able to escape locking them between a cliff a fiery chasm about to explode, which when it does will frighten the animals into a sprint towards their only remaining exit where Neferet would cast her ice wall. As the explosion goes off the herd scatters forcing Scandal to let loose a roar which shakes the cliffs and the ground causing some landslides and some large boulders to loosen from the cliffs. He does not chomp rather he monologs about doing so. "Yeah, roar, chomp, spit fire, everything a beast would do, so much for dignity between dragons." He muttered under his breath opening his wings from time to time to send a gust of air to push the herd back on course as they continued in a rampant sprint. One large meat eater dinosaur stood his ground and roared back. Scandal just stopped and stared at it in the eyes. "Seriously? Do you honestly think you can take a claim of all these herds just because a dragon corralled them into a trap. And here I thought the carnivores had brain's the size of apples." He grabbed the t-rex by the neck and lifted it up, and stuck it on an area of the cliff that it could neither climb up from nor climb down, making it stranded "Sit tight I will be back for you." He pushed the rest into position awaiting Neferet. "Come on, we get one shot at this before it gets messy."

The White Dragon doesn’t delay any further, as she grew impatient waiting for the mixed-breed to arrive, and then had to endure his incessant need to preach about his views, along with ogling her form. What was wrong with this male? Did he honestly think he’d stand a chance with full blood of –any- color? His parents obviously didn’t care about inbreeding or the mixing of colors, but Neferet knew better. It weakened the race. And while she doesn’t voice her hatred for the red and black abomination, her distaste for Scandal is obvious, as she wears a constant grimace whenever they lock eyes. If Brynhild hadn’t forced her to accept the nuisance into their cause, she’d likely have forced him into a duel, established dominance, and used her stake to put an end to the male. Things weren’t in Nef’s favor though, and unfortunately Scandal continued to breathe. All in good time, perhaps. Taking off into the sky is one of Neferet’s favorite things to do, as the ground vanishes, her talons lose all traction, and her magnificent wings steadily pump to take her higher and higher. The air caresses her form, those pearlescent scales shimmer in various colors, taking in their surrounding as much as her ever-calculating cornflower gaze. Inhaling, she waits for the precise moment to strike, eyeing the distance between the two mountains, her hues narrowing on a particular point in the valley. Arching her back, Nef swings her neck in a circular pattern and a glowing silver-blue stream of water exits her mouth, followed by an air of breath power the clings to the water once it hits the target. A thick wall of ice extends the span of a half-mile, impenetrable to all that dare attempt a western exit from the valley. Pride shines in her eyes, as she veers towards the east and begins her descent, glancing at the tyrannosaurs rex that Scandal managed to tackle with ease. Was he trying to show off? Neferet preferred to play with her food, and it shows, as she stalks towards the brontosaurus, ignoring the herd of dinosaurs that are impaired by the ice wall. About sixty manage to hit the block head on, causing the larger ones to become disoriented, whereas the raptors are knocked unconscious. Their plan had worked, and Scandal was toying with the ones that managed to turn around in time and avoid their trap, though they are mostly incapacitated, as though they knew they were being captured and not eaten. During her advance on the brontosaurus, a ballsy velociraptor launches onto her leg, digging his claws into her scales, and Nef throws her head back and growls, though it’s more out of annoyance than pain. Whipping her mallet tail, it connects with the little guys head, and he’s tossed a good hundred feet. Lifting him with her claws, she dangles him like a mouse, before swallowing him whole. The long necked dinosaur is a docile creature, usually, though it can practically smell the rage emanating off of the massive white dragon, and so she panics, stomping her paws against the ground, and swaying her neck and tail rapidly from side to side. She would –not- go down without a fight. Several of her kind lay sprawled out in the valley, some surely dead, others unconscious, and a rogue one in the distance, deeply confused. Licking her lips, Nef swipes the flank of the dinosaur, narrowly dodging a tail swipe, as the beast rounds on her, a fire in its eyes. The two collide, their forms meeting in a cataclysmic shudder, as they skid along the earth, rolling until they make contact with a tree. It’s there that Scandal would see Neferet’s expression, one of satisfaction, before her razor teeth are bared and she sinks them into the slender exposed throat of her fresh kill.

Scandal chose not to watch. He took his claw and stirred up the earth lifting out heaps of soil with each foreclaw, until there was a pit about twice his size, his current size. Not his stupidly vast size, just his current size. He made it like a ramp, so that as he drove the dinosaurs into the pit they ran down a ramp. One raptor though seemed a bit odd, it ran up his paw, and then bit him on the neck. He flinched not expecting that, and tried to reach for the raptor only for it to move and bite the other side. He felt the blood a small amount but an amount nonetheless, and shook his neck intending to knock it off. Then as she was making her move on the dinosaur, a he felt the dinosaur fly off his neck and a sharp whistle sound dart by the side of his head. He glanced first to where it had come from, and spotted a raptor like creature that seemed to walk upright. Dark blue in color and bearing a crossbow. Its arm clutched its chest and then swung out, and the creature nodded. Moving back into the forest. "Razurath, why aren't we recruiting them?" He looked toward the dinosaur that the Razurath had shot off him, to find just a skeleton of the creature. "Eww." He said to himself. Then moved the dirt around the dinosaurs and blew a steady stream of violet gas into pit. With dinosaurian snoring ensuing shortly thereafter. "Captured as you desired ma'am." Scandal said with a mock salute.

Neferet is too busy dining to notice the creature that assisted Scandal with the raptor, as she’s already eaten the brontosaurus up to his shoulders. A feral glare is given to the mixed-breed as he approaches, and should he dare lay a claw atop her kill, he would suffer the consequences. One thing the White was incapable of what sharing, and it shows, as crimson stains her pearly white teeth, while she hovers over the dinosaur. Nef’s piercing blue gaze surveys the area with disgust, as though she couldn’t wait to be far from this wretched territory and back to the chilled land of Frostmaw. “Excellent…” She hisses, before taking another bite, her calculating gaze eyeing the eighty or so that they had captured for their cause. Brynhild would be happy that their hunt had gone successfully, and that Neferet hadn’t tried to slaughter Scandal. This was a good day for everyone. Giving the red and black a sneer, she eyes him from the side, not bothering to toss a compliment his way. She also was incapable of showing kindness to others, as she viewed that as a weakness. “We have to transport them to the holding pens that were built at Scrathulclaw Hall. I could enchant their hides with ice, so that should they awaken they are frozen and can’t escape the spell. Your place isn’t too far from here, from what I remember.” Neferet had stood before the hall once, when she had first met Scandal, along with Bryn, and she estimates it’s at least a five mile journey. They’d have to transport the dinosaurs there somehow, and soon.

Scandal didn't blink when he felt her disgust nor did he respond without any kindness either. "Do what you want to transport your forty, but as of this moment you’re on your own." Scandal said as his form inflated like a balloon extending his length and height and width, and wingspan by almost 300% which made his dexterity decline as he attempted to pick up with some difficulty forty of the eighty dinosaurs. He missed a few the smaller ones accidently picking up earth and dinosaurs with his now much larger claws, and had to steady himself on his remainder three, when he finally had them in his claw he lifted them to his mouth and placed them in and swallowed. a bulge descending down his throat, as until ended strangely not vanishing his chest but at the very base of his neck, where it stopped. "It called a crop and I wouldn't expect you to know or to care, because obviously you lack any use for something that you call a weakness. Or a mutation or even, something of disgust, I will be able to fly back unhindered." His face twisted into a smile. "Good luck moving them on a full stomach." He opened his wings which stretched over the plains and at once he leapt into the air, returning to his house, where he would regurgitate the animals and then upon reducing size for added dexterity separate the predators from the prey in to separate pens. He smiled knowing that Neferet would have a hard day of work ahead of her if she intended to bring the rest. He would also have the house cast a protection spell over the pens, preventing tampering or sabotage. "I think a bath is in order." Scandal said as he entered his home.

The cryomancer is pleased to be rid of Scandal, his disgusting crop, and half of the load of dinosaurs that would have to be transported. Neferet works best when alone, and she only included the mixed breed as a courtesy to Brynhild, so she could care less that the male was offended and ran off like wounded cattle. A sadistic smirk is on her face, as her icy hues focus on the herd that remains. When left to her own devices, she was rather nifty, using her superior strength and intelligence to see to getting things accomplished. With a wave of her hand, each of the dinosaurs are coated in a thick layer of ice and lifted into the air, thanks to some additional wind magic. As the cryomancer walks towards the hall at a steady pace, the levitating dinosaurs head in the same direction, not more than fifty feet to the east. This is taxing on the dragon, though she does it without complaint, and once each dinosaur has been placed into the appropriate pen, she calls off the spell and the ice immediately melts. After an hour or so, they all would awaken, no worse for wear, though a few would be coated in faint bruised and some shallow cuts. All would heal in time; they would be fitted with armor, trained for war, and put to good use for their cause. The Saurian Empire would rise, hopefully never to fall again. The White doesn’t bother to alert Scandal that she’s arrived or that the dinosaurs were safely transported, he had eyes, and hopefully would use his mixed-breed mind to see for himself. Transforming back to her human guise, the woman makes the long journey back to Frostmaw on foot, where she would pen a letter to Brynhild to keep her updated about what transpired.