RP:Hit Snooze for 200 Years

From HollowWiki

Cliff notes: White dragon gets woken up by a feline. White dragon is uncharacteristically friendly. Feline and dragon go to the Inn for a feast.


Open Snowfield

The open field is calm and quiet, as you glance around you hear no wind, and see no blowing snow. The still is unnatural, without wildlife or weather causing the slightest disturbance. Strangely this place feels entirely different from the hunting grounds and other snow covered places; the feeling is eerie, as if ancient spirits silently watch your progress through their lands. No hostility can be felt in the air, only that stern watchfulness, as if the land's unseen guardians are willing to allow you passage so long as you bring no discord with you. If you glance to the west, you can see the restored buildings among the ruins easier, while to the east, you can see an icy bridge leading back towards the hunting grounds.




Xiembantointh disappeared from the Lithrydel region of Hollow around two hundred years ago, but who's counting? Definitely not him because he’s been hibernating the whole time! The pristinely white scaled dragon had been undisturbed this entire time in the snowy tundra of Frostmaw, his original home. Maybe by some fluke, an avalanche happened and slid the dragon down to a more accessible side of the mountain - who knows. His head buried into the crisp snow along with his tail and the wings stretched out which made it hard to distinguish such a creature from the actual snow. All that could be assumed to be there was a mound of fluffy white snow glittering in the moonlight, but it will be surprising to someone to find out the large creature taking his slumber underneath. His breathing slow and shallow without any snore as the ‘snow mound’ doesn’t really move either, someone could easily tread right over the spot without thinking twice about it. Much to his embarrassment, there is a cute little snowman that was built on top of him and a couple snow angels mushed in the small layer of snow on his back.


Zahrani walks into the open field, the feline covered in gray winter gear and a furry cloak to keep out the chill wind. A panther snout sticks out from cowl, accompanied by the light of two glowing cyan eyes. There is an unseen aura about the cat; a strength and grace of Spirit, Divine Clarity. The paladin ventured here for solitude and meditation, to ponder on current events away from the crowds. She allows a grin to form on her face at the snowman and the snow angels, and the grin fades when she realizes: that hill wasn't there last time she traversed this field. Her black tail swishes in anticipation beneath her cloak; as she approaches, feelings of Duty and Loss occupy her. ~Why am I suddenly thinking about this now?~ she wonders to herself. Her lost loved ones, the burden that she carries in service to Cyris and Lithrydel. She stops at the base of the hill, her nares flaring as she picks up a familiar scent. This hill was alive, and not with the sound of music.


Xiembantointh felt weight on him and it slowly crept into his dreamless slumber, but it was the scent of an animal that caught him off guard as she ended up standing right over his nostrils, which did not help. Then he felt it… the hunger and two azure blue eyes flick open, but disappoint fills him as he realizes that this person is not a snack for he doesn't eat people. “Dooo you miiiind?” A low voice barely muffled by the snow booms from under the feline’s feet and he groans. As soon as she backs away, he stirs and groans some more, “ohhh….” clumps of snow fall away from the top of the dragon, but it still didn’t help to tell the difference between snow or dragon, “I’mmm soooo hungryyy.” His malicious voice almost makes the stuff cool air of Frostmaw seem even more so and his large head reels around to see the moon. After gathering himself on all fours and flicking his wings free of snow angels and the snowman, but he turns his head a bit so he’s able to fully look at the feline before him and sniff the air, “what. Aaaare you?” His head lowers down to get a closer look and waits for the usual ‘ohhh no, a white dragon those are evil!’ reaction. Suddenly his head shifts back and he sharply inhales before a flick of his mane with a loud, “aaahoo!!” In his sneeze, he was able to just barely miss the frost breath crystallizing the snow next to the feline, leaving a trail of spiky ice… “excuse meee.” His dark and deep voice as a dragon is slow and almost syrupy.


Zahrani feels the snow move beneath her feet, quickly realizing that the creature's form extends beyond the hill. Quickly backing to a safer distance while uttering an "Oh, pardon me..." she stands in awe at the white dragon bringing himself to his feet. No cries of fear or disgust would escape the paladin's lips. She knew what it was like to be pre-judged for her birth. ~Oh, no. A feline. Please don't rob me!~ was a sentiment she had heard more than once in her life. That, or she'd sometimes get asked where to get ~the good stuff~, as if she knew where the nearest "dealer" was. Nope: this paladin would not cast judgment upon Xiem for his opalescent scaly hide. Instead, a smile of wonder would form upon the cat's face. She instinctively side-steps upon seeing the dragon sneeze, the ice spikes missing her by a few inches. In response to the awakening male's question. "I'm...a feline. And you...you are beautiful..." That last bit sort of slips out. It's not often that she gets to see a dragon awaken from hibernation. The last one she befriended was a red-black hybrid.


Xiembantointh is pleasantly surprised to not be scaring the creature off so fast, “feeeline.” Must be new, “what. Pray teeeell, is your naaame?” He started to stretch his legs and prowl around the snow a little, but it was surprising that his size didn’t cause the ground to shake a little. “I aaaam Xiembantointh the whiite,” unimpressively introducing himself so she may reply in kind and his head flicks away as if her compliment hit his ears wrong, “thaaank youuu.” Just as he said that a loud muffled rumbling sound came from the dragons stomach and he looked around as if there would be even a small bunny he could eat, but realized were he was and how much it had changed, “hmmm…. Frostmaaaw. Whooo is the kiiing?” He just now wonders how long he had been asleep and how different the world will be from the time he remembers. He gives one last stretch and his wings reach their limits, which block out the moon and the stars with his size, but he feels another sneeze coming on and flicks his head away from the feline again. Wait… a feline… he’s allergic to cats, just his luck to be woken up by something he’s allergic to. This is more manageable in his human form though and he quickly started to shrink down, down, down, into a fully clothed middle aged looking human man with a beard and bun tied low at the nape of his head. The gentleman looked under-dressed to be in such a below freezing climate, but he appeared to be comfortable.


Zahrani maintains her balance as the ground shifts with the dragon's movements. His name reaches her panther ears, and the paladin provides a polite nod, "My name is Zahrani. I am a paladin of Cyris." Lithrydel's neutral good deity, and the God of Freedom and Independence. Zahrani's voice is a mid-tenor, with a characteristic feline roughness and accent to it. A look of concern is in her eyes as she notices Xiem attempting to stifle another sneeze, staring as he transforms into a humanoid form. Amber light plays across her athletic physique as she follows suit, transforming into an elf-like being with black fur on her pointed ears. She lowers her cowl to reveal a head of long black dreadlocked hair. Her skin is a warm, dark brown, contrasting sharply with her piercing blue gaze Her nose and lips slightly wider and fuller than the average Lithrydelian. She has one of those 'heartbreaker looks,' an androgynous face that turns heads from every gender. Her voice still has her feline accent, but it is smoother in her current form. "Frostmaw's current sovereign is Queen Hildegarde, the Silver."


Xiembantointh watches her transformation manifest, his own humanoid form not nearly as impressive, but he has a kind soft smile and a distant twinkle in his eye. In spite of the reason he went into hibernation, he puts not a warm and happy facade because people ask less questions that way. His human voice is a lot less laborious sounding and a little raspy in its bass, “thank you for the information, Zahrani.” He holds out a hand to offer a firm handshake before he uses that same hand to rub over his abdomen once the pleasantry was over, “ugh… I may have went too long in hibernation.” He looks over his shoulder to the deep indentation his form left in the snow as his charcoal gaze hitches on something the untrained eye would miss. After trotting over and picking a few things up, he explains, “my scales. They will at least buy me a feast and a few weeks at the inn.” He doesn’t seem to let his gaze linger from her eyes and shoves the shed scales into the inside pocket of his casual winter jacket, “what are you doing way out here anyway? Other than disturbing people on their sleep,” he jokes.


Zahrani walks up to the man as he offers a hand to shake. She's just shy of 6 feet tall, but she maintains a calm gaze upward at the man's plain face. She thinks that he carries himself well for a starving old dragon, and he's not exactly 'hard on the eyes.' Alas, she keeps such thoughts to herself as she extends a hand from her cloak. Her grip is warm and strong, with some callouses earned in the wielding of mace, sword, and bow. A wry grin forms on the paladin's face at Xiem's question, "My duties have taken me into many crowded places. I'm out here because the quiet helps me meditate and think. I didn't expect to step on a sleeping dragon...again." After he gathers scales to spend at the tavern, the panther offers, "If you allow it, I would accompany you to the inn." She would ensure that he would get their safely while he is drained and relatively vulnerable, but there is something about the man's aura and stance that she finds interesting. Hers is a sharp mind, but like a sponge, she is always eager to absorb new information.


Xiembantointh considers her words and nods, “yeah, it’s quieter where there is snow because it absorbs the sound. Some parts of the mountains feel as though time stopped completely,” a brow raises at her admittance of ‘again’ and he let out a mirthful chuckle that might be contagious, “you are a menace, Zahrani!” He starts his way towards where the tavern is, or he thinks until he realizes that he only vaguely knows where he is. “I don’t see the harm in that, let’s go,” he motions for her to take the lead and offers up another kind smile right before they start their stroll. “So… I wonder how long I have been gone for,” he glances to her from time to time as their fall in sync and he keeps a respectable distance. “What is Lithrydel’s current events? Also, if it is easier to say - call me Xiem,” pronounced like Liam, but with a Z sound instead of an L sound. Along their travel, he looks all around while recognizing some things and trying to place others. It was odd to know you are home, but not really feel at home.


Zahrani nods at the dragon's offering of a shorter name, "Alright, Xiem." The panther extends a hand to 'Liam with a Z' as they walk. She seems to offer to hold his hand and guide him to the right place, but if he does not wish such contact with stranger, she withdraws the hand back into her cloak and leads on. She does her best to summarize recent events that she knew of. "Well, a shadowy being known as Kahran plots against the people of Lithrydel. The Kelay Forest is being cleansed of a dark stain left by the drow mage Tiphareth, and...there are witch hunts in Larket and Cenril." That last one makes the panther's expression sour. She is certainly a believer in her deity, but she is not pleased by the superstition and premature judgment cast upon witches for the suffering people have endured. "It seems like the work of good-hearted folks is never done." she puts a warm smile on her face when she turns back to the dragon, before reciting the current date and year in hopes that Xiem might know how long he's been out.


Xiembantointh glances down at her offered hand and considers that be a little odd, for he is not a child nor an old man that needs help across a busy road, but he also doesn’t mind closeness as long as the other person isn’t emitting too much heat. So, he does her one better and possibly less awkward by linking their elbows as if they are off to see the wizard, embarking on some wild adventure. “Hm, Kahran. Tiphareth and witches,” he pursed his lips slightly in thought. “Good-hearted? Are there still such a thing?” He chuckles again with that kind smile and twinkle in his eye as if his past is not the burden on his shoulders, but maybe this was a part of the man before it all went south and that’s the last thing he can cling to that was his; a good natured, warm and goofy man that looks for the light in others. His jaw went slack when she said the year and then he grimaced, “oof… seems I spent most of my very old lifespan asleep. No wonder my back hurts!” Another jovial laugh came from him that showed off every bit of his long perfect teeth, but of course he wasn’t in any pain because dragons are resilient.


Zahrani walks into the tavern with the taller man, taking in his words, his forced smile, his desire to be positive. The woman's gaze is calm, "Light has been getting hard to find, but people still find it in unlikely places." Despite the man's joviality, the paladin can't help but shake the feeling that she's linking arms with her own reflection. For reasons she can't yet explain, Duty and Loss are the themes in the back of her mind. Perhaps it is an effect of her own empathy, or perhaps it is where her meditation has taken her. She gestures to two seats at the bar, before asking, "So, what was Lithrydel like 200 years ago?"


Xiembantointh holds fast to their linked arms and steers her away from the bar, “nope! Let’s get a big table and just fill it with food. You hungry? Thirsty? It’s on me. Not everyday you clumsily wake up a grumpy very old white dragon,” it was hard for some of the patrons to not hear the words ‘white dragon’. Straight away a table cleared and he acted like he didn’t even notice it was because his boisterous announcement of what he is, but also - he does not care. “This table looks open,” he pulls out a chair for his new acquaintance and then plops down at the very table that just cleared out. When a waiter comes over to order, he wastes no time in saying, “two of every food item and I may need seconds. Also, whatever miss Zahrani wants,” he beams a big smile at them when they sort of looked at him sideways and then it was just him and Zahrani. “War. It was a lot of war and big important people claiming land that was not originally theirs, but that is why I just stayed out of it and fell in line with the side I believed to want good for this little corner of the world. My children have probably made more of a name for themselves then I ever have,” being in the background is where he always loved to be because he can leave at any moment without notice and become a hermit when he felt the need.


Zahrani sits down adjacent to Xiem and orders some tea and a steak dinner, cooked medium rare. Like any predator, the cat knows how to put away protein. Unlike the dragon, she is a much smaller predator and had also been consistently eating. She smiles in return to him, before teasing, "Don't strain yourself there, Xiem." At his description of what it was like in the past, she sighs and says, "I suppose some things never change." She thinks about her own training, her work thus far, and any exploits she was known for, "I've learned how to be whatever is needed in the moment. I can be on the front line or behind the scenes, providing support and healing." The panther offers a reassuring smile to the staff and patrons; even though the male next to her is a white dragon, no harm would them while she is here. She looks back to the dragon, taking in his beard, clothing, hairstyle, his facial features, even his scent. Zahrani then adds, "I often help take care of the children from the feline colony I grew up in, in Cenril's poorer area. What was it like for you, taking care of yours?"


Xiembantointh trailed his gaze to the table top as the conversation slips to his children and he had a soft bittersweet grin on his lips, but when he started talking again that twinkle in his eye was back and it is evident that his children are the ones that placed the twinkle there, “raising dragon children? The first one is always so easy and perfect. Viridi, she was a tomboy and very competitive, but stronger than I anticipated.” His warm smile came back and it was almost adorable the way he spoke of his children, with obvious pride, “then we had another girl, Cyniarth, but she was so different from Viridi. She always had to be the center of attention and quite vein, but when it came to boys,” he shook his head while chuckling. “They didn’t have a chance. She was too clever for all of them… Third kid - I finally got my boy! Xendereim, what a stubborn little prick and he always had a hair up his ass about something, anything!” Only for a second he got a little somber, “I love that kid and I know he’s out there doing things I probably won’t approve of, but -” his shoulders shrug up, “you gotta let your kids be who they are.” By now he raised his hand to count them on his fingers and he was at number four, “then we had Tyres and he was a riot. Right there with Cyni and helped her make ball gowns. He owns a chain of clothing stores, bought a big piece of land for him and his husband and two adopted kids to build their home on last I knew. I am so happy for him,” he found his chuckle again when he reached the last, “then we had one last kid, Yghyder. She was brilliant and daddy’s little girl… things in our home were always taken apart and tinkered with because her mind was just consistently going.” Their food finally arrived and he concludes, “oh - it was hectic raising dragon children for a good… hundred years or so.” Maybe that’s why he’s so goofy, some might think that alone probably drove the man mad.


Zahrani grins at the man's glowing description of his children. He sounds like he was a good dad, and his stories seem to remind her of some of the feline cubs in Cenril. "I can only imagine. I...don't have any kids of my own, but as I've said, I often find myself helping take care of them nonetheless." The woman graciously receives her dinner, thanking the staff before tucking into the meal. Looking back to her new acquaintance, she notices a missing character in this story. Dare she ask of the mother of his children? So soon after they met? Alas, she could wait another time. Instead she describes some of the feline children in their collective, "J'dar and J'nira are twin pumas; they have a knack for tinkering as well as dancing. D'zaeed and his little sister Almitra have cheetah markings. He writes the most moving poetry, and she likes to sing and illustrate. Amir turned 10 years old recently. The lad is a snow leopard feline, and he's showing a natural aptitude of frost magic. Raahin, one of our tiger lasses, is also 10. She's one of my apprentices in the colony. She's looking to become a paladin as well."


Xiembantointh nods a couple times while enthralled by her adorable stories she was sharing, “that’s commendable work you do. I apologize in advance for I am about to get quite messy, but I promise,” he starts as he tucks a napkin in the collar of his navy blue button up shirt and takes off his coat, “I am usually well mannered when it comes to eating around other people.” He chuckles again with that warm smile before he… yeah… really dug into his food with a quickness, the man must have been starving! Now that he has his coat off, the strain in some areas of the shirt are obvious of a toned body, but honestly - if a dragon can shift into a humanoid form, would they not make sure they look perfect? Easily washing large bites down with some Frostbite beer, but never once was he chewing with his mouth open - that was just ignorantly bad table manners. It all happened so fast and the food was gone before he relaxes back into his chair while rubbing his stomach, “wuuu…” He takes a deep breath, “back to your point on your duties of being a paladin and the talk of duty. I am just a retired old dragon and I think for a while I will just stay in the background, but I feel I could help in other ways - a way where I do not have to choose sides. I will help people rebuild because it seems there has been a lot of destruction recently.” He won't give it away, but he has great hearing and listened to other patron’s conversations as he ate.


Zahrani nods in understanding, not batting an eye at how fast the man eats. She listens to the dragon's desire to help pick up the pieces with everything that's happened. A warm smile spreads on her face, "I'm sure the people of Lithrydel would be grateful for your help in rebuilding." The panther then looks up at the nearby clock, before stifling a yawn of her own and saying, "I apologize, but I'm afraid I must retire for the evening." She provides a bit of coin to tip the waiting staff, before saying, "I'll be upstairs in room 2 if you need anything." She stands up, placing a warm hand on the man's should before bidding him good night.


Xiembentonith gives her one last warm smile, “had a good night Zahrani. I’ll be around here somewhere,” he shrugs and makes his way over to the bar when she leaves to have some more of that ale.