The crowd was loud in its hushed, murmuring ways, loud in the way the bodies pushed together, loud in the way everyone seemed so goddamn eager to shove each other aside to get close to the dragons or to escape them. Sedna was immediately glad he'd never entrapped himself in the throng of the crowd, sticking to the edges and walking when he needed.

He'd never particularly enjoyed crowds, and the dislike had only grown as he'd gotten older. He'd spent too much of his time in small groups or by himself to really adapt to large crowds, and even being on the edge of one lef thim feeling uneasy and flighty. No pun intended.

Walking along the edge of the crowd, Sedna peered into it, wondering, briefly, if he would have the misfortune of running into anyone from his small fishing village. He hadn't travelled with anyone, and most of the teens his age in the village were just annoying. There was heartbeat where he thought he saw someone he recognized, but no, it couldn't be. He couldn't be seeing Kenji after all these years.

He'd been about to go and see if it was his old friend before he glanced up and saw a massive, scarred, unnervingly-eyed, dark dragon walking in the direction of maybe-Kenji and his apparent new friends and had a prompt thought of: Nope. Fuck that. thought, turning on his heel. Hey, if he didn't get confirmation of it being Kenji, then he could delude himself into thinking his old friend was still alive and not in the stomach of some beastly lizard.

Desmodus Draculae

Male Dark Dragon || Rider: Arya || M: (Dir) Arya. (Ind) Rhydor. Beollan.

~

Desmodus continued to sit there and just stare around at nothing. He was utterly exhausted by this, when would it end? His wings ached an pained from that insanely useless flight he had to do, all because humans wanted to stare at him. He flew for over three hours, seeing nothing but forest that whole time, and the one time he sees something else, it's a plains full of humans. These mongrels should be screeched at. He let out a small screech before trying to do a louder one.

Desmodus prepared to screech even louder this time, but then he saw a human staring straight at him. Her eyes were locked on him and practically glowing in amazement. But this time, instead of getting angry, he locked his crimson gaze onto her, staring back at her with narrowed eyes. Then, he began to silently look her up and down, only moving his eyes. It didn't look like she was carrying any weapons, so she probably didn't pose a threat to him. In fact, if she decided to attack, he would definitely eat her in one bite.

Then, Desmodus' gaze turned to her brother, who was not impressed by him at all. In fact, he had a blank expression on his face, and it looked more like he was staring into the distance at something other than the dragons. His head swiveled around to see what he could possibly be looking at, but it didn't seem like there was anything. Hm. Maybe he's just great at hiding that stuff? He decided that human, was someone possibly dangerous.

Then, Desmodus looked back towards the other human, preparing to approach. Well, then a giant storm dragon shoved himself into the crowd, blocking him from reaching to human. He bared his teeth in a snarl at the other dragon when he was away now before turning back to look at the human. He began to cautiously step forward, curiosity clear in his facial expression. But then, a loud screech startled him and he jumped back to his original spot before turning to look. A giant fire dragon, obviously making their stereotype that they're always grumpy seem true. Because he didn't just look grumpy, he looked enraged.

Desmodus let out a small sigh, hoping for no interruptions this time. Then, he began to creep forward towards the human, his crimson red eyes gleaming with curiosity. It felt like the giant tug in his chest was pulling towards her, like a chain between the two keeping them linked. Every step took a few seconds as he was exhibiting caution. But with every step it felt like something was cheering him on, causing him to make another step, and another, and another, until he was right in front of her. He gently leaned his head down to her height, staring at her with his menacing crimson eyes. His wing claws inched forward until they tapped her shoes. Then, he hissed in a deep, menacing tone, "You. What is your name?"

Kuwaka

Female Fire Dragon || Rider: Ixora || M: (Dir) None. (Ind) Ixora.

~

Kuwaka tore another chunk of meat out, barely chewing it up before swallowing. Ever since she'd bonded with Ixora a couple years ago, she loved cooked things better than raw. Raw carrots are pretty good though. I absolutely despise kiwi though. Yucky! She licked her lips instinctively even though everyone knew there was no need to, she just really loved the tasty buffalo meat. She leaned down and grabbed another chunk out and swallowed it whole, causing her to cough a bit. Then, she grabbed another chunk and chewed this time before swallowing.

Then, the dragon heard her rider begin to speak. "Alright. Cool. See ya when you're done debating that." She chuckled in there connection before pausing and growling another sentence, "Also, I saved you a chunk of buffalo. Don't worry, I cooked it this time." She let out purr in amusement before returning to her meal.

Kuwaka started eating again, slowly ripping out one chunk after another and swallowing. Turns out it didn't get cooked every well inside, which meant she'd have to cook it more. Taking her paws and lifting them back over the buffalo, she sprayed a ton of fire out and began to roast the meat inside again, watching as a violent flame burned the buffalo. Then, she blew it out again and inspected the inside, cutting a slit in it to help her look inside, and she decided that it was cooked enough now.

Then, the dragon leaned back down and began to rip out more chunks, chewing them and swallowing. The next chunk she grabbed had another bone, so it made a chilling crack sound when she chomped it into tiny pieces before swallowing it. Bones would never hurt her to swallow, in fact, they tasted great. They just added crunch to the meat, and they were so awesome to crunch. They always snapped so easily, it was kind of satisfying for her. Although, she was incredibly bored waiting for Ixora, and was beginning to get inpatient as she just sat there, waiting for her dear friend to come and hang out.

A darkly colored female watched the crowd from afar. Content to stay in the shadows and linger - she wasn't that keen on getting a human that she would rush in just to find said human. She exhaled a soft breath, plus the time of day was already irritating her nerves, and she couldn't help but feel miserable. Even though the sun didn't affect her as much, it felt like her energy was being quite literally, drained. And she hated it, couldn't such a ceremony been accomplished at dusk? Her pale eyes looked over the measly lumps of flesh, known as humans. Such fragile, fragile creatures they were - she could only hoped her human wasn't as fragile as most of them. There was something that began to call her, it was pulling to her - an invisible force, and she gave an annoyed grumble at this. It seemed that her human had arrived and it was time to go find them, and stop lingering around the forest. She gave a soft hum as she slowly rose from her spot, and then made her way to the gathering of humans. She held her posture upright and neat - and she noted how some humans scampered out of her way. Good, they should be afraid of her, she silently thought. That's when the pull towards her human grew stronger - and she tilted her head, and scanned below to see what human had the pleasure of being her Rider.

But she then turned to look down at her human, a rather unusually curious expression on her face as she looked at her human. And she could feel a ache as the bond between then was established, and she nosed the human teasingly and gave a small approving whistle-like click. You're quite small compared to me, she said amused, an almost purring tone coming through their link, because of the difference in size, because how could a small girl be paired with such a tall dragon like me? Your eyes are very pretty, they're like precious emeralds. And oh my, you have freckles, her voice pratically cooing. She had never been so interested or kind to humans, but this one, this one seemed different - and she didn't know yet if that was a good or bad thing.

Claire's back was pressed against the stand's walls where the audience behind her was sitting, the crowd roaring with excitement as they noticed the dragons and the new riders. Her arms and legs crossed together, she examined the events before her with her good eye. Her face was unmoving, expressing neither positive nor negative emotions as she watched. Claire didn't approach the new riders, as most of their faces were unfamiliar to her, and the fact that she disliked pointless conversation. No one in the crowd acknowledged her either, which was a good thing in Claire's mind. Still, a part of her couldn't help but feel lonely of the constant isolation, wishing to partake in conversations and laugh so freely over terrible jokes. However, her disgust and self-loathing overpowers such a thing, making her feel undeserving of such things. She was disgusted, yet it was not towards others but towards herself.

She admits she's snippy and cold, acting so crudely to people who don't deserve her ire. Socializing was never her thing, or maybe...she wasn't taught how, or perhaps, she was too much of a chicken to make mistakes in front of others. Afraid of what they view of her if a single slip-up was made. The thought alone made her stomach churn with anxiety, her body tensing up as discomfort crashed into her like a choking grasp. When the wind blew at her face, pushing her bang away from the scarred side of her face, Claire felt her heart stop beating and her temperature drop to become colder than Winter itself. Instinctively, she grabbed her bangs and pulled them back over to that side of her face, using her hand to hold them in place until the wind settled down. Her hand shook when she wasn't in control of her senses as fear ran rampant into her mind, and the vision in her good eye was going hazy. Claire's back was stabbed by judgemental glares from the people around her, feeling their repulsed gaze on her as they mocked her secretly.

Ghostly hands caressed her body as they steadily crept up to the maim side of her face, hearing whispers of demands and fake concern to let them see it. The looming shadowy figures of people crowd her, taking away the oxygen as they close the distance by the second. Behind such sibilates were the insulting laughter of the people in her past intruding on her eardrums. She was stuck in a woken nightmare as her past haunted her. She was locked into place as if Medusa had turned her into a cold, unbreakable stone. Claire couldn't concentrate as her senses weren't in reality but in the suppressed memories in her mind.

Only for her fake reality to be shattered when she felt a warm, gentle hand pressed onto hers as it lightly gripped her wrist while her body was embraced by more heat as she was pulled into a small hug.

Claire's nose twitched as it was greeted by a familiar, rich scent that returned her sense of smell that was overwhelming for a few seconds before she adapted to it. "My little hummingbird," a honeyed voice seeped its way into her eardrums, eradicating the ghastly whispers as a hand stroke her head in a maternal manner. "Are you having visions again?" The voice spoke again as the world around Claire materialized again, the young woman free from the purgatory she was in seconds prior. When her vision arrived, the young woman turned her head to the source of it all. Her eye gazed into ones of magnetizing sapphire, only for her focus to dart down to the woman's lips as she smiled warmly.

"Claire, my hummingbird, look into my eyes, yes?" The young woman's lips moved as it teasingly messed with Claire, but Claire's attention was on the moving lips. Her chin was greeted with a soft grip as tender fingers grazed her skin. An electric feeling sparked within her body from the touch alone as any negative thoughts were erased, and she felt a sense of tranquility when she stared into the other's hypnotic gaze once more. "Answer me, hummingbird. Are you feeling alright?" Claire was quiet when the other asked her such a question, the heat in her body increasing as she felt embarrassed for being so weak in front of another.

Claire hastily pulled away when her cheeks turned a light pink and adjusted her hair to cover the scarred half of her face. "I'm doing fine. I was thinking about something which you shouldn't concern yourself about," She dismissively spoke with the other woman and used her hand to shoo her away, but something else came into mind, which made Claire curious. "Olympia," She started with a puzzled tone, "what are you doing here? I thought you said that you would be leaving today." The woman named Olympia brushed her black hair behind her hair. The gold and sapphire jewelry spun slowly when she tilted her head. "I came here to see my favorite little hummingbird spread her wings," Her lips pulled into an inviting smile, silently ordering Claire to speak more with her, to which Claire did and replied nonchalantly to hide that she was flattered. Her heart races each time Olympia addresses her as her hummingbird, "I see. What would your parents think about delaying the trip?"