Samanayrs

((This is for Mr Fluffagrump here and oak's Trickster to...er...figure out who gets to keep some shinies as far as I can tell. We'll see where it goes. He needs to get out more, but dealing with more than one stranger at a time would probably freak him out and send him into some strange combination of panicked flight and fury...

This...is probably a bit long and rambling to set up Misery's evening.))
A cool mountain breeze, carrying the promise of more snow with it, twirled through the narrow opening of a cave, ruffling through the pages of the books propped open on the floor, dancing among the scattered crystals, and finally reaching to the darkest corner to tangle in the thick fur of the sleeping occupant. One green eye slitted open for a moment before the drowsing Misery buried his head once more under his fluffy tail. His attempts at returning to slumber were short lived however. While the wind seldom blew at the right angle to worm its way this deep into his home and swiftly faded away, there was nothing he could do to keep a certain young dragonet out.

Not long at all after the Misery's head had vanished into his thick fluff, another fluffy creature trotted into the dark cave, licking his lips happily after an evening's meal. Upon spotting the still sleeping Misery, a puddle of white fur against the deep grey stone, he gave a happy little chirp. Slinking forwards he crouched, twin tails wiggling with glee as he prepared to pounce. Misery's eye reappeared over his tail fluff, glaring, but the dragonet only grinned and lunged.

What followed was a complicated tangle of silver and copper fur as Misery tried to avoid Copper's playful attack, and Copper tried to scrabble up onto Misery's back to groom his ears and wake him up. It ended with Misery back on his side trying to shove his companion back off as Copper determinedly tried to wash his ears, and face as well for good measure, caroling happy greetings.

Sleepy sleepy, sun gone down. Night time, food time, out out out! Up up time now! No more sleeps!

With a grimace, Misery finally managed to shove the ball of fluff off of him and roll to his feet, using his tail to further push the overenthusiastic dragonet out of slobbering range. With one hand-like front paw he wiped his face off, scowling at the damp mess Copper had made of his fur. "It's winter you fool beast," he snapped, hunting up a scrap of cloth one of his books had come wrapped in and using it to further clean his fur. "There is no good reason to go out this early. Just because the sun is down hours earlier does not mean that I want to get up hours earlier."

Still grumbling, he dropped the scrap of cloth back into the pile of odds and ends he'd pulled it out of and stalked over to drink from the cold spring that ran through the small system of caves he had claimed as his own. No point in trying to go back to sleep, no matter what he'd said. The dragonet would only keep him awake. For a moment he eyed the steaming warm one further in, then decided that a bath would feel better after he had returned. He could warm up that way, and perhaps examine the etched stone he had traded for a few weeks ago. Water wouldn't hurt the stone the way it would a book. With a spine-popping stretch and a sigh he began picking his way to the well hidden cave entrance. Large ears lifted up, listening carefully to the echoes to help him avoid running into the walls in the poorly lit passage. Behind him he could hear the steady tap-tap-tap of Copper's claws on the stone as the dragonet cheerfully followed after him. Not for the first time he thought that the little beast must have better night vision than even the great owls that haunted the forest below, for Copper never seemed to misstep, no matter how dark the tunnel might be.

Finally the howl of the wind filled his ears and Misery flattened them back down alongside the thick, bushy crest of mane running down his neck. Lifting his head slightly he sniffed the breeze before finishing his approach to the outside. Cold, hints of ice, the promise of snow to come, but not likely to appear before dawn. Perfect. He planned to be back well before sunrise. He had grown too accustomed to dimly lit places in his youth. The day's light made his eyes ache and worsened his already irritable temper. With all the snow already on the ground this moonlit night was more than bright enough as far as he was concerned. But it did have the advantage of hiding his silvery white coat. In the warmer months he stood out bright and clear against the darkness of the mountain stone and the green-gold of the forest meadows.

With one final sniff and wary look around Misery slunk out of his cave. He expected...hoped anyways, that the chill and snow would keep travelers from these mountains, but it never did to let down your guard. Too many of those travelers, on seeing him, were prone to raising a huge fuss of one sort or another. More than one had tried to kill him for no reason that he could see, leading him to set noise traps on several of the surrounding trails to warn him of an attempted approach. Seeing and hearing no one for the moment he headed for a half frozen stream running down the side of the mountain. If he was lucky there might be some fish or snakes hibernating in reach. If not...at least the still moving water meant that he'd have less digging to do to find a bit of tasteless grass or bitter leaf to fill his stomach.

Copper frolicked along behind, darting off to chase snow swirls and figments of his imagination now and again. Misery ignored him, padding swiftly along as he planned his night. A bite to eat, then perhaps he'd go to his favorite lookout perch and see if there were any signs of traders or trespassers...the night was clear still other than some clouds on the horizon, so he could watch the stars for awhile before the moon rose too high and muted them...maybe go investigate that intriguing vein of opal he thought he'd felt just before the last storm before heading home to his warm spring? Yes, that sounded like a pleasant evening. So why did he feel so edgy?

((Oak, feel free to have Trickster find him at any point in the night, he'll be out and about for most of it.))

Sunset was a steel gray light fading away into darkness, as the sky was a solid mass of clouds that seemed to get heavier as the evening wore on. No citrine and ruby jewel tones tonight to light the end of the day, only a steady march from grey to greyer. It would almost be an extremely depressing evening if it weren't for the adventure of it all.

Trickster had decided days ago that she had never really been to the mountains, and that simply mustn't do. To remedy this she'd just flapped up above the treeline of the forest she'd been in and headed toward the horizon with the line of stone along it, trusting to serendipity to take care of mundane needs. Fascinatingly enough, after flapping her wings for an entire day the line of stone hadn't seemed to get any closer. Nor did it seem to the next day.

Sticking to the route out of sheer stubbornness, Trickster finally began to make headway after several days' travel until she'd reached the foothills of this range just yesterday. Taking the day to explore, she'd poked her head into all manner of little hidey-holes and flown partly up one of the peaks as the day grew cloudy and began to get late. Now it seemed as if it might snow sometime soon, or at least by the next day and she was beginning to think about... inspecting just a few more 'mountain-y' things before finding a place to hole up.

The annoying thing about snow and cold was that it made some kinds of food much harder to get hold of. Before continuing her last leg of exploration, Trickster had decided to try and grab something to nibble on, and headed for a small cluster of trees on the lower slopes of the peak she'd spent the most time investigating. Knocking along the surface of the bark with the blunt top edges of her talons, she tried to work out where there were tiny hollow areas in the phloem where bugs had burrowed. Finding two or three promising places, she excitedly wedged her talons into the little crevices and tugged, only to be disappointed when the patch was long robbed of it's little treats or the frozen bark refused to give way. Irritated, Trickster gave the trees a dirty look and turned up her tail at it as she flapped away. Obviously she wasn't actually hungry anyway. Not even a little bit. So there.

To prove how very unnecessary looking for bugs even was, she began looking at the rock the mountain itself was made out of. The stuff closest to the trees seemed to be dark and just a little bit grainy and rough. It wasn't shiny or glittery or even particularly interesting so she started working her way up the mountain, pausing in places where the wind had kept the rock mostly clean and it only required a light brushing to clean off the snow. Here was a place where the rock seemed crumbly and tan, there it was dark and rough again, and then up a bit farther was a wide section that seemed to be white, black, and tiny red minerals all grown together in coarse grains. The white bits looked almost like little crystals, so she kept a piece of that stone to see if it could be made into a charm or beads somehow later.

By this point the sun was pretty much below the horizon, although Trickster's belly had decided that it may have wanted those bugs after all. Hearing a very faint sound of water, she decided to see if she might have better luck with fish. She did have some dried berries and a bit of nutritious lichen stashed away in a pouch for emergencies but that would be so... icky. So, toward the sound of water she went, on foot in case anything tasty should happen to pop up out of the snow.

((I think I'll leave it here. I'm betting Misery is more aware of his surroundings and what would be out of place on his mountain than one very silly bird on holiday. I was thinking he could either find her at the stream or when he's looking for trespassers? Up to you :3 ))

((*chuckles* So very different these two are... By the way, did you have any particular type of stone in mind for what Trickster picked up? Just in case it comes out again later...Misery probably would know it on sight, and from the description I'd guess quartz in granite, but if you had something else in mind for it to be let me know and he can agree with you should it come up.))

The longer a night went without encountering anyone else, the more confident Misery tended to get. Dusk and dawn were the worst times as many Samanayrs were still active or already up, but once it was fully dark outside most of them seemed to prefer settling down and not moving anymore. Sometimes that was quite the pain for him as they often chose his fishing spots to camp, but in the winter they tended to prefer the more sheltered streams down in the forest. And with the looming snow tonight bringing full darkness early it didn't take him long this night to relax a fraction and step out at a more normal pace instead of slinking along with his belly to the rock.

As he drew nearer to the stream though he began to slow again, then finally stop completely. Crouching down he sniffed at the stony path, then ran one paw gently over the surface. Rumbling unhappily in the back of his throat he crept forwards again, nose still to the stone. Here and there on the familiar surface were faint scratches unlike his or Copper's short claws would leave. There, wedged into a crack on the mountain side was a fluffy white down feather. Lingering in the blustery mountain air was a most unwelcomed scent. "Who in their right mind comes up here at this time of the year?" he grumbled under his breath, ignoring the fact that he himself lived up there year round.

Following the scant scent traces for a bit only confirmed his gloomy suspicions that he was following the trespasser to the stream. He only followed the trail a short distance further before sitting down and glaring down the path grumpily. Now what? He could charge in like a hot headed stallion defending his stream and hope to drive them off. But they might not actually be as alone as the trail made it seem. He could turn back and just spend the night in his cave hoping for fish there. But a storm might trap him there for quite some time and he wanted to roam his mountains one last night before the next one struck. He could climb the mountain up to the next level of path and strike out for the stream there. But past snows had iced over some of his grips, and...well...it was his trail. He knew that. Pity no one else did.

In the end he slunk forwards, belly down, body tense, trusting to the dark and the season to make others think him a snowdrift, his mane a rusty vein of stone against the grey granite of the mountain. The splashing sound of the water ahead helped to mask the soft scratch of claws on stone, but unfortunately that worked both ways as it was also preventing him from hearing just where the stranger was. Ahead he kept thinking he saw something red flicker. But if something was there, it was just as camouflaged by the winter mountains as he was, possibly more.

It was when he dared to lift his head in hopes of a better glimpse that Misery saw something that made him grind his teeth and almost call out. Scrambling and sliding down from the higher path was that dragonet, who had clearly spotted...something, or perhaps someone and was delightedly heading towards them. Freezing in place, Misery hunkered down, hissing futilely after his companion in attempt to stop him.

With the swirling winds it was impossible to say if the dragonet ever heard, or if he simply chose to ignore the attempts to call him back to Misery's side. He had spotted the Lamanayr on the path and he was delighted. Once he had reached the path the two Sams were on he yipped happily and took of. Headed for Trickster. A cheerful mental voice called out to all around, Hi hi! You new here? Snow-night-stone colors good! Like those! Further down the path, and he hoped out of sight when the stranger turned to see who was talking, Misery fought the urge to cover his face with one paw. Why? Why did he have to be burdened with such a...friendly creature?

((Thanks much for being patient! It is granite, I think I was picturing a quartz-garnet-amphibole matrix...))

The wind kicked up the low drifts on the mountainside into small spirals of glittering white flakes, slowly gaining momentum as the distant fronts began to converge on the area. Trickster delighted in the show, bunny-hopping from one pocket of snow to another for short stretches of the trot toward the stream. Once there, the water burbling over the rocks echoed a faint growling in her stomach, as she found a nice place to perch on the bank.

Trickster crouched down on the bank, carefully reaching her neck forward and keeping her head low, to reduce the chance some swimming creature would see her stalking it. There were some sort of fish or eels down there; she could see their slick, plump bodies pass as dark shapes under the surface, but with the sun below the edge of the mountain it was impossible to make them out.

Gathering herself for a lunge at the fish, Trickster wiggled her rear end like a cat getting ready to pounce. Waiting... waiting... There! Trickster lunged, talons first, headed into the stream after a particularly large shape passed below the surface only to feel her claws skittering along the surface of an almost invisibly clear sheet of ice. Scrabbling quickly to try and keep her balance on the bank, Trickster managed to plunge both "hands" wrist-deep in the icy water, long after the fish had escaped.

Oh! Icky-nasty wet and not even a meal to make up for it! NOT fair!

Shaking her talons to try and get as much water out as possible before it turned to ice, Trickster sat up. Really, she was backed away from the water attempting to wring the water from her fur (well... more like thrashing and flailing with the offended appendages...) when there was a tickling feeling in her... head?

All at once a rather chipper voice burst into her mind and began calling greetings to her. It felt similar the sort of low buzz she got when Pebble, the little blue dragonet she'd rescued, gave her one of it's looks, and made her wonder if it had been trying to talk to her all along. She'd left Pebble at home, though, and this voice was much better developed.

Startled, Trickster jerked around, flapping to keep balanced, searching for the source of the happy chatter. Rock, rock, tree, water, rock...wait... shiny? A flash of coppery...there! Fur!

Barreling down the path she had just come from was a little furry critter who seemed to be the source of the voice. "Hello little one!" Trickster chirped at the creature. It did seem awfully friendly. "What byrings you out heyre? It's awfully chilly!"

Trickster grinned down at the dragonet, oblivious to the other watcher on the path. It was so... energetic! Fascinated, Trickster took a few steps forward to meet it, tentatively reaching out a set of talons. That fur was so shiny... it just seemed to call out for a nice preening...

((Not a problem. Life comes before RP, no question. *tucks stone info away for later, just in case))

Misery groaned to himself as a flurry of sound ahead indicated that the stranger had not by some chance gone out of Copper's range before the dragonet called out. The only good thing that came from the encounter was that the other apparently had wings, which they had just flailed. That, coupled with a twist of the ever-changing breeze brought a hint of scent to him. Lifting his nose slightly he sniffed. Mare. Well...that was good...and bad. Mares at least were less likely to attack on sight in his experience. A stallion would likely charge, a mare might just flee. But...mares also were noisier. And...they just...well... No, shut that line of thought down now. Worry about getting away from this situation that fool Copper had created. Perhaps the dragonet would create enough distraction that Misery could slink backwards, then turn and escape unnoticed. Or at least with enough of a head start to reach shelter before the flier got herself oriented. He lowered his belly even closer to the stone path, legs tense and ready to launch into motion at the slightest need. Ahead, he could see Copper, no longer moving, but rather dancing in place eagerly.

As a shadowed form came into sight the dragonet began bouncing as well as dancing, carroling out cheerful answers. Hi hi hi! Out for food, get out, not to go crazy in loooong winter times, not good t'be always in den! Fish, fish, gonna fish, tired of cave fish. Not cold, no no, not so cold. Gets much colder. Got nice fur t'stay warm in! Behind him, Misery ground his teeth slightly. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to teach the little furball better elocution; the beast insisted on almost a stream of consciousness form of expressing himself. But...now was not the time to let that frustration get to him. No, he needed to stay focused on this mare.

Slowly the mare approached Copper. She was hard to see, just as camouflaged by her colors as Misery himself was in this snow. Misery tensed, his prior experiences with his 'kind' flavoring his interpretation of her advance. The smile turned to a vicious sneer, the slowly extended talon to a falcon's deadly snatch. As the taloned foot reached out something in him snapped. Later on he'd never be able to explain to himself why he acted as he did, but a sudden surge of jealous, protective, possessive anger gripped him. With a shriek the stallion flung himself forwards, claws scritching on the stone. Copper turned, then scrabbled sideways as Misery shouldered by, shoving his lean body between the mare and the dragonet, turned slantwise across the path, and bared his teeth agressively, rumbling out a single, cold word. "Mine" His fur was so fluffed up that his back mane was all but lost, a simple rusty streak of fur down his back.

For a moment both stood frozen, then Copper ruined the pose Misery was projecting. With a happy yip the dragonet scrambled up onto Misery's back, braced his front paws on Misery's head in the slight hollows in front of the ears, and stuck his nose inquisitively out towards Trickster. While Misery was clearly trying to project fiercness to drive her away, Copper seemed completely and utterly delighted that his friend had come out of hiding. This my friend, he silly! was the dragonet's comment as he patted one paw happily on Misery's head. Silly, silly!

The fur on the little dragonet looked so silky, so soft... Trickster just itched to run her talons through it, preening it, and making it lay all orderly. Somehow while she thought this, her foot had lifted and reached out (all of it's own accord, the naughty thing!) and was about to do just that. The copper fur was blown gently in the breeze, mocking her with it's teasing impression of preening the fur. The little one was talking, keeping up a stream of information about fish and caves and mountains and snow... it really was amazing how fast information could be delivered mind-to-mind.

Deciding that, since she was already most of the way to the dragonet, she might as well pet the pretty little thing, she inched forward a little bit and reached out her paw just a bit farther. No sooner had she come in touching distance of the pretty little dragonet, when a feral snarl broke through the cheerful babble of the little one and an angry stallion seemed to suddenly appear between them. He was angry. She could see that, immediately. He seemed huge; like an angry avalanche with a red ridge, poised before her. His fur seemed to leap straight out from him in his anger, and he was... poised protectively in front of the little one?

"Oh no..." moaned Trickster, shrinking in shame, The little one is youyr shiny. I didn't know it belonged to anyone... bad mistake, chick mistake, taking shineys from the raptors."

Trickster's head tucked down and back while her wings came to the fore to shield her embarrassment from the white and rust stallion. Peeking between two primary feathers, she looked from the dragonet to the Misery while the one kept talking about something being silly and the other radiated waves of irritation. By the time the little one's speech was winding down and he patted the head of the stallion beneath him, Trickster was starting to uncoil from her ball of shame. Focusing on the dragonet as he stood proudly atop the Misery, Trickster started to get entranced by the jolly little fellow once again.

"It is a veyry nice shiny. That fuyr looks just like the float-coppyr that washes up on northeyrn beaches..." Snapping her focus back to the stallion she fired off several questions almost as fast as the dragonet had been speaking earlier, "Wheyre did you find youyr Shiny? How did you both get such nice fuyr? How do you get fish if it's icy?"

Head cocked comically and inquisitively to the side, Trickster lowered her wings a bit more with each question. Ending the final question most of the way back to her normal posture, it was punctuated by an audible growl from her belly. Yep. It was gonna be a lichen night for sure.

((Hope I'm doin' okay! First time I've done forum-style Rp. Takes a lot more thought than line-by-line IM-style rp!))

Misery's steaming breath rose up to wreath Copper's face as the stallion panted with the strength of the emotion raging within. Angry flickers of memory played back through his head in the split seconds that he and Trickster stood facing off, memories of pain and fury, burning feet and trembling earth, the sudden shrieks of pain from his enemy, a darkness rising within, the beast they named him... With a sharp geruff and a shake of his head that almost dislodged Copper, he banished the memories again. As Copper vocallized scolding chirps and yips the blazing hot rage cooled to a smoldering resentment once more as mismatched eyes snapped their focus back to the present and the cowering mare before him.

((You can't see his other eye in the picture, but it's amber, just for the record.))

Slowly Misery's coat began to smooth back down, shrinking his apparent bulk by almost half, though it remained partially fluffed out against the cold. Coldly he regarded the trespasser, then snarled in annoyance at her babble. "I am not a bird," he rumbled, "and neither are you, mare." On his head the dragonet tilted his head curiously down at Trickster, then tapped Misery again. Copper shiny? What chick? What birdie? We have birdies for food-food? They not all gone for the winter? Not fish? Misery rolled an eye up at his companion and snorted, then snapped his attention fully back to Trickster as she began to emerge from behind the sheltering wings. From this distance he could better see the bold black patterns that stood starkly out against the white of the rest of her coat, making her blend into shadows, breaking up her shape.

The sudden flurry of questions she launched at him as she uncoiled to stand before him again took him quite aback. This was all out of balance with any other interaction he had ever had with any of the Kin. "I...er...wha-" His startled reaction cut off with an audible snap of teeth as he leaned back and glared, trying to recover his composure. When he spoke again his voice was nearly an octave lower than the rather light, breathy tones of his surprise, back to a low, clipped growl. "Just who do you think you are, charging into my home and making demands of me? Trying to catch me off guard? Just run away, or attack, or something already and get it over with! As he spoke though the growl rose into an almost petulant whine on the last sentance. He was annoyed, hungry, and he just wanted to get this confrontation over with so he could go eat.

Copper however didn't share Misery's feelings on the subject one bit. He slid back down Misery's shoulder and trotted up to sit at Trickster's feet and peer up at her. Copper shiny? That why mamma name Copper Copper? Why you think silly finds me? I finds him! He my silly friend! He need friend, Copper there!

"Copper. Hush," the stallion growled, stalking up to put himself nose to nose with Trickster, standing directly over the dragonet. He ignored the little nose poking him in the belly to make him move. "So," he demanded of Trickster, fully expecting that she would notice his now prominant back mane and revert to a more expected behavior pattern, ignoring the growling of both of their stomachs. This wouldn't be the first time he'd gone hungry.

((Doing fine! Never would have guessed it was your first time doing paragraph RP. And I think I'm starting to loose my rustiness with this fellow.))

The red and white stallion seemed angry again. From beneath the protective mantle of her primary feathers Trickster watched with fascination as the stranger thrashed, unsettling the little dragonet a bit. Slowly she lowered her wings, bit by bit, as curiosity won over the shame. By the time the dragonet responded to the rough handling, her wings were away from her head again, if not actually folded. Still reeling from the idea that the little copper fellow could talk, she almost missed the annoyed bark of the stallion telling her she wasn't a bird.

Why, what a thing to say! Snapping her head up to meet his gaze, she stretched out a wing for emphasis and replied slowly and evenly, "I have wings, I sleep in a tyree, and I eat beyrries, fish, and tasty little cyrawling bugs. What else could I possibly be?" Easing her expression from scorn to concern, she added, "Youy're fieyrce and pyrotective of youyr aeyrie, which makes you a yraptor but... What did you do with youyr wings? Oh! Did they melt off? Oyr maybe you teased the wyrong elemental and it took your wings as payment?! I know those stoyries!"

Sadly, the stallion didn't seem to want to share any fun or useful bits of information or stories. No how to get fishes, no legendary antics, just some really bad advice about either attacking or fleeing. Everyone knows you don't run from a bigger bird! Unless... he wanted to chase her down and eat her? But... why didn't he just attack when he had the height advantage? He must be a very silly raptor; that's probably how he lost his wings to begin with. Well, the only way to deal with a silly raptor is to tease them until they move on.

And then everything made sense.

The little dragonet was explaining everything! She had interpreted their relationship all wrong. It was the dragonet who was in charge, not the raptor/stallion! The dragonet (Copper) had found the stallion... somewhere... and taken control of him. A border guard? Now that made sense. She had entered Copper's territory and he had sent his guard-beast out to either drive her off or fight it out. She had rather painfully underestimated the power that must be contained in the little one.

She was ready for the next challenge when it came. "So." She replied evenly, "I am on a yrather long journy and only styrayed into youyr mastyrs's teyrritoyry for wateyr and food. I did not know Coppeyr claimed this ayrea." Bobbing her head respectfully to the cute/powerful ball of fluff she called up to him, "Would you mind if I stayed long enough to get some fish, fyriend? If you could show me how to get them, I would happily shayre them with you so you didn't have to get wet!"

Any number of arguments tumbled through Misery's head as the fool mare once more insisted that she must be a bird. She had four feet, no beak, she had fur for earth's sake! He couldn't see her tail from here, but he doubted it was feathered. He sneered at her and opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again with a snap and glared. Was arguing the point with a clearly crazy mare worth the effort? No. It would only encourage her to stay and try to convince him. Instead he lowered his head protectively over Copper and growled, "Fine. Be a bird for all I care. But I. Am. NOT. a bird." His tail lashed in annoyance at her assumption that he'd ever had wings. He was an Earth Misery for crying out loud! Earth-bound. No interest in flight.

As he glared at her, tail lashing, wondering if it was worth the power expenditure to try and scare her off with magic since she didn't seem inclined to leave otherwise, he could practically see the wheels turning in her confused mind. When light dawned in her eyes he crouched lower, not sure he wanted to hear what wild story she had made up to explain things this time.

When the mare mildly responded to his challenge with the craziest idea he'd never have imagined Misery's eyes went wide with shock. Under him Copper blinked bemusedly up at both of them, head tilted. A confused question of, Copper territory? was nearly drowned out by the BOOM of Misery's tail bands smacking into the stone of the path, the sound vastly amplified by the sudden surge of angry magic that sent cracks chasing their way through the ground away from the impact.

"I HAVE NO MASTER!" rang out the howl, half angered, half tortured by old memories. Memories of a kindly, absentminded old mage, warmth, books, the one time in his life he'd felt he belonged somewhere. Pebbles along the edge of the path trembled and danced as though in the aftershock of an earthquake. Every hair on Misery's body stood out as he reared up to his hind legs, clawed front paws flexing angrily as he bared his teeth at Trickster and hissed. "This is my territory."

Trickster was halfway through a polite bow to the small, but powerful dragonet when a thunderous BOOM boxed her ears. Oh. Maybe the stallion has the power after all.

While the world was still in that funny, fuzzy, far-away sort of place an idle corner of Trickster's mind registered with fascination that little cracks were spreading like lightning through the rock of the mountain underfoot. Just as time seemed to be returning to the proper speed and the world was returning to focus, a ragged howl came out of the red-and-white male, a tortured sound that almost matched the tail-slam for volume. Blinking and shaking her head to clear out the last effects of the compression wave, Trickster's hearing returned to near-normal levels just in time for the enraged stallion to rear up and hiss his challenge to her.

Okay. Angry stallion is really mad now. And big. Very big. Stuck my talons in this one, didn't I? It's not like she waltzed up to some strange, powerful, and antisocial samanayr's mountain, tried to eat his fish, and insulted him on what could possibly be his doorstep, right? Brilliant, bird. And you thought you were clever...! He really does have a right to be angry, Trickster thought as she crouched beneath the heat of his anger.

Glancing up at the furious male, Trickster thought through their short and very strange conversation and tried to think of anything that might salvage the situation. Not only did she really not want to be eaten by the raptor/stallion (definitely a raptor, not a border guard!) she felt a sharp stab of remorse. She was supposed to cheer samanayrs up, not enrage them! Some storyteller you'll make, silly thing. Too caught up by shineys to see you're plucking out of someone's packs.

Reparations were due, but in what form? He seemed to be... okay, not happy, but at least resigned until she acted like Copper was his master; that was the real issue. Giving something really nice would seem like she was trying to buy him off and might only fan his anger. She wanted to make amends, not flip him a payment and act like it was all better. What if it was nice, but carried a subtle joke? It would be a risk, but--Ah! Yes, perfect!

Glancing warily back up at the angry stallion again, taking care to look at the end of his muzzle and not make eye contact, she shakily leaned back until she could balance over her hindquarters. Eyes flicking from that point on his face down to the cracks radiating around him and back, she lifted her talons up in what she hoped was a non-threatening gesture. Lowering her head again, she stared into the stone around his feet. Slowly reaching her right foreleg around behind her wing she said in a somewhat shaky voice, "Alyright, yRock-Byreakeyr. Silly biyrd did not mean to offend you. I am veyry soyrry." She fiddled with one of the strings of shineys around her wing, causing them to rattle quietly. Locating what she'd been looking for, she quickly disengaged it from the string and brought it around in front of her.

"This is one of my favoyrite shineys, fyrom tidewatyer glacieyr at fayr-noyrth mountain." She said, setting the object on the rock between them. A polished nugget of copper, the size and shape of a small cluster of berries gleamed in the weak twilight. Brushing it with a quick talon, it rolled forward as she added, "You take it? Very soyrry. Veyry veyry soyrry."

The tribute presented as carefully and quickly as she could manage, Trickster snapped her hand back and flopped back onto all fours. Curling into a small ball, cowered in preparation for the reception of her gift.

((I have no good reason for the long delay in replying to this...I'm sorry. I just kept forgetting to post.))

For long moments the scritch of fur and metal against the stone path as Misery's tail whisked back and forth across it seemed to be the loudest sound in the world to ears still ringing with his own outburst. A red mist seemed to cloud his vision, alternately fading to show memories or the trembling mare before him in the present. If his emotional state hadn't all but locked him in place it was even odds if he would have lunged for her or thrown himself back down the path to find a less populated route to food, or perhaps all the way home to curl up and try to forget. Even Copper seemed somewhat cowed by the outburst, huddled against the mountainside and shaking his head until his ears flapped and staring wide eyed up at his friend. This wasn't the first time he'd seen Misery explode with temper, but it never got less startling.

Even while swishing over the path Misery's sturdy tail made a fine tripod, allowing him to remain rigidly reared up, a potentially deadly statue poised to fall at any moment while his rage burned itself down. He was cold, he was hungry, he was...yes, angry, but it swiftly cooled from a blazing deadly rage to a simmering fury. A magical tantrum like that, all unprepared to cast, drained him. Drained him more than he wanted to show, especially after so long on short rations due to not wanting to venture far from his cave. And so, as he came back to himself and awareness of the world around him returned, he locked his features in an expression of cold fury as he gazed down upon the strange mare.

Ears flat to the back of his neck he glared at her. His lips curled back slightly to show sharp teeth in warning as she raised one taloned foot, then dropped again as her eyes fastened firmly on the ground. Every inch of her posture screamed submission, but he still tensed and readied his reserves of power as she reached for her chains of trinkets, just in case some weapon was hiding there. Fool if she thought to attack him; garbed as she was in stone and metal it would be easy enough to turn her baubles against her if she tried. Wise enough to wear nothing around her neck he could choke her with, but it would still be hard to attack if all limbs were being squeezed by the strings of stone. At every clink and rattle of trinkets his long ears twitched, but he otherwise remained motionless, unable to bring himself to flee now. His curiosity insisted on knowing what she was doing. Curse that thirst for knowledge, especially when it roused for something so trivial.

As Copper slowly slunk back over to lean on Misery's leg and whine softly, the 'bird' found what she was looking for. Misery's nostrils flared, taking in the sharp scent of metal as the object rolled gently over to bump against his foot and settle, rocking slightly. Slowly he dropped down, one eye on her as one forefoot touched the ground and the other reached back towards the trinket. With a swish of his tail he batted it into motion, calling it to his hand as it started to veer towards the edge of the path. Lifting the object he swiveled one ear towards the mare as she explained what it was, then fastened most of his attention back on the chunk of copper, sparing a moment to rumble softly, "Copper, watch."

The dragonet looked wide eyed up at his friend, then sat down and stared intently at Trickster. As Misery continued to inspect the object, closing his eyes to sniff it, lick it, seem to listen to it, then simply roll it between his claws, the dragonet began to inch closer to the mare. No is rock breaker, no no. Is Broken Stone. You close close, very close though, is good guess. You know I is Copper. I no know who you is. Who is you. You no should worry much, he no never stay angry much long time. Is good shiny though, good good, he like things like that, yes he does. He no never been to glacier before I no think. Should be good pretty, no make happy, not seen any make him happy happy, but make better? Then we fish and sleep and...no know where you stay, not think he let in cave, but lots of trees down there?

Tuning out his dragonet companion's anxious prattle Misery examined the chunk of copper. From far away, yes, indeed it was. He had never seen the ocean, or a glacier, but the hint of local magics that still clung to this chunk of metal told the story well. He could still feel the icy touch of salt water in the 'memory' of the copper, hear the sound of the water through his magic. As he continued to turn it over he weighted his options. It didn't seem that he really had many. He couldn't really force her off the path and away and he had no particular desire to try and kill her. Too messy, too much energy needed, too much trouble. He'd never really liked the idea of killing anyways. Oh, fish and birds and such for food, certainly. But not someone you could have a conversation with, no matter how annoying they were. And she hadn't even tried to kill him. Actually...she was the first to ever offer...something in return for her trespass.

Lifting his head from the bauble as Copper's babbling began to become repetitive he narrowed his eyes at Trickster and said gruffly, "It will do." Looking her up and down he continued with a slight snear, "And I don't suppose you'll get very far in that state. I am going to fish. I suppose you might as well eat something too so you can be gone." As he stood staring at her, waiting for her to turn around and head back down the path to the stream so that he didn't have to squeeze past her on the relatively narrow path something else occurred to him. "But when you go you must swear to never tell anyone how to find me," he snapped.

((Um...yeah. He's not really very nice, but he tries to project an image that's nastier than he really is.))