JUMP IN: Dragons and Humans RP

Quetzal nodded, and the others followed Arcane and Ligach back to the fort. Their new friends looked up in awe at the fort walls, Quetzal briefly dropping her food and saying "We've never been this close to the fort. Is it true there's metal humans inside? And what about the statues? Is it true there's one for every organ?" 

The rest of the group settled down around Arcane. As they began eating, the new dogs were looking around curiously. After some silence of eating, one of the dogs said "This place is much more relaxed than the commons, though I suppose its cause almost everyone is asleep."

Quetzal sighed. "I just don't understand why anyone would want to mess this up. Or any settlement really. Humans are finally starting to open up more, and some old monster is going to ruin it again." She looked over as Ligach shook his head and barked "We won't let that happen. Our humans won't. I'm sure they have a plan or something." He glanced over as the pug, Mitz, spoke up with "A lot of others think that it's punishment for what the humans have been doing to dragons. The dragons here sure think so." But they probably didn't know that that thing could and would kill dragons too.

Mitz didn't look too convinced, but went back to eating rather than further the topic. Quetzal shrugged her shoulders a bit. "I trust them. Hopefully it's just that old monster we need to worry about." A civil war would be disastrous. As she thought it over, she yawned. Her gaping jaws and nostrils allowed her to catch the scent of... smoke? Soot maybe? "Do you smell that?"

Quetzal got up, looking around. It smelled close, but she didn't see any fires. Squinting, she noticed... something crawling over the fort walls. You couldn't tell what it was in the darkness, but you could see a foot disappearing over the edge. Ligach was the first to investigate, sniffing around. He noticed a lump in the darkness by the wall, and cautiously walked toward it.

Ligach sniffed at the lump as they neared it. When he was close enough to see it in the darkness, he felt his shoulders sag a little. The smokey smell was more clear to him now. Burned flesh. Quetzal hopped over and yelped when she saw it. The body was shriveled up and split in some areas from being burned, fur gone and legs held tight against its frame as if cowering, and lips receded to show now blackened teeth. A dog. Ligach looked up, trying to see if whatever had climbed the wall had stayed, but it was long gone. Leaving only the burnt corpse.

Ligach looked around. "I'm not sure, but I know they meant to leave it here." You could feel the warmth radiating from the body, meaning it was recent too. "Should we wait until morning to show anyone?" Mitz sniffed at the corpse, scrunched up nose twitching as he suggested "Maybe we alert them now? Whoever left it here is surely still in the city." Problem was that they didn't know who did it.

Ligach nodded in agreement with Arcane, and Quetzal looked a little disappointed as she said "Oh, well then we'll stay here. You two go on ahead." Ligach nodded again, motioning with a toss of his head for Arcane to follow as he ran to the door. The guards simply opened the doors for the two, and Ligach went straight for their humans' room.

Mysha grumbled at the noise, stirring and sitting up as she registered the barks. Getting dressed, she got out of bed and went to go open the door, looking down at Ligach and Arcane. Seeing their agitated state, she asked "What is it?" Ligach took a few steps away as if to say follow, and she looked back at Drake.

Mysha simply grabbed a spear she kept in their room before following the two dogs, making sure Drake was following too. The dogs led them outside, and she arched a brow as she looked around. And when they were led to the wall, her brows shot up at the sight of the burned dog. Waving over a nearby guard, she told him to find Rhayne so he could organize a search of the city. "How could no one have seen anything?" Either that, or one of their own was involved somehow.

Mysha growled. "That traitorius rat will pay if he's responsible for this. He knows just as well as anyone here how much we value dogs." When the guard showed up, Mysha opened her mouth to speak, but looked up when she heard a scream somewhere in the commons. There was the glow of orange just over the edge if the fort in that direction as well. Fire probably. "Go find Rhayne," she told the guard before whistling, calling Ma'ait to her. Motioning for Drake to follow, she said "Hopefully it's Ghio. That man is running on borrowed time at this point."

Mysha nodded at the mention of the dogs. "Yes. They've probably been waiting for a chance to protect this place." As the gate was opened for them, Mysha headed toward the noise, having heard screams and starting to smell smoke. She could see the lick of fire rising from the commons, and watched as Ligach ran ahead to investigate. She also noticed a small group of new dogs following too. Heading toward the chaos, she kept an eye out for the enemies, concluding that there were multiple to have chaos erupt so quickly. When she reached one of the burning houses, she already saw that some people had perished. Her eyes zeroed in on something though, hidden in the darkness. It lifted up a struggling child, brief flashes of dark skin shown by the fire. The poor kid squealed for help as the figure prepared to throw him into the flames of the burning home.

Mysha moved on, signaling for Ma'ait and Ligach to follow her. She left Drake and his companions to the creature, who gurgled and hissed in anger. Coming into the light, it looked to be human. However, its skin blackened, pulled taut and shriveled. Like a burnt crisp of a corpse just decided to get up and walk. Eyes burned to permanently squinted sockets, its head tilted before leaping at him wildly.

The creature didn't seem to register Drake speaking, just intent on trying to kill him. It was probably easily killed though, because it had no armor or the like. As it advanced on Drake though, you could see more shapes moving around, fighting with the locals or slipping off to who knew where.


Ma'ait had told her and Shard's hatchlings to stay put in the fort, and for once they all listened. Xandrite began to wonder if that had been a good idea though, her green eyes noticing dark shapes start to crawl over the walls, hissing and gurgling. Huddled in the little den their parents stayed in, she told her siblings to hide under the bedding, already doing so herself. She didn't want to leave yet for fear of getting them all lost or caught.