Underwater Jet [open]

[Windra]

OoC
Note - Naira left the thread a while ago. Her presence in it right now is simply a flashback.

--

They say that when you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget. So what happens when you can't even get on the bike in the first place?

Mish had been attempting to fish along the riverbank. She hadn't really moved from that spot in a while, too frightened at the thought of leaving 'base' because she was stil so new to this place, but encouraged by loving words from her Rider (mentally, even now, and then, before she left) to explore on her own and call if something came up. Right now it was separation anxiety. Mishayirth was not used to flying solo. She was, after all, still young.

"But not young enough to stay in the nest, so to speak," Naira had said, giving the Inoran a gentle nudge in the shoulder with a grin splayed on her face. "So I'm gonna play the mother bird and give you that push to make you fly."

~ I'm not quite ready to fly yet, ~ Mishayirth replied with stoic reptoire in her voice, sitting on her haunches.

"You know what I mean."

~ But dragons on Inora rarely leave their riders' sides! ~ More protests. But Mish understood the concept behind what Naira was saying, reluctant though she may have been.

"We're not on Inora anymore," laughed the half-dragon. Her face turned serious. "Honestly, though. We've been back in Deep Forest for nearly a month now. I've taught you a lot ... showed you places ... and within a week I'm gonna be showing you how to fly. I want you to get out there and put some of those skills to use already. Make friends, all that jazz."

Mishayirth pushed her muzzle underneath Naira's chin, murring. ~ I have you. ~

She stroked the muzzle, smiling warmly. "You'll always have me. But ... should I get caught up in something again, because it always happens ... I want you to know how to manage if I'm suddenly not there to take care of you." Red alarm showed in Mish's eyes. Naira quelled the weyrling with a 'shush'. "I can't die, Love, you know that. I meant if I have to go somewhere for a bit, end up on some random journey in which I can't take you along ... You have to know what to do, how to survive ... " Nose met nose. They stayed like that for a second. "So I'm going to leave you alone for two days, okay? And I'll return on the morning of the third." She sensed another protest and tackled it before it was broadcasted. "You'll know where I am - " Naira touched her skull with a finger " - and vice versa. If something happens, yell. Or I'll yell. But seriously, you'll be fine."

Yeah. So why did she still doubt it? Mish batted at the water a few more times. Know what the sad thing was? Naira'd only been gone for two hours, and already she was lonely, and scared, and worried sick. But her Rider was in good health at Silvertree Grove - wonderful scenery, that place - and Mish hadn't been harmed in the woman's absence ... But she was hungry. And staring at the swimming fish made her stomach burn. Naira taught her the way to snatch the pescine up in her claws, or mouth, even how to hunt underwater. But this was her first time and she feared getting it wrong.

Another grunt from the gut. Well ... hunger only waited for so long, and for very few. Tentatively at first, Mishayirth stepped off the soil and into the uncertainty of water. She was submerged now, feeling comfort in the water splashing against her silky smooth hide. It was in this way that the dragon stayed for a moment longer ... treading water with her eyes closed, a dragonish smile pulling at the corners of her maw ... In the meantime, the fish that scattered during her entry were slowly going into the open again as the disturbance eased.

One minute.

Two ...

... Five.

Like a submarine, Mishayirth lowered her neck and then head below the water depths, drawing in one final breath of air before slinking under the surface. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust but once they did ... aha ... they settled upon the prey with great intent. Before she knew it her stomach was doing the talking. Legs clenched, propelled. Tail straightened, providing direction. Claws out ... grab, bite ... Got it! One medium-sized thing was stuck between her jaws. Euphoria swelled from within. So caught up in her glee was she, that Mishayirth didn't realize she was still streamlining in the river, heading south.

[CodeZX]

There he'd been simply minding his own business. He'd never had scales before, at least not to his remembering. He'd certainly fit in, except for the fact that he was... well, bright green with orange streaks. Which, of course, meant that he blended in with the other fish as well as a pine tree blends in with the palms on a tropical beach. But hey, all these fish were such boring colors. They needed a new fashion for their dull scales, and who better to help them along than Inaki?

He'd been trying to convince the other fish of his superior fashion for the better part of an hour, when suddenly there was a large rush nearby. He followed the rush, thinking someone may have put a fishing line in, so that he could play with it, but there was nothing! Not even an interesting rock! He shrugged (Mentally of course, since he lacked the shoulders to actually shrug properly, all he could manage was a bit of a strange wiggle), and continued on downstream. These fish were hopeless. No sense of fashion, and they were so stuck in their old ways that he'd never get them to do anything interesting. Maybe someone down the river would have more sense.

He made it only a little bit of the way before he felt the water behind him shift oddly. He'd half turned before a set of jaws closed over him.

There was a brief pause, before noise exploded on both mental and physical ranges of all sorts.

"I SAY, UNHAND ME!" He demanded. "I may already be handless, but that doesn't make it right to handle me like this!" He started to complain. If there was one thing that he could do masterfully, it was complain. "Your teeth are sharp and pointy, and I think one's in my left fin! My fashion will be ruined! There's no call for blood!" He continued, his tone getting more annoyed and likewise annoying. The fish began to writhe a little bit, apparently not really disturbed beyond that point by the teeth. "I say, don't make me get a newspaper!" He added as a final threat.

There was a brief pause after that. "So... where are we going?" He finally asked. "Are we going to your underwater lair so that you can torture information out of me? No? You expect me to die? Who's Mr. Bond?"

[Windra]

OoC
Sorry for the annoying delay. Life outside of the board, you understand. It happens.

--

Alright. Well, Mish was ... not used to this place. There were a lot of oddities dotting the line of fire. Strange happenings, peculiar beasts who, like her, did not speak with their mouths but with their minds and through other means instead. Foes who were not really foes but intimidating-looking friends. It was hard to tell good from evil in a lot of cases. Hard, even, to tell a citizen from prey ... In this case the latter was true. Mishayirth came damn close to dropping the fish right out of her maw. She did, to be honest. A surprised WARK stirred from the bowels of her throat. She licked away the saltiness from her maw which she'd mistaken for blood, and backed away. Her propelling halted from shock, the Inoran beast did little more than float there, staring ... blankly ... at a talking fish. A talking fish?

Her stomach rumbled. Why did it have to be a talking fish? Seriously. She just wanted to eat and now things had gotten all complex-like ... gwah. And that was one mental complaint the dragon never expected to go through. Mixed with her current predicament ... well, Mishayirth would have laughed out loud in the verbal sense if she could have. May as well stick to the mental, though. A telepathic chortle Then nothing.

~ Not going anywhere now ... ,~ said she to the pescine. Amused? Should she be? Or horrified? She wasn't really sure. Little wings did their floppy moves. Tail undulated in the water to maintain balance. ~ You scared the sharding hell out of me, do you realize that? Since when do fish speak, and why shouldn't I eat you? ~

And another oddity. Something of a rumble. he could not feel it, no. But Mishayirth noted the trembling of the water's surface and the frantic waverings of the fish beneath and off to the sides. They were scattering off, and calmed only when the trepidation halted. Now that was odd.

[CodeZX]

[tis okay! Real life first, always.]

Inaki would have grinned, if he'd had the physical capacity to do so, as he was released. The fish looked up at the dragon. "My, you're a big one!" He commented. There was a pause. "What, cat got your tongue? I hate it when that happens. I keep telling it that my tongue is not a ball of yarn, but does it listen? Noooooo, it just HAS to meow at me." He ranted. There was another pause.

"... perhaps mute? As the King of Gertalic said of his ninth queen, who had somehow believed that getting beheaded would be good for country morale."

His answer came from her, and there was a laugh over the mental spectrum. The holes that her teeth had caused sealed up immediately, seeming to have never been there before. "I perfectly realize that. I would not have had it any other way." He replied. His scales shimmered oddly. "And fish don't speak. You're just losing your mind. Welcome to the rabbit hole, I'm a figment of your imagination, to keep you company in your insanity." He replied to part of her question.

"As for why you shouldn't eat me... Well, I've heard that eating figments of your imagination is bad for your health." He replied. As he did, his form grew, and shifted, his body rippling as it assumed a newer shape: that of an elf, sitting in a lawn chair... at the bottom of the stream. He wore a bright orange tunic that was lined with small metal platelets, giving it an interesting sparkle, the kind that makes you want to blind yourself just to put your poor eyes out of their misery. He seemed to have no real discomfort from this fact or the fact that he was at the bottom of a stream, though how Mish took that was still up in the air.

"So, I must ask, how does it feel to be a looney?"

[Windra]

Yep.

She was losing her mind.

And admittedly ... it was damn interesting.

Shaking the taste of fish from her mouth which really didn't taste like fish at all but something else, like Play-Dough or plastic ... neither of which she had ever been acquainted with ... The dragon backed up. Her mind was a definite blur of confoundment. Seriously. Water berated at her back and pushed against her body with subtle force, enough to nudge her a few inches every couple of seconds. By the time the 'thing' turned into an elf, Mishayirth was hovering over its submerged form. This did not keep the dragonette from looking down, no. The Xuveance dipped her entire skull into the water up to about halfway down her neck. An exhaling snort blew bubbles out her nostrils.

~ Don't you need to breath? ~ And uh ... how did it transform like that? Was this a fish lady? A mermaid? ~ Elves can't be underwater. They don't have gills. ~

Or maybe she'd gone off the edge. The temptation to just smile, nod, and walk away was a growing ambition right about now ... had her hungering need to know not compelled her into staying.

[CodeZX]

Inaki's gaze had followed the dragon as she drifted. After a bit of that, the lawn chair simply picked itself up and moved along at about the same pace as the dragoness, perhaps making it easier to follow the elf, if someone was in the kind of crazy mindset to do so. Mish certainly was, as he found out.

And then she asked about the need to breathe, and simply stated that he, an elf, could not be underwater. Because he didn't have gills.

"Well that's a little bit stereotypical, you loon. Maybe I'm SUPERELF." He responded simply. "If you think I can't be here, then I don't believe in dragons. But then again, maybe I do have gills. Maybe you can't see them. But then again, as I've mentioned before, you're insane, so why shouldn't I be down here, hm? Maybe I like it down here. Maybe you're just imagining the impossible in your delusional madness. But then again, maybe I'm real, and your idea of reality doesn't match mine, so therefore while your reality does not allow an elf on a lawn chair to sit rather comfortably at the bottom of a running river while telepathically holding a conversation with a dragon-thing, mine does, and so therefore my reality supersedes yours, but only for myself. It's simple, really, you only need to understand the workings of the universe." He replied. The odd part was that now it wasn't telepathic. He was speaking normally, and the water didn't seem to bother his speech in the least.

"So what is it? Perhaps madness? Or maybe you're in another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. Maybe you've crossed over into the Twilight Zone. And maybe I'm Rod Serling." He said. The vague notion that he had absolutely NO idea where he'd gotten what he'd just said crossed his mind, but any protest that might have been brought up in his mind promptly had a flaming piano full of cheese marshmallows dropped on it.

[Windra]

Seriously ...

Mishayirth scrunched up her muzzle. Wrinkles showed in her golden-hued hide ~ What are you, some kind of Schrödinger's cat? You are here ... that makes you real. And for the love of Faranth's shattered eggshells, I had you in my mouth mere moments ago! The taste still sort of lingers ... How can that be fake? My imagination? Like this? ~ On that note, the Xuveance reared her head back slightly. A deep guttural sound was heard in the back of her throat. And then ... BLECH! She coughed up an object that penetrated the surface of the water and sank down to where the thing was sitting. It was a scale. A fish scale ~ If you were a figment of my ever-active imagination, how did that get in my throat? And how was it physically real enough to hit the water and make it ripple, even? ~

While it was true that the Inoran dragonette was fairly young, she did not ... ah ... behave as a child would. Pernese-bred beasts had a habit of picking up intellect within the first few days of their lives. A sevenday-old Hatchling could sew together complex sentenced without hesitation.

Mishayirth withdrew her skull long enough to inhale a lungful of fresh oxygen. She then plunged her muzzle back beneath the water. No longer was the beastie looking directly down at her strange conversationist. No no ... she was looking back as the river's current carried her downwind. ~ I should call you Aqualady. ~

[CodeZX]

[sorry for the massive delay... :/ ]

Inaki simply sat still and looked up at the dragoness, wondering momentarily what she was ranting for. After all, he'd only tried to explain that she was a full-blown wackaloon. It wasn't like he had insulted her or anything. "Indeed you did have me in your mouth a few moments ago. And by the GODS, you need a breath mint. I almost dropped dead from your breath, if it can even be called that any more. I'd rather think that perhaps it has died and given rise to something with an ambition to be amazingly rank." He said to her. He paused. "And this Schrodinger's feline... sounds fun. I should meet him sometime."

He reached up and caught the scale as it floated down to him. "That is something that could be explained by vast amounts of scary subjects, mainly relating to the sciences and the Three Little Pigs." He said. "And as much as I'd love to blow down your ignorance, it is simply not the time." He added.

"And Aqualady is hardly fitting. How about Inaki? That's what most people would call me." He said to her. His form shimmered, and then melted away. Soon she was joined by another creature, looking like a mix between a western dragon and a salamander, though it was only about the size of a large dog.

"Though you're welcome to give me a nickname." He said, zipping by her, then turning to face Mish face-to-face. He seemed to be having no trouble with breathing the water, probably due to gills situated on his neck. "I shall call you... hm... Bubbles." He said, a toothy grin appearing on him.

[Windra]

Bubbles?

~ Pen-Head, then, ~[/u] said Mishayirth, and her jaws opened somewhat to reveal those nasty teeth. She was mentally chuckling as if she had just made some sort of dirty joke, but really ... it wasn't that funny, and didn't make much sense to begin with. Either way, if Inaki could interpret the meaning behind her words, perhaps he would get offended: something the Xuveance dragon did not take into account at the time of her speaking it. [i]~ You shift well. ~

Into a dragon thing? With gills? Impressive. Though Mishayirth was still unsure if she was dreaming or hallucinating or not, there was some conviction in her mind that this was all real. You can't make this crap up. And besides, this Forest was magickal. Who was to say it was impossible to meet a shapeshifting fish? (Besides, she rather liked this form he took now. It was really cool-looking, and appealing to an Inoran dragon's eyes.)

~ How did you get here, Penny? ~ she was asking, a myriad of colors swirling about the facets of her eyes. ~ Did you swim in from the big blue sea or what? If yer really originally a fish, I mean. Or mermaid. Or elf. Or whatever. ~

With this, she snorted underwater. A jet of bubbles streamed from her snout to Inaki's general direction, popping one-by-one on his forehead.

[CodeZX]

Inaki simply grinned at the nickname for him. "So be it, but don't expect me to be writing on anything with my head. I'd say it's rather difficult, and I can't style my hair into a proper point to write with."

"I shift as I shift because I change. A lot. More than you'd think." He said. He stretched his neck a little, a small ring of orange visible around his neck amongst the dark-blue scales. He wiggled a little bit, tail whipping about a little bit.

"I've never not been here, but at the same time, I only just recently came here." He said, the paradox completely true, though chances were that it wouldn't be taken seriously at all. "As for swimming in from a big blue sea? Not so much. I can't swim well. Well, normally. I seem to have found some ways to learn quite fast." He said. "And I'm not a fish. Or mermaid. Or elf. Or even a dragon. I'm me." He seemed to have more to say, probably something important involving the meaning of life, but the bubbles had his complete attention as he seemed to perk up. He chomped at the bubbles happily, though most of them simply burst against his face or snout. "BUBBLES! BubblesBubblesBubblesBubblesBubblesBubblesBubblesBubblesBubbles" He squealed gleefully, thrashing about happily. He paused for a moment to try firing a stream of bubbles at the Inoran dragon, but only managed to create a giant bubble about the size of his head, which shot at Mish like a bubbly cannonball.

"Catch!"

[Windra]

Catch?

Mishayirth did blink a good deal. She was losing her breath and had been about to surface to take in a lungful when the big cannon bubble shot at her from out of nowhere. Yeah, wander away from Her's just to get assaulted by a fish-gone-mermaid-that-insisted-he-was-what-he-wasn't-and-that-he-wasn't-what-he-was ... way to go. Naira would be oh-so proud! Really, now ... really ... Mish jumped back on reflex and totally failed in her goal of escaping. The wad of air struck the muzzle first, then extended to the rest of her, swallowing the Inoran whole. Soon Mishayirth was no longer free-floating in the middle of a stream ... she was hovering dead-center in a giant bubble, wings kept safely away from poking holes in it.

~ Oooh ... this is kinda nifty ... ~ Right? What dragon could ever say she'd been in a bubble before? Plus she was now sitting in oxygen. Mishayirth took a breath and immediately regretted it when the bubble's form reduced in size and she found her 'floating quarters' compromised. It suddenly got a lot tighter in there ... ~ Ulp? ~

Not to mention that Mish no longer had control over what direction her body was going in. The stream's current took hold and was in the process of carting her downstream, away from Inaki.

[CodeZX]

Of all the possible things that the cannon-bubble could have done, the last thing he expected was for it to engulf Mish. He paused a moment, and watched. "Nifty indeed. Looks like you could almost make a sport out of this." He said, following Mish as she floated away. It wasn't too horribly hard, and he kept up with her. "Now why'd you go and make it smaller? It looks awfully cramped in there." He commented. It wasn't easy to tell if he was playing or not, or even if his lack of action was malicious or simply ill-informed. "And it is awfully rude to just go float away without saying anything." He added. He zipped ahead of her, and paused, staring directly at her, letting himself get carried downstream with her. There was a pause of a few seconds.

"..."

"...BUBBLE!" He squealed happily, lunging forwards and chomping on the bubble. Chances are Mish was getting nibbled on in the process, seeing as that Inaki wasn't exactly careful. The bubble, however, stood no chance against the mini-dragon's excitement, and popped without any further complaint. Inaki paused. There was something that was certainly not a bubble in his mouth. He glanced, and saw that he'd somehow gotten a hold of Mish. He slowly extracted himself from her. Perhaps luckily for Mish, the teeth that the form had were only moderately spiky, and he didn't have canines that were much larger.

[hope you don't mind Inaki nomming on her slightly >.>]

[Windra]

The lecture didn't really, you know ... do anything. Wasn't really her fault she was shifting down the stream, merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream ... and all that. Nada. The bubble controlled her movements. So ah ... yeah, screwed in that department. When Inaki went flying through said bubble to bite it, that problem was quickly solved. Unfortunately it also meant that water came rushing in. Mish didn't have time to inhale before the fluid invaded her nostrils. Lacking oxygen, her lungs quickly learned what it was to burn and ache. Her struggle to the surface was hindered only by the chomping teeth in her side ... which was minute compared to bigger matters at hand.

The dragon's claws cut through the water like butter. Mishayirth's swimming skills really weren't that great, but they didn't fully suck either. Eventually the brisk atmosphere slipped between her widened maw. She coughed violently at first to expel any breathed water. Then her opalescent eyes swiftly spun downward, swirling red with anger .~ What were you thinking? ~ she snapped mentally, her telepathic voice carrying such an anger ... ~ I could have ... oh ... hello ... ~

Too late she noticed the current had sped up ... and that up ahead the water was white, choppy, churning ...

They were heading to the rapids. Very quickly, I might add.

[CodeZX]

The chomping at hand complete, Inaki let out a strange growl-squeak as he was suddenly pulled along with Mish, breaking the water top as he finally let go. He paused, looking up at her as she snapped at him, and immediately looked as if she'd kicked a puppy in front of him. He looked ready to cry, though it remained to be seen if the creature he had taken the form of was even capable of such an action. He even sniffled a little to add to the effect.

"I-...I'm..." He started, choking a bit as he whimpered. "I'M SORRY! I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN I PROMISE ALLIWANTEDWASTO CHOMPTHEBUBBLEPLEASEDON'THURTMEPLEEEEEEEEASEI'MTOOYOUNGTODIE!" He wailed suddenly and quite loudly, not even pausing to take a breath in the middle. It was then that he finally noticed the change in the water as well. Almost immediately, his mood changed, though whether it was because of insincerity of the mood or from the ability to be distracted easily was unknown. "YAYMOREBUBBLES!" He squealed, chomping fervently at the water with seemingly no regard for his own safety. He wasn't even trying to fight the current, he was just thrashing about in the water without a care.

[Windra]

Oh god ... was he bawling?

Why yes ... yes he was. And Mishayirth, well, she would care more - and feel a little guilty to boot - had they not been dealing with the precarious possibility looming ever-closer with each passing second. The rapids were on their way. And though the dragonette was fairly large, her limbs were untrained for water-wading. Swimming against such a powerful current was less than ... probable. A vacant stare followed Inaki as he dove after more and more bubbles. Wasn't he aware of the danger? White water was a baaaaaaaaaad thing to cope with ...

Well then again, this guy seemed to be able to transform from one shape to another on a whim. As a fish, he would be fine. Mishayirth concentrated more on breaking from her watery restraints. Swaying back and forth to further propel her body, she swam hard against the rushing liquid. Not good: for every inch she gained, she fell back two more. Soon the first rocks of the rapids were touching the tip of her tail .

~ Crud crud crud! ~ Blinded by the strange fear that overcame her, Mishayirth forgot her ability to telepath, or else her Rider would have come to rescue her. For the moment she was struggling against this 'hazard' on her own.

[CodeZX]

"Buuuuuuubbles!" He squealed again, still flopping about. There was a moment of pause as he looked up at his new friend, and wondered a moment. Another moment passed as he watched her try to fight the current without succeeding much. The gears in his head turned as he wondered what he might be able to do in such a situation that could lead into some unpleasant maimings and whatnot.

The gears stopped turning as they came to a conclusion: Fishing.

"Mmm, fiiiish..." He thought out loud to Mish. There was another pause, and Mish would find herself running into a large fishing net, somehow anchored in the water.

"Arr! A mighty catch we have here!" Came a very pirate-y voice from the net itself. "Batten down the hatches, veer to starboard, swab the poop deck, hoist the Jolly Roger, pillage first then burn!" He ranted, completely forgetting what he was doing at the time, aside from being a net-pirate.

[Windra]

OoC
Could have sworn I posted here ...

--

This was ... odd.
Okay, it was strange enough that Mishayirth, a young dragon who (only recently) acquired the ability to dip her claws into a stream of trouble, was in this situation in the first place. Inoran and Pernese dragons typically stayed close to their Bonded when they were young, only straying as their age increased. Mish was hardly a fledgling, yet Naira ushered her 'out of the nest' with a sense of urgency.

Trying to get her to become a quick learner? In either case, an alarm had been issued Minds entwined. The half-dragon Reaver would be in this locale shortly.

Blinded by confusion and anxiety by this new impending threat of rapid-water transport, it wasn't until she stopped hopelessly drifting down the river that Mishayirth noticed the net. With it came the immediate sense of constriction - capture. The dragonette twisted and writhed. But the voice that rang out was crisp and familiar. Glancing over to the figure nearby, Mishayirth took in a mouthful of water while mind-speaking:

~ How does a fish generate a net? ~

[CodeZX]

[Somehow I missed that you posted o.o]

"YARR! We've got a live one! It's the one that took mah leg! As the Duke of Mercander said after losing a horse race." He commented. Slowly, the net seemed to drag itself over to the side, and then it melted off the dragon, leaving her in the shallower area of the river, where her claws could grip and give her at least some friction to pull herself out with. At her side, Inaki reappeared, having decided on the elven form again, with a few differences. He wore a leathery trifold hat, an eye patch, and clothing that could only be described as pirate-y. He even had a bottle of some unknown liquid in his hand. Chances are, it wasn't grog, unless grog smelled of sulfur.

"Land ho, as they say." He added in a rather calm tone, grinning and taking a swig of the "beverage" he had. "The gift store be teh th' port, fore a bucketfull o' paces." He paused. "What, ye've nereseen a swashbuckler?" He asked.

There was absolutely no response to her question. Chances were his brain hadn't completely processed it yet. It probably didn't even make it to the bureaucracy that was Inaki's mind.

[CodeZX]

[Sowwy Windyness, I'm gonna pull out here ]

Inaki paused a moment, seeming to freeze animation. Something made him twitch. With a flourishing bow of robes the color of "Carnage Crimson", he looked to the dragon. "I apologize, my dear, but it is here that I must leave you. 'Till we next meet, fare thee well." He said, his voice seeming to have changed to a very sober tone. This was certainly an oddity for him, who didn't seem to have ever taken anything seriously since the day he was born. As he rose up, he seemed to dissolve into the air, and a magical presence faded away as Inaki moved to the next area of his interest.

[Inaki has vacated the thread]