Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-35775904-20190222213128/@comment-34572969-20190323085122

Katina

Tiger butted my cheek affectionately as I walked over to him in the stables to feed him. I stroked his snout in turn, as Flame shot the Monstrous Nightmare a jealous look. I chuckled at the sight.

"Relax, I'm not gonna be replacing you anytime soon," I reassured the Terror. He shrank down, but still had a cautious look in his eyes.

"Now, as for you," I said, turning back to Tiger, who cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "We need to find you a home. You're not going back to my father anytime soon, we're sure of that at least... and I'm not too sure how the others will take to a former Harn in the base," I muttered to myself.

I sighed. "You know, how 'bout we just go for a bit of a fly, huh?" I suggested. He perked up at that.

I took out a piece of cloth from my satchel, wrapping it around my face as a mask. Ever since my ride with Devil, I'd noticed how hard it was to open your mouth without a myriad of bugs flying in there. I figured the cloth would help.

Tiger looked curiously at the mask. I shrugged and simply replied, "Aesthetic."

I pulled open the stable gate and gently urged Tiger out of his box-section-stable-thingy, walking him across the grass so he was comfortable with flying around the area. Right as I was about to mount him, I noticed Aud hanging upside-down like a bat from a crystal shard.

"Hobey! Whob's thobis?" she... asked? I could tell that my confusion was evident as she repeated, "Obi sobaid, 'Hobey! Whob's thobis?'"

I wiped my forehead and grimaced in disgust. "Ew... you're getting spit everywhere."

"Soborry," Aud apologised. I tilted my head to the side in confusion, as did Flame and Tiger. Aud rolled her eyes at us.

"Dude, just speak normally," I said. She huffed.

"I said, 'Hey! Who's this?'" she stated. I noticed she was still hanging upside-down from the crystal. "It's my secret language! You say 'ob' before every vowel of the word!"

I arched an eyebrow, both amused and extremely puzzled. "Wow... you are the most Thorston non-Thorston to ever Thorston that isn't a Thorston... Thorston," I rambled. "Wait what...?"

I waved off my own question. "Whatever. Anyway, this," I told her, gesturing to Tiger. "...is Tiger. He's a... uh..."

What could I have told her? I didn't want her to know that he was my dad's, especially not after everyone found out what he did and who he was.

"Uh... a- an, uh, injured dragon that I, erm, found in a trap near the, uh, th- the woods," I stammered. Then mentally facepalmed and wished I could rip out my vocal cords to give them a lecture on when and when not to stammer. Well, technically I wouldn't have ben able to scold them without a voice... but then again they could just be scolding themselves... but then again--

Wait, I'm getting off topic.

Aud didn't seem to notice my hesitation as she dropped from the crystal and walked over to Tiger, presumably to check up on him as he had been 'injured'. As she did, she noticed the cloth around my neck.

"Why do you need a mask?" she asked.

"Aesthetic."

She raised an eyebrow but said nothing as she lifted up one of Tiger's wings and immediately grimaced at what she saw.

"Ooh, might want to check up on this. He has a nasty gash below his wing."

Wait, what?

I rushed over and followed Aud's gaze, to where a large cut reached the bottom of his wing joint diagonally down, almost slicing his vulnerable underbelly. I sucked in a breath between my teeth. It didn't exactly look pretty.

"Ow... uh, you can go back to patrol, I can handle this." I think.

With that, Aud went back to her upside-down dangling as I checked up more on Tiger, bringing him back to my hut for a little privacy.

I checked for any injuries, since I assumed that being the pet of a Harn associate didn't exactly come with benefits, especially for this particular dragon. He was covered with scrapes, bruises, cuts, etcetera, and I found myself wondering how I hadn't noticed them sooner. Or how Tiger had managed to fly me all the way back to camp without faltering even once.

I noticed that they were almost expertly placed, near the wings, tail, feet, anywhere that would have hurt the most. I also realized how they were strategically hidden from view at first glance, most likely not to alert suspicion.

I ended up spending the next hour or so tending to all of Tiger's wounds, seemingly finding a new one every time I thought I was done. I frowned at each one I saw. It looked like it hurt... a lot.

After a long while, I was finally done. Tiger still seemed in good shape and still perked up at the mention of a flight, so we decided to take off. Flying around the general area, getting Tiger used to being near the Guardian base, stuff like that. Flame was gripping for dear life onto my scalp as we flew, the speeds apparently being too high for him. And trust me, we were going more or less as slow as we could.

Everything was all fine and dandy, until we almost crashed into a certain familiar face.

"AAGH!" I squealed, pulling back on Tiger's horns. Flame squawked in surprise and shielded his amber eyes with a single wing (as if that would have helped) as Tiger pulled back. I heard the other person cry out themselves- and very femininely, may I add.

"GAAAGH! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT!" Nick cried out. I opened up my scrunched eyes to find the teen shielding his eyes with his forearms. I noted him actually riding a dragon, an orange-brown Timberjack, who was growling defensively at me, Tiger and Flame.

I blinked. "Uh... what?"

Nick opened up his eyes wearily, then widened them as he noticed me staring at him curiously.

"Oh, uh... hehe... this is awkward," he muttered. I arched an eyebrow.

"Sure, sure, whatever. Okay, first question: what do you mean, 'It was all his fault'?" I questioned.

"Uh... your dad," he answered slowly, knowing how I felt ever since I found out about him. He must have noticed my expression drop, as he added: "And the rest of the Harns, too, not just him." It sounded like he wanted to say more, but he remained silent.

I wasn't exactly satisfied with his answer, but didn't press him for more. It didn't seem like he wanted me to, anyway. "Oay. Second question: where did you get that dragon?" I gestured both arms to the considerably large Timberjack he was seated on.

"Nicked it off your dad. He was gonna flog it anyway, so I thought I might as well," stated Nick Scarth, seemingly unaware that he made a pun. I raised an eyebrow.

"English, please. I've had enough run-ins with people who don't seem to get the fact that I'm supposed to understand what they're saying," I said. Nick sighed.

"My apologies, dearest sister of mine. I meant to convey to you that I had previously-"

A dirty look made him stop.

"Nicholas Scarth, I swear to Thor..."

He made some sort of sound of defeat. "I stole it from your father, since he was going to sell it anyway, and I thought I should just take him before it's too late."

I nodded in understanding.

"Speaking off, who's the Nightmare? Ya know, he kinda looks like..." He trailed off as I pursed my lips and nodded. "...oh."

"Yeah..." I responded. I urged Tiger to turn and me and Nick set off on our respective dragons.

"So, you planning on keeping him?" the teen questioned. Flame, claws gripped onto my head, squawked at the fact that he wasn't being acknowledged. I giggled and scratched his head as he did the dragon equivalent of purring.

"Who, Tiger?" Nick nodded. "Nah. The Guardians have enough trouble as it is looking after their own dragons, and there's Devil, and the stuff with the Harns as well. I'm planning to just let him live in the woods near the base so we can keep an eye on him."

He paused, processing the information. Then spoke up. "Wait, who's Devil?"

Right. He still didn't really know much about my life as a Guardian, and that included the others, dragons and all, as well as Devil.

"Long story short, you know Kate? Devil's a Woolly Howl that she found when he was still in an egg. Now we kinda just keep him around."

"I can't believe it! Keeping information from your brother and best friend?" Nick pretended to be upset, dramatically draping himself across his dragon. The Timberjack flicked his head in discomfort, prompting Nick to sit up.

With all the talk about Devil I thought back to the time I rode Devil to the Harns' base, meeting my father and learning of his intentions. Speaking of...

"Oh, and," I suddenly remembered. Nick perked up and turned to me. "I saw my father a few days ago. He said he had a little... uh, 'surprise', for you." I paused. "Huh. Wonder what it is."

"A surprise birthday party with dresses and cake. And singing and dancing and cake." Nick deadpanned. I rolled my eyes fondly.

"No, just- you know what I mean." My 'brother' simply laughed at my annoyance. "Anyway, if we did have that party, trust me, the magic act would have you sawn in half. Literally," I stated. I noticed Nick self-consciously grab his neck.

We talked and flew for a while after that, somehow landing ourselves in town. Me and Nick exchanged a look, shrugged, and decided to wander around for a while. Looking around stalls, not really bothering to buy anything (at least in my case- Nick bought basically anything that took his interest. "It's fine, I have the money," he had claimed).

We were there for a while, until I actually got recognized by a fan.

"Hey!" a little girl called from the crowd, rushing over. She was latched onto who I assumed to be her older brother. He looked embarassed. "You're the girl from my brother's poster!"

"Poster, huh?" I asked. Her brother waved meekly as Nick nudged my shoulder.

"Well, look who has a fanboy," he whispered. I elbowed his stomach in reply.

"Uh... yeah. Big fan of the Guardians," he responded. "Kate's my favourite."

Honestly, I wasn't too surprised. I thought I'd heard Aidan mentioning something about Kate's recent rise in popularity.

I noted the girl staring wide-eyed at Flame, who was flapping around beside. She rushed forward excitedly, trying to pet him and giggling at his attempts to get away. Once she finally did get a hold of him though, the Terror seemed content with being stroked and cuddled. He seemed to enjoy the attention. Behind me, Tiger snorted in amusement.

"Look!" the boy's sister shouted out, pointing to a stall nearby. Flame looked a lottle disgruntled at the fact that he was no longer in the spotlight. At the stall that the sister pointed at, there stood a man selling maps and blueprints of all sorts.

"Shh, I know, I know..." He looked back to me. His sister was trying to pull him away to the stall. "Uh... she likes maps, I guess."

I nodded. Once we parted, I mimicked the little girl's actions and dragged Nick to the very same stall, scouring over the maps on display.

"Yeah, sure, I have no free will, take me where you need to," Nick deadpanned. I ignored him, turning to the man running the stall.

He looked somewhat familiar, or at least his uniform did. On his belt buckle was imprinted a small logo of some sorts, one that I had definitely seen before...

Then it hit me. He was working with the Harns. I momentarily wondered what he was doing in the market selling stuff, but I had no time to question it as I shook the thought from my head.

I pulled up my mask from before. Now seemed like an appropriate time to use it. Nick stared at it questioningly.

"Why... are you... wearing... that?"

"Aesthetic," I responded simply. This was starting to get old.

Once the man was turned away, I snatched some papers from the table. They were stashed under more sheets of parchment, making it obvious that he was trying to hide them. And failing miserably, may I add.

Each of the papers had the Harn insignia on the bottom. I knew they were important- they were all blueprints and maps of the Harns' structures. Now it made sense why he was selling all those maps: he was trying to make them blend in.

Next moment, we were back on our dragons, racing back to the other Guardians back at base with Flame squealing in dissapproval at the speeds we were travelling. I jumped off Tiger, ordered Nick to get him to the stables, and rushed off to the clubhouse.

Luckily, everyone was already present there. They turned to me as I bolted in, maps and blueprintsn hand. I slammed the piece of parchment down onto the wooden table, stabbed two daggers into the corners to keep it unrolled, and presented the information to the rest of the Guardians.

"Guess what I have," I sang. Everyone leaned in to take a closer look.