Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-35775904-20190222213128/@comment-34572969-20190421153759

Katina

So Aidan had another plan to attack the Harns. But then again, when does he not?

I was riding on Tumble along with Vix, since we had the same role: to take out the men from the sides as the Harns entered the Mushroom Forest. And so we did just that, riding in and waiting until the right time to strike.

In the time it took to wait, I decided to strike up a small converstion- because let's be honest, who likes an awkward silence?

"So, you and Rita, huh?" I prompted, smirking. The boy seemed to choke on nothing as Tumble let out an amused growl.

"Well, uh, wha- what about us?" he stammered. I rolled my eyes.

"C'mon, don't play dumb. We've all seen how you two look at each other. You guys are-"

We were interrupted by the clatter of metal weapons and the stamp of thick leather boots, dead grass and- as the forest's name suggests- mushrooms crunching underfoot. Vix let out a barely audible sigh of relief as I playfully nudged him with my elbow.

"We're not done here, mister," I teased. I hopped off Tumble's back, pulling up my mask. Vix's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he opened his mouth to ask, before I interrupted with a loud whisper of, "Aesthetic!"

He shook his head in amusement. "You sure you'll be fine?" Vix asked. I nodded.

"Mmhm. Plus, I'll have a little extra-"

I whistled a note, quickly getting higher in pitch as I held a hand out behind me. A Monstrous Nightmare roar sounded in the distance as I smiled. "Help."

Immediately Tiger glided past me, with a saddle placed on his back for my convenience. I latched onto the leather surface and held onto Tiger's spines, readjusting my position and my mask.

"Whoo! Can't believe that worked!" I exclaimed. The wind carried off my words so no one could hear anything that wasn't a simple scramble of sounds and syllables.

We took out our assigned guards with relative ease, only it seemed that whenever a group was taken out, even more seemed to file in, hindering our progress. I looked over to check on Vix through the gaps in the trees. Tumble had her claws outstretched towards a certain Harn associate, with matted auburn hair and a sharp tongue that was spitting insults at Vix.

Like any good daughter would, I recognized him immediately. Beneath me, Tiger growled at his previous owner- or should I say, master. Vix looked up and glanced at me, seeing me glaring at the Harn he and his dragon were attacking. I tapped Tiger's side, prompting him to spit out a stream of fire at the man, aiming to avoid Tumble.

We turned away and fled, continuing to take down as many Harns as we could. Soon enough, it was time for the others to come in, and if I'm being honest, we really needed the help. There were so many, and it almost felt like even more were coming in as more were defeated.

After a while, something had happened. I couldn't tell what, but I could make out Aidan yelling the words, "stop," "shooting down," and, "Night Fury!" His words were swept away by the wind and heat of battle, but I could basically guess what he was trying to communicate and we all set to work.

Now even more Harns really were beginning to file in. Roel, Barny, even Jack, etc. The Night Fury- we still hadn't learnt her name yet- was furiously blasting at the attackers, while still aiming not to harm any one of the Guardians. I noticed she was taking some extra care to avoiding harming Isla.

Suddenly, Tiger reared up and roared in pain, flying himself up and angrily lashing his tail at whatever had hurt him. I pulled hastily on his horns, attempting to calm him down, but it was no use. An electric shock seemed to pass through the both of us, and I was suddenly incredibly thankful that there was no metal on either of us- apart from the dots that lined my kransen, but that was a non-conductive material. However, I couldn't help but jump up and turned around to find the source.

A dragon. And not just any dragon, a Skrill. And we all know who rides a Skrill in the Harn army...

"Finally!" Jack exclaimed, letting out a celebratory shout at his accomplishment. "Er, I mean... ha! How pathetic is that? You so-called Guardians, this is your best plan?" he mocked.

"Like you could do any better," I spat, pulling once more on Tiger's horns. He jerked his head around and snapped at the Skrill, Shockwave, and tried to bite at his wings. The dragon pulled back, but still growled menacingly.

"Where's your little lizard? Thought he'd like to see what a real dragon and warrior can do!" he taunted, referring to Flame. Since it was a more head-on, blast-into-oblivion kind of mission, I'd left the Terror back at the base along with Devil. Thor knows what those two could have been up to...

Tiger growled, narrowing his eyes and snapping once more at Shockwave. "Dragon and warrior? Really? Flame'd tear that ugly iguana apart in minutes! Oh and Shockwave too, maybe," I smirked. Jack growled- yes, literally growled-  and got Shockwave to bring Tiger back up to the sky. Once we were there, flailing helplessly, he tore at Tiger's wing and let me drop.

As you'd expect any sane person in this situation to do, I screamed in terror as the Monstrous Nightmare roared in defiance. I could see him biting and lashing out at the Skrill, but right then that wasn't my main priority. The first thing on my mind then was survival.

I looked around, still freefalling. I sensed my elevated heartbeat as time seemed to slow at the same time, the extra adrenaline pump making my limbs fidgety and shaky.

First off: don't panic.

Okay, easy enough... not. Everything seemed to be moving faster and slower at the same time, and with the roars and racket of battle beneath me, everything was distorted. I drank in the oxygen around me, whipping my head around to look for anything to stop my fall.

My eyes instinctively shut, and my hands stretched out to grab the first thing that came to me as I neared the trees of the forest. As soon as something solid came into contact with them, I gripped on for dear life and only when I was completely sure I wasn't falling, I opened up my eyes.

I was holding onto Stormslicer's tail. The Nadder had his tail out after shooting some spines, and I'd only just managed to catch on. The dragon was a strong one, and luckily my weight hadn't brought him down, but the force was definitely noticeable as he and Kate turned to look at me.

The latter tilted her head in confusion. "Uh, Kat? What happened?" she asked, holding out a hand to help me up.

"Fight... wing... Tiger... fall," I panted, still in a little shock. I soon enough recomposed myself enough to speak coherent sentences. "I was fighting with a dude... he tore my dragon's wing and I fell and... here I am," I explained. She thought about it for a moment.

"...wait, dragon?"

"Long story."

We heard Aidan shouting for us to fall back, and so we did, with me going on Stormslicer for a bit until Tiger could come back. Fortunately, his wounds weren't too severe, and we were able to fly back with little to no inconvenience. Well, at least until...

The Monstrous Nightmare growled in pain as I escorted him back to my hut. A few questions were raised from the rest of the Guardians, I could tell from the simple looks that I received, but I payed them no heed. I let Tiger rest in my hut for a while, with Flame looking a little uncomfortable at having to share, but again I ignored it.

I went outside to find the others chatting idly about the battle.

"Well that was a total disaster," Kate remarked, shortly before Aidan insisted on having time to think and running back off to his hut. I stood next to the girl, leaning on the wall beside her.

"Is he okay?" I asked, concern lacing my voice. Kate nodded.

"Yeah, he should be. He's got a good mind, just doesn't know how to use it sometimes," she said, gaze locked on the door Aidan had just fled behind. I raised an eyebrow, playfully punching Kate's shoulder.

"Ooh, someone has a crush do they?" I teased. (The irony is that she doesn't know they're in a relationship yet). Kate turned away, and I could tell she was blushing, although I could also see a small smile on her face. Interesting...

I smirked as she began stuttering something., and I nudged her with my shoulder. "Okay, well, I'll leave you to it then," I drawled, then went back to my room.

Tiger was laying on the floor as Flame scrambled over him, crooning and licking like a cat at his wounds. The Monstrous Nightmare huffed in pained, laboured breaths, and I could tell the old sting and sear of his old injuries were at last becoming apparent.

That finalized my decision. Tiger wasn't fit for Guardian life, and I would have had to release him back into the wild. No matter how cheesy that that just sounded...

I ended up tending to Tiger's wounds for an extremely and almost unnaturallt long time, given the fact that I was an ammeature. I fell asleep soon afterwards, leaning my head on Tiger's body as Flame made himself a nest in my kransen.

I woke up to the sound of the Nightmare's growling, and him jerking his wing to get me up. I bolted upright with a start.

"He was unconscious when I got here, officer!" I exclaimed, waving my arms frantically about. Only then I realized that I'd just woken up from a dream, and to Aidan yelling at me and the rest of the Guardians about an attack from the Harns. Of course. And we'd only just began recovering from the last battle, too.

I rushed out, as did the rest of the Guardians. And... holy heck... everyone was a hot mess. Wait no, a cool mess. No, an uncool mess. Everyone was an uncool mess.

Nailed it.

Aidan was already up on Shadowcloud, shouting.

"Look! Harvardr is there! With Michael!" he pointed out. Isla wasted no time flying straight towards him.

Vix landed beside me on Tumble, sticking a hand out to help me up. I gratefully took it, and we were in the air, dodging arrows, spears, and everything else.

"Where's your dragon?" he panted. The effort of controlling Tumble and gliding away from the weaponry being thrown at us was quickly tiring him.

"Wing tear," I answered quickly. Then, the distant echo of a screech followed by the roar of dragon fire sounded as I smiled, some

Oh, good, I thought to myself. Now they're in for it.

"Night Fury!"

"Get down!"

Purple flashes filled the sky as the Harns retreated, one by one, soldier by soldier, ship by ship. Flame crawled up to my head and let out a shrill caterwaul of victory as the other dragons followed in suit, orange flames lapping at the sky as they fired... well, fire, into the air as celebration.

We retired back to our huts shortly afterwards, and, with me having nothing better to do and Tiger asleep, I opened up my sketchbook and began drawing.

Art was always an escape for me, and I used it to get away from reality... a lot. There were pages where I had drawn Flame, my parents, Tiger, even some where I had drawn the other Guardians. I flipped to a new page and pressed my pencil to the sheet, sketching out the shapes.

Once I was finished, I observed the paper, looking over what I had created. One figure, obviously a girl with her long dark hair in a ponytail, sat posing between two larger figures, one male and the other female. The loving parents of a small toddler.

''I don't even remember how young I was. Maybe four or five. I held onto my mother's arm as she seated me on her lap, laughing as I giggled and squirmed. She lifted up my chin, directing my gaze to a pair of soft brown eyes.

''"Say goodbye to Daddy now, Kat," she said in that motherly voice that suggested she was hiding her emotions. My father held out his hands for a hug and I quickly crawled into them, latching onto his body as if that would be the last I'd ever see of him.

''"I... I don't wanna! What if I never see you again?" I asked, looking up to him. He smiled.

''"You're a big girl now, Kat, you'll ne just fine without me," he assured. "I promise."

''I pouted, leaning my head on my father's shoulder. "Grown-ups always lie."

''He set me back down onto the couch. "I'm not lying to you. Now, I want you to remember this. I might not always be here physically, but-"

''"What does physically mean?" I asked innocently. He chuckled quietly at my curiosity.

''"Let me say that again. I might not always be right here, right in front of you, but I'll always be..."

''He tapped a finger to my chest. "Here."

''I giggled as he stood up, grinning at me. "See, there's that smile."

''From behind me, my mother hugged my torso and lifted me back onto her lap, softly humming a tune that I didn't recognize but enjoyed. A smile twitched on my father's lips at the scene, before turning and checking the clock.

''"Uh, Ingrid...?"

''"She nodded absently. "Go ahead." I could sense the sorrow and loneliness laced into her voice, as four-year-old me beamed and turned to her.

''"It's gonna be okay. He's gonna be right here!" I prodded the area where her heart would me as my father smiled.

''"That's right." He pressed a kiss to my forehead, then one to my mother's cheek, and headed towards the door, turning back only to mutter one more thing.

"I promise."