"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
It was no surprise to Leilan that they’d eventually come. From what he’s seen of the young dragonling, it is no wonder that his equally hot-blooded offspring is (sent?) here to burn a quarter of Beqanna. He does wonder where the man himself is, though - but he’ll probably find out soon enough.
His transformation comes easy enough now, perfected over the last few years. As a full-sized dragon, his shadow passes wonderfully silently over icy seas, watching the chaos that has ensued in Nerine with mild interest.
The ice dragon leaves his nest and flies south, knowing that the Isle can’t be destroyed much further anyway (especially now that frost covers all of it,) and that while the defenses of Nerine may contain these fires, they will soon lose the southern half of Nerine and the Easternmost part of Taiga to the fires, regardless of if he chimes in or not.
Besides, Nerine is a land or rocks and moors, and it is winter. Next spring, it will be as it was before. Fire doesn’t change a tundra into something new.
It’s not that he’s actually opposed to this fire, though - in fact, he already laughs internally at the disappointment the dragon children will face. Did anyone down there truly think that northlings will bow to fire? That with their home burned, suddenly they will become submissive? Would want a life in the heat instead of the cold? Really, those people would have moved to Tephra long ago. He knows his kind - stubborn as the cold rocks they live on.
His people would need a different kind of persuasion than “surrender or die”. They would die, in fact. But give them something that actually benefits them, too, and then we’ll talk about it. Not that unreasonable, right? But right now, they all run to defend their homeland, as if it’s an instinct they cannot deny. Maybe it is. He did the same thing, once, when Castile wrecked the Isle.
He’s not that extra useful here in the north, he decides. He might be able to pluck Yadigar, Phyx or Virgil from the ground like a hawk does a snake due to the size difference, true. But that doesn’t fix anything. Let them rage and lose control.
They never were in control, he thinks.
Unlike most, it isn’t defense that’s on his mind, as most of the northerners have that covered; it’s a rather pointless fight, and lacks purpose, but he would argue that that is not his problem to fix. In fact, when he races through the sky past Beryl, Brennen and the rest of their audience, he only grins at the magic entity there as he recognizes her (if she even sees him, he cannot tell, but from the questions and dreams she had whipped up, he deduces that she would love any and all kinds of chaos; so it’s a knowing grin he glances her way, even if she doesn’t look or pay attention). Oh, @[Straia], aren’t you bored with this yet? Over and over, the same war, power is all they ever want. Wasn’t that what she had tried to teach them once? He wonders if she remembers anyone else but Sochi, to whom she pledged the gift of the flaming tree from the Chamber. He’d never seen it, but really, he too misses the magic of his childhood. When it was a gift from the land one was pledged to, and not this individual madness. This land has too many dragons in it - it’s too easy to breed them, nowadays. He too has it, he knows, and made the same mistake, but no longer does he hurl them into the world by the tens and hundreds. Seems that Ghaul did, though.
But pining after a history that is no longer, trying to reverse past actions, none of it helps. Now is the time to recreate Beqanna. This war brings opportunity for those who’ll grasp it. Chaos as a way to fight your way forward.
Ah, and it seems so unfair that only the North should burn and be reborn - scratch that; the North and Loess, he notices on the way south. Well, well - it’s half the world on fire, then.
Would half the world be enough to form a new Beqanna, though?
What a shame that so many fire-lovers won’t get the experience of a home destroyed, that they get no chance to be reborn themselves. How sad that when Beqanna gets a makeover, the Eastern lands get no part in it!
Leilan was never one for rules and boundaries anyway. Chaos calls to his blood, the defiance against the kingdoms and laws is something he admires. The barely adult horses down there? They seem… what’s it called - naive. They’re all so naive. Thinking they need to defer to a ruler. Thinking that what they do is good and cleansing, while in reality, the only change is that more people will hate them in the end.
No, the ice dragon doesn’t linger in either Nerine or Taiga, especially when another shadowy force shows up; he just about spies a shimmering @[Izora Lethia] flooding a few trees before he leaves - ah, yes, water. That’s what he needs right now. He makes a quick dive down, this time unworried by the scars she still has: his claws are now raking across a scaled skin instead. ”We’re going to have some fun elsewhere,” he rumbles towards her, and then he flies her south-east as fast as he can. He takes the shortcuts through the Hyaline mountains that he knows well, passes that he knows from when he was still earth-bound; following the light of the morning sun.
They arrive in an eerily empty Pangea, though he doesn’t honestly believe it truly is empty. But the skies are reasonably clear right now, and that’s really all he needs.
Dragons aren’t an uncommon sight in Pangea these days. The land is dry and scorched enough to show it.
Two that spew a flood of water followed by ice instead of fire, are.
He makes as quick work of it as he can; no intention to linger where he shouldn’t. It is, after all, the message that is the goal. A message that they may probably misread, though. Perhaps they’ll think of it as retaliation. Some sort of defiant act against their rule.
Nothing could be less true, but it is what it is.
Pangea is made of red stone and dust, the few plants growing there digging their roots into the dry, dry ground. When the water starts to flow, it is almost immediately sucked up through the cracks in the rocks, filtered into the red sands in the canyons. Gone almost as soon as Lethy can spew it.
Only, when he follows it up with ice, the rocks start to crack. Water expands when it freezes, the land gets torn apart from the inside. Where rocks and plants had been sucking the water up, now they burst with ice, the CRACK louder than even he had anticipated.
It is a lovely day, and a lovely sight to behold.
He hopes they’ll try to melt it with dragonfire, but that’s none of his business.
I am the dragon and you call me insane
Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
Lethy powerplayed with permission. She’s his personal super soaker for the moment.
OOC note: Leilan feels bored and thinks the war is useless up north, so he decides to spice things up in Pangea instead, to spread the fun to other lands. No reason to be so exclusive after all (:.
The river gets frozen, canyons get flooded, and when the water, sucked into the rocks, freezes, it expands, so expect some large cracks in the rocks and in general ice, snow and hail on the ground. He has every intention of being quick with it and destroyingchanging what he can.
This attack comes from the northern side of Pangea. Hyaline and the Cove may be partially affected if you wish, since water flows where it will! I don’t personally expect them to be able to alternate the whole of the land, but it can also be fully turned into some weird sort of tundra-canyon landscape instead if you wish it to.
Have fun!
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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