Pale blue wings beat against the humid air, struggling to keep the exhausted figure in the air. The flight from the Dragonlands had been hard for a dragon of her smallish size and build, her wings were designed for sharp turns and speedy dives into freezing waters, not for long-distance flights.
Aurora grit her sharp teeth as she made a controlled descent into the thick forest that lurked below, grimacing at the thin branches and vines that buffeted her already tired wings. With a loud huff and entirely graceful stumble, she landed down on the hard dirt of the forest floor. She panted heavily as she looked around the area, ever cautious.
Her ear flicked behind her as a loud call cried out. She pays little mind as a bright blue Pheonix took its perch upon her back and clicked its beak at her angrily. She huffed out, still not recovered from her flight "Enough Azusa. Be grateful that I didn't leave you back in the Dragonlands"
She raised her beak into the air snootily and shuffled away a little. Aurora rolls her eyes and begins to walk in a random direction.
The forest was eerily silent, the soft padding of talons shattering the silence. Aurora hissed quietly "Azusa. Be my eyes" The Pheonix snapped out of her pouting to rush into the air. The dragoness didn't need to tell her familiar something was wrong, that the forest was far too silent and that they needed to find somewhere safe, the good thing about familiar magic is that they know this instinctively.
It was only the snapping of a twig that alerted Aurora to danger as a sickly Manticore leapt from the bushes, slobber flying from its open maw and claws ready to slash and tear. Aurora sprang backwards, her quick reaction time keeping her from gaining a nasty wound over her face.
She snarled at the Manticore and began to circle it, trying to buy more time for her mind to race through options. She wasn't strong enough to fight it head-on, and she was too tired to run or fly away. The Manticore had had enough of the tense circling and lunged towards her, causing a reactive blast of ice at the oncoming beast. The Manticore howled in pain and scrambled back as a section of its chest and its upper foreleg became almost entirely cased in frost, the chill radiating throughout the leg, causing it to turn black from frostbite.
The Manticore ran away as fast as it could with one leg nearly dead, its whimpers signalling her victory.
Success! We fought off the manticore thanks to our quick reflexes and speed! Good thing we were not any slower or we would have some impressive scars to talk about. Our next goal is to find some sort of shelter to survive the elements.
Azusa dived down from the sky, oblivious as to why the dragoness below her was annoyed and slightly frazzled. With a musical call, the blue Pheonix pointed in a certain direction with a fiery wing. Aurora takes a few deep breaths to calm herself before she heads off in the direction her oh so helpful familiar pointed. It wasn't like Manticore should have been easily spotted from the air or something, and it wasn't certainly Azusa's job to be a lookout or anything.
Aurora quietly steamed while she walked towards what appeared to be a small cave jutting from the ground that had been hidden by a thick grove of trees. Pushing her way through the annoying underbrush, she was able to get a better look at the cave.
It was quite small, just large enough to fit her and a couple of other items, but it would soon grow too small as she was always growing. The roof of the cave was covered in grass and small plants, and the floor dipped below the ground. When she described it aloud, it seemed more like a burrow than a cave, but oh well. Beggars can't be choosers.
Azusa, who had only seen the thing from above, looked into it in disgust. Such a dwelling underground was beneath her, an average Pheonix was rare, and a blue Phenoix such as her self was ten times as rare! There was NO WAY that she would go down there. No. Azusa is going to roost in the trees thank you very much.
With a low grumble, Aurora ducked down and crawled into the burrow, blasting the floor with ice to make it more comfortable for herself before laying down to get some rest.
She was still too full of adrenaline from the fight to sleep for a while, so she let her mind drift to just a few days prior. She had been in the Dragonlands in her small but comfy cave. She was the only Northern dragon there, so she was an outcast among all the ash makers. She was beautiful, yes, with her pure white scales that had an iridescent blue sheen, her wings were large and an ombre of white to pale blue, but in the barbaric Dragonlands, beauty was nothing, and strength was everything in their kingdom. Northern dragons once had a kingdom of their own! A massive palace in the far north made entirely of ice and snow, but when the Crystal Empire's King, King Sombra, learned of the Northern Dragons, he hunted them all down until none could challenge him for the north. It was by pure luck that her sole parent escaped with her egg, which had taken hundreds of years to hatch. But her parent was gone now, and she had been alone in a pit of fire breathers. All it had taken for her to be booted from the only home she ever had, was for her to fire a blast of ice at an arrogant little shit called Garble.
So began her exodus to Equestria. The indignity of being banished ate at her like acid. Other dragons had done far worse to each other, but noooo, let's get rid of the outcast who doesn't even eat gems anyway.
Aurora put a stop to her thoughts as they threatened to become toxic. She had bigger issues now. Such as to decide what to do next and how she was to survive
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Points gained from this chapter
+ 2 Strength. Fighting off a Manticore isn't easy
+ 5 Cunning. Good thinking using an Ice Blast instead of brute strength!
+ 2 Honour. Fighting a Manticore is an impressive story! While not all will believe it, those who do will respect you more.
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