FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The sun rose slowly over the horizon, bringing the warming presence of daylight to Breezehome. Beams of orange light struck the small buildings. The guards who patrolled the wooden walls of the town raised their heads, smiling at the warmth. However, despite the heat, the slushy snow failed to melt. Several beams of light filtered into a little house in the center of the town, striking the face of a deep blue dragoness. She growled softly, eyes slowly opening. Her wings ruffled in irritation. With a low grunt, she rolled over, trying to fall back into the lovely embrace of sleep. Try as she might though, fate seemed to have other ideas. Unable to fall back into slumber, Loire sighed and rose to her haunches. Balancing on three legs, Loire used her left paw to rub her eyes of the lingering sleep.

With a big yawn, Loire got to all fours. Stretching her body, wings fanning out, she released a content sigh, several pops accompanied it. Stepping out of her thick nest of blankets and cushions, Loire lazily exited her small room and padded into a large main room. A few big cushions of various different colors were scattered around. Her mother's silver breastplate sat on a table in the corner, along with several scrolls. She grimaced as she swallowed. Memories lanced through her head: Agonized screams, her father shouting in despair, being rushed out of the room by one of the elders. Loire shook her head violently, shaking the trauma from her mind. Padding over to a large water basin on the opposite side of the room, she took a long drink. Loire pulled her head out of the water, sending several stay droplets down her breast scales. She smiled and gave a contented groan as the rocks in her throat went away.

Shaking the rest of tiredness out of her system, the blue dragoness walked over to a large bookcase leaning against one of the walls. Reaching one paw forward, her talons gently traced the spines of the many books she stored there. She stopped for a second, a big grin on her muzzle as she eyed her collection. Resuming her search, her lavender eyes quickly picked out a large red spined book. Carefully wrapping her talons around it, she pulled it out. With a grunt, she heaved the tightly bound book from its place. Falling back to her haunches, Loire held the book in both paws. Witten upon the cover, in gold lettering, accented by a deep burgundy,were the words: An overview of the old world: The annals of dragon history.

She was immediately intrigued. History was something she had always had a knack for, especially when it came to the great leaders. This rather impressively sized book could've had her busy for hours. Quickly glancing out the window at the sun that had just barely crested the horizon, a soft grin graced her face and her eyes sparked. It seemed like she had some time. The town didn't wake up nearly as early as she did. Using one paw to hold the book close to her chest, Loire padded over to a large blue cushion. She deposited the tome onto the cushion and set off into another room of the house.

Moving through the doorway, the dragoness entered a small area. Covering the left and right side walls were large expansive cabinets. The wall directly in front of her housed a dark stone furnace. Piled inside was a mound of thick sticks and smaller twigs, surrounded by a fine layer of ash. Sitting on top of the stone was a large piece of flint. She casually strode over to it. Grabbing the rock in her left talon, Loire curled her tail around herself. She flicked her tail blade up to the rock. At the end of her tail was a thin shovel shaped wedge of metal. With a quick jerk of her tail, the blade cut into the rock sending a shower of tiny sparks into the fire place. Quickly taking a step back, the flames burst up, casting the dark room into a fiery orange.

Smirking, Loire turned to a dark wooden cabinet on her left. Rising onto her hindlegs, she grabbed a frozen cut of caribou. Using the side of her head to close the cabinet, Loire got back down. She set the meat onto a lowered table next to the furnace. She smashed her tail spade into the frozen meat several times. Once the ice was all off, she sat down close to the roaring fire. Her jaws sunk into the cut, salty juice immediately assaulted her taste buds. The dragoness closed her eyes and let out a satisfied groan. Once she was done scarfing down her breakfast, she licked her claws delicately. With a full stomach, Loire slowly got up, stretching her forearms out. Letting out a lazy, smug sigh of happiness, she sauntered back to the main room.

Flopping down onto her large, blue cushion, Loire flipped the cover of her book. Carefully flipping the pages, the blue dragoness read for the next few hours, completely into her reading. The book told of many great heroes and leaders. From Waffe, the designer of the great golden catapults of Warfang, to Eis, the greatest leader the ice dragons had ever known. That she found particularly interesting. She read on, eyes flicking quickly across the pages. Apparently, long ago the ice dragons had actually been a very rare breed, being only born up in the far reaches of the north. In the isolation, the ice dragons hadn't yet met with any other intelligent species. They had been a very paranoid bunch back then, living in a rather impressive city. Due to the ruthless nature of their home, the leadership had been very strict. Given that they didn't want their leadership undermined, the only dragons allowed outside into the farther reaches were the hunters.

This harsh system of law was felt particularly well by the more rowdy of the lot. These laws came down upon Eis at an early age. Eis was a freethinker, a maverick, who through his own questioning of the government, nearly got himself executed. He brooded for years, staying silent in the shadows as he attracted a small group of followers who liked his ideas: The ability to think freely and to go where they pleased. Eis absolutely hated the leaders of the time, and tried to overthrow. Before doing this, Eis rounded up a group of likeminded dragons and planned for months. During a massive whiteout, Eis and his followers took to the streets. Using the harsh weather as a shroud, Eis's almost entirely white body was just about invisible. Put into small groups of three, the mavericks slipped through the storm. They hopped in through the upstairs windows of the capitol building. The dragons skillfully snuck into the leadership chamber during a meeting. The fifteen or so dragons quickly burst into the chamber, murdering the few guards stationed there. The conflict was very quick, very brutal, and very to the point. Though they managed to kill all the elders, Eis lost ten of his followers. When the snowstorm cleared, Eis announced that he was the new leader. Over the course of forty years, Eis founded several new towns and settlements and explored down into the south. The golden age of the ice dragons ended several years after his death, over 150 years after his initial overthrow and was a time of great expansion and exploration. The land owned almost tripled and the population quadrupled.

Loire whistled. She looked up. The sun had risen far above the hiorizon and through the windows she could see dragons going about their business. Her eyes widened. It had only felt like an hour, yet it had been quite a few. Closing the book with a loud thud, Loire stretched as she got up. Tucking the book firmly into its spot, the blue dragoness tapped her claws against the hard wooden floor. She blanked out for a minute, a dumb look crossing her face. She didn't actually plan anything for today, did she? Loire slammed her balled up talons against the floor, cursing herself. She was usually so punctual about this sort of thing. Well as much as she hated to do it, she figured she might as well just wing it.

Quickly turning, Loire strolled into the food storage. She closed the iron gate over the fire. Sitting by it for a second to absorb some of the heat, Loire sifted through her thoughts, forming a plan for the day. A sudden thought sprung into her head. Winter was approaching, she would need some thicker bedding. The furnace could keep the whole house decently warm, but winters in Breezehome were incredibly harsh. She stared into the flames for a few minutes, mesmerized by its almost liquid form. Strangely, despite being an ice dragon, the cold affected her almost as much as it would an earth dragon. Once the heat was starting to hurt, Loire got up, and walked out. In the main room, a door made of spruce loomed in one of the walls. Pushing gently, the door creaked open. She was instantly assaulted by several blasts of frigid winds. Pushing through the powerful current, Loire stepped outside. Her tail snaked around the large handle of the door. She yanked hard. The wood slammed shut behind her.

The dragoness took a deep breath of the crisp air. The freshness always made her feel great. She tilted her head straight up. The orange ball of fire had risen almost completely up, nearly reaching its pinnacle. She took a step, her claws clicking noisily against the cobblestone road. She looked down and a gave a grimace. Lifting one of her paws, a thick coating of slushy snow fell from it. Narrowing her eyes, the azure dragoness shook of the excess slush and continued on her way. Passing by several dragons, to which they nodded respectfully at her, she continued deeper into the town. The sound of voices reached her, sending off an alarm bell. The voices sounded angry. Pushing her body forward, Loire raced towards the cries. One of them she immediately recognized. She skidded to a halt in front of a large crowd. She pitched herself upwards. Her sapphire wings spread, showing off her wide jade membranes. She twisted in the air, moving over the large crowd. The cheering continued and Loire groaned, when she saw the combatants. A black dragon, a few years younger than her was pinned to the ground by a slightly larger red dragon. The black dragon was fighting for all he was worth, but was skinnier and less muscular than the other dragon. Loire folded her wings and dove. She quickly fanned her wings out as she got close to the ground. Landing heavily, she pounced on the fire dragon. She slammed into him, knocking him onto his back. The cerulean dragoness, stood, crouched between the two. She snarled as the red dragon pulled himself up. He growled, but was shut up as Loire spat a thick cone of ice into the stones between his front paws. She twisted her neck back, narrowed eyes boring into the black scaled reptile as he pushed himself up.

"Mind tell me what's going on here?" Loire growled the words out between her clenched teeth. It wouldn't have surprised her one bit if he was the one who started the mess.

"Oh, Loire thank the ancestors you're here!" He panted as he gasped the words out. The dragon stood shakily and hobbled over to Loire. Standing beside her, he was at least a whole head shorter. Loire eyed him up. His scales were a glossy ebony, his ridged underbelly was a bright shade of yellow. Horns of the same color stuck out of the back of his neck. Sharp, pointy, lemon colored spines lined his back.

"Starlix, i'm guessing you started this didn't you." He looked shocked, and a little indignant.

"Okay seriously, why would I start this?" Loire almost gaped.

"The fact that you seem to get yourself into a kerfuffle with every dragon you don't like! How hard is it to ignore someone?" Loire felt like slapping him. This was so like him, she could've predicted it from a mile away. She never particularly liked Starlix, but she didn't hate him.

"It's not my fault he's a giant dick!" Starlix yelled into her face. She was about to push him away, when a voice cut her off.

"Hey! You're the one that tripped me!" The fiery dragon yelled, flames escaping the sides of his maw. Loire eyed him critically, not saying a word. Starlix sighed and cowered a bit.

"Yeah, well maybe you should've been more careful who you walk near. You should've know by now how much I despise you." The black dragon stressed the word 'despise.' The red dragon gaped at him, almost uncomprehending how blunt he was. Loire's eyes softened. The crowd started to disperse, a little disappointed that the action was over.

"Blast, get out of here. This is over." He growled, but a stern look from the female cut him off. Grumbling to himself the red dragon took off. Loire returned her attention back to Starlix, who was rapidly vanishing into the crowd.

Loire sighed. She would never understand how he could be so...angering. Or for that matter how her brother could stand him. The thought of Rhine brought a smile to her face. She wondered how her brother was doing. That smile was very quickly replaced by a frown. She didn't know why her brother had taken that job. Sure, the pay was good for something like that, very good, but killing one of your own kind. Traitor of not, that fire dragon was still a dragon. The thought of her baby brother having to do something like that sent a chill down her spine. Well he would be back soon. It had been about five days since he left; he was probably on his way home now.

"He'll be fine" She whispered in her mind "Just fine." Resuming her walk down to the marketplace, Loire took in the scenery her. The architecture was a blend of gothic and industrial. The mighty capital and larger buildings towered over the compacted, aesthetically pleasing houses and small shops. The marketplace however, was like a building just without the exterior. Some of the larger shops were separated by large stone walls, while the smaller ones, just had thick cloths. The entire place was kept from the snowfall by a massive onyx colored tarp. The sounds of business brought a sense of urgency to her.

Navigating through the dense crowd of bodies, Loire came upon a small dark room. Inside, an old dulled amber dragon sat. The sound of Loire's claws alerted him to his customer. Once he saw who it was, he grinned.

"Ah! If it isn't young Loire." He gestured with one of his large paws for her to come closer. The azure dragoness moved forward, coming into the light of one of the hanging torches. Various large cloths and patterns hung on rack near the back of the room, while a few boxes sat on the floor, off the side.

"Hello master Saft." She greeted the old dragon happily. "I'm here for some...winter arrangements." She motion with a paw at one of the thicker blankets. He nodded understandingly.

"I see, I see." He looked at her curiously. "Are the ones I sold you several years ago not compensating?" Loire gave him a toothy smile.

"Well Saft, I've grown quite a bit since then." He blinked

"Of course, my dear. How silly of me" The dragon gave her a quick glance before digging through several crates behind him. A moment later he pulled out a rather large folded blanket. Green and Purple diamonds lined the entire blanket in intricate patterns. All in all, it was very pretty and Loire took a liking to it immediately

"It's gorgeous!" She marveled at the craftsmanship. She reached a paw up, running it through the silky fabric. It was thick, more than enough to keep her warm. "How much?" Saft raised a paw to caress his chin as he looked up.

"Hmm...for you my dear, 18 silver." Loire raised a scaly brow. Rather expensive, but it was very, very nice. Loire cringed as she reached a paw into the small bag at her side. It took a moment to get all the coins out. Placing them on the small desk in front of Saft, he scooped them up graciously. He nodded at the blanket as he gently placed the folded fabric on her back. Saft came around from his cushion and tied a long string under her belly and around her back. Careful with his claws, the elder expertly tied the loose knot.

"Thanks Saft." She gave him a courteous wave of a wing as she turned and strolled out of the room. Sunlight attacked her vision as she came back into the fresh air. Weaving through the crow was difficult, even more so with the massive folded blanket on her back. The thing was surprisingly heavy and she found herself eager to get home and drop it off.

As she marched on, the sounds of the marketplace faded away, replaced by a comfortable quiet. The only sound coming from the clicking of claws on stone or the few dragons milling about. A wet squish below her paws snapped her out of her thoughts. She had reached her side of town, where the snow still lingered heavily on the streets. Her paws quickly became very cold and she growled. As she turned a bend, her house came into few. The small structure was a hundred or so yards away. Breaking into a sprint, she crossed the distance very rapidly. Slowing down she came to stop in front of her dark wood door. She wrapped a paw clumsily around the long handle, the wetness clinging to it made it slippery. With a hard pull, the door opened.

Loire quickly moved inside, the door being pushed closed from behind her. The blue dragoness ducked into her room, before cutting the string tied around her barrel, and carefully dumping the blanket into a corner. Weaving her way back around the corner of the room, she found her gaze drawn to another room opposite of the main hall. The door was closed and slightly dusty, as if the occupant hadn't opened it in a quite some time. She closed her eyes for a moment, concern bubbling to the surface. Growing tired of her own worrying, she smacked a paw to the side of her head. Without another thought she, exited the house.

Seeing as she had nothing to do, Loire took to the air. Lazily crossing the town, her breath coming steadily, the female came to rest on the spire of the capitol building. Balancing on her four legs, Loire couldn't help but be amazed by the view. The large town stretched on for a long ways before being cut by massive spruce walls. Several hundred yards away from those wall, the enormous forest went on for miles. Everything was covered in a blanket of white. Surrounding them on almost all side were tall snow capped mountains. The mountains continued up until the point where they were just silhouettes. She breathed deeply.

Rhine was out in those woods somewhere. She had always admired him. Despite the incredible risks, he was out there trying to protect her and Breezehome. Again, concern bubbled to the surface at the thought of Rhine being out there, all alone. She knew how experienced he was, but accidents could always happen. She shoved that thought away. Rhine was fine, he always was.

The sounds of flapping wings brought Loire to attention. She curled her lip as Starlix raced towards her. Great, just what she needed, this buffoon. Starlix was panting when he reached her. Hovering in front of the azure dragoness, the black dragon gave her a frantic look.

"Why so nervous Star? Need me to save you from getting your ass kicked again?" Sarcasm dripped from her venomous words. The black dragon narrowed his eyes at her.

"No, that's not it. The elders want to see us." He gave her a pointed look. Loire drew back. The elders never spoke to any commoners unless it was something drastically important. Like what they did with Rhine when he took their job offer. Loire hopped off the spire. Opening her wings, she looked Starlix in the eye.

"Let's not keep them waiting then." She gestured forward. "Lead the way." The black dragon gave her one last look, before turning and taking off. Loire, right on his heels, couldn't help but feel uncertainty work its way into. With one last look at the forest, Loire closed her eyes and sighed.

---

The flapping of wings was somewhat distracting to even himself. With a sigh the black dragon closed his eyes and shook his head. He didn't always appreciate the stern telling off he often received from the cyan dragoness following behind himself. It got inherently annoying that she seemed to undermine his own sensibilities, despite her own flaws.

Sighing once again, the dragon angled his wings to the right. The updraft caught his wings and threw him higher into the air, a breeze of warm air following closely behind. The dragon, shook himself slightly, grabbing at the necklace hanging loosely, flowing in the wind. A sharp purple crystal. A quick smack of his head dispelled the distressing thoughts and focused his eyes back behind him once more.

Loire was trailing, eyes glazed over and mind seemingly elsewhere. The dragoness was lagging a little bit, only beating her wings every few seconds. A twisted grin spread across his muzzle. With a quick flap, Starlix flipped himself around, flapping his wings forwards while facing the ice dragoness.

The devious smile still on his features, he tapped into his element, generating a small stream of static through his lemon colored membranes and into the up draft currently surrounding them. The static manifested in the air as a sharp copper taste on the tongue and a smell of burning metal.

Completely unaware of the incoming threat, Loire flew right into the draft. A shock quickly zapped her on several spots of her body. A sizzle contorted her wings slightly, shaking her from her trance. Sparks tickled her paws, causing a quick grimace. With a growl she shook herself, straightening her flight pattern and lifting her head towards him.

Once her eyes focused on him she gave a feral snarl and charged at him, flapping her wings madly. Eyes sharp, the pissed off dragoness bared her claws forward, intending to tackle him straight out of the air. A sharp gust of wind gave her increased velocity and she nearly rammed him.

Turning on sharp wing tips, the drake laughed and threw himself to the side, barely avoiding her razor claws and reaching jaws. Turning on a dime, Loire hovered for a moment, staring at the black drake, eyes narrowed sharply. He could see just how annoyed she was, and a part of him felt slightly remorseful. A very, very small part of him that it.

"You are dead!" Loire roared at him and dove. Yelping at the unexpected ferocity she was displaying, Starlix snapped his wings shut and forced himself barely under her outstretched talons. Catching a small draft, Starlix spread his wings once again and turned himself left. Pulling a tight turn, the black dragon righted himself.

Loire, on the other head, struggled a bit to recover from her steep dive. Pulling her wings back, she caught the breeze painfully. It pulled on her wings tightly, but the looked over her shoulder and growled. Hovering for a second, Loire twisted in the air, coming to face him. She sighed, feeling her anger melt away at the confused, and slightly frightened expression he bore. Turning away for a moment she raised a paw to the side of her head. "Get it together there, girl. You're starting to get a bit too uptight." Loire rubbed her head, worried even more by her own growing aggression in the past week.

She raised her head, letting her paw fall. With a quick jerk of her head, she motioned silently for him to continue. He stared for a moment, eyes roaming her form before settling on her eyes. The slitted pupils seeming to stare into her own a bit more deeply than usual. A minute later he broke the gaze, shaking his head with a snort. She sighed as she saw him flap back to the left, lowering a bit closer to the ground.

Loire breathed a quick reassuring breath, getting her heart to settle. The thought back to that gaze gave her a quick shiver. Starlix's piercing gaze had been considerably more serious than she had experienced from the young drake. With a grimace she came to the conclusion that he may have been just as bothered as her. Cursing her own insensitivity, she saddled up to him, almost side by side.

She looked him in the eyes, a silent exchange being spoken for a moment. Lowering her gaze from his own too serious one, she let her eyes settle on the passing buildings, the low howl of the passing wind being the only other sound than her own flapping wings. She heard him clear his throat and raised her head to see him leveled a gaze from the side of one of his eyes.

"You seem more agitated than usual." He spoke indifferently, not letting her judge how he felt about it. Staring at him for a moment, she let her gaze fall again.

"Yeah..." She muttered the word slowly, feeling disgusted by admitting any weakness to the dragon beside her. He didn't seem to pick up on this, however.

"I think I can probably wager why." He smirked, casting her a quick glance, before shaking his head and snorting. She glared at him, not at all amused by this indifference.

"Oh really now asshole, and why would that be?" Feeling her rising nerves once again, Loire gnashed her jaws and turned her head trying to concentrate on something other than the thoughts plaguing her mind.

"You know he's fine, he's too damn stubborn to really get himself into bad stuff." Starlix replied without answering. "He's not like me, he takes so much time to think things out, it hasn't really steered him wrong before." She didn't have to ask who he was talking about.

"Rhine is clever, but this is something completely different." Loire protested, feeling the stress getting to her. Her little brother, her baby brother to her mind. The air chilled a bit in response to her distress.

"Loire, we have never seen eye to eye, but I think we can both agree that Rhine can handle this." He spoke without much concern, seeming to believe his words.

"Hunting is simple!" She snapped at him, refusing to look at his indifferent expression. "But hunting animals is different than hunting something that can talk, act, and think like we do!"

"You've seen the way he can disregard emotions when he needs to."

"Rhine has always been sensitive to the suffering around him. How is he gonna handle being the cause of that suffering."

"That scumbag is not one of us!" Starlix snapped suddenly, an uncharacteristic serious anger coloring his tone. Loire reared back, ready to go on the defensive, but before she could, he continued. "That traitor is the cause for quite a bit of pain and trouble around here! I thought you of all people wouldn't care if he died."

"I don't claim to hold any care for that dragon, but Rhine I'm sure still considers him one of us. It'll destroy him to kill another dragon! I just don't want him out there potentially getting killed, let alone mentally harming himself."

Starlix groaned tiredly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Do you really have to be this dramatic!" He looked pointedly at her, eyes shining a bit brighter than usual. "I thought you'd have a bit more faith in your brother, he of all people has shown what he's capable of."

Loire reared back, a crass look crossing her features. She was tempted to snap a bit back at him but held her tongue. She didn't respond initially, instead choosing to lash her tail back and forth a bit, considering his words. Sensing her uncertainly, Starlix's expression softened a bit. With a strong flap of his wings he flew up beside her. He nudged her softly with a wing tip.

"Look, I know you think he can't handle himself, but he-" She cut him off with a soft response, one close to being inaudible.

"You wouldn't understand." She whispered, trembling in the air slightly, emotion clogging her voice. "I only tell this to because you are close to family with us, don't get used to it." She cleared her throat for a moment. "When our parents died, it was just him and I. I never really knew our mother, and I don't know what happened to Father...he just...vanished." She paused for a moment, taking a shaky breath. "He loved father so much, I couldn't let him go through that alone, I became more of a mother than a sister to him. I just...I love him so dearly."

"Rhine's tough. Tougher than he looks, you know just as well as I do." He frowned at her. He understood why she was upset, at least because it was maternal. Despite that, he couldn't really grasp why she would be worried for his safety. "Besides, it's not like this is the longest Rhine has ever stayed out there."

"He was hunting elk, not apes and dragons!" She growled, looking very conflicted.

"Something tells me he won't care so much about killing apes." He pointed out to her, a brow raised skeptically. "Rhine, however sensitive he is to emotion, is more wild than any other dragon in this city, maybe even more than his father."

She knew he was mostly right about that. "Easy for you to say, you don't know him the way I do."

"You're right."

"Then don't act-"

"However, I know the way around his head like nobody else." He interrupted, looking a little miffed by her continued defiance to logic and reason. "You know his heart, but I know his mind. The Rhine I know won't let himself get into a shitty spot without some kind of crazy unexpected setback." He angled his wings downward as the city center came into view around the tallest buildings.

A tall structure sat in the middle of a courtyard. Pillars several meters high lined each of its three triangular sides. The building itself was tan colored, made from a sturdy concrete material, the perimeter extending longer than almost any other building in the city, about 30 meters on each side. The roof appeared to be a piled up stack of sandstone plates, however it was just melded together blocks of cement and rebar. Despite the importance of the structure, the age was starting to show by the cracks and breaks along it's lengths.

"Looks like we're out of time eh." The normal humorous, nonchalant tone returned to the black dragon's voice. Loire looked at him, expression unreadable. To her it was strange, he seemed to switch rather fast from dead serious and annoyed back to his hot-headed self. Maybe he was less affected by Rhine's prolonged absence than she was.

Or he was just denying his real emotions the limelight.

"Seems like it." She eyed the large building with some unease. There was no way that this could be anything less than dire. The arrogance of many of the council members usually left them never resorting to the help of commoners like herself and Starlix.

Gliding down to the stone steps leading up to the center, she folded her wings, landing heavily. Off to her right, she barely heard the drake touch down, landing so lightly. He folded his wings as well and took the lead, walking gracefully up the large steps.

Quickly hopping up the long set of stairs, she felt the urgency return to her. She was getting a bit tired of the wondering and her natural curiosity was getting to her. Starlix noticed her anxiousness, however he just smirked and said nothing, watching her move quickly ahead of him.

An opportunity to mess with her head a bit presented itself. A quick channeling of the electric energy in the cold air could make the steps feel sticky to the touch. If she tripped in front of this kind of building, with all it's public figureheads and the like, the hilarity of that could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Before he could even start tapping into his element, a thought graced his mind. "She will literally kill me if I do something this stupid." Gulping, he decided to just continue walking. She seemed ready to snap, no real point in poking the bear so to speak.

Shaking the idea from his head, he frowned unhappily. Once Rhine got back, things would hopefully go back to normal. "If he comes back." Nausea struck him before he could bury the thought. His claws scratched the stone, carving deep indentations as he clenched down hard.

"Star, let's go." A voice speaking irritably snapped him from his momentary rage. With a sigh, he pulled his talons free of the stone. Jumping up the last sets of steps, he fell back into his normal gallop.

"I'm coming, chill out grouchy." She rolled her eyes, turning back around and continuing her speed walk. The ever present smirk returned to his muzzle. So easy to annoy, as ever. With a laugh and a shake of his head, he quickly ran up to her. Falling in step behind the taller dragoness.

"You know." He said, catching her attention once more. Without even turning, she raised a scaly brow. "Usually places like this don't take to kindly to people with things shoved up their rear." He curbed the laugh building in his throat at her dumbfounded expression.

Turning quickly, she pressed her snout up to his, a snarl on her features. He could see the intense fire still bubbling in her lilac eyes. A startled squeak escaped his mouth before he could stop it.

"They also don't approve of corpses in here." She growled lowly. "So shut your damn trap before you violate that rule." She pushed his head back with a clenched paw, turning around quickly, her tail lashing angrily. Thankfully there was nobody around.

He swallowed, rubbing a paw up his face. Despite the stinging around his left eye, he smiled softly. Good to know that the stress and fear hadn't weathered that fiery temper of hers.

The sound of his claws clacking on the marble floor noisily, interrupted the silence. He seemed to be making an effort to alert anyone in earshot that they were present. Once he was by her side once more, she turned her head halfway to him.

"You're being especially obnoxious today." She said tiredly, not looking him in the eye as they turned another corner. Flaring her wings for a moment, she pulled them back with a huff. He read her body language poorly, but he knew her well enough to recognize 'very annoyed dragoness.'

Raising a paw to his chest in mock offense, turned around, back pedaling so he could look her in the eyes. "What? Me? How am I even slightly obnoxious?" He shook his head as she just stared at him, stopping for a moment to glare. He just gave a cheeky grin, before turning back around and resuming his stride.

She waited a moment, contemplating if she could fight a murder charge. There was nobody around, she could just say he fell from the upper floors. Nobody would know, nobody. Bringing a claw up to her neck, she feigned dragging it across her throat. Making a fake choking noise she dropped the claw.

It clicked on the ground, echoing a slight bit. Without another word, she ran to catch up with Starlix as he passed around another corner, tail spade disappearing around the corner right as she rounded the corner. It would be only a few minutes now, and hopefully they would ease her worries. She hoped that he was coming back safe and sound. She couldn't bear losing him to those monsters.

---