FSE

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"Well, that was a bit too easy."

To be frank, it was getting a bit too annoying. He stared at the unconscious male a few feet away from him, the crowd gasping and muttering, shock and awe traveling along the air. In the middle of the crowd was a black furred bear, light accents adorning his mostly shirtless and lightly scarred body. He wore nothing but a light scarf around his neck and mouth, protective bands across his wrists and hands. He wore tattered clothing around his waist along with a pair of what seemed like very durable pants judging from the rips and marks across them. Noir wasn't surprised in the slightest. The bulky sun bear sighed as he scratched his cheek, this pattern had gone on for far too long and he was tired of being teased. Every time he went through a village to gather some supplies, some poor fool who heard of his reputation as a fighter wished to challenge him. Not even a few seconds later and they were on the ground, Noir looming over them with a disappointed scowl on his face.

"Okay, next time you try challenging someone who's out of your league, try not to be an ass about it, tch." The ursine grunted as he cracked his knuckles and set off. The crowd split in half as Noir continued walking unperturbed, adjusting his knapsack. The sun was shining brightly, the sun bear looking up at the sky. He had enough time to stick around and get some stuff before leaving. Maybe if he was fast enough, he could get to the desert. The only reason he was here in the first place was to follow up on a lead. There had been whispers of a few dragons lurking about in some part of the desert that made people anxious to travel into since the unfamiliarity of the area along with traveling with inventory for the next towns and over made such a trek incredibly difficult to do.

While he didn't exactly care for the economy of the town, he wasn't past giving them a hand and getting some sort of practice out of it. Dragons were...a mixed bag to him. They were possibly one of the strongest creatures across the land, but their demeanor and other reasons made the sun bear incredibly apprehensive towards them as a species. Noir clenched a fist and gritted his teeth. As he walked through the village, the people could sense the waves of anger rolling off on him. If it hadn't been that, the minor waves of dust that circled around his feet as he walked, the waves becoming stronger and stronger were another thing.

Okay, calm down, let's not focus on that. How's about I get something to eat?

The sun bear took a deep sigh, the waves finally relaxing and subsiding to the ground. As Noir left the area, some of the vendors took in a deep breath of relief from the idea of the thick ursine destroying the area. Sun bears, especially those like him were not that common for multiple reasons. They tended to train underground to get a better control of their powers and usually never left unless they had good reason to. For whatever reason this one was out and about, it had to have been important lest they annoyed him.

With that, the bear had finally found a place he was looking for, a simple fruit stand. The clerk seemed to turn to steel as he walked towards him. Whether it was the difference in height and build or the fact he'd seen the minor spectacle that Noir had done before, he didn't know. Regardless, Noir gave a small wave and pointed towards the some of the fruit on his wagon. A closer observation proved that some of the produce on the wagon wasn't exactly ripe.

"Got anything fresh?"

"N-no, I'm sorry sir. I usually get my stuff fresh, but the guy I get the stuff from hasn't been providing as of late!"

Noir cocked his head to the side at the sudden change in tone. The clerk didn't bother making eye contact for a few brief moments. An even stare from the bear seemed to be enough to get him to snap to attention.

"B-but if you can try to get him to deliver, I'll let you have whatever you want, free! For a dragon, his stuff is really good, doesn't usually expire for triple the usual several months!"

Noir blinked in surprise and narrowed his stare. If anything, the clerk somehow got even more scared. He ignored the man's fear for now and focused on his next question. A dragon providing food was something he hadn't heard of before. If anything, it was the exact opposite. There had to have been a catch that they didn't know about.

"...Alright. Where does he live?"

Noir was directed toward the outside of the small village.

"It's just a mile or so out there. You won't miss it, trust me."

The sun bear set off without another word. As soon as he was gone, the clerk seemed to visibly relax and slump down to the floor, taking deep breaths. Just what the heck was up with that guy? He didn't sound like the most intimidating guy, but the way he carried himself along with the warrior garb made him want to stay on his good side. The fact that he mentioned a dragon had made him completely alert though.

Was he planning on fighting him? Nah, there was no reason to do something like that.

"But he is incredibly powerful...Hope he doesn't kill him, I still need to make a profit."

He was right; Noir would have been utterly blind to not see the place. The location was but a few minutes with a few well timed bursts through the air. He'd toppled a few trees in the process due to bad aiming, but he was sure he hadn't hit anyone. The location itself was a meadow land that spanned quite a bit, several different types of gardens in different sections of the land. In front of the actual area was a neatly set fence covered with vines. He jumped the fence with ease, landing on the other side of the cultivated land and walked forward. If there were gardens, there had to be a house of some sort.

As Noir continued walking, he noted a few things. The surprisingly well adjusted land couldn't have been able to produce all these things like nothing. A vanity garden full of different types of flowers he'd seen in his travels that clearly weren't meant to grow in an environment like this along with a small field for vegetables and fruits. And then there was the quite odd one. A purely brown field filled with small vines that seemed to snake around of their own will. As Noir walked, something tugged at his leg. Caught by surprise, the bear kicked and let out a quick snap of fire. The vine had burned up, but the next thing that happened caught him off guard. The bear's fire had begun to spread along the vine, the flames traveling towards the area of sentient flora.

"...Shit."

He didn't know that flowers were able to yell, but there seemed to be a loud shriek as the vines were set a flame. A few seconds after, the ground began to shake violently. The ground along the flaming area was ripped up, the ground falling over the flames and dousing them, but something else had erupted from there. A vine the size of a tree, possibly even more had darted out of the ground and slithered around like a snake, careening straight towards him! The bear simply took a stance, tensed his legs and took a deep jump into the air. The vine followed suit as he expected. With a quick bend, the vine darted past with no scratch, the bear landing on top of the vine's surface. At that point, there was the slam of what seemed to be a door. Noir jumped off the enormous appendage as it slithered around, the odd flora hanging back and watching him almost like a snake.

"Who...burned up one of my babies!"

The voice was clearly angry as the source of it walked forward. As soon as he got a quick look, Noir scowled. It was the dragon he was 'looking' for. The green fuzzed humanoid dragon continued walking, long whiskers flowing in the wind along with a large mane of hair behind him. He wore a sleeveless vest with something bright dangling from his neck along with a pair of baggy blue pants, several vines snaking from the area and surrounding him. Noir didn't get a chance to keep looking as the dragon lifted a hand up. The vine soon reacted and charged at him once more along with a few smaller ones.

Well, if he wanted a fight, he was going to get one.

As the myriad of vines approached him at high speed, Noir shifted his feet and tensed. Before they would make contact, the bear simply jumped out of the way and into the air. The vines continued traveling before they turned around and headed towards him once again. He planned to just burn them once they got close enough, but he had another situation to deal with, such as the conjurer of the plants. The dragon glared at him from down below. Soon enough, he jumped in right after him. He didn't doubt the dragon's possible fighting skills, but this just seemed really out of his favor. When it came to fire vs grass, fire always won. But that didn't seem to stop him from trying. The eastern dragon reared an arm back for an obvious punch.

Noir clenched his hands and let his body temperature skyrocket as he was assaulted from both sides. In a quick burst, the bear lit himself on fire, two pillars of flames erupting from his arms and allowing him to temporarily fly out of the way. Any of the vines caught in the vicinity were doused in his flames. As for the dragon himself, he seemed to have found a unique way out. With possibly no way to fly, the dragon took the next best thing and used the vines that were already scorched and used them as a minor shield from the intensity of the bear's flames. Noir continued feeding the pillars of fire that spouted from his arms, the dragon falling to the ground with little a scratch. He figured the vines couldn't reach up here without being burned, so the upper hand was in his favor. In the blink of an eye, that seemed to change. Literally, in the blink of an eye, the bear had to maneuver around in the skies with well timed bursts of fire as the dragon had another plan up his sleeve. Brown projectiles were thrown into the skies in slow, powerful shots. With one accidental burst in the wrong direction, Noir suffered a graze of mud onto one of his arms. The mud had decreased the power of the flames, the wet mud coating most of his wrist. As he tried to heat the mud to shatter it, the bear was forced to make a quick landing. Sadly, the green dragon took an advantage towards that.

As Noir descended, the vines began to creep up on his place of landing. They slithered around like snakes waiting to pounce on their target. With the other plume of fire on a free arm still active, most of them were destroyed the instant he arrived. His opponent crossed his arms and waited for him to arrive, the look on his face clearly showing anger. He tapped his foot as the bear burned off the mud and returned the glare.

"Now, mind telling me why the hell you started burning my babies? I put good work into this place and then you come in here wrecking everything!"

Noir blinked as the eastern dragon and took a deep breath. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Damn dragons, so presumptuous."

"Because I'm right! You've no reason to be here, so explain!"

"The guy at the village said the batch you gave him was bad. And I didn't attack your garden out of nowhere; one of your odd looking plants attacked me."

The dragon went quiet. He stared at him for a few moments before he calmed down. The green eastern smacked his own face and let out long groan. Noir raised a brow, arms crossed over his chest as the eastern's face went red.

"I...am so sorry for that outburst. I really gotta learn to reel it in. Ugh, I'll go to him later, but are you okay? I'm not the best fighter but I really don't know how to hold back when I'm mad and all."

The sun bear waved him off. "Takes a lot more than that to give me a scratch."

The dragon blinked as the bear soon made his way out of the garden. He blinked in surprise, running towards the ursine. "H-hey! Can't I least get your name or something; maybe give you some free fruits as an apology? My name's Thunder, tell the guy I'll be there later with a fresh batch!"

Noir turned his head and nodded and continued on his way. He really wasn't in the mood for conversation, the eastern dragon still trailing behind him until he'd left the garden grounds. That one was definitely not normal, at least when compared to the other dragons he'd seen in his life. For starters, none of them were so attuned with nature and so...small. He didn't get a good read on his height, but he was most definitely taller, but if you put him up towards the ones he faced, he was almost an anomaly. There was the case of misplaced pride, but he seemed to deflate and apologize right on the spot. Humility was something that he didn't think existed in them. That Thunder was...odd, for the most part.

"Maybe they're not all bad?"

Possibly.