Carving.

Mia (winter), 81380

Chak. Chak.

The sharp movements of the carving knife jolted Mani's hand up and down, making her strokes choppy and dangerous. She cut away from herself, something she had learned on her first day of carving, and didn't cut her hands anymore. Sometimes, though, a too brusque sweep would go awry and nick her thumb.

Chak. Chak.

Many days Mani had spent her time on small bits and pieces, wood, rock, whichever. Today, it was a rather slim piece of redwood, with most of the shapes already there. She had just carved them into slimmer lines, accentuated the curves and put in small details. She was nearing the end of her creation, a lithe, red pendragon. It looked more like a female, but you couldn't really tell with all the details she had added. The only thing that could tell it apart was the tail, since there was no fire on its tip.

Chak. Chak.

"Mani! Manishirken Vigar Tjorn! Come in this instant! It's the third time I've called you!"

Mani rolled her eyes as the voice of her exasperated mother echoed in the clearing at the base of the Caves. She was about to launch a sarcastic remark at her mother, but decided against it, and instead changed her voice to a more pleading tone.

"Oh, come on, mum! Can't I just stay a bit longer? I'm almost done! And you always say that wood chips are bad for the house!"

She returned to hacking at the piece of wood, and waited for her mother's response. It came quickly, slightly annoyed, but giving in all the same.

"Oh, fine! You are such a haggler, you are..."

A small smile crept up Mani's snout as she heard her mother leave the entrance of their home to return to her soup. It was always soup. You could count on that.

With a sigh, Mani returned to her work, chipping and running the old, worn knife on the surface of the sculpture to smooth it out. It was one of her best yet. It pictured a pendragon perfectly, except for one or two good-sized lumps which would take her hours to smooth out. The slim body, muscled legs, thick neck and strangely canine head. With only a few jabs of her knife, she had been able to create a creature. Immobile, of course, but when she carved them in action, they looked about ready to leap at you.

This one, by a strange twist of fate, turned out to be a sleeping pendragon, so the immobileness of it fit in quite nicely in the end. Mani gazed at it with soft, compassionate eyes, happy of the results of her work.

 

Mani's eyes snapped away from the sleeping figure of the carved pendragon, to the border of the forest that surrounded the clearing. Her river-blue eyes wandered about the shadowed trunks, taking in every detail that appeared. On a sudden impulse, she set her carving down and raised herself onto her back legs, now much taller than what she would have been like in bipedal form. This action exposed the hard, scaly plates on her stomach, which protected her in need of a fight. It had been a warm night, and so she hadn't taken anything to wear, leaving her fiery red skin apparent.

"Who's there? And what do you want?"

Her voice was harsh and demanding, quite different from what she sounded like on her calmer days. Her eyes gleamed as they searched the trees, her movements wary and tense. She was prepared for a scrap, ready to fight whoever the intruder was, something she would have never done before. Mani was usually rather calm in nature, avoiding battle whenever possible. She had gotten more agressive lately, though, so most of the predictable things in her had changed dramatically.

 

((Uh...I've never said a single time that Mani was 'confused and afraid because of her fear of the unknown'. She knows somebody's there, but she doesn't know who. This isn't making her afraid.))

"I asked the question first," Mani retorted cooly, the large fangs that inhabited her mouth exposed. She was in no way afraid of this hiding creature. Whatever it was looked more scared than anything else, from the fact that it would not show itself. The shadows of the trees held many, and one of these was talking to her, but not appearing. Maybe it wanted to scare her off, to chase her away. She would have nothing of it.

Coming out of her defensive stance, Mani returned to a quadrupedal form, and her two front paws hit the ground in a thin cloud of light dust. She shook her fingers to get all of the dirt off, and then sat herself down on the ground. The clearing was bathed in soft, bluish moonlight, and her fiery red, orange and crimson scales reflected the light in a strange mixture of hot and cold, like an ever changing purple. The thin figurine of a sleeping pendragon was yet again between her claws, and she worried at it, picking at a particularly rough spot, or scratching an unsightly lump.

Her river-blue eyes flicked momentarily to the border of the woods, her body alert and ready if the other creature revealed itself. They stayed there, staring deeply into the dark green foliage and moonlit trunks, and then came swiftly back to their original job. It didn't look like the thing would come out all that soon.

Heya. What are you doing?

A disembodied voice echoed in Mani's head, making her ears flick back to the entrance of her home. A slight smile crept up her snout, and she answered in a low whisper, knowing that the person who had just spoken would be able to hear quite clearly.

"Hey, Acotare. Not much, really. Just carving while I keep an eye on an intruder that is hiding inside the trees, and probably wants to fight or something such."

Another figure, similar to Mani but different in many ways, entered the clearing, head swivelling from side to side. It was walking on four legs, and a thick chunk of clay was clamped tightly in the pendragon's long, nimble fingers. The thill advanced, hobbling because of her occupied hand, and sat down by her sister's side. The moons high above reflected itself in her bright red scales, tipped with dark orange. Her tail swished about on the ground, the crimson streaks decorating showing up plainly in the soft blue light.

The new pendragon was of small stature, with rather long limbs and thin, spidery fingers, which she trailed along the surface of the clay she had brought. Designs appeared, reappeared and erased themselves, leaving their place to more intricate drawings. It was obvious that the young 'dragon was fidgety at being in the presence of another than Mani, but stayed anyway, for one reason or another.

 

Mani glanced at the border of the trees again, raising her eyebrows at the thing's speech. It sounded masculine, so Mani guessed the creature was an arden, and she listened intently to its words. A slight snort escaped her nostrils at what he said. Acotare looked nervously at her, searching her face for any sign of fear. If her sister was afraid, then she would be, too. Nothing, though, except extreme amusement, showed up in the thill's eyes, and she relaxed a bit more.

"I am afraid nor scared of you, and those two things are exactly the same anyway. As for helping you in your quest, I've got no clue how I could do that. After all, you want to find who you are, don't you? And I don't know a single person around this place, except for a rare few. So I'm of no use to you."

Her voice had been curt and polite, though slightly perplexed by the arden's request. She wondered why he had asked her such a strange question, quite a personal thing, really, and hadn't even shown himself. Acotare also wondered such things, and edged closer to the comforting presence of her sibling. The clay in her hand had been forgotten at the sound of the arden's voice, but she began picking at it again with her agile fingers.

Mani flicked her ear at the young 'dragon to reassure her, and then spoke again, leaving her carving once more untouched.

"And since you told me who you were, in a way, I will tell you who I am. My name is Manishirken. Call me Mani. But what is yours?"

 

Mani inspected the arden as he left the cover of the trees. Her eyes wandered over his strangely colored skin, looking him over, searching for any weak spot he may possess if it came to a fight any time. His blood-red wings, tainted in the same colors as a summer bonfire, were held high. It was obvious that he was not afraid, as Mani at that exact moment. The red thill gave a slight nod, and turned to Acotare to give her a reassuring smile. Everything was fine.

She swivelled her cranium along with the river-blue eyes which occupied its sockets back to face the green and black pendragon. Her voice, less polite and more casual than before, yet again echoed inside the hollow in the trees.

"Patrick, huh? Funny name. I thought only those strange things called 'humans' were called stuff like that. And only time will tell if I am helpful or not."

Acotare's tail swished to the side again, bringing dust into the air, thickening the already-hard to see through surroundings. She was a bit nervous, mostly because of the presence of another than her own sister, but also because of the absence of soft white flakes. Snow should already have arrived at this time of the year, but it was being quite late. A light frown distorted Acotare's face for a moment, but quickly disappeared into the blank facial expression she wore when around someone she did not know.

The lump of clay was finally taking shape. You could see the vague shape of a rearing creature, forelegs extended in a threatening posture, pointed tail sticking out from its backside, acting as an equilibrium for its heavily-muscled body. Acotare's fingers danced upon the statue's surface, smoothing it down into the shape she desired. Soft contours made heavy contrast with sharp turns of its body and limbs, and thick sinew could already be seen through the thin skin of whatever it was. Claws, sharp as twin thorns, were present on its large paws, and fangs stuck out from its upper and lower jaws in a fearsome snarl. Its eyes were colorless for that moment, but when Acotare would be done detailing and painting them, either a spark of anger or of sly, calculating evil would appear in their swirling taints. You could almost see it slash out with its humongous claws, bite into an unprotected neck with the help of the daggers which adorned its mouth. It lived.

 

A light frown, similar to Acotare's previous one, appeared on Mani's face. The fiery scales above her eyes wrinkled down, giving the clear blue orbs an expression of anger.

Show-offy, isn't he? He shouldn't have killed that lizard. It was as harmless as an autumnal leaf. No respect at all for nature, that one has.

A faint snort exited her nostrils, and her muzzle twitched in irritation. Even the words he spoke after having transformed seemed to hold a large amount of boast. Males. Really, all they want to do is show everyone that they are the best. Pha. She gave an exasperated shake of her head, and turned the azure pools, warmed considerably by the sight of her sister, to face Acotare. The younger pendragon was shaking violently in fear. The smallest thing seemed to make her quiver, for an unknown reason.Mani knew not why, but she tried to help the young one as much as she could.

With a slight push of a hand, the older 'dragon indicated to the other flame-scaled thill that she should go back inside if she felt so around this arden. A flickering smile, a blink of the eyes, and Acotae ran off like a rocket, the almost-finished clay statuette clutched tightly in her hand. As the tip of her crimson-fire tail disappeared behind the caves, Mani turned back around to stare sternly at Patrick. She did not approve of the way he showed off his strength and ability to kill. It was not proper for younger eyes like her sister's. He should have at the very least attracted the lizard somewhere else before killing it, or even just chase it away. He may say that he does not control himself in any way when he is transformed, but Mani still had her opinion about the brain of the transformation. Attacks could come in many forms. As he said, those that bullied him received severe wounds. But is this not a bit harsh? To pick on someone else because you yourself are miserable, and then be punished with numerous gashes, and even fatal injury? And he would surely be noticed if he killed everyone who attacked him then and there, instead of waiting for other creatures to leave and not witness the murders.

"Does it matter that you cannot control your movements? Why can your transformation not evolve in brain matter? It's much smarter to wait until no one is here to witness the happenings than to just do it."

Her words were harsh, demanding, as they had been at the first time she had spoken to the arden. But now she was not only angered at being spied on, but also at the actions Patrick had done right in front of her innocent sister's eyes. Really, that was just too much.

 

Eyebrows raised again as the arden began crying buckets of tears. The salty liquid marked dark lines on the skin it passed over, and then dripped from his face to the bare earth below him. He kept on talking, talking, not stopping. It was getting quite tiring, really. Mani lowered her arches in a frown.
Can't he be quiet? Really, it's as if talking is the only way he has to express himself.
She got to her feet, slowly, legs numb from the long amount of time she had laid pressure upon them. The wooden statuette she had begun earlier, before being interrupted by this strange, over-emotional male pendragon, was clutched inside her paw, and she spoke calmly, but with a slight hint of frostyness, to the arden before her.
"If you can read my mind, then why do you not leave? It's quite obvious, even without telekinesis, that I do not like your presence here. And as for Acotare, she's already gone. I do cannot speak through the mind like she can, and so cannot call her back."
Her tail swished in annoyance on the ground, dust lifting from the ground on its passage. A slight snort escaped her nostrils as she looked at the weeping 'dragon, and she turned her back to him as more words came forth from his mouth. She was already moving away when she answered.
"How can you tell that dragon DNA is present in you? Probably, we all have dragon DNA buried deep inside our genetic code. You are no different. I may not have wings as you do, but that does not mean no one else does."
Her steps went on towards the cave. She did not want to continue this tedious dialogue. The arden had exasperated her enough, and going home to share thoughts with her sister would calm her anger.
She twisted round as a dull thump came forth from behind her, and her eyes widened at what she saw.
The arden had fainted. Now, really, this was getting strange. A killer thing who transformed whenever he got angry crying and then falling into unconsciousness as easily as Mani could think of something to do? This was not normal. Not normal at all.