Please expel my melancholy.

<font color='#000000'>Private for one other. Doesn’t matter who! I’m roleplaying Okkie, of course. In her winged, quaddie form.

Tessera, Day Five, Year Three:
The angry one hadn’t been here since… well, she couldn’t remember the date. But she could remember what had happened, and whom it had happened with. Okkie had come into these swamplands and met a little fellow by the name of Ghost, and they had explored Manik together. When a sudden storm had approached, the two of them had huddled inside a rotten tree and told each other spooky stories. It had been quite fun, and as Okkie thought about it, her heart panged painfully. The memory was bittersweet. Because though the quest had been an enjoyable one, she hadn’t seen Ghost since, and that was like losing… well, a brother.

Remembering him, and his cheetah-like gait, the blue-eyed female peered out over the vast bogs of Manik. Today was a windy day, and Okkie’s emotions felt just as blustery as the weather. She sat on the edge of the swamplands, her tail curled lifelessly around her haunches, and stared at the shuddering trees. She wanted to creep into the swamp, and maybe disappear forever. She wouldn’t care if her tawny paws got wet and cold, and wouldn’t care if her ivory wings got sprayed with mud. She wanted to become part of the misty, filthy swamp. Perhaps she’d even meet Ghost out there, living in a fort in some distant gully, his laughs echoing off the gloomy trees…

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Okkie said icily to herself. She shrugged and flared her wings out a bit, thirsting for a clean breeze. Instead, all she got was a gale smelling strongly of rot. It was coming from the heart of Manik.

Finally, pushing all her dark and dreary thoughts from her mind, ’Kie found her feet. She cast a wary look around, and idly blew a stray lock of blue-tipped hair out of her eyes. Her lanky body then slid forwards, prowling into the swamplands, her every step cautious and weary. The she-pendragon found herself searching for the tree she and Ghost had holed up in as she slipped further into the gloom. Her floppy ears flicked, and already she found her sorrowful emotions gliding away on the harsh winds. Exploration was one of her favorite pastimes as a rogue, and being vigilant and clever was one of her duties as a spy. Maybe she would be able to completely banish her odd feelings of melancholy, and find an adventure or two in here…</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>It suddenly loomed above her — the tree. Its scraggly branches reached towards the sky, shaking and quaking as the wind whistled and lashed. It was a forking shadow painted against the grisly sky, and it seemed to grin cruelly at the femme pendragon. She merely paused to stare at it, at the gap in its trunk, and at the pool of mud that still lay at its base. Then, swallowing the lump that had just formed in her throat, ’Kie growled lightly to herself and veered to the right.

Her paws squelched in the mud, and she grimaced at the noise. Her bladed nape prickled, and Okkie slowed her gentle lope to a slow walk. She picked carefully through the patches of wet ground and slimy mud. The sounds of her passage lessened, but the female kept one ear pinned back. It was quite possibly that some monstrous beast had heard her footsteps, and she knew the dangers that lurked in Manik. Tucking her wings tightly to her flanks, she warily pressed on.

As she glided smoothly through the boggy swamp, Okkie eventually became aware of a poignant scent on the air channels. Once more, she came to a stop, and her nose was thrust into the air. Yes, there was definitely another pendragon in the region, and he or she wasn’t far away. The banded female snarled quietly, and poised. More likely than not, this tracker would pop out into the open, and she was ready to face whatever or whomever approached…

And then a cry came to her ears. “Help me!” was what it said, and Okkie peered towards the skyline, her gaze full of scrutiny. Should she respond to this airborne plea, or was it some sort of trap? Sure that the caller was a pendragon, the spy decided she was not in imminent danger; she called out “Who’s there?” in an authoritative voice, and cocked an ear in order to hear the response.</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>It wasn’t long before a rejoinder could be heard above the thrusting gales. “Teko be the name,” Okkie heard, and she tilted her cranium to one side. The voice sounded affable enough, but it also sounded overwrought. Was this stranger putting a farce in an effort to fool the young female? She growled, scoffing, to herself, and glared towards the bleak sky. Her eyes hardened into little ice chips, and she opened her maw to reply.

“Teko, eh? Why don’t you fly on down here and face me like a pendragon, Teko? Why do you hover up there? Frightened, are you? What’s there to be afraid of? I’m only a strange ’dragon in the midst of a spooky swamp.”

The banded femme could not stifle a cackle, and it leapt from her muzzle, sour and rude. She let it hum from her jaws for a moment, and then she snapped her fangs together with an audible click, immediately silencing the area around her. Okkie never took her eyes off the dreary sky, and her muscles quivered beneath her pelt. She wanted to wait for Teko to bank and land, so that she could face him or her, but it seemed like the vociferous apparition wanted to remain in its alcove amongst the treetops. “So be it,” Okkie finally hissed, whipping her own wingspan open and launching into the air.

The Kanji-marked ’dragon alighted, her snowy wings silent upon the shadowy air. Her forepaws she tucked snugly against her ribcage, while her hind feet dangled along with her lustrous tail. Her caramel plumage kept her partially hidden against the murky backdrop of Manik, but her noxious blue oculars pierced through the gloom. They were vivid, and would have been a horrible weakness, exposing her to the potential enemy, except that they sought out this so-called nemesis first. Her orbs pinned to the silhouette of whom she knew to be “Teko”, and Okkie sounded a warning snarl as she dipped low and glided towards him. Her throaty growl spoke of aggressiveness, dominance, and potency. As the female neared the blurry shadow of the other pendragon, she simply exuded an essence that said, “Bring it on”.</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>“You mean no harm, eh? If that’s so, why do you feel the need to brandish flames at me?”

This inquiry was delivered in an icy tenor, and ’Kie glared severely at the other pendragon. Her wings beat behind her, keeping her adrift despite the roguish airstreams, and their bladed expanses seemed to fan the flames that leapt and licked from Teko’s hands. Any inclinations of diplomacy had by now been cast out of her mindscape, and Okkie hissed at the fiery javelins of citric sparks. She no longer believed that this pendragon had guiltless motives, no longer deemed that he really needed help. Nay, as the banded female exposed ivory fangs to her airborne adversary, she realized that she was the frost to his flame. And though a blaze could melt ice, she planned to freeze the fire before this Teko had any chance at conquering her.

“You probably think I’m no match for you. You probably think that just because you’re a male and I’m a female, that I have no chance of triumph. Well, my ‘friend’, I am about to prove any such thoughts — blatantly wrong.”

Of course, Okkie could not possibly know what this he-pendragon was thinking. But as his jaws were bared, dripping and glistening with hot saliva, the femme found she did not need any more verification of his malevolent intentions. To her, he was a floating plinth of blazing claws and jagged incisors, and that could be interpreted as nothing short of a threat…

So it was without culpability that Okkie snarled a wicked note, and then rushed at him, the wind shouting in her ears. She bowed her skull and pinned her large ears to her spiked nape. Her feathers rustled as her aerial devices jetted her forwards, and there was a malicious glint in her cobalt eyes. No trepidation was expressed on her ghastly countenance, as her forepaws stretched out, talons unsheathed. The she-pendragon seemed to be ignoring the dangers of the blaze, the hazards of the glowing flames. Her mind was focused on only two things — the attack and the triumph.</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>The expected impact never came — for the male had dodged. Okkie realized this quickly, and her wings knifed the air as she swerved around to face him again. There was fury and malice blazing in her eyes, but both were controlled, and the female was eerily calm and collected as she gazed hatefully at her adversary. She was not angry that she had missed, because she knew life was full of failures, and only a few sweet victories. The pendragon smiled cruelly as she fleetingly imagined such a conquering — Serran’s foul blood painting the earth as she stood over her pulsating prize. Thoughts of such a grand trophy were then dismissed, as ’Kie focused intensely, her claws stretched in front of her, her wings breaching the air channels to keep her afloat in this deadly game.

The quintessence of a predator consumed her, and her thoughts were wiped blank. In the process of capture, there is no room for idle fantasies, and as Okkie hovered, she knew only a single thing — bloodlust. Her eyes glazed with a milky glow, and her muscles quivered like loose pistons, waiting to spring forth and tear the life from Serran’s blazing form. The female did not falter from this state even when her nemesis collected his flame, and tossed it at her like a javelin of citric acid. Nay, instead, she rolled in midair, completely unflinching, expressionless even though the tip of her tail had been singed by the passing fire ball. When she regained total balance, she glared maliciously at Serran, demons dancing in her oculars.

Then came her second attack. Charged with the lust of the hunting raptor, ’Kie launched through the air, her talons exposed, desiring to rip and mince. Her large, pointed ears were pasted to her skull as she leapt like a true warrior at Serran, dripping fangs curling white against cherry gums. She unleashed an unearthly yowl of horror and grace, a cry meant to stun and alarm her intended quarry. And then the banded pendragon was in front of her enemy, a writhing serpent of malignant wrath. Here, she stopped her lunge short, though, of course, it was not because she was submitting to the loss — no! Okkie collected all the concentration and energy she could possiby muster, and then whipped around as quickly as a flash of lightning — her kangaroo-like tail singing like a lash through the air, headed straight for Serran’s soft belly.</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>Luckily for her, Okkie had been propelled upwards by the inertia of her dexterous twist, and Serran’s blazing limbs merely grazed her with a blast of lukewarm heat. Quickly, before he could draw in for another kick, the female crawled upwards in the darkness, her draconic tail trailing her as her ivory wings sliced through the air. The air around her pulsated with screaming winds and a light rain, and Okkie savored this chill after being in Serran’s heat wave. But her focus never strayed far from her enemy — a pair of poisonous blue eyes continuously pinned to him, following his every movement and motion, even as the female pendragon circled ever higher into the dark and stormy night.

“You fight like a baby,” the female called, finally coming to a stop a hundred or so feet above the male. Her tone was unduly mocking, and she punctuated her remark with a derisive laugh meant to make his blood boil with anger. “Can’t even touch me, and I’m a mere girl!”

She would have lunged just then, the force of gravity speeding her towards a target that could not possibly escape the velocity of her drop. But a blinding flash of light speared through the air, forking amongst the shadows, until it struck a tree — the tree. Okkie whirled around to watch as the lightning set the creaky old trunk into a glorious spread of flame, and her mouth became a grim line as the fire licked and stripped the tree of life, and then moved onto cling to other trunks. Thoughts of combat slowly drained from her mind as the melancholy engulfed her once again, and a screen of smoke washed past her, dusting her with soot and ash. There was no way she and Serran could continue in this inferno — their lungs would be blackened in mere seconds in these conditions.

“Thes,” Okkie murmured, wings beating to a frustrated tempo. “I hope that little bugger burns down there...”

The thick smoke was beginning to surround her, and the orange flames danced below. The she-pendragon was becoming overwhelmed by everything, but she dared not flee. Nay, Serran would think she had forfeited, had behaved like a niotie. She would have to make sure he knew she wanted to continue this when they could. Hence, with cautioun and prowess, Okkie dived through the air, dropping, dropping, dropping towards where she had last seen Serran — before the charcoal smoke had blotted everything out.

“Are you dead yet, weakling? Has your own element eaten you and bleached your bones? If not, meet me here again, at the same time, in exactly twelve days. I want to finish this, I want to break your back and crack your skull. I want to lap your blood from the charred earth. Remember, in twelve days...”

Her voice hissed in rhythm with the crackling flames… and then Okkie was gone.</font>