Shelter [Private with Cara]

Thunder cracked and rain poured down heavily over the Shveki rainforest. A blue and white dragon soared through it, struggling to maintain altitude as his feathers became soaked. He had been flying for days and was exhausted, but he knew home wasn‘t far. If he could just make it-- Lightening almost struck him, causing him to panic for a moment and nearly fall, but he managed to catch himself. “That was close!” he whistled, smiling a little with the adrenaline rush. As much as he loved a thrill, he knew being out in this weather was dangerous, so he pressed on as quickly as he could.

“Almost there…” he muttered to himself as he neared a tree covered mountain, aiming for a noticeable cave opening. His home. The wind howled as at last his feet touched down on the earth, and he hurried inside the cave, promptly shaking the water out of his fur. At least he didn’t feel cold, but he wished he wasn’t all wet. Oh well, nothing more he could do about it.

After he was sure he’d shaken as much water form his pelt as possible, Hayate walked deeper into the cave toward his ‘room.’ It wasn’t much of a room as it was completely open to the rest of the cave, but it was where he slept and hoarded things. There was a massive pile of shiny objects, as well as more organized things decorating the room. He took off the pack he was carrying from around his shoulder and emptied out even more objects, things that would appear useless but meant something to Hayate. Or they were just shiny. The large dragon added the shiny things to the pile and the rest of the objects to a shelf, and then went to his make-shift bed; a gathering of brush and pelts. He curled up on it as tightly as he could, getting ready to sleep through the storm.

Caramina cursed herself for being an idiot.

She had ignored the warnings of the others in the castle, that it was going to rain and that she shouldn't go out, not if she wanted to be drenched. But she had ignored them, waving her hand in a vague manner as she wound her scarf around her slim neck, before taking off, her large feathery wings beating the air and stirring up quite a bit of wind. She'd soared, the familiar, comforting rush of wind bringing a pink hue to her cheeks and a joyful expression to her face...until the first drops of water had hit her face. One by one, water had splashed onto her snout, her neck, her whole body, slowly at first in a minor drizzle, and eventually strengthening into a whole barrage of water that nearly made Caramina lose her balance. No. She must not fall. How painful - and humiliating - that would be?

Forming a wind shield above her to deflect the water, she flicked some water off her body, her gaze sweeping from side to side as she tried to find a place to take refuge in. She squinted, narrowing her intensely green eyes to no more than slits as she tried to see through the thick greyness of the shower of water, but failed. She angled her wings in such a way that she descended slowly, hoping that the closer she was to ground, the better she could see. It didn't really help, but lightning flashed through the air in a blinding arc, illuminating the dreary sky, and she saw a cave, a gaping hole in the belly of a grey mountain. She shuddered as the lightning once again forked through the sky, followed by the drum of thunder, and quickly swooped into the cave, only to find another dragon there.

Oh well...

"I hope I'm not intruding," she began, a bit breathlessly, "but could I stay here until the rain stops? I really cannot fly in that condition, even with a wind shield above me..."

Hayate was nearly asleep as he listened to the storm, finding it quite soothing now that he was safe from it. Suddenly however, he heard a different sound, the frantic flapping of large wings. Then feet touching down inside his cave before he could even lift his head and look. He was immediately startled, and scrambled to uncurl and get to his feet. All he could see was the silhouette of a larger dragon in the dark, and his fur and feathers bristled, thick mane standing on end.

Hayate arched his back up as high as he could and flared out his wings, attempting to look bigger as he growled. "Who are you!?" he shouted, fear subtly present in his voice. Lightening crackled inside his mouth threateningly, lighting up the cave. Which allowed him to finally see the intruder, just as she spoke. The sight of her, and the sound of her voice, had all his fear subside in an instant, and he closed his mouth, the cave going dark again. Once he processed her words he realized how much he over reacted.

"O-oh!" he stammered as he relaxed his posture and folded his wing in, "Please forgive me- I was startled." He felt so terrible, he probably scared this other dragon too. "Of course, yes, yes, feel free," he told her quickly with an apologetic look on his face. He moved his head to a torch on the wall and lit it with a few crackles of his lightening breath. Now they could both see each other, and hopefully the cave would feel warmer. Gods...this new dragon. She was beautiful, and so similar to his own breed. It had been forever since he'd seen another at least somewhat like himself. It had his brain  stumbling over itself. "Sorry again, I was nearly asleep, so you gave me quite a fright," he chuckled nervously. He sat down, posture straight, now doing all he could to look non-threatening.

Caramina recoiled a bit, the force of the dragon's shout pulling her eye ridges together. "I mean, if you don't want me to stay here, you can just say, but that'd be rude," she muttered to herself, already backing out of the cave, the icy rain pelting her tail eliciting a shudder from the freezing dragoness. This was replaced by a wave of relief, showing visibly on her face, as the other dragon invited back in; gratefully, she stepped forward, but not before shaking the raindrops from her body. Her scarf was wet; unwinding it, she set it in a corner, hoping that it'd be dry by the time the sun rose again.

"I am Caramina," the white / silver dragoness began, "an idiot Stormcaller who thought it'd be good to risk the weather today and go out, despite her fellow Tribemates' warnings." She sighed, rolling her eyes, before fixing them on the new dragon, surprise rolling across her features as the lightning outside flashed, illuminating the cave for a moment, before plunging them into darkness again. In that brief moment, she'd seen his whole profile, and had been surprised to see that he resembled her, an eastern / western dragon mix, though the rest of his features were different. For one, he was not as slim as she was; and he had feathers all over his body, instead of just on his wings. Very blue ones, their shade varying.

"Nah, it's fine, really," Cara said, shrugging off the apology. She wrapped her wings around herself, in an attempt to gather warmth, but only shivered harder; she turned to stare at the downpour outside mournfully, attempting to will the clouds into stopping their rain.

While Caramina was busy shaking the water off and unwinding her scarf, Hayate lit another torch. "I'm Hayate," he replied when the other was done introducing herself, nodding his head in a small bow in her direction.

"Haha, oh c'mon, you're no idiot. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten caught in the rain despite knowing it was coming. It happens," he attempted to lift her spirits, gathering wood from a pile he had in a corner and collecting it into a pile in the middle of the cave. He hadn't been cold himself, but he had fur. He saw Caramina shiver, and as he was now playing host, he wanted to do what he could to make her comfortable. After leaning his head down to light the wood on fire with another few crackles of lightening breath, he sat down on the side opposite Caramina and smiled.

"Odd circumstances, but it's nice to meet you," Hayate said warmly, "So, you're a Stormcaller. Do you like it there? What's it like?" Honest curiosity shown in his eyes. He sure seemed to be glad for company, especially for a rogue. Was it odd for a rouge to be so interested in tribal life? Perhaps. Not that Hayate would know.

"Ooo, Hayate," Caramina echoed the name, testing it out. She found it fun to pronounce, and repeatedly rolled the word around in her mouth, muttering it a few times, before saying to the feathered male, "Nice to meet you~" allowing a warm, genuine smile to slip across her face.

"Huh, really?" came Caramina's disbelieving words when she heard Hayate's tendency to ignore advice, just like her. "Seems like I'm not the only one out there who's an idiot," she commented, before hastily adding, "um, not saying that you're one," another shiver accompanying her words. She murmured a thanks as Hayate set up a small fire with some kind of breath ability, and shifted a bit, so she was sitting closer to the source of warmth.

"What it's like there...? Huh, nothing special really. The Stormcallers are your average dragon tribe, but it's nice there. They're really peaceful."

Hayate couldn't help blushing just a bit as Caramina repeated his name a few times. It seemed she liked it, and he wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or flattered. Regardless he smiled back at her, before bursting out laughing at her comment. "Hahahahaha! It's okay, I am an idiot!" He continued to chuckle for a moment, shaking his head.

"Heh. It's no trouble," he told her, as he looked at the fire for a moment. He returned his attention to her as she spoke again. "Peaceful, huh? That's good," Hayate commented. "To tell you the truth, I don't know much about most tribes. I've been pretty cut off from mainstream things. So I get curious..." He wanted to know more about the Stormcallers but wasn't sure what to ask, except for one important question. "How much freedom do you have with the Stormcallers?" If the question was weird he wouldn't know. The reason he was trying to learn as much about the tribes as possible was because he one day intended to join a tribe, if he never found the one his parents came from. Freedom was very important to him, as he'd gotten used to life as a free roaming rogue. He was worried that belonging to a tribe would mean being restrained.