A casual meeting [Private - Oculus / Ask before joining]

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If you asked, Azriel would say that he was a very busy dragon in general -

- General, haha, get the pun? -

- he rolled his eyes at this, but appreciated the spark of humour; it didn't come very often. His life was rather full of things to do: there were newbies to train, guards to check on lest they slack in his absence (rarely did this happen, much to his relief), small conflicts along the borders and in the city to handle, finish his book... The list stretched on.

This kind of free time was rare, and he was going to take the chance to wander about for a bit. The day was still new, the sun just rising off into the sky, each step into its heavenly throne illuminating the world a bit more.

He continued into the city, which was waking from its slumber, the cloak of silence turning into the hustle and bustle of things being prepared. Perhaps he would just walk around and observe the city life for now. If nothing happened, he'd just return to the castle for a bit of reading.

The eye twitches and curling around the snout was all Oculus needed to see to know that he had gotten back at the General of Defense. It was not too hard to see the disapproving look that plastered his face, the annoyance showing without any attempt to hide it. It amused him. Oculus could see why some people liked politics if this was all it was about. Shifting his feet to get into a more comfortable position, he just smiled. "Maybe you should de-clutter your office then. And what does being close to the ground have to do anything with office tidiness?"

He smiled as Azriel worked to shift the topic to something silly of hunting, after making an excuse as to why he stumbled into a trap. "So, you feign ignorance and dangle from trees all in the name of Xoya?" Oculus let out a snorting laugh and shook his head, but relented at the least. "Hiding something? My profession is to hunt dragons.
A mere deer or fish is not much of a challenge. Although I could see why it might be a challenge for someone who is used to a tree, which doesn't move..." He cast a sly grin at Azriel as he looked up, feigning a posture of being in though with his head tilted just slightly so he could see Azriel through one of his yellow eyes, holding a glint of amusement.

There Oculus went again, assuming things and putting words into his mouth. Once more that smile flickered into existence as the other General settled into a more comfortable position, perhaps already readying his next round of bullets to fire at Azriel's scales, and Azriel hmph-ed. "And I thought you would have a better grasp on my personality," he said. "My office is far from cluttered, I'll have you know. I can't afford to be haphazard, not in my work or anything else... Don't try to refute that Oculus, I do my job perfectly well." Much to his own surprise, a small smile appeared on his own maw. But it soured into a disapproving frown. "I did not say that. You did."

He didn't rise to the bait, the comment about him dangling from trees. Oculus could be all sceptical if he liked. Azriel knew the truth, and that was all that was necessary, in his opinion. His eyes narrowed, matching Oculus's yellow glint with his bright golden one. "Hunt dragons, huh. All I see is you giving orders to your Skyggers to let them do your dirty work," he jabbed back, but tried to relax. This was sounding more and more like two children squabbling, and it was ridiculous. Huffing he looked to the side, seeing no problem in breaking eye contact, but he knew that any attempt to end this conversation would end in failure, so he just waited.

While Azriel was getting more flustered with his comments, Oculus just smiled there innocently as the other general started to go off and defend himself.  To be perfectly honest, he had never bothered to visit the general of defense's office, as there was never a real need to.  And sure, there haven't been many rogues entering the territory or attacks, but that didn't mean Oculus would admit to anything.  Besides, it was a fun exercise to see who could sneak paste Azriel's defenses as 'training'.  His smirk only grew as Azriel gave him the deadpan answer to the comment about hunting trees.

When Azriel made a jab at his training of the skygger, he only rolled his eyes, keeping the same smug look on his maw.  "Well, if that is all you see, then I must be doing an exceptional job at it, then.  Especially if an esteemed general doesn't even know about it," he replied.  He watched the elder dragon look more and more annoyed, and just stayed there smiling, "So when not... testing... your traps, what do you hunt?"

Unsurprisingly, Oculus was eyeing Azriel with a smug, triumphant look, thinking that he had managed to fluster the latter when in reality Azriel was the one feeling amused at the younger one's attempts. Some of which, admittedly, had been successful, he'd give Oculus that. There was the one about hobbies that like the younger male, he had no real answer to, and where he'd been an idiot in his haste to reply quickly, and mixing with his amusement was the annoyance lingering from earlier and fresh irratation. Oculus's remarks seemed to be comprised of taking Azriel's words and twisting them into something else entirely. The truth into an excuse, something that got on his nerves slightly.

Azriel snorted at Oculus's show of self-praising. "So that's the excuse the General of Intelligence hide behinds, that he's so good at his job that even a fellow general wouldn't have known about it." Azriel swung his gaze back to Oculus, his face smoothing out into a small smile. Poor Oculus, he only wanted to assure himself of having the upper hand in this. He tapped his tail against the ground as he considered. "I visit the forest surrounding Xoyan territory," he said at last, looking at Oculus closely with a thoughtful frown on his face. "Have you been there?"

Keeping his oh so smug expression plastered to his maw, Oculus just continued to observe the GoD. It was very amusing to him, as he seemed to have gotten under the general's skin somewhat. Oh, the play of words, how silly it was. Words meant nothing less backed by action, otherwise, they are just something that disturbs the peace. At the retort from Azriel, Oculus just shrugged. "Maybe you should stay a bit more vigilant then instead of constantly checking out your traps," was all he responded to the 'excuse'. When Azriel suddenly twisted his gaze to peer back at him, Oculus just greeted him with a raised brow at the sudden change. The swishing movement of the tail meant something was going on in that noggin of Azriel's, and all Oculus would have to do is wait.

"Psh, have I been to the surrounding forests?" Oculus remarked with a somewhat of a chuckle, finding that question to be really random. Of course, he had visited the forest, he explored regularly to flee from political duties, or as he liked to excuse it as, exploring territory for gathering intelligence. Why he had just been in the forest not too long ago where... If Azriel was paying attention, he would notice the neck muscles slightly tense behind Oculus's jawline, as he swallowed. The last time he went to the forest, there was that dragoness that was....something to say the least. When he realized he was getting lost in the encounter, he slightly shook his head and glared directly back at Azriel, a slight paleness having formed on his cheeks, and if one didn't know any better, might have thought of it as a slight blush. "Yes, I've been to the forests surrounding the Xoya," he said quite bluntly in a deadpan voice, hoping to give nothing away.

This post is nearly one month late? Wow, I'm so sorry. --

Azriel observed Oculus's smug smile, wondering whether it was there because the General was genuinely smug, or just kept it there for the sake of annoying Az. He didn't know, but thought that their "discussion" had turned into something like a battle of words awfully quick. Unfortunate, but he didn't know how to steer it back. He returned Oculus's shrug with his own, "I'll keep that advice in mind," he said. Occy's raised eye ridges were most amusing, clearly he was slightly wary of Azriel's sudden change in behaviour, but was patient enough to wait to find out the reason behind it.

He clearly found Az's question random, and it most certainly was. Azriel was expecting a normal reply and perhaps a taunt, but what he received was far more interesting... The younger male seemed to be snatched away into a memory, and there was a barely visible swallow that Azriel of course noticed and found great interest in, but he didn't say anything yet, just raised an eye ridge at Oculus in a knowing manner. His statement about having been to the forest was true, Azriel could tell, but it sounded... forced. "I see. Did you encounter anything of interest?"

Almost a month late! :'D

Why was Azriel pressing the question? Did he know what had transpired in the forest when he met the rilled dragoness? He couldn't possibly know, he was away and alone. But the look Azriel was giving was as if he already knew and was just trying to press him or tease him. Or it was possible that Azriel was only reading ques off him... curse his delay. And now he was doing it again! The few moments of silence was probably giving the Herre of Defense all the information he needed to know about his question. Grinding his teeth against each other, he tried to think of the best way of avoiding extending conversation on this topic. "Nothing too out of the ordinary. Just the usual stuff and... ya. You know."

He hated how he responded to the question, but maybe Azriel would not pick up on it and see it as a regular, day-to-day usual response. "Why do you ask? Is there something I should be keeping an eye out for?" Taking slow breaths, he focused on watching Azriel to see if he could pick up body cues in a way to swing the conversation elsewhere.

It didn't take a genius to guess that something significant had transpired during one of Oculus's visits to the forest... Something that he wanted to hide. For someone who was swift with their comebacks, Oculus was certainly taking far too long for the evasive answer he gave Azriel. Surely, he had been spending that time worrying. Wondering if Azriel knew what had happened, and if so, how he did. Considering possibilities, casting them aside. A smirk unfurled across his maw at Oculus's use of the casual ya know. Oh, this was too funny. "Were you so distracted by the thought of the forest's beauty, that you took so long to reply?" he asked lightly, anticipating Oculus's reaction.

Azriel shrugged. "No, not really, save for the traps you enjoy watching me hang from." He gave no further comment on the traps he had set, not wishing to give Oculus an opening to attack. Deciding to be honest, he said, "I thought of bringing you there to show you some unique plants I'd noticed, some scenic spots I'd discovered. Something casual, because we're not addressing each other as Generals now, are we? Just dragon-to-dragon, I hope. But I think you would get bored too quickly."