A Walk through Silent Lands [Kaamil]

I promised that I would try to wake the Kaamil from their strange inactivity, read the words inked in a careful hand into the diary, and I will. I don't know what led the Kainura's hand to pick me when there are clearly better dragons eligible. But no use wondering that now: I'm Icien and I have a duty to fulfill. I have to wake the Tribe so they don't become one with the snow. So that they don't fade away from existence; so that we will continue to leave our marks upon the world. I'm Ken now. I guess...

I guess I'll have to change a little... the scribbling sound came to a rather abrupt halt, as if the owner had no idea how to end it properly. There was a muffled sound as the owner closed his diary, then a click as the lock bound it tight. A pen being put down, then footsteps thudding away: The squeak of the door swinging open, the chattering of birds streaming in with the sunlight. Something he hadn't seen in a while, having cooped himself up in his cave to spend time reading, rearranging random stones he'd picked up.

Ken walked through the streets, his initial confidence blown away like ash on a wind when he beheld the shut doors. How, how was he going to do this? Could he do it by himself? Did he need the Kainura's help? Ken wasn't quite sure, but he animated small frost birds to fly around, knocking on dragon's doors and attempting to bring life to the Tribe.

Ah, it was truly gorgeous today. The lush air, the soft wind. All of this made Katyusha whoop and grin with cheerfulness. And with her tribe's lack of doing anything lately, it wasn't like she had a whole lot of work to tend to. The Sai had been very free to maneuver and attend to her own business. She had more time to study her passions, and less time to worry about dealing with her superiors.

Of course, this didn't mean complete time off. Katyusha still needed to do her job after all. But while she was on the job, she rarely had to do all that boring paperwork and such that she was normally burdened with. Instead, she would just kind of wander about around the sai headquarters, or, if she was lucky, head out to the streets and be able to enjoy herself out there. No internal threats meant no work for her, after all.

But today was actually Katyusha's day off. Well, self chosen day off. She had just kind of ditched work. She knew she could get in a lot of trouble for that, but honestly, it wasn't like one sai taking an unscheduled day off would ruin anything. They probably wouldn't even notice her absence. It wasn't like the sai had been doing anything lately.

And thus was how Katyusha found herself soaring high above the icy, spotting Kenma down below. Her lips suddenly curled into a smirk, as she re-positioned her wings, aiming for Kenma's location. When she was a couple yards away, she shouted, "Hey, Kenma! What's up?" and borderline crashed into him. Well, she stopped herself before a full crash, but she quickly tackled the ice dragon, hoping her 'warning' had been enough to alert him for what was coming.

Im late! Shoot, Shoot, Shoot!


Esridar had promised to meet a council member at morning to discuss some new ideas for contests and such. Of course, he had gone hunting in the wee hours, and had gone out for a bit too long. In his rush, he forgot the the roads would be icy from the frost. He lost his grip on the road, slid forwards for a few seconds, slipped, and went chin first onto the ice, sliding past Kenma and Katyusha, and slamming into the side of a compacted snow drift. Dizzily he staggered to his paws and shook the snow out of his horns. He spotted Kenma and Katyusha.


“Oh… Umm Good Morning!” He spoke cheerfully, slipping again on the ice as he staggered over to where he slipped.

“Still not used to this early morning ice…” He grumbled under his breath as he turned to head towards the spot where the council member was waiting. The furry white dragoness looked irritated and flustered.
“Sorry i’m late Strix. What did you want to speak to me about again?” Strix fluffed her fur up as she glared at Esridar.
“After your little performance there… Ahh never mind. But I wanted to talk to you about some rather unsettling news I’ve picked up on…” (Is it alright that i’m basically making up an npc here?)

Another day, another blanket of freshly fallen snow... another day of no activity... it'd been like this since she ended up joining, for a dragoness like herself, a sub species of ice dragon that thrives from social interaction and pack/herd behaviours, it was unsettlingly quiet.

Kuroe sighed, stepping out into the streets and began to roam. She didn't need to do any hunting until later, it was her given rank afterall so she had enough time to wander around. The purple coloured dragoness continued to roam through the streets...maybe today she'd get some sort of social interaction with the other local members.

Strix? Where's Struma? xp --

Ken felt his confidence and determination drain away, bit by bit, as seconds crawled on, his efforts to rouse the tribe resulting in... Nothing. In all honesty, he wasn't surprised, not at all, but rather a little disappointed. He knew deep down that he would likely make little difference, but he had been hoping he would get lucky. Or perhaps he wasn't trying hard enough, and this was a test to see how far he would go for his tribe. Yes, that was it.

A familiar voice turned his head, and he barely had time to brace himself before Katyusha barreled into him. He landed, back against the ground, and couldn't suppress a delighted exclamation. "Hello, Katyusha!" Awkwardly he pondered whether to tell her about his new name, a new beginning. It was so laughable, changing his name as if it would affect anything - but of course Katyusha was to be trusted. She would always understand. "Drop the 'ma', I'm only Ken now," he said, trying to sound firm but also friendly. He willed with his eyes for her to understand this decision.

The silence of the tribe was broken by a particularly clumsy dragon, and Ken turned an irritated eye on the Kainura. Trust him to turn up at this time, when Ken needed his wits about him - he wasn't even sure if he could manage his job under the gaze of such a high up figure now. He wasn't as tense as before, though: Most of his fear (along with his respect) had dissolved away with each time Erisdar acted un-Kainura-ly. This was replaced by slight disdain, though mostly a profound sense of relief: Erisdar was only mortal after all. Like him.

His eye passed over Strix, deeming her unimportant at the time being, and onto another Kaamil. His quiet face seemed to light up with joy, and he called a polite "Hello," at Kuroe.

Katyusha blinked a bit at the revelation of Ken's new name, then smiled. "Whatever floats your glacier, dude." she responded simply. She quickly moved herself off of Ken. She was glad she had spotted him. The Kaamil was a pretty big tribe, so obviously it was a tad bit surprising to find her friend here of all places. Talk about dumb luck! Katyusha curled her tail around her feet, and sat up in a position similar to that of a cat.

"So, Ken, what are you doing out here? Why aren't you cooped up like everybody else?"
the dragoness teased. Considering what she knew about Ken, she was honestly surprised that he was out, especially considering the trends of what all the other ice dragons had been following recently. Pretty odd if she said so herself. But then again, if extroverted dragons were being introverted, than introverted dragons could certainly make an effort to be extroverted.

As if on cue, Katyusha began to hear the steady beat of wings, and glanced behind her to see the wizzing shape of none other than their Kainura, watching with mild amusement as he slipped on the ice, crashing into a nearby snow drift just several meters away from the two other Kaamilians. And sure enough, he simply pulled himself back to his feet, and awkwardly greeted Katyusha and Ken. And, as per usual, Katyusha had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

Sometimes she questioned how someone like this could lead their tribe. But he clearly had some idea of what he was doing, so she wouldn't complain too much. Not until he did something to jeopardize the tribe. Until then, she could just laugh, or rather try not to laugh, at his clumsiness.

"Good morning, my Kainura," Katyusha said, having to hold herself back from scoffing. It seemed he had come to meet some dragoness Katyusha didn't recognize. She wondered if they were helping Ken with whatever it was he was doing. Ken was sort of like a high rank, wasn't he? Icien? Katyusha realized she had never actually asked.

She then noticed, from the corner of her eye, a dragoness she hadn't met before. Curious. Katyusha watched Ken wave a friendly hello to the new dragon. And she had to admit, she was curious to meet them. "Hey!" Katyusha said in response, waving as well to the new dragon.

Esridar watched while Strix pulled out a large rabbit skin map with carefully etched marks and lines that made up a well made image of the region. She pointed to a small hill near the lake.
"This hill. Somethings going on with it." She said seriously.
"Whats wrong with the hill? As far as we know their is no active volcanoes in this area." Esridar stated in confusion.
"The snow on it, and around it has been rapidly melting, not in a natural way. I think somethings living there." Strix's brow furrowed with frustration.
"Although for the life of me I can't figure out what. I've poured over every book in the Palace Library, and nothing makes sense about this." Esridar sighed.
"That explains the lack of prey in the area. Did you check the books on beasts?" Strix nodded.
"Yes. Nothing able to do this kind of devastation, and eat so much prey to decrease the prey in the area, was in those chronicles."
Esridar scowled.
"Well... its effecting the area with heat... It could be some sort of large phoenix, maybe with chicks. It could maybe be hell hounds but I don't believe those exist."
Esridar sighed, it seemed as if there was only one option.

"We'll have to have a group of dragons sent up there, to investigate." Strix said first.
"But it might be dangerous. We'd need a good group of dragons." He caught himself glancing towards Kenma and Katyusha. He turned back to Strix.
"I have a few ideas."

To Katyusha he smiled a little, a shy one that crept onto his maw, "I'm the Icien. I can't be a coward and hide, you know, I'd feel guilty otherwise. And useless. What's the use of having a high rank if you don't do anything good with the power?" He observed her reaction to Erisdar's clumsy entrance with no small amount of amusement. Her disapproval of the Kainura was new, not a behaviour others exhibited often, and he found it interesting. There was another Kaamil approaching as well, and he joined in the greetings by bowing his head respectfully, preferring the physical gesture to words. Ken looked between Strix and Erisdar as they spoke, pointing to the rabbitskin map of Kaamil territory and discussing some kind of problem that he had yet to know about. So he stood, feeling a bit awkward, wings rustling as he shifted his weight from one foot to another.

"We can send a group of hunters to check it out first." Strix stated calmly.
"But of course, protocol states that we send at least one high ranked learned individual on these such.. occurrences..." Esridar countered.
"The Icien and yourself of course. You both have useful knowledge in this matter. You two are... as I am to believe the least busy right now." Strix looked back to the map.
"I'm still trying to figure this out. Why would a phoenix decide to live here of all places?"

"I guess I will find out when I get there. Strix I would like for you to gather up an experienced group of hunters, or maybe some Morai or Sai. I will speak to the Icien." Strix nodded and walked off, Esridar turned to Kenma and Katyusha and trotted up to them.
"Kenma, Katyusha." He greeted the two regally, all earlier clumsiness gone.
"I have a task that needs to be dealt with. I do not believe I have sent either of you on a special task before but, this is important." He pulled out the map.
"There is something going on at this hill, it is a day or two out from the main palaces, but there may be a slight threat." Esridar looked up at Kenma.

"Later today I am hoping to send a group of hunters, Sai, and Morai. I will be with this group, and if you are not too busy, I would like you two to come and check this out. This mission may be dangerous, but we do not know yet."