The Vampires Den (Open)

It was a quiet day. 
Not even the death of a deer split the silence.
Maybe it was because of the swiftness of it, or the expertise of the hunter. 
Zollyunis, creator of a huge tunnel system beneath the ground, was on the hunt for prey. Surprising enough, one deer wouldn't suffice her hunger. She would probably be hunting for a few hours. She began dragging the now dead body of the deer to the entering tunnel of her most recently excavated tunnel. Zollyunis was experienced in her craft of hunting, and knew that the blood scent of the dead dear would bring along some predators. Maybe even a dragon or two.
Now that’d be something.


“Its been a while since I’ve talked to a dragon as well…” She muttered, sighing at the thought.
I promised Ombass though. Promises are quite a bother..
She silently continued to set up the scene, making it look as if a hunter and merely forgotten to eat its prey. Quietly she jumped to the top of a tree, taking a moment to listen to the area around.
A running river.
Ugh.
Chatting birds.
“Too harmonious.”
And the wind flowing eerily through the trees.
Peaceful.
She climbed back down below the trees, scales darkening to a black. Now well hidden, she awaited the arrival of a prey creature. Something she could hunt.

It was quiet.
Too quiet.
Well, not really. There were the birds in the trees and the scuffle of paws on grass, which made some very nice ambiance. Maybe it was that Vortex just liked that quote, and never had any practical applications for it. He didn't know. It was a good quote, of course, as it talked about how unnecessary silence can hide the darkest of secrets, but in the natural world, it didn't hold much weight. Well, maybe it did. He didn't know yet.

However, if there was one thing that Vortex did know, it was that he'd just spent an entire week holed up in some cave, reading. More concerning was that he hadn't eaten anything since then, and to put it simply, his stomach had the rumbles. It is for this reason that he picked up a very distinct scent. The scent of fresh prey. At least, that's usually what a wide trail of blood leading off into the distance meant, but that meant the prey was already dead or wounded, and probably meant that another predator had snatched it up already. In the end, his hunger got the better of him, and he followed the unnervingly fresh blood trail.

He made no moves to be stealthy, as stealth wasn't much of a concern of his, and he couldn't think of anyone to be all sneaky-beaky from. Hence why the heavy crunching of a dragon stepping through brush and tall grasses announced his arrival for him as he approached the entrance of the tunnel. And the deceased creature. That too. Normally, he would have probably scouted the area or checked the suspiciously fresh kill for traps, but when you're a nearly two-ton dragon who hasn't eaten for a week... things tend to cloud your better judgment just a little. 

Tearing the dead deer apart, Vortex ate it in two separate chunks, and rather quickly at that, snapping up each half one after the other. He wiped the blood from his mask, but left his lower jaw untouched, allowing the blood dribbling down it to stay there. Of course, now that his hunger was sated, his curiosity got the better of him, wondering where this cavern entrance had come from. Why, he was here not even two weeks ago, and back then there was no such entrance, nor any sign of construction. So naturally, he tempted fate as he did on a daily basis, and stepped into the entrance, unaware of anyone else he may have alerted to his presence.

What dull senses this dragon has.
The creatures arrival had been loud, no attempt at silence. If it was her, she’d have approached from the trees or from below the earth, or even tried to be quiet. The dragon had no idea of what was around.
What audacity, what seer utter contempt.


The dragon below her had simply approached. Didn’t even look. Did not even try to sense any other predators in the area. She was fascinated however, at the speed the dragon devoured the deer. Maybe it was because of the sheer size of the dragon. Zolly would of never been able to eat such a creature that quick, she wouldn’t of been able to eat it at all in reality. What caught her expert eyes most, was his coloration. Similar to hers, except with a striking set of purple eyes. She hadn’t encounter such a dragon before. Zolly had encountered many dragons before, Nebula Wyverns, hydras, sometimes the occasional westie, but she'd never in her long life, seen something quick like this. He had an air of.. eccentric personality to him. It reminded Zolly too much of Ombass. 
She didn’t like that.

Zolly stiffened.
Did that audacious little bugger…
He entered her caves!
How dare he!
The utter ignorance of this dragon! I swear!
The ignorance of the dragon both surprised and angered her. He dared to temp fate, to temp HER by entering her tunnels. A sudden thought interrupted her anger.
Has he been sent to.. hunt me? It wouldn’t be a first..
That was the only explanation she could think of. The only thought that made sense How else would this dragon know? Of course it could just be chance, but… when was it ever chance? This area was very desolate of dragons, except for the two merchants she'd chased out.
She fumbled at her necklace for a few moments, finding her small rabbit foot luck charm, and muttered a few words.
“Oi theoí échoun to éleos gia ména símera..” 
She took a deep breath and waited. She’d learned well from her years of isolated survival. 
Zolly would be patient, and wait for the dragon to get deeper into her tunnels, and get lost. Almost all dragons did. Zollyunis could always find another way in.

A game of cat and mouse.

On the other side of things, Vortex hadn't a care in the world, simply waltzing into the cavern with reckless abandon. He didn't really know what to expect or where to go, but that was always how the best adventures started, and recently he'd been quite bored. The caverns were a nice deviation from the uncomfortably warm exterior, as they were calm and cool inside. Although it was dark, he didn't care about the low light, simply feeling along the wall to ensure he didn't run into anything. Again, stealth wasn't even part of his thought process, displayed by the clacking of talons as he walked as well as a soft, rhythmic humming.

How odd. One day this is a flat hillside, the next day there's an entire cave system. He thought to himself as he wandered aimlessly through the cavern. It's almost as if someone built it. It didn't seem all that out of the question, but he had more things he wanted to be answered, namely why was it built, and where did it lead? Vortex pondered these two queries as he traversed the tunnels. 

Was he lost? Oh, of course. He'd been lost since the second he entered. But that wasn't a bad thing, at least not to him. Besides...

What could possibly go wrong?

Silently Zollyunis followed the masked dragon. She slid a small dagger into her claw, one she scavenged from a hunt. The dagger was just a precaution, just in case the dragon noticed her. Her black scales shimmered as she  silently followed the invader. She observed the complete lack of stealth the dragon possessed. Zolly didn’t even need to worry about loosing the dragon, his clacking talons provided enough of a sound clue to find the invader. The dragon was approaching a purposely weakened section of tunnel, it was a trap she’d set to stop dragons from discovering the path to her main lair. It would be only a few moments of time before the dragon set off the invisible magic wire she’d stolen. The cave in would completely close off the tunnel. Leaving only one path out, the one she was currently following the dragon in. 
This dragon.. why is he in here? It can’t possible just be morbid curiosity… and no dragon in their right mind would just enter a strange cave without any rhyme or reason…


She wasn’t worried about dealing with the dragon. Zolly could handle any fight, within limitations. But she didn’t know how good this dragon fought… She shrugged and backed away to find an ambush spot, it wouldn’t be long before the cavern in front of the dragon would cave in.
Should she stop the dragon? It would be quite the bother to reset the trap again..
Doesn’t matter to much… If this dragon is so dim witted to wander into my caves, then he probably deserves the scare.
Zolly held back a disdainful growl. This dragon.. made her mad. She hated his ignorance, no dragon ever willingly wandered into her caves. She hated how much this dragon reminded her of her mate. Ombass had always been ignorant, but she’d liked that about him. But now, she hated dragons who acted like that. Sudden rage filled her, and she struggled to keep back her growing growl. How dare this dragon remind her of her lost mate? She couldn’t help but let out a hiss. Her body stiffened, the hiss wasn’t too loud, but did the dragon hear?  The huntress quickly crawled up onto the ceiling, gripping her claws deep into the stone to stop her from falling. Then she waited, patiently hoping the dragon didn’t hear. 

This is not going to end well…

(Sorry for the delay, I may or may not have forgotten this existed)

Magic tripwire or not, Vortex was still wandering deeper into his own grave, taking the cavern as an opportunity to turn it into an adventure. At least an adventure for him, anyways, as for all he knew he was alone. It always came down to him adventuring alone, he had found out a while back. Sure, he had some, well, a few, well, not really any friends, but he didn’t mind being alone. It was rather calming to him, especially after everything else he’d dealt with previously. But that is a story for another time. We'll leave it at 'he's been through some stuff'. Regardless, his vision was slowly faltering the further he ventured from the bright light of the entrance. Of course, he wasn't much concerned about it, figuring he could still find his way around so long as there was still ground beneath him. 

All of a sudden, however, something caught his attention. Not visual, as he couldn’t see three inches in front of him, but rather audible. The tiniest noise, one that was out of place. Amongst the clicking of talons from him, the gentle humming from his throat, and the ambient whispers of the wind, there was one noise which didn’t belong. A sudden and quick-to-silence hiss. Normally, he’d have disregarded it as the wind from outside the cave, but when vision failed and the other senses needed to be used, every out-of-place noise was of interest to him.

Stopping in his tracks, Vortex turned towards the faint hiss, both curious and suspicious of its origin. Unknown to him, his tail nearly brushed the magical tripwire as he turned, but he wasn’t quite close enough to set it off. Has his attention not be averted, he would’ve walked straight through it. Instead, he slowly crept towards where he had heard the hissing, stopping unknowingly right beneath the source of the noise. Although he looked around, it was still clear to him that he couldn't see a thing.

“Hello? Anyone there?”

Zollyunis silently swore as the dragon barely missed the trap trigger. If she had kept her mouth shut, he would’ve walked straight into the cave collapsing trap!
Zollyunis thought over what she was to do.
She’d drop down onto the dragons back, digging her claws in deep to deal the most damage. She would then slip under the dragons body, horribly maim a leg and knock it down onto the ground. Where she would then shove the dragon into the trap, hopefully immobilizing it. If it was still alive, she’d question it later. Her mind wandered.
This dragon is strange. He doesn’t even know I’m here. Despite the noise I’ve made..
Zollyunis had gotten her chance, she wasn’t going to loose it.
Without a thought Zollyunis jumped down onto the dragons back, digging her claws deep as she left rents into the back of his hide. In the heat of the moment, she noticed the dragons mask. 
What a reward for my hard work.

Zollyunis prematurely thought about claiming the mask for her hoard of trophies. Already she’d collected magic items from Xoyan traders, exotic statues from others. Zollyunis had even managed to snatch a fairly expensive bit of jewelry from a market. She snaked under the dragon, snapping at his legs, attempting to injure his leg to weaken him, to make it easier to knock him down. She then tried to use her wings to knock him to the ground. Zollyunis always tried to copy what she was taught perfectly. Every move her mother taught her, every small detail. The move she’d just did was what her mother used to defeat dragons. Get under the prey, snap a tendon or injure a leg, then knock em over with the tail or wings. Without a second to spare Zollyunis then tried to shove the dragon into the tripwire to trigger it and trap, or kill the dragon.
(Short post is short)

It would be a stretch to say that Vortex wasn’t expecting some sort of attack. You just didn’t wander into some mysterious cavern and not get hit by something. However, although he was anticipating something to jump out of the darkness at him, he didn’t expect it to come from above him. Why they couldn’t just be mannerly and come out to say hello was beyond him, but hey, it's a kill-or-be-killed world sometimes. He knew that well, but didn’t quite comprehend the mindset that followed it. After all, in his eyes, he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

Of course, just because he wasn’t expecting something didn’t mean it never happened. The sudden, searing pain in his back as his attacker’s talons dug into it was more than enough to stun and discombobulate him, but it wasn’t quite enough to disable him. Rearing back and releasing a blood-curdling screech, Vortex attempted to shake off the other dragon. And when he felt the weight leave his spine, in the heat of the moment, he thought it had worked. A misconception which would (literally) come back to bite him. A sharp burst of pain followed by strength leaving one of his forelimbs told him that his attacker wasn’t quite done with him. In all his thinking, he didn’t really fight back, making him easy prey for when two large wings pushed up from beneath him and knocked him to the ground. Without any time to figure out how to react, Vortex felt his tail pass through something warm and soft, followed by a deep rumbling echoing through the cavern as the part of the tunnel he was in collapsed in on itself, ultimately crushing his tail and hind limbs. Yes, it was excruciatingly painful, but Vortex was Vortex, always the eccentric one.
“That... wasn’t very... nice of you.”