The Last Hunt (Adventure, possible other tags)

{Yeah, just going to put this here, not as a full update or anything since I'm still kinda waiting on everyone else to post but the cockatrice is dead and you all can react accordingly}

Nuria watched and looked suspiciously as Aerv cast his magic and slammed the cockatrice against the rock. She gathered her spear and looked at it as if scolding it. She then looks at Aerv with suspicion. "You can use magic?"

Star looked up slightly when he head the caw and hiss, still careful not to look into it's eyes like Aerv said. His eyes widened when the cockatrice was enveloped in a red glow, lifted, and then slammed down against the ground. His mouth gaped open a little, looking at Aerv. "What...did you...how...Huh?" He then scrunched up his muzzle when the dragon mentioned meat. "Err...Aerv, two of us are ponies here...we don't eat meat." He shuddered at the thought of eating meat.

“Brilliantly done. Magical dragons. Who would’ve thunk it.” Sharp smiled, applauding Nuria and Aerv. “And here I was, thinking you were hiding something more… sinister, Mister Xereth.” she continued. When offered a piece of the cockatrice, she politely declined. “At any rate, I trust this is the only relevant secret you’ve been keeping from us, yeah?” she asked the dragon.

Aerv looked at the group, wondering what were they all surprised about, before remembering that they had never seen him use magic before. He first looked at Nuria. "Err.. yes. Yes I can. One of the reasons I was being so cheerful when bound down. I could've teleported out of my binds anytime." he said and chuckled before turning to Star. "Rrright... All the more for me, then~" he said before finally turning to Sharp. "I would be hiding something sinister if your kind would bring something more than books on basic magic with them a hundred years ago." he answered with a chuckle, and subconsciously clutched his hanging rusty old golden compass around his neck. "I... I don't think I do." he answered before turning back to the dead cockatrice. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need an actual meal." he said and began tearing cockatrice apart, eating the meat and visibly enjoying it.

When Aerv was finished eating the cockatrice, and doing whatever else he would to the corpse, the lot of them would be free to continue onward, deeper into the dragon lands. The scrub land that they were currently in continued on for a ways, but a steadily closer drawing treeline could be seen on ahead. Well before the group could reach it though, a very large shadow fell over the lot of them. A massive set of wings upon what looked like a rather giant bird, or well that was for it's shadow. If the party were to look up... no wait, the shadow wasn't that misleading, there really was a giant black bird flying overhead. After flying past the group once, the shadow and bird turned around and flew back over the group before turning a third time and beginning a long dive towards the group.

[If you really think your character would know what a Roc was, even with the consideration that it's not something that has ever appeared in Equestria, why not take a look?

Star scrunched up his muzzle. "Have fun Aerv...I'm gonna go over there and try not to throw up my breakfast." He said, pointing in the opposite direction of where the cockatrice was. He walked a few distance away with a sick look and covered his ears so he couldn't hear Aerv eating...That didn't work out so well and he ended up barfing behind a bush. When Aerv was done and they were heading back on their way, he tried to wash down the taste of bile from his mouth with some water. Sure he was okay with...fish but meat was a totally different.

When the shadow flew over them, he paused for a moment an looked down with a curious look. He then turned his head upwards and...gaped at the big black bird. "A giant bird?!" He half asked, half shouted. He quickly drew his sword when he saw the bird dive for them. He spread his wings and hovered in place, watching the bird.

Nuria continued to keep her distance from Aerv for a while. Though now she was starting to feel a bit hungry herself. She started eating some of the dried meat she had packed. It made a nice snack. But then, a large shadow passed over the group...

Her instinct immediately told her that something wasn't right. She looked up in the sky and saw the giant bird flying over them. She grabbed her spear and waited to see what it would do, but as soon as it circled back around she stood and moved closer to the rest of the group. "I think we have trouble..."

Sharp averted her eyes whilst Aerv fed on the cockatrice’s corpse. “Lovely…” she said to the dragon, more than mildly disgusted by his consumption of the untreated bird-snake-thing. Personally she hadn’t a problem with the act of eating meat itself, provided it was properly cleaned and cooked, and not within eyeshot.

“Trouble? Nuria, that right there is a challenge! One I accept! Shut your eyes, quick.” Sharp told her group, charging and firing a spell up towards the creature. Said spell appeared to be an orb of light, right up until it had traveled close to the diving bird, then, it exploded in a blinding flash of white light.

(The idea here is a sort of disorienting flash of light to blind the bird, make it lose its sense of direction, and, hopefully miss us in its dive.)

Aerv was somewhat ignoring the group as he ate, enjoying the taste of real meat. He was not really a fan of fish, but he did not want to displease the chef in Canterlot castle. Hell, he'd eat grass and leaves if he had to, but even though he ate everything, raw bloodied meat was still his favorite. He made sure to lick all around his mouth once he was done to get the last traces of blood off his muzzle. "Well, that was just delicious." he said before noticing the large shadow and swiftly looking up. "Oh no, it's the Roc! Why now?!" he said as he instinctively spread his wings widely, trying to look as big as he could, attempting to at least show as a threat towards the Roc. His plans were to either fight it or somehow teleport the group away. He did teleport multiple beings before when he was showing other fellow dragons of his similar size some mountain caves fit for their home. He suddenly looked at Sharp when she cast the blinding spell and nodded, closing his eyes and hoping that Sharp's spell would work.

When Aerv spread his wings to make a stand against the bigger bird, the beast brought it's talon's forward and open in preparation to claw and snag up the smaller dragon. The Roc then let out a deafening cry as the orb of light exploded in it's face, forcing the monstrous bird to pull up from it's dive, missing the group. It returned to it's considerable height well above the group and it began to circle around though in preparation for another dive at them.

The terrain around was still the kind of rocky scrub land that offered little cover, but there was some forest or trees off a ways in the direction they were going.

Star perked up a little as Aerv talked. So the giant bird was called a Roc....He wondered what else was in this place. He paused and looked at Sharp for a moment then quickly closed his eyes. When the Roc let out the deafening cry, his ears flopped down in an attempt to muffle it a bit. He opened his eyes and looked at the Roc as it began to circle them. He grunted a little, flying a bit closer to Aerv unconsciously. "Well Aerv? What do we do now?" He asked, his speech a bit muffled from the sword in his mouth.

Nuria stayed low as the giant bird flew overhead. The burst of light deterred it and that was when the Kirin sprang into action. She took off right after it passed, chasing after with her spear in claw. If she could get to it fast enough, she could kill it before it did any real harm.

Aerv opened his eyes again as he heard the Roc's cry and observed it pull up again. He noticed that Nuria was about to go after it and quickly pulled her by the tail before she went too far out of his reach. "Don't! That bird is sacred among some of the tribes, and they won't forgive you if you kill it!" he yelled before turning to Star. "Now, we run for the forest. Unless Roc wants to break its wings or some trees, it most likely won't come after us there. Now come, quickly!" he answered before starting to run towards the forest, hoping that the rest will follow.

Sharp smiled confidently as her spell did its magic, even more so when Aerv told them to run for the forest. “Great minds think alike!” she called out to the dragon as she ran after him and into the forest. Physical exertion aside, Sharp looked like she was truly enjoying herself.

Regardless of whether or not Aerv managed to actually grab hold of Nuria or not, the Roc didn't seem to mind as it finished it's circle about and began to pursue those that were fleeing towards the woods. The massive shadow of the creature could be seen easily racing along right behind the group as it chased them, closing a bit faster than the woods drawing nearer. It began to dive again, plummeting towards the group with talons spread wide, each one easily big enough to capture a pony, or small dragon with ease. At the current rate, the woods would still be a good 60 feet away when the bird would make it's next swipe at the group.

Aerv noticed the shadow over them and half groaned, half growled. They could probably make it to the woods before the bird reached them, but he did not want to take any chances. His eyes glowed again, brighter than before as the whole group was engulfed in a bright red ball before disappearing and appearing good 50 meters into the forest. "Whew... that should keep it away, for now." he said, hoping it was true.

Nuria was yanked from the air before she could chase after the Roc and hit the ground instead. She looked up angrily at the dragon and let out an annoyed growl that she couldn't kill the bird. She got up to run, making her way with the rest of the group towards the forest. When suddenly she was surrounded by a red aura and then she was stuck in the branches of a tree! She let out another groan and climbed from the tree, trying to keep low so as not to be seen.

Star nodded quickly flying after Aerv. He glanced behind them as the bird seemed to be catching up closer then the trees. "Right well...The birds seems to be catching up to us!" He shouted before blinking at Aerv as he saw his eyes glowing. "Wait what are you..." He didn't get to finish his sentence when they were teleported into the forest. He let out a yelp in alarm as he spread his wings to stop himself from colliding with a tree. He panted as his muzzle just barely touched the bark of the tree. He flew back a bit and landed on the ground, rubbing his muzzle. "Hey Aerv...Maybe you can warn us next time you teleport us?" He looked over at the dragon for a second.

Sharp was preparing to flare the Roc once more when Aerv cast his teleportation spell. After coming to a skidding halt in the middle of a forest, she looked to the dragon for an explanation. “ A blind teleport spell? Are you trying to kill us?” she chastised the dragon. “You don’t just… teleport places you can’t see, Aerv. Especially not densely packed places, like a forest.” she finished. "Regardless, it got the job done. Where to now, my reckless compatriot?"

Sure enough, the teleport got the group well enough away from the Roc as it was force to pull up to avoid crashing into the many trees that made up the forest that the group was now in. It let out an annoyed caw and circled briefly, but then it seemed to spy something else that caught it's interest and flew off away from the group. This left them with no great shadow flying over them, but now they were in the dense trees and now that they would be able to notice it, the terrain was actually considerably more swamp like. The ground was boggy, sinking under the weight of any of the steps of the group, moss and vines hung from many of the tree branches, and large pools of seemingly stagnant water practically littered the floor as well. Sometimes, the greenery was so thick that it was actually hard to tell where the ground ended and where the water began.

Never-the-less, Aerv would know to continue on the course ahead and would be able to once more lead them along an at least partially dry path. Though a great many ripples coated the surfaces of the water pools, giving feint hints that they might not be the only thing disturbing the pools.

The dragon sighed in relief. "Well, it was either that or Roc." he answered before shaking his head and looking around. "This forest... it seems familiar." he said as he made a few steps forward, before looking around him again, even looking at his companions a few times to make sure they were all okay. "Be careful where you step.." he warned them. While he was in the lead of the group, he would prod the ground in front of him before each step to see if it's safe enough to step on, causing the progression to be much slower.

Nuria didn't follow Aerv, instead angrily stabbing her spear into the tree she climbed out of and shouting. "Why didn't you let me kill it?!" She blurts out, stomping in the muck. "I would have had it, until you grabbed me like that!" It was a matter of pride for Nuria. Aerv had just made her flee. From a hunt of all things! Her pride was now damaged and it was all the dumb dragon's fault.

“Oh calm down, Nuria. We’re walking into the heart of dragon territory, odds are you’ll have plenty of chances to kill things. Things bigger than the oversized bird back there. Better you be nice and well-rested for the real challenges, yeah?” Sharp told the Kirin. “Now, come on. We’ve got a treaty to deliver.” She finished, following Aerv onwards. After a few minutes of walking through the boggy terrain, Sharp stopped, sighing. "You know, I envy you winged creatures sometimes. Particularly when faced with land as... unsavory as this." she complained.

Star lifted a hoof and shook it. "You know...I'd rather be here then with a giant bird." H said with a shrug before hovering in the air above the ground. He then shook his hooves to clear some of the bog from them. He followed close behind Aerv, using his hooves to move the vines away from him. He looked at Nuria with a roll of his eyes, shrugging. "Yeah what Sharp said." His ears perked up and he smiled when he heard Sharp complain. "A horn head that envies feather brains? What a glorious day this is!" He laughed a bit as he clapped his hooves together.