The Last Hunt (Adventure, possible other tags)

As the group continued to just fly over the spires of rock that filled the valley below, a distinct rumbling could suddenly be heard. Down below, several of the spires could be seen starting to waver back and forth, shifting slightly about while still remaining rooted to their position on the ground. Though what could be causing such a disturbance would remain unknown as the mess of rock spires obscured everyone's sight to greatly for them to actually see the ground.

Star smiled as he listened to Xereth. "Sleeping on clouds is the best. They're fluffy and soft....and fluffy!" He smiled and laughed a bit, hugging the cloud with his hooves gently. He watched Aerv's way of sleeping and raised an eyebrow. "That's probably meant for a short nap or something, not really sleeping. But eh." He shrugged and looked at Sharp with a raised eyebrow. "Probably eh? Of course you unicorns have a spell for this kind of stuff. It's just in your nature. Make spells for everything! Magic this magic that." He shrugged and laid back down on the cloud. He rolled his eyes at Nuria, shaking his head. "Such a downer...What can go wrong? Seriously?" He said before his ears perked up at the rumbling.

He lifted his head and looked around, his ears swiveling about trying to pin point a rough direction of where the rumbling was coming from. He looked over the edge of his little cloud and looked down at the rocks as they moved. He raised an eyebrow before looking at Aerv. "Hey, Aerv? What was that?" He asked the expert dragon, tilting his head to the side slightly.

Aerv chuckled at Star's response and smiled at him. "I bet it is. I hope I learn a spell that will allow me to do so." he responded before raising an eyebrow. "Well, every little bit of sleep helps at times." he said before looking at Sharp on his back. "How far? Heck if I know. Never visited the king himself. Us mountain born clans rarely if not never get such chances. I guess I should consider myself lucky for that. This direction should be the right one." he answered the unicorn mare on his back and sighed as he heard what Nuria had to say. He considered answering for a moment, but decided to just stay silent. He was apparently annoying her enough with his existence, so it would be better to just leave her be.

When he heard the rumbling and looked down to see the slightly moving rocks and heard Star's worrying question, Aerv gave him a slight smile. "Just some oversized beast, probably. We could gain some more altitude." he said before beginning to rise even higher, planning to leave ground far below them.

Sharp’s response to Star’s statements came in the form of a cheeky smile. Magic was pretty great. The fact Aerv had almost no idea where he was taking them apart from a vague cardinal direction was a tad concerning, but she shrugged it off and hummed in understanding of the dragon’s statement. “I didn’t take you for the type to argue semantics, Nuria.” She replied to the kirin with mild amusement. “We’ll get back, competence is practically my special talent. Besides, I’m too pretty to die.” she joked with a light chortle.  

Sharp didn’t actually see the shifting rocks, she was too busy trying not to look down, but the rumbling was hard to miss.  “Do the dragonlands even have anything normal sized?” she joked and tightened her grip on Aerv as he began his ascent.

Nuria growled in frustration that she seemed to be the only one actually concerned for their well being. She looked back down at the shifting spires and decided it best to gain altitude as well. And, of course, Aerv had no clue where he was going. "Am I the only one here who has a problem with that?" It was probably a rhetorical question. She knew she was. Of course she was. Why would either of those silly ponies care about something crucial like the fact that their navigator didn't know where he was navigating?

With the group rising higher into the sky, the moving spires below became a distant and minor concern at the best. For a while, this was as well and the group was easily able to cover some distance at the higher altitude. Hours later though and suddenly something sped past the group, possibly hitting some as it passed by. The thing moved fast and only have a rough outline like shape with no distinguishing features. As it flew past the group, it made a large arc and began to fly back at them again.

Star blinked at Aerv as he said the direction they were going is probably the right direction. He frowned slightly but shook his head for a moment. "Right. Up. Got it." He said as he dragged his cloud up with them. Maybe he should leave the cloud now...Nah. He glanced over at Nuria, frowning again. "Problem with us maybe going in the right direction? Hmm...Little. But Aerv's made his points and said why he is only somewhat sure of where we're going. He has a vague sense of that way and we don't. We'd be stuck here worse with out him." He said with a shrug.

Star continued to follow, laying on his cloud and resting. Hours later, he was half asleep but still following. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to lay on a fluffy soft cloud for hours on end...But luckily for him he was going to get a wake up call. When something sped right past then, his fluffy cloud bed was scattered, making the thestral drop a few meters before he was able to get control back and fly correctly. "What the heck was that?!" He shouted, looking at the thing as it arced. "Errr...Wait I don't want to know anymore!" He shouted in alarm as he saw it flying back towards them.

Nuria was busy being generally grumpy when she was suddenly thrown off balance by the thing flying past them. She regained her balance and looked around quickly before she spotted the winged creature, whatever it was, rounding to come back at them. She readied her spear. No place to run to this time. They were out in the open with no place to go but down, and she wasn't sure if they could make it in time to avoid whatever it was. Not that Nuria wanted to avoid it at this point. She was pretty sick of running from things. She didn't even care if it was that damned Roc again. "It's coming back!"

Aerv chuckled at Sharp's comment. "Regular sized? Depends on who states it. You, for instance, are small, tiny even for our 'regular size'. Even I am. But that thing down there... oversized. But for your 'regular size', Sharp, I do believe I would fall into the 'oversized' category, right?" he said and released another chuckle.

"Star is right, Nuria. I can at least ask other friendly dragons for directions, and I highly doubt you would even get them to talk with you instead of eating you." he said to Nuria after Star had explained why it's better that Aerv is with them.

Xereth just barely dodged the thing that zoomed past them, almost barely keeping Sharp on his back. He tried to distinguish what was attacking them, and it seemed way too small to be the Roc. "Sharp, magic barrier of any sort, now!!"

“Pssh, it’ll be fine, Nuria.” Sharp said in response to the Kirin’s worrying. “The princesses wouldn’t have sent us on this mission if they didn’t they we could pull it off.” she added reassuringly. Truth be told, she had her own doubts about their quest. Not only was it a one-in-a-million chance that the king of dragons would even speak to them, much less take the time to actually look at the treaty they carried, but the odds of all four of them actually making it back to Canterlot were, from how Celestia made it sound earlier, not the best.

Aerv’s response did raise valid points. They were definitely better off with him then they were without him. Nuria probably understood that, but like the majority of ponies in Equestria, were slow to embrace change. Dragons have  been a rampaging plague on Equinity for as long as anypony could remember, it was honestly difficult to accept the fact they could be anything other than bloodthirsty monsters. Aerv Xereth seemed friendly enough though…

“Well, I wasn’t going to mention it, but, you are kind of fat.” Sharp joked back, teasing Aerv for his choice of words. “Nothing a totally-not-dangerous flight into the heart of the dragon lands won’t cu-----” She began, but was abruptly cut off by the dragon’s sudden evasive maneuver. She held on to the dragon for dear life, yelling something about haunting Aerv for the rest of his life should he drop her as he leveled out. His request for a magic barrier was granted, but only after the spooked mare had further tightened her grip on the dragon’s neck.

Sharp furrowed her brow in concentration. Her horn was encompassed in her magic’s white aura, and after a moment of channeling, Aerv and an area around him were shielded behind a similarly colored bubble of protective magic.



(I wasn’t aware how far I could’ve gone in terms of actually shielding the party, so I was intentionally vague as far as the size and strength of the shield bubble to allow Zen to set limits.)

The barrier sprang up around the entire group (assuming they weren't flying too far from each other), but the mass didn't slow or stop at all in it's dive towards the group. The wall of the magic shell held strong against it's impact, in fact it wouldn't even cause an increase in strain from trying to sustain the barrier as the black mass just seemed to disperse upon breaking at the magic barrier's surface. Small little tendrils of the mass lingered for only a scarce few seconds before disappearing into thin air, as if they were just dissolving. After the last of the wispy bits disappeared, the group would find the skies around them clear of not only the mass and any other creature, but also all clouds.

"No duh it's coming back captain obvious!" Star shouted at Nuria as he took his sword in his hooves, holding it with care. He heard Aerv shout for Sharp to put up a shield and moved closer to the two. He hoped that Sharp was as good as a unicorn as she seemed, because he really did not want to have this thing burst right though a shield and hit them all. He did keep his sword ready just in case though, eyeing the thing as it came close and the shield went up. And then...It hit the shield...and disappeared...A quick glance around calmed him slight as he didn't see it anywhere...But then he noticed that there were no clouds and pouted slightly. He put away his sword and sighed before actually pausing and thinking about what he saw. No clouds...Surely there were clouds when that thing had sped past them right? He hummed, tapping a hoof to his muzzle.

Nuria readied her spear as the thing came speeding back towards them. The shield went up in time to disperse whatever it was, and now the sky was clear. Too clear. The clouds were gone now, leaving only the four travelers floating in place. "... Wh-Where did it go?.." She questions aloud. "Just what was that thing?!"

Aerv would chuckle at Sharp's teasing, responding with "I blame that damned dinner with the princesses. I swear, it's like they attempted to spoil me on day one...".

When the barrier came up, Xereth almost braced for impact in case the shield wasn't strong enough, but just blinked as it disappeared along with the clouds. He floated in place, looking at the place that the weird thing hit the barrier before disappearing, listening to the group's comments before worryingly looking at Nuria. "Your guess is as good as mine. In all my centuries of living here, flying around and exploring, I have never seen anything like this... and I do not like any of it." He said his piece, looking around. If noone would have anything else to add, he would begin flying in the general direction of where he thought the dragon king was again, while being much, much more cautious about their surroundings, keeping an eye on everything.

When the mass collided when her barrier, Sharp let out a grunt of concentration as the spell immediately became more demanding. “Well, that worked.” She boasted pridefully. “Personally I think that display was worthy of praise, don’t you?” the mare finished, a cheeky grin plastered upon her face. She was obviously happy with her success.

“Whatever it is, worrying about it isn’t going to get us anywhere. If I was able to deal with it once, there is no reason to believe I can’t deal with it again, should it become a problem for us in the future.” Sharp said in reply to the other's questions and concerns about the mysterious flying object.

True enough, while the dark mass of whatever it was didn't return, the group was still now flying blatantly out in the open sky with no means of cover or anything to even remotely hide their presence. There weren't even nearby clouds to distract anything from their presence, so it should be no surprise that suddenly a loud, almost roar of 'caw' echoed out across the expanse of clear sky. Descending rapidly from above was an all to familiar black bird, with talons already bared to catch up anyone not quick enough to move out of the way.

This place... This place was going to drive Nuria mad. The cry from the Roc snapped something in her brain. Her eye visibly twitched and she scowled in it's direction. It was going to die. And she would wear its feathers as an ornament in her hair as a trophy. She raised her spear and charge. "Why don't you just die already!" She yells. She would run her spear straight through its gut, talons be damned. She hunted dragons for a living! She wasn't about to be beaten by some oversized bird.

Star nodded to Sharp. "Yeah...Good job. And you're probably right. Let's get going." He kept his ears and eyes open for anything. He then stopped in midair as his ears perked up, hearing the Roc again. He mentally cursed and quickly looked at Nuria. He had been listening to the conversations from the previous day even though he didn't say anything about it much. He saw her raising her spear and prepared to charge towards the Roc. He wouldn't let her do that. He quickly bit down on her tail and flew the opposite direction away from the Roc with all his might. "Dooh sohhthinn!" He shouted around the tail in his mouth, trying to slow Nuria down from reaching the Roc even if it came towards them. Luna be damned if he let her anger dragons and endanger them even more then they already were in their situation.

Aerv quickly looked upwards as he heard the all too familiar sound and then noticed Nuria attempting to charge it. "Oh for Tamenth's sake." he growled before charging at Nuria himself. "Sharp, use that blinding spell again, quickly!" he said to the unicorn companion riding on his back while he himself attempted to hit Nuria, yank her spear out of her hooves and mid-air tackle her out of the way as he loudly screeched like a bird (To Zen: He has been around those tribes that worship Roc and learned a few words in 'bird tongue', now attempted to tell Roc to 'go away') in hopes of Roc hearing him and actually listening to him.

“Well, I certainly feel appreciated, so, we’ve got that, which is nice.” Sharp said in response to Star’s acknowledgement. When the Roc decided to make its presence known again, the mare simply sighed.

“Three… two… there she goes. Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.” Sharp replied with a hint of amusement. She charged the requested spell for a brief moment before sending it on its way towards the oversized bird-dragon thing and braced herself for its blinding detonation.

“I think it goes without saying, but, sometimes the first duty of an intelligent mare is the restatement of the obvious, so, shield your eyes.” She quickly shouted in warning.

Regardless of whether the Roc understood, cared, or even heard the words Aerv's tried to screech out in it's tongue, the bright light was enough to get it to slow it's advance, though the claws were still outstretched as it continued to descend.

(I'm actually not sure who's getting to do what since there's that no auto-hit policy and therefore, I'm not certain Nuria has actually been stopped because of Aerv's and Star's actions. So I'll just be leaving this little thing here and we'll have another quick round of posts. As is, Roc's still coming down with sharp, pointy, talons out and ready)

Nuria trained her eyes on the Roc. She kicked whoever it was off her tail and raised her spear high, then threw it with all her might at the Roc. Right as a bright light exploded in her face. She was blinded now, reeling back and shutting her eyes tight in futility. She was defenseless, rubbing her eyes vigorously as she tried to regain her sight, swearing out loud.

Star hissed through the tail in his mouth as he was kicked in the face but held on, trying to stop the mare as much as he could. He hoped Aerv could stop her more then he could...and maybe the Roc too. His ears perked up at Sharp saying to cover their eyes, quickly shutting his eyes and throwing a hoof up in front of her eyes. When he heard Nuria curse, he was pretty sure she did not heed Sharp's warning. Opening his eyes he saw Nuria hovering there, a giant bird coming towards them...and...fuck. He closed his wings, letting go of tail from his mouth and grabbing it with his hooves. Hopefully dragging her down with him and out of the way of the Roc.

Aerv groaned at Nuria, attempting to stop the spear with his magic and attempting to tackle Nuria out of Roc's way again now that she was blinded. He attempted to squawk loudly at the Roc, attempting to tell him the same thing as before. 'Damnit, Nuria, it's like you WANT to die!' he thought to himself after he tackled her away.

Sharp once again found herself holding on to Aerv Xereth for dear life as he moved to restrain their aggressive kirin companion. “This is really getting old, you two!” She cried out, her mind racing to come up with a way out of this situation. Suddenly, an idea hit her. She may not have enough power to teleport the gigantic bird away any impactful distance,  but she could probably manage to turn it around. She shouted another warning to her compatriots, this time telling them to cover their ears as well as their eyes, and that they should make a break for it.

With this in mind, Sharp began casting the first of what would be three spells cast in rapid succession, another orb of light manifested itself atop her horn and began to make its way towards the Roc. The second spell would finalize almost immediately after the first had detonated; a deafening boom emanated from the unicorn’s horn. Her preparations complete, the mare began to pour all of her energy and concentration into encompassing the Roc in a teleportation spell, and cast it. If successful, the Roc would have been turned one-hundred-and-eighty degrees away from the group, and be none the wiser of it.  

Sharp slumped on Aerv's back, utterly spent.