The Last Hunt (Adventure, possible other tags)

Star shifted on the branch a little bit, eyeing Nuria as she cut the fish open. He blinked, suddenly realizing where this was going and quickly turning away. NOPE! He mentally yelled, throwing his hooves up over his ears so he couldn't hear her eating the fish. He was actually regretting following her here in the first place. He could have easily been stargazing up by the camp site, but no, he decided to watch Nuria...He sighed, glancing around the trees, trying very hard to ignore the crunch of bones near the river.

Nuria ate the fish whole, leaving nothing behind. Then decided to lay down where she was. She really didn't want to go back to the rest of the group. She was pretty sick of Aerv. And of those ponies. She didn't understand how they could follow a dragon so willingly. Preposterous. But bow her belly was full, and she was tired from the events of the day. Maybe she'd just sleep on this rock all night... yeah... that was a pretty good idea...

Star waited till he hears the crunching stop, deciding to pull his hooves away from his ears and loocked back at Nuria. Seeing that she didn't have a fish anymore, which was very unfortunate for that poor fish, and was laying on the rock. He tilted his head to the side, looking at her curiously for a moment. Was she really going to sleep her tonight? And not by the warm fire Aerv made? He wondered what was going on in her head, what she was thinking. He thought for a moment before gliding down off the tree, towards the kirin. He landed softly and started to walk over to her, pausing five meters away from her and sitting down. He then laid on his back and looked up at the sky, not saying a word.

And so the night passed, relatively uneventful. Other than some insects and such, very little stirred this close to the mountain, and certainly nothing very large. When morning came, it came with a loud rumble and the sounds of rocks falling from place and trees shaking down to their roots. The ground beneath the Aerv and Sharp split open, as if the earth was trying to swallow them whole. The first buffet of wind to come from the ground was very warm. While Star and Nuria weren't in this danger, they would still likely be awoken by the shaking and the noise.

As Aerv felt the slight shaking in the beginning, he quickly looked around. "An earthquake?" he thought to himself as it intensified. The blue dragon swiftly picked up Sharp, whether she was sleeping or not, just in time to fly up as the ground opened up beneath them. "Where have all these events been for the past two hundred and fifty years?" he thought out loud, flying above the hole. "It's almost as if going around with ponies here is giving me the most terrible luck!"

Sharp wasn’t the lightest of sleepers, but, between the loud rumbling and shaking of the ground, even she had been roused from her slumber. She hazily looked around, rubbing her eyes in mild confusion. Then, the ground gave way to a buffet of wind and she found herself in Aerv’s grip. Sharp wasn’t even upset. She had come to expect the dragon lands to pull this sort of crap, especially in the morning.

“Have I mentioned how much I hate mornings yet? Because they bucking suck. Majorly.” She groaned.

Nuva was shaken awake by the sudden earthquake, her peaceful sleep disturbed as she shoot up to her feet and looked around for a threat. Finding none, she looked down and saw Star. She growled quietly at his presence and hopped down to him. "What are you doing here?"

Star's eyes shot open as he heard the rumbling from the earthquake. He quickly rolled to his hooves and looked around. His ears perked up as he heard growling coming from where Nuria was sleeping and looked over to her. He just stared at her for a moment before spreading his wings and flying up to see what happened. He spotted the area where Aerv and Sharp had been sleeping cracked open. He sighed and landed back down on the ground. "I thought you might have wanted company. Company that wasn't a dragon." He said to her simply. "And it seems I made a good decision coming down here because it looks like where Sharp and Aerv had been sleeping is kinda...not there anymore." He rubbed the back of his neck and groaned. When was the last time he slept in a normal bed? Or right in Canterlot.

The buffet of warm, almost damp wind wouldn't last that long, but then it was replaced by a strange suction, as if something very big was breathing in. The force of the gale was terrifying and even with Aerv's dragon wings, he would find himself being steadily pulled into the great chasm that had opened up beneath him.

Once they were just a short ways under the surface though, the strange wind current stopped, leaving them in the almost eerie darkness of the underground. "What have we hear? A child and his play thing? Or just a couple of snacks?" A monstrously deep, rumbling, and powerful voice said with surprising smoothness from the depths of the darkness. A massive pair of draconic eyes appeared, blazing almost as brightly as the campfire had last night. "I'd speak quickly, I've not had my morning snack yet."

Even above the ground and a short ways away, Star and Nuria would be able to roughly hear the voice as well, though the exact words were a little too muffled to truly make out at their distance.

Aerv struggled and did his best to try to escape the current, using the teleportation spell not even coming to his mind. He soon felt the wind current stop and he looked down underneath him at the deep and loud voice. 'Speaking in pony language?' Aerv thought as he continued looking down. 'Well I am technically still a child, though Sharp ain't a toy.' "N-neither, sir! I am merely an escort for the equines, they have a message for our greatness from their leaders!" Aerv answered in flawless draconic language, trying his best to prove that he is one of the dragons.

Nuria didn't respond to Star's statement, but flew up after him. She looked towards where Aerv and Sharp had been and saw the crack in the earth. That was unsettling to say the least. "Oh no..." She says, darting off in that direction. It would be no good if Xereth and Sharp died. It would be a black mark on her conscience if she let anything happen to them. The voice made her spine chill, but she wasn't going to let it deter her.

Star blinked and darted off after Nuria. He was actually presently surprised by Nuria's actions...then again it could be just that she didn't want to get in trouble with the princesses for letting Sharp and Aerv possibly die while just sitting around. Or she was actually doing something good for once. He really hoped it was the latter and not the former. His ears perked up at the voice, trying to make it out what it was saying. All he could really make out was play and snacks, which was really bad anyway.

Sharp stared incredulously at the pair of eyes in front of her. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was surprised, considering where she was, and what she was supposed to be doing here… but logical thought wasn’t exactly at the forefront of her list of priorities right now.

“Wow. Seriously. A dragon under the ground? Directly where we slept? The things I do for my monarchical overlords.” Sharp told herself in a low tone and shook her head, slightly in shock given the absurdity of the situation.  By the time Aerv was finished speaking, She seemed to have come to terms with current events. “Yeah, what he said.” She agreed, obviously referring to Aerv. Of course, she hadn’t the slightest idea what it was he told the (presumably) other dragon, but, it seemed like the right thing to say.

"If he eats me I'm going to haunt the living Tartarus out of Star and Nuria for abandoning us. I'll read them the most boring ghost books in existence. Buck... I hope there are ghost books. "

"A message? Now that is curious," the monstrous voice rumbled out of the darkness, the sheer depth and volume of the tone managing to more than adequately convey just how massive and terrifyingly powerful this creature must be. "And there's even more of them I see," it added when Star and Nuria came into view. "I suppose they aren't samples for a dinner she plans to throw, so what is this message your princess deemed so important as to wake me up?" the voice demanded, losing some of it's playfulness while the eyes blazed just a tad more red and violent.

Aerv looked at Star and Nuria as they arrived and the large dragon addressed them before turning back to the dragon underneath them. "I don't know what is in the message, sir!" Aerv swiftly answered. "And the equines that are with me are not food!" He added. "And if we did wake you up, I deeply apologize, I did not know you were underneath here. My sincere apologies." He apologized to the beast underneath them.

Nuria was a stubborn, prideful hunter, who hardly backed down from anything if she could help it... However, she figured maybe she'd let Aerv handle this one... She'd still be here if she was needed. Way over here. Waaaayy over here. "That's not a dragon... Is it?" She asks Star as she drops to the edge of the crack in the ground.

Star paused in the air, looking down at the hole at the eyes. He glanced at Aerv and then the...most likely dragon under the ground talking in, what he presumed, was dragon tongue. He saw Nuria drop down to the edge of the crack, following after here. He was sure Aerv would be fine...right? He blinked at her for a moment, glancing at the crack in the ground. "Umm...Considering how dragon like the eyes are...I'd say yes...Yes it is...A very very big dragon." He said simply, backing off form the edge a bit more.

“Wait, are you implying you’re the dragon king? Because, that’d be incredibly convenient.” Sharp asked the dragon in front of her. “Long story short, the princesses want you to keep your dragons from eating their ponies--- That includes us three by the way, If you don’t mind.” She continued, producing the scroll the princesses had given them for delivery. “You know, we probably should’ve read this beforehoof…” The mare added with a shrug and floated over the scroll.

One massive claw came forward from the darkness, performing an almost impossible feat of precision as it seized the scroll and drew it back into the dark. "Hmm, well your princess's skills at negotiation are as strong as ever I see," the massive creature rumbled out after a moment or two. The massive eyes flicked back up to regard the group again. "I might be willing to honor this proposal, but it seems a tad light on my end for... benefits. My entire race would be losing a food source if this went into effect, I might need some additional motivation to convince the others that you're more than just snacks. Would you be willing to perform a, small task upon my behalf to increase the chances of this proposal going through," it said with a almost sickeningly smooth deep voice.

"D-depends what kind of request." Aerv answered the the dragon's question. "If that would mean hurting just a few more of the equines, then... I have my doubts, to say the least." he added, trying to figure out if this was really the king or just one of his guard. Would king as a giant dragon really need enormous guards, though?

Nuria didn't like the sound of what she was hearing. Nor did she like the look of that... Huge... Dragon... The sight made her want to curl up and hide. "S-Star, I don't know if we can trust this guy..." She whispers to the Thestral warily.

Star looked up at Sharp as she floated down the scroll to the dragon in the hole. He was half expecting the dragon to have just burnt the scroll, but was presently surprised when he didn't. Though...the fact he was asking them to do something for him was a bit off putting, despite the fact he had a point. His ears perked and looked over at Nuria, curious. He looked at her for a moment then at the dragon and back. "Well we don't really have much of a choice now do we? Also...I couldn't help you notice you stutter a bit at first. Are you afraid of the giant dragon?" He asked with a playful smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Oh how you wound me, welp," the visage responded to Nuria and Star's dialogue. "You bring a call for peace, but then deny me your trust and paint me fearful," that same sickeningly sweet and darkly deep voice. "Now to your concern runt, I have no want for pitiful snacks that'd barely serve to get stuck in my teeth. No, my task would for the lot of you to investigate a strange black cloud that's been invading my skies recently, or as so my underlings report."

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OOG: Sharp, feel free to post again

Aerv swallowed as the giant dragon mentioned a dark cloud. "I-investigate it? I would guess it is no ordinary black cloud that rains moisture... If the said black cloud shows to be hostile and we are unable to do anything about it, what should we d-do?" Xereth posed his question, his legs still shaking in slight fear. He did not want to anger the giant dragon, even less if that was actually the king.

"If it's hostile, figure out how it can harm one," the dragon replied with a sinister grin. "And I believe I'll take a more thorough look at that treaty as well as the ponies it represents," the massive creature said before reaching a massive clawed and scaled hand up, grabbing Star and Sharp before pulling them both into the darkness of the cave. "Let's be sure to return too, before I get hungry and decide to have a snack," the deep voice remarked before the eyes disappeared into the darkness, and a loud rumbling that'd suddenly appeared began to grow more distant with each tremor causing thud.

That left Aerv and Nuria alone and around the massive hole that lead into the unknown. The skies and grounds around them slowly began to reclaim their lost noises of birds and other creatures, as when the rumbling stopped entirely.

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OOG: I'm giving this one last post to see if it's to continue.