Theratrial Za'Anisonna's Story

Theratriel groggily hauled himself out of bed for his shift. The knight didn't know whether it was sheer misfortune or if he'd offended a superior in order to earn the late night patrol. However, despite his yawning and rather unsightly demeanor he was still grateful to have not gotten the morning shift, he was weak in the mornings- especially after just waking up. Since it was night, even though the moon was well into its descent Thera found himself fully awake by the time he'd walked from his bed to the mannequin that held his armor. He swiftly and silently put on the light armor before grabbing his long slender sword and slinging his bow over his shoulder.

Once more without a word, Thera left his room by opting to leap from his window instead of walking downstairs and out the door. While the elf didn't live in his family's ancestral home (where his parents resided), he still lived on the estate. Specifically over the dragon roosts, which made it much easier to do his work. Granted, his parents residence had built in roosts too but Thera liked the open space of his current dwelling more. He strode towards the edge above the roost, a sheer drop straight to the lands below the floating kingdom of the elves. The dragons dwelt in an under-hang beneath his feet, without breaking his pace Thera gave a loud whistle and stepped off the ledge. As usual, his beloved dragon La'ney soared out to intercept him in free fall. Due to years of practice and a lot of trust, the two of them were able to use this method to mount faster than having Thera climb into a seat.
Thera adjusted his position immediately after his landing at the base of La'ney's neck. Given her size, most knights would have a saddle here- but Thera refused to use the saddle since he found it limited movement during flight. He'd tried opting to ride on her dead, between her horns but the pair had found that even more cumbersome.

"Yeah, this is just what I needed- nothing beats waking up to rush of flight." Thera openly stated his opinion while spreading his arms, with his legs he held himself in place while La'ney began her vertical assent to patrol altitude. Through his legs, he could feel his dragons powerful wings pumping and temporarily held himself upright to better feel the breeze.
How many times do I have to tell you to not do that when I'm vertical, you're just asking to fall off. While Thera knew his partner agreed with his opinion on flying, like usual she chided him for being reckless.

"Aw come on Ney, we both know that I won't fall on my own and even if I did you'd catch me. Besides, in combat odds are I'd have to be upright anyways." Thera gave his meager retort before ducking into his partners frame as she deliberately hard banked onto their patrol route. Thera passed the knight he was replacing on wing, and got the all clear signal...meaning nothing worth noting had been spotted. However, Thera still peeled his eyes while surveying the land and skies around himself...the elf wasn't too keen on letting something slip up on his watch. As the hours ticked by, the knights excitement grew despite nothing of importance happening on his own watch. He specifically signed up for this patrol because it took him through the nesting grounds.

Come dawn, he was looping through the outer regions of Alduin- mostly private estates and their grounds. But that was when something caught his eye and Thera instantly drew his bow before realizing he'd just spotted a girl watching the dragons herself. La'Ney had slightly altered her course when she felt him move, and began readjusting before making a spot of her own. I see something way below. Thera leaned in, signalling her to dive and the pair began a rapid descent and slowly Thera himself came to see what his partner discovered. Drawing closer, Thera finally noticed what he was looking at...an old camp. The knight was forced to land to check things out.

"I'd say this was a fortnight ago...given this is actually a relatively obscure spot and a lousy angle from patrol height a good wind would hide the smell" The elf hopped back onto his partner and took off, total time he'd spent on the investigation had been less than a minute. However, this meant he'd need to launch a proper investigation.

"Drop me off and report to the flight tower... the knights need to know and I need answers." Thera instructed La'Ney during ascent, if that girl was still with the dragons he already knew where to find his first potential witness. Besides, La'Ney was better at giving nonwritten reports than him.

The sun had risen just above the peaks, the warmth of it finally reaching Tuilinn. Reluctantly she stretched, her bare feet pointing and her ankles popping. She hated taking her eyes away from the eggs for even a moment, worried that she would miss a flutter of something - a crack here, a talon there, the peeking of an eye as it gazed at the outside world for the first time. During the duration of Tuilinn watching the eggs, only a handful had cracked, creating spidery seams along the curves. These wyrmlings were in no rush, and luckly, neither was Tuilinn.

Overhead a Dragon passed, it's shadow dancing across the ground she lay on. She paid it to mind - the longer she had lain here, the more comfortable the Mist Dragons had become of her presence, losing their misty shrouds and returning all of their attention to their lazy hatchlings. From where she was watching, Tuilinn could hear the soft coos, clicks, and rattles of the wyrmlings. A chip of egg shell fell off one, in a nest farthest from her impromptu bed. The membrane sat in place, a milky paper between the cool air outside and the haven within.

Thera, I think you might be worrying too much. La'Ney's thoughts came across with a tinge of concern. Thera himself never descended to the ground, he was simply too at home up in the clouds to try adventuring down below. The dragon was taking advantage of the ascent back towards Alduin to calm down her rather high-strung partner. It was something she found annoying, whether working or playing Thera always went full force and without any kind of reservation.

How about instead you ask your questions and then we get back to patrol- you don't want to be late again. Her tone didn't allow Thera to argue, they were doing things her way this time.

"Ney, if this turns out to be a real thing you'll get the biggest 'I told you' in the history of the topic." Truthfully there was a low chance to this happening, Ney was the one with the better judgement and Thera had yet to win his promised 'I told you so' in all their years together. This kept the young knight silent until the pair leveled off with the mainland and proceeded inland again. Rather than getting too close towards where they spotted the girl from before, La'Ney had the sense to stop well in advanced to give her fellow dragons piece of mind. Thera hopped off and rolled to his feet before she could land and walked towards where they'd spotted the girl. Each step made his heart beat a bit faster and his expression and manners grew stiffer, Thera wasn't comfortable being too far away from his partner (though the presence of dragons as a whole lessened the discomfort somewhat). Due to his abnormally young age upon selection, he'd already spent more time with her than without which made him feel like walking around without an arm. The fact she deliberately cut their mental connection whenever she wanted him talking to people was even worse because it felt like a portion of his heart or brain were missing. This was one of those times, resulting in Thera as usual hiding under the mask of 'dedicated knight' to force through his unease.

The knight made his way up the nesting grounds, steps quick and efficient while his eyes were peeled for a sign of his fellow elf. As Ney had flown most of the distance, Thera only had to walk for a couple minutes before he spotted the girl in question still at her perch. 'The knight' called out to announce his presence when he was within earshot of his destination.

"I beg your pardon milady, but this knight wonder if he may borrow a moment of your time." Theratrial's body continued its smooth trek towards the girl and even adopted a gentle smile to aide in making 'the knight' more presentable.

"It's truly nothing serious, a minor question or two and I shall be off and out of your hair." Had Thera been the type to wear a helmet, 'the knight' would have taken it of and probably attempted more etiquette. However, Theratrial was not that sort which left the persona having to respond to other social cues on the fly.

The new parents stiffened at the sudden noise and hovered over their eggs. Tuilinn turned to the man, squinting into the morning sun as her body began to tingle from laying in the same position for so long. "I beg your pardon milady, but this knight wonders if he may borrow a moment of your time." she heard him call, approaching ever closer. Behind her a few of the Dragons hissed their distaste before evaporating into mist, the sudden cloud settling over the nests of hatching eggs.

Tuinlinn turned around, a heaviness in her heart as she noticed the change among the Dragons. "It's truly nothing serious, a minor question or two and I shall be off and out of your hair." The remaining Dragons watched closely, appearing calm but ever at the ready. Tuilinn sat up and crossed her legs, focusing on the man. "I'll answer any questions you might have," she said pleasantly, though her heart felt heavy that she was missing part of the hatching.

'The knight' widened his smile when the young lady voiced her compliance, and quickly blinked away Thera's interest in the dragons further away.

"My thanks," the two words were to act as a flimsy disguise for the moment.

"Moments ago during patrol, my partner spotted what turned out to be a campsite on closer inspection. I'm merely curious as to whether either you or anyone from around here happened to descend for a camping trip or had an extended stay beneath the clouds that might have caused the mess within the past three maybe four weeks or even if you noticed anything odd during that time."

He hoped this instance was something to be easily answered, after all a mere verbal reminder to clean up from a simple activity was one thing. Especially given elven memory of recent events, while shorter lived races might have one view- things would be handled entirely different should this be a more serious matter. It didn't help matters that 'the knight' kept finding his eyes goes back to the dragon in question.

"Also you might want to turn around, the first one is about to hatch soon." These words didn't belong to 'the knight' and were Thera's own. Unlike the rest, there wasn't a hint of strictness or formality to them. "The gathering of the misted formed parents near the clutch means you've got less than a minute to go. When the first real cracks start forming, they'll be have to become solid again since hatchlings require extra moisture- much like a suckling babe.However these ones are a bit on the early side, the moisture in the air isn't thick enough yet." Ever the dragon fanatic Thera couldn't help but divulge information towards his captive audience. A more drastic change that the distracted knight missed was the dragons calming slightly- unlike Thera whose natural affinity with dragons was ridiculously high, 'the knight' had a tendency to put them on edge.

Tuilinn listened to the knight, tilting her head as she tried to imagine a campsite along the path she had taken. She was deep in thought and had almost missed him tell her to turn around. Smiling, she spun onto her knees and peered over at the clutch of eggs. Just as he said, the spider webs of cracks was growing ever greater.

"I've watched a few hatchings before, but I know only what I've seen. I haven't read anything or been educated as you seem to be." She remarked, watching in awe as another chip fell off one of the eggs. "My name is Tuilinn, and I'm sorry to say I haven't seen the campsite you're referring to. Actually, you're the first elf I've seen all morning." She settled into a more comfortable position to watch the eggs.

Thera felt himself smiling awkwardly when Tuilinn commented on his knowledge of dragons.

"I grew up on dragon back, so I guess you could say it'd be strange if I didn't know. Theratriel Za'Anisonna, though I prefer Thera...and I certainly don't like my colleagues nickname for me,but I digress." Thera felt his heart rate picking up again, he really didn't know why he was talking at this point. He quickly cleared his throat, and spoke again to announce his exit albeit in a slightly strained voice.

"Anyways miss, if something does occur or if you remember anything please report it to the nearest tower. If you give them my name, or this" Thera dropped his sword, sheath, belt and all to the ground. "They'll also know what to do." Thera had a vague feeling we was breaking some form of protocol but shrugged it off in his haste to leave. As a result Thera more jogged than walked away from the young girl, and returned to Ney. He could feel the pleasure one would feel with a good prank through their link.

"Just get us back to tower," Thera cut off any potential conversation with his griping and flew to the local tower where he filed his report on the matter. Hopefully, the knights in the area would pick up the slack. He then finished his route and flew directly to the Knight Central Tower. It was from there all the knights activities, from training to patrols and beyond took place. He again reported his findings on the patrol. Once finished he went to check on any other duties, from his commanding officer.

"HereGen! Good you're in...late might I add, you'll never advance any further as a knight at this rate." Thera grimaced at the term 'heregen' shortened from 'heretical genius' which was how one of the instructors described him during basic training...it'd stuck ever since. It also didn't help that some of his peers were already beginning to call him 'Failed Knight' due to him being stuck roughly 3 informal ranks behind all of them at least.
"Still, I'm glad you came since we need a fast flyer to check out some disappearances of knights and riders. At the moment, you're the only flyer I have to spare." Thera frowned at the notion, even though his commanders words were pretty, it was essentially him saying Thera was expendable.

"Yes sir, I'll be off at once. How long will Ney and I be away?" The answer wasn't something he wanted to hear.

"Oh you've got clearance for two months. However since these disappearance also include dragons, she'll have to come right back. The area is rather prosperous valley so you needn't bother backing. Just turn in your saddle and you can be on your way- it'll be a long flight." Thera merely nodded and made his exit, turned his saddle over like normal and went to his partner- she'd heard the whole thing through him.

You really need to show more backbone in there. Everyone just walks all over you. Thera knew she was right, but he had no idea how his family- especially his father would handle what could be considered insubordination.

"Ney let's just get this over with, however when you get back...watch that area with the girl. Something just didn't feel right over there. Besides I'm sure an old lady like yourself would gladly like to be around hatchlings again." The knight dodged the halfhearted tail slap that came his way before getting into position for take off. He hadn't expected to fly nearly as many days as they did (no thanks to some weather) but eventually he and Ney arrived at parted ways. The wind aiding her return home, then Thera was truly alone before a giant valley and immediately felt this might take more than two months.