On Patrol [open]

[Scortatus~]

It was the second day of Scortatus’ life at his newly-claimed territory, and the strange male dragon was sunning himself on the lakeshore as he digested his latest meal. Having spent the first day resting, he had spent the second recuperating his strength by gorging himself on as much game as he could find. He had found the lush area ringing the lake to by teeming with deer that were easily stalled and killed, though as each one was only sufficient for a few bites, he had had to kill several. Six had fallen prey to him before common sense one through and he left the rest unmolested to maintain a breeding colony. Apart from the deer, he had also found a great many fish in the cool waters of the lake, and though none were particularly massive, he was able to fill up the remaining space in his stomach by consuming. In short, he had feasted, and as the evening sun gently warmed the cream scales of his belly, he began to feel drowsy.

He did not allow himself to drop off straight away, however. Having only claimed his new home the day before, he was still rather paranoid that some other dragon would enter and try and steal it if he did not remain vigilant. Thus, with some reluctance, he rolled back over onto his somewhat swollen stomach and slithered into the water. Without legs to launch himself off the ground, he could only take off by dropping off a high surface or leaping out of water. With the lake handy, it was the second option he intended to use. Once fully submerged, he twisted his body from side to side rapidly, gaining speed, then angled upward towards the surface. Once most of his body had cleared the water he unfurled his wings and beat hard to gain altitude, churning up the water with every stroke as he lifted himself up.

Once he was in the air however, his small weight compared to the area of his vast wings made it easy for him to glide with little effort, so the energy required to take off was repaid in a round-about sort of way. Once he had gained enough height he set off on an aerial tour of his lands, looking out for signs of trespassers. Below him the lake had returned to its normal glass-like state and the deer, startled by his shadow, dashed from hiding place to hiding place.

[( adonis )]

A quick glance into the sky told him that it was nearing evening, and he had no place to go or stay. Or sleep or eat. Which was what he really wanted to do. Adonis, the great mutant dragon, was wandering about the thicker forests he had landed himself in on the plains, and he had no idea where he was. Nor had he any idea as to where he was going. His legs pressed into the ground, leaving deep footprints; he weighed a lot for a dragon of his size. Most of it was muscle in addition to his extra body parts. This arcane dragon had many of them. His six strong legs were useful in running, and he was as fast as a horse fleeing from a fire when he wanted to be. His four large wings were useful for propelling his weight up in the air, despite how heavy he was. His two tails provided excellent leverage in the air, and he was great at maneuvering in flight.

If any dragon were to track or follow his footprints, they would either be confused, or know that it was him in a second. His frenzy of footprints that looked like two dragons had had a scuffle were unmistakable. Adonis started when a few small deer bounded out of the bushes away from him, and a frustrated frown fell over the dragon's face. He hadn't even seen them. Way to be discreet, deer. Stupid deer. But just as his internal fit of sarcasm to the deer was over, he realized that he was still hungry. His stomach rumbled loudly at the thought, and Adonis hung his dinosaur-like head, trudging onward. These trees were too tightly packed for him to get anywhere, such a large dragon as he was. And as he rounded closer to the lake (not to his knowledge), they seemed to only get even tighter.

A frustrated roar tore from Adonis's mouth as he leaped at one of the smaller trees, bulldozing it down with his sheer weight. There. That oughta teach 'em. Only a little more trekking was needed before he surfaced from the trees he was drowning in onto the banks of a large lake. Interesting. He sniffed the ground. Shit. Another dragon had already claimed these lands. He knew what that meant. He would get yelled at for being a mutant and tresspassing on their lands, and then forced to leave or fight. He knew the drill. And he did not anticipate it. But just then, a large shadow passed over him for a split second, and he looked up into the sky. With the sun setting and being so bright, he could barely see the shape of the other dragon in the sky. Great. He thought. Here we go.

[Scortatus~]

Throughout most of Scortatus’ patrol, all seemed well. The forests were clear of intruders, and as he looked around the horizon in all directions, no challengers were to be found in the air either. As he continued his check, a mounting sense of mingled relief and satisfaction filled him. He didn’t want to have to fight, not being an aggressive dragon, and it pleased him to think that his claim had been successful in warding others off. It was only when he was returning to his lakeside home that he began to sense trouble; a strange scent in the air, signs of disturbance on the ground, a distant roar.

With a throaty growl of irritation, the dragon angled downwards, picking up speed as he raced back the lake. It didn’t take him long to find the culprit; a large dragon who, from above, looked perfectly ordinary, but nevertheless unwelcome. Steeling himself, Scortatus began his descent, spiralling towards the ground and flapping occasionally so that he did not fall to fast. He eventually dropped quite gently into the lake, folded his wings as quickly as he could and began swimming towards the shore. As he neared the shore, he noticed that the intruding dragon had two sets of eyes and there was something odd about his legs, though from the front he couldn’t tell quite what. Still, it was hardly his place to judge; he didn’t have any legs at all.

Once he’d reached the shore, Scortatus raised the first third of his body off the ground and coiled the rest underneath him for support. He was quite wary; this was a large dragon who would be a hard fight if it came to that. Would it come to that though? All Scortatus wanted was to keep his lands, not necessarily to chase others off it, so there was only likely to be a fight if the other male initiated it, not that that seemed particularly unlikely.

“Who the hell are you?” He asked, looking the dragon up and down. It was only then that Scortatus the noticed the felled tree, and outrage bubbled up inside him, “And what did you do to my tree?” Why the fallen tree bothered him so much was something of a mystery to him, but it might have had something to do with him seeing that very tree as much part of his territory as the ground he sat on, and so its destruction represented the destruction of his home.

[( adonis )]

Adonis's sour attitude at the thought of the ruling dragon of these lands finding him was not lifted at all when he watched a quick dragon splash into the waters in front of him. The mutant dragon watched, all four of his eyes with an unamused sparkle in them, and waiting for the other to surface from the water, he sat down on his backside. Two sets of his legs were resting, while one was holding him upright as he watched the ruling dragon swim up out of the water. That's when Adonis noticed that this dragon was a mutant as well. While Adonis had more legs than normal, this dragon had no legs! Well, that was quite a surprise to him. It had been a while since he had met another mutant like himself. And even though this dragon wasn't exactly like himself, they were both mutants in society.

The serpentine dragon in front of him slithered into a coil and looked him straight in the eye. Adonis stood. Who the hell are you? Adonis was taken aback by the question, especially because of the tone that it was portrayed in. And what did you do to my tree? Oh, that. Adonis's posture relaxed as he grinned, looking to the right before addressing the dragon in front of him. "I am Adonis. And about the tree. Yeah, I was just tired of forest, you see. Really sorry about that. Heheh." Adonis finished his statements with a small nervous laugh. If this dragon wanted to fight about a tree, then so be it. But his skinny, snake-like self would probably stand no chance against Adonis's dinosaur-like stature.

"Who are you, may I ask?" Adonis questioned. "I mean, I know you're probably the ruler of these lands and all..." And it was true. Adonis didn't want to offend him and get kicked off his land. The large copper-colored dragon shifted his position. With six legs, he got uncomfortable often, and had to shift around quite a lot. Not to mention, four heavy wings weighing down his back. "I wouldn't want to be rude." Adonis smiled.