(no subject)

[likedtheodds]

This is the first time he's ever seen such a thing so close to him, but Gwaine knows what it is. Without question, he knows what it is. He's heard about dragon eggs, but the last he heard, Uther had all the dragon-lords so terrified that they were holing up whatever was left and tucking them away. While Gwaine isn't exactly Uther's best mate, the King hadn't exactly been wrong to fear the creatures. He hates dealing with wyverns -- which are bad enough -- and they're just the littler kin of the dragon.

So here he is with a dragon's egg. He's taken the small object to the beach, sets it on a stone, and lifts his sword from its sheath. This is not something that should be let to pass. If he lets it hatch, who knows what havoc it might wreck upon the island? Yes, he knows the tales -- it takes ages before a dragon grows to an enviable size -- but he doesn't want to take chances.

"I'm sorry, little thing," he says, lifting his sword high up in the air. "But this is for the best."

Comments

[kinesicist]

She might not be able to read, lines and curves and swirls that make very little sense to her but she knows how to read bodies, she knows how to read people. When you live in silence, surrounded by it, it is the only way you learn to survive knowing the difference between a raised hand in greeting and one to hurt. And Cassandra knows what a raised sword means, she knows what he intends to do but she will not allow it.

She sails through the air, landing between him and the egg silently. One hand held out between him and her. Cassandra doesn't whisper, she doesn't talk but screams with the whole of her body.

"No," Cass said quietly, determined, as she looked up at him with set, stubborn jaw.

[likedtheodds]

Gwaine's face is crossed with some mixture of frustration and sheer disbelief when he has to stop his sword from completing its' downward swing. "What are you doing?" he demands, eyes flashing with anger. "It's safer for everyone if I destroy that thing before it gets a chance to hatch. Trust me."

[kinesicist]

She doesn't blink, doesn't react to the sword. She knows he will stop and if he does not she will stop him. Her body is covered in scars, bullets and knife wounds, one more will not kill her. But he does stop. He stops and he looks at her.

Anger.

"Stopping you," Cass replies not moving a muscle, not moving one inch. She doesn't feel like he is lying but people can be wrong and Cass will never let anyone, in costume or out of it, take a life in front of her. Not when she can stop it. "No."

She puts force in her words, stubborn jaw jutting out as she makes herself bigger than she is. Stretching arms, filling the space as much as she can. She will not let him hurt whatever it is. "I won't let you kill something defenceless."

[likedtheodds]

"It's a dragon's egg," Gwaine snaps, starting to find himself utterly impatient. He keeps his sword unsheathed, ready to use it at any moment. "It's hardly defenceless. Do you know what it's going to do if it gets out of that egg? It's going to grow in malice and try and destroy people because people destroyed its kind first, but does it matter? It'll burn the island down!"

[kinesicist]

Dragon. She knows the word, it was what Hiccup called Toothless. She knew him, the creature, who chased her without malice and tried to catch her and who was loyal and funny and spoke as much as she or Hiccup did.

"No, it won't. People can change, creatures can change. They can be more than what came before," Cass said. She was living proof of that after all. "There are dragons here. They do not do that, the island remains and all it does is fly and play. This one can be the same, this one can be more than what other people think it should be if it is given a chance."

It was the longest she had spoken all day but she meant it. If he wanted to kill it, he would have to go through her.

[likedtheodds]

"I don't know that I can believe that." For all that he doesn't believe that witches and warlocks should be burned at the stake, he's seen too much magic used dangerously to simply agree that it's a good thing. "You give it a chance and it kills people and what then?"

It's too late, though. The damnable egg, the one addressed to him, has small fracture marks in the shell.

[kinesicist]

She head the shell fracture, a small noise behind her but she doesn't move and doesn't take her eyes off him. Cassandra is quick, she has taken down men twice his size but she is not stupid enough to turn her back on him even if she has no doubt in her ability to take him down.

"It won't, you won't let it. I won't let it," Cass replied. "You teach it, you teach it to be more than just a killer."

[tricksthetreat]

She's supposed to have met him to pay off her debt: one day, no topic but the feather off the table. He want's to know Trixa, she's going to give it to him, chapter and verse. Well, as much as she can't cleverly conceal. She is usually a private person after all, no one loves their secrets like the tricksters (except for maybe sphinxes, but, well, sphinxes), and she's worked pretty hard to keep most of hers hidden. She's pretty sure that she can count the number of people who know she's not originally human on one hand.

But he's not home so she has to use her tracking skills to find him. It's pretty much a direct path to the beach and she enters the area a little annoyed that she's had to chase him. Seeing him about to smash an egg to bits, though? That's curious.

"That desperate for an omlette, Gwaine?"

[likedtheodds]

"It's not something you'd eat," he says, keeping an eye on the egg -- even though his hand's been stayed for the moment. "I've paid good attention to the legends and I know a dragon's egg when I see one. That, dear Trixa, is a dragon's egg and it was addressed to me."

He can only imagine it's some dirty trick being played on him by forces above.

[tricksthetreat]

"Something you know from home? Something from your past?"

She's trying to piece it together, is it like her feather? Or is it like all that equipment that showed up on her doorstep, the pieces of a potential business, a path in life. If it's the former, she won't stop him, but if it's the latter - well, maybe she should make him reconsider.

[likedtheodds]

"Not really," he admits, staring at it as if it's the worst enemy he's ever faced -- which is untrue given that he's faced down both an immortal army and the scum of the earth, trying to kill him to survive. "It's a dragon's egg. I'd never seen one, at least, not until today. They're dangerous."

[tricksthetreat]

"You already know there's dinosaurs on the island, I don't think a dragon is such a bad thing in comparison." Trixa put her hand on her hip as she regarded the situation. It wasn't her gift, the island wasn't trying to tell her anything, but still. Dragons. Depending on your mythology, they could be good, bad, or chaotic.

Fun times.

"But whatever, it's not my mysterious island gift. I was just looking for you to pay off my debt. I can come back later if the two of you want to be alone."

[likedtheodds]

"That just tells me that you don't know dragons," Gwaine says, giving her a disbelieving look. "And I don't want to be alone. I want to be able to throw this egg in the ocean and know that I spared us the terror of a dragon's flames burning up everything we've built."

[talking_fishbone]

Toothless recognized the object for what it was before Hiccup did and before he realized what was happening, the dragon charged forward. Eyes narrowed and teeth bared, Toothless swept his tail forward, his good fin spread out flat over the egg. He looked up at Gwaine, growling low in his throat.

"Whoa! Hey! Toothless!" Hiccup ran forward after him, metal leg squeaking all the way.

"I am so sorry. Toothless! Bud, you can't do that!"

Toothless wheeled and rumbled plaintively at him, showing Hiccup the egg.

[likedtheodds]

Gwaine let loose a dismayed cry when the egg is suddenly gone from sight and he's staring at a...well, he's staring at the very thing he's trying to destroy. "What is this?" he breathes out, eyes wide with shock. "How is this thing alive? How has it been let to live?"

[talking_fishbone]

Hiccup caught up to them, panting a little as he balanced on his good leg. "Toothless! Don't do that!" he scolded.

Hearing the other man's words gave his mind an odd sort of whiplash. While there were plenty of people here who thought Toothless was dangerous, but they'd never implied that he should be killed either.

"H-His name is Toothless and he's not a threat. And, um, neither is that...egg?"

[likedtheodds]

"I don't know where you come from," Gwaine says, his voice containing a dangerously low quality as he stares at the boy. "Where I'm from, dragons are a sign that your civilization is about to burn." That's what he knows. Magical creatures are to be feared -- none more so than the mighty dragon.

[talking_fishbone]

Hiccup couldn't help but laugh at that, even though he knew it meant something a great deal more grave for this man. "Yeah, that's how it used to be back home. We got really good about building wooden houses up really quickly.

Still, he took a few steps forward, putting a hand on Toothless' broad head. "But it doesn't have to be like that."

[likedtheodds]

"And why not?" Gwaine asks, staring at the egg that the island would have him believe is some kind of gift that he ought to be thankful for. "Why is it going to be so different, now that you're here to educate me?"

[bothgodown]

"What are you doing?"

There's a mix of horror and surprise on Miranda's face as she stops a few feet away from him on the beach. Even if she does not know exactly what is happening, she knows what it is looks like. It looks like the sort of thing that makes her heart drop, settling low in the pit of stomach full of something like fear. Perhaps it is needless, perhaps he isn't doing anything at all. But until she knows for certain it merely settles there, gnawing away.

"Can it be so ill that you need to swing a sword at it?"

[likedtheodds]

Gwaine is fearful. He knows that this looks as though he's striking out against something small and innocent, but he's seen what they grow into. He can't even be sure it's not a wyvern and he's never been the kind of man who's capable of doing good in the face of so much evil. "It's a dragon, Miranda. I think, I think it's that or something worse. If I let it live, I may be condemning us all."

[bothgodown]

"No."

Her tone is far more commanding that she normally uses, but the word slips out forceful and stubborn. Miranda cares not for the ill that it is perceived to be and she will not let it pass. Her mouth becomes a line, her posture straightens as she becomes the creature her mother wished her to be.

"No," she repeats taking another step forward as she extends her hand. "I will not allow it. You cannot strike a creature down simply because it is unknown. If such a thing were needed then I would be dead."

[likedtheodds]

His grip on his sword tightens, but he falters in the face of her persuasions. He wants to believe her, he does, but he thinks back to the destruction that he's seen razed upon villages and lands by a dragon's fiery breath. "I know it," he insists, with an edge of gentleness. "Dragons were common where I come from, before King Uther ordered them eradicated because of their danger."

[bothgodown]

Miranda hopes.

Standing there with the sun beating down on her and the sea breeze tugging at her hair and clothes, she hopes that Gwaine is the man she thinks she is. That he will see reason and not do this thing. That it can be made better before it is too late.

Pressing her lips together momentarily, she takes another step closer and lays her hand on his arm. "My mother did control such spirits and creatures. People did think that she was wicked and me as well for being from her. I was such a thing once, my life nearly taken from me before it had really started. Please, don't do this."

[likedtheodds]

He falters, not expecting her to have spoken of herself in such a dismal way. He sees her as more beautiful than the queens of certain kingdoms and couldn't fathom ever wishing harm upon her. Still, her words take root, and he turns to look at the creature's shelled home once more.

"What will I do with him if he becomes villainous?" he asks, betraying his intentions to spare its life.