[Froma75689]

Terra remembered the whistle. The whistle for her dragon. One long blow would call the guardian to her. She removed the dark whistle from her pocket, and looked at it, unsure what to do. She blew it. It made a large roaring sound like the call of a pterodactyl.  She could here the flapping of large wings, and heard a large roar echo from a large dragon. It landed near Terra, uprooting and crushing trees like tooth picks as it landed. It was a dark purple dragon, like the whistle, with large, impenetrable, shining scales. Its teeth and claws were pearly white, and looked like they could break diamonds or the strongest steel. It wore a brightly colored bridle, and a well worn saddle, which had straps on it to prevent the rider from falling. The dragon roared again, at the creature, and blew a stream of burning flames at a tree. When the flames stopped, the tree was gone, and not even ashes were left. Only a large hole marked the place where the tree had been.  Terra looked from her dragon, to the nuckel, wondering what it's reaction would be.

[Krystalolive]

Krystal was about to shoot, when a giant purple dragon came. She jumped out of the tree as the dragon shot flames. She ran over to Terra, "Is that yours?" She stared in awe at it, such a strong creature, smart, graceful, yet fearful, and powerful at the same time.

[Freezair]

The nuckelavee eyed the dragon. It became immediately enraged. Reaching behind its slimy back, it drew its own crudly-fashioned bow. An arrow, rough flint arrowhead glinting in the cold moonlight, docked itself in his bow. There was a delicately sweet scent about the creature that seemed at odds with its rotting appearance.

Aliandra knew it. Dragonsbane. And at least two of those present would be suceptible to it.

"LOOK OUT!" she cried. She threw her flame at th feet of the creature, but did not tell what to look out for.

[Froma75689]

"Yes. She's mine," Terra smiled. She was very proud of her dragon. "Her name is Flame.  She is somewhat of my guardian and somewhat of my pet."

Terra then saw the  arrow. "NOOO!" She cried. She didn't know if Flame could survive an arrow with Dragonsbane on it, she never did study plants. Terra, without thinking threw herself in front of Flame, and created a rock wall in front of them. Using her power of dark, she unknowingly had started to strangle the nuckel. Her emotions had a great influence on her powers as well. Anger, fright, panic, helplessness, and sadness could accidentally release her power over her dark side.  She could be unpredictable when darkness overtook her. This could be anything. Transformations into dark, dangerous creatures, 100 mph winds that lasted weeks. Havoc was always let loose when her dark powers ruled her.

[Freezair]

"Oh, fer cryin' out..."

Aliandra hunkered down. The nuckle drew back his bow. The arrow flew. The sweet smell of Dragonsbane passed through the air.

And embedded itself in the base of a tree several feet to the left of where they all stood.

"...Huh?" Alian looked around. What happened? Was the nuckle trying to warn them?

Then Aliandra noticed the odd black cloud covering the creature's face. Coupled with the suspicious lack of Mote, it became clear than her genie was buying them time.

"Somebody, attack! Now!"

[Krystalolive]

Krystal nodded, and shot her arrow. She watched it fly, straight and true, then turned to the knuckles arrow. She could touch it, but it pained her alittle.

[Froma75689]

Terra was exhausted and passed out. Her powers drained her energy. Flame roared at the nuckel, protecting Terra with her large body.

[Freezair]

The arrows flew true, embeddeding themselves in the meaty "torso" of the nuckle, where its human body met its horse one. Crying burbling, watery words, it retreated into the darkness, only the smell of pond scum indicating that it had ever been there.

"Woo! Go, Krystal!" Aliandra cheered. The dark cloud floated down from the air and rejoined her. "Now, to check on Terra..."

[Krystalolive]

Krystal went over to Terra, showing to Flame that she meant no harm. She checked her. "No thing really bad, just alittle drained. She gots sleep and she'll be ok." She lifted Terra, trying to get her on Flame.

[Froma75689]

Flame saw that the stranger meant no harm, she moved slightly away from Terra,but kept a watchful eye on her. She saw that the girl wanted to put Terra in the saddle. Flame bent down to allow her to put Terra in the saddle, before gently pulling the straps around Terra's legs, adn she managed to secure her in. She tought spoke to Terra"Are you okay,little one? She could hear a shaky and tired reply of "yes."

Terra gradually woke up. "Where am I?" was her first question. She suddenly realized where she was, in Flame's saddle. She vaguely remembered passing out, from using too much energy. That had been one of those emergencies where she had needed to do the advanced moves. "What do we do now?" Terra asked Krystal

[Freezair]

"I think we should report back to camp," Aliandra said. Mote nodded, bobbing along in the air beside her. "I mean, there's usually creepy stuff crawling these woods, but that has GOT to raise SOME kind of eyebrows. Right? We gotta go talk to someone."

She looked backwards into the woods. Good. No more eyes seemed to be following them. What a night...

[Krystalolive]

Krystal nodded. She had been alittle quiet for while. She was trying to figure out why the knuckle showed up, and what it meant. Was it a sign, or just a normal thing? She was new to all of this, not even knowing what she could do yet.

[Froma75689]

Terra nodded sleepily before falling into a deep sleep on Flame's back. Next thing she knew, she was at the area near the camp fire.  She warmed herself, yawning as she did. "Flame, Could you help me make a tent?" Terra asked the large dragon. Flame ambled over to her and put her head down next to Terra. Terra pressed her hand against the dragon's scaled nose, magic energy surging through her body. Terra lifted and placed rocks to create a large "tent" that was big enough for a dragon, and even enough room for 10 people.  Flame lifted Terra into the tent, and placed her next to her warm, scaled side. Flame put one wing over Terra, forming a purple, leathery-looking, tent over the sleeping girl before curling up to sleep herself.

[Freezair]

"Aww, c'mon!" Aliandr said to Terra. She kicked at one of the stones. "I realized we came to this place to camp, but we gotta go get some help now! We need to find the councellors. They'll know what to do. I think..."

[Froma75689]

Flame looked at this new person. She knew that they should find the councellors, but she didn't want to let Terra out of her sight, and she certainly didn't want to disturb the exhausted girl.