New Dawn Rising., Open to anyone.

[Kavaren]

Can you hear my name whispered on the winds?

She really couldn't complain about the day. The sun glimmered brightly overhead, easily warming her coat of scales and dimming the naturally luminescent markings that adorned her body. Kavaren wasn't sure if it was really the best thing to do, leaving the Dragonsfade territory, especially now, but all the same. She needed some time to relax and gather her thoughts, and generally the familiar, tranquil sound of the ocean waves washing against the sands of Fallar Beach aided in that feat quite nicely.

She took little note of the small details as she walked: her claws sinking into the loose, white sand, the seabirds crying and singing to one another from the rocks, but rather, she was focused more on the larger things. Even though she had come here to allow her mind some freedom from thoughts of war and turmoil, she couldn't help but constantly look over her shoulder, or stare hard into the skies overhead. No matter how much she wished the beauty and tranquility of Fallar Beach meant safety, she knew it didn't.

Especially not for dragons.

She had been hoping to press for the idea of searching for peace now that she had taken the place of the late Ryuu as the leader of Dragonsfade, but she knew it would be folly to expect the same from the gryphons. While she hoped there were some that chose to evade the fighting, she had seen many ruthless attacks. Far too many. She knew that she, and her kin, would always have to be alert. For as she saw it, their goal right now, was to survive. To survive and continue to protect everything that Ryuu and his successors had laid out for them.

She didn't want to see eons of peace, now disrupted by war, to finally come to an end in bloodshed and massacre.

She allowed her dimly glowing eyes to settle on the waves further out to sea, her tread pausing as she took in the sunlight glimmering off the surface of the waves. Nature was always balanced; nothing ever overwhelmed the other, but then... she supposed nature wasn't consumed by the emotions that dragons and gryphons felt either.

Nature merely survived and went on.

The female sighed deeply, stretching her wings to take in the sun overhead and further warm her blue-hued body. If only things were that simple.

I've loved, I've lost, but now everything truly begins.

[Firz]

Indeed there were few places safe for dragons now a days. Firz himself had ensured it was so. A life dedicated to war, he and his followers looked forwards to the day you wouldn't see a single dragon in the skies, to the day they were all gone. Forever. And this day was closer than it had ever been. The death of Ryuu of Dragonsfade, King of all dragonkind had been Griffinsbreak's greatest victory to date. It seemed as if the two figures would continue to antagonize each other for all eternity but in the end one side had won and the other had been crushed under the rising sands of time. Now Dragonsfade was headless, scrambled, torn and shattered; lost without a leader and without hope.

Having heard of these news, Firz was ridiculously pleased, and the only thing he regretted was not having slain Ryuu with his own talons. The only one truly at his level, the only one he had feared. Gone. Of course the Mind Master wouldn't have been so delighted if he had heard about how a certain female dragon was slowly and steadily putting Dragonsfade back together... but it turned out the Griffin King didn't have eyes and ears truly everywhere in the land. As proof of this, the Elemental Stone continued to evade his grasp. But that wasn't a problem. The greatest obstacles in his way were gone now, gone and for good. It would only be a matter of time before Griffinsbreak could claim the Stone of Elements, only a matter of time.

Fallar beach was rarely visited by dragons and griffins now a days. Everything here was always quiet and reserved and generally allowed some privacy for the Mind Master to clear his mind and think without need for guards and no other griffins to annoy him. He had come here for the same reason than Kavaren, and only a rocky cliff separated the two mortal enemies, in it the seabirds were perched and singing. Only the calming scent of salty water kept dragon from smelling griffin and griffin from smelling dragon. But for how long?

[Kavaren]

The cool sea breeze felt good against the fragile membranes of her wings. It was obvious that she had never truly scene much of actual battle. Her body was unmarred with the painful scars many kept as souvenirs of such encounters, and whatever injury she had sustained when it came to her wings had been minor enough to have healed relatively well.

She folded her wings again, curling them neatly as her sides as she turned her focus away from her view of the sea to continue on her light tread. Her mind was remarkably cleared here, even if her instictive senses were still on relatively high alert. The salty scent of the air played against her nostrils, filling her entire being with even the slightest feelings of elation --

-- only to have the same emotions shattered a moment later. The other scent she picked up, as faint and vague as it was, immediately drove her to lift her head high, eyes glimmering as she carefully scanned the sights around her. With how diluted the scent was amongst the scents of the sea, it was quite possible it was merely an old trace that had been stirred up by the shifting sands, but all the same, she couldn't help but feel chills up her spine. It was equally possible that the scent was fresh, though she had no hope of identifying what individual it was who's scent was drifting on the winds. While she knew the general scent of a gryphon, she didn't have enough knowledge of said individuals to be able to recognize them by scent alone.

She inhaled deeply, feeling her throat warm momentarily as her inner fires flared warningly in preparation. How silly she might feel if it was indeed just some faint reminder of a time days, perhaps weeks ago, where a gryphon may have decided to appear on the sands, but all the same. If she had been the first to catch a scent, she might have an upper claw in the matter. If she took flight now, her general strategy when it came to fighting may have been easier to take advantage of, and for a moment her wings began to extend, her muscles tensing as she prepared to leap.

Maybe she would be lucky and if there was a gryphon here, the individual would be like her: if she caused no trouble, she would get none in return; and even if not... well, taking to the skies now would give her the better chance if it erupted into a fight.

Extending her wings fully, she launched herself into the air, bringing her great, bat-like wings done with a powerful movement as she lifted herself away from the sandy shores. Maybe she would have thought differently if she knew precisely which gryphon had been sitting beyond the rocky barrier that had separated them from view.

[Firz]

There was a sound of flapping wings and the seabirds took flight in alarm. There were hundreds of them, escaping in all directions like a mass of feathered chaos. The scent might have been masked by that of the sea, but not unexperienced enough, Firz could tell it was a dragon by the sound alone. There was one here, but there might be others around. Firz you fool, why did you abandon the safety of your flock, with its guards and annoying members? If this was an ambush, a single mistake could end it all!

A griffin had the agility of a big cat, a single leap took him into the air, his black and raven-like wings taking him soundlessly behind the wall of panicking birds as he attempted to use it to block the dragon's line of sight. But it was not without gaps, and they at least managed to get a glimpse of each other.

The griffin King wasted no time and breathed a blast of psionic energy at his opponent. The beam, imperceptible, save for the undulating distortion of things behind it, much like the hot air of a desert, pierced through the escaping flock and the birds affected crashed into the sea as if they had lost control of their bodies.

The exact effect the attack had was to interfere with the brain's ability to flip the images reflected in the retinae and therefore make you see the world upside down. And when you're flying that meant a crash is warranted, or you get your money back!

[Kavaren]

If, by some miracle, the sound of her own wings hadn't given her away, she knew for sure that the seabirds' reaction to her sudden flight had. Gulls flailed frantically around her, their loud, harsh cries painful against her inner ears as she felt a few blindly ram against her body in their thoughtless, panic driven flapping. The normally calm and controlled fae couldn't help but feel slight pangs of annoyance at the small creatures.

She turned her head so she could see over her shoulder, her eyes glowing faintly as she tried to determine if anything had taken to the skies after her save the sea birds that were still flocking about. The avians proved to be just as much of a nusance to her eyes, their white and grey plumage a veil with only a few gaps through which she could see the beach far below and the ocean licking at its sands.

And a flash of deepest ebony that was much to large to be a gull.

In a case like this, Kavaren was more than happy to have been able to make up for what she lacked in strength with lithe agility. A startled cry escaped her fanged maw as she watched several gulls begin to drop from the skies as they got caught in a barely visible blast of energy. Even as she looked at it she picked up the distortion in the air, the frantic, confused screeches of the seabirds piercing her ears as she immediately folded her wings together and let herself drop. Her entire body shuddered as she felt the blast pass overhead, her muscles jerking as she snapped her wings open again to prevent herself from plummeting into the sea below.

There was only one gryphon she knew that fit the clues she had been given thusfar, and her heart went cold at the thought. She had never imagined that she would already have to face Ryuu's mortal enemy this soon after taking the throne of Dragonsfade. She had gotten lucky, The falling, confused birds had given her enough of an indication to look out for the first blast, but it wouldn't be nearly as easy to see once the flock escaped the presence of dragon and gryphon.

She brought her wings crashing downward as she urged herself upward again. "Why do you attack when I do no such thing?" she shrieked loudly. "I have no wish for such violence!" Perhaps it was a hopeless attempt, but one could hope.