DR: The First War (Corinnycat's character story 2)

((Note: This section takes place during Chapter 46.))


Flamanti walked along the road, giving anyone who stared at her a well deserved glare. 'Why am I here? That's right, cause I am following these humans around.' She continued walking through, hoping no one recognized her. Rick brought his horse to a stop outside an inn and dropped Eric off there. Flamanti looked on as Eric expressed his gratefulness at meeting both her and Rick before he left into the inn. She felt bad that he had to leave, but decided that she should have less sentimentality in the future.

Rick looked to the wyverness and gestured her to follow him as he rode on through the streets. He headed for another inn that was surrounded and even built almost entirely in stone. "You can land here," he called over to her.

Flamanti landed, appreciating the non-flammable surroundings as the odds of her flames causing any kind of damage here would be slim. 'At least someone considers the fact that the most common element among dragons is fire.' She followed the man, not sure where else to go.

Rick hopped off his horse and tied her down. "You can stay here in the stables. I'll make sure the owner knows to put out some extra food for you."

Flamanti glared at him as he went into the inn to speak with the owner. 'What am I, a pet?' She grumpily went to one of the stables, settling down in it. She saw that hay was put in some of the stalls and was glad hers was void of it. The stall was not too small luckily since she was a small dragon.

After some time, Rick came back out of the inn and walked over to the wyverness. He offered to her, "The owner's going to take care of you while you stay here. He gets the whole body on fire thing. He does ask that, if you don't mind, in exchange for what he can do for you that you help him out with his inn. Guarding it and keeping the fires in the kitchen going. Stuff that you would be very good at doing."

"Hmm." She wasn't against this; could be worse, obviously, and she could have a place to stay. And bonus, she got to burn stuff and not get in trouble for it. "Sure, sounds good. Tell them to call for me or come and get me when they need anything." She settled back down, making sure she could see the entrance to the inn.

Rick nodded, "You'll do fine here, Flamanti. Not all humans are evil, some are just stupid." He smirked at her. "Take care," he said before walking off. Flamanti wondered what to do. Stay here? Fly off? She did not like this containment, though it was better than hoping to not light the forest around her on fire. She heard the innkeeper call her and she walked over there. He asked her to light the hearth and she did. After going back to her stall, she laid down again and had a nap.

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((Note: The rest of this story is not canon to the RP. This section takes place during Chapter 52.))


After a few hours of napping, Flamanti heard someone talking to her, "Hey dragon, wake up." The wyverness's head stirred, feeling a bit of a headache from having her nap disturbed. She gave herself some more seconds of rest, so that she would have the energy to get up. But the man cut it short by telling her again, "I said wake up; I need a favor from you."

Flamanti lifted her head up with a quiet sigh and opened her eyes. She felt the sting of the air touching her waking orbs, but it quickly faded as her body immediately energized itself. "What?" she asked the tan-skinned man wearing a blue kitchen apron.

The cook, which she assumed he was, said, "I need you to rekindle the stove for me; the fire's gone out. The boss said you can have a free meal if you do that."

The idea of being rewarded with food is a good motivation for Flamanti to work. She hoped that whatever they were giving her would be tasty and not like the garbage they feed slaves. She asked to make sure, "What kind of meal?"

The cook answered, "We'll give you chicken with gravy and some sausages. Would you like that?"

Now that was appetizing; the wyverness would surely work to get her evening's dinner. She replied, "Yes, I would. That sounds yummy!"

The cook was pleased with her decision and said, "Good, good! I'll give you that as soon as you do your job. Now get to it." He clapped his hands together, trying to get her to start.

Flamanti found this a bit annoying that he was pushing her on when she already knew what to do. She walked past him and thought, 'At least say "please".' She went inside the kitchen through the backdoor and looked around for the oven. This place looked a lot different than the usual kitchens she had seen before. The walls and the floor were stony and there was no appliance to be found anywhere. Though there were kitchen tools and bowls to be found on tables. She smelled the cook walking in from behind her and asked, "So where's the oven?"

The cook pointed to a fireplace and answered, "Right over there where the chickens hanging over."

Flamanti looked at it in confusion before she turned her head back to the man. "This is an oven? But it looks more like a..." She tried to find a word as to what it was actually called, but her memory wasn't picking up anything. "More like..."

"A fireplace?" the cook answered for her. "I don't know where you've been, but our kitchen used to be more modern. Then a dragon apocalypse happened and we got this whole city downgraded to a renaissance fair. Now we just do everything here ye olde-fashioned way." With a frown, he continued, "And it stinks, too! Now cooking is a bit harder and more time-consuming. I seriously miss the real oven and the toaster."

The wyverness didn't care at all about the man's lament. She replied, "Well that's what happens when too many of your kind harms dragons in more ways than one."

The cook seemed okay with agreeing with her, which was an unusual act for a human as most would have defended their callous acts. He nodded slowly, "I suppose you're right; that's karma for you. It makes me wish that we never done those things."

"Too late for wishes now, better live with what you have now." Flamanti went over to the oven and put her flaming tail on the brand new firewood stacked below the pair of spit-roasted chickens. After igniting the fire on the wood, she withdrew her tail and said, "There, it is done."

"Thank you," the cook appreciated her with a smile. "I'll be sure to get you that chicken after we feed the customers."

"You promise?" asked Flamanti. She looked straight into the cook's eyes for any signs of truth or lies.

He nodded honestly and answered, "I promise ya."

The wyverness said no more as she turned, taking care to keep her tail from touching anything as she did so, and made her way out the kitchen. She returned to her stall and sat there, waiting for her meal. She wondered what she could do in the meantime to make time fly by. Just staying still was greatly boring and she just woke up from her nap to be resting again. Perhaps she could fly around the city and see what other places are here. She's already seen the butchery and the two inns, one of which was going to be her new home. Since the dragons were free in this city, Flamanti could fly around in the main parts of the city without a human shooting her down or so she hoped. Just after she got out of her stall, she heard someone shouting at her from above, "Hey you, yes you with the burning tail. Stay right there!"

Flamanti looked up and saw Rina and Raven descending down from the air. As soon as they landed before her, the wyverness asked the latter who spoke, "Okay, what is it you need of me?"

Raven eyed her with suspicion as he questioned her, "Some man at the butchery says he's seen someone like you stealing one of his pigs. So kid, do you happen to know anything about this, because we think you do?"

Flamanti nervously froze when she knew that she was found out. She tried maintaining a straight face looking back at these two, but on the inside she was afraid of being caught, dragged back and then punished for robbery. They might lock her up like they do human criminals who broke the law. She didn't want to lose her freedom too soon after the Spell, 5 days is only short-lived. The wyverness tried to lie her way out, "Er no!.. No I have not..."

But Rina didn't seem to be buying that as she has spotted the lie. She peered at the wyverness's eyes and said, "You're pausing and your eyes are tensing. I don't think you're telling the truth at all."

"Hrk!" grunted Flamanti who tensed and gritted her teeth.

Raven accused, "So you did steal that pig! You know? That butcher you robbed was mad as hell. He wants to have a word with you about this, so you better come with us now, kid."

Flamanti took a step back and shook her head with fervor, "No, I can't! I don't want to be locked up if that's his punishment for me."

Rina apologized, "I'm sorry, but this is for your own good as well as the butcher's. I'm afraid you'll have to come with us. Maybe he'll be easy on you when you meet him."

The wyverness was not convinced about the butcher. She defied them and spread her wings for flight. "I will not go over there! You can't take me!" Then she flew off to escape the two dragons.

Raven yelled after her, "Oh no you don't! You get back here right now!" Flamanti didn't need to look to know that they were flying after her as she can hear the flapping of their wings. She flew faster, desperate to escape as she tried to lose them in speed. After going 500 feet, she looked behind her to see how far she was from her pursuers. Unfortunately, they weren't too far as they were keeping on her tail. Flamanti knew that she can't just rely on speed alone; she needed to come up with some clever tricks as well. She looked at the city landscape ahead, hoping she would find a really good place for evasive maneuvers fast before she passes it. She soon finds a park far ahead in the distance and noticed the many trees there. This was a perfect place to lose the two dragons. She was small enough to fly past them and they were too big to fit through them in flight. The wyverness flew down closer to the streets below, but only low enough to where she wouldn't burn the walking citizens with her tail. She made her way to the park as she flew through the streets, while evading other big dragons in her way. A bridge showed up along the way and Flamanti flew under it to avoid hitting it. After a while, Flamanti reached the park and headed towards the dense thicket of trees. She turned herself sideways and flew like this to allow for continued flight without having her wings hit the trees' trunks.

She wasn't careful of her tail during this time and she soon heard someone shout, "Fire! Fire! Everyone get away!" If it was any other time, Flamanti would have gone back, put out her flames and apologized. But because she was being chased, she had no care for this as she needed to preserve herself first. The wyverness continued to fly through the trees, making turns around any trees that were in her path. She went on like this until another tree showed up rather quickly just after moved around the other. Her blue eyes widened in alarm and before she knew it, she crashed into that tree and fell down with a hurting headache. Her wings and tail lit the ground with blue flames burning the grass. As she laid their stunned, Flamanti groaned in pain and saw stars flickering about in her vision. It took a few seconds for her to recollect her thoughts and remember that she was on the run from Rina and Raven. She quickly pushed herself up to stand and make another getaway.

Just as she was back on her feet, she heard the sound of weights dropping down behind her. Flamanti's heart jumped as she knew that the chasers had caught up to her. Raven yelled, "Gotcha, you little thief!"

The wyverness turned her head towards them and shrieked, "No!" She attempted to move around the tree she hit and jump into the air for flight, but one of them had pounced on her back and pushed her back onto the ground. She wasn't sure if the fire running down on her back had touched them, but it if did, then they were either immune to fire or they were just silently enduring the pain.

Rina, the one who caught her, growled, "You've lost, now come with us quietly or we'll rip holes into your wings so that you can't escape again."

Flamanti stayed silent for a short time, feeling afraid of going to the butchery. She said, "I don't trust humans... Sure Eric and Rick were nice, but they're the only exceptions I know. I don't know what this butcher is going to be like. He might be mean like all the other humans."

Rina seemed to understand her as she softly replied, "I don't trust humans, too. I know a majority of them are cruel barbarians, but there are many kind humans out there around the world. The butcher I work for is one of these people. I doubt he'll do to you what a bad human usually would. But if you need some assurance, then Raven and I will be there with you and protect you in case he acts out of line. Alright?"

The wyverness relaxed, feeling safe knowing these dragons would guard her from harm. But she was still a bit uncertain about the butcher despite Rina's history with him. She sighed, "Alright fine, I'll go with you." The blue dragoness let go of her and Flamanti stood to turn and face them.

Raven said, "Well that settles it. Now let's haul our butts back to the butchery and get this over with." Then they got out of the thicket and took off into the air to fly over to the butchery. Rina took the lead as they went while Flamanti was in the middle. Raven was probably taking the rear to make sure that the wyverness doesn't make any attempts to get away. Flamanti had no intention of doing so as she really had agreed to go with them. She hoped her punishment would be light as Rina somewhat implied.