The next morning, after extricating herself from the bunny family once more, Nicora finds her way back to the bower assigned to her. A familiar Sphynx is waiting, sitting in the lounger. "There you are!" Tulani says accusingly. "I checked the men's dorm again and it was just a bunch of hot naked guys. Where'd you go?"
"I was invited to a nice, simple, night with some of the staff," Nicora claims as she saunters into her bower and flops herself down into the odd bowl-chair. "Why do you always assume I'm going to be with a bunch of guys?"
The feline just stares blankly at Nicora for a moment. "Hmmm," she muses. "Rephidim, the ShadowDrake... the other night.. nope, you're right, I was just jumping to conclusions!" Tulani says with a big grin and a wink. "Anyway, I needed the Light, and you."
"Rephidim was a special occasion; I found a bat there who pushed all the right buttons. Sure he was also a bit on the odd side, but that made it fun," Nicora claims as she waves her hand dismissively. The request, though, causes her to sit up. "Why do you need that and me? Just what are you planning?" she asks.
"I'm a scout," Tulani reminds the bat. "We're going to scout something."
"Yes, but why do you need the light and me?" Nicora asks as she gets up and goes to fetch the light from where it was hidden in the room chest for personal items.
"I want to cover a lot of ground, so.. dragons," Tulani notes as she takes the sheathed saber and straps it to her belt.
"Oh. You want to go play," Nicora notes and smirks. "We'll need to be far outside the city for any changes of that magnitude."
"I wanted to see the mountain route, and it's outside near where the slave camp was set up," Tulani notes. "Shouldn't be anyone around to see us, and it's overcast today."
"Is the slave camp still there? Not planning to sell me to them, are you?" Nicora teases and stretches. "Either way, lets get going. I wouldn't mind a flight in any body."
"I think they packed up and left.. we'll know when we get there," Tulani says.
"Well, I hope they'll be okay. I felt sorry for them," Nicora notes as she heads for the door. "Last one to the mountains has to do whatever the other one commands!" she challenges ... then takes a head start run to get into the air first!
There isn't much to show that a camp was here, except for the ruts and post-holes and the disturbed ground over the buried latrines. The wagon ruts also make it easy to follow the path into the mountains. "Do you hear anyone out here?" Tulani asks, looking for a good place to stash their clothes.
Nicora closes her eyes and just listens for a bit while she spins in a circle.
The Eeee can hear the shifting breeze, and the whistle of wind from further up the trail. A rhythmic element - while not entirely clear - is almost certainly the echo of wagons off stone in the distance. Nothing else makes noise in the immediate area.
"The wagons are some distance that way," Nicora explains after her eyes open and waves in the direction from which the rhythmic sound came. "Otherwise, we're completely alone. And speaking of changing, should I remove the jewelry I wear or do you require me gold-decorated?" she teases.
Tulani is already changing forms. "Hmm?" she rumbles after becoming a silver dragon - looking rather dull in the washed out overcast lighting. "I brought a sack for our stuff," she notes, and starts digging a hole with her forepaws.
Nicora shrugs a bit then starts undressing as well. She decides to keep the jewelry for now since it's tedious to remove and re-insert. She also keeps her dagger, which quickly finds its way into her forearm. As she's walking over to the sack to stick her clothing in it, she thinks, "/Kaira. Tulani wants us to go scouting as dragons, so I need a dragon body soon..."
"Stand closer to the Light for it," Kaira requests. "What kind of dragon do you want to be?"
"I still have jewelry in, so that limits it to a male, I think. I could always remove it and become a female steel," Nicora teases.
Nicora also folds up and sticks her clothing into the sack piece by piece.
"Okay, let me know when you're ready," Kaira says. Tulani does remember the gold now, and gives Nicora's rings a cold lick.
Nicora acks. "I asked you if I should keep them in or remove them," she points out to Tulani and goes to get closer to where the Light is. "And I need that out to power the shift."
The Light grows huge in Tulani's claws, once it's pulled from it's sheath (making it problematical to put it back in). "My ears were still ringing when you mentioned it, I think," she claims.
"Remove them or leave them?" Nicora asks, smirking.
"And do you want me male or female, or don't care?" she adds.
"Hmmmm, male I think," Tulani says, after appearing to think about it. "That way if we don't find anything interesting, we won't be bored."
"Then they stay in," Nicora decides. "Right. Kaira, time to shift me. Tulani's favorite male body, I think. The drake."
There's the usual blank limbo, and a request from Kaira to 'be careful' before Alptraum emerges as a scarlet-and-gold drake. The rings take effect almost immediately, making him feel very warm and energized in intimate areas.
"Yeah," Draketraum rumbles as his eyes open, "Those still feel good, but are not as ... overwhelming as if I'm female." He slowly rises to his feet and stretches out, taking a moment to look over himself and see if any of the 'shrine maiden' tattoos are reflected on this body.
There isn't any sign of them. But then, this isn't a kenned form, either.
"Looking for loose scales?" Tulani asks, spreading her wings and turning her face into the wind.
"Looking for Mordecai's markings. Don't have them in this body it seems," Draketraum answers as he now turns and faces into the wind as well. "Nice tail," he rumbles at Tulani.
The silver tail swishes, looking like a fish swimming upriver the way it sparkles. "Did you have him do anything to that one? And.. are they all your body or actual separate ones you just switch between? How does that work?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Draketraum admits, shrugs, then makes a grab for Tulani's tail. "I can see the marks on Nicora's form, so they do seem to bleed over to other forms. Maybe just to ones that relate to what the marks signify."
Tulani dances away from the grab, and says, "Scouting first!" Then she's airborne and spiraling upwards to gain altitude. Given the general silvery look of the sky she'll be hard to spot higher up.
Of course Draketraum won't be so well masked, but his wings spread and he launches after Tulani. There's an odd drive to follow her, as if there is paranoia some other dragon would come along and try to take her from him! Greed or lust is probably responsible for that; maybe both. He does feel Tulani belongs to him after all.
The dragoness above may have her own ideas - but one of them is surely playing 'hard to get' at the moment. Draketraum does have strength on his side though, and can use his wings to catch up quickly. From the ground.. well, he'd probably be mistaken for a Rhaktor.
Right now Alptraum is mostly behaving. Sure he does use strength to catch up and now and then makes a 'grab' for her; but he's also mindful she wants to scout so he at least doesn't make a grab when she seems to actually be looking!
Once the drake stops chasing her, Tulani turns her attention to the terrain. From this height, the mountain path is pretty clear - as is why it's a path of last resort. Even starting out, it's showing steep slopes, areas showing past damage from landsides, and narrow passage between walls of stone.
"I have no idea how that slave caravan will make it through that," Draketraum thinks as he also looks over the difficult passage through the mountains. "It also seems a place for bandits to roam."
Using telescoping vision and motion detection that seems to be built into the eyes of aerial predators, Draketraum spies the caravan as it exits the shadow of an overhang. The wagons are all moving in single file, with people on foot between them. A part of his brain notes that it would be easy to swoop down and pluck one of the walkers up before anyone could react.
"There must be places along the trail for setting camp," Tulani roars to him through the air. "Look at how measured their pace is. They must be expecting to reach a certain point before nightfall."
Draketraum, for a moment, actually contemplates collecting a few slaves for himself as after all, he is someone important. Thankfully he's able to shake of that desire by remembering what it was like to be a slave for a short time. "Probably safe zones. Those paths look like ripe places for bandits to lurk. I expect they have identified areas that are easy to defend along the way and use them every time," he calls back.
"Let's try to find it," Tulani says, and angles her wings to dive and gain speed.
"No collecting slaves for yourself," Draketraum calls after her, then dives to follow!
"I don't need any more slaves," Tulani claims, speeding to overtake and pass the caravan.
"You make it sound like you have some already," Draketraum calls out as his wings beat in dive to boost himself to keep up with, and perhaps pass, Tulani.
The dragoness opens her mouth in a gaping dragon-grin once Draketraum comes alongside, then drops a little further. "I see something past the curve ahead. Time to fly straight," she calls, and deviates from following the path to angle away from the mountainside.
"Until you present me with a collar, I'm not your slave," Draketraum retorts with an equal grin. He then follows her lead and levels out his wings, seemingly content to stay a few wing-lengths behind since she seems to know where she is going.
"Oh, I have a collar for you," Tulani claims. "It's just one that's part of me. I'm sure you'll wear it willingly and eagerly though!" Her laugh echoes off the canyons and probably makes the caravan leader below worry about the weather.
"And you call me bad," Draketraum retorts. "You're just as bad! Maybe worse!"
"I'm a dragoness!" Tulani claims. "Of course I'm worse!" Her target becomes clear soon. It's on the next slope, a tall ultra-steep face (almost a cliff, but not that vertical) with a waterfall and pool at the base, along with a large flat area. There are a few oddly placed pinnacles of rock, making the whole area look like a palm with raised fingers. Very stubby fingers.
Given the area of Draketraum that feels warm ... he knows she's right about 'wearing it willingly'. Still, those thoughts fade as his attention returns to the area they're scouting. "Odd landscape," he decides as they glide towards it. He half-suspects there is c cave behind the waterfall for shelter. Or at the very least the flat area would make a good campsite.
Tulani swoops down to land on one of the stubby fingers (which are still dozens of yards across and tower over the palm). There are signs of campfires on top, as well.
Alptraum swoops down to land on an adjacent 'finger' and peer about. "How would they get up on one of these? Unless these are mainly flier perches?" he wonders out loud.
"This is the land of Eeee," Tulani calls. "And these are natural lookout towers."
"Not all are Eeee, though," Alptraum points out and shrugs his foreshoulders a bit. "Still, this is a defensible location. It would be a great place to build a small fortress. Extremely defensible."
"Hard to supply," Tulani claims, and hops into the air to join Alptraum on his pinnacle. "The waterfall and shape of things probably confound sonar, making it hard for Eeee raiders to sneak up at night."
"The waterfall only helps for certain distances in terms of damaging positioning. What it will mask are numbers. It will drown out any sort of heartbeat counting so hard to plan an approach route for a raider," Draketraum explains as he circles around Tulani on the outcropping. "And can I ask you a personal question? Have you been having any weird dreams lately? I sure have."
"Weird how?" Tulani asks, a bit cautiously as she turns her head to keep the drake in view as he circles.
"I dreamed that I was declared to be the Shrine Maiden of the Sisters," Draketraum notes as he sticks out his tongue. "I blame Mave. It has to be her fault somehow." He quits circling and heads to the pillar edge to peer over and look for natural shelters below.
The view is interrupted when Tulani gooses him with her tail as she jumps down and glides to the edge of the pool to investigate directly. Where's there's running water, there are probably caves, the whatever made such an odd structure could have left just about anything.
"Sounds like something Mordecai would inspire, more than Mave," Tulani calls back. "I can't say I've had dreams like that."
"I also dreamed that Gorphat's servant, a horrib mutant, raped me," Draketraum remarks and shudders; unfortunately still remembering that. He looks over his shoulder at Tulani, then asks, "Were you thinking of also using this route as a potential path?"
"Yes, that's why I wanted to see what it offered," Tulani says. "Why would you dream something so horrible? Were you feeling guilty about something?" She starts poking around the base of one of the pinnacles.
"Well, I went to the temple of Gorphat. It was stupid," Draketraum notes. "So, you're actually willing to give up your handsome Eeee in trade for dragon travel? He does like you a lot, you know."
"When I'm in this form.. Eeees just seem a bit.. crunchy," Tulani admits, and starts pulling some underbrush up from the base of a rock tower.
"What are you doing?" Draketraum asks and goes over to look.
"You were right, this would make a good spot for a fortress," Tulani says, exposing a doorway so old it looks natural. Worn down stairs lead up into the heart of the pinnacle, but don't look like their very safe to walk on without slipping.
"Innteresting. Do you want to go in?" Draketraum asks as he peers up the doorway and staircase. He also ponders how exactly they would climb such worn stairs.
"Hmmm," Tulani rumbles. Her body begins to steam and shrink.. but she doesn't transform completely, merely adopts the dragon-form version of her normal body.
"Kaira, I need a smaller body, either of this or something Naga, like that great black Naga I was with some time back," Draketraum thinks. "We're going into an old tower."
"A Naga will by tricky to learn how to move, but could be interesting," Kaira replies, and Draketraum feels the shadow spreading out to do its work.
"And can use its body to brace against both the walls and stop slipping," Alptraum thinks, which is one reason he thought of it in the first place as he once more floats in limbo.
A few moments later, and Alptraum emerges feeling more alien than ever before. Unlike a dragon, Nagas are more cold-blooded. There's strength, and being made mostly of muscle is the reason. It's a far denser body than he's ever worn before, certainly, and the long articulated tail is more complicated than legs.
Or course, he might scrape the rings along the ground if he doesn't keep his torso suitably elevated.
Tulani hasn't made much progress in the meantime. The tip of her tail can still be seen through the door as she slowly makes her way up the steep, worn stairs.
"Thisssss feelssss odd," Nagatraum admits in a very hiss-encumbered voice behind Tulani. What's also odd is the instinctive flick of the tongue at regular intervals, not to mention the gold rings outlining a certain area with at least one inside that he can feel. So, he tries to raise himself up enough to keep from scraping and slowly undulate the extremely alien body forward.
Smelling by taste is another odd sensation, admittedly. "You sound funny," Tulani calls down. She's blocking the passage, unless Nagatraum pushes her up.
"Becausssse I'm a naga," Nagatraum hisses in in her eat as his upper torso coils over her. His tongue flicks again as he smells her, then offers, "Want me to pusssssh?"
"Eeep!" the dragon-woman squeaks. "Just don't squeeze!" She shifts around to get her arms around the Naga's shoulders. "Let me get on your back."
"If I sssqueeeeeze, it will be in a nice way," Nagatraum promises as he spreads out his coils to brace himself on the walls so that Tulani can climb onto his back. He also tickers her nose tip with his long, forked, tongue.
Tulani counters with her own tongue, which is nearly as long, before she wraps her limbs around Nagatraum and tucks in her wings as best she can. "Wiggle on, Mighty Serpent," she says.
"My mighty ssssserpentssss are tucked away," Nagatraum comments hissingly. Once it feels like Tulani is secure, he starts a slow side-winding climb of the stairs with undulating coils of that flexible tail-body. "Thissss body feelssss ssstrange," he admits as he goes.
"It's not that bad once it warms up," Tulani claims. And being able to coil ones lower body to completely fill the tunnel and then push upwards makes it fairly easy to ascend the stairs. After about fifty feet - midway up the pinnacle, they breach into an open space. Even Nagatraum's limited hearing (Nagas seem practically deaf - but then, a lot of Nagas are deaf and use Silent Sign) can hear wind whistle from the walls.
"Then I sshall have to explore thisss body more with you," Nagatraum teases as he climbs slowly. The sheer oddness of the body helps keep the extreme lack of hearing from freaking him out too much. Also having a lot of time as a human may have helped with that. It doesn't completely stop the unsettling feeling, but it helps keep down any panic. The open space causes him to pause and 'sniff' about via his tongue.
In the darkness, there's another sense starting to come into play. It's subtle, and best described as 'heat sonar'. The nostrils at the end of his snout don't detect scent, but warmth. And as Tulani moves about the space, she paints it with her own body heat. "The ceiling is smooth," she notes. "It's like they started digging it out to be a tower, then just gave up after this chamber. And there are air openings along the wall.. but they may be natural, deep cracks and crevices in the rock.."
"Not arrow notchessss?" Nagatraum asks as he starts to carefully slither about the chamber and trying to use this odd heat sense to shape the room in his mind as is he were completely blind. Of course this means he does have to keep reasonably close to Tulani and her heat source.
"If they were that wide at some point, they've filled in," Tulani suggests. "It could be that whoever was setting this up didn't get that far into their defenses before they were wiped out."
"Any writing?" Nagatraum asks as he looms behind Tulani. "I am completely blind in here."
The chamber is 'roughly' cylindrical, and proves that the space was definitely carved out. The walls are still rough in places, while the floor has been worn smooth. It seems like there would have been plenty of time to include arrow slits or continue to the top of the pinnacle, for what it would have taken to smooth out the stairs and floor from use.
"Not enough light for me to tell," Tulani says. "Maybe this was a storeroom?"
"Thissss may have been intended as a sssscell," Nagatraum offers. "Or assss you sssay, a sssstoreroom."
"Perhapsssss an old trading outpossst ussssed this as ssssorage," he adds.
"Hey, that makes sense!" Tulani says. "This route has to have been used for a reason before - maybe it was one of the original trade routes when Babel was being built, and fell to the wayside when airships took over.."
At least with two active bodies in it the room is warming up a bit.
"I bet a Fnerf wouldn't have trouble with those stairs. Well, when they were new, anyway," Tulani suggests.
"Upper platformssss used as landing areas. Thissss chamber as storage. There issss probably outlines of buildingsss below if looked for," Nagatraum suggests as he circles ... and slowly coils around Tulani a bit. She is warm afterall. "And no, a fnerf would not," he agrees.
"It holds heat too.. could have been a winter shelter," Tulani notes, sitting at the center. "That's you moving around, right?"
"Yessss, ssssorry," Nagatraum says. "I am about eighteen feet long, I think." He draws still to see if any sound continues when he stops. Given he's near-deaf, he has to ask, "Sssstill hear anything? I sssstoped moving."
"Nope, it's just you," Tulani says. "Never heard a big Naga moving in an enclosed, dark place before. Those rings giving you any problems?"
"Not asss long as I keep them off the ground," Nagatram says as he coils in closer to Tulani as best he can tell and trying to stop just in front of her.
Bumping into two soft scaled orbs tells Nagatraum he facing Tulani's front. "You could always lay on your back!" Tulani suggests.
And so Nagatraum coils down, then the super flexible body allows him to lay on his back in front of Tulani. "I like thissss body, I think. It issss very different. New ways of ssseeeeing," he tells her.
The dragoness lies on top of the reclining Naga, snout-to-snout. "What sort of ways?" she asks.
"I 'sseeee' your heat," Nagatraum explains and I 'tasssste' your sssmell." A few coils of his lower taim come up and curl over tulani's body, but do not put their full weight on her. "I am alssso nearly deaf. It is sssometimesssss hard to hear you."
"Well, you're strong," Tulani says. "What'd you want to explore with me, hmmm?"
"That dependsssss on how brave you feel," Nagatraum notes as he rolls the coils on Tulani slightly, creating a rather odd and strong caressing effect.
It's about then that Nagatraum realizes Tulani is sitting on the gold rings - and is still in dragon-form to feel their effects. "Brave? You know I'm fearless!" she claims.
"And this body hasss double in certain areassss," Nagatraum points out as he shifts and moves that be-ringed area. "And .. sssseeems to require encouragement asss that has not made itself known yet," is added with a bemused hiss.
"Oh, so you're saying I'm not arousing enough?" Tulani sniffs, then nuzzles at Nagatraum's throat. "I'm pretty sure you only get to use one at a time..."
"Oh, it isss possible to use both. I remember that much when I wassss on the receiving end," Nagatraum offers as he stretches out. The warmth and nuzzling does feel good after all. Plus Tulani does have the scent of another reptile and that seems to be fooling the body enough that, well, it's starting to get a reaction, indeed!
The dragon rubs and wiggles against the rings as well to increase the heat. The 'taste' from Nagatraum's tongue is a lot more sensitive when it comes to smelling her. Tulani does growl a bit though, as her purely reptilian partner seems to be ignoring her more mammalian assets - which isn't a huge surprise, all things considered.
"Are you ssssure? This will be awkward, might be uncomfortable at firssst, and very ssstrange," Nagatraum warns Tulani as the heat and movement is exciting things to the point that more of his alien anatomy is making itself known. His coiling also increases to the point Tulani is rather 'bundled up' in his grip, which he has to be mindful of. Still, her scent and the warmth he gets from feeling over her body is rather enjoyable.
"More so than being dragons?" Tulani teases. "But at least this way, we won't be here all day and get caught by the caravan.."
"Then you had better relax and let me take the lead," Nagattraum hisses as his coil movement increases. Strength is, well, the naga radiates it. So he has to be very careful as he manipulates and adjusts Tulani's position. It's also good that Naga are slower by nature as he takes his time, which eases some of the initial discomfort when their bodies do join and alien anatomies intertwine. It takes some time but the discomfort for Tulani does pass and is replaced by a rather different experience. The fact that there are two parts to the naga do complicate things; but Nagatraum manages it carefully, as well as with the gold; well ... it ends up quite enjoyable for Tulani, if extremely strange.
"Mmmmm, that was actually.. relaxing," Tulani admits. "Although it wasn't easy to just let you control everything.. wouldn't have worked if you were a dragon. I had to think of it as a really thorough massage.."
"I hope it wasssn't too painful with the differencesss," Nagatraum says as he uncoils from Tulani some to try and move the gold away from her lest she fall under its spell again. "And I musssssst admit, I would not mind being with you again like thissssss. If you permit it, of courssse."
"Oh, is this part of your attempt to enslave me then?" Tulani asks in a purr. "Although next time I might want a more active role.."
"No, just my encouragement for you to esssslave me," Nagatraum teases and tickles her ear with his forked tongue. "Next time I could just lie back and let you explore and try what you wissssh."
"You are lucky that I am not capricious or perverse," Tulani says, mollified by the statement. "We should probably finish checking the area, too. What do you think of this route so far? If there are more of these rest areas, it would take us a relatively short time to reach Babel as dragons."
"Thissss route ssseeeems ssssafer than rissssking the boat, the forbidden zone, and the mage," Nagatraum admits. "More in our control."
"Including getting around the Forbidden Zone," Tulani says. "I'm sure this route must pass close, since that's the lowest passage between the mountains."
"The forbidden zone may have odd effectsssss on both of usssss," Nagatraum notes. "We are both monsssters after all."
"Monster?!" Tulani says, pulling back a bit. "I'm not a monster! Why would you call me a monster?" She seems actually upset.
"Magical dragon," Nagatraum corrects, trying to placate Tulani. "and the wild magic may affect you there. Just as it may affect my ... mailable flessssh."
"Well, now I'm wondering if we should see if it has an affect on us," Tulani notes. "While we have the option of avoiding it. Especially if we have to go in later."
"So ... you wisssh to go there on this sssscouting?" Nagatraum asks. "If you believe we can fly that far, perhapssss we should try."
"Well.. I don't know about doing it this time.. it's pretty far out," Tulani notes, then pauses. "Actually, I'd want Mave with us. If we are effected, we might need a mundane person to pull us out.."
"Then let ussss go discussss it with Mave," Nagatraum suggests. "And sssee if ssshe is willing to travel over-land with ussss. She may not like the lack of bedssss." He shifts a bit and lifts up Tulani with him, adding, "Sssso, ssshall we go?"
"Okay, we need to decide something on the way back too.." Tulani says, extricating herself from the Naga.
"What?" Nagatraum asks.
"Well, one of us has to wear a saddle for Mave," the dragoness says. "Last one back gets the Dromodon tack!" she declares, before sliding down the stairs!
Nagatraum lets out a hissing sigh as he follows after Tulani. Of course he can just slide down the stairs, but somehow expects he'll lose. Ah well, if he does, as long as Mave doesn't make any crude comments, he won't dump her in a lake.