[3] Era of the Dragons [Thread 3]

"Like memories in cold decay,"

The melodies of his music sounded into Ian's ears as the bus chugged along. An arm resting on the window and his face buried into it, his eyes just above the sleeve of his jacket as his grey hoodie covered the back of his head. He stared out of the window vacantly as he listened to the song. He watched trees flash by in a blur, the bus not allowing him to take a good look at the contents within the forest. The 16 year old ignored the outside world, lost in his own thoughts and music.

Wasn't like the bus was interesting anyways, it was practically empty except for a few occupied seats. He was going quite far, and even though his uncle was rich, he preferred the cheap way of going places. Ian was alone on the greyhound seat, who would want to sit next to a boring boy who did nothing but stare into space with headphones in his ears anyways?

"Transmissions echoing away"

Ian wasn't depressed nor happy about this trip, simply bored. Nothing seemed to pique his interest. Just another boring trip to another boring school with boring teachers and boring students.

The boy finally heaved a sigh, if somebody had been watching him they would have noticed that this was his first movement, aside from breathing, in an hour. He didn't feel the bus begin to slope up, nor did he care. He didn't want to go on this trip, he didn't want to be here. What could he do? Run away? Where would he go? He couldn't go to his uncle's, and his parents' house was likely owned by someone else. Ian had no choice but to go and be bored in such a boring place.

Far from the world of you and I, where oceans bleed into the sky.

Up in the front, the bus driver looked onward to the dull road. Her eyes were mesmerized by the road, she had been driving for too long, but at least she would be there soon. This was her last drive before she retired. No more of this boring driving where nobody liked to talk, not like she was allowed to talk to them while driving anyways.

THUD.

The driver screamed in surprise as a small bat sized lizard with light green coloring and crazy swirling designs on its body slammed into the windshield, in her panic the lady swerved on accident as more and more of the Misfit Pygmy dragons slammed into the windshield of her bus.

Ian gave a cry as he was thrown off of his seat and into the isle, he scrambled back to his seat as the bus swerved and shook, before finally it slammed into a railing of the cliff side. It bounced back to the rocky cliff, for some reason the bus driver was still flooring it instead of breaking as they crashed into a broken bit of railing and sailed over the edge and rode down the cliff before crashing into trees.

Ian gave another cry before slamming into the seat in front of him as the bus was halted by the bark of the tree. Above the bus and back onto the road, cars had also swerved to avoid the rampaging bus, and as the pygmy dragons swarmed the area with small screeches and chitters of laughter as if this were all a funny prank. Once one spotted the bus in the crashed forest below, it gave a screech and the pygmy dragons began to clear out, realizing their little prank to scare the humans had gone bad.

Ian's eyes were wide as he slowly picked himself up. There was glass on the floor along and some of the few that were on the bus were passed out. The terrified boy stepped over the either unconscious or dead bodies, his music was still playing, but in one ear. One of his ear buds must have fallen out when he was being thrown around, he didn't pull out the other one, and picked his way through the broken glass to an emergency exit in the back of the bus, seeing as the front door was blocked by a tree.

He looked out to find no road, he followed the landscape with his eye to see the road above them with smoke rising from the roads.

Serene was sitting at the front of the bus as it went along the road, her eyes just staring as she was lost deep into her thoughts. What was she going to say when she seen her real mother? What would it be like?

She wished she knew what to expect.

The first crash only startled her slightly, the crashes of the dragons against the window and the screams frightened her horribly. The next thing she knew her world was spinning, screams echoing with the clashing sound of glass breaking.

Then darkness.

When she started to come to she felt something hot and sticky coming from her nose. Blood. Everything was silent now, her groaning as her body felt to heavy to move.

Was she dead?

The scenery speed by as the motorcyclist weaved in and out of traffic, not caring to actually do the speed limit. Goggles covered the riders face, Her short hair whipping behind her while a sly smirk covered her lower face. This woman currently breaking the law is Fayt Robinson, a Video Game designer and Graphics artist. Ear buds where securely placed in her ears, with the straps of her goggles holding them in place, Rock music blared in her ears blocking everything from the outside world out. Green Forest, with all it's rocking high speed glory, is the sole reason why this woman was testing her luck, after all, who can resist temptation to speed with those drums and guitar rifts.

"Heheheh." She snickered with her head slightly bowed, driving between two large trucks, ah the wonders of motorcycles. Pulling ahead, Fayt finally slowed down once she saw the approaching cliff, not feeling up to testing her luck not to fly off it at the speeds she was going. As she came closer to the cliff is when she noticed the chaos, Tiny dragons swarming the cars in front of her, 'Maybe I should stop...' She looked into her side mirrors, noting the cars behind her, 'This is a one way, I'd crash.' she sighed and looked ahead, the thought still on her mind, To turn or not to turn?

She didn't have much time to think as she final ran into the chaos, dragons swarming around her as she debated on what to do, but with a final shrug, Fayt decided she didn't care anymore. With that, she just tried her best not to hit anything, However, even she can't avoid everything, the side of a large truck slammed into her and sent both her and her motorcycle off the cliff.

"Crap!" She yelped as she managed righted herself and drove down it's rocky slope, Fayt noticed a bus crashed in the direction she was going, "Aw Crud." seeing a large ramp like rock coming up, Fayt's felt a small twinge of hope inside ,"This is dumb, idiotic, but it's gonna be completely worth it." She floored the gas and sped across the ramp-like rock, launching herself into the air, "AW YEAH!" she cried out as she landed on top bus and drove off it, landing roughly on the ground. But then, in a twist of fate, her motorcycle broke down from all the abuse and fell over with Fayt on it. Fayt stared at shock to her broken mode of transportation, "Dammit." she grumbled, getting off the ground and taking her book bag off it.

She looked around for a moment, noting where she was and the fact she had no idea where she was. Her eyes caught the sight of a kid staring up at the mountainside, he seemed out of it but otherwise looked to be fine at the moment, she considered going over to see if he was really okay, but that soon to be flaming bus caught her most of her attention.

She gave a groan and walked over to the bus too check it out first. Noticing the emergency escape was open, that's probably where the boy got out from. Snorting slightly, she climbed in, plugged her nose, made extra sure not to catch herself on fire and walked over the dead-looking bodies, to the front where the dead bus driver was, looking for the communication device that she hoped still worked. After messing around with it for a bit, she threw the damned thing down in frustration, glaring at it's remains, she looked for the emergency pack, thankfully that that at least is in good condition. Shoving it into her book bag, she started to carefully walk out the crashed bus.

Before she exited, she noticed a young woman groaning in pain not to far from her. Now she looked hurt, running over to look at the damage, she noted the bleeding nose first, taking a cloth from her bag and wiping it up, then she sat the woman up and pinched her nose, like she was taught in health. She looked down at the woman, her eyes still covered by her goggles, "How are ya' now miss?" she asked the woman.

Aukina tapped his hands on his 1960 Chevy Sedan Delivery as he listened to some dubstep while driving across the precarious road. He was heading towards the top of the nearby mountains to begin his wingsuit journey, and nothing was going to stop him from experiencing the rush of flying around like birds and dragons. That is until he noticed a tiny green blur fly past his window.

Squinting his eyes Aukina tried to see what the little thing was until a sudden swarm flew past his car towards the bus driving towards him ahead. As the chaos ensued, Aukina slammed onto his breaks, cars screeching past him before crashing into the chaos. He even saw someone on a motorcycle go into it like it was nothing. As cars and trucks slammed into each other, Aukina was shocked when the bus suddenly appeared out of the swarm, flying down the cliff and crashing below, followed by that motorcyclist not long after.

He opened up his Chevy's door and stepped out, pulling his headphones off and watching as the swarm bailed from their prank gone wrong. Seeing people already beginning to try and help those caught in the crash on the road, Aukina got back into his car and moved it near the side of the mountain, as to not block any emergency vehicles that will probably appear soon. Taking his car keys and pack, which held his wingsuit, some snacks and drinks, his phone, and rock climbing gear, Aukina hopped out of his car, locking it before he jogged over the railing to peer at the crash below.

It was hard to see with the smoke, but Aukina thought he saw someone peering back up at him. "Yo! I'll be down there in a sec to help ya dude!" Aukina yelled out before he hopped over the railing, slipping his rock climbing gloves on. Taking a few seconds to plan out his path, Aukina turned around and began to climb down the cliff. He wasn't the best at rock climbing, but the cliff had enough foot and hand holds for Aukina to easily get down to where the slope was wide enough for him to simply walk down.

Seeing the person he was looking at was a boy, probably in his teens, Aukina smiled. "Sup little dude? You alright?" he asked, hoping the boy wasn't too shocked for him to be able to get him back up the slope. Then it dawned on Aukina that he never learned how to climb with the weight of another person on him, and he had no way of securing the boy to him to make sure he didn't fall off while climbing.

Ian blinked, looking up at the column of smoke above as the small dragons seemed to flee the sight of the prank gone wrong. He didn't quite know how to react to this, sure he had been bored, but being bored was better than this at least.

He noticed a man at the top of the cliff, he seemed to be calling out to him. Was it someone that knew him? What did he say? Ian watched the man scale down the cliff, must have been used to this kind of athletics, either that or he was stupid and didn't realize the danger of falling down, the possibility of both was there as well.

Once the man had reached the bottom of the cliff, the man approached him rather than going to help the people involved in the crash. Ian couldn't feel it, but he had a cut under the bangs that covered a good portion of his face. The scarlet liquid was oozing its way down, but it hadn't made itself visible yet from under his hair.

"Sup little dude? You alright?"

Little dude? Ok so this man wasn't speaking to Ian because he knew him. Ian still felt dazed, he would have rather just plugged the other earphone back into his open ear and shoved his hands in his pockets before taking a seat and waiting for...he didn't quite know exactly.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

What was that? A voice? It sounded muffled, distant. It drew his attention over everything else, due to the fact his music seemed to stop without him pausing in order to hear it. He looked to the strange man that had approached him and mumbled a question instead of answering the one given to him, "Did you hear that?" he mumbled loud enough for the man to hear.

((Note: Everyone can hear it but its still distant and a bit muffled :P))

She Groans as a blurry figure knelt over her, pinching her nose with what felt like cloth. That hurt. She blinks a few times as she could see the figure above her was a young woman. But Not a paramedic though, which meant that it hadn't been long enough for medics to show up just yet. So far the best news she had was that she wasn't dead.

She heard the woman ask her if she was alright now, "y-yeah. I'm just... really sore. What happened? " The most she remembered really was all the screams before darkness.

Hello? Can you hear me?

The distant, muffled voice startled her. Where did it come from?

She looks at the girl "where is that voice coming from? "

Fayt sighed silently once she heard the young woman's answer, now knowing that she would be fine. Fayt gently unpinched the woman's nose and helped her up, then said flatly,

"Ya' crashed in the bus. Most of the lot of y'all is dead, your one of the lucky survivors. Congrats."

Suddenly, a distant voice rang out from the forest surrounding them, barely heard from whatever distance it may be.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

"Whos askin'?" She said on inpulse, unable to resist the urge to stay quiet. When she didn't hear anything immediately, she stood up and beckoned the younger woman to follow, "No idea, i'mma find out." She took long steps to the middle of the clearing they where in, then looked over to the two guys standing around. She noticed the new guy, then wondered where he came from, but didn't feel like asking.

"Y'all here that voice too?" she asked, her raspy voice from little use easily heard throughout the clearing, thankfully her parents are loud by nature, it gave her a voice that can be heard even if it's out of use. She turned her back to the guys and thought for a little bit, before sighing. "I'mma find that voice." she muttered quietly, unzipping the front of her hoodie to just under her chest, for comfort more then anything. She also pushed her Goggles up, so her narrowed light brown eyes can be seen to the others. She know from experience that keeping her goggles on around other people can make them uneasy.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

"Hm? Yes," Aukina said, looking around for the source of the voice. He had lost almost all interest in Ian as he tried to see if there was anybody else around who might need help, thinking the voice had come from that person. He then noticed a woman in a hoodie and goggles walking up. Just as he was about to ask her if she was the voice, she had asked them if they heard it.

"Yeah, sounded kinda like whoever said it was wasted," Aukina said to the woman. As the woman turned from them and began to get ready to find the source of the voice, Aukina groaned a bit. "Shouldn't we wait for some ambulance peeps to get here and make sure you all are OK? That crash didn't look pretty and you all don't look like you should be looking around for some wasted person in the woods."

Ian returned to his silence, listening partially to the music beating into his ears and the voices of the people that were coming a bit closer to them. He listened as the spoke, before the voice sounded out to them once more.

"over here...now..."

It seemed to have more direction this time, towards the forest. Whether the voice was male or female seemed to indiscernible, but it was definite that it wanted him to go into the forest and it was getting a bit more demanding. He looked to the group as they seemed to speak about it, the strange man that had climbed down from the cliff seemed to be against following it.

Help is over here...."

It seemed to be getting more and more talkative. Ian looked back to the car wreck, and back to the forest. He pondered a moment, if this voice had help, then wouldn't it be faster to go for the voice than to wait for paramedics that might take hours to get here due to the large gap between cities? Did they have some kind of halfway emergency point or something? Ian wasn't too sure of this fact, but decided to follow the voice whether the rest of the group came or not. He was beginning to feel a dull ache in his forehead, he reached up and felt the blood under his hair, and pressed the sleeve of his jacket against it as he walked.

"All of you that hear me...now...please"

Mara groans as she got to her feet slowly. She could feel her muscles ache. The woman said she survived...one of few.
How did she survive though? She was right in front of the bus with the driver.

How didn't she die?

The voice started to talk again. It was frightening her.
Yet... She felt she should go find it.

She notices a young boy walking away, he looked familiar. She gasps a little as she realizes he was on the bus with her. In one of the middle seats or something.

Deciding he was safe to follow, she limp walked after him from her sore muscles. The voice was getting louder as she followed the boy.

Did he hear it to?

Fayt cracked her neck, thinking silently of the voice that rang out from the forest. It was getting demanding, not that that would make her go any faster, she has her own tempo, she wont change it for somebody else. She watched as the Boy and woman both started to walk towards the voice's location. She herself was going to follow behind soon. She looked over her shoulder at the remaining man,

"I'd suggest ya' follow."

Was all she said, then she walked of after the other two at a leisure pace, not feeling the need to hurry to the voice. It called for her out of nowhere, so she's not gonna rush to get to it. She wondered silently what it could be, and if it had something to eat.

"But...ugh, this is not radical..." Aukina groaned as he hefted his bag, beginning to follow the three injured people. Hopefully whoever was calling out to them had some good stuff, cause the farther the three got from the crash, the less likely they'd get any help. It didn't help that the boy looked like his head was injured and the woman behind him was limping. At least goggles girl looked mostly fine.

Not far off from the wandering group, where the voice seemed to be the clearest and loudest, was a odd and large cave that looked like a massive underground den with a slope leading into it. The inside was dark, but the light seemed touch four strange round objects that lay in strange nests. They shook occasionally, like something was inside, but would stop when a low growl emitted from the very back of the strange animal-made cave.

The growl silenced itself, as it heard footsteps come near. The owner made a deep warning rumble, but it soon silenced itself as if something spoke to it, and it kept itself hidden at the very back of the cave.

--

Ian's head was beginning to pound as his adrenaline from the crash began to wear off. He found himself being ordered onward by the voice.

"Hurry up already!"

'Sheesh this thing is getting a bit rude' he thought. He looked back to see that others seemed to be behind him. He knew that what he was doing wasn't quite logical, but his curiosity was too much, but why were all of these people, who were probably older than him and should know better, following him?

The boy turned back around, deciding not to question it, taking his other earphone out, his music only seeming to add to the pain rather than drown it like it usually did. He moved onward, discovering a small slope that seemed to lead to a cave. He stood at the opening, doubting it would be safe to go in alone.

((Get yer butts over to the cave and get your eggs pls |D))

Aukina hurried forward and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Wait here, little dude. There's something in there that doesn't want us in there. I'll go take a look first since I'm the only one not dying," Aukina said as he began to walk into the cave. As he walked he grumbled something about dweeby mainlanders. Every time one of those strange objects shook, Aukina jumped a bit. He could handle waves, he could handle the air, but he could not handle being underground, even with all the natural sky lights.

Then a sudden screech from one of the objects near him rang out, forcing him to cover his ears and grimace in pain. "The hell!?" he yelled out, but he couldn't even hear himself over the screech. Trying to back away, Aukina tripped over a rock, landing next to a nest with a wiggling object in it. Looking over at it once the screeching stopped, Aukina blinked, memories of his times surfing coming to him.

"It's safe dude and dudettes!" he called out, remembering the three people he had wait outside.

Fayt walked into the cave calmly after the surfer dude had went in himself, not really caring enough to wait till her proves it's safe. She looked over the dimly lighted cave in interest, gazing at the wiggling objects. She winced in pain as the screeching started up again, the pitch irritated her sensitive ears.

"How annoyin'..."

She walked over to the Objects to get a closer look at them, standing almost 5 feet away. She peered at the thing, taking in the egg shape, which it obviously was since it was wiggling, and the strange nest in rested in. She remembered the deeper growling noise from before she came in, wondering if these eggs might belong to whatever it was. The one that caught her attention was a black egg with neon blue lights, it matched her color scheme well. She stood closer to that one then the others.