milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Nah, I don't worships dem. Dey's my friends!" Toki explained, tossing another bit of raw cow flesh into the water, watching the tentacles wrap around it. He then turned to the voice, and his eyes got huge.

"WOWEE!! A dragon!!" He exclaimed. "I can't believes it!"

"Do they speak to you?" I had been swimming several times, and while I had seen the creatures, I had not believed them to be sentient.

I hissed lightly. "Yes, a dragon, or Kantri, as we call ourselves. I am called Kédra," I answered, dipping my head and sending a wave down my long neck.

Toki shook his head, "Nah, but dey waves at me when I comes by sometimes. De girl don't likes meat, but de boy squid like to plays with it." He shrugged one shoulder and stood in slight awe.

"I... can't believes it. I really can'ts. I loves dragons a lots! My name is Toki Wartooth, nice to meets you, Kédra!" He gave an informal bow and smiled wide. "My bandmate Skwisgaar likes dragons even more, and I bets he's not goings to believes me if I tells him I meets you. He is... hard to convince of stuff."

"Well met, Toki," I answered, unsure if I should laugh or not. To use the human term, I had never been fanboyed before, or at least not so exuberantly. It was an interesting experience.

"You are welcome to introduce us. I am living here for now and would be glad to meet this 'bandmate' of yours."

Fanboying wasn't something Toki usually did. He usually was the one being accosted by fans. The rare occasion would be if he met Han Solo (Which he had, and got an autograph), or met something out of legend, such as Thor, or, you know, a dragon.

His delight and interest was piqued, and he smiled wide. "I will dos dat. Skwisgaar adores dragons, almost as much as guitar, and dat's a lot!" So much so, that Skwisgaar had Toki get a tattoo of a dragon for his Christmas present.

The Norwegian sat back down, trying his damndest not to be too excited. "So you lives here now? Dat's metal. Maybe if you comes into bar, you could meets de other dudes from my band. We is all big into dragons and knights and vikings and stuff. We could even maybe writes a song abouts you!"

It's not very often that Toki acts five years old, but when he does, it's for a damn good reason.

"What is a guitar?" My knowledge of human instruments was sadly limited to the lute.

"I live here while I am Bound, as many others do, or so I have been told. I do not fit in the bar, so I have not been able to see for myself." Knights? Vikings? In truth, if I asked about every word I did not know, half of my conversations would consist of nothing but.

"You honour me, Toki," I answered, dipping my head again.

Toki pouted slightly. "Dat's brutal, but you is very big. Exactly dragon-sized, so I guess is gives and takes. And I don't honors nobody but myself." He said, straightforward as ever.

His smile didn't falter, he'd had to explain a guitar before. "Is a string instrument, six strings, and a mouthpiece to sounds out de notes. I plays an electric one, but dere is grandspas gu... acoustical ones. I could come and plays something for you if you wants me to." Heck, he might even go and find Skwisgaar and play a duet for the lovely bronze beast.

He raised both brows in hope, "Minds if I leaves you for a second to gets de guitar and amplifiers?"

"If you wrote a song about me, I would consider that an honour," I explained.

The Gedri was again using words I did not know. "...that would perhaps be best," I managed, a little lost. Maybe I would learn what he referred to if I saw it.

Toki jumped up, leaving behind a pile of meat, "Helps yourselfs!" He said, before dashing inside.

He found Skwisgaar without much trouble, and - flailing madly - he explained in prafictly cleers anglush what was going on. The fact that he couldn't stop talking less than a mile a minute would likely be a clear hint as to his excitement. Finally, he just huffed, rolled his eyes, and tugged Skwisgaar (and Pompeii) out of his chair, tossed him the coat he'd brought along just in case, and lugged his mini-amp and guitar back out to the lake.

Kédra, meet Skwisgaar Skwigelf. Fan o' the dragons.

Skwisgaar had been mid-rant about going outside in 'de dildos weather' when it finally got through to him just what Toki had been flailing about.

After all, Kédra was rather difficult to miss, being a dragon-sized dragon and all.
"...oh. I sees." And likely he'd be flailing as well, once he got over the shock.

Pompeii, the kitten-sized copper dragon perched on his shoulder was apparently equally in awe, at least until he decided that the guitarists clearly needed to be protected from the other dragon, craning his head forward and hissing, spitting sparks. About as menacing as an irate kitten as well.

It did not take long for the Gedri to return, this time with one other. "Greetings to you. I am called Kédra," I said calmly, dipping my head and sending a wave down my neck. "Are you Sskwhisghaar?"

Then the impossibly tiny Kantri on the human's shoulder hissed. I stood in open Shock a moment, before hissing in Agitation, "Hhow dhoo thou hast a youngling hwit thee?"

Immediately, I called in the Language of Truth to the littling, "May I bespeak thee? I am called Kédra."

Edited 2008-01-07 07:51 (UTC)

Toki plopped down, sitting on his amp and looking up at Kédra, then over to Pompeii, who jumped down from Skwisgaar's shoulder, to Toki's lap, hissing and sparking more, making tiny copper-on-copper grating noises in anger and fear. He knew no language, and was nothing more than a fierce, tiny watchdog. His own words, in whatever language Pompeii spoke were MY TOKI! MY SKWISGAAR! GET YOUR OWN, BIG ME!

"Is just Pompeii, Rachel makes him of toothpicks and pennies for us! He's always goings to be dis small, never goings to gets as big as you, Mister Kédra! Don't be mad at us, we don't dos nothin' wrong. We even has a whole room for him to lives in and does whatever he wants! Is as big as a whole country to you, for him!"

There might have been a bit of worry in his voice. After all, giant dragons weren't usually the right things to get pissed off. They could eat you.

Skwisgaar had bowed in return, because dude Dragon, had to show some respect.

Though the rapid turn in mood was a little startling, but he nodded in agreement with Toki's statement, "Ja, and we's is make sure he always get enough monies to eat, and he's is gots a dolls of a princess to steal, and he's is like on her a lot, and he's is even somestime takes apart a guitars to makes a nest place outs of it. He's is got de bests home a little dudes likes he am could be asks about for."

"He was made?" I asked, uncertain, still hissing slightly myself, and still calling to the littling in Truespeech. It felt all too much like trying to reach the Lesser Kindred, but if he was not truly of the Kantri to begin with...

"Hath he sentience?" If not, then he was nothing more than a beast, a true dragon.

"Ja, made by a sister-friend of mine. What does you mean? He knows dat he's alive, and dat he's safe." Toki explained, trying to soothe the tiny little creature on his knee, who was now shivering, from both the cold and the fact that the larger dragon wasn't backing down out of fear of him. Pompeii was plucked from his knee and shushed softly. "Is okay, is a big dragon, I knows, but he is a nice dragons, don't gots to protects us from him." Toki whispered.

"Skwisgaar's safe, see?" He pointed to the blond, and the tiny!dragon chattered, before tucking its head under Toki's fingers and tried to get warm.

Skwisgaar smiled, just a little, scooping Pompeii up out of Toki's hand to tuck the little dragon into the front of his coat, "There, sees? Everiesthing is justs fine, ja?"

He figured maybe if Pompeii couldn't see the bigger dragon he wouldn't be so little-dog syndrome all of a sudden, besides the fact that his coat was warmer than Toki's hands. Yep, on the list of things Skwisgaar liked, that dragon was right up there with 'guitar'

The narration feels the need to point out that Toki was probably up there somewhere too.

A true dragon, then, only enforced further by the lack of Truespeech. Still, it made me uneasy, for all that the littling seemed happy with them. "Forgive me, then. My reaction was uncalled for." Again, Milliways strangeness caught me by surprise. A dragon that wasn't sentient, that was truly a beast! It was unnerving, but I put myself through the Discipline of Calm that I would not react in such a way again. "If I wished to meet this Rachel, how would I do so?

"Well met, then, Sskwhisghaar. You are both skilled in the use of this guitar?"

Toki smiled, though it was haunted, and more than slightly sad. "Rachel don't really comes around too often no mores. She's goings to be dying." He started chewing on his thumbnail, eyes shivering with silvery tears that started to well up. He blinked them away and looked up at the blond. "He's de most skilled guitarist in our world, fastest crown champion. I's de second most."

He picked up his Flying V and steadied his hands, taking a deep breath and sighing it out. "Skwisgaar, you starts." He whispered to the Swede.

Once he'd gotten Pompeii settled, which didn't take long, since the tiny!dragon was clinging to his shirt, he hoisted his guitar, shrugging and tossing his head to flick his hair out of his eyes, stretching his fingers before starting in on one of their newest songs, one of the ones that was still getting the kinks worked out of it.

I had not smelt seawater from a Gedri before, though my father had explained their meaning to me. I feared these tears were in sadness, not joy, and I stood in Regret, saying nothing.

Not only were they musicians, they were the best of their world. I settled into the snow to listen to their music.

I can safely say it was like nothing I had ever heard before.

Toki's tears had dried before they even fell, and his rhythmic harmony in combination with Skwisgaar's melody sung out epic tales of barren winters and snow-covered mountains. All of the brunette's emotion flowed into his music, and even though there were no words, the music itself painted enough of a picture on its own.

The two of them had power. Perhaps the dragon could feel a shift in the wind as the two played, as even the weather started to shift, and bend its attention to them. Without the drummer, vocalist, and bassist there, the best the two could summon up was a minor gust of wind, or a blast of heat, whichever suited the song. But what was peculiar about them, was the fact that the power of the music was growing with each bar of the song, each nuance gradually gaining more strength to whatever magic they were weaving.

They were oblivious to it.

Skwisgaar smiled then, grim as ever, arching a brow, mostly at Toki, but also at their audience, his fingers moving just a little faster, caught up in the music the same way it always caught him up, urging him on just a little more, a little harder, a little faster.

They were indeed oblivious to the fact that they were the source of the power, but that didn't stop them from being immune to the power itself. Skwisgaar tossed his head again, usually it was when he started playing this hard that his hair caught fire, and he wasn't about to have that happen so soon.

It was certainly a winter song, just as cold, just as biting as a blizzard and somehow full of snow-flurries as well.

I did not dare join in. I saw where their music went in a way you only see with true masters, but there was more to it. I felt their music as cold against my armour, as though I had been flying where the air was thin and razor sharp. Even the greatest of the singers of the Kantri never achieved such.

I stood in Awe.

When the song was done, Toki gave another little bow to the dragon with a small smile creeping back onto his lips. He turned to Skwisgaar and raised one brow. It was wordless Guitarist-code for 'I think he liked it.'

Toki suddenly felt something he hadn't felt in many years of being a professional musician. It was just like the first time he'd ever played a successful show, with the audience roaring with applause and chanting out the band's name, echoing in his mind.

Only this was an audience of one. An audience that was the size of their entire living room and then some, with wings and scales and piercing eyes that felt like a thousand eyes on him at once.

It was the most important audience he'd had in years. He felt excited, and almost awestruck, himself.

Skwisgaar's smile wasn't quite as grim now, though it was still just a little edgy, he felt buzzed, the way he usually did after their third or fourth encore, after the crowd was worked into an actual frenzy.

He gave another little bow himself, smirking faintly as Pompeii's head peeked up out of his jacket, petting the tiny!dragon's head gently, voice quiet, "Ja, dat's is was just daddies play some musics time."