milliways_bar | (no subject)

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."

I was still standing in Awe. I said nothing. What could I say? I had never experienced anything like that before. How...what was that?

"That...I have heard naught like that for as long as I hath lived," I managed at last. "Truly, that was incredible."

The words of the dragon astounded Toki, and he may have visibly shivered and hopped excitedly, though he would deny it later if asked.

"You thinks so? I, that is, we? We're honored. To knows dat a dragon would likes our music is.. Is...?" He turned to Skwisgaar, hoping the Swede would know how to finish the sentence. He was at a loss for words, himself.

Skwisgaar was more than a little surprised at this himself, blinking, still petting Pompeii's head, "...is fuG#sing metal is what."

Going by his tone, as well as his equally awestruck expression was a clue that 'fuG#sing metal' was the highest of praise.

"My Kindred art singers; music is part of the fibre of our beings, but I know of none who can do what thou just did. Not only could I see thine music, but felt as well." It was nearly incomprehensible, and a shade frightening. That was only with their tools.

What if they had sung?

But. Still. "Would thou play again?"

The singing wasn't done by either guitarist, though it was likely that both could sing. They just didn't.

Toki smiled and nodded, "Alright, we could plays another song. How~'s about Yardwolfves, Skwisgaar? Is a warm song." He turned to the large, bronze lizard and smiled, "Is abouts our fans. We don't usually likes dem at all, but... you's an exception."

He nodded at that, giving Pompeii's head a nudge to tuck the tiny dragon back down into his jacket, so that the critter wouldn't get in the way while he was playing.

"Ja, dat's is probably beings a goods kind of songs to plays on next." It would take a little while for the dragon's praise to sink in, Skwisgaar's ego tended to get in the way of that sort of thing.

"A warm song would be nice, yes," I agreed, tempering my Awe some. The chill from the previous song was fading, but still slightly present.

Toki started with the rhythm, his face gone blank as his hair fell across his shoulders. It already was a vicious sound, like the sound of a wolf pack's feet crunching in the leaves of a forest. On the hunt. On the trail of some scent, careful measures of music for the careful footfalls of canines.

That grim smile was back, head tilted forward just a little, nodding as he played. Where Toki got the footsteps and the movement of the pack, Skwisgaar got the howls and the teeth.

His smile just spread as they both got to give way to the chase, this was, by and large, his favorite part of the song.

Such a different way of hunting than I was used to. I felt myself becoming lost in the chase, the thrill of the hunt, the feel of others around me.

We Kantri tend to be solitary hunters. This sense of pack was strange and unnerving. The teeth and claws, however, less so. A small part of me was relieved that I had already eaten for the week.