Thread: A Vice Of Ash (Starring Collector of Rarities and Erit of Eastcris)

It was a chill evening, one of those late autumn nights where it's uncomfortably cold but it's too hot when you have on warmer clothing. It was under such conditions that a certain treasure hunter, a young man of average build, dark hair and tanned skin, laboured in an attempt to sleep. Vyce Lokket, after a few hours of trying and failing to find a comfortable arrangement of his travel blanket, finally snarled softly in annoyance and sat up, glaring at the embers that had been the campfire with his intense, coal-black eyes. He stood, then, and in feet covered by well-worn white leather boots he went to gather more firewood. Once he had, he tossed the final piece into the little pit, and then violently threw a ball of fire into it with a growled Maroi Fyre ! He smiled as the flames leaped to life, illuminating the space in which he and his companion had made camp and, most importantly, was quick to dispel the cold. He sighed, contentedly, then and sat down he would not be able to go straight back to sleep so soon after doing such physical labor and using magic. He glanced up across the fire pit, then, to his magnificent adventuring companion. Ashe was a beautiful creature, a dragon with scales like starfire rubies that glittered a lovely scarlet in the sunlight and turned to a deeper garnet in the dark. She was also his, having been hatched, raised, and taught by Vyce ever since he found her egg in a cave near his home out in the northern deserts and, mistaking it for the most massive ruby he'd ever seen in his life, taken it home. It had hatched into a baby dragon, small enough to fit in his palm, soon thereafter he had named her Ashe and taught her to obey his every order, then was struck by curiosity and decided to see if any other dragons inhabited the earth she had been quick to grow as well, which was both boon and bane as it made her more helpful but also gave her a frightening appetite he'd once seen her swallow an entire cow whole. Whole ! He was lucky she didn't consider the one who raised her to be food, because Vyce severely doubted he'd be able to win against Ashe if she got peckish. Could be a bit more helpful, though, he muttered under his breath at the dragonelle before him, in keeping me warm, rather than leave me to remake the fire because you feel like sleeping. He sighed, reaching back for his shortspearan unusual shortspear being made of good, solid steel all the way throughand removing the sheathe from the head, testing the serrated edge of the broad, flat triangular blade that extended from the shaft like a two-dimensional conical hat. It was a simple, inelegant thing, but it served him well nonetheless. It was then that he noticed the subtle grey hue to the sky in the east, where they were headed, and realized the reason he had not been able to go back to sleep after making the fire dawn was near. He smiled, stood and leaped over the fire, patting Ashe on her snout and saying Wake up, girl, it's time to ged ready. Before himself setting about rolling his blanket back up and sliding the leather sheathe back over the spearhead. He travelled with little but his spear, his bedroll, coinpurse and the clothes on his back, living off the land for the rest. Ashe was a help in that regard, being a better hunter than Vyce could hope to be with her advantage of flight.