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

He very pointedly averted his gaze from his companion as she shifted in her skin, tossing the bag containing her clothes towards her. Though he could not see her even out of the corner of his eye, Vyce had a good, trained sense of his surroundings, and so he was quite aware of where she was. It wasn't that he thought her human form repulsive or any such nonsense quite the contrary, he quite fancied her human form, as it held a similar graceful power to it as all her forms did. He simply didn't want to be distracted so early in the day. While she changed, he sighed and leaned his back against an old, rough-barked oak, yawning silently and rolling his shoulders. Vyce preferred to wear less flattering clothing, things that made it difficult to make out his light, wiry musculature, not like Ashe's but more reflective of his agility blended with strength. If one looked between a rogue and a knight, one would find those like Vyce, warriors who preferred to be light on their feet and heavy in their swings. Uh- huh . You could have at least told me you intended to send it my way as opposed to somewhere else. He wasn't paranoid that she wanted him dead, but whether she meant to or not Ashe had a knack for scaring her Master. Both boon and bane, indeed. Feh, it's a moot point now. When she at last finished dressing, he clipped the five-foot leash onto her collar, wrapping the other end around his right wristfor Vyce was left handed and wanted his main hand free just in caseand set off at a fairly brisk pace towards their next destination, maintaining his own silence as they went. Vyce was an off-and-on conversationalist, sometimes happy to chat over this or that, others being lost in thought. In particular, he was lost in thought on the snippets of myth and fable they had accrued over the years, though much of it had turned out to be false, such as dragons being unable to swim, or useless bits of fluff, such as dogs hating an innate hatred for dragonkin. The main obstacle in their quest, which was ultimately to find out what in the hell ever happened to the dragons, was that very few people who weren't dedicated scholars even knew what dragons were anymore none had been seen in... Well, that particular bit of knowledge was beyond Vyce, but he guessed somewhere in the neighborhood of a few thousand years. He'd spent many nights pouring over old books when he first hatched Ashe, trying to figure out what kind of strange lizard he had to deal with now, and to his dismay knowledge on the species was scarce. About the only things of value they knew were that dragons could shapeshift with remarkable ease, that they had an ageless immortality, being able forming a kind of mystic bond with a certain human to share in this immortality withthough Vyce had no interest at the time of being agelessand that they were capable of working feats of magic beyond many human practitioners of the craft. Vyce himself only knew a small handful of spells, and was content with that. By the time the sun had at last begun peeking over the horizon, King's Hills was within view. It was a rather large town, though the two had seen much larger, with a high wooden palisade wall to keep the creatures of the night at bay. As the sun began rising, the gates at the road were slowly swinging open under the ministrations of some of the town watch, somewhat portly men in light armors with shortswords at their hip. They allowed Vyce and Ashe to pass without inquiry King's Hills was close to several borders, and so doubtless they got many travellers just passing through. It was apparently also a city of fair wealth, having cobblestone roads instead of the well-pounded dirt tracks the darker-skinned foreigner had expected. Most businesses were still closed this early in the day, the shopkeepers, smiths, tailors and what-have-yous sleeping soundly until the city awoke, but Vyce was rather uninterested in them. Before anything else happened, he wanted to make certain they would have a roof over their heads the next few evenings, and set about finding some kind of inn or boarding house with an order to Ashe for her to Keep an eye out for lodgings, will you?