Horizon Ridge As clear as the hook in a sweet serenade

It seemed that the Lady Firecomet had a hard time keeping up with the energetic Sir Knight Starchaser, but surely she would follow suit. She luckily did, because otherwise Sir Knight Starchaser might've been hit by a fireball, had she not come on time... Suddenly, Charon was reminded that he had forgotten all about Drake, when Lady Nobless Firecomet — or was it Osprey? — asked him where Drake was.

Charon visibly hesitated for a moment while he tried to think of an escape from the situation, when suddenly it came to him, of course, Drake...

"... He must've been eaten by the dragon! Oh no!" called out Sir Knight Starchaser in distress. "Quickly! Grab the dragon's tail while I save Squire Drake!" And while Lady Nobless Firecomet grabbed the dragon's tail, Sir Knight Starchaser climbed into the dragon's mouth, grabbed Drake by the tail, and started to pull him out, heroically risking his own life to save his friend.

Imaginary friends had an advantage over real life friends - you could throw them in whatever kind of trouble and they would always come out of it unharmed. They were immortal and had an amazing ability to heal themselves quickly. In case of Drake - just because a dragon had eaten him, while they hadn't been looking - didn't mean that he was dead and gone forever. Not at all! They would save him in no time and Knight Starchaser had just the idea of how to do it.

Being ordered to snatch the dragon's tale, Osprey cast a quick glance around and found a piece of an old tree root lying in the corner of the den. She pounced at it with a growl and sank her teeth in it. The taste was terrible, but she was not going to let it go and thus spoil the game. She picked the root up and began to shake it in her jaws, pretending, how hard it was to keep the dragon in place.

And just, when Starchaser had climbed in dragon's mouth and almost pulled his troll friend out, she noticed something changing. "Wook OUT! she yelled with the dragon's tail still in her mouth. The dragon was about to spit fire again - you could see it by the way it's eye color was changing.

Sir Knight Starchaser did his very best to pull Squire Drake out, but he was pretty heavy. He pulled the tail hard (though probably looked silly to an onlooker as he stood on a stone with his front paws and pretended to pull something in the air), and almost got Drake out when he heard the warning. He could not see what was going on, but it wasn't hard to imagine what a dragon could do to 'look out' for; it was going to breathe fire! Not wanting poor Drake to get hurt, Sir Knight Starchaser heroically risked his own life for his squire and kept pulling. The dragon inhaled while its eyes glowed red...

... And Sir Knight Starchaser felt the singe of fire scorch the top of his head and ears while he, just in time, pulled Squire Drake out of the mouth and the pair of them tumbled off the stone and away, while the dragon threw fireballs that narrowly missed them.

Sir Knight Starchaser quickly batted at his own head to make sure there wasn't any part of him on fire. When he looked up from where he had fallen on the floor, Sir Knight Starchaser noticed that the dragon had turned towards its own tail... "Look out, it's coming right at you!" Sir Knight Starchaser dashed towards Lady Nobless Firecomet, but he would never be there before the dragon would reach her, unless she ran or fought!

Sir Knight Starchaser managed to save Squire Drake just in time - the dragon's firey breath missed them by a whisker, but filled it's lair with barely bearable heat and smoke. Lady Firecomet squinted her eyes to protect her eyes from the pungent gas and coughed a bit, forgetting to let the dragon's tail go. This would get her in trouble mere seconds later and stay tuned to find out how.

It was her friends call that made here aware of what kind of danger was coming her way. Osprey, who had got so carried away in her role, got panicked for real. She grabbed hold of the stick and dashed full speed to the exit. The next moment several things happened all at once - there was a crack, a painful yelp and a thud, when she fell to the ground on her back.

The way out had been narrower than her stick - in her haste she had not noticed it and, of course, the stick first got stuck and because of the momentum broke in two, while she received a heavy blow against the joint of her jaw and fell to the ground. "Bloody hell," she moaned, while her eyes filled with tears - pain was immense.

ooc: the video illustrates, what happened to Osprey - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOYkqRPiKuY - speed it up several times though. :)

It appears that there is a whole collection of these kinds of videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbX5AogJ3lw

haha, that's hilarious :D poor Osprey xD

Upon his call, Lady Nobless Firecomet realised that she was in danger and needed to make an exist. Sir Knight Starchaser watched as she made a dash for the exit, the dragon's tail still in her mouth. He wondered if she was trying to pull the dragon out of the cave, to get it stuck in the cave's entrance. He would then be able to attack it at the point it was stuck, and —

Just as Sir Knight Starchaser thought over all of this, there was a loud cracking noise as Lady Nobless Firecomet crunched the tail in half and fell on her face as a result of it. The situation looked rather comical, though Charon was so immersed into his role that he didn't laugh. Instead of either laughing or asking if Osprey was alright, Sir Knight Starchaser dashed to Lady Nobless Firecomet's side and excitedly shouted, "You did it! You killed the dragon, snapped its tail right in half! We're saved!", completely oblivious to the fact that she was in real pain.

Charon shouted something Osprey couldn't quite comprehend, because the burning pain in her jaws and palates was horrible to say the least. She was not exactly crying, but tears were streaking down her cheeks and she was wallowing on the cave's stone floor, letting out sounds that were a mix between moans and whimpers. She had had her share of rough games in her life, there had been times, when a play fight escalated into a serious fight, but this kind of mishap... this was first for her.

Eventually she rolled to her side and got up slowly, opening and closing her mouth few times, as if testing, which position was less painful (unfortunately none of them were), "Cra-a-a-p," she whined pitifully as she went past Charon, leaving him behind in the dragon's den. She was in no mood to play games anymore.

There came no response to Sir Knight Starchaser's excited shouts about Lady Nobless Firecomet killing the dragon. He did not quite understand why, still not realising she was in real pain. He stood awkwardly for a moment and watched as she rolled over on the floor and crawled up. "Are you —" he was about to ask if she was okay when she walked past him, whining as she left the dragon's den.

Pretty sure that the game was over now, Charon trotted after Osprey, and halted in the entrance of the dragon's den. "Hey, where are you going?" he called after her. He didn't want Osprey to leave, but if she was going to walk away on her own accord he wouldn't follow wherever she'd go; he just hoped she would come back to finish the game.

Osprey didn't go far, she plopped down not too far from the den and continued to whimper, since crying out loud would cause even more pain. The broken stick had bruised her mouth - she could feel the metallic taste of blood on her tongue, as well as some debris (pieces of bark and sand). To get rid of it, she licked her chops few times, wincing from discomfort every single time she had to open and close her mouth.

She heard Charon call out to her - he sounded worried and anxious - and she felt a pang of guilt for upsetting him, even if it was because of his own ignorance. She looked up at him and wagged the tip of her tail, as to tell that everything was alright and that he was not to blame. "'urts 'ike 'ell," she managed to say, putting as little effort on her jaws as possible.

Osprey luckily didn't go too far and didn't leave altogether. Charon hesitantly stood at the entrance of the dragon's den as he looked at her. It looked like she was trying to show that she was at least alright. It didn't look like Osprey was playing anymore at all. Charon trotted over to her while she said something that he didn't fully hear.

When he reached her side, Charon gently nudged the side of her face. He sure hoped that being felled by a dragon wasn't on Osprey's agenda today; they needed to have more adventures! "Are you gonna be okay, Osprey?" Charon asked carefully, his tail hopefully wagging a few beats. He wasn't sure if there was anything he could do to help, so after nudging her face he took a short distance and awkwardly stared at Osprey.

Osprey felt sorry for Charon and that because of her miscalculations the game had to be cut short. She would have gladly continued for the boy's sake, but the pain was too much for her to bear, therefore it was better this way. She looked at him with an apologetic gaze, trying to tell, how vey unhappy she was for the turn of events. Had it not hurt so badly, she would have told him that too.

When he asked, if she was going to be alright, she nodded - people got worse hits in their lives and they survived and were fine in the end. She would too. Eventually. Yet the fact that the story they had begun together was not finished, upset her a little, therefore after a little thought and look around, she turned to the boy again, gave a weak smile and then asked: "'ow did t'e story end?"

With Charon's imagination, surely Squire Drake, Lady Noblesse Firecomet and Knight Starchaser got out of this trouble and probably had many, many adventures together. She was sure that the boy would be able to do that for them both.

Luckily, Osprey nodded that she was going to be okay. Charon was elated that she would be good, even if she was in pain now. His elation almost made him forget that their game had been short; that is, until Osprey asked him about it. Charon wondered If Osprey had missed that she - or, well, Lady Nobless Firecomet - had slain the dragon.

"Well, when the dragon came right at them, Lady Nobless Firecomet knew that she could never outrun the dragon. What could she do?!" Charon gasped dramatically to emphasise the danger of this terrible situation. "So Firecomet thought of a trick! She pulled the dragon's tail out of a crack in the cave wall and BOOM!!! Snapped it right in half! Knight Starchaser and Squire Drake, upon recovering from their brush with fireballs, helped Firecomet pull the dragon out into the crack in the wall so that it could never get loose. It had to stay there for everrrrr and the heroes had filled their quest!" Charon finished with a 'happily ever after' voice (well, except maybe the firebreathing dragon) and looked at Osprey to see how she liked his ending.

Sometimes things happened for a reason - even if it meant receiving a bad hit on the jaw and therefore making even the most simplest actions, where mouth was involved, horribly painful. But with Osprey being unable to speak herself, this gave a fair chance for Charon to have a little training in story-making. He didn't disappoint her at all. When it came to story-telling there was no right or wrong, thus no chances of failing. If the plot didn't live up to one's expectations then probably the person had to look for a different story.

So the heroes finished their quest, which was great. Maybe not so with the dragon, but still. She saw the opportunity to ask him to tell more, therefore she nodded in appreciation for, what he had told her already, and then asked: "W'at 'appened afte' t'at?"

Charon sort of figured that was the ending of the story, since the heroes had fulfilled their epic quest and that was usually that. Osprey, however, asked what else happened and wanted to know how the story continued. Charon tilted his head and considered for a moment how the rest of the story could go.

"Weeeeell... The three of them went home and there they had some food and looked at the stars, and Sir Knight Starchaser told them all lots of star-stories." It was evident by the way the story was being cut short that Charon was getting kind of tired and losing his interest in the story-telling time, after how long they had been busy playing.

"Ok," Osprey sensed that Charon was getting tired, therefore she quit inquiring him at that point. Time had flied, while they had played together, and as much as she would have loved to stay here for longer, she felt that it was the right moment to leave for home. Besides - there wasn't much use of her either - with her aching jaws and inability to either play along or come up with stories.

Therefore she raised to her feet, sighed and looked at the boy. "'ave to go," she told him, feeling a bit sad that this was yet another "see you later" until the next time. Only God knew, when that was going to happen. "A'ompany fo' a bit?" she asked him, looking hopeful.

Osprey seemed content with the ending to the story, and luckily didn't want to hear the sort of star stories that Sir Knight Starchaser was going to tell the rest of them. Charon wouldn't have been able to recite any, so that was probably for the best. He would've had to make up some and in his current tired state they probably wouldn't have been very good at all.

Osprey then said she had to go home, which Charon could imagine she needed, since she still didn't look and sound too good. "Are you sure you don't wanna come back to the Bay and have someone look at it?" asked Charon. He was pretty sure Thistle was good with that sort of stuff; she could fix Osprey right up! Osprey asked him something, but he wasn't entirely sure what she said, except that it was 'for a bit'.

Charon's offer was kind, but Osprey declined it by shaking her head. From this point the bay was just as far as the plateau. Maybe a little closer, but still. And Blue willow was a potent healer - she would have some kind of painkillers hidden in her stash. There was another reason for saying "no" - Thistle had done enough for her already - she did not want to feel more indebted to her than she already was.

She didn't understand, whether Charon had got her last message or not, therefore she thought a bit for a better way to ask, what she wanted. "I'll go home. See you again?" she said, because she had promised herself that between her and this young fellow there would never be "goodbye".

ooc: my last post here - you can fade it out in yours and then have this thread archived. I don't know much about Charon's whereabouts at the moment, but would you like to have another thread, when he returns?

Aww, the last sentence in your post is so sweet ♥

Yes, I would love one. :) He is currently still between DFG and SB -- he is going home, but I am waiting for the outcome of an on-the-road thread I am having before I can continue his storyline because there are important things happening in that thread. When he returns or some we could have a new thread :-)

Charon hadn't a clue how far away Osprey's home was. She declined his offer to go to the Bay, and he nodded, though he was a little sad she wouldn't come with. She said that she was headed home then, and suggested they see each other again. Charon smiled, glad, at least, that they would see each other again.

"Yeah, and I'll tell you lots of star stories then and tell you what more I learned about being a Naturalist," said Charon excitedly. "And of course what other adventures Sir Knight Starchaser and Squire Drake are gonna have." His tail wagged a few beats and he licked the underside of Osprey's muzzle in a respectful greeting. "See you 'round, Osprey!" With those words, Charon watched as Osprey went her way, and he went his, moving onwards to the Bay again to get home safe and sound. He looked over his shoulder once or twice, even after Osprey had disappeared from sight, while he, Sir Knight Starchaser and Squire Drake, had many adventures on their way home, where he'd settle in the den and sleep tight, tired from the day.