Dragon Keeper

[Sparkles]

(ignore the water)

on the side of a mountain near Ocean and the town of Kuaiji, a small cave formed from fallen stones. This was where Tia had been caring for her dragonlings for the past year.

Tia looked around for her dragonlings as she had been for the past five minutes. She would have assumed they were in the pond near the cave. Dragons were excellent swimmers as during winter, they usually hibernated, only coming up to eat large amounts of food and then disappearing back into the water. But she couldn't believe that as she could not find Kai either, and he wasn't too fond of swimming. 'Kai?' she called out in her mind. Usually it came about that when she visited the towns, like she would be later that day, she had to work on her voice before going in as she rarely talked aloud to people these days.
Not a sound came from anywhere, and as she always did, even though she knew she shouldn't, she got a little uneasy. She could cheat, and flash the mirror that Danzi had given her, which would draw the dragonlings to her side.. but if it was just a game, they would get annoyed at her for wrecking it.
She decided it wasn't worth the risk and retrieved her beautiful mirror from the pouch sown into the inside of her gown. It was an ancient mirror passed down from dragon keeper t dragon keeper. Danzi had given it to her, entrusting her with his heirs. The handle was copper with a dragon tail wrapped around, and on the back was the rest of the dragon. It looked as if the dragon was reaching up to the top, where a precious pearl lay.
She angled the mirror so that it caught the light of the sun and she soon had 4 small dragonlings hanging around her, looking up at her expectantly. She sighed 'I thought... i got worried'. Danzi and Yu-Lu looked grumpy and wondered off to go swim in the pond. Tika looked a little disappointed but soon found interest in trying to pounce on a cricket. Tia went back into the cave and sat just outside, picking out the worms from under a freshly turned stone and putting them in her pouch. Kai walked over to her happily, unfazed by the sudden end to their game and sat down beside her. 'Tia food?' he cocked his head before seeing a worm still wriggling around on the unearthed soil and snuffling it up. When he was convinced there were no worms left, he jumped up onto a low stone and lay down in the morning sun.
Tia had been taught by Danzi, who had taught her what qui was and how to use it, that the morning was richest in qui. She stood up and began her morning excersizes, breathing in deeply the qui abundant air.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Cold stones... cold air.... cold stares...

Cold. Always cold, never warm, never comfortable, always alien.
That's how she felt, eternally outcast from the world around her, like she was on the outside looking in as life played on without her, without caring if she was left behind. Time would stand still often, the sun would freeze in the sky, the days would drag out and the loneliness would grow stronger every second.
Complete loneliness... not even memories to keep her company.
She hugged her grubby, blood stained knees, many falls tearing at the soft skin there. Even though she'd been alone and homeless for days now, her clothes stayed neat and well cared for, a strange drive to protect her attire kept her going at least for a few minutes of the day.
Endless day...
Morning eternal, air cold, damp. World unchanged.
Clocks stopped, and Ita remained alone, lifeless, driveless. There is nothing here.

[Sparkles]

Tia heard a racking noise from behind her and opened her eyes, jumping around to see Tika's tail half sticking out from underneath the upturned cooking pot. She made a squeeing noise, half embarrased and sounding like the many highest notes played softly on a flute. Tia watched, amused, as the tail disappeared. ' Tika, where are you?' Tia asked softly, "We're going down to Kuaiji now to buy a goat'. Their female goat had died from snake bite a few weeks earlier, and Tia had been giving the dragonlings more insects to eat, but it was proving insufficient. They needed the milk that had been given by the goat.
The flute noises turned to tinkling bell sounds, excited sounds, then back to the flute. 'Tika dark'
Tia laughed as she lifted up the cooking pot and picked up the shiny black pebble underneath. She felt the familiar rough feeling of dragon scales under her fingers, while she saw only black pebble, like those the dragonlings brought up from the out of the pond, in her hand. 'Is that better?'
Bells chimed.

Tia was nervous - she had never left the dragonlings before. Only Tia would be coming with her, as she had proved she could hold her shape-change for a long time. The dragonling changed from the stone to a bronze soup ladle and clung around Tia; appearing to just be hanging from her arm. The ladle was the same as the one Tia had braught which lay on the ground near the pot.

'Dragonlings stay in the cave until I get back, okay? Don't wander off, stay out of trouble and if anyone other then me comes, hide where they can't find you, okay?'
Kai nodded his head firt and the other two followed. 'Stay in cave with Dragon Stones' Kai clarified. Tia smiled, 'Yes. Go now please.'
Danzi and Yu-Lu bounded off into the cave and Kai walked along behind them.

They began their decent.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Cursed puddles... children ran by and splashed water all over Ita while she sat at the side of the road, watching the passers by through eyes of yellow-red. Now she was really cold, so she dragged herself back down into her alley and curled up beneath her blanket that she'd scrounged from a nearby stall using some money that she'd still had in her pocket. Now though, she was broke.
And hungry... very hungry.
There was a goat stall across the road from her, and the kind lady that ran it often saw her sitting there. Twice now she'd brought her some milk to drink, which kept away the hunger. Hers were the only eyes in the city that were not cold but filled with pity. Despite it, she was still to afraid to be seen with Ita, and so the milk was left at the end of the alley whenever Ita wasn't paying attention.
They'd never spoken, and for that Ita was just as greatful.

[Elario Luminus]

Kangyi swung his sword quickly and with skill, flipping athletically around the extremely small area he'd set up for himself in Kuaiji's centre. He threw his sword up into the air, kickflipped off a wall and landed easily, catching his sword again.

He stopped and wiped the sweat from his brow. Kangyi had been training himself in his own improvised sword fighting style for a straight three hours now, and he had gotten hungry quickly. He caught the smell of cooking meat from somewhere and walked quickly after it, sword now sheathed at his left hip.

[Sparkles]

[So I guess I made this in one of my 'here for a second then POOF' times... interested in continuing it??]

[Tifa Lockhart]

((I am. Though i'd have to remake everything because I don't remember anything about it XD))