Earth, Iceland, 880ad
Reikon strolled up the path, basket under arm, away from the other pickers, towards the bushes and trees that she knew normally provide a decent quantity of fruit and berries. Even though she had wrapped up warm with a head scarf, covering her blonde hair, tied up in a braid, a dress and apron typically worn by women in the Viking village a couple of miles back down the trail she had walked with the other wives of the village it was still, bitterly cold, this bloody island always was, despite currently being summer time it felt like winter. Alas, winter was on it's way and this was the last of the fruit this summer will provide. She turned as she reached the berry bushes, turning to look down the trail seeing some of the village, that she had little choice but to call home, below in the distance. Giving a depressed sigh, thought to herself 'I hate this life, I hate this cold, I hate this alien body, I hate the men of this village constantly perving over my looks, the women being jealous of the attention I get from the men and the life I have been cursed to live with'.
She turned back to the bushes and started picking the berries off and placing them in the basket working around the bush picking the last of the good ones off before moving to a nearby apple tree, that still surprisingly had a few good ones on it. As she stepped towards it she felt her hairs stand on end... 'You're just cold Reikon...' She thought to herself '...Not surpri...' she interrupted her own trail of thought, 'No... that's not the cold... there's an electric feel in the air...' She started looking around, up to the sky, sure it was clouded over and potentially stormy, but that wasn't it... She knew what it was... The feeling was a warning.
Then she heard it, a sort of 'Zapp' sound, but in reverse... Something, or rather more likely, someone, had fizzled into existence nearby. She knew what it was, a "jump", an inter-dimensional jump from one side of the galaxy to the other... she had been through many herself before. She dropped her basket and ran in the direction of the sound. There was a nack to doing a jump successfully and gracefully, clearly who ever had just done it had little to no experience and moments after the initial zap sound there came the sound of snapping branches.
She ran through the trees, skidding to a halt when she found a rather large branch lying on the ground, clearly recently broken away from a near by tree she looked around but saw no one. Then came a rustle from above, she looked up and saw what she had hoped it would be. The dark green scales somewhat blending in with the leaves above the creature she make out the outline of the large beast, and see enough of it's face to know who it was...
Reikon: "I see you, Skylen,... my love" Reikon said to the branches above, but not in any dialect native to earth, to any human ears it would have sounded as a combination of a low rumble and growling noises. The triangular face up in the tree snapped it's attention towards her,
Skylen: "Reikon?" his deep voice grumbled back. Reikon could do nothing but smile ridiculously from ear to ear. The creature, Skylen, shifted his mass in the tree and leapt down the 30 foot drop and landed on all fours, with out any sign of strain, made almost no sound, and certainly more gracefully it seems than his 'Jump' he had done a couple of minutes prior.
Skylen stood up on his digitigrade hind legs which ended in 3 toes and sharp claws, his hands had a rather human like set up, 5 digits including an opposable thumb, also all had sharp claws. He recomposed himself as he raised, curling his long muscular tail, much like the rest of him, into a comfortable position on the ground to one side of him. At the end of the tail lay a diamond shaped hard shell, hiding the 4 sharp blades, 2 from a thin gap on each edge of the diamond shell. He folded his powerful wings back in that he had partially opened to balance his landing, she had seen them in action before, for his large size, he was extremely agile in flight, not just combat, and fast, very fast, blink and you miss him fast. He stood almost vertical now, stood about 8 foot tall so Reikon still ended up looking upwards to him for the stunningly magnificent dragon that he was. He looked exactly as she had last seen him all those years ago, well, minus his various cuts to his face and the black armour he use to wear that hid his dark green scales that covered his entire body. His handsome, for a dragon anyway, face, had a basic triangular shape to it with 2 very obviously reptilian orange slitted eyes, his mouth had rows of carnivorous teeth lining top and bottom... a very terrifying predator indeed... Yet despite all this she ran to him and hugged his torso, tears of joy running down her face. But the smile quickly faded as she stepped back, brushing his huge clawed hands aside before he could even return the embrace.
Reikon: "Where have you been?!..." She barked, Skylen went to reply but she cut him off before he could get a word in. "...12 Years!..." More tears running down her cheeks now. "...12, horrific, years I've been stuck here!, 12 years I've been stuck in this... THIS FORM!...", gesturing down at herself before continuing, "...Where the bloody hell have you been?!" she stepped back forwards to spud punch his chest, while growling emphasis on that last few words, hurting her hand in the process while having no effect on the rather muscular, scaly, torso of Skylen.
Skylen, finally been given an opportunity to speak,
Skylen: "Not a day went by where you weren't in my thoughts, it's taken me those 12 years, 3 months, 8 days, to rise back up the ranks of the Vanguard enough to be allowed anywhere near the Heart or the Shard, they trusted me so little after you were banished, probably rightfully so." Reikon pointed a disproving finger at him, shaking her head,
Reikon: "No... No, nothing was right about that!... You said you believed in me!"
Skylen: "And I still do! but the situation has made everything very difficult for us... up 'til now anyway..." He started fiddling with his large bracelet that covered 3/4 of his fore arm, the only piece of clothing or armour that he wore and pulled a small, odd shaped item wrapped in cloth.
Reikon's face started returning back to a smile, she knew he had it, he had to have done to get here... The Shard, a slither of the Heart of the Vanguard, the power source of our people... the only way you can make a Jump to another planet is if you had the shard with you, or if it was already on the planet you were going to. The other reason she knew, is that she could already feel it's presence, the power slowly seeping back into her. Skylen gently unwrapped the cloth the reveal the Shard, a jagged crystalline object, the initial red and purple glow faded quickly as the last piece of wrap came off, as if the light created was trapped undercover and released in one burst. Her eyes widened at the sight, still smiling. She looked back up at Skylen's face,
Reikon: "It might have taken you 12 years... but I knew you'd pull through eventually..." Reikon reached out to grab the Shard but before she got close enough, the Shard sent of off a shock and zapped her hand. "...OWW!" she exclaimed shaking her hand.
Skylen: "Careful my love..." Skylen said, pulling back his own hand to protect her "...it's been a long time since you were close to it, you need to-" Reikon cut him off,
Reikon: "I know, I know, just didn't think my powers would have faded that quickly that I wouldn't be able to at least hold it straight away." sounding disappointed. She reached out to grab it again, only this time wrapping it back up in the cloth, this allowed her to grasp it with out getting shocked and burnt. She clasped it close to her chest gave a slight content sigh, still smiling and said with her eyes closed.
Reikon: "I can feel it, it's power, already starting to fill me back up".
Skylen: "How long before you can get us out of here?" Skylen asked, Reikon's eyes slowly opened again,
Reikon: "A few hours, maybe,... half a day at most." Skylen nodded but then quickly snapped a look over the top of Reikon, sniffing the air,
Skylen: "Someone's coming." in a hushed tone. He squat down to all fours as Reikon looked over her shoulder in the direction she came from earlier, though she didn't have much time to look though as a huge gust of air nearly knocked her off her feet and she screwed her eyes shut, looking back to the spot where Skylen had stood a mere second before, now vanished, the only suggestion of where he went being the rustling of the trees above.
Falere: "Reikon? Reikon!..." A woman's voice shouted for her in her Norse language, as one of the villager wives came busting through some nearby hedges "...Rei!... There you are! I found her!..." she shouted back over her shoulder to the others. "...Where have you been?! we've been worried sick for you! Look at you, away with the fairies again!" She stated, noting Reikon's lost expression, who was sneakily hiding the wrapped up shard up her sleeve out of sight.
Reikon: "Sorry, ma ma, I was..." Reikon struggled to think of an excuse for the woman... she had to refer to as a mother, only at her request when she was taken in. When she was cast out of her home world, here on this desolate island she found this village 12 years ago, knowing she would struggle to survive out here on her own in this weak form, she had no choice but to ask for shelter and one small family took her in and though wary to start with all the villagers soon accepted her as their own.
Falere, as her real name, simply stared at the girl and sighed,
Falere: "Come on let's get the rest of this picking done so we can go home." and she offered Reikon back her basket that she dropped earlier which she took and stared into as if it was a bottomless pit. Falere shook her head rolling her eyes at Reikon's apparent absent mindfulness and turned to leave, squeezing back through the nearby hedges,
Falere: "Come on! we have work to do!" she beckoned. Reikon's gaze looked past her shoulder back at the space she and Skylen had occupied a few minutes ago, she reverted back to her Draconian tongue and muttered,
Reikon: "I'll meet you back here in a few hours, after supper time I'll be able to escape hopefully..." and she plodded forwards in tail of her 'mother' "...Oh yes... we have some work to do..."
