Two rivers flow over a series of cliffs into a massive lake and water system. Jungle and tropical foliage surround the waterfalls. The sound of the falls can be heard from far around and a thick mist hangs in the air.
Saira was calling it now - this would be the most out of body experience she would have for a while after this. She wondered if she should apologize for apparently unnerving him with her closeness - she didn't remember sea-dragons disliking company but it could be true for this specific one. She herself had never seen the ocean with her own eyes but her mother had described it to her - as a massive and vast expanse that stretched farther than the eye could see, as if it was swallowing the world itself. The ocean's vastness was the reason dragons have wings her mother had explained because land-bound creatures would never be able to swim that distance. And so Saira was forced to assume that dragons that lived in such a massive, endless expanse of space must not be used to encountering others alike itself. From the sounds of it, Saira would probably never even bumped into Delta if the ocean was as massive as her mother claimed and she was sure it was because Ezhra never lied.
"How do you mean like the wolves?" Saira inquired because that could mean many things. She'd only encountered the two as of late - a young one that had been pretty fun and an older one that had been... strange, to put it simply. They'd smelled different, sounded different too but would Delta have smelled a wolf to be referring to that? She was further confused by his mentioning of the stones he was sheltering in - why would she want him to come out if he liked it there? Sure, Saira wouldn't want to be cramped like that - she could practically feel her muscles cringing at the idea of shoving her entire mass into those crevices, scraping and pinching through her fur - but she supposed a sea-dragon could do as he liked. And if 'what he liked' meant floating weirdly in the rocks, then who was she to criticize how he spent his time?
I'll remind him of this if he brings up something strange about me.
"I suppose I did ask first so it's only proper if I show off first," Saira conceded graciously. She'd honestly forgotten that she was supposed to play a game of skirting around her true form away from her mother - she promised herself to remember next time but it had been so long since she'd met another dragon in whisker to whisker and the skirting was for non-dragons anyway, so what did it matter?
Her fur immediately flattened into her body, hardening into the sleek, warm scales as the heat in her chest pulsed with magic. Her fur dissolved around her into a golden and russet dust as she snorted another nostril-full of bubbles into the current before remembering to breath with her water-lungs again. Saira shook her massive head a little bit again, gilded horns cutting easily through the water as she twisted to return her gaze to the contained sea-dragon. Steam rose from her body very briefly, the heat from her transformation evaporating a bit of the water that came in contact with warm scales before they cooled off once more. She was a tad less surprised by the follow-up question than Delta might've expected her to be - she remembered her mother's own warnings about approaching much larger. unrelated dragons who could be potentially uncouth and embarrassing in their behavior.
"I don't eat what speaks to me," Saira declared, lowing her tone to compensate for their large body that deepened their voice."Mother says it's improper and shows cowardice."
"Sorry," he said on reflex, although thinking about it further, he really had nothing to apologize for. He furrowed his brow, nearly saying sorry again for having said it the first time, but decided instead to shove that conundrum to the back of his mind to stress about later. Saira had asked for clarification on the wolves, not his own babbling.
"They--most, I-I mean, are landbound. No fins or gills," Delta explained. His gaze once again went to Saira's own gills, wondering then if perhaps the wolves he'd seen so far all had that ability to summon them when needed. They surely couldn't spend their whole lives only on land, it was exhausting enough only being up there for a few minutes! He shuddered at the thought of being locked from the water, he wouldn't trade a thing in the world to lose it. Not even for longer legs.
Saira seemed similarly perplexed by the thought of him leaving the rocks, and his gills fluttered as the tension bled from his muscles. His relief was palpable that she wouldn't make him leave his hiding place, but the little cat tilted his head again at her strange offer. Curiosity wrestled against his natural fear, and he hesitantly stretched his neck out to get a better look at her. He kneaded his claws against the stone to maintain a firm grip just in case the need arose for a swift retreat, gaze flicking up and down her form as she seemed to just...pause there.
At first, the changes were so gradual that Delta didn't even notice them. He blinked, and cold dread stabbed through his belly when it seemed suddenly that her fur had vanished, replaced instead by a strange, scaled flesh which crawled up her elongating neck and broadening shoulders. Her entire form was warping, stretching and growing into something distinctly not feline by both land and sea definition as the little cat watched with dawning horror. Whatever Saira was, it was nothing Delta had even come close to dreaming of, and a wild panic twisted his expression as he shot backwards and pressed himself against the stone bastion.
She'd tricked him. How foolish he'd been.
The water around her bubbled and hissed, and he returned the sound with one of his own as betrayal and fear flashed sporadically across his gaze. He couldn't really arch his back in the cramped space, but Tsillah, he certainly tried. A high pitched growl left him, though it trembled and shook just as violently as he did himself as he rubbed his fins raw pushing himself further back into the crack. What looked back at him now was a predator, and between the darkened edges of his vision and the hammering of his heart, he chastised himself hysterically for trusting that this hadn't been some sort of trick.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
The voice that left her now rumbled with the water and send a hum through the stone around him, only further fueling his fear as his gaze honed in on the flashes of her fangs as she spoke and his whiskers thrummed with her reverberation. He physically couldn't press himself any further back--he'd overestimated the depth of this specific crack in the stone, and only a few tail-lengths stood between his shaking form and the open water where Saira floated. Could she reach him from out there? He'd cornered himself, and with her true form revealed he certainly wouldn't believe her now. He hissed again, too frightened for words as he glared out at what he'd hoped so badly was another like himself.
Saira nodded understandingly at the clarification - okay, that was a question that made sense, although it made her want to re-evaluate how old she estimated this cat to be. How old were sea-dragons when they were taught about shifting? He seemed completely new to the concept... or... perhaps he was the sort of dragon who never ventured beyond his home range? Mother had explained to her the existence of those sorts of dragons, who lived in massive, luxurious territories so flush with resources that there was never any concern about spreading out. Hatchlings could stay with their birth-flights their entire lives in that way, never worrying about over-consumption or too much competition. Pity filled her for this sea-dragon, for Delta - she could see now why her mother had insisted on sending her out. She couldn't imagine being so new and unlearned about the world around her.
"I have never tried to manifest fins, only changing my land-lungs to water lungs but yours are nice looking," Saira told the sea-dragon, spinning almost absently in time with the current allowing her to roll passively. It would take too much work to constantly swim against the current, not to mention it would be kicking up the sand and silt, even risking tearing out plants which would be bad for the beautiful little pool so although it may look a bit silly, it was the best solution to prevent floating away while they conversed. "What sort of fins do you think would fit me? I find myself particularly fond of those flow-y ones you find on the colorful fish and-"
He hissed.
He Hissed
Indignation swelled in her chest, emerald green eyes immediately flaring with distaste.
"How incredibly rude of you," Saira snapped, doing her best to imitate her mother's own stern tone. "I thought you appeared strange myself but I didn't hiss at your form! I was even of the mind to call your fins handsome but you- are all sea-dragons like this? I wasn't asking to be your mate, nor was I showing off for your benefit - I thought this was a simple exchange of forms, I am quite beautiful I think and I expect an apology for your behavior."
She huffed in agitation and promptly refused to speak a word to him until he uttered the mentioned apology. Instead, the dragoness focused on adding fins to her long, slender form. A thin, nearly see-through but iridescent membrane that was gold like her horns along her back like a sail maybe? And spines like she'd seen on the sea-dragons she'd encountered before to hold it - oh! And webbing between her claws to add - but should they be golden or green like her eyes?
He flinched backwards at her sharp tone, though more from the hostility than her actual words. It took him a moment to even parse what she was saying, his ears swamped with both the water's rumbling and his own frantic heartbeat. It seemed that she was chiding him? A majority of it was lost on him--his eyes kept darting back to her flashing fangs as she spoke, but he caught words like strange and rude and apology, along with one he'd never heard before.
Sea-dragon? Was that what she was calling him? Her tone implied it may have been an insult, but the term sea was certainly not derogatory. Dragon, he thought to himself, brows furrowing as he rolled the word through his mind and struggled to place its meaning.
His attention snapped back to Saira as he caught a sudden motion, another high-pitched growl rattling through his chest on instinct as fresh fear flashed across his expression. Except, looking at her clearly again, she hadn't seem to have moved. Her body had warped again, fins sprouting from her spine as easily as one could stretch their claws. She just kept changing as if it was nothing!
Delta didn't speak, wide eyes flicking back and forth across the stranger as wild fear tapered into something more unsure. She still made no move towards him despite her sudden advancements. She had said she wouldn't eat him, but she'd been a cat then. Was she still now? She still spoke like one...
Tsillah, he was confused.
He tried to speak, but he could feel the beginnings of a screech bubbling deep within his lungs. He swallowed harshly, for the moment pushing aside his last line of defense and focusing instead on the heaving of his breaths. She wasn't lunging for him; if anything, for the moment it seemed she wanted nothing to do with him. His growling petered but didn't stop, nerves still too frayed to override his natural instincts to make his displeasure known. Slowly but surely he forced his heart to slow from its manic pounding, the edges of his vision clearing as he struggled to compose himself while cornered in the stone.
Delta still wasn't calm by any stretch of the imagination, but he could feel his voice returning. Eventually, as Saira busied herself with her changing form, his trembling lessened enough for him to speak again.
"I don't understand," he croaked, voice strange and warped as it fought against his frightened growling. He opened and shut his mouth several times, readjusting to lean his side against the nook's far end as he wrapped his tail around himself and pressed his fins tight for comfort. "Ah...nhm--what are you?"
Saira settled on a mostly translucent neck-sail with a faint red hue, glittering with tiny-golden marks like sunlight was flowing through them. She just knew it was stunning but it was rather regretful that there were no spaces that would allow her to see her own, beautiful form. At least she was able to see her own tail as she cycled through various shapes in an attempt to find one that would look nice. Perhaps it should start at the base of her tail? Or maybe it should be one long, continuous fin connected to her dorsal sail before dismissing it. The fish she'd seen didn't have linked fins and she expected that a torn fin would feel as painful as a torn wing and a dragoness only does that once in her life before she learns to avoid ever putting herself in a situation to repeat it.
She wanted to continue ignoring the rude sea-dragon - 'I don't understand' certainly wasn't an apology after all.
But her chest swelled with pride for her own heritage and identity all the same, the dragonness proudly lifting her head - it wasn't like she had something to be ashamed of after all.
"I am Saira Celestine, daughter of the great Empress Ezhil Celestine and the consort Jamal whose names are sung in in epics and spoken over feasts," the tigeress bragged, her tail swishing in a pleased manner. She briefly wished she was above water so she could've flashed her wings properly, clearly showing the stripes adorning her flanks and the gilded tips of her wings but there was no way to do that underwater and remain dignified.
It was only as she considered this aspect of showing off that she was then reminded of her previous train of thought - that perhaps because of the vast expanse of the ocean, sea-dragons were unsocialized. Perhaps even unfamiliar with the ability change forms? She pondered over this a bit before releasing another series of annoyed bubbles from her nose - she supposes that just this once, she could cut a rude creature some slack. It was possible that this Delta simply never knew that dragons could shape-change, twisting around to glance over her shoulder to off-handedly add.
"I am a tiger," she tells him firmly. "But I inherited my mother's most noble winged-form. Clearly different from what you are used to I presume - what are sea-dragons like then, if my form is so repulsive to you?"
Her attention settled back onto him, something brighter flashing across her cross expression as she raised her head and puffed her scaled chest. He forced himself not to jolt, reminding himself that she'd made no move yet to lunge and forcing his pinned ears open to listen. She introduced herself again, though this time boasting of her heritage and her mother's apparent title as empress.Daughter of an empress, so she was royalty, then? From his glimpses it seemed that a majority of packs here were wolf populated, so perhaps she too was from somewhere far away.
Could he ask about that? Maybe that would mend the conversation. Her introduction gave him far more questions than answers, but his throat clenched painfully as he swallowed, a bit too rattled to ask. He looked towards the new fins stretching from her neck and trailing down her spine, tilting his head slightly as similar fins warped and changed along her powerful tail. It was unnerving how easily she could manage it--changing her very form as if it were nothing! Beneath his anxieties he felt a familiar sting of jealousy, but he flinched and shook the idea from his head. He...didn't want to think about that. Not now, at least.
Despite everything, she still claimed to be a cat. Again she uttered that strange word: dragon. The little cat felt like he was missing something important, but flinched at her last comment with a small amount of guilt flashing across his gaze.
"Ah--nrgh...you, um, are not repulsive!" he stuttered out. "You are just. Frightening."
Was...that any better? Delta was being honest, at least. He didn't flinch and hiss because she was ugly, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind! She was just terrifying. Things could be pretty and scary at the same time--like sea anemones! Or large sea birds! He cast a glance at the wings sprouting from her sides; they certainly didn't look like that of birds'. Perhaps he should abandon that comparison, he still had no idea what a dragon was.
Saira was pleased with her efforts in the end, twisting around to face Delta properly now that she felt that she looked as elegant in the water as she did when she was in the air. She liked the way the fins blew in the water, lightly tugged along by the current and made a mental note to do this when she went diving from here on out. She eyed the long-feathered whiskers on the potentially-not-a-dragon creature's face, longer and even more feathery than Saira's own in her land=shape. Was there a reason for that? With the fins on her back, it felt like remaining upright was easier than it was before, requiring a lot less churning and consistent spinning to avoid floating away = now she was just using her tail and a bit of rippling from the sail-fin. Do the whiskers have a share in this new level of orientation?
"Frightening?" Saira inquired, a tad confused. Certainly she was proud of being intimidating - that meant she was finally building a reputation like her mother, right? - but even for all her boasting, Saira was at least a realistic dragoness. She was hardly big enough to other dragons to be intimidating - her horns were long and slender, rather than thick and curled and instead of pointed, defensive spines down her back, she had a series of fins that adjudged in the wind to aid her flight but that was it. Not exactly a 'battle-dragon' of any sort.
Admittedly, Saira could be a bit dense at times, assuming that everyone was always on the same page as her and sometimes missing obvious evidence. But even she was aware that a sea-dragon would likely not be afraid of her true form, small as it was and 'what's a dragon' indicated that this 'River Delta' was... probably not one.
...
What mother doesn't know will cause her no harm, Saira reasons to herself, even as she wordlessly returned to her much smaller, much fluffier form though absently shifting the finned-tail back into place as she leveled the other with something of a bemused look. She'd been aware that she'd flown fairly far as she sought out her first territory well and truly out of range of her mother's empire, too far to ask the wizened elder to help her easily but to have traveled so far as to find someone unfamiliar with their noble blood...
"...A dragon is a being of great nobility," she rumbled out, her forked emerald green tongue flitting out briefly. "We possess great magical potential - I've seen sea-dragons raise sea-storms and my mother rain fire from the sky. A proper dragon should only bring terror when provoked but I cannot say that's a staple of our kind, there are certain, uncouth sorts that would be more willing to wreak havoc unnecessarily."
She shook her head in open distaste for such beings.
"If you're asking... then perhaps you are not a sea-dragon?" Saira inquired, a bit disappointed. Looks like it would be a while longer before she befriended one.
