High, and Low (Coza, Jack)

[Josiah Gray]

Dancing up high in the sky, the sun seemed as perky as Josiah had ever seen it. The air was crisp - feeling so less perturbed for the absence of the city's machinations. Josiah would have been enjoying the latter, if not for the former. The horse and wagon trotted along at the leisurely pace of most everyone who lived there, tenderly nudged on by the greying farmer at the reins.

The thick bushy beard and massive straw hat could have made him look like a lion, at a distance. Up close, wrinkled tan skin made him seem more like a sun dried raisin. But at the moment, Josiah wasn't up close. He was laying in the back of the empty cart, his hat held over his face to block out what was the painfully bright light of the sun. He could still smell the heavy scent of the fruits that had ridden in the cart just that morning.

Strawberries always smelled good...

"See him yet?" the young mage asked, a slight hint of sleepiness staining his voice.

The humanoid dragon was sitting up in the back with him, keen eyes alert to the world passing by them. Slowly the grassy rolling hills gave way to patchy forests, then drifted back to the hills again. Flowers seemed in unnatural abundance, as if someone had gone out of their way to grow great patches of them. The guardian spirit suspected Fey involvement, but he wasn't interested in searching any out. He was only looking for a man.

"No," the dragon said flatly. "That's seven."

"Seven?" The farmer and mage asked in unison, both of their interest perked by the unknown number.

"Seven times you asked since we left the city," the dragon explained the root of his annoyance. "I told you he wouldn't be out here. It's not like him and you know it."

Josiah kept his hat over his head as he replied, "And I told you, that's why we're looking."

Lord didn't bother to point out Josiah wasn't the one looking. He just nudged Josiah's leg with a tangible foot, and that got the message across well enough. The slightly nosy farmer turned halfway around to pay more attention to the pair.

"Elijah knows we'd know where he'd go," Josiah said. "He's avoiding us. So if he wants us to not find him, maybe he's going where he knows we know he wouldn't want to go."

"Ack, what be wrong with bein' out here?" the farmer chimed in indignantly.

"Nothing!" Josiah answered quickly but politely. "It … It all seems very peaceful here."

"And Elijah doesn't like peaceful," Lord added abruptly.

"That's not true. … Okay, that's sort of true. But only sort of. He likes fighting, for peace, rather than just having it himself. He likes action and training and beating bad guys and ..."

"And he doesn't like peaceful," Lord repeated.

The farmer didn't pretend to understand. He shook his head and went back to looking at the long dirt road in front of them.

[Coza]

Click. Snap. Gears turned, springs coiled and sprung, waiting for that instant the round, circular, silver trigger was squeezed, barrel poised, aimed and ready to shoot whatever was in its sight. The dance of cogs and coils lasting only a moment as the mechanism fired.

“Perfect!” a voice glowing with glee broke the silence that only the rustle of leaves and wind filled. One eye closed, the other, a stone that was stained by a rainbow, floating in a pool of ink, blinked while looking through the camera, seeing the scenery of a pond surrounded by a plethora of species of flowers, colours rivalling that of the Photographer.

Standing upright, stretching and unfurling his wings, Coza looked around, taking in the sights once more. “Ach, it’s a shame to go, but I should’ve returned these herbs some time ago,” he told no one in particular, all the while patting a brimming belt bag tied to his waist. Head turning upwards, his wings flapped a couple of times to get them ready, then with a leap and a few rapid thrashes of his wings, he was riding on the wind, bounded towards town.

The land was itself flying by him, going the opposite direction. Seemingly rushing to where it was needed. The Photographer smiled, feeling the wind sweep over his scales and fur. A forked tongue let out, catching the scents being carried in the air.

“Those poor souls without wings won’t ever feel how it is to let the sky’s hands guide them” Coza sighed, but quickly dismissed as not his problem. Nearing a path that cut though the land, most likely due to the constant contact with Hooves and wheels, the serpent saw something following it. Slowing his halt by beating his wings against the direction he was heading, he stayed hovering and watched it. He was getting another itch. Similar to ones he has had many times before. Much like the one he got at the pond.

Taking out his camera once again, almost like he was being compelled, the Coatl raised, aimed and... Snap.

[Josiah Gray]

Life signs, 500 feet, the dragon intoned directly to his master's mind, the private warning alarm between them. Above. Near Straight above.

"I know," Josiah mumbled unphased.

"Ya know what, laddie?" the farmer asked in response.

Josiah rolled his eyes, though no one could see it behind the hat. Silent chatter frequently had its complications, when there were others about. Misunderstandings like this weren't new to them. But that wasn't the only reason Josiah was rolling his eyes.

"It's nothing," the young mage said, and he was speaking to the both of them.

The farmer confusedly looked forward again, and was rapidly coming to the conclusion that "city mages" were a strange sort he just didn't get.

The spirit, however, was more adamant in his interest.

He's a mage, Lord declared, as if that automatically made him a threat. Around 3 I'd guess. He's flying high, but he's watching us.

Josiah rolled over onto his side in the cart, and had to adjust his hat to keep the light away from his the corners of his sight.

He's just taking a photograph, Lord. You can calm down…

His master's verdict didn't make the dragon settle any at all. He growled softly, shifting around in the cart like a stalking cat that wanted to be nearer to its owner's feet.

He's not normal, the paranoid dragon insisted, his eyes kept up on the figure in the sky, barely visible with mundane sight.

We aren't normal, Josiah said, sounding a bit more tired by the second. But if it makes you feel better, you have my permission to fight him if he attacks.

[Coza]

"Tch. It can be much better," Coza, freshly returned to his senses, muttered while looking down at what he now sees to be a cart. A cart with people in it. How'd I miss that? A finger slid over his camera, almost like a nudge to remind him. Oh right.

Tongue flicking out of reflex, the winged serpent was starting to turn to continue heading back to town, taking another glance at the cart before flying off. Then another. One more, this time eyes squinting and lingering longer that classifying it as a glance would be a brazen lie. His tongue flicked more, catching scents rising upwards.

"Human, two. A horse and... Something else." It tasted of a scales, but at the same time was vastly different. Something or someone very peculiar is on that cart. Coza grinned, one filled with curiosity and unbridled excitement as his hands clenched on to his camera.

"Perhaps... One more photo. More up close," he chirped, beaming. Not even waiting to run the possible reactions the passengers could have, probably more like uncaring, the photographer made a nosedive towards the cart. Camera in hand, ready to see who the owner of this bizarre scent is.

[Josiah Gray]

A figure on rapid, direct approach was all the excuse Lord needed. The paranoid dragon had already prepared himself to react from the "danger". A blue aura of energy radiated from his body, and the loose white shirt and pants with it. He shot upwards into the sky like a meteor in reverse, long tail trailing behind him through the air.

Josiah got up from his spot on the cart much slower than the spirit, and fixed the hat from his face to his head again. His other hand grabbed at the side of the cart to help pull himself sitting up. Dark circles under his eyes were made darker by the shade, but he still had to squint as he looked upwards after his familiar.

Lord, stop it! he mentally yelled the order.

The draconic spirit slashed the claws of his right arm out wide, and ripped a broad firey wave into existence across the air. The warning "shot" would block forward motion, but wasn't exactly intended to harm.

Josiah telepathically slapped the spirit upside the head.

Stop playing with fire!

[Coza]

Hmm? Oh good! It's coming to meet me. Wait it flies? He mused while diving towards the now ascending source of curiosity. Beating his wings faster in anticipation, tail flicking in the gusts of wind, Coza couldnt be smiling any wider to finally have someone who didn't try to shoot, stab or blast him for taking their photo. Albeit, he probably shouldn't have used such a strong flash on that one hunter in the middle of the forest. And then take another when he was held upside down by the trap he laid by his ankle...

The small, rapidly rising figure was getting bigger, more defined. Its a reptile of some sorts. Flying without wings? Maybe there arent that many poor flightless souls after al-- Fire.

Wings hammered against the momentum of his fall, managing to suspend in the air without getting any closer to the plume of flames.

"And that's being burned ticked" Coza sighed, looking down towards the gravity defying reptile. He was still not close enough. Surely anyone with any inkling of common sense would leave, but the Photographer just couldn't stay away. He needed to get that photo otherwise it was going to just hang over his head for a good year. Let us not forget the great calamity that was "Sleeping-through-the-Meteor-shower"

Maybe I approached too fast? Perhaps... Slower? He thought, now just inching towards the fire hurling reptile.

[Josiah Gray]

The marble-scaled dragon spirit hovered in the air, the blue glow more intense after the last burst of magic. Fangs were bared in silent warning, a mist of frost for his every breath. Two bits of flame still surged in his hands to either side.

"Back off," the guardian growled out when the "foe" still kept coming.

Down on the ground, the cart had stopped its movement and the farmer had turned to look back at the proceedings. Josiah got his feet under him in the cart, brushing off his jeans while still gripping the side.

"S-sorry, sir, we'll be right back," Josiah said in quick embarrassment. "D-don't wait up for us."

Then the young mage's skin turned an even starker white shade, and he vanished from the back of the cart in a swirl of snow flakes. He reappeared the same way, right behind the dragon spirit, and grabbed the spirit's shoulder. It wasn't that he needed to hang on to him to avoid falling, as his own mind could support him on the air. Weak fingers couldn't have done that on their own anyway.

He gripped his shoulder, to hold him back.

"Lord, knock it off," he whispered to the spirit, fingers squeezing tighter - to no real effect - on the spiritual flesh made living iron. Clenching his hands shut, the dragon only put out the flames because of the order, and not any change in trust. The approaching being hadn't given him any reason to after all.

"I'm, I'm terribly sorry!" Josiah managed to speak up after a moment, shouting to the feathered reptile. A passing wind tugged at the ends of the mage's scarf, causing them to dance off to his right. The blue sweatshirt and long brown cloak would have kept him warmer than warm, on the ground, but were just fine for the weather there above.

"Are you al-alright?" he asked in concern. The dragon snorted again and rolled his eyes.

He charged us and you're asking him if he's alright? the dragon snapped telepathically at Josiah.

[Coza]

A flurry of white petals brought about another curiosity. A young man with a over-fondness for Persian Blue... Or perhaps its Palatinate? It could be Cobalt... Either way he was drowning in it. His scarf whipping in the wind as he, along with the wingless reptile, politely sent a letter to gravity containing their desire to cancel all services. The serpent pouted a little, feeling that his wings were being made redundant. Hmph...

Though this was quite the scene. A Denim Blue man and a reptile standing upon the gale. Sounds like one of those peculiar poems that tend to rarely rhyme. Either way if there was ever a itch to snap a photo, the winged photographer's trigger finger was being very restless.

"I'm, I'm terribly sorry!" a voice shot through the cutting gusts, bringing some sense to Coza who noticed the Azure man was hollering at him. Shaking his head slightly to try and fight off the urges, the Serpent looked back down at the pair.

"Are you al-alright?" Ultramarine called out, fumbling over his words. It took him a moment to notice that the Reptile seemed less aggressive then just a moment before. Maybe he's a escort? Would that mean that Sapphire boy here is someone famous? Coza let his mind wander, before snapping back to reality, remembering that he was still needing to respond.

He waved a hand and nodded, shouting back "Oh I'm fine! Forgive me, I was just hoping I could get a closer look at your friend there."

[Josiah Gray]

Josiah looked at the back of the spirit's head. Lord, however, refused to look back at him, because then he would have had to see the smirk spreading across the young mage's face.

I told you it wasn't anything to worry about, Josiah sent his way telepathically.

The dragon only grumbled back at that, displeasure on his gruff features and in the puff of frost from his lips.

What? You reserved the right to say it to me, Josiah gently teased. It's only fair.

Respectfully? Shut up, the spirit said, arms crossing over his chest in annoyance. He hasn't proved anything.

One momentary twinge later, and Josiah tried to not to let his smirk grow any further.

"What's with the camera?" the dragon demanded out loud, piercing eyes almost glaring at the object in his hands. He wondered how easy it'd be to shatter.

"We know its magic," he added accusatively, expecting it to be some kind of mundane looking laser beam weapon. Already the paranoid guardian was planning countermeasures, and counterattacks.

[Coza]

Fingers curled around the camera in question protectively, Coza feeling a smidge of intimidation as the reptile flung invisible knives towards it. Looking down on it, he smiled a little.

"This? Its simply a camera with a extra strong Flash. It's rather important to me" he replied rather loud. Returning his gaze towards the pair. "I also try to take photos of everything that catches my attention" the serpent lifted his camera up to his chest.

"Which would currently be you" Coza nodded towards the reptile. "You taste unusual to most scaled ones I've come across. Why is that?"

[Josiah Gray]

The dragon quietly growled and stared harder at the device, as if he could somehow tell if the winged creature was truthful or not with his eyes alone. A derisive snort told everyone he had stopped caring.

"Fine. Whatever," he said curtly, folding his arms across his chest. The thick tail whipped at the air behind him.

"He 'tastes' different, because he isn't one," Josiah tried to answer politely. The dragon gave him a quick glare, but Josiah tried not to pay any attention.

Traitor!

"Lord isn't a 'scaled one'. He's a guardian spirit," the young mage clarified, feeling a measure of honesty was in order for the trouble he caused him. The spirit himself hardly felt that way though.

Stop giving the enemy secrets!

He's not an enemy, Lord. He's just … a tourist.

"He's my guardian. So he's, he's a bit paranoid," Josiah admitted self-consciously, looking a bit further away from both of them. If he could scuff his foot upon the ground, he would have, but the air had this thing against that.

"I'm conservative and he was moving at attack speed," the dragon irately defended himself out loud. "If you're going to take a picture, just take the stupid thing so we can get back on our way."

[Coza]

They’re almost rival the bickering of elders. Coza mussed. But as the explanations behind his curiosity began to flow from Azure, the serpent’s tail twitched as excitedly as his fingers tapped against his camera.

“A spirit?” His beating wings inched him closer to the pair. The previous engagement had spread its wings and was long gone. “The reptilian guardian spirit of the flying young man clad in blue…”
He needed to get closer. Much closer. This was truly a bizarre and fantastic encounter. Some amazing force had made this happen and he would dedicate himself to praising it, forget about it out of boredom and then praise it for another chance meeting
“Oh, I wasn’t attacking. I was trying to get a closer look,” he said while pointing at his last position much further into the sky.

“My camera and sight is great and all, but I can’t really distinguish what ants are from up there,” he smirked. Shrugging, he added “and besides, if I wanted to attack you, I wouldn’t fly down where you could easily reach me” with a small laugh following.
He looked directly to the lapis lazuli young man. “So since he’s your pet, would it be alright if I had a close look, then perhaps snapped a photo of you both? Perhaps on the ground he’ll feel less intimidated?”

[Josiah Gray]

The dragon's growl turned into a barking, "I'm not his pet!"

The young man's nervous expression panned into something more embarrassed. Simultaneously with the spirit, he concurred: "He's not my pet."

Dragon and mage exchanged glances, and Josiah coughed into the thick sleeves of his elbow.

Lord violently exhaled a burst of frost off to the opposite side, and chose not to argue the definition of "intimidated" with the tourist.

"Just get it over with," he said in annoyance, before grabbing the mage's arm. The spirit's levitation slowly gave out, lowering himself bit by bit and taking the human mage with him. Josiah gave the feathered serpent an awkward shrug, as the pair dropped down to the road below.

The humanoid draconic spirit crossed his arms over his chest, tail flicking at the ground behind him as he waited for the photographer to do something.

The nervous young man started feeling a bit more self conscious as the threat of being Photographed became more real, and started rapidly mussing with his wind-blown clothes and hair.

How do I look? Is anything sticking up? I don't have anything on me, right? In my teeth?

Lord sighed another breath of frost.

[Coza]

"Companion" then. Honestly, some people are so vain about titles Coza dismissed, tinkering with the dials and switches on his camera while the pair demonstrated they knew how to agree, however irrelevant it was.

The regal one let out a puff of misty air to further bolden his very displeased "HARRUMPH!" as Electric indigo seemed to be feeling under the weather. After barking his order to hurry up, wingless reptile-whats-ya-mah-call-zits descended, pulling his master down with him. Who shrugged at the serpent, to which he returned with a smile, tongue flicking out.

After they landed, Coza climbed down, landing across from them. Looking at them, he chuckled and cocked a brow.

"There's no need to be so anxious, its just a picture. A single instant frozen in time and space for all to see every minute detail, every perfect flaw, forever... So just relax!" the Photographer beamed, holding the camera up to eye level.

Finger primed to strike, the coatl lined up the image. A Spectral Dragon of Royalty, garbed in simple cloth, serving the young man of the (possibly) 50 undefined shades of blue who appears he knows not of the ancient ways of nap.

Capturing the beaten path too, the sky and horizon, not facing the sun... it was perfect! Coza smiled grew and he pressed the trigger. SNAP

[Josiah Gray]

"There's no need to be so anxious, its just a picture," the photographer tried to encourage him. The young mage was still fussing about himself and his wind-blown state, a task more difficult due to his own obsessive attention to detail.

"Right. Just a, just a picture," Josiah agreed, still making several last minute modifications to his hair.

"A single instant frozen in time and space for all to see every minute detail…"

Glass shattered inside his mind's eye.

Josiah swallowed surprisingly hard, throat bobbing with the difficult effort. His eyes started to blink rapidly.

"Every perfect flaw."

He near spun in place as he tried to search further and further to his sides.

Flaws, what flaws, where, what's still wrong

Josiah…

"Forever…"

Oh god, you were right, you were right, this was terrible, bad idea, no, let's go

This was your idea! the dragon chided, but Josiah was already pulling his hood up over his head, covering his defiant hair and putting the upper half of his face in shadow.

"So just relax!" the photographer stated still, even though it was the exact opposite of what Josiah felt like doing. Nerves, fraying, splitting and tearing and unwinding into tatters - they were made all the worse by the seconds passing with naught but time lost. It was torture, that moment, the waiting for a finger to just press down already and be done with it all. Nervous itches spread all up and down his body.

Then, not soon enough, the light flashed.

Josiah popped like a bubble into snowflakes.

The spirit dragon's hand went slowly to his own face, and buried it within his palm.

Another long breath whispered frost into the air.

"That … could have gone better…"

[Coza]

Lowering the camera to look over, Coza blinked. He then raised the device, snapping a shot of the quickly melting flakes of snow. The Coatl then turned towards the spirit, eyes still locked on the now puddle.

"He didn't relax" Coza mentioned matter-of-factually, sighing as he let one hand tussle his hair. "Now I'll have to retake the picture..."

Glancing towards Lord, the spirit was busy hiding his face in one of his hands, muttering similar thoughts the photographer had. Hand still playing with his hair, he gave a small, forced smile despite the sudden awkwardness.

"So ah, does blue boy tend to melt over everyone he meets like that?"

[Josiah Gray]

The dragon snorted frost aside.

"Well, I don't think you were especially helping," Lord said with a glare. He shot another small puff of chilling mist, this time directly towards flying reptile. "You were teasing. Rather strongly, I might add. Don't think I didn't catch that."

Thick arms crossed over his chest, and he raised himself to a fuller height - eyes flashing with a radiant, magical blue glow - clearly intending to increase how imposing he might have seemed. His mouth opened again, razor teeth flashing a new threat even as lips geared to say something more.

But just then, snowflakes popped into the air again, and brought back the mage with them. One hand was already against the dragon's chest, as if that could have held back the creature so much larger and stronger. The dragon halted out of will, not weakness, and his glare weakened as it turned on the back of Josiah's head instead.

Everything else came out of the mage's mouth in an absolute rush, one long slew of words without stopping:

"I'm sorry So sorry Photo's over Oops hey how about we hurry up to town already Let's get food Anyone else hungry I'm hungry."

[Coza]

Did he melt? Coza wondered, head tilted slightly as if a more askewed view would make the answer suddenly clear. Tongue flicking out a few times, he straightened and let one had rest on his hip.
Mmm... No. There's no remains in the air... Maybe disentergrate? without looking through the lense, he snapped another shot of the now resting place of the blue. Never seen someone disentergrate before. Interesting... the coatl smirked a tad. There was some buzzing noise going on in the background as he inspected the damp soil from where he stood.

"grumble... mumble... tantrum hissy fit!" the buzzing said. Well, what the gist of it was. Seems theres more and more buzzing lately. Weird. Coza mentally shrugged off. He turned his camera over, eyes locked on a symbol of a sun, glowing a vibrant yellow.

...Nah... Surely I didn't use that flash. Though... It's not at dawn... the increasingly confused Coatl pondered. Pure curiosity guiding his thoughts, not even grazing the possible consequences there could be for vaporising a man.

There was more buzzing, followed by some rather hastily, if not cluttered buzzing. Talking about eating?

Raising his gaze, Coza saw the previously (supposedly) deceased blue boy had (improbably) risen from the grave! Seemed like he was steadying himself on the Dragon's chest. Odd. A arm or shoulder would be more help. Did he want to get food? That's kind of him

"Oh, well that's really nice of you to offer! I still need to hand over the herbs I collected, but that won't take long" he grinned, brimming with blinding, ignorant honesty.

I can always take a picture of the meal

[Josiah Gray]

"S-sounds like a plan then!" Josiah started with a stutter. "There's an adventurer's guild tavern in the next town, that way. Maybe I'll see you there. They've got all sorts of food and jobs available. Might interest you."

The dragon took a slight step back, and folded his arms over his chest as he looked down along the road. Their ride, even going slowly along, had put a bit of distance between them all already.

"Josiah," Lord grumbled. "The man is probably confused right now."

The blue mage perked up immediately. "Oh! That's right. That's right, uh, him ... um. It was nice meeting you, but I should really get back and explain things to that man so he's not so confused."

A quick hand grasped at his dragon's arm, and the other gave the flying reptile a quicker wave. "See you in a bit, I hope!"

Again the two snow-ported away, arriving in space just a bit behind the horse and wagon cart. The greying farmer turned to look as they floated down into the back again, but he was otherwise immune to the strangeness of their return. Shifty eyes, near hidden behind the bushiness of his beard and the massive straw hat, had already shrugged off the weirdness of the "city mages."

"Phew! S-sorry, sir," the mage apologized self consciously as feet touched down, and he sat down right after. "Sorry. That was ... I mean, about all that. He was ... uh ... he ..."

"That was what, laddie?" the farmer asked with meager interest.

"... You know, I'm not sure I ever got his name..."

The horse and cart trudged slowly along toward the close town.

Well, we'll probably see him again soon...




{Coza can do his bit with the herbs that way, along with anything else he wants to do, and they can meet up at the tavern right after }