wildmage_daine | (no subject)

(no subject)

Daine awakes to a strange, rumbling groan. Her eyes snap open, then blink in bewilderment. There's a canvas roof over her head. For a disorienting moment, she thinks she must be on the road again, that she'll leave the tent and find Numair and the Riders, that Darrow has given her back -- or that it was all a strange dream in the first place. But when she reaches up to brush her fingers over the material, she finds it warm beneath her fingers.

It twitches. And as another low sound fills the room, she realizes it's not canvas, it's alive. It's a membrane, like a bat's wing, but so much larger...

And then its familiar blue color registers, and Daine bolts upright with a gasp. "Kitten??"

Neither the dragon nor the bedroom are recognizable. The weight on her legs that Daine had originally taken for Kit's whole body is really just one scaly forepaw. Kitten's torso fills the room; one wing is pinned shut against the far wall, the other, half-unfurled, covers most of the ceiling before running up against the wall above Daine's head. Her shoulders are butting up against the window, out of which her neck and head have completely disappeared.

And her hindquarters are spilling out into the hallway and Goddess knows what beyond. The doorframe has been all but obliterated.

"Hang on, Kit," Daine says, patting her forepaw before extricating herself from the bedclothes and stumbling towards where the door used to be. The rats' cage, fortunately, is tucked beside her bed in a spot that Kitten's growing body hasn't reached, and she takes a moment to silently reassure them before picking her way out into the hallway. It's almost entirely filled by Kitten's hindquarters and tail, which spills down over the edge of the staircase. The floor groans ominously as Daine makes her way down the hall, having to crawl on poor Kitten's body for a good portion of the distance. It's a little easier to get down the stairs, and by the time she nears the back door, she's broken into a run.

Kitten's neck and head are hanging out the second story window, her neck so long and her head so large that her nose is nearly brushing the ground. She starts to lift her head as Daine approaches, prompting another groan of the farmhouse's timbers, and Daine hurries forward. "Hold still," she begs, taking Kit's head in her hands -- it's nearly the size of a hippo's, too big for Daine to really support, but she has to at least try. "Hold still, and we'll..." she trails off, looking helplessly up at the house, her vision blurring. How in Mithros's name are they supposed to fix this?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was the last thing Biffy had expected to see when he arrived home from work and investigation. By now, he was used to the staccato of excited and clumsy paws as Pawvus and Kitten came to see him at the door, so to be greeted by the sound of confused feeling wailing and the sight of a tail spilling out and down the top few stairs was quite unusual, put mildly.

"Daine?" he called up the stairs. He could hear footsteps above them and smell her presence, currently tinged with anxiety or fear. "Daine, I hate to alarm you but there does seem to be a dragon of unusual size on our second floor landing."

There's Biffy, and she isn't sure if she ought to be relieved or mortified. This can't be much nicer to come home to than it is to awake to. She peers down over the edge of the banister with a wince.

"It's Kitten. She's... grown." Which is too small a word for what's happened. Daine picks her way down the stairs, trying not to step on any surplus tail, and finally finds herself on the first floor.

Mithros, will the house even be able to hold Kitten's weight? It seems to be managing so far, but if the dragon starts moving -- or trying to -- Goddess knows what'll happen.

"We have to get her out of here," Daine says as she heads for the back door. "But I don't know how."

Biffy had never been so grateful for werewolf instincts that kept him both composed and capable of stepping around Kitten's various toes and tail. As he made his way up the stairs, the weak one in the middle made a groaning noise and Biffy winced. There were a great many home repairs he'd been meaning to hire someone to handle. Perhaps he ought to have been a bit more strapping and hands on but after the potting shed, Biffy knew his limits.

"There's not going to be any getting her out through a door, is there?" he said, considering and then dismissing the idea out of hand. Her tail alone as as thick as a tree trunk, say nothing of the rest of her.

"This is...quite out of my purview." Already, Biffy was racking his brains as to just whose purview this might be. Dorian? Magnus? Luke?

Daine crosses over to where poor Kitten's head is dangling. The dragonet -- dragon, now -- looks miserable, not that she can blame her. Daine braces her shoulder beneath Kitten's chin, trying to take on at least a little of her weight and help relieve the pressure where she's pressed against the window.

If Numair were here, he might be able to do something about this. But he's not, and Daine swallows the bitterness of his absence and forces herself to think of something else. There are plenty of folk with magic here, it's just that most of the ones she knows are like Biffy, or Sam -- magic that's theirs. The list of folk who might be able to remove a dragon from a house is considerably shorter.

But that means it only takes her a moment to land on the name she trusts the most. "Call Magnus!" she suggests, knowing his sharp ears will be able to pick up her voice from inside. If he can transform his whole property for a party, surely he can get Kitten onto the lawn, at least.

She mentioned Magnus at the same time that the man's name came to him too and Biffy nodded. If there was anyone who might have a solution–or at least a flashy means of dealing with it–it would be Magnus. Quickly, he took a step back to make room for the dragon and for Daine if she needed and went into his jacket for his phone.

Despite his agreement, he didn't call Magnus first. His first contact, as ever in these situations, was Lyall. A quick text urged him to come home because things were urgent and then he dialed Magnus' number.

"I'm calling."

Magnus was in the middle of a thrilling game of peek-a-boo with Catarina when he heard his phone ring. He was inclined to ignore it, but a glance at the screen, from where the phone lay on the nearby coffee table, told him it was Biffy, who always delighted him. So Magnus waved his hand and put the call on speaker.

"Biffy, darling, yes, of course I want to go shopping with you this afternoon. I was thinking that the kids need new birthday outfits, don't you think?"

Magnus' assumption was so far from Biffy's current predicament that he had to stop a moment and actually think about what was going on and what he was going to say. He also could not get distracted, woefully, by talk of one of his favorite activities.

"That sounds far better than what it is I'm calling about," Biffy said, finding enough time to sigh melodramatically about the distinct lack of shopping time indeed. "Is there a chance you could come out to the farmhouse, quickly? There's some...Darrow afoot." In a city like this, it sort of felt that that was all he need say.

Magnus paused in the middle of his hiding -- in the middle of having his hands in front of his face. Usually, he assumed that when there was some Darrow afoot, he couldn't do anything to stop it. But if Biffy thought he could influence the situation at all, he would help, of course.

"Be there in a flash," he told Biffy, before waving the call to an end. He called Alec over and explained what little of the situation that he knew, then teleported himself to the farmhouse.

"So what's this-- Oh. Biffy," he called from outside, deadpan. "There's a dragon hanging out of your house."

The short minutes feel more like hours as Daine stands there, unable to do much of anything. Or nothing of real use, anyhow. She likes to think she's making Kitten a little more comfortable, but easing the pressure on her shoulders a fraction can't be making much difference, when all is said and done.

When Magnus finally arrives, Daine looks over from where she's still helping to support Kitten's head. "We were hoping you might be able to help," she says, her face drawn. "Without the whole top floor coming apart." She has little doubt that Kitten could get herself out if she tried hard enough, but 'hard enough' would probably leave the second story beyond salvaging.

"Right."

Magnus had never once encountered a dragonidae, which was the closest thing that his world had to a dragon. So, despite knowing Kit as a tiny little thing, he was bewildered by the sight of her so large and... well, just large.

"Right," he said again, then starting walking towards Daine and the dragon's head as if in a daze. "Okay, I think I can do that. I just need to be touching her."

Hopefully whatever Darrow magic was at work wouldn't interfere with his magic.

"If we could keep the house in one piece, I would be grateful," Biffy said, his eyes still fixed on the dragon. He recognized that it was a bit hypocritical, given how much damage he'd done to so many nicely decorated parlors over the course of his early immortality. Still, people did need to continue on living here.

"I'm going outside, to get an assessment of the situation from there." Not in the habit of waiting for permission about his own domain, Biffy took a step back and went through the door and around the side to get a good look at the bedroom window.

Daine gives Kitten's neck a reassuring pat as Magnus steps closer. "See?" she murmurs. "He's going to get this all sorted out. Just try to keep holding still."

She has no idea if Kitten remaining still will make Magnus's job any easier, but if nothing else, it should help reduce damage to the house. How much will Magnus's abilities be able to help with that? She's seen him do illusions and conjure things up from nowhere, but it's always seemed like... well, almost like what Varice could do, only dialed up. Glossy and pretty and good for parties. Not permanent. Not even necessarily real.

But he says he can do it, and she doesn't know who else to call, so she just rubs Kitten's chin soothingly. "She won't bite," she tells him with a wobbly attempt at a smile.

"Well, I figured," Magnus answered with a wry grin, finally breaking out of his daze and taking in Daine as well as Kit. The dragon was just a little thing, he reminded himself, in truth. A child. It wouldn't do to act as if this were all strange and terrifying to him, even if it were, at the very least, strange.

He cleared his throat and reached out to touch the dragon's chin, roughly where Daine's hand had been at.

"Just anywhere?" he asked. "If this works at all, I should be able to get us anywhere in Darrow."

"Perhaps the forest?" Biffy called over as he left the door. He could hear the entire conversation, still, though he was limited to largely unhelpful suggestions. "There's a potting shed down there?" Except it was doubtful the shed was large enough or sturdy enough (given that he was the one who'd built it) to handle Kitten.

Edited 2018-08-02 03:04 (UTC)

"Maybe just... into the yard?" Daine suggests. There's enough empty grass between the house and the treeline to accommodate Kitten, she thinks. And though she's not sure how exactly Magnus's magic works, it seems rude to expect him to transport Kitten halfway across the city. If they can just get her out of the house, that'll be a good start. "We can figure out the next step from there, once we can actually see all of her."

Magnus pursed his lips, considering the suggestions, and decided that just outside the house would be fine for right now. What mattered was making Kitten comfortable, he thought. They could move her elsewhere once everything had been sorted. ...As much as it could be sorted.

Just to be on the safe side, he took Daine's hand. If she was touching Kitten, she should be transported too, but Magnus wanted to be sure the young woman didn't leave the dragon's side, lest one or both of them get upset.

With a snapping noise, the trio blinked out of existence inside the house and reappeared just outside.

Smiling proudly to himself, Magnus started to give Kitten's snout a pat.

...Then he remembered that he never warned them about the heinous nausea that could accompany one's first teleportation.

He took several hurried steps back from the dragon's mouth.

Biffy couldn't help being impressed. Though he was familiar with Magnus' abilities, it was still something else to witness them firsthand. Magic could be, in his limited experience, a messy and demanding thing and, much like shape shifting, making it look effortless and controlled probably came fro years of work and understanding.

He almost wanted to clap, even as he followed Magnus' lead in taking a few steps back. Whatever the reason, if the Warlock of Darrow was clearing the way, it seemed wise to follow suit.

Daine has had a fair few magical surprises in her life, but this is the first time she's experienced anything like this. Their surroundings seem to stretch, and when they snap back into place, they're all outside, standing on the lawn.

Well, one of them is standing. Daine's hit with a horrible wave of nausea, as if it took her insides an extra moment to catch up with her outsides, and she ends up dropping to her knees in the grass. It's as well she does; Kitten, similarly affected, wheels around, her neck passing just over Daine's head as she lets out a ragged, retching sound. Daine hastily closes herself off, not wanting their misery amplified by sharing it, and clamps her eyes shut, struggling not to vomit.

She hears a distant crash that sounds suspiciously like a long, scaly tail passing through the wooden walls of a potting shed, followed by some thrashing in the underbrush and another unhappy groan from Kitten.

Once her stomach has settled a little, she cracks her eyes open and levels a Look at Magnus. "A little warning might've been nice," she croaks. She turns to look for Kitten, and finds the dragonet -- well, dragon, now -- crouched forlornly by the tree line, her scales tinged with gray. A little distance away, the potting shed is a toppled ruin.

Daine sighs. "Well, the shed had a good run."

Magnus had a grimace of regret painted on his face from the moment Daine was down on her knees until past the first comment. He knew -- now -- that he should have said something. But honestly he was so accustomed to teleporting himself that it never occurred to him anymore. Even Baz was probably accustomed to it, and Magnus used to yank him around all the time.

"It can be rebuilt," Magnus said, pointing out the silver lining since he was in trouble and he wanted everyone pushed towards happy (relatively speaking). "At least we got her out before the accidentally took the house down."

Biffy heard the splintering and for a moment, he assumed the worst, looking at the house or its barn for structural damage. Only after checking on those did he remember the shed he'd put on the property. It was meant to be a gift to Lyall, a place like the grounds of Woolsey where he might continue on with his experiments. Except, well, Biffy's remaining creativity and soul had been invested in the making and beautification of hats.

Even when he was mortal with a complete soul, Biffy had never been good at the more rough-handed arts. The shed had been a bit of a botch job from the beginning. Things leaned to one side or the other and some parts had never fit true. Lyall had taken it all with remarkable poise because he was Lyall but Biffy knew full well that it was not his best effort.

Daine and Magnus looked concerned and distressed that he felt bad about the expression of relief on his face, one that he was sure was turning into amusement.

"That shed never had a good run and every occupant of this house knows it," he said as diplomatically as possible. "It was an unworthy but necessary sacrifice."

Kitten slinks over -- or tries to; she's gotten too big for any kind of subtlety -- and carefully insinuates her enormous head beneath Daine's arm. What used to be a trill comes out as more of a deep, rumbling purr.

"She's still sorry," Daine says with a hapless shrug. Truth be told, she thinks the shed would have fallen down sooner or later without Kitten's help; a good storm might've caved it in. But Kitten already looks unhappy about being so much bigger than she ought to be, and destroying the shed probably doesn't feel much better than being stuck in the house had.

At least she's not stuck in the house. "Thanks, Magnus," she adds, nodding gratefully up at him. "You got her out safe, and that's no small thing." She strokes Kitten's snout, marveling at the size of it. "Speaking of no small thing," she adds wryly. "Mithros, even the barn won't be big enough for you."

Even with Biffy's assurance that the shed was meant to fall down one day, Magnus regretted that he had anything to do with its destruction all the same. He would make an offer later to put something together, with magic of course, and see if that wouldn't make Magnus feel better about things.

"I could... try to enlarge the barn?" Magnus offered, warily sneaking glances between the dragon and the structure in question. "But the outdoors is probably a safer bet until this blows over."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only