Rynn’s form as a great, black dragon faltered as she sailed through the skies. She had only lost focus for a moment, but it was enough for her to lose form entirely, and fall from the skies, landing hard on the ground, crashing through the tree canopy. She tumbled a few feet, and finally came to a complete stop in her full human form, somehow managing to avoid any of the massive tree trunks. It was painful, but nothing appeared to be broken, yet still she didn’t move.

Just another mistake on the long list of mistakes I’ve made. She took a ragged breath and rolled over, staring up at the free sky. She had done everything in her power to change, yet it had all fallen apart in mere moments. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.

Kythe. Gideon. Aeolus. Her hand reached towards the sky, as if to attempt to grab the sunlight as it peered through the treetops. Her heart was aching more than it had ever done before. Why did you leave me? Was it something I did wrong? Was it because I wasn’t strong enough? Was I not enough for any of you?

She knew that she was pining like a lovestruck schoolgirl, and that she should be far above this, but she was at her weakest when she was alone. Rynn slowly closed her crimson eyes and let her arm fall to the side.

“I give up,” she said aloud. “Is that what you want to hear? I’m done…” Her voice cracked slightly as she let out a soft whimper.

Rynn Alzrahi felt herself drift off. Her once beautiful black hair was matted and tangled. Her elegant, pale skin was caked with dirt and grime. Her plain clothes were barely holding together.

This was it. Her dramatic exit from the world. It was all she wanted to do.

And amidst all of this, her stomach growled.

"The trees are so tall here, and it's very humid. Lots of insects, must be terrible for warm creatures with fur." A man with dark blue hair and thick eyebrows picked his way through the rainforest. Traveling away from shore had its risks but he couldn't learn if he only stayed where it was convenient. Fortunately for him, he could use a partial transformation to shield himself from insect bites. He was a sea dragon, so he wasn't meant to climb trees. Shulgan watched with interest as monkeys leaped from branches above and birds hopped about like it was nothing. The humid air was actually comfortable, but he had to wring his clothes often. "Oh, sorry! Didn't see you there." He said as he accidentally grabbed a sleeping camouflaged python. It slithered away without much protest. 

The peace of the insects buzzing and animal chatter was interrupted by something crashing in the distance. To be honest, Shulgan was lost. He just wasn't aware. His curiosity compelled him to see what had fallen, and his slow careful steps led him to somewhere close to where Rynn was. At first he didn't think anything had happened but with a careful test of the air, there was a faint smell of blood. With wooden staff at the ready, he cautiously advanced. An injured animal would likely lash out so he knew not to charge ahead recklessly. To his surprise, he found not a beast, but a person. He frowned as he kept a short distance away, trying to think of the best course of action. A…human with metal protection on their body, not suited for traveling through here and likely trained. No wheels or footprints, so they were alone?

This was very worrying, and humans alone wouldn't survive long without shelter. So Shulgan did what he could with his limited knowledge and tried to check if she was still alive. "Hello? Are you hurt? Can you hear me?" He gently tapped a limb with his staff. Oh, what if they didn't understand what he was saying? Did he prod them enough? The dragon feared he was too late until a low growl was heard. It was something he recognized, to his relief. Alive, but not awake. And hungry, as the noise told him. "Right, a fire. Let's see if I can do this correctly…"

Rynn would wake to the smell of charcoal and fish that would soon also become charcoal. The heat of a fire was close as someone was moving about muttering to themselves. "Is it cooked? I don't know… Both sides are brown, I think it's drying out…"

The draconian didn’t want to wake up. At least, not at first. She had been far more exhausted than she realized, and part of her earlier breakdown had been exacerbated by her lack of self care. It was the smell of fish and flame that finally roused her, and she slowly opened her eyes. Judging by the light above her, she had not been out for long.

What a disappointment. I can’t even die right.

Yet, despite her attitude, she sat up, her stomach rumbling.

Fine. I’ll get something… It took a moment for her eyes to adjust as she noticed a strange man tending to the fish over an open flame. At once, her mouth watered. The man seemed to be consumed with his work, worrying over the state of the fish. She wondered why he had chosen here. Was it because of her?

“Er…” Rynn started to say something, but he seemed absorbed in his work, and she didn’t want to interrupt him. Did he find me? How embarrassing… Once more, her stomach growled in protest, and she pushed past her discomfort with the stranger. “Excuse me…but can I have a bite? It looks to be mostly done, and I cannot really wait much longer…” The poor woman was trying her hardest not to pounce on the fish as is. “It smells divine…”

Seeing she was awake, he smiled and hurried over to offer her the partially burnt cooked fish that had been baking over a rudimentary fire pit. The skin was charred, but the flesh was mostly unharmed. "Oh, of course! This is for you." He handed her the skewered fish without hesitation. After all, he didn't have a habit of eating this way. Shulgan was pleased at Rynn's reaction. This was his first time trying to cook, so did this mean he had succeeded? Taking a seat, he also brought out some ripe fruit he had found. "I saw some monkeys eating these, so they should be safe to eat." There was a small pile of mangoes sitting on a waxy leaf near the fire, and he picked up one to wipe it on his clothes. Then he bit into it like an apple.

His face showed some discomfort as he began chewing the thick mango skin. It was…well, bitter. But the flesh beneath was sweet and juicy. Once he got past the unpleasant exterior, it wasn't too bad. There were more raw fish lying nearby that he had caught in case the stranger needed more. Odd eating habits aside, there wasn't anything particularly remarkable about his clothes. He had nothing else other than the wooden staff. His appearance on the other hand wasn't ordinary. Having dark blue hair and jade green eyes certainly was far from the norm. "My name is Shulgan," he said. "And you?"

The moment Rynn was handed the fish, she bit into it. The char was a little unbearable, but the taste beneath was divine. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she chewed and swallowed. It was perhaps the best thing she had eaten in the past several months.

“Thank you so much,” she said between bites, devouring the fish in mere seconds. She turned her attention to the fruits she was offered, and immediately went to work on those. She barely noticed his odd eating habits herself as she bit straight into the mango. At this point she was far too ravenous to care about taste. It wasn’t until she was halfway done with the mango, juice dripping from her face that she realized that the man had asked her a question.

“Oh…uh…” Rynn sheepishly wiped her face with her sleeve. “R-Rynn. Sorry…it’s been a few days since I’ve eaten anything proper. Weeks since I’ve had a warm meal.” Now that her hunger and exhaustion were being tended to, her previous behavior of acting like a brat was starting to dawn on her. “I’m so sorry! Thank you so much for making food…” She did a quick, half bow.

“Shulgan? Do you make it a habit of saving damsels in distress?” She stared down at the mango, and slowly started to peel the skin off. “I’m looking for a few people…have you heard of someone named Kythe? Or another man, Jace?” She almost hesitated to ask on the last one. It was one thing to ask after her mentor, but it was risky to ask about a known blood mage. Both of them had disappeared without a trace, and it had been her tireless search that landed Rynn in this situation.

Shulgan gave a look of sympathy when she said she hadn't eaten well for a while. Hunger and starvation were terrible things to endure, it was the same for both human and beast. When she apologized he wasn't upset at all. "It's alright, everyone needs to eat. I wasn't sure if I had found enough." The old dragon was just glad that she wasn't severely injured. He didn't know the area, and finding help to mend wounds would be difficult if it couldn't wait. He had little understanding on humans and wasn't able to heal others.

"I don't believe so," he said in reply. "I'm afraid I'm not the most familiar when it comes to things about people. I haven't met many." Shulgan didn't recognize either of those names, but he was willing to help Rynn find them. "Do you know what they look like? My memory hasn't failed me yet, but perhaps I've seen them elsewhere." Names weren't as easy to recall, however faces and places were. With how quickly names changed over the years, descriptions of landmarks were much more reliable.  

Finishing the mango with some difficulty, he found the inedible seed in the middle and discarded it. Wiping his mouth clean, the sweetness of the fruit was a tad overwhelming so he decided to cleanse his palate with one of the freshly caught, uncooked fish. Without removing the fins or scales, he took a bite behind the fish's head. There was a bit of earthiness to the flesh as it had been dragged out of a river, but otherwise it wasn't bad. Still, it lacked the familiar scent of sea salt Shulgan had grown accustomed to from the coast. 

“Oh….”

There was a hint of disappointment in Rynn’s voice when Shulgan stated that he did not recognize any of the names. She should not have been surprised at the response, yet her heart hurt just to hear it. When he asked for a description, she paused. “Kythe was a beautiful woman…a dragon, like myself. A bit taller than me, with stern, but caring eyes and long, darker hair.” She paused. Was that what she looked like? Whenever Rynn thought back to her, it was always her radiance that filled Rynn’s memory, yet what she described could hardly come close to Kythe in the flesh.

“I guess she’s hard to describe. She was always the center of attention, commanding the room. But, not in a bad way. She was kind, and wanted to help those in need,” Rynn finished. “As for Jace,” she huffed. “That moron is my brother. Just imagine me, but thinner, taller, and much more moody. He’s always brooding.” It was simple and to the point. She was much more confident when talking about him.

“I shouldn’t have asked, though. It’s not like either of them have been seen for a time” she mused as she moved to another fish, picking at the charred flesh as she stared down at it. “I keep thinking that if I find them, that things will suddenly be better.” Which wasn’t entirely true, and she knew it.

“Never mind about me,” she said finally. “What about you, Shulgan? If you’re not regularly rescuing hopeless women in the forest, what do you do?”

Shulgan listened intently, his thick eyebrows knitting together like two dark blue caterpillars greeting each other. He was surprised to hear that the people this girl was looking for were dragons, and even more so that she herself was a dragon. Then again, he didn't know of many dragons outside of his own kin, which he hadn't seen in…ages. "Oh, they're your family. I see…hmm. I'm afraid I'm certain that I haven't seen them." His memory, as fuzzy as it may be, was not yet so unreliable in which he was approaching senility. He could be sure of what he had or hadn't seen before. "They wouldn't happen to be sea drakes, would they? If not, then I'm not sure if I'll be be able to find them asking around." 

When asked about himself, Shulgan didn't hesitate to speak. "Actually today's a rather special occasion. You see, usually I stay close to the coastline or near large bodies of water. I normally don't travel so far inland by myself, I'm less familiar with the geography here. As for what I typically do–I suppose I can't say much since I've just come out of hibernation recently, but I do enjoy visiting places I've been to see how things have changed. If your family members aren't sea drakes, asking my relatives would be out of the question. I have no idea what they're up to now, either…" His voice and mind trailed off as he became distracted. He soon found his train of thought and contined. "…Oh, well I do like collecting things. Not gems or coins really, mostly fabric and animal fur. I do have some knickknacks back before I went into hibernation, but I mostly keep them because they're nice to look at. There's an old clock that has figures pop out when the hour strikes and painted clay boxes that have a hinge. I also have several intact shells." He was extremely chatty, and if left to his own devices he could probably ramble on all day.

Contrary to the typical dragon, Shulgan preferred curios and textiles over gold and jewels. To him pearls were very common, like nice river pebbles. His own kin had often questioned him on his peculiar habits, but he paid them no mind. Under the sea, things that were warm and soft were a rarity. Gems and coins were cold, and not very comfortable to lie on, so wouldn't animal furs and cloth be more valuable? He did own a small pile of currency but he had no idea of their actual worth nowadays. All he knew was that they weren't recognized by vendors on the surface anymore.