The landing could have gone smoother as Drake hit the ground a lot harder than he meant to, his dragon form reverting almost immediately, This sent the poor draconian falling face down into the ground, where he proceeded to lay for a few moments as he contemplated his landing skills and how to possibly improve. With a sigh, he rolled over onto his back, and stared up at the sky for a few moments longer, letting the residual pain leave his body.

“That could have gone better,” he said, groaning as he sat up, starting to dust his shirt off. He and Aspect had landed on the edge of the Haza Savanna, and it was apparent from the fact that Drake was covered in dust, that it was the dry season for the area. For the most part, as far as the eye could see, there wasn’t much to look at. Scattered shrubs and grass littered the plain, with vague rock formations interspersed. It was possible that Drake saw a tree off in the distance, but he wasn’t sure. To the North was Jasumin Lake, only a short flight away if they were to press on.

“Aspect? How are you holding up?” Drake asked as he finally stood up completely, moving on to dusting off his pants. For a brief moment, he wondered how the magic worked with his clothes, but decided not to dwell on it. Magic was magic, and he wouldn’t complain too much that his clothes weren’t destroyed in each transformation. “That wasn’t too bad for me, to be honest,” he said with a sigh. “I just worry about overdoing it. Besides, I could go for a meal…” He looked around again. There wasn’t much wildlife, which meant hunting would be difficult. Probably should have brought more rations…I didn’t think about it.

Aspect saw the vast desert spill out before them as they started their descent from the sky. She tilted her feathers and shifted her weight back so that the drag increased. She flared out her tail, using it as a rudder as she guided herself back down to the ground. She watched carefully as Drake also prepared to land, though at a much faster pace than expected. She slowed down to watch as the dragon hit the ground hard upon landing. It appeared he put too much weight on his front legs while going too fast and hit the ground with his front. He quickly changed back into his human form, but she couldn't tell whether it was purposeful or not. She landed nearby, swiftly changing forms into a Savannah Cat. She trotted over to him as he rolled over. 

"Are you okay?" she asked as got near him. She looked down at him, he didn't seem terribly injured from the poor landing. The dragon scales must have done their job at keeping him safe. She backed up a little as he stood up. "That wasn't all bad for a first try," she said looking up at him. "Maybe put a little more weight in your haunches so your back legs hit the dirt first instead of your fronts. But overall, that wasn't a bad attempt." She gave him a crooked smile. She turned and looked at the scant earth around them. There wasn't much to look at, save for a few pitiful shrubs and some rocks.

"I'm doing alright," she said, listening to his question. "I've flown long distances, its just been a while. I'll probably feel it tomorrow, but that's tomorrow's problem." She looked up at him again. "How are you doing? This is your first major flight and I would understand if you wanted to make camp and continue tomorrow. A meal would be nice." She sat down on the sand. "I didn't bring anything. I assumed there would be more to hunt or gather out here. I see I assumed incorrectly." She flicked her ears back in annoyance. She hadn't traveled to the desert before, but after this trip, she decided she could live her life contently if she never saw it again. 

She twitched her whiskers, trying to get the scent of any creatures that could possibly live nearby. There wasn't anything near them. Just the dry, bland smell of dusty sand. She squinted her eyes to keep the dust out and looked around them more thoroughly. She didn't even see any birds when she looked skyward, it was like they were the only ones in existence in this entire desert. It was a strange feeling, being so completely and utterly alone. She couldn't even feel anything burrowing beneath them in the sand. It was just complete emptiness. 

Aspect had made sure that he was okay from the rocky landing, which made Drake appreciative that he had someone at his side during these trial runs of his draconic powers. That, at least, had been going well for him. However, the luck that he had been having had run out, the proof being that they were now in a tight spot with no supplies and nothing to hunt.

Drake grumbled, “I really need a break. That’s why I landed. Flying is fun and all, but it definitely burns a lot of energy. It’s not something I’m used to.” To hammer home the point, his stomach let out a growl. The bright side was that it wasn’t an emergency.

“Push comes to shove, we can scout a little farther out,” Drake said, suddenly very aware of how alone they actually were. Now that the words between them settled, he realized just how quiet it really was. The wind whistled around them, the breeze a welcome relief to the haze of heat. Despite his hunger and fatigue, he found himself enjoying the views.

He glanced at Aspect, and the image of her human form crossed his mind. He glanced away quickly, his mind attempting to make a connection with her and the alone time. Now, now… he thought to himself. We just met. And besides…you’ve got bigger problems right now. Still, he took a small glance in her direction again.

“I think staying here, or at least around here is a good idea for the night. We can walk on foot awhile, if you’d like, to see if we can find anything hunting wise. I can probably manage a few half transformations if need be for that…”

Aspect perked her ears forward as he spoke. She turned and looked at him as his stomach made a noise. She nodded in agreement with him. He made very good points. She was glad he realized his limitations. She knew the transformation took a lot of energy and was glad that they decided to stay on the ground. She didn't want to have to worry about him turning back into a human just from pure fatigue in the middle of a flight. It was good that he was starting to know himself so fast. He'd been making good progress the past couple days. 

She felt the breeze hit her face and closed her eyes. Her whiskers twitched as she tried to focus in on any living creatures nearby. There was no scent of anything. It was a strange feeling for her, to find no trace of life anywhere around them. She didn't want to be discouraged, but the discovery was rather disheartening. She slowly stood up, feeling the warm sand and dust beneath her paws. It felt similar to the sand at the beach, but whereas the beach contained infinite life, the desert appeared completely void of it. She flicked her tail quickly around her hocks.

"Well, let's be off then," she said looking up at him. "I can't find any trace of any prey around here. There's nothing nearby. Least none that I can find." She started walking next to him. "It's odd, I can't find anything around us at all. It's like we're the only ones here. It's unnerving to me." She felt her hackles bristle briefly but quickly flattened them back down. Now was not the time to worry about such things. Besides, come night when it was cooler, more things may decide to show themselves. At least she hoped they would, she was counting on them.

“Unnerving is a good way to put it,” Drake replied. He wondered briefly if there had been a predator introduced into the wildlands. That would be more than enough to upset the balance of the Savanna, and possibly cause issues. He frowned. It wasn’t something that he wanted to run in to at any point.

“All right. North seems the best bet. It’s the direction we need to head, and there’s Jasumin Lake that way. If we can’t find anything here, we can always push just a little farther. I’m sure something will show up.” The dark haired draconian smiled and started off.

Time seemed to slide by rather slowly as they walked. For a while, he stayed silent, focusing his senses out to see if he could feel anything, but after awhile he gave up. He glanced up at the sun a few times, noting its position and the time, and then to Aspect to see how she was holding up.

Finally, he spoke, breaking the silence. “I’m curious…” he said almost nonchalantly. “Why did you decide to help me on the beach? It felt almost like it was on a whim. And now you’ve followed me pretty fair into the continent…. I guess, I’m just curious because I don’t know of many people who would be so willing to join a stranger…”

Aspect trotted along beside the dark-haired man, her head just slightly higher than his knee. She couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, she'd unconsciously catch her hackles flaring up from time to time, and it took a concentrated effort for her to flatten them back down. She pinned her ears back slightly and flicked her tail in short quick twitches as if electricity was running through her and put her on edge.  She felt more alert than normal, she kept her senses trained for any movement or sound that could indicate possible life besides their own.

She listened to him talk as she adjusted her course to run parallel to his. "If we can't find anything here, I'm sure there will be some sort of life up at the lake," she said confidently. At least I hope there will be. She sighed as they kept walking through the desert in stark silence. Compared to all the towns, villages, and farmlands, the sudden quiet here was quite a shock to her. The only colors were the tan sand and blue sky, making it rather bleak for the casual observance. She squinted her eyes in an attempt to make shapes and contrast come into better focus. It was futile, the sun was just too bright on the light colored sand. It reminded her vaguely of the sun on snow in the winter time.

They were quiet for a long while, neither one of them speaking a word. It almost startled her when Drake spoke for the first time in a while. His voice seemed so loud in the silent desert. She looked up at him and perked her ears in interest. He was asking her about why she decided to accompany him on this trip. She waited a moment before answering. "You peaked my interest," she said simply. She gave him a smirk. "And you're still keeping my interest. I'm curious about what's going to happen in Zets'ki when we get there. I'd like to see if that winged woman that you talk about actually exists."

She kept walking with him for a bit. "Funny enough, I never thought of you as a stranger," she glanced up at him again. "Different, yes, and someone I hadn't met before. But not a stranger. I can relate to you better than most. Like you, I had to work through the trials of transformations and shapeshifting. In you, I saw a mirror of myself, mind you considerably younger than I am now, but myself just the same. All the questions, the confusion, the self-discovery and figuring out who I was. I didn't have someone to help me when I was younger. I thought I could help you, so you wouldn't have as rough a process as I did."

"Well, what about you? Why'd you let shapeshifter accompany you on this trip? We generally aren't the preferred company of choice on most excursions. Nevermind the fact that I'm as much a stranger to you as you are to me."

Drake had to think about the answer to that. He had been curious about Aspect and her motivations, but he did not anticipate the question to be returned in kind. It was possibly something illogical. He had merely wanted to keep traveling and Aspect had offered help. It just so happened that Aspect was a shapeshifter. Maybe, subconsciously he had grown tired of traveling alone.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” Drake replied after thinking it through. “I have no ill will against shapeshifters. I don’t have a reason to. And I certainly can’t complain about the company. The roads are a lot more friendly when you can pass the time with another.” He smiled. “I appreciate all of the help. I don’t know if I can ever fully repay you, for what it’s worth.”

The unsettling feeling of being alone was still nagging in the back of Drake’s mind. He stopped finally, and shook his head. “There’s something definitely wrong here.” A part of him wanted to fly into the air and scout around, but he didn’t want to waste a potentially limited amount of transformations for something like this. “Aspect, can you do a quick scout around the area? I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Aspect listened to Drake talk as they walked along. His words made her smile quietly to herself. She looked up at him briefly. "It's not a debt to me, you don't owe me anything." They walked for a short time, then he suggested that she fly up and survey the ground around them. He must have been feeling rattled from the odd silence around them. She looked behind them, seeing their two separate trails of tracks in the sand and nothing else. "I can fly up and look," she said, sitting for a moment. "I'll let you know if I see anything alive nearby. I remember hearing about a tribe of people living here, or at least animals should be around."

She closed her eyes, focusing on the form she wanted to take. Hawk. She opened her eyes. She sprinted forward, leaping upward once before becoming air born. The Ferruginous hawk dipped her tail and did a large bank to the right, marking Drake's location in her mind. She flapped her powerful wings hard, swiftly gaining height in the cloudless sky. From above, she was able to easily spot Drake's dark shape amid the tan sand. She hovered as best she could and looked around. Her bright eyes took in the ground. She saw dust rising farther out, she squinted focusing her sharp eyes at the base of the dust cloud as it got steadily closer at a rapid pace.

Her eyes widened in surprise. Elephants? There were dozens of them as she flew closer, possibly a hundred or more hidden by the dust. Something had caused multiple herds to gather together and they appeared to be running in a blind panic. They were trumpeting and screaming, even from way out where she was, she could see the whites of their eyes. The massive animals were running in Drake's general direction, she'd have time to fly back and warn him, but she was curious to see what was causing the elephants such a distress. They always seemed like such calm creatures, not easily stirred into such madness.

She watched them for a moment when a dark shadow covered the entire herd on the ground, even engulfing her at her great height. She heard a thundering whoosh as a large amount of air was suddenly displaced. She suddenly felt like she had flown into a huge air current and struggled hard to stay on her course. She looked up, expecting to see the monsoon rains and winds start to descend on the parched earth. She understood now why the world on the ground had gone silent. They were being hunted and nothing was safe, for far above her, was the largest flying creature she had ever seen. The Roc.

It was a gigantic eagle, dwarfing most dragons in size. It had an entire elephant firmly clutched in a claw and was returning for a second. She understood now why sailors talked about it plucking whales out of the sea like a regular eagle with a fish. Her jaw dropped at its immense size, it was as large as a cloud. It was hunting the elephants, like a shark and a school of fish, grouping them all together and then diving into the middle. Its wicked hooked beak was as large as a small house and its bright yellow eye reminded her of the sun. She ducked down low, twisting in mid-air so that she dropped in altitude. The elephants were leading the large eagle right towards their position. She had to tell Drake.

She dipped a wing and flew away from the elephants. The Roc let out a cry, so terribly loud that she struggled to maintain her eagle form. She had to cover her ears. Briefly shifting into a human form until the cry ended, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands against her ears. She felt herself falling through the air and quickly switched back to the eagle form. She dropped lower as she got closer to him, she could see the elephants on the ground now, getting closer. "Drake!" She called to him. "Run! Fly! Anything! We have to go! We can't fight this!" 

Drake stood idly as Aspect took off into the sky. It was always interesting to watch her body shift into another form. He wondered briefly what it was like for others to watch him change. He might have to ask Aspect what it looks like. For him, it was definitely painful. Is it painful for her too? He shrugged off the thought as she scoured the skies.

It wasn’t long before his instincts to pick up a soft tremble in the ground. He looked down from Aspect to see off in the distance a small cloud of dust. His eyes focused, flickering red as the draconic blood flared up, and the image became clearer. A stampede. Aspect was already eyeing it too, as she was closer. Something was definitely wrong. A storm cloud?

Other than the growing trembles, Drake couldn’t see anything. The dust cloud that they had picked up was huge, and Aspect had temporarily exited his sight. It was weird though. Through the heat haze, the storm-like cloud and dust seemed to be taking an odd shape. Wait…where is Aspect? Suddenly, the small hawk darted back into view. Already, Drake could feel something wrong. Aspect seemed panicked.

Suddenly, there was an ear shattering sound, and Drake grabbed his ears, nearly doubling over from the shock alone. Though his pain, though, he noticed Aspect shift mid-air, holding her own ears. What Drake had thought was merely a cloud was now clear.

It was huge. Bigger than anything he had ever seen in his life. The massive bird was bigger than even Drake in his dragon form, and it’s talons were likely to be twice as sharp. Already it was picking out its next meal amongst the heard, its piercing gaze locked on to its next meal. As the cry ended, and Aspect changed back into her hawk form as flew towards Drake with uncanny speed. He could hear her screaming for him to run, and he wasn’t about to argue. He turned immediately, and flames started to lick at his body. His focus wavered, though, and he only managed to force his wings out at the last second, jumping to catch the wind. He stayed low to the ground, with Aspect not far behind.

The Roc seemed not to notice them yet, but the elephants that were stampeding were starting to split up. Hopefully, the two would remain small enough that it wouldn’t be worth the work to catch. Still, Drake mentally prepared a few spells to launch at the Roc in case it came down to it, but he wasn’t sure he had the mana to last a sustained fight and transformation if it came to that.

I can at least let Aspect get to safety if it comes to it, he thought. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

“Keep going!” Drake called out. “Let’s just hope it goes after the elephants!”

Aspect saw Drake turn and start to run, flames starting to flicker along his back, showing his attempt to change. She saw him being engulfed in the flames, but the dragon form never materialized, only the wings. He jumped up and caught the air with his wings and started to fly. She dived down and flew next to him as they skimmed across the ground. She turned behind her and was still able to see the massive eagle. Fortunately, it seemed it was only interested in elephants, either that or it hadn't noticed them yet. She was sort of glad that Drake wasn't able to complete his dragon form. His large dragon size would probably catch the creature's attention.

The elephants appeared to be starting to split up, the large herd breaking into smaller groups. This disoriented the Roc it seemed, as it forced the bird's attention to be divided. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the bird took off after a group going away from them. She slowed down, giving herself a chance to look for a safe place to land. A large tree not too far off and she glided down to one of the branches. She caught it with her claws and held tight. She waited for Drake to land before looking around at what to do next. 

A small band of the elephants had run to a spot nearby and were idling about in the group as if counting their numbers. She thought for a minute, a small smile appearing on her face as she glanced at Drake. "I have an idea," she told him. "Watch this." She flicked her wings and flew down to the ground. Closing her eyes, she focused on the transformation. Elephant. She thought. The change was incredible, one of the largest shifts she'd ever attempted. In no time, she had taken the form of a huge cow elephant. She admired the dexterity of her trunk, flexing it before her eyes, and was impressed with the mighty tusks.

She tested out the form, walking a few paces, before letting out a trumpeting blast to the other elephants. They looked at her curiously, but she was relieved that they didn't decide to run away from her. She called out to them again, this time receiving a reply from one of the other cow elephants. She called back, communicating with them as best she could as they got closer. In a short time, she felt comfortable changing forms back into a small bird. A few of the younger elephants seemed surprised, but the older ones weren't as phased. She flew up and perched delicately upon the back of a mighty bull.

Human. She shifted back into her human form, enjoying the feeling of having hands again, but missing the elephant's great strength and size. She held onto the creatures back and guided it over to Drake. "Hop aboard," she called up to him. "They are willing to take us up to the Lake at the edge of the Savannah. That's where they were going before they got interrupted. If you want to come, that's great, but I'd understand if you still wanted to walk."