[h1][color=cornflowerblue]Iro Hesekar[/color][/h1] 

“According to the guards, there is an army outside of the gate.” Iro said “They are called The Red Legion. I have heard of them before. They’re an army operating out of a kingdom known as Ignion in the Wilderness. They’ve been attacking colonies and burning them to the ground. No one knows what happens to the survivors. They apparently are using some strange magical weapons as well, like crossbow-like weapons which fire slugs of metal and machines that shoot burning boulders of iron.” 

Mitos, however, had no interest whatsoever with boulders of iron or burning colonies. Mitos was hungry; Mitos was always hungry; and when Mitos was hungry, the sole sensory reception which he cared about was his nose. He smelled a scent from nearby and, as Iro spoke, began to waddle off towards the smell of freshly-smoked sausage. He began to waddle down a narrow alley, bumping into wooden crates and knocking over barrels as he wandered, his eyes closed and his nose in the air. He came to the end of the alley, where he smelled some kind of person. They smelled quite familiar, like the trees at home, and one of the blue glowy-thingies was with them. Mitos liked the blue glowy thingies; they made the berries on trees grow faster so that Mitos could eat them and they were always so nice. Maybe the person and the glowy thingy could tell him where the food was. Mitos walked up to the person, who seemed to be trying to blend in for some silly reason, and nudged their leg with his gargantuan head, hoping to get their attention. 

[h1][color=gold]Apollos[/color], [color=9966CC]Asher Stormfront[/color], [color=slateblue]Arya[/color], [color=forestgreen]Tucker[/color], and [color=olivedrab]???[/color][/h1] 

“So, where are you guys headed?” Apollos asked. The four travellers were now arranged differently, with Arya and Tucker sitting across the empty table from Apollos and Asher. Tucker had his arm lazily slung around Arya’s shoulders, and with his free hand he haphazardly played a simple tune on a flute. Asher winced every time he hit a high note, and stared at the flute with resentment. 

“Oh, uh…” Arya began motioning her hands awkwardly in an attempt to convey whatever she was thinking. “It’s funny you ask that, see, as Tucker said about our quest. The problem is we… accidently burned our map. We managed to find the capital out of sheer dumb luck. If we hadn’t flipped the coin fifteen times at every fork in the road we came across we’d probably be in the north lands or in the middle of the woods right about now.” she said, a whimsical grin on her face at the situation they were in. Tucker’s lips tugged upwards, but he didn’t stop playing, rather he removed his arm from the elf’s shoulders and began to actually play seriously with both hands. He was good. Very good.

“Exactly how did you manage to do that?” Apollos asked, smiling. The man was approaching closer from behind Asher. That sound, the high-pitched droning of the flute, it maddened her. 

"Uh, lets say that I didn't feed someone enough and she got pissy." Tucker said, cutting his song to answer Apollos' question. "Why do you ask? Planning on coming along for the adventure?" By this point Arya's face was being cradled in her hands, propped up by her elbows on the wooden table. She could deal with Tucker, but two men of similar caliber? She was tempted to off herself right there. Before anyone else could speak up, however, a low growling voice came from behind Asher, startling her. 

“Excuse me,” the large hooded figure said “Did you say that your name was Stormfront?” Asher turned around and gasped; it was him! She had heard rumors that her father had sent another man to come and find her, but now she knew these rumors to be true. She locked eyes with Apollos, who pulled his sword from where it stuck in the table and cracked his neck loudly. 

“Who’s asking?” Apollos snapped back. 

"And now we're drawing weapons. Brilliant." Tucker said, leaning back in his seat and turning around to watch the spectacle. Arya's eyebrow shot up, and her lips tugged into a small smile. She turned around to enjoy the show as well, after all she had front row seats. The man in the hooded cloak, however, did not seem to be interested in fighting. As Apollos moved to swing his sword at him, the man grabbed him by the wrist, wrenched the sword from his hand, and shoved it back into the table. The man’s hood fell down, revealing a distinctly Orcish face and long black dreadlocks streaked with grey. 

“So this is the who you replaced my Kjed with?” Bjorn Svero said, hoisting Apollos in the air by his arm and appraising him as if he were a large fish “Shameful.” 

“Bjorn!” Asher’s terror was replaced with elation as Bjorn dropped Apollos and embraced her warmly. A moment or two later, Asher’s elation turned into concern, and she looked up from the embrace with confusion in her eyes. “Why did you come and find me? Is something rotten in Ensom?” 

“No, but there is something rotten in Tithe.” Bjorn said “I’ve come up north to investigate a dangerous group of men known as the Red Legion. It is said that they fight with weapons more powerful than any others in Tithe, and have vowed to burn all magic to the ground.”

"Well, while this goes down, I'm going to go outside and make sure someone doesn't get upset at the noise." Tucker said, promptly standing up. "Good, I'll make sure no one dies. Tell Cali we're all good."Arya replied curtly with a nod of her head. As Tucker walked towards the door, there was a shout of surprise and some kind of reptilian roar that made Apollos’ hair stand up on the back of his neck. He knew that roar. It was the roar of a…

“Dragon!” a man called from outside. Immediately the bar was drenched in chaos. Apollos grabbed his sword from where it was stuck in the table and, shoving several people out of the way, sprinted towards the door. 

“I’ll take care of it!” he shouted “Or my name isn’t Apollos Dominico Claudio del-” the rest was cut off as he exited the building. 

"Fuckin' shit." Tucker said, racing out the door only a few moments before Apollos did. Cali was on the roof, and he didn't want to bring her down to the ground where everyone could take a swing at her. Dragon scales or not. He looked to his right, seeing the horse stalls (which were barren of horses) and to his left, where... A scorpion around the size of a small house rested comfortably.

He didn't have time for this shit. Apollos had run out the door by now and Tucker took the horse's route, sprinting towards it's wall and planted his foot on the wall, taking a solid step upwards. This gained him enough height to pull himself onto the roof of the horse stalls. He jumped from the stall to the roof of the tavern, quite nearly falling off as he landed on the steeper incline, and was snatched up by his own dragon as soon as he stood to his full height, at as speed almost too fast to be properly registered. Apollos was taking the long route, attempting to scale the side of the building. He didn’t know what the mad bard was trying to do, but he certainly wasn’t going to let another dragon get away. Arya, at this point had fought her way out of the tavern, and used the hook end of her staff to grab Apollos' ankle and pull him onto the ground.

"Wait." she said. Arya held Apollos as staff-point for a few more moments before pulling it back to herself. "There is more to this than you think."

As if it was a theatrical performance, several powerful gusts of wind began kicking up dust and pebbles. Some of the men who had grabbed their weapons and come outside the tavern had to steady themselves against the beats. A huge shape blocked out the sun for a moment, before it landed about sixty feet away from Apollos and the tavern. A large and brilliant scaly and feathery blue creature. The sheen to it's scales and horns meaning it was very well taken care of. It had two huge wings, which folded neatly on its flanks, and two huge and muscled back legs that put the creature at, at least ten feet tall. Each tipped with four taloned toes. It had a long neck and a large three foot head, with two large horns coming out of the back of it's cranium. It's whole body was balanced out by a large and thick tail which was tipped in the signature arrowhead that nearly all dragons had.

A wyvern. Upon it's back was a saddle, and on the saddle sat the bard.

"This is who I didn't feed enough, by the way." Tucker proclaimed to Apollos. "Cali, these people won’t harm you if you don't harm them, that a deal?" Tucker said, leaning forward and patting the back of the dragon's neck. The beast rumbled, but made no sudden moves, seemingly intent on watching the few humans before it. Bjorn and Asher exited the building and Apollos struggled to his feet, swords in both hands. He was about to attack when he realized that this was no normal dragon, but a domestic one, the kind he had only heard legends about. 

“You’re a dragon rider!?” Apollos shouted. 

"I'm nothing special." Tucker said firmly. He patted the Wyvern's neck, which lowered itself somewhat as Tucker slid off it's side. "She could probably leave at any time. She's the special one. I'm just a bard lucky enough to call her my friend." He continued. "But I guess technically you could call me a rider, yes."