Sins of the Mother (Finished)

Aurora had been hanging around a lot. All in all, this wasn't anything new or surprising; she was Glyndwr's girlfriend, afterall, and it was summer. What else was there for her to do? Of course, when she was around so often, that left Glyn with far less time to devote to Yurio, who, at first didn't mind --- it was Aurora, after all --- but things can get to a person --- or dragon --- after a while. And it had, in fact, been a while. The little witch didn't really notice, as oblivious as she was, as she curled up beside Glyndwr and watched yet another movie, popcorn and sweets sitting out on the table in front of them, a goofy smile plastered on her face.

Having been enjoying himself with his girlfriend all summer, Glyndwr inadvertently put Yurio on the sidelines. It was unprecedented for the boy to give none of his attention to his dragon companion. Yurio was never jealous of the girl before; after spending time with her during a large portion of the day, Glyndwr would then spend his morning and evening with the dragon. However, during the summer, Glyndwr's morning and evenings could too be spent with Aurora. Very rarely were these inclusive of the dragon. 

It was fitting that during watching a movie with Aurora, Glyndwr noticed that the ever present feeling of closeness with Yurio was missing; it was instead replaced by the uncomfortable tug that always made itself known when the dragon was far away. He hadn't noticed Yurio leaving, since he was enjoying himself with Aurora. After he did start noticing, however, he excused himself and went to check, to make sure. Indeed, what he found was an empty garage-cave with next to no sign of a purple lizard outside, either. The only thing he could see was freshly gouged earth, signifying that Yurio had recently taken off. 

Returning to Aurora, looking rather worried, he told her: "Yurio isn't around. He didn't say anything before he left. I think he went out into the desert."

"The desert?" Aurora said, pushing the blankets from herself as she stood, concern painting her face instantly. "Why would he go there?!" Panic bled into her words as she began moving into action, straightening her hair and clothes as she darted to him. "Let's go!"

"I don't know exactly where he is. He isn't far enough for that. Nor is he close enough." Glyndwr said, before gesturing out an angle. "I think he's on that sort of area. Maybe... How do we search quickly?"

Aurora's Soul Protect dropped, her pupils expanding to encompass the area previously occupied by her irses and whites. Digging through her bag for a pair of sunglasses, she donned them and held out her hand. "Are you willing to fly?"

Glyndwr nodded as he took hold of Auroras hand. "Flying is always fine with me." He said. He himself was too busy pondering over why Yurio might have ran away like that to bother with any sort of eye protection.

Struggling to adjust to the sunlight with her widened pupils, Aurora took several moments to force her vision into proper focus before kicking up a bit of a whirlwind beneath their feet. Worked properly, she could create a sort of 'surf board' out of the wind, but it was hard to balance on, a fact that had her gripping Glyn's hand tightly. "Just tell me where," she murmured, focusing hard on the task at hand.

Unlike Aurora, Glyndwr had exquisite balance. Years of riding, and standing, atop Yurio's back made balancing on the wind surfboard a breeze to get used to. "Ahead." Glyndwr said briefly. It's all he had for now.


ooc: how punny.

Aurora nodded, directing the magic where he showed her, keeping her focus on the horizon; purple would certainly stand out in a desert...

Indeed, the purple colour of Yurio's scales was clear once it came to be visible. Once the spotting was done, getting over to him would be trivial; figuring out why he ran away as he did, on the other hand, would not be. Something else that troubled Glyndwr was the fact that Yurio was standing in the middle of the desert, with his attention on something or other. It could be unimportant, but the dragon wouldn't stare down something trivial, as he was...

Smirking before the beast, the age-old woman met his gaze with a leveled measure of her own, fingers tapping at the air idly, purple whisps dancing between her digits as she did. Her voice was a lulling coo, a tone holding it that seemed very much as though it did not belong where she was putting it. A self-righteous air rippled from her almost as strongly as the witchy hue of her wavelength, staining the air in destruction-rampant purple, a force wide enough to reach out and touch the dragon, and it seemed as though it just might, possibly even engulfing him, if Yurio were to move any closer.

A pair of dark glasses covered the woman's face between a nearly blacked-out veil, proving what her winged attire seemed to suggest; like the bat that seemed to, at the very least, be her theme, if not her familiar, this woman was nocturnal, thus making the harsh rays of the desert sun anything but her friend. From soul to hair, this woman seemed to be almost monochromatic in the violet hued realms, her locks a strikingly familiar tone...

OOC// On hold pending NPC Approval

As Glyndwr and Aurora approached, the link between Glyn and Yurio connected once more; thoughts and feelings belonging to the dragon flooded into Glyndwr's mind, rather than the ordered thoughts in the form of language. Confusion and apprehension added to a familiar and yet a much different scent was mixed with some fear. Yurio wasn't usually scared of much. When the cause came into view, Glyndwr's eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't believe his eyes... It couldn't be, right? He hadn't seen who he thought this was before, but the resemblance he saw in Yurio's thoughts... It couldn't be!

Tension rippled throughout the girl's being, the shift in the air easily sensed by the small witch. Watching their destination uneasily, she continued to lead, guiding him towards his dragon. It was more than apparent that she was uncomfortable, but that seemed not to stop her.

Glyndwr couldn't wait to land properly to get off of the air current. A few meters above the ground, he jumped off, landing fairly heavily before sprinting off towards Yurio. He had to action plan, but he stood by the dragon's side nonetheless, staring into the veil of what seemed to be a witch. He hoped it wasn't a specific witch... He so hoped...

The smaller witch landed unsteadily, a surprising feat given her usual grace, where her magic was concerned. Tired from the usage and the heavy sun, she immediately moved to Yurio's other side, sweating heavily and staring down the woman before them. Her knees shook, her head ached, her hair was already soaking in sweat, her mouth was dry, lip quivering, and gaze faulting. Still, however, she stood, gaze as steady as she could manage, one hand securely behind Yurio's leg, holding it for the support of him and herself alike.

Before them, the woman initially seemed all too amused to have the strange boy appear, her senses picking up on the magic that radiated from the trio, but the boy and dragon's unnatural connection seemed to override the reality of Aurora's. A smirk came and went on her face just as quickly, falling to a hard, flight line at the sight of the smaller witch. A glare became visible from behind the veil, her wavelength turning violent as her magic sprouted from her being. Demonic seeming wings began to unfurl from her strength, rendering into exist by sheer will alone.

"Hello, daughter."

Glyndwr wasn't mistaken. It WAS her. The fury Glyndwr felt at this point was hard to resist, even for him. What the hell was this person doing here!? She was the worst mother he had ever heard of and she wasn't too far off the top from his list of the worst people. The way she looked at her daughter... Despite his anger, Glyndwr calmly walked around Yurio; his hands clasped behind his back. Only when in between the two witches did he stop to face the eldest. His expression betrayed nothing of his feelings, but the agitated minds of both Glyndwr and Yurio were enough to show in the state of their souls. Glyndwr spoke, finally; "Why are you here?"

"Me?" The witch questioned, her tone holding the harsh venom of her gaze for a moment before her fingertips pressed to the top of her sternum, a feigned, shocked offense taking over her expression. "Why this is an open desert in a free country, is it not?" A wide gesture followed as the wings expanded into being, beating heavily against the wind, pushing the harshness of the moving sand away from the curvy, shadowed being. "Why are you here, however? Or better yet, why is there a dragon-" She didn't miss the sudden grip of Aurora's arm as it snaked around the back of the beast's leg, tight, defensive, protective, "-here, at all? Should they not be... hunted in these parts? They certainly are everywhere else..."

"Don't try to provoke me. You simply being here is making me as angry as I've ever been." He stated calmly again. "I think you can see exactly why the dragon is here, either way." Glyndwr continued, putting a hand on Yurio's neck. "You see, I know you aren't a citizen of this free country. You're meant to be on the other side of the world. Away from Aurora." He refrained from using the same line the elder witch did, about being hunted.

"I'm [i]meant/i]," she said, her voice taking on a tone so cheery that felt like anti-freeze, "to be wherever I wish." The wings beat more heavily, the distortion in her wavelength growing ever more apparent the more time that passed. The witch didn't address his statement on Aurora further, made no motion or mention of her, blatantly ignoring her existence. A red glint took to her eye, however, and the girl suddenly stiffened, the shaking and trembling of her legs and form coming to such a sudden halt that it triggered a vertigo sensation in her head. The earth beneath her feet began to shift, the sands moving as if held by a will against nature itself. It was near impossible to hear, but words were mumbled from the woman's mouth, calling forth magic known only to herself and the matching witch before her.

The woman was casting a spell. She had wings. Glyndwr had no idea what she could do, but from the few clues available to him, he turned around to Aurora and flipped her up onto Yurio's back; just in case the older witch really didn't want to be on the ground. Aurora was safer on Yurio's back either way. Glyndwr had to at least delay any magic Aurora's mother wanted to cast. Regardless of the fact that he didn't have a weapon except for his knife... Which he pulled out before charging towards his opponent.

The woman glared, a smirk spreading easily across her face as the ground beneath their feet began to shift. Hovering by use of her wings, she avoided the sand as it began to cave in on itself, collapsing over and over again into an abyss that seemed not to have existed but a few moments before.

Glyndwr made a foolhardy charge. It didn't work. Aurora and Yurio were quite safe, since they could fly. Glyndwr, on the other hand, not so much. He almost made it to to the older witch. He was almost close enough to take a leap and grab the woman before the sinking sand caught up and swept him down into whatever dark abyss lay beneath the desert, now. Yurio had also attempted to dive for him, but it was no use. Glyndwr was already too far down. A flailing arm trying in vain to grab at a nonexistent handhold and a shock of brown hair were the last two parts of Glyndwr to fully disappear, but they did.

The elder witch before them merely smirked, gaze settling on the dragon in front of her. Eyes narrowed, cocky grin clearly visible beneath her veil, she lifted her hand, snapping her fingers. Aurora's face was buried deep against Yurio's scales as a sudden swarm of bats began to both materialize and appear around them.

As the cloud of bats appeared, Yurio did his best to burn as many of the creatures as possible. He was particularly focused on any which were in any way headed for the small girl on his back. There was no way the dragon was going to let her get hurt; not while he could still draw a breath...

Buried and quite quickly running out of air, Glyndwr was desperate. He held his breath at the last moment, but that wasn't going to be enough. There was only sand above and around him and it was way too large a distance to dig out of. Glyndwr could only manage a few seconds of struggle against the sand before he realised that he might have had it. A mistake fueled by anger and confusion would lead to his demise. While Glyndwr's own senses were useless due to the sand piled atop him, his companions were not. Glyndwr tapped into the familiar feeling of Yurio's soul, the ever present being which he knew just as well as himself, if not better. Sight and hearing, touch and smell; even taste. More than ever before did he combine his own being with that of Yurio's. He dreaded what was going on up above him. The attack on the two things most important to him after his own feeble display drove him to reach out in any way he could, beyond what he was doing already. Even from such a distance and in such a state, his soul could still reach the dragon who fought so hard above. The dragon could feel it too; he reached back and grasped at the familiar wavelength just as it had grasped at him...

As it turned out, that was quite enough to pull him out of the grave which he had been buried alive within. A bright white flash followed promptly by a fireball of purple came from the sinkhole created by Neoma and from that fireball came a man covered almost completely in purple fire with a face that was a mixture of utter bewilderment and a ferocious snarl. He carried in one hand a sword, massive like a claymore made entirely of fire and in the other, likewise, a fiery shield. Having had borrowed Yurio's eyes before, he knew exactly where Neoma was and as such was heading straight towards the witch, ready to cleave her in twain should she not dodge.

The witch stared in shock, overwhelmed by the site before her. Muttering a chant beneath her breath, she worked to kick up a sand storm of tornado, anything that might keep him at bay, since the sinkhole had not. Her teeth her gritted in concentration, her wings moving to fold out in front of her, acting as a shield, as best as they could. She moved to back away as he approached, unsure of what else to do, by this point; she could only either fight or flee.