Rhydian didn't mind too much telling people about himself. It was a good way to open up conversation and it wasn't like they could do much with that information anyway. He chuckled when she ripped her boot off. After hearing his story, she began to delve deeper into her own past. Apparently she had been a different person when she was with her boss. Ruthless, seductive, and probably more. But now she was lacking a reason to kill people unless it was for self-defense. With a laugh she decided to speak more later, perhaps. Rhydian smiled and gave her an understanding nod.

"Hey, you can mention it if you like and when you like." He said, "I enjoy hearing more about folks, but I'll never pressure you to speak."

When she suddenly bolted straight up with a new idea, his eyebrows raised in surprise. She had a trick to show him and before he could say another word, she ran off. With a shrug, he stood up and stretched his arms out. His new friend was strong so he wasn't terribly worried about her going off in the dark. The night was warm and humid so he took off his shirt to cool off and use the clothing as a pillow. He was a fit individual who kept himself active so the sight of him without a shirt was a pleasant one. He rolled up the shirt to make a pillow and placed it inside his tent.

The sound of a shriek pierced the air and he bolted away from his tent in the direction of the sound. Her scent lingered in the air which led him to the edge of a river bed. Without a second thought or hesitation, he jumped into the riverbed in search of Jazrael. The riverbed was pitch black but his eyes adjusted quickly. He found Jazrael quickly and rushed over to her.

"Are you hurt?" He asked quickly, "Can you speak? Wait, bad question….. Are you alive?"

He wasn't used to people falling into river banks. It was only now that he realized he was stuck too. His jump was a lot further down than he remembered, then again his legs were strong and he could jump further than most humans. But he couldn't remember if humans could handle a tumble or if it would destroy them somehow.

Jazrael was somewhat drunkenly laughing at herself, laying in the dusty bottom of the riverbed. Being a demon, she hadn’t gotten injured, but as she appeared human she couldn’t really blame Rhydian for his concern. ”I’m good, I’m good,” she said, still laughing. ”How stupid was that?” she asked, pulling herself up into a sitting position. She eyed Rhydian for a moment, and realized that she was lucky he wasn’t questioning how she had managed to take a fall like that without any injuries. She chalked it up to good luck. ”Guess I won’t be showing you that trick after all,” she quipped, giving him a sheepish grin. ”I was leaning to look for another stone to grab and I guess I didn’t realize just how far down it was,” she added with another laugh.

Jazrael looked down rather quickly, however, when she felt a stinging sensation on the palm of her hand. She realized that her hand had been sliced open on a rather jagged rock, and she was bleeding – this would have been a problem if it hadn’t been so dark, as her blood resembled more of a black, slightly less thick substance than tar. While she could brush off her lack of injuries from landing in a lucky position, sludgy black blood wasn’t going to be as easy to explain away.

”Thanks for coming after me, though! You must have heard me scream… that’s embarrassing,” she admitted. ”It really took me by surprise, I guess.” She paused for a moment, looking around. She could see fairly well in the darkness, but she didn’t want to let on just how well. The question still remained: how would to two of them get out of the riverbed? ”Any ideas on how we can get out of here?” she asked. She would, of course, have been able to easily tap into her magic, but she still wasn’t sure if she wanted to reveal her true nature to Rhydian – not yet, anyway.

Jazrael looked around, her eyes squinting as she focused on the objects in the distance. She could see what looked like an indent in the dirt of the riverbed not too far away from them, with some rocks jutting out that would possibly work for grip. It was a bit too far away for typical human eyes, so she didn’t point it out just yet, waiting to see if Rhydian would have any suggestions.

The sound of her voice brought him relief, she was alive. He followed the sound of her voice over to her and spotted her sitting on the ground.

"You did show me a different trick. I didn't know a person's voice could have such a high pitch." He teased.

Oblivious to her injuries, Rhydian began trying to figure ways to escape. He couldn't shapeshift into a dragon, as there was little room for his dragon form. Normally he would be able to see as clear as day, but he had his human eyes which couldn't see as well as his true ones. He had jumped in without thinking of how to get back. No items, no equipment, not even a shirt.

"Well, Almost every river has a shallow area where the land dips to meet the water. A dried river should be the same. If we keep walking in one of these directions, we should come across it." Rhydian explained.

His eyes gazed towards the midnight sky as he looked for the silver moons. Both were bright, giving them just enough light to see the things around them, though they barely could. He closed his eyes for a moment, mumbling something under his breath. When his eyelids lifted, a bright orange had replaced the old brown color and his irises were slits. Before she could notice, he did a quick search for a better solution. There were some rocks sticking out of the dirt wall that would work as a way to climb out. He walked towards the wall and felt the stones for a moment. After testing them for security, his eyes turned to a normal shade of brown.

"Perhaps if we climb up here….." He said before turning to her, "I'll let you have the responsibility of picking our route."

With a smirk, he waited for her response when he heard the sound of something growling above. A giant bear with sharp teeth and saliva dripping from its mouth towered over the edge of the riverbank, waiting for them. The bear didn't take a step into the ditch. It just stood there, glaring daggers at the people stuck in the dried river.

"Maybe if we ask it really nicely he’ll let us up.” Rhydian joked, “Do you think we could fight it?”

Jazrael raised her eyes at Rhydian. He was so light-hearted, even in a situation such as this, that she could not help but to chuckle a bit. ”Not going to lie, I hadn’t thought of that,” she added in between her laughter as he suggested that they just choose a direction until the elevation of the riverbed changed, leaving that decision up to her.

She hadn’t had time to notice his eyes changing, since he had certainly made it inconspicuous, but she certainly had time to notice the bear that had joined them at the top of the embankment. Instinctively, her eyes flashed solid black, almost a defense mechanism against a possible threat. Fortunately, it was still dark enough that this would not have been immediately visible to Rhydian, still allowing her to keep her cover. ”Don’t think it’s going to listen to us acting nicely,” she said, though she did not sound at all alarmed.

A bear wasn’t going to be a difficult fight, not if it decided to either jump in after them, or if it followed them and waited for them to emerge. However, she knew that, in order for that fight not to be difficult, she would finally have to reveal a bit more about her true self to Rhydian. From the way he seemed, unless she went after him she didn’t think it was going to be too big of a problem. ”Looks more like he wants to eat us than anything,” she added, now having moved closer to Rhydian.

She was about to open her mouth to tell him that she thought maybe they should just start heading south until they found a low spot when the bear decided it was no longer going to wait for the pair to come out. It came sliding down the steep grade until it landed not far from them, letting a furious roar out with its teeth bared.

”I don’t think we have a choice other than to fight it!” she said, her eyes flaring black again. She looked to Rhydian this time, no longer attempting to hide what she was. She wasn’t sure how strong her magic was going to be since it tended to dwindle if she drank too much – a strange side effect that had been taking place ever since Dalanesca had died. Her strength alone would make the fight equally matched, if not a little one sided, but she would certainly allow Rhydian the chance to strike as well, should he want to.

”Forgive me, but I’ll explain later,” she said quietly. Without waiting for the bear to attack the pair, Jazrael ran forward, slamming into the bear with the force of her entire body. It sent the furry animal flying backwards into the embankment, and Jazrael let out a victorious sounding snarl as she stood back up fully, backing away from the bear. Jazrael’s teeth were bared much as those of the bear had been, and for the first time she allowed herself to fully appear as she was – black eyes, a voice that seemed shrouded in darkness.

”You want a shot?” she hissed toward Rhydian, her black eyes finding him in the darkness with a look of excitement on her face. The bear had gotten back up and was beginning to advance towards them again.

Her eyes were different and he could sense the strength of her magic. The bear wasn't going to be a problem but the first strike on the bear revealed she was either a powerful human or something other than human. He couldn't help but wonder why it had been important to hide. Or perhaps…she hadn't hidden anything at all? Maybe he was overthinking it. The bear was sent flying towards the embankment as Jazrael backed away, snarling at the creature. She then offered him a chance to attack it.

"Yes. I think it's time to stop sitting back." He said, "You might want to back up for this one."

His eyes changed to a bright shade of orange as flames erupted from his mouth and engulfed his body. He was a pillar of fire in the darkness that seemed to grow. In the flames, his skin turned into dark purple scales while his size grew. His legs became his backend and two wings grew. The flames died down, revealing a large purple and black dragon where Rhydian once stood. The bear was stunned, clearly terrified by this enormous monster. Rhydian opened his jaws, saliva dripping down from his razor-sharp teeth, and snatched the bear's neck.

Despite being a dragon, he was careful to only damage the neck and spit the bear out once it was dead. Rhydian realized something. He couldn't move. The dried riverbed was narrow and had little space for him to move. He moved his head, looking towards Jazrael with a face of regret. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it, realizing she probably wouldn't understand the language of the dragons. He began wiggling, trying to free his wings which had gotten caught on his sides. With the dirt walls of the riverbed pressing against his sides, it was difficult to free them.

Rhydian's tail was moving back and forth as he began to shift. Then he looked at Jazrael with pleading eyes. He really needed some help. The plan to look cool had backfired. And it would be at least thirty minutes before he had the energy to shift back.

Jazrael nodded when Rhydian warned her to stand back, finding herself rather curious as to what he was going to do. What happened, however, was most certainly not what she had expected. She had not expected the man she seen earlier in the day being chased down by ostrich just turn into a dragon. Most certainly not.

She stood by, watching with some amusement as Rhydian made short work of the bear. ”Ok that’s kind of cheating!” she yelled to him as he seemed to stay in place after dispatching their would-be attacker. After a moment, however, when he continued to stay in place without moving really at all, along with the look on his face, she came to the realization that he must have been stuck, unable to flatten his wings any more than he already have. She also came to the realization that he must not be able to immediately shift back, much as she felt drained if she used too much magic in a short period of time.

She walked towards him and put her hands on her hips, furrowing her brow slightly. ”You’re stuck, aren’t you?” she asked, looking up at him. She knew they wouldn’t be able to verbally communicate at this point, but she could see it in his eyes that he was stuck. ”Let me see if I can help,” she said, moving towards one of the sides of the riverbed. She ran her hands along the packed dirt near his wing, being careful not to touch him.

”So I guess we both left a little bit out about ourselves, didn’t we?” she said, trying to sound a bit more light hearted as she began to try moving some of the earth away from the area his wing was in. She thought that maybe if she loosened it up enough he would be able to break free. ”Not sure you’re going to owe me any more of an explanation than I can already see,” she added, managing to scrape away a chunk of the dirt. ”But I guess, since you’re stuck here anyway, I can tell you a little more about where… that came from,” she said.

”Are you familiar with the past Goddess of Death, Dalanesca?” she asked passively, knowing that Rhydian wouldn’t be able to respond to her with words. ”Well, I was one of her messorem, one of her reapers,” she added. ”Like… her top one. Right hand demon, et cetera et cetera,” she said, scraping some more at the dirt. ”I used to do some pretty terrible things… but when Dalanesca died, I lost a good amount of my power. I used to be able to jump from body to body, but now I’m stuck in this one – which is convenient, I suppose, because I like this one,” she added. ”I made a conscious decision to… well, stop being such a piece of shit, I guess, once she died,” she continued.

After a moment, she sighed in frustration and dropped her now very dirty hands to her side. ”The story is a bit longer than that, really, and I’m happy to share it with you eventually, if you want to know more,” she said, looking at the dirt in frustration. ”I’ll also understand if you don’t want to, or if you’d rather part ways after this,” she added. She didn’t sound sad, mostly that she would be understanding either way. ”This isn’t working,” she said, pawing at the dirt slightly.

After a moment, she closed her eyes for a second before hammering her fist into the side of the dirt, careful not to hit Rhydian. The dirt cracked and a large chunk of the riverbank there collapsed, dirt and dust covering the pair of them. Jazrael coughed slightly from the position she had been knocked back into, sitting down with her legs stretched out in front of her. She was pretty sure she had knocked away the earth enough for Rhydian to break free – and maybe now, he would be able to help her out of the riverbed without her expending anymore magic.

Gods, this is embarrassing.

That was the only thought running through his mind as he realized how stuck he actually was. When Jazrael suggested talking about her past, he nodded his head desperate to find something to talk about, othere than how stuck he was. As she began speaking, he listened intently. The words turned in his mind as she went through her past. She was a right hand demon for Dalenesca, a position which probably demanded doing a lot of bad things. He continued listening as she talked about how after Dalanesca died and what she wanted to do now. Then she talked about how she would understand if he left her after this information.

What a strange woman.

She hammered her fist into the side of the dirt and it cracked under her great strength, giving him a good amount of room. He adjusted himself and found he was able to move freely. He then looked at her for a moment before lowering his head and gently grabbing onto her shirt with his teeth. He was as gentle as a giant scaly lizard could be and quickly climbed out of the riverbed, which wasn't much of a challenge for a dragon of his size. When they arrived at the top, he placed her gently on the ground and stretched his legs. His wings, however were folded against his side and were unmoving. There were scars on the part where the wing connected with the body on both sides.

Bright orange flames surrounded his body and engulfed him, his form slowly began to shrink . When the flames dispersed, there stood Rhydian. He still wore clothes and looked the same. Rhydian walked towards her with an easy smile on her face and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks." He said, "Next time I'll think before I use my dragon form. And I thank you for your honesty."

With that, he began walking back to the camp, looking to see if she would follow. The came wasn't far from where they fell and the light of the campfire was a large beacon beckoning them back. He flopped back down next to the warm fire and looked at her with a smirk. It would take a lot more than that to scare him off. Besides, her past was her past.

"I'm not too worried with your past." He said with an easy smile, "The past is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, that's why its called the present. Or at least that's what my old man used to say."

He then paused for a moment.

"The past is important but you do not seem to let it decide who you are now." Rhydian explained, "And that's all that matters in the end. Speaking of the future, what are your plans for tomorrow?"

Jazrael was glad to see that her efforts had certainly allowed Rhydian to break free from the confines of the sides of the riverbed, and accepted the transportation back up to the top that he so easily offered her. It seemed trivial now that they were out, and she wondered how on earth she had managed to get herself into a predicament such as the one she had been in – and a slight pounding in her ears reminded her of the copious amounts of alcohol she had consumed prior to going hunting for rocks.

When they landed safely and she had been set down – gently, to say the least – she backed up and caught a slight glimpse of the scars on the base of his wing before he had begun to transition back into his human form. She hadn’t taken in too much of his appearance in his dragon form, but it was impressive none the less.

Jazrael shrugged as Rhydian thanked her for being honest with him after his transformation had been complete. It wasn’t really much to her at this point – the worst that could have happened was that he would have been angry with her, and they would have parted ways then and there. She didn’t think he seemed cruel enough to have attacked her while still in his dragon form, anyway. ”Didn’t see any point in keeping the charade up any longer – and besides, ended up helping us get out quite a bit faster, didn’t it?” she said, grinning somewhat. She felt a sense of relief – it had been one of the first times since Dalanesca’s death that she had been open and honest about who she really was – and certainly about who she had been before.

She followed him back to the campsite as he began to head that way, and sat down a few feet away from him, near where her boots lay discarded on the ground. She let out a loud laugh as she looked down at her feet, which were quite dirty, having completely forgotten the fact that she had been barefoot the entire time. She quieted down again, listening to Rhydian as he told her about the saying his father used to use. ”Sounds like a pretty intelligent man,” she said rather quietly.

She perked up a bit when Rhydian asked what her plans for the following day entailed. ”Can’t say as though I have any plans, I’ve been alone for quiet some time and just been wandering with no real goal in sight,” she said, shrugging her shoulders again. ”What about you? Plan on getting chased by another ostrich? Or do you have something even more exciting up your sleeve this time?” she asked, grinning. She did think it was rather laughable that a man that was able to turn into a dragon had been nearly attacked by an ostrich, but she didn’t say it out loud – she was sure that it wasn’t so simple as the snap of the fingers for him to change. It probably took a lot of effort and wasn’t something he could do as often as he wished.

She found herself feeling hopeful that Rhydian had some other plans in mind, and that perhaps he would invite her to join him on another adventure, whatever it would be.

Trust and honesty were the ingredients for a newfound friendship or any relationship. He also knew that in order to get others to open up, he had to be open himself, hence the reason he was so straightforward. Years of bartending had taught him that. As for her plans tomorrow, it didn't seem she had any. A wanderer without a goal or a care in the world. He didn't know whether she was lucky or misfortunate in that regaurd. Perhaps a bit of both?

"Ha! Yes I have seven ostriches who plan to chase me tomorrow. Its a very tight schedule." He said with a playful smirk, "Actually, my friend Faraji has challenged me to a brew-off. We each will bring our own ingredients and materials then brew it in front of the tavern's audience. Bartending is both a craft and a performance, so we will have to be entertaining while we mix the drinks. Three judges will be chosen by a third party, probably Kiante since he's the most neutral out of the tavern's staff. Whoever wins gets the title of Brewer Master."

Passion lit up in his eyes as he talked about the competition. Faraji was a dear friend of his but the rivalry between them was fierce. They respected each other which made their competition with each other strong. Both knew the other was a worthy opponent and always brought their a game. Neither of them gave up or surrendered and they pushed each other to perform beyond what they thought possible. He smiled as he thought about his little plan to beat Faraji.

"I intend to head to Yonuba to collect a rare type of cinnamon for this drink. It'll be the last ingredient I need before I meet for the competition." Rhydian explained, "Everything else is already gathered and kept chilled in a safe place."

He paused for a moment, looking at his new friend. The campfire illuminated her face and showed him exactly what he was looking for in her eyes. She had nowhere else to go and seemed to enjoy his company.

"Would you like to come with me?" He asked with a smile, "I could use someone to keep me out of trouble. There are many ostriches and ditches in Onnen after all. I might not make it."

He joked towards the end but his question was serious. Going alone was quite lonely at times and the idea of leaving her by herself didn't appeal to him in any way.

Jazrael listened intently as Rhydian explained all about the Brewer Master competition, including the information about his friend that he would be competing against. She found the information to be rather interesting, as it gave her a little more backstory into Rhydain – he had at least one person he considered a friend, which meant he valued others. With the charisma he carried himself with, however, she was pretty sure he had more than one friend – this Faraji was just the first one he had mentioned, not that she had asked. Either way, the information was welcome.

As Rhydian mentioned needing to go to Yonuba to find a particular kind of cinnamon that was needed for the drink he intended to compete with, Jazrael perked up a bit more. She had never been to the undergrowth before, but she had heard it was rather beautiful. She had also heard it could be a bit dangerous, so it seemed like it would make sense for her to journey along with him, and perhaps lend a hand should the situation call for it.

”I’d love to!” she replied, grinning, and sounding just a bit too excited, when Rhydian asked if she wanted to join him. She let out a small laugh at his next comment, glad to see that he too shared a sense of humor such as she did. ”I can protect you from the ostriches, and you can keep me from falling into the ditches… it’s a deal!” she exclaimed. She looked forward to being able to travel with someone, and it made it even better that Rhydian already knew what could possibly be her darkest secret. ”Besides, it’ll be nice to travel with some purpose rather than aimlessly as I’ve been doing. And I wouldn’t want to miss seeing you win the title of Brewer Master!” she added at the end with another grin.

Leaning to one side, Jazrael snatched up the flask of whiskey she had left behind, holding it out to offer some more to Rhydian if he wished, as though in celebration of their escape from the river bed. She then took a pretty hefty drink herself, and set the flask back down. She then suggested that the pair perhaps turn in for the night and get some sleep, and they would be able to travel to Yonuba in the morning, feeling refreshed after their escapades of that night.