Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kryssik looked up, just barely managing not to topple the small cup containing the ground remnants of Spidershade in his palm that he'd been about to add to the mixture, having heard a scuffle of movement in the corridor outside of his lair. The echoes, despite the fact his lair was now packed with supplies to survive the winter, still carried well along the rock walls.

The scuffling repeated itself as he listened, and then...

The green's eyes flew wide in alarm at the sound of footfall drawing nearer. Who--who was THIS?? No one had visited him in a very long while, for which he was grateful. Was it Kismet, perhaps? Mayumi? For that matter, what TIME was it?

Hurriedly setting down the bowl and blowing out the candles of his laboratory table before scuttling toward the trick bookcase and back out into the warmer environment of the living room. He'd no sooner shoved it back into place and leaned against it heavily than there was movement just beyond the curtain of his bedroom.

The green narrowed his eyes in suspicious dislike and awaited the intruder to show themselves. Kismet or Mayumi would never see the need to sneak around this way. If they needed to find him, they would pass through the lair purposefully and call for him. This person was doing neither and he didn't like it one bit.

With visions of thieves and predators filling his head, the thin male started forward, jaw set and teeth bared as he attempted to make himself look as intimidating as was possible for him (not very much, unfortunately).

A shadow had fallen on the other side of the broad leaves that made up the curtain and his brave countenance faltered before he quickly found it again. This was HIS house, HIS space, and it was being invaded. He wouldn't stand for it, he told himself.

Reaching out and tentatively placing the tips of his claws on the edge of the curtain, he raised his other hand into a striking posture, ready to bring his splayed claws down and across the eyes of the offending party.

In a quick motion, the curtain of leaves was torn aside and Kryssik opened his mouth in a silent cry of mingled fury and fright....only to stop short, his claws lingering on the air in a wavering tremor.

He did not recognize the other fairydragon that cowered there, her hands up in a defensive posture and her eyes squeezed shut. She...didn't look especially threatening either, but the question still remained of who she was and what she was doing there.

Slowly, the hand lowered, though his eyes remained narrow and stern.

The stranger, after a lengthy pause, slowly opened her eyes to look at Kryssik fearfully for a moment. She---she hadn't known that anyone had lived here. All of the barrels or supplies in the rooms had made her assume this was merely a storage chamber and she'd been on her way through it to continue her search for a vacant cave.

When she realized that the male in front of her didn't intend to attack after all, the hands lowered and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"You scared me." she remarked, a hand pressing over her heart where the beat was rapid and fluttering. 'Scare' was an understatement...when she'd seen the slight movements on the other side of the leaves and then the green clawtips snaking out from behind them, she'd convinced herself there was some sort of terrible monster back there.

Seeing that it was another dragon was a relief, though it was shortlived when she realized how angry he looked and blinked owlishly.

"I...uhm...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to walk in on you like this..." she fidgeted, hoping to see a melt in his expression.

Kryssik, still angered by the stranger's intrustion, gestured at her sharply.

Why are you here?

Had he a voice, the words would have been accusatory. The stranger blinked, cocking her head.

"Hmm?"

Why are you here?? he made the motions again, awaiting his answer. There was a hesitant pause and then she shook her head.

"Look, I don't know what you mean. Can you just say it?" the brown fairydragon asked, blinking her green eyes as she reached up to tuck her hair behind one fin-like ear. Her relief had been shortlived and she was quickly growing frightened again. Obviously the hand gestures meant something, but what? For all she knew, he could have been signing out that he planned to feed her to the sharks.

Kryssik gritted his teeth and then sighed, trying to quell his irritation. She wasn't giving him the answer he wanted...she couldn't understand him. He'd assumed that sign language was common knowledge among this group of dragons as so far he'd yet to run across someone he couldn't communicate with.

Holding up one finger in indication for her to wait, he stalked to the reading nook past her and found his papers and a quill. The brown waited patiently as he scribbled out his message and presented it to her, quietly promising himself that if she skirted the issue after THIS much, he would simply ask her to leave.

"I didn't know anyone lived here." she said, after reading the question. "I...I'm from the other side of the island and all of the fruit was killed in a frost. I came here hoping I could borrow a cave for a few days until I figured out where I was going next..." She hesitated, watching Kryssik very carefully. "I thought this was a storeroom."

At this Kryssik gestured sharply at the bed, the rug, the nightstand and the candles as if to say Why would a storeroom have a damned bedroom??

"I know...! I know..." she said, wincing as though he'd verbally admonished her. "I'm sorry."

There was a long pause between them.

"My name is Kapote." she offered, putting her hands behind her back. "....what about you?"

One crimson eye looked at her critically for a moment before the paper went up again and he wrote out his name for her.

"Krys--Krees--" she faltered a bit with the spelling. "....Kryssik?" she asked, lifting her eyes to regard him hopefully. His expression starting to relax a bit, he nodded once. The brown dared to give him a hesitant smile as she slowly offered out a hand. "Its nice to meet you. I'm sorry I dropped in on you like this, were you sleeping?"

It took him a moment of debate before he accepted the hand and shook it, shaking his head and fixing a faint smile onto his face in return. She wasn't a threat...she wasn't trying to steal anything. She'd simply gotten lost. That was entirely forgiveable.

"I'll just be going then," she said when he released her hand at last. Realizing he'd been rude, Kryssik gave a silent sigh and shook his head a little more firmly, flipping to a clean sheet of paper to write again.

You don't have to go. You scared me. I'm sorry, I did not mean to be rude. Do you have a place to go?

She regarded the words, rubbing at the back of her neck, then lifted her eyes. "No." she said, with a shake of her head, seeming a bit ashamed of this fact. "But I suppose I'll manage anyhow. It was good meeting you, Kryssik."

Kapote turned to go and then paused, finding herself anchored in place at the wrist as Kryssik held her there, looking a bit ashamed of himself for driving her away. It had been so long since he'd seen anyone that he'd forgotten his manners. When she was no longer pulling as though to leave, he let her go and then wrote again.

It is cold outside. You can stay in my living room until tomorrow if you like. Maybe I could introduce you to the others and help you find a place to stay.

He supposed this was the least he could do for her...he'd scared her to death, he'd been rude, he'd been two seconds from clawing her eyes out...

"With you? I--no, I couldn't do that..." Kapote said, shaking her head. "I mean, this is your place and I--I'm sure I could find an alcove or something somewhere." Was he really that trusting, she wondered? He would just allow a stranger to share his home that he'd been about to attack when he'd first seen?

The pad and quill went up again, there was a brief scribbling and then he turned it outward to her again. "cold" had been crossed out and "FREEZING" had been written in its place, underlined several times. In spite of herself, Kapote smirked.

"It -is- getting cold..." she allowed. "But...I don't even know you." She hesitated, not wanting to be rude, and then added "...is there a reason you don't speak?"

If the question bothered him, Kryssik didn't show it. He nodded and made a cutting motion across his throat with the flat of his hand, shaking his head, the way he'd told Kismet of his condition.

"No voice?" she questioned, her green eyes widening. How terrible, Kapote thought, to be unable to speak even if you wanted to. How did he live with it? If only she knew that the green dragon not only had a very hard time living with it but was avidly trying to change it...

The green's brows shot up slightly as though awaiting her answer. He wouldn't force her to stay, he just didn't much care for the idea of a young lady being forced out into the cold by his hand. He'd much rather offer up his living room to a stranger than send anyone out into the frigid outdoor temperatures.

And she wasn't really a stranger anymore, was she? She HAD told him her name...

"I suppose....if you really don't mind..." Kapote muttered, looking at the floor. In all honesty, she really didn't want to face the outdoors again tonight with winter setting in and this place was much warmer, if somewhat cluttered. Kryssik, in turn, beamed a smile at her, and motioned her into the living room and to the small alcove that doubled as both a bed and a couch.

Deftly, he stacked the two pillows on top of one another and folded back the blanket, giving her shoulder a gentle push in invitation before retreating back to the curtain of leaves. He didn't know how long he'd been in the laboratory, but he supposed he should at least try to sleep. With another dragon inside, getting any more work done wasn't an option, after all.

He paused, giving her a cursory wave, and then retreated into his bedroom, pausing at the reading nook to select a book. Finding one, he then crossed the room and flopped into bed with it. He wondered if the others were aware of Kapote yet or if, by some strange chance, she'd made it all the way to his lair undetected in her wandering.

Whatever the case may be, he would introduce her to the others tomorrow...and in the process, reintroduce himself. It had been a long while since he'd seen anyone and he was well out of the loop.

A pair of tan claws reached out suddenly, neatly plucking the fish from Kryssik's grasp before his jaws could close on it.

"Now c'mon, dinner's almost ready." Kapote scolded from where she was working nearby at the firepit. She'd taken it upon herself to start preparing their evening meals as a way of not entirely freeloading. She was well-aware of the fact that Kryssik was irked by her company, but the fact remained that he was all she had at the moment.

The other dragons had ignored her, and she didn't feel sound enough to attempt to make her own lair. At least here, when she awoke in the middle of the night in the darkness, there was the sound of breathing in the nearby bedroom and she knew who it belonged to. Comfort was a luxury she had not been able to afford for a long while and she was reluctant to let go of it.

It wasn't HER fault Kryssik seemed hellbent on disliking her.

Returning the fish to the barrel, Kapote flicked her tail idly as she watched his signing, and shook her head. She couldn't make out the words, no, but the glint in his eyes and the way his hands moved as though they were jointed by rubber bands was clear enough.

He was angry again. What a surprise.

"I don't know why you're giving me such a hard time, Krys." she said, shaking her head in exasperation, feeling very much like a mother dealing with an unruly dracling. She, herself, had never borne draclings but she could only guess it couldn't be too far from dealing with Kryssik and his moods.

"I think you and I should just go along to get along for awhile...at least until winter's over. What do you think?" she asked, not waiting for his answer before turning her back to kneel at the side of the firepit once more.

"You know, it figures that the first dragon I've seen in...well...since I can remember, would be someone who couldn't stand me." there was a tingle of reproach in the brown's voice as she moved to sprinkle crumbled spices over the cooking meat, her movement a little rougher than need be and betraying her own stewing frustration.

Looking over her shoulder at him, green eyes glittering and catlike in the flames, her lips thinned to a narrow bloodless line.

"YOU'RE the one who invited me to stay when I was ready to go. I'm really -that- awful to spend time around?" she scowled.

Kapote's tail flicked as she huffed and then went back to making dinner. "You can be such a child sometimes..." she growled under her breath through clenched teeth.

It didn't matter to her that the other dragon was mute, it didn't make up for his petulance or his lack of willingness to speak to her. He knew very well she couldn't understand his sign language and he was perfectly capable of writing her notes.

They COULD have had this all worked out, but no...he'd rather fume about it and glare at her when he thought she wasn't looking. It was like he was angry at her for keeping him from something, but damned if she knew what. Kapote had done her best NOT to be an imposition on him.

She cooked for them, she stirred the embers from the firepit twice a day to keep the lair heated, she cleaned, so what, in the name of Orchestra, had his tail in a knot??

Kapote had been aware he was signing again, and hadn't paid any heed. She could hear the faint rustle of skin-on-skin as his fingers worked. What was the point of paying attention when she couldn't make any sense of what he was saying?

However, she turned her head in time to catch his last gesture, and something hit home for her. She didn't quite know how, it was as though something from long-since-past was tingling in the back of her memory. But she knew those two words at least.

Stupid Girl.

It was as though, behind the brown's green eyes, someone had detonated a bomb as she rose to her feet and stalked across the kitchen, glaring daggers at the taller green. All of this time, all of that signing, he'd been using it to call her names...??

"You...." she started to say, her voice a hiss. Kapote wasn't exactly sure what she meant to do until she'd reached Kryssik. Her mind was ablaze with anger and her tongue twitched behind clenched teeth with hundreds of things she wanted to say to the other fairydragon.

In the end she said nothing and one hand lashed out, curled into a half-fist as she cuffed Kryssik across the nose, leaving three shallow, but nonetheless red, marks on his flesh.

An apology, however, was not on Kapote's mind. For a brief moment, she'd been surprised at her own boldness and had stared at her claws in disbelief as though they'd acted entirely on their own. But then she'd realized she'd had every reason for doing what she'd done and it was a very simple reason at that:

He was being a class-A jerk.

"You deserved it!!" she yelled at him suddenly, fists clenched as she stamped one foot. "You've been on my case since I got here! I've been TRYING to help, I've been TRYING to get along with you! But none of that's good enough for you and then you call -me- stupid?? You're the idiot here, bucko, NOT me, you--"

That was all she got out as two green hands suddenly pressed against her chest and shoved her backwards hard. Kapote gave a startled squeal, realizing that the cookfire was behind her as she stumbled backward, trying to catch herself. Thankfully, her backward motion was stopped short by the end of one of the skin rugs as her ankles tangled beneath her and spilled her in a sprawl, harmlessly on the floor of the kitchen.

She laid where she'd fallen for a moment, blinking, replaying what had just happened, and then rose, seeming angrier than before.

"Oh that's it....That's IT!!" she snarled, not crossing the kitchen toward Kryssik, but rather lunging there like some sort of feral beast.