Gonna take you for a ride (Harmony’s maiden run)

[rii]

Guru huffed to himself. He wasn't being slow. It was a matter of.. well his foot kept sticking to the floor and that made it hard to run! It wasn't his fault that his lope after her was touch slow. Besides which, she wasn't going too fast on the shoulder of her humanpet anyway. He kept close to the wall to avoid the stampedeing chasers and also prevent any of those pesky flyers from making any dive-bombs at him. Why they felt the need to pick on him Guru didn't have a clue. Not like he had ever don't anything to them to deserved it. At least, he didn't think he did.

The inviting beckons from Harmony managed to keep Guru's interest. The bronze wasn't known to fully chase.. or even follow a run up to the point of seeing who the female picked in the end. Afraid of being rejected? Perhaps. Guru denied such claims – he merely didn't want to end up finding himself with some crazy half-wit! Deciding a mate took true consideration. Yes, the female picked in the end, but why couldn't he join a chase to considering her worth. He wasn't about to rush, blinded with lust, into these things. Tch..

Darting off the path to avoid getting trampled, Guru hopped through the grass while keeping his gaze on Harmony's beaconing glow. Up, down. Up, down. The glossy bronze appeared above the plant life, scampering up a fallen branch and.. pausing when he noticed the large leaf and stick clinging to his tail. The tip of said tail having curled around the twig and wasn't releasing.. stupid.. thing. The bronze frill his annoyance with a punctual hiss, thwapping his tail against the wood. He came to a stand-still as he watched the others go by (nothing wrong here, move along..) Drat and double drat. Now he was behind.

Oh oh wait – he was ever so clever – Guru bounded off again to where he could sense the large riding brown that belonged to his dummy. The bronze salamandyr darted up Quintresk's leg, settling just above an eyeridge. Dark. You see. Must watch fleshies so don't get eat – so follow yes? Guru along for ride. If a wher could roll eyes, that would have been Quintresk's expression. Regardless, the dark wher was following the group moving out into the jungle. He paced lightly along side Harmony's chase, slinking through the trees in silence. It wasn't difficult to keep track of the humans tromping, splashing through the jungle's growth.

Coiling on haunches, Quintresk easily leapt across the mud and picked his way along the drier paths. Guru frilled proudly from his perched. Oh yes, this was much better. Gave him amble time to try and remove the twig from his tail. A decent enough mount, especially considering his was.. further behind the the lot of them. The thief sulking as he reluctantly followed into the trees. His boot scuffed dejectedly against the side of a root. Tch, stupid chase.. didn't want to chase.. and did they have to go into the jungle.. couldn't even see.

[Requiem]

For all that it wasn't immediately obvious, Inocenth was very much aware of F'ur's mind - even more so the foreign that was Terror - and he knew, even if His didn't, that losing the little perpetually terrified worm wasn't an option. The dragon wasn't comfortable with these Runs. Especially not when they promised to take both of his mind leeches beyond his reach. There was little he could do, then, but almost completely withdraw from F'ur's mind, hoping the lack of interference would allow His to be able to keep the little worm from harm. Even while completely consumed by Terror. Tch. As if anyone could truly wonder why he didn't like these Runs.

Terror wasn't the last of Harmony's chasers to exit into the night air, scurrying along the face of the gorge - and still avoiding the mandyr-eating ground! - even though F'ur's wall scuffle had him trailing everyone else. (At least until he had to follow out in the open, when the bluerider darted full-speed for fear that going any slower would result in the ground swallowing him whole.) The salamandyr franctically searched for some way not to get eaten up, finally jumping on the people of other chasing salamandyrs. He bounded from Darya to Piden, then launched himself into the trees, utilizing the tree branches. In the dimness of the forest, his odd coloring glowed like a small blue-tinted star.

Naturally, F'ur didn't want to be on the mandyr-eating ground any more than Terror did. He leapt as they neared the edge of the trees, swinging up easily onto a thick, low-hanging branch where he crouched before springing forward to the tree just ahead. There was still a light suction to his feet, but not so bad now that the surface wasn't anywhere near level. The bluerider moved swiftly through the branches, following the glowing gold that seemed like she loved him, wanted him. (He conveniently ignored that the other males were receiving the same treatment.) F'ur climbed higher steadily as he pursued, though some instinct battled Terror enough that he didn't try for the highest branches which wouldn't support the weight of a human.

The man dropped down into a crouch on the other bank, shifting continuously so as not to become food for the ground as he anxiously awaited Darmori's arrival. (Wouldn't do to head off in the wrong direction.) Terror was in mid-swing when the air churned around him, the blue's jump thrown off. He squealed as he fell, terrified by the sound of felines. The cats could fly now and would eat him dead! A hand reached out, snagged him, and tossed him in a direction opposite of Mojo as F'ur took off after Darmori, sprinting around trees in a convoluted pattern that clearly was meant to throw off pursuers. Terror's mind brushed Harmony's in warning. Felines! She must be careful, glowing as brilliantly as she did!

His concern for the gold apparently overrode his panic enough to keep the blue swinging and jumping through the branches in a coiling, ribbonlike display in an effort to keep up with her.

[Kisha-Ra]

He was trying not to be slow, but it was so hard when nearly everyone else had a ride and his wouldn’t wait for him! Imp hissed slightly in indignation, but he didn’t want to waste the breath to sustain it when Darya was clearly not paying any attention to him. Pressing close to the walls the salamandyr put more effort into his running, and just hoped none of the human feet would come this close to the walls. Ah at last! Imp leapt, and gave his wings a few flaps so he could practically crash into Darya’s back and cling to her shirt.

Darya barely noticed her salamandyr claiming her as his steed, all her attention was taken by the glowing gold and her bonded, though she wasn’t too clear on which part of the pair she was trying to capture. Imp goaded her for greater speed, and out in the night air, with Darmori standing less than a dragonlength away, beckoning to her Darya was more than happy to obey, leaping sideways in midstep to avoid Piden. Loud little baby bronze.

Ah the jungle! Imp made a low trilling sound, abandoning Darya’s back for the trees. He didn’t need a ride for this! The bronze salamandyr ran and jumped, and occasionally even flew after Harmony and her humanpet, taking whatever branches and vines would carry him nearest to the gold, yes he was most clever in chasing from the trees, but he still had to be seen by the queen. She’d never choose a male she couldn’t even see

As she’d failed to notice Imp’s arrival, Darya also failed to notice his leaving, and failed to notice her second momentary passenger. Darya’s nose wrinkled at the boggy ground. Ew, she didn’t want that stuff on her hide, and the baby bronze had left a slime train of it over the obvious path. Darya eyed the log with distaste, and looked left and right for an alternative route. Nothing she could use, though Imp was prompting that she could easily leap and glide over the mess Darya still had a little say in the matter. With a shrug she bounded out onto the trunk, neatly avoiding the slimy mess left by Piden, and crossed in a series of swift leaps. Back on solid ground the bluerider paused for a moment, waiting for her queen to move again.

[Rei]

Harmony turned to better watch her chases make their own ways across the small boggy area, as hers started back into the jungle. The gold noted each mandyr’s attempt and critiqued them all carefully. It was Terror and Imp’s approach that pleased her the most. The yellow gold brushed each of their minds with a feeling of loving approval before withdrawing to make sure her Mori kept to the path she had set for him. A flash of bronze caught her attention then and Harmony bristled. Which bronze dared to ascend to her level without permission? Violet eyes caught on Mojo and she shrieked, the color of her gaze bleeding to and angry red immediately. How dare you! The large gold shrieked angrily again before flinging herself bodily at him in an attempt to pummel him into submission. Unfortunately her teeth snapped on nothing which only strove to infuriate her more. How dare he play with her. Another angry call left her throat but it tapered off immediately at Terror’s warning. A startled chirp left her throat. Felines? That was not good she did not want her chasers harmed.

Thoughts of harming Mojo where pushed aside for the moment, but not completely forgotten, as she further prodded hers towards the destination she wanted. Out in the open, needed to get out in the open so if the felines did come they could see them approach. Harmony brushed Terror’s mind with a brief feeling of thanks. It really was too bad he was so small. He was endearing himself to her quite nicely. Pity he was blue, and because of that too small to support her as he would need to. The least she owed him was the honor of being allowed to stay till the end of her chase.

Darmori's breaths where coming in gasps now. His legs where tiring and it would be only a matter of time before his chasers caught up. The gold noted this with a feeling of unease. Thankfully the clearing they wanted wasn’t too far away and soon the candidate had broke through the undergrowth and into it. Leaping over a mossy log, the candidate made his way straight to the middle of the large clearing. There he stopped and stood, hands on his knees, breathing deeply in an attempt to catch his breath.

Harmony crooned once to her bonded, nuzzling the back of his neck, before flaring her wings and leaping down from hers. The gold used the large appendages as parachutes to reach the ground safely. She settled just as the first of her chasers finally made their way into the clearing. The gold greeted each arrival with a soft croon before sprinting as fast as her stubby legs would carry her towards a nearby boulder. Scrambling onto it’s surface she scrambled to the top and sat upon it regally, her tail coiling about her hunches as she examined the males beneath her.

Now which one would she pick? Hmm. Violet eyes flicked to each mandyr in turn before settling on Mojo. Leave. The word wasn’t a suggestion, it was a command. If he was smart he would obey. No want /you/. She hissed poisonously to the firelizard, a flash of crimson entering her gaze before her eyes again went to her mandyr chasers. The only worthy ones in her mind. Come dance with me. She crooned to them all before leaping off the rock and disappearing into a bunch of yellow wild flowers. One last hurrah before she made her actual decision.

Darmori stood up and faced his human chasers a seductive smile spreading across his features. “Dance with me.” He said softly before offering a hand to the air and twirling in place once. One final dance before the choice. Seemed right to him. A dance to both close the chase and begin the partnership.

[Ruby]

Shells was distressed. Sure, he had regained his Denden's shoulder, but he hated firelizards at the best of times. Now, the firelizards were bothering his Queen, too. The mysterious one had to go. He hissed as she screamed (luckily, Piden was off the log by now, and wasn't startled into the bog), snapping his frill in and out and raging away. Bad! Wormy ground-crawler, uggers mangy nasty! No nuisance Harmony! Leave Goodbye! Certainly, this tirade wouldn't have stopped until Mojo left (and probably not then either) if it weren't for the very unfortunate thing that happened next.

While Shell's wings were small to the point of uselessness, his frill was huge. Seriously. Ginormous might be a better word. It was also violently scarlet, so much so that it caught the moonlight and seemed to almost radiate brightness. That's why he was snapping it in and out quickly - if he wasn't careful, it worked as a sail. Well, he left it open a second too long as a gust of wind swept by, and, as Harmony asked about felines, Shells lost his grip on Piden's shirt. The breeze lifted the Bronze up by his frill, wafting him sideways into the forest. After his initial squawk, though, Shells decided to use this grave misfortune to his advantage. Harmony had seemed to like Imp after the log barrier, so Shells would try to out-do Imp. Simple. Whirling like a top, he floated over to the trees, grabbing the first branch he could to keep from falling in to the bog. Now was the time to impress!

Piden followed Darmori through the jungle, staying close on the Gold's heels, now. Shells mimicked him in the trees, sticking next to Harmony's eye-level. He had a few close calls with wide jumps and delicate branches, but for all his bulk, Shells did have quite a long reach for a Salamandyr. After only moments, though, Piden took a graceful leap over the mossy log and Shells took a... not so graceful leap in the direction of Piden's shoulder, flaring his frill to keep from falling straight to the ground. He leaped to Piden's pant leg and clung there until Piden came to a stop only feet from Darmori. So close...

But not for Shells! His gold had finally separated, and the Bronze trailed Harmony in leaps and bounds, marveling at her speed (and ignoring the fact that the distance was very short). Harmony, so fast! No need Throne, but good good, nice excellent idea, Shells flattered, obviously still working for favor. Harmony spoke, though, and it wasn't to him. Foo. Well, as long as she was getting rid of the nasty worm, which it seemed like she was, Shells was ok with it. Now, all she had to do was dismiss the rest, and declare him king! Right?? ... Wrong, apparently, but she HAD asked him to dance. With another half-awkward, overly flourishing bow, Shells followed her into the flowers, taking a twirling leap as he drew even with her. This was his last chance to show his worth!

Piden smiled, his eyes smoldering, in response to Darmori's invitation. He inclined his head, then stepped forward smoothly to take the Candidate's hand. Despite the intense desire flooding his veins, Piden was gentle, obviously not trying to grab or take what wasn't his (yet), simply wanting to dance. Turning Darmori as many times as the Candidate would let him, Piden made the most of the time that was given, leading gracefully and allowing the boy to turn to another chaser whenever he desired.

[rii]

Guru sat up on his back legs as Quintresk eased silently through the trees. In his two front claws the bronze salamandyr had seized the twig that was stuck to the end of his tail and now gnawed at the pesky adornment. Fools, He shot at the other chasers, the disdain clear enough at their efforts to impress Harmony. She say jump. You go how high, how high? He had to wonder why they were all trying to hard to earn her favor. It's not like she was doing anything terribly impressive aside from glow. Riding on the shoulder of her humanpet and expecting them to swing through the trees after her? Nope. No way. Guru decided he was going to put as much effort into chasing her as she was putting in to running.

Silent and graceful the slender shadow weaved through and over the various obstacles. The dark blue eyes, seeing night as day, reflected hints of the available moonlight as the wher took stock of the people chasing after the humanling. A mental touch went out to Pidesk, checking on where the bronze was in case the older wher was needed to fetch his handler come the end of the chase. Quintresk didn't want any of the humans lingering in the jungle at night. He preferred to not have any more than necessary to watch over..

In fact, the dark wher slinked around behind the group, almost in a herding fashion if they had not all been under the influence of the gold's run. His dark form slid past the other chasers. Not quite touching, but he move close enough behind each of them to be noticed.. and then not as he disappeared back into the darkness. Only Quintrell he actually touched, nosing muzzle against the lower back of his to make the blond thief quicken his pace and catch up to the main group. The mental prodding from Guru were ignored (if the little bronze wanted to chase the queen he could get off and go). And, with that in mind, as soon as they reached the clearing, Quintresk gave a sharp shake of his head to dislodge his passenger.

Picking himself up, Guru gave a flick of his.. twiggy tail ..at the wher and bounded after Harmony. The soft croon assured him that he was still.. in the chase.. and Harmony was neither running away from him, nor screeching for him to leave. At least he didn't think she was screaming at him – it was at the fire lizard – maybe. Diving into the flowers after her, Guru caught up to Harmony.. moving ahead of her and making a point to hook his tail around flower stems to send a shower of petals her way as they ran through.

Quintrell shuffled into the clearing, eyes flickering to the dark shape slinking along the edge of the trees. Then his gaze was back on Darmori. Dance? Well. Maybe. The thief eased his way forward, shooting a narrowed glance at the other chasers – gauging their ability to dance. Hmph. Striding more confidently as he neared, Quintrell offered his hand to the queen. Yes, yes, he'd show her he could dance!

[Requiem]

Her touch of approval nearly startled Terror right out of his trees, the ribbonlike blue squeaking briefly in surprise before returning a slight pulse of tentative longing. Wondering even as he did so if that level of presumption would lose what favor he'd gained. (But, considering he hadn't expected to gain any favor, or to receive any acknowledgement from Harmony at all, at this point anything beyond screaming at him or outright ignoring him was a gift, so...Terror wasn't really worried about currying favor. He didn't expect a female to pick him, much less a beautiful, nice gold like Harmony. Besides, upsetting a gold was bad. Especially one of her size. She'd squish him flat. Much worse than a lililove prison.)

The blue managed to keep from going splat, coiling his tail around a twig well before his intended target. The male couldn't fly, but he could most definitely jump, and the ground was dangerous. Felines. The ground wanting to eat Terrors. Others wanting to squish Terrors. Much better way up high. The bronze speaking disdainfully to him was met with a shiver, though he resisted the urge to apologize to him. He was doing nothing wrong. But...why were they stopping? The felines were still here!

They most definitely were, and the urge to take to the trees had driven F'ur back up into the branches after only a short time of running. A shadow, moving out of the corner of his eye, there just long enough to not be imagination - without it being clear what it was. Fear drove him up and forward as much as the guiding glow of the gold.

Terror hesitated for a moment, tail coiling nervously around him on a tree branch at the edge of the meadow as he made certain it wasn't him Harmony was so angrily dismissing. His settled on the branch directly beside him a couple seconds later. "Ground, eats us." Make Terror get etted, the blue agreed privately to His. "Scared." Terrified. "Gold want?" Want. No feel? "Feel. Should go? Dance?" Should. "Dance bad." Terror dance very bad. No dance worse. Big queen scary could. "Make others et Terrors." Yes.

Their brief little powwow concluded, the mandyr half leapt from the branch, flaring his little frills that were more like large ears than actual frills. He manipulated them separately, trying hard to steer with his wings and tail, but only managed to wildly coil around in every which way in the not-so-controlled fall as the wind buffeted the light creature. Nevertheless, he seemed to regain some modicum of control, an excited Oooohhheeeee, escaping him as he swung back and forth, manipulating his frills. This was actually kind of...fun. He landed in the bed of flowers and went rolling snout over tail.

His was not so fortunate. He leapt, too, but he didn't glid so well. Mumbling something about Simper and having parachutes too, F'ur stumbled awkwardly, a knee hitting the ground hard when his ankle buckled. He rose unsteadily, spinning with arms outspread, not noticing the limp. For a few revolutions. Until the pain cut through the fun he was having. He blinked, glancing down at his knee. Oh.

Blood, the salamandyr stated almost sadly, the little mandyr flopping over onto his side. "Blood," F'ur breathed at the same time, crumpling almost too slowly in a graceless sprawl.

[Kisha-Ra]

Imp was startled by Harmony’s rather extreme reaction to the bronze firelizard. Certainly he was being annoying but she had called for chasers had she not? Imp shuffled his wings and flicked the end of his tail, as if to dismiss Mojo. If Harmony didn’t like him, that was a little less competition. Speaking of less competition… Imp was amused to see Shells blown away, now the baby bronze looked stupid. Didn’t matter that he’d saved himself, he still looked stupid. Guru was totally ignored, clearly he’d never chased before if that was his attitude.

Rather than descend from the trees, for surely that must be how Mojo had annoyed the gold, Imp stuck to what he was best at, letting the skills he’d gained in so very many chases through this same jungle carry him from branch to trunk and back to branch. In his enthusiasm the bronze even managed a few simple tricks in mid air as he moved between the trees. He wasn’t even sure if Harmony was even looking his way or not but that wasn’t important, what was important was that he’d made the effort.

If Darya hadn’t been driven on mercilessly by Imp she would have given up long before now. Although she still had a fairly good turn of speed her breath was bursting out of her body in gasps every time a foot hit the floor, and her steps were not growing slower but clumsier as she forced her tired body to follow. So it was that Darya entered the clearing by catching her foot on a root and gracefully faceplanting into the flowers, where she rolled onto her back and lay staring up at her queen. She did that on purpose. Totally.

Imp dropped into the clearing far more gracefully than Darya, unfortunately he realised he was headed straight for the rock Harmony was perched on. No! It was all so clear to him now how Mojo had given offence! He didn’t want to be dismissed! The bronze flailed his tail and flared his oversized wings desperately, and turned his body far enough aside that he could twist his tail around a small branch and haul himself away. It meant a less graceful descent but it was worth it, he was invited to dance with her! Imp all but pranced among the flowers, winding his body around the stems carefully, so carefully, didn’t want to knock any petals off. See she glows brighter than stars. Most graceful she. Imp commented, speeding up and bounding after the glowing queen. What fun!

Darya rolled again and scrambled to her feet, belatedly realising she couldn’t dance from where she was. Oh but she couldn’t dance anyway, others were already dancing with the queen. Various expressions flitted across the bluerider’s face before she shrugged and moved to dance around the gold and the other two bronzes. The chase wasn’t over yet. ‘See you glow bright, graceful queen.’ She whispered the compliment with her salamandyr. What fun!

[Lotty]

If there was ever such thing as an expression of pure, unadulterated, mirth on the face of a firelizard, then it could found gracing the visage of a certain bronze by the name of Mojo. That had to be one of the funniest things he had ever seen, and he was just beyond proud of himself for instigating it all. So see the gold so gracelessly fail, and snap only at the the empty air he had left in his wake was he-he-he-hilarious. Cue another laugh like chitter from the creature, as he demurely flittered his wings in his new perch back in the trees again. Just so innocent he was...just innocent enough to send the image of a fail queen to his bonded, and his fellows like Eyesore and Fracas, and on and on. They'd all surely appreciate it.

Oh and look at that silly bronze! This was just getting better, and better and better. The wind caught the noisemaker's frill! Ohhh another image was sent. But even he could only deal with a fatty gold and her bronze followers for so long before it was unbearable, would they ever stop their screaming at him? Weren't these mandyrs ever the worst about politeness? He'd leave, but only because he was getting so bored with this Harmony. It was tempting though, very tempting to stick around because bronze mandyrs just made his day.

But no. Even his fun had to end. He'd throughly annoyed a gold, enraged some of her chasers, and maybe even tricked them all into thinking there were felines roaming the jungle. Not that there might not be, but if he added fuel to the fire himself then that was even better. Nonetheless, he was on his way out, and just as mysteriously as he arrived he was gone again, unceremoniously drifting between.

[Rei]

Harmony bounced and trotted amongst the flashes of bronze that made up her honor guard. So lovely they are where. The large gold was almost sad that she could only pick one but there was no helping it. She couldn’t pick more than that. With a backwards glance she noted the fainting of her blue chaser sadly. Pity. Had be been bigger he would have been amongst her top choice. With a abrupt turn she danced her way through the flowers and falling petals (courtesy of Guru) back to the limp form of the blue and circled him once before lowering her head and nudging his form to make doubly sure he was okay. Satisfied that he was, Harmony turned her attention to her bronzes. Shells. He was young and boisterous. Had followed her unwaveringly and even showered her with gifts. This the gold appreciated but he was a bit too loud for her taste. He lacked the sophistication of a true ruler. Next violet eyes hinged on Guru. He was charming in his own way, strong and opinionated. Perhaps too opinionated to defer to her on matters of importance. This was unacceptable as well. That left her with one. Her best choice. Imp.

With a happy trill Harmony took the last to bounds to carry her to her dancing bronze. Wise, charming, impressive, and now hers. Her bronze. Implove. She purred as she quite literally knocked him off his feet to enthusiastically nuzzle him. Is now mine. Is now king. Without further words she gently grabbed his frill with her teeth to lead him back into the flowers. Privacy for her and her king thank you muchly. Now they must end this dance and continue their own private one.

Darmori swung around with Piden, thoroughly enjoying the bronze’s movements before he was released to dance with Quintrell. Such lovely bronzes he had amassed. F’ur’s spin was noted with a grin but a frown touched his features as the blue crumpled. Was he okay? Releasing Quintrell’s hand he made his way to the bluerider, kneeling to prod once at his collapsed form. His breathing seemed to be even. Poor thing. With a loving brush to the side of the riders face the candidate stood to face his chasers.

Time to make a decision. As the gold mentally examined her chasers Darmori spun with each in a brief dance, finally coming to the last participate. With a happy smile the boy stood on tiptoes to press a kiss to the bluerider’s lips. “My Limplove. My king. Forever mine.” He purred, not at all shy about making his choice clear. Quite impatiently he tugged her back against him. “Let us dance together now.”