Well, that was one reason to have a human after all.
Some of the humans (notgoblins) were a bit more different from each other than others. Was that maybe an ogre? It was certainly loud and sounded mostly angry like that one ogre had been when it had been passing through the goblin camp. That one there seemed to remind her of a goblin for some reason. Have to keep an eye on that one.
The third one, that smelled faintly of food substances, was keeping her distance and seemed to be uncertain. Perhaps Tarre's arrival had upset their pecking order and that one was not clear on her own position within the tribe's structure? Tarre would admit that she didn't know much about such things, just what she had observed while in the keeping of the goblins, but she thought she had some of the basics down.
Now two other members of the tribe. Larger than the others and with an odd smell... alcohol. That was what that was. Leaders among the goblins had shared that smelly fluid and gotten louder and then more pain had been delivered her.
So them getting loud and arguing with her human was part of that ritual. Not a preferred situation, but she'd just watch unless something happened to indicate a problem.
Ah. One of them was taking some flimsy bunch of papers and rolling it up like a scroll. Shamans had those. Now he was coming over to her and raising it up like a club?
Not going to happen.
Ptui!
Tarre grinned at the shock and horror of the rotund male elder as its scroll/club was quickly eaten away by the globule of acid. Just a reminder that since she'd gotten her human, she'd gotten stronger and much more able to defend herself.
The rotund elder seemed put off by her grin. So she did it more, baring more teeth in amusement to show off how nice they'd come in since her diet had improved.
The rotund elder backed away from her, giving her a respectful distance and apparently not realizing he was still in her strike zone.
Tarre yawned then, feigning boredom with the whole thing. She'd keep an eye on rotund elder, just in case.
Which was when a wall promptly exploded, startling her. She snapped her wings close, eyes narrowed and teeth bared to determine what this portended.
Another male human. This one carrying some sort of club. He moved forward, confronting and shouting at her human. Was this a raid by another tribe or a dispute within the tribe structure? It was overly loud, whatever else it was.
Another male human appeared and attacked... a tree?! Was this some sort of territorial marking? That sort of behavior she understood - once she understood the boundaries of her hunting territory she would use claws and acid to score the edges of that area. It was a warning to other dragons or large-area-hunters that this was her territory and not to trespass upon it. It was something that all large predators did after all.
Wait, the two were now attacking her human and it looked like they intended to kill him? That was unacceptable as he was HER human, even if this might be normal behavior within their tribe. Though the former tree-attacker smelled faintly of prey-animal and therefore might be another tribe.
She should dissuade them from attacks while not killing them, as if they were of the tribe they might be needed to forage or otherwise acquire food. Yes, that would do.
"-I just found myself there. I didn't freakin' INTEND to go off by myself and find a cure," said Ranma as he dodged an umbrella strike while leaping over a sword strike from Mousse.
"How could you just find yourself in CHINA?!" asked Ryouga.
"I thought if ANYONE would understand how that is, it'd be you!" countered Ranma, blocking another umbrella strike while kicking Mousse in the face. "You know Mousse, I been wondering. How come you use Japanese swords? I'd think you'd use a jiang or something."
"Well, it's easier to replace... NOT THE POINT! DIE SAOTOME!" said Mousse, pulling another katana out of a sleeve and jabbing forward.
Ptui! Hsssssssssssssss
Mousse reached up with one hand and slowly lowered the glasses until they were in front of his eyes again. He stared a moment at the hissing stump of a weapon. Slowly his head turned to see the odd lizard-dog was now a lot closer and regarding him with yellow eyes. When their eyes met, it slowly moved its head from side to side in a copy of a human gesture.
"Uhm, Ranma?" asked Ryouga. "What exactly IS that?"
"That's Tarre. I thought she was a Chinese lizard-dog but Nabiki says she's a dragon." Ranma scratched his head. "I guess not all dragons have that multiple head thing."
"Western style dragon," said Ryoga. "Ranma? A favor?"
"Hmmm?" asked Ranma as Ryouga slowly lowered the umbrella.
"Tell your dragon P-chan is not a menu item, will you?" asked Ryouga.
"Yeah, next time P-chan shows up I'll be sure to do that," said Ranma. Yeah, Ryouga could be a pain-in-the-butt. Didn't mean he wanted the guy to get eaten.
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(Posted Wed, 17 Jul 2013 20:01)
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