A faint crunch reverberated under his foot as he stepped forward, and even though he knew it was irrational for him to worry about noise at the current moment he couldn’t contain a wince. The habit was very much ingrained in him by this point, so when the twig snapped he just stood there for a while, head tilted and ears straining for any sound, any noise to indicate that someone or something had heard the cracking sound.

But, as per the usual lately, nothing happened. A snort from behind him mocked his paranoia, and he turned to glower at the scaly face behind him for a few moments before beginning to walk again, still taking care to avoid any brittle twigs or rocks for fear of noise. He did step on a few more, though, and whenever he did so it was the same process as the first time, each stop eliciting a louder snort from his dragon. Eventually, he gave up on trying to be quiet, and instead made as much noise as possible as he walked through the forest, trying to spite her--which apparently worked.

He smiled to himself, nodding slightly in acknowledgement to his success before he finally broke out of the trees, sighing softly as the world opened up, relieving the three weary travellers from their feeling of oppression.

In front of the rider and his mount lay a well worn cobblestone path, currently trafficked by many people of different ages and status. But they were hardly relevant, he only paid attention to them because, currently, a mob of peasants was blocking his way onto the road. A frustrated growl formed in the back of his throat, and another formed from behind him, and another from his shoulder, from the slight form curled around his neck, but all knew that they were going to just have to stand there for a while and wait for everyone to move before he was able to continue onto his path.

He was very frustrated by the time an opening appeared, and he quickly took his chance and leapt out onto the path--causing several people who he cut off to be very, very angry, and they began to shout at him until he shot a glare at them over his shoulder; they practically withered under his icy stare.

But, they were irrelevant. He swung up into his mount’s saddle, quickly maneuvering her into a space where she could walk freely and not trample anybody. Although… most seemed rather afraid of her, but as he studied her head he realized that their fear wasn’t unfounded. A small smile spread over his face, and the dragon snorted, smoke billowing out from her nostrils, causing several people to cough. No matter.

The afternoon sun played over the sharp angles of his face as the flow of people ebbed around them, sometimes moving fast, others, slow. It was very frustrating, really. A lot of the people here had places to be, but that apparently didn’t matter to a lot of these simple merchants and farmers. He did have ways to pass the time though.

That one….. letter opener in the neck. That one, hmm….. arrow in the eye. This one, definitely gouge his eyes out. Oh! This annoying politician would probably scream very nicely if he was set on fire!”

Luckily he didn’t have to deal with this nonsense of the uneducated for more than an hour, as it was soon that they reached the gates of the capital of the kingdom--Zhertva, home of the king and his famed dragon knights.

He looked up at the gates circling the city, the spikes topping the ornate silver bars. Beyond that, the castle loomed over the rest, situated on top of a hill, surrounded by its own walls and fortifications. No matter, easy enough to deal with.

His dragon snorted as he turned her in a sharp left, away from the stream of commoners waiting to get in, towards the more….express….entrance. He had a scroll in his hand, and he handed it to one of the guards who stopped him. As soon as the incompetent man finally finished reading the careful lettering and gave the order to open the gates, he was simmering.

“Sorry, sir, but I have to read all of it to make sure it’s real… My apologies, once again, Sir Drake, but please, by all means, go on in.”

He didn’t even acknowledge the guard, instead just going inside the city, facing more immediate problems.

He was starving, and he didn’t even know where to eat.

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