entrancelogs | [open]

Who: Toothless, and you!
Where: All over Wonderland.
When: Zombie event.
Rating: PG-13ish.
Summary: What's wrong with the shambly Vikings who can't move around much? Why do they make those weird noises?
The Story:

22nd, 23rd, 24th—

He doesn't much understand it, the word that he hears on the communicator. It sounds vaguely familiar, like something he heard someone mention in passing, but the Vikings are a bit of a mystery. Not as much as for some, however, because Toothless can smell them decaying, and he knows what that means. Death.

At first, they ignore him. He isn't sure what to make of that, but eventually they come after a Viking he's protective of and he lunges out — and then the creatures all at once become aware of him, and he isn't safe anymore. He barely was to begin with, maybe, but it was something. Now, he moves quickly. Looking for Vikings who are stranded or seem to be in need of help. It's not as easy as usual, because, once again, he can't breathe fire, and his wings feel wobbly. Unsteady, incapable of flight.

But he still has his teeth, his claws, and the force of a twenty-foot-long dragon to throw things around with. He moves like a shot through the woods and anywhere else he finds, getting out of the prison quickly enough. At first, anyway. His mind is on the Vikings, and where his friends are.

25th—

Something strange happens in the night. By teeth or by the scratch of a nail, Toothless wakes up feeling strange. Hungry, in a way he recognizes from when his Mirror was in his mind. While he'd like nothing more than to tear the leg off of a dragon, or rip into its throat, any Vikings he finds will have to do. Or anything else, for that matter.

The brilliant green of his eyes fades, just a little, giving way into a paler color, his teeth yellowing and his scales losing their keen shimmer. His wings drag alongside him, the Night Fury having lost the ability to control them entirely, and his tongue lolls from his mouth. But he can move quickly in short bursts, should he catch sight of anyone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Despite some close calls, Souji's made it through the event un-zombified. That's about as far as his luck's extended, though. That and some fish he's managed to catch. He's still lingering in the quarry on the last day of the event and when he sees Toothless, he doesn't immediately notice that anything's wrong. He puts his makeshift fishing rod down and gets to his feet. He figures he can at least offer some of his fish.

He can smell warmth, hear a heartbeat.

Blood. Muscle. Oh, he's so hungry. Even the tang of fish scales on the air can't grab his attention. He needs more.

Toothless turns in the direction of Souji, hearing his movement and zeroing in on him. He's not very coordinated, luckily, and walking is more like staggering as he heads in that direction, gurgling in the back of his throat.

...That's definitely not normal. Souji's run into enough walkers by now that he's put on guard by Toothless's strange movements. He doesn't want to believe it, though, so he hesitates.

"....Are you okay?"

Oh please just like hack up some fish bones and be fine please.

The Night Fury looks in Souji's direction. Looks, but doesn't properly zero in on him like he should; even his eyes aren't moving right. But he knows from scent where the Viking is, and that's all the incentive he needs. He makes a noise halfway between a growl and a snarl, tapering off almost into a whimper, and then speeds his movements up a little, trying to get close.

Oooooh no, that isn't good.

Souji circles back around behind the rock he'd been sitting on, just to give him another half-second to look around and consider his options. Taking on Toothless with a makeshift fishing pole won't work, even if he is a zombie; the pole is just too flimsy.

Mentally apologizing to the fish, Souji kicks what he's caught in Toothless's direction figuring that might slow him down while Souji figures out an escape route. So far he's been able to outrun the walkers, but he has no idea if a zombie dragon will be faster by nature.

Something wet hits his eye, and he can barely see what it is. He knows the scent, but it's not as interesting as the other scent he can smell under it. Still, it takes him a long moment to differentiate between the two.

He is, by design, much sturdier on his feet than human zombies, and has a reserve of speed he's used to grab a few of them. But at the moment, it's more of a prowl as he decides to keep after Souji and forget the wriggling fish in front of his face.

Souji back pedals and steps into the edge of the reservoir. He glances down at his feet as water rushes into his shoes, then turns and splashes into the water. He trips over a submerged rock and falls headlong into the water. The cold shock has him flailing and sputtering back to his feet, waist deep in the water. He looks back to see if Toothless is going to follow him.

If he is, this could have been the worst choice Souji could have made.

While normally the dragon isn't phased by water, it's just another different thing for the encumbered dragon to get used to. He stops at the edge of it, giving a sloppy sort of snort and watching Souji with a definite lean to his posture. Much like the rest of his condition, it just looks wrong.

The flailing, though, has him fascinated, and his big eyes remain fixed on the Vikings' position.

After a very long pause, the Night Fury puts a leg in the water. Souji's saving grace could yet be that the dragon isn't all that coordinated for swimming in his present state. Even his first steps into it are sloppy.

Souji wades back a few feet, until he's treading water. It's possible Toothless will give up if the swimming is too difficult. And if he doesn't give up, Souji things he can swim well enough to get away, given the bad start Toothless is off to.

Still facing the dragon, Souji begins to swim slowly backwards. He's short of breath from how cold the water is--unexpectedly cold for such a summery day--and fully clothed, he's pretty weighed down.

Toothless makes a gagging, dry, wheezing sound as he struggles through the water. His movements would be almost comical if not for the way he's still very focused on Souji, mouth hanging partially open and teeth yellowed. He isn't a flailing, friendly dragon, at the moment, but a predator frustrated by his sudden lack of mobility.

Souji represses the urge to try talking to Toothless and reasoning with him. This isn't one of those "face your Shadow" moments where motivational encouragement is going to help. Toothless can't exactly fight off being a zombie.

Twisting around in the water, Souji swims for real now, fleeing the dragon, but stops after a good twenty years or so to tread water and look back. He's going to have to figure out an actual plan of action pretty soon, because being chased all around the reservoir is really not a great strategy.

As far as Toothless is concerned, this turned out to be a very poor plan indeed. He makes another few yards, but then his mobility seems to take another blow. Almost like he's lost another part of him that really remembered how to swim. The Night Fury makes a choked roar and then, seemingly at random, swims more to the east than to Souji. His aim seems to be to get back to shore, but he's not doing that very well.

He could be stuck in the water for a while, flailing and snorting.

Souji feels a pang of guilt and makes a couple of motions toward Toothless. He stops again, treading water, then turns and swims in the opposite direction, toward another part of the shore. He can't do anything for Toothless now, no matter how much he'd like to, and getting too close would probably result in one more death.

Perhaps if the rest of the transformed Wonderland is lucky, Toothless will continue to flounder in the lake for some time. Or maybe he'll get stuck. He could do worse than spend the rest of the event here in the water.

He continues to flail and splash in the water, further and further away from Souji.

[open]

25th because I CAN

Evil!

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