Playing With Fire
A sapphire blue sky, rolling hills, majestic mountains draped in snow residing in the far south is one way to describe the scenery. Perfect. Tromping through a dense forest smack in the middle of Asia, no civilization for miles upon miles, with no idea where you are, where you're going, and what you're looking for. Not perfect. Raven's expression obviously favored the latter, and quite appropriate for the situation which was definitely as far from perfect as things could get. The thing that irked her the most was the fact that this was intentional, as opposed to simply being lost in the middle of nowhere.
The day was going slowly. Unnaturally slowly. This idea had caught up with the dark girl long ago, and her thoughts on this showed on her pale face, which was partially hidden under her hood. The dappled afternoon sun fought its way through the trees, creating a blotchy pattern of light on the dense undergrowth and illuminating the empaths ashen skin as the rays struggled through the tree tops. The Titans had been on the tail of the Brotherhood of Evil, when they received complaints of something large attacking the livestock of farmers, damaging crops, and the like. Normally the local authorities would handle such a case, but since they were in the area, Robin thought it would be a good idea to take a look around. The Titans were scattered across the entire continent: Cyborg searching the north, Starfire searching the east, Robin in the south, Beast Boy in the west, and Raven in central Asia.
They had been at it since the crack of dawn, and it was now drawing near late afternoon. Raven trudged through the dense undergrowth, pushing back large vines and tree branches, twigs giving out under her footsteps with small cricks.
How do we even know what we're looking for? Raven thought to herself.
It was true, too. The farmers who had reported the "attacks" had no description, besides the fact that it was bulky, traveled fast, and bloodthirsty. Not having seen the thing, the size was guessed by the large, five-toed impressions made in the dirt at the crime scenes– in other words, footprints, and big ones at that. But today, there was no evidence like such; no prints, destroyed undergrowth to suggest where the creature might have trod, nothing. For all Raven knew, this "monster" might as well have been a figment of the imagination. It could be, too. Nothing but a prank, a hoax. While the latter seemed more likely to her, there was still the chance that this thing might exist, even if only a large predator like a tiger, ect. There was at least one thing she knew for certain: if this thing was real, it sure was good at hiding.
Beep…beep
She pushed aside a fern branch when her communicator sounded. She stepped in front of the plant, and as she let go to grab her communicator, the branch snapped back into place behind her.
The empath flipped open the device to find Robin on the screen with rice fields stretched out behind him.
"Any luck yet, Raven?" This was the first time he'd called all day, and his tone sounded rather preoccupied, as if he was thinking the same thing Raven was.
"No. Not yet," came her monotonous reply. "To be honest, Robin, I don't think this thing even exists. There's no footprints, destroyed foliage, nothing."
"I know. There's nothing out here either, but as long as we have eye witness accounts, we have to keep looking." The Boy Wonder answered.
"Wonderful. What about the others?" Raven inquired.
"Nothing out their way, either. But call me if anything turns up. Just because we haven't seen anything yet doesn't mean it isn't out there."
"Will do." There is nothing out there, Robin. She'd do what he told her to do, but that didn't mean she had to believe there was something sabotaging farmers' profit.
"You remember what time to check back?"
"Yeah. Tomorrow, noon."
"Robin out."
The screen went black, and she flipped the device closed, returning it to its original place. Doing what she was told, Raven parted her way through the forest on the direction that she was going before Robin had called. Not long after she had resumed her hike, she reached a clearing, residing on the edge of a cliff. The trees disappeared, and small plants and grass grew along the ground, save for a few spots where dirt and rock poked through. The clearing was not really a cliff, but rather earth jutting out about fifty yards on the side of a tall hill, though it was still a steep drop of about seventy feet to the ground below. The edge of the forest arched around the clearing like a semi-circle, as if someone had used a giant ice cream scoop to dig out the trees and undergrowth.
She stepped out into the clearing. "Great. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse… a dead end." The empath said coldly, with a touch of frustration. She sighed.
Oh well…Better turn back around and—
Her thoughts were interrupted by a faint noise in the forest behind her. She turned around, facing the forest, with a mixed look of confusion and intent. The sounds were faint and recurring, like the ticking of a clock…only bigger. Much bigger. As the sound got closer, Raven pinpointed the sound as footsteps. As this thought crossed the empaths mind, she prepared herself for the worst. Trees bowed slightly and birds scattered in every which direction as whatever it was made its way closer and closer…
It couldn't possibly be…no…it couldn't. Could it?
Her intense violet gaze seemed to pierce the forest. At that moment, the thing made itself very clear as to what it was as it stuck its head out of the foliage, and began to sniff the air with its long, scaly snout. The sun shone off the creatures gleaming white scales. Its face was long and resembled that of an alligators, save for the long, menacing horns on the either sides of its head, near the base of its skull. Smaller horns stretched from the bottom of these horns, to its chiseled jowls. As the thing stretched further into the clearing, it revealed a long neck. It gingerly placed its feet, one after the other, into the edge of the clearing, each with five coal black claws about a foot long, and razor sharp.
A…dragon?!