The Choccy Chronicles

Chapter 9 - Progressing

The afternoon air was nice; a pungent aroma of crispy, sharp leaves and bark of the trees. A brittle breeze of petrichor filled the surrounding air, the smell by a light mist that was caused by the drizzle that had begun shortly after they had departed from the East gate of Calitoria.
Marlowe and co were wading waist-high through a low mist, stirred up by the small downpour that had begun over their heads. Whilst Mundo, Lupa and Terra easily trudged through the fenny forest, talking to each other in a language that Treble described as Lesodraconic or Lesdragathi. Lupa spoke more fluently, in a way more consistent tone that showed more confidence in himself.

"Ɱմղժօ հҽմɾðմ ʂҽ́ð ɾҽ́էէìɾղąɾ?" he asks, in a tone that perfectly befits his business role.Cunning and convincing.
"لą́ ą հѵҽɾʝմ?" Mundo replies, looking back at Marlowe and the others. Seeing them having a bit of fun in the fog, almost losing sight of them for a second before Treble pulled the group back en route.
"Ɛ́ց հҽ ҍąɾą ҽҟҟì ցօ́ðą էìӀìղղìղցմ վɾìɾ ҟąէէąɾʍąղղìղմʍ."
"ⱮąɾӀօաҽ?"
"لą́ հąղղ. Ƕօղմʍ ìղղʂէ... ҍմɾէ."
"Þąð ѵҽɾðմɾ ąӀӀէ í Ӏąցì, ҽɾ þąð ҽҟҟì Ͳҽɾɾą. Þմ́ æɾð ąղղąð էæҟìæɾì էìӀ ąð ժąղʂą վɾìɾ ą́հօɾҽղժմɾ." Mundo looks over to Terra, and she looks back at Mundo with a glint of overactiveness in her shining eyes and silvery scales.
"لȺ́! Ⱥð þҽʂʂմ ʂìղղì ʍմղ þąð ҽҟҟì ҽղժą ʍҽð օ́ʂҟօ̈քմʍ. ҽ́ց հҽӀժ." she affirmatively tells herself, before Mundo stops the group and lets Lupa walk on. Into the depths and foggy sprites of

They put all their camping gear down as they watch Lupa simply walk away. Going further and further into the forest till the fog had completely enveloped his giant scaly body. A sense of mystique and past filled the environment around them.
"Where did Lupa go?" Treble asked Mundo, who was looking straight ahead and looking down at their feet before urging everyone to step a bit further back.
"Lupa prefers to change in private. He's a little shy while he does it around strangers, I'm sure you would understand."

6 minutes later...

"What's taking so long?" Ewolram asks Marlowe, looking around for anything happening. "Is there supposed to be something happening or like?"
"I don't know." he whispers back to his shoulder buddy, "I'm starting to think Trebele got scammed."
The ground starts to tremble, shifting everyone's focus from their idle chatter to the sudden earthquake that just hit them. Followed up by a thunderous ROAARR. Only Terra and Mundo seemed unfazed by the unnatural disaster.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" shouted Ezra, as a hill seemingly starts growing in the distance. Causing the ground to unearth and disform at their fee before settling down.
"Probably Lupa's snoring, I'll go check whether or not he's fallen asleep again." Terra says, picking up all the prepared camping equipment with ease and walking off too.
"What's with all the gear? I thought it was a trip to Lightside, not a camping trip." Treble asks Mundo, "Plus did Lupa actually fall asleep on the job?"
"No no of course not, Terra's just going to check if he's done changing that's all." Mundo replies, watching Terra's tall figure walk off, lugging all their luggage into the fog. Another few minutes fly by, with the fog getting denser by the minute. Everyone was waiting in suspense-filled silence when DING DING DING!

Mundo pulls out a little device from his pocket, stopping the dinging sounds coming from it by tapping three times.
"That's Terra. It means Lupa's ready for us to begin our journey." Mundo tells the group, "Come on we don't want to keep them waiting as long as we did."
He starts trekking again, this time speeding his pace up to the point he left clawprints in the softened ground. Marlowe and the others followed suit, with Marlowe going up to Mundo to ask him a few questions, whilst Ezra messed around and joked with Avi.
"So. I'm going to guess you guys are earth dragons, right?" he asks the brown, scaly giant.
"Yes we are, Terra included." strongly replies Mundo, keeping his sights ahead. But paying enough attention to the curious, chocolatey coloured cat.
"But she's all crystally and silvery."
"She's our sister. Period."
Treble was intently listening to their conversation from behind them, piping up to say, "I've got a fun fact about earth dragons that I heard from someone. Apparently they hibernate for almost their entire lifetime, seems a bit redundant right?"
Mundo goes tsk tsk before tilting his head back a bit.
"Whoever said that 'fun fact' is lying. We only hibernate for almost 30% of our life." he waves around his claws, "I'll tell you a proper fun fact, did you know you can tell a greater dragon apart from a modern dragon by their scales?"
"Actually?" Treble and Marlowe said, even Ewolram's interest piqued at the hidden but plain fun fact about dragons.
"Yep. A modern dragon's scales have a hexagonal pattern, are more smaller and numerous. Meanwhile our greater selves have less scales, but bigger and pentagonal shaped scales." Mundo looks at the amazed faces of the two anthros looking up at him, "Amazing right?"