Under The Moon, Amidst The Trees [Valentine's Day Event] (Akeya Kuusai/Lumina Rubyscale)

Akeya was standing underneath a particularly large tree, watching the moonlight illuminate the ground where the foliage high above didn't protect it. She would step out and let the moonlight touch her as well, but not yet. She was planning the results of that to be a surprise for the person she was waiting for. She had the feeling that she would appreciate it, or at least be impressed. Honestly Akeya still wasn't sure what had happened that her body would react like that whenever it was exposed to moonlight, but it didn't appear to be harmful in the slightest, instead feeling somewhat refreshing and invigorating whenever it occurred. There wasn't anything she could think of that could be seen as a drawback, since she could still turn the effect off if necessary. And since it was both invigorating and admittedly looked pretty good (at least, she herself thought so and she was pretty sure that anybody who saw it thought so as well) she had no reason to think badly of it or try to hide it. Instead she would use it as a kind of present, or at least a surprise, for the person she would meet here.

The reason why they would meet in this place was partially because of that moonlight, which tended to come out strongly here. The other reason was that this place had beautiful forests which had grown up in the shadows, creating even more shadows for Akeya to hide in and make use of if necessary. It was a nice place, and Akeya quite liked it. She wasn't the kind to get sentimental or attached to specific locations, but she had to admit that if she had to choose a place to be this island, called Shadow Island, would most definitely be somewhere in the top of the list, right next to the village which she had lived in her entire youth and which she had left to learn more about the world and the many magics it contained. It wasn't completely certain why this place always had shady days and nights where the moon was at least as bright as the sun could hope to be, if not brighter, but it suited Akeya perfectly. Absolute darkness was boring and did not attract her attention. The best place to be was there were the light and the darkness were in both conflict and harmony, both present and absent. This island provided that a lot better than almost any place which wasn't artificial in nature.

And the fact that this place had these forests would also be good for the person that Akeya was meeting. Lumina loved plants, since she was a Dragon Slayer who manipulated and used plants instead of a more usual element like Akeya herself. It was curious, and Akeya was still trying to figure out all that there was to know about the newly discovered Rose Dragons, but if it made Lumina happier while close to nature and the plants then she might as well make use of that and make their meeting place one with much greenery. Besides, Akeya didn't have anything against forests herself. Forests were perfect places for hunting, at least the kind that she preferred and was so good at. There were many obstacles, hiding places, ways to track prey, shadows... For a Shadow Dragon a forest was a good place to be in, since it played straight into all their advantages and removed many of the disadvantages. A good forest didn't allow a lot of sunlight to get through, meaning that even during the day it was filled with shadows.

The half dragon thought about the girl that she had recently met, the girl called Lumina Rubyscale. She herself as a person was also curious, mostly because she was a dragon yet at the same time she wasn't. She was supposed to be the legacy of the Rose Dragons, who would help their existence continue in the future even after the humans had tried to hunt all the Rose Dragons down. The girl still had ways to go before Akeya believed she was up to the task though. Her control over the plants was already pretty good, and she had raw strength, but she had to learn a lot. Akeya might not be the best judge of this, since her dedication to becoming an excellent hunter and assassin was strong enough that it could be considered insanity, but she could teach Lumina a lot. To be wary, to read people correctly, to observe her surroundings and pick up on everything that could be important without spending too much time looking at that which didn't matter. To not let other people realize that you were observing your surroundings, to hide with skill rather than with magic and spells. To rely on technique rather than raw power. To utilize her plants to the fullest, to become creative with how she used what she had. To think of ways to win rather than ways to fight, to always be the predator and never the prey. To hide, disguise, deceive, trick, utilize, observe, discern, judge, research, study, learn, train, improve, win, lose, hunt, escape... There were a ton of things that Akeya could teach Lumina, and she was actually willing to teach her all those things.

Lumina was special because she was so far as Akeya knew the only human aside from herself who was actively turning into a dragon, not trying to prevent it or running away from it. Most Dragon Slayers never realized the situation they were in, but the ones that did either did their best to not turn into a dragon or stopped using Dragon Slaying Magic because they were afraid. Lumina wasn't completely aware, but she wasn't running. Akeya was curious about Lumina herself, her origins, the Rose Dragons, and what she would become in the future. Which meant she would be keeping a close eye on the girl.

Although today wasn't meant to be a day of serious matters. She wasn't going to train Lumina in anything unless the woman herself asked. Akeya had taken a day off (unusual for her) to just hang out with the girl in a location they both would like. She had thought of it after being reminded of the human tradition called valentine's day. She wasn't treating this like an actual date, more like just an opportunity to learn more about one another and try to establish a good relationship, but if Lumina wanted to see it as a date she wasn't going to deny it. She had this strange desire to actually help Lumina rather than being fully apathetic. Maybe it had to do with Mayu's request to help her look after the woman.

Lumina had gotten to the Island earlier in the day to set up, well not really set up but find some things. She had searched the island for a set of flowers, mainly cause the book she bought said she was suppose to bring some. Although she was a bit confused as to why it stated that all women liked flowers and men should do their best to bring some to their date. Lumina didn't want just normal flowers, she wanted something that would bloom when Akeya was most powerful, at night. She knew that Ipomoea alba bloomed at night, that flower was her goal and so far she had found about 6 perfect specimens but she wanted a total of ten. She would spend more than half the day hunting them down. Then finally she had all the flowers she wanted, she smiled and looked at the plants she had acquired. Lumina had not just taken flowers but instead dug up the entire plants, careful not to harm the plants.

"Whew and still got a few hours till the date!"

Lumina sat down and picked up the first plant, she had something special in mind and it would take time to do. She focused on the pure white flower in her hands, she felt how it grew and thats where she would start. She used her connection to nature to ask the flower to bless her with one of its seeds, the plant did so. Lumina took the seed and set aside, she then returned the plant to its soil and fed it a little bit of her power so it would survive. She repeated this with the 9 other flowers, each was returned to the soil. The entire process took over a hour to do and left Lumina exhausted but she was far from done.

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Several hours later
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Lumina had managed to do what she wanted and even had enough time to catch a nap before the date. She woke up a bit early and headed down to a stream she had found, it had been dirty when she had first found it, but she had asked the plants around it to clean it. With a bit of her power they had obliged, the stream was now crystal clear. Lumina jumped in, causing a huge slash as she did. She then spent the next 10 minutes scrubbing herself down, she wanted to look nice for Akeya. She hopped out after she was clean and dried herself off with a towel she had brought with, once she was dry she put on the new clothing she had gotten. A simple black dress with red flecks in the shape of rose petals, very fitting for her to wear in her mind. Once she was dressed she moved back over to where she left her bag and fished out her mirror, a little square thing about 6 inches wide on each end. She set up up in a tree and went about doing her hair, which just meant brushing it, this took some work but she managed. Once she was done she retrieved the flowers she had worked so hard on, they were set up so they would have to be partial unwrapped to be seen. Lumina smiled and hid her bag up in a tree and made her way to the meeting point, she was very excited.

"OH! right"


Lumina skid to a stop and ran all the way back to her bag, she fished out a small black sphere. This was medicine to stop her body from reacting to Akeya so adversly, mainly the production of pheromones. She popped in in her mouth and worked it unbetween her teeth, where she crushed it. It was bitter and tasted like stale bread, but she swallowed it down. Lumina also pulled a large leather bound book from her bag, the cover read "History of Rose Dragon", after which she replaced her bag in the tree and again headed out, this time making it all the way to Akeya. Lumina reached the tree where Akeya was waiting and walked up shyly.

"Hello Shadowscale."

Lumina called Akeya Shadowscale, something she had read in the book. It was a way to honor both the dragon and the element they controlled. Lumina smiled at Akeya and held out the flowers she had work so hard on.

"I made you something, take a look."

Inside was a bunch of Moonflowers, which looked ordinary but really were quite special, and the moon would reveal that. They would not show their gift under the tree, but in open moonlight. To Lumina this was a date as Lumina had every intention of becoming her mate, she would not give up either.

Akeya straightened up as she sensed Lumina's approach, unfolding her arms as she turned towards the Rose Dragon. It looked like Lumina had gone through some effort to look good for this meeting: Akeya could smell that she had washed herself recently, and it looked like she had also tried her best to brush her hair. Beyond that there was the dress, which gave away Lumina's intentions rather blatantly. Akeya might not have intended this as a real date, but it looked like the other Dragon Slayer had different intentions entirely. Well, Akeya wouldn't bother arguing about it. The goal of this meeting was for them to establish a better relationship, so if she could make the girl happier by going along with the idea that this was also meant to be romantic she had no reason to refuse or be obstinate.

The half dragon would have felt awkward about not having bothered to make herself look better than usual for this meeting if it wasn't for two things: one, she had never stated this would be a date, and two, her usual was already stunning enough so far as she was concerned. Akeya's pride in her own appearance was strong enough that it could almost be considered palpable whenever the subject was brought up. If she always looked good, why would she bother trying to look even better? Besides of that there was also the question what Akeya could even do that would help. She took proper care of her hair anyway, keeping clean was part of avoiding diseases and infections, and these days she didn't really like any of that fancy clothing that humans used for dates and similar occasions. Well, she liked seeing them, but she herself wasn't one for dresses. She had a couple for formal occasions, but she wouldn't actually use those unless she could avoid it. Well, Lumina either would just not care or would just have to live with the fact that Akeya wasn't going all out on this meeting.

Beyond Lumina's own outfit it looked like she had also brought some stuff with her, which drew Akeya's curiosity. She saw two things: flowers, and a rather large and old book. As could be expected of the half dragon, the book drew more of her attention, since since she wanted to know what was in the book and if Lumina had brought it specifically so Akeya could read it. As for the flowers, the half dragon knew that giving flowers was a human tradition amongst couples. Different flowers could also mean different things, although you could also choose to just find the most extravagant flowers and focus on beauty rather than meaning. On the other hand, Akeya didn't think that Lumina was the type to really care about human customs. Or know about them. More likely that the Rose Dragons just happened to have a similar tradition. After all, they were called Rose Dragons. They controlled plants. They couldn't possibly have left that whole thing out of their courting rituals, even if the half dragon didn't really know anything about them in that regard. She only knew that Lumina had the tendency to secrete pheromones whenever near her. Actually, she didn't seem to be doing that this time. Curious. did she consciously go through the effort of stopping that, or did her original excitement at meeting Akeya die down by now? The Shadow Dragon didn't know.

Being greeted with the name Shadowscale felt a bit strange to Akeya. Her last name was Kuusai, and even though she was becoming a dragon she still carried that name with pride. After all, her family wasn't weak, even if they weren't awakening their draconic heritage like she had. Her father in particular was very strong. She knew that Lumina meant it as a sign of respect, so she didn't object to it or tell her to call her something else, but it still sounded a bit off to her. Maybe she just had to get used to it. The name Shadowscale itself wasn't bad at all, seeing what it implied, so if she could get used to it she would have another name to proudly carry.

"Greetings Rubyscale."

Might as well return the favour. As Lumina showed the flowers to her Akeya raised her eyebrows. She had seen similar flowers before, but these appeared to be special. That was without a doubt related to the fact that Lumina said 'made' rather than 'brought'. She wasn't sure what exactly Lumina had done with the flowers, but it was unlikely to be harmful. For one thing, Lumina should know that Blue Pegasus knew that Akeya was meeting her today in this place. Trying to do something to Akeya which would leave her unable to return to Blue Pegasus meant that the guild would know of at least one possible suspect. Aside from that, the half dragon didn't think that the girl had any cause to try and use a trick like that on her. With both those reasons in mind Akeya accepted the flowers, looking at them before looking at Lumina and nodding.

"They look quite nice. I haven't made anything for you, but I do have a surprise that you might enjoy. Follow me."

With that the half dragon began to walk out from under the tree, towards the nearest spot where she would be fully exposed to the bright moonlight. She was holding onto the flowers, not sure where to put them so just keeping them for now. First she would show the surprise. When she stepped into the moonlight Akeya's eyebrows went up as she noticed that the flowers had begun to glow. That was interesting, and impressive as well. Lumina must have put a lot of effort into causing that effect. It was actually quite endearing, which only made Akeya feel like she had even more reason to show the girl her own surprise than before.

Turning around to the Rose Dragon Akeya allowed her body to begin taking in the silver moonlight, with the resulting effects becoming apparent within seconds. The Shadow Dragon had midnight blue scales, midnight blue wings, midnight blue claws, midnight blue tattoos, raven hair... She was quite the dark figure, especially since her skin was also olive. However now that the moonlight was being taken in by all those dark traits that all got reversed. Her hair, her scales, her wings, her tattoos, everything began to become pale, change colour, until Akeya was decorated with bright silver that glowed in the moonlight rather than her usual shady appearance. Her olive skin hadn't turned silver, but it had turned pale, pale enough that in the moonlight it could be seen as white. Akeya looked silently at Lumina for a moment to gauge her reaction before speaking, not realizing that her current appearance combined with the glowing Moonflowers suspiciously well.

"In the past I went on a mission to find the Tears of the Moon, and when I found them this happened. It appears that my body absorbs the moonlight if it is strong enough. I may not have made it myself as a gift to you, but I hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless."

When Lumina caught sight of Akeya in the moonlight, she was lost for words. All she could do is stare and marvel at the Dragoness standing in the sunlight. She recovered quite quickly though, she smiled and nodded.

"Yes your right... I do like it."

Lumina sighed, she was out of idea's already, the stupid book that she had bought didn't really help her. Lumina sighed and looked up into the sky, she had made plans... but they were all done with, this whole dating thing was confusing. Lumina just huffed and returned her eyes to Akeya.

"What do you want to do? To be fair i have no damn clue what im doing... but... well... I er... find you attractive..."

Lumina's face turned the color of Mayu's scales and she shrank down a bit, embarrased to have said it so bluntly.

Akeya observed Lumina's reaction to her own surprise carefully. The Rose Dragon looked genuinely astonished and amazed, which was good. Akeya wasn't lying when she said that she had never really intended for this to happen, and certainly hadn't prepared it for Lumina, but she had thought that the girl would like it, and it looked like she wasn't wrong in that assessment. And besides the fact that it affirmed that she was still good at guessing how people would react, it was also nice to see that at least Lumina appreciated Akeya's beauty. The half dragon was an incredibly proud creature, knowing that she was exotic and beautiful and refusing to be persuaded otherwise. Anybody who couldn't see her as the beauty she was had to either be uncomfortable because of the dragon parts (or of the human parts), intentionally trying to rouse her ire, or had no taste worth mentioning. Knowing that Lumina was neither of those things meant that she at least had none of those flaws.

As Lumina admitted that she liked it Akeya nodded, remaining standing in the moonlight as she had no reason to return to the shadows. Well, she liked being in the shadows, but for now she could tolerate exposing herself to the moonlight to make the Rose Dragon happy. And in the back of her mind she had to admit that feeling her body absorb and re-emit the moonlight was an invigorating experience. The half dragon watched Lumina with raised eyebrows as the female spoke up once again, asking Akeya what she wanted to do, admitting that she found the half dragon quite attractive. It was to be expected that Lumina didn't know what to do next: it was obvious that she came here with the intentions of going out on a date. However she was not the kind of person who could easily take charge when faced with somebody who she genuinely was attracted to. Not that she was lacking in willpower, but a lot of people had trouble with that kind of thing. The more attracted to somebody you were the more their opinion would matter to you, and for most people that left them crippled by indecision as they feared that whatever they did would result in the source of their desire being disappointed.

The half dragon folded her arms as she thought about the best way to deal with this. She didn't have any reason not to indulge Lumina in her desire to have a date, even if she herself didn't feel the same way. However Akeya had to make it clear to Lumina that her approach to these matters was not the same as that of the humans. She wasn't as emotionally motivated, she was a lot colder and a lot more logical. Lumina should not be expecting of her to have this be a normal date, and it would be frustrating for the both of them if the half dragon didn't make that clear from the very beginning. Keeping that in mind Akeya tilted her head to the side before speaking.

"I do not have any real plans or desires myself, at least not any specifically enough to count as something we could simply do. My objective for this meeting is for us to get on better terms, learning more about each other and growing more comfortable with each other's presence. Seeing how we are in the same position regarding our nature as future dragons it would be better if we could help each other without issue or restraint. I do not know the best way to achieve this, since different people have different ways of becoming comfortable with another person, and if I knew you well enough to know the best method for you this exercise would already have been partially accomplished. However, I should at least make one thing clear before we continue."

Akeya pointed at herself, her gaze as usually containing enough focus for it to feel like a physical weight as she looked at Lumina with an extremely serious expression. She was studying the female, but also trying to carry a message in that stare: she wanted Lumina to listen very closely, to pay attention, and to understand what the half dragon was trying to say.

"You should not be expecting this to go like a normal date as the humans do it. You might have been raised to become a Rose Dragon, but you are still showing traits which are distinctly humanoid in nature. Whether this is instinct or something purposefully done by the Rose Dragon who raised you I do not know. However my mind and soul are of the wrong kind to partake in such a date. I find the methods that humans use to express affection for their significant one excessive and frankly quite uninteresting. I am not a romantic person. My mind is one of cold logic and reason. I find myself enjoying your presence, and am interested in you, but do not ask of me to show enthusiasm if we end up doing something overly affectionate and romantic the way that the humanoids show their affection. I apologize if this saddens you, but I'd rather make it clear that I am not a good partner for such things as a romantic meal or whatever else those humanoids like to do."

She once again folded her arms, shrugging lightly.

"Now, with that out of the way, what would you like to do? I do not want to hear anything which you think is fitting for a date. I don't want suggestions which clearly did not originate from your own mind. If you were asked what you wanted to do right now, what would the answer be in your mind that you would normally try to filter and make appropriate for others to hear? I will not be offended, I will not become agitated, I will not judge. If we are to become used to each other's presence and become comfortable with each other we must be able to share our actual thoughts, desires, and intentions without restraints or filters. If you feel like you need to make your desire sound better that is a sign that you are still not completely comfortable around me, which is what we are trying to get rid of."