Tal would like to think that he wasn't usually so careless as to let someone sneak up on him, but his attention was entirely focused on the Void plant and his task, and it was the dragon who spared the stranger a single glance and then returned her full focus to the Tangleweed when the man stopped a ways back without offering threat.
Because her human should have made his move ten minutes ago, but the courier was struggling with his memories of what had happened the last time he'd gotten too close to one of those wretched infected plantimals and Trauma™ could be a bitch.
But it was now or never, and without outward warning Tal got his shit together and lunged towards the quiescent Void Tangleweed. He got a hand on it, slapping the shadowed sphere of limbs and hunger with the gauntlet holding the sparkly bauble, and as soon as he was sure that the charm had touched the Void flora he lifted his booted foot and kicked the Tangleweed into a nearby shallow stream. "Now!" he called to the dragon, but she was already in motion. Muscles bunching, she bounded out of the tree and into the air, flapping powerfully to approximate a clumsy hover directly over the suddenly mobile and irate Tangleweed as it stretched back towards the shore and the courier. Flame poured down from her blunt maw, burning and withering the infection from the Glade as steam rose up around it in a cloud.
Tal's Dagger was out in his hand but he held back, pulling his Goggles down over his eyes to check the progress of the Void fucker's fiery demise as it burned to the waterline, and boiled below it.
He didn't relax until he was sure it was dead; a blackened husk flaking apart as it began to float away. Sliding his Dagger back into his sheath he grinned fiercely up at his dragon, still oblivious to the man who had joined him. "Atta girl. You're gettin' steak tonight!"
Because her human should have made his move ten minutes ago, but the courier was struggling with his memories of what had happened the last time he'd gotten too close to one of those wretched infected plantimals and Trauma™ could be a bitch.
But it was now or never, and without outward warning Tal got his shit together and lunged towards the quiescent Void Tangleweed. He got a hand on it, slapping the shadowed sphere of limbs and hunger with the gauntlet holding the sparkly bauble, and as soon as he was sure that the charm had touched the Void flora he lifted his booted foot and kicked the Tangleweed into a nearby shallow stream. "Now!" he called to the dragon, but she was already in motion. Muscles bunching, she bounded out of the tree and into the air, flapping powerfully to approximate a clumsy hover directly over the suddenly mobile and irate Tangleweed as it stretched back towards the shore and the courier. Flame poured down from her blunt maw, burning and withering the infection from the Glade as steam rose up around it in a cloud.
Tal's Dagger was out in his hand but he held back, pulling his Goggles down over his eyes to check the progress of the Void fucker's fiery demise as it burned to the waterline, and boiled below it.
He didn't relax until he was sure it was dead; a blackened husk flaking apart as it began to float away. Sliding his Dagger back into his sheath he grinned fiercely up at his dragon, still oblivious to the man who had joined him. "Atta girl. You're gettin' steak tonight!"
