Sent Forward (Open)

Edrick's attention was taken from his surroundings to the young girl. He wondered what someone so young would be doing in a forest, but thought better than to ask.
"Good evening miss," He spoke with a slight bow of his head. Not even a second after his greeting did he notice a figure cantering on their.... deer?....l; towards the two. His eyes narrowed to see the person better. Well, he had wanted his boredom to be cured.

Rannoch and Oskan reached the knight and the girl rather quickly, the stag rearing up noisily and blowing brutishly from his snout. Once his deer had calmed itself, Rannoch addressed the two people before him;
"Er, e-excuse me, sir and miss," the young man said awkwardly, "I don't suppose either of you know where the nearest town is, do you? You see, we've just come down off the mountain and I'm not to sure where to go. I have to do trade their before the weather warms up to much."

Edrick nodded slowly to the young man. Though he was curious about it, he did not ask him about his steed.
"We're just West of Thaliwan. The nearest kingdom would probably be Adriwia. Do you wish for directions?" He asked the man.

Rannoch's eyes darkened at the mention of Adriwia, but he quickly pushed it away and looked down at the knight with as friendly a face as he could muster.
"Directions would be much appreciated, thank you."

Edrick nodded to the young man, accepting his thanks. "If you head West," The knight pointed in the direction "For maybe two hours at a walk you'll reach a waterfall. There, turn north and you'll end up on a path that will lead to Thaliwan. There is transport there that can get you to Adriwia faster."

Rannoch was about to thank the knight when he spotted the dragon perch on the girl's shoulder, who, up until now, had been paid little attention to by the boy and his deer.
He couldn't contain a disbelieving laugh.
"Is that dragon yours?" the flame-haired wanderer asked, some of his previous awkward timidness melting away, "I've never seen a person and a dragon get along so well."

Edrick looked at the small dragon, impressed by how well she was handled by the young girl. "How old is she? I don't know much about dragons, but she doesn't look more than a tyke," He asked her.

Rannoch had been watching the dragon curiously as its scales shifted colour until he finally realised what it was doing.
"Yes, look at that," he exclaimed, "She's copying you, Oskan. She wants to be a deer, just like you."
The stag simply snorted indignantly in reply before dropping his head to snuffle a patch of grass growing out of the dirt path.

Oskan grunted in a way that sounded like laughter as he watched the little dragon dismiss the grass with a disgusted expression. The deer raised his head again, still munching on grass and his mighty antlers held high.
Rannoch had also seen the dragon's performance, and chuckled to himself. Then, turning to the knight, thanked him and announced he would be on his way.
"It was a pleasure, ma-lady," he said with a dip of his head to Azalia and her dragon, "And you too, sir. I hope to see you again in Thaliwan."
And with that, and another 'hut, hut' that sent Oskan off at a canter, the wanderer soon disappeared over the bow of the hill.

Edrick watched the stranger ride off on his deer. It still was a wonder to him why anyone would want to ride a deer. They were quite bouncy.
He looked at the girl afterwards. "I did not get your name," He told to the maiden.

"My name is Edrick," He introduced himself, smiling at the dragon.

Rannoch continued down the widening path, Oskan's norrow hooves thundering rhythmically across the ground. Soon he saw movement up ahead and decided to duck into the trees, thinking that it may be the group of soldiers that knight had belonged to. But Oskan hadn't moved one foot towards the trees the lined the path when they burst into flames, the bows and trunks splintering into charred pieces. In a blurr of panic, Oskan reered up frightfully high, flinging his rider from his saddle for him to land with a painful thud onto the hard ground. 
Dazed and winded, Rannoch struggled shakily to his feet. His eyes stang with smokey tears and all the breath had been punched out of him. He saw the flames smouldering in the background, the foreground taken up by the flayling figure of Oskan.
Holding his hands out to calm the beast, Rannoch was soon able to mount his deer once again, his mind racing on what to do next: should I get out of here before I'm swallowed by the flames, or ride back and warn those people?
The wanderer was about to kick his stag along the path to Thaliwan when something glinted from the sky. The steel blue scales of a dragon caught the sunlight as it roared angrily across the landscape, blasting the wooded mountainsides with it's firey breath.
Much to Oskan's instinctive protest, Rannoch doubled back and burst through growing red flames, thundering back to where he had met the stragers. He just hoped he wasn't too late.

All kindness was lost from the knights face as he heard the dragon's screech pierce through the air. Already the acrid smell of smoke had entered his senses and he could see the younger boy, galloping towards the two with a desperate expression.
Jax began pawing at the ground underneath him, showing his anxiety. "How close is the fire?" He shouted to the boy once he was in a close enough range.

"Not a mile away, and closing fast," Rannoch called back as Oskan continued on, his running uneven as he fled the fire before skidding to a halt in front of the knight and the girl. "We should get out of here; I don't know why it's doing this but I think we should make sure we're out of harm's way."

"My guess is it's enslaved," Edrick replied back to the younger man, a screech emitting from the dragon after his statement.
"We need to get back to my men. Follow my lead!" The knight ordered, kicking Jax and sending him off into a gallop towards his men only a minute East.