Rank: Deer 'taur/Candidate
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Hair: Light brown, to nape of neck, frizzy
Eyes: Dark brown
Fur: Reddish brown with white belly
Appearance: Nyscer has a mostly-human body from the waist up, but that of a deer below his waist, like a centaur. His deer half has shaggy, red-brown fur, with a white belly and tailtip. His human half has lightly tanned skin, light brown hair, and wide, dark brown eyes. He also a pair of small, three-pointed antlers on his head. He typically wears an open, sleeveless vest for clothing, but that's about it.
Personality: He's peaceful, gentle, and calm, like most of his kind. He's extremely protective of those he cares about, and very loyal to anyone who manages to gain his trust. He's also a bit of a loner, however, and has a small circle of close friends. He prefers to be alone, wandering about the forest and exploring.
Pets: Male Bronze Flitter, Umaon
Female Cream Flitter, Syde
From: Lantessama Isle
Dragon: Brown Domach
You spin to your right suddenly as you hear something crashing noisily through the underbrush towards you. Frightened, you jumped off the path and hide behind a large oak tree. Peeking out from behind your shelter, you spy a large, terrified rabbit, squeeling as it rushes straight across the forest path, before disappearing into the undergrowth on the other side, like a phantom melting into a green mist.
You heave a sigh of relief, laughing at yourself for being so gullible. Your mirth is cut short, however, as a much larger shape bursts out of the forests, chasing after the rabbit. It is graceful, and moves surprisingly silently for a creature of its size. At first glance you think it's a deer. But then you look closer, and your eyes widen in shock.
You barely have time to see more than its long, thin legs and a white-tipped puff of a tail before it disappears, but you almost think you're dreaming. Except for its deer-like body, the creature looked like a centaur.
Nyscer cursed as he jammed his front legs into the ground, sliding a bit as he came to a sudden halt. He'd lost sight of the rabbit, and it was probably long gone by now. He dug one cloven hoof into the ground in irritation, gritting his teeth as he looked around him. He drew an arrow from the quiver strapped across his back and nocked his bow. The large, eloquently-carved longbow was held at the ready as Nyscer studied the forest around him hopefully.
A dainty, dusky brown shape stepped carefully onto the path. Nyscer smiled, swishing his deer tail back and forth as he set down his bow. The doe looked up at his approach, dark eyes wide with fear as her ears stood straight up. She watched him warily, but did not move away when he approached.
Nyscer walked toward the doe slowly, hands outstretched in front of him unthreateningly. He came up beside the deer's head and smiled as he stroked her velvety nose reassuringly. "Don't worry," He said softly. "You have nothing to fear from me, heartsister."
The doe nuzzled him affectionately before leaping off into the brush. Nyscer smiled, trotting back to where his bow and arrow lay on the ground, and picked up his belongings before resuming his hunt. His pointed ears were cocked as he listened intently for any sounds that would lead him to prey, but the forest around him was silent and peaceful.
Indeed, the forest was silent. Too silent, in fact. No birds flitted through the trees, singing their songs, and no insects hummed incessantly. There was no life in this part of the forest, and that meant something was wrong.
Nyscer's ears pricked, and the hairs on the back of his neck were raised. He smelled death nearby. He leapt off the path, and into the forest proper. A human would have found it difficult to make their way through the intruding greenery, but then, Nyscer was no mere human. He was of the forest; it was his home.
He darted between towering trees, and his hooves hardly seemed to touch the ground as they brushed through the ferns which turned the forest floor into a shallow sea of green. He halted again, his hooves sliding in the loose dirt from the force of his momentum. A dusky brown deer lay in the dirt. The feathery ferns around the body were stained sanguine, covered as they were with blood.
Nyscer stepped forward slowly, bending his long legs to kneel beside the dead doe. A long, feathered arrow was still stuck inside her breast. He grabbed it, pulling it out of the deer's chest as the red blood poured over his hands. The arrowhead was sharp, and barbed. It was also large, obviously meant for large game.
Nyscer's dark eyes narrowed in his tanned face. Humans. Who else would dare to murder a creature of this forest for sport? He climbed to his hooves, nocking his bow. Fortunately, he thought about what he was doing and put the arrow back. His kind were peaceful, they did not kill except to eat, and took no pleasure in hurting another living beast; no matter how much they may deserve it.
He bent down, stroking the head-rapidly growing cold-fondly. "Farewell, heartsister. Great ones see you safe."
Having said his farewells, he turned on his hooves and galloped off into the forest. He wasn't quite ready to go home yet, though. He still had too much anger in his heart. So he made his way towards one of his favorite places; a small pond, surrounded by weeping willow trees and peaceful.
He trotted through the drooping branches, so like a fine curtain, and lay beside the water, sighing. An urgent chirping sound caught his attention, and his ears pricked up as he turned towards the sound. A small, creamy-colored creature stumbled into the clearing, creeling piteously.
Nyscer furrowed his eyebrows as he stood up and trotted to the tiny creature. He bent down and picked the creature up in his hands, where it sat, crooning and looking up at him with whirling, rainbow eyes, faceted, like an insect's.
No sooner had he set sight on the little cream-colored dragon-like creature, that another one stumbled out of the forest. This one was larger, and a dark orangeish color, like a newly forged bronze statue. The bronze hatchling-which they obviously were, being so tiny and helpless-creeled, and unfurled overly-large wings clumsily, obviously wanting to join its sibling in his hand.
Nyscer smiled, bending again to gather the little bronze dragonet in his hands. He wondered what they were, and where they had come from, but it didn't concern him much. He could sense that they were benevolent, though hungry. His own stomach rumbled in protest, and he laughed.
"Sounds like we're all hungry. I guess I'd better take you home with me so you won't starve to death, huh?"
The cream female crooned, butting her head against his chest affectionately. Nyscer smiled. "Let's see...I think I'll call you...Syde." The cream hatchling chirped approvingly before darting a look at her bronze brother.
"You..." The bronze looked up at Nyscer with whirling eyes curiously. "I'll call you Umaon." Umaon crooned happily, and jumped onto Nyscer's shoulder, where he wrapped his long tail around his neck and promptly fell asleep. Syde jumped onto his other shoulder and did the same. So, Nyscer smiled and continued on his way, though now with two new friends.
Syde wheeled in the air, circling far above Nyscer's head. In three weeks, the two flitters had grown considerably, though Nyscer was fairly certain that the dragonets had not yet attained full growth. They were capable of flight, however. (And, in fact, had been capable of it as soon as their wings had sufficiently dried after hatching.) Syde chirped at her owner, diving straight down for a few feet before recovering her height, and repeating her stunt.
Nyscer smiled, nocking his longbow as he trotted in the direction Syde had come from, where her keen eyes had spotted hidden prey. He slowed down as he neared, and crept along the forest floor almost completely silently as he readied an arrow.
There it was! A large, snowy white rabbit sat blinking in the early morning sunlight, twitching its pink nose cutely. Nyscer raised his bow, sighting along his arm as he took aim. As soon as he loosed the arrow, however, Umaon screeched, and Nyscer looked up, just as a large green dragon appeared where the rabbit had stood, which had since run off to safety.
The arrow struck the dragon on the shoulder, but thanks to the dragon's hard scales and shoulder plates, the arrow simply bounced off harmlessly. Nyscer gasped in alarm at the sight of the dragon, green with a pair of leathery wings extending not from its back, but from the forearms. The green dragon turned to look straight at Nyscer as a young human man appeared, rushing to the dragon's side worriedly.
"Crnac! Are you alright?" He asked worriedly.
The dragon snorted, still staring at Nyscer, and the human finally noticed him. Nyscer hung his head, still mostly hidden in the trees. "I'm sorry." He said regretfully. "I was aiming for the rabbit, but it just...appeared out of nowhere. The arrow was meant for small game, though, I don't think it would have done the dragon any harm."
The human regarded him mistrustfully for a moment, then nodded and held out his hand in a human greeting. "I'm Merik. This is my dragon, Crnac."
Nyscer smiled and stepped out into the open. The human stared at him, his eyes straying from the three-pointed antlers and pointed ears down his deer legs and tail. Nyscer grinned wryly. Apparently the human had never seen one of his kind before; not surprising, precious few humans ever had.
He stepped forward and grasped the human's hand with one of his own, and they shook. "My name is Nyscer." Umaon and Syde dropped down, landing on his shoulders, where they watched the stranger and his dragon warily. "And these two are Umaon and Syde." Nyscer added.
Merik did not seem nearly as surprised at the appearance of the flitters as he was at their owner, which perplexed Nyscer. "Where are you from, that you travel with such a remarkable creature?" He asked, staring admiringly at the green dragon.
Merik smiled, pride for his dragon showing in his eyes. "I bonded Crnac on Tris'Hath, but we live here on Myrithica, in the capital city. There's a clutch ready for bonding there now." He pointed out.
"Clutch? Bonding?" Nyscer inquired, polite as always.
Merik answered his questions about dragons and bonding, then the next one, and the one after that...
"You mean, if I go try to bond one of these dragons, I'll have a bond with it, sort of like I have with these two?" He asked, pointing at Umaon and Syde.
Merik nodded in affirmation. "Only stronger. Do you want to try it?"
Nyscer cocked his head, twitching his tail back and forth as he thought it over. He looked down at the human and smiled. "Sure, why not?"
