wisteriawish (![]() ![]() @ 2011-08-18 15:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: jocelyn, date: september 2025, thread complete: house points awarded, type: thread |
Who: Jocelyn Narrative
When: backdated Wednesday
What: inner turmoil, not so inner pain
Where: Dragon Reserve/ St Mungo's
The trip to the dragon reserve was one that was fraught with inner turmoil for Jocelyn. She didn't want to go, didn't like dragons, and the idea of facing that up close and very personal, of explaining to touring groups about a specific dragon was terrifying. She was looking forward to the possibility of meeting one of Jamie's uncles, but that was the only part of this trip that had the least bit of appeal. It hadn't occurred to her that it might not be the dragon reserve he worked at. Joce didn't want to think about dragons, they brought back too many memories, she pulled her knees up against her chest, her mind wandering as they went over the dragons and what was to be done. It wasn't until they called her name to announce which dragon she was assigned to that she looked up again. It had to be the Hebridean Black. She shook her head, all color draining from her caramelcream skin, green eyes wide as saucers. No no no nononono. Any one but that one, but there were no changes, no trades. She felt sick suddenly, she didn't think she could do this. There was that core of bravery within her but usually that happened when she was standing up for someone else, when she was pushed into a corner and when she wanted to go on little adventures. When it came to darkness and dragons, she was not at all brave.
Jocelyn had gone over the paperwork and she knew quite a bit from her studies, the bare facts given to the groups about the dragon were not hard. So long as she didn't actually look at it and just gestured, it wasn't that big of a deal. She even managed to get through all of her groups without any sort of issue. the problem was that the longer she remained, the more agitated she became and the more agitated she became, the more it was exuded in body language, vibration and scent. It didn't matter that the Hebridian Black was not a dragon that typically dined on humans, they were dangerous, had killed humans, at least one incident of it she knew of.
All that was left for her to do was go and pick up her evaluations and see how she had done. It was the first time she expected for a magizoology grade to be bad. She wasn't looking forward to it, but it was better than lingering here and just being with this dragon, a creature that might be the same or at least related to the one that had killed Darien. She couldn't just leave. She had to face that fear, face the dragon and maybe, maybe put things to rest, put that part of her past behind her and finally move beyond it. Her own issue was overpowering in her mind, which meant that she wasn't paying as much attention as she should. She looked around, making sure she wasn't being watched and scrambled into the enclosure then up onto an outcropping of rocks.
All she really wanted was to face her fears, her hatred, the pain of loss. Somewhere though she lost whatever it was that had been in her head about the dragon and perched, wanting to look it in the eyes, face it down and overcome her own issues. She swallowed hard, climbed out onto the ledge and shouted, drawing the creature's attention. It didn't attack, not at first, just met her gaze. Some animals do not react well to what is considered a territorial threat, or a challenge, most animals consider direct eye contact to be a dominancy challenge and with this dragon's already antsy feelings, having fed off of Joce's own agitation, that was somewhat heightened. The violet eyes met her own, but after a moment it roared in display and swung it's tail, spiked and dangerous.
She woke up a while later, how long, she couldn't say, in one of the St. Mungo's wards. A bandage wrapped around one thigh and various other abrasions, bumps, bruises and fractures. All in all, two ribs and her left tibia had all been cracked or fractured from the crumbling of the rock she'd been standing on and there was a large puncture wound in her right thigh from the dragon's tail. Her injuries weren't life threatening and with magical healing, well, it wasn't as bad as it could be certainly, the concussion they had to watch her for, keep her overnight at least, especially since it was the second she'd gotten in a year. She had a long time to think about things that night and whatever conclusions she'd come to about Darien and dragons were still unanswered.