The meeting with Rose had been interesting, to say the least. She needed to show her she was not dangerous to the green drake, even if it meant showing off an ability she had hardly touched, herself.
As always, though, it seemed she was faster than Verdy.
"I wonder...how long will the attractive young dragon take?" she thought as she circled, then dove and touched down onto her back paws gently.
The thought didn't startle her enough for her to think twice...showing something had shifted. Had Rose done something there too? No, it wasn't her at all.
It was him.

The cave they had agreed upon had a large boulder and a dying young tree in the rocky soil next to it. Not enough water, probably. The soil seemed to be made of mostly sand and rocks, maybe silt. No rich organic matter.
She slowly scraped her sharp claws through it, some of the larger rocks squeaking in protest when they didn't move under her paw.
Forsynthia then moved to the tree, clambering up and snapping a few branches in the process. She got to the top though, and watched for the sight of a green speck as she thought about the upcoming conversation.

Sure enough a little green speck in the distance soon became a small green dragon flying to the arranged meeting place... and feeling like he was late and hated how he never seemed to get anywhere on time recently. His boyfriend was away on a sports tour though, one he hadn't been invited to since he wasn't exactly high enough on the roster to manage. The meeting place was nice and secluded, basically only anyone with wings or real mountain climbing expertise could reach. Coming to an incredibly soft landing and smiling. "Good afternoon. Sorry if I'm a little late, or are you early?" He was still smiling, happy to see her. She was certainly turning into a very nice friend, maybe because she didn't seem to spend time with anyone else in the area? At least not as far as he knew.

As soon as she saw Verdy, Forsynthia hopped down from the tree, waiting a few feet away from it until he landed, and she smiled back at him, then pulled him into a very brief hug.
"Same to you, and I don't think it really matters, does it?"
The white dragoness paused before replacing the bigger smile with a more tentative one.
"Let's explore this cave as we talk, if that's okay with you? I think it goes quite a ways down and has lots of tunnels and little caves within somewhere."
Syn poked at the little bar that was across her waist. She could get away from it pretty easily, but it was still an object in the way. "You know, underground caves and tunnels...great place for murder."

"Will you shut up already! I've made it very clear by now that he's not going to die, atleast not for a very long time."
With some disconsertion, the dragon noticed the change in thought pattern too, but shook it off and started walking towards the cave entrance.
"Oh wait," she said, stopping right before she went inside and left the light. "I want to show you something that I think will look better out here. She cut another small bit off of her shorts and squatted, beckoning him to crouch over next to her. She would have to get more cloth for them and sew it on. She wasn't great at that, but it wouldn't really ,matter anyway since the material was black.

"I hope it doesn't matter. And sounds like fun, caves are a nice place to explore as long as there isn't something waiting in them for you." When she paused and wanted to show him something he almost tripped, turning to see what she wanted to show him. "Oh? What's this?" He leaned down to get a better look, smiling. She always was a curious one, had plenty of secrets, allure, and yet always welcoming around him. It was a good thing he didn't mind caves as much as he should have, along with any dark place with limited escape options. He had lost that mistrust of her, that wariness. Now she was just as much a friend as anyone else, maybe more so. Just from time to time she still seemed to have this odd internal conflict going on, barely visible pauses.

The dragoness smiled as he came over, then held her claws over the fabric once again. After a moment, acid dripped out and onto it, and it sizzled for half a second before disappearing.
She actually felt...like he should have seen it first, not some silly other anthro she didn't even know. Clearing her throat, she stood up again.
"Remember you said you had no special breath abilities or whatever? Well, I wanted to show you mine...I don't really let myself think about it too often. It's not something I'd really like using in a fight or anything." And it was true. She hardly ever used it to take victims down. Mostly because it ended up ruining their blood as well as making a good amount of them, sometimes even their whole arm if she bit there, practically vanish into thin air, after a time. Their screaming was far better than anything else she could do, though.


She sighed and walked into the cave entrance, waiting just inside as she let her eyes open more to let in available light, making sure to face away from the brighter outside.
After Verdy started walking, she did too, keeping next to him.
"I wanted to talk about our relationship. I know you have a boyfriend. I'd like to be your...girlfriend, when the time comes. I can wait, if all is going well with him..."
Forsynthia sighed quietly, keeping an even pace beside the drake, some sort of knot forming and twisting a little inside her stomach. Anxiety? She hadn't felt such a thing for years. Or not the anxiety that wasn't mixed with a hunter's anticipation and joy.
Oh well. In a way, it felt kind of good. There was an anticipation there too, and she felt like people would normally like it. Maybe she did too, kind of atleast. She wasn't sure; it was something too utterly new.

"Wow... that's... that's impressive. I wouldn't want to use it too often either, don't need to rely upon it or maybe even lose the ability. Then again I don't know much about it other than it's pretty amazing." He wanted to take her hand as they started walking into the dark, listening to her words. "My girlfriend? That sounds great to me. Yeah, I am seeing him but if anything ever goes wrong... wait, that sounds kinda bad. Um, what I mean to say is, I care a lot about you, and I'm always happy to see you. And I want to keep seeing you, but I like him too." How exactly could Verdy explain it? She was really the first girl he had an honest chance of liking at this rate. Every other girl was bad news for him in some fashion.

"Thank you," she'd said to his praise, smiling.
Forsynthia peered ahead, looking at a relatively straight path that went down for a bit before curving out of view. She headed for it.
"It's okay, I understand. I'll be here for you when you two break up, which will eventually happen. I'm patient."
Of course she didn't understand it completely. All of this was quite new. But she was sharp, and she was figuring it out quickly.
Hopping over a rock, she took his paw, being careful of her own sharp claws.
The dragoness had in fact wanted to do that from the start, but wasn't sure if she should. Now that she had admitted to wanting to be his girlfriend, it was different. Plus they were good friends, and she knew the label often did such things as well.

After a moment they were through the curve of the path, and it opened out into a small cave, a bit smaller than the entrance had been (except for the height, which was atleast fifty or sixty feet). She found her eyes re-adjusting slightly, since on many places in crevices and on ledges, there was a luminous green moss, showing the contours of the cave in shadows and vague outlines to a normal viewer, but it was quite clear to her dragon eyes.
"Look at this..."
She let go of his hand and walked towards one wall, mouth slightly open. The white dragon had never seen anything like this in her life. With her flying and climbing ability, why had she never gone into a cave before? Nothing to eat had probably been the reason...
She turned back to the green dragon and laughed, something she didn't do very often, it seemed, and then grabbed his hand and ran around the room, checking all the walls in detail.
"Come on, let's fly up there and look at the stuff more closely."

When she finally took his hand he smiled wide and gave a friendly squeeze, as an afterthought he hoped that wouldn't trigger the acid in her claws but it didn't worry him too much. She seemed confident that he wouldn't last with Liam, and sure Verdy kind of fell for him quickly but she may or may not be right. If she was, it would be nice to know exactly who to go to. "Wow, this is impressive. Heh, kind of reminds me of me, soft and green." He stretched his wings, more than ready to join her up high and to investigate the higher area. She definitely knew how to have fun in a cave exploring, she really struck him as a wandering, exploring kind of girl.

She basically triggered her brain to send signals to her claws to drip the acid. It was difficult to explain...really just, 'I want acid' and it came after a very small moment. Now that she thought about it, maybe if she practiced, it would be possible to alter the, uh, "pressure" of the small tubes under each claw and in her gums, so that she could eventually jet it, which would be absolutely devastating.
Forysnthia grinned at him, responding, "Oh, you can't be that soft, or I might have accidentally hurt you by now!"
She laughed and poked a claw very gently at him. Though she hadn't ever reall touched him much. They'd hugged a few times, held hands now, poked each other (which didn't really count anyway), but that was it.

A sudden alien longing filled her, but she quickly shook it off, feeling disquieted.
The white dragoness noted the stretching of wings and smiled again in response, stretching her's out. She faced him, grabbed both his paws and flew up, realizing the cave was higher than it had first appeared. It was, instead, about a hundred feet. It was slightly brighter up near the top, something accompanied by the sudden notice of a small hole leading to the surface. It was only about the size of a hand, but they were less than a foot from the surface here.
A strong breeze blew through it for an instant, hitting her in the face, but it wasn't that bad and she recovered quickly.
The white-scaled female laughed, then swooped down with her green drake friend, holding his hands tightly, before landing again.
"We should go further."
She peered at his eyes for a moment, then walked on with him.

"Hehe, or maybe I'm so soft that it just kind of bounced off me instead?" The green dragon managed to keep his own wingbeats in perfect time with hers, keeping their flight together nice and steady all the way to the top and getting a little side drift from that vent. When they came back down he was thrilled, never having flown inside a cave before. And she suggested they go deeper, a perfect idea. "Sounds nice to me. But first..." Was this going to be too sudden? Unwelcome perhaps? They had been holding hands for a little while now, and the green dragon blushed a little as he slowly turned toward her and leaned in close, giving her a soft kiss on the lips. "I uh... hope that wasn't too much too soon." She was his girlfriend, but only if things didn't go well with Liam. Still it felt right to be able to give her a kiss once in a while.

Forsynthia looked around curiously as he said those words, and suddenly got kissed! On the lips, and what...
She made a noise somewhere between a gasp, a sigh and a grunt and stepped back involuntarily, letting go of his hand in the process, eyes widened and blinking. She felt a surge, and thought she might fall. But when she looked around after what felt like a long time, (but had been about five seconds), she found herself still in a standing position.
"Uh no, it was...good. Kind of. I don't...maybe...a longer first kiss would have been nice...?
The dragoness blinked a few more times, smiled a little tentatively and held a paw up to her chest, obviously making herself breathe slower. It might have been nice for her to expect it, too? She...didn't know.

Wait, did she mean first kiss for them or first kiss ever? She looked so shocked maybe it was the first kiss ever... but she was nice enough he found that hard to believe. "Yeah, I guess longer would have been better. How about a second kiss? Now that there's been a little practice one?" Oh stupid dragon, never deflate the value of a first kiss, even if you could do better it was still an important moment and making it seem like anything less was just wrong. Maybe she wouldn't notice? No... girls always noticed something like that... right?

Her smile finally lost its restraints and she grinned, eyes dancing as she tried to hide the smile behind a hand.
"No, Verdy, it's okay. Not...right now."
She sobered after a moment, but there was still a spark in her eyes. What was it? She had never really thought about the first kiss she'd ever get.
"Mm, to clarify, I meant the...very first kiss. Ever. I don't know if...longer would have been better. I don't know anything about...hu..."
The dragoness was flustered, and for the first time in a very long time, she blushed. She could tell she was, and on white scales, it was far more obvious than anything the green dragon could do.
However, she quickly collected herself, clearing her throat. And then the voices decided to come back.

"Sooo, you all mushy now? You going to fall in looove with him? Huuh?" taunted Syn, sticking her tongue out. Rythia and For watched her pace back and forth, making obscene gestures, insulting them, and generally trying to make them annoyed. For was hard to annoy though.
But the reaction from Rythia...she charged forward, pinning the more demonic one against a wall and hissing in her face.
"I'm getting stronger now, have you noticed? I'm stronger than you right now, bitch! So shut up and keep away from us, so I can control myself from raking my claws across your smug face."
She got up slowly and walked off, head up, back to stand beside For. Syn blinked a few times, hissed an insult under her breath, then retreated. For sighed, only nodding to Rythia. Balance must always be obtained.

For some reason, when she opened her silver eyes, she found herself on the floor. The exchange, she knew, had happened in seconds, but she hadn't remembered falling...or being hurt by it. She checked herself for bruises or cuts and found a small, slightly bleeding one on her left wrist.
What a weird place to have a cut...but, regardless, she cleaned it and sucked the blood off, keeping her mouth there for a few moments so that it would stop bleeding cleanly.
Gathering herself, she stood up, looking at Verdy, then brushed off her shorts before turning to him again. Her gaze...inspected him, staring, like she was trying to figure something out.
Forsynthia shook her head, and took his paw gently again, smiling a little. "Don't worry about me. Let's keep going on into the cave, right?"
The white dragon stared on into the tunnel that led off out of this glowing cave, letting her eyes quickly adjust to darkness again. Then she started walking, giving an internal sigh at what was going on inside her head.

"Oh... wow, I'm honored." First kiss ever, and she liked it from him? Though he kind of stole it in a way it was still special. Right up until she fell on the ground and he was shocked, about to help her up when she seemed to recover on her own. When she was up he took her hand again and smiled. "Sure thing. Are you sure you're alright though? I mean, you seem a little distracted if nothing else. I guess a sudden kiss like that probably didn't help much did it?"

The white dragon stopped for a moment, then laughed, tapping his snout. "It's okay, I said I'm fine. I'm really alright. And no, the kiss was the cause of it, but it's okay. It didn't hurt when I fell anyways. I'll be less distracted, if that makes you happy."
She smiled sweetly at him, then kissed him again on an impulse. It was longer than the first one, and despite wanting to stay there, get closer even...she backed off, forcing a small smile instead of the disappointed sigh.
"There's much more waiting to find us. Maybe we'll see some eyeless fish or something. Come on," she said, tugging so that he would follow her as she started walking again. She had in fact brought a small flashlight with her, in the pocket of her shorts, in case it got so dark that there really was no light for them to even reflect.

Soon they did come across some large puddles, and stalactites and stalagmites.
"Watch your step here, there are some small ones just starting, they're not...that dull," she said, poking one with her foot. She moved on, letting go of his hand so she could crouch by a puddle. There was light, but the luminous moss wasn't in this tiny area, so she brought out her flashlight.
"It's possible there are bats too, though they wouldn't be too much farther in. Though way up here...I'm not sure."
She clicked the four inch long flashlight on, shining it into the puddle. The dragoness was disappointed, however, since there didn't appear to be anything within the water. It was very dark, resisting the bright flashlight probing it, trying to see deeper than an inch.
They weren't just puddles, either, they were connected to a large body of water over against a far wall, she discovered as she shone her light around, careful not to swing it towards Verdy.