Rain Dance

"Not like that," said Adair as he pointed to the mechanical monster, earning a glare from Voltaire.

"Well, there are a lot of different dragons, but basically they're huge lizards," explained Voltaire. "Some have wings, some don't have wings but fly around anyway, a lot of them breathe fire, though there are some that live in lakes and oceans as well. Most of them are really big, bigger than Ava, but there are some smaller ones too. None of them are friendly."

"Okay." Kimi nodded. "I think I can picture it." She smiled and watched him work.

Voltaire narrowed his firebreath so that worked like a welding torch, and used that to modify the odd-looking machine. He took some metal scraps he had and melted them into the back of the contraption, trying to mold them so they looked like spikes.

Kimi watched with interest. She had never been allowed to watch someone work at a craft before.

After working on making the teeth look sharper, Voltaire set the contraption aside to cool. He would test its movement with the modifications later. He brought out another machine, this one cat-like, decided not to work on it, and brought out a rooster-like one instead and began to work on it.

"So what are you doing?" Kimi asked finally.

"Mostly anesthetic changes," said Voltaire, though at the moment he was fiddling with some gears and wires. He sat the rooster-thing upright and opened its mouth. "Going to test something. Say something to it. Doesn't matter what it is."

"..." Kimi stared at the contraption blankly before letting out a meek "Hello?"

"That'll do," replied Voltaire, shutting the machine's mouth shut. The Hunter turned the rooster machine toward Adair, who was already nodding off next to Ava. He smirked as he turned a newly-added knob on its back to the maximum setting, and then pushed the button below its neck.

The contraption jerked to life, its eyes lighting up yellow. Stiffly the metal rooster walked over to where Adair was. Voltaire frowned at that. He needed to work on its leg joints.

Kimi grinned as the contraption moved to Adair on its own. It was exciting.

Upon getting to about a foot away from the dozing Adair and Ava, the contraption's eyes flashed green and it stopped. After a few seconds the mouth dropped open.

"HELLO?" came out Kimi's uncertain voice, only ten times louder. The startled Adair yelped and fell over. Ava also let out an alarmed squawk.

Voltaire snickered.

"How'd it do that??" Kim asked in awe "That is so amazing!"

"I added the knob on the back to adjust the volume," explained Voltaire smugly. "That way you can turn it up if you need to hear it better or turn it down if it's too noisy."

Adair sat up, annoyed. He went over to the rooster contraption and forced its mouth open.

"I AM FINE THANK YOU," he shouted into it, before turning the rooster around and giving it a kick toward Voltaire. The machine began to waddle over to Voltaire with its extra-loud message.

Ah crap Voltaire thought, as he moved to evade his creation.

Kimi watched with a giggle. As the robot passed her, she twisted the volume dial down low.

The rooster contraption wouldn't have been that hard for Voltaire to avoid if there was more room on the cliffside. But there wasn't much room, and Voltaire ended up tripping over the mini-dragon he had been working on earlier. The rooster caught up and prepared to deliver its message, which Voltaire prepared for by covering his ears.

"I am fine" It said, barely audible. Voltaire uncovered his ears in confusion. "THANK YOU!" it suddenly screeched, causing Voltaire to flinch and cover his ears again. Apparently the volume dial still needed some work.

Kimi flinched a little as well. The last of the message echoing. "I thought I turned it down"

"What?" Voltaire asked loudly, his ears still ringing. "Whatever, I'll have to work on it some more."

He gave the rooster machine an annoyed kick with his foot. The contraption's eyes glowed red and it torched him with its built-in flamethrower. He wasn't hurt by it since he was of the fire element, but it didn't help his mood.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT TO MR. HERO EARLIER?" Voltaire yelled at the machine,as if it had a sentient mind of its own. It did not, so it didn't respond.

Kimi looked taken aback. "How did it do that??"

Voltaire did not hear her because he was still half-deaf from earlier. He continued to glare at the robot rooster.

"He installed a mini-flamethrower inside its mouth a while back," Adair explained, only a quarter deaf from Voltaire's prank. "It's supposed to attack anything that attacks it back, but sometimes it doesn't, or it attacks for no reason. 'Taire's still working on it."

Ava looked over the two firebreathing boys and clucked disapprovingly. She blew some white fire into Adair's ear to help quicken hearing recovery, then went over to do the same for Voltaire.

Kimi smiled slightly at how caring Ava was. She yawned suddenly, blinking in surprise. Evidentially she could still sleep.

Voltaire impatiently waited for Ava to finish her healing, wanting to work more on the rooster.

"Hello!" greeted a familiar voice, causing the phoenix trio to jump. They turned to see Barrett and another person riding on the skeleton of raptors.

Kimi regarded them warily. She didn't trust most people. And they had snuck up on the group.

"Hey Curtis, hey old man," Voltaire greeted lazily.

"Hey, I have a name," Barrett reminded, before noticing Kimi. "Ah, found her again did you?"

"What's it to you?" growled Voltaire. "What are you guys doing here anyway?"

"What else? Heading for the next tournament," Curtis replied. "What the hell have you guys been doing? We could hear you two a good two miles away."

" 'Taire testing another one of his inventions," Adair replied tiredly.

"Voltaire the mad scientist strikes again," said Curtis with a smirk, before his expression grew more serious. "Voltaire the outlaw better keep in mind that loud shouting tends to attract enemies you're trying to avoid."

Voltaire spit fire to the side, but he knew Curtis was right. Of all the places he chose to test something loud, he chose an open space where sound traveled for miles. That had been stupid of him.

Kimi stayed quiet and remained where she was. She wasn't a really social being, and she had really only just gotten re-used to being with Voltaire's group. More people had her shy again.

"Where's Raizin?" asked Adair, curious as to where the Cat's familiar was.

"Doing experiments," Curtis replied. "We were look for some materials for him before we heard you two and wondered what the hell you were doing."

"Well now you know," Voltaire replied boredly. He knew Kimi wasn't going to be social until they left. "Go back to finding materials for Raizin or traveling or something. Aren't you guys going to be at the next tournament too?"

"Yeah," Barrett answered. "Which reminds me, if you go through the forest instead of the upcoming caves you'll save yourself a lot of trouble. There are a lot of ground wyrms and griffins in those tunnels."

"We'll keep that in mind," replied Voltaire.

"We'll see you guys later then," Curtis said, as he and Barrett began riding off. "Raizin will start getting cranky if we don't bring something back soon anyway. "And do behave yourself Voltaire."

Voltaire groaned inwardly. Everyone had been telling him that lately.