C1 RacksomAnd then, there was War(5th Board)

Zartear wasn't so used to the mind link to dragons, when he fought dragons they either spoke or howled in pain. Few wanted to actually converse in the delicate mind link. From what he'd seen, the sources were correct. Euphorn females were indeed expert healing dragons. Zartear smiled with a kind of fondness, "The rumours are true then, your kind are unrivaled in your field, it seems..." Before he would continue though and have her see to anymore of the people he turned, caught by the voice of somebody. He turned and a small spike of anger shot through him. Zartear hated to be interrupted, but he held his face warmly, outstretching a hand to stop the guards that automatically seemed to enclose toward him, ready to pen him in with the others.

Well, now was the perfect opportunity to speak a little to those that were already gathered here. He didn't immediately respond to the man that had turned up, considering his words carefully. Giving the impression of freewill was often a difficult one.

"Ah, what we all wouldn't give for a little rest? But our work is of first priority." He briefly glanced back at Lotharia, "However in this case, maybe the healer does need to heal herself." and he wasted no time in taking up the other thread from the conversation, "But you, you are just like the Euphorn aren't you?" Zartear eyed the man up and down taking a half step toward him. "It's not in your best interests to speak out and tell me what to do...To tell the euphorn to rest," He paused, his eyes appearing thoughtful, "But of course, you'll do it all the same because you care for her well-being. Just as the euphorn cares for the people here. Mmm I guess you could say...she does this because she wants to. She can rest any time she wishes."
Well, it was half true.
"Still, your concern is virtuous, tell me your name?"

Lotharia looked around at the group of the people in the pen she had healed and was thankful that some of the screaming in her head had stopped. As she was waiting for a reply from Zartear she heard another voice. She turned her large pink head in his direction and set her dark eyes on him. He was showing her compassion, more so than the rest of the men around Zartear. She looked back to Zartear and noticed the quick flash of anger that was replaced with a smile. Odd one that was....She did not really understand Zartear, knowing she was not free in any sense of the word, let alone able to to ignore the cries of the hurting people. Her tail twitched behind on her on the ground, as she waited to see what was actually going to happen.

~*~*~*~

Lena sighed as they stopped walking, feeling as if she had been dragging her feet ever since they left the city and watched as the people around her quickly sat down. Talos was really starting to worry her with his spacing out and the dark rings under his eyes. While Talos had given her the task to make sure people got patched up, she did not want Talos walking around anymore as it was. "You should take time to rest yourself or one of us will be carrying you on our backs." She returned to him softly, she knew that fighting in front of the people following Talos would look back and had no intention to but...she was worried.

Curse his running mouth. Vann would have sworn quietly under his breath, but was afraid that any movement would cause this leader to let his men at him. They were like dogs on a tightly choked collar… Harmless when it's master's hand was firm. He didn't want to be on the sharp end of those teeth when the hand went slack, however. With his training in weaponless combat he could probably managed to disarm a guard and steal his weapon if it came to an all-out attack, but he wouldn't last long against so many armored men. Vann didn't really want to try pushing his limits here.

He could feel that the man was holding back something, though his face appeared open enough. Honest might be stretching it, but he appeared far from outright malevolent. "Vann." He declared a bit warily, effecting a small nod of his head in respect. "Vannelson Sel'Dakovhen, an initiate in the Brotherhood of Tolerance." Whether that was actually true or not he was unsure. Even having only been conscious for a little while, he knew that he had aged much since his last memory. It had been a number of years since he was a boy of eighteen about to swear his vows to the Brotherhood, but it felt wrong to call himself a Journeyman. The gap was… unsettling, to say the least. And now he'd woken to find himself in the middle of a battlefield, covered in someone's blood and facing down the apparent leader of an army. By the elements, what had he gotten himself into now? "She'll die if you push her." Vann ventured, gesturing toward the dragon. "I know some of healing. I could bind wounds while the dragon rests."

*~*

He waved of her concern, though was a bit worried himself by how much energy it seemed to take to perform the simple action of lifting his hand in silent protest. "Please, you and I both know that we don't have the extra strength to be arguing. I'll rest in due time, I promise, but not until we're farther from the city. I can keep going for a bit longer. If it makes you feel better, you can watch me while I'm watching the perimeter, but I want you to rest as well. You lost a lot of blood, and have already dropped unconscious once today. I can't have you doing that if we come under attack." Talos met her eyes seriously, letting his gaze linger for a long moment. Her normally dark skin was frighteningly pale, and he was sure that she looked worse off than he did at the moment. A sorry state of things if there was anything to be said about that. "I won't go far." He turned and walked a bit out into the woods, not wanting to argue with Lena anymore for one, but also realizing that if he were going to stay on his feet then he needed to keep moving. If he stopped now, he would fall asleep and be lost to the world.

When the bottle was suddenly flung out of the man’s hand and a sword was being waved in his face, the drunkenness seemed to wear off a tad and his conscious mind crawled to the surface. “Who, who are you people?” he asked with eyes wide open, staring at Armeno’s pointy ears and at Sandy’s hand which had only seconds earlier released a ball of energy. Staggering back, he looked like he was going to start yelling any second now, thus Atleon tried to get his attention: “You shouldn’t be in this city anymore. Everyone is fleeing to save their lives, and so should you instead of lying around in a pub, drinking until you’re numb!”

Blinking, the man stared, not comprehending but instead of either insulting the trio or turning around and running, the latter had been Atleon’s hope, he began yelling at the top of his lungs. Without hesitating, the prince lashed out and briefly after his fist connected with the man’s head, knocking him cold. The next best table caught the man’s weight and slightly broke his fall before his limp body crashed to the floor. Taking a brief moment to look at his companions, Atleon made sure they were all accounted for and all somewhat well, as far as that was possible under such circumstances.

“Oh, we better get out of here, before we have more company! And we cannot afford to lose more time, we need to get to the alchemist’s right now!”With that, Atleon headed straight for the door, sword now in his hand as he flattened himself against the wall to avoid having a door slammed into his face in case someone would come running to answer the man’s screams, while his hand slowly crept to the door handle.

"Listen bud, I'm just saying tha-Woah!" The sudden increase in speed shook Kagan's attention away from Rilos, and made him look around for what had jarred the armored dragon so. From the way Rilos ran, Kagan was guessing that this Sunblaze was the drake that had messed him up so badly. And sadly, he could see why. She wasn't exactly a small dragon, and he was guessing from Rilos' burns that she liked to use fire. But, maybe after battling for a while, her flame has been used up for the moment? They could only hope for, though Rilos would be able to take a few seconds of flames thank to his armor, sadly spending countless hours in forges did not give Kagan a resistance to being baked. Plus, he might get knocked off, unless he took a slightly more active role in the battle... fun.

"I'm not a snack!" Kagan shouted indignantly at the Sunblaze, miffed at the thought of such indignity. "And that 'metal' is the finest armor you've ever seen! Now, what're you here for? We're kind of in a hurry."

The sudden increase in speed that Rilos tried to put on didn’t last long, and he had to slow down almost immediately- which would put the sunblaze in a position much too close for comfort. Especially when she was bound to try and toast him again. He was so busy trying to escape he didn’t even realise she had caught up until she spoke though, which made him start, twitching his flight away a little, fear racing through him like wildfire.

Although, if she wanted to try and kill him again, why was she even bothering to comment? He knew some dragons played with their victims before attacking them, but from how the sunblaze had behaved before, he didn’t take her for one to follow such strategies. Trying not to show his surprise, he kept quiet, trying to figure a way out of the mess he suddenly found himself in. Which, unfortunately, gave Kagan the perfect opportunity to voice his opinions. Ugh, if the sunblaze didn’t suddenly attack them without reason, then he was sure to give her a reason, and she would attack again. Trying to keep his calm (and stop his voice from wobbling), he addressed the vocal goblin first, hoping he wasn’t about to get into an argument. Because if Kagan wanted to argue, he could save it for later- when they weren’t both about to be possibly knocked out of the sky.
“Goblin, learn to keep your trap shut!” He was actually starting to get on Rilos’ nerves with his comments, and if they weren’t stuck in the sky, he would have cut his losses and run for cover. “There are better pickings down on the ground if you were looking for a snack.” Silently he added to himself please don’t kill me!

Brotherhood of Tolerance?
What exactly that was he could only guess at, but that wasn't quite so interesting as the drench of blood dyed all over his front. The paradox was amusing. This wouldn't be the first oddity Zartear had come across, but he had to wonder how the man could stand there without feeling the least bit hazy. Or perhaps it wasn't just his own blood... But such things didn't matter.
He didn't pursue those with whimsical questions, rather, he cast a look back at the crowd. In truth the healing of the people there wasn't a priority for the minute, he'd needed to measure a dragons power...Which had been done. Though here was a man offering his own bloody hand in help despite looking more like a candidate for treatment than most of them.
Zartear narrowed his eyes with the smallest movement, he didn't appreciate the obvious rebuke. The dragon's limits needed pressing.
"Very well...If you believe you can manage that you're welcome to try..." The men clustered around seemed to shift awkwardly. It couldn't be that their master was actually swaying to a Racksom civilian? An escaping icy glare from Zartear froze those ripples, however. Passing a finger softly over a certain length of the chain nearest to his hand, new slack seemed to form loosely. The grip of the singe-collar slightly softened on the Euphorn's neck.
He'd let the Euphorn sleep, if not at her own leisure...besides, cobblestones could be comfortable too.
"You understand I can't find a place for you just yet. Make the most of it for now." He looked at the pitiful condition of the euphorn, knowing that everything he did was under the judgment of the slaves eyes. It was difficult being this yielding but he had to let the man's words seem as if they hadn't quite fallen on deaf ears. "Soon though, I can promise a much better place to sleep than these filthy streets, of course." He seemed to scowl a little. The level of poverty on the outskirts from the recent plague was uncomfortably nostalgic. "I need you to understand that." His scowl changed to a frown of concern.

Lotharia watched this new comer speak to Zartear, defending her. Why on Earth would he do such a thing and risk being killed or worse? She would have guessed any other human in his position would have kept quiet like the rest of them. Her heart went out to the man, thinking him brave. She suddenly felt the chains around her neck slacking slightly and felt she could breathe a bit easier. Looking back to Zartear she kept an eye on him, not really believing that he was kind enough to simply let her sleep or care about the peoples actual well being.

She went up to Vann, stopping just in front of him and leaning her head down to him. " You are a kind soul to speak out like that and you have my many thanks, little one. But I will find little rest among such death, I will not waste your efforts though." Lotharia leaned in, pressing her nose gently against Vann and healed him of what cuts and bruises he had.

"I do not know how much that will help you, but try not to draw too much attention to yourself around this one." She said softly, falling where she stood her legs no longer able to support her weight with her power literally drained from her.

He was worried, deathly afraid actually that whoever this leader of men was would simply have his head for his insubordination. It wasn't at all what he expected when the commander gave in, and Vann sighed with relief when it was done with. "Of course." As if suddenly remembering that he was the lower ranked one here Vann hastily dropped his head in a full bow. "Thank you for the mercy, sir." He lifted his gaze only when the pink dragon came his way, the unfamiliar sensation of her thoughts creeping into his head somehow not nearly as disturbing as it should have been. He was startled when warmth bloomed from their contact, the dragon's touch soothing, though there wasn't much on him to heal at the moment. Quite the surprise given the massive amount of red coating his entire front side.

Vann sank to his knees in front of the dragon when she went down, placing his hands gently on the side of her neck. "Don't worry for me, gentle dragon. I can handle myself. But rest while you have the boon. I will do my best to ease the suffering of those here while you regain your strength." He wasn't an excellent healer like the dragon was, only having a basic understanding of herbalism and wound binding. At best, he could set a broken leg if put on the spot for it, but that was about it. Standing he observed the crowd, meeting the gazes of several frightened peasants that had shrunk back from the conversation when weapons started being pointed. He truly wished he knew what was going on. "Those in need of healing, please come forward." He announced taking a few steps toward the crowd and out of the direct center of emptiness that had developed.

*~*

Arasolra narrowed her gaze at the running mouth of the little green annoying thing. A growl issued from her throat and she snapped her pointed white teeth at the creature, letting it know in no uncertain terms just how she felt about being harried by a vastly insignificant being. Smoke trailed from her nostrils briefly, but there was no fire to be had at the moment. "Thank whatever gods you praise that I am not hungry." She growled, eying the goblin for a second more before letting her eyes glide over the armor covering the blue dragon. It seemed such a waste, to cover up any dragon with ugly human-made scales such as this. If she were in a more feisty mood, she would perhaps go to claw off the outer shell and play with the squishier bits inside, but again, she was disinclined to follow that whimsy. "Those on the ground bore me." Arasolra replied deadpan, looking down briefly to the city as it flashed by under her. "The two-leggeds with their hardened shells have started throwing little prickers at me whenever I try to play with them. I think I'll leave the city and let the squishable-ones do whatever it is that they do."

Siofra’s forehead creased into a frown as she watched Zartear handle the euphorn dragon and some human who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and seemed rather more lost than anything else. It had been a bad place for him to emerge but maybe he would be able to make the best out of it. The half-elf felt sorry for the dragon, it was obviously exhausted but Zartear didn’t much care for that fact, though when he began to go easy on the healing dragon, it dawned on her that he might have something else planned. To be fair, he usually had a reason for everything he did.

During the whole encounter with the tribal battleblood, Siofra had kept away, busying herself by lending a quick hand to Cato, who was organising the captured Dragon Cover’s into some sort of paddock, but now that Xaoc was definitely away and she was not afraid the dragon would jump her any second now, she dared to slip away, leaving everything else to Zartear and his other higher-ranking officers.

Cursing, she realised that she had lost track of Xavien somehow in all this keeping occupied, though she could have sworn to have had an eye on him at all times, yet she didn’t see him. Worried, she abruptly straightened up from what she had been doing and let her gaze wander over the beings around her. Of course, despite the quick healing earlier in the day, this tiny movement now made her side pain again and she couldn’t suppress the grimace of pain shooting over her face, but she caught herself soon enough again and put her blank expression back on. Maybe she had better go look up the healers again after all, even though she hated admitting this, even if only to herself.

Guest

Xavien in all honesty, had been there for a good while. He hadnt moved much inthe least, just watching, paying attention to the area around him. Learning as much as he could about the ones around him. Which proved quite valuable, confirming a few of his assumptions quick. This war was a pointless weight on so many, and stupid to boot. But when someone decided to go nuts and ruin lands everyone had to pay in one way or another. He had other errie feelings about all this too. What with Kevv having been there and all, he knew shi would end up wrapped all into this somehow, shi never could turn down helping good people. Kayoss was just too crazy to say no to a fight. But if they had came, he hoped like hell that their own dark worry hadnt followed. But he hoped for the best, but he expected the worst. Oh this could become a hellacious turmoil if Paradox got involved. Though 'Dox would probably think this struggle beneath him. Lest he knew he could get at who he hated with it. Although for now he couldn't assume either way right now.

Over time though, Xavien knew other matters had to be attended to. Therefore he sighed... But he began another way. Oh he made sure the way weas clear enough for Siofra to follow. Though no one else would think anything of where he headed. However, Xavien knew what he was doing. They had someone to find, someone to track down. With what Xavien did, he was damn good at that. Thus he had began off, to the way he was very certain that the ones they needed to find were going. He would see to it either him, or well him and Siofra both found them. He was silent while he went, not speaking, barely a clink from his weapons as he kept quite a quick pace...

Hm, what large teeth she had. Maybe I should... stay away from those. I might break them. Kagan thought, leaning as far away as he possibly (and safely) could from Arasolra. But really, didn't she have something better to do than just bother him and Rilos? And why tell him this anyways, wasn't she the lizard who messed up Rilos in the first place? Oh well, maybe she was just being curteous. Those who leave a battle early are all the same, aren't they? Well, unless you're leaving because you have a headache. That was completely acceptable.

"Uhm, yeah... thanks gods." Kagan grumbled as the intruding dragon switched her attention to Rilos. Goblins didn't even have gods. At least, they hadn't last time he had checked in with his clan... he really should visit them soon. And what right did she have to say she was bored, how could the lives of so many people not stir something within her? Even Kagan felt something in his center, a pressure in his stomach that made him... oh wait, that was just gas. Thanking his unknown gods that he had killed his sense of smell years ago, Kagan eyed Arasolra and spoke. "Well, we're sort of busy, so we can't play right now. But maybe we can set up a playdate later? I'm sure we could pencil you in." Never. He added in his head.

Rilos made a little more space between him and the sunblaze dragon as smoke blew from her nose, hoping she hadn’t recharged her supply of fire yet. It seemed not, which was a mercy. He watched her warily as her eyes skirted over the new armour he was wearing, wishing it wasn’t so recognisable. If they ever came within any distance of each other again (not that he was planning on such a thing), she would be sure to know it was him. Well, the only solution for that was to flee somewhere very far away. And probably somewhere cold- being such a fan of fire as she seemed to be, flat expanses of ice and snow probably didn’t appeal.

“Yes well… I suppose if you attack them they won’t be pleased…” stuttered Rilos. Like ants when you stir them with a stick, of course they’re going to get angry. And a dragon attacking for fun definitely counted as a big stick. At least he couldn’t be mistaken for her, and find himself in another mess she had made…

“Uh, you do that, I think we were going to stick around a short while longer, were we not?” Rilos cut his speed as the sunblaze announced her plans. He was thinking to head out of the city and try and find some of the retreating DDC, but that suddenly turned into a less desirable plan if it meant travelling with Arasolra any further. “I’m sure Kagan here will certain want to keep to that arrangement if he so wishes though.” He shot the goblin a look, not meaning to withhold any agreement he set up with the other dragon. Despite his strong code for honour.

~((With explicit permission from the mighty Sausage, aka Monty, I am powerplaying Sandy in this post to move the thread forwards. One time occurrence.))~

The prince’s hand had not yet reached the door handle when all of a sudden it was flung wide open and a few of soldiers came storming into the bar, swords brandished and wild looks upon their faces, ready to do battle, ready to spill some more blood. More out of instinct than anything else, both Atleon and Sandy parried their blows and began hacking at their enemies in return. All of a sudden, some more rebels appeared in the street just barely visible through the small spaces in between the opposing soldiers and Atleon cursed silently. The trio was tired and the prince’s strength was beginning to fade more and more, though he would not give in to fatigue. He would rather force himself to go on until the very end, even if it meant death, then to falter.

With an annoyed cry, Sandy suddenly launched yet another ball of energy at the soldiers, only a couple of which had fallen underneath their swords, and with desperate shrieks, the men tried to rid themselves of the magical fire licking at their armour and skin, but in vain. Within seconds, all but one last one remained standing, though not for long.

Atleon did wait neither for Sandy nor for Armeno to gather their wits, but immediately brushed past the crumpled bodies of the handful of soldiers, hoping that luck would stay on their side for a few more minutes to accomplish this little mission of theirs so they could get out of this forsaken city. “I hope there are more delays”, he grumbled more to himself than to anyone in particular. Sandy grunted something in reply, barely audible over the loud roar of a dragon not too far away from them.

After a few steps down the streets and around a corner, they already arrived at their destination, though the alchemy shop was only a shadow of what it used to be, the war having taken its toll here as well. “Let’s hope we can still find something useful in here,” Atleon said, his voice strained. He could imagine the rebels having ransacked this place in search of anything useful to them, which obviously would be exactly what the trio would now be looking for, but the prince refuse to give in to despair. They would find something useful in there. They simply had to!

(ooc;; generally intendng to start pulling my characters out of here, just so you know))

Measle was more than ready to get himself and Jackdaww well out of the fighting, but Jackdaww was being ridiculous. He still wanted to know who the girl he kept seeing around was. He looked over his shoulder, and caught sight of her yet again, as well as Static, the woman he had been fighting earlier. “Jack, it’s not worth it.” Measle cautioned, but Jackdaww wasn’t listening. His leg was still bleeding badly and he couldn’t walk, but he was fascinated. “Measle, turn us around. I have to know who she is. I’m so sure I know her.” he muttered under his breath. Measle shook his head, jiggling Jackdaww around to bring him to his senses, but from the tense posture he maintained Measle knew he hadn’t changed his mind. “Fine, but when we get killed, I blame you.” He growled, turning around and taking one cautious step towards the mysterious girl.

Starling, who hadn’t dropped her lookout since stopping, tensed as the dragon and rider pair turned around. Brilliant, she thought, I am going to find out who it is after all. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to anymore – from what Static had said he wasn’t particularly nice. She turned to Static and whispered into her ear. “They’ve seen us, they’re turning around, but the man you were telling me about has a pretty bad wound on one leg. He can’t walk, so only the dragon is any danger.” She said, standing up and letting her broken wing drag in the dirt. She grabbed her bow, but curiosity stopped her stringing it, or notching an arrow. There would be time to kill him later.

Armeno moved forwards as Atleon made for the door, sticking close behind the prince. He was keen to get moving; hanging around in an enclosed area would only make you more vulnerable, and with the man's screams they were extremely likely to be attacked. Better out in the street than here, where they couldn't move around at all.

As the soldiers spilled into the room, Armeno muttered a vibrant array of curses in Elvish, sword already whipping round to slice at one of the first through the door. It was largely instincts guiding the elf as he hopped around the crowded tavern, deflecting blows from all around and downing more than one enemy in return. He managed to avoid any major injury, just a few small scratches- despite the fact that, as always, he had taken the heroic course of action and plunged right into the mass of soldiers.

Yet however good Armeno was with a blade, the fact remained that he was tired and extremely outnumbered. It came as a relief to him when Sandy's flames eliminated all of the first lot of soldiers and the extra rebels he hadn't even noticed arrive. He wouldn't have admitted it, but he couldn't have made it out of there without a serious injury at the very least- and there was no way he could have killed all of the soldiers rather than just escaping.

The elf seemed to share Atleon's attitudes, striding out of the trashed building as soon as the last Surahnian fell. He followed close behind the prince as they made their way to the alchemist's, scanning the streets warily for enemies and glancing up to the skies upon the noise of the dragon.

As they entered the war-torn shop, Armeno gave Atleon's words a brisk nod and began to comb the building for anything which could be useful to them. He wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for, but hopefully he would know it if he saw it.

Determination written all over the prince's face, Atleon made his way over to the shelves, opposite to where Armeno was currently raiding the shop, skimming labels on the various tubes and flasks, rummaging through bags of spices, herbs and whatnot. Glancing back at Sandy, he noticed how exhausted the girl actually looked. "Are you going to be able to hold out, Sandy?" He knew it might be phrased in a way she might not like but he wasn't very keen on losing more people in this battle, especially not if they simply pushed themselves too far past their own limits.

As he turned back towards the shelves, he suddenly noted an almost transparent looking liquid in a tiny glass, stashed away between the many flasks and almost invisible to the passer-by. There was still a tinge of green colour in the glass and it looked oddly out of place amongst everything else within the prince's range. The more he read the labels of the plants in the pouches around him and the herb names scribbled onto the flasks, Atleon more and more got the impression that this was no ordinary flask but he could actually use it to their advantage. If it was indeed what he thought it might be an its application was as easy as he hoped, the trio could easily sprinkle a few droplets of this onto some of the rebels' supplies and they would all fall very sick or even die from it. "I think I have found something useful," he called to the others and stored the flask carefully within his clothes, hoping it would not end badly.

Searching a bit more through the shop, Atleon was pleased with the outcome so far, even if it was not that much, when he found a case of worms used for experiments or for feeding the test animals, which they could also use to render the food supplies useless to the rebels. They only needed something explosive now, which they could hopefully find as well. "Did you find anything?" he asked the other two, the elf busily rummaging through anything he could find in search of anything they could use. When suddenly the clinging of weapons against armour sounded from outside the door, the prince froze, hoping the soldiers jogging on the street were only passing by and would not notice the three defenders inside the walls of the shop. He was unsure how much longer any of them could hold out if they had to keep fending off masses of rebels every few minutes.

The way to the alchemy shop seemed a lot further than it actually was. In the midst of battle, a few steps felt like a few miles and a few heartbeats seemed like a lifetime. Sandy barely registered the change of surrounding as they somewhat burst quietly into the broken shop. Her legs were beginning to take the toll more than ever now. The constant sword battles, running, hiding and energy blasts. For each one, she could feel the energy drain out of her. She knew what would happen if this continued. Only a few times had she passed out from sending blasts of energy, but in the middle of a war, rendering yourself unconscious wasn’t the brightest of ideas.

Almost straight away, the prince and elf began rummaging around the shelves, hunting desperately for any form of weapon or aid. She knew she should help, but she just had to catch her breath. Breath that should have been caught a good few minutes ago. She simply stood there, staring at the floor in her own little world. Until Atleon’s voice brought her back down to earth.
When she looked up, she felt her balance go and she stumbled backwards a little, and grabbed onto the nearest shelf in order to keep herself on her feet.

“Yes.” She said simply, before shaking her head out of the dazed state she was currently in, and forced her legs to move towards a bunch of flasks. How much time had passed, she didn’t know, but it didn’t seem long until she heard Atleon again, sounding somewhat pleased he had discovered something useful.
She continued to shuffle things around, picking up flasks, reading them, then putting them back down and moving on. For each useless subject she found, it was as if time was eating away. Until something rubbed the back of her hand as she picked a yellow-ish looking flask up. Looking to the back of the shelf, she saw two long, thick pieces of wood. At least, she thought it was wood anyway. On the tips, was another substance which looked awfully familiar. Her guess was if the wood was lit, it would give a few seconds before the flames reached the tip and exploded. If only they could somehow shove them down Zartear’s throat.

Sandy turned to show her findings to the others and was about to speak, when a disturbing sound reached her ears. Quietly, she pressed her back close up against the wall next to the door, as she had done in the tunnels, making sure she was out of sight incase anyone looked through the gaps. If they came in then yes, they would see Atleon and Armeno first, but she would have the element of surprise to send the sorry soldiers flying through the air. Well, she liked to think she could do that without wasting too much more of the little energy she had left.

Sandy turned to exchange a glance with Atleon, knowing full well her face wasn’t showing the utmost bit of confidence.

Catching Sandy’s look as she was pressed against the wall, into the shadows as much as possible, and the look on his face was probably not much less different from the one he could distinguish on hers. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath and quickly fished for a last shred of resolve and confidence deep inside him and quietly drew his sword in preparation of what was inevitably about to come.

The moments of waiting seemed endless as the sound of the soldiers came nearer and the clinking of weapons was to be heard just outside the shop window. The soldiers stopped for a few moments and a rather commanding voice sounded but the prince could not distinguish the words. He was vaguely aware of Armeno on the other side of the shop, but he did not dare venture a look in his direction to see if he was preparing to fight or if he had taken up the opportunity to vanish into the shadows as well to aim for Sandy’s tactic. His eyes were fixed on the door, awaiting an attack any second now.

His hand was slightly shaking with exhaustion as he held the sword in a ready stance but to his utter relief, the soldiers did not even care about the shop but simply ran off in different directions, the group splitting up, probably to comb the city for any possible future slaves. For a few more heartbeats, Atleon simply stood there, allowing himself to wallow a little in the relief of having escaped yet another fight, before he sheathed his weapon and turned to Sandy. “That is a very lucky find and we will definitely put good use to it, one way or another,” he grunted the last bit more to himself than to the others, his thoughts circling around similar ideas than Sandy’s. “Do we have anything else that might be useful? If not, let’s move on, and get out of here. We have to get back into the tunnels for a while to get closer to the camp – and to avoid the many soldiers in this area.”

With her mind set on not letting the pain stop her from finding Xavien, she began to move through the ranks of men who were busying themselves with various tasks and if only to keep Zartear’s attention away from them, probably scared of having put a leash around their necks as well. It was a reasonable fear at least and she herself would hate to be restrained in such a manner but then again she was not going to give him any reason to limit her or put a leash on her. She was not second in command for nothing, despite their obvious differences.

Finally, her eyes locked on a figure weaving its way away from the rebel crowd just before the white hair disappeared around a corner. Suppressing the small relieved smile that wanted to creep onto her face, she made her way down the same path Xavien had taken, slightly quickening her pace the further she got away from Zartear and anyone else who might be observing, even though she didn’t care too much who saw her leave. She would easily find a plausible explanation since they were still fighting after all.

When she finally rounded the corner and saw the one she sought relatively far up ahead, she began running lightly to catch up, completely ignoring any ache that was spreading out from her side and slowly wanting to numb down a lot more than the initial wound again. “You’ve got quite a pace there,” she grunted, once she had caught up with him. “Where are you going?” There was a slight pang of worry in her chest as she was asking the question, not sure she would like the answer, since somehow she was still afraid he might disappear again and that was something she didn’t want to happen.

Guest

Xavien kept his pace, simply because he wanted no one stopping him, no one getting in the way. He figured he would just make his way where he knew Siofra eventually had to go to, and well they could get this mess overwith. For he was tired of this pointless war here, no one there was even fun to go against. Simply most of them a total bore. Thus better to get this out of the way, so that they could get to the real fun, and definently a better mooded part, of the evening. Though he knew it was a bit of a ways off. This place was such a damn mess, people everywhere, running about, having no idea at all what to do. Half the reason the kingdom was failing at protecting itself was more then likely lack of a challenge beforehand! They had no idea how to conduct themselves No clue how to make war, or how to counter it. It was almost sad to see to be honest. These crazy dragon guardians had best step it up in his opinion, or theyd be ran flat. He knew that the ones who had been there before would've done good, but he couldn't shake the feeling, that something was up with them, and it would not be any good at all. It was too early to see but usually such gut feelings turned into something and he knew it. Whatever it was he hardly wanted to see.

His thoughts and worries were quite interrupted though, by the female voice that cut through his mind like a very lovely, but sharp harp instrument. Although at her question he chuckled a bit. "Well you did want to meet with your forbidden friend eh? Perhaps finding him in the tunnel I think, would be best." He told her simply. "We would be out of view of everyone else so you both could speak freely, even if only for a few moments." He told her. "But the fun parts gonna be finding a way into those tunnels. I could make a way but then theyd all be findable." He said with a shake of his head. "Good to see you can keep up though at least." He said to her. Glad she had found him, a playful grin spreading across his face too. He was pretty sure that some kind of entrance had to be near here to those damned tunnels... They could meet them in the dead center, if the two could time it right and he knew it.

The darkened sky however, suddenly shimmered a bit. Strange coloring went across it, seeming to all emanate from a single... star? Well it looked like a star from their location. The star seemed to brighten, and turn a strange sort of orange. Before it finally seemed to go out, but as it did so, a wave emanated from it of all kinds of bright colors. The wave went pretty far, though it dissipated after a few moments. Perhaps some with Hypersensetivity to their sensory, could feel a bit of what had actually happened though few likely would. Despite its beauty in the sky it was far from anything nice. No, it was a total nightmare to those who had experienced it. In fact, only four survived that blast... out of millions.... A planet had fallen. A planet of some of the most potent energies too... Some were not at all going to have a nice time from this, hell one being, this was probably going to almost shatter... but time tells all tales.

Siofra did not even bother asking how Xavien knew about her plan to meet up with Atleon. She knew she had not told him explicitly but it had been clear enough that sooner or later she was going to, and the demon probably was right, now was as good a time as ever if the prince was indeed still in Racksom, which Xavien seemed to be sure of. Again, she did not ask how, knowing that he had far more power than she had realised until now, or rather more abilities she had not yet learned of. The whole plan would be a little easier if she knew what exactly Atleon had planned, but knowing him, it would be something reckless. She would have to yell at him some more for risking his neck so much in his position, but that would have to wait until some other time.

“The tunnels would be our best bet,” she agreed, already trying to figure out where an entry to them was. Looking about her quickly, she tried to place them in Racksom. “The thieves once told me about their network but I cannot quite remember where..” Trailing off, Siofra’s eyes suddenly locked on an inconspicuous looking door to a cellar and started grinning. She completely ignored the keeping up comment, considering it best not to tell him what the run had taken out of her and swiftly turned towards the door. “I think this might be better and easier to use rather than you make a very visible hole somewhere smacked up in the middle of the street.” Seeing the playful grin flutter across his face however, she couldn’t resist in returning it, her eyes sparkling at the idea of what thoughts might be hidden behind that grin of his.

Any pleasant thoughts were wiped off her face however when she noticed the change of colour in the sky. In all honesty, it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, the play of the colours almost seeming in perfect harmony, waving through the sky as if they were dancing, but the half-elf had a bad feeling about this. “What is this?!” she asked in alarm, her eyes only briefly straying to Xavien before they returned to the sky, but everything seemed normal once again, not a single trace of whatever it was that had happened remaining.

Guest

Well Xavien had taken a hell of a guess pretty much to be honest. He had no idea this was really her plan. If it had not been, then he in fact would have suggested it, so that they could make the best possible move in his opinion. Plus the damn prince had to still be in racksom. If he was not wouldn't all of the guards and stuff had fled by now? He seriously doubted that they would stay here and protect absolutely nothing. Which was what this place was now, nothing to the ones who were not rebels. It likely meant enslavement for them, or maybe a worse fate, it was hard to tell. All he knew was that, they had to make it quick, and quite discreet. For he seemed trusted for now by the Surahnians but, there was no telling what the future held just yet. Thus for now, he was going to be careful when around them all. He wanted to be in their good graces, sort of. For well he was with their second in command and was deifnently a strong force himself. If he got seen as a threat itd screw up well, just about everything for the pair of them.

Though next Xavien listened to her words. Well he was pretty sure she knew more about this underground networks of tunnels and stuff then he did. Thus it was best to sort of follow her lead on this. Which he did, quite feeling a bit idiotic that he had missed the cellar door there, he should have checked stuff like that. But stuff happened he supposed, he couldn't find everything. Good he was but, he wasn't anywhere near perfect. "Hehehe, yeah thats very true." He said softly, in her regarding him making a hole out i nthe street. Well itd be funny at least, to drop in on the party as they traveled those tunnels, the sheer thought of that was quite amusing. Siofra would probly fall right on Atleons' shoulders.... ahh it would have been very funny, if such ever had happened. But there was no time for that now.

However his blood suddenly ran cold. Xavien stopped, his head turning to the sky... "Oh..." His heart lurched a bit. He knew that feeling. Knew the misery of that feeling so well, too well... He knew that sight, he knew what it meant! But... where had been blown away? That place was positioned where... oh no. He stopped and gave a heavy sigh. "Its..." He bit his lip a bit, seeming to try to summon the right words so it didn't sound way too devastating, for well to her it wasn't the hugest deal, she had had next to no reaction with the ones who had hailed from that planet. "Its the demise of a planet." He told her softly. "Someone destroyed a planet, quite near this one." He told her softly. "From that positioning of it, its little good, for I Think I know which one is gone and... lets... lets not think on that right now, theyll pull through they hafta." He growled. He didnt want to think everyone on that planet had died. He knew though that the chance of that was high, even with the powers some of them had had. Plus he knew alot of that power had just vanished into space... It could be reforged but the time itd take was monstrous.

Upon seeing the look on Xavien’s face, Siofra grew deeply worried and instinctively stepped closer to him, lightly putting her hand on his arm to show she was there. Every fiber of his being seemed to cry out in pain at the realisation of what this was and all of a sudden it hit her too. The pain it brought out in him… it must be in relation to something with his past and the one thing she knew was going to cause him a lot of pain was – and then he spoke the words. Now, she fully understood the expression on his face, why he had reacted to this so much strongly.

Briefly glancing back at the point of origin for the colourful wave, she felt her heart sink. It made her sad that she had not even felt anything, but on the other hand, she was just as glad, she wasn’t sure if she could handle the pain of so many lives being wiped out. Simply reliving Xavien’s memories had almost been too much already, feeling this might have killed her. At the same time, the odd thought suddenly sprang to her mind, making her wonder why she even cared if she felt it or not, it was not something she usually wasted time over.

When Xavien finally managed to continue talking, more pieces of the puzzle fell into place and she knew who he was talking about even without him speaking the names. On a whim, she stepped in to him completely, moving her hand swiftly up his arm to meet her other arm and she pulled him into a brief hug in hopes of providing at least a short moment of relief. After a few moments only however, she stepped away again, seeing he didn’t want to think about it and simply walked back to the cellar door, and with one heavy pull, opened it wide so the two of them could vanish into the tunnels. So far, no one else was around, so no one would see them go either.

The others both seemed to be having more luck with their searches than Armeno was. He glanced at theirs finds and nodded acknowledgement, before turning back to the rows of neatly labelled glas bottles which stood on their shelves. None of them would be useful, but before Atleon could voice his question another sound came to the elf’s sensitive ears. Ignoring the other two, Armeno span round and drew his sword, striding swiftly over to the door and standing with his back to the wall beside it in a pose that mirrored the one Sandy took up as she heard the approaching soldiers a couple of seconds later. Thrusting aside his weariness, Armeno turned a little to be ready to attack the first man to come into the shop- but thankfully, they never came.

‘I don’t think there’s very much else we can use here,’ he now told Atleon, stepping away from the wall and sheathing his sword again as he quickly swept his eyes across the shelves behind him. A few larger bottles caught his eye, and he picked one up. It was a strong spirit- harmful to drink, but the liquid was extremely flammable.
‘This might be useful,’ he commented, picking up the other three bottles from where they were on the shelf and tucking them under his arm. He set the bottle he still held in his other hand back on the shelf for a moment, put the chest under his other arm, and then picked up the bottle once more.
‘We should get moving now,’ he agreed. ‘Do you know where the nearest entrance to the tunnels is?’ Apart from the fact that they obviously didn’t want to bump into any more soldiers, Armeno wasn’t keen to find out just how long he could hold all the bottles and the chest for.

"Uhm, yeah. I'll take a rain check on that." There was no way he was gong to 'play' with her by himself. At least, not without a valid reason. Or a lot of money. Preferably money. "But yeah, you should definitely look me up after this is over. We can... do stuff." 'This' being his life, but with his luck he was going to run into her multiple times, on and off the field, with extremely varying degrees of friendliness. "But yeah,, uh, we were going to do something important. And boring." He added hastily. No sense in making her want to join them, making the problem worse.

((Te fail is immense~ But I wanted to post now, 'cuz I didn't want to delay you guys any longer. Sorry ^^; ))

» Tremors in the Earth....C1, Racksom (4th Board)
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» (C1, Racksom) Surnames in Surahnia (19th Board)
» (C1, Racksom) Rising in the Ranks (10th Board)
» ~~The City of Thieves~~~ (7th Board)

C1 Racksom~~~~And then, there was War~~~~(5th Board)

C1 RacksomAnd then, there was War(5th Board)