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

"Yes, you are. And I'll call you on it, believe me." Kagan grumbled, shaking his head again and digging into his ear with his pinky. "Just don't ruin it, that isn't easy to do." Kagan looked up at the fish Rilos offered him and brushed it away. "Nah, I wouldn't be able ta keep them down." He said, grimacing at the thought of eating anything at the moment. "But I'd like it if you could drop me off somewhere, I don't know, quiet? Somewhere I can fall asleep without not waking up to a kife in my chest."

He didn't believe for one second that Lena was really okay. She'd been so exhausted that she literally fell from the sky, after all. However, there was no point in trying to send her somewhere safer. In Racksom, the safest place was by his side where he could protect her and keep an eye on her incase she collapsed again. At least here, they were getting away from the dragon of death, and at the very least he could protect her, to be honest he'd rather have Lena at his side than removed from him in such a dire situation. Lotharia's voice floated into his head once more, telling him once again to head for the safety of the underground, but he still had no idea what that meant. Was it possible that Racksom had underground roadways? He was no local, so had no idea that such a thing could even possibly exist. Apparently Lotharia was just as in the dark as he was on the subject, because her mental message sounded just as confused as he was.

He was about to ask where one might be when suddenly the booming voice of a dragon sounded overhead. He looked up to see Kono, the great purple dragon bleeding profusely from two giant shafts sticking out of his skin and scales. Sympathy pains erupted at seeing them, and he winced inwardly at the sight. Anyone could see at a glance that he needed healing, no statement needed. "There's a pink dragon somewhere in the city with Atleon." He called back up to Kono, cupping his hands around his mouth to be heard better. "They're by the Foaming Mug! If you can find her, she might be able to fix you!" Although, that was a lot of fixing… Talos was astonished that the dragon could fly at all, given his beaten state at the moment. He pointed west, in the direction that he knew the tavern to be in and hoped that Kono would be able to get to her before he passed out or was damaged even more than he already was. His thought that they should have left after the gates had fallen seemed even more justified by this sad sight… Half of his ground forced had been killed already, and the dragons that were supporting them from the air had either all fled or else were killed by the black and red dragon wreaking havoc in the skies. This wasn't just a defeat… it was a major defeat.

Before he could sink any lower into a depressed cycle of thinking, he heard a voice and turned around to look down the street, seeing the flightless lightning dragon and his rider approaching them fast with some other soldiers in tow who had likewise escaped the battle or had been hiding out in alleyways scared for their lives. He gave them a short wave of greeting, then turned to the others that were still hanging around, looking to him for leadership like lost sheep. "Does anyone know about any underground tunnels in the area?" He announced, hoping that this wasn't a huge secret that only a select few were in on.

"Aye!" A man whose head had been laid open and roughly bandaged stepped forward, one eye closed by a huge ugly purple bruise shaped like a fist. "You'd be talkin' 'bout the Thieves Roads, seer."

"Thieves Roads?" Well, that sounded like as good as an escape route as any. "Do you know how we can get into them? And where they might lead?"

"I dun's know where they might go, but I know there's one around 'ere. Follow me." The man gestured for the others to follow, then took off, leaving the broad open street and heading for the darkness of the alleys.

Hesitating slightly, Talos waited until the others that were catching up with them came into earshot, then pointed after the others who had followed the first man. "Follow us! We're getting out of the open!" He waited only a few seconds longer, then fell in behind the line of jogging farmers. Their path through the backstreets of Racksom was a little convoluted, but eventually the man with the black eye stopped at what looked to be an empty dead-end. Kicking aside some garbage, the man revealed a handle and pulled hard at it, a couple others stooping down to help out. When they had both ground doors open, it revealed a dark hole in the ground, a single ladder leading into the black coolness of the tunnels below.

"It should fill all of us down there." The man said, starting the climb down. "The entrance is a bit small, but the tunnels below are wide 'an tall enough ter fit a small dragon." With his last bit of knowledge given, he disappeared down the hole, others climbing down after him as soon as they could mount the ladder.

Kono nodded weakly lifting his wings open and taking to the air with a grunt his muscles pulling at the bolt lodged in his back. Though he kept very close to the buildings to avoid notice by the blood thirsty dragon above he was in no condition to fight, but luckily flight was relatively fast and even in his weakened state he was sure he could at least make it where he needed to go. Unfortunately he wasn't quite sure where that was. He was a dragon for crying out loud. 'where could that pink dragon be?" He thought unconsciously reaching out with his mind in desperation. (maybe he can reach pink dragon telepathically?)

Oddly enough he thought he spotted a pink form through a small space in the buildings. it looked like one had lost it's roof giving visibility to the ground from where he was. With renewed effort he flew towards the forms though the area they seemed to be in was to small for him to fit. With a groan he landed on one of the buildings above almost loosing his balance, "Look for a pink dragon." He grumbled slightly irritated fighting the fatigue that was setting in from his earlier battles. "Where in the blazes am i suppose to reach them. in this mouse hole of a city." Frustrated he let out a growling gargle.

(J5 ish, like on the edge of the square?)

Jackdaww waved back to thank Talos for the greeting, but Measle could do nothing but chuckle about the tunnel. “A small dragon, he says? D’ya think that means me?” Measle joked, before pushing towards the hole. He pushed his head in first, and decided it would be best to just jump the ladder altogether. “You might want to duck, Jack. Unless you can walk by now.” He said, but they both knew he couldn’t. Jackdaww could still feel pain, and Measle was aware of the limp weight of Jackdaww’s right leg.

They landed hard, and it took Measle a moment to regain his bearings, but Talos was right. The tunnels were big enough for him, easily, but Jackdaww had to bow his head in the low tunnels. He was glad to be out of the danger, however, and the chances of being attacked seemed much less down there. At least for the time being he could stop worrying about Jackdaww getting into any more trouble.

Starling followed Static as best she could, but she could see how heavily she was relying on the strength of her sword to walk. Starling herself had slowed down, due to the pain that shot through her wing and shoulders with each heavy step, but the two managed to hobble on a bit longer. If there was anywhere ‘safe’ in the city, they could have headed to it, but nowhere was safe at that moment.

“I’ll try my best.” Rilos mumbled around the fish, flicking it up into the air and chomping down on it when Kagan declined his offer. Eh, more for me! They really were delicious. He licked his lips, wishing for another, then rose slowly to his feet again, staggering a little. Hell, whatever that stuff was that Kagan carried around, it was strong! He shook his head, trying to shake away the buzzing headache he had, then set off slowly down the street again, keeping a wary lookout for enemy soldiers.

“Not sure there’s anywhere in Racksom you can do that now, little one.” he said as he peered around a corner, hastily retreating when he saw a small group of soldiers. He picked another direction to go, hoping that he wasn’t walking them into an even bigger group of soldiers- The whole city seemed overrun with S.R. If he could take to the sky, he would, but his wing was still broken, and even if it wasn’t, there was still the problem of seeing… Just the thought of having his vision cut off up there, where he could be attacked by the sunblaze, or any other dragon for that matter, without seeing them, or catching his wing and crashing again, was a terrifying thought. No, he was much better off down on the ground.

Coming to a crossroads, he paused, looking up and down the quiet road. Things seemed to be happening off to the right, in the east of the city- or at least that was where the shrieks of dragons had come from before- so he didn’t really want to head off to more battles. But who knew what lay to the south?
“What direction do we pick?” he asked, hoping talking to the goblin would keep him awake.

(G5)

As they made their way further along the wall, away from the crux of the fighting, the pain in Static’s leg grew. Feeling hot agony shoot all the way up to her hip, she gave up, leaning against the city wall and sinking to the ground, huffing from the exertion. She took a look at the wound- ouch, that was bad- and leaned back, dropping her sword to her side.
“I can’t keep going much further.” she admitted, running a hand over her face. It came away a bit red, but the scratches the card dragon seemed to have stopped bleeding- for now, she didn’t have the hope that they would stay closed when she finally found the time to wash them clean. What a mess she had turned into, and for the first time, she started to wonder whether it was worth being on the side of the S.R- The D.D.C may have been fleeing, but she wouldn’t have had to take their claws and arrows if she had been on their side.

(L2)

Last edited by Artemis on Sun May 01, 2011 9:48 am; edited 1 time in total

Armeno had retreated from where the tribal battleblood had been knocked away by the guardian and sent a few more people down tunnels until he decided Velox had had enough. He'd been worked hard, galloping through the narrow streets of Racksom, and didn't have endless energy even though he did have good stamina. Armeno unblocked a tunnel he had previously covered and tugged the resisting animal inside. He tethered Velox to a ring set into the wall of the tunnel and sat against the wall for a few minute, resting. When he'd had a brief drink, he patted Velox, removed the chest from his saddle and reluctantly left the tunnel with him still inside, carefully covering the entrance behind him. Having done that, he began to jog through the city with a mind to try and rejoin the prince. He guessed that Atleon would head for the tunnels, and from the direction he and the dragon had headed Armeno thought he might have a chance of finding them, large as the city was.

Armeno had been going for a while at a pretty consistent speed when he rounded a corner to find a pair of rebels riding along and laughing at the weakness of Racksom's defences. While Armeno actually agreed with them, that didn't make him any more kindly inclined to them and he had his sword drawn before they even saw him, distracted as they were. He had managed to kill one by the time they had their own weapons out. The second man made an attack as Armeno turned, dealing him a scratch along the arm as he ducked, but a sharp thrust forwards pushed up the man's chainmail and pierced his internal organs. Armeno shook his hair back out of his eyes, sheathed his sword and mounted the horse of the first man he had dispatched. It shifted uneasily under the weight of its new rider, but Armeno- having tied the chest onto the saddle tightly- dug his heels in firmly and the animal moved into a canter under his aids. Moving along the streets now at a much faster pace, Armeno chose a possible direction and stuck to it.

Around H6/I6, headed for I5

Kumiko twirled half of a splintered femur in the air before letting it joint he rest of her latest victim's remains on the ground. She hadn't had too much trouble, with only a couple of people she had used her katanas on due to an irritating amount of resistance. She now closed her eyes and drifted, using the sights of those whose minds she invaded to guide her. However, she stopped moving quickly when she realised she had entered a dragon's mind. She flicked her eyes open to see him, large and cloaked in intricately forged silver armour all over. Interesting... He would probably pose something of a challenge, but that just made things more fun. She began to try and worm her way further into his mind than where she could just speak straight to him but not actually control anything, and hoped that he wouldn't be at top form- he did seem pained.

Lena kept her pace with Talos, how, thought she was unsure. She looked to him, his face was pale and drawn from lack of sleep and stress. Worry crawled in her gut and pushed away her own troubles. If she focused on Talos, her own problems weren't as important. She was more than glad to have someone escort them down in the tunnels, despite wanting to leave this cursed city and save the rest of their lives.

What good would it do them if Zartear found out about them being in the tunnels? He could easily trap them, or set fire to it, smoke them out, anything. Closed spaces were not something Lena liked, but from their current choices she wasn't going to fight it. With the tunnels they had a chance, but with the Tribal Blood there was no hope. Lena waited for the rest of the troops to enter the tunnel, staying up with Talos until it was the two of them. She nodded a bit, dropping into the tunnels and waited for him. She leaned against a wall, sighing as she did so.

(Not really sure where Talos found the tunnel, so where ever that is...)

~*~*~*~

Lotharia was about to break into a full run in when she heard the roar of a dragon, and it sounded in pain. Lotharia's heart stuttered painfully, she had to help it. Every cell in her body would force her to that agony filled call as if her life depended on it. She was frozen in place for a moment when she got a plan together. Picking back up the pace, she made her way to what looked like the tunnel entrance that Atleon was speaking of. She trotted over to it and stopped just outside of it. "Atleon, I am sure you heard that cry. I can not ignore it." She spoke gently, allowing the man to slide from her back and turning her head in his direction. "I will enter the tunnels or flee the city when I can, and will contact you. I do not plan to leave you with no aid...but..." She swung her head in the direction the call came from and issued a small noise. "I must help them." She couldn't deny the call even if she wanted to.

Lothatia leaned down and pressed her large pink nose against Atleon and let some of her healing magic flow into him. "If only to help a little." She explained, even though he needed no healing, her powers can help refresh a person's mind and soul even if only a short while. With that, Lotharia turned and ran in the direction she had heard the call from before. It did not take her long to return to her spot where she had previous been standing and she looked around frantically. She sniffed the air, it was no good, the scent of blood was everywhere. She searched the streets, rooftops and skies until she finally came across Kono on the roof top.

The dragon gasped, seeing the shape it was in. She looked for a way on top of the roof, suddenly wishing she could fly and spotted a turned over wagon. Leaping on it and using it as a springboard, Lotharia lept onto the the building next to Kono and then onto that same building. "Please hold on.." She said softly into it's mind looking at the sharp object in his back. How on Earth was he alive?! Tenitevly, Lotharia grabbed onto the bolt in Kono's back, gripping it hard in her jaws and with a deep breath Lotharia pulled the bolt from it's back. "I'm sorry, it had to be done..." She knew it would be painful, overwhelming even but her healing powers would not be able to fully mend the dragon if there was a foreign object in him. He was bleeding everywhere and it made Lotharia's heart squeeze painfully, so much suffering.

"Just a little longer..." She reassured and pressed her nose against the dragons side, sending her healing waves into him. The warm magic rolled off of her and a sudden wave of fatigue finally set in. She had healed many people, more than she had ever healed before but she still had strength in her. This dragon had a lot of internal bleeding and many wounds on the outside. It took her several long minutes of constant healing in order for all the major wounds to be healed and Lotharia pulled back from Kono panting and weak.

(j5)

Kono watched blearily as the pink dragon approached but the moment he felt a presence push into his mind his mind heightened to full alert. He gripped his claws against the side of the house and stared at her with wide eyes not bothering to suppress a look of shock and distrust. But the surprise quickly subsided as the message came through slowly he allowed the pink dragon access to his back. Though he quickly regretted it, as the dragon yanked the bolt out of his back. He stretched his wings and let out a mouthful of smoke as an instinctive reaction to the pain of metal tip of the bolt being pulled back out. He ducked his head clenching his teeth together merely giving a nod at her reassurances. He sighed as he felt the warmth of her magic running through his wounds. He could finally breath normally again and he was pretty sure any of his life threatening injuries were gone. The bolt was still in his though, but that could be ignored until the threat was over.

Noticing the dragons weakened state, he reached out a paw to support her pink form. "Thank you milady." He bowed his head to her. and spreading his wings a bit politely, "I would return you to the ground, but...I can't quite fit." He added with a soft chuckle, "But I will watch to make sure you return to the ground safely." He watched her, thinking out his own plans. Most of the army seemed to have retreated but the tribal blood was still above. He had to find someplace nearby that he could get down below the cities roofs, and hopefully out of sight.

It felt a little strange, ushering all of the men that had come along with him down the tunnel first while he waited and stood guard, keeping his brown eyes roaming the streets for signs of trouble. The group that had been following close on their heels caught up quickly, the flightless dragon and his rider, and watched with some astonishment as the dragon actually got down in the hole. Amazing… Truth be told, he was a little tentative of getting into the hole, knowing that the minuet he got down into the dark tunnel his vision would leave him, the darkness rendering his excellent day sight absolutely useless.

Once he was sure that everyone else was in and there were no strays in the streets, he grabbed what had probably been a broom stick and closed one half of the doors, descending partially down the ladder and pulling the other closed after himself. In the darkness of the tunnel he felt for the rings he had seen on the insides earlier and shoved the broom handle between them, creating something of a lock that he hoped would dissuade others from trying to follow after them from the outside. "I don't suppose any of you have a means of setting a light down here?" He called into the black shaft beyond, a few streaks of light coming down from gaps in the doors above, but otherwise, Talos could see nothing. Carefully, he descended the ladder and stepped down, turning and looking in vain for a hint of where the walls ended and began. "We'll need to walk in the direction of the East gate… Hopefully, there will be an out near there where we can leave the city and take refuge in the forest." It seemed like such a far way off, and now that they were somewhat safe, the adrenalin was wearing off and he could feel his extreme weariness in every movement. How long had it been since he had slept? Ate? A few minuets of rest at the Northern gate that seemed like hours ago could not compensate for the lack of real sleep he hadn't had in over a day. He could only imagine how horrible it had to be for those who weren't trained and had far less stamina than the impromptu leader and his wife.

(M5)

Lena looked up from her resting spot, watching the last bit of light fade away as Talos closed the lid to the tunnel. It took a few moments but her eyes adjusted and she was able to see around her. There was a faint light from the dragon's wings that had come down with them and she was thankful for that. When Talos asked for a torch, Lena walked over to his side, grabbing his hand. "Until someone can get a light down here, I'll help you out." She said softly and leading him further into the tunnel. She got closer to the dragon with the glowing wings, so as at least to give Talos something to work off of and squeezed his hand gently.

(M5)

~*~*~*~

Lotharia was thankful for the dragons assistance of keeping her up right. How much energy had she used? How much had it just taken to save that other dragon. With a respectful nod, Lotharia carefully lept from the building she was on with shaky legs and looked back up to the dragon. "I hope you stay well." she said, turning her sights back to where she had left Atleon, unsure how far into the tunnels he had made it.

The chaos of everyone running away from the Tribal Battleblood and its victim being cast down, followed by even more chaos as the guardian dragon blasted away the dead weight which otherwise would have threatened to crash everyone underneath it, was slowly beginning to ebb away as humans and animals began to get a grip, especially after seeing Xaoc steer away from them once again. More and more people however were disappearing off the streets it seemed and the prince couldn’t suppress a tiny sigh of relief at this, hoping that it would indeed mean that at least a great deal of the people still alive could be saved by taking cover underground.

Still seated on top of the heavily breathing dragon, his eyes searching their whereabouts, he replied: “Not too far ahead of you, there will be an entrance to the canals in the street. That’s where we are headed. The canals will be the safest underground way for each and everyone of us, even the smaller dragons and horses.” He didn’t necessarily think it was a bad sign that he could track down neither Armeno nor Talos – or anyone else he recognised for that matter - since most of them knew how to survive, otherwise they would have died a long time ago in this mess the defenders called a fight. He could however feel the hesitation and agitation of the dragon beneath him, which grew even fiercer when another painfilled roar pierced the air. The screams of pain and death seemed to be multiplying by the second, so much that Atleon could barely block them out anymore. It was the part of war that he disliked most, the one he had learned to completely ignore in an attempt to do the best possible without being swayed in his decisions by such noises. In Racksom however, the spreading pain was growing too strong even for him to block completely and it was setting him further on edge, making him wonder whether they had done the right thing. But it was too late to second-guess anything, what had happened, had happened.

As the euphorn set him down next to a tunnel, he gladly scrambled off her back, having been wanting to do that for quite a while already anyways, but not wanting to mention it. “I do not like to see you go, but I understand that you have to answer your calling,” which was the absolute truth. He hated to see her go, knowing that she would only get herself into more danger, but he also knew that she could not ignore a call for aid, being who she was. Gratefully, he lightly stroked her nose as she pressed it against him, feeling her power soar through him but it wouldn’t do much for him. His wounds were none that could be appeased by magic but he appreciated her efforts nonetheless. Before he could say another word, the dragon was up and away again, leaving the prince behind, cursing, as she had not given him the time to convey his last instructions to Talos. Thus, he could only hope that the avian had taken his order to heart.

Before he went to bend down and grab the handle on the door just beneath him, Atleon let his eyes skim the crowd quickly in search of Armeno and Talos one more time, both of which he had lost in all the hassle. The person he did spot however amidst all the confusion was not at all who he had expected, but as soon as he saw the girl frantically wave in his direction, and it was then that one of the shouts he had heard not too long ago and tried to block out like so many others, made sense. Sandy had been calling out to him. “Sandy! Get over here, quickly!” He waved back, motioning for her to come to him, pointing towards the floor. He was hoping that at least she was aware of the thieves’ roads and that she would understand the message he was trying to send her by means of wildly gesticulating. Regularly looking towards her to keep an eye on what she was doing, Atleon finally bent down and pulled open the door. The little strength the euphorn had been able to bring back to life for a brief moment within his muscles made it possible for this painful movement to be carried out. The prince briefly checked the ladder was in place as it should be before he looked back to Sandy, briefly wondering why she had not left with her dragon, and let his eyes gaze around one more time.

When a reply didn’t come from the exhausted goblin on Rilos’ back, he quit trying to keep him awake and let him sleep, picking a direction for himself. He weaved his way slowly through the streets, getting quickly confused by the twisting and turning roads, used to just heading in a straight line through the sky- although of course, that was out of the question right now. The tower that stood in the middle of the city blinked in and out of the gaps between the buildings around and he headed towards it, hoping that once he reached the centre of the city, there would be a straight path out of Racksom- at least, that was his plan, but there were any number of horrible things that could go wrong, worst of which was wandering into a troop of S.R, which was looking increasingly likely.

After what seemed like walking for an age, Rilos finally found himself near the road that he wanted to be near, but the happy escape that he had planned wasn’t to be- the place was crawling with rebels! Only the fact that he had been using the smaller roads seemed to have saved them from being spotted already, and he shrank back quickly from the main street, wishing that his new armour wasn’t so shiny. He ducked along a side street, his armour making a screeching sound as it ground against the buildings on his right- not being able to see really threw off your sense of proportion. He had hardly started along this new street though when he felt a strange presence slip around his thoughts, not saying anything, just lingering. If it didn’t want to announce it’s presence, then that was never good- Rilos immediately started to throw up barriers around his mind, trying to force whoever it was out of his mind- it was hard to concentrate with such a headache, but he concentrated on the ache itself, making the pain from his wounds the block against the new presence.

(H6, dangerous! XD)

The soft pink dragon was on her way to find Atleon once more but sadly she did not find herself in the same location she had left him. This city was so confusing! She stood in the middle of the street, unsure of where to go or how to get to the tunnels like Atleon had previously wanted. She, too, wanted to get there anyway to help as many people as she possible could.

As she was trying to find her way through the streets she caught a glimpse of something shiny going through a back street and felt waves of pain coming from it. Noises caught her attention of people moving through the street but they did not seem inured. Quickly and quietly she picked her way through the streets and people until she was close to the dragon. There was a figure on top of it and she was curious as to why. A rider? She shook away the thoughts, concentrating on the task in front of her.

"Excuse me..." She tried to enter the dragons thoughts but they were blocked off from her, she met a barrier that she had never met before. What the? If Lotharia could not contact them through the mind she would have to make herself seen. Slowly, cautiously she made her way in front of Rilos and stood, waiting to see if the dragon would attack, flee, or otherwise.

The huge black dragon quickly caught up with the newest dragon he had set his eyes upon and after a bit of clawing and shredding, he disposed of yet another body in the easiest possible manner, which was simply dumping it to the ground below him, not even blinking about the fact he was burying other lives beneath the carcass, whether they were followers of Zartear or not. Despite the fact that he had agreed to wreak havoc for Zartear, he was not going to carefully consider where to dump a body and he did not care in the least if some of the rebels were dying along his path. By now, the tribal battleblood was drifting through the air almost in a red daze, a gentle feeling of near-satisfaction rumbling through him and Xaoc was greedily on the search for another easy target when suddenly there was a glimmer somewhere in the city, as if something metallic was caught by the sunlight and broke it off into various tiny rays and beams that were seemingly creaming at Xaoc in order to catch his attention.

The tribal battleblood was not one for hunting shinies but this was something different; it was almost calling out to him. A glitter on a battlefield could only mean a few things, weapons and armour being the two most represented. Seeing that the rebels were not running around in shining armour, neither were most of those pathetic little defenders which he could all devour for breakfast and still go hungry, Xaoc decided to go in to investigate. As he flew closer to where he had seen the light, he realised it was a rather huge dragon, wrapped into some sort of metal, what for, he did not know. Even though he was not looking for a fight, he wanted that dragon’s hide shredded to pieces underneath his vicious claws and razor sharp teeth.

The more interesting thing however was the delicious looking pink nibble that offered itself right below Xaoc’s muzzle and the tribal battleblood was very tempted to swoop down and indulge in this exquisite little snack. Letting out a loud roar, accompanied by a rather large jet of flames, Xaoc drew closer but all of a sudden, his flight course was completely altered as something hard rammed into his side and pushed him off towards a building, whose roof came crashing down into the streets below under the heavy weight of the two dragons. Fury rose in the tribal battleblood and he was screaming out in angry pain, ferociously clawing at the dragon who had dared to attack him. With the rising heat in his blood, and the already red haze clouding his mind, the runes on his skin began to glow in a darker red once more and Xaoc pushed himself off the building, ramming his own body against the other dragon, who was desperately trying to gain a little distance between them after the impact.

To her despair, the dragon carrying Atleon descended in the sky and placed him back down onto something a lot more stable. Damn it. She thought, figuring out what she should do now. He was the only defender she could see left within the midst of streets and chaos, and it looked as if he was planning on going somewhere else, so he would soon be lost from her vision and hearing completely. But it was at that moment, that her waving and shouting had paid off. She squinted her eyes slightly in an attempt to clear the floating dust from her burning eyes. As he pointed to the floor, it finally hit her where the prince was actually standing. Yes! This could be the way out of the madness, and out of the line of the brutal Xaoc who had just descended in on another hopeless dragon.
Unsheathing her sword once more, she looked around before making her way over to the prince. To her luck, there weren’t any pockets of Surahnians about which could obstruct her path. That was all they needed, rebels finding out about the tunnels that ran through Racksom. Although she had never seen the one Atleon was at, she had heard about many of them from the words of Silverwing in the past. It actually made her wonder exactly how many people knew about them, and whether there were enough for the information to relay back to Zartear. No, she quickly hissed to herself, we have to be positive. With that, she quickly made her way over to where the prince was standing, her eyes scanning the surrounding area three of four times as she did so. If anyone saw them, she would have no option but to blast them away before they could alert anyone else.

Once she had reached Atleon, who looked pretty well compared to the fact they were in the middle of a war, she watched as he opened the lower door and made a check of the ladder. She wondered whether he actually had a plan, or whether he had resorted to simply fleeing in whatever way possible. But she quickly decided that he must have a plan if they were going to get out of this alive. Whatever it was though, she wanted to know, she needed to know.
“Atleon,” she said, her voice slightly hoarse from the dust, but she quickly coughed it off before continuing, “what are you planning to do?” She felt that the defenders could no longer work completely on their own, separate from the others. After watching Silverwing fly away from the battle before, only gave her a certain idea of where he was going. If the guardians were going to help, then they would have to know what the hell the defenders were doing. “I need to know, we can’t go around blind anymore.” She only realised she had used the word we until after she had spoke, but she shook it off. If she could let Silverwing know what they were planning, then the guardians would have a monkeys as to what they could do. That was if her assumption was correct, of course.

The relief to see Sandy arrive safely by his side was great in Atleon, especially seeing how exhausted and downcast the girl was. At her general appearance, and most of all the expression on her face, he briefly wondered whether she knew why Silverwing had left Racksom, besides the fact that he was asking himself why Sandy had not departed with her dragon, but it was not a topic he was going to bring up at this moment in time. “You look like you could use an encounter with our little healing dragon,” he said, attempting a joke, but actually being serious, though the euphorn dragon was soon going to wear herself out if she kept putting all her energy into healing even the minor wounds like he had seen her do during their brief encounter.

At Sandy’s words, Atleon couldn’t help but grin. “I do have a plan, though not a perfect one,” he admitted before he bent back down to finally pull open the door. The truth was quite simply that it was a dangerous one and if anyone else knew about what adventure Atleon was about to embark on they’d go raging mad at him, especially Talos, who had ordered the euphorn earlier to get the prince to safety. “I want to tamper a bit with Zartear’s provisions, ammunitions, food, maybe his healers, anything that could slow his advance and stall him for however long we can get.” He also knew that he was throwing away the efforts of people that had rescued him earlier if he was getting himself captured again or even killed, but it was his calling. He quite simply had to do for his people what he could do. Though he was hoping that in Sandy he might have a comrade in arms for this, which would maybe help prevent them both running into their doom.

Seeing Sandy’s reluctance to get into the tunnels, he assured her: “It might seem cowardly to vanish beneath the streets but falling victim to the Tribal Battleblood’s attacks is not going to help anything and it will help us remain undetected on our quest.” Gesturing towards the canal, he said: “After you. There should be a torch or something similar down there somewhere on the wall to make the passage easier and I’ll explain the rest.”

At first, Sandy was confused when the prince mentioned something about a healing dragon. For in her path, she hadn’t come across one…not any, apart from that creature called Gorz, of which she didn’t really want to think about. Perhaps whoever, whatever this beast was he talked of, was the reason he himself actually looked quite fit and active. It took a few moments before she realised what a puzzled expression she was pulling before she quickly shook it away. She opened her mouth in response, but closed it quickly deciding that it wasn’t a matter important enough to waste anymore time on. There was no time for confusion.

She let out a short laugh to herself at the word ‘perfect’. “To be honest Atleon, anything perfect right now would be a God-send.” There was nothing perfect about this war, and the prince’s calm, collected and rather optimistic expression was somewhat puzzling to her in another sense. She listened as he spoke again, whilst opening the door to the tunnel below and gesturing her to go down before him. Taking a quick glance at the darkened path below her, she finally forced herself to take a step down, her body disappearing into the blackness. The steps she walked down came to a stop, and she could feel the floor beneath her feet sloping slightly. Running her hand along the cold, dirty wall, she felt around for any sign of a torch the prince had spoken of. It didn’t take long before her hand came across something sticking out of the wall. She quickly wrapped her fingers around its wooden handle and with a jerk, pulled it from the wall. Sandy put her other hand out in front of her, even though she couldn’t see it, and produced a small ball of energy upon the end of the torch. Quickly, it caught fire and began to burn a blue-silver flame. She turned around, hoping to see Atleon not far behind her.

“Okay,” she said plainly, still trying to guess how the idea could work. “Do you mean heading back through these tunnels?” She asked. If he wanted to disable any healers or attack plans, then they would have to go right back to the very root of the problem, Zartear himself. Unless of course, Atleon meant focussing their efforts on different parties entirely? For a few seconds, she contemplated a few ideas to herself, thinking about how they could possibly go back and begin to break up any lines, weapons, even food.
Holding the blue light out in front of her, she spoke again. “Zartear doesn’t know who I am,” she began. Maybe that could be of use. “If he sees me, he won’t suspect anything. I could do things right under his nose and he wouldn’t even notice...” She paused for a moment, thinking it all through. “If we’re going to do something like that, maybe it would be best to use me. He knows your face, after all. I could help to draw any attention from whatever you were to do.”

As Atleon watched Sandy scramble down into the hole, he let his eyes once more wander around the slowly ruined city of Racksom. It was devastating to see this once beautiful city partially in ruins, drowning in blood, with pillars of smoke rising up in regularly intervals around the city from the fires of the dragons and other vicious deeds. He still could not quite believe that the city was lost even though everything pointed quite clearly to that fact. His little spark of hope was beginning to dwindle again but he swatted his dark thoughts away like an annoying fly, and straightened his shoulders briefly before climbing down into the underground tunnels himself.

His feet had not even touched the floor below him when the sudden darkness, caused by the closing of the entrance door, was alighted by the harsh light of an energy ball flaring the torch to life. Sandy did not waste any time either before she got straight to the point, a notion he quite liked, so he just as quickly replied: “Yes, we have to use the tunnels to get back towards where Zartear’s army as certainly begun putting up tents with food rations or ransacked buildings. I was thinking about making a quick stop at one of the alchemy shops and see if we can find anything useful there, if those haven’t already been smashed to pieces.”

As soon as she mentioned that Zartear didn’t know her, the prince’s face darkened as he realised what she was about to say before the words even left her mouth. “It’s a nice idea in theory but don’t even for a second underestimate Zartear. He is much more resourceful than any of us seem to have anticipated and he might very well see through you before you have even stepped foot into his surroundings.” Atleon’s eyes were hard as he looked Sandy over. “Though it might be our only chance.” He was against sending the girl into her doom even more so without her dragon here to help her out and drag her out in case this turned bad, but it was definitely an option they would have to keep in mind if they wanted to succeed. Sighing, he waved a hand towards the darkness of the tunnels ahead of them. “Let’s get going then,” and with that he pulled out the map of the underground tunnels which he had tucked into the waistband of his pants earlier, and with a loud curse, he uttered: “For goodness sake, Armeno still has the chest with the rest of the documents! I sure hope for his own hide that he has brought them to safety! If we loose that chest to Zartear...” Atleon preferred not to finish that sentence, knowing that Sandy as the rider of a guardian dragon probably knew as much about these documents as he did, ancient sayings and battle plans being contained within them.

As the prince explained the plan of following the tunnels back to where Zartear’s army was, she took a quick glance at the path down the tunnels before turning to look back at the man before her. As much as she didn’t like the idea of heading straight into the madness, if it was the only plan they had, anything was better than nothing. If they were to go to any shops, then it would be better to go to some more on the outskirts of Racksom, but then in turn, it would take a lot longer to return back to their original destination. And time was another thing which didn’t seem to be on their side at the moment.
As he continued to speak, Sandy began to touch on a few ideas how they would get rid of any tents they came across. Sure, she could blast them away, but if that didn’t scream out guardian rider, then nothing would. It looked as if they would have to do it the long way, with careful planning and being as silent as possible.

She began moving down the tunnel, holding the torch out in front of them, and caught a glimmer of darkness begin to creep up onto Atleon’s face at her idea. Well, what reaction should she have expected? But as he spoke about underestimating Zartear himself, she began to feel herself get a tiny bit angry with the man. “Underestimate?” She snapped, “you think for one second I would underestimate a man who brought this much devastation to a city and almost killed two guardians?” She stopped herself from carrying on for a second. If they started arguing between themselves, then there would be no hope. She spoke again, more calmly this time, “I fully well know the risks, but it won’t stop me.” Sandy returned Atleon’s hard gaze for a moment as his eyes scanned her, there was no time to be afraid anymore. With that, she turned and continued to walk as he began to fiddle around with the map.

“Armeno has the documents?” She asked, quite shocked. Last time he had stumbled across him, he didn’t look to be holding anything like that. “He got them quickly then,” she muttered under her breath. “Last time I saw him, he wasn’t in any form of trouble, so I don’t see how he could have. He should still have them.” It was hard to try and be optimistic, but they couldn’t have anymore darkness in their thoughts. “So which way to the shops?” She asked again after a few more paces. It was no good her leading if she had no idea where she was going.

Last edited by Eldarwen on Sun May 01, 2011 9:54 am; edited 1 time in total

It was not hard to guess that Sandy wasn’t quite happy with Atleon when he tried to put her back within her limits. Apparently, he had misjudged her hot-headedness a little bit as she was now glaring at him, telling him how very well she knew the risks. The battle had worn him out and he was, with all that had gone awry, beginning to consider everyone having to be handle like a child and needed things to be explained in detail, not to mention reminded of the risks involved. However, this was not the case with Sandy. She was the rider of a guardian dragon after all.

“Apologies, sometimes I forget who actually knows what they’re doing around here.” With the map firmly in his hand to have it at the ready should they need it, Atleon set out towards the very centre of the city again. “Yes, he offered to take the chest as he was riding on a horse and I needed to have a hand free to be able to defend myself if necessary.” Grumbling at the fact he had completely forgotten about this during the chaos earlier, he added: “If he was out of trouble when you saw him, and not in all too much trouble when I saw him, then hopefully the chest will be safe. All we can do is hope now.” It was not a very gratifying thought but it was the best they had for now.

Turning his attention back to the task at hand, Atleon stated: “If I’m not mistaken, there is a shop not too far off from the square, facing the western end of the city. With a bit of luck..” There was no need to add anything more, they both knew what might await them if fortune had decided not to smile at them. The tunnels were rather straight forward in the way they were laid out, at least to Atleon they seemed that way. The main underground canal seemed to always be that bit larger than every other tunnel branching off of it and dwindling away into the labyrinth they actually were and they arrived at their destination not too long after setting out, Atleon’s assumptions with regards to the plan and his own knowledge of the city above helping them quite a bit.

“Seems like I hadn’t gotten all that far away from the stone after all, despite being astride a rather speedy dragon,” he mused as he was inspecting the tunnel walls for possible exits. “There has to be an opening somewhere around here so we can go above ground for a few minutes.” Apart from hoping they wouldn’t lose too much of their precious time looking for the exits each time, because even though they were marked on the map, it didn’t help discovering them any easier as they were very well concealed, the prince was worried about what might await them once they were back in the sunlight. How were they to know where Zartear's rebels were running around by now? They had never properly known before vanishing, thus they could not even be sure of it now, and frankly, it was worrying Atleon deeply, even though it might not be shown in his facial expression.

“It’s fine,” Sandy muttered as they pressed forwards, Atleon now leading the way in a relatively straight line. She decided not to comment any more on the matter with Armeno. If he was safe, he was safe, if he wasn’t, then…whatever the outcome, discussing fate wasn’t going to help with whatever it was going to throw at them. If Atleon was happy with the matter, then so was she. Even though, it was hard to believe anyone could be content at a time like this. It seemed not long ago she was going about her daily life, naïve as to thinking that nothing could go wrong. Then she me Silverwing, then chaos erupted and now she was with a prince, moving about underground as to not be seen and killed. How times could change so quickly. She only hoped that they could change back just the same. But at the same time, she knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

At the mention of the stone, Sandy turned to look at him, trying to figure out what he had meant. She then quickly glanced away and looked down to her own sword. She wondered how long it would take before Zartear captured the stone and with it, the power. Whenever the time came, she would know about it. It was hard to believe that part of the stone, even though its only a tiny piece, was encrusted into her sword. Merely for the basics of communication between them all. It was handy, yes, but at the same time, if anyone realised what it held, then they would automatically jump to the conclusion that it was as powerful as the others. Her life would be in even more danger at the thieving hands of others. But they didn’t have a clue, they didn’t know anything, they were blind thieves who wanted any chance at power. Sandy ran her fingers along the hilt, her skin touching the cool, blue stone with a delicate sigh. What had everything come to?

Atleon’s motion of hunting for exits brought her back to reality. She stepped forwards and squinted her eyes at the never-ending blackness. She reached her free hand forwards and sent a small, blue ball of energy zooming down on of the tunnels. The light it carried with it as it zoomed along gave them both a quick idea as to what else was down there.
“Hey, did you see that?” She asked, narrowing her eyes even more. She was sure she saw the reflection of something metal along a part of the ceiling. Maybe it was a way out?

Kumiko sighed in irritation as what she had partially expected happened- the dragon blocked her from his mind with a wall of his pain, which was actually mildly uncomfortable for her due to what the barrier was composed of. She was examining it for weak points when she felt yet another presence enter the dragon's mind. Another dragon... She couldn't see any other, so she traced the conciousness back to wherever the animal was just as it stepped forwards. This one certainly wasn't a fighter... The type of dragon actually looked familiar to her, she believed it was a healing dragon. She began to probe its mind now, perhaps it wouldn't have such good defences as the other... If it did, she probably wouldn't bother with the two of them, except perhaps with her katanas.

Only a few minutes had passed since Armeno setting off when he heard voices and footsteps. Instantly pushing his horse back into a narrow alley he had just come from, he watched as a large group of Surhans passed. The horse had been complaining all along, not being a particularly good tempered animal, and now it was shifting and shaking its head. A man on the edge of the group paused and turned his head towards the alley; Armeno grabbed the horse and firmly held it still, trying not to let it make any more noise. At this, it let out an indignant whinny, which caused all of the men to turn and peer into the alley. The first one stepped forwards, blade draw and face grim. Armeno cursed, engaged in a brief flurry of blows with the man, and felled him just in time to wheel the horse around and flee- while he was a good fighter, he wasn't good enough to fight that many at once when he had important documents he needed to get back to Atleon. The men followed him, and glancing back Armeno saw one fumbling to string a bow- he needed to be gone. Yanking hard on the reins, he gave his steed desperate aids to turn sharply down a street to his right. With much protesting, it obliged, and he kicked it to go faster. As he sifted through his brain for the nearest tunnel, Armeno wove between streets, trying to avoid the group who were determined to eliminate every last defender. Especially one who had so recently killed one of them. Finally though, something came to Armeno's mind and he doubled back, heading for a turning he needed to take a few metres back. Mercifully, the tunnel entrance he was hoping for could be found there and he leapt from the horse's back to shove it inside, himself following and slamming the door shut only about half a minute before the angry Surhans arrived outside it, grumbling to one another and cursing Armeno for his apparent disappearance.

Now, however, Armeno was shut in a pitch black tunnel and certainly couldn't get out. He felt carefully along the wall, hoping he would find a torch bracket there- and sure enough, he did. With a brief smile, he pulled the torch from its holder and concentrated for a few seconds, hand poised near the top of the torch. A spark appeared from his fingers and landed on the torch, causing a small and weak flame to appear. He willed it to grow, breathing on it very gently to provide more oxgen to feed the flame. A wave of relief flooded through him as the flame spread- even a spark took a fair bit out of him, and he wouldn't want to waste the energy it took him to try several times. He began to jog down the tunnel, the horse trotting beside him and shaking its head irritably, and just hoped he was heading somewhere that he might meet Atleon.

After travelling for a while, Armeno stopped at a bend in the tunnel. He leant against the wall and drank the last mouthfuls from his waterskin, then looked at the horse. It didn't yet seem to be spent, so he was preparing to swing onto its back- head ducked- when he saw the light. At first it was just a silvery blue glimmer, but as he leant around the bend he saw an orb of light fly past the far-off opening which presumably lead to a different tunnel. Armeno stared for several seconds after the light had disappeared, unsure of who had released it. While he had given Sandy a ride on Velox and watched her fight, he hadn't seen the energy she was able to send out like a missile, and so he mounted the horse and slowly headed up the tunnel with no idea as to what waited for him there.

Both of the two were hanging after their thoughts as they were hurrying through the tunnels and the current problem of finding the actual exit out of these canals was a welcome distraction for the prince, who had been brooding over problems that were long gone and out of his hands now. As soon as Sandy had released the energy ball, his ears caught a sound he was not quite sure what to make off, yet before he could tell the girl to be quiet, she had already uttered her question and Atleon desperately put a hand onto her shoulder and put a finger to his lips before pointing into that exact direction.

The prince bent closer to Sandy, whispering into her ear, his lips merely making the movements and barely a sound coming out. “I’ve seen it,” he stated, “but someone is out there.” He squinted his eyes in hopes of seeing better and further into the darkness but there was nothing to be seen without the ball of energy. The light on the torch did not spread far enough, however the sound, which was now easily distinguish as the hooves of a horse was coming closer to them. He questioningly looked at Sandy before he looked back down the tunnel, obviously wondering whether they should hope for it to be one of the defenders or whether they should make a run for it and try to find a different exit. But surely, if they could hear the hooves, that person could also see their light. Slowly, Atleon unsheathed the sword he had so many hours earlier stolen from one of the rebels on the dragon’s back when he got rescued and called out: “Who is there?” It seemed to be only one horse and no footsteps were to be heard, thus he was fairly certain that Sandy and him could overpower the person should it not be a friendly face.

As the presence poked around his mind for weak points, Rilos shook his head, trying to get rid of the creature. He gave a little growl, strengthening his barriers more and keeping them up, even when the pressure started to lessen. It looked as though he was hardly going to have a respite from the madness though, as a pink dragon suddenly appeared in front of him, making him recoil in fear.
“What are you? Who are you?” he asked, keeping his voice low so they wouldn’t be found. He hadn’t remembered seeing such a brightly coloured dragon on the side of the rebels… But of course, this was a euphorn!

He was about to ask what was going on, how they could escape, when there was suddenly a roar from behind and he turned to see the huge form of the tribal battle blood bearing down upon them, looking terrifying. Before they could even run it would be on them- until another dragon battled out of nowhere, buying them some time.

He turned to run, shouting to the euphorn, “Come on miss, before he comes back!” His back leg burned as he put new weight on it, but he had to ignore it, knowing that if the dragon caught them, then he would have even worse to contend with.

“You won’t need to, I don’t think. There are enough buildings for us to shelter in for the time being.” She said, looking for somewhere that wasn’t smouldering or filled with soldiers. She felt her stomach turn as she stumbled over a gory body, and tried not to look at it, but she knew that it would be worse to fall into it. She forced herself to keep looking down, and saw a sword glittering in the man’s death-hold. She stooped, and clawed the weapon out of his frozen fingers, and shuddered. She could hardly bare to hold the blood-stained metal, but at least she had some way to protect herself at close range now.

Jackdaww squinted in the darkness, but Measle seemed certain of his footing. His mouth was wide open, and the little sparks of lightning that were always dancing in his throat gave a dim, blue light. If he had been a fire-breathing sort of dragon, he could have been of more use, but the lightning still lit up the tunnel enough to see hazy outlines in the darkness. “Thanks, Measle.” Jackdaww said, patting his head and receiving a gargled growl as thanks.
“On’t eben twy it!” he spluttered, trying not to shut his mouth or put out the dim light. Jackdaww immediately pulled his hand back, and focused on staying safely on his dragon’s back.

» (C1, Racksom) The Making of Men (12th Board)
» Tremors in the Earth....C1, Racksom (4th Board)
» (North of Azure caves, east of Racksom) ~~~~Peace in the Everplains~~~~6th Board
» The Destruction of Quinsilla.....T1 (1st Board)
» (C1, Racksom) Surnames in Surahnia (19th Board)

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

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