Taj and Aero: Advent of the Feather King

If Kol was ever going to wake now would have been a good time but nothing seemed to move his unconscious body. Even the screams of his wife seemed not enough to wake him. One of the metal men floated over to Kol and grabbed his arm, dragging him over to the other captives.

One of the robbed men stepped forward now, a confident smile on his once nervous expression. He had a bird like face with beady eyes that seemed to be glaring constantly. His body was thin but it was impossible to tell with the large robes hanging from his frame. "Now that was rather troublesome." The man said, contempt dripping from his voice. "Seems the two males have magic we over looked." He eyed Kol for a moment before looking to Talos. "Master is interested in the ones with magic for sure but we can't have them using it. I will take the pleasure of that. Lenard, why not take the women and run some...tests, eh?" He grinned back to another man in a robe behind him.

The bird like man turned to the armored man holding Kol and scowled. "No use to me like that. Put him back in the cell." He said, and turned back onto Talos once Kol was locked back up. "Shall we fix that mouth of yours?"

Lena saw the look in the mans eyes, he was looking at Talos with pure evil and a stone sank into the pit of her stomach. Whatever fighting power she had left in her was put into haphazardly flapping her wings in an effort to get away. "Don't touch him." She growled between panting, her fighting useless.

"My my, a spirited one, good luck Lenard." He grinned. With that, he turned on his heel, mentioning for the armored being to follow him into a room a few doors down. He then chained Talos onto a table, pinning his arms and wings. "I suppose I should introduce myself now before you are bleeding and unconscious. I am Darmen, your torturer for this evening. Now be a good boy while I get what I need." He said to Talos, turning to grab some things from a cabinet. When he turned back around he did so quickly, placing a wet rag against Talos' mouth and nose that had a strong chemical odor to it. "This will make it so you can't move on me but you can feel every bit of what I do. It's a wonderful drug, really."

"Lena!" he tried to gasp, but it mostly came out as a strangled hiss of sound, the metal man holding him still holding on rather tightly and thoroughly preventing any sort of escape. He wanted to kick the man that was speaking to them, but he never came close enough to make that a reality. Damn, damn, damn! He went limp then, conserving his strength and let the metal knight carry him out of the room, following Darmen as they went and tried to catch his breath. Whatever happened next, he would endure. He sword the he would get out of this situation, some how, some way, and make it back to Lena, free their children and make these bastards pay for what they'd done. When they arrived in whatever torture room that Darmen had deemed worthy of putting him down in, Talos only offered token resistance as the ghost knight holding him forced him on the table.

"When I get free, you'll wish you were never-" He never got to finish the threat, the wet rag muffling whatever words would have normally come next. He felt the beginnings of the drugs effect immediately and tried not to choke on the fumes that were invading his senses. His fingers tingled then deadened, the feeling of paralyzation creeping rapidly from his extremities to the rest of his body until even breathing was something of a concentrated effort. Angrily, he watched Daran, cursing his name as loudly as he could in his head.

Mai had been reduced to tears at this point, the sight of Kol being dragged back into the cell breaking her heart. "Please, just let us go." She pleaded, sobbing unabashedly. None of the metal guardians seemed to take pity on her, and neither did Lenard.

He had been on this island for quite a while, working diligently in these experiments to find out exactly how it was that the avians were able to fly, and in turn try and give themselves the same ability. He had no real interest in flying himself, but the experiments on the avian creatures really were something that wasn't to be missed. He simply grunted when Darmen took the more interesting experiments for himself, watching as the two avian women were brought to heel. "This way, please." He said to the animated suits of armor, stepping over the bodies of the robed men that had fell in the avian's initial attack. "Somebody clean this mess up. We've got more prisoners arriving soon. Wouldn't want to give them the wrong impression."

A few of the gawkers standing in the hallways moved to pick up the bodies of their fallen companions as Lenard escorted the two female avians out of the room and down the hallway, opposite of where Darmen had gone. Four doors over, he turned into a separate hallway and was greeted by a chorus of screams the second that he opened the iron banded door. Oh, the sweet sound of science. Smiling to himself, he opened a door to his own experimentation chamber, a metal slate in the middle of the room propped up by stone pillars with wrist, ankle and wing binding straps of thick leather hanging off the sides. He looked back to the two women he had at his disposal, examining the tear stained face of the smaller one and the angry determined gaze of the other and immediately made his choice.

"Chain that one up." He said, pointing to Mai and the metal knight hovered silently over to wall with several sets of metal manacles, and the creature obediently locked her up then hovered nearby, waiting for further orders. "Put that one on the slate. We'll start with her." The look of determination intrigued him. Those ones were always the most interesting to break.

"Now now, you talk as if you feel you'll get out of here." Darmen said turning around with more ease now that he knew Talos wasn't going to be moving about or give him problems. He picked up a large, crude looking needle that looked like an overly large sewing needle. As he began to thread it with some sort of bendable wire. "There has only been one so far and we have nearly tracked him down again." He said in a dark voice. That male had been with them the longest and had shown great durability, something many of the avians had not shown thus far.

Sighing a bit to clear his mind he looked down to Talos with a toothy grin, "Now, lets get you patched up. I'm sure you'll get back before the ladies and this will be a nice treat for them if they are conscious." Darmen liked talking to his captives, even more so with the satisfaction that they wouldn't talk back. "Now.." Darmen leaned over Talos, and grabbed his upper lip, stabbing the crude needle through the skin and tissue. Once he pulled it through the lip and the knot on the end of the string caught on the skin he lift the bottom lip and repeated the processes. "Faces bleed so easily." He grumbled to himself, moving quickly to sew the his mouth together. By the time he was finished he was covered in blood.

"Wonderful! That took no time at all." He said, washing off his hands and then pouring water over Talos's face before unstrapping him from the table. "You, take him back to the cell with the other male." He instructed the float armor. It moved without hesitation, grabbing Talos and taking him back to the cell with Kol and tossing him in there. The door was once again locked.

~**~

Lena looked on with helpless anger when she was brought into the torture room and relaxed mentally a little when Mai was spared at first. When she was taken to the slab of table and strapped into it, she cold angry eyes never left Lenard. If she had even a split second of a chance to break this mans neck she should in a heart beat.

Talos recognized the needle and wire immediately for what it was, though at first he couldn't quite comprehend what Darmen was going to do with it. The obscure comment about Dimitri escaped him, however, as the man who he had decided was insane grabbed his lip. Only then did the hour strike him when he realized what the man was up to. Talos tried to struggle, but whatever paralytic drug that had been used was still working to full effect. He tried to twitch his head out of the way, but it was no use. He was completely at Darmen's mercy, and passed out half way through the procedure, unable to scream or move at all. By the time that he was done, Talos woke to a mouth full of blood and offered no resistance as he was carried along by his metal captors. The drug was still in partial effect, and he was so tired and in pain from the procedure that he couldn't muster up the strength to resist in the least.

*~*

"Now, you should know that we hardly ever get females in here." Lenard said absently, walking to his work bench and tapping the tops of various vials of liquid that were held up by rows of wooden racks. "I've only ever been able to experiment on one other, myself, so I'm very interested to see what sort of secrets that you female avians have in store. Do you reproduced like humans, or birds?" He asked, sounding honestly curious as he selected a vial then went to find a needle and sanitize it. It would be a shame to contaminate the experiment with the blood of another. Who knew what sort of blood borne diseases these creatures were capable of transmitting with each other?

Once he had his needle he tipped the vial of yellowish liquid upside-down and drew it out into the needle. "Now, last time I tried this out, the poor subject died of an irregular heartbeat. Poor thing. Since then, the formula has been reduced quiet a bit and so should work as a mild stimulant, but we'll see. I'll need you to tell me if it's working or not." He tapped the crook of her elbow for veins and when he found a good one jabbed the needle into her flesh and pushed the yellowish liquid into her, pressing on the needle point for a second after withdrawing the hollow metal tube to make sure any of the stimulant didn't leak out. "While we're waiting for that to take effect, let's see what you look like under the clothes, hmm? The last female I inspected looked very curiously human. Very strange, given that you lot can fly."

By the time that Kol finally woke up, he was sitting in the cell alone and feeling the toll of using magic with no energy. His limbs felt heavy and he felt sick to his stomach. He found it strange that his hands weren't bound to the wall like they had been before but his main concern was as to where everyone was. Last he remembered, he was blasting a man off of Talos and then he blacked out. His heart beat in anticipation and fear for his family until the door to his cell opened and one of the floating men came in holding someone. When his eyes adjusted to the light he saw it was Talos and before he could even try to get up and move the armored metal man threw Talos in the cell and left.

When he could finally muster the energy to crawl over to Talos he did so on his hands and knees. "Talos, are you oka-?" He started to ask before he caught sight of his face. He instantly jerked back with a gasp. "Dear god what did they do to you...." And if they did that to him, what were they doing to the girls...?

~**~

"You do realize I will kill you the second I get the chance right?" Lena growled before the needle was jabbed into her arm. Oh great, heart failure sounded like a great way to go. "Don't touch me." She said at the suggestion of the exploration of her body, even as she felt her heart being to beat faster. It was an odd sensation and she felt light headed and dizzy. "What the hell is this?" She shook her head in attempt to shake the feeling, which was useless.

The impact of being thrown on the ground did no favors to the stitching holes on his face, and Talos groaned when he hit the ground, still too exhausted to even conjure up a proper scream of pain. Through the haze of drug and pain, he realized that someone was speaking to him and managed to turn his head enough that he recognized Kol's face staring at him, horrified. Well, he didn't blame his half brother. He probably looked liked a royal mess with his lips sown shut and bleeding all over the place. He opened his mouth to say something but instantly regretted the action, snapping his mouth shut and biting his tongue against the pain that the action had caused. Gods, what did he ever do to deserve this?! The moment he got out of here, he was finding that blasted man and fully planned on rendering the creep utterly immobile while he broke all of the man's fingers and toes before carving his name into some fleshy part of his body. Gruesome, yes, but blinding rage coupled with pain did tend to make an otherwise reasonable man somewhat unreasonable.

*~*~*

"Hmm, seems that it's working." Lenard mumbled to himself, getting out a pair of rather sturdy looking scissors and started cutting away at her shirt, noticing the flushed tones of Lena's skin. "Although, if you get too jittery, do tell, if you would. I would hate to loose another patient to something as trivial as heart failure. Easily prevented stuff." While he talked, he cut, expertly opening up her shirt and pushing the bothersome clothes out of the way then started in on her pants, ordering one of the metal guards to simply rip the material off when it became too hard for him to do it himself. Once that bothersome bit of work was done, he set the scissors aside and started prodding at her stomach and sides, pressing against her organs and generally just getting a feel for her body. "Huh, very human, actually. Surprising." Was his only comment.

Kol looked at Talos for a few more seconds before deciding that he could once again move. "I'm going to prop you up against the wall. I don't want you choking on blood, okay?" Kol said, explaining what he was going to do before doing it. Ever so gently he lifted Talos from under the arm pits and moved him against the wall, careful not to jar him around too much. "I know you can't talk, but do you have any idea where they took Mai and Lena?" He looked over to their empty cell for a moment before turning back to Talos.

~**~

More than anything Lena wanted to rip this guys face off and the longer she was in his presence the stronger the urge got. He was talking to her in such a scientific manner and that only agitated her further. When his hands touched her body, her skin crawled with every brush of his finger. He left no place on her untouched and was treating her more like a piece of interesting meat then a person. During his examination her dizziness and light headed state peaked and eventually started going back to a normal state that Lena was far more comfortable with. More than once she felt her heart skip a beat or jump to fast causing her breathing to be a bit abnormal. She eventually came down from the peak of the drug however, regaining normal breathing.

Even though Kol was being careful, it still hurt, and he openly winced when the threads in his mouth pulled at the bloody skin of his lips. Upon being asked where the girls were, Talos could only shake his head no and look longingly at the doorway. They were somewhere beyond the threshold of course, but he hadn't seen where they'd been taken, other than the opposite direction of where he'd been. He wished that he could curse. For what it was worth, it might have made him feel just the tiniest bit better about this whole situation, but they'd gone and taken that away from him too.

*~*

So caught up in exploring every part of the avian's body, Lenard hadn't noticed that the drug was finally wearing off. "Oh you. You were supposed to tell me when you were feeling normal again! Just goes to show… can't trust these things at all." He muttered to himself, then looked up at the hovering metal suits. "Well? What are you two waiting for? Flip her over!" Two obediently came forward and unstrapped Lena, holding on tight as they put her face-down on the slab and re-buckled her so that she couldn't flap around or try and get up. Lenard, meanwhile, got another vial of the yellow liquid and drew more of it into a syringe and injected it into one of the veins in the back of her legs, then went to retrieve a scalpel. "Now, normally I would make sure to numb up my experiments or put them to sleep. They do flail around a lot when I start cutting otherwise. But, this new drug that we've crafted is supposed to bring the good blood to the surface, and that's the stuff we want. Now, try to hold your wings still, hmm? Wouldn't want to accidentally cut a tendon and leave you completely flightless, would we? That would be bad." He laughed in a good-natured way, coming for ward with the knife and prodding her back experimentally before applying the sharp end to her skin and started cutting away, focusing on the joints of her wings.

"You honestly expect me just to cooperate don't you?" Lena said in a dry tone, slightly more relaxed now that he was done poking at and in her body. When she was being flipped over Lena pulled and pushed as hard as she could to try and get free with no real use. She found herself back on the table, face down and something being jabbed into the back of her leg. The feeling of her heat beating too fast for its own good returned within moments and only worsened at the way he was talking to her. Cutting? She soon understand what he meant as the sharp instrument was pushed into her back. Lena bit back a scream as her body tensed and arched with pain. More than once Lena had passed out from the pain or blood loss and her breathing was becoming shallow. She refused to scream or even mention that the pain had taken away any feeling of the effect of the drug. She wouldn't give him any such satisfaction.

~**~

Kol hung his head in defeat when Talos shook his head no. Lena might make it through this, but Mai? She was such a bright and small woman that he wasn’t sure she could endure any sort of torture. “We’ll get out of here.” He tried to say with some amount of confidence, and when they did he owed Demetri an apology. It’s no wonder the kid ended up how he was.
“I’m impressed you’re awake!” Darmen exclaimed as he entered their cell room. He looked at Talos with some amount of pride. “You know, the strong ones are the most impressive here and if you cooperate with our research we could get you into a better living situation. I just can’t have you cursing my men to their own deaths, you know?” He said with a toothy grin.

“Now, that isn’t really why I came back, I have news to tell you! You see, one of my test subjects passed away on me. Literally, fell right on top of me. The man was lighter than I could ever expect for his size. And then I got an idea, it’s your bones! That’s why you could be the same shape as a human yet fly free like a bird. Now, this is just a theory so, I am going to need to run some tests.” Darmen straightened once more and mentioned for two of the floating men to join him in the room. “Take the fire user.”

The floating suits of armor obediently did as told, opening the door and each grabbing onto Kol tightly before dragging him into the hallway. Once the door was closed Darmen lingered for a moment. “You know, your mate is even more impressive than you are. Not a single scream out of her yet. I’m almost disappointed.” Darmen left him with that before turning back to Kol and leading him into the same room Talos had previously been.

Far away from the grim reality that their parents were facing, a group of winged children were camped on the shore, a desolate looking island just off the coast looming as a black shilouette against the red of a setting sun. Around the campfire that they had built, Rose was sitting, humming idly to herself in order to keep away the lingering feelings of doom that threatened to scare her away from these shores. It had taken a while for them to get back on track after the little mishap in the cave with the frightening dreams. Demitri hadn't really remembered where to go from there, so the group had more or less been wandering around chasing rumors or looking for any sort of hint at all that they were on the right track. Eventually they came across a small hamlet on the edge of a river that had a newly fostered local legend about the Ghost Knights that came from the sea at night who kidnapped children and floated back to their long-forgotten island fortress. The fortress turned out to be nothing more than part of the tale, but the island that the supposed "ghost knights" came from was very, very real and they had camped on the shores near the sea in preparation for making the flight across the channel at dawn. Rose hoped that they would find their parents there, but could only shudder to think of what sort of challenge that they would have to face in the rescue attempt. If the island was the home base for the magically imbued suits of armor, then there had to be a whole army of them on the island.

Taking a deep breath she calmed herself and forcefully averted her thoughts away from that particular track of thought, looking instead at the fire and drawing comfort from those around her. Between her brothers, cousins and Demitri, she had to believe that they could handle anything that came their way. Alex was certainly looking calm enough given their situation, quietly sitting near the fire and always keeping some contact with Oriana, whether it be a brush of wings or a quiet touch to her arm or knee. Truth be told, he was just as unsettled as Rose was about the whole situation. He was committed to the task of course, he couldn't very well let Oriana go in with just the hot-headed twins, her limp-noddle of a brother, and the terrified Demetri. Besides, saving a future in-law would probably be worth plenty of credit in the way of wooing went. And he had managed to convince himself that they were all going to come out of this alive.

Ilario, on the other hand, paced around the beach with his sword drawn, barefooted and went through training routines with his sword, keeping himself distracted. It hadn't escaped him that they were sitting directly in the path of where the metal heads would probably be coming and going, so it was probably going to be a restless night punctuated by patrols of the floating magical armor trying to kidnap them. A horrible plan, really, but it was the only one that they had at the moment.

Tristan had sprawled himself out near the fire, having taken a good beating from the anxious Ilario in the previous hour. His limbs were wickedly sore but that was half the fun in sparring with his brother. They were pretty evenly matched but sometimes one got the better of another. In this case, Ilario's pent up energy was enough to beat out his own.

Ilario wasn't the only one however with pent up energy. Oriana found herself bouncing her knee or tapping her hands on her legs frequently. Unlike Lena's constant state of energy, Oriana's was slightly more relaxed unless she was feeling restless. If something was going on she needed to be moving to be doing something and this wasn't it. Standing, Oriana looked down to Alex with a small smile, "I'm going to make a quick scout around the camp. Do you want to come with me?"

He watched as Oriana stood, wondering if she'd seen something worth worrying about, then relaxed when it turned out to be nothing more than pent up nervous energy. They were all feeling it. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan." He replied, standing as well and dusting the sand off his pants, glad to have an excuse to get out of camp and away from everyone else's nervousness. It could only compound his own, which was certainly not what he needed if he was going to keep remaining outwardly calm and unruffled. Seeing Oriana so jittery was a bit amusing, however. He hadn't particularly known her to be a fidgety type, but then again, he'd never seen her in a situation quite like theirs before. Alex stuck close to her side, scanning the dark beach for anything that moved unnaturally in the dark, his gaze turning toward the grassy dunes beyond occasionally. "All things aside, it's a beautiful night." He remarked absently, trying for some normal conversation. "I'll be glad to have this all over and done with so we could enjoy nights like this properly." Was that a hint of innuendo? Probably. This was Alex, after all.

Rose was uneasy when Alex and Oriana left and bit her lip in worry, watching as their two indistinct blurs faded past the realm of light that she could see in without saying a word. She prayed briefly that they would meet no harm while they were out, and prayed a second time that her first prayer wouldn't be futile. Left with a campsite full of silent boys, Rose stewed in her own thoughts for a few torturous moments before finally breaking down and turning to Demitri. "How are you doing?" She asked quietly, conscious of her brothers being nearby and likely to start trouble if given the opportunity.

Oriana let out a small sigh once she was out into the darkness of the beach and away from the tense camp. "You know, I shouldn't be shocked that even in this type of situation you have that on your mind." Oriana said rolling her eyes as she did so. The little bit of teasing him seemed to help bring a more relaxed smile to her face. "But...I can't say that doesn't sound nice." Oriana walked with her hands behind her head not sure if she should think about their up coming doom or set it to the back of her mind. "Bet you never planned to sign up for this, huh?" She teased.

Demetri nearly jumped out of his skin when Rose spoke to him and he turned a dark gaze on her. " I can't say I'm looking forward to going back." He said in a dry tone as he shrugged his broad shoulders. "And...you? I'm sure thinking about your parents is hard." Talking. Not really one of Demetri's strong suits but if he was planning on spending any length of time with Rose after this he better get used to it.

Alex smiled when Oriana did, lightly bumping her shoulder as suggestively as shoulder bumping could be. "No, no I did not. In fact, I didn't sign up for anything at all. I was sort of conscripted." He replied with a small smile, referring to his kidnapping before he'd even met Oriana and the others on this insane journey across the continent looking for people that he didn't even know or care about. "If I had the chance to do it over, I think that I'd only change my introduction to you. Being hit really wasn't the greatest first impression, for either of us." He had a small chuckle to that, remembering quite well their rocky start and was glad that they'd managed to push on to a more companionable relationship.

She didn't miss his jump, and Rose quietly scolded herself for scaring Demitri any more than he already was. She expected his response, really. After everything that he'd been through, what more could he say about the place? His state upon reaching them had been almost beyond saving, so it was a little bit of a phenomenon that he was holding himself together at all. When he mentioned her parents, she simply became sad. "Of course." Her voice was thin, barely holding back tears. "My brothers and sisters too. They're all locked up in that horrid place… I'm terrified." She admitted, looking into his eyes, her own beginning to water slightly despite the resolve to not get too horribly bent out of shape the night before they had to go meet their destiny. "But I have to go. I have to, for them."

"You know damn well that you would have done the the same thing if it happened again." Oriana said in a good mannered way. "While I am glad you aren't hitting on every woman that moves and I no longer feel like killing you..." She grinned over to him, "I doubt I'd believe it was you if you didn't hit on me at first meeting....Or...rather you were trying to buy me weren't you?" She laughed anyway, pausing to look up at the night sky suddenly sad. "I hope they are okay." She said softly.

Demetri frowned at the sad note in her voice and he awkwardly put his hand on her back in an attempt to comfort her. "I wasn't there long enough to know them without them thinking I was going to attack you...but they seem like strong people, Rose. There is this weird stubborn thing that seems to run in this family." He tried at a joke for her sake, wanting to ease her sadness that he brought on.

Tristan rolled over, facing his brother with a bored look. "Dude, why is it that we are the only people without chicks? Love couple number one already ran off and love couple number two are having some sort of gush fest over there." He made a gagging gesture and sit up with an annoyed sigh.

No, he wouldn't have tried anything less than hitting on her, but perhaps he would have tried a different way of doing it. When Oriana stopped to look at the stars, the quiet that they'd gained from getting away from camp turning to sadness, Alex wrapped his arms loosely around her shoulders. "If your father and mother are anything like you, then they're giving whoever lives on that island what-for and making their lives hell right now." He said quietly and brushed a gentle kiss on the side of her head, giving her a quick squeeze in reassurance.

At any other time, Rose might have laughed about the crazy way that Demetri had been introduced to her family, but not now, not when reality was so painful. She leaned into Demetri, resting her head gently against his shoulder and looked into the fire, watching it dance without really seeing it. "I hope you're right." She murmured, completely unaffected by the joke to the point where she thought that it was just an observation of her family in general, which wasn't exactly wrong. "My father is really stubborn, and my uncle is tough. They'll make it, I'm sure. It's my mother I'm worried about…"

Distracted by his practicing, Ilario hadn't even noticed the couples doing their disgustingly couple stuff until his twin had pointed it out. Once he'd seen it though, he couldn't un-see. He frowned at the to-close-ness of Rose and Demetri, though if his guess was right, then it wasn't the big man who'd started the physical contact. That guy had issues sharing personal space, even if it was with Rose. How he'd managed to get that girl naked without cowering in the nearest closet, he would never figure out. He made an aggravated noise that echoed Tristain's and swung his sword fiercely at an invisible opponent then kicked a sand hill and sent sand flying toward the ocean. "This is the pits." He grumbled, obviously unhappy with the whole situation.

Oriana took comfort in the contact Alex gave her and she leaned back into his strength. At his comment she couldn't help the inelegant snot that escaped her. "You may be right there. I just hate this...doing nothing thing, Alex." Of course, she knew they were looking and that rest was needed but the time she was awake and not moving was making her frigidity. "I honestly don't see how you can do it."

Demetri became worried when even his lame first attempt at humor didn't work...Perhaps that's not how humor was supposed to be? Eh, that wasn't it. He simply wrapped his arm around her in quiet comfort. Women never lasted long in that hellish nightmare from what he could remember. Since they could reproduce they were experimented on their reproductive organs a lot which led to more infections, bleeding out and death. There was no way Demetri intended to tell her that but what could he even say?

Ryleon sighed as he quietly got up so as not to disturb the loving couple. He picked up his sword and walked over to the twins looking at their grumpy faces. "I can't believe I'm going to say this but...I know why you have that look on your face and I agree with you." He missed the girl with the beautiful smile in the book shop. She was sweet, smart, and actually interested in their problems despite him being a complete stranger.

Tristan looked nearly shocked at Ryleon's words, "And here I thought you would be the one to support such sappy love." To his words Ryleon only shrugged and sat down near the twins.

She was staring at the indistinct blur of the horizon, watching without really seeing as the ocean lapped at the shore and the stars shone on the undulating wealth of water before them There was some comfort in Demetri's physical presence alone, but she wanted to see her parents, brothers and sisters alive and well before he mind could be fully at ease. And with their parent's prison just a short flight over the water, her nerves were definitely up.

The metal knights attacked without sound or warning, simply appearing out of the shadows like ghosts and hovering over the sandy beach. Ilario saw the movement but didn't have time to voice a warning before the first one sped over with its arms outstretched to scoop up Rose and Demetri in one swoop. "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" He yelled, quickly jumping to defend his sister and was met with heavy resistance from several of the metal knights.

Rose screamed bloody murder the second she felt the metal gauntlet close around her elbow and waist, crushing her agains the plated hollow chest of the phantom creature and struggled uselessly against its grip, screaming all the while.

"Of all the damn times!" Alex muttered murderously, drawing his sword and quickly moved to guard Oriana's flank as the two were suddenly surrounded on all sides by another group of the floating knights.

Demetri sat in quiet silence with Rose simply hoping his presence might help her some. Every bit of silence was broken however when seemingly out of no where he and Rose were grabbed from behind. Having had wrapped his arm around her previously, his arm was now pinned between the metal knights chest and Roses' back. He struggled for a few short moments before realizing that he needed to calm Rose down at least enough for her to concentrate if they were going to get free. "Rose! Rose! You have to calm down a little! If we can work together we might be able to get this thing off of us!" He had no idea even if their combined strengths was enough to get free but it was better than thrashing around uselessly.

As soon as she saw the floating freaks she drew her swords. If they hadn't been cut off from the rest of the group Oriana would have welcomed the chance to get rid of some of her pent up energy. In this case however, it was going to be a lot harder. "We got this." She said to Alex unsure if she believed it herself before swinging her sword at the first metal knight that got close enough.

Ryleon watched in horror as the camp site was flooded with the metal men and grabbed up Demetri and Rose at the same time. He drew his blade and was about to go help them when he got surrounded by three more of them.

Rose's heart was threatening to beat out of her chest, her screams cut off when the metal knight holding her squeezed hard enough that it was difficult to breathe. She only vague heard Demetri's call for her to calm down, and instead devoted her energy to trying to pull away from the creature holding her. Rose put all of her strength into trying to struggle out of the grip of her captor, kicking futilely in a bid to escape.

Ilario jumped to Tristan's side, falling into synch with his twin to try and fend off the attack and get back their sister. Alex and Oriana would have to fend for themselves. Rose was in very real danger of being carted off!

Alex met the attack with his own blade, blocking the charge and cursed for the ill timing of this newest attack. He shoved off his opponent, sending the metal knight floating backward and with a brush of his wings moved back to fill in the space that Oriana had left behind when she moved forward to meet the oncoming attack. He smoothly moved into position, blocking an incoming hand that made to grab for Oriana and with a flick of his sword sent a gauntlet flying off into the darkness.

Ryleon took a small step back as the three floating men advanced towards him. His eyes flicked over to where Demetri and Rose were struggling to get free and then back to his own problem. "I don't have time for you guys right now...sorry!" Ryleon bent his knees slightly, unfolded his wings and with one powerful stroke took off from the ground and straight up into the air. He flew up past the metal men and he pulled his foot up closer to his body as a sword came swinging at him. Once in the relative safety of the air he took a moment to look over the battlefield. Oriana and Alex seemed to be able to hold their own along with the twins.

He flew to the other side of the battlefield and circled around the armored man holding Demetri and Rose. Folding in his wings, Ryleon dove towards the back of the floating man and swung his enchanted sword across it's back.

~*~*~

As Demetri was struggling to free himself, he heard the clash of metal on metal and he found himself sitting on the ground no longer in its grip. Not really sure what had happened he looked up to see Ryleon standing on them, sword in hand, kneeling down to check on Rose.

"Thanks..." Demetri mumbled as he stood back up just in time to bring his sword up in front of him to block another attack.

~*~*~

Oriana looked back to Alex for a split second to give a nod of thanks keeping her back to him. She swung her sword to the left, aiming high to take the head off the floating monster.

One of the floating men took its time and waited for an opening to grab hold of Alex's arm and hold tight with the intent of dragging him backwards into the forest.

Shaking with terror, Rose lay on the ground in shock for a moment, her golden eyes wide with horror. She'd very nearly been abducted. The thought sent all of her limbs to trembling so hard that she couldn't even pretend to have the strength to stand. Ryleon was only some comfort as she tried to pull herself together, getting to her feet with a great amount of effort. "I'm alright…"

---

Just one slip, one misstep, and Alex knew that his fate would be sealed. His sword worked furiously to cut off the advance of the metal suits, keeping his back firmly to Oriana's blind spots. Only their teamwork had kept them from falling for so long, he knew that. But the metal knights had a significant advantage over their prey: They did not tire.

By contrast, Alex's arms were heavy with exhaustion, sweat beading on his forehead and falling into his eyes, blinding him partially every time he blinked. He heard the crash of metal as somewhere behind them the twins fought valiantly enough to stave off the hoard and that gave him some hope. This attack had to end somewhere, didn't it?

---

Across the way, Ilario was thinking the same thing, gouts of fire leaping from his hand to sever the magical joints between limbs and sent metal parts crashing to the ground, creating a small pile around where he and his brother fought of dismembered parts. A break in the wave came and he took the opportunity to look around and take stock of their defenses. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dark shape sliding across the ocean, and his heart sank. There were more coming, and they were coming in mass.

"Run!" He yelled above the chaos, tugging on his twin's arm and pointing to the hollow knights that were coming for them from across the sea. "We've got to get away!"

Alex heard the cry to flee and unwisely looked up from his concentrations. He only caught a glimpse of the dark shadow moving across the water when a gauntleted hand reached out and snatched him by the forearm. Panic instantly overtook him and he swung his sword wildly, shearing off half of a metal helmet as he came around. The metal warrior didn't even flinch. It just yanked Alex forward, pulling him off balance and began dragging him away.

He planted his heels, resisting with his whole dead weight against the metal knight. At this range he had no hope of pulling off the sort of sword strike that would get him free. "Oriana!"

---

A flash of metal out of the darkness was all the warning that Rose got as another troop of the metal knights glided soundlessly from a sand dune and entered the pathetic ring of fire in the night. One of them sped forward, arms reaching for Ryleon and Rose both, intending to capture the pair in one go. Quickly on its heels were half a dozen more, all of them obviously ready to drag the first avian they could get their hands on back to their lair.