Companions. So very welcome, and yet he'll plunge a knife into his hand before he admits it. The fire-haired beauty and the old guy. Well, wizard, not just a guy. He made sure to give the man some good-natured ribbing for traveling with two younger, faster, sprier combatants. A good knife through from the dark could disable them both. No armor on the wizard- next to no armor on the warrior. Maybe he should teach them some things about reacting? They were his companions, and he was sort of the safest of them all. He was always in the shadows, unless he decided to walk with them. Slept in the trees; they slept on the ground next to their beacon, their fire. Fire's good and all, but it's bright and attracts attention. Was he being too paranoid? Probably. He wondered if the girl could use that knife of hers. Probably not, at least in comparison to him. The wizard... is there a poison that suppresses magical abilities? He hoped not. He wasn't too terribly fast, not for a trained warrior. A little cut might make him useless. But then again, a fireball is terribly painful, from what he's seen. His thoughts drifted as they did now for the duration of his watch. He balanced on his branch, not needing to take care of a blanket because he didn't have one. The others were shifting, about to wake, and he hopped of his branch in anticipation of the day ahead. A light, thud sounded his presence to the earth, but it was low enough to keep from disturbing the birds in the tree over. As usual, he waited for his companions to open their eyes and start stretching, before he stalked out of the receding darkness with the confidence of a cat, and with the grace of one. Smooth, slow, and yet also moving faster than expected, no energy wasted. Well, maybe a little wasted. But he had to keep appearances up. None of them had seen his face yet; neither of them had asked. He was the assassin in this stereotypical group, and he had to be as such.

Dawn upon them, the strong morning sun shinng into Valon's eyes, waking him up. He opened his eyes just in time to see the contour of one of his companions, Setheran, drop down from a tree. "About that time again..?" He thought and felt a great yawn come over him, no use fighting it. After stretching for a second or two he sat up, grabbed his staff and poked it into what remained of the fire. Only a few small black pieces of charcoal remained. And he wanted a warm breakfast. He could get up and search for firewood, but that would take time and it would probably be wet anyway... Cold breakfast? No! He was a wizard damnit, he could command a whole legion of kitchen appliances to make him a feast worthy of a king, or at least he had read a spell about it once... With a grunt he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. There was a flame-spell that would solve his problem perfectly. He could focus it through his staff and just put the fire down where he wanted it, and then cook breakfast. How did that thing go again? Aah, right. He opened his eyes again and gave each of his companions a look, just to check that they weren't doodling with the fireplace. Youngsters, they probably didn't appreciate a warm breakfast yet, they could live on stale bread and water... Aah, to be young and stupid again. He muttered the spell under his breath and gathered the energy in the hand holding the staff. Now all he needed to do was lead it down the length of the wood...

Krea had emerged from dreamland a good few moments before Valon had, but chose to take a lavish half-asleep, half-awake slumber behind closed eyelids. Only after her senses had picked up the muffled thud of Seth's drop from the branches above their little campfire, she tossed and turned a little bit more, before sitting up - fully awake. Not that she wasn't capable of waking up on mornings. She simply chose to take her time, since her former master had forbidden willy-nillying before breakfast. As per her usual morning routine, Krea surveyed the campsite, her eyes resting on Valon who seemed to be up to one of his usual magician antics. A grin crossed her face as she shifted to a more comfortable position, arm propped against her knee. "Another fire spell, Valon?" Krea cocked her head. The wizard declined to reply, quite evidently focused on his task. "You know, bread and water ain't gonna kill you," she continued. "Besides-" There was a splutter, followed by a hacking cough. Krea traced her eyes to the source of the sound, only to find that Valon's staff was spurting out... water. The complete opposite of what he had intended to do. On top of that, most of it had trickled straight down into the fireplace, causing the dying embers to fully extinguish. They smoldered for a little while, leaving the scent of burning ash lingering in the air, before all signs of activity ceased. Silence assumed its position in their cosy campsite - only to be broken abruptly by Krea's unceremonious roar of laughter. "Well done!" was all she could manage, then doubled up yet again.

Setheran joined them by the campfire as he watched water spray from the mage's staff like a broken wellpump. He smirked, and chuckled along with the Phoenix's great burst of boisterous laughter, dryly commenting, "If you want something to drink, just ask. No need to use the campfire as a wineskin, methinks." He paused for a moment, before added, "You could've at least filled it up before that twig of yours gave out." Then he muttered a curse as some of it splashed on his outfit, from a burned branch collapsing in the little campsite, sending a small, but for Seth, and deadly volley of water droplets. Showing up with a half-soaked outfit is hardly the way to go, when coming up to a town. Hardly good to keep up appearances, OR reputation. Even though it was just a few droplets. Either way, his hooded head turned to the laughing Phoenix, and asking, "Well then, why don't you start the fire? I'd say the old man's efforts were admirable, if the opposite what we were looking for. Or assume he was meaning." He took out his wineskin from beneath several folds of clothing, and took a refreshing swig of old, leathery-tasting wine. Oh dear. A water sprayer... that might soak him. It might even push his cowl back, if he was sprayed directly. Water was deadly.

"Contain yourself, woman!" Valon snapped with perhaps a bit more aggression than was really needed. Then he looked at his staff, amazed and surpriced at the same time. As he raised it, the water went from a serene pouring to a more nope-kind of speed. Before it died out completely a few drops of the liquid had reached his hand. It wasn't even warm. "This isn't right... This isn't right at all." He said and dug through his pack, searching for his book of magic. He found it and immediately started to serch through the pages for the spell. Spellbokks are, contrary to popular belief, not written with words or dancing letters that rearrange themself if they're read by someone "unworthy" They are written with colours, and shapes. Magic cannot be captured with words, but with emotions and feelings. To describe the finer points of magic with mere words would be like explaining the history of the universe using drums. No idea how long he sat there, Valon finally laid eyes on the correct spell. He went through it in his head amd found the mistake, but couldn't figure out how it had gone so horribly wrong. He leafed through the book into the section about water magic and had one of those aha-moments. "Al Fehru, you lazy bastard" he whispered as he read the spell of water. It was the exact same spell, but with a small, tiny, change. In text, you could say that he forgot to change "lot" to "not". The grand mage Al Fehru had belinged to the desert people, and as such found water to be much more valuable than fire, but had discovered both spells, and had written them down on the same day. He made a mental note of this, to prevent the same mistake happening again. Suddenly his ears picked up a sound and forced him to break concentration. He looked up and tried to pinpoint the source of the sound while his brain tried to figure out what kind of sound it was. His head jerked violently to the side when the signal finally came. A screm of fear, and uncomfortably close.

(cut because wow)

“Alright Valon, alright, I shall contain myself.” Krea, in an attempt to pacify their wizardly wizard, slipped into passivity, yet it was undeniably evident that a fond half-smile still lingered on her face. Like how the scents of breakfast linger in kitchens long after the meal has been kept – except for our group of friends, well, a warm breakfast seemed far out of reach. And so was a nice, lovely, uneventful morning. The ear-piercing screech that had sounded off in the near vicinity jolted Krea’s senses, yanking unceremoniously on her personal built-in alarm system. Ding ding ding went the alarm bells in her head, following which tingling arrows were sent shooting through her limbs. Ooh,tingly. Waitameenute, that sounds familiar, she thought, furrowing her brows in concentration. She hadn’t seen the spiral of flames break through the treetops a distance away. However, her train of thoughts was broken by Seth’s impatient – and excited – urges to ‘help the old man find his feet’. For a moment, her thoughts derailed into the amusing fact that Seth never failed to call Valon ‘old man’, although he was, quite clearly, merely in his late thirties. Realizing that she was dawdling with Seth already sprinting off and disappearing into the brush, Krea reached for her spear and followed suit. She didn’t look to see if Valon was close behind her, neither did she ensure that he had even begun to get to his feet as per instructed by Seth. The old man can handle himself, or at the most, pull out a miraculous teleporting spell if he lost his way there. Maybe he might even end up on a different continent. Krea, after a few moments of noisily bulldozing through semi-dense undergrowth and the foliage of trees which they were camping in the middle of (leave the sneaking to the rogue, she thought), she emerged to where a river flowed before her. Spanning approximately four meters, the currents of the river were rapid, swift and strong, the depths of which Krea hoped she wouldn’t have the opportunity to find out in the near future. Far on the opposite bank of the river, a fair maiden crouched behind a large rock, paralyzed. And behind her, what she couldn’t see yet glaringly obvious to Krea, was that a young drake was stealthily making his way towards her having emerged from the sparse forest bordering the river. Soon, it would encircle the rock to find dinner waiting. “A drake, huh?” Krea muttered, finally connecting the screech which she had found familiar earlier, to the creature across the river. Back in her gladiator days, she had encountered multiple drakes during those pesky ‘special events’ hosted monthly. She hated those. On top of that, the drake that they were about to encounter, unfortunately, had two heads.

Setheran was the first to be off. Not feeling charitable or patient, the first moment of danger and excitement, he jumped up, said, "C'mon Phoenix, pick up the old one and let's go!" And then he bolted into the shadows to see what's going on. Setheran looked at the river with a dread unmatched by even what the warrior might be feeling. She couldn't swim- he could. But he hated the water, like a cat. Absolutely hated it. And it would get his uniform soaking wet- and going into a battle with a drake, what could be worse! A two-headed drake, at that! Nonetheless, he resolved his mind and spirit (it may or may not have been helped by the appearance of the damsel in distress), and took off his pack and unneeded extra things. He glanced at Phoenix, and said, "Please don't lose my stuff, I don't want to swim back across. Bring it across when you can, okay?" And with the anxiety and nervousness common among one that might be jumping off a 30-foot cliff into the ocean of questionable depths for the very first time, he jumped into the swirling waters with an elegant dive. That alone got him more than a meter across, and he barely even slipped under the surface of the water. A good thing, too- had he tried to wade across, the riverbed likely would've given way and he would've fallen in anyways. The cold was a shock; he felt his cowl get yanked off his head, and his entire body was thrown off. It wasn't like he meant to just swim all the way across- he would have to improvise. Instead, his ribs smashed against a rock with a painful soundless impact, and then used it to push off and try to reach the other shore. Already, he was half a dozen meters down the river; by the time he emerged from the water, soaked and freezing, he was set to give up. Then he looked at a very angry drake looking for a very frightened lady, and did the only thing a rogue could do: "HEY RED EARS?! YOUR FIRE GOING OUT?" The two heads of the wingless dragon snapped up to his eyes, four boring into his two, as if stung by a particularly sharp arrow. One head roared, angry and rather pissed off, and the other just sent a gout of flames his way. With a resigned "bastard" and a dive to the side, he disappeared into the undergrowth just in time to be missed by the flames- mostly. His arm was on fire, and his entire body was steaming and uncomfortably hot, the tree next to him alight with flame. He could hear it approaching, so he rolled to the side again as the drake's other head sprayed more fire into the forest, randomly, trying to put out his arm in the process. Running and slapping his arm about wildly just about did the trick, and he still managed to get away with bruised ribs and a tattered, burned sleeve. He loved this outfit. Bastard's going to pay for that. "Hey double snout, you ain't lookin' to hot!" He was met by another roar and the crashing of underbrush as the drake began basing its way through trees and undergrowth, and the rogue did what he did best- he disappeared, leaving the drake utterly confused as it made its way into the forest.

Drakes, being very logical creatures fond of a good crossword puzzle took exception to Setherans sudden disappearence and was, logically, enraged to the point of insanity. The two heads roared as one and began to thrash about, easily knocking trees over and trampling small furry animals with impossibly large eyes and ears. Just when the two women (Krea and the damsel in distress) thought that it couldn't get any worse two things happened at once. The two heads began to spray fire over the landscape, and Valon emerged from within the bushes and trees of the forest. Originally he'd been right behind the feme fatale known as Phoenix, but a short moment of unattentiveness and a low-hanging branch gave her a serious head start.

"Come out, shadow-man, stop hiding like a coward!" The two heads of the drake cried, but which sounded suspiciously like "ROOOOAAAR!" in the ears of Valon's magically retarded companions. Not even stopping to see what was going on, Valon charged the river at full speed. Bright blue energy quickly gathered in his hand and he threw the mysterious ball into the water, which immediately began to freeze. Valon landed on solid ice and used his momentum to glide along the surface, using his staff as best he could for balance. The freezing ice luckily reached the other shore before he did and now formed an exteremly slippery bridge across the water.

With solid ground beneath his feet Valon pointed a finger at his own throat and recited one of the first spells he'd ever learned.
"Stop this madness, foul serpent! Crawl back to whatever dank cave you came from!" The voice that came out of Valon's mouth was that of a hundred Valons, or one Valon one hundred times bigger. His voice boomed over the landscape with such force that it had trancended mere sound, you could feel the words slamming into you like extremely sudden gusts of hurricane winds.

Hang on a second there.

Sudden realization dawned on Krea. She had to get across the goddamned river? SHE?

Nope, nope, nope, nope swished around in her head. Slowly, her head creaked downwards to angle her eyes towards Seth’s belongings. She thought she had heard him say something about bringing his stuff over when she could. Krea blinked once, then twice, recognizing that this was one of those moments when her brain chose to indulge in the art of selective hearing.

Already, Seth had propelled himself straight into the river with a courage Krea could only dream of having – when it came to water that is. A hopeless swimmer, Krea had a ridiculous if not firm belief that she was cursed at birth to have properties akin to that of a rock. Whatever she did underwater, her face was bound to get very acquainted with the seabed – or river bed, in this case.

Just as she was about to plonk her butt right on the bank of the river with the intention of watching Seth humor the drake (while providing moral support since it was practically physically impossible for her to get across without drowning thrice), Valon pulled out an impressive wizardly trick from his pointy hat (figuratively, of course) that left Krea stunned. Subconsciously, she drew her hands up and clapped like a mentally defective seal on too much ale.

“THREE CHEERS FOR THE OLD MA-“ She clamped her mouth shut before Valon could twirl around to vaporize her with a nasty fireball. Finding her feet, she untucked her tail, snatched up Seth’s belongings and bolted straight to the nice, convenient bridge of ice that the wizard had summoned over the river.

Slippery ice, at that. Extremely slippery ice.

Acutely aware of the uncomfortable distance between the edges of the ice bridge and her, Krea took a tentative first step onto the shimmering white surface. She steadied herself. The next step followed, and the next. She was now halfway across the bridge and about to reward herself with a proud mental pat on the back, when all of a sudden, the sound waves that erupted from Valon’s being startled and jolted almost everything in the vicinity.

The next moment, Krea found herself diving head first, on her way to commune with the fishes.

Gurglegargleglurggg…

Krea felt the currents tug at her body, pulling her further downstream. Her face barely broke the water’s surface, and she was still clinging desperately onto her weapon and Seth’s items, obstinately refusing to let go. Another rush of water crashed unceremoniously into her face and she went under, feeling the tip of her spear scrape against the river bed. Perhaps the river wasn’t as deep as she had expected it to be. Just as she was about to ditch all their belongings, a sudden loud thud on her back, followed by the subsequent interruption of her abrupt journey down the river, signaled that a large rock had halted her course.

Seth's view from the forest was troubling, to say the least. Valon, at least, came about to distract the thrashing fire-breathing drake, which was good news, because then it would be easier to slash the underbelly of the drake from behind. But... that was really dangerous, and he was hesitant to do so. On the other hand, what if it killed the mage and did whatever to the maiden? It may take her as a sacrifice, slay her on the spot, or eat her. He didn't know- what he did know was that someone else was in imminently more danger, and was carrying his things.

He didn't like have choices, nope, no choices are much better because then he wouldn't have to deal with having to decide and choose one person over another and save one person or another, but he could just go with "she has my stuff," if anyone asks. Then he can come back and help take down the drake, if it's not already dead or fled. Valon can handle it, he was sure, or at least, hoped so.

He again shot through the forest, angling around and away from the drake so that it couldn't possibly hear him or detect him with its thrashing about, and bolted through the forest to the water's edge. She was already farther downstream- hopefully Valon will stay focused, or see him and focus again on the drake.

Then he tripped and faceplanted, just as he was catching up with her. Being a master assassin, he shrugged off the pain from his rather epic faceplant from running full-speed, and again started running, trying to catch up with Phoenix, the waterlogged warrior lady. He wondered what it'd do to her ego- and his. If he manages to pull her out, she looks heavier than he, taller too.

But no matter! With another dive aimed more or less near Phoenix, he slipped into the water at a particularly rough spot and was jostled about, as he made his way towards her, grabbing a shoulder and the arm connected to it, trying to signal to her to grab onto the rock in the middle of the stream, that was approaching a little faster than he'd like. Either way, he held on and tried steering her into the rock, so that at the very least, she'll be able to get a breath.

And when they did hit, he had the misfortune at NOT being aligned with the rock, and the current began dragging him away, so as much as he wouldn't like to, he tightened his grip on the arm that he had a hold of, and switched his other hand to her other arm, pulling himself behind the rock into it's slightly-calmer water, using Phoenix as a handle and the rock as the anchor to that handle.

So, shivering, he said the only logical thing.

"Fuck, my hood's down."

The drake, obviously not even noticing Valon's valiant attempt at shock and awe kept on thrashing about, throwing both of its heads around as they breathed fire. Valon wondered for a minute if it would be possibe for the fiend to slay itself with this badly constructed technique. "Alright. I'll give him something to look at, and you flank him from the..." He said and turned to where he thought he'd see phoenix, but she was nowhere in sight. Instead the young woman whose scream had drawn the three heroes to the river in the first place. Shestared back at Valon with eyes that told thousands of stories of bravery and courage, and that she wouldn't be capable of any of them.
"Damn it, and Seth is nowhere to be found.... as usual." He thought and threw his arm out, pointing it toward the river.
"Get to the other side, you'll be safe there, I'll handle this!" He said and tried to sound as heroic as he could while at the same time being scared right out of his pants.

The girl made a run for the icy bridge, it was better than nothing after all, while Valon pulled up his pants and tightened his belt. He'd barely had the time to do this before he had to throw himself to the side in oder to avoid a nasty case of Burn-to-death-itis. A squeal behind him confirmed that the fire had hit the icy bridge.
"Damn it. I'm no match for a dragon, not even a youngling. Not alone."
Something had to be done, but magic normally didn't affect drakes anyway.
He looked back to see what had happened to the bridge and the girl.

On top of her already heavy spear and Seth’s belongings, Seth now added to her pile of water-drenched baggage.

Miraculously, Krea had barely managed to secure a hold onto the rock and with great effort, swung Seth’s items right on top of it. Then, she embedded her spear tip-down into the river bed, leaving one hand free to haul Seth closer to her. She blinked a couple of times at his exposed countenance, making a mental note to remind herself to prod the guy about it later.

With her head now at a comfortable level above the water’s surface, Krea surveyed what had happened back at Valon’s. Unfortunately, it was not a pretty sight.

The drake’s fire had vaporized the ice bridge almost instantaneously (thanks to Valon lack of foresight. Why ice? Why not stone?), and the maiden that had been attempting to cross it in the slowest way possible had been condemned to a swishy, watery fate.

She disappeared underwater momentarily, before popping up and breaking the surface, followed by splatters and hacking coughs. The currents imposed on her the nasty route which Krea had to take earlier on as well. With each passing moment, the maiden was dragged closer to the warrior and her assassin baggage. Then, Krea had an idea.

“VALON!” She yelled her lungs out. “DO YOU FANCY A SWIM?”

Struggling to get out of the river would be too much of a hassle with everyone but Valon in wet territorities. They could let the stupid river carry them further downstream where the currents were tamer – a one way ticket to safety.

And then, they could come back to settle their scores with the drake.

Seth's priorities had already shifted away from the equally-as-cold Krea to the maiden being swept down the river, towards them. He gave the Phoenix a reassuring smile- the first she had ever seen, since neither her nor the mage had seen his face- and then pushed off to intercept the waterlogged and flailing damsel in distress.

He had a quick thought- how ironic it was that the thief and assassin was saving lives from the cold liquid that he absolutely hated getting soaked in, and letting someone else hold his non-essential stuff. They owe me so very, very much.

He himself had trouble getting a full lungful of non-waterlogged air, but it didn't affect him quite so much as the others- part of the job was doing whatever was needed to get the job done, and sometimes he had been forced to hide just under the surface of the water, with his nose just barely above to keep breathing. Good training for a moment like this, struggling through the fast-flowing water, swimming diagonal instead of directly against it or straight to the side.

He would've breathed a sigh of relief, had he been able to spare it, when he latched onto the struggling, dress-laden lady, whose exact purpose out in the wilderness could be questioned later. And up ahead, not too far, was a bend in the river, where the entire thing stretched out into a great big curve, and hopefully shallowed out.

A minute of floating and struggling to keep above water with the maiden, he started slowing down, starting to curve and turn, and his feet touched riverbottom. It was loose, and might be a little tricky, but it would have to do. He dragged the fair maiden out of the water, thoroughly unconscious but not looking too worse for the wear. She'd have a couple scars from the cuts on her face, but nothing too bad.

Figuring that her slowly-rising chest meant she was alive, and carefully averting his eyes from leering, he got up, shook himself off, and started trudging back up the bank. He was very much tired and sore from the bashing that he had taken, shivering from the cold and letting the sun's morning heat slowly warm him, but he had a job to do- that robed wizard would probably drown because of all the things he has in his great bag he calls a wardrobe of his. The Phoenix couldn't swim, and he could, and neither could the defenseless one, and his poisons were up there.

He couldn't even think of a response to how crappy his day had already been, though saving the beauty was a thing of duty. So to speak.

Setheran and the girl floated away while Phoenix held on for dear life. The scene was completely unknown to Valon who was busy trying to save his own hide from getting barbecued. In a stroke of genius he took cover behind the same boulder that the frightened woman had used as a hiding place when he'd arrived. The drake had calmed down somewhat, since no one was pushing the attack anymore. It had stopped its chaotic attack and instead started to systematically smell the piles of burning forest and molten rock for burning flesh. "I know you were around here, shadow-man, you stink is all over the place... where did you go..." It said, which sounded like a low growl to anyone not trained in the art of magic.
He stood there in relative safety with the world burning around him so hot he could feel the warmth even though the nearest fire was pretty far away. A gentle tug from within his clothes reminded him that Leyling was caught in there. The little blue menace always hid in his clothes except for when it felt safe. Something told Valon that if he forced Leyling to come out now it would never leave his pockets ever again.
Taking a second to breathe and survey the area, he noticed somethong auburn downstream in the river. He would've dismissed it as a log or something, but the long stick that shot up into the air next to the brownish thing made it look suspiciously like the topmost piece of his comerade, the violent woman. But what was she doing in the river? This was no time for a bath, and he was convinced that at some point she''d told him that she couldn't swim.
The drake had started to turn around toward the river, following the scent trail Seth had left when he'd run off to help Krea. Ironically this now had the exact opposite effect as the drake was heading pretty much straight toward the maiden in need with its nose, figuratively, to the ground.

"Balls" He thought. He was indeed between a rock and a hard place. That hard place would soon be a giant reptilian-ish semi-divine being. Ironically it was still considered tiny, in the same way as a mountain can be described as tiny if viewed from very far away. Valon would also like to see the drake very far away.
”Alright, I can’t stop the thing, but I might be able to get Phoenix out of there.” He thought, and tried to remember the last time he’d taken a swim in full gear. He couldn’t think of a magical way of getting them both to safety, but we was a pretty good swimmer… Anyway, Setheran hadn’t showed himself in a while and if he was out there he’d hopefully see what was going on and retreat. Besides, even if the drake decided to follow them, the river would carry them along faster that it would be able to run through the forest.
”Alright, here it goes, quick dash to the water, ice blast ready if it tries to flame me. Jump in. Swim, swim, swim. Grab the girl. Swim, swim, swim. Yes, that’s exactly what I’ll do.” He thought and peeked out to see what the dragon was up to. Sadly enough it wasn’t looking in his direction and he probably wouldn’t get another chance like this again soon.

As Krea watched Seth haul the maiden to safety and dry land further up downstream, she felt a tug of jealously. No fair! She grumbled inwardly. She hated water, and she wanted out. Now.

Then, she caught sight of Valon propelling towards her in what she considered was a record-breaking swim, to which her heart skipped a beat with relief and in anticipation of her return to the dry, homey soils of the earth once more.

However, Valon’s furious swimming had caught the attention of the drake, which promptly pursued the thrashing, splashing trails left by the wizard with a newfound interest. Krea wondered if he took a fascination in the fact that dinner could walk on dry land, cast spells, and swim. Unbeknownst to the girl, that was far from the truth. The drake, being young, brash and proud, merely wanted to test his might against the escaping party – no river could stop it, oh no.

“RAWWWWWRRHHHHH!” their two-headed winged pursuer bellowed. It was then that Krea realized that she ought to get rid of her spear, temporarily, or else Valon could have a hard time trying to get them both to Seth and his damsel-in-distress. Thus, with a powerful, well-aimed throw, the warrior let loose her dangerous, pointy weapon, sending it flying in Seth’s general direction.

“Uh oh,” Krea muttered, before she felt stiff fingers clamp onto her arm for the second time that day. Unceremoniously and without further ado, Valon yanked her off her precious rock and compelled her into the deathly waters.

With the river contributing to their rough-sailing yet speedy descend downstream, soon, they left the drake behind as they had hoped. Moments later, they reached the shallower and calmer bit of the river through which Seth had monopolized to get his fair maiden and himself onto the river’s bank. Krea, upon securing a firm hold onto solid ground, made herself useful for once and hauled herself out, before dragging the water-logged old man onto dry land after her.

“Well, that was maddening,” she concluded. A quick glance around confirmed that they were all utterly, shockingly drenched.

Seth was quite busy calming the panicking, soaked woman, while still trying to remain some decency by throwing on his cowl and trying to shake himself off, and keep an eye on the drake and the mage/warmaiden at the same time. It worked out semi-well- he managed to get his cowl back up, but also prevented the woman from drying herself any amount by spraying her with some droplets from his own outfit, and at the same time, took note of the angry drake in the distance, roaring and smashing the water with its front legs.

He also passively took note of the sharp pointy spear the Phoenix liked to swing about flying towards him. His eyes widened; a yelp escaped his lips as he jerked to the side. A quick save, too- the edge just brushed his receding shoulder, cutting through his leather/silk/cloth outfit with alarming ease, cutting a somewhat medium deep slice into his shoulder before he could get it out of the way. The spear continued down to pin the water-laden maiden's lower dress to the ground, slicing through it just as easily. Fortunately for her, she had now been spread-eagle on the ground, or losing a leg might have been the more serious event that happened.

No time to think- he had to stop this bloody painful steel-cut. It hurt worse than a papercut! He did pause to yank out the spear and toss it to the side somewhat clumsily- he had no idea how it was to actually be used, heavy as it was.

And in the distance, the drake roared again, sniffed the air and started crashing through the forest, as if it had smelled something tastier. Humans weren't that tasty, right? Maybe deer were more attractive in the tastebuds' eyes, or maybe a boar.

Valon was dragged out of the water in an almost herculean effort of strenght, his robes was soaked through and their wieght sure exceeded his own. As soon as Krea let him go there was little he could do between the slippery mud and his clothes weighing a metric ass-ton, he fell down with a most unceremonious squirt. Something moved within his robes and struggled to find a way out, thinking that Leyling was in trouble, Valon did what he could to find a safe passage for his friend, and was truly amazed when a silvery fich about the size of his foot jumped out, before he could gather his senses the fish had reached the water and escaped. No fish for breakfast this day.
"So, let's review..." He said, and fished his hat out of the water with his staff.
"No breakfast, drake wanting to eat us, damsel in distress half drowned, barely got away with our lives..." He counted out on his fingers. "All in all, better morning than yesterday."

He took in the scene. Seth was cradling his arm, which was leaking at an alarming rate. Their rescuee was on the ground, he had to find out if their troubles would pay off. After all, ladies that were rescued from dragons always turned out to be princesses or something like that...
He fought (against gravity) to stand up, and seemed to manage as long as he remained somewhat upright. The weight displacement would sent him right back down if he leaned over too much. Stiffly he made his way over to Seth and the lady. His first concern was of course Seth, but bandaging wounds and healing spells were never his forté. "You'll have to do something about that, once you run dry you'll be no fun at all" he said, as if Seth hadn't figured that out already.
Standing above the woman, Valon noticed her dress. It wasn't a typical princess dress, although if you are going to be eaten by a dragon there's no point in dressing up. It was actually nothing more than rags, if she hadn't just been rescued from a dragon, one might actually believe that she was an entirely ordinary person.