Things rapidly began escalating, the tension in the chamber shooting up, making the room seem much smaller than it actually was. He didn't know Zyloria well, but he didn't think she'd be so... forceful. Our Dragons? What claim did she have to them? As Dragon Riders, they would care for them until their Dragons were old enough to take over. It was their right as kin to protect and watch over their own.

But they were correct, time was short, it was time to move. He felt guilty they hadn't had time to feed the dragons, or to pack up the loose paper from the hut, paper was rare and they would probably need it before their journey was over. Sighing, and relaxing his grip from his axe, Gale pulled his thoughts together. "Okay. Gren and Demund, go with Zyloria and keep the dragons close. Alph come with me, I know where Rona had a set of fishing traps upriver. She-" he withheld a wince, thinking of the young girl, only fourteen, who lived in the center house, "She doesn't need them anymore." He recalled stumbling upon her fishing and her yelling at him until he promised not to tell anyone about her traps. If there was one thing he knew about dragons, it was that they ate fish. Hopefully that went for newborns as well.

He glanced at Kolysakr, barely registering that the hatchling had yet to tell him his name, and sent an image of fish to him. Kolysakr simply responded by shoving the picture back at Gale.

He frowned at Zyloria, he didn't trust her, but she was one of them now. Not a rider, but a fugitive. Galbatorix would capture her and torture her for information regardless of whether she went willingly or not. Something like this, eggs slipping under the radar and new dragon riders, he would likely personally rip the information from her mind. They were fugitives now, and Alph and De's warning from the village meant the King's agents were close. He hoped her father was truly on their side as she said he was.

"Right, fresh food. For the dragons?" His voice was strained, the day was getting to him. After a moment, he put his sword back in his scabbard.

You're going to need to go with them. But stay close to Demund, he sent an image of the smith's son, so she would know which one he meant, And keep an eye on that girl. I don't trust her, but we don't have a choice. Neither does she, come to that.

"Lead on Gale, we really need to move." Despite needing Gale's direction, he was already making his way for the stairs. He gave a last look back to the remaining eggs, and then to Ashwing. The others would take care of them, he knew. It would be fine.

The situation somewhat defused, Ashwing sighed her worries out. She wished her jaws and vocal cords could give her a voice the woman would understand, because the dragoness oh so longed to tell her exactly what she thought about her. The only thing that saved Zyloria from having an angry bag of orange and ashen scales hanging from her throat by the jaws was the fact that she didn't threaten Alphonse.

It seemed that she would not give the egg up, but she wouldn't be going away with it unwatched either. Ashwing could accept that - for now. When the topic of the conversation changed to food, the little dragon's eyes lit up and stomach growled. She passed Alph an image of herself sitting on top of a small mountain of fish skeletons. Then she thought for a moment and sent over much the same image, only instead of the pile there was a human skeleton dressed in tattered remains of the same clothing Zyloria worn. No woman, no problem... And no hunger. Ashwing thought to herself, editing her earlier statement.

Hobbling over to the smith as Alph said, she realized how tired this small exchange made her. Angered at her own powerlessness, she sat down next to the smith's feet and silently fumed, waiting for either group to start moving.

Gren lowered his bow, placing the arrow back into it's quiver and slinging the bow over his shoulder. Part of him felt relieved, the rest only felt disappointment. He didn't really want to kill people though. Did he? Gren figured that they would have to eventually. If Galbatorix was going to have his forces hunt them, killing would be inevitable. "You and I are in this together now. Us against the world." Onam purred softly in Gren's head in reply. The hatchling dragon had relaxed, and half-jumped half-flew onto Gren's shoulder.

"I quite like the idea of us against the world."

Gren inclined his head slightly, turning to Gale. "The eggs and dragons will be safe with us." He glanced sidelong at Zyloria. "They won't come to harm."


Onam still wasn't quite sure how he felt about Eggthief. She was making herself useful, but taking that egg was an affront that shouldn't have gone unpunished. At the very least, Onam could vow to cause her great pain if she tried anything again. "The red haired girl worries me, Gren. She tried to take one of my cousins and she practically reeks of unused magic." Onam could feel Gren's muscles tense.

"Don't worry. We'll be keeping an eye on her. If she tries anything, we'll... We'll do something."

The group decided once more to split as Gale and Alph headed out to find food for them and the dragons. Alph’s small orange dragon sat beside him watching everyone, while Demund’s own dragon stayed on the stairs glaring at Zyloria. He didn’t intend to attack the arrogant girl, but rather discourage her from leave while she still held the egg. The smith himself leaned against the wall keeping his eyes on both Zyloria and the entrance. Someone had already intruded once, that wasn’t going to happen again.

Silence hung over the room as Zyloria was caught in the gaze of both riders and their dragons. Though people were no longer pulling swords on each other, there was still a heavy tension between them. With the seconds starting to feel like hours, Demund finally broke his gaze from the girl and looked to the small orange dragon on the ground. The longer they acted as advisaries the sooner they would become so. He figured it was time to break the silence and put some minds at ease.

“Tell me something,” He asked looking back at Zyloria. “What was your goal exactly? You said you needed the egg for insurance, but you already had more than enough.” Pushing himself off the wall he began pacing around the girl, giving her enough space that she wouldn’t feel threatened. “You know our names, faces, pretty much everything the empire would need to find us. Of course we wouldn't have just abandoned you to roam the world with that knowledge. True we could have killed you and saved us the trouble, but if that’s what we wanted-” He stopped directly behind her and finished his statement, “You’d be dead where you stand.”

With one fleeting look at Kolysakr, Galen hefted his axe and left the chamber with Alph. The door was stick a mess, allowing them to see clearly the rapidly darkening sky. It was clear, which was good, if there had been clouds they might have ended up traveling at night in the rain. "Come on, we'll need to cross the river. There's a wooden bridge further up, it's close to the traps." By wooden bridge he meant a few thin boards strung together to pass over a narrow part of the river. It wasn't very safe, but it was fast and with agents of the King around...

[color=green]"Shouldn't be far, the river bends somewhere around here."[color] Gale commented distractedly. He hadn't really had time for anything to sink in, but the stress was starting to get to him. How long until they were safe? How long was a trip to the elves? How safe was a trip to the elves? Would they shoot them on sight? Would they be caught? Would they be caught tonight? He gripped his axe tighter at the thought.

He only barely noticed the mud getting thicker, and the puddles getting wider. When the river came into sight, he cursed. The bridge was gone, the narrow part of the river was totally blown open and a wide section of fast-moving water separated them from the other side. Luckily, he could see the traps from where he stood, and pointed them out to Alph. The curve of the river meant most of the water's force was pushing on the east side, sparing the delicate fishing traps on the west side. "Looks like we'll have to swim."

Gale approached a nearby tree and sank the head of his axe into it's bark, not wanting it to get wet and rust. He then hung Lanarí's satchel from a branch and took his shirt and hung it from the branch as well, then he left his shoes at the tree's base. Nights were not particularly cold in these parts, but having wet clothes was sure to make the chill unbearable.

"Aye," Alph said, putting a hand up tho shield his eyes from the sun shining in the west. "This is the fastest I've ever seen this branch of the river. Lucky us it didn't wash the traps away."

He also took a fair portion of his clothing off, boots, jerkin and woolen tunic, leaving him in his breeches. He hung his sword belt on Gale's axe and plunged right into the river. The watery made him shiver as he waded out, and it wasn't long before it was above his waist and he dove forward to start swimming. The current tried hard to drag him, and when he reached the bend where the shallows had protected the fish traps, he was a good few meters downriver, despite his best efforts. He waded back toward the traps, but didn't know how to work them, and waited for Gale to do so.

The half elf, having removed her gaze from the boys, didn't seem to care at all while the others watched her with suspicion. One, the boy of the smith she believed, moved toward her, though she made no move to ready herself for an attack. He paced around her, speaking in his native human tongue. To be fair, the half elf inwardly wished he'd just shut up, though saying something out loud would more than likely get her hurt once again. With the boy behind her she looked over her shoulder, eyes narrowed and cold, changed entirely from what they had been before.

"I'm going to kill the man who threatened my mother."

Her gaze lingered with his, dauntless and frozen, like an emerald long adorning a family blade. Fire red hair swung around her shoulders as she took a half step forward, swinging around on the ball of her left foot, artfully coming to a stop before him. The human boy was taller than her, built thick and corded where she was lithe and agile. He would make a good warrior, if given the time and proper training. "Have you ever swung that sword before? Does it balance correctly in your hand?" She cast a glance to the blade at his hip, not moving away from the man.

Zyloria stood at such a distance from him that her chest brushed against his ribs, emerald eyes catching his, watching every twitch of her mouth and flick of his eyes as she spoke to him. "Kain was a soldier. He fought for the Empire, then he fought with the elves. He can teach you to be strong, bring you to come of the greatest smithy's in the world." Her own lip twitched, nearly giving away her own excitement and curiosity to finally be leaving this small town. She had been waiting her entire life to leave here, to travel again and find her home. Where she belonged. Be it with the Resistance, in Du Weldenvarden, or a place among the Empire. She knew it wasn't here she was meant to be, and she had a feeling that these boys would be the gateway.

"But threaten me again and they'll never help you."

Gale had to stop himself from not so subtly checking out his friend, but Kolysakr's not so subtle demands for hunger was enough to refocus him on the task at hand. There wasn't any time to stand around, so he was fast behind Alph as he crossed into the river. The current was strong, much stronger than he'd felt it before, but as they neared the western bank they reached the smoother flowing shallows. The traps were simple wooden constructs, essentially twigs stuck into the ground here and there, as well as a few loosely woven baskets. The trick was making the area appear like a natural environment where the fish would go to hunt for food, but the twigs and baskets were a maze designed for interested fish to investigate, but never find their way out again. The traps were even more full than normal, many of the fish having sought to escape the rapid waters by hiding in the shallows.

Galen lugged a basket from under the water at the edge of the shallow zone, it's tie was loose and the thing had almost been torn away. There were a good number of fish within, now gasping and flapping around frantically that they were out of the water. Gale handed the basket to Alph and pointed him towards the twig-maze. In such a close difficult-to-navigate area, the fish wouldn't be able to escape their hands. Gale snatched up another basket further in the shallows, this one with only a couple of fish within. He then trudged through the mud towards the maze and started plucking the cornered fish from the waters and dropping them in the basket. "Rona was a genius," he commented offhandedly, "but be careful of snakes. The same trap that lured in fish also lured in the unwanted hungry serpents as well, though Rona had never mentioned anything poisonous.

Demund noted she did entirely answer his question, but listening to her he could tell she spoke true about her hate of the Empire. Though they had gotten off on the wrong foot, it was time to work together. ”Very well,” he decided not to challenge or argue her point of threatening her though he felt they had been justified in the moment. ”Then I think it’s time we get a move on before more of the king’s servants find us. Let’s get the eggs and go.” Looking past Zyloria he nodded to Damascus telling him they were backing down. The dragon grunted and stepped away from the stairs. He still didn’t trust letting the girl have an egg, but it wouldn’t matter much now would it?

Bending to the ground Demund held out his arm for Alph’s small orange dragon to climb up while tucking an egg under the other arm. Heading up the stairs with Zyloria and Gren, the smith finally gave an answer to her earlier question. ”Oh, and I know how to use a sword. I’m no soldier but it’s hard to make something proper when you don’t know at least the basics.”

In the midst of murder, dragons, and imperial intrigue, two childhood friends waded half naked through the shallows of a river, collecting fish and stealing glances at each other.

"If you want to talk snakes you should see the boulder snakes on the road to Dras Leona. About as thin as my little finger, and long as my forearm if they're lucky. Poisonous, but more painful than deadly. They hide in cracks in stones, you have to be careful where you think looks like a good seat, or else your pa is gonna pucker his lips on your arse to get the poison out," he laughed, "That's my experience of snakes, anyway. Do you think this is enough? I have no frame of reference for how much a baby dragon eats."

Rona was an industrious fisher, apparently, there were still more to collect, even as both boys were laden with stuffed baskets. Alph supposed that the flood had helped to fill the traps.

"Getting back across will be an ordeal, though."

And it was. Encumbered as they were, it was harder going. Again, Alph gave himself some room to drift and started upriver of his destination, but this time he had baskets tied haphazardly to his arms and came out of the river even further downstream and had to walk back to where they had stashed their clothes.

He put the baskets down and shook himself as dry as possible before dressing.

Looking up to the smith, Ashwing kept her gaze lingeirng for a while to get a good glimpse of the man. But, Alph seemed to think him trustworthy enough to entrust her to his care, and he was pretty unhappy with the egg thief, much like his partner. Taking one hesitant step and placing her tiny paw on his palm, she followed by quickly scuttling up the arm and setting herself much in the same place as before on Alph's shoulders. She may not have outgrown the others yet, but to say the least, Ashwing was fast on her feet.

Sighing in relief as said feet no longer needed to support her weight, she gave Zyloria an angry hiss for good measure, her eyes seeking the egg in her 'care' and fixating, not intending to let it out of her sight for one moment unless the urge to go to sleep overpowered her will.

Kolysakr wasn't paying much attention anymore, once things had calmed down there was no reason to hide anymore. He noticed the other dragons hadn't seemed to care if they were discovered or not, but he was feeling something from his rider that told him discovery was dangerous. Maybe the others were just a bit slow and couldn't hide in time? The small one didn't seem to have a problem with speed, but maybe looks were deceptive?

In any case, Kolysakr didn't care, everything had turned out... reasonable. His rider had left, but he could still feel their connection, so that was fine. The two-legs seemed to have made their peace, and the female was no longer a threat. The others actually seemed to be preparing to leave with her. Gale had said to stay with them, so Kol supposed that's what he would do. Surveying the three two-legs, Kol attached himself to Gren's legs.



Gale huffed in frustration as one of the fish flipped and flopped vigorously until it jumped from the basket and back into the river. It vanished immediately in the current. He hoped this would be enough, there was a lot, and it was quite heavy. He shrugged at Alph's question, how was he supposed to know how much a dragon ate? He knew how much a cat ate, and a horse, but that was the extent of his knowledge on animal feeding habits. If dragons were animals.

Deciding not to think too hard about the distinction, Gale balanced the basket on his head and waded into the river after Alph as they returned to their things. The river tugged harshly at his legs, and a loose stone smashed painfully into his ankle, nearly making him lose his balance. He was quite aware that if he lost his footing here he might never regain it. He came up the river bank cursing, his ankle bleeding thickly. He grumbled something unpleasant under his breath about rain and rocks as lines of blood painted half his left foot. That was going to sting for a wile, especially with their long trek away from the village.

He sighed tiredly as he reached their things just as Alph started dressing and he quickly dropped the basket to follow his example. He glanced up at the dark sky. It was safe to say it was night now, and his parents were no doubt worrying. He frowned at the bright moon, nearly full. He pulled his shoes on last, and snatched his axe from the tree's face.

"I guess we should get going," he said, eyes lingering for a moment reluctantly on Alph's form. "Do you thin-" he began, only to cut off abruptly with a gasp as the air rushed from his lungs and he found himself forced against the tree by some invisible force. The force moved abruptly to wrap around his neck like some sort of snake squeezing the life from him. He struggled to breath, and then a voice cut harshly through the trees.

"What are you little hedge-witches doing out here?" A red-headed woman asked, for a moment Gale thought it was Zyloria, the girl from before, but no, this woman was taller and dressed in leathers and chain mail. She held her hand up as she strode towards them, as if choking someone, and Gale realized she was using magic to suffocate him. She drew a sword with her other hand and held it out warningly at Alph. "Hiding?" She prompted, "Plotting?" She snarled, "Tell me of the sword and the man who held it!" She demanded, dropping her hand. Gale fell forward to his knees, pulling in desperate breaths as he refilled his starved lungs.

"I don't know nothing about no hedge witch," Alph said, adopting a backwoods small village speech in an attempt to make them both seem less likely suspects. "And the only sword I know is this one," he drew it, dry leather grip and chipped blade.

"And we ain't plotting nothing. Not hiding neither, we live here! Just put that away, we don't want trouble."

He flung a thought back at Gale, hoping he could communicate with him the same way he did with Ashwing.

Go.

She didn't seem to believe him, and when she delved into his mind to check whether or not he told the truth, he recognized the feeling and went on the defensive. He began reciting a lewd song in his head, refusing to let any other thought pass onto the surface of his mind.

I knew a plump maid from Gilead
Hair of gold and eyes of moss she had

It seemed that no matter what he did he lost, though. If he let her in his mind, she'd know what he didn't want her to, but when he kept her out, she knew that he was familiar with mind magic, which he shouldn't have been. The two struggled silently for a moment, as Gale took Alph's advice and fled. When the red headed woman spotted him leaving she grew bored of the mental contest and strode forward to end it physically.

Her breasts a better pillow were
Than a bed of down or hay or fur

Alph blocked her blade clumsily, but she pressed the attack and it was all he could do to step out of her way, always moving backwards, his blade swinging wildly. She got between him and the river and gave a furious swing, but Alph caught her blade, and the two ground together until their crossguards met. She pushed, pushed with more strength than she ought to have been able for a woman of her size. Alph strained against her, but the crossed swords were moving inexorably toward him, too close to his face for comfort.

When I leave her bed I feel so grand
But her father won't let me take her hand

The woman murmured a word under her breath and Alph could feel her blade suddenly begin to radiate heat. It was so hot that it sank into the blade of Alph's sword, moving closer to him until it singed a lock of his hair. He still couldn't push back, and when he looked into her face, he saw that she was grinning with pleasure at his distress.

So every night I'd steal away
And be gone before the morn next day

The burning blade was a mere inch from his face, and the strain of both pushing with his body and guarding his mind was deteriorating his willpower. He was about to make peace with his death, having at least bought time for Gale to flee, but something he didn't recognize bloomed up inside of him, and a word he didn't even know sprung from his lips.

"Jierda!" At the word, his sword exploded with such force that it knocked them away from each other. The woman flung into the swollen river, and, caught off guard, was quickly swept up in the current. Alph hit the tree behind him so hard that the wind was knocked from him, but he was on his feet, gasping, a moment later. He ran, making for the rendezvous point that Zyloria had given them, and praying that that woman was the only one of her kind in Mashal.

Outside the hut, the horses were ready and the eggs had been securely placed in their saddlebags. The three were ready to head to farm, when the sky became dark with smoke. It couldn’t be from Mashal, the wind had been blowing it away from them, this was coming from another direction. Following the trail to its origin, it appeared to be coming from where Zyloria had said her father’s farm was. Fear consumed the young elf as thoughts of her father’s possible demise crept into her mind. She froze in place, her eyes fixed on the dark clouds bellowing from her home. Had she lost everything?

Demund put his hand on her shoulder pulling Zyloria out of her trance, ”We need to go. There’s a town not far from here. We’ll find the others and head there before anyone can find us.” Zyloria knew this was the smartest option, but there was no way she could abandon her father. ”No.” She pushed Demund’s hand off and turned to face the two boys. ”If there is any chance my father is alive I have to take it. I know the town you speak of, go now and I’ll meet you there. If I don’t return by tomorrow, assume the worst.”

Before either could argue the girl took off in a full speed sprint. Demund looked to Damascus as if the young dragon could give him advice, but he simply felt the same worry as before. Neither of them wanted to let her go on her own, but the choice had been made, and it was time to act. ”Come on,” Demund mounted Alphonse’s horse and pulled it’s reigns to the river. ”Let’s get the others and go. HIYA!” His legs his the horse’s side and sent it into a full gallop.