[IC] The Midnight Train to Nowhere

[John]

It never crossed Leila’s mind that breathing could be potentially life-threatening. Not until she was curled up along with three or four - she couldn’t get a clear count: they filled space for seven but she didn’t know how many guides they had in the lot - of her fellow Lost Souls, and the sounds of her inhales and exhales that she tried so hard to suppress still sounded like the loudest sounds in the environment in which nothing moved except of the distant, gradually closing, footsteps.

Click. click. click.

Leila stared very hard at the wall the the boulder in front of her - the only thing in her range of sight without her changing her pose - and she dared not as much as turn her head as all she could do was wish that whatever conspicuous signatures of their existence that must be present at this time was not picked up by the two beings that were strolling slowly down the caves, chatting.

Click, click, click

The footsteps were still the only things she heard. Leila couldn’t even focus on what they were talking about. Their voices were overlayed with the echoes of their voices, and echoes of that, and so on until what remained to be perceived by the girl hiding behind the rocks was a blurry mess of syllables that she did not, and could not, think of making out meaning from. In that state she couldn’t think of anything but the imminent threat of -

Click.

The footsteps ceased for a moment and for that moment Leila almost thought also did her heart.

And then they continued, only now decreasing in volume, and - judging from that - distance. What was happening? Did the witches not notice them? Or did they, only that they decided not to assault them? Were they safe now? Leila didn’t know enough, and she was still afraid.

Click, click, click...

She didn’t dare move until the footsteps have faded into silence and the two figures - if Leila was there to see - would have long vanished into the depths of the cave.

* * * *

They made their way down the mountain and back to Sol. They reported their findings. The prince assembled his men. Leila felt like she missed a lot of information and that only added to the panic.

The long hike they had to take down the mountain, however, did give her much time to piece things together and to catch up with what was happening. Not like it made it an easy thing to do, though. She was tired. She didn’t climb down the mountain as much as she staggered her way down, having to cling to rocks or trees of other things - and almost people, even, a couple of times - for support as her steps proceeded. She was still wearing the archer uniform she picked up when they first arrived in Sol, but the cloth was now ripped and chipped in places and carried much grey and brown of the earth and dust it gathered as the faded green that was its own color. The light from the amulet had only been barely visible for a long time and now it was hard to determine whether it was even glowing anymore. Every part of her body seemed to ache and it distracted her much from thinking and much of her other normal functions.

Ugh.

At least now they knew that the witches were behind this , and they needed to stop the witches. To do that, they needed the dragon.

And they were now headed back up the mountain, towards the dragon.

* * * *

It turned out there were a few details she missed out earlier. “the dragon” was a term that was barely accurate.

Because the monstrosity that now stood above them, whatever it was: curved, thick horns, scaled skin, steps and groans that shook the ground, and wings that sent out strong gusts of wind with every flap - this thing was pretty certainly not what they met in the caves back then.

It, again, occurred to Leila - in the form of a dragon’s exhale that was a deafening roar carrying a fan of bright blue flames that scorched the ground and everything else in proximity and heated the surroundings into a wavy blur seen through a lens of hot air; and, therefore, in a slightly different sense of meaning, so to speak - the idea that breathing can be potentially life-threatening.

* * * *

This was the scene of another battle. The soldiers fought bravely.

Many of them died.

Leila had not recovered from the last blow from the dragon when she noticed Harper and Hakuren working their way further up the mountain nearby. The great tree whose trunk she was resting against was without leaves and parts of its branches carried signs of being scorched slightly. Leila’s boots were rooted on the slight slope that was the hillside, supporting the proportion of her weight perpendicular to that of the force provided by the tree. The air all around that they were submerged in was now unbearably high in temperature - drops of sweat almost seemed like they would evaporate entirely before they get the chance to come dripping off the skin. The equipment made it even more uncomfortable - and Leila was wearing relatively light clothing. It was hard to imagine what the soldiers must have felt like in their layers of armour - not that one would wish to experience the discomfort of imagining that, as several of them rolled down the hillside growling in pain and despair as their highly heat-conductive instruments of protection became stoves that were impossible to escape.

Leila had no idea how she ended up this far into the front lines. Perhaps it was because in that direction was where many of the soldiers were moving.

Perhaps it’s harder to think straight when she was afraid. Or confused. She was both at the moment. Though, there was probably more that contributed to this confusion - her amulet had started to glow again. The liquid, after the brief period of recovery, was still only a little more than half in volume, yet it had enough power to exert its influence. It was like back at the caves with the mushroom - it felt almost like she was not making the decisions. Something else was calling the moves before she had time to flesh everything out. It felt unreal, and unsafe - but it worked and Leila decided it was probably best not to add to the burden by attempting to resist it.

Hakuren kept on rambling and throwing his jokes and satirical remarks and several other things. Leila never quite understood what they were thinking. But she knew one thing for sure: she’d take “running like chicks from the shadows” any day.

Yet, again, she wasn’t the one calling the moves right now.

She got onto her feet and, in a slight jog - probably the swiftest form of motion she could manage under this state - caught up with the pair of Lost Souls, the knight and the ice mage, just in time to catch Haku’s briefing of his assault plan that involved provoking convection currents sufficiently strong to lift human beings.

Leila look up - with her hands still pressed on her knees supporting her upper body as she had yet to catch her breath and was panting heavily - at the two of them, an expression on her face that was hard to read but probably explainable as “genuinely worried”; because a brief evaluation returned the results that the only form of such convection currents she could come up with at the moment was incidentally identical to what they called back home a tornado.

[AkiBlue]

"So we just have to slip an amulet onto that baby dragon's neck, right?" She grinned from ear to ear. "With all these soldiers, it should be a piece of cake."

Ace climbed up with newfound energy, or a mass amount of adrenaline, alongside Haku and Riley. Occasionally she'd glance down to make sure the others were keeping up. And occasionally she'd give her usual words of encouragement.  "Slip the amulet onto it's neck. I don't know about a piece of cake, but it should be fun!" She grinned and continued their trek upwards. It was tiring, but Ace continued on. Am they had to do was hey the little cloud and give it a necklace.  When Riley fell, Ace braced and managed to push her back on to her own two feet with Haku's help. "C'mon Riley, can't have you injured before we face the dragon." She teased and continued walking. Almost in no time, a shadow fell over head, making them all look up.

"A dragon!"

Ace grinned in excitement and hurried with the others up the trail. The only thing that deterred her smile was the soldiers that were falling. 'You're making it angrier if you attack... And you're being crazy thinking you can fight a fire like that! She had paused to admire the pretty blue flames, only to be met with a near death experience herself. It soared that their new target was said drwgon because the cloud one was nowhere in sight. Gravity seemed to be rather angry and knocked many soldiers off the mountain side. She would have fallen as well, but luckily the rocks near her were manageable and allowed her to grab onto. She watched the dragon fly around examining scales, horns, wings, and claws. It was fantastic! A dangerous and yet thrilling performance.

Seeing so many soldiers die in front of her didn't phase her. She didn't have many, or any, emotional attachments back in her realm. She was used to the come and go of people so she only continued on, climbing up the mountain. When they finally paused, Ace looked at the amulet Harper was given while Hakuren spoke. She honestly didn't know what he was talking about, so she looked at him with a slightly puzzled look. "Well, would that drain Leon? You know, powerful gusts of wind?" It sounded much dagger than her idea, but then again, they were trying to subdue a dragon, so nothing was really safe. Ace looked up at the mountain.

"You think it we were high enough and the dragon was close enough, we could jump on its back? I'm sure tying it around it to a horn wouldn't be a problem. Around its neck? That thing is pretty large." At this point, Ace was rambling her thoughts out loud. "Then there's the possibility of knocking it out long enough to put the amulet on it. But it will be pissed when it wakes up. I doubt talking will be the first thing it wants to do. Hmm, it wouldn't be wise to go near its mouth. Or claws. And probably its tail too. Best bet would be catching it off guard while it's distracted by those guys." Stating such, she looked over as the guards devotedly tried to stop the dragon.

With that, Ace looked at the little crew and shrugged. "Whatever you guys thinks works best, I'm happy to help! Although, I am all for parkouring and jumping on a dragon's back if you guys choose that." Her rambling ceased and Ace watched the dragon fly around. They still went unnoticed so they still had time to plan. She had done all she could when it came to planning, considering Ace sort of action-ed first and then regret it later. But with new people with her, she was 'learning' the meaning of planning.

[Kimchi]

“Thanks Jasper. I appr-” but his sentence was cut off as Lesley sandwiched himself in between the two of them.

"What?! My baby is hurt? Oh my goodness. Are you ok? Oh my poor pumpkin. That must've been so painful o(；△；)o"

Jasper watched Lesley's hands wander over Inadi in search of the damage, but most of the scene was being covered up by Lesley's big pink hair. As the motherly male babied his beloved, the albino was awkwardly still trudging along side them with strands of Lesley's long hair occasionally swishing into her mouth. This occurred several times and Jasper spat out his hair in every occurrence, beginning to distance herself from the pair. Inadi's jerked away and released a pained yelp, his spear clattering to the ground and positioning itself into a hollow. Seeing Lesley's hand sway back down to his sides, she already what had happened even though she did not directly watch the unfolding events that lead up to the masked rejection.

“I appreciate your concern as well Lesley. Truly I do, but for now it just needs to left alone. Fretting over it won't make it go away and it certainly won't get us to that dragon.”

His words, though not outright rude, was still poor in tone choice since it clearly portrayed his dislike for Lesley. Leaving the pink haired man upon retrieval of his weapon, he rejoined Jasper as they continued their trek up the mountain. At her comment about Hakuren, which was meant to cheer him up, it actually did the exact opposite as she saw his expression sadden even more.

“Jasper, as much as I don't like him right now I can't hate him. And it isn't bullying if he's proving a point... its just stating the facts.”

“He may state the facts harshly at times, but he means well. I think. It’s pretty amusing to watch if it’s not you he’s aiming at” Leon said from a little ways behind them.

She blinked for a couple of seconds, staring straight ahead, also not trying to make any eye contact with him. Those negative words she could not even grasp how sincere he sounded about them. 'Stupid Haku...' she thought as she crinkled her nose in distaste. "Don't say things like tha-," but he was already moving forward past her, his body language showing stronger signs of motivation and will. Gulping, she knew that kind words and pitying remarks wouldn't get him out of this mental state and that he would be the key to breaking out of his own shell. In many ways, he reminded her of how she was and still is. Remembering the first time she had met the gang and all the trips they'd gone on and all the people they'd lost had only served to evolve her for the better. She'd done and experienced things that she wouldn't have accomplished in a lifetime if she'd spent it in her secluded way of living back on Earth. Coming to the realization of how meaningful coming to Nowhere has been and its impact on her as a person, a grin began to curl on her face as she let out a peaceful sigh.

---

"The dragon's den is just a few kilometers above us now."

The announcement brought on feelings of both excitement and fear, yet she was determined to complete this task to her best ability.

"Hey, how's your arm? Just take it easy, we have a great healer on our team and we'll watch your back."

Nodding shyly with a bright smile, her cheeks reddened a bit at the nice compliments. Her healing skills were improving for sure and they could only become more powerful from there on.

"Celery! Run, uphill! Men, to battle!"

"Someone get to the baby dragon!"

"Sir! It's not there."

The alarmed shouts and hollers caught everyone's attention, but even more so, the humongous dragon that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. The soldiers arrows were deemed useless as the feathered twigs came tumbling to the ground with just one flap of the mighty beast's wings. Staring in horror as the monster opened its mouth, a blue orb resonated within and Jasper knew exactly what it was as she turned her head around in a panic and ran from the azure flames. The heat threatened behind her, its rage poking at her back and shoulders.

"Get up the moment now! Find solid ground if we stay here, we'll get blown off the mountain side."

"You heard him, let's go!

"Get this amulet on its neck!"

Sprinting towards Harper and the group, her vision began to blur from the dust and smoke as men came flying past her. She refused her mind's capability to comprehend what was happening for it would only bring about her doom.

“We can’t ask that thing to come down to us, so we’ll be going up. What we can use to our advantage is the reaction between hot and cold air. Leon can create an air current, but it will take far more power to single handedly move the flow with the necessary speed. Currently, the air around us is hot, because of the dragon. If I cool the air around the hot flow, it will naturally push us upwards, since it would want to escape to lower levels. How’s that for a start?”

This was one of Hakuren's traits that Jasper wholly appreciated and greatly admired; able to stay cool and collected in even the most frightening of circumstances.

"That sounds like a decent plan. For now, I'll stay down here since I don't think I'll be of any help on that dragon." Clutching her staff bravely, she watched them go off towards the brainwashed creature, their surroundings were scorched and many set ablaze. People, dead, injured or alive lay strewn about the rocks and Jasper jab her staff at the floor, pointing it at the dragon. 'Possessed or not, you're hurting my friends!' A white blaze zig-zagged out from her staff, but it did not look like her usual healer's wisps. Instead, their movements were abrupt and choppy, clearly not a sign of curing. In her anger, she discovered her skill of inflicting damage. With the capacity to heal also came the opposite. Instead of healing, she also could hurt someone.

The achromatic streaks almost looked like electricity and upon making contact with the dragon, it's old wounds began to reappear. With her amulet depleting ten times faster than normal, it didn't seem to be taking the new found talent too well as she was forced to halt her assault for fear of passing out. But the enlarged lizard didn't looked the least bit fazed.

'I guess I'm more than a nurse now..'

[MUG]

Inadi continued climbing with his mind only on whether or not his body could handle the long trek up the hill. He knew that once they got to the beast it would be ten times worse and whether or not he would be able to handle it was going to be an even more challenging phase. The sweat collected on his face and traveled down his neck. Finding a dry spot in his hair was probably going to be an impossible feat at this point as well, but it did feel good to finally start working and feeling a real difference in his body. Maybe this whole thing wouldn't turn out so badly after all.

Harper came up soon later on and gave a quick word of encouragement and concern for his health as they did so. Inadi knew that Harper's heart was in the right place so he didn't show his agitation of being babied by so many. His arm was his own fault and everyone was treating it like the group did it to him. He wasn't too keen on the pity he was getting, but knew it all came from a good place. He gave the boy a pat on the shoulder and nodded at him. “I know Harper. If the arm acts up again I'll go to Jasper as soon as possible. She has a very good knack for these sort of things as I can tell.” Inadi told him as showed his arm to him and the progress it had made from where it was back at the cave.

As he thought that the roar he feared would soon arrive rained down from above. Looking up the mountain he saw the great dragon and the terrifying blue fire that it showered down upon everyone. Rather than throw himself at the dragon in a rush, he stayed close to Lesley, Jasper and Harper as they continued up the mountainside. He found it odd that he was surrounded by the three people that had shown the greatest amount of concern for him over the journey up the mountain. Fate had a weird way of making things like that happen. Continuing up the mountain a sudden burst of magic came out and it clearly seemed to be the dragon's ace in the hole.

The gravity magic caught Inadi off guard and he began falling a bit as he let out a quick yell in surprise. Luckily he reacted quick enough and slammed his spear into the ground and got it hooked into a stone on the mountain. Problem was it was such a sudden stop his left hand slipped and it forced the thunder mage to grip tightly with his right hand and come to a screeching halt. The sudden jerking of his shoulder felt very uncomfortable and the pop he heard after wards did not do anything to help his case. As he looked up he saw soldiers all around him begin falling and with that, weapons that the soldiers had been wielding. Trying to move his body as best he could he was able to dodge some of the blades, but a sword caught him on the way down and gave him a quick gash in his left rib. He brought his left hand up to the wound and saw it was a basic cut, not really anything deep enough to do any real damage. As the gravity finally stopped Inadi was able to climb his way back up the mountain with the rest of the other humans there as Hakuren began making his plan.

The group began debating plans and tried to find the best way of battling the beast he began spending most of his attention looking up the mountain. He began recalling certain paths they had gone up before and some actually seemed recognizable. They would be easier to trek and they did a good job of shielding the people using them from the fire the beast was still shooting out. As they continued discussing Inadi began trying his idea out for himself, climbing up the mountain slowly and attentively as the rest of the soldiers continued climbing with a blind purpose it seemed. Every so often as he got further up the path he felt his side sting a bit as he reached down to the new wound. It still wasn't bad enough but it was causing some blood to build on his robes. Brushing the feeling aside he began quickening his pace and tried to make his way towards the dragon.

He was getting closer to it now when he began seeing strange white streaks of light shoot out from behind him. Inadi shot he spear out at them, thinking they were some new beasts that had come to become a further nuisance in the fight, only to follow their origin and see them appearing from Jasper's staff. An eyebrow was raised and Inadi began adjusting his glasses to make sure he was seeing it correctly. Sure enough the healer was indeed attacking the dragon, and with an attack that appeared like something he would have used. He was impressed to say the least and it seemed that the dragon was showing older wounds from some previous fight. Inadi looked at these new openings and suddenly had an idea. Whether it interfered with the rest of the group's plan was the last thing on his. He had an opening ant he was going to take it. But he would need a good throw of his spear to take his plan into action. And this was going to be tough considering the boy was right-handed. Inadi wanted to try and throw his spear into one of those old wounds and use the weapon almost as a spire, to attract an lightening bolt and shock the dragon. The magic would be able to bypass the beast's tough hide and go directly into the monster. Deciding he needed to get closer, he continued up the mountainside using the knowledge he had gotten from the previous trek. Hopefully the dragon wouldn't pick up on his being there and stay focused on the many soldiers that continued to climb towards it.

[Fox of Spades]

They made it up the hillside, but the sight that greeted them was anything but comforting.

These were trained soldiers, mages, and archers and they were getting brushed aside by a flick of the dragon's tail or a flap of its wings. How were they supposed to fight that? Perhaps, getting the amulet on its neck was the only answer. If they fought this thing head on, then they would die. More soldiers began charging at the thing only to have a tree snap behind them. The fallen tree pinned them to the ground and the dragon, with another flap of its mighty wings, sent up clouds of dust.

Harper shielded his eyes as wind whipped at his clothes and and face. As soon as the dust had faded the dragon was out of sight.

How could something so big move so fast? There was a scream, the dragon had landed beside a couple of swordsmen. The troops charged with their swords raised but the dragon merely flicked them off the mountain with a swing of its tail.

Bright lights began to tear through the ground as they made their way towards the dragon. At first, Harper thought it was something else and he spun around only to see that Jasper was the source. The lights made their way towards the dragon and he stared in awe as scratches began appearing on the mighty beast's scales. "Way to go Jasper!" The dragon yowled as it sent more dust flying through the air, It was becoming incredibly hard to see and trees began to snap in half, sending debris and rocks flying all around.

Soldiers were falling left and right and Tobias was yelling something about standing firm and focusing on defense.

Riley squinted her eyes and peered down the mountainside. However, instead of seeing injured men yelling for a medic, she saw dazed soldiers floating on fluffy cloud beds. Did the little brat actually come back to help them or something? Feh, maybe that thing wasn't so bad.

"Hakuren, Leon, do you think you can get one of us up there?" Harper was staring at the dragon, it had once again taken to the skies.

"Men! Who has the amulet?" Tobias had pulled open a scroll and was reading something in an indecipherable language. A great breeze came from within the scroll and the dust clouds were blown away.

One of the archers raised a hand. "I have--" but before he could finish his sentence the dragon's eyes fell on him. "HOLY CELERY!" The man turned around to run but before he knew it the dragon swooped in and grabbed him with it's mighty claws. The green amulet fell from the sky and fell with a thump onto Ace's head.

"Ace, good job!" Riley gave the redhead two thumbs up before she turned to look at Inadi and the others. "Guys, what if we annoyed it and got it to land then windy and frosty could get someone up there...I mean," she frowned. "It's obvious we can't beat the thing."

"Riley's right," Harper stared at their amulets. All of them were low on magic, and none of them had had a proper break. "If we keep attacking, our amulets will run out of power" He stared at his own gem, the liquid was down to one fourth the original content. "We'll need to use our magic carefully and come up with a plan. Hakuren," Harper was no longer the timid boy they all knew, at this point he was dead serious. "That means no flowery attacks, we only need what's necessary, or we will die."

The temperature rose seven-fold and another invincible force brought them all to their knees.

The mountain shook and their bodies suddenly felt twice as heavy. Riley winced but pushed forward. "Ugh, let's end this as quickly as we can!" Flames began to dance around her arms. "Maybe we can hit it in the face. Les, you're great at grabbing attention, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"

Harper rushed towards Ace and yanked the redhead by the arm. "Let's get to higher ground, Leon, you're coming with us." The trio began scrambling higher up the mountain side as the dragon rained blue fire upon Mt. Zul.

"No matter what, hold onto that amulet."

[Crescendo]

Collab with Cephalogod and Lulu

Zephy stood next to Tobi on the battlefield, deflecting any debris that came too close to the two as she kept an eye on the dragon. The soldiers were faltering, with any that tried to charge the beast being knocked down the hill roughly. What currently bothered her was the thick ring of cloud that had encircled the bottom of the hill, catching anyone who was unlucky enough to be swept aside by the fire-breathing dragon. The baby dragon had most likely been taken away by the witches, so there was little chance of him being the one who had made the clouds. So who-

Zephy’s eyes widened and she jerked at the prince’s sleeve.

“Tobi, there’s something in the clouds!”

Sure enough, something was indeed roiling inside the clouds that held the soldiers, sending undulations that sent some soldiers flailing a short distance to the ground where they fell with a soft thud, and above in the sky as well.

Victoria was at the rear of the group with the other foot soldiers. She should be in front guarding the prince with her life, but she wasn't as loyal as Avian- who was, coincidentally, the reason why she was where she was right now, because she was waiting for him.

When the nobodies rushed against that blue dragon she followed, only to feel a compelling force push her to the ground. Surely that dragon they were fighting right now wasn't the cause...? In any case, the royal dragoon had no time to wonder; she rejoined the front lines and set about attacking the azure one with her new whip, as the old one seemed to had been lost by a certain healer. Speaking of Jasper, her inventive usage of her healing prowess earned more than a few impressed stares from the nobodies who saw it. 'Too bad she was a human', Victoria thought, 'She could have, perhaps, become a royal dragoon.'

The blue dragon's irritated snarls echoed throughout the mountain, and the skies above were briefly illuminated before an ear deafening roar burst through in response. Above the pandemonium caused by panicking soulders the rush of another pair of wingbeats resounded, and an iridiscent dragon flew out of the thick white clouds and headed straight for the mountain. Its maw was stretched wide open and the glowing orb of energy within crackled ominously before growing in size and intensity; when the dragon was nearing the mountain's side the ball suddenly dissipated, as if the energy which made it was spread all over the entire place, and everyone, be it human or nobody, was suddenly bowled over by an invisible force. And so it circled the area, growling and sending more soldiers off the mountain, most especially the ones which were attempting to hurt the other dragon.

Beneath the hill, a chime like cry echoed through the battlefield as yet another dragon darted out from the clouds, sending soldiers resting on the white fluffiness bouncing around. This dragon was smaller than the others, her body covered with fluffy clouds and feathers that currently radiated a hue of dusky blue and purple. She soared up above the heads of the scrambled soldiers, head turning to and fro as if she was seeking something, letting out another cry and with it a wave of panic and sadness that struck the hearts of those below as well as a powerful billow of clouds that quickly covered the soldiers, reducing the visibility below to almost zero and rendering them stopped in place, in case they ended up tripping over any unseed root or rock or crashing into another comrade in the midst of the confusion.

The feathered dragon joined her iridiscent mate, seeming to convey something frantically as another wave of panic washed over the people standing below as she looked down to the humans who were wielding a number of weapons. Somehow they had managed to wound the blue dragon, and two more were standing on the crest of the hill, one smelling of fire and the other of steel. Another billow of clouds was sent swirling down, this one curling over the top of the hill.

On the hill, Zephy clung to Tobi as the whiteness blew around them, surrounding them in cool vapor as a sense of sadness settled in after the panicked feeling had subsided from the dragon's attack. Or had it been an attack?

"I think those are the parents," Zephy shouted through the clouds covering, voice muffled as her eyes strained to make out the people around them.

"Everyone, be careful!"

[Anonymous]

Inadi let out a pained breath through gritted teeth and Lesley stopped moving his hand; the spear rattling as it hit stone. A hand darted out for his wrist and Lesley gasped; wide eyed as he knew he had made a terrible mistake, the grip around the base of his arm was rigid. 

Inadi: “I appreciate your concern as well Lesley. Truly I do, but for now it just needs to left alone. Fretting over it won't make it go away and it certainly won't get us to that dragon.” 

The framed face boy released him and stalked off back to Jasper. A burning sensation resonated on the area where Inadi had held him, his cross words echoing in Les's mind. Putting his hands near his mouth, his eyes began to moisten more than normal, 'But I was only trying to show you my love...' He rubbed his short teary moment away as he watched him start talking to Jasper again. 'Ugh! That fritter! And to think I was even your designated protector?! I think not. Now you go and take my man? Grrrr.' A storm was brewing in Lesley's mind as he watched the pair walk side by side. After he toned down his mental rage a bit, he realized that both his hands were balled up into a fist by his sides and he was somewhat stomping as he walked. Untwisting his angry scrunched up face, it ached a bit from being held in the unnatural position it had been in previously. 

Being farther behind than the human pack, he began letting himself sink into the crowd of soldiers as he didn't want to see the red-eyed traitor, Jasper, anywhere in his line of vision at that period of time. Instead, he started to converse with the man that kindly carried him up the harder parts of the mountain side earlier. In the midst of their chat, chaos started to break out in the front lines and many began drawing weapons from their carriers.

Soldier: "Celery! Run, uphill! Men, to battle!"

The trooper patted his back lightly with a sad smile before running off to join the battle. As the dragon came into his full view, Lesley dashed through the fighting crowd and dying men as he wandered in a panic in search of his human crew. Finally spotting them a little ways away from the direct line of combat, he joined in on the plan making. Hakuren seemed to have conjured a plan and Jasper thankfully deemed herself useless decided to stay at ground level, ready to heal if anyone needed it. Inadi had also disappeared and Lesley caught sight of him scampering up the steeper part of the slope nearing the backside of the beast. White lightning sliced through the atmosphere causing his sight to blind for a few seconds before fading back to its regular function. "What was tha-", he saw Jasper casting those lights out of her staff, but it didn't seem to be a medicinal practice, instead, the dragon looked to be getting hurt. 'Wow...' his mouth parted in awe, 'I didn't know she could do that.'

A wave of sand and dirt came rising up as the dragon flailed its tail and thrashed around in pain. South of the steep hill, fluffy white clouds began to arise as well, catching some of the falling guards before they plunged to their deaths. Meanwhile, the amulet tumbled down to Ace and now they held the very object to stopping the wyvern's aggression. Riley and Harper both agreed that they all had to be extremely discreet about their power usage and since he hadn't used any at all today, his was just about full.

Lesley was beginning to feel sweaty and sticky in his suit as the surrounding area heated up with the dragon's flames. 

Riley: "Ugh, let's end this as quickly as we can! Maybe we can hit it in the face. Les, you're great at grabbing attention, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"

Racing along side her; Harper, Ace, and Leon were also making their way to higher ground.

"Eek! What do you want me to do? I don't want to become a target for that thing!" he worried that he was going to be used as bait so that monster would come down. Suddenly, a another beating of wings came blasting from the sky as another dragon came into view. Before he could whine about another monster coming into their already losing battle, an unseen energy sent him flinging. Grabbing Riley's arm as she was also sent off her feet towards him, he yanked her towards his chest on instinct to protect the female, taking the impact as they crashed towards the ground. Coughing a bit, he struggled to keep debris out of his nose and mouth. His backside was hurting now, but at least they didn't land on one of the pointed rocks.

Letting Riley out of his hold, he stood up and clutched her hand before dashing for Ace and the amulet. "I think I can get it onto the thing" he said out of breath, bent over and rubbing his neck. Reaching forward, he wearily took the solution to their problems. It was best they got the male dragon on their side before the situation got any worse. Not sure how he figured out how the other was female, he just knew she would follow if her mate was put into his right state of mind. Trusting his years of track and long legs, Lesley positioned himself even higher up than they already had been, cringing as the female cried in sadness. Unfortunately, a blanket of clouds followed after her landing and everything was covered in the misty puff. He couldn't see more than a feet in front of him and he dared not move. Her somber call seemed to have calmed everything down and he saw this as an opportunity to get the necklace onto the creature.

Prudently feeling his way towards where he remembered the dragon was, a tail swished into view and slithered back into clouds after a few minutes of searching. 'Aha!' This was it, the dragon was in front of him for sure. Clutching the amulet in his firm hold, he ducked and fell on all fours as large reptile paws stepped above him. 'Please bejeezus, I don't want to be squished. I want to die fabulously. Not like this..' he gnashed his teeth and daintily latched himself onto the clawed foot. 'Alright, move quick. Move quick!' His arms and legs were in pretty good climbing shape from their rock climbing experience earlier that day and he maneuvered himself quite well until he saw the base of the beast's wings. 'Yes! I'm on the back' The female's snout came into view as the two seemed to lock heads momentarily.

It was his chance, scrambling towards its skull, he was headed for the horns. If he could get a hold onto those then getting the amulet on would be a piece of cake. The dragon let out a surprised growl, its pupils enlarging as it finally recognized the unfamiliar footsteps sneaking over his back. With a jerking crane of its neck, Lesley was sent dangling around the base of it's throat. "Dangit! Woahh!" It started to shake and turn violently in attempt to throw him off, but he already had his arms locked on. 'Where are the others? Help!' He closed his eyes and its movements felt like a revolting tea cup ride.

[AkiBlue]

Everyone gave their opinion, but no definite answer or plan had been set. Or had it, and she just missed it? The sudden flash and attack fromJasper made her cheer. "Alright Jasper! Good job! Didn't know you could do that but awesome!" Ace's eyes turned to see Inadi climbing up the path and she watched in curiosity to see what the already injured male planned to do. But soon enough, people were yelling coherently instead of screaming and Ace looked at them. First Harper, and then the prince. "Well, Inadi seems to be doing a good job at the climbing part. As for the amulet-"

Something thwacked her in the head and slipped, falling to her hands. "Ow...?" Then she realized what it was exactly. 'The amulet! Oh boy this is going to be fun. Dragon taming time!' Ace was giddy with excitement, almost as if she had stocked up on desserts, like when Queeny had the pastry party. 'Mmm, cakes sound good right now. Or those little pies, and doughnuts and- oh right, focus.'

"No matter what, hold onto that amulet."

Ace grinned wider and stuck her tongue at him. "No kidding! I wouldn't let go of this even if it killed me! This is the opportunity of a life time and I'm not missing my chance! This is staying in my sight!" So, maybe she was a little too excited to go dragon taming. But that was Ace for you. The group climbed and Harper took charge. As usual, the male lost his timid nature in times of seriousness. It was an interesting thing to see, with experience he seemed to be getting a lot braver. She decided to speak up after him. "Well, me and Riley are out when it comes to magic. Blue flames are waaay hotter than ours, trust me, I know.  We'd only add to the heat too and if rather not be cooked alive, this outfit is getting hot as it is." She looked over at Riley as the flames formed and laughed. "As much as I want to, it'd be no use. Even I know that! Besides," Ace gave a smirk and looked at the amulet wrapped tight around her arm like a bracelet, the actual jewel in her hand. "I've got a more important job to do~ Since I have the amulet, I can be the one you lift up there. Shouldn't be so complicated?" She turned to Harper, Leon, and Hakuren since they were the ones planning on using their magic.

Just as she spoke, more chaos ensued and two more dragons appeared. She looked over at the edge of where she stood, careful not to fall over from the various forces and watched how close they were. 'That would be a risky jump. Meh. I could probably make it if I time it right. And wait till the dragon isn't looking in this-' "Hey!" She turned quickly feeling someone grab the amulet,  it was on instinct that she held tighter, but seeing that it was Lesley... she let it go. Normally, she would have been a little upset to give up her chances so easily, but. . . Her curiosity to see Lesley in action seemed to overpower that- if not for a split second. She knew that flower power wouldn't work, so what could that...person possibly do. "By the way... I guess I should ask..." With a tilt of her head she watched Lesley crawl toward the dragon, speaking aloud to whoever was paying attention. "Is Lesley a guy? Or... a chick?" It was one of those unanswered questions that she needed to know before she went back home- if she went back home. And something completely off topic from the situation.

Seeing him get so close to the dragon, and nearly being knocked off, Ace jumped down to help, with or without the knowledge of her question. "Hold on, I'll help!" She called out, still a little ways above the two after she had climbed far enough. The dragon was still too busy thrashing to notice Ace above its head. So, with a small smile, she jumped, landing right onto its back. Minus the slight slip, and having to catch a scale or whatever was on this dragon, she landed. "Whoo! Made it. That was a pretty crazy jump. I should try that again! Oh right, focus." The dragon now had two humans to thrash off, but Ace held on as tight as possible. "Oi! Lesley! Give me one end of the necklace, and I'll hook it to the otherside!" She reached out, waiting for Lesley to pass it to her. "Stay still for one second crazy dragon! We aren't trying to hurt you!"

[Fox of Spades]

Tobias shielded his eyes as dust and splinters were sent flying all across the mountain. The wind whipped at his clothes and skin, but none of that mattered now. The amulet was of the utmost importance. This dragon problem, it wasn't just the dragons attacking for no reason. It involved the witches and Tobias had a feeling this whole thing was bigger than all of them, and not just all of them, it was bigger than anything Aven or Sol could imagine.

The witches were part of Nowhere's dark side. The nightmare realm, the place where unwanted beings were banished too. Nightmares, sorrow, grief, the imaginations created by the saddest and angriest of emotions were born there and it was where they stayed for all eternity. It was the way things had always been and Nowhere was divided into a place of dreams and nightmares for a reason. If the witches had crossed over, it meant that something had tipped the scale's off balance...but what?

The last time something like this had happened was long, long ago. A hundred purple moons before now.

Zephy tugged on his sleeve and he turned to see the fleeting outline of a dragon within the clouds. "Zephy, whatever this is...it's big, really, really, big." There was a tremendous force that knocked them over before another cry smothered them in grief and distress. The messenger mentioned the parents and the prince's eyes went wide. Of course...but if that was the case then the witches had already taken the child.

"Everyone!" Tobias looked frantic now. "Don't hurt them, they aren't the enemy."

A bulky man clad in thick armor winced. He was covered is scrapes and bruises, in fact, everyone looked worse for wear. "What do you suggest we do, prince? They've been tearing Sol apart and if we don't fight, we'll die here!"

"It's not them! It's the witches. We'll need to distract them so we can get the amulet on one of their necks. If we do that, we'll get some of the answers we need and maybe put a stop to this madness!" He turned towards the remaining Lost souls. "We'll need all the help we can get, please help us slow them down." His eyes darted around, "now who has the amulet?"

"Sir! It's with them." One of the guards pointed towards Ace, Lesley, Harper and Leon.

Tobias' eyes went wide. "Keep the other dragons away from them then! Archers fire, mages try to slow those dragons down!"



Riley, Inadi, Jasper, Leila, Haku

Riley dusted herself off and watched as Lesley ran off to help the others. She didn't even get the chance to thank him, oh well. The fire mage cupped both hands around her mouth and yelled. "You can do it guys!" Sure, they were up against a dragon but oddly she believed in them.

The girl turned to look at Hakuren and Leila. "C'mon, are you frozen in fear frosty? Let's go help those soldiers, you heard the prince!" She then turned to Inadi and Jasper with a humongous grin and a determined gleam in her ice. "Let's keep those other dragons away from them--oh gosh."

A dark shadow loomed over them and before Riley could say a thing grandma dragon landed smack dab in the middle of the lost soul's rather deformed circle. It let out an angry hiss before it sent both Leila and Hakuren flying with a swish of its tail.

"Crap," Riley had to admit, that was pretty cool. "Uh Jasper! Inadi! Let's avenge them!" She was kind of worried, but dazed soldiers were already approaching the poor ice wizard and archer.

Riley let out a battle cry, charged then leaped towards the dragon. The girl managed to cling to its tail and the dragon started swishing it around in response. She held on tight, but after a few seconds felt the urge to puke. "Inad, Jasper, save meeeee!" The dragon snarled before turning its eyes to the humans who were jumping onto papa rawr. "We need to keep this thing here! Away from the others," she held on for dear life, shrieking her lungs out.



Harper, Ace, Leon, Lesley

Lesley had actually managed to get on the dragon and Ace followed soon after, but not before asking a question.

Leon gaped, was this really the time to ask a question like that. "He's a guy." The wind mage had mumbled. These people, they were weird.

"Leon? Mind giving me a boost?" He asked as he stared at the long drop. If he fell, he'd die for sure. He turned back to see a pale-faced Leon.

"I don't have to jump too right? Blood stains ruin clothes..." The wind mage clung to a giant rock. Clouds had circled the mountain and visibility was low, but luckily Leon managed to get rid of those damp and pesky things with a little bit of his magic.

Harper squeezed his eyes shut as he battled a wave of nausea. "No, you don't have to...but we need all the help we can get."

"I'm doing fine here..." Leon stated before he feigned a smile. Hakuren would never let him hear the end of this.

"Okay!" Harper moved back, charged then leaped. He felt a gust of air propel him upward and then he fell with a thud, right on the dragon's back. He grabbed onto one of the scales and squeezed his eyes shut, a rush of air and clouds whipping at their faces and clothes. "Lesley, hang on tight!"

Harper began crawling towards the dragon's neck. It was a slow and heart-stopping process but eventually he was close enough to offer Lesley a hand. Ace followed after him a little more recklessly and together they pulled Lesley up.

The trio clung to the dragon's neck for what felt like an eternity before Ace took in a deep breath and took the amulet. She leaped for the thing's head then pulled it onto the dragon's neck. The girl succeeded but she would have fallen off if not for Lesley and Harper, grabbing her by the arms. Both boys pulled her back but the dragon wasn't happy and it began flying in crazy and maddening patterns.

They found themselves falling, but luckily it was not to their deaths. The trio landed on a patch of soft clouds. "A-Are we in heaven?" Harper had almost forgotten how to breath and he felt like he would turn into a puddle at any moment.

"I always thought heaven would be more fabulous." They were not too far from the ledge where Leon was standing. He motioned for them to jump and the trio obeyed. A gust of air helped soften their landing and Leon stared at his gem, it was almost empty and he felt so tired.

The trio caught their breath and watched as the dragon above them was thrown into a fit of rage.

[Orpheus]

Collab between Orpheus and Crescendo

The female had reeled back in surprise when the strangely colored human (they weren't usually bright pink, were they?) appeared on her mate's neck and caused the larger dragon to thrash around, flinging the human down to his neck. Before she could nudge the pink human off another appeared, this one the fiery scented one from before, closley followed by yet another human. Her mate was starting to resemble those funny rides humans rode on at carnivals what with him thrashing about with a trio of humans clinging onto him.

The amulet was successfully looped around the dragon's neck and the humans were finally thrown off the creature. From their place below everyone watched as the large wyrm stiffened in place as the trinket began to glow, multicolored streaks of light erupting from within the jewel and flowing all around the dragon. The beams pierced his scales and left a soft warm glow in their aftermath, giving the illusion of serenity as the great beast started to curl up…

But then the wyrm unfurled his large wings again and roared at the skies. The mountains shook and birds from the forests below responded to the call, high-pitched trills and caws bursting out from everywhere as ravens and the like flew away from their roosts. The dragon’s head swung from side to side as if he was trying to get rid of a headache and he let out another anguished roar before spiraling down, down past the humans and into the forests below. The soldiers from Sol’s army were all too shocked at what was happening and a group of them rushed over to the side to see whether the dragon really did fall, only to be pushed back by a violent gust of wind as the wyrm reappeared, this time flying upwards and encircling the mountain in the most unpredictable of patterns.

With the three humans safely caught within yet another burst of cloud, the female dragon gave them an upset stare at her mate being in so much distress, talons scraping at the ground in worry as she let out another cry, before darting up after the white dragon. She hovered near his twisting form, sighing out breaths of cool vapor as she radiated waves of calmness in an attempt to pacify the feelings of discord she could feel emanating from him.

"Temeraire!"

The fluffy dragon shrieked in alarm as the other dragon suddenly plummeted, wings folding to his sides as he fell towards the hill. The ground shook as his body slammed into the ground, the female landing closely afterwards, shrieking in distress.

The massive tremor caused by the wyrm's rough landing stunned the nobodies and humans alike; most of the soldiers took their sweet time getting up on their feet as a certain dragoon pushed himself to Prince Tobi's side. "Looks like I shouldn't have come after all. You all did a great job," Avian laughed uneasily before yelping as a rather large welt formed on his arm, courtesy of his wife's whip. "You sure took your sweet time!" Victoria shrieked and raised her arm overhead as she readied for another lashing. "Wait, Victoria! This isn't the time for this!" The violet-eyes nobody exclaimed and all eyes were directed away from the marital confrontation by a deep grumbling noise.

The great white dragon shook his head as he toiled to stand upright. His tail flicked from side to side before hitting the earth with a large thump, sending clumps of dust and moss flying towards Leon and Harper's group. At first it seemed like the wyrm was just grumbling but his snarls slowly morphed into speech more understandable by all the nobodies and humans around. "My head..." Temeraire muttered in discontent and his tail swished yet again.

The dragon then stomped around to where the amulet tagging team were and roared at them, the very air whipping loudly along with his words. "DO YOU PUNY MORTAL CREATURES EVEN POSSESS THE TINIEST BIT OF INTELLIGENCE TO COMPREHEND-" He raked long, deep gashes on the ground as he spoke, "THE GRAVITY OF SUCH AN ACT!? PERHAPS NOT? IS IT TOO MUCH TO EXPECT RESPECT AND JUST A TINY BIT OF UNDERSTANDING FROM YOU HOBBITS IN THIS ERA!? DOES NOBODY-" Temeraire turned towards the prince this time, "NOBODY REALIZE THAT A MAGIC TRINKET LIKE SO-" He stabbed a thick nail towards the jewel strapped onto his neck, "-CAUSES IMMENSE EMOTIONAL UPHEAVAL ON THE WEARER!?"

Temeraire took a deep breath, seemingly calming down.

But nope. "FOOLS, THE LOT OF YOU!" The dragon took a deep breath and bellowed. Almost all of Tobi's troops flew off the mountain only to land on the cloud cushions.

"... That's Temeraire, all right," Avian muttered from his place in the cloud cushion. "You know him!?" Victoria pulled her face up from the soft white stuff and screeched at her husband. "Well, I'm from Aven and I come from a family of dragon riders! ... 'Avian Rider'???" "Oh my holy celery god, Avian! Who cares about your last name!?" "What!? I didn't know that it was my cousin Gardis's dragon who was going to appear here! I didn't even know Temeraire had a kid! (Besides the battle scene would've gotten a lot shorter if I came along...)" The couple spat was heard by all of the people who had been flung down to the clouds, including poor Harper's group.

"That's enough, dear," The feathered dragon piped up, her voice soft and soothing in contrast with her mate's bellow. She lifted her head to give a nuzzle to the disgruntled dragon and lifted one of her feathery wings to wrap Temeraire in what could only be described as a hug as he whined.

"I apologize for my mother and my mate," She cooed, bowing her head to the humans. The clouds around the hill rose, bringing the people on it along and deposited them gently on the hilltop before the fluff dissapated. "but perhaps next time it would be better if you didn't arrive with a small army." A disapproving frown was aimed to the prince. She didn't blame the young man, however- he was young, and would learn.

"Your maGE SHOT A FIREBALL AT MY WIFE!" Temeraire glared at said mage who seemed to want to turn into ash just to escape the dragon's scrutiny.

"Shush, darling," Her wings fluttered, before she turned back to the humans. "I am Cirrus, and this is my mate Temeraire. May I ask what business you have with us?" She paused, before hesitating. "And I don't suppose," she warbled, voice quaking with worry and she glanced at each human in turn. "I don't suppose you've seen our baby?"

At this the outraged wyrm inhaled deeply and an imperial, albeit worried, expression clothed his face. "He looks like his mother," Temeraire added, his tone dipped in concern as he bumped his nose against his mate's cheek to try to cheer her up.

[Kimchi]

Clouds began to settle over the battle field and before she knew it, more dragons entered the arena. She felt sick to her stomach. This was it? Was she finally going to die now, at just the third item? The thoughts flew through her mind as she fell to the ground beside a couple of passed out and bleeding soldiers. A force knocked her down and she knew exactly what had caused it. The white fluffs were comforting as she watched a red trail of blood trickle from the injured man. Somehow she could hear his heart beat. It was getting slow, his blood continued to run, draining more and more. She touched him and did what she could do best, she closed his cut and his heart stabilized.

Laying there, the beating of wings pounded in her eardrums and a moan of sadness echoed in her surroundings. The man's heart beat died down even more. Turns out, she had been too late. He had already lost too much blood. The dragon cry was sad and full of fear. "I'm sorry..." she whispered rasply through dust and exhaustion as the fighter lost his life before her eyes. His heart beat ceased to exist. A tear fell from the corner of her eye.

Getting up, she wiped the tear away. She'd seen too many die. Was she immune to death now? No. But she had learned to accept it.
As the fog cleared up a bit, she approached the familiar shouting of her companions and the roaring and loud thrashing of a giant reptile.

"Dangit! Woahh!"

"Oi! Lesley! Give me one end of the necklace, and I'll hook it to the otherside! Stay still for one second crazy dragon! We aren't trying to hurt you!"

Stumbling towards the voices, she caught up with Inadi and Riley. The latter then charged like a raging bull towards the dragon's tail and Jasper couldn't help but think that she was a wee bit reckless.

"Inad, Jasper, save meeeee!"

Grabbing Inadi by the hand, she ran for the tail. "Come on! She needs us!"

Observing with immense focus and dodging the violently moving tail, she was waiting for the right moment when Riley would come sailing past her and she could grab hold of the suffering girl and yank her off. 'Come on. Come on. Any minute now' she hopped to the left then stepped backward. The limb waved around like crazy with a screeching girl attached to it looking like she was about to throw up and let go any minute. Jasper almost upchucked just thinking about Riley puking then.... it came. In slow motion, the red head was flailing past her line of vision. Grabbing out for the girl's shirt and pulling with almost all the might she had left, they went tumbling backwards into Inadi. He didn't help much, but sure made a good landing pad.

Looking up, she saw Harper, Lesley, and Ace falling down to a cushion of fluffy clouds. This made her thankful. Less injuries to take care of and looking down at her amulet, there was no way that she'd be able to heal three boo-boos without facing a painful consequence. Colors and streaks danced out from the necklace that they had successfully got around its neck. Then it began flying and moving in bizarre unpredictable patterns. She prayed subconsciously that the amulet would do what it was supposed to do as it only seemed to worsen the situation. The mighty dragon crash landed causing the ground to shake and rumble like a mini earthquake. Then something mind blowing happened. The creature actually began to speak. It must've awed the newbies more, but Jasper thought they would communicate telepathically, not through literal speech.

"DO YOU PUNY MORTAL CREATURES EVEN POSSESS THE TINIEST BIT OF INTELLIGENCE TO COMPREHEND-THE GRAVITY OF SUCH AN ACT!? PERHAPS NOT? IS IT TOO MUCH TO EXPECT RESPECT AND JUST A TINY BIT OF UNDERSTANDING FROM YOU HOBBITS IN THIS ERA!? DOES NOBODY-NOBODY REALIZE THAT A MAGIC TRINKET LIKE SO-CAUSES IMMENSE EMOTIONAL UPHEAVAL ON THE WEARER!?FOOLS, THE LOT OF YOU!"

It whined loudly at them through much strain and obvious uncomfortable movements.

"That's enough, dear. I apologize for my mother and my mate but perhaps next time it would be better if you didn't arrive with a small army."

Jasper just watched in disbelief, turning towards Riley and Inadi with a look that said 'are-they-seriously-talking?'

They continued on, with a little bit of fussing from the male, to introduce themselves then brought up a question that she could actually answer.

"I don't suppose you've seen our baby?" the female inquired.

"He looks like his mother" her mate chimed in with a light touch of noses.

Timidly, she wasn't sure exactly the correct form of mannerisms in interacting with these two majestic creatures that they had just tried to harm in every way possible, but she knew that they were just concerned parents. Waving her a hand in the air momentarily to catch their attentions, she wiped her begrimed face and straightened up before clearing her throat. Hoarsely she said, "Firstly, I'm sorry for trying to hurt you. And, yes. We saw your child just a couple of hours ago up in the cave. But witches are after him. They're the reason why your kind seems to be causing havoc in the kingdom of Sol. If we help you get your son back, will you help us stop the witches for the sake of Sol? The kingdom's prince is here with us," she beckoned for Tobias to come forward. Stepping aside, she allowed for the prince to speak and more clearly explain the situation at hand.

Meanwhile, she did a check up on the others and was satisfied to find that everyone was in pretty good shape. Her essence was dwindling next to nothing and physically she could pass out on command. She couldn't even remember the last time the others had slept since she was actually able to doze off not too long ago.

[AkiBlue]

"Victor- Whoa!" Ace had nearly fallen off the dragon if it wasn't for the two helping her back up. "Thanks! And as I was saying, VICTORY!!" She yelled out, throwing her fist into the air, only to bring it back down to clutch onto the dragon. "This could be an insane ride if-!" She never got to finish her sentence because the mad dragon threw them off. At the time, she didn't know what to think or how it would turn out, so she heaved a deep breath and waited. . . Only to land on something soft. "That was something wasn't it? I should try that again some time. You know, just without the death threat."

She had moved to safer ground with the two and smiled. "Good job you two!" Ace watched as the male dragon plummeted down to their level and was the first, or at least one of the first to start sliding down to meet the dragon in all its rage. But it appeared she didn't have to go far because the dragon was coming towards them. Ace stood, adjusting her hat, and watching in awe. But then the dragon roared. It wasn't your typical dragon roars, but actual words of anger and annoyance. The sudden force nearly blew her backwards, but she stepped back so she wouldn't fall. "I thought Princy said it was suppose to calm him down?!" Ace yelled over the loud roaring. Even she ended up on her butt after all the gusts of wind. When he had finally stopped, ending with a very forceful insult, Ace regained her composure and stood back up.

The other dragon approached, trying to console him and Ace looked at the others. Who would be the spokesperson this time? She gave a small look of surprise to know that Jasper was going to be the one to start the conversation. But she merely shrugged and listened. "Your kid? The marshmallow fluff? We saw it!" She echoed for emphasis. "Blame the witches.  Always blame the witches." She said, crossing her arms. That was more to herself than the crowd, but she was sure everyone else could hear her.

"We also need a dragon's laugh, but I'm sure that's not very appropriate and all to talk about with your son being gone akd witches being witch-y."

Jasper began to examine her over and Ace wrinklrd her nose, gently swatting her away. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm not a little kid." Though her whines to be left alone didn't seem that way. Jasper was pretty persistent so Ace sighed and let her doctor over her. "Maybe you should relax. You look drained- oh look, and you're nevklace is drained. I don't think it's a coincidence." Ace smiled and patted Jasper's shoulder lightly. "Take a break for a moment."

She looked over where Princy was and then looked uo at the dragons. "You could always eat the witches you know. Quick and easy kill. And a lunch! It'll save the nobodies having to deal with their creepy witch magic. Annnd, you guys won't turn evil again! See? Perfect plan!" Ace had to resist the urge to ask a thousand questions, it was easily read on her eager face. She focused- or at least tried to- on the problem at hand. 'But oh my goodness they're dragons!'

[Anonymous]

Holding on tightly, his long legs flew around vigorously as the dragon continue to thrash and flail in attempts to shake him off. Just when he thought he could no longer keep his gradually loosening death grip, a beautiful savior jumped onto the reptile's back to rescue him. His mouth agape, he stared in awe of the fiery beauty. Her name was Ace.

Ace: "Hold on, I'll help!"

The way her muscles tensed while she skillfully maneuvered the course of scales and points on the moving creatures back was admiring to watch and she accomplished it all with grace. Not to mention her bouncing- 'No don't look' he thought with a dedicated will to abstain from thinking such things. With males, it was different, but he knew that the ladies deserved respect, not some slobbering dog.

Ace: "Oi! Lesley! Give me one end of the necklace, and I'll hook it to the otherside! Stay still for one second crazy dragon! We aren't trying to hurt you!"

After multiple failed attempts and almost in every single one he was sent dangling around with just the support of one arm.

Harper: "Lesley, hang on tight!"

The two offered their hands and he waited for just the right moment to lunge. As soon as the dragon's action seemed to slow down a bit more than usual, probably from fatigue, he used the swinging momentum from its shaking to lock both his hands to Ace and Harper. Hauling him onto safety, well at least a safer situation than he had just been in, the three of them clung to the beast until once again, the glorious female warrior took a leap of faith which ended in success as she finally got the necklace over its head and around its neck. The two males served as support by catching her before she was able to go plummeting to ground, but their relief was only temporary.

A flashback as he fell off the mountain side earlier. He was luckier then, but what about now? Soft fluffy white clouds. 'Am I still dreaming?'

Harper: "A-Are we in heaven? I always thought heaven would be more fabulous."

The dragon was still stomping and roaring above them, but somehow he felt at peace. They had survived. What luck. Leon beckoned them to a safer location and they all trusted him as they landed softly on a secure area of the mountain slope.

From there, they had front row seats to something that could only be seen on screen back on home turf. The dragon went berserk. His wife contrasted him as she was calm, but he knew the amulet was the thing causing his panic. Colorful parades swam out and dove around and around the unhappy beast. Soon enough, he was crash landing to ground level where the two creatures actually began to talk. One soothing and stern, while the other was clearly suffering from both mental and physical torment. As the husband finally settled down, the couple questioned the humans about a baby dragon that resembled its mother.

The others seemed to show looks of knowing and responded with more information. Lesley, on the other hand, was pretty confused and couldn't recall ever seeing a poofy tiny dragon. In fact, this was his first time meeting any dragon(s) and it wasn't at all pleasant.

They were told about the witches and their evil plans. As things were being brought to the beast's attention, Jasper went around on a check up. He waited his turn and he knew there was no point in denying her helpful intentions. Ace had tried, but failed.

Biting his lip as Jasper gazed over him, he couldn't help but feel a little less angry with her about Inadi, but the longer she stood their examining him, the more he wanted to clear up the issue. "Don't worry dear. I'm in tip-top shape," he leaned in closer as he shrunk the gap between them a little more, wrapping an arm around over her shoulders. Turning her and himself so they were in perfect angle to get a good view of the framed faced boy, he reached out a hand as if to draw her gaze towards him.

"A handsome man isn't he?" He glanced down at her face and she looked somewhat blank in expression. Lesley wanted to know if she was interested, but didn't really want to straight up ask her, so he was just trying to swerve the conversation to his conclusion. "Fancy him at all? I mean, how couldn't you? He's so unknowing and to himself. Doesn't his mystery just reel you in?" He had to swallow a pool of spit forming in his mouth just from looking at Inadi for this long; basking in his exquisiteness. Wrenching his hungry stare from the living sculpture, he took the time to observe Jasper's responses to his prodding questions.

[MUG]

Inadi watched as the dragons continued to cause havoc to the group and felt a great collection of nerves begin to well up in his chest. While he wanted to just forget his idea of spearing the non poofy dragon in one of the wounds Jasper had opened up and shock the thing internally, he knew that he had to get something done to try and settle the thing down and make it stop all the thrashing. As he was getting closer to the beast he noticed that both Riley and Jasper had gotten near him at some point. And now all of a sudden he noticed that Riley began charging after one of the dragon's and seemed to think that jumping on the tail was a good idea. Inadi dropped his spear to his side and let out a sigh. As much fun as it sounded riding a dragon was, this was a bad time to live out childhood fantasies.

“Honestly, this whole gung-ho thing is just causing more trouBLE!” Inadi said to himself as he felt a sudden lurch in his body as Jasper began pulling him towards the scene that Riley had gotten herself into. He was getting pulled in so many different directions it was starting to make him as sick as he bet the rest of the group that had jumped onto the dragon felt as well. It was actually quite surprising just how nimble and fast the healer was as she tried to figure out exactly where to go to collect the red head on the tail in front of them.

At this point it seemed that Riley was going to let go of her grip on the beast at any second and Inadi tried his best to guess where they needed to be to catch her at least. Suddenly the girl started flying out towards them and at first Inadi wanted to reach out for her but realized one hand was still being held by Jasper and the other was holding his spear. Inadi noticed that Jasper had caught Riley's shirt and decided it would be best if he tried to cushion the fall and positioned himself to catch the two with his body. Turned out to be a big mistake.

As they all landed, the first thing that hit was Riley. The fire mage landed shoulder first on Inadi's chest and rolled over a bit to the point where her opposite elbow knocked him in the chin. While the pain in his chest and face was evident, the next sting came and made everything else very minimal. Jasper seemed to find a way to have her head rest on Riley's chest when they first landed and her hip found itself resting on Inadi's pelvis.....a very low part on his pelvis. And even though she was on the ground with him and not flying, she had leaped slightly to catch Riley's shirt so she was airborne and had collected some of the other girl's momentum. Inadi's eyes went wide and a slight twitch showed on his face as he kept in his would-have-been high pitched squeal. He waited for the girl's to get off of him and slowly let air enter his lungs again and tried to let the pain pass on.

He slowly rolled over and began brushing him off, a limp noticeably evident when he walked off the incident he did not want to bring up. He already had a very embarrassing moment earlier and he didn't want to add another one to the list if he could help it. As he did so he began hearing a very loud roar turn into what reminded him of his father back home on a bad day. Raising an eyebrow he turned to the sound and noticed the large dragons were speaking to them now. In pure English. While he was taking it all in he saw Jasper shoot him a look asking what was going on. He quickly threw up a shrug to tell her he didn't even have a clue.

As the rest of the group conversed with the dragons and got them updated on the situation as it was, Inadi found himself sitting down on a rock close to the dragon they had now identified as the mother of the small dragon they found back at the cave. Inadi spent most of his time looking at his spear, brushing off specks of rock and dirt that had collected on it throughout the hike and let out a sigh. He noticed the point on the spear was beginning to dull slightly due to him using it as a crutch. He lifted his right arm up to see just how dull it was when he noticed the large dragon was looking at the scarred limb up and down. Seeing where her eyes had fallen he let out a smile and surprisingly, even to him, began just talking with the great beast.

“Don't worry, this wasn't your son. At least not all of it,” Inadi said as he poked at the tip of the spear. It was still sharp enough to make his hand feel a slight sting, but didn't immediately make him jump back at just the touch like it used to. He looked around and picked up a small rock and began trying to sharpen the blade with it. Whether or not the rock was actually the right kind to do it with was beyond his knowledge, but it at least gave him something to do. Returning to the dragon he let out a chuckle. “Most of it was my fault as it was anyway,

“Before we saw your son I had an accident with my magic and shocked my arm up pretty bad. Our whole goal was to collect a dragon's laugh supposedly so when we saw your son in the cave I tried grabbing him to tickle him or something stupid like that,” Inadi said as he gave her a quick look, taking his attention away from the spear. “He didn't take too kindly to me and told me off with a big gust of wind. My arm took the brunt of the damage.

“He's a strong dragon though for his size. His attitude though seems like he can become quite a handful when he gets upset. Almost flooded the whole cave when he started crying back there,” Inadi said as he began getting frustrated at the stone he was using. It didn't seem to be doing much and it had already made about two scratches on the metal. It was clear this wasn't a good whetstone. “But he should be find. He seemed like a quick little guy. We'll get him before you know it as long as we hurry.” Inadi said to the dragon as he began bouncing the spear on his knee. After a short while of sitting there quietly he began feeling like he was being watched. He turned to see Jasper and Lesley together, though the two of them seemed as if they were avoiding eye contact with him from a distance. He picked himself off the rock and began walking towards Harper to check on him, all the while shooting quick glances at Jasper and Lesley.

Finally getting to Harper he gave the boy a pat on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. Every time a big event took place the kid seemed to be in the thick of it. And maybe to Inadi he was still a kid due to his youth compared to himself, but he was proving to be quite the proven man when the chips were down most of the time. “So have you heard anything for that Tobias guy yet about the next move? I get the feeling the parents here want the kid back and before they find him in a stew.” Inadi said with a worried look as he looked around the area to see soldiers collecting themselves after the devastating battle. They were going to be short a lot of man power, and their magic was running low. There wasn't great odds in their favor, but hopefully they were due for a miracle considering all they had been through prior.

[Kimchi]

As she moved on to take care of Ace, the girl was trying to reject her examination at first, but gave in eventually due to Jasper's insisting.

"Maybe you should relax. You look drained- oh look, and you're necklace is drained. I don't think it's a coincidence. Take a break for a moment."

She was glad that the others showed care and concern over her just as much as she felt the natural obligation to baby them all because of the power she ended up with. Nodding, she was definitely planning on getting a good rest after all this was over, but she had a feeling they would be on that mountain for a lot longer. Fighting a pair of old hags maybe? Hopefully not. As the dragoons and their guides had said, "They can kill you with a snap of their fingers." That being told, she realized that it wouldn't be much of a fair fight if they just dropped dead the moment they initiated a confrontation.

"You could always eat the witches you know. Quick and easy kill. And a lunch! It'll save the nobodies having to deal with their creepy witch magic. Annnd, you guys won't turn evil again! See? Perfect plan!" Ace suggested.

Jasper almost laughed. It sounded like a pretty decent plan and it would for sure save them a whole lot of trouble.

She moved onto Lesley who held somewhat of a cross face towards her though she mostly tried to ignore it.

"Don't worry dear. I'm in tip-top shape!" he chimed.

His sudden change in aura made her jump a little and she let out a short, nervous laugh. Cringing and shrinking into herself as he began to snake an arm around her shoulders, she stood as still as statue as he began to rotate her body. At first she wasn't exactly sure on what they were looking at, but as he flicked a hand towards Inadi, who was currently sitting on a rock inspecting his spear, she looked at the boy, but was rather confused as to why Lesley had brought him to her attention.

"A handsome man isn't he?" Lesley suddenly said.

Jasper reddened a bit and tensed up as she examined Inadi from head toe. I guess you could say that she was checking him out. She never particularly noticed whether one person stood out in front of the other in terms of attraction since she never really established her 'ideal type' due to her recluse personality on earth. But she didn't think Inadi looked undesirable either. 'Wait, why is he asking me about this again?' she thought as her puzzlement grew.

The pink haired man seemed to peek down at her face for moment before returning his gaze to Inadi whilst continuing his questioning. "Fancy him at all? I mean, how couldn't you? He's so unknowing and to himself. Doesn't his mystery just reel you in?" The man then proceeded to lick what seemed like drool from his lips before gulping.

Jasper blinked rapidly and sweat drops began to bead out on her forehead along with her hands which were beginning to feel clammy. She felt his burning, inquiring eyes on her so she tried to look focused on staring at Inadi instead, too nervous to meet his speculating sight. Pulling slightly at the collar of her shirt, which was starting feel like it was choking her up, Jasper cleared her throat, "Ah-ahem." Her eyeballs were still examining Inadi and possible answers to his questions were racing through her head. Just thinking and trying to figure out how to respond correctly was getting her all riled up and paranoid. What if she responded weird and he started to think something that wasn't exactly true?

Meanwhile, Inadi seemed to have caught on that a couple of stares were being directed at him as he launched curious peeks at them from time to time. This only served to freak her out even more as the racing inside her head began to speed up, making her feel dizzy and light headed.

"Uh..uhhhh..uhmmm. W-wuh-well.." she couldn't even speak straight as she felt as if she was about to topple over like a domino. This kind of intense interrogation, especially about 'crush' related type things, mixed with her innate paranoia and indecisive behaviors made for the perfect concoction on giving Jasper a hardcore mental breakdown.

She never saw it coming. Next thing she knew, she was bent over throwing up on Lesley's out stretched hand out of feelings that somehow morphed into pure fear at a point in time of which she had no knowledge. To be honest, she couldn't even remember feeling nauseated first. She only knew that she had just involuntarily began puking on this poor man's hand. Stomach convulsing as it emptied and let out nothing but air, it seemed like Lesley had frozen into place out of shock because he didn't move his hand away until she had finished, his cupped hand dripping in unnamed, half digested food.

[John]

In the wake of the battle just ended, Leila lay against the ground; her eyes half shut and body still except the slow rising and falling of her chest as she breathed, which was the only, barely noticeable, signal that she was still alive.

The scene she last remembered as an intertwined chaos of screams and cries seems to have long degenerated into a much more stable state. The sound of conversation and the occasional groans from the injured echoed only in the background, at a distance. Flames survived in small batches on the scorched land, but were withering. The once rampaging dragons -

- dragons.

At the thought of that her eyes widened and her upper body jolted up in a way that would remind one of the schoolgirl who woke up late to realize she forgot to set the alarm last night. Jolted up was, of course, jolted up as far as possible before the injury in her waist forced the muscles to give up and brought her back down, grunting in pain.

So that was what knocked her out, she thought, in her struggle to piece together the recent events that she could not remember.

She turned her head to the left, away from the scorching sun that pained her eyes. Behind the few batches of taller grass that obscured the range of her sight, she noticed the figure of the recently crowned Ice King, collapsed not far away and only just sitting up. There was no-one she knew on her right.

Ushering all of her strength she managed to lift herself off the ground, but only to have to stop in a crouching position on her ground. She was still dizzy. A few “hic”s escaped her throat as she felt like throwing up several times. She never did vomit, but the intense discomfort from contracting the already strained muscles was enough to endure.

In the middle of that she noticed an arm extended her way at the edge of her range of sight. She turned around to see it was Haku, who seemed to have been much quicker to recover. His mage’s robes, once a bright white that echoed the colour of the element he controlled, was now worn and torn in places and covered in specks of dirt and dust, much like her own clothes. He might or might not have said something to her, which she did not hear. She took the hand.

Assisted by the boy beside her, with half of her weight supported by an arm wrapped around him, the two of them walked together, in staggering (and seemingly-not-as-staggering, in Haku's case) steps towards the rest of the Lost Souls.

* * * *

The Lost souls were regrouped on the hillside. Everyone seemed to be there.

Leila looked upwards to see the mighty creatures standing in front of them. The sun - a bright light of the afternoon that seemed to never have left the sky since their arrival in Sol - showered rays from above, forcing her to narrow her eyes to see (she was perhaps too tired to bring up her hand) the silhouettes of the dragons. Three of them, standing tall - at least as tall as three story buildings, she gauged. How creatures of such a caliber could even function escaped her mind. A body structure that could hold up with that weight. A circulation system powerful enough to maintain it. And the dragons even flew! Muscles strong enough to propel those wings. And they did it elegantly. A sensory system powerful enough to control their movements with such intricacy...

The dragons also spoke. She was even more amazed by that fact.

One of the dragons shifted its stance, expanding and flapping its wings to provide a cushion for its landing. Leila only watched in awe as the winds that escaped the flapping wings swept across her face.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" She said, as her footsteps slowed down and stopped at the end of their little trip to rejoin the lot of humans, near Harper and Just besides the rock Inadi had made his seat.

The dragons stood aside one another. Leila found herself imagining the dragons as a family of sorts. She smiled. She actually enjoyed that thought - A family of glorious beasts. Guardians of a treasure, or something along those lines. That was a wild idea, of course, and she didn't spend much time entertaining it - and yet she enjoyed the thought.

Funny how she also almost thought one of those dragons almost looked like the little floofy one they met back at the caves.

She kept gazing up with intense interest throughout as most of the conversation happened between the other Lost Souls and the dragons. Amulets, dragons, witches, conspiracies. She didn't really understand what was happening. She didn’t know how the battle ended and how the dragons suddenly calmed down. She might have been able to piece back a few things from the traces in the conversation, though she was too distracted to listen anyway. But, somehow, for once, she was completely comfortable with not knowing. Perhaps she was just a bit too tired to think about it all, too tired to try to comprehend it. Yet the scene alone sufficed in making her feel glad. Neither was that a thing she could explain, but she was happy with that too.

Leila found the scene to be...calm, in a way. The sun was scorching, the smell of charcoal still filled the air, the heat was still unbearable - but everything seemed so peaceful. The battle ended. They were safe. For once in this journey in this realm of madness, she felt like everything was going to be okay.

Then she looked back at the dragons, in the same admiration as she did earlier. Only then did she notice that it was not only the humans who were worn out by the battle. The dragons, as mighty as they were, could also be seen with apparent signs of physical distress: scales worn and cracked, scrapes on the surface of their tough, study skin. The one that was seen with the magical trinket dangling from its neck (-so they did it after all-) seemed to be particularly upset. Reptilian faces don’t convey expressions all that well, but the stress the creature was experiencing was well evident. The dragon was fierce and had been growling angrily most of this time, yet each display of anger came also with anxiousness and despair, almost like that of a frustrated child; and he never did quite calm down completely despite the efforts of his companion. The large, feathered dragon besides him was not as beat-up as the other, yet worry masked her face as she asked the lost souls about their son.

Leila felt that bit sad about this.

She thought that maybe she should do something. Yet she did not know the answers to their questions - the whereabouts of the little fluffy dragon remained unknown to her.

Leila looked around a bit. Their discussions seemed to have come to a pause for the moment and some of the lost souls were having conversations of their own now. Slowly, Leila slid her arm away from Haku, shifting her weight back onto her legs as she took slow steps, tentative and small at first, forwards.

Since the dragons understood their speak…

Leila looked up again at the dragons as she stopped, a number of steps closer to them, with her feet barely managing to keep her standing. The faces of the dragons were close to each other and near the ground.

I’m sure your child is fine. She wasn’t sure if she thought that or said it out loud. She intended to say it, yet even if she did the loudest she could manage under this state was probably barely a dragon’s whisper and she doubted they would hear it. But she was almost certain that they would understand.

Leila tiptoed a bit so that her arms could reach high enough - it hurt, but she didn’t seem too bothered by that at the moment.

She proceeded to try to hug the dragon on the snout.

[Orpheus]

Collab between Orpheus and Fox

The dragons were speaking. Not snarling or roaring, but actually talking in a language they all understood.

Harper stared at it all, dumbfounded, and was only knocked out of his daze when Inadi gave him a pat on the shoulder. "How's the arm?" He asked in a voice showed he wasn't quite there. He was too busy marvelling at the change of events. These ferocious beasts that could kill them with a flap of their wings were actually talking and it was hard not to just stand there amazed.

He would have continued but he heard Inadi talking, something about the next step. He shook his head then frowned. "I don't know, but you're right. We can't just leave him with the witches." He said it all in a small voice, just loud enough for Inadi to hear.

Everyone was starting to gather around the giant beasts and before he knew it Leila had mumbled something before dashing off towards the dragons. He felt his heart leap and Harper's eyes grew the size of saucers as he reached out. "Leila wait!"

What happened next was amazing. Leila reached leaned in to give the giant beast a hug.

Temeraire detested having to snoop down in order to talk with the tiny creatures, but it was the only way he could hear their diminutive voices. He grumbled to himself as the lilliputians swirled around chaotically, some bumping into each other, the majority collapsing on the ground soon as they found a seat. He rolled his eyes at the stupidity of it all before feeling something soft wrap around his snout, and he found himself staring down at a human- from the scent of it- girl. "Blefeurgh-!?" The wyrm exclaimed in surprise as his eyes widened and his jaw opened, but he stopped himself in time and remained frozen in that silly expression. After all, if a dragon had to be hugged then surely his adorable fluffy mate presented as the more viable option? Creatures ran away screaming from him. Cirrus looked shocked too but she began to smile upon seeing her mate's confused face.

Still, the sincerity of the young lady's action soothed the wyrm, and he gave her an embarrassed huff when she finally pulled away. Temeraire directly proceeded to make a "harrumph"-like sound before inhaling deeply. Before anyone can react he was blowing billowy clouds out of his nostrils, ones that encircled Leila before dissipating. The Lost Soul would find herself rejuvenated far beyond the capacity of any mundane cleric; she would feel as though she had not suffered through the physical (and emotional, thanks to Mama Floof's additional clouds) perils of this mission. "Ha, unlike those who reside in Nowhere, humans do not fully absorb a dragon's blessing. Last time one of our kind blessed a nobody, a war started and it was all blamed on us. I'd rather heal a motley of humans rather than bless the noblest of nobodies," The wyrm grumbled as pleading looks from the soldiers were shot his way.

That being said, since the humans were mostly gathered in one place Temeraire and Cirrus took the opportunity to bless them. He scowled at Inadi's arm and Cirrus shook her head as clouds wafted around the Lost Souls; though it was admirable how the healer kept trying her best to keep the limb from bleeding, it was only a temporary fix and keeping him on such treatment was bound to have negative effects. When the mist finally disappeared Inadi's arm was back to normal, not to mention all the other bruises and cuts his fellow Lost Souls have experienced have completely disappeared. The female dragon let out a happy chirp and her tail swished back and forth, conjuring small fluffy clouds.

"I don't think they want to kill us." Riley appeared behind them, grinning from ear to ear. "Hey Inadi, sorry about crashing into you and Jasper, and thanks for the save." She made a mental note to apologize to and thank the healer later, but now it seemed as if she were having a serious conversation with Lesley. Her eyes landed on Leila and she laughed. "Man, she's got guts."

Riley laughed a little then remembered what she was talking about in the first place."Oh and like I said, if they wanted to kill us, we'd be kind of dead by now." Mama Floof and Papa Rawr began talking about their child and Grandma though still snarling lingered behind them without causing any trouble. "They just want their kid." The redhead pulled a frown.

Grandma dragon flapped her wings in an irritated manner before her eyes shifted towards the humans, specifically Jasper. "So you saw our little Citrus with a bunch of witches and didn't even help him!" She let out a shriek before embers began to form around her snout. She could kill them all if she wanted to, but Temeraire and Cirrus were such softies. It was almost impossible to meet a good traditional dragon nowadays, one who enjoyed kidnapping royalty and guarding mounds of gold, such a shame! Stop the witches? This girl didn't know how terrible they could be.

"Mother-in-law!" Temeraire huffed out and blew at the blue dragon before Cirrus could cry out in dismay, cooling the flames emanating from her nostrils in case she burned a poor nobody. "Well, it does upset me that our son was kidna-" He suddenly paused and shot a look at his mate, who suddenly looked dampened. "Witches are far beyond the ken of these realm passers. Their hesitation was understandable... And as such they are forgiven, though I speak for myself and not my wife," Temeraire revised his statement and regally nodded at the Lost Souls. "I forgive you all too... I know none of this is your fault," Cirrus chimed in albeit a little sadly.

A girl with a cap suggested they eat the witches, like Jasper she didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation. The blue dragon snorted in response.

"If it were that easy," she swished her tail, sending a gust in Ace's direction. "We would have done it ages ago, child." When Temeraire cooled down the embers, she let out an irritated snarl. They had to find their poor Citrus, the thought of him alone with those vile witches it worried them all. The blue dragon rolled her eyes at the human who had given her son-in-law a hug. The white dragon had always been a softy, but it was one of the reasons Cirrus loved him and she would accept that. She calmed down then focused her eyes on the humans. "You've got taste, child! If I could, I'd rip off their heads and make them wish they never left the dark side, but.." she let out an annoyed huff. "They're much stronger than us." She had ignored the part about a dragon's laugh completely.

"I apologize for my mother and my mate but perhaps next time it would be better if you didn't arrive with a small army."

Tobias was just as shocked as the humans were and he approached the trio looking horribly apologetic. "I-I'm sorry about that, but I thought it was the only way." He bowed twice in a quick succession then cleared his throat. They scared him but this was for Sol and for the soldiers who had lost their lives. "Aven and Sol are currenly in war because of the dragon attacks. None of us knew it was the witches' doing until the humans ran into them at the cave. Could you please tell us about the dragons that have been going berserk?"

The blue dragon squeezed her eyes shut. "Are you deaf boy! It's the witches, they've gotten stronger and they found ways to take over a dragon's mind. Now they have Citrus and we can't save him because things would only get worse! They kidnapped some of Aven's riders too."

Tobias flinched and shrunk back, nearly crashing into Zephy as he did so.

Harper's eyes went wide and he took a step forward. "We'll go after them and we'll save your grandson!" It was a spur of the moment thing and he wanted to clamp his mouth shut as soon as the words came out. What had he been thinking? He felt a shiver run down his spine and swallowed hard, he had no right to make a decision for everyone, especially when the decision could get them all killed.

The blue dragon examined the shaking boy with narrow eyes before she began to laugh. "I apologize for Mother-in-law's.... But hold a moment, if I remember correctly, it is exactly what you need, right?" Temeraire paused and a worried look was over his face again. "I ... am... relieved that you have found the item that you seek, but our son still remains at large. Dare I hope that even if you lot have what you need, you will not let go of Citrus's mystery?" The white wyrm sighed deeply as if he had witnessed eons of betrayal and was simply waiting for an answer. Cirrus looked quite anguished and it would take a heart of stone not to get sad at her apparent longing.

There was the sound of rustling paper and the living list flitted out of the boy's messenger bag. It opened itself up and the third item a Dragon's Laugh had been crossed out. Harper nodded numbly but paled at the sight of the next item.

Item number four was a witch's heart.

He stared at the white dragon, whether they liked it or not, they would have to face the witches next. He turned to look over his shoulder, and seeing the others made him feel a little braver. They were in this together and it gave him an extra push. "Yes!" He stated. "We'll find your son and put a stop to the witches."

There was no turning back now.

[Anonymous]

Listening to her clear her throat while still staring Inadi down, he was wondering why she started to look even paler and more nervous than usual. He stared at her with a face full of anticipation for her answer, hoping that it would be a straight up rejection. It would be best that way. Life is easier when there's no competition, not that he felt like he could lose to Jasper anyway. When she began to part her lips to speak, it seemed to draw his face even closer, just in case she decided to whisper it.

Jasper: "Uh..uhhhh..uhmmm. W-wuh-well.."

Lesley nodded his head quickly in encouragement, urging her to continue. "Yes? Yes? So what do you think about Inadi?" The hue of her face almost dove down into a bad shade of pure white, even though it should be hard to tell because of her albinism, but he knew that she didn't appear to be feeling very well. But still, the determined Les pressed on with a willful stare even as she started to waddle a little off balance in his arms. Next thing he knew, it seemed that her legs had melted because he had to hold her up. 'Wtf is wrong with this chic? Like seriously, it's a yes or no question' he thought as he hauled her back onto her own two feet.

"Woah.. are you okay? You don

All he could do was stare. It was a horrid mystery as to why he had lost all control and force in his body to move away as soon as she started to haunch over in a throw up position, but there it was. To his utter misfortune, his hand was still out stretched from when he flicked a hand to draw her attention to the main target of their whole conversation. But now it had found another purpose, Jasper was using it like some kind of toilet to empty all the undigested food initially floating in her stomach acid. It was warm and sloshy within his palm, and the strained puking noises she made were enough to set his own stomach off, making him him feel sick as he threw up a little in his mouth just from witnessing all this. Her back would arch up, tremble, release, and collapse back down until there was no more left.

She finally stopped and Lesley was still standing there, dumbfounded and flabbergasted in relation to what just happened. He was currently holding a hand full of puke with a large pool of muck underneath it. Then in a resurgence of energy, he turned his hand over to let the rest of the throw up join the rest of its pals who were slowly seeping between the crevices of rock. Looking straight up to the sky, he opened up his mouth and let out the most disgusted, banshee-like scream he could ever muster. This continued for at least five seconds before he looked Jasper dead square in the pupils with an infuriated 'GLARE OF DEATH' before stomping off to wash his hand clean. He would have loved to smear or throw her own puke right back at her, but Lesley only came to realize that he could have done just that while a soldier sacrificed the rest of the water in his pouch to wash off Lesley's hand.

"And to think I was actually starting to forgive her, UGH! That snarkle-kettle! I just wanna," he then commenced into gnashing a fist into his other palm like he was violently killing a bug that landed there. 'I swear, I'm gonna make her pay!' There was no soap around whatsoever so he was just going to have to travel the rest of the trip with one extremely bad-odored hand.

---

Returning to the front where the humans were gathered, he came just in time to see Leila part from the dragon's face from what seemed to be an embrace and they were all called to huddle closer together for a blessing. He almost fell into place beside Jasper, but he shot her a dirty look which definitely had some imaginary lasers blasting out of it before he stalked off father away from where she stood. As soon as he settled down in a spot where Jasper was nowhere in sight, he observed in curiosity at the clouds that began to arise around them once again. Upon the evaporation of the white wisps, he noticed that his open cuts had disappeared and he no longer ached.

Grandma Dragon: "So you saw our little Citrus with a bunch of witches and didn't even help him!"

Uh-oh, grandma rage mode. She looked rather infuriated and Lesley secretly cheered her on as he noticed who her anger was directed towards. 'Ehehehe. Jasper's gonna get it now ૧(^ಠﭛಠ^)ﾉΨ' But to his chagrin, her son-in-law fanned out the flames before anyone could get hurt. Lesley huffed ╮(　￣д￣;)ノ . Dragons, nobodies, and humans continued to discuss until Harper blurted out,

Harper: "We'll go after them and we'll save your grandson!"

Lesley groaned mentally, but watched in surprise as the Living List flew out from within Harper's pack and hovered before them to display the target for their up coming quest upon just achieving a Dragon's Laughter. Now it was Lesley's turn to throw up as his stomach began to churn and do flip-flops.

Harper: "Yes! We'll find your son and put a stop to the witches."

He couldn't believe it. This was surely not at all a coincidence. 'Darned list is a freakin' spy! IT'S WATCHING US... (ㅇㅅㅇ). Stalker...' he grumbled wordlessly to himself as he began to conjure a theory of his own. But they had no choice. The Queen wants what the Queen wants and a Queen gets what a Queen wants so they were just going to have to go and get it. He felt as if this Nowhere place where humans randomly stumbled into was just a more whimsical version of the movie "Saw" with the Queen playing Jigsaw. Goosebumps springing up along his arms at the disturbing thought, he mentally accepted their fate, preparing himself for yet another adventure.

[Fox of Spades]

This was their first time in Nowhere's dark side, in fact, the queen had told them nothing about it.

Nowhere was a world made of dreams and wishes, but that was only one side. The other side was made of nightmares and despair, and both were separated by a boundary. Some creatures from the dark side could not cross over because they were hated and some would die if they were to so much as see sunlight. Nobodies from the light side could cross over but they tended to stay away because the dark side had horrible, horrible things.

The lost soul's destination was the Forest of the Ancients, a horrific and dark place just past the dark side's borders. Most travelers who entered ended up lost forever, some say the trees ended up eating them and others say their disappearances were the witches' doing.

Five human days had passed since they had spoken to the dragons. They did not return to the castle, but instead rested in Sol. However, it wasn't a peaceful rest. After they returned, a messenger rushed them back to the castle. One of the witches had invaded in search for gems but while everyone else had decided to run away, Vince stood his ground and began yelling at them.

He was turned to stone and the messengers said that it took him only one Solarian minute to die.

It wasn't the worst way to die, well, not in Nowhere. Most of them didn't know him very well, but it was another death and like all those who died before him, it hurt. Hakuren had frowned and muttered something about Vince being just like Axel. Harper didn't really know what to say and Riley, the girl went quiet for a few days. She didn't know him that well, but she had been with him and Lesley since the beginning.

They gave him a small funeral and after that things were quite somber. They rested and Tobias gave them all the information he could.

Not much was known about the witches but they were extremely powerful. They had never left the dark side in the past but for some reason, they had kidnapped a few dragon riders, turned Aven's dragons against Sol and sparked up a war.

The lost souls trudged through the forests of the ancients, flashlights in hand and steps wary. The night sky above them was pitch black and the air freezing cold. They had been walking for what felt like hours, but the giant trees and skeleton-like branches all looked the same and for some reason their compass had stopped working and an ill-timed breeze had blown their map away.

"Hey guys, does that tree look familiar to you?" Harper glanced around, shoulders drooped and eyebrows creased. "I think we've been walking in circles, but I'm not too sure. Avian? Is there any way to tell without a compass?" The prince had warned them about the forest and had even volunteered to follow after them but the royal Dragoons didn't allow that and in the end volunteered for the job themselves.

"Spooky how the compass suddenly stopped working." Riley gave him a devilish grin before popping up beside Songbird. Ever since the compass broke Riley decided to pass the time by asking the item hunter all sorts of questions, and while some were smart things like "have you been to this part of Nowhere." the other questions were just outright silly.

Hakuren looked as smug as always and he trailed behind them, smiling. "It can't be a coincidence. The witches are probably behind it, but if they come to get us we can always sacrifice the bear." He jabbed his staff in Jasper's direction and let out a low chuckle.

"Very funny, these things could kill us, Haku." Harper kicked at the ground then sighed, but before he could look too upset Riley gave him a pat on the back and took the lead.

"If we keep walking in a straight line, we're bound to reach somewhere, so let's not get too down, kay?"

If this were the human world then Harper would have agreed, walking in a straight line would get them somewhere at the least, but this was Nowhere. In this world, one plus one was a yellow humming bird, and walking in a straight line, especially in a cursed forest was probably the equivalent of running in zigzags.

[AkiBlue]

"It was worth a shot."

That was the last thing she said to the dragons before patting their snouts gently. Hey, if Leila got to hug them, she didn't think it would hurt to pat them. At least she didn't ask for a ride.

When all was said and done, she noticed Jasper and Lesley looking sick to their stomachs. And then she noticed the puke. "Gross." Was all she said before she helped Jasper and Lesley (if he needed it).

***

Days past, or what felt like days- Ace wasn't sure of the time since she had gotten to Nowhere. It was hard to keep track of it all, but they ended up having a not so peaceful time resting up. It seemed like nothing but bad news as soon as they got there.

Witches invaded, and worst of all, VinVin had died. She didn't know him that well, but she did talk to him a few times. He seemed like he would've been a fun addition to the group... But, there was nothing they could do now. During the funeral, Ace gave her condolences as everyone else did, and remained in the back for the rest. She didn't think her words of encouragement would help at a time like this.

"If they're so powerful, why are we being thrown in to help? Especially if we're practically rookies in the guides eyes?" She asked this one, only to remember that Harper signed them up fire the job. She gave a laugh and a shrug. "I say that's fair enough. If Harper thinks we can do it, then we can. We've made it this far. Home is close don't you think?"

- - - ' ' ' - - -

Ace took her place in the front of the group- not including the guides and eyed the forest ahead. Gently, she began to sing This is Halloween in a slightly spooky manner. Even if it was for a  children's movie, she still sang it. She may not have known too much like the others did, but she was never deprived of the children's movies like Disney and Pixar... Those, and a few violence orientated she watched as she took residence in her "adopted home."

"Ride with the moon in the dead of night~"

It made her look up to see if the moon was out. To her dismay, the trees and possible fog covered that. So, she continued. 

"I am the who when you call, Who's there?. I am the wind blowing through your hair. I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright."

She giggled and turned to look at the others, eventually stopping her song. "Coincidence that we're lost? Or we just have misdirected guides? Nah, what will be a coincidence is when- I mean if, one: the witches find us before we find them,  or two: We fall into their house, or trap." Way to go Ace. Jinx them all.

Riley was soon next to her and Ace laughed. "I thought we were already attempting straight lines? I would've suggested to mark the path, but then the witches would probably ambush us in no time. But it's not like I have any ideas, so forward it is?" She said it as a question just in case someone wanted to object and suggest another way.

 Even so, Ace was walking on forward, trying to make out things in the dark. "Evil or not, they should really think about getting some lights in this place. No one can see in the dark unless you have nightvision- hey can we get nightvision powers...or goggles? That would be pretty cool- er helpful. Imagine playing hide and seek here with nightvision goggles. Awesome!" Somewhere along asking and just making conversation, she started to ramble to whoever listened. It seemed she had forgotten about the potential danger... as usual.