Level_5

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

As Frey stood tense, eyes gleaming like an animal's, Asbel stood likewise frozen. The phoenix had been terrified the night before, but even that confusing amalgamation of sensations did not quite fit the fear borne of this. Last night, at least, the necessary action had been clear: catch Frey, rescue Frey, keep Frey from drowning. But this was a prince frightened near to violence by nothing more than a handful of harmless animals screeching at him from the treetops. He was frightened. This Frey, so wild and so panicked, was drowning, too, and Asbel realized, with a flood of ill-concealed horror, that he could do nothing to help this time.

Cassius, too, seemed on edge: Asbel could feel the dragon's awareness prickling the edges of his consciousness. The dragon had some sort of connection with the youngest prince, didn't he? If Cassius was wary, what did that suggest for the rest of them?

"Get you out?" Augustine, of course, spoke first, though he glanced at Cassius with open apprehension. Asbel knew, without asking, what passed between dragon and rider: they could not turn back. They were on a diplomatic mission and to give up now would be to leave the northern kingdom to its own fate. Such an act would look like abandonment. The political turmoil would be impossible to unravel.

"We have to keep going, Frey," the general admitted at last. He turned to his brother with an apologetic frown, eyes dark with concern. "You might... you might feel better once we are out of the mountains. Let's keep moving."

Augustine picked up his allotted supplies and began to lead the way deeper into the woods. And while Asbel did not want to be too far away from the general, he hung back anyway, and edged closer to the younger prince. He could see blood leaking between the young man's fingers, and without thinking, tried to take the prince's hand in his own. He touched Frey's palm with his fingertips and, with some effort given how tightly the prince's fingers were embedded in his own flesh, managed to worm his fingers between those of the prince, gently and carefully twisting their hands together.

"Asbel!" The shout startled the phoenix and he jerked his hand away at once, palm streaked with Frey's blood. He caught his breath in time to hear Augustine call again: "Walk up here with me. Cassius, stay with Frey."

Saved from making any sense of what in heavens name he had tried to do, Asbel ducked away to retrieve his pack and hastened to catch up with Augustine. He cast no glance behind, but he knew Cassius was already beside the prince in his stead, grumbling some low words of reassurance.

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

I understand completely! I graduate in a week, and everything here is madness, too. So take your time and take care of real-life business. I understand. (:

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

P.S. I wasn't sure what you wanted to do with the tree-creatures, so I hope I left my response open-ended enough.

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

Frey's shouting startled Asbel, who leapt at once to his feet, ready to chase after the prince if this new bought of screeching had anything to do with another attack. Augustine reacted the same way: he rose at once and drew his sword, halfway to his brother's side before he realized there was no otherworldly danger threatening the young man.

"Leave them, Frey," he groused, sheathing the sword and shooting his brother an openly-irritated look (the first Asbel had seen since the trip began). "You need not harass the native wildlife."

Asbel, shaken from the shouting and the evident unimportance of the tree-high creatures, scattered part of his bread into the underbrush. Surely they ate harmless things, bugs and fruit, not people. An anxious shiver of fire fluttered across his skin, but surely there was nothing to worry about. Cassius, still seated, was watching the treetops carefully, and nothing so small -- however numerous -- would pick a fight with a vigilant dragon. Nevertheless, the sooner they got where they were going and the sooner they could go home, the better.

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

I'll do my best. :) And you enjoy school! As much as you can, anyway, ha ha.

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

Ah, yes, Asbel thought with an inward grimace. Nothing has changed at all. The events of the night before had evaporated with the worst of the rain, and if Frey was going to return to being a cruel little thorn in everyone's side, Asbel would presume likewise. If the prince needed help, he ought to ask for it, not insist his only comfort was to antagonize anyone who happened to be around him. And if he was going to act as though there had been no kindness between them at the waterside, then so be it.

The rain had stopped, but Asbel simmered in his own personal storm as they walked. Augustine, again, held conversations on and off with Cassius, though their talking was strained, as if both of them were unsure of their footing now that such strangeness had accosted Frey in the dark. But the dragon never led them astray, and Augustine never faltered in his vigilance, so the phoenix allowed his attention to wander.

"Stop." The general's order called him back to the present more quickly than Frey's question, and Asbel halted at once. He blinked owlishly at the surrounding forest, and raised a hand to pull at his hair, only to find it gone. The back of his neck prickled, though from the expressions on the faces of his companions, he was not the only one to feel it.

"What do you think that is, Cassius?" Augustine asked. The dragon shrugged, and Augustine cast a wary glance at the sky. "It feels like gathering lightning. We should have brought a weather mage with us." He began, still cautious, to shrug off his pack and settle it at the side of their makeshift path. "Time for lunch, I think."

At the words, Asbel sank gratefully into the rough brush and ankle-biting grass. "I am not hungry," he insisted, and though he had eaten nothing since the night before, the words were true.

"Nonsense," Augustine countered, pushing an apple and a crescent of bread into the phoenix's hands. "You're worn out already. You must eat something. Come here, Frey; I'll give you your rations, too."

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

I hope it went well! :D
(Sorry for the delay -- replying ASAP)

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

Lol, any story ideas you have are fine with me. I like the way their traveling adventure is turning out so far. And don't worry about slowness: I just got back from Easter break and everything is piling up already. I understand your dilemma completely..

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

Frey's latest shouts of irritation woke Asbel from a restful sleep, and the phoenix rolled onto his face with a groan. Even with his myriad of minute scratches healed, he still felt sore from the adventures of the night before, and he was in no mood to walk in company now. Nothing had changed, no matter what had happened the night before. Frey was, from the sound of it, back to being as bratty as he had been before the midnight incident, and Asbel wanted nothing to do with him. Frey would be mouthy, Cassius would be closed-off, and Augustine would be... far too nice.

With the stiff movements of a clockwork mechanism, Asbel dragged himself upright and squirmed into the clothes he had abandoned the night before. Everything was, as hoped, fully dry, and even the boots were not as tight and uncomfortable as they had been the day before. But his hair, oh, his hair... The phoenix ran a hand through the tangled mess and bit his lower lip. He had not thought to bring a brush, and he could not go outside with such a snarled mess.

He left the tent with his small pack and, with only the barest of nods toward Augustine, crouched at the edge of the campsite with the nearly-useless needle of a dagger he'd brought from his spare belongings under his bed. While the general and Cassius pulled down the one remaining tent, the phoenix gathered long strands of once-lustrous golden hair in his hands and hacked them off. The knots and tangles gathered in a pathetic heap on the dirt until the phoenix sported an untidy crop of short hair, a spray of new feathers.

Thankful, at least, for new tidiness -- and for the absence of rain -- Asbel returned to the other three and accepted his share of the supplies without a word. Augustine's concerned morning greetings he responded to with a shadow of a smile, and as the day's march began, trailed behind the other three with his eyes on the terrain underfoot.

[Skybreaker] Envieux [Level_5]

oh my god I found it
I'm going to leave it ha ha

I love goo, too.