Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[Mercakete]

Well, several humans were looking at her now. Now, what to do about it? Rizen didn't really know. Would her rider just show up like before? Hardly anyone around here had wings. Sticking around and waiting might be the best solution. She really didn't know where he could be by now and wasn't too keen on following that giant predator again...

As she was pondering this, Rizen kept looking back the way she'd flown from, then back to the group and back and forth. Finally, when she decided, Rizen simply stood around with her wings fidgeting uneasily, waiting to see which way the group went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Aye, a'course," the mariner replied as she hurriedly took hold of the downed Sancturan's arm and hauled him carefully up. She rested the arm she had over her shoulders. As Amon took up the other arm, Gytha smiled over at him. It'd been a while since she last saw the man and now there wasn't something trying to kill them all, so this was the first chance she'd had to say anything to him. "Glad t' see ye again. Told ye it wouldn't be th' last time."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And then they warped again. Norbert hard a cry before someone came tumbling right over him. She didn't hit him, but she did hit some of the spines. Another scream behind him told Norbert that the pegasus knight had managed to hitch a ride on the dragon, too. The dark dragon began to slow down. This is my chance! Before he could do anything, though, the dragon spoke up again, warning him to get off or he'd "reeve" him.

"Yeah right. You can't reach me here, you overgrown bat-lizard. And I'm not going to jump when we're this high up just because you say to!" Norbert spat back. He hadn't noticed the dark energy until after he said this, though, and that worried him. Oh. So that's how... The pegasus knight who'd lived cried for the dragon to stop. Norbert himself had let go of one of the spines and was reaching for Splinter when something unexpected happened: as far as Norbert could tell, the dragon obeyed the pegasus knight's plea.

Suddenly, the dragon's wings beat forward, jerking said dragon to a hard stop. Norbert was caught entirely off-guard and so the hand holding onto Schwartz's spine tightened as he himself slid around it in a half-circle. His free hand reached for another spine to pull himself back with, but before he could, clawed, scaly fingers gripped him and tore him from the dragon's shoulder. There, he found himself face to face with the dark dragon and though his own expression remained defiant, there were clear traces of large quantities of worry and mild hints of surprise. Uh-oh.

[Toogee]

Wilhelm collapsed.

It was clear that Greta needed more attention from Alphonse than Jam did, so the dancer left the two to see if she could help elsewhere. She had just noticed that Wilhelm fell over; perhaps he didn't escape unscathed after all. She ran over and knelt down to his fallen body.

"You're still a big dumb graverobbing oaf, but you're our oaf," Jam said to Wilhelm. "Besides, you faced that dragon so we could escape, so I guess I better help you out." Jam wasn't sure the warrior could hear her; she might have preferred that he didn't in fact. Still she waved her hand into the air to get the attention of one of the healers.

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"Ah, someone needs help," Eli said as Jam waved him over. The rider urged his pegasus forward to Wilhelm, effectively taking Tia with him. He raised his staff, emitting the healing magic that would hopefully put the warrior back in commission.

[ReformBlade]

"Um..." Mushirah started half-heartedly, "I can certainly try but I'm not sure how much I'd be of service. I'm admittedly still learning my trade, and I'm not sure how much I can do with it." She shifted her posture slightly as she spoke, wanting to help out but not sure how much she could really do.

[Parrhesia]

Wilhelm pushed himself off the ground with difficulty. "iiiiiiiif hyou still have t' taunt me at a time l-like thisss... don't need ... from hhhyou..."

[Snowy_One]

"Erm... You should... probably rest there mister. It's okay. Eli here has a staff, the bad dragon is gone, and Zach already passed out. You'll be safe." said Tia, trying her best to smile. In truth, she felt rotten for taking it so lightly. She was certain that the man was horrifically shaken and barely holding himself together, but... She didn't know if a smiling or solum face was called for here. She could push aside her own feelings, but she didn't know bedside manner in the slightest.

"Eli. I can give him some stimulant-water to bolster him if you can use your staff to heal him. I also offer my seat on your pegasus to him if it will help."

[Parrhesia]

"Fffhuuck offf...."

[-Cynthia-]

Dauntless

"That would be flatterin', but maybe a little creepy if ya followed me all the way here," Nadya said to Haythem, smiling. "Uh, how'd ya lose track of your wyvern? She's kinda big to misplace," she commented.

Connor cringed as Chip shot towards Ayano, but he missed...luckily he supposed. "Uh, you're really supposed to pay for merchandise before taking it, I don't think Raquel just lets people take stuff for free," he said at Ayano. He didn't really know what he was going to do to stop her, but he figured he should at least make a protest.

Not Dauntless

Apparently Bert had lost his pegasus- this wasn't a good sign. Veronika bit her lip as she decided what to do.

"We should probably have one of other fliers look for him- instruct them to stay out of danger though. Losing two people would be an even bigger problem than just one," she said to the people around her.

[Phoenix]

Try Me

"Hah, I wonder what sounds you'll make when I squeeze you like a toy," Schwartz mocked. "Wait ... you're that loud mouthed little whelp. I didn't know they made ursians that crazed anymore." As gravity began to pull them down, Schwartz angled himself downward to swoop down and regain some speed. The last pegasus knights had gained quite a bit of distance, but they weren't home free yet. Ursaea was at the base of the northwestern tip of the mountain, and they were getting fairly close to it. "The ride's almost over, you little pest. I'll deliver the message myself. There's no excuse for shoddy defenses after that unless they're just overconfident."

Bert was carried by hand, and the clinging knight was dragged, at exceedingly high speed toward the city. They were traveling down the mountainside barely missing the treetops as they made their approach. Schwartz was slowly gaining on the last pegasus knights, but by this point, the city lookouts could see Schwartz clear as day approaching from almost a mile off.

Returning

"I'm glad it wasn't ... though I really wish the circumstances had been better. I was just getting to know Greta and her family and now this," Amon replied as they carried Malik eastward.

"Life really is inconvenient like that," Fizza offhandedly interjected while holding onto Angelica.

What Do

Raquel's first choice was Eli since he was in plain view, but he was busy healing another injured person. Who else was there? Spotting Aneda, Raquel quickly said, "Aneda, we need you to find Bert! Rizen came back without him which can't be a good thing ..."

If Bert's on foot now and not dead, what good is sending a flier going to do? These trees are thick and you can hardly see anything from there air that's not out on the road. Then again, if there is a clearing, he might have run to it ... assuming he survived, which I'm really starting to doubt, Shadrak mused. Noticing that Mushirah was willing to help but wasn't sure how, he said, "Well we might as well start small then. We'll worry about the holes in the ground later. For now let's try to remove the smaller bits of debris.

"I'm going to get Grant and Synthia. If Mushirah can't move the bigger part of the wreck, then those two combined can just blast it clean out of the way," Reign chimed in before turning to leave. Though I highly doubt Mushirah can't handle this after knocking down a fortress door. "Still, leave the wreck alone for now unless you're searching it. Greta wants us to recover anything else that might be in there first." Even if they don't deal with the bulk of the debris, they can still help clear this road out faster. That just leaves the craters.

Invisible Ladies

"Stopping that dark spell drained the last of my power. Two tomes isn't even a fair trade for risking my life and protecting dozen others," she explained, a wind tome at the top of a stack of anima tomes disappearing as she did. "I'll give them back tomorrow. I don't want to inconvenience my master by dying a second time, so I want to remain hidden for now."

"No no, not at all. I mean ... well ... after what you told me in Sanctuary, I would have been more than happy to come and help you if the situation allowed. It seems like it might be too," Haythem explained a bit nervously. He didn't want to get into the specifics in front of everyone and so hoped she would recall their talk before. As for Isis ... "Well, once she was healed, the dragon came back and she flew to safety. In a place like this, she's invisible when she wants to be ...."

[Snike]

Blake accepted the boy's body and let the red-haired swordsman go console the boy's sister - her name was Greta - while the others began to move wreckage. Soon enough, Bert's pegasus returned- without her rider, though. That was just great, given their recent track record. The swordsman listened on as Veronika suggested that they send a flier to look for the mace wielder, and Raquel asked Aneda to go look for Norbert. That might not be a good idea, given what they were dealing with.

"Wait. A wyvern rider might be better off to search for Bert, as they're less likely to be targeted by the dragon," Blake suggested, still holding Greta's brother's body. "Either way, I would like to go along and carry some elixirs. He's going to need them- one way or another."

Edited July 8, 2013 by Snike

[Ether]

"You sure you're not gonna fall off? Now's not the time to get dainty with your grip, okay?" Angelica interjected... platforming with a passenger couldn't be that hard, right? She had done it before... though it was with a test dummy that was strapped on... so long as Fizza didn't get herself flung off it should all go down the same way... right?

[-Cynthia-]

Dauntless

:"Smart girl, the best way to deal with a dragon is to run and hide. Looks like ya got a little banged up though- what were ya doin' anyway?" Nadya asked Haythem, taking her staff in hand and getting closer as she inspected him.

"Well...all right as long as you bring it back," Connor conceded to Ayano. Not like I could stop her from taking our inventory if she really wanted it anyway...how is her cloaking so effective? he wondered to himself.

[Mercakete]

At first it sounded like he was going to get squeezed between those claws -- Norbert was very happy he had his armor at that moment -- but then the dragon seemed to recognize him. "You're darn right I am," was his simple reply to the dragon's recognition. It was probably not worth the dragon's time and they were hot on the pegasus knights' trail once more.

Again, the dragon spoke. Norbert didn't know what he meant by "delivering the message himself" and he wasn't entirely keen on finding out. In spite of that, he knew he would. And in spite of that, he began squirming in the dragon's claws, trying futilely to free himself. As they picked up speed, though, he stopped struggling and simply did his best to lock his gaze onto the city. Come on, come on...! Defend yourselves! I hope they're not just staring at the dragon in the distance...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Aye..." Gytha sighed. Her smile faded with the reminder of the circumstances.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her and her rider's name were being tossed around and Rizen's ears swiveled to match. Something was happening... The humans sounded upset. Did this mean her rider wasn't expected to just appear like before? This was worse than she'd hoped...

[Rothene]

What has become of the scouting party? Mireille wondered as she waited on the Dauntless. The Ursian knight was getting impatient waiting. Explosions happening in the distance did not help either.

***

Somewhere in Ursium(Not exactly at this exact moment)...

"You sure that is all you are having? Real soldiers eat meat at every chance they get. Builds muscles you know," said an old Kigenese man in lacquered armour and a headband covering one eye.

"Sorry for disappointing you for the hundredth time granduncle, I rather save space i my belly for sweets or cakes!" exclaimed a green robed mage of very slight build, "And I am no warrior. I am a mage, one who has to train in mind over body!"

"Bah, you're no mage. Go join the army who fend off Fallen everyday. See what those mages look like. Now those are mages. You're a sorry wuss of a grand nephew Ranyin. And that is what disappoints me," said the old man shaking his head, "and to top it off, you look more like those soft maidens found south of Kigen...erm, Sanctuary was it now?"

"Pfft. You've never been there but I have, and I tell you I do not look one bit like them," Ranyin countered indignantly, "First of all my skin is nowhere nearly as dark and I'm better dressed."

The old Kigenese man rubbed his chin briefly then bellowed, "Cursed be I, the great Itsuki Chasuka to be of old age without children and only this soft bellied grandnephew to carry the family name. A mage of such great intellect as to board a wrong ship at a port to end up in Ursium instead of home."

"The ship looked fast, I thought it would beat walking back overland!"

"This is what you get for being lazy!"

"And who's fault is it to be stuck in Ursium with no money and needing his grandnephew to take care of his expenses?"

Itsuki swallowed a spit he was about to release remembering he was in a foreign land in their establishments. "Disgraceful...anyway, we head to Europa after this."

"Europa. That brings back memories," Ranyin muttered as he leaned on his chair.

Edited July 6, 2013 by Rothene

[Afterglimmer]

"I see, that's good to hear," Maris answered as he approached Haythem. He seemed to have a good idea where his wyvern had gone and, going by his words, would probably return soon. He was about to ask about what they had planned to do about the wreckage when a loud gunshot echoed. Trying to pinpoint the sound, Maris scowled slightly. 'Wonder what that was about....' he thought as Haythem continued talking to the chaplain about something. He seemed to be having trouble getting his message across to her, but now was not the time to talk. "At any rate, something needs to be done about the wreckage back there..." Maris reminded Haythem as he pointed in the direction he came from, "Not to mention there's some wounded as well...".

[Phoenix]

Shooting the Messenger

The last pegasus knights could see people now, and they weren't just specs in the distance. This was it! Schwartz began charging up dark thunder spells, not one but two, a spell in each hand ...

And before he knew it, Bert was being shocked by a spell that was only just beginning to charge up. When Schwartz noticed, he refrained from laughing for a moment. "This is why I don't often get rescue missions, heheheh." He applied one last little jolt to the pegasus rider before aborting the spell in that hand and focusing all of the power into the other. He was just going to have to make due. "I said I'd let you whelps live, but as long as you're flying with me, it's going to be a little unpleasant ... and by 'a little', I mean a whole lot."

Finally ready to launch his final assault, Schwartz warped one last time to catch up to the pegasus knights and bit one right off of her mount while shocking the other and her mount to death. Having made such a long jump put them within clear view of everyone, not just the guards posted on the walls, but people in the streets and standing on balconies.

One man standing on one such balcony took one look at the approaching dragon and the blue fireworks and said, "Same crap, different day," and went inside expecting to hear screams and other such 'terror' soon enough.

Then the shooting started. Every guard with a sidearm or bow began firing up into the sky hoping to get in some kind of damage while they still could. Once the dragon was over the wall, nothing could protect the citizens but suicidal diversions. With the last of the pegasus knights dead or clinging helplessly to Schwartz's tail, he'd had his fun and could now focus on setting up his challenge and distraction ... once he dealt with all of these arrows and gunfire. At first he simply dove down and landed right below the city wall, which led to a sliding stop. He ended up slamming into the wall but braced enough to not be hurt.

Having gotten her only chance to survive this, the pegasus knight released the dragon's tail and fell a short ten feet to the ground. As Schwartz began scaling the wall, she ran toward the nearest gate as fast as she could. Schwartz was greeted by a sword to the nose when he peeked over the edge of wall and promptly bit the guard off of his feet and threw him over before perching up on the wall. With Bert still tightly clinched in his hand, he held the pegasus rider up just below shoulder height and chuckled. "I wonder why they stopped shooting."

"Release that man, you monster!" "Forget it, he's already dead! Just keep firing!" "Where are the slayers?!" "Just run away! That's a shadow dragon!" "We fight or we die!" So many voices, he wasn't sure which ones to laugh at, so speaking up, he said, "Relax, Ursaeans, I've already killed all of your locals that I care to today. I'm here to deliver a message from the empire ... ... and you will hear this message."

Since they had the opportunity, several different groups of soldiers began to try and get their ballistas set up and into place disguising their movements and tactics as best they could. The growing crowds near the wall were definitely making that easier, but the real challenge was going to be getting them trained on him and firing before he could warp away. There were others working on that as well, trying to get grappling hooks and other devices ready, but it was going to be a miracle if they managed to take this dragon down with no prior notice and with no civilians getting hurt. Still, those aiming to kill him moved with that hope firmly in mind.

Return of the Injured

"Well, let's get a move on. It's not going to make you look to useful if we don't make it back before those two," Fizza said to Angelica, implying how slow they were taking Malik back to the others. She was holding on tightly at that point.

By the time Malik's carriers had made it back with him, there was a new situation unfolding. Apparently Bert was missing; Rizen had returned without him. "Good grief," Amon said with a preceding sigh.

"That'll take longer, but he might think twice before shooting down a wyvern rider," Reign said with regard to Blake's amendment to the plan.

"Can't we just send both? This is a huge area and there's no guarantee the dragon's still out there anyway," Raquel chimed in.

"Yeah I guess," Reign conceded. Why did that idiot have to fly off after the dragon. We can warn them about Ursentius long before he actually gets there. Assuming they believe us in the first place, the military could forward the message in as little as a day. Maybe he just wanted to save that patrol ... though that's even less helpful since the more likely outcome is you dying along with them. "Since there aren't any volunteers, I'll head back and try to get one of our wyvern riders to go. Aneda, you should head out now but don't do anything reckless."

Loiterers

"You have my word," Ayano informed Connor. By that point she had moved around again, so each of her replies seemed to be coming from some other place inside the Dauntless. Chip hadn't the foggiest idea where to shoot when he reemerged with his cleaned and reloaded gun and so stood by wearily. She likely wouldn't say anything else since Chip was dead serious about putting a round into her and the Dauntless had suffered enough superficial damage.

Outside, Haythem was getting a welcome checkup. "Well you'd need mages to clear all that debris, and I don't know what you'd do about those ditches but this big contraption's definitely going to have trouble getting over them." To answer Nadya's question, he said, "What were we doing? You mean before Greta's wagon ran me over? Well ... Amon, me, Malik, and our new assassin friend, Fizza, were sent out to find yet another emblem piece. It's a little tricky when the only ones we know about for certain are Raquel's and that Sardis fellow's," Haythem explained. "Since Lady Aisha's not going to do something underhanded like going after Raquel's, that leaves Sardis as our lead."

"Well you're out of luck now. Raquel's piece and Sardis' got fused together by some Raquel look-aloike," Gabbie noted.

"Whaaat?! That was the whole reason we came to Ursium, to try and nab Sardis'! Err-and to help you out if the Goddess saw fitting, Nadya, heheh." Haythem tried to calm down, but this was some alarming news. "So we're out of leads then ... even if we got that emblem piece, Amon would just want to give it back to Raquel--not that there's anything wrong with that. I actually support that decision, myself, but it leaves us high and dry either way." Haythem sighed.

"Gone are the days when queens wanted not but jewelry and admiration," Gabbie teased poetically. Then, dropping to a flat disinterested tone, she ended with, "Now they want obscenely powerful artifacts and no questions asked."

"We know full well what Lady Aisha plans to do with the emblem," Haythem corrected.

[scorri]

"What about mages?" Lumi perked up having heard a call for mages. "I'm available if you need mages to do something. I'm assuming the dragon is gone, so I've no reason not to bring Star over there anymore, so I'm all free to help out."

[Afterglimmer]

"I guess I can help with that as well," Maris replied as he formed a small black sphere in his palm. "I happen to be skilled with magic myself; not to mention it will make the job quicker and easier," he continued, giving Haythem and the blue-haired woman a confident smile as he finished his statement.

[Mercakete]

As they got closer to the pegasus knights, something began to change in the air. It was familiar, but definitely not in a good way. "Gnn!" Norbert tightly closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, but the grunt escaped anyway. It was an electric current, but it wasn't entirely like what he'd felt before. This one was almost pushing him, not that he could quite place is finger on that given the claws wrapped around him. Apparently the dragon noticed and commented about rescue missions before sending another jolt at the pegasus rider. After the reflexive flinch, Norbert sent a glare up at the dragon. That was on purpose, you jerk.

Admittedly, things weren't quite as bad as they could have been. At least the dragon let up some and, quite frankly, he was still alive. The mass of energy gathered in Schwartz's other hand caught Norbert's notice fairly easily. Apparently, things weren't over for his victims yet. This was confirmed by the dragon himself along with a verbal jab essentially telling Norbert he really shouldn't have hitched a ride. Then they warped again.

Along with the deaths of the two pegasus knights, the warp brought to view quite a few people. We're in Ursaea now... This alone made Norbert a lot more uneasy. How many people will he kill here? There wasn't a lot of time to think about all this as suddenly the air was filled with gunfire and arrows. "Agh! Merz!" Norbert raised his arms defensively as he tried to shield his face. That plan didn't quite work the way he'd...well, it was more a reflex than a plan but the end result wasn't something he'd anticipated. The next thing he knew, they were diving again and then, as they slid to a stop, Norbert found himself sliding along the rough, gritty, rocky, dusty ground until the dragon came to a halt. That had not been pleasant and how his face was scratched up, even dustier than before and just plain stung. Then the dragon began climbing the wall, leaving Norbert rather bitter.

We couldn't land on the wall, could we? Of course not, the blasted lizard had to GRIND MY FACE FIRST. He knew that he really didn't have much of a right to complain about something like that given all the people Schwartz had killed, but it still irked him. Of course, the dragon killed yet another Ursian by the time he reached the top of the wall. Norbert hadn't noticed the cease-fire either until the dragon himself pointed it out. When he did, Bert's eyes shifted from the dragon to the Ursaeans.

As he listened to their various cries, the ones worried about him just made him embarrassed and frustrated. Sheesh... This plan backfired... The ones calling out to ignore him and just shoot the dragon because it was apparently too late for him anyway he both agreed with and was very annoyed by at the same time. Nice to know you care! he bitterly thought. He hadn't been expecting the dragon to actually talk to them, though, let alone say what he did. Again, Norbert's eyes returned to the dragon. He's...stopping his attack? Needless to say, Norbert was very interested in hearing what Schwartz was about to say, figuring it could be useful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gytha frowned as the situation began to obviate its self. "By Leviathan... What's that jack gotten himself inta now?" she sighed.

[Toogee]

Hearing Wilhelm's response to the treatment, Eli was fairly confident that he was at least stable. Tia wanted to help, but it seemed unnecessary given the warrior's attitude.

"I think he's OK to move himself," Eli replied. "He'll move when the wagon passes by."

The rider then turned to Jam. As one of the survivors, she'd probably seen enough of this place. Even though the others were preparing a search party for the peg knight Norbert, Eli felt that someone should keep to their main objective: tend to the survivors. He felt they would be far more comfortable at the Dauntless than staring at their own dead.

"Miss, I think you would be much safer at our camp. I can offer a ride-"

"I'll walk." Jam swiftly replied before turning back to Wilhelm. He clearly wasn't taking to her jabs as well as she hoped. Thinking about it, who would? Jam's own attempt to bolster her mood failed, so she let Wilhelm be. "Just...thanks," were her parting words as she walked behind Eli.

As the dancer followed Eli down the road, she took in the sights of the busy group. In particular, she saw an effort to start clearing the debris out of the road. That was what their efforts amounted to? A pile of shattered wood and bodies? She appreciated the new group's assistance and knew that it was necessary to clear the road. Jam just felt...uncomfortable about it.

As they traveled further up the road, Jam saw Shaun's body being carried around by the man that greeted them earlier, Blake. He was trying to contribute to the search party, but the dancer felt uneasy about Shaun's body being carried around like another piece of debris. Her caught on a large blanket, one of the many items scattered from Greta's wagon. Jam quickly took it into her hands and walked off the road. She walked swiftly towards Blake, paying no heed to the conversation he was having.

"Please," Jam said to Blake as she held the blanket up. "He needs to be covered."

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Eli stopped to let Jam take care of the boy, but his attention turned to Tia.

"I'll need to take her back to your wagon," Eli said to Tia, "You're free to stay here if you'd like, but I have a feeling the rest of the group is getting anxious about what happened here. They'll need to be updated."

[Ether]

"I guess you're right, huh?" Angelica noted, before unleashing her first burst of wind, which sent them straight into the air.

'I'll need some wiggle room, so I'll need to keep more altitude than normal...' She reasoned, as she reached one of the many rock faces in the area, and propelling herself off of that with her legs, along with a second burst of wind, sent the duo hurtling towards the makeshift camp and down the hill. It didn't take them very long to bypass Amon on the ground, but it wasn't really Angelica's concern at the moment... making sure the landing wasn't just a hard impact with the ground took precedence at the moment, with Angelica beginning to warp the wing about them so as to ease their descent.

Several slowing manoeuvres closer to the ground had the duo coming in upside down, which oddly enough was to plan. If they came in straight, the impact was likely to break something, but with her hands towards the ground, and a different angle, avoiding that sort of thing was far more feasible, and with the assistance of more precise and targeted wind manipulation, Angelica was able to bring herself and her passenger to a decent stop, with the sage flipping off her hands to manage a nice 10-point landing on her feet close by, Fizza still clinging to her.

'I stuck the landing... YES!' She noted jovially to herself, looking to see Amon and his entourage still a ways up the hill by the time they landed. Of course, it wasn't all peachy, as it seemed the dumbass pegasus rider had gotten himself missing, most likely killed, in action, and apparently these people had enough use of him that this was an issue.

"Hey, could I get a healer to take a look at her? She had a patch job, but the guy who was looking after her passed out in the middle and is on his way down." Angelica noted to the general vicinity, with regards to Fizza.

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya listened to Haythem carefully as she applied her healing staff to him. "I have a feelin' that there might be more than two pieces of this emblem- if Sardis or whoever could get godlike power from havin' all the pieces then ya think we would have noticed that by now," she theorized. "In any case, I suppose I'll need to get down there and fix up the wounded. We might wanna fill in some of these ditches so the Dauntless can move over 'em."

[Phoenix]

Salvage Site

Shadrak took in the sights again, noting that Reign had left for the Dauntless, Raquel was standing around, and some of the others were returning. Angelica arrived with a woman he'd never met before who looked half dead from where he was standing, and Amon and Gytha were hauling back another rexian as well, though they were significantly farther away when he first spotted them. Until they had arrived, Fizza took priority, so he made his way over to try and heal her wounds.

Raquel meanwhile looked at the wreckage. That could have been her old wagon, the one she was using before the Dauntless. It wasn't difficult to find blood on the scraps, either from the horses or Greta's father; there was no way to tell it all apart. That could have been her father, Sandrock and Riley. Just glad to have made it this far, right?

"... Hy ..." Hypnos? Why did this have to happen to Greta? It hurts to see things like this.

Then you should avert your eyes, Discovery. Your reality is a grim one, and you aren't ready to address this just yet.

When Shadrak arrived, he knelt down in front of Fizza as she sat down. It was obvious where the wound was, but the extent of the damage and the patch work was completely unknown to him. This was one of those rare complications in healing that Shadrak wasn't properly prepared for. "Can you lift your shirt up just a little bit for me, please? I need to get a better look at the wound."

"LIsten ... I can tell you're a little new at this sort of thing, so I'm going to make it easier on you, but you have to stay calm," Fizza said to him with a dead serious gaze. "Do not panic." With that out of the way, she began to lift up her shirt until her midriff was fully exposed. Some parts of the large cut were healed, some weren't, but the bleeding had stopped. Now, for the sake of a full and proper healing, and prayerfully a quick one, she set out to undo some of the work. Taking out a small knife while Shadrak gawked at the unevenly treated wound, she began to make incisions over the healed areas, bearing the pain with little more than a grimace.

"What are you-! ..." Now he realized why she warned him not to panic. If she was still bleeding from the initial wound, this would have been tantamount to suicide, but when she reopened the partially healed areas, the bleeding wasn't as severe as he feared. There was time to fix this, and with the wound reopened, he could see all the areas he had to address and quickly got to work. Before long he had closed the entire wound and treated all of her internal injuries. He sighed in relief and wiped his brow saying, "I'm sorry about the scar ... but you're definitely going to be okay, now."

Fizza fell onto her back and replied, "Thanks. I'm going to take a short nap now okay?" Before doing this, she unlocked her wrist blades. Once that was done, she closed her eyes and dozed off with her arms sprawled out and her right leg propped up like an arch.

"Okay, time to help that other guy," Shadrak decided. To Angelica, he finished with, "Thanks for bringing her here. Enough people have died today ..."

Dauntless Debrief

"Oh we're certain there's more than just two," Haythem nodded in agreement.

"Lilith has one," Gabbie quietly noted, wondering if anyone remembered.

"The trouble is that Sardis guy was our only lead on an emblem piece that didn't belong to Raquel. We're trying to handle this without antagonizing her, but the only other piece we know about was with him."

"Lilith has one. Just take hers. You won't be antagonizing, Raquel, I assure you," Gabbie added, almost chuckling at the last part.

"I dare not even think to cross that woman," Haythem said, shaking his head adamantly. Deciding to address the volunteers and Nadya's healing comment, he said, "Well guys, I'm not really in charge of the debris moving operation up there so, I'd say go if you want to. They may need all the help they can get at this point. I still need to find Isis," Haythem informed the group. "Those ditches are going to be a problem though. Do you people keep any shovels on hand?"

Gabbie smirked, saying, "'What's a shovel?' Anyway, I koinda want to see this wanton destruction for myself, so I'm gonna head up there too." Seems safe enough for Connor down here.

Ursian Ultimatum

"People of Ursaea, citizens of Ursium, hear me now. Your government can't protect you from what's coming. This will not play out as it always has in times past. The new millennium is almost upon us, and with that comes change. This is the final war between Ursium and Neviskotia. We will not fall back, we will not retreat, and we will never surrender. You will either cast down your corrupt teachings and join us, or we will burn your cities until this entire kingdom ... lies in ruins."

The men were still trying to prepare for the attack, but the speech itself was starting to worry some of the more strategically minded among them. This wasn't the sort of skotian propaganda they were used to hearing.

"As a demonstration of the futility of your struggle, I will strike at the heart of Ursium within the week. I will scar Ursentius and its people. Nothing you try will stop me. Warn them of my impending attack, or blame yourselves when nothing but civilians are slaughtered. In either case, your nation will be grieving for a long time to come when this is all said and done ..."

Finally with the men in position, they made their move, several flanking the dragon after leaping from the shadows of the guard towers. As ballistas were rolled out into place and quickly positioned, the ambushing forces threw grappling hooks at Schwartz, managing to restrain his tail, wings, and his one free paw.

"That's not going to stop me. You're forgetting the mages," Schwartz noted. Then looking down to Bert, he said, "Well it looks like the fun's over, but I'll let you live ... I did make a deal with you after all, heheheh." That was worded ... somewhat suspiciously, and Schwartz's attackers took note. "Welp, have fun being interrogated." It figured Schwartz had intentionally said it that way. Without leaving room for much of a reply, Schwartz chucked Bert away like an old doll and the already injured pegasus knight crashed into a market stand of tomatoes a few stories below the wall. "Bullseye! Hahahahahah!" The ballistas were fired as soon as they were ready, but Schwartz vanished. This is why they needed more mages.

Several people crowded around the downed pegasus rider not sure what to make of him. Some were wondering about what the dragon had said, others wondered if he was even still alive. Many were merely amazed by the spectacular crash and gawking at him. The stand owner was in tears but not for Bert's sake. Her tomatoes as well as her selling stand were more or less ruined.

Edited July 7, 2013 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya snorted at the concept of anyone trying to take the emblem piece from Lilith. "Yeah I wouldn't suggest tryin' to take an emblem piece from a vasilus, unless ya want to end up like that captain of yours. The one who was kind of an asshole," she said, forgetting the man's name.

"As for the ditches, I don't think Raquel keeps shovels on hand, although she probably should. Ya could probably use ice magic to fill them, although the Dauntless might crack the ice then. Could use earth magic or wind magic to fill the holes with dirt I think- not exactly my area of expertise, but I remember one of the magic users in the clan doin' somethin' like that once." she remarked.

[Mercakete]

When Schwartz made his claims, Norbert mentally waved it off as simply a terror tactic. He's just trying to scare us. Neviskotia's gotten this far, but attacking the capital won't be the end of Ursium. He also couldn't help but feel his irritation rise as he crossed his arms and strummed his fingers. I told them to warn Ursentius, but they just had to stick around and get killed off. That'll show them for blowing me off like that. He also noticed that the dragon had specifically said "when nothing but civilians are slaughtered." That at least meant that Neviskotia wasn't planning on attacking those who couldn't defend themselves. Unless you count all those people on the road.

That was when several grappling hooks were tossed and latched onto the dragon. Though he was also at risk, Norbert sneered at this tactic. That's right -- bring him down! The dragon remained confident, though, noting a severe lack in magical backup. After that, the dark dragon began talking to him again. Apparently they were parting ways now as "the fun was over." He wasn't going to kill him, though. That was where the good news ended. "I did make a deal with you after all" was how the dragon put it, along with some chuckling.

Norbert's eyes widened. That wording didn't bode well at all! Even before that last quip about being interrogated, Norbert knew that was on purpose. His red glare seared at the dragon, but before he could say anything, the dragon sent him speeding through the air. He barely had time to cry out before splatting and crashing into a tomato stand. Anything that happened after that went unnoticed by Norbert, who had been knocked out by the impact not of colliding with tomatoes, but with colliding with the wood below the tomatoes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rizen was getting antsier by the second, having returned to braying, snorting, shuffling her wings and walking only a couple steps in one direction before turning into near the exact opposite direction and repeating the process. The humans seemed worried about her rider so maybe he really wasn't going to appear like before. This was bad. This was very bad. She had to find him before he got himself killed! Where could he be? Was that giant predator still around? If it was, there wasn't much she could do. Oh this was just awful...

"That doesn't look normal. Is it sick or somethin'?" Gytha wondered aloud about Rizen as she and Amon continued to carry down Malik.

[ReformBlade]

Well crap... "Yeah I'm on it, and no I'm not gonna do anything reckless in the first place." Don't need to treat me like a child, but whatever gets the job done I guess. She thought before urging Hannah off towards Norbert. Hope he's not trying to be a hero through and through...

In the meantime, looking at the horrible mess the dragon left, Mushirah tried to figure out how best to use her gifts for the greater good. "So much wreckage" she mumbled, noting the obvious destruction and gore around her. If she ever had to look back and point to a specific instance of when she became desensitized, it'd probably be the first few weeks with this group, and boy oh boy she wasn't expecting it to change any time soon.

Edited July 7, 2013 by ReformBlade