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"both of you aren't exactly fighters."

Toby abruptly spit out dust as Ise finished speaking. "I'm a fighter! I just don't have my weapon is all," He declared and turned his head as far as possible, trying to lock eyes with Ise, his hair dangled helplessly over his eyes. "I bet that witch has probably got some neat-o trinkets we could snag, maybe a crossbow that shoots like, snakes or something huh?" Turning his head back towards the wall, newfound confidence enveloped Toby. If he could just find a weapon to call his own he'd show Ise how capable and strong he is.

"I don't want any of you two to get hurt."

[i]"Oh"[/i] So maybe Ise didn't think they were weak, maybe she just wanted to make sure he and Ran were safe. The thought was comforting but no matter, he'd show his might sooner or later. "Well, we don't want you to get hurt either." Toby's stomach began to rumble once more, he tightened his awkward grip on the knife and wasn't sure how the others were doing food wise. He was positive Ran was probably hungry. They usually ate together and Ran didn't seem the type to be selfish with his food. Or maybe he was, maybe it was a dirty secret of his. Toby's eyes squinted at the thought of him having a full belly right now, but now wasn't the time for such accusations. His head shot up as more noises could be heard from above. "Maybe the old witch ladies ugly grandchildren are coming to visit. It's so loud because she's making them fat so she can eat them and stuff." Toby lowered his head in thought, "I wonder if she feeds them humans," he murmured. 

"Okay, okay, we can do this. Say, if we live through this...I'll take you both to a buffet in the city, kay? It'll be my treat."

“Buffet? Gosh Ise! You sure know how to cheer people up.” 

Toby's eyes went wide as a smile overcame his face. He could feel his taste buds jumping for joy at the thought of food. He tried his best to shoot Niran a glance, "Ran! Remember that snack we ate at that hotel place?! I can still remember the recipe, its, its, uh, I think we need apples!" He turned his awkward glance to Ise, "Ise! Is there like an apple dragon or something that ca-[i]EEK[/i]" Toby shrieked as the entire room was suddenly engulfed in darkness. He forced his mouth shut to prevent anymore screaming, his grip on the blade was lost and simultaneously his heart dropped to it's stomach. This is exactly what he didn't want to happen. He couldn't see anything, anything at all, for some reason he thought the walls were shrinking, sooner or later they'd crush them all. He knew they weren't but he believed they were, it was an awful feeling. It felt like they were locked in a box. 

“… Ise… I think the knife is somewhere between the two of us. Erm… Let’s focus? We are almost free.”

"Hey, hold still you two."

Toby shook incessantly, his cheeks grew red beneath the darkness as he refused to open his mouth. “Dang Ise! Don’t need to be so fierce. We should be happy Toby has so much energy even though we are starving. I mean literally! The witch wasn’t even nice enough to give us stale bread.” Hearing Ran say his name was comforting and he let out a huge sigh of relief, but the moment of comfort was very brief. "Bread is good!" he shouted, it was difficult to make out the odd sound of his relentless panicking. "Also uh, I just realized the sun is my friend," Toby shut his eyes, if he couldn't see it was going to be on his own terms. He began to mumble Ran's Japanese song profusely in a rasped tempo and without much effort, it sounded like a prayer more than a melody at this point. His brain was occupied by anything and everything that produced light. A fridge, television, cellphone, alarm clocks, kids sneakers, Headlights, kitchen lights, night lights, [i]light light light![/i]

"I have the knife, don't worry." Thank god. Thank buddha. Thank whatever monks worshipped. Thank the sun. Toby was very grateful Ise had the knife, he suddenly felt like less of a fighter at this point. "Okay, I think we'll be able to snap it. You two, at the count of three, tug on the rope." The thought of freedom calmed Toby down. He prepared to tug harder than he had ever tugged before. Even though he hadn't eaten he could feel himself becoming more and more sick as time passed, the basement was filthy and looked like a maids worse nightmare. He cursed the witch for not investing in a cage, or even a dungeon. Nobody is going to judge an old hag for having standards. It was weird he had reached a point in his life where a dungeon sounded like bliss. Brushing off the thought Toby placed all of his focus and attention on tugging the rope. Reluctantly his eyes opened, darkness still held the trio hostage. "I'm ready,"

"One, two, three!" 

With all of his might Toby tugged on the rope and refused to stop until he was out of it's grasp, even so he grew hopeless with each attempt. On the fourth try however, the rope snapped and the three were free. Well, almost free. For a moment Toby sat in disbelief that the rope had actually snapped, he immediately brought his hands up to his face and rubbed his skin, laughing happily as he did so, as if he never felt the touch of his own hands before. Jumping to his feet he practically threw himself into Ran's chest. "We're going to [i]live![/i]" he shouted happily, he didn't doubt their survival but it felt like the appropriate thing to say at the moment. "Good job you two! Maybe you have what it takes to be a rider after all." Toby chuckled in delight at Ise's remark, he felt like a fighter once more. Until the room totally began shaking and caving in. "We're going to [i]die![/i]" He jumped into Ran's chest once more, this time out of fear rather than joy. 

The sound of Ise's commanding tone snapped Toby out of his fear. Quickly he sprinted towards the sound her voice, following her towards the dragons. He tripped twice and practically plowed into the wall, frantically feeling for the chains. "Cellery, we don't have the keys." Great. No keys. All the witch used on the humans was rope, why not the dragons? Toby leaned down in dismay and placed his head on Citrus's, petting the dragon. It probably calmed him down more than the dragon itself. "We're not leaving without you buddy," The sound of debris falling to the ground was enough to make anybody panic, but as badly as the boy wanted to get out of the filthy and suddenly deadly basement, he wasn't about to leave the baby dragons here to die. Thankfully Ise no doubt felt the same way and there was no need to argue over the matter. This newfound determination distracted Toby from his claustrophobia, he hugged the cloud dragon tightly at the sound of a lightbulb smashing. "This is kinda scary huh?" even though he spoke in a lighthearted tone the boy's heart was ready to burst out of his chest. Toby was shaking as he continued to pet the cloud dragon, he wasn't sure if the dragon knew his calm behavior was an act. Either way it kept him from freaking out. 

"Toby pull off their muzzles," Quickly the boy carried out Ise's command and removed the dragons muzzles as gently as possible and stood in darkness for a brief moment, listening to the sound of barrels colliding and the hut shaking. He made sure to keep his hand placed on the wall so the darkness wouldn't throw off his sense of direction. Toby moved away from the dragons chains as Ise approached them, he could just make out her figure and watched as she lifted an axe above her head, breaking the dragons binds. Dust suddenly blinded Toby and the sound of debris and destruction could be heard above him, almost instinctively he threw himself onto the Citrus and shut his eyes, bracing for some type of impact, but there was nothing. Toby opened his eyes at the sight of Citrus, who seemed to be straining himself. He turned around and looked above, watching as what remained of the roof practically floated above them all. With a delighted laugh he looked back towards the cloud dragon, "Good job buddy!" 

Suddenly the room was illuminated by natural sunlight as the door had swung open, dust and debris could be seen floating in the air as the basement shook violently, it was moments from collapsing. Without hesitation Toby obeyed Ise's order and rushed up the stairs, without thinking he sprinted out of the hut and outside, falling to his knees on the precious ground. Once his coughing ceased Toby began breathing in the nice, cool air that surrounded them all, before letting out a triumphant sigh. The sunlight was as beautiful as ever. Happily he turned to meet Ise's eyes, this time face to face instead of the awkward angles they were accustomed to earlier. "We actually made it, Good job, you two." A big, dumb smile was all he could muster. Toby looked to see a charcoaled Niran laying in the mud and couldn't help laughing at the sight, he stood up and rushed towards him along with Ise, happily helping him to his feet. "So about about them apples huh? I'm sure there's somebody in Aven that can make us that snack, if we just describe it the right way err someth-"

"Ran, Toby, you found your batch." 

"Huh?" 

Toby turned around, his eyes lay where the hut once stood. He didn't think the place could look any uglier until now. Laying around the place were a number of bodies, none of which looked familiar. Curiously the boy stared at the sight before him, unsure what to make of it. It clicked that this was the first time he had seen any humans since the train, if you didn't count Ise and the people of Aven. Who are those people? "Um..." he mumbled "Are, they okay?" They could be sleeping, they could be knocked out, maybe a spell? Sleeping gas? There were so many possibilities, this world was magical. Maybe they're fake, and were put there to scare people away....but he didn't see those bodies before, when the which had captured them. So many possibilities. They couldn't just be dead. 

They couldn't be. 

Citrus approached Toby, circling him for a moment before facing the hut as well, whining at the sight of the deceased nobodies and humans. Toby placed his hand gently on the cloud dragons head. He felt...uncomfortable. Suddenly he could hear Ise shouting in the same tone she had used on Ran and Toby earlier. Both he and Citrus turned to see a number of people a few dozen yards away. 

"I recognize you, you're criminals!"

[i]"Criminals?"[/i] Were these the people that had been causing all the noise before? An eerie feeling engulfed Toby. Not only was there suddenly a buttload of people, or not even people, [i]criminals[/i] for that matter, there was also no sign of the witch. The boy somewhat sidestepped towards Niran, Citrus leaned back onto his hind legs, his ears perked as Toby spoke, "Should we help? Those people over there don't really uh, look so good, but that's alot of criminals. I think we can take them though. We have dragons." Citrus cocked his head to the side at the boy's remark, unsure how two baby dragons are capable of apprehending criminals. 

"I'm from Aven!" Toby was alarmed to see Ise point her blade towards the lawbreakers. What if they tried to fight back? They were kind of outnumbered, but again, they had dragons. For some reason that felt like it helped. "We'll be getting backup to help you soon! We have two humans with us as well, so just sit tight and we'll get you medical attention as soon as possible."

"She said two humans! Does that mean we're gonna fight?" Quickly Toby began to search the area with his eyes for a weapon, a fighter needs a weapon after all. Chunks of earth surrounded the area for reasons unbeknownst to him. Maybe his earthquake theory was correct. Citrus began to crawl around the area as well, sniffing the floor for a clue even though he wasn't entirely sure what the human was looking for. 

Toby was relieved that the lawbreakers had yet to attack Ise, maybe they weren't fighters? They looked like thieves, if anything. He watched as one of the criminals pulled a toy from his bag and rolled it towards everybody. The boy watched curiously as suddenly the entire area was engulfed in a smelly fog. "Grenade!" Toby shouted, or tried to shout as he began coughing immediately. He had barely escaped a filthy basement and entered the fresh air only to have these thieves poison their precious oxygen. They were criminals indeed. "Combat stance!" Toby yelled amongst the fog with a determined face as he took a defensive posture, looking around the area frantically for danger. Citrus also held a defensive stance beside him, the two were ready to fight. However, the smoke eventually cleared, the criminals were nowhere to be found. Toby remained postured, his hair covering his eyes. There didn't seem to be anymore danger, so he stood up straight, and was finally able to brush the hair out of his face.