The statuary inside the frigid tower gave Rilana a feeling of dreadful unease. The tall woman weaved wordlessly through the seemingly randomly placed figures, her lips pressed into a grim line as she eyed the clothing and weaponry that bespoke of Frigmount styles and fashions. It was impossible for her to not recognize them, even though the colours were all washed out and muted by the ice they were made of. Even the features on some of the faces looked eerily familiar, and if the Moon Fey wasn't already frightfully cold, a terrible suspicion crept icily down her spine.

[color=00aeef]"I...I think these people used to be alive... They're too real."[/color] Part of her didn't want to believe that these creatures had been frozen alive, but it was difficult to reason her way out of, especially when she looked into their eyes. And the very thought stirred a cold anger within her.

The Scream Raptor outside let out an agonized shriek, the sound unlike any of the frostfell animals Rilana was used to, though it was somewhat similar to the noises Ortha made. 

[i][color=fff200]Sounds like the lizard will be joining the exhibit,[/color][/i] Kona predicted morbidly as Rilana spun on her heel and hurried outside to help Chartrose with his own Familiar. Tricia looked bad. Even before the unnatural ice began to creep along her pebbly skin, Rilana could see the signs of frostbite and hypothermia. Her colour was washed out, her extremities dark and unmoving.

[color=00aeef][i]I should have forced him to leave her behind in Stone Crest![/i][/color] she chided herself as she tried to comfort the beast while avoiding her sharp incisors at the same time.

[i][color=fff200]Yes,[/color][/i] Kona agreed. [i][color=fff200]You shouldn't second-guess yourself when it comes to standing up for what is right. [/color][/i]

[color=00aeef][i]If I had done it then, Chartrose might have found the way to Mark her then instead of now when she's in so much pain and time is short. I'm not even sure if Marking her now will save her.[/i][/color]

Stooping next to Chartrose, Rilana helped move the huge heavy reptile into the shelter of the Tower, calling for blankets and rummaging in her pack for extra furs to wrap tight around the raptor's legs so that her blood would be forced towards her heart where it would stay warm. But as the white crust of rime swept over Tricia's body, Rilana's heart sank. No amount of fur and heat could compete with magical cold.

[color=00aeef]"Chartrose..."[/color] the beautiful Moon Fey was at a loss for words. She had already voiced her fears to the huge charr mercenary and told him what she thought he must do. Her tone was urgent, letting him know that now was the time to Mark his Familiar. Now or never.

When Chartrose requested time to be alone, Rilana turned and began shooing the others away. Either the leonine-faced man was about to have a special and literally magical moment with his companion, or he was going to watch helplessly as she slipped into death, and either way Rilana thought he deserved some privacy.

But apparently they weren't moving fast enough for the distraught charr because there was suddenly a keen spearpoint stabbing through the air in her direction. Shocked and a little offended, Rilana gave the pair a last look before turning to follow the others.

The Druid intended to follow Alya, but wasn't sure if she had gone upstairs or down. There was nothing in the ground floor of the tower to secure the rams and Bruin to other than the statues, and their uncanny realness (especially due to the looks of terror on many of their faces} prevented her from using them as hitching posts.

[i][color=fff200]The storm will keep them from leaving,[/color][/i] Kona reassured her.

[i][color=00aeef]It's not what's out there that worries me.[/color][/i]

But she could see no fringe or flake of supernatural frost clinging to the beasts and forced herself to believe that they would be alright. She was sorely tempted to Bond with Bruin right then and there, if only to protect him from danger. Now that she knew what it felt like, she could sense the horse's trust, the connection. But Bruin belonged to Ebonfort now and it would be wrong to Bond with someone else's creature, no matter how much she loved him.

[i][color=fff200]...someone else's.[/color][/i]

Her stomach hurt. Something warm rubbed against her legs and Rilana looked down to see Ortha's Vilemaw head staring up at her. The Firefang head was looking towards the stairs leading up, and the juvenile balauradon's tail twitched back and forth. The Moon Fey noted the glimmer of fell saliva brimming on the two-headed creature's lips and knew that she was responding to the grim predicament in which the party had found themselves. No longer terrified that Ortha was going to bite someone accidentally, Rilana hadn't made the creature wear her muzzle in long enough that the gray spot worn into her snout by the rough leather was nearly gone.

[i][color=fff200]She's getting bigger by the day. You don't notice because you see her so much.[/color][/i]

Rilana remembered the little satchel that Knight Togan had handed her all those weeks ago during the aftermath of the fated tournament and it seemed absurd that Ortha had ever fit in it. As she met the gruesome creature's gaze, Rilana explored the connection between them with her mind and discovered that not only could she see an expression of anticipation, expectation, in Ortha's fangy and horned face, she could [i]feel[/i] it.

[i][color=fff200]She's dumber than me. You have to concentrate harder to hear her thoughts.[/color][/i]

Rilana made an exasperated face at Kona's rudeness but didn't waste time chastising him for it. At the end of the day, Kona and Ortha were on the same team. 

[i][color=00aeef]I didn't realize I'd be able to hear them before she was Marked.[/color][/i]

[i][color=fff200]It's because you're getting better at this, of course. [/color][/i]

Crouching down, Rilana stroked her hand across Ortha's head, looking her firmly in the eye. [color=00aeef]"Go. Find Alya for me."[/color] She said it out loud, which seemed to add strength and specificity to the mental command. She pictured the pretty, dimunitive musician in her mind and projected it to her armour-plated Familiar.

With a purring sort of snarl, the balauradon took off, wicked claws scraping against the icy steps as she ascended. Rilana turned away just as Ortha's tail disappeared, but the Druid found that even as she took a different path down the stairs into the dark cavern, she still had a sense of exactly where Ortha was.

Rilana joined Svarak in the underground chamber, concentrating hard on watching where she stepped as well as the strange new sensation of keeping tabs on Ortha. It was like a daydream that wouldn't fade away, whispers of things the two-headed creature could hear, flashes of what she saw in her unique dual perception of the world. It made Rilana's head ache but she knew it would be useful when she could make sense of it all. Kona was mercifully quiet as Rilana reached the edge of the drop and looked down.

The Moon Fey's face registered absolutely nothing, as though she couldn't even see a blue-scaled snoozing dragon at the bottom of the hole. But in truth, a dragon seemed to be almost mundane after the last few weeks. It wasn't even attacking, though the Druid knew that could change. 

But then she remembered something and straightened up, reaching slowly into a pocket at the front of her vest until she came up with a single blue scale pinched between her fingers. She could feel its chill working down into her skin. For a creature supposedly immune to the cold, Rilana was finding herself quite sick of her own homeland all of a sudden.

[color=00aeef]"That Raven,"[/color] she groaned, trying to work out the how and the why and the when that bird could have possibly come up with a dragonscale to bring her. A dragonscale that matched this dragon quite suspiciously. 

[i][color=fff200]That bird is Trouble.[/color][/i]

She could almost hear the white raven's cackling voice in her ear, and the last thing she needed were more voices in her head!

It was about that time that there was a deep grinding crackle as the walls slid open and short but menacing creatures scurried out, lifting blade-like limbs threateningly, their eyes just as cold as the ice they had emerged from.

With no shield to defend herself, Rilana scurried backwards to avoid the icy shards that splintered into shrapnel when they hit the stoney ground. Pieces hit her clothing and stung where they struck her skin, and Rilana suspected that as the little creatures drew closer their projectiles would become far more than just an annoyance. 

[i][color=00aeef]Are they protecting the dragon?[/color][/i]

[i][color=fff200]Hard to imagine that it's giving them orders in its sleep.[/color][/i] 

[i][color=00aeef]Nor does it make a good guard dog if it's napping.[/color][/i]

[i][color=fff200]Why did the bird bring the scale?[/color][/i]

[color=00aeef][i]I don't know! I don't even know if it's from this dragon![/i][/color]

Kona's silence spoke volumes. Rilana stood still and her fists clenched as she collected the magical power within her and focused it on Kona. The Mark on her back began to itch, and then it felt warm as though something soft and furry was caressing her skin. 

Behind her, the air thickened with a whitish mist that coalesced and grew into a huge winged shape, the white, leopard-spotted gryphon suddenly appearing behind his Mistress, tail lashing back and forth behind him. His ear tufts twitched and he leaned into a long, lazy stretch, retractable claws kneading at the ground as his black beak gave a yawn. 

[i][color=fff200]It's good to be back,[/color][/i] he chuckled mentally, still speaking into Rilana's mind as he came up beside her and looked at her out of one yellow eye.

[color=00aeef]"Good, because we have work to do."[/color]

[color=fff200][i]Waking up a dragon?[/i][/color]

[color=00aeef]"I know it sounds crazy, but yes."[/color]

He didn't have lips, but Kona still grinned.

Rilana climbed up on Kona's back, gripping his furry shoulders behind his wings with her legs as she twisted around to pull her longbow from where it was strapped to the outside of her pack.

[color=00aeef]"You're bigger,"[/color] the Druid said flatly.

Rilana wasn't the best shot, more used to sniping and hunting things that didn't know she was there, but she began to take shots at those closest to the edge of the hole to try to knock one in and see what happened. It was a task, keeping her torso straight and still enough to command the pale bow even as her abdomen had to roll with the motions of the beast under her. Kona kept an eye on the ice-archers, strafing back and forth to avoid being hit, growling in low tones. Rilana and her gryphon were hardly the cavalry and did their best to stay well away from the creatures. The giant feline-raptor let out an angry piercing shriek as he faced the elementals.

Unable to help it, the Moon Fey kept Svarak in the corner of her eye, watching with a grim sort of satisfaction as his null shard blade cleaved through the milling ranks of the short creatures like a scythe through a field of wheat. She liked nothing about any of this, but she did like watching the Lord Knight.