[IC] [Ebonfort] Out of the Pan

[Drache]

Starting Date and Time: Jedayan 24th, 300DM, morning

Starting Location: Kerawac Valley

CS URLs: Drachiathoryx and GM

The random musical symphony of cricket-song in the grass of the valley slowly faded. When the sun rose the orchestra would be comprised of the buzzing drone of cicadas instead, but as the sky lightened to pink and then orange as the somewhat muted winter sun crested the distant horizon, there was a brief time of quiet.

It wasn't precisely the lack of noise that stirred the red-scaled beauty from her slumber, but more specifically the lack of background sounds that threw things closer at claw into sharper focus. Her nostrils twitched and her wings shifted slightly, but before she opened her eyes she knew that the fire outside the thin canvas of her tent had gone out. Not just by the smell of charcoals, but by the feel of the thing. The coals smoldered, but the hot hungry flicker was gone.

Eventually, she opened her eyes and glanced down her snout to the swath of ebon skin near her face. The morning light through the tent flap made Sirik's flesh nearly purple in hue, and Drachiathoryx couldn't help but consider that the colour of the Drow was a thing not meant to be seen under the bright light of the sun.

The drow was breathing softly in sleep, his lean but athletic torso bare, white hair tousled around his face. Drache realized that her tail was coiled loosely around his leg under a tangle of a quilted linen blanket. They had ended up in his tent this time, and the half-dragon's pupils widened and contracted as she glanced around at his belongings before leaning down, her face hovering inches from his.

There was a long pause in which Drache grinned slowly and Sirik did nothing but breathe.

"You know..." the dragoness purred softly, running her fingertips up his side, "I'd be completely fooled into thinking you were still asleep if I couldn't feel your pulse quicken."

His charade spoiled, the drow opened his violet eyes and gazed up, his expression a mix of annoyance and sheepishness. He lifted his hand and made the Drow sign for "Habit" and shrugged a little, his only attempt at an explanation.

Drache lifted herself up from their shared bedroll and slid one of her curvaceous legs over Sirik's hips and straddled him. She was practically naked, wearing little more than some jewelry and a necklace of fossilized ammonites and trilobites she and Laurel had picked up out of a dry creekbed the day before. They clicked stonily together and settled against Drache's generous and bare torso, swinging forward when she leaned down to lay flat on top of him, her chin propped up in her palm.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you wanted me to leave." She affected a false pout that Sirik saw right through.

"Good thing you know better," he replied, his palms running up her scaled thighs. Like most male drow he was smaller than the average woman, and even smaller than the shapely dragoness, but he didn't seem to mind.

The half-dragon growled salaciously and leaned down to nibble along Sirik's jaw until she could seize his lips, earning a groan or two for her efforts. The closeness and the heat was delicious, but both of them knew it was as fleeting as the dew on the grass just outside and would disappear just as quickly.

"I think we have some time before the others come to drag us out, don't you?" Her tone dripped with suggestion and she writhed a little. Sirik just grinned.

--

An hour or so later, Drachiathoryx and Laurel stood across from each other with the campfire between them, the rekindled blaze bright even in the daylight as the two Firespinners tried to control the flames. Drache had finally dressed in her traveling clothes, her pack sitting in the grass near Sirik's boots as the drow looked on with waning interest. Kraven stood well back, not wanting to be anywhere near the two non-human ladies and their pyromaniacal shenanigans.

Drache was testing her strength against Laurel's, not only controlling the blaze itself but trying to keep it away from the Alufiend. Between them, they had managed to twist it into fantastical shapes and strange colours, changing it until it fizzed white with sparks or boiled low and blue close to the ground. Fire was always special to the half-Ixen, but even Drache was finding out just how variable fire could be.

The hybrid looked fierce as she worked her magic, her clawed fingers curved and tight as though waiting to lash out against something physical, her wings partly-spread behind her, tail weaving slowly back and forth, reptilian face scowling and intent. Drache could feel it when her own strength waned. Laurel obviously had more practice than she did, and finally called it off.

"Tscha! That's enough. I feel I've flown a whole day and we haven't even gotten started this morning! Thanks for spinning with me, Laurel." She actually tried her sentence a couple of times, practicing Kvaren, though she got just about every word wrong.

The elementalists let the campfire die and started off together with Sirik and Kraven for the day's adventure.

[Twhirtley]

The group traveled along, jovial and carefree as only they could be, the crisp air blowing quickly over the tall grasses. Sirik was running point, his watchful eyes always looking out for the many dangers of the grasslands. Kraven pulled up the tail of the group, constantly checking around the back of him. Laurel stuck close with Drache as she always seemed to do, as a small copse of trees, leaves fallen appeared ahead. It wasn't terribly unusual, usually indicated a strong water source nearby, likely underground. Sirik, of course, steered them toward it.

He raised a fist, indicating for them to stop, while he slipped into the copse, checking it out. Once he felt it was safe, a trio of bird whistles rang out, and they knew they could head in. Shortly after Laurel and Drache crossed the threshold, they would both hear a heart wrenching scream, one that went unnoticed by Sirik and Kraven. The scream was scared, in pain, desperate. If either of the women focused on it, they could feel a fire coming from below the copse, a fading flame, weak and dying.

Laurel seemed particularly affected by it, having dropped to her knees now, scrambling at the ground like a mad woman, muttering, "Oh no, oh no, oh no, we'll find you, hold on." Kraven stared at this display with a curious, confused look on his face, while Sirik was listening, but still busy exploring the copse. There were mostly trees about, but near the center were several large boulders, worn from the weather, stacked in a horseshoe. The ground in the middle of the stones seemed slightly depressed compared to the surrounding earth.

[Drache]

Moving across the infinite-seeming prairie as part of a group was a novel experience for the lusty dragoness. There had been few opportunities in her life to exist as a part of a team. She didn't even belong to a proper race, nor had she ever had anything resembling a family. Solitude was her birthright, though she had discovered long ago that solitude did not necessarily mean isolation.

Watching for Sirik's hand signals had become a fun game. So far, nothing serious had threatened them on their journey across the windy plains, and Drachiathoryx enjoyed putting her senses to use listening and watching and slinking throught the grass to come up behind Laurel or Kraven and pounce her, though her brilliant red colouration gave her away more than once, and she was almost never able to sneak up on the drow even if she could keep her heat signature out of his line of sight.

So when the gut-chilling wail shivered its way along her wing-bones, Drache felt a hot surge of adrenaline streak like lightning through her body. Dropping into a half-crouch as her ear-frills flattened against her head, her cheerful expression twisting into a feral, silent grimace of bared teeth that would not have looked out of place on a scream raptor. Her tail lashed nervously and she looked around with a jerky, reptilian motion, trying to find the source of the sound.

The sensation of something flickering and hot beneath the ground at her talons reminded her of the numerous rivers of lava that ran beneath Pyresia, but she had been practicing enough with her Firespinning that she knew that it wasn't molten rock she was feeling. A chest-tightening burn rose in her throat and when she turned to Laurel and spoke there was a plume of smoke on her voice.

"Laurel? What are you...?" The Alufiend was scrabbling at the dirt and muttering. Drache bent over to pull her hands away firmly. "Laurel, my sweet. Stop that. You'll hurt yourself. What's wrong?"

Her new friend's behaviour confirmed for Drache that somehow, the piteous cry had come from beneath them where she could feel the dying flames. If Laurel would let her, she pulled the other woman against her and stood up, glancing back at Kraven, who was closer to them than Sirik.

"Did you hear that? A scream?" When it turned out that he hadn't, Drache scowled, tail swishing thoughtfully. "Keep and eye out, then. We heard something. Sirik, something's wrong. You didn't hear anything?"

Doubting herself didn't even occur to the half-breed, though she was surprised at herself by how much seeing Laurel upset had affected her. "There's someone below us, someone who might be in trouble. In a tunnel maybe, or a cavern. Sirik, would you look at those rocks? If I was going to put an entrance to the underground in the middle of a meadow I'd protect it with rocks too." Sending the drow to look for a subterranean entrance seemed logical to her.

She tried to not sound like she was ordering them around, unsure about how the two men would react to being instructed, in spite of how willing they'd been to share her tent at night. At the end of the day, they weren't her people. She had no people.

"Laurel, it's alright, I felt it too. Come on. If our lovely gentlemen didn't hear it we were either in exactly the right spot at the right time or this has something to do with Firespinning." She tried to not let it show on account of how upset Laurel seemed to be, but couldn't wait to find out which, and hoped that her own optimism might rub off on the Alufiend.

The half-dragon moved towards the stones, hoping they would find something that would lead them downwards without having to break out the hand-shovel from her tomb-raiding kit.

[Twhirtley]

Laurel was shivering violently as Drache pulled her away. The small woman sought comfort against the dragoness, still muttering, "We have to find her, we need to find her, we have to find her..." Sirik heard the question directed at him, and silently shook his head. He'd heard nothing. When she gave out her suggestion, he simply nodded.

He moved over to the rocks, inspecting them with his trained tracker eyes. Nothing seemed amiss with them. Her crouched down to get a closer look, his fingers reaching out, "I think there's some markings here..." He touched one, not recognizing the language. The moment he touched it, the ground beneath him disappeared. It didn't fall through, it was simply gone. And he fell into the darkness without so much as a gasp of surprise.

If Drache took the time to study the glyphs, she'd not recognize them in the least bit. But if she touched them, she could feel a certain vibe, as if they were humming with power spent, almost... warm. Kraven walked over casually to the hole in the ground peering in, "I wonder if he's still alive." He lit up a torch and tossed it in, and watched it drop thirty feet into water. On its way down, Sirik could be seen, legs split, holding himself up in a corner. The moment the torch hit what seemed to be an underground river of some sort, water shot up with such force that it would've pierced metal. Water and shards of wood from the torch rained down on the group.

Kraven shouted down into the hole, "Oy, we saw ya ma... shit!" He jerked his head out of the way as a tiny stream shot up where he was. It seemed touching the water or making noise would not be good for anyone's health. Any light cast on Sirik would reveal him scowling at them, followed by drow hand signals saying he could see a tunnel across the way for him and that a rope would be very appreciated.

Laurel had stuck close to Drache the whole time, almost afraid to leave her side. "She's dying, we need to hurry."

[Drache]

"Yes, Laurel, yes. We will," the half-dragon murmured, letting Laurel lean on her. She glanced at Kraven, who would be the only one who noticed the look of dismay on Drache's normally unperturbed features, proving her to be a bit out of her depth when it came to comforting someone over something serious.

Thus, she wasn't looking at the quiet drow when he disappeared, but as they were already moving towards the rocks it would become somewhat apparent what had happened soon enough.

"Oh, shit, Sirik" the cross-breed cursed quietly, and she would have circled the pit to look in if Laurel hadn't been nearly attached to her by then. Leaning down as much as she could, the archaeologist tried to make out the markings but didn't recognize them at all. Even languages she couldn't read or write she could usually at least pinpoint what language the symbols belonged to, but strangely this one was completely alien. Touching them only deepened the mystery, and thankfully didn't reproduce the spell that had dropped Sirik thirty feet into a watery hole.

Drache looked up just in time to see the torch leave Kraven's hand and lifted her clawed fingers, "No, wait...!"

But it was too late, Drache's breath hissed as she took a breath and held it with anticipation, her ear-frills flattening back against her head. The gyser shot up, pelting them all with spray, and the half-dragon barely had time to lift her wing to block the worst of it from splattering all over her and Laurel.

"Kraven, you idiot!" Drache snarled, her voice low but burning with ire through her teeth as she rounded on the klutzy human, being careful to avoid standing over the pit. "That's obviously some sort of enchanted booby-trap. Can't you do anything about it? And keep quiet before you get us all killed!"

Tail swishing hotly, Drache peered down through the gloom, able to see through the blackness to where Sirik was motioning with his hands. Thankfully able to understand him, the hybrid had to ask him to repeat himself only once or twice and then asked if he wanted rope tied up on the surface and left to dangle for him or if he wanted a whole coil thrown down to him. Once she got her answer, Drache dug in her pack, pulling her rope up from the bottom and situating it for Sirik.

"See if you can find another way up," she signed to him. "I don't think we can get down this way." And it wouldn't be wise to try to get Sirik up this way either, even if they decided to abandon whatever waited from them down there.

While waiting for the drow to do whatever if was he was going to do, Drache found a piece of thin parchment and took a rubbing of the strange glyphs, not wanting to forget what they looked like.

"We will get to her as fast as we can, pet, but it wouldn't be helpful to get killed on the way, would it? Tell me what else you can feel." Even if Laurel couldn't sense anything useful, it might keep her focused on something for a few minutes. Drache herself could only sense the fire, but was still feeling a bit haunted by the scream.

Moving in the same direction Sirik had mentioned he had seen the tunnel, Drache looked for anything else in this thicket that might hint at a way to get underground.

[Twhirtley]

Sirik had signed for the rope to be dangled for him, and nodded in thanks once it was set for him. He took a hold of it, tugging on it to ensure that it is taut. Holding firm, his strong arms easily able to hold him, he pushed off from the wall, as silently as only drow can be. He swung into the tunnel across from him and was out of sight for a moment. If anyone looked, they'd see the rope go slack, then tighten and tighten, forming a guideline from opening to tunnel. Sirik popped his head out and signed at the first person that they should come down the rope and join him, silently and carefully.

Kraven was scowling at being scolded and took hold of the rope, keeping his feet planted to the ground, as he walked down the wall until he was dangling. Then he turned around and swung his way down the rope, hand over hand, until he joined Sirik. Kraven sulked off down the tunnel, lighting another torch, while Sirik waited for the others.

As Drache searched the area, her keen eyes would stumble upon a rock that was clearly unnaturally carved. Upon further inspection, the underside of the rock would have dwarvish letters on it. They would read, 'Three stomps where rock lay shall open the way.' If Drache were to follow the instructions, a perfect cube of dirt in front of her would fall away, to a startled Kraven swearing. After the dust settled, a perfectly carved tunnel with a stone ladder would reveal itself, connecting to the other tunnel. It clearly was made after the main tunnel, likely by dwarves that couldn't get past the traps.

Kraven stood next to a pile of dirt, fuming, rhetorically asking, "What in the bloody hell was that?"

Once everyone was in the tunnel, Sirik stood passively, nodding down the corridor. Kraven scowled, huffing, leading the way with his torch in front of him, one of his long knives drawn. The tunnel was ornately carved, made of laid stone, but held no markings or adornments. The air was cold and humid, the sound of rushing water echoing through them all. The tunnel eventually opened into a massive cavern, that seemed to be more like a temple than a natural cavern.

It was quite ornate, and surprisingly intact, the size of a small village. Drache and Laurel would get mixed emotions from the sight. The design of it, with braziers and torches everywhere, even the flow and lay of the stone work, rang true to them of fire. A place of comfort for the fiery aligned. Except it was flooding. The river could be heard from a lower level, and water coming up through various stair wells and wells and the like. The screams were more urgent now, only heard by Drache and Laurel, and seemed to be emanating from a pit that was in the center of the temple.

Before them was a wide set of stairs leading down to the temple proper, with many walls, columns, benches, and small buildings between them and the pit. Kraven started down the steps slowly, but Laurel was unable to remain calm. The cries were so loud now, so pained, they tugged at her heart, and she took off at a full sprint down the stone steps. When she reached the bottom, she passed over a small stream of water with a graceful leap. As she was in the air over it, the water surged, and shot up, striking her hard, and throwing her forward, flipping head over tail. She landed on her back, hard against the stone, a hundred yards from the pit.

A water elemental walked out of one of the many streams and began stalking its way toward Laurel, who was groaning in pain, barely moving. Kraven was already sprinting down the stairs when the first stream burst upward, forming a wall of rushing water, cutting the group off from Laurel. Kraven slashed at it with his knife and nearly dislocated his shoulder from the pressure. The wall went to the ceiling but only extended to the width of the stairs. Sirik, the drow that he was, had already disappeared silently, leaving Drache and Kraven, to do his own method, as always.

[Drache]

It was lucky for the half-dragon that the riddle of the dwarf-carved stone was not much of a riddle at all, or she would have never puzzled it out. Half of Pyresian citizens were dwarves so things like shop and street signs all used the dwarven alphabet (which was, frankly, far more practical than using draconic) so "three stomps" was enough to get herself and Laurel down into the tunnels with Kraven and Sirik.

The half-dragon hissed and coughed at the dust, landing hard on her tail after the unexpected drop. She was shaking her horns to get the debris out of her face and ended up blinking blearily at an irritable Kraven. "Ah...eh...sorry to drop in," the dragoness chuckled, reaching out to pick some dirt out of the man's hair.

The darkness around them was little more than shades of greyscale. Unsure if the alufiend posessed darkvision, Drache kept her close with a clawed hand on Laurel's arm. The closer they got to the opening to the main chamber, the more she could hear and smell. The rushing and dripping of water matched the soggy wetness Drache could feel against her hot scales. It was a slimy sort of feeling that she didn't appreciate. It rained a lot in the jungle, but the flooded underground smelled much different than the sunlit showers on the hot mountain.

She couldn't suppress a shudder, but her eyes widened as the temple came into view. It wasn't hard for the archeaologist to envision what the place had been like in its prime, and while she usually felt a twinge of regret when observing a ruins at having been born too late to know it when a place was alive, the fiery motifs and intricate flame-shaped carvings spoke to her on a much more personal level. Seeing it flooded and abandoned made her tail droop until it rested briefly on the cold stoney floor.

"Such a shame," she intoned quietly. Ordinarily the tomb-raider would have begun exploring at once, but the agonized shrieking forced her hand in another direction. Laurel broke free and tore down the steps before Drache could stop her.

"Laurel wait, it could be dangerous!" She barely got the words out before the swilling water reached up and slapped the woman down, the sight of which earned a shocked snarl from the half-dragon's throat. Drache immediately began looking for a way down that wouldn't involve having to hop a stream of the water, but the options seemed few. In looking, she spotted the Elemental and glowered hotly as the creature made its way towards Laurel.

"Oh no you don't," Drache grumbled under her breath. It was hard to explain why she suspected the creature that appeared had been behind the attack on her friend, but she didn't stop to question this assumption.

There was plenty of room in this place to fly, so the half-dragon opened her wings and took a few brief flaps just as Kraven tried to run down the stairs. The wall of water spouted upwards to block his path.

"Kraven, use your magic!" It was the second time today she had given the man this same advice. The sheet of surging water was similar to shapes Drache and Laurel had been able to forge with fire, and Drache knew that Kraven could sometimes defeat them.

But to what end? There was water everywhere. Could this creature control it all? Were there more water creatures? It was hard not to imagine the rippling dark surface of the water hiding many, many more. And even if there weren't, the one creature had plenty of fuel for its piercing jets and walls.

"Let's even the odds, then," Drache muttered to herself, lifting from the stone and sweeping around away from the wall. It hurt to leave Laurel lying on the ground, but putting herself in danger wouldn't be helpful. Focusing on an ornate row of torches along what may have once been a sort of street, the half-dragon took a deep breath and fire bubbled up out of her mouth. Most of it shot down towards her target like a swirling cone, though some dripped like flaming spittle down behind her. The heat raced along her veins even as the messy orange torrent fell upon the torches, the wood sputtering and hissing smokily before it caught. The braziers were easier, the oil lighting with an audible Whump, the flames flickering blue before growing into a more light-giving orange and white. One breath was enough, and the Elementalist used her power to light more, leaving a red glow in her wake as a small section of the village seemed to come alive behind and below her. With fire and heat above and dark floodwaters below, the some of the buildings had an appearance of ships burning at sea.

All the water here seemed so wrong.

As the cavern started to warm, the half-dragon turned back towards the others, emboldened by the heat. "Leave her alone!"

In spite of the fires, the screaming still made her spine feel icy.

[Twhirtley]

Kraven nodded, cursing himself for not realizing this. His magic was the newest in the group's after all, wasn't quite as natural to him yet. He pushed out the raw magic into a blob around his hands, then punched them into rushing wall, really hoping it didn't rip his arms from his sockets. The blob pushed through with ease, and he pumped more of out of him. It spread like a plague through the wall of water, turning water into a brilliant blue powder that snowed down on the ground, letting him pass through.

The way to Laurel was lit by the many braziers that Drache had brought to life. Kraven knew if he could get to her, he could protect the alufiend for a while. He could see her stirring and moaning in pain, trying to get herself up. Arms pumping, fists gripped on his long knives, as he ran toward her, water kicked up by his boots.

The scream that Drache and Laurel heard abated, and she could feel a heat of fire that she'd not lit from the pit. It felt a bit stronger, not quite in danger of going out previously. But the fire was still scared, and that was when she could feel the difference. It wasn't one fire, but two, very similar ones, very close to each other. And only word popped into her mind. Siblings.

Kraven reached Laurel moments before the creature, and tried to tackle it. He flew right through the creature, just getting wet and looking foolish for his effort. It continued moving toward Laurel, when he remembered what he'd just done moments before. He pushed out his magic, and moved it into his knives. Something about this told him it would work. He rushed at the creature, and slashed at its raised arm, that looked as if it were about to strike down at Laurel. The slash passed through the watery arm and severed it. The water in the arm lost its form and fell to the ground.

The creature screamed and turned toward Kraven, who could now make out a dark watery sphere in the center of the creature's chest. A flurry of attacks ended with a stab in the sphere. The creature stopped moving and just dissipated into a puddle. Kraven was quick to help up Laurel, checking her over briefly, finding no serious injuries. Several more of the elementals stepped out of the waters, moving toward Kraven and Laurel. If Drache looked close, she'd see the waters surging, like a singular river getting ready to rage. But was there time to join the fight against the unknown, or would the fires go out?

[Drache]

We hear you. We are coming. Help us or keep quiet! Drache thought sharply, intensely, towards the frightened presences, finally realizing that if she could hear the screeching in her mind, perhaps they could hear her as well. There was little comfort or softness in her tone, just like there was little that was comforting or soft in a dragonkin, but her intent to make good on her offer to help was clear enough.

The noise stopped, but it might have just been good timing with the trail she was literally blazing behind her. Without the tortured wailing dragging at her mind as viciously as claws through her scales, Drache breathed deeply and let out a growl. Dark smoke streamed from between her bared teeth and her nostrils. Her chest burned with the fire bubbling up from somewhere around her heart and her pulse pounded in her ears. Anger. She felt anger like a stinging all over her scaled flesh. Her eyes gleamed, and for once it wasn't just a reflection of the embers rising from their stirred torches and shallow pools of oil. The scent of burning swirled upwards, and the rising heat filled her golden wing membranes, the heat making her grin savagely.

The hellish glow of fire sprang up the walls of the cavern, a rising of light and colour that brought some semblance of what the temple had once been to life. Shadows wavered and darted across the intricately carved buildings and rocks, bringing motion and life to the sinuous shapes of flames frozen in the stone. Shadow and flame.

"Sirik!" Wherever he was and whatever he was planning, now would be a good time. It was strange to have faith in someone else, even if her faith was for his loyalty to his fellow Kvaren rather than herself. Because if she knew drow at all, she knew he was Up To Something.

The dragonkin powered through the air towards Laurel, racing the surging water below, each leathery thump of her wings bringing the longest phallanges so close that they touched each other above and below on each stroke. The flapping dictated her breathing, her lungs only able to fill when her wings were stretched up and back.

"Laurel, spin your fire, girl! You know what to do! Kraven, well done. Do it again!"

Drache landed between the other two with such speed that her momentum carried her forward on her talons a few steps, her wings raised high behind her. Her long tail lashed threateningly as she eyed the creatures and the roiling water. The half-dragon's eyes narrowed as she concentrated and threw her claws forward, shoving heat and the anger out through those wicked black points and sent a sizzling white fireball down the main boulevard into the oncoming water.

[Twhirtley]

The water that Drache attacked sizzled and steamed and the surging stopped for the time being. Laurel, now with her companions, under the direction of Drache, composed herself. She knew she was stronger than Drache, but her own mindset was still waiving. "I need your help with this!"

She began pouring fire out of her hands at the ground, and began swirling it in a wide circle around the group. She would allow her magic to be assisted by Drache, and really hoped she did because this would take a lot out of her. Her plan was simple. Evaporate all the water immediately around them, to get to the pit. The fire spun around them, rising and rising, the sweat and strain on her face evident as the heat in the center became quite high. The firespinners were immune to it, but Kraven knew he couldn't stay. He pushed into a light skin over his body, shimmering like a rainbow, before diving through the fire, leaving behind a small pile of powder of red and orange. The vortex of fire grew taller and wider and from his vantage point, Kraven could see the water elementals shrinking back. Water may beat fire normally, but put enough strength into anything and it will win.

"Get ready!" Laurel readied the fiery vortex to surge then explode outward. Kraven wrapped himself in his magic, already feeling the strain from the repetitive use, as the vortex reached its critical mass.

But just before it was set to unleash, a wave of water surged up and at the flames. They collided hard, as if two giants had met in a grappling match. The vortex held, but shook violently. The disruption was enough to break Laurel's concentration, and the vortex shook and lost its form, the flames shot backward, toward the pit, spilling over the edges, scorching the ground, turning the water that way to steam. Laurel dropped to a knee from the overexertion, as the group looked to see what caused the wave.

It slid out of the water slowly, revealing just how large it was. It was clearly a water elemental of sorts, the deep blue core in its head evidence enough. Slithering and sliding and floating, it wrapped around the group, clearly recognizing them as a threat. Any fire launched at it would be futile as it struck its head toward the two women. Kraven was too slow, heading for them.

Then the head snapped sharply down into the stone, sending huge cracks through the floor. Those with quick eyes managed to see Sirik leaping away from where he'd landed a devastating stomp. His body was brimming with power, and seemed to be encased in it. But just as quickly as he'd come, he'd disappeared into the shadows. The creature chased after him, its tail thrashing wildly at the group as it left them.

The remaining elementals knew they were to not mess with their master's prey, and started toward the pit. The voices there were much stronger, still fearful. One was reminiscent of a young boy, the other a girl. As the first elemental reached the edge, a thin line of fire shot up through its core, and it fell into a puddle. The amount of control behind that shot was formidable, because making fire bigger was easy, but making it tiny, concentrated, but still powerful was not. But there were so many elementals heading for the pit.

[Drache]

The half-dragon nearly refused to lend her strength to Laurel's, suspicious of making herself vulnerable in helping her friend. It was purely in the interest of self-preservation that Drache let the flames issuing from her mouth and fingertips subside. Having seen how much water was flooding the temple, they couldn't afford to not work together. Edging closer to Laurel as if closing the distance made it easier to feed her strength into the alufiend, Drache poured her energy into the other firespinner's workings the same way she would blow it out with her firebreath or feed her talent into a campfire.

And along with the strength, there was an outsurge of her passion. Rage, lust, these passionate things that roiled just under the surface all the time. She gave them to Laurel, and watched with a primal grimace as the firespout grew and twisted like a blazing tornado. The heat made the air shimmer wildly, the scent of steam and scorched stone filling her tiny, flaring nostrils. The powers crashed against each other and Drache felt the strain, but even as she started to feel drained, she reveled in the feeling of so much magic.

The dragonkin dug her talons against the desiccatingly dry floor when Laurel called out her warning, which was the only reason she didn't jump back at the sight of the huge watery thing. Shadows and shapes wavered as elemental forces swirled around the cavern, the flames licking low against the ground as they flooded back towards the pit. It looked something like a dragon, some kind of giant serpent made out of water, the dark core in its head easy to see through the semi-transparent fluid shaped like a beast around it.

The vile maw of the beast launched itself towards them and Drache shoved Laurel aside, hard, out of the way. She tried to leap the other direction, splitting the creature's target into two, perhaps giving themselves a few more seconds to live. But her gesture was futile. Drache laughed, a cruel snort of a sound as it seemed that the creature had mistimed its strike straight into the ground. It was only out of the corner of her eye that she noticed Sirik's dark figure dart into the shadows, pursued by the creature.

"Oh xsio!" the dragonkin spat, dodging the flailing tail, impressed by Sirik's daring. "I hope he lives. For being so quiet he certainly has a talented tongue."

But her reminiscing on Sirik's virtues was short-lived. "Come on. We don't know how long he can keep that thing busy." Racing towards the pit, Drache growled and snapped threateningly at the elementals, leaping at the back of one and raking her claws through the core in its center to destroy it. They seemed reluctant to attack now that the absent monster had challenged them. "Get back!"

She knew that Laurel's intent was focused on the tiny fiery creatures they could both sense down in the pit. Drache didn't know what they were, and her interest was more for the temple itself. She had never seen it before, but she hated seeing it this way, crowded and bespoiled by the watery beasts that had taken up residence. By all rights they should flee now while they still could, and a look she shot at Kraven betrayed her misgivings about lingering here any more.

"This is a fucking fire temple! Surely there is something here was can use to fight them off." The braziers still flickered warmly all over, but drawing from them was getting tiresome. She looked around hastily. She was mad. Mad that stumbling across this place hadn't been a great deal more pleasant.

Reaching the edge of the pit, she hesitated to peek over, not wanting to get blasted in the face by the concentrated jets of fire being launched at the water elementals. So she lit her fist on fire instead and held it over the edge, cringing slightly as her claws pricked against her own palm.

"See? Friends!"

[Twhirtley]

The flame in Drache's hand was all the gesture that the "male" sprite needed. He floated upward, a small flame, his "sister" following after him. What appeared to be eyes looked at Drache, deciding to trust her. She was fire after all. Fire could be trusted. When he was close enough, Drache could feel him take control of the fire she'd summoned, and it became his. He then transferred it to his sister, and Drache could feel her getting a little bit stronger.

The brother moved against Drache, letting his warmth wash over her. He pulled himself over her entirely, encasing her in magical fire, his core floating over her stomach. She could hear him speaking to her, "You make fire. I control." His sister hung close, behind him, timid. She cast out a thought that Laurel and Drache could hear, but directed at the alufiend. "I know where more fire."

Laurel rushed over to the sister and pulled her into a tight embrace, so very glad that they were momentarily safe. The sprite enveloped her in a thin layer of fire just as her brother had for Drache. Laurel then jumped down the pit, with a scream of glee and excitement.

The serpent was chasing Sirik through the temple, destroying many of the stone buildings and artwork. Sirik led the creature to a dead end, flying toward the wall. He turned in air, hit the wall hard with his feet, crouched down, and sprang back toward the creature. His body glowed with his magic, a deep purple field around him, that was in the shape of his own body. The creature opened its maw, and Sirik dove right through. His magic protected him and let him slice through the creature like a hot fire poker through butter.

But the creature flinched and Sirik missed his mark, the core, by a hair's breadth. He popped out the back of the creature, having done a massive amount of damage, but his magic was spent. The creature's tail flicked, catching him hard across the stomach and throwing him across the room. He hit the stone hard, and rolled to a stop. He managed to get himself to standing, a true testament to his physical strength. But it was obvious he didn't have much left in it, his entire plan had been around a single, powerful strike. Kraven was busy fighting off the smaller wraiths with his imbued blades.

Laurel's descent had brought her deep into the ground, feeling the heat of lava below her. She had let herself go, simply giving into the desires and plans for the little sprite. The sprite slowed the descent, putting Laurel just above the churning magma, in a massive cavern. She'd never felt so much heat, so much glow. She thought to her new friend, "I can't control lava."

She felt the playful sprite chuckle, "This not just lava. It heart of fire temple. Heart dying. But heart beat one last time, beat for temple's last guardians." Then Laurel felt the sprite asking for her magic, and she gave what little she had left to it. She felt the sprite asking for the fire and the heat from the "heart", and the form around her swelled and swelled with power. Laurel was in ecstasy from the amount of power, an unbelievable amount of it. When the fire was concentrated, the heat absorbed, Laurel and her friend were glowing white hot, and everything around them was now dead stone, cold. Then the pair shot the white hot blast of fire upward through the pit, to give more fuel to her brother and Drache.

Her brother was waiting, knowing his sister would come through. Drache would feel his sadness, that in order to survive, they'd kill their precious temple. The great serpent turned its attention back to the half-dragon. It lurched back, and a powerful blast of water was shot toward her. But Drache could feel the fire welling from the pit. "Ready."

Drache would know that all she'd have to do is release the energy, and her companion would aid her in controlling it all in a single massive burst.

[Drache]

In retrospect the dragonkin would not be able to say what she had expected to find in the pit, probably something more akin to Laurel and herself rather than two small Elementals. Because that's what the fire-bright little creature ascending like an ember on the wind had to be. A thing that Drache had only found vague references to in moldy books and fading scrolls. She watched with divided attention, curious about the creature but unable to forget that danger was all around them. The smaller water elementals were lurking, and the huge serpent was barreling around in the depths of the temple, its destruction causing the ground to shiver under her talons.

It was only in her distraction that the little creature was able to get so close. He absorbed the fire encasing her fist and swelled with renewed strength and Drachiathoryx had no more regrets about feeding him than she would have about scattering loose grains for a hungry chicken.

"Here you go, Laurel! I've found you not just one fire spirit, but two!"

But then the first one sort of swelled and began to cover her body like a veil of fire, and this was something the half-dragon did not expect. At first she jumped back from the edge of the pit, shaking her arm a bit. When that didn't work she tried to scratch it off with her claws, a startled noise of dismay snorting out of her nostrils. He lifted one foot and tried to shake that as well, turning in circles. Few creatures approached a half-dragon willingly. She'd never even had a cat rub itself against her legs! Assuming that the creature meant harm, it took her longer than it should have to relax.

He spoke, and in listening, her ear-frills twitching madly as she peered through the firey aura around her at the orb floating over her flat belly, she realized that his presence felt...good. It was comforting, like wine after a bad day. What I wouldn't do for a cup of wine right about now... Her magic was nearly spent, but with this little creature wrapped completely over her she felt like she might have a little bit more to give.

The delicate pattern of scales all over Drache's body began to glow, turning the scales dark in comparison. "You'll find that I don't relish the idea of giving you control, little Cinder. You'd better not disappoint me."

With the fire sprite making her glow like a bonfire, Drache turned just as Laurel went leaping out over the abyss and sank down into the darkness. Possessed with a much stronger sense of self-preservation than all that, the half-dragon tilted her horned head and spread her wings, the motion showering fire-red wisps towards the stone floor. She paused, sensing that "her" flame sprite didn't want her to jump, and also because through some connection that hadn't existed a moment ago, she had an inkling of what Laurel was doing down there anyways.

"She's coming back," the half-dragon muttered, more to herself than anything. Her tail lashed back and forth as she turned away from the pit. Her eyes were red-white, pupils lost against the glare. Behind her she could feel Laurel coming as the rising heat of a volcanic eruption. A simmering wave of furnace-like heat came rushing noisily from the darkness, following closely by the red glow. "Kraven! Run!"

Drache was not a terribly trusting sort of person. Even amongst these kvaren who had treated her so well, there was a certain amount of reserve that never seemed to fade. But the presence of the little sprite permeated more than her scales, and she decided to trust. "Let'sss make that lassst heartbeat count for sssomething and sshow thisss ssslimy watery worm what a missstake it was to take up residenccce in a fire temple."

Her anger mixed with the sprite's sadness and she let what was left of her power build. She'd been practicing with Laurel long enough that when the alufiend's power joined with hers she barely felt the change. Only the rising heat and unquestionable might. There was ecstacy in her anger. Fury in her euphoria. It was intoxicating. And just when she thought the inferno might consume her completely, she lifted her snout to stare into the eyes of the serpent and gave control to the little spirit that had turned her entire body into a corruscating pyre.

"Die."

[Twhirtley]

Kraven looked up to see himself trapped between the embodiment of fire and a water serpent. He saw Sirik standing nearby, exhausted on his feet. The human began running toward the drow, before Drache even cast her warning. He tackled into Sirik, laying his body overtop him, and exuded his power as hard as he could around them both. The deluge from the serpent neared Drache, powerful enough to crush her into nothingness.

The fiery woman watched a pair of fiery arms point out in front of her, and felt every single ripple of wonderful, raging heat pass through her soul. The amount of power she had right this moment made her feel like a god, as if anything could be burned by her. And all of that power surged forth out of her in a single, spinning white hot ball of flame. It shot toward the blast of water, striking right in the center of it. The water didn't splash away, nor put the fire out. It evaporated instantly. The ball was not slowed in the slightest by the blast, until it passed right through the open maw of the creature and struck its core.

The resulting blast was intense, the concussion blowing Drache backward hard. Sirik could see multicolored dusts swirling everywhere as latent magicks hit Kraven's protective barrier. The blast of water and fire and raw magical energy passed through the cores of the lesser elementals, triggering smaller explosions of water magic. The sound was deafening, chunks of rock and temple falling away. Drache would feel the creature telling her to head for the pit, to the dead heart.

She would see Kraven was now up, carrying Sirik, and heading toward the exit, and that the many boulders and debris falling would make it near impossible for anyone to reach the other.

Down in the pit, Laurel was seated cross legged, a bright red, intact core in her lap, that she was cradling and caressing. Before her was a single glowing red crystal. It was about the size of a small child's fist. Laurel paid no mind to it, talking to the core like a baby. "You're Spark. I know you're just sleeping. Rest easy my love, I'll take good care of you."

The gem was dimly glowing, and if either of the firespinners touched it, they would feel themselves being drawn far to the southwest, too far to travel any time soon. The gem could be dislodged easily. Drache could feel her elemental weakening, "I... rest. Flow tunnel.. lead out..." Then he slipped into his core that would succumb to gravity if allowed. At the far end of the bottom cavern, across the cooled molten lava, would be a flow tunnel that lead out into a cliffside.

Back up on the surface, Sirik and Kraven could be found sitting around the dwarf entrance, heads slumped in their hands, in total silence and exhaustion. They were so sure they'd lost their two friends, and for nothing gained.

[Drache]

The release of energy was nothing short of primal. But at the same time it was more mystical than anything Drache had ever experience before. The heat wave burst out of her fingertips and she watched almost casually as the white-hot meteor turned the approaching typhoon into nothing more than a cloud of directionless steam. The orb within the serpent was obiterated. Even as the explosion backfired towards her, the half-dragon began to chuckle cruelly, her maw open, teeth black against the light enveloping her. The throaty giggle was cut off rapidly as the shockwave blew her backwards.

Suddenly bereft of power, the dragonkin scrabbled wildly against the stone, digging her fingers in until her claws frayed. Wet hot steam rushing around the huge chamber, dragging at her wings so hard that the strength to keep them tight to her back failed her. Dust, grit, and water was whipping around, dousing the braziers and plunging the temple into darkness. The walls and ceiling groaned, the grinding of breaking stone punctuated by slabs of rock crashing down on the beautiful buildings.

"Down towards the heart," the sprite seemed to urge. Looking up through the gloom Drache's gleaming eyes searched for the men and wished Kraven luck towards his shrinking back. She didn't so much jump into the abyss as she rolled over the side into the open air, twisting catlike as she fell until her wings could open behind her.

Joining Laurel on the smooth yet lumpy surface of the hardened lava, she watched her pet the orb that must have been the sister to the creature around her and inside her head. It seemed to smolder and wither away into its own orb, and the half-dragon managed to catch it before it hit the ground. She held it up in front of her eyes, her breath hissing over it through her nostrils as she felt the absence of all that power in the form of a wing-drooping weakness. Exhausted. Drained.

Up above the chamber was still shaking apart so Drache snatched Laurel up off the ground by her wing. "We should go. Kraven and Sirik might have made it out but they may also be hurt. I want to get out of here. This place depresses me."

She tried to hand her orb to Laurel. It only made sense to her that the two should stay together, and she was the last person who wanted to travel aroun with a pet. It was only at the last moment that she noticed the red gem and scooped it up, barely registering the strange urge to change her journey's path yet again. Something to think about later, perhaps.

She slipped her arm around Laurel's waist and let their wings tangle together as they walked up the lava tube towards the sunlight. "If the boys lived we're all sharing a tent tonight. I need some attention and I can't decide which of you I want more. Call me greedy."

[Twhirtley]

Reward Review

Drachiathoryx

Skills
Observation: 4
Seduction: 2
Sex: 1
Elementalism (Fire): 12
Persuasion: 2
Leadership: 7
Archaeology: 1
Tactics: 3
Endurance: 1
Aerobatics: 3
Intimidation: 2
Acrobatics: 2
Unarmed Combat: 1
Socialism: 1

Knowledge:
Simple Dwarven Riddle
Location: Fire Temple in Karawac
Elementals are Real
Elemental Symbiosis

Other
Page of Unknown Glyphs from Fire Temple Entrance* - IF presented to a Clairvoyant of Journeyman or higher, can be revealed
Fire Elemental (Sprite), Cinder, sibling to Laurel's Spark - Dormant for rest of season to recover after the fire temple incident. Can be nurtured through magical or mundane fire.
Heart of the Fire Temple (Invaluable Gem) - When touched by a Fire Elementalist, will lead to Pyresia. More can be unlocked through an RP in Pyresia or by achieving Artisan Fire Elementalism. Is warm to the touch by non-elementalists.