Little Bird {PLOT}

[Terayne]

W'ren moved as he the Handler told them her Wher would do it, eyeing the great beast carefully. He then nodded slightly as Farwith lunged into the air after Ancalanath, taking the image from his King and adjusting his flight so His could see as well. Even little Gera moved to fly, disappearing into the darkness ahead of them and sending back images to her Mine.

Padding next to the Wher, he waited as the other two mounted, then did so himself, adjusting his seat due to the oddity of the Wher's backline, very different from his Farwith's. You were warned Mine...

I know...

[Cait]

Once the two dragonriders were secured on Dalosk's back, the Crimson lurched to his feet and took off in the direction of the hold. Thief and Pest took to the air while Klutz clung to Dalonia having been too silly to move when T'kar mounted and now finding herself pinned between them. With a bit of prodding, Thief gleaned a destination from the dragons and flew ahead as fast as he could as Dalonia leaned forawrd over Dalosk's back. The Crimson kicked into an all out run, hindered by the additional weight though only marginally.

[Jay Kitten]

Behind one corner lurked Lylore, and he peeked out before he saw the strangest thing. Riders, riding a wher. Now he'd seen it all. But he followed silently, heading in the same direction as they were to see what all the fuss was about. From what he could tell this was serious business, they were having their dragons scout overhead. All the better for him, he found the largest of them unpleasant at best. But he was still willing to help in any way he could.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Dalonia had been right. Riding Dalosk was nothing, nothing at all, like riding a dragon. For one, dragons soared, or, if they were moving along the ground, walked smoothly. By contrast, T’kar was seriously starting to wonder why he’d suggested this. He remembered back at Telgar, some of the Candidates whining about not being able to ride their runnerbeasts around the Weyr, but if riding runners was anything like this, then he couldn’t begin to imagine why they would have missed it.

He noticed not at all the young man who was trying to follow them as Dalosk maintained a head-on run. They came around a corner, and continued on. There, up ahead, the front of the building that was their destination loomed. To one side of it, Viarth and Valhauth remained, eyes whirling, marking where K’tar had left them to enter the building. Ancalanath was circling around, to come in at the building’s other back corner.

The door was barred. a person probably would not have been able to budge it, and even a runnerbeast would have had problems doing so. A two thousand pound watch wher, however…

The door shattered. K’tar’s captor had just reached down to remove the second knife on the Purplerider’s belt. Needless to say, K’tar took advantage of the situation, rolling away from the man and coming up facing the door, equidistant from that man and the one holding Chantrea.

[Terayne]

W'ren held on as best he could, not aware that they were being followed. His entire attention was focused ahead of them, where the two young dragons could now be seen. He also sensed a presence coming down, glancing up briefly to see Ancalanath, and he mentally instructed Farwith to cut off escape from the back. The dark Tiger soared down to do so even as the Crimson shattered the door, startling the men inside.

W'ren was off the beast in a heartbeat, coming up in a roll and immediately backing up to the stairs he'd seen to smoothly string his bow, bringing it up with an arrow nocked. Behind him, Gera appeared from Between to guard his back from anyone who might come that direction, the Silver's eyes whirling red.

[Cait]

Dalosk let out an enraged bellow as the door shatter like kindling and in a practiced move the crimson came to a halt and lowered his head; taking advantage of the momentum, Dalonia vaulted over the beast's head and rolled into a crouch, a leg lashing out and hooking the legs of one of the men. He went down hard on his back and Dalonia pounced, guard's club in hand and a vicious look on her face. Springing forward she cracked the man's skull and his struggles ceased permanantly; she disarmed him with nimble fingers and was up, on the prowl, eyes locking on the man that held the kidnapped weyrling.

Dalosk snarled, echoing Dalonia's sentiments when she caught sight of blood and the wher lunged at another armed man, heedless of the blade that sliced tough hide and swiping the man across the torso with a near feral snarl. It was followed by a lunge and powerful jaws that closed over the man's head as he fell to his knees; in short order the man and his head were no more and blood began to pool.

Pale eyes took in various targets as well as the positions of W'ren and T'kar. Thief and Pest and even Klutz swarmed into the room, eyes an angry red as they keyed in on Dalonia's mind. The woman had a plan in mind. Find the one in charge and kill the rest. It took her only moments to discern the man in charge of it all; he stood beside the man that held Chantrea and his arrogance practically came off him in waves. With her eyes fixed on that man she shouted for the riders. "W'ren, take out the one holding the brat, T'kar use that damn sword of yours with intent and leave that one," she pointed with her own blade. "To me. He lives until I say he dies."

Thief and Pest launched their attack as one, descending on Caeveril and driving him away from the other man and Chantrea. Dalonia moved forward, Klutz clawing at the eyes of a man who came at her and Dalosk coming in after the man and grabbing him by a leg, biting down and swinging the man around; bones were crushed and arteries severed. This was war!

[Terayne]

W'ren reacted to the commanding tone without truly thinking about it, bow releasing its arrow and another coming into its place. The bow swung to the side, arcing its arrow DOWNwards, into the back of a knee, taking down the man who'd been about to go for the Handler's back. He then refocused, firing again at Chan's holder, his aim true, even in the chaos. He was FAR too used to this sort of thing, and it showed in his frightening accuracy. He dropped the bow after the third arrow left it, leaving it to Gera to retrieve as he leapt into the fray, sword hissing from its sheath to cut across the chest of the man who lunged at him, driving him back with a line of blood across his chest. The sword then reversed, driving into the gut of the man Gera had warned him was behind him, taking him out. W'ren spun, and another sword drove through the body he'd used as a shield, giving him time to retrieve his own, which he promptly drove into his attacker's throat...

[Jay Kitten]

Lylore had only just caught up, and as he entered the house, he ignored the dragons and didn't watch as they went to stop him, instead running past. He was surprisingly light on his feet, but then again he was small. As the mute moved toward the fray, he poked his head from around a corner, noticing the red of blood, and thinking to himself. What could he do to help end this bloodshed? Near the door, a sword dropped, and he frowned. That was right out, swordplay wasn't his thing, nor was killing people. Sneaking he was a bit better at, though, and so he decided that was his best course of action, and slipped passed the door, ducking low, a tiny black dot among all the chaos as he crept behind the furniture, first a table, then a chair.

He was circling the edge, and he was very certain that nobody was paying him any mind seeing as there were many with swords and knives and a large Crimson wher whom he was almost certain had just beheaded a man with his teeth. But that wasn't what he was going for, there was a girl here whom was being held hostage. That was who he wanted.

Lylore crept quietly around, slowly making his way over and making sure he wasn't seen. He placed a finger to his lips as he came up behind Chantrea just as the man nearest her was fired at by the Tigerrider's bow. He was still down low, and as he went behind her he began to untie her hands.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T'kar, who'd been about to go for the one that Dalonia claimed, rolled his eyes and sprang to one side, striking at two of the other guys, driving them back. The next second, and one of them was dead. The other stepped back, trying to break engagement and starting towards W'ren, but W'ren managed to take him out before further intervention was required. A quick kick caused one attacker to trip, and T'kar's sword finished him, though the Weyrleader paid with a bleeding slash across his chest.

Star dove at another man, trying to take out the man's eyes. It took a couple tries; Star hadn't ever done the move except in practice.

T'kar spun once more, fighting by honed instinct and blessing every second that he'd spent practicing with his weapons. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw someone, a young man, kneeling behind Chantrea and trying to untie her bonds.
------------------------------

K'tar stepped back, even as one of the men who'd ridden in on Dalosk shot down the man holding Chantrea. Twisting his left arm and snapping the wrist downward, he caught his second throwing knife as it dropped out of its arm-sheath and into his hand. In another second, the knife was pining someone to the wall by the throat.

K'tar dove for Chantrea, intending to untie her, only to find someone else had gotten there first. "Use this," he said, handing the other boy a small knife that he kept in an inner pocket.

[Simile]

Chantrea looked over her shoulder at hte boy trying to untie her and quickly looked back at hte crashing chaos before her. No no no... this couldn't be happening. Some of these men and women were family members - man yof them were. She swallowed and stared, wide-eyed, at what was happening around her, only looking away when K'tar made his way to her. Oh Faranth... She was glad he was here to save her, but she didn't want to see people die. She felt her mind reeling from shock and heard a very upset roar. Valhauth! Valhauth trashed outside, trying to make sense of the emotions roiling through her rider. The dragoness held on tightly to hers, trying to cover her rider's mind in comfort and Chantrea let out a soft breath, feeling somewhat comforted by the presence of her beautiful young dragon.

Valhauth... the dragonet was fuming mad and scared all at once. Don't worry. It'll all be fine.

Valhauth gave her best roar. HOW DARE YOU THINK ABOUT ATTACKING MINE YOU INGRATES! she yelled at them all, hissing her anger. Chantrea swallowed. She was ever like that... saying what was on her mind, bold, brash, seemign ot know exactly what was right and wrong. Chan tried to hide her face as tears started to fall. tHe moment her hands were free, she wiped at them and reached down to untie the rope around her legs before standing and looking back at the boy K'tar had just been talking to. She nodded a thanks then pushed herself back against the wall, trying to stay out of the way, a trembling fear and sadness taking root in her heart, though she showed her most defiant face to the enemy, though all but one lie dead or had fled already.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

“Remember the deal boy!”

K’tar spun around, grabbing for the sheath where his second knife should have been. For a split second, his eyes met those of the man closest to him, then the kidnappers turned and ran, ignoring the shots fired after them.

Star, Boot, and Shadow swooped after the kidnappers, screaming fury at these that dared to attack their human and his friends. Unfortunately, the kidnappers knew the lay of the land better, so they were not able to pursue them past the first few houses.

The room was still silent as the firelizards, eyes orange-red, returned.

T’kar glared at the young purple-rider. “Pick up your stuff, and go to your dragon. You are not to leave until the rest of us do so.”

K’tar started to open his mouth, then closed it again with a snap as T’kar’s eyes narrowed. He glanced over his shoulder once at Chantrea, then picked up the knives he thrown and slipped out the door to stand next to Viarth.

Upset-mad why?

Because… K’tar drew a deep breath. Later, I’ll… explain later.

[Jay Kitten]

A man handed him a knife, and he took it, slicing the ropes. As soon as the girl was free, Lylore took to observing, as he wasn't able to muster the courage to say a single word to anybody in the room. That was, of course, sarcasm, as he instead preferred to stay aloof. He looked down at the knife the man had handed him, and at the quickly-fleeing kidnappers, but shook his head slowly. Pocketing it, he reached behind himself, to the small pouch at his hip, and held out a loose fist, before opening and flattening his fingers.

There was something there. In the palm of his hand was a small, green, semi-translucent jungle scorpion, which he delicately pinched with two fingers by the stinger, and quickly flung it at one of the men's backs as they were leaving. It clung to his coat. Lylore smiled in a rather casual way, though, for he knew that it wouldn't kill the man. No, scorpion venom was fantastic for one thing, paralyzing it's target. But if it would help, he didn't know, having somebody to interrogate may help, provided the toxin would even take effect before then. Likely his little friend wouldn't find a single spot to sting until they were in the jungles, at which point his friends were going to have one big problem, and might even abandon him. The scorpion would simply crawl away once the threat to itself was neutralized, his own conscience would be clear, and if they searched hard enough, the Riders might even be able to find him. But they couldn't hear it from him.

But, who knew? Lylore sure didn't. He wasn't part of this fiasco, and he certainly didn't plan to get involved in their affairs. In fact, quite the opposite. He had helped, done his part, and now it was time for bed! K'nan was probably going to be worried sick, and when he shows up with a knife and minus a scorpion, he might start to question. Lylore wasn't in the mood to write a novel, so bed it was. He turned on his heel and swept himself out the way he had come, heading back on foot.