Fantasy RP

Ruby's smile only widened, and she snapped her fingers, engulfing herself in jewel-toned flames the color of her namesake. The flames lapped at her, changing her delicate silk drapes into armor covering barely anything- the rest was covered by now-revealed red scales that set off her dark skin. "Great! Now, if we get to the top of the tower, I can change into full dragon and fly us away from here, and the guards won't question us because, oh yeah, I'm the crown princess! I'll just tell them I'm taking y'all in for extensive interrogation." And she just might be. They didn't seem harmful, but they were suspicious, and for all she knew, one of their little group could be the assassin. Scooping her small shadow companion up in a princess carry (to massed flailing of tentacles and an offended squeak) she headed out of the room, not waiting for the others to follow but clearly expecting them to.

As Antheia was about to answer, Ruby quickly interrupted her. She quickly followed Ruby when she hurried out of the room.
"Hey, um, may I ask why you're doing all of this?" Antheia asked, trailing behind her, "You just broke us out of jail for what reason, and what cost?"

Emma followed the group, keeping to herself. She didn't know these people well and certainly did not want them to know her very well.

Nathan followed quickly after Ruby, not wanting to get left behind in this place. The decisions of some of the others to stay along for the assassin hunt surprised Nathan, but he didn't have much time to think about it before he overheard Antheia's question to Ruby. "I'd kind of like to know the answer to that myself as well, how did you and Cadmus come to team up and break us out?" Nathan asked in addition to Antheia's own question.
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All the while Cadmus was remaining quiet, mainly so that he didn't accidentally break his oath and say something he shouldn't. There was no way he would be the one to break their agreement first. So Cadmus was content to let Ruby answer however she so chose to, though he was curious as to some of her circumstances as well.

Now that she'd started such a spectacular mini uprising, she had no reason to keep secrets. Being unburdened of them always felt like a weight had been taken off where it was crushing her chest, and besides, if they tried to use them against her, she would probably win. "I saw another dragon flying over the city, and went to talk to him. Cadmus was trying to convince him to start a break-out, and I have my own reasons for hating prisons. I was going to just break out his friend, but I noticed Nyx in the cell with the wolf and kinda freaked out. Breaking all of you out will cover my tracks, and y'all seem useful. Even if catching the assassin can't get the ban rescinded, it can get y'all royal pardons, sooo. That a good enough reason for all of you?"


~~~~~

If Nyx was still human and their blood wasn't black acid, they might be blushing. As it was, they just watched from their place in Ruby's arms, staring down at the mages - all of them stunk of magic, the guards had been right to capture them, and the wolf they'd been possessing smelled of blood as well, for reasons that they'd found out by lurking in her shadow, including the shadowy parts of her mind. This was interesting, and therefore worth the effort. It would all be ruined if they got caught though, and they didn't have the energy to fight the guards that were approaching. Ruby's influence only went so far. "I hate to break up the question party, but we need to go..."

"Well I guess that's good enough for me." Nathan said absently. Hos mind was distracted by trying to imagine Cadmus going against his pride and asking a dragon for help. Someday when they weren't in potential danger, he'd have to force the story out of the ichneumon. Turning his attention back to their break-out, Nathan nodded in agreement with that shadowy being he presumed to be Nyx. "Yeah, let's get a move on. I'd rather not be recaptured so soon, especially since now they have an actual reason for arresting us." Nathan said with a glance back where they came.

The sound of clanking armor and boots could be heard coming down the hallway, and Ruby cursed under her breath and dropped Nyx to the ground, wheeling around to face the guards with her chin held high and her back straight. Behind her, she waved a hand telling the others to go, whispering a quick, "Get to the roof and I'll meet y'all there," before the guards could arrive. Once they did, she bared her teeth in a vicious smile, getting them off their guard before they could even say anything.

When Ruby told them to get to the roof, Nathan didn't waste a single moment before doing just that. He was too close now to being free again that Nathan wasn't about to let a few guards who would be occupied by Ruby anyway to hold him up. 'The princess just better not get taken by surprise or anything. Our whole long term protection from our current predicament goes up in smoke without her patronage.' Nathan thought as he ran up the stairs.
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Cadmus resisted the urge to squirm as he rested around Nathan's neck. He would have very much enjoyed the chance to get back at those impudent guards for imprisoning an Yttris family member, but he had no intention of separating himself from Nathan in their current situation, and since escape was Nathan's top priority it was Cadmus's as well. "Give 'em a good talking to for me, will ya!" Cadmus called back to Ruby as Nathan ran up the stairs, not really sure whether the princess was even going to actually fight or just intimidate the guards, but not really caring either way.

Max heard the clanking and let out a low growl. Guards were never good to run into during a jailbreak. He hesitated at the Ruby's commands to run to the roof, uncertain whether or not to leave. Nevertheless, he nodded and turned, following after Nathan. He started up the stairs, stopping after about five steps. He whispered quietly, feeling Oz's weight leave his head as soon as he finished and continued to the roof. He picked up the pace, catching up to those who were ahead of him. He struck up the question, "So what do you think she's going to do?"

---

Oz remained on Max's head until they stopped. He bent down, questioning why only to get a response that was more of an order than an answer. "Keep an eye on the princess. I don't doubt her ability, but she did save us. Your motivation: make sure that she stays alive, otherwise we're all dead. If she needs help, feel free to step in." Ugh, he mentally groaned, He wants me to return the favor for him. I do suppose he kind of owes the princess. She did break us all out... and she offered a way to keep us alive. He expanded his wings, flying up to the roof and soaring back down to the last step. He stayed hidden in the shadows, watching Ruby closely.

What Ruby was going to do was nowhere near the cause of concern that her new companions thought it was. Things seldom were, with her. She preferred the simple, lumping things in clearly defined boxes and feeling every emotion like the scorch of a flame. That was, after all, why she had freaked out when finding her shadow locked in a cell, hiding in Zora's shadow. She knew that as a creature of almost pure magic, Nyx would have withered and potentially died if kept in the cell for too long, and that was unacceptable. The solution had seemed simple- break them out of jail! Only after she'd acted did the amount of trouble she would get into strike her, and that's when she broke out all the rest too, as she'd promised Cadmus to break out Nathan. A full break-out would cover her tracks for a while, hopefully long enough to do something that would distract her mother from punishing her. She just had to find the assassin, and if she was caught now, everything would be ruined. All she had to do was make sure that no one could report to the empress that Ruby had taken prisoners for 'special interrogation'.

The guards approached, and she opened her maw and breathed red flames, scorching them with horrible shrieks from them and the smell of scorching flesh. The fire spread to the stone, starting to lick at it and melt it (dragonfire hardly even counted as fire. some said that the stars had come from the first dragon, practically a goddess whose first flame had sparked and forevermore burned in the universe.) She smiled again, a horrible expression, and ran after the group and to the roof, her shape starting to melt and twist as she exited the door, reforming into a ruby-scaled dragon with a crack of breaking bones. "Get on."

When Ruby transformed and told them to get on, Nathan paused for a moment, wondering if he was making the right decision, but pushed the thought away and hopped on. It was a little late to go back on the decision to go after that assassin, and even with Cadmus around he didn't want to disappoint the dragon that just filled the path behind them with brief screams and the smell of burnt flesh and brimstone. "I guess it is a good time to leave." Nathan said absently as he situated himself on Ruby's back.
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"And now everyone knows why we ichneumon dislike dragons, just be glad you've never been inside one. I can assure you the smell is unfathomably worse from the inside." Cadmus said as he recoiled as the smell from the burning guards. He was working hard to keep his instincts in check, but Cadmus couldn't keep his fur from spiking up and his claws clenching into Nathan's coat. The only thing keeping Nathan from being clawed by Cadmus's claws were the concealed knives distributed throughout the coat like light armor.

Antheia nodded quickly, getting on the dragon just behind Nathan. She looked back at everyone, motioning for them to get on. Emma followed, climbing onto Ruby.

Alex stopped. She looked at the dragon. "I don't feel comfortable flying whe-" She stopped speaking then looked at Emma. She sighed and jumped onto the dragon clinging to Emma. "Never mind."

~Correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't want to read everything that happened ~

Yuuki was silent for the whole time when the dragons broke the prisoners out. She hopped on one dragon, and getting comfortable. "So.. where are we even going now?" she asked the group. "Are we just.. going to leave this just like that?" She snapped her fingers for emphasize.


~Short post.~

~You're right! Ruby, the princess, broke them out, setting the guardtower on fire and shifting into a dragon to fly them away. No worries.~

Nyx slipped into Ruby's shadow, re-situating themself in the dark confines, much larger than any other creature that they had the 'pleasure' of trying to possess. Their presence melded into her mind, revealing more of their thoughts than they would give the privilege of to anybody else. They'd known her since before they had become fully shadow, and if they trusted anyone, it was her. They could sense the other beings somewhat, as their shadows mixed with Ruby's as they lurked, skimming through the surface of their thoughts to make sure that none of them would hurt Ruby, finally giggling, an eerie sound that echoed in the minds of everyone, followed by speech in a high, childish voice, also mentally. 'Is that a problem? Ruby could easily kill you and leave your bodies to burn, or I could...'

Zora was a bit uncertain on wether setting the guard tower on fire was a good idea but she got on the dragon all the same, having grabbed Hack and dragging him along. He did say he'd help find the assassin and she wants to know why exactly he was hiding with the guards.

Ruby gave a coughing snarl that served as her laugh in this form, dragging the tip of one claw through her shadow where she could see the cut-outs of Nyx's eyes and mouth. Just the tip made its way into the half-realm that is the insides of shadows to a creature of pure shadow, using a light touch to drag its way down until it closed Nyx's mouth (which did nothing, their speech had been mental, but the point was in the action.) 'Ignore them, we won't kill you. Just hang on.'

Her first speech had been physical, her mouth still used to speaking like a human, but now that she had settled into her dragon form, her speech was mental, projected into the heads of her riders as the muscles in her hind-legs bunched, pushing her off from the roof of the tower with the sound of billowing sails from her wings, beating hard as she lifted away from the guard tower, the roof crumbling under her and revealing flames and screams just as they took off.

Antheia gasped as they suddenly took off, tightly holding onto the the person in front of her, which happened to be Nathan. She trembled slightly, taking deep breaths.
"It'll be okay." Antheia told herself, "It's not that bad, just don't look down..."
She let go of Nathan slightly before taking a deep breath and doing the opposite of what she told herself. She gasped loudly once again and held onto Nathan, saying quietly and quickly, "Sorry I keep grabbing you, I'm just terrified of heights like this."

Nathan hadn't been paying too much attention the talking shadow creature, instead focusing on getting himself situated on Ruby before takeoff since Cadmus had once warned him of what a dragon taking off felt like to ride. He was glad he had when moments later they did take off, because even then he still needed to use his magnetism magic to keep himself upright, and Nathan decided that if he survived this assassin hunt he was going to learn how to ride winged beasts, because this was way different than a horse and actually had the prospect of being fun and functional.

However, Nathan was distracted from his thoughts when he felt Antheia grab on to him. "Well I guess there's always more to learn about your  friends." Nathan said in response to Antheia being afraid of heights, or at least extreme heights. "But I guess I don't mind, we all have something that scares us, sort of like how I'm afraid of wild unicorns, so feel free to hold on like you have been." Nathan said in an attempt to be supportive. Though he wasn't joking about the wild unicorns, just the thought of them brought back some bad memories from his childhood. Meanwhile Cadmus was wrapped comfortably around Nathan's neck, listening to Nathan and Antheia's conversation, but also watching where Ruby was flying them.

Antheia nodded, hiding her face in Nathan's back to avoid looking out. "May I ask why wild unicorns?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

When they took of Alex let out a shout of laughter. "Wahoo! This is what it feels like to fly!" She shouted throwing her hands in the air. If only I could fly on my own, I wouldn't be sitting on the end and risk flying off her to my doom. her once wide smile grew smaller at the thought of becoming trapped once more. We all are safe I hope. At least for now.

"Well, I can't give too many details since there are some around who I don't entirely trust, but I'll tell you what I can." Nathan said with a slight smile. And while it may be him just being a bit paranoid, Nathan wove an intricate and subtly ward around his head, one that he was taught at a young age to prevent mind reading. Hypothetically it shouldn't interfere with telepathic communication since it only blocks unintentional and sub-conscious thoughts, but it was worth arousing suspicion to keep his town's secrets safe, at least until he could trust these people. He usually kept the ward in place permanently, but the prison's magic blocking had broken all of his protections, and he wasn't looking forward to recreating all the wards that had been on him for years.

"So let's see, I was about nine years old at the time, and my training class was on a field trip to observe magical animals in their natural habitats. Well one night me and a couple classmates snuck out at night to explore a bit, but keep in mind most magical creatures back then couldn't stand my presence since I hadn't learned control quite yet." Nathan narrated, being as careful as he could to leave out various details. Cadmus and Antheia were the only ones present who knew just what his abilities were, and for now Nathan intended to keep that way. "Anyway, during our little adventure we came across a field where we found an incredibly beautiful herd of wild unicorns grazing. But then on a dare I was sent out to try and pet one of the unicorns, and I think you imagine how well that went. Suffice to say the entire event lasted three days, left five of my classmates injured, got my parents and teacher and especially the headmaster incredibly upset with me, and left me traumatized for life. I've even got a scar from being stabbed by one, though thankfully it was one of the ones with healing properties so it healed up pretty quick, but it still hurt, a lot." Nathan finished, shuddering at the memory of the lecture he got from the headmaster back then.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Antheia frowned, keeping her head down to keep her face covered, "I'd tell you a traumatizing story from my childhood, but you already know about mine."
She felt the crater where her eye once was, sighing quietly, with her other hand, she touched her bracelet, running her index finger over the cool metal.

"Oh, don't worry. It's because I know your story that I can say that you have it much worse than I do. At least I can look back and laugh it off, so long as I'm not actually around any unicorns, and even my other secret that I told you about isn't all that bad." Nathan said in the hope of getting Antheia to lighten up a bit. Though he couldn't help but put his hand over his left eye for a moment when he mentioned his other secret, remembering the magical experiments he went through throughout his childhood. "But let's shelve that topic for now. I don't think riding on the back of a dragon, and a princess at that, with several fellow escapees from prison on our way to start hunting an assassin mage is the best time or place for such a... personal conversation." Nathan said, trying to change the topic for Antheia's sake again, though really he just didn't like one of his few friends having to go through having memories that he knew were sad being brought up.

Antheia nodded, taking her hand off of her face, but not off of her bracelet. "You're right." she smiled slightly, holding onto Nathan again, "I'm sorry for bringing anything up."

"Don't worry about it, who wouldn't ask about a fear of unicorns." Nathan said, glad that Antheia sounded a bit better. "As for our new topic, well it's a bit unrelated but which do you think is stranger: eating an apple from a talking tree or eating the eggs of a legendary reptile fresh from its nest?" Nathan asked, changing the topic and hoping to settle a conversation he was having with Cadmus when they had been on their way to the capitol.