After getting some rest and seeing Cici and Utu off, the group boarded the dragon queen (save for Reyna, who insisted on flying beside them during most of the flight) and took off for Umber Tor. Everyone onboard save for Enya and Soren had fallen asleep, choosing to stay awake.

"Hon, you've been super tired lately, you should sleep!" Soren yells over the wind as he and his wife were clinging to the dragon queen's horns.

"I'm perfectly fine! Plus I took a nap earlier before we left, remember?" Enya yells back. "I'm too restless now anyways!"

"Oh now you're full of energy after a short nap!" Soren laughs as he turns back to their sleeping friends and smile before looking forward. "It feels nice being one of the good guys this time. Humans, elves, dragons; we're a Draggang!"

"Its kind of the humans to bring their court jester on the journey." Zubeia chuckles.

"Not a jester, I'm the head crownguard." Soren corrects her. "It's like the dragonguard but the Ezranguard. And my wife is a crownguard member in training!"

"Well, if your sword is as sharp as your wit, then the young king is in good hands."

"Wow, thank you! Dragons are so nice! You heard that, right hon?"

"Loud and clear Soren." Enya chuckles as she looks to him with a soft smile. "Loud and clear."

---

It wasn't until morning did they arrive at their destination, a large mountain surrounded by beautifully colored trees that covered every inch of the base. Zubeia managed to land in a large flat area of the mountain with what had a set of doors, allowing the seven passengers to hop off and approach.

"So, what now?" Reyna asks as Ezran walks to the large doors. "Do we knock, or let ourselves in, or-"

The mountain began to shake, rocks falling near Ezran, who was standing by the doors of the entrance. Out of the corner of her eye, Enya could see a large stone figure emerging from the side of one of the walls and immediately she rushed forward to grab the king by his backpack.

"Move!" She yells as she dragged him back to their friends, who were poised to fight as another stone figure emerges from the side of the mountain. The second they reunited with their friends, Zubeia immediately moves forward and covered them with her wings.

"We are the guardians of the gates of Umber Tor!" The tall and more round looking stone giant bellowed.

"Guardians is a bit much, don't you think?" It's companion, a tall lean stone giant asks. "We're more like doormen."

"Guardiansip of this gate is a sacred duty! I've been saying this for five hundred years!"

"Yes, but do we really guard it? We just open and close the-"

"Enough bickering, open the doors!" Zubeia snapped, interrupting the squabbling. "We must see Rex Igneous!"
The two stone guardians look at each other before the more round one steps forward. "Rex Igneous is not accepting visitors."

"Maybe try that next century?" His companion suggests.

"Seriously? The queen of the dragons is commanding you to let her see your master, and you are refusing?" Reyna asks with a frown. "This is an emergency!"

"Sorry little elf, but rules are rules."

"Hey, I know you guys are just trying to do your job." Ezran says. "But-"

"I AM THE DRAGON QUEEN! OPEN THE DOORS OR I WILL REDUCE YOU TO PEBBLES!" Zubeia shouts before letting out a loud roar at the stone guardians, knocking one of them to the floor.

"Uh...we accept your argument." The round stone guardian says as his companion gets off the floor.

"Very logical, yes. We accept."

"Huh, that was easy." Rayla comments as the two guardian rush to open the doors. "This should be a piece of cake, lets just hope Rex Igneous is in a good mood."

The moment the doors were opened, a big gust of wind and dirt flew out, forcing Zubeia to cover the group with her wings until the dust settled. But once she removed her wings, the group was met with an unfortunate sight.

"Uh...it's blocked." Ezran says pointing at the pile of rocks blocking the entrance.

"Oh come on!" Soren groans. "Great, how are we going to get in?"

"Hmm, those weren't there eighty years ago." The taller guardian says with a nervous chuckle.

"Well this is certainly not an obstacle I was expecting." Kasef says with a shake of his head as Soren walks to the blocked doors and attempts to pull on the rocks. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" The knight grunts. "Help me out! You too Enya, you're strong!"

"Hon, the entire entrance is blocked, we can't get through." Enya says with a shake of her head as her husband attempts to pull on the rocks and turns to one of the tall thin guardian. "Hey, is there another way we can get into Umber Tor? Like a back entrance or something?"

"Oh we do have another way!" The guardian says with a nod and points to the side. "It's-"

"What? Do not reveal the secret entrance!" His companion scolds.

"Secret entrance?" Zubeia asks angrily. "Why did you not tell us sooner?"

"Well the secret entrance isn't really...dragon sized." The tall guardian admits. "Its more regular sized, for tiny squishable creatures like elves and humans."

"We may be tiny and also squishable, but if there's any way to Rex Igneous, we're taking it." Ezran says as Soren walks back to them looking annoyed.

"The entrance lies in the Drakewood, deep within the Uncharted Forest." The round guardian says pointing out to the sea of trees.

"Do you have a map or a set of directions or..." Calluma asks.

"Well it is the Uncharted Forest."

"Right, got it."

"You guys travel, don't you?" Soren asks Kasef as he sat down on a nearby rock. "Ever been there?"

"We've only really traveled to and from our village and the Spire these past two years, and to the settlement of the Sunfire elves." The older man says with a shake of his head. "And probably just all Skywing territory in general, never really traveled anywhere else."

"Well that's unhelpful."

"Says the guy who tried to unblock the pile of rocks with his bare hands!"

"I'm sure we'll find the secret entrance, maybe we could ask an earth elf for help." Enya assures them quickly and looks to Reyna and Rayla for help. "Right girls? They're supposed to be friendly, at least according to a book I found once that was a bit outdated."

"Eh, some I suppose?" Reyna responds with a shrug. "Met a half Earthblood once, friendly fellow but never a full one. Wait, does my stepgrandfather count?"

"I must warn you, when you find Rex Igneous, choose your words carefully." Zubeia warns them.

"Yes, the old dragon has a bit of a temper." The tall guardian agrees.

"Oh annoy him and the ground shall rumble." The round guardian warns. "Irritate him, stone shall shatter, lava shall boil! Infuriate him-"

"You'll probably die."

"We'll be fine, we have a way with grumpy monsters." Rayla assures the guardians as she picks up Bait and the toad grunts in agreement.

"Know that all too well." Reyna chuckles as she gave Kasef's braid a small tug, earning a soft blush from him.

"Good luck little heroes, Azymondias and I shall wait you at the Storm Spire." Zubia says as she rose and stretched her wings. "And I shall look after Jelly Tart as well, she'll be safe with us."

"Thank you!" Enya yells as the dragon queen turns and flies off. "Great! So, onto that secret entrance! Anyone know where the Drake wood is?"

---

It was already dark by the time the group were trekking through the Drakewood. Soren led the way, clearly excited about their new adventure.

"Breathe it in everyone! You smell that? It's the smell of adventure!" He says turning to the others as they were following him. "Callum? Enya? Adventure?"

"All I smell is wet dirt." Reyna gags as she rubbed her nose.

"Come on! Let's get our adventuring spirits up! Anyone know any adventuring songs? Rayla? Kasef?"

"SHHH!" Rayla hisses, her knives out and poised for fighting."

"Okay okay! Excuse me for trying to put a little pep in our step." Soren mutters.

"No, get down! Hide!" Rayla says as she shoves him towards the bushes as loud shrieks pierce the air.

As they all hid in the plants, Enya glances up overhead to see a large dragon-like creature land on a large branch with an armored elf on its back roar before taking off and another right at its heels.

"Were those Earthblood elves?" Ezran asks once they are sure the coast was clear.

"Yep, those are the riders of the Drakewood. At least we know we are in the right place." Rayla says as she sheathed her knives.

"Oh I've heard of them." Reyna says as she stands and looks at the direction the riders went. "Not really friendly fellows."

"Maybe we can help us find the backdoor?" Ezran suggests.

"I don't think so, the riders are known for viciously protecting their tuf from trespassers. And then throwing them in a hole called the Pit of Despair." Rayla explains with a shake of her head.

"Okay that sounds bad."

"Then we avoid getting caught by them." Enya says as everyone else gets to their feet and she gets up. "Big no brainer, but the last thing we need is to be flung into some hole in the ground while Claudia is getting closer to freeing Aaravos."

"You six stay here out of sight, I'll go search for the entrance." Rayla says as she points behind her and starts to walk off.

"Youc an't just go off alone!" Soren protests and Rayla's furry companion chatters in agreement.

"For once Soren is right." Kasef says with a nod.

"Hey!"

"Okay fine! Callum and I will go look for the entrance."

"No I'll stay with Ezran, Soren, Enya, you go with Rayla." Callum says with a shake of his head. "You wanted adventure, right? And I know you are gonna protest about being separated from Enya, plus she can give you two a hand on surviving out here."

"Oh, yeah, I suppose that works too." Rayla says, sounding quite disappointed.

"Hey why don't we take Kasef with us, we could use some more muscle in case we run into those riders." Enya suggests.

"I'm not leaving my girlfriend to play babysitter for you three." The older man huffs and Reyna smacks his arm. "Ow!"

"We'll be fine, besides, Ez has two mages to protect him and I know more spells than Callum." Reyna urges him. "Besides, you gotta spend more time with your friend, you haven't seen him in months!"

"Yeah bonding time!" Soren yells as he flung an arm around Kasef's shoulders and the other around Rayla. "Let the adventure begin! Come on hon!"

Enya lets out a small laugh as her husband releases their friends and grabbed her hand to lead her away from the group. "Someone's quite excited.

"Obviously! I haven't gotten to travel like this in ages! Not since that time with Claudia, but last time I traveled with you it didn't go so well." Soren says as Rayla and Kasef ran to catch up wit them, the elf running ahead to start cutting the foliage blocking their path. "And last time I went on a trip with Kasef, he was a grump - like a real grump and did not appreciate my jokes."

"I still fail to see how "Noodleloodlia" is funny." Kasef says rolling his eyes before walking ahead of the couple to sue his staff to shove aside a large branch with his wooden staff.

"And I thought you getting with Reyna would improve your sense of humor."

"It has, I'm just not understanding your humor."

As the four walk on in silence, Soren then decided to break it in attempt to talk to Rayla.

"So...thing are tense." He says loudly.

"Yeah." Rayla responds flatly. "Great evil about to be unleashed, potential end of the world and all that."

"I meant with you and Callum."

"Nope! We are not talking about this!"

"Rayla, you obviously need to, I saw how you two have been acting." Enya says as she hurries to catch up with her friend.

"Look, when you left it hurt him bad - real bad." Soren says as he and Kasef hurry forward. "He was miserable, and now you are back. That's kinda good! And it's kinda bad."

"That's not helping at all." Kasef comments.

"Shush." Soren scolds before turning to look at the sky. "It's mostly just weird and one thing I always say: "Sometimes you need to work out through the weird, and then it will work out - or not. The heart do what it do, or don't what it don't."

"And this is exactly why no one goes to you for relationship advice." Enya says with the shake of her head. "Been married to you for two years and-"

A loud roar pierced the air, followed by a loud laugh, setting the four on edge. Rayla and Soren immediately rush off in the direction of the sound, leaving Enya and Kasef behind confused.

"Are we really running to the weird sounds?" Kasef asks before ENya grabs his hand to follow their friends. "Of course! We never run from the weird sounds, which is what we should do!"

The four soona rived at a small hill looking down at a clearing to see a large dragon like the one they saw earlier and two elves, a small one hiding behind a boulder and a large one swinging something bright around and causing the dragon to back away. The bigger elf swung down the glowing thing he was swinging over his head down on the dragon, causing it to roar in pain.

"You're too wild ya big dumb beast!" The elf yells and Enya felt her blood boil. "We'll break ya!"

"We have to do something!" Soren says as he and Enya move to the edge of the hill and draw their blades before Kasef and Rayla yank them back.

"No, we can't risk being seen!" Rayla whispers when they drag the couple away from the trees. "I hate it too, but we have to keep moving!"

"Hold on, it's just one elf." Enya points out. "We can take him out and help that dragon."

"You are forgetting there's a kid with him, you want them to go running back to the other elves and warn them?" Kasef points out. "We have to be smart about this, it pains me to see that too it really does. But we shouldn't be hasty."

"But it's an innocent dragon, and he's hurting it!" Soren protests as the whipping sound can be heard again and again, the dragon screeching loudly and the elf laughing. "Wasn't that something you cared about, didn't they call you a dragonguard?"

"We can't save everyone Soren." Rayla says as she walks away from them. "There's too much at stake. I'm leavin' and you three better be right behind me."

"Geez, is she serious?" Kasef asks once Rayla had disappeared into the trees and out of earshot.

"That's weird, even for her." Enya agrees as she looksback to where the dragon and elf were. "So, you want to save a dragon or are you going with Rayla?"

"Oh I'm helping you, but we gotta be smart about this. You can grab the kid, me and Soren can handle the dragon and the elf. We can't risk having any of those drake riders catch us and- where's your husband?"

Enya gasps as she turns to see Soren no longer with them before hearing a "pick on someone your own size!" from where the dragon was and rushes to the hill to find her husband between the elf and the dragon.

"Ancients help me, was he not listening?!" She exclaims as her husband is withdrawing his blade before the elf lunges at him and they start to fight.

"Yeah you got lucky, ending up with an idiot." Kasef mutters.

"Excuse me, that's my idiot down there and we should be helping him." Enya retorts as she stands and grabbed the hilt of her sword before her friend grabbed her wrist. "Hey!"

"Wait, I think he's got it on his own. See?" Kasef says as the two fight.

"Aaand he just got his sword knocked out of his hands!" Enya groans as the sword was knocked right out of Soren's hands before the elf leaps forward and punched him right in the face.

"Oof, that's gotta hurt." Kasef mutters and winced as he released Enya. "Wait Enya-"

"Soren!" Enya yells, unsheathing her blade as she rushes down from the hill. "Get away from my husband!"

She nearly tripped rushing down the hill, but the adrenaline coursing through her is enough to keep her from falling. Once she reached the bottom of the hill. The elf quickly turns and took a swing at her when she hits the ground, but Enya quickly ducks and rolled out of the way before jumping to her feet.

"You punched my husband, big mistake!" She snarls.

"Where the hell are you humans even coming from?" The elf growls as he snatched up Soren's blade.

"Enya!" Soren yells as the dragon snarls and walks towards him, Enya quickly getting between him and the beast as the elf points the blade at them.

"Cute blade, don't think it'll work on the drake." The elf sneers as he points the blade dangerously at Soren's neck. "Or me."

"Uh, looks like you win." Soren says and Enya looks at him in horror.

"A mhuirnín, what are you doing?" She hisses as the dragon hissed loudly.

"Shh! Trust me, just keep an eye on the dragon!" Soren hissed back before turning back to the elf. "What do you win?"

As he moves down, Soren suddenly kicked his leg up, knocking his sword out of the elf's grasp and leaving him unarmed before reaching up to grab a large fruit from overhead.

"This fabulous gourd!" He yells before flinging it right at the elf, knocking him right onto the floor. "And that's how you win a fight unarmed!"

"Cripes and ancients, don't do that!" Enya scolds as she smacks his arm, lowering her blade. "You almost gave me a heart attack you dumbass!"

"Okay sorry about that, but I am at least a smart one, right?" Soren asks as he took her sword to shove it back in it's sheath before pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Admit it, come on."

"Soren, the kid!" Soren stops and looks to find the young elf they had spotted earlier, now out of their hiding place and looking at them in fear.

"Oh I completely forgot you were here." The knight admits before the kid bolts.

"You're an idiot that's what you are!" Kasef yells as he slid to the bottom of the hill. "Great winds, now we're going to get caught. Come on, we have to go, the dragon is free now."

The dragon suddenly screeches at them, causing the three to immediately back away as it follows.

"Whoa hero here! I'm trying to help you!" Soren yells as he gestured for the dragon to move. "Get out of here, go! Scram! Skadoodle!"

"Soren!" Kasef yells when his friend grabs some meat from a broken gourd and flung it at the dragon.

A loud shriek suddenly pierced the air before an elf came running out of the bushes, slamming right into the three of them and sending them all falling.

"Hey careful!" Enya yells as she tries to get up.

"Whoa careful!" Kasef says as he grabbed the elf by their backpack to hoist them back onto their feet. "You okay?"

The elf who had ran into them was a small female, her pale blue eyes looking at them fearfully as she backed away before sprinting off into the woods.

"Did that elf look weird to you?" Soren asks as he is wiping his hands on his pants. "Her ears looked a bit funny."

"We have an angry dragon and you want to talk about the elf?" Enya asks as she tries getting to her feet as the dragon got close, only for something to come flying out of the air and wrapping around it's snout and ankles.

"Oh that's not good." Soren mutters before something slammed right into his head, knocking him to the floor.

"Soren!" Enya yells as she tries to crawl over to him as Kasef jumps to the floor to avoid getting hit. Before she could reach her husband, she felt a large hand suddenly grab her by the back of her hair and yank her up. "Ow! Let go!"

"Oi! This ain't the weird elf from earlier!" The Earthblood elf who had grabbed her yells as they turn her to examine her face. "Ugh, humans."

"Looks like Warlon took a hit." Another elf says as they are trying to pin Kasef down. "Bloody ancients, hold still!"
"Ugly things aren't they." Enya captor sneers as they grab her face. "Well we got a special place for gods ugly things like you."

In response, Enya twists her head away before opening her mouth and sinking her teeth into the elf's hand. They yelp in pain as they release her hair, only for slamming their fist into her face and knocking her to the ground. Enya fell painfully to the ground before felling a heavy foot get placed on her head.

"Ugh it bit me!" She hears her captor yell. "Great now I'm gonna get infected!"

"I hope you do!" Enya manages to say before she feels a different pair of hands grab her wrists and roughly tie them.

"Put them in the Pit, let Scarmaker deal with them." A different elf say as the foot is removed from her head and she is roughly yanked onto her feet. She hears a loud noise and turns to see Kasef now slumped on his knees and having his wrists untied.

"Look we're not trying to cause problems, we just need to find the backdoor entrance to the earth archdragon's lair- ahh!" Enya says as one of the bigger elves suddenly yanks her up and tossed her over his shoulder. "Please! We're trying to stop some ancient evil from unleashing!"

"Yeah right." One elf laughs as their companions grab Soren and Kasef. "And I'm the king of the earth elves! Disarm her, before she knocks one of us out like she did with Warlon. And pick that idiot up, I'm not carrying him back to the village. And where's N'than?"

"Beats me, Warlon took him to catch a dragon. Bet the beastie ate him, it'd be good if it did."

"Wow, making fun of a freaking kid who's too young to be doing things like that." Enya mutters as the elf carrying her starts to walk off. "And I thought your race were supposed to be the more nicer ones."

"Shut your trap human trash."

The elves soon carried them off into the woods until they came to a large village, several earth elves wandering around outside, some riding on dragons similar to the one they saved earlier and others watching from their homes. Enya even spotted the kid from earlier, watching them from the doorway of his home with a female elf who looked about her age.

"Ughhhh..." Enya perked up when she hears Soren groan and looks over to see her husband and Kasef stirring.

"Looks like someone's waking up." One of the elves comments as they drag them to a large hole near the ground. "Now who shall we dump first?"

"Drop the blonde in." Another instructs as they and another elf hoist Soren to his feet and fling him right in.

"SOREN!" Enya yells in panic before Kasef is tossed right in as well. "Let go of me! Let go - AAHH!"

She was then unceremoniously flung right into the pit, tumping down until she fell on something hard and soft that yelled "OWW!"

"Oh man...I think you broke something." She hears Soren groan from under her. "You okay?"

"I think so." They hear Kasef grunt. "For a small woman you are heavy Enya."

"Hey I'm not heavy!" Enya protests as she climbs off of them and sets up to look at their surroundings. The pit was dark save for the light of the moon overhead, several plants and large mushrooms growing all around them and the walls looked like they could be climbed. They could escape, right?

"Okay, it's not so bad down here." Soren says as he is getting up and tossing a bone aside. "Wonder why it's called the Pit of Despair?"

"Uh...maybe that's why." Kasef says as a familiar growl is heard from a dark part of the pit. From the darkness emerged the drake from earlier, growling and slowly approaching them as the three humans back up.

"Uh I'm really about throwing gourd goop on you." Soren says as he pushes Enya behind him.

"Soren, just back away, now." Kasef warns as he grabbed Enya to push her behind him.

"Okay listen, dragon friend!" Soren says as he keeps backing up. "Dragon acquaintance! I know you are angry, we got off on the wrong foot! I mean, wrong claw! Talon?"

"A mhuirnín, now is not the time!" Enya yells as she feels her back press against the wall.

"But maybe we can be friends if you just get to know me." Soren says as he walks forward a bit to reach a hand out to the dragon.

"Soren don't!" Kasef warns.

Much to their surprise, the dragon actually stopped advancing towards them as Soren reaches a hand out to it. The dragon gave a curious sounding growl as it stretched its nose out to the human, before it suddenly gave an enraged shriek and Soren stumbles back immediately. Before the dragon could lunge at him, Kasef immediately yanked the knight back by the collar and threw him behind him towards Enya before throwing an arm up just as the drake bit down on it.

"Kasef!" Soren yells in alarm as the man struggles to push the dragon back.

"I got this! Taken worst bites from Hillwolves! This is why I wear leather under my bracers!" Kasef yells back before his fist flew up and punched the dragon in the side of the face, causing it to release his arm and scamper to the other side of the pit. "Ouch...that really hurt."

"And you are the one calling my husband an idiot!" Enya scolds as she hurried over and grabbed his arm to examine the bite. "Shit...this looks bad."

"Well it was either this or let Soren get eaten, and you would kill the dragon with your bare hands if that happened."

"Fair point, but now we have an aggravated dragon and we are stuck in a pit with it."

"Okay but thats not gonna solve the bleeding arm problem." Soren points out as Enya is removing the bloody bracer. "Oh my gods that looks awful."

"I've had worst injuries, trust me, this one isn't as bad as what your father did to me." Kasef assures him as he looks at the bite. "Okay not as bad as it looks, but I certainly could use some water to wash it off, but since we have none I need to bandage it quickly."

"Lets use my surcoat then, it'll do the trick." Enya suggests as her hands go to the belt on her waist to undo it. "Soren, help me?"

"How about we use my vest?" Kasef suggests as he undoes his own belt and removes the vest quickly. "Mags might murder me for ruining it but this is an emergency."

"Fine, but let me do the patching up, had to do this for years."

"Hey I actually liked it when you used to patch me up before taking me to Anya, you even would grab random pieces of cloth to act like bandages for me when i came home with bad scrapes." Soren chuckles as his wife tears at the vest before wrapping a piece of it around Kasef's injured arm. "The dragon is chained, it shouldn't get to us if we stay over here."

"Good, I don't want to deal with that right now." Enya sighs as she finishes the patching up and dropped to the ground to lean against the rock wall. "You think we can climb out of here? I could, if i had a big knife with me."

"What happened to the little knife I gave you? The one you keep on your right arm?"

"Confiscated, as well as my short sword and my traveling bag with the rest of my knives. Oh and whatever weapons you had on hand were taken too."

"Great, and that means my staff and the two knives I've been carrying are gone, as well as Soren's sword. We're basically defenseless." Kasef groans as he sat down and Soren joins them, motioning for Enya to sit close. "I suppose for now all we can do is stay over here and make sure the dragon stays away."

"I don't know why but I feel drained." Enya admits as she leans against Soren, letting out a yawn. "It really has been a while since I traveled like this."

"We're all tired, we should get some rest, you especially." Soren says as he moves her so her head is laying on his lap. "I'll keep watch for now."

"Sure..." Enya murmured before feeling herself drift off to sleep.

---

When she woke up, Enya could hear the sound of something grunting and opened her eyes to find the dragon from earlier several feet away, watching them intently. She froze in alarm before feeling a hand rest on her head.

"Shh, it's not going to get close, we're safe for now." She hears Soren say before he yawns. "Its been staring at us for the past hour."

"What time is it anyways?" Enya asks as she sits up, glancing over at Kasef, who was standing leaned against the wall but snoring loudly, indicating he was asleep.

"Still night, or at least the early hours before the dawn." Soren responds and yawned again. "Kasef and I took turns keeping watch."

"And you didn't bother to wake me because...?"

"You were pretty deep asleep, plus you've been tired lately."

"Don't lose sleep yourself, Kasef and I can't be carrying you if you're exhausted." Enya scolds before looking at the dragon. "I saw how it acted with you before it got spooked, I wonder why."

"Beats me, it was sniffing my hand the way Amaya sniffs strangers hands before she lets them pet her." Soren says with a shrug as his wife gets up to stretch. "Actually...I have a theory."

"Do tell." Enya says as she stops stretching, only to drop to the floor in a push up position and begin to do push ups.

"I think my armor is the problem."

"Explain."

"Well the drake riders wear armor, maybe the dragon thinks I am a drake rider."

"Sounds plausible, though I think it might be something else."

"Do tell please."

"The dragon is wearing those weird metal plates like the other dragons who have riders, it might not be a wild dragon like I thought. And seeing how that big asshole was trying to tame it, I think this isn't the first time someone was doing it the way he did it." Enya explains as she continues her work out. "Remember that one horse in the stables who would panic and freak out when he saw someone holding a pair of reins? And we found out later his previous owner used to whip him with the reins?"

"You think my armor might be scaring it?" Soren asks as she stops and sits back down.

"Not exactly. Did you notice anything before it attacked?"

"Uh..." Soren's eyes then widen in horror. "Oh my gosh it doesn't like the shiny armor! That's the problem!"

"What's the problem?" They hear Kasef ask and turn to see him rubbing his eyes. "I don't recommend sleeping on your feet."

"I think we can befriend this dragon!" Soren says and looks to his wife. "You don't have anything shiny on you right now, do you?"

"Nope, why?" Enya asks.

"Think you can approach the dragon?"

"Hey hey, we are not sending your wife over to get her arm bitten off!" Kasef says as he walks over to sit down next to them. "Are you insane?!"

"Fine, then I am going to do it."

"Do what?" Enya asks before her eyes widened in horror. "Soren!"

"What are you doing?!" Kasef exclaims in horror as Soren is removing the top part of his armor before attempting to remove the red leather tunic he wore under it.

"Taking everything off, can't risk scaring the drake!" The knight responds.

"Soren, that's not necessary, just take the metal off!" Enya scolds as she grabs her husband's hands to stop him from undressing any further. "You are not going to run around without clothes on just to befriend a drake!"

"I won't be, I got those pajamas on under the armor!"

"Please tell me he's joking." Kasef mutters.

"He's not." Enya responds with a shake of her head as Soren lifts his shirt up enough to show the pink floral cloth under the leather. "Look just keep your armor on and remove the metal parts. You don't even have any shiny buttons that are gonna spook it, it's fine!"

"Ugh, fine. You two are so boring." Soren mutters before pulling down his shirt. "If the dragon eats me because of it, it's your fault."

"Great winds, you really married this guy?" Kasef says to Enya.

"Don't judge, you're dating Reyna and she's crazier and weirder than him." Enya responds and swatted his arm. "Okay if we're gonna break out of here, we need to make a plan that's gonna work. For one, we need our weapons."

"Only way out seems to be climbing." Kasef says and points to the ledges. "Enya you're small but good at climbing, you think you could get up there and find a way to get some rope down here?"

"I'll do you one better: I get the weapons and keys, drop them here and distract the drake riders. I'm great at distractions."

"She is." Soren admits. "But what if I do it? Or Kasef?"

"Nope we're not as fast as she is, and it'll take us a while to get up there." Kasef says, shaking his head. "The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can reunite with the others before they get caught too. So once you, Enya, get the rope, weapons and keys, make a run for the woods to lead them away from here."

"Oh! I can use the maneuvers I used back on the Caldera to get Soren to chase me and Rayla!" Enya suggests, clapping her hands in excitement. "My grandfather used to train me on ways to use the forest to outrun pursuers by using everything around me as an obstacle, last time I did this back in Katolis I got Soren to trip over bushes!"

"I had too much to eat before we left!" Soren protests as his wife gets up and moves to a part of the pit, keeping well away from the chained dragon, to a wall with vines and roots. "A mhuirnín be careful!"

Enya waves her hand dismissively at him as she grabs a root to start scaling up the wall, digging her feet into the wall as she climbs, nearly slipping a few times until she reaches the top. Much to her relief, it seemed like everyone in the village were inside their homes and there weren't even any guards standing outside of the pit to make sure no one escaped.

Well if I had a deep pit with a dragon in it, I wouldn't worry about putting guards around it either. Enya thinks as she manages to climb out of the pit and onto the grass. Now to find our weapons. Where would they put them?

As she was sneaking towards the huts in hopes of maybe finding some sort of shed, Enya felt something tap her shoulder. She nearly screamed, whirling around with her fists out in front of her to find someone she was not expecting.

"You!" Enya gasps before the elf smakced a hand over her mouth.

"Shh! I saw you guys got caught because of me, I'm sorry about that." She hisses. "Let me help, I have some rope and I saw where the weapons are at. I can get your friends out while you grab the stuff."

It was that elf from last night, the one who knocked them all over in her haste to run away. Guess the riders were chasing her and that's how they found her, Soren and Kasef.

"I'm going to remove my hand now, please don't scream." The elf says as she slowly removes her hand from Enya's mouth. "So, can I help?"

"You're a human." Enya comments and the elf froze.

"N-no I am an elf." She argues. "I...am a hybrid! A Sunfire Earthblood hybrid to be exact, that explains my funny appearance!"

"Do I look that stupid?" Enya asks with a frown. "You're quite obviously a human, just disguising yourself to look like an elf."

The girl's bit her lip and lowered her head nervously. "How-"

"My husband mentioned your ears were funny, your fourth finger is looking very weird and those horns look very fake if you look at them properly."

The girl looks around nervously before nodding. "Please don't expose me..."

"Why would I? I'd ask why you're pretending but I have no time because I have to get my husband and friend out of the pit, left them alone with a dragon who is not a fan of shiny things."

"Ooh, then we should be quick."

Enya followed the girl to a large shed that looked seemingly unprotected and helped her find the confiscated items, and many other things that looked like they had belonged to elves that certainly weren't Earthblood elves.

"Wow, I don't think I've seen so many knives in one bag." The girl said as Enya is checking through her bag to make sure nothing is missing. "How many knives did you think you needed? This looks like the amount my auntie would carry if she wasn't allowed to have a sword on her person."

"One can never be unprepared, there are just in case I lose my sword or I want to lend it to one of my friends." Enya says as she closes up her bag. "Even my husband can't disagree one can never have too many knives on their person, even gave me one to keep on hand."

"Aww, it's so small!" The girl says when she was shown the small knife that was restrapped to the other woman's arm.

"Alright, I got plenty of rope, lets hope it is enough to reach them and strong enough to support their weight. And knowing my husband, he's not gonna leave that dragon behind. Maybe we can find a key to its chains-"

"Of course it had to be you!" Both humans froze and turned to see that tall red haired elf from earlier, the one who Enya had seen Soren fighting with earlier. "You have a lot of nerve coming here."

Enya could see the girl looking terrified out of the corner of her eye as the elf advanced forward towards them. He was unarmed, and she...was not. Her hand closes around Kasef's wooden staff and grips it tightly, and without hesitation, she bolts. Her body slammed right into the elf's and under normal circumstances she wouldn't be able to knock him over, but the last time she did this to someone bigger than her she was able to. The elf gave a loud yelp as he was pushed out of the shed and thrown to the ground with Enya rolling right off him.

"RUN!" Enya yells, not caring if anyone else heard her. "Go now!"

"Bloody damn human!" The elf she had knocked over yells as he gets up and removes that weapon he had used earlier on the dragon from his belt. Nevermind, he wasn't unarmed as she thought beforehand. "You messed witht he wrong elf! The rest of you stay in your damned homes!"

Enya says nothing, getting to her feet and gripping the staff tightly. She had to give that girl enough time to get to the pit and get Soren and Kasef out and out of here safely. As the elf took a swing at her, she swung the staff to block the attack and quickly jabbed it roughly at his exposed side. Thank the ancients for Soren having the right idea to make her learn to fight with all sorts of weapons when they weren't honing her sword fighting skills.

"That was for my husband." She spat before dropping the staff to draw her sword. "Let's see how you fare against me."

Before the elf could even respond, Enya lunges, barley giving him time to dodge. Again and again she jabbed at him, his weapon colliding with the blade and nearly knocking out of her grasp a few times but she held on firmly to it.

"Getting tired?" She teases as she dodged another attack.

"Not even!" Her opponent spat before he managed to successfully knock the sword from her hands, sensing it flying into some nearby bushes. "Told you that puny little blade was no match for me. Whatcha gonna do now that you're unarmed?"

Well shit. She was technically not unarmed, she still had that small knife strapped to her glove but what was that going to do to a weapon like his aside from getting a finger or two knocked off her hand? And during the fight the elf managed to kick the staff far from her reach too, so she didn't have any weapons that could help her right now. She could do this one thing Corvus had been teaching her for months that was her next best choice, but she never used it on someone as big as Kasef before. Better choice than surrendering and getting flung back into the pit with an angry dragon.

Without warning, she lunges at the elf, and as he moves to attack, she dove between his legs and rolled before leaping back onto her feet. Just as he was turning to face her, Enya jumped right onto him, using his curved horns and long hair to pull herself up before wrapping her legs around his waist as best as she could and quickly wrapped her arms around her neck. She could feel the elf's hands clawing at her arms as she got him in a chokehold the way Corvus showed her, tightening her grip as best as she could.

"Come on...pass out already!" Enya grunts as she tries tightening her grip a little more. The elf was still moving, attempting to remove her arms from his neck as he was gasping for air. "Come on!"

She felt the elf's hands on her arms fall before she felt him go limp and immediately releases to jump off as he fell in his face. Oh ancients did she kill him?!

"Oi! The human got out!" She hears an elf yell and looks up in alarm to see the other drake riders from before rushing over. Shit. Could she take all three of them at once unarmed? Before any of them could get close, she heard a loud familiar shriek before an all too familiar orange and green dragon and two very unfamiliar dragons landed right on top of the riders.

"Don't you even dream of touching my wife!" Soren yells as the dragon from the pit he was riding roars in agreement. "A mhuirnín! Get on a dragon!"

Enya quickly hurries over, jumping onto the dragon that didn't have a rider occupying its saddle before grabbing the reins as it took off into the air after the other two dragons. She yelps in alarm as she held on, the adrenaline that had been coursing through her now gone and now replaced with fear.

"What were you doing fighting that elf, I thought you had run off towards the woods?" Kasef yells over the wind as the three of them are zipping through the forest.

"Causing a distraction for you three to escape!" Enya yells back before they land their mounts on a large rock. "Where's the girl?"

"What girl?"

"Didn't you see a girl at the edge of the pit? Short blonde hair, dressed a bit too warmly for the summer, also sporting fake ears and horns if you look closely?"

"Wait, are you talking about the elf girl with the weird ears who got us caught by the drake riders?" Soren asks. "She helped?"

"She's a human Soren, even got that confirmed and she begged me not to expose her." Enya says before slapping a hand over her mouth. "Shit-"

"Wait, you're telling me that aside from us there's another human in Xadia?" Kasef asks. "And they weren't from that temporary settlement that the Sunfire elves have near their ruined kingdom?"

"I..I said I wouldn't tell anyone. Oh ancients I'm terrible."

"Hon, it's fine. That was accidental." Soren assures her. "I suppose that explains who it was we saw running towards the woods when we managed to climb out of the pit before I jumped back in to release Squeaky."

"Squeaky?" Enya asks and the dragon Soren was riding made a happy chirping noise.

"Yeah, she makes the cutest little squeaking noises when I pet her neck like this, it's so cute!" Her husband laughs as he demonstrates, earning some happy chirps from the dragon. "So it turns out she was not a fan of shiny metal stuff and actually let me get close when I removed the metal parts of my armor! Oh and I had to cover my sword with dirt and mud so it wouldn't spook her when I was trying to hack her chains off."

"Seems like someone had fun during their escape." Enya sighs with a tired smile. "We need to keep moving, before those riders find us and try to find the camp."

"And rest, we hardly got any sleep." Kasef adds with a yawn. "Just hope the others are okay."

They soon found a spot to rest in, a small clearing where could make camp at, even removing the reins, harnesses and saddles of the dragons so they could lay down comfortably. Squeaky even curled herself around the three of the humans, and the other two dragons did so as well, acting like a barrier.

"I'm so glad you are safe at least, got me worried that someone would stop you from escaping." Enya sighs as she snuggled against her husband. "Really thought something bad happened when I was busy looking for our stuff."

"Nah, Squeaky kept us safe after I befriended her." Soren assured her. "The other dragons seemed pretty scared of her, the moment we approached them to secure two mounts becaus eit turns out they can't fly with two people, thy immediately backed down the second she hissed at them for just snarling at us."

"Aww that's so sweet. But...you're not thinking of bringing her back with us when this is over, are you? We already have enough pets as it is and that includes Amaya and her pups."

"Can't we? Tart could have a new big sister to play with now that Amaya is occupied with her puppies!"

"Soren."

"Can you two please shut up? I'm tired and you're blabbing isn't helping." Kasef says loudly from the other side of Soren. "Also you owe me a staff Enya, that was my favorite and I'm very sure if ee ever returned to that village it's gonna be nothing but toothpicks and splinters."

"He's right, we need sleep." Enya sighs as she yawns. "We need to sleep."

"Agree." Soren yawns before hugging her closer to him. "We'll find the others in the morning."

---

Enya wasn't even sure what time it was when she awoke, but by the time she had opened her eyes, it still seemed pretty dark. She could feel the bile in her throat and immediately she's trying to crawl over the dragons to vomit away from them, tossing up whatever contents she had left in her stomach. She could hear the dragons chirping and making confused noises as she glanced behind to see only two of them with their heads lifted and looking at her concerned.

"Did you eat something weird or something?" Kasef asks as he sits up and yawns. "Hey...where's Soren?"

"Huh?" Enya immediately gets to her feet and hurries over to see that Soren was not laying next to Kasef and Squeaky was gone as well. "Umm, maybe he got up to relieve himself?"

"And took a dragon with him? Unlikely." Kasef scoffed as he gets up and grabs on the reins of one of the dragons to gently tug on it to raise it to its feet. "Something happened, he didn't bother to wake us and took his dragon with him. We need to find him, now."

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commissioned art by horns.n.jams!