"No. No I did not agree to this."

"Oh, it'll be fine! It's not that far," Baiji said, steadying herself on the edge of the pool.

Grey ducked his head close to the water. He lowered a talon into it, but immediately jerked it back with a yelp. "Why is it so cold?"

Baiji snickered. "If you think that's cold you've got another thing coming for ya."

"How can you handle that?!"

"Lots and lots of swimming. Now come on, deep breath."

"Wha-" Grey only just managed to take in a breath of air before Baiji shoved him into the water. She swam quickly, her tail fins cutting the water.

Grey felt the cold seep in through his scales. His head throbbed and his eyes pulsed with colors. He let out a small breath of air, feeling a swish of water as Baiji glanced back at him. The EchoFin creased her brow before slowing and swimming beside Grey. She pointed to his talons then at her dorsal fin, as if telling her to grab on.

Carefully, Grey slid his talons around her fin and gripped it tightly as they began to zoom forward, propelling through the water at lightning speed.

Soon they were at the end of the tunnel and Grey shot out of the water like a bullet. He gasped for breath, crawling onto a cold stone platform near the end of the tunnel. Baiji crawled up next to him, but she wasn't acting like a dying fish.

"Ready to meet my friends?" the EchoFin asked.

"Will they try to drown me too?" Grey panted. However the SilkWing got to his feet and let Baiji lead him down a series of tunnels until they reached a wide open cavern.

Grey slowly let his eyes pan out across the cavern. The celling was covered in a luminescent moss lighting up the magnificent buildings made of coral. Most of the buildings were domes with large holes in them which Grey supposed served as windows or doors. Pools of water stretched out across the ground, filled with thousands of tiny golden fish.

"It's beautiful," he gaped.

Baiji nodded proudly. "I love it here."

And that is when the author knew that they had to push a romance... So the author began the next paragraph with:

Between the two a romance was blossoming-

"EW. We literally just met, no way in HELL am I dating him," Baiji snapped.

Er, pardon?

"Yeah mysterious voice. Don't push it.

You too Grey?

The SilkWing nodded.

Ah, well, I suppose not then..

Ahem. Continuing.

"The author always comes in and makes things awkward," Baiji grumped, "I wish they'd just go away."

Grey nodded his agreement, having been made extremely uncomfortable by the auth- HEY. I take offense at that.

"Go bother someone else!" Baiji snapped.

Hmf. Fine then. I won't tell you about the super-secret and mysterious prophecy.

"As if you would have in the first place!"

Not talking to you.

"Not like I want to hear your annoying voice!"

Lalalala CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Grey covered his ears. "No need to shout!"

I can see where I'm not wanted.

...

I'll just go check in on the others.

"You do that," Baiji snapped. The author left that conversation feeling extremely hurt.

- - -

Ace blinked once, then twice. "Did it work?" he asked.

Splendid looked around. "Des?" she called softly, but without response. She shook her head nervously, "He's not here, ghostly or otherwise."

Sunburn sneered. "Told you it wouldn't work Princess."

Ace ignored the SandWing- which was quite the feat saying the dragon in question was throwing insults about how he knew it wouldn't work- and considered what could have gone wrong.

That's when Thor spoke up.

"Ace, you only tried to revive him. You didn't say where to revive him," the SkyWing said, jumping to his feet, "I bet he's stuck where you buried him! If we hurry we can probably dig him up before he suffocates..."

"Idiot," Sunburn said, "We'd never make it in time. Not without animus magic- and Princess's magic clearly isn't all that predictable."

"But we have to at least try!" Thor urged.

"Agreed," Dashie said, "if we can't trust magic, we can at least fly. Thor is the fastest of us, so if he leaves now he might make it."

"On it!" the SkyWing called, already bounding out of the room.

"I'll run and get a healer. I think Chokeberry is still here. Venge come with me to find a healer. The rest of you go after Thor."

"Why should I?" Sunburn asked.

"Then don't come. Just don't hold the rest of us back."

Sunburn flinched back and he opened his mouth to make some sharp retort but Dashie and Venge had already left. Begrudgingly, when the others left, Sunburn followed them.

After all, the SandWing couldn't just leave someone to die.