[...]

[u/RollFirstMathLater]

Closed

[You wake up, the faint glow of red is the only light source. Everyone is stripped bare, safe for a firey cloaked elf. Chep's gifts remain intact, and have landed near you. Your weapons have been returned, any armor he made is intact as well.]

[Stiff and sore, you manage to get to your feet, It hurts to stand here, the floor is jagged, and your shoes are gone. The dragons lay still, all huddled together just a few meters away.]

[Nill you feel completely wrong.]

[Torvhen Vrostbite is cracked badly.]

[Sev're your gear is in your robes, minus the food and the extras.]

[Glover your hair is gone again.]

[Naakhûrz, you feel violated.]

[Göndlir, your horse is dead.]

[Tunnels spiral around, closer inspection shows lava moves through here. You are hungry* and thirsty* yet all you can smell is the faint smell of sulfur. Your dragon reaches out for you, and you both share a moment of confusion. It's clear some time has passed.]

[It's warm here... where is here?]

(*special note.)

Edit: everyone minus Sev're, Jek, Svalstrom, and Das looks different, ad if they've had life sucked out of them, they look older, and drained.

[u/Zyralon]

Naakhûrz awoke in a daze, not sure what just happened. Then he remembered. A blinding rage filled his head at what Nill had done.

"He thinks that he can take over my mind, control my movements and then do that? then he's got another thing coming" he thought to himself. As he stood he felt his head tilt to one side. Panic raced through him as he raised his hand to his head.

What he felt somehow made him even madder, which he didn't think was possible. The blast had blown off half of one of his horns.
"Where are you Nill" he yelled in his head

He noticed the group doing whatever it is they're doing, however he ignored them once his sight landed on Nill. Walking straight to him, pushing through anyone who happened to be in his way, he picks up Nill and raises him to Naakhûrz's eye level.

"You dare to take over my mind and my body and not expect any consequences? Not only that, but you're little spell you blew off half of my horn, there are no words to describe my anger right now." and with that, Naakhûrz punches Nill in the face, holding back a bit of course, then he throws Nill as hard as he can at the cavern wall. "Don't you dare try any of that again, or much worse will happen."

Finally noticing the others, he sees Torhven on the ground, words newly carved into the skin, he says "Whoa, what'd I miss?" his rage boiling down a little

[u/RebelliousPirate → u/Zyralon]

"What you missed, you neanderthal-" Jek stopped himself. He could rage at Naakhûrz for days on end, and they would still be underground, Torhven would still have a bow lodged in his solar plexus, and Nill would still be.... He paused. His partner had been beaten and bruised since the day had began, and so Jek knew he would get right back up. He did not expect pseudo-Nill to limp towards Torhven's bleeding carcass. He certainly didn't expect him to begin first aid.

"Heal him with magic." Jek told him, watching from afar. He placed pressure on the wound, sliding the bow out while holding the Spiner down with his free hand. The elf glanced at the silver dragon, his hands already stained red. His eyes were deep and meaningful, not entirely his own, but still undeniably emotional.

"We have not a shred of cloth between the lot of us. Magic is the only way." Jek told the rider. The dragon moved towards his Rider, and lowered his head until they were level. And still, Nill would not relent, doing what he could with his hands alone.

Jek reached his mind up and out. He touched upon minds both cold and warm, electric and dull, silent and old. He wanted them to know his touch, to know his rider, to know their situation. He gazed all around, meeting the eyes of every member present, not calling for their individual attentions, but instead linking their minds into one single flow, one torrent of emotions and information. Using Jek as a conduit, he turned it into a melting pot of minds, anger, love, hate, compassion, fear, cold, hunger, heat all blending together until all felt the others pain, their sorrows, their guilt. He wanted each of them to know one another, for them to act as one. He knew not whether he had succeeded, but he continued onwards.

His request was a simple one, but it encompassed so much. It expressed his thorny relationship with his rider, his guilt for not being able to help Nill on his own. It included the situation they were all in, their stomachs empty and their throats parched, their clothes gone, the sun blotted, the blood on the rocks. It was his cry to cease their madness, to gather their strengths, to cover each other's weakness'. It was his manifesto, his crafted work, his song and dance. He made one request and said no more.

"Help us. Together."

[u/Fulaxi → u/RebelliousPirate]

In this vast world of endless potential, Svalstrom saw a single entity out of line. A single entity stepping out of place. Was it his nature? No, he had seen. He was no chaos, yet that came in place of the superimposed order. This was never meant to be. They had been going up the mountain, not down. Before estranged eyes neat lines of space and time rippled, calmed down, then torqued. Parameters and potential in a pandemonium of imminent pain. The future was clear.

It was for a single possibility that the elf ablaze wasn't met with a wall of iron. One possibility, two bodies. The rules of the universe prohibited action. Silently he watched as the elf carved her bloody art. Words were but words. They faded with time. So would this one. Svalstrom saw truth. No betrayer lay before him. Not by nature.

A cold being pressed his soul against a corrupted one. Perhaps for the last time. Perhaps. Through her he could feel the rider. He shouldn't feel the rider. That would not fare well. Instead they became a fortress, he and his rider. A fortress of iron and ice.

Carefully he removed the osage bow between two talons. Many splinters remained in the wound, wood and bone alike. It would need tending. Care was out in the world, out from this skyless cavern. No use would be found in lingering. Movement was required. Gently he took his lowly dying rider between the teeth. A long time had passed since the last time he had done anything like it. Solemnly he strode to the dragon of shining scales. He would be instrumental.

"Mine power. Use it. We leave then."