1x1 with sugarbird

[sugarbird]

-----He was thankful this little show never lasted terribly long. Alphonse occasionally made Orion perform twice in one day, which was unfortunately a possibility. It wouldn't matter tonight, though. He hopefully wouldn't even be here for a second performance. Eventually that trick was done, and the snow dissipated after the crowd finally stopped applauding. How mindless and boring must their lives be for this performance to still be entertaining to these people after years of watching it again and again? He's never thought about that before. But thinking about it again, they simply must be more in awe of getting to see this big beautiful feathered dragon perform tricks for them. Maybe they liked feeling special for having a dragon, a creature that's already rare and neigh impossible to obtain, perform for their entertainment.

-----At this point, the show was reaching its midpoint before the climax. Orion was still concerned greatly about how Lehra was handling this so far. He didn't doubt her abilities one bit, but.. he didn't know if she was capable of being patient enough to strike at the right time. When even was the right time? Already, he was desperately wishing he could just go back in time and stew more on this escape plan. All he had to do was keep eyes on him, that was his job. No way even he could screw this up.

-----Orion internally scolded himself for being too caught up in thinking, and immediately returned to the present. This was his cue to perform his next trick, and he was already a half second late! No more delays this time, otherwise Alphonse might suspect something. He sucked in a long hard breath of air, puffing his chest and feeling it tighten as his lungs filled to near bursting. Orion then exhaled ice cold air slowly from his open mouth. He produced a glittery white powder snow, extremely thin and light. It was light enough to remain suspended in the air for a long time, and thick enough to obscure the audience's view of each other.

-----This might actually work in Lehra's favor- this fog limited everyone's view but his. And this trick was always one of the most popular, one that the people always reacted strongly to. The mist covered this entire part of the lobby, yet it wasn't thick enough to choke. Some particles of snowy mist came together in front of each party-goer, forming blurry shapes of animals. Snowy horses raced around the dining tables weightlessly, eagles flew gracefully, gently pulling up the table cloths with every wing flap. The animal silhouettes wowed everyone in the room, causing them to "ooo!" and "aah!" loudly.

[Bronzewing]

Lehra sighed- this was going on longer than she liked. Sure, it may have just started, but she hated it already. Nothing was happening, just...tricks and stuff for the audience. The guards were enraptured- had they never seen a dragon before? They were basically right on top of her! Stupid humans- didn't even know what was right in front of them. Of course, it wouldn't be good if they knew they were staring death in the face.

She waited, still not noticing a single delay- it seemed normal to him. The audience was still clapping, people were still happy, she had no clue if something weird was going on or not. Either way, she didn't actually care. As long as nobody expected anything, she would wait until something happened. The instant Orion started to exhale the cold frost, she saw it cover the audience in a thick fog- this was good. The guards slackened their grip on the ropes, enough for her to slip away- but she decided to wait until the fog reached them, covering the guards and causing some of them to wave it away from their face.

This was it.

She lunged forward, rapidly turning her body and causing surprised guards to let go of the ropes. Their angry cries were drowned out by the applause by the audience, and were a moment later silenced by the venom on her tail. One of them pulled at the rope around her jaws, but she snapped at them- they let go, and she tore the rope away from them. With a snarl she rushed off, taking out whomever came close- the fog helped hide her movements. While she couldn't see much, neither could the humans- and they were at a worse advantage to be stuck in here with her. One of them, panicky and turned around, easily fell to a slash of claws. This was going rather well.

She slipped away, heading into the back hallways. The guards were easy to take out- too easy, she realized. Maybe something was waiting for them, or maybe the humans knew more than they let on. Maybe Orion slipped up and they figured something out. Either way, she would complete her side of the deal. Now what? The keys? She had no clue who would have them, but she guessed it would be by the door, and so she started to pad away in the direction she believed it would be in. She had a feeling that the back row of the audience was closer to the door, so she started to run off to the left.

She wasn't too stealthy, but as a great raging dragon, she did more damage than any human could. Running around she hit into servants and workers, all panicking at the sight of her- she threw them against the wall with a slap of her tail, some dishes breaking as she did so. So far, so good. Maybe just a bit more, and she would have the keys in her jaws, and then Orion should meet her- and the two of them were out of there.

It felt strange- very strange- that this was working so well. She had a bad feeling that she hoped was just nothing.

[sugarbird]

-----Orion's keen hearing was blasted with unpleasant applause, but he also barely heard some commotion in the far back. None of the humans knew what was going on, but the drake could sense some rising tension in the air. The feathers on the back of his head stood on end in excitement and fear, knowing full well that those clacking of nails and shattering of porcelain or some type of glass was Lehra's doing. No one else heard this though, thankfully. It was one of the few instances that he was thankful he was a dragon, and his senses could hear the difference between uproars of the audience and a stampeding dragon in the back. And those noises were his cue.

-----Keeping the mist up, Orion hunched down and quietly but quickly slunk around Alphonse and towards the opposite end of the lobby. The few guests that could see the starry black drake only could see him for a moment before he was gone. Nobody suspected anything at all, thinking this was a new addition to the show. He used their awe to his advantage and crept outside of the mist. His heart suddenly slammed repeatedly against his chest as he stumbled into a guard, probably dead, laying on the floor. He barely saw its outline in the fog it was obscured by, but Orion knew too well what it was. She was initiating the escape- this was the time.

-----Once he was out of range for his mist, he bolted away as fast as his legs could carry him. It wouldn't matter, since the crowd was still whooping and hollering. Just the act of running for this long was already tiring to him- Orion can't remember the last time he ran in his life, and his leg muscles must be at least somewhat atrophied after many years of hardly working them to this degree. Despite being a healthy weight, his legs were already shaking from the pressure they endured every time he ran a step. Hopefully Lehra would find this key he needed to use to get them out before him, otherwise they'd have to go back and search every body while still having to worry about the other people.

-----His eyes scrambled around to find Lehra, and his ears flattened as he heard the sound of women screaming from where he was before. The mist dissipated and they must've found the guards Lehra dealt with. Orion suddenly grit his teeth and kept running. At this point, he was just hoping he'd find her somewhere in the opposite end of this giant space. His brain was on autopilot as he went into panic mode. More unconscious folks could be seen. He began panting out of sheer panic and wanted nothing more than to find his friend and book it to the exit.

[Bronzewing]

Lehra was trying to keep quiet. However, when you're a giant raging dragon, it's not too easy. All the guards that realized her escape were falling under sharpened claws- and she rooted through their clothes for keys. None of them had a key yet, but she guessed that as she got closer to the door, more guards would carry them. She only needed one key in order to get out of there.

How was Orion doing? Was the mist gone yet? It didn't reach this far into the back- so she wasn't sure whether the carnage had been revealed or whether Orion was still keeping the show up. Would the other humans realize before they did and capture them? That wouldn't be good- she did want the other dragon to go free along with her- but she would have to keep moving. Stick to the plan: keep running, get the key, escape, fly. The men hadn't yet noticed, as the guards she kept running into had a look of surprise on their faces as she barreled towards them. No keys.

No key. No key. She started to hear screaming- it appeared that people had figured out what was going on, and weren't very happy about it. They had seen the dead guards, she guessed- she could try to be quiet, but not be very neat. Hey, maybe the wizard wouldn't notice and still try to play it off like part of the show. That would be rather funny- seeing the man embarrass himself- but she did need to escape, not laugh about human antics. No key here...one of the guards laid against the side of the wall, pretending to be dead, but she caught up on them and slammed them unconscious against the wall. She was getting a bit panicky at this point- what if nobody had the keys? Then the whole plan would be kaput, and they would have to deal with whatever punishment the wizard dealt out- and to her, staying in this horrid place was a fate worse than death.

Checking through a few more guards, she felt something metal in one of their pockets- pulling it out with a claw, she saw the keys laying flat on her palm. She started to laugh a bit- rather jarring after everything that had happened- just out of relief. She found it- they could get out of there- she just needed to find the doors and then wait for Orion for the great escape.

Hearing noises from down the hall, she dashed off to find the door. Now she just needed to wait for her partner.

[sugarbird]

-----Orion could hear a much more angry than terrified voice come from amongst the crowd in the background. "What is going on here!?" Alphonse shouted loud enough to drown out the murmurs of the concerned audience. The drake whimpered and sped away even faster than before. Why is this place so huge!? Hopefully she's by the doors now, because I might as well go there! He's never been disciplined by the angry wizard in so long, and he wasn't about to be anytime soon. Hopefully not. He'd have to spend more nights in that storage cellar again if he was caught this time, like he did so long ago. And that would be the best possible outcome.. He didn't want to imagine his head mounted over Alphonse's fireplace.

-----Alphonse on the other hand was frantically scolding the remaining indoor guards to go look for the dragons. Because of the emergency situation that had occurred, word was quick to spread to the outside guards of the mansion. Reinforcements came in shortly after to join them. It wouldn't be long now before this mansion was swarmed with armed guards. Orion knew at this point that escaping was going to be significantly more difficult. Guards outside the place would know what to expect. But it was still worth a try- he wasn't backing out now. "I want you to find those dragons! I will accompany your search! Get to it now!!" The guards nodded curtly. They didn't even get the chance to actually leave before getting scolded harshly. "Now! Now now now now now!" He turned back towards another group of reinforcements that came in. "Guard the rest in the lobby!" They accompanied the party-goers without delay. "Everything will be under control shortly, fear not!" With that half-baked reassurance given to them, Alphonse then sped over with a party of guards to search for them. This was the first time in his life since forever that he's felt this bewildered and frightened- Amber acted docile up until now. He immediately suspected that she was the one to do such a thing and rebel. He wasn't wrong there.

-----Orion by now had found the main exit. No guards here, so that meant that they were too focused on Lehra to stand guard here. Hopefully she found the key in that case. He was not going to leave this spot in front of the doors, as much as he wanted to just sprint around a corner and hide. The noises that echoed around him caused great distress, and he ended up pacing about in front of the main exit waiting for Lehra. "Orion! Amber!" an angry voice called from a not-so-far distance. Orion's feathers stood up on end and he instinctively froze in place in panic. He heard frantic, heavy stampeding coming from his opposite side. That must've been Lehra!

-----"The key!!" he called out to her. "Hand it to me! I got the door!" His mind wasn't even racing this time around. It was on autopilot. He didn't think about the words he said, nor the actions he would do here soon. His head was completely engulfed in instinct of wanting to escape this place. They were so close now-- but Alphonse was also close.

[Bronzewing]

While she hadn't been living there for too long, she could still recognize the angry screams of her captor. Hah! He was losing it- but she hoped that he wouldn't find them, as that would ruin the whole escape. She was so, so close- and this was the time! She wouldn't STAND to be with the humans for a second longer! THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN! Se had the keys, she knew where the exit should be- but she wanted to wait for her partner instead of running for it. She could...she had everything...but they were such an important part of the escape that she didn't feel it was right to leave them behind. Sighing, she took a few steps forward- before running, but looking around as she did so. Both the wizard and Orion were her targets- run TO Orion but run FROM the wizard. Perfect. If somebody else got in her way, they were dead.

She heard footsteps from behind her- humans. The cries of the wizard, some shadows across the walls- and she wouldn't backtrack to see which side of the guards were approaching. Maybe the wizard was in tow, maybe they weren't. She wouldn't turn away and risk the whole thing. She had the keys, now she just needed the exit. She had the keys...she could open the door...and she could take out whomever was guarding it. It did feel strange to have Orion see her murder some people- they didn't at all seem like the dragon to want her to see something like that. Oh no, not at all.

She heard the cries of the wizard, but a more draconic voice came through- and there was only one dragon here. She barreled into the room, coming towards him at an alarming speed- tossing the keys at him as she ran by, sliding to a halt by the door. Nobod was there- good. Orion didn't need to see her kill somebody face to face, but the blood on her scales probably wasn't helping much. Either way, they were by the door- all he had to do was open it. AND HE BETTER OPEN IT!

She would NOT stand for betrayal this close to escape. Filled with rage, panic and pure determination, she yelled at him with a blood-covered face: "OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR QUICK

[sugarbird]

-----Orion stood frozen as he watched Lehra zoom past him while tossing the key his way. She was quick enough to leave a trail of stirred air behind her that ruffled his feathers. He only barely caught the key as he stood up on his haunches and used his front legs to catch it. It bounced back and forth between both his palms as he frantically struggled to grasp it with his shaking talons. But after a half second of fumbling, he fully gripped it and turned to see the terrifying, bloodied face of a stern dragoness. This frightened him greatly- he's never seen such a sight in his life. Her teeth bared at him, her eyes burning holes in his soul. He couldn't tell if she was still on his side or not after seeing that, she was yelling at him like he was an obstacle that was in her way.

-----But one thing was quick to be remembered; it didn't matter either way what happened. He was probably going to be dead after this anyway. Orion regained his bearings after another second of panic. He shoved the key the right way in into the keyhole, turning it to unlock the exit. The force in which he pulled the key back out caused the doors to pull inwards a bit and creak outwards again. This left the door slightly ajar, just enough for Lehra to know that it was open- they were free to go. But all Orion could do was take a step or two back to avoid getting in her way while she most likely would burst out.

-----Alphonse caught up with the dragons not even half a minute after the door was opened. The wizard stopped before Orion first and foremost, shocked to see him here. He saw the door that was open. He saw Orion right beside it. He knew right away that he was the one responsible for opening that door. The female was a wild dragon, there was no way she was capable of opening a man-made door without help. Orion knew full well how human doors worked. "You.. you.." he growled, seething with intense rage at the dragon that he thought for so long was just a submissive little pansy. He never knew Orion was even capable of rebelling against the grand wizard. He's been loyal and obedient to a fault for so unbelievably long.

-----The red on the marbled floor was indication enough that the dragoness he had his men capture just yesterday was the one who did the dirty work while he took the key she stole and used it to free her. Orion was helping that dragon. "Subdue him!!" he shouted towards the guards, leaving the little group to burst out the door and follow after Lehra. But at this point, no amount of magic could re-capture a target that was already out of sight. Orion shrunk back from the guards as they proceeded to close in on him. The group split up into two, surrounding the beast with weapons aimed at him.

-----He whimpered and stood frozen for a little bit, not sure what in the world to do. The amount of pressure he was facing was immense, here. He's never done something this bad in ages, and he was already considering giving up. Lehra would escape while he stayed here to possibly die.

-----But his mind was torn in two sides. One that shut down and shouted at him to give up, and another that kept staring out that exit.

-----The doors were still open. The guards didn't care about them anymore, as they were all busy outside trying to find and deal with Lehra alongside their master. Time seemed to slow down in that moment as every second he waited to decide what to do. He was deciding something important for himself for the very first time in his life. He was deciding on his future. Leave and maybe die trying? Or give up and definitely pass away? Visions flashed before his eyes of things he had seen in his life so far. Most of them were images of the garden, images of the castle and its dim innards, images of the grand windows.. and images of the mountain he saw beyond the human lands.

-----No, no, no, no. Staying here seemed like such a ridiculous option now. He never lived! He never lived at all in the first place! And he was about to throw away his only chance to actually live? Orion's whimpers grew lower in tone, and his mouth instinctively bared teeth to hiss through them. He hissed for the first time at someone. He spread open his wings with great force and knocked away the guards that were on either side of him. In response, the ones that stood standing shot foreword with their weapons and attempted to stab him. Only one managed to hit his shoulder pretty good, but he was so filled with adrenaline that he didn't feel it, nor did he care. The frightened beast then sprang away from the group and out the door, rushing onto the path that lead outside. He ran so fast, probably the fastest he's ever ran. And after a few moments of running, he hopped off the ground and tried desperately to fly.

-----He flapped again and again hard, panting loudly for every wing beat he took to ascend. Due to the sheer size of his wings, they resisted a ton of pressure from the air that pushed back against them just as hard. He had to slow his wingbeats just to make it more tolerable to fly. The bones in his wings creaked and popped as he worked them hard for the first time ever, and Orion was already tempted to cry from the anguish this caused him. But no matter- he kept going. Adrenaline was to thank for this energy and perseverance. I don't know how to fly.. I don't know how to-- whatever, whatever. I'm going, I'm going! Don't stop.. As he got high enough, he just barely felt the wind beside him shift when a spear whizzed past him. They knew he was escaping too. He barely dodged it and kept looking for Lehra.

[Bronzewing]

She breathed heavily, not at all realizing how she was frightening Orion- all she wanted to do was get out. They needed to open the door fast- as fast as they could- since she was in no way willing to see what the wizard would do if they got their hands back on them. Sure, she didn't want to be a tame pet- but she didn't want to be made into a potion this close to the outside! Sure, everything was a mess out there, and home was off limits, but at least she wouldn't be stuck in a stuffy building for the rest of her life! That wasn't at all something she wanted!

The key- there it was, entering the door. She held back from lunging into it- she did rather want to- and instead waited to see it crack open until she knew if it was open or not. Not being greatly familiar with doors- all the ones in the desert were ruined and covered in sand- she stayed staring at it for a moment or two after Orion had opened it up. It was once she saw them back off and the small crack at the side when she realized it was open. She lunged, moving fast, slamming against it with her front claws- and it swung open, showing the bright day outside- so, so different. So bright... better than the false lights the humans enamored.

She stepped out, the front half of her body outside- clear out of the door, in the wild air- it wouldn't be hard for her to flap her wings once, twice, and be out of there. But no- she wouldn't have been able to get out without her partner, and therefore she would wait for them. She turned around- and there they were, the men and their guards, ready to ruin their day. Which, she admitted, just the sight of them had already ruined.

"ORION!" she yelled, opening up her jaws with a screech. "Come on! It's open, come out!" Her wings flapped, sending gusts of air around- they weren't going to head back, were they? After all this work...it was freedom! They would get used to it! It was time for them to get out of there, flying into the air, being free as a dragon should be...oh, it took everything in her not to fly away and abandon him! But despite her powerful title, Lehra the Warmaker wasn't the kind to do something of that nature.

The guards run out- she would not, not at all, let them ruin her! Using her tail and strength same as she did when she rampaged through the halls, she heated up her scales to a searing temperature and scratched at them, using her extra aerial maneuverability to her advantage. This was HER territory, and they couldn't get her out of it! Not now, not ever!

"ORION! You have wings, get out of there!" she said, tapping her tail across the ground one last time before flying upwards, taking a chain off her leg as she did so. She couldn't wait any longer- it was up to him now, he had room to fly, and if she stayed there for even one moment longer...they would drag her down, they would have her back in their clutches with chains and ropes...from this, this close to escape!

Lehra would blame herself greatly if she missed her chance when this close to it. She would blame herself if she didn't fly off- if she went back into captivity. Was it weakness to wait for him? No- but she had to. She had to stay around, but at the same time... she flew upwards, wings pointed upwards, soaring up into the sky- out of the humans' range, but still close enough as to see the other dragons.

And there they were- coming with her- and she felt her heart light up, the wind blowing around her scales, a smile taking over her face. They were coming- they made it out, they chose freedom, and now she could fly onwards with no blame for possibly leaving them behind. She flew, getting to a steady height, her large wings made for soaring like this- and off she went, gliding high in the air, not stopping.

A spear whizzed past her, and she heated her scales up again- just so any wood that hit her would burn and make less of an impact against her scales. Another spear flew by- they really wanted her, and she wouldn't stand for it. Another spear- this one hit her lashing tail, breaking in half and sending splinters back towards the ground. To her...this was a success.

[sugarbird]

----Orion's sights eventually landed on the dragon he was looking for- there she was! Lehra was already a little ways ahead of him. He could catch up with her now if he decided to push hard enough. More spears started shooting upwards. Thanks to his sharp hearing, he managed to hear the wind whistle underneath him for every spear chucked his way. And thus, he dodged all of them well before they even made it to his height. It was very difficult for a dragon that never flied like this to dodge and weave in the air, but his instincts and his shock managed to let him do that. He was getting high up to where the spears wouldn't be able to reach him, but there was still a few threats left to worry about; the archers, and Alphonse.

----The archers shot wave after wave of arrows in the dragon's directions. These things wouldn't kill any dragon of course, but they were shot with the intention of slowing down their escape. A lot of them aimed for the head and eyes in an attempt to blind them. Orion was a nice big target, so of course a few arrows were going to hit him. He didn't have a suit of scaly armor like Lehra did. They stung a little bit, but it felt more so like a bee sting to a dragon as big as himself. Most all of them were knocked away from him anyway thanks to his massive wings that slapped most of the oncoming arrows away. This was going okay so far.. would he actually make it out? Did he underestimate his own power as a dragon after all?

----The wizard didn't manage to find Lehra first. Instead, he caught the sight of what looked like a giant black spot in the air- something that looked like a shred of the night sky among sunrise moving away at high speeds. Alphonse was once again shocked. Orion actually had the guts to rebel against his guards and try to escape with the dragoness. That wild dragon had changed him! Turned him against his master! How dare she. How dare she. While the archers were shooting at the dragons with their crossbows from the rooftops of the mansion, Alphonse debated where he stood whether or not to go for Orion or Amber. He decided Amber. There was no way that feathered pet would survive a single night out in the wilderness. He didn't know a single thing about being wild. As pleasurable as it would be to reap his vengeance on the traitor and see his cowardly face contort to one of fear, he above all else didn't want to lose his newest obsession; his latest prize.

----So, the master then muttered incoherently to himself, clapping his palms together and slowly separating them again. A purple orb materialized between them, growing larger and larger until it eventually took the shape of a physical being. Alphonse chanted loudly a command in an arcane language, shouting at the temporary familiar he had summoned. The purple being barked in response and shot outwards, fully taking the shape of a spectral wolf creature. It dashed through the air and headed straight for Lehra, snarling and barking loudly all the way. It was on a mission to take down the dragoness, not kill her. But one could easily mistake it for having that intention. Orion caught sight of the thing going straight for her, and immediately shouted up a warning. "Lehra! Watch out!!" Those were all the words he could possibly say to her before the thing was right on their tails. The dragons still out-sped it by a little ways, but it was snapping wildly at the very tip of the dragoness' tail in an angry effort to at least distract her, uncaring of the venomous barb that could hurt it. How long could this thing follow them?

[Bronzewing]

Breathing heavily, she hoped the adrenaline wouldn't wear off- not for a while, she hoped. She needed to keep going, she was still in range of the humans, she needed to be OUT of there. Heating up her scales further, she was a blaze against the sky- probably enough to burn a cloud or any spears that tried to hit against her. At least, she hoped. She heard the spears fly by- oh, please no magic! Please, please no magic!! Archers were fine, just don't send magic after her, she hated magic so much despite not even seeing the wizard use much of it. She just...didn't like it.

One arrow hit her, burning against her scales- she wanted to look back, but she didn't want anything to hit her eyes. She was so close, and she wanted to get out of there without being blinded in any eyes, thank you very much. Maybe the archers would keep failing to hit her- but keeping her scales blazing was taking a lot more energy out of her than she would actually like. Eventually she would have to take it down, and that was when arrows and spears and all manner of things would fly at her. Beating her wings again, she sent an arrow off course- whizzing by her face. This was...harrowing, but she kind of liked the thrill. It made her feel powerful! Smart! Like a dragon should be, not a house pet!

She did kind of wonder whether or not Orion liked this even a little.

The snarling sounds alerted her first- magic, she knew it. No dogs could follow them up here. Keeping her scales up- not wanting to fear the creature getting any closer to her- she gave a cautious look back. As no arrows got into her eyes, she managed to see what it was: a thing that looked like a shadow itself, dark as night, and rather...smelling of magic. She did not appreciate it, and wondered whether or not it would be weak to the barb on the end of her tail- but she doubted it. Magic didn't work that way.

She swerved to the side, trying to see if the beast could follow- nothing. She moved around a bit to see if it was right on her tail- and it was, and she didn't really know what to do. Extending her wings on a warm air thermal- partially caused by her own body- she went into a glide. Not as fast, but the canine was still behind her and she could deal with it. She slashed her tail in the air, trying to hit it- not able to see whether or not she landed a hit. Her strikes were slow, as there wasn't much else she could do, and she only hoped that the magic had some kind of...time limit.

"You okay down there?" she called out to her partner. Did he have another wolf on his back? Was he still in the air?