Special Collections, Sunday Afternoon, Somewhere...
Alduin
It was icy cold. This high up on the Throat of the World, snow fell perennially and the air was thin. Thick layers of it laid upon the rocks, some imprinted with strange, large, birdlike footprints.
A dozen feet away stood a large wall, curving in a circle. It was inscribed with strange letters.
The edges of this flat plane also offered an incredible view of the world below, which stretched out with endless mountains and snowy tundras... and the occasional flicker of something dark soaring through the skies.
Cara
Ordinarily, unexpected snow would have filled Cara with an embarrassingly girlish glee, however, given that just a few seconds previous she'd been in the stacks of a library this qualified as a little too unexpected, and after double-checking her agiels, unslung her bow from her back.
Yes she'd been browsing the stacks armed, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do under the circumstances.
Jack
Jack had been looking through an illustrated scroll about demons in a deceptively ordinary section of the library. He took a few absent steps back to reshelf it, and turned when he felt a cold wind against the back of his neck.
The shelves were long gone, here, and his sweater offered thin comfort against the cold. Jack jammed his hands into his pockets, looking thoroughly surprised and miserable as he tried to suss out where they were and why.
It was a beautiful place, but not one where one wanted to be caught unprepared.
Katniss
Katniss had, honestly, not meant to wander away from the group. She'd just been trying to keep from going crazy again -- being trapped with a group in an enclosed space reminded her painfully of District Thirteen, and she'd just wanted to try and breathe.
This was more than what she'd bargained for, though, and she would have smiled if she weren't so cold. At least there was sky, even if she was already flitting to a spot to crouch and drawing her bow. There was no telling what might live here.
Kate
Kate hadn't slept properly and days, and finding herself hemmed into Special Collections didn't help matters. She was stalking the stacks, her sword hand itching to reach over her shoulder for slayer, and yet feeling like she shouldn't in case she speared a classmate in a twitchy rush.
Someone more sane might've turned and headed back to the group when they heard noises in this place, rather than follow them. No one ever called Kate sane.
Ten minutes and three vastly different landscapes that would in no way meld naturally and she spun to try and locate another noise to find only snow. Snow and rocks and sky.
"I preferred the rain forest," she told it. It'd been warm, at least.
Susan
Susan rarely found herself anywhere she didn't mean to be. This wasn't exactly an exception to that. If she was going to wander Special Collections, it was because she thought that something should damn well jump out at her- in a helpful way, not in a "this book's alive and it's not supposed to be" sort- and so that's what she'd been doing.
And she'd just sort of... ended up in the icy cold.
Really, there were better places to end up, she decided, but if she was here, it was probably for a reason. And she might give herself some practice in making things from nothing, because this cold was going to get old fast.
Elphaba
Elphaba had gone from being in a library to on a freezing cold mountain. She wasn't exactly dressed for this, and quickly began shivering. She clutched at her arms and began to rub them.
Once she saw out to the view, though, she held her breath for a moment. It was an amazing view.
Columbus
Columbus hadn't meant to get away from the group. He was simply trying to find a place to sit when he ended up on a path. After a while he gave up trying to find his way back and just walked.
Eventually he was able to get some directions from a boy and a dog with a watch on his side who were driving a small car. The directions were supposed to take him back where he was but inevitably brought him to this icy place, which made navigating his roller suitcase while cradling his shot gun a tad difficult.
Alice
The first thing Alice noticed was the snowflake landing upon her cheek, followed by another, and a third upon her forehead. That was cause enough to awaken, and she opened her eyes slowly.
The second was that the warm presence by her heart was gone.
Panic clutched at her, forcing her to sit up and look around her, until a memory pushed its way forward. She had been dozing off while awake, tipping over with the child in her arms. Some kind soul had offered to watch her baby while she stole some much needed sleep. She had fought against the urge for days, hoping insomnia would lend numbness to Leto's disappearance. But the body needed what it needed.
She would swear upon her life she only closed her eyes for an instant. And now? She was on a mountain. Blankets of snow covered the ground. The air was sharp and cutting.
Was this the Nothing? Had she been taken in her sleep? Or ... or had she opened a door in her sleep, and found her way here? An escape hatch for one. The wrong one.
A low, keening cry escaped her. Leto, and now Hania. A second family lost. She was alone.
Katniss
...well, that wasn't good.
Katniss looked at the girl -- no, young woman. She was older. Probably an alumna -- and pursed her lips. An uncomfortable shock of recognition hit her: she was like Annie in her arena. There was an air of madness to her, of loss.
Katniss could sympathize. She was like that only months earlier.
"It's okay," she offered, because she was really, really bad at this kind of thing. Even if she understood.
Alice
"Hania," Alice answered, because that was the only word her heart could say. "The door slammed shut while I slept. Rabbit holes and looking-glass never led to a mountain. She can't be ... she can't ..."
Hania could be gone. Gone. Forever. Her chubby cheeks and her tiny fingernails and her colicky screams. Alice's heart, wrapped in a few pounds of saliva and downy fuzz.
"I don't want to be the one who survives," she insisted, her voice cracking.
Katniss
And something in Katniss broke at hearing that. She reached out to grip the other girl's shoulders, trying to catch her eye. "Stay with me. Stay with me, okay? My name is Katniss. We're going to be okay. I don't know why we're here, but we are not going to be the only ones who survive."
Not again, they weren't.
"What's your name? Who's Hania? Where are you from?" she asked, more gently. "Think about details. They keep you here."
My name is Katniss. I am seventeen years old. I used to live in District Twelve....
Alice
Stay? She didn't want to stay; here was pain. She should go away again. Become a tree. It would be so easy to lie down here in the snow and never wake up again.
The water-rings braided into her hair made a soft clicking noise as she turned to look at Katniss. Leto's rings. She carried his water, for the tribe. The blind Fremen went out into the desert to die. What of the Fremen who lost their hearts?
Something in the girl's eyes ... suggested that she knew. Understood, somehow, even if she had likely never heard of the Fremen. That perhaps she, too, had been cut to the very quick.
"Alice Liddell, it rhymes with fiddle," she said, a sing-song recitation. "Arrakis, the House of Atreides. Oxford, earlier, before everyone died. Hania is my daughter."
A fresh wave of grief fought to consume her, but she bit her lip until she could taste blood.
"Are we dead?" she asked. "Do you think perhaps we are the dead?"
She would find that to be an enormous relief.
Katniss
"We aren't dead," she replied. "I don't think so." If she started thinking like that, she'd lose her mind, too. "We're just somewhere new. Is your daughter normally with you? She might be back in Special Collections, with someone watching over her. We're here, now. Stay with me, Alice."
-- District Twelve was destroyed when I fired an arrow into the forcefield during my second Hunger Games. My eyes are gray. My hair is brown. Peeta Mellark was taken by the Capitol --
"Where's Oxford?" She would keep Alice here, the way that Gale had kept her with him this summer. "England? My boyfriend is English. You have the same kind of accent."
Alice
"S-someone was watching when I ... went to sleep," she said. "I was keeping her close. Since Leto ..."
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to feel that again. "O-oxford is a university in England. My father was dean of Christ Church. Is your boyfriend from the past? I was moved a century out of place, but the university is s-still there."
Zoe
Well, that was clearly the wrong book to open, Zoe thought to herself as she shivered and looked around. She shouldn't have even been looking around - it had been bad enough to run and hide in the one place on the island where two of her worst enemies were being kept - but she'd considered it part of keeping an eye on everyone.
Now she was here, freezing her ass off with no sign of Grace having come with her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Alduin
Suddenly, one of the dark shapes appeared up ahead, striking a black shadow down upon the snow. It was a dragon, black, his wings stretched out far, his eyes red. He roared, and with it came fire and flame, but few feet above the heads of the people stuck up here.
"Who do I see," he thundered. "Kest hevna boziik ag!"
Katniss
...there was a big lizard. There was a big lizard breathing fire and Katniss wanted to crawl into a hole and hide forever. Flashes of Finnick's last moments appeared in her mind, and while she didn't freeze up entirely or really understand what was happening, her fingers operated for her.
Fast as could be, an arrow sailed through the air, aimed straight for the creature's eye.
Columbus
Columbus's reaction was not as fast as Katniss. He froze for a second before starting to run out of any direct fire from the dragon. "Take cover!"
Jack
Jack was right behind Columbus. The possibility of talking this through with the dragon, slim as it had ever been, seemed to have passed when they struck first blow.
He gave Katniss an appreciative glance -- he was a decent shot, but not that good -- before crouching down behind an outcropping of ice. Feeling around on the ground, he started gathering a pile of chunks of ice and rock large enough to serve as impromptu missiles.
Alduin
The arrow lodged itself somewhere in Alduin's skull, after a dodging move that looked more like aerial ballet than anything else. The dragon cackled. "Dir vokun vol!" he crowed.
The next blast of fire struck the snow but feet away from them. Alduin circled back around.
Cara
Cara had her own arrow nocked but not loosed, since she didn't particularly care to waste it before it was necessary.
"Is it too late to point out I'm not with her?" she called out, mostly to distract the beast. Hopefully it couldn't talk and flame at the same time.
Kate
Kate had long ago drawn her sword in this strange place, and seeing the way this was going was glad she had. Not that it did anyone much good with the dragon all the way up there and spewing fire all over.
"If it's not, neither am I," she added, picking up the thread of distraction. "Can we get a yes or no on that?" Preferably not in dragon.
Susan
"I'm thinking no," Susan said.
She hadn't come here with a weapon. She hadn't thought she would need one, and that if she did, one would present itself to her if it was smart. Now, though, she decided she was going to have to just take matters into her own hands.
Speaking quietly... to herself, she supposed, she said, "I need a weapon. Something that will work on a wide variety of monsters, if it comes down to that, and something I can carry with me."
A moment later, an object appeared in her hand.
It was a fireplace poker.
"Are you kidding me," Susan said flatly.
Alduin
Actually, Alduin spoke and flamed at the same time all the time - it was the words that made the flames. Because he could, he spoke a flaming "Yol!" in Cara's general direction.
He had to come fairly close to do that, his size casting a large shadow over the gathered students.
And sent a large blast of ice their way. Again, just because he could.
Elphaba
Elphaba had thrown herself behind a rock once the arrow had struck the dragon. She was just going to be staring at her fellow fandomites for a moment in frustration. "Yes, when I encounter a dragon smart enough to be able to speak, I make sure to shoot it before possibly trying to reason with it."
Jack
"We've done it either way," Jack pointed out tightly. "Quibbling among each other about whether we should have or not is even more of a waste of time."
He glanced up. "Besides, it's angry now. Unless this is the traditional dragon welcoming dance."
Columbus
"Highly doubtful," Columbus said after he finished diving behind the snowbank. He then began rummaging through his roller bag and pulled out a holstered 9mm automatic which put into a ziplock back.
"Anyone need a gun?" he asked as he put it to the side and started loading his shotgun.
Alduin
Another heavy beat of his wings, and Alduin had perched on the large round wall up ahead.
From where he was sitting, he could blow quite a lot of flames into the gathered party, which he found rather convenient. "Humans!" he bellowed. "RUN! Ru vey nax!"
Jack
"I intend to listen to him," Jack said, after he held his hand out for Columbus's pistol. He didn't usually go around armed, but it would be comforting to have a weapon just now.
His muscles tensed as he prepared to follow the group, whichever way it went.
Columbus
Columbus didn't need any prompting. He quickly tossed the gun to Jack and started running in the opposite direction, dragging his half open suitcase behind him. "Don't have to ask me twice!" Columbus agreed.
Susan
If a fire-breathing dragon told you to run, you just ran. There was absolutely no good that would ever come of staying in a situation like that. Snow was maybe not the best thing to be running in, either, but it was going to be managed at a time like this.
Even if she had to look behind her to see what, if anything, was coming yet, because some conventions were necessary.
Alduin
The dragon promptly took off again, swooping down over the running horde and blowing thick gouts of ice over the sole (treacherous, storm-ridden) path down below.
Maybe Alduin just liked playing with his food.
Kate
Running was turning into a vastly less graceful skid and it was impacting on Kate's extremely tenuous grasp on staying upright. If she landed on her ass in this ice and snow she was going to be pissed.
Where were they even going? They had no idea what was out here, aside from snow and creatures that could roast them as easy as breathe.
Elphaba
Elphaba screamed, not a scream of panic but one of anger. One of the large chunks of ice that was about to fly right into her stopped for a moment, then landed harmlessly in front of her.
"I think maybe we need a better plan!" she shouted.
Susan
"Would you like to negotiate with it?" Susan asked, because the earlier comment had annoyed her.
Columbus
Columbus did his best to be valiant and let off two shotgun rounds at the dragon before slipping and falling over his suitcase.
A new rule was being made as he tried to take cover behind another snow drift. The rule was about being prepared for any kind of terrain.
Alice
Alice had not been much use, thus far. Her Vorpal Blade was short-range. Where was a blunderbuss when one needed it!?
"Only if that lures it closer," Alice said fiercely. "I'd happily play bait for a chance to slit its throat."
Alice's plans were of the bloody variety. She had little left to lose.
Elphaba
"I'll do it with you," Elphaba said. "I might be able to deflect any ice or fire it initially sends our way. That should help, I think."
Elphaba was rather surprised at herself, saying that.
Kate
"I'm down for taking it on," Kate agreed. Much like Alice, she had no problem making horrible bloody plans for anything that threatened her survival.
Her sword had taken on the glow of the magic condensing along its blade and Kate could almost imagine it itching for the violence as much as she was. She'd been hoping for something to take this out on all week.
"The more of us drawing its attention different ways, the better our chances."
Cara
Cara was annoyed, she really didn't care for people flinging fire at her, even when it was the magic kind she could reflect back.
"We need to find some way of slowing it down if we want to kill it," she added. "Quick bastard for something that size."
Zoe
Zoe wasn't usually a fan of running away, but neither negotiating with the dragon or letting the students try to kill it seemed like a wise idea. On the other hand, they were stuck here until they could figure out how to get back, and getting eaten wouldn't really help with that.
"Draw its attention as safely as you can, if you think you have to," she said, her hand on her holster. This had so much potential to not end well, and she just hoped she wasn't making it worse.
Zayne
"I'm going to try something. Don't let it eat me," Zayne said. He reached a hand out to focus himself as he started to concentrate, hoping to use the Force to calm the dragon without any bloodshed.
Yeah. It probably wasn't going to work. But he preferred this to everyone else's plan of 'kill the sentient creature.'
Alduin
In response, the dragon made another low pass and snapped his jaws at Zayne. Weren't you happy you tried that?
Alduin spoke fire down upon his new little foes, and then touched down at the other end of the mountaintop.
Zayne
"It was worth a shot!" Zayne yelled as he dove out of the way of the jaws just in time.
Paarthurnax
Another roar pierced the air. A gout of flame followed, striking Alduin straight across his flank.
"Paarthurnax!" he snarled, beating his wings high up into the air. "Ni sul nah paal!"
The second dragon was of a lighter shade, his eyes a pale yellow. He breathed fire down upon Alduin again, driving the other dragon further away. "Jul hun hahnu ahmik," he shouted. "Ni sul! Ru!"
Alduin hissed something else, but soon the beat of his wings carried him off elsewhere. The dragon called Paarthurnax circled down, landing on top of the rounded wall and regarding the gathered humans with some interest.
"Do not fear me," he said. "Drem yol lok."
Columbus
Columbus's head popped up from behind a snow bank where he had found cover.
"Um. Okay but we have a fairly good reason to be fearful," he said trying to make sure his voice didn't crack.
Elphaba
Elphaba cracked her neck, took a deep breath, and stepped out from her hiding spot. "Thank you," she said. "We are grateful for your help. We're... lost travelers, I suppose."
Jack
Jack nodded eagerly. "We're trying to get any information on the thing attacking our homes. Could you help?"
He wasn't sure the dragon wouldn't laugh at him, but it was a risk worth taking.
Paarthurnax
Paarthurnax craned his neck. "It is this thing that has Alduin so full of rage," he intoned. "Alun bahlok. The World-Eater watches as another eats these worlds. I know of it. Faal naako."
Alice
"We have lost many of our number," Alice said, her voice fighting for calm. "Whatever you may know would be a great boon to us. We would be heavily in your debt."
Zoe
Zoe couldn't believe that she was trying to converse with a dragon, and she had her hand on the gun in her holster just in case. "We want to stop it. We don't want to stay here any longer than necessary. If you'll help us, we can go."
Cara
Since it seemed disinclined cook them just this moment, Cara was only focusing about half her attention on the new dragon, she was more worried about someone getting an itchy trigger finger again.
Zayne
"Would it help if we said 'please?'" Zayne offered.
Susan
"If we don't stop it," said Susan, "there's nothing to say it won't come here, too."
Also she didn't like the word 'please' if she didn't have to say it.
Paarthurnax
"I decided many years ago that I wished to preserve this world, not destroy it. Lein aaz brii," Paarthurnax spoke. "No matter the wishes of the other dovah. Whether it is Alduin who devours it or this Nothing, it is equally important to me. Faad fahdon."
The dragon's features almost seemed to knit towards thoughtful. "I know it is unwrit in the book that writes all things," he spoke. "In this library, all things are written. All words put to paper have power. Lovaas... The book is here."
Cara
"I don't suppose you could be more specific," Cara asked, polite as ever. "We haven't exactly got a year free to tramp over the countryside looking for clues and rescuing small animals out of trees."
Because some people couldn't appreciate deadlines, Richard.
Columbus
"Or maybe tell us a little more about the book?" Columbus added also very politely from his station behind the snowbank.
Elphaba
"We've looked at many books," Elphaba said. "A title, or even a description of the cover would be invaluable. Assuming you don't know exactly where we can find it, that is."
Paarthurnax
You'd have to excuse Paarthurnax; he was old, and used to talking around the point for a while.
"This book has made its home here, kogaan," he spoke, "But it is in a place where we dovah cannot venture-- you jul, however... are better equipped."
Kate
Kate, sadly had little patience for talking around points, especially not when worlds were rapidly being absorbed into nothing.
"And where is this place?" she asked, nudging for a a little more than the ultra useful 'there's this book in this place' vagueness that was going on.
Please don't say far. Please, please...
Paarthurnax
"Near," spoke Paarthurnax. "A short hike down this mountain's side. It is a cave, where the Nords have buried their dead."
He flapped his wings and prepared to take off. "I wish you luck."
[[ more in the ocd... ]]