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year 5, quarter 3
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[attr="class","itsover"] The serious boy unsurprisingly deferred judgment to him. ”Your call,” he said before turning his eyes away and continuing so quietly that Ardyn could barely hear the words. ”As long as the mission ends in a success.”
Ardyn blinked twice and then laughed. Oh yes. A mission! Was that what this was? Being called to some mysterious, magical ruins by a mysterious and divine will? Truly, some habits -- particularly military habit -- died hard.
”Is that so? And what would constitute a success for you, hm? Just out of curiosity…?” Ardyn started, but the dark, brooding one was already moving without them and Ardyn hardly wanted to fall behind. So instead of waiting for an answer, he clapped his hands together and called after him, ”Ah yes! Then we’re all in agreement? How amiable. I just knew we’d get along!” He gave the military boy a wink before he followed after the dark one.
This was already the most interesting night to have befallen him in months. Ardyn couldn’t help an extra spring in his step as he followed his allies into the darkness.
Their route really was a dreadful one. Grim and dark and damp in all the ways that Ardyn wasn’t particularly fond of. No, if he was to have darkness, he wished it to be a hazy one -- like eternal night -- not the claustrophobic black of underground. If the world was to be grim, he wished it to be by his hand in defiance of something, not just sprung from neglect and age. Yet this tunnel cared not for Ardyn’s wishes. The tunnel was clearly unstable, and had he less defined night vision, he would have found himself stumbling over debris and severely uneven ground.
For once, Ardyn stayed mostly quiet as he focused on the path ahead of him. But he couldn’t hold his tongue forever. Not as he eyed the ceiling skeptically. ”This place could collapse at any moment, it seems. It certainly doesn’t seem...stable. Or placed wisely. It’s quite the security oversight.”
Ardyn tilted his head and started to say more, but a sudden scrabbling noise behind them stilled his tongue. Footsteps on loose ground. Ardyn glanced behind them to see -- amazingly -- the woman from before jogging to catch up with them.
Oh, how droll.
”Neat tricks,” she said as though they hadn’t purposefully tried to lose her. Then she fell into stride behind them, reached for her belt, and struck a match. The match caught a fuse, and that fuse...sparked in ways that made Ardyn’s eyes ache. A flare. Ardyn cast her the most scathing look he could manage when he couldn’t stand to look at her for long.
”So what brings you moths to the flame?” Her conversational drone was like the buzzing of an insect he longed to swipe. But it seemed that Ardyn was not alone in thinking so. The dark one let out a sigh that sounded almost pained before answering for all of them.
”Curiosity, to answer your question. The reason we likely all possess. We should keep quiet. This area appears to have no activity, but I doubt that is the case elsewhere.”
Ardyn wanted to laugh at the man’s cool, almost deadly tone. In fact, he did. Quite smugly, at that.
”Ah, yes. It appears that stealth is the name of this game. Silence would do us well, I suppose. Even among unwelcome guests.” He smirked at the woman with her rugged demeanor and her hideously disheveled hair. Ardyn held up a finger to his lips, head tilted carelessly, before continuing ahead.
The flare was giving him a headache.
True to his word, Ardyn traveled in silence from then on. The journey was long. It was dull. It was grim, but Ardyn could hardly complain when the only alternative had been a head-on assault outside. Even now, his ears rang with that booming voice from beyond their mortal restraints. ’Inside is a weapon of your heart’s desire.’ It had sounded like the Draconian with all his bombast and force, but why would the Draconian speak directly to Ardyn and offer him a weapon of all things? It made little sense, but then, nothing much had made sense since his resurrection in this aimless place. There was only one way to discover the meaning behind it all, and that one way lied at the end of this tunnel, at the top of this tower, in a crystal of all things.
THE crystal, he wondered? Unlikely, but if it truly was the Draconian’s voice he’d heard…
Then could he really ignore the possibility?
There were rocks in the path. Rubble, and something opening beyond it. Ardyn stepped over the obstacles to find himself...in some manner of catacombs. He spun on his heel, examining the scene with a tilt of his head. This place was truly dismal. It seemed it had been weathered down by time and neglect alike, but something else caught his eye. Something more...foreboding.
”That tunnel was carved by something. Something inhuman if I had to take my guess. Look at the walls.” With the change of perspective, he could now make out the shine of something damp clinging to the edges of their previous tunnel. ”Odd.”
But he didn’t have time to ponder any further. They had places to be, after all, and he didn’t plan to drag behind over a few observations. So once his allies wished to continue on, he followed over the rubble and into a proper hallway beyond.
In one moment, there were several things that caught his eye. First was the ladder at the opposite end of the hall, leading upwards to some kind of indented hatch. Then there was the dust falling in trickles from the ceiling in time with vibrations that rumbled in the earth. And finally, there was the gaping mouth of some kind of monster, dripping with ooze that sizzled as it touched the ground.
”Ah.” Ardyn paused at the sight of it, undulating towards them. ”That might explain the tunnels…”
It was still hard to shake - seeing the Chancellor casually waltzing into a glowing mountain tomb without a care in the world. Then again, he never did seem to have one. Every footage they had, every report, he was always as calm as could be. It was eerie and uncomfortable not to know what aces he'd seemed to eternally hold inside his sleeve. Not to mention she'd been alone on this world for months now without site or word of anyone from her past life. And here she was thinking she'd finally gotten used to the idea... he just had to come and ruin it; bringing the anchors back down that tied her to that world.
The faces of the kid and the circus performer at her light made her scoff quietly beneath her breath. Were they that naive not to think about what kind of place they were in? "Quiet?" she questioned, the expression on her face finishing with an unspoken 'are you serious?' inquiry. Then he just had to butt in. "Listen-," she cut his smug tone off with an authoritative edge to her voice though it remained lackluster in volume. "You don't look like you've done much 'cave exploring'," her eyes did a quick measure from his head to his toes. "Do yourselves a favor and think for a second about the first thing you noticed when you got up here. Darkness," idiots. They weren't the sharpest tools in the shed when it came to roughing it. Not even tools really. More like... really, really dull nails.
"In order to patrol, you need what? Light. So, no guards. At least not here. That means one of two things: either they're incredibly bad at knowing their own fort - unlikely - or they're not worried about keeping things out because something else is. Now do you really think that something else, living in a place as dark as this, is going to need light to find us? No. Quiet's going to do us little good since Mr. Fancy-Pants here decided to wear his dress shoes onto the stone," her eyes went back to Ardyn, giving him a deadpan look. "No. Whatever's here already knows we're here. So I'd prefer to at least see it before it tries to eat us."
With a huff and a roll of her eyes, she strode forward past them. Spelling things out to ignorant people wasn't about to become one of her hobbies, it'd already taken her just about all the patience she had left not to chuck the flare further down into the hall and just let whatever happened happen. If only she didn't have some wildly irresponsible kid to protect. It was at least a little calmer as they continued onward until she caught eye of something shimmering against a crag in the wall. The glaive stepped forward and lifted the flare to the waxy, dripping substance stuck against the cave wall. Without touching, she looked down and lead her flare with her eyesight to follow the trail until turning towards the Chancellor. Before him opened a great maw of a tunnel and her she swore she felt herself gain ten pounds. Not a wyrm... she hated wyrms. "Great observation," she huffed with only minor, dry sarcasm, stepping to his side and looking for the path of goo's end, but there was none. Instead... it led to an open space that once seemed to house goods and storage, perhaps a back exit for some kind of facility. Abandoned. The reason why was hardly surprising and her face wrinkled with disgust as the lowly hissing gob of an enormously fat wyrm welcomed its next meal. "Told you..."
She'd take pleasure in that later. Right now, she was focused on backing up with the flare stretched out in front of her to create as much space as the wyrm would allow before it lost its patience. The ground rumbled beneath them so harshly that it nearly had her on the ground, but she luckily caught her balance in enough time to jump out of the way and roll against the jagged rock with a less-than-happy grunt. A hand reached for her short sword, pulling it free from her side as the other tossed the flare between the other explorers to help light the room, and she quickly got back to her feet knowing the wyrm would soon carve its way back around to find its prey. "If you have any other neat tricks, this would be the time to show off!"
[attr="class","acecaptionsadventu"]Mission, [break] Begin
[attr="class","acebottomadventu"]
[attr="class","acetextadventu"] Regardless what the others said, Ace didn’t respond. He didn’t need to - Ardyn and the woman talked more than enough for the group of them. One filled the silence as often as possible with all forms of chatter - ranging from useful to just something to fill up the gap - while the other seemed content on berating others and giving advice the same way a teacher would to their students. Did she think so lowly of them? Then again, could he really blame her? After all, just look at who made up the group…[break][break]
The way forward got darker - darker and darker until the only thing lighting up their path was the thing the woman held in her hands. He was thankful for the light in that he could at least see the way before him without any issue at all, but he still felt it would have been better to use something a little less…illuminating. Yes, she had a point - given the state of the tunnel they traversed it was unlikely that any living human regularly paid the place a visit. But for all they knew, it could also very well not be the case. Better safe than sorry, right?[break][break]
It’s not long before a room opened up before them - dusty, cobweb-filled and in complete disrepair. Pieces of the tunnel - fragments from stalactites and stalagmites - lay scattered around the room, along with the many stone jigsaw fragments that made up whatever used to be there. There’s an eerie atmosphere to the place, not helped by the long shadows cast on the walls, floor and ceiling around them due to their carried light and definitely not helped by the still wet goo that clung to the edges of the tunnel.[break][break]
Whatever lived there was nearby and his teammates had noticed it as well - Ardyn, as always, was the one to point it out while the woman studied the trail. As for Ace….once the others had decided to move on, he followed behind, a card already slipping in between his middle and forefinger. It didn’t hurt to be prepared, just in case a fight ensued with the tunnel’s inhabitants - and it definitely didn’t hurt to just take the easy way out and simply flash on top and over to the other side of the cave in, into the next hallway.[break][break]
Of course, it’s when they’re gathered and over the obstacle that the ground beneath them began to tremble, dust and all other loose particles from the walls and ceiling being shaken loose and falling upon them as whatever made the tunnels its home moved about. At first, the vibrations were light, but with each passing second they grew stronger and stronger until what made them - a giant worm, with drool that seemed to carve out the earth it fell upon - entered and stood between them and the ladder opposite.[break][break]
They had to fight - or at least find some way to get the charging, slimy thing off their backs - if they were going to progress. Cards flew out from his grasp and snaked their way through the air towards the worm, flying under Ace’s control and continuing their assault until the teenager had to dodge to avoid getting hit by the creature, once again disappearing in a flash of light and cards before reappearing a short distance away by the woman’s side.
The worm doesn't hesitate. It doesn't question itself. It heaves in air through acidic slobber and smells its prey. It feels the vibrations of their heartbeats in stone and it hears them, prattling back and forth to each other in endless chatter. The worm is fearless. It is enraged.
It is hungry.
It doesn't understand that it's been spotted, but it does understand pain. As it charges one of its targets, it finds that its teeth meet nothing but air. It thrashes its body, trying to find the missing woman before stabbing pain shoots through its body. Something has pierced its flesh. Several times. The cards stab its skin, and though the cuts aren't deep, they send blood flying in misty droplets. Confused and unable to grasp its prey, the worm gives a horrible screech before starting towards the nearest tunnel. It charges through it, disappearing into the darkness as it whips around a corner into shadow.
There's a loud grating sound. The ground trembles with weight. Half a minute passes as the caverns tremble, threatening to give in on themselves. The vibrations grow louder, more violent, before finally the worm erupts from the stone wall behind them, scattering rock and debris in every direction and threatening to swallow anything within ten feet of its gaping maw. It is in pain. It is angry. And it will have blood.
[attr="class","itsover"] The woman was as caustic as ever, slinging about sarcasm like the acid dripping from the monster’s lips. ”Told you,” she took the time to mutter. Had Ardyn fur, it would have stood on edge at the sound of her voice. Told you. Of all the nerve…
Neither of them had time to comment on her boorish remarks, however, as it seemed they’d been spotted. The worm charged forward like a bull, and it was all any of them could do just to dodge. Or rather, the woman dodged. The boy disappeared in a familiar flash of light and Ardyn merely side-stepped it, humming thoughtfully as its body undulated past him. The woman tossed the flare over her shoulder, and its sparks brought a hiss to Ardyn’s lips. Careless woman. What was she doing with that kind of light? With her hands free, she drew her sword from its sheathe and continued with what she did best -- shouting.
"If you have any other neat tricks, this would be the time to show off!"
Ardyn sighed. He hated using his “tricks” on command. It made him feel like a circus performer.
The military boy didn’t need the encouragement. He brought his cards above his head (How curious. Were they floating?) and shot them into the beast in a flurry of motion and light. The effect was hard to follow with so many projectiles sent forth and summoned back, but there could be no denying its efficiency. The worm was so enraged by the single attack that it gave a wild thrash of its head, bellowed loudly, and thrust itself into the nearest tunnel it could find. Ardyn was left blinking after it. He hadn’t so much as summoned his sword. ”That seemed...simple.” He glanced at the boy and offered him a careless smile. ”Good for you! You’re quite the soldier, I see. Though if I might ask, why the cards of all things…?”
He didn’t have the chance to press the boy for an answer. Almost as soon as he’d said it, the ground gave a hard and furious tremble beneath his feet. Ardyn staggered to keep his balance, blinking into the shadows. It was almost as though something was in the stone itself, but that would be ridiculous…
CRACK
A shattered doorway split down the center as the walls gave another hideous rumble. The force of it almost knocked Ardyn off his feet and he thrust himself against the remains of an old stone sarcophagus just to remain standing. Dust sprinkled from the ceiling. Stone debris. This place wouldn’t last long.
Ardyn glanced down the now abandoned tunnel with the ladder before looking back at his companions, tilting his head, and offering them a placid smile. ”If you want to live,” he said. ”Then I suggest you run.”
With that, he brought his sword to his hand with a flick of his wrist, leveled it with his shoulder, and hurled it down the hallway. He was gone in a flash of red light, following the blade until it stuck itself into stone and Ardyn found himself grasping at the rungs of a rusted ladder. The metal slipped beneath his gloves, but his hold on his sword was strong enough to steady him until his boots found purchase on the rungs below. As he banished his sword and started upwards, he heard a crash of crumbling stone behind them and another hideous roar. The worm had broken through, but Ardyn didn’t pause to look back. He was too busy climbing to care. The walls gave another violent shake as he reached the top. A trapdoor. Metal. He pushed against it. Locked.
With a sigh, Ardyn brought the force of his own darkness to his hand and thrust it up against the barrier. The iron crumbled against the force and flew off its hinges with a deafening crash. With the job done, he shook the corruption from his fingertips and pulled himself out of the catacombs, waiting to see who -- if anyone -- would join him.
For Lucis' sake, it was so damn similar. The cards flashed through the air like noble arms enchanted by the royal family, slicing through the tough and moistened flesh in precise and over-sized paper cuts. They were clean and bled faster than something jagged that would allow faster clotting. Interesting choice of weaponry... he'd even warped with their movements right beside her. Most would jump or show some kind of vague alarm, but hell if she wasn't used to it. It was nostalgic if anything. She only had a brief moment to turn her head to him and remind herself this was a kid, giving him a nod of both confirmation and encouragement. He'd done good. Her stance lowers to the ground, legs bent, and her face winces at the horrible screech that bounces off the walls like a sonic nightmare.
The second it started sliding and moaning away the glaive was back standing on her feet and looking towards the rest of the room for an escape. The ladder wasn't promising but it was their only bet if they didn't want to risk trying to outrun the disgusting creature in the tunnels with some blind hope that maybe they'd find somewhere to turn. "We gotta go!" she reached for the kid and wrapped her arm behind his shoulders to try and urge him forward with a push. If the chancellor wanted to stick around and chat, he was more than welcome. 'It's not running. It's gaining its advantage back,' internally she ran through the options of where it'd strike next. Anyone's guess... it wasn't a smart predator, just ungodly and inconveniently large in this otherwise cramped area.
"The ladder, fast, it's gonna-!" the rumbling had her shoving the kid forward out of instinct as she felt her feet sink through the suddenly not-solid ground. "Shit!" Crowe gripped at the crumbled rocky ground that had once been beneath her - now in front of her as it sunk at an angle - and turned her head over her shoulder to see the hundreds of teeth convulsing in and out in search for the food so close to its scent. Further and further she sunk until she had to set her boot shakily against its lip just beyond the razors. It thrashed, but she kept steady enough to risk hanging one-handed and flipping the short blade in her hand upside down to thrust it into the gum she could reach.
With a heavy grunt, she pulled it free and used its pain-wriggling time to crawl up out of the shaky pit and sprint towards the ladder, making quick work of the rungs once she knew the kid was up and at 'em. Hadn't they forgotten-?... It was too late, when she looked back the walls started caving and she couldn't see the circus freak after a split second. Well... he knew what he was getting into. Or, no, he really didn't. Idiocy: number one cause of death.
[attr="class","acecaptionsadventu"]Mission, [break] Begin
[attr="class","acebottomadventu"]
[attr="class","acetextadventu"] To be honest, he was expecting the worm to retaliate, not disappear down the next tunnel. He knew he made it angry - its bellowing was proof of that. So he also knew it wasn’t over. He just thought the monster would be more head on, but it appeared that he made a mistake in believing that. Oh well, the exit was only a short distance away and now there was nothing between them and it. All they had to do was get to it before the worm returned - which meant they best hurry, for it wouldn’t be long before it came back seeking revenge after clearing its head and collecting itself.[break][break]
Soon, the area they were in started to crumble, the walls groaning under what he could only assume was the worm’s thrashing. At that point the woman wrapped an arm around his shoulders and he tensed, freezing on the spot as his eyes darted over to inspect her. Ace was confused - what was she doing? His first reaction was to put distance between himself and her - for all he knew, she could be attempting to pickpocket him or to shove him to the ground. But it’s not either; instead, before he could move, she shoved him forwards and he understood her intention immediately - she wanted him to make for the ladder.[break][break]
He didn’t need further encouragement, sprinting down the hallway just behind Ardyn, only casting a glance over his shoulder when he heard one of the walls collapse. What he saw as the woman stabbing the worm, freeing her sword and follow them down the hallway towards the ladder - as for the dark-haired male who had been with them, he stayed, though Ace couldn’t think why. But it didn’t matter - he seemed more than capable to handle the situation and perhaps he was taking the chance to sneak off. Regardless, he scaled the ladder with ease and joined Ardyn at the top, before the woman arrived at their side and the tunnel beneath them collapsed. They were safe, for now.
The worm is enraged. It senses a woman close. Very close. It sucks at the air, flailing, chomping, and slobbering at where it knows she must be, but it can't quite get a grip on her. It feels her losing balance. It feels warmth against its gums and then suddenly pain. It looses its grip, undulating wildly at the blow, and then she's gone.
It charges towards the sounds of movement. Its prey is moving fast, but the worm is faster. It knows it's close. So close. And there's only a solid wall ahead of it. They'll be trapped. Trapped and then-
The worm collides headlong with the stone wall, shaking every cavern around it. Somehow -- SOMEHOW its prey have escaped. The worm gives a horrible cry as the tunnels crumple around it. It can't understand what happened. One moment, its prey was there and the next...
The ladder collapses as the last of its users vaults onto stable ground. With the tunnels caved in and the ladder gone, there will be no one else behind them. Though Nero managed to teleport out of harm's way, there's no way for him to catch up now.
Only three remain with no way back and one way forward.
The trap door opens into a dusty room lit by a few flickering candles. The walls are hidden behind old bookshelves weighted down by scrolls, tomes, and weathered manuscripts. On a rickety table, one of the scrolls lays carelessly open in cursive text which speaks of a hero's seal protecting the world from disaster on the wing's of a dragon. There is only one door out and it's currently closed and locked though the wood seems frail.
Beyond it, there are low breathing noises. The hall outside is decrepit and long forgotten. There are a few candles here inset into the walls, but the cobwebs nearly cover them. there used to be several doors leading from the hall, but most have caved in. There's only one still accessible, and the cracked door lets out an eerie blue light beneath it.
On the other side of the hall lies the remains of a spiral staircase. Now it's only a mound of rubble beneath a shaft so tall that the top is lost to darkness. There are platforms of stairs here or there leading up, but they don't connect any more and they're completely unusable. From the shadows, there are heavy wing beats. Roused by the movements of the newcomers, a vast green dragon glides to a stop at the mound of rubble that used to be stairs. It eyes the door coolly. Waiting. Patient. It remains quiet and motionless.
[attr="class","itsover"] Four went under. Only three emerged. Ardyn first, clearing the path, and then as he rolled out onto the dusty floor he counted two others. The boy scrambled to the top with a practiced sense of confidence and pulled himself aside just in time for the woman to force herself through. If Ardyn had thought her haggard before she was simply a mess now. The worm hadn’t done her well, it seemed, as the bottom half of her clothes seemed torn and slightly damp. Her face was plastered with stone dust and her hair was loose from its hold. The combination of it all gave her the effect of a doll forgotten in ashes. It was utterly ghastly.
The room shook. He heard a crash of stone and a rabid cry. A glance down the whole showed him a glimpse of snapping metal before his view was obscured by stone.
The dark one hadn’t made the climb. A pity. Ardyn had rather liked him.
”Well then.” Ardyn pulled himself to his feet, brushing the dust off his coat all the while. ”That was quite the spectacle. I doubt anyone comes down here often.” It was only then that he bothered to take in the room in which they found themselves. It was something of a secret library though it looked more of his own time than this world’s. There were scrolls rather than novels. Tomes rather than computers. Candles rather than light bulbs.
He paused. Candles.
”Someone’s been here.” Ardyn strolled over to one of the mounted votives and touched carefully at the wax. It was soft. Hot. And very, very low. ”Not for some time, perhaps. But in the day at least. Perhaps we’re not alone?”
He let his eyes sweep across the room again, but nothing much interested him here. An idle glance at an open scroll told him that this library would give him nothing but tidbits of history and myth and he’d lived his entire life obscured in those things. He didn’t exactly need any more.
No. What he needed was to reach the top of this forsaken tower and to do so quickly. His gaze steeled on the door. ”Mind if I start ahead?” he asked and then continued before anyone could answer, ”I have business with that odd light.”
He pushed on the door. Locked. With a sigh, he brought his corruption to his hand once more and thrust it through the locking mechanism. Problem solved. The door shot open with the force of a bullet and crashed into the opposite wall. He stepped into the hall, looked up into the flickering candlelight, and turned his head and-
Looked straight into the reptilian eyes of a dragon. Ardyn froze. The dragon also froze. Ardyn blinked twice. The dragon released breath from its nostrils.
For an endless second they stared motionless at each other. Then Ardyn opened his mouth and let out the first sound of which he was capable. ”Ah.” And then he darted backwards down the hallway.
He didn’t tell the others what he was doing. He didn’t attack it or even bother to defend. He just left and as he ducked behind a door lit by blue, he didn’t really think much of his companions at all.
Humans were expendable, after all. Maybe they’d kill each other. And it didn’t look like fighting would help him reach his goal anyway.
She hated to admit it, but the damned Niff was right. This wasn't someplace untouched or left without a recent visit. For one that seemed to be all about the game of stealth and silence, he sure did a great job of forgetting those grand ideas when the situation actually and finally called for it. The Glaive gave a glance over to the military kid to give him a once-over to see how he'd made it out of the trap door before walking cautiously and much more quietly around the side of the flickering room to observe her surroundings.
Coming eventually around to the displayed scroll, Crowe tilted a nearby candle at its side to thin her eyes to its words. Every world had its language... but she recognized some kind of ritual or historic tome when she saw one. Queue the annoying pierce of the Chancellor - her train of thought totally gone as he announced his 'business'. Great, another thing she had to watch out for... she wasn't about to just let him go and do whatever it was he obviously needed, but Yeul was the priority. She'd just have to watch out for him along the way.
"Keep it down," she whispered loud enough for the walls to carry it to him, teeth gnashing a little at her irritation. She'd gone to look at the scroll again when a slow but heavy rush of air danced over the lit candle in her hand and snuffed the flame... Her eyes went wide and a shiver sent up her spine when a calm and low *thd* came from down the hall by the unseen dragon's descent. Her movements were obviously alert, slow, and practiced as she turned her head to the blonde boy to try and catch his eyes. She stepped with long strides and quiet boots to a lengthy shelf where she could duck behind, a hand gingerly motioning over to him to beckon him closer with an urgency in her expression.
Then, she heard it. The Niff ran like the coward he was and as soon as she heard his frantic steps, she stepped lowly to the ground and quickly around the corner of a pillar with a racing heart to hide in the shadows with back flat against the stone, reaching for the kid and yanking at his sleeve to pull him down beside her. As soon as he was down low enough, she was quick to flip herself around and show an immediate finger to her lips to signal for silence.
Whatever it was, it was big. Bigger than the worm. The chancellor, the idiot he was, had hopefully just drawn its undeniable attention to leave them room to sneak around and escape through the large wooden door it'd come from. Her head snaked around at a snail's pace to get a single eye on the creature before quickly pulling back to the pillar again. Ho-ly shit. The Glaive swallowed, put her head back against the rock, and shook her head. A dragon - an actual dragon. With a deep breath, she calmed herself as best she could and steeled her focus, looking to the military lad and motioning towards the wooden door's direction with her head in hopes that he was able to see if it was open or would be at any point a possibility for escape.
