Ah, the Nubian desert... It's a lot bigger than you'd think.
Up here, we've got the highlands. In most places, they're just as dry as the surrounding desert. Alas, the Nile runs through part of them; that part's irrigated. Too bad the Deathwolves couldn't have left Cerise there, instead of the drier half of these hills.
She's still here. She has yet to wake...and discover the awful news.
She wakes...and flinches from the wolf bites. God, they sure love to go to the bone, when they bite... She sits up, and looks around. She sees the desert-covered hills she's surrounded by.
She scoffs, stands, spreads her wings, and runs in circles around the place, expecting to get lift. Alas, she runs in several circles...before discovering the error in her takeoff strategy.
The Deathwolves cut off her wings, of course. Only a pair of bony stubs remain of them. Every now and then, they shed a few feathers. On the upside, they'll grow back. On the downside, she won't be flighted for quite some time.
She's a Shi'ar alien...which makes her kin to the Avians and the Inhumans. She herself is bioengineered. She can control red energy. Hence, she does this to shade herself, as she tries to figure out how to brave this...dilemma that Goblet of Death has left her in.
Many rocks surround her...as they slope upward, to form her prison. Or rather, it's more of an emotional prison. Relatively logistically, there are a few ways out of here. Alas, without Cerise's flight, she has no way of knowing which way out leads back to civilization.
She'd rather not go back to Chandilar, of course. She might try Aerie...if only she could trust that there aren't any Shi'ar loyalists there who'd gladly sucker-punch her in the head for having deserted her race. For now, though, she'd settle for Cornwall. It's where Excalibur HQ is, after all...
Among the rocks, a magizoological visitor slithers. It's not a serpent...although it might as well be. It's a skrewt. It's a magical creature, whose tail looks like its head. And both of its tails look like a scorpion's...and it itself would look like a scorpion, if not for the "tail at both ends" part.
The skrewt is the color of alabaster. He's here to spy on Cerise...on Goblet of Death's behalf.
For now, Cerise can see a way out. For now, she'll just have to... Ah, well; she can't wing anything, can she? Her wings are gone. She's just...going to take her chances, is what she MEANS...
Keeping herself half-shaded with her bioengineered powers, she jogs down a Nubian canyon...and makes a lot of headway. Alas, this is a big desert. Ishmael has no shortage of those. And to think there are vast steppes in the Turkish lands, and jungles in the Malay ones...
Far behind her, a thestral follows her. It's a black reptilian horse with wings. At some point, it takes to the sky, and beats its wings, as it does.
She's mounted. Her rider's armed with a staff-shaped wand. With it, he points it at the thestral's shadow, and chants a charm. Far below, the shadow shifts shape, and assumes the shape of a griffon vulture's shadow. It flaps its wings, and flies around, far from Cerise. Cerise won't acknowledge a vulture...if she thinks that's what it is that's following her around.
Alas, you'd expect an alien that's half-bird to understand vulture psychology better... Hell, such an alien would probably understand vulture psychology better than...Adrian Toomes...
Either way, Cerise keeps jogging. Clearly, she doesn't have superhuman senses. Otherwise, she'd have perceived her stalker by now. OTOH, it has been established that the Shi'ar are NOT stronger than humanity...
She does have superhuman stamina, though. Hence, she drags this out for quite some time. With luck, that thestral behind her will start to tire... Or better yet, that shadow will shapeshift back into a thestral, and Cerise will see it, and have some warning before the thestral's mount attacks her...or worse yet, the thestral itself...
At times, she dreams of Nightcrawler. The blue devil-like mutant wasn't much of a lovemaker...but boy, could he understand what it's like to be perceived as a freak by humanity...as most Shi'ar would be, if they ever sought refuge on Ishmael. Alas, that'll be the day...because the Shi'ar are almost twice as strong as humanity...by head count, if not my muscle cell count.
Up ahead, a very big rock looms into view. For a time, Cerise keeps running, as if to run past it.
Alas, she starts to slow. Soon, she's stopped. She hollows out a hole in the shade that she surrounds herself with, and takes a brighter look at that rock. It's very high. From it, it's very likely that she could use it as a lookout point...just to see if there's anywhere nearby she could try to use to reconnect with Excalibur...or better yet, Nightcrawler...
Keeping her shady shadow intact, she finds her way around all of the other big rocks towards the big one. Not yet sure what she's up to, the thestral lands, and stays close behind her...but not too much so.
At last, Cerise stands at the base of a cliff. It's a long way up. A human wouldn't dare try to ascend. Alas, being a Shi'ar has its advantages...wings or none.
From behind a rock near her foot, the skrewt re-emerges. Scary; either that little creep can fly, or it can teleport...
Ah well, that's just great; a skrewt can fly, where a Shi'ar can't... NO Shi'ar would prefer to hear that tale.
The climb up...turns out to be more fragile, and harder, than what Cerise had imagined. What's worse, the way down gets farther and farther as she goes. If Cerise were flighted, she wouldn't mind. But then, it's a good thing these hollow bones can act as cushioning, whenever the need arises. And Cerise might be glad she had those, in a few moments...
It turns out that the alabaster skrewt is neither a flier nor a teleporter. He's a leaper...like Georges Batroc, only without the savate...and not to mention the French-Tunisian accent. Like an omniscient goat with springs on its hooves, he leaps from rock to rock, pursuing the Shi'ar as she goes along. Alas, if only she'd climb faster... Funny; she sure runs faster than she climbs...
At last, Cerise gets to a ledge. She climbs atop it, stands, and rests.
From here, she looks up. The top is still SO much farther up... Even so, she might be high enough up to get a clue. So, she starts to turn around...
Alas, before she can do that, the skrewt leaps into action. He whips around one of his tails, and jabs Cerise in the heel with his stinger. The skrewt is very small...which means that his sting is VERY potent...but not necessarily venomous...
It knocks Cerise out...although she does cry out as she passes out. Alas, soon she's sliding down the cliff, thus erasing her own climbing progress from before.
She slides off a ledge...and is soon in freefall. The bottom is very far down. Although she's a Shi'ar, it might take more than her hollow bones to preserve her life, when she hits the bottom...
From afar, the thestral rider can see this. So, he raises his staff, and shoots out a spell.
Below Cerise, a portal of night magic opens. She falls through it, and vanishes. It closes itself behind her.
With a superhuman leap, the skrewt leaps from where it is onto the shoulder of his master: the wizard who just saved Cerise. With a calloused hand, the wizard kindly pets the skrewt, and congratulates him for a job well-done.
In these parts, they call this wizard the Alabaster Auror. He, too, works for Goblet of Death. His robe is like alabaster...as is his thestral. Needless to say, he's dressed for the role.
From his robe, he removes a skull-shaped vial. He un-caps it, and pours a drop of it onto the ground. As it hits the ground, it materializes into a skull-shaped goblet. The goblet fills itself, after it appears.
With a levitation charm, Alabaster Auror summons it. He grasps it with his hand, and drinks from it.
"Success," he hisses, from the shadow within his hood. "This...will surely detain the Shi'ar for an eternity...whilst the main phalanx of the Goblet of Death poises for one of the greatest assaults in the history of Afroasian wizardry!"
With that, he raises his goblet...despite the fact that there's no one around to clank goblets with. From nowhere, lightning flashes and hits the goblet...empowering it, and empowering its drinker.