Hello folks! Today we've got another chapter starring Inkwell, Pit and Specter's powers, and Tai playing the mediator.
65. Endurance
The sun was up. Not high—the forest was still washed in shadow—but enough that the sky had turned a pale blue and Weiss could see. It might have been a nice change, but Inkwell still hadn't moved.
"I don't like this," she whispered to Blake. "There's no reason to leave her here."
"She can't see us." Breath tickled the back of her neck. Weiss squashed her own reaction ruthlessly—now was still not the time.
Blake was right, though. She'd often needed to wave to Inkwell to show her that she was there, even when she was only a few feet away. And once the dragon knew where she was, she still struggled to make out details.
Still. Inkwell was rested, and it was light enough for her to look for them—as well as she ever could, anyway. Perhaps Cinder had noticed she wasn't much use in searching, and left her here so that she could respond if one of the other pit dragons found someone? But in that case, didn't it make more sense for her to circle overhead so that she didn't need to take off on short notice?
She couldn't see them. If she could, she'd...
What? Fight Pit and Specter together? They might actually win that fight, or at least not lose so badly that they couldn't escape. It would be easier to pin them down until reinforcements arrived... but she couldn't see them. Unless...
The pit dragons were coordinating. Whenever their group had encountered one of them, more had started showing up minutes or even seconds later. So someone was controlling them all together, and that same someone knew when a dragon had spotted them. Which meant that they could probably see what the dragons were seeing. Weiss wasn't sure what exactly caused Inkwell's vision problems, but what if it was something that didn't interfere with whatever the human on the other end of that device saw?
She'd sit in that tree, perfectly still—exactly as she was now—and wait for more dragons to converge on them.
Weiss squeezed Blake's arm and whispered, "We have to run. Now."
Blake didn't argue. She sprang out from under Specter's wing and vaulted onto Pit's back, while Weiss mounted up beside her. Inkwell hopped down from the tree to land directly in front of them. They made to run around her. Pearl burst out of the foliage several hundred yards ahead of them, and Tallow did the same off to their left.
Pit led the way, barreling towards the gap between Pearl and Inkwell. They tried to close it. He jumped over a vicious swipe from Pearl, and Specter followed. Her second attack missed him by a hair, leaving a shallow scratch across Weiss' shoulder. Then they were clear, running at top speed back the way they'd come.
Takeoff point. We need a takeoff point.
If the pit dragons got in the air first, they'd be caught. Worse, Tallow could set the forest on fire without worrying about losing them. At least Crucible wasn't among them—yet.
A small slope caught her eye. "There!" Weiss shouted, pointing.
Pit let out a shaky, exhausted roar and charged. It was smaller than any of the ramps they'd used in class, but with his freckles glowing he managed it easily. Specter's takeoff was harder, and he clipped a tree on his way up that left a small cut on his wing.
"Sorry," she murmured, stroking his back to soothe him. He clawed his way out of the canopy. Pearl and Tallow followed—but the moment Inkwell launched herself she slammed full-force into a tree. She fell behind, but they still had two others on their tail, and she'd try to catch up as soon as she found somewhere better to take off.
Specter puffed out frozen mist. Tallow almost flew right into it, but he dodged it at the last second without losing too much distance. Specter tried again, with the same result.
Pit's powers drove Pearl part of the way down to the canopy—but he dropped almost as quickly as she did once he wasn't using them on himself. They'd spent most of last night walking, and even when Inkwell had forced them to stay still none of them had managed to sleep. The dragons were exhausted, Weiss was running on pure adrenaline, and she doubted Blake was doing much better.
They just had to get away from these two. Find somewhere else to hide, and sleep. She patted Specter again as a shudder went through him. "Hold on," she said, though it was lost in the wind. "Just a little longer."
Pit's ears were ringing. He couldn't hear anything except that, and his own racing heartbeat, and the flapping of his wings. It hurt. It hadn't hurt this much in a long time, not since before Professor Oobleck had given him a slower weight schedule in their flying lessons. The wonderfully light feeling that usually came with using his powers was now only a momentary relief, never enough to ease the burning in his chest and wings.
So when another dragon appeared on the horizon, directly in front of them, he didn't have the strength to pull it down. It was all he could do to follow Specter as he swerved to the left, dodging Diver as he swept down to meet them. That put them in range of a blast of fire from Tallow. He wasn't as bad as Crucible—he'd been about fifty feet behind them for a while now, and they hadn't been burned to a crisp—but he was still dangerous.
Specter took the brunt of the blast, and let an aura of cold radiate from his scales to counteract the heat. Seconds later Pearl wheeled over their heads and aimed a stream of water at their riders. Pit twisted around to protect Blake. It struck him right in the belly, and knocked some of the air out of his lungs. It took several long, horrible seconds before he could breathe again.
Blake tapped his shoulder. He knew what she wanted—so he forced his aching wings to cooperate as he grabbed himself and Specter with his powers. It was slower than before, and he felt a strange, sharp pain just behind his eyes. They flipped around and began to fly in the other direction, this time towards Vacuo. Tallow and Pearl rushed past them...
But Diver had been hanging back, and continued to follow a few hundred feet behind them. Not close enough to aim more water blasts at them, but too close for them to hide in the woods without him following. The others had dropped a bit behind, but they would catch up soon.
He was so tired, he couldn't even think to try and plan another escape. Everything was fuzzy, like someone had stuffed his skull with cotton balls. All he could do was angle himself southward, towards the distant Vacuo.
"What do we do?!" demanded Specter. He was still flying easily—Pit was slowing him down.
"You... go... ahead," Pit panted.
"What do we do that isn't stupid?"
Pit didn't have the energy to respond. His vision tunneled to the few dozen feet right in front of them, all his focus going to keeping his wings beating. Then, when he'd had a little time to rest his powers, he used them to give his wings a short break. Back and forth, back and forth, feeling a little less restored each time.
He'd keep flying until he fell out of the sky—he just hoped that would be long enough to get Blake somewhere safe.
Ilia was getting sick of holding her breath, waiting for someone to bring up the elephant in the room. Namely, the fact that she'd never set foot in Beacon and they all knew it. There were professors there. One of them, a strict-looking blonde woman, shot a sharp glance her way... but no one called her out.
Blake must have told all of them. And now all it would take was one disgruntled human to blow Ilia's cover before she could find her. She should really be paying attention to what the others were saying, so that she could plan her next move—but it was hard to think about anything except the fact that they'd found almost everyone and Blake still wasn't there.
The Schnee broke her out of her panic. "We need to split up," she said, flatly and with no room for argument. "There will be airships that can transport Storm in Vacuo, but if we're going to make it there on foot you need to go now."
Ruby looked like she wanted to protest, but she ducked her head and nodded. Yang bit her lip, casting an anxious glance into the trees—but she didn't protest.
Some teammates, Ilia thought acidly.
"Transport her where, exactly?" asked Scarlet. "We can't exactly go back to Beacon."
"You'll be safe in Atlas."
Students shot nervous glances at one another. Yang folded her arms and said, "Atlas culls dragonets."
Winter's jaw tightened, but she didn't deny it. "The Council are trying to take over the dragonry. General Ironwood doesn't intend to let them. If you have somewhere else you'd rather go, I will happily drop you off there when it becomes relevant." She glared at them, as if daring someone to waste even more of her time with meaningless questions.
Qrow cleared his throat, a bit awkwardly. "So. I'm guessing the other group is the search party?"
"Yes. That's where I will be."
"We'll need at least one adult with the main group," added Glynda. "They haven't been shy about exploiting the fact that we have to walk, and it'll be difficult to hide all of us."
Qrow grunted. "How about you and Peter handle that?"
"I'm afraid Pepper and I will be somewhat less effective than usual," Peter pointed out, patting his wounded dragon's shoulder.
"Can't really help that." Qrow shrugged and glanced at his nieces. "You kiddos are gonna have to be part of the fighting force a little while longer."
Yang made a face at him. "We're fine." She slapped Sun across the back. "Our dragons beat Crucible!"
There was a chorus of, "You what?!" mixed with Neptune's, "Damn it, Sun!"
Qrow just squinted at her and said, "Who?"
Judging by the frantic hand-flapping and indignant shouts from the various students, and Glynda's grimace, it was a big deal. Ilia mostly tuned that out, though—she was more focused on the way the Schnee's jaw had started to jump. She'd been around the two of them less than twenty-four hours, and she could already tell that putting her and Qrow in the same group was a terrible idea.
Thankfully, Tai came to their rescue. "We should probably split into more than one search party. Qrow and I are used to working together, so maybe we do a slower, more careful search while Winter flies ahead?" Winter shot him a grateful look, and nodded.
"Hang on." Jaune made a time-out sign with his hands. "When you say you beat Crucible..."
"Um." Yang grinned a bit sheepishly. "We got the plate thingy off him."
Sun's dragon growled at her.
"We helped Huo get the plate thingy off."
Glynda's eyes narrowed. "How?"
"He just kinda..." Sun made a vague hand gesture. "Puked up a plasma and melted it off."
"Not a strategy that we'll be able to repeat, then."
"We could do it with Tallow and Glory," Ruby said. "Should we... you know. Try to catch them and get them free?"
"No." Winter ignored the unfriendly looks some of the students gave her, at that. "We're going to need a better way of freeing them, if we want to help all of them. We're just as likely to lose one of our own dragons trying something that reckless—" a pointed glare at Sun and Yang, "—than we are to accomplish anything. Maybe more so. The General will be able to get in contact with the original designer, which should give us better options."
She glared at each of them in turn, daring them to try and argue. No one did.
"It's settled, then. Peter will stay with the students, Tai and Qrow will search the forest, and Steele and I will fly ahead in case of another chase."
"I'll go with you," Ilia blurted. In an instant she found herself on the receiving end of Winter Schnee's full attention. It was as unpleasant as she'd imagined it would be.
"You're a student."
Ilia was already regretting opening her mouth... but she couldn't just let Winter go alone. What if Blake was with Weiss, and she did find them? Friends didn't leave friends alone with a pair of Schnees. "I can fight."
"No."
"Then I'll go alone." She beckoned to Justice. "I'm here to find Blake. I'm not following your orders."
One of Winter's eyes twitched. Ilia could see the arguments forming in her head... right up until the moment she realized that they would only waste more time. "I won't slow down if you fall behind."
"Fine."
When Winter mounted up, she let her coat ride up to expose a holster on her hip, and rested her right hand pointedly on the pistol while she gathered the reins in her left. The unspoken threat was clear—Ilia would not be wise to screw up her search for her sister.
That was fine. They were probably looking in the same place anyway. When they got there might be a different story... but Ilia was pretty sure Justice could outfly some pampered ice dragon.
Six shadows trailed behind them, now.
Specter tried to breathe more mist at Paprika and make her fall back, but the little cloud that he made was so thin she didn't even bother going around it. She was close enough for him to see condensation forming on her scales.
Even the attempt to use his powers made his chest hurt. It felt like he'd breathed a million tiny needles—and it didn't help that his lungs were already heaving to try and keep up with his frantic heartbeat.
He might have given up already, if he couldn't feel Weiss' weight in his saddle, reminding him of what would happen if he let himself fall out of the sky like he half wanted to.
The dragons that had powers they could use in the air, at least, were still out of range. Inkwell had caught up to the back of the flock that was chasing them, but she didn't seem to be gaining any more ground. Diver was a bigger problem—he might start shooting water at them if he got any closer.
Specter wished he could talk to Pit—to figure out a plan, or at least to feel a little less alone... but his brother needed all the breath he could get. His eyes were fixed on the horizon, his wings beating furiously, his freckles flickering like a failing light bulb.
They had to do something, but the only thing Specter could think of was hoping that one of the others would see them and help. But if they didn't meet anyone else...
Vacuo. It was the closest place he could think of to go. He wasn't sure how far it was—could he and Pit keep this up for hours? A whole day? He wasn't sure he could last that long, but if he had to...
They would be arrested. Specter's wings faltered at the thought. He knew what would happen after that—now that they'd run away, the Council wouldn't care if he and Pit were healthy or not. They'd be culled. But they wouldn't kill their riders—the pit dragons definitely would.
It wasn't the thought of culling that made Specter's stomach feel like it had just been filled with the killing mist. What if they escaped into Vacuo, and the pit dragons followed them? The Council would find those things that were making them attack.
He wasn't sure he could do that, even if it meant saving Weiss. And that was almost enough to knock him out of the sky.
Specter shook himself. They'd figure something else out, before it came to that. It would be okay. He focused instead on the horizon, like Pit, watching for something they could use to escape. Anything to push those horrible thoughts away.