Rising to Power.

"We'll have to abandon the horses here, Mistress," Raelis commented coolly and Lauthal snarled. She hated that he was right, the trip was about to become less comfortable than it had been to this point.

In all honestly, she couldn't understand what all those people went on about. So far the DarkVeil forest had been as uneventful, if not more, than when they'd been traversing the rest of the surrounding forest. They'd not come across a single fae or dead soul yet, and now they were nearing their destination, which was exciting, except that they were now faced with sheer cliff face that would need to be climbed.

She didn't pity the soldiers that would have to make such a journey dangerously, still clothed in the metal armour she had ordered them wear. It would be fun to watch their dismal efforts. A good way to pass the time as they hefted her up in a pulley mechanism.

She probably could have used her recently strengthened powers to levitate herself, but why waste the energy.

"Up!" she commanded and a row of soldiers pulled heavily on the rope, lifting the wooden container Lauthal stood in on its journey to the top, where several men had already been forced to climb to in order to set up the pulley system for their Empress ascent.

The container began heaving up the steep slope jerkily, bouncing around like a mad dog and Lauthal screeched down at the soldiers pulling angrily, though the ride did not get much smoother regardless. Down below the ground slowly got smaller and smaller, more distant, until finally she neared, and then cleared the top of the cliff face. Several soldiers whom had been lazing around on the surrounding boulders immediately leapt to life with a series of guilty looks at being caught relaxing.

"Get me out of this disgusting thing!" Lauthal barked irritatedly, and decided these were the men she'd make sacrifice themselves first if there was trouble. They helped her out of the wooden container, a soldier bringing the small dog Pepita out, and Lauthal stared round the cliff top critically. It didn't look much to her, and right now she didn't see any dragons.

A moment later, just as Raelis head popped up over the cliff top, there was a loud screech and a massive body flew over the top of the intruders. Lauthal looked up at the creature, higher in the sky, as it flew around the next peak and disappeared.

"Raelis," she said stepping forward towards the cliff edge, "you've done well." A compliment from Lauthal was rare. Raelis might have had the time to accept it gratefully, if only Lauthal had not stepped upon his fingers, grinding them into the hard rock below and causing him intense pain. Letting go, and plummeting to be splattered across the ground below in pancake shape, was not an option.