Title: Another Day on the Road

Summary: It certainly took a long time for the Dragon Knights to get back from recovering Nadil's head. Or maybe not so long, considering all the side trips, demon fights, and treasure hunts the group went on. A missing tale from the road, where Rath fights, Thatz whines, and Rune wonders why he's doing this in the first place.

Notes: And time for more of this story, with a bit of danger thrown in. It's actually kind of funny, 'cause for about a page in here, the story tries very hard to be taken seriously. It fails miserably, but the half-assed attempt is still there. I'm so proud of my semi-scary action scene. It's almost serious.

Warnings: Anal Retentive!Rune, Conniving!Thatz, Easily Distracted!Rath, and a tentacle demon! Yay!

Disclaimer: Kyra: (is overwhelmed with laughter at the mere suggestion that she owns Dragon Knights) .......

Another Day on the Road

Later that day, the three travelers were back on the road. Rune was still a bit annoyed, but it was slowly abating now that he was out on the road, heading back towards Draqueen (in theory, at least.) At it was, Rune, Rath and Thatz were currently on track.

Kind of.

"I think we turn left here," Thatz said, pointing to the map he had spread out on the ground.

Rune bent over it, frowning. "I don't think that's right. Draqueen is located northeast of here. If we went that way, we be going away from it."

"But see, the line connects with the main road later on–"

"That's pointless," informed Rune. "We should just turn right, we'd get there faster."

Thatz shook his head. "No, that's not good. See, look – the little dots here mean 'danger', so the left path is safer."

Rath, who had been standing away from the map and looking at the surrounding forest in interest, suddenly turned towards them, eyes perking up. "Danger? Do you mean, de–?"

"No!" Rune and Thatz snapped as one.

"But you said–"

"We didn't say anything," Rune smoothed over quickly, glaring at his dark-haired companion. "Nothing at all."

"Maybe you could help us figure this out," Thatz suggested, changing the subject, "instead of sitting there and doing nothing."

Rath made a face, but walked over. He studied the map for a few moments before looking oddly at Rune. Curiously, he asked, "Why are you using a treasure map?"

"What?" Rune frowned, and looked back at the map. And then looked at Thatz's sheepish face. "Thatz! You jerk! Where's the real map?!"

"I traded it for this one," answered the green-haired thief.

"What?!"

"Does that mean we can look for demons?" Rath asked, eyes bright. "You said so yourself that the right path takes us closer to Draqueen!"

"I can't believe you'd trade our map for this!" Rune continued, ignoring Rath.

"I can," muttered Rath, rolling his eyes.

"It was a good trade!" Thatz defended. "It's still a perfectly good map."

"For thieves, maybe!" Rune snapped, snatching the map from Thatz's hands. Examining it thoroughly, Rune argued, "Look! Draqueen is barely even noted! And it says–" Rune peered at the map closely, "–to avoid it at all costs because it repels demons! Thatz! This is a demon map!"

"Really?" Thatz queried, looking dubious.

"Great!" Rath cheered, and he grabbed the map from Rune's hands before the latter could prevent it. "We can go hunt demons now!"

"No!" Rune instructed, trying to take the map back. "Rath, give that back!"

"But I need the map to find out where the demons are."

"We are not hunting demons!" Rune apprised. "We are going back to Draqueen immediately."

"Hmm," Thatz murmured to himself, eyes narrowed in thought, "I guess the little dots don't mean danger. I mean, if it's a demon map..."

Rune suddenly froze. He turned to Thatz, looking strangely worried, and asked, "Thatz, didn't you say that this map recommended this path?"

"Huh?" Thatz blinked. "Er – yeah..."

Suddenly, the ground beneath the three travelers started trembling, causing an unnatural silence to descend upon the land. Thatz, Rath, and Rune all looked down at their feet, varying expressions of confusion mixed with concern evident on their faces.

"Is that a demon?" questioned Rath, confusion changing into eagerness even as he asked.

"Oh–" Rune began.

"Shit!" concluded Thatz as the ground beneath them exploded outward.

The air rushed around Rune as he felt himself being thrown to the side, the ground suddenly absent from beneath his feet. Vaguely, he heard the shouts of his friends to either side of him, but it was all he could do to try and regain his footing. Unfortunately, considering the lack of ground, that wasn't happening, and Rune felt himself flying haphazardly through the air. For a few brief moments, Rune felt a terror unlike anything he had ever known – he was falling, and at the speed he was going, it wasn't likely to be a gentle landing. He braced himself for impact, but was jolted out of his fear as something abruptly snatched him out of the air. Dazed, Rune was so relieved to have stopped falling that he barely noticed his new predicament.

It was only after a couple seconds that Rune realized he was being held by a tentacle. And that many others were wrapping themselves around his arms and legs.

"Aghh!" Rune yelled, thrashing against the appendages, which were a mottled sort of green, and rather disgustingly slimy. He tried to reach for his sword, but unfortunately, the hilt was blocked by the thick tentacle that was wrapping itself around his chest. Rune attempted to wriggle out of the tentacle's tight grip, but he couldn't get a good grip on the slippery skin. Not only that, but the other tentacles were beginning to have success: his feet were tied together already, and at that moment, Rune felt one of the thin appendages wrap around his sword arm, pulling it tight away from his body. His shoulder wrenching in pain, Rune gasped, and the other tentacles took advantage of the momentary weakness; almost instantly, Rune felt himself rendered nearly immobile, as the tentacles twisted around his form.

"Rath!" Rune called, struggling vainly against his sudden cage. "Thatz!" The blonde-haired warrior couldn't hear either of his companions, though whether or not that was a good thing, Rune didn't know. "Rath! Thatz! Where are yo–?"

His voice was cut off as the many different tentacles began to tighten, causing Rune to gasp for breath, eyes wide. The tension didn't release as he stopped talking, and it was all too soon that Rune began seeing spots, and a haze of darkness affected his vision.

"Ra– ath..." gasped Rune, his struggles weak. "Tha..."

And all went dark.

Rune awoke to a dim light, and could hear voices murmuring somewhere to his right. As his senses returned, Rune could feel the burning pain in his shoulder, as well as a sticky substance dripping down the side of his face. Blood, thought Rune, resisting the urge to wipe it away. From the feeling of bindings around his wrists and legs, Rune suspected that he had been captured by whatever it was that had attacked them. All in all, not a good situation to be in.

However, considering that Rune had been expecting worse – such as, not to wake up at all –, he wasn't too upset. Kind of irritated, though.

It took awhile for all of his senses to return, but it wasn't long before Rune could make out the voices talking nearby.

"–had to let him get away, didn't you?" one voice, feminine, was snarling. "The only one we were actually instructed to get, and you let him get away. Great job. Really."

"Oh, leave me alone," another, male-sounding, voice whined. "We got the other two. He'll come for them."

"Illusar will come for them?" the woman asked, incredulous. "You forget who you're talking about."

"He likes them."

"Idiot. He doesn't like anyone."

"He'll come for them," the man defended. "Even if he doesn't like him, he won't just leave them here. It goes against his purposes."

"Whatever," the woman muttered. "We wouldn't even be having this conversation if you had just captured Illusar in the first place."

"Leave me alone."

By this time, Rune had figured out that they were talking about Rath. Which meant that he and Thatz were captured, unfortunately. However, Rune could feel the presence of water nearby – they hadn't taken his sword far – and figured that Thatz was somewhere near as well. He didn't dare open his eyes yet, however. Rune didn't want them to know he was awake until he was ready.

Unfortunately, Rune's thoughts were cut short as he heard footsteps heading towards him. They stopped beside his body, and Rune felt a rush of air as the person knelt down. The man said, "I don't see why he wouldn't come back. If I was traveling with such a pretty thing, I would..." The man trailed off, and Rune nearly gave himself away as he felt a course hand brush along his cheek. The nerve! Indignation coursed through Rune's veins.

The woman snorted. "I keep forgetting that you're a human. And a pathetic one, at that."

"Just because he's a dragon doesn't make him any less beautiful," argued the man, and Rune could feel the leer he knew the man held. Despite this, Rune still wanted to feign unconsciousness – however, when the man began toying with his hair, Rune had enough. (After all, seriously. Not only was he straight, he was also an ELF. Hair was valued.)

"Don't touch me," hissed Rune, snapping his eyes open and giving the man – who was both ugly and disgusting, to Rune's eyes – his most intimidating glare. Even though, for the majority of his life, Rune had been a faerie, he was very good at the glare. It was something Rune was rather proud of, actually.

The man flinched back.

"You're awake," he said, startled.

Rune sniffed scornfully and looked away. He caught a glance of Thatz, who was likewise tied up and awake. The thief looked irritated but – noticing Rune's predicament – also rather amused. Rune glared, silently warning Thatz that any comments about his faerie heritage or "prettiness" would not be appreciated. Thatz attained a too-innocent expression, and Rune clenched his fists.

"You're the water dragon knight, then?" the woman asked, and Rune looked up to see a demon lady staring down at him. She continued, "Your little friend wasn't very forthcoming with answers, but it's pretty obvious. Will you be more willing to talk?"

Rune answered her with a glare.

The demon rolled her eyes and sighed, "Thought not. Oh, well."

"It's not like we can't torture them or something," the man said, glaring at the demon with irritation in his eyes. "I mean, really, anyone will talk after a few hours of whipping or something."

"Maybe that works for weak little humans," snarled the demon, "But for demons and Dragons, it's a bit different. We're more resilient. And I already told you that we're not going to torture them. Would you stop be such a sadist?"

"As soon as you stop being such a bitch."

Rune glanced at Thatz with a quizzical expression on his face; Thatz shrugged. Then, noticing the ropes around Rune's limbs, Thatz wiggled his hands enough for Rune to tell that Thatz had untied himself. Obviously, their kidnappers weren't exactly the best in the business.

Taking Thatz's advice, Rune set silently to work on his own bindings, trying his best to tune out the sound of the two bickering kidnappers.

As he worked, Rune couldn't help but wonder why it was that they were never captured by anyone halfway skillful. It was really quite annoying.