Ran groaned and leaned against the facade of the building. It was covered in soot, its old wooden doors weatherbeaten and the glass set in it less a window and more a grimy portal to a place filled with indistinct blobs. She had hoped they'd have been to wherever they'd been told 'home' was now much sooner than this. This far down in Crag, the looming buildings above them and the thick smoke of industry had almost completely obscured what would have been a glittering night sky.
The torchlight made it easy to navigate at least, though Ran noticed that many torches had gone out. Now and again, a passing fire-type tried to reignite one, but when it failed to catch or simply sputtered out, they would shrug and continue on their way. She frowned at the display and looked skyward again, trying to find the stars in the obscured sky somewhere high above her.
Crag did not make her uncomfortable, she found. In fact, it felt bizarrely familiar. She scratched the side of her head delicately with a long claw and made a long, low noise in her throat. It felt like she'd been somewhere similar to Crag once, but the only thing her memories brought forward was the endless looming trees of a forest from the Old Nightmare. She sighed and began to knock her head gently against the wall behind her, bored.
Her claws ached. She spread her digits apart and looked at them. Why did they ache? Did she make a mistake carving that ice bowl? Maybe she knocked them against something as they navigated through the many tiny shops and council chambers of the lower parts of Crag? A blinding pain split her head in two and her vision went wine red for a moment. When it cleared, she got unsteadily to her feet and took several low, deep breaths. Her lungs filled with the acrid smell of smoke and made her cough and the feeling of familiarity with Crag vanished from her senses. She looked up at the facade of the building again.
The faded runes carved into a placard beside the door read, "Fifth Council for General Goods." Or so Thea claimed. It was very cramped inside - for the endless councils providing instructions to councils providing instructions to councils, they at least had somehow managed to keep the supply lines moving through Crag. When Thea and Outrider emerged, however, Ran wrinkled her nose at what they held. In addition to a box containing tinder and a flint and steel, they had another grimy box with runes written on the side in a messy script, a medium bale of hay, and a stained and lumpy bag.
Outrider noticed her displeased expression, and gave her a bracing smile. "We'll be able to build a fire without much worry now, at least." He shook the tinderbox. "And they've also handed us a box with some basic home supplies. Utensils, waterskins, belts, pouches…" He rummaged about in the box and then replaced the lid. "We'll be needing them Ran."
Valor crossed his arms and pouted. "Hey!" he called up to Outrider.
"As will you, lit- I mean, Valor," added the lucario, chuckling.
Stone poked the bag Thea held in her hands and sniffed once. "Food?" she asked.
The braixen nodded. "Dried whole berries, a jar of pickled vegetables, and a few day's worth of jaw toner for each of you," she said, pointing to Ran, Outrider and Valor when she reached the last item.
Ran stared. "Jaw toner?"
"Tough bread. Fills you up but chewing it is a...process. Awful stuff, honestly, but if it's filling it's filling," said Thea.
Stone crossed her arm and made an indistinct noise in her throat. "Nothin' for me, huh?"
Thea shook her head. "You have this," she said, holding up a much nicer looking bag bearing no stains. It was considerably fuller looking, and she held it out for Stone to take.
The lycanroc took the bag and opened it and began to fish around inside. "Bread, fresh berries, dried berries…" Her eyes widened and she looked up at Thea then back down into the bag and began to pull something out.
Comprehension dawned on the braixen's eyes and she immediately seized Stone's forearm and hissed, "Not here. And definitely not around him." She made a furtive gesture towards Valor, who was busy pestering Ran for a dried berry. "They can see it. What you do with it is your choice. There'll be more soon."
Stone closed the bag and frowned. "Awful nice stuff in here. Why are they left with crap?" she asked, pointing at Outrider and Ran.
"Your job is incredibly important and rare. Call it an incentive," said Thea. "That's what I've been told anyway. I've never tried to find a rune anchor. I wouldn't know how to. But I imagine it's much more difficult than simply defense and scouting. Rune scouts have to rely on themselves out there."
Stone shivered. "Solo gigs, huh?" she mumbled, looking down at the ground. Her tone pitched up and took on a determinedly happy tone. "Can we go home now? We done? I'm beat."
"Yeah! I'm so tired of walking all over this place!" said Valor thickly, his mouth half-full of dried berry. "Let's go!"
"You haven't even been walking that much!" said Ran, laughing. "Stone's been carrying you half the time."
"Look at my little legs!" He hopped up and down repeatedly. "You think walkin' around with these is easy or fun? At least you've got legs with a proper length!"
The weavile shook her head. "You've got a point. When are we heading back, Thea?"
The braixen pointed towards a nearby staircase. "Right now, actually. This was the last thing we needed done. Follow me." Her face lit up. "Maybe you'll move into the empty Communal beneath my Apartment. Then I can ask you to keep the noise down without feeling too guilty." She smiled at them all and added after a beat, "That was… mostly a joke."
Ran smiled back at her and gestured for her to lead the way. "What's the difference between a Communal and an Apartment?" she asked, catching up to the fox.
"Dormitories, Communals, Apartments," replied Thea. "Dorms are a bunch of hay beds arranged in very large, stone homes at the lowest levels of Crag. You share a common area. Communals are single rooms for multiple pokemon. You can have multiple hay beds or a communal pile - thus the name. They're ideal for creative types."
"Artists?" asked Ran, looking confused.
"No, um… the organizationally creative," said Thea. "And Apartments, which are single occupancy rooms arranged in lines inside of a larger structure. Your own personal room - if a bit small, your own door, and a large enough multipurpose area for cooking and tinkering."
Ran nodded. "And so you live in an Apartment alone."
Thea nodded. "Yes, but they're usually large enough to allow a guest."
"That sounds nice!" said Ran cheerfully.
The braixen glanced over her shoulder and then nodded. "It is."
The key took some effort to disengage the lock, but after some elbow grease, it came loose with a loud click. Outrider handed the lock to Ran and then gently threw the door open. A very loud creak met their ears and revealed a poorly lit room that smelled of dust and smoke. The floor appeared to be made of a thin slab of stone, given how cracked it was, while the walls were bare planks of dark wood.
"The walls are at least straight," said Outrider, stepping inside and looking around. In the corner of the room was a stone fireplace - it was not especially large, but the room was also not particularly small either. Just enough for the four of them to live comfortably, yes, but Ran felt she was going to know all of her remaining friends far better than she'd ever would have expected. Oracle's home had been only slightly larger than this, but it led out to flat land and an endless forest.
She looked down at the roughly nailed planks of wood beneath her feet that comprised their "porch." No such luck here. From doorway to walkway in a single step. Ran stepped inside and looked around. There had been no window on the facade of their new home - nor were there any in their home at all. She looked up, hoping for perhaps something that wasn't just more wood planks and frowned. How stupid of her - of course there would be nothing above but a reinforced roof. There were homes upon homes upon shops upon council chambers above her.
"No windows for fresh air, huh?" she asked aloud, setting the banner from Nomad down in a corner opposite the fireplace. They would need to find a way to hang it from the wall some time.
"Windows would cause structural weakness," explained Thea. "Or they would this far down anyway… They get more common, um…"
"Yeah, the further up you go you start seeing them more. Figured as much," grumbled Stone. "I'll just pretend there's no windows so no one can sneak a peek of me being spitroasted. At least that gives me something to look forward to."
Outrider set their bags, boxes and bale of hay down and gave Stone a stern look. "Mind your language around Valor," he said, chastising her. He then set about trying to sort the bale into multiple piles for each of them.
He had barely gotten the first handfuls down for each of them when Stone simply spread the bale out in the center of the room and said, "We're not gonna make things harder for ourselves right now Outrider. Hope you don't mind cozying up. And the sooner Valor learns I'm a pottymouth the better."
The lucario rolled his eyes. "You held your tongue quite well back in Nomad."
"Forge hated the way I talked. Said it made her uncomfortable. Thought about keeping it up to honor her memory but…" she trailed off and sighed. "She'd probably be happier knowing I didn't have to mind her sensitive ears."
Ran trudged over to the pile of hay and slumped backwards onto it. Stone did the same almost immediately and grabbed Ran to cuddle her. Between her exhaustion from their busy day and the fresh wave of depression from Stone's comments, she couldn't bring herself to resist. In fact, it cheered her up a bit.
Thoughts of arms that felt like bundles of steel wire wrapping around flashed through her head and sent a funny feeling twisting down her body and balling up in the pit of her stomach. She pushed them from her head and instead wriggled around in Stone's arms so she could lay somewhat flat on her back - or as best as the arms wrapped around her allowed.
"You got comfortable quickly," said Thea, half smiling and half incredulous. "Good on you, I guess." She watched Valor rush over to Stone and sit down so he could lean against her stiff mane of hair and fell asleep almost immediately. "Outrider, I have some info for you and Ran. And I guess Valor, but let's take it outside so we're not disturbing them."
Outrider nodded and followed the braixen out, who stood in the threshold and closed the door after him with a creak and a snap. As if on cue, Stone immediately squeezed Ran far too tightly to her chest and made the weavile uncomfortable.
Stone was nice, but she was pointier than Outrider and had a surprisingly strong grip. It was a chore struggling to get loose from her, but Ran's desire to listen about what she needed to know for tomorrow won out over her exhaustion telling her to just give up. When she stood up, in compensation she picked up Valor and tucked him into Stone's arms. Smiling, she made her way over to the door, and pulled it open with another loud creak.
She was greeted with the sight of Thea pressing the stick she kept tucked partially in her large tail fluff into Outrider's right pectoral. For his part, Outrider looked very confused, and his focus shifted from the stick to Ran only briefly before he looked back down at the wand. The braixen turned her head and saw Ran and then looked back at Outrider. "I'll be here early tomorrow, so try to get up around dawn and eat a good meal." She paused. "As good a meal as you can manage. We'll have more food out in the field, so don't worry too much."
"We're going out into the field tomorrow?" asked Ran.
Thea nodded. "Yes. You'll need to be shown how to perform defense duties as well as scouting duties. With some luck and a little convincing, it might be me training you all."
Ran nodded in time with Outrider.
"We'll be eating a bit and then turning in for the night, I think," said the lucario. He paused and added somewhat awkwardly, "Would you care to join us for food?"
Thea shook her head. "Nah, I've got my own. If you need water, you can head a few houses down to the Water Authority with your waterskins and have them filled."
"Noted," said Outrider. "Are they common?" His eyes drifted down the wand poking his chest again.
"Very. At least one on each level, usually two and sometimes three or four," said Thea. She finally pulled her stick away from Outrider and stuck it back into her tail. "I'll see you all tomorrow." She thumped her chest twice and said, "Keep the walls strong."
Ran did her best to mimic the action without stabbing herself. "Keep the walls strong?"
Thea laughed. "Goodbye doesn't remind you of the goal everyone in Crag participates in."
"Right. See you soon." Ran waved Thea off and when the braixen had disappeared up a nearby staircase, she turned to Outrider. "What was that?"
Outrider frowned. "I am… not entirely sure. She was talking to me about something completely different. Nice places in Crag, good bakeries, nearby meadows and creeks beyond the walls that weren't too dangerous…"
"Sounds like she's interested," said Ran. She gestured for Outrider to head back into their Communal with her.
He followed her and sat down on the bare floor while she pulled the sack filled with food over to them and pulled some dried berries free along with jaw toner. They ate to the sound of Stone and Valor's snores for a while before Outrider said, "I do not think I am… especially invested in Thea. She is certainly interesting, but we have just met."
"Then tell her," said Ran, pulling seeds from her dried berry. It tasted alright, though it was clearly on the older side. "Better to not have her chasing you, right?" There was a funny feeling in her stomach. It was the feeling of competition, soaked with confidence that bordered on cockiness. The edges of her vision flashed maroon and she immediately shook her head.
"Are you alright?" asked Outrider, alarmed.
"Weird red flashes. Happened earlier too, don't know what causes them. I'm not even fighting anything," said Ran. She took another bite of her berry for lack of anything else to do to distract her.
"No closer to understanding why it happens?" he asked.
Ran let out a hollow laugh. "Gods, I wish." She tossed a berry seed into the corner of the room. They'd need a bin soon. "Anyway, that's not important. I'll give the red flashes more thought myself tonight now that we don't have to worry about wildlings. What are you going to tell Thea?"
"Ask her outright after tomorrow's training, I suppose," said Outrider. He took a bite of his berry. "See what she says. Perhaps try to understand what she's after."
"A good time, probably," said Ran. The words were out of her mouth before she'd realized she'd said them. She clapped her claws over her lips, her eyes wide. "I didn't mean to say that."
Outrider looked concerned. "While you are not wrong, I believe you when you say you did not mean to say that." He pressed a digit against the yellow jewel in her forehead. "Are you feeling unwell?"
Ran felt her arms twitch once as she nearly raised them, but when she did not grab Outrider's arm like she'd briefly thought, it felt like someone had kicked a chair out from under her, and the emotions welling in her stomach drained out into the floor and somewhere far away. She shook her head. "I'm alright now. The feelings that come along with those flashes are gone."
"What feelings?" asked Outrider, looking puzzled.
"Don't worry about it. If it becomes relevant I'll let you know, but for now, I don't understand it so it's not really worth talking about… It'll just frustrate or confuse me," she said, striking her forehead with one of her paws, and taking care not to scratch herself in the process.
Outrider did not look wholly convinced but he nodded nonetheless. "Fair enough." He paused. "Do you think perhaps she simply wants me to bed her?"
Ran bit into her dried berry again and shrugged. The feeling of competition had disappeared, and had instead been replaced with vague sensations she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Or perhaps she wants… a litter?" asked Outrider aloud. He leaned back on his hands and stared up at the ceiling. "I can't say I'm especially interested in siring anyone."
Concern, it was concern. She was concerned for Outrider. "Yeah, I don't think you should be getting involved with something like that the second day we arrive in a new place. Especially a place that might need you to fill out like thirty forms to start a family."
Outrider laughed. "I suppose I'll find out tomorrow," he said.
"What if it's just… desire?" asked Ran, finishing her berry and getting up to go lay down in bed, though instead she laid on her side and propped her head up using her elbow for support.
Outrider followed her to bed and mimicked her to look her in the eyes. "She's healthy and shapely," reasoned Outrider. "If she was simply looking to scatter hay…"
Ran rolled her eyes. "You're like a more eloquent Stone."
"Would you say no?" asked Outrider.
"To Thea?" asked Ran. A brief crackle of electricity ran from her head to halfway down her thighs. "I guess not." A shadow crossing in front of a scarlet wall laid itself over her vision but was gone as quick as it came. She rolled onto her back. "She's got those scars on her thighs. Pretty cool, right?"
"Cool?" repeated Outrider. "I suppose. Not quite what I had in mind, I'll admit." He too rolled onto his back.
"Well, then what? You said she's 'shapely' what does that mean?" asked Ran, glancing over at him.
"She has a very toned… abdomen." Outrider rolled away from Ran abruptly and added, "We have a busy day tomorrow, no doubt."
"And you've hit the limit of embarrassment you can tolerate, eh?" laughed Ran.
"Good night," said Outrider with a tone of finality.
"Yeah, you're embarrassed," said Ran, closing her eyes.
Her high spirits did not last. After less than two hours of sleep and a further two spent restlessly tossing and turning, Ran was staring at the ceiling in the dark. She had removed herself from the hay pile and was instead laying beside the door. Neighbors above, below and on either side had fallen asleep some time ago, and the soothing sound of bodies settling in and conversations and arguments filtering into the room had gone with it.
Her head was filled with incomprehensible images interspersed with flashes of different shades of red. This hadn't happened in Nomad when she was idle. Sure, when she had fought those wildlings, it had made sense - no, how had it made sense? Why would it make sense that fights would bring those reds that clouded her vision?
Ran clutched at the sides of her head and tried desperately to block the sounds out, but it was impossible to stop sounds that originated inside your own skull. Lights of dull yellow, pulsing scarlets and strobing rainbows popped into her mind's eye. It was all incomprehensible. Some of the sounds came through like garbled screams of terror and pain. They mixed with sounds of choking and blurred into seas of changing reds that would fade into wine.
And then new, equally garbled sounds filled her head and made her tremble. Grunts, whooping and gleeful, nonsensical shouts. Creaking like their front door, higher pitched and repeated nonstop, cut across the otherworldly sounds and her vision began to blur until the same wine red filled it once more.
The sounds crashed into each other and she could hear it at last. The cacophony coalesced into a single overriding sound and held somewhere deep in the back of her skull. The bone was going to crack, she could feel it. Her head would split open and the world would bear witness to decaying nonsense that played at violence and lust but embodied neither.
She could feel tears running down her face. It was the many sounds of flesh.
Something jostled Ran awake. Her vision was bleary and had trouble finding Valor's face in the sea of blurry nonsense. The hedgehog handed her a dried berry and said happily, "It's time to be heroes!"
She yawned and sat up, rubbing her eyes clear of the crust that developed overnight and then took the berry from the chespin. "Thanks Valor…" she said hoarsely. "'Preciate it…"
"You look terrible!" said Valor, positively chipper, "What's the prob? You sleep bad?" He lowered his voice and leaned in. "Did you have a nightmare?" he added in a whisper.
Ran looked down at him for a moment before offering a short nod. "Yeah, it was a hard night." She took a bite from her dried berry and took her time chewing before adding, "Thank you for asking."
Valor hopped up into her lap and hugged her torso. "I don't have wings like Sentry did so I can't cover you in a buncha feathers that make you sneeze so I hope a hug works," he said in a squashed tone, his face pressed into her chest.
Ran smiled and returned the gesture. "This is more than good enough." She let go after a moment, but Valor continued to hold her. After another few moments, he mumbled something indistinct. "Say again?"
Valor pulled away and looked up at Ran, making what appeared to be a concerted effort to smile - or at least not look miserable. "I miss Sentry."
Ran rubbed his cheek. "We all do. Come on, let's go be heroes. It's what she'd want." The chespin nodded vigorously, and bounded back to Stone to wake her up for what sounded like the fourth time, judging from his shouts. She looked around for Outrider and then got up and stretched. Outside, perhaps?
Ran threw the door to their Communal open and stepped outside, still chewing on her dried berry. There by the door were Outrider and Thea, much like they were last night. In fact, it might as well have been yesterday still. The ambient light certainly didn't make it clear dawn was breaking. She looked around - other than a few more pokemon passing one another than there were yesterday, everything seemed basically the same. Sure, a few more were now criss-crossing through the endless bridges that helped alleviate traffic in front of the endless lines of Communals, but the traffic had moved from a trickle to light stream.
She approached Thea and Outrider and waved to them both. "Morning," she said thickly, her mouth still full of berry. "Am I late?"
Thea shook her head. "No, actually. I only just got here. Valor was the one that answered the door actually, but I guess Outrider is a light sleeper."
"Valor woke up perhaps half an hour before dawn. I was up an hour before. Call it nerves, or perhaps discomfort. We could do with more hay," explained Outrider. He looked at Ran. "Did you sleep well?"
Ran finished her berry and wondered how best to answer the question. She settled on, "No. It was an awful night. One of the worst I've had in my life."
"Worse than any of the ones in the forest?" asked Outrider.
"There… weren't many there, I think," replied Ran. She frowned and scratched her temple. "Gods above, there's just nothing when I think about that place. Is it cursed or something?"
Outrider shook his head. "No, not as far as I know."
The weavile shrugged. "Then… I don't know. I wish-" The words caught in her throat and she instead ran a claw against the feather tucked through the bandana tied around her left arm. "You know…"
"She could only see vague shapes and colors. Hear incomprehensible sounds. Oracle was not a miracle worker, sadly." He patted her on the shoulder. "We should speak later. I have not had the opportunity to bring up a certain subject, and I think Crag will not see the devastation Nomad did any time soon."
"Who are you talking about?" asked Thea, looking between the two. She looked a touch annoyed.
"Oracle. A late friend of ours," explained Outrider. He pointed to the feather in Ran's armband. "She provided Ran with some… insight of dubious usefulness."
Valor and Stone stepped outside, and while Valor ran immediately over to them, Stone stopped to lock the door and handed Ran a key looped through a leather strap and affixed to a leather belt. "You forgot your shit," she said in a very raspy voice. Ran took the belt from her and looped it on. Stone did the same, then pulled a small item from one of the pouches and popped it into her mouth.
"Do you have to?" asked Thea, looking at her, her tone and her expression both equally disapproving.
"I'm hungry and it's small, who cares. By the way, remind me when I see you all tonight to toss some your way," said Stone, walking past them all and towards a staircase that led into the upper levels of Crag. "Until then, take it easy."
Ran watched her go and asked aloud, "Toss what?"
"You'll see today, I think," explained Thea. "But for now, let's go. We'll be heading out of Crag to meet up with another group." She beckoned them to follow and led them down a nearby set of stairs.
"Are they also new?" asked Outrider. "I recall you mentioning something about our stay here being relegated to a provisional zone."
"No, they're just in need of remedial training. They keep forgetting how to maintain proper defensive postures when scouting," she explained, taking the steps fast enough that Ran began to huff. "They usually don't make another mistake, so there's that at least."
"Is it really just as simple as some more training?" asked Ran. They hit the bottom of the staircase and immediately hung to the left to approach another rickety and uneven set of wooden stairs that would lead them to the ground.
"No, the training is to get them to focus again," explained Thea, looking uncomfortable. "Get them see things in perspective, in a way."
"Is something on fire!?" shouted Valor from behind them. Ran turned to see him jogging to keep up with Outrider, who had slowed his pace to keep the chespin close to him. "They're not going anywhere, we don't have to rush!"
"You could do with the toning, Valor, you're going to be doing a lot of walking and running if you want to play hero," replied Ran.
Outrider frowned and said, "Thea? What did you mean when you said it helps them see things in perspective?"
"Well… this group lost a scout a day ago," she explained, now looking uncomfortable. Her paws hit solid ground, so she moved to the side to avoid obstructing traffic and waited for them to catch up." A tropius and two ludicolo passing by turned back to look at her, looking alarmed. She waved them off and shook her head. "Get closer and I'll explain."
"Is our first mission finding them?" asked Ran, falling in next to Thea. They were joined by Outrider and Valor almost immediately after, though Valor clearly looked displeased.
"No, we already found her." Thea frowned and appeared to be chewing her tongue. "Or, most of her."
Ran felt her stomach churn. "Oh, that kind of lost," she mumbled.
"The woods are dangerous," reasoned Outrider. "If they failed in their duties in some way, sad as it is to say, you cannot expect anything but the worst to befall them." He crossed his arms and looked down at Valor, who appeared nonplussed.
"That's why you follow instructions and stuff, right? Sentry told me that. Always listen to what your elders tell you. If they say run, you run. If they say fight, you fight." He jabbed the air in a set of combination punches then faltered. "I… mostly listened to Sentry. I tried to help Stone fight in Nomad and that might have made her a little too worried."
"She said you fought well," said Outrider.
The chespin stood up and puffed his chest out. "You bet I did." He deflated a moment later. "It didn't help…"
"Let's try to avoid competing with the team you'll be working with in the depressed department," said Thea. "I'm sorry for your losses but you'll need to be focused today. It may be training but we're still going out into the woods." At that, she beckoned them to follow towards Crag's main - and only - gate. "And I would be doing Vanguard enormous disservice if I did not make it clear to you all that the woods are not to be underestimated."
"What's the objective behind what we're doing today anyway?" asked Ran. The looming gates of Crag came closer into view and made her feel small immediately. They were enormous. No longer distracted by having actually found the city so close to their former home, she could properly appreciate that the walls easily cleared five of Crag's many levels.
She looked up and gave a start. She had completely ignored the huge set of stone arches that hung over the promenade they were now walking down. Beyond the thick supports of each arch she could see the tightly bunched stone buildings that hardly afforded any larger species of pokemon easy movement through the maze of alleys they created. All for the sake of allowing the many, many floors of Crag to be built atop them.
The arches, then, were not for decoration. Not entirely. There were too many of them. They were load bearing. She swallowed hard. They were load bearing. Was that even safe? Was any part of Crag safe? The walls were tall and strong, but at what cost?
"Impressive, isn't it?" said Outrider.
Ran gave a start. "You call this impressive?" she asked.
"It would have taken tremendous skill and the dedicated efforts of skilled stonecutters and psychics to produce a single of these arches, much less as many as we have seen. It is extraordinarily impressive."
All Ran could give in response was a low hum in her throat.
They had arrived at the gate. Thea gave the machoke guard a nod as she pulled a leather necklace bearing a silver badge from her tail. She held it out, but the guard had barely glanced at it, whistling shrilly and banging on the shutters of the guard post behind him.
They flew open and revealed a very tired looking conkeldurr that appeared to have been rudely awoken from a nap. He looked at the badge with a yawn and then waved them through. Thea nodded and stuck her leg through the necklace, then pulled it far enough up her thigh to go taut. She twiddled with the string and badge so that it would lay flat and face anyone she turned to.
"You're going to snap that string one of these days, fatass," said the machoke, smirking.
The braxien's ears perked up and her tail bristled. "Did you know..." She pulled the twig in her tail free and twirled it. "That I can manifest fire with this just about anywhere? Even when it's halfway up your-" She caught herself and looked back at the group, specifically at Valor before looking back at the machoke. "I'll have words with you later, Ives."
The guard threw his head back in laughter, and turned to grab hold of a very small lever. At least, it seemed very small given the size of the gate. How exactly was that supposed to control the gate? And just one lever? Her eyes widened, however, as the machoke grabbed hold of the lever and it began to glow blue. Dozens of tiny runes had been etched in it - and hundreds of much larger runes began to glow on the stone doors.
He pulled the lever slowly, and as he did the runes changed from blue to green to yellow to red and then went dark when the gates had opened large enough to permit at least three mamoswine standing beside each other through at once.
"Thank you Ives," said Thea.
"Of course, anything for the delicate lady," he shot back, still smiling.
The braixen mumbled something under her breath that Ran was certain ended in "unt" but was too awestruck by the display to do anything beyond register that Thea was going to give Stone a run for her money.
Outrider felt the same way, but he made it known. "I didn't have you pinned as someone with an acid tongue," he said, laughing. "You and Stone will get on just fine."
Thea rolled her eyes. "You have to be like that around the guards. It's what they respond to." She averted her eyes and then added after a long sigh, "And Vanguard was… a hardass. Lots of hard walks out in the forest with him beat my tongue into a spear."
"Sentry always said not to say anything 'crass and improper' because you could always use different words and get the same effect," said Valor.
Thea looked back at the chespin and smiled, though her eyes looked miserable and pitying. "Valor, after today's training, you'll know that's a fucking lie."