Dragon Roost Fried Ritos [Lavaclaw, BP / UD]

Naomi asked him to come up with something else, but Elliot shook his head. He knew well the risk involved with what he was going to do, but there was no other way. With Veran's magic rapidly disappearing and exposing them to the full heat of the caverns, they were running out of time far more quickly than he would have liked, and the heat made him woozy. He had no time for new plans. They had to go ahead and do it this way. Honestly, he would have done it all himself, but he didn't have the strength left to fly.

Naomi did a great job distracting Magmape, but with every step the massive creature took, Elliot knew the moment of truth came closer and truth be told, he -was- a bit nervous about it all. Still... this was their best chance. And he couldn't ask Naomi to do it, herself, that much was clear from her reaction. Besides, he was a prince of the tribe, young and far removed from the Chieftain's seat as he was. If anyone was going to get hurt or even die for the good of Dragon Roost, it was going to be him, and not a civilian he had gotten caught up in this mess. That was what leadership meant. That was what heroism was.

He held on to her for dear life as she helped him evade the wave of magma. The primate seemed to have calmed down, jumping against the wall and using it to clamber up at its own, easy pace. Elliot looked up, and sure enough, there it was- Lord Valoo's tail. He had the vague idea this wasn't the first time the dragon's tail had been used to torment him, and he walked to the edge of their safe platform, turning to Naomi. "We're out of time," he said, taking the Chill seeds she had given him to hand. "Do it. Now."

Naomi could not believe they were still doing this. Even as her body moved she was trying to come up with another plan. If it weren't for this stupid heat... Everything felt numb in it, despite the sweat running down her face. She took up a position and still had nothing. She jumped with a single movement and still wanted another option that she could not find.

She used the Fist on Elliot. This should have been a good distance. She looked behind her to see the monster pausing, having heard her jump. No reason not to do it, then...

"Don't die, prince," she pleaded right before she moved. It would be unforgivable to come this far and only then fail. With that done, she swung downwards, throwing herself forward and him towards the beast. She released the fist before their momentum had fully worn off, throwing both of them as projectiles. She flew straight into the ground, earning her various little injuries. But now was not the time for that. She gathered herself as quickly as she could to see the results of the gambit.

He was no stranger to the sensation of flying, but doing so without any control over his trajectory or velocity was terrifying. Elliot fought the strong urge to spread his wings and instead squeezed the Chill Seeds in his hands. Magmape was so close to Valoo's tail now, it only had to reach out and grab it... but jsut as it extended a hand, it interrupted itself with a screech as something cold collided with it, hard. That was Elliot's chance. Turning around in midair, he threw the rest, the majority, of the Chill Seeds into Magmape's gaping mouth and lashed his good arm upwards to grab hold of Valoo's tail. He hoped he wasn't too heavy as he watched what his gambit had given them.

It was as he had theorised. Magmape was a being of pure fire, as implied by its composition entirely out of lava. Throwing Chill Seeds at its equivalent of skin hurt it, that was true... but it dealt little true damage. However, flooding its innards with a barrage of cold attacks... that was a different matter altogether. Magmape fell to the ground, making a large splash in the lava, its screeches and screams echoing through the cavern as it clawed at its throat and stomach, perhaps hoping to tear out the Chill Seeds that caused it such pain. Elliot had clambered up on Valoo's tail, using its hooked form to his advantage as he sat down, clutching one arm around the tail and the other one against his body.

To see the enormous lava-based primate in such pain, he almost felt pity for it. But Valoo grumbled and the cavern started to shake, and Elliot remembered that Magmape had been responsible for that. Realising that being caught in a landslide here would be the end of them, and that the temperatures were still not dropping, he turned around and gave a little kick against the tail to propel himself forward.

With one wing, he managed to glide over to Naomi, albeit lopsided and with a clumsy, painful landing. "We don't have time to admire our work," he said, pointing towards a nearby, cracking wall. "We have to get out of here, before our protection runs out and before Lord Valoo drops the cavern on our heads!" As he spoke, the first portions of the wall started to fall away, cracks of sunlight filtering into the cave. "Hurry!"

Naomi and Elliot were in hell. Things were falling all around them, the air was determined to make them Roost-fried Ritos, the lava had developed a mind of its own, one that sought to devour them and end their little adventure. It surged and waxed and waned as the seas did on a bad moon, so disturbed it was with Magmape's entrance into it.

"Prince, just run!" Even as she said that, more and more of the arena they had been fighting in crumbled from the strain of the two titans thrashing from above and below it. It sank and bubbled into the magma as if it were a ravenous beast that had been thrown a steak. And just like a hungry beast, it did not intend to stop there. The angry throes of Valoo and Magmape had loosened its shackles.

Naomi turned to flee, jetting out of the door. Had she had any amount of time to take notice, she may have realized that this opening was subtly different than the one they'd entered from.

It became apparent quickly enough, though, that the layout of the place had changed. The room they entered was slanted upwards and rife with rocks and debris and rumbling, and Naomi noted with dismay, "It's changed..."

There was no time to go back. She dove forward and weaved around one boulder rolling towards her, hoping Elliot had the presence of mind and fleetness of foot to follow her.

"Running!" Elliot confirmed, following behind Naomi since his legs still worked normally. If he had been tired following the battle with Magmape, he no longer felt that- the rush of adrenaline that came with knowing it was this or dying ensured that. He didn't even remember the layout they had followed to get here and so he didn't care that it had changed, he only saw that at the top of this slope there was the light of day and a cool, refreshing breeze that would relieve him from the searing heat that would scorch his tail feathers if he'd had any.

Boulders fell around him, and he could barely dive out of the way of one as he stumbled his way further up. He couldn't stop. Tripping was okay, falling wasn't. He had to keep running. They could find their way back to Veran, or to his father, once they got outside. At the thought of seeing his father again, he pushed on even harder, finally running past Naomi and grabbing on to her wrist with his good hand to drag her further outside.

Finally, they stumbled out into the open air, only to almost fly over the ledge and into the ocean below. Elliot hit the brakes, turning to a side and throwing himself on the ground, gasping and panting for fresh, cold air. Behind them, the tunnel fell shut, closing off this portion of the volcano's inner caverns hopefully forever. Elliot didn't care if they'd killed Magmape. If it were still alive, Lord Valoo had buried it alive in its own chamber.

Still breathing heavily, he pushed himself up with his good arm and looked at Naomi. "Did we..." he gasped, "make it? Did we win..?"

Naomi was not aware of it when her body hit the outside. She would have kept going had her body been willing, but the moment it had met any stimulus signifying that they had escaped the infernal labyrinth below, all strength had left her. She became acutely aware of the things her body had suppressed for her. Unbearable heat was still trying to escape her body, every muscle was burning from exertion, and only now did the fear of all the times they could've died catch up with her. She felt her knees impact with the sweet, not-fiery ground, and the rest of her soon followed.

She lay there with the only real sensation she could make out being her own breathing, her own pulse. That was right. They'd survived. With that in mind, and being outside with only clear, beautiful sky overhead, all the things that had happened in the caverns seemed like a dream. It was all over. That thought, too, seemed foreign. She didn't process it fully. She was far too tired now.

She found herself unwilling to pick herself up again from there, but she made a note of the sounds of approaching footsteps. Messengers...? But she would speak later. Now she would embrace the nothingness of unconsciousness.

Wingbeats. Footsteps. Shit. He had to get to his feet and make himself presentable before his father's men saw him in this state. Elliot managed to pull himself into a standing position before a group of four uniformed Rito appeared on the scene, two of them making their way over to Naomi and one of the others carefully taking his broken arm to inspect it. Apparently, when Veran had noticed a shift in the energies in the cavern -most likely caused by her protection running out- she had urged the Chieftain to send a party to find the two. They would be escorted down the mountain and taken to the Chieftain's quarters, where they would be seen to by healers.

It was over, Elliot realised. The dark clouds had vanished, and Valoo had stopped trashing. It was over... They were safe.

It wouldn't be until much later that they would realise the Fist of Pacci they had used all this time had a second, identical glove on the inside.

~*The End*~​