Breaking the Sky (M)

[Lion]

When there was no response, Castor pulled her into the bank and put her head back.  He opened her mouth, took a deep breathand breathed into hers forcefully.

[Draconian]

That was awful feeling.

Water was expelled out of her mouth and she quickly turned away, curling up onto her hands and knees and coughing violently. The coughing continued for a few moments before she turned around and punched Castor square in the jaw. It wasn't a little girl punch. Full out, every ounce of energy in her body went into it before she went weak and laid back down on the ground, still gasping for air.

[Lion]

Castor reeled back from the blow, holding his sore cheek.  He just stared at her as she continued to hack on the ground.

[Draconian]

Xala glared up at him, laying on the ground not unlike a starfish. The fact he hadn't turned to beat on her had her sit up, a hand pressed against her chest. Swallowing carefully she glared at him for a few moments, "Thank you. You're a bad teacher."

[Lion]

Castor stared at her with great relief, plopping down beside her.  "Gods, I'm so sorry!  I wasn't intentionally trying to drown you."He put a hand on her shoulder and pat it.  "But at least you're not dead."

[Draconian]

"We'd be very sad if we were dead." Xala gave Castor's hair a ruffle and then she onto her knees and stood up, her legs wobbly. The wound on her thigh was mostly covered by those same silver scales and she unsteadily walked towards her clothing, pulling on her pants first. There was a loud disgusted noise at the hole in the thigh. It took a few minutes longer to put everything on than it took to take off but eventually she was dressed and she shook out her hair. "We're done swimming."

A stretch and she looked towards Castor took a deep breath. "So. We're going down, right?"

[Lion]

Castor stood nude for a few minutes longer than she did and was at least relieved to find she still had a sense of humor even after almost drowning.  It was better than being bitter over being dead.  Not that even that would afford her much opportunity to do so.

"Yes, down, and through the mountain.  Or was it up?  Not sure, but we go through the other side of the grove."  He threw his clothes back on and  pushed her along.

[Draconian]

Xala gave a heavy cough, wincing and giving a shudder. Eugh. She was mostly sure that she would be a-okay with never drinking water again. Except she'd die from no water. Which would also suck. A smirk over her shoulder she watched Castor dress, making it fairly obvious she was doing so mostly because she was standing there with her arms folded over her chest. Then they were off.

Back to reality. The reality of there being something he was doing and she was just tagging along. And the bastard threw her backpack over the cliff. "Well, glass is made from sand and heat." she supplied helpfully, having had an interest in it at one point in her life and having made sculptures. Or was that only one of her? It didn't matter. Not anymore. "So, we're going down. Where the heat is." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively before they carried forward into the darkness.

At the entrance of the cave, she held out her hand, ready to hold onto Castor's and lead him forward into the darkness. "You can just hold onto the back of our coat if you don't want to hold our hand."

[Lion]

Castor always hated the darkness and it suffocating method of blinding nearly every sense.  He reached for Xala's hand and hissed, "I'm more afraid of turning your hand into mush.  Just lead on captain."  The air indeed was becoming more humid and breathing was difficult as the air burned against his nostrils.  Oh if they were getting close to the heat, he was feeling it on his face.

"It smells like sulfur down here," he complained.  "Like fire.  Really, really hot fire."

[Draconian]

"We're not human, you'd have to try really hard to turn out hand into mush," She smiled over her shoulder to Castor before tugging him along. The area was dim, but she could see well enough and down they went, through twisting paths and soon enough the heat was building and she was stepping more carefully.

"Well, there's light." She looked down, "In the distance. We can see it. It's faint." She took a deep breath and yup, that was some hot fire. "You could have mentioned that we were going to be walking into the underworld." Xala said teasingly and held his hand still as they walked, taking careful steps, "You may have to walk on your hands soon, Castor." Just how much farther did this go down?

Probably too far.

[Lion]

[With the gauntlets he wouldn't have to try hard at all xD]

Castor followed along blindly in the dark, unt a dim, orange-ish glow flickered around a corridor.  He blinked, eyes adjusting to the light and the growing heat.  Already sweat beaded on his brow, and he was glad Xala had stopped them to take a dip in the grove pond.  He loosened his grip on her hand for a moment, just long enough to suddenly clamp down on it and pull her back.  The air burned his lungs yet that was secondary to the river of fire that coursed beneath them, and no clear path across but the stone ridges along the side.

"Well, ladies first," Castor said, shoving Xala in front.

[Draconian]

This was unexpected.

What was this.

How was this even down here?!

Xala just stared, looking back at Castor with her mouth open and on eyebrow raised, she moved her hand and there was a non-verbal 'what the fuck'. "What the shit is this!?" She leaned to stare at it. Unlike Castor, she was not sweating. In fact, this was a good heat to nap in. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, giving him an unamused look at the 'ladies first'. Of course ladies first. She rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip.

"You can jump up a cliff but you can't jump over this?" A thoughtful look at his legs she moved towards the stone ridges, to the river of fire below. Her gloves were off again she put them into her pocket. Then she began to make her way across carefully, not keen on setting her clothes on fire should she fall anyway. Or regrowing all that more human-ie flesh, it took such a long time.

[Lion]

Castor pointed upward at her comment on just jumping across.  "As if that hadn't occurred to me?" he muttered and gave her a glare.  "The ceiling's too low.  I'd fall in before I'd even get across.  Why don't you just swim across, Dragon Lady?" he spat back and soon followed her with scaling the rocky ridges along the side. 

"Just keep shimmying.  What more are you good for?" he mumbled indignantly and kept shuffling along the side.  There wasn't much room for footing, but somehow he managed and only one boot slipped.  A rock fell into the lava and blooped upward.  He was sweating profusely and was thankful that he the gauntlets would allow his hands to slip. 

He turned back to the wall, moving across once again, not quite noticing the bubbling coming up from the surface of the river of fire, something moving from underneath and bursting through the surface.  It was a dragon forged only of the remnants of its bones, dripping with lava.

[Draconian]

Xala rolled her eyes while shuffling, that was why it was called leaping. Whatever, that wasn't her problem, if all he could do was go up instead of go the distance then Castor was a one trick pony. "We can't swim in lava, that's still gonna hurt us. Also it's melted rocks, they're almost as dense as your skull." Unimpressed with him she resisted the urge to smack him when he told her to shimmy. What more was she good for? Plenty, thank you.  Like being observant.

The sound was the first thing she noticed and she looked over her shoulder and gasped.  What the fuck. "What the fuck!?" She cast a startled, feared look to Castor before she shimmied for all she was worth, leaping the last bit from the wall to the other side. A loose rock was in her hand and before long it bounced off the beasts skull. It's jaw's opened like it wanted to roar but no sound came out, instead, it used it's tail, lifted it out of the lava and flicked it towards her.

It was a shower of new fresh rocks ( still gooey on the inside ) and Xala hissed, covering her head with her arms while it rained down on her. The smell of burning fabric - the sleeves of her coat - filled the air.  She just needed to distract it long enough for Castor to get across and then he'd run for it like a smart boy, right? Right.

[Lion]

[Comparing Castor to a pony...  Oh Xala |8]

Castor hadn't been expecting that!  Though really with all his considerable luck, he should have.  Now, fortunately, wasn't the time for inward eye rolls or knocking against his own skull.  Now was the very real and important task of making it to the other side without falling into lava or being killed by a fucking skeleton dragon!

Castor almost shimmied across when the rest of the rock edge was smashed by a motion of the dragon's tail.  After flinging the rocks at Xala, the beast hooked claws onto the stone ledge where she resided and pulled them out from under her, and the ground quickly became brittle, breaking beneath her weight, and the cracks continued to spread outward from there.

Another swing of its tail.  Or so it tried to do.  Castor could not jump to the other side of the ledge unless he wanted to fall in, or be knocked down by the creature.  The dragon was more focused on Xala, and trying to swipe at her before Castor did jump from that wall.

He leapt off, kicking with everything he had and turning his body, landing with just enough velocity to snatch his gauntleted fists within the spaces between the dragon's vertebrae.  With no flesh to tear or blood to spill, all he could do was pound against the bones of the beast.  He pulled one rib apart, tossing it aside.

The dragon whirled around, trying to get at him, but he just moved with it and jumped off, landing hard on the other ledge, snatching Xala in one hand and pulling her into the tunnel.  Another claw sped for the tunnel, trying to reach in to snatch the two and tear them apart.

[Draconian]

So, that was what burning felt like.

Xala was overcome by pain and she was taking small controlled breaths. Her right arm was completely scaled in silver, the sleeve was gone having burned off and she looked down at her arm, still smoking from the heat. The cracks were a secondary distraction. The last flick of it's tail sent a sweeping arc of lava at her and her arm paid the price for it. Her teeth sunk into her lip and she held her arm up and out, not enjoying the feeling of heat in a bad sense.

The noises were lost on her and before she realized she was being pulled along, her legs moving involuntarily. Something snapped in her and she got in the way of the claw, grabbing it at the last second and she gave one powerful yank. The whatever that kept it's bones together snapped and she held one claw'd hand in her grasp and she sunk her claws into it, cracking it in two. An inhuman snarl left her mouth and she took a deep breath and she began to sing. It was quiet. Almost inaudible. Castor would have to strain to hear it.

Still, the undead dragon went calm and she quickly turned around, pushing Castor as she went, keeping her over heated scaled arm up and away. She didn't want to burn him. Finally they were safely out of reach and she let out the pained gasp. "Burning hurts!" She shook her arm and looked at it closely, her arm looking more like someone had attached some sort of dragon limb on her. "The dragon is... Sleeping... If we meet it again though, it'll be super pissed off. He's undead, he won't like being lied to." Xala reached for Castor's hand in her good one, her ears straining to hear the beast.

"Today is bad. When do we sleep?"

[Lion]

Castor was in half a daze when they made it through the tunnel at last.  He had no sense of time, or awareness of what was happening outside these cavern walls.  All he'd been focused on was the mountain, he slowly realized.  He only considered now that he may not find what he was looking for after all.  That in the end all this excursion would do was kill him.

Perhaps both of them. 

Sure Xala wanted the gauntlets and Castor wanted his freedom.  All his life he'd been a slave; what if he never reached that end.  He had heard someone singing back there, a faint song he did not understand.  It was comforting in that moment, hanging on him like a wreath.  He slumped down beside the wall, dragging down into a sitting position.

"Yeah," he mumbled, staring into darkness, the glow of lava only brightening part of the corridor.

"We can rest now.  What else can we do?"

[Draconian]

Xala was in a world of unfamiliar feelings. Unfamiliar pain. Cutting pain was one thing. Being bitten was entirely different. She couldn't believe how much her arm hurt and she held it out still, breathing softly while she looked at the limb steam. It was entirely covered by the delicate silver scales now and she was sure to hold it up and away in case Castor bumped into her. Surely it would have seared his tender human flesh.

"What else can we do?" Xala chuckled, giving him a look, "Probably a few things neither of us want to do." Though she didn't rattle them off she gave a pained sigh and carefully removed her coat, sitting beside Castor. Perhaps a bit too closely for his comfort. Their legs were touching, so probably much too close for his liking.

Carefully she put her coat on her lap and winced again, wiggling her newly scaled fingers. "Burning hurts. How can you silly humans stand fire when it hurts so bad to touch it?"

[Lion]

Truth be told, Castor wasn't really paying attention to anything happening outside of mind, that any physical contact was lost on him.  He was lost in thought until she spoke, and he remembered at last that she was the meddlesome dragon lady that wouldn't leave him alone. Castor sighed deeply, perhaps mostly in disappointment that this endeavor wasn't at all going as he had planned.  He opened the palm of his metal hands and inspected them.

"Not a scratch or a mark on them.  Like the heat didn't even matter," he mumbled before looking at her.  He noted her scaliness then.  "I'm sure you'll be feeling better soon.  It's not like you took a swim in it or anything."

Castor flexed his hands and looked more closely at her arm.  "I don't suppose licking it would be any help would it?" he said, voice dripping with dry sarcasm.

[Draconian]

Frowning at him she stuck out her tongue and just looked at her arm while it slowly cooled off. "you can't swim in lava." Was her dry remark and she gave him a look before it turned into a grin. "Licking?" Xala's voice dropped and she rose an eyebrow at him, the pain from her arm momentarily forgotten in her quick attempt to tease him, "Are you offering?"