Author: Arcane Trickster, Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2017 11:03 AM, Post Subject: Hidden in the Dark [P]

Pick was already moving once Tea said "further into the ruins" by the time he had finished his sentence Pick realized that Tea wasn't following and turned around.

"Oh were you still talking? Sorry." Pick was an impatient elf, but he meant well. While he waited for Tea to catch up he looked for an opening In the mountain, but frowned when he saw none. 
"Where are you old man?" He asked aloud.

Author: The_Pasty, Posted: Thu Mar 9, 2017 11:44 PM, Post Subject: Hidden in the Dark [P]

Tea joined Pick's investigation on the crevice, "Well with the excessive fire around this spot, it seemed Drysl tried to hide in there, and seeing how he just isn't standing on the other side waiting for someone, there must be a way to go deeper in." Tea took a closer look and the crystal, "I don't think we can break it either, it would take a considerable amount of power to do so."

Tea turn to look deeper into the ruins, "Our best shot is to go further into the ruins, but I'll mention this now, I have no clue what to expect when we get in there." Tea warned Pick. "But I know you'll jump in there anyways." Tea took out a torch he supplied earlier the lit with his chi, "So we better get going." Tea said with a smile.

Author: Arcane Trickster, Posted: Thu Mar 9, 2017 11:16 PM, Post Subject: Hidden in the Dark [P]

"Well on the bright side we know dragons were here." Said Pick optimistically as he surveyed the charred landscape hoping upon hope that there was some indication that Drysl was still alive. He continued along scorched earth trying his best to imagine what could have happened here. He approached the melted rocks and touched the smooth surface of the newly formed crystals. They were still cooling off. "Recently too." He said as an after thought.

Pick ran his hand along the wall of the heated mountain side. He continued in this way until his hand touched rapidly cooling molten rock. This was different from the rest of the heated stone around him. He looked at where he his hand touched and saw a crevice that had been glazed over by this rock. He looked to Tea.

"Think he could have gone in there? More importantly, do to think we could find another way in?"

Author: The_Pasty, Posted: Thu Mar 9, 2017 8:48 PM, Post Subject: Hidden in the Dark [P]

[OOC: The Exploring the Ruins thread will not be apart of the canon of Pick and Tea's story connecting to this thread.]

Tea and Pick finally found a ruin that a dragon might live or rest in, as they climb the steps to the entrance it became more clear that there were dragons around. Fire decorated the stone as well as rubble scattered everywhere, cracked tiles and steps made shapes the resembled a dragons claw.

Tea began taking his stance as he walked forward, expecting the same dragons to be inside, it seemed that Pick was select the best path to sneak around. It became apparent to both of them they didn't have a plan to approach, but never the less, they kept going, Tea would follow Pick's lead, seeing he was better at stealth. They found a pillar to hide behind and quietly headed towards it, once they got to it and looked inside the ruins, they were surprised to see no dragons.

No dragons but there was wreckage, pillar scattered across the floor, flames everywhere. There was one spot that had fire in abundance, Tea was suspicious but proceeded, but it seemed Pick was far ahead.   

Author: Drysl, Posted: Wed Mar 8, 2017 12:57 PM, Post Subject: Hidden in the Dark [P]

[OOC This is the continuation of Drysl's part from the thread Warm Hearth]

The dragon that held Drysl, never loosened its grasp on him. Drysl's sides were getting chaffed and sore. After several hours of flying, they landed at a farm. The silver dragon that had held Drysl, kept him pinned to the ground, while the other Dragons burned the farm down, and ate all the animals and farmers. The guttural sound of the screaming and the bones crunching was unbearable. After the dragons had finished their meal, they picked up Drysl, and continued on their way. Their next destination was the Ancense Ruins. When they arrived, the dragons all stopped to sleep. While they slept, Drysl managed to wriggle out of the grasp, of the dragon that had held him prisoner. He crept along, attempting to gain some distance from the dragons, when he tripped on a rock and fell against a old rusted suit of armor. Drysl grimaced as the Dragons woke up. They roared angrily, when they saw that Drysl was escaping. Drysl ran through the ruins, his eyes scanning for somewhere to hide. The Dragons crashed through the ruins behind him, knocking, over stone pillars. Drysl scrambled up some ancient stone stairs, he then noticed a crevice, in the rock face, of a cliff near the ruins. He ran for the crevice, and squeezed in. The dragons outside saw where he went. They growled and clawed at the crevice trying to get at him, but could not. After several minutes they stopped clawing at the crevice. The big Black dragon then said to the three silver dragons. "Stay here, I must continue on with the chest to the master. Drysl can't stay in there forever, eventually, he will have no choice but to come out. When he does kill him." The black Dragon then went back to the singing chest, picked it up and flew off.

The three silver dragons, turned to the crevice and watched it, waiting. After several hours, they grew impatient, and all three of them blasted the crevice and cliff face with their flaming breath. Drysl crawled further back into the crevice, so as to not get burnt, but lost his footing and fell into a hole in the back of the crevice. It went very far down into the earth. As Drysl fell into the impenetrable dark, he could see the light from the hole above him, disappear into the distance. Drysl fell and fell, and fell. After a while he wondered why he hadn't hit the bottom. "There's no such thing as bottomless pits, is there?" He thought to himself. After a very long time of falling through unending darkness, with nothing but his thoughts to accompany him. Drysl started to count to himself. "1…42…78…135…336…589…834" He got to 972, when he landed in a deep body of water. The impact was very sudden, and extremely painful. He could feel several of his ribs crack from the impact. Drysl started to swim, he didn't know if he was swimming up or down. He couldn't see a thing in the pitch black. He swam, and swam, hoping he was swimming towards the surface. He was running out of breath, but he fought the impulse to breath in. He fought to try and find the surface of this subterranean lake, just as he was near passing out, he broke through the surface of the water, and breathed in deep frantic breaths. Drysl sat there for a while, treading water while he caught his breath. He felt something brush against his leg. He froze for a second, and then thought to himself. "no there's nothing down here, your just paranoid, and delusional." Then he felt it again, something large and scaly was in the water with him. He panicked and swam frantically, though he could not tell where he was going. He didn't even know, if he would be able to find any dry ground down here. Suddenly out of the depths, a pair of jaws clamped down on one of his legs, It pulled him deep under the water. Drysl tried to free his leg from the jaws with his hands, but could not. With his hands, he then felt the head of the creature, that was dragging him down under. There was a soft squishy spot on its head. Drysl kicked the soft squishy spot on the creatures head, with his free foot as hard as he could. The creature bellowed a loud echoey sound of pain, as it released his leg. Drysl swam once more, frantic to get to the surface, and hopefully dry land.

This time, when he broke free of the surface, Drysl could feel a cold rock wall to his left. He swam along, following the rock face, until he got to shallow water. He crawled through the shallow water onto dry rocky ground, and panted for breath, coughing every so often. His leg was bleeding, his ribs were cracked, and his lungs had water in them, but he was alive, well for now atleast. He laid back on the rocky ground, and laughed to himself while thinking. "If I was given the option to go through all this again, or get eaten by those dragons. I think I'd choose the dragons." Drysl then closed his eyes and fell asleep. 

Up on the surface the three silver Dragons blasted the crevice, and the cliff wall with fire, until the stone started to melt, and form into crystals. After they were confident, that there was no way, Drysl could have survived. They flew off to go join their master, leaving behind a very black charred wall. The wall glistened with the crystals and diamonds, hanging from where the stone, had melted. The crevice, that Drysl had hidden in, was still visible, but sealed shut from the molten rock, and inaccessible.