forum At War // OxO // Closed

Started September 19, 2021 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

(alright!)
(i'll leave a description of what happened to Kaylum to you lol)

Kaylum and Nik had been split up shortly after their escape, taken to separate holding areas on separate sides of the camp. They didn't have any contact, though every now and again they would hear each other. Nikolas, it turned out, had a very loud scream.

Nikolas's guards had survived, and had been searching for their prince ever since. Ryker was the best tracker among them, and while it had taken a while, they had finally located the camp. Seren had moved every now and again, but they had found the princes. The only issue was that Kaylum had less guards, despite being the more powerful and in better shape of the two. Nikolas had more guards, ostensibly because of the monster, but also because Seren knew Kaylum wouldn't leave without him. So they could not get to Nik, but they could get to Kaylum.

They waited for night time, quiet and hidden in the brush near the camp, watching the guard rotations. Errol had to hold back Aron and Lieze from charging in when they heard a few muffled screams that they all recognized as Nik's voice. If they had, they all would have died. They knew that. But it didn't make it any easier to listen to. By the time night came, Aron was pacing like a caged tiger, and Lieze was almost obsessively sharpening her weapons, death in her eyes. Ryker was standing, silently staring into the camp with a gaze that would have melted steel. And Errol, the gentle healer, looked more dangerous than he possibly ever had before.

It was Ryker that led the way, stepping silently through the camp with Aron, Lieze, and Errol on his heels. They all knew that one wrong move resulted in all of them dying. So they were silent as they approached the cell Kaylum was being kept in, silently taking out the guards and slipping inside the tent.

"Kaylum." Errol's voice was whisper-soft and quiet as a breeze as Aron opened the door and the healer approached the dragon shifter.

Since being separated, Kaylum started spending nearly all of his time in dragon form, except, of course, whenever he was taken out of the cell to be tortured. And when he was, he rarely screamed; he refused to. The most that could be heard from him was an animalistic yowling or snarling most of the time. His human body carried him through those times, and his dragon body carried him through the rest. Though it required a greater amount of energy to function, it was also sturdier and more enduring. Not only that, he felt safer. None of the humans would even want to look at him this way. He had claws and sharp teeth, could use them whenever he felt the need.
And so that was how he spent this night, on the ground and his wings folded at his sides. He played with a feather, trying to practice moving it telekinetically. It rolled and hopped around, as though being tossed about by an indecisive wind. His powers had slowly but surely returned, and he made himself relearn using them as though he were a small child again. He hated it, but at least it kept him from getting bored.
But then, something felt off. He smelled something— humans, he quickly realized, but these humans were… familiar? He raised his head, his muscles tensing.
Figures entered his tent, and he was on his feet in a moment. He bared his teeth, but paused when he heard the soft voice.
“Oh— it’s you. You’re—“ he stopped himself from saying the obvious. They survived. A million thoughts passed through his mind, too fast for him to hold on to.

"Nik's guards." Errol said softly, coming over to Kaylum. The healer was missing a hand, and his expression, of the four, was the most open. The kindest. "Do you have any injuries that I can heal?" he reached out with his remaining hand, but did not touch Kaylum. Not without permission. Aron had his gaze turned towards the door, watching for someone else. Lieze stared straight into Kaylum, her expression somewhere between outright hatred and distaste. Ryker looked the calmest, though he moved throughout the tent to ensure there were no more guards, keeping a careful eye on Errol and Kaylum. There was a degree of protectiveness in his gaze, though it was more about Errol than about Kaylum.
"We haven't much time." Aron said softly, crouching to touch his fingers to the ground with an intent expression. "Get him moving. Anything else can be dealt with later."
"Or we can leave him here." Lieze said, mouth pinching. "Seren can have him."
"Lieze. We discussed this." Ryker's voice was the deepest, a low rumble that quieted the others. He was, in Nik's absence, clearly the leader of the four.

Kaylum did have injuries, plenty of them. One of the annoying things about being a shifter was that wounds and illnesses and such carried over between forms, so the wounds from Seren’s whip were there on his back, even though he had received them in human form. The more recent ones still stung painfully, but Kaylum shook his head. “Just scars. I’m fine.”
He let his muscles relax, just shaking his body a bit. He looked at all of the guards, many questions on his tongue, but he stopped himself. It had taken him a moment to fully process that they were breaking him out. He let himself shift to human form. He was shirtless, and his ribs could be made out, even in the dim light, as well as smaller scars and bruises. There was a hollowness in his mismatched eyes.
“Thank you. Truly,” he said quietly.

Errol jerked his chin in a faint nod. "You're welcome." he said softly, reaching out to gently pull Kaylum to his feet. "Now come. If we have to fight our way out, we will all die." the four guards moved Kaylum back out of the tent, keeping a loose formation around him. In the darkness, it was difficult to make out details, and they kept their weapons sheathed, lest the glint of metal catch the attention of any of Seren's guards.

Aron took the lead this time, leading the way back through camp. He was the tallest of the four, and had the broadest shoulders too.

(He was already on his feet but ok-)

Kaylum had to stretch for a moment before he could move with them. He had been kept isolated in his cell for the past few days and his muscles were quite stiff. Recently he had been afraid to move his body too, for fear of losing the water in his body that he desperately needed, and of hurting himself. Even as they walked out of the tent, he stretched his arms and neck, before putting his long locs into a bun.

(aah sorry!)

Ryker and Errol were on either side of Kaylum, with Lieze at the back in a loose diamond formation as they crept out of camp. On the way out, Aron propped up the guards and closed the tent so that it would look, at a glance, as if everything was normal. It was not, but he needed to make it look like it was. The four Kevrans led Kaylum back to their own small camp, which was only just far enough to not be found by Seren's patrols.
"Sit down." Errol said, bringing out a cushion so Kaylum could sit on it. "I'll take care of some of your wounds. Unless you react negatively to magic?"

(Lol it’s fine!)

Kaylum walked with them, simultaneously dazed and anxious. Was this actually happening? Surely something would go wrong. His eyes drifted in the direction he knew where Nikolas was being guarded. He let out a shaky breath.
Well. Nothing happened. Kaylum was out of the camp, just like that. He hesitated, not sure why, when Errol brought out the cushion, but sat down. Had he forgotten what a soft seat felt like beneath him? This felt strange.
His ear twitched. “I don’t know. I’ve never been on the receiving end of human magic before. But I told you I was fine, there’s no need.”

Errol squinted. "You are injured, and I can heal it. We…cannot save Nikolas tonight." he glanced up at the other three guards, then back to Kaylum. "The better condition you are in, the more helpful you will be able to be when we are able to save him. Let me at least take care of the worst of your wounds." he crouched beside Kaylum, rolling back his sleeves, but did not move to touch the shifter to heal him just yet. The stump of his left hand was visible now, a gnarled scar on the tip of it.

Kaylum glanced away from him and shuddered when Nikolas was mentioned. He did not like the images that came to his mind. He let out a sigh. “Alright, fine.” Errol had a point. “I’ll let you heal me.”

Errol nodded, and gently reached out with his right hand, placing it lightly on Kaylum's shoulder. He took a deep breath, and his magic got to work. He focused mainly on the wounds that were the worst. The deepest, the oldest, the ones that needed the most assistance to heal. Once those were done, he began to work on the others.

He stiffened at the touch, but didn’t resist. But he wanted to. It reminded him of the guards that would touch him, force him to stand, force him to move. But this was the opposite of that, why was he being reminded? Kaylum found it difficult to relax at first. But he reminded himself to breathe, and soon he felt the wounds smoothing over, the skin and flesh knitting themselves back together. The aching that had settled in his body for the past few weeks slowly began to lift.

Errol continued to work until Kaylum's wounds were healed, then took a deep breath, stepping back. He looked more tired than he had before, and Ryker stepped over to take his husband's hand, kissing his forehead. "How do you feel now?" Errol asked Kaylum, giving him a faint, tired smile.

Kaylum was quiet for a moment, stretching out his limbs and back. He looked gratefully at Errol. "Better. I owe you." He glanced at the other guards. "I owe you all." The words were followed by his own grumbling belly. "Ah. Excuse me."

Ryker let out a quiet huff of laughter at the grumbling of Kaylum's belly, and stood straight. He moved over to one of the tents, and soon came back with a small bag, which he held out to Kaylum. "This has some bread, jerky, dried fruits. Nothing amazing, since we can't risk lighting a fire here, but it should help fill you." he said, setting it down beside the dragon prince.

"We're going to get Nik back tomorrow." Lieze spoke for the first time, eyes staring directly at Kaylum in a rather unsettling manner. "And you'll help us." it was not a request.

"Lieze." Errol's voice was soft as he looked over at the young woman. "Slow down. We're all worried about Nik."

Kaylum looked away, a little embarrassed, but at this point, what did it matter? He nodded to Ryker, his fingers drifting to the bag and reaching through it. Pulling out a small loaf of bread, he inspected it for a moment, then bit into it. It was hard to control himself after that. He stuffed his face, with the bread and some jerky too. He tried the fruits, but only cared for them as a small desert.
As he finished up, licking his fingers, he met Lieze's gaze. He swallowed his last bite of food, though there was still some left in the bag. "Damn right I will. I think I can teleport again, which will definitely be useful."
He hadn't been able to really test that, though. Teleporting was more conspicuous than telekinesis, and he didn't want to be caught using his powers. Hopefully, he could try it out here.

Aron cocked his head faintly at Kaylum's words, seeming to be thinking hard about them. "That will be useful." he said softly. "Do you have any idea what sort of condition he is in? When was the last time you saw him?"

"Or…heard him." Ryker's words were pained, and all four Kevrans looked, for just a moment, furious. The four were all clearly very capable, which made their anger a scary thing to behold. Lieze, despite being the smallest, somehow had the most rage condensed into her, her blue eyes more like hot coals than a summer sky.

Kaylum looked at each of the humans, another shudder passing over him. He put a hand on the back of his neck, thinking for a moment and drowning in memories. He didn’t really feel like telling them about his astral projecting just yet, but…
“I heard and saw him not long ago…” he said vaguely. “If you thought I looked bad when you found me, then he’s worse. He’s… barely able to move, nevermind walk.”
He would always visit Nikolas in his cell, never in the tent where he was tortured. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. So he just went to the cell and watched him slowly crack but never break. Watched his soul twist and shift inside him. The only sliver of hope he had been holding onto was that as long as Seren tortured the human prince, it meant that he hadn’t broken, hadn't given in.

All four guards looked furious again, and each one paused for a moment to collect themselves. Lieze's grip tightened on the hilt of her blade, knuckles going white. Aron's hands formed into fists and he closed his eyes, tilting his chin towards the ground. Ryker reached out to automatically comfort Errol, wrapping an arm around his husband's shoulders. Errol leaned into Ryker, gaze flicking to the sky.

"He'll be fine." Aron finally said, though the words seemed half anger and half hope. "Errol can fix him up."

Errol grimaced. "There's a limit to what I can do, and his…he doesn't always react well to my magic." he said softly.

Kaylum said nothing else, just stared into space. Images of Nikolas had taken over his mind. Slowly, he came out of it, and remembered that, oh wait, his wounds had been healed. He started stretching out his arms and back again, sometimes twisted his torso back and forth or rotated his shoulders. Then, he stood up.
“I’ll be back.” He went out into the forest, some yards away from the camp.

The four guards watched him go for a long moment, then turned back towards each other, communicating quietly. They all still seemed angry, though that anger was not in any way directed at Kaylum. Why would it be? It was not Kaylum's fault that this had happened, after all.

He couldn't just sit around and do nothing. He had already been doing a lot of that before he had been rescued. When he came to a clear spot in the woods, Kaylum stopped and looked around. This looked like a good place. He laid his eyes on a spot about ten feet ahead and concentrated. When nothing happened, he closed his eyes and imagined that same spot. He opened his eyes. He had teleported. Kaylum didn't knowing whether to cry or laugh or whoop for joy. Well, probably none of those things, he should keep himself quiet. All the same, elation filled him, and he kept practicing, having to relearn and understand this abillity once more.

The guards continued to plan, eventually starting to relax a little bit, though none of them were ever far from their weapons, just in case. They knew how close they were to Seren's camp, knew that a guard sentry venturing a little too far could easily find them, and then sound the alarm. If that happened, well, it did not bode well for them or for Nikolas.

After about ten minutes or so, Kaylum teleported back to the guards’ camp and sat down on his cushion. He was starting to get a little tired, but wanted to listen to what they were talking about. He reached up into his hair and started undoing the bun, his locs slowly coming undone and draping over his shoulders and back.

Aaron jumped slightly at Kaylum's sudden teleportation, hand automatically reaching for his weapon before he recognized Kaylum. Then he relaxed a little, though not a lot.

"Kaylum." Errol said, turning to him. "We've been discussing how best to get Nikolas out."

"A lot depends on what state he's in." Ryker said quietly. "If he's…capable of moving."

Kaylum nodded. "Well, I can definitely teleport now, so…" he paused. "I could go on ahead and take out any security guarding him. Also…" he hesitated. "I could check on him. I can see how he is doing, if you really need that information."
It would only be a quick trip outside of his body, and hopefully the humans would just brush it off. He didn't really feel like explaining how he could just go check on Nik and come back.

Each of the guards studied him, concerned and confused by his words. "And how would you do that?" Ryker asked. "You can't just teleport into his cell. You would be seen." he frowned a little, rubbing his thumb against the hilt of his blade in a slow, absent motion.

Kaylum just rested his head on his hand. “It’s just another ability of mine,” he said. “Don’t worry, I don’t technically need to leave and go back, but I don’t really feel like elaborating.”
He sighed, and laid down. “Listen, if I don’t wake up in, say, five minutes, you need to shake me awake. Got it?” Not waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was staring down at himself, formless and unseen. Kaylum let out a nonexistent breath, and noticed the glowing thread that was tied to his soul. He followed it, letting it take him right back to Seren’s camp. He hesitated at first, but soon pushed forward and went inside. Hopefully no one had noticed his absence yet. He continued following the thread until he came to Nikolas’s cell.