(SE) what about you?

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

It’s hot but not nearly as hot as it likely would being beneath the crust in the tunnels that run below them. He’s come prepared with a small tin, one encased with insulation to keep from burning himself from touching it. Inside, he’s managed to figure out a way to keep a coal burning, simmering despite the confines of little air. Now all he needs to do is collect it. And luckily for him, Melita needs something from here once more as well, and probably (if he had to guess) a break from Torchline and the traumatic events that have occurred there.

He lands them as his dragon, a potential ward away from any other draconic creatures that wanted to try and pick a fight, shifting back into himself and grabbing the insulated tin as they start to walk. “So a rock slider, huh?” He asks, trying to keep his eyes peeled for the creatures while simultaneously trying to find a spark of flame from some of the pools of magma, the orange veins glowing occasionally through the cover. Perhaps he should find as close to a flammable little stick he can imagine, something to catch it aflame and dunk it into his little coal keeper.

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

Melita dealt with trauma by ignoring it completely. Not a healthy alternative, but when it was so deeply embedded in one’s bones, when they’d seen destruction and demise time and time again, it left her with a numb, detached sort of ambience as she persisted through Torchline streets, routes, and passages. Her mother had died sacrificing herself for her daughters as false gods rampaged. Her sister had perished amidst more demolition and peril. The Honeybee knew and understood the stakes well –

But it didn’t mean she wanted to linger in it.

Her quest was the perfect excuse to traverse away from the heartache and wreckage. Though she might’ve used her sky boat, the dragon travel was just as handy, and from there she tried not to look down at the ways the world had changed and altered – how the floodlines warped, how they seethed and seized and wrapped, and how desperately she wanted to go destroy the pinnacle of its outreach laden within the sea.

“Rock sliders,” she nodded, a little less enthused and more hollowed. Content with the magma, the heat, the laden and residual fire in her belly, she stalked forward, snagging at weaponry and glad she’d left Fangorn and Sila out of harm’s way, back home, where they could rest after cleaning and tending with her. “What’re you looking for?”

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

He can’t blame her for wanting an escape, even if it yet again proved to be difficult to achieve given the state of the world and the violet streaks painting the sky every hour of every day now. So he takes everything at face value where he can, choosing instead to take these little moments of getting away, working on quests, strengthening what they can rather than wallowing and worrying.

Melita is less fiery than he’s used to – though it makes sense. She’s been busy trying to pick up the pieces of Torchline, after all. So it’s the least he can do to help her out with this (not withstanding the fact he also needs something from the Climb). As it stands, though, they wander and his eyes are peeled and when she asks what he’s looking for, he squints at the little glowing lines of heat in between the crevices of hardened lava rock. “I need fire from here.” He hums, before glancing back at Melita to offer a soft smile. “I’m making a shrine to Frey in King’s End and so I have quite a few things to collect.” Air from Stormbreak, earth from the Greatwood. Torchline at least has already been collected.

“Shit, what the fuck is that?” His path completely runs off course, turning toward what looks like a squabble a little ways away between a rock slider and a… Different kind of rock slider, one that appears to be vibrant with that terrible purple and ominous glow.

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

“Oh,” she offered in return, as if this hadn’t dawned on her. It probably hadn’t, really, in the grand scheme of things. Building shrines seemed like lifetimes before, but where King’s End had been newly established as far as terrain and hospitable efforts, she could fathom the need. “How’s everything going there?” She still hadn’t told him about the skyboat deal with Jack, but her mind wasn’t venturing into those entanglements today either. Instead, maybe discussions could go around prospering lands, rather than the sickening way Torchline had flooded and mired.

At his other response though, her eyes flickered over to the amount of rock sliders. They were a common place creature, hence why they’d known to come to this area, but the other one…wasn’t. “Fucks sake,” fell from her mouth quickly, and she’d already notched an icy fixture amidst her bow. “Probably about to find out.” She needed a normal rock slider scales, but she wasn’t above mauling multiple in pursuit of information.

So it would likely come as no surprise to Sunjata when she pulled the strand and let the arrow fly towards the strange, altered heathen.

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

“We sustained flooding, but, aside from that and working to recover some of the things that were lost the region is doing well.” Sunjata offers easily, thinking little of the potential of Melita’s move in the face of the current Next Big Bad Thing to happen to the world. Besides, he imagines Torchline needs all the help it can get. Even he had come to help. “People are building houses and getting a general lay of the land.” His new house is just one of the few that have been constructed in the past few weeks.

But all of those happy thoughts of his home and who he’ll find there suddenly vanish with the strange, purple rock slider that attacks a group of normal rock sliders. And when she responds about finding out, Sunjata huffs out a small sigh of his own, nodding his silent agreement.

It isn’t a surprise as Melita lets the arrow fly toward the rock slider, and he watches as it slices through part of it, creating a loud snarl as it gets pounced on by the other rock sliders. Only, the shadow serpent bites back, causing a shriek from a rock slider, on that starts to turn on its brethren. So for this, Sunjata grits his teeth, sparking the water magic from within him, sending the riptide out toward the gaggle of sliders and serpents, watching as it collides with them and sends them up into the air and down in as forceful of a separation as he could.

“Get the rock sliders you need, I’ll focus on the shitty one.” Comes the suggestion, turning his attention to the serpent as it starts to wiggle as it comes to and focuses on them.

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

“Can’t relate” almost ran over her tongue, but she tucked it behind her teeth instead. No use in being envious because his lands had fared far better than Torchline; it’d been inevitable, given the state of fucking moon island nonsense and where it’d chosen to land. “Well, that’s good,” she said instead, piecing together none of the other things roaming through her narrowed and vehement mind. At least there were some relatively untouched.

Besides, there were things to fight and maul, and her eyes narrowed as the rock slider turned on its brethren. She readied another arrow instantly, even as he took over the notions; something very vehement and bratty nearly won her over, half-tempted to launch the armament anyway, in a very I can do it mentality instead of him taking the command.

Letting it go with a huff of air, she directed the elemental fixtures towards one of the other scaled beasts instead, preferably the one weakened already – it’d be easier, and the thing likely wouldn’t survive anyway.

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

He already knows just how horrible Torchline had become. He hadn’t been lying when he’d sent her the letter announcing that he would be by shortly to visit. It was there that he helped where he could, before he returned to King’s End, working out new evacuation points and plants with those that lived in the Boondocks. And while he’s absolutely saddened by what has occurred to the region he’d once called home, he’s thankful that his region hadn’t experienced anything of the sort. Not that he mentions it aloud, of course.

Because there’s rock sliders and weird void purple sliders and the Flood is immediately focused on trying to get Melita’s quest done while he works to take out the void one, using his water to his advantage. And it works, the splitting up of the creatures allowing for Melita’s arrows to sink into the rock slider she’d chosen while Sunjata uses his tactile water magic to drag the void creature away, drifting closer to get within reach, keeping it pinned as he reaches for a dagger, sinking it down into where he assumes the heart of the beast to be.

It thrashes and hisses before it goes limp and Sunjata dispels his water magic for the moment, leaving Melita to focus on her batch of sliders – now down to two – giving him some time to try and spot another line of yellow and orange blooming from between the cracks to hopefully just set the strange void beast on fire.

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

They drew the focus back to the present, springing forth displays of power and prestige with blinks of an eye. She concentrated solely on her own vicious siege, bringing the rock slider down with potent grace and agility, before snagging at another arrow in her quiver. Advancing, her strides carried her closer, where she could maintain better aim and posture across lava rocks and footholds, narrowing her eyes as her next target sought to escape.

From her? No chance.

The armament unfurled once more in a dash of laden devastation, quickly launched and spearing through the creature. There might have been a dismal and plaintive, but wholly inadequate cry, and she watched it fall into stillness before turning her head back over her shoulder, glancing to see how her uncle worked.

“Don’t let any of them bite you,” she offered with vague but sage advice; having witnessed the bizarre interludes of Flora’s fate.

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

Her warning is met with a hum of acknowledgement, a soft little “got it”, leaving him despite having already sunk the blade into the beast. It’s limp, thankfully, and beside it comes a few of the debris of hardened, stocky plant life, roots of a sort that Sunjata cuts off with the blade and uses his water magic once more to drag the creature toward one of those lines of red and orange, sliding it into the crevice, watching as the heat of the magma starts to steam against the water he held it with previously.

It gives him a moment to glance back and see the great work that Melita makes, seeing the spree of dead rock sliders around her like a reckoning. “I heard about Flora’s wound.” He offers with a soft frown, lips twisting in a hint of distaste at the idea of being infected like they had been with the Climb Fever and the Blight.

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

With her prowess entangled and the rock sliders’ dead, she proceeded to gather the materials needed, snagging the latter into a portion of her bag, humming while she worked. She could hear him remark on her warning, and she wrinkled her nose at the notions – it could’ve easily been her marred and wounded by the massive dog. It was a relief that Flora had been mended and tended to by Rae, but the Honeybee had to wonder how many more would become infected – driven to assist in wiping out the nasty little beasts, and ending up altered themselves.

“She’s healed now,” she offered in response, tucking the edges away and beginning to move over to where he’d been working on his own skewering and decimating. “Rae did it. But I worry it’s just going to be another eventual shitstorm.” She glanced back at him at the statement, and then to the fallen void thing as it became submerged into the fire and flames, cracks and crevices.

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

“That’s great to hear.” Sunjata says, actually expelling a soft sigh of relief. After all – while he and Flora weren’t extremely close, it was becoming clearer and clearer to him that he might end up as yet another father figure for her, even if he hardly had decent practice at it himself with how close to Hotaru he is these days.

He watches the void infected rockslider start to ignite and burn, distracted by the next statement that Melita says and he grits his teeth. “I hate that we can’t just… Have enough time.” He admits, a touch dour given the circumstances and his typical mindset, one he’s tried to get past and succeeded, but that dragon shift within him craves to treasure and keep those he loves, his family near. So he sifts through the bag of holding at his side, collecting a pot of sorts and a piece of charcoal, plopping it onto the fire started from the void rock slider, and waits for it to heat up and turn red while he looks back at her. “You’re okay, though, right? Haven’t gotten nipped or anything?” The concern in his voice is perhaps closest to the intensity of concern he had when speaking of Nate before the war and the outcome of it – a clear indicator that at this present moment he needs to make sure that she’s okay too.

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

Her eyes narrowed again, perhaps more speculative than in the past; for a being resolutely firing on merely poor impulse control, the statement left her inclined to silence. A momentary fixture, while her mind puttered through the mess of the hour and the day. “We did have some warnings,” she began again, recalling the way Safrin’s modicums had spread – and how it hadn’t been enough regardless. “But we still don’t know what we’re truly facing…,” they could speculate until the end of days, and probably still don’t have the grandest guess. “Are you doing anything in King’s End?” Her eyes eventually lifted back to him, watching and studying, before arching a singular brow as he placed the other objects along.

Torchline was striving to safeguard against the cretins – but to what measure it would help or hinder, she couldn’t quite say. She nearly frowned at his concern thereafter, used to shrugging any anomalies or ailments off her shoulders with a vindictive and vehement ease. “I’m all right,” was a reassurance regardless; she hadn’t been maimed or marred in this instance.

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury

// call out in the middle of the night
for when else would I hear you? //

Even still, with the Safrin warning, there was little they could do without knowing what threat exactly awaited them. And with it, little use from the other heralds in his experience – Frey’s advice being to fuck and indulge because sooner or later they likely wouldn’t last long. “That’s the hardest part.” Sunjata ruminates, gritting his teeth slightly as the coal starts to turn red, slow to change to the yellow or even white that he was intending on.

As for King’s End, he exhales a soft sigh. “Yes and no. I met the person that Remi had encountered. She seemed so normal at that time. He’s tasked me with seeing if the Refuge works on her in deadening her abilities, so I haven’t posted anything to ensure that I can lure her there when I find her.” His nose wrinkles slightly, but he shakes his head after it, far more focused on his concern of whether or not she’s okay.

And when he hears that she is, he loosens a relieved breath with a nod. “Good. That's good.”

the flood

// fall out in the cold starlight
i can save you if you do //

Melita

yes, yes, I am wild
I am the wind that makes breathing hard

She watched; a rally of her gilded eyes going back and forth from her uncle and to the nasty little slider conforming to coal and ash, narrowing on occasion in brief ruminations and inspections. And perhaps these moments were the hardest part – the great and vast unknown, full of trials and tribulations and nothing to show for it but their constant movement in striving to alleviate the bleeding maelstroms. Maybe in time they’d look back on these instances and shake their heads, because ignorance had always been a folly – but the uncertainty weighed too heavily and the damages too great. All reactions had been segmented for restoration and renewal – because what else was to be done?

Though the current plotline had her glance widening, settling on Sunjata briefly. “You met her? What did she want?” Information? Opportunity? “And what if her abilities aren’t turned off in the Refuge? Then what’re you supposed to do?” Take one for the team? Be just as injured?

I am the ocean and the battered shore
I will be the passion of thunder, a howl of fury