The Fight for Salvus

Ashgar had been expecting the group of travelers from Salvus, led by Fox and Syntyche, for some time. He hadn't ventured through the chronoscape with Ty, though he wished he had been able to. No, instead, Ashgar was preparing to hide everyone away in a well-defensible place on Tsotska De La Mer. It had taken some talking with a couple different folks, but they had agreed to let him bring the group up the mountain when he mentioned how dangerous, how urgent it was.

It had all been going so very well. Ty left with Archie and Leif, and when Ashgar had finished getting set up, he waited on the beach, next to the portal, with Erden and Cartographer by his side and Algae leaning out of his pocket. It felt like forever, waiting for them to come back, but when he saw Ty stride through that portal, leading the group with Fox, he began to breathe a sigh of relief.

The feeling was cut short, however, when Leif started talking about someone following them... and Ashgar gasped as someone rose from the nearby shadows.

This was really not ideal. In better times, perhaps he would have waited to see what the person, or dragon, wanted to say - but now was not the time for that anymore, in his mind. Without having to discuss it with his dragons, Erden and Cartographer took to the sky and surged forward. Each one attacked from opposite sides, and oddly, the dark dragon just stood there. The attacks went right through him - and the dragon shifted a few feet forwards before becoming corporeal again.

"Really now, is this any way to treat a guest?" the dark dragon said, with a dramatic shrug. He ducked under another attempted strike by Erden.

Syntyche had stepped forward protectively in front of the small crowd of dragons and riders. She made a motion to Archie, and Ashgar watched out of the corner of his eye as the large dragon shifted to keep an eye on the portal, in case of more unwelcome visitors. "You're not any guest I'd like to have, following us through the chronoscape like that," Ty said, frown etched onto her face. She had knocked an arrow to her bow, even knowing how little good it was likely to do.

Ashgar glared at the dragon. "Hard to trust when the town these folk just came from is under attack. You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that?"

Cartographer and Erden stayed, watching, behind the odd dragon as he answered. "No, I don't have much to do with anything, really. Not up front, at least. I'm a bit of a no one." The dark dragon said it with such a grin that Ashgar felt that it was actually quite the opposite.

"No, you're definitely with the Militia. Probably off to tell your little friends where we're all hiding out, I suspect," Ashgar grimaced.

"Tell secrets to powerful people? Me? Ha!" The anonymous dragon laughed in a mocking fashion. "Well, why would I do that?"

It was the worst telling of a lie Ashgar had ever heard. Erden was of half the mind to try and smack the dark dragon over the head then and there, but Ashgar sent a mental note. 'Not yet.' What was the point of making oneself known like this, and not even trying to be inconspicuous? "Hard to tell when we haven't even gotten your name," Ashgar said, after a nervous glance over at Syntyche, and Fox behind her.

"You can call me Anonymous, if you must. But isn't the dullness of knowing everything so bland?" The dragon - Anonymous - was getting closer to the group. Fox's dragon Firefly stepped forward bravely to keep him back.

Ashgar really didn't like this. He wanted to get everyone away, but also didn't want to leave without dealing with this odd dragon. "When it comes to my friends, I do like knowing what's going on, yeah."

"A pity, then, that you don't this time," Anonymous said. All at once, everything happened. Ashgar put it together in his mind - the dragon before them was stalling. At the same time, Archie jolted, and not a second later he felt Syntyche's mental presence, through her metal magic.

'We've got company,' she thought at him, and if Ashgar was the type of Tsotska to curse, he would have done it then. Five, ten, then fifteen militia soldiers jumped out of the portal. Most of the escaped dragons and riders panicked, trapped between a group of hardened soldiers and a dangerous, near impossible to hit dragon.

Erden and Cartographer lunged at Anonymous once more, and the three dragons entered into a bit of a dance, twisting around attacks and launching ones of their own. Ashgar, well aware of the rules of only fighting in the air on the isle, jumped onto Cartographer's back when the map winged dragon got closer to him.

Syntyche, he could see, was shooting arrows at the newly arrived soldiers. There were few fighters in the group they had brought - that's why they had been chosen to evacuate, after all, and Leif and Tsunami ushered the group away from the action. Folks broke away, ran up the hill. At this point? Good. Ashgar didn't like having this many vulnerable people in the midst of action.

Cartographer circled around in the air and dove down towards Anonymous again. Ashgar summoned up the ocean magic within him and threw a blast of conjured water down at the dark dragon. Anonymous responded with a bolt of dark energy that deflected it away. 'Magic,' Ashgar thought to his dragons. 'Let's try that out some more.'

Algae was hiding in Ashgar's pocket, thoroughly spooked. The little dragon was definitely not a warrior type, but Ashgar knew Algae would hate leaving him behind even more. So as Cartographer and Erden whirled around and threw magic down at Anonymous, Ashgar whispered encouragement to the small dragon.

Through the chaos, he saw glimpses of Fox and dragons, as well as Syntyche, dueling the Militia below. Most of the non-fighters had already fled up the hill, leaving only the combatants behind. As Cartographer whirled dizzyingly, Ashgar saw as Syntyche fired an arrow that struck true.

Anonymous was definitely having more issue with the magical blows than the physical ones. Erden took a hard hit to the back leg, but the gliding dragon simply roared and fired back her own attack. He had always been the fighter among Ashgar's crew.

Eventually, when all of the soldiers from the militia were fallen or fled, the remaining fighters circled around Anonymous. Except - wait. Someone was missing. Ashgar, atop Cartographer's shoulders, glanced about, and saw Fox, hanging back, Chrysanthos worrying over him. Fox was on the ground.

Oh dear, Ashgar really didn't like that. But there was this last intruder to deal with first. Anonymous raised his hands in apparent surrender - a move which Ashgar didn't trust one bit. "Are you done? Or is there another scheme you're hiding?"

Erden growled angrily at Anonymous, who chuckled. "Well, no. Not here, anyway. It was a long shot, really, but you fought quite well! Either way..." he lowered one hand for a moment to brush a dark strand of... tentacle? Hair? out of his face. "None of you are the real prize. It's the valiant fools back in Salvus still that need proper dealing with."

Algae squirmed in his pocket. 'I know, I don't like it either,' Ashgar thought. Out loud, he said, "I think you'll find my brother and his friends to be fairly hard to beat."

"Hard, yes," Anonymous agreed. "Impossible? No. You all are just the leftovers, I brought these folk -" he waved a hand at the militia still unconscious or injured, lying on the sand - "Just to have some fun. But there? We'll actually be trying."

Syntyche interrupted the last part of his sentence. "You're not going back there."

"Hmm," Anonymous said, cheerfully. He winked with two of his three eyes. "Or am I?" And surrounded by a circle of dragons and riders, he faded into nothing. Cartographer and Syntyche both leaned forward to swipe at where he had been - but there was nothing there.

"Gone," Erden grumbled, turning to examine their injured leg.

"Nothing else we can do here, then," Cartographer mused. "Got to get everyone to safety."

"Speaking of safety..." Ashgar muttered.

"Oh gosh, Fox!" Ty whirled around and was by the young fox's side in a moment. He was lying in the sand, an awful burn on the side of his face. She went to check for a pulse, and Ashgar saw the relief in her face when she found one.

Ashgar hopped off of Cart's back and hurried over himself. Chrysanthos nodded to everyone as they came over. "He should live," the large dragon said, "but we need to get him to a healer. Ashgar, ocean knows that type of magic. Can you..."

"I'd need Stella with me," he sighed. "I really don't want to mess anything up, and she's the most powerful dragon I have. Magic wise," Ashgar corrected upon feeling Erden's indignation. As he spoke, he reached out with his mind and found the web of connections to all his other dragons that weren't present. They all threw thoughts and feelings at him all at once, asking what was taking so long and what had happened, why Erden was hurt. To all of them, he thought a simple, 'We were attacked. Everything's fine, but Fox is hurt. We're heading up the mountain, meet us halfway to help?'

Agreement, from everyone, not in words but in warmth. Maristella, in particular, seemed eager to be off, to make sure everyone was alright with her own two eyes. In the present spot, Syntyche was helping Fox onto Chrysanthos's back, and Cartographer was offering one of his fabric wing pieces as a blanket. Ashgar blanched a bit at that (those things had taken so long to make) but in the end, Chrysanthos shook his head.

"My wings should work just fine," he said, and the group began the trek up the hill. It seemed to take ages longer than usual - probably because of the urgency. Algae felt brave enough to poke her head out of his pocket again, and as they walked, the rest of Syntyche's dragons appeared over the hill.

They surrounded her, asked all sorts of questions, and Leif said, "Everyone else is safe. We brought them right up to the middle of the isle, and there's no way the Militia's going to attack an entire island. Probably." Ashgar was content to listen to their talk, mind a bit numb from all of the chaos.

He really did hope his brother and everyone else would be alright. He didn't think he could stand it if they all were captured, or killed, or whatever else. As much as he lived on a different island, he still cared deeply for that place.

When Fox was healed and he was sure everyone was safe, he thought, he was going to go to Salvus himself. He was not his brother, no, but he was himself. And he had his own reasons, his own connections to that place.

Syntyche and her dragons - they worked so well together, were so cheerful even in the face of all of this. Ashgar only hoped he could be the same way.

'I'm coming with you,' Algae said through their mental connection, and Ashgar smiled, as they continued to walk up the hill.

'You know it'll be dangerous.'

'Yes. But if you're going to be brave enough to charge into danger, then I can be, too,' was Algae's reply.

Was he brave? Ashgar wasn't sure he was. But he was determined, and kind, and that would have to be enough for the present. He closed his eyes, let Cartographer and Erden's vision guide him forward, and prepared himself for trouble.

When this was all over, he was taking a nice, long nap.