The Disease

[Nohiki]

Soundtrack time www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HtCquBppTc

"Hold on." said Sol'Lux and healed Dinara. "I still want that explanation." she said. "He gone first, we went after him!" pointed Phoenicia at Fireheart. He was however occupied with something else.
Fireheart was looking up onto the burning sun. "There is some other Dragon, not as powerful as Chaos but enough to awake a big undead whatever-it-was. Not even us 4 combined could get rid of it, not to mention that freak. We need more power, and i know where i can get it." Sol'Lux's face changed to a really angry one. "Mr. you are not going anywhere! I don't care who do you think you are, but until i say so you stay put!" she shouted, but right when she finished, Fireheart "borrowed" most of her power and used a portal ,slipping away. "Where did he go?" asked Phoenicia. "I don't know, but judging by where he was looking..." she looked up and saw the sun. "No way... That small snake. I knew he was mix of smart and insane, but that much?"
Fireheart surrounded himself with a shield and exited from the portal. He was there. About one kilometer from the surface of the sun. The heat and light around was very intense, immediately overcharging him, only strengthening him. Roaring, Fireheart rushed forward. "Now or never!" he thought when he touched the surface. The shield was holding. He quickly dove inside the star.
Sol'Lux was watching the sun, waiting for any change. "Now." she said, and the sky suddenly turned red, temperature rising five degrees. "He'll kill himself!" she said.
Fireheart's shield was failing, but he was done. He sucked all the power his body could hold from the star and teleported away.
"Now!" said Sol'Lux and something exploded over their heads. Fireheart was there, but she could barely see him trough the shine and half the second meter long flames emmiting from his skin. "Ready for round two."

[Midnightmoon]

(OOC: continued music (?))

Starlight and the other ice dragons flinched away from the heated flames. Dinara took a few steps back but the heat didn't bother her as much. Starlight squinting at blazing dragon, then averted her gaze to the calm Sol'Lux and then finally to her own daughter, also calm, but staring in awe. With a sigh, "Guess it's your turn turn to save the world, all of you. Us parents may not be old and senile but there is no need for us to be hero's twice. Here you go Dinara," Starlight said to her daughter. Dinara looked over to see Starlight holding out a blue stone that she had taken from her breast plate: the Ice Elemental Heart Stone. Dinara hesitated a second before taking it. As soon as she touched it a trickle of energy slip to her with it. The other three ice dragon caught on and touched a paw or tail to Dinara's side, adding a bit of their own energy. Dinara was brimming with energy now, giving her own soft weak glow in comparison to Firehearts mini sun. Finally taking the stone she placed it in the same place as Starlights. The stone sunk into her ice armor and hovered there between her scales and the armor.

[Nohiki]

Fireheart managed to get his power under control, but he felt like timed bomb. He expanded his light power and depleted fire, making him less dangerous for the ice dragons on the ground and landed near Phoenicia, giving her part and enhancing her powers, while stabilizing his own. "Now, shall we?" he said and a portal opened behind him. He jumped through, emerging on the tower they left from. The big nasty undead thing was waiting on them, but this time the attacking head just bounced from his shield. "I brought a gift!" he said and a fireball formed around his hand. He pointed at the head and the flame drilled right trough the skull.

[Morty]

"Hahah, there you are, I thought perhaps you'd given up!" said Corvus as a portal opened on the far side of the dropoff. Corvus's laughter was cut short as he noticed how bright the young one was glowing. "And I see you've taken the time to recharge. No matter!" he said, motioning to one of the undead monster's heads. Its jaws closed around the small energy dragon and held him still. ((Let's pretend Gorn is unconscious, seeing as Osm's not gonna be around! XD))
"Don't move, or your little friend gets it!" he threatened, the monster's jaws tightening.

((Seeing as Fireheart is all.... fired up, I propose a game of wits instead!))

[Nohiki]

OOC: *thumbs up* @ fired up

Fireheart looked at the foul dragon and teleported Gorn away from the cave. "Looks like your prey just vanished." he shouted back and charged on the big nasty undead thing. "Go get the brain while i keep the muscle busy!" he said to the others and went after the heads, flying fast around, slicing it with enchanted claws in runs. It took a while, but he managed to break the spine holding the head and the head fell to the ground. "Next?"
"Ok...." Phoenicia nodded and jumped off the tower, flying close to the cave floor. to avoid detection as much as possible with her white skin.

[Kauria]

Oltyth flopped onto the ground just outside the cave, his head dropping to rest on his forepaws.
Where to now? he thought miserably. He felt as if the bottom had just dropped out of his life, despite the fact that he could now focus on finding his parents without any further distractions.
Yeah, right. If they're not dead now, they will be soon. He glanced back over his shoulder. They could be wasting away in that healer's den for all I know. The earth dragon struggled to his feet, taking several powerful strides deeper into the forest, the emerald moss retreating slightly beneath his claws as he passed. Once Ivy's cave was gone from view, Oltyth snatched the pouch tied around his throat and yanked it off. The leather straps that had been faithfully holding the bag in place tore, ripping off into curling brown fibers. He flung the ruined collar to the ground, the half-grown seeds clattering out like the golden beads of a broken necklace. He turned on the vine curled around his arm, peeling it viciously from his shoulder.
Slower now, Oltyth turned and walked up to a sturdy tree and let his head fall against the trunk with a thud. Eyes closed, he could still feel the energy of the tree through his frustration. Pulsing through its trunk as it must have been for centuries, the earth energy surged high into the branches in the same way blood coursed through his own veins. His angered breathing slowing, he traced the unmistakable greenness of the tree's life, following the cycle down to its roots.
And to think that Gorn can do this for everything alive, without even touching them. Lucky kid.
A sudden, jarring clog in the flow of energy jolted Oltyth from his thoughts. His eyes snapped open, and then narrowed as he brought his right palm to the bark of the tree. The large dragon circled the trunk, his hand trailing on the rough hide of the tree. On the northeastern side of the bole, a blackened ring of bark was steadily spreading, the hard surface of the tree cracking and curling away. Sap oozed from the splits in heavy globules of amber liquid, the tree's life draining out as it was slowly choked by the unnatural darkness.
Brilliant, Oltyth thought as he turned to face a grove of trees with an identical condition. Just brilliant.

[Midnightmoon]

(OOC: this is just something to maybe get oltyth back to the others (or maybe work on something else more important). if any of you want me to take it out then just let me know. it's a filler anyway.)

"Finally noticed did you?" Ivy said behind Oltyth, just visible in the undergrowth, her earthen self a bit rough around the edges due to the distance between her astral self and her physical body. None the less her voice still held value. "It's not only the dragons dieing here, everything else is too, there is just a wider web to infect with the plant life. Are you just going to sit around holding a grudge?" Ivy asked, then continued without letting Oltyth answer. "To get to the point you are a able and young dragon who could help in many ways, just like every other healthy dragon. You have got to do something, so what is it? Doing nothing while everything is dying around you," Ivy nodded to the tree beside Oltyth, "Or something more useful."

[Kauria]

Oltyth jumped back slightly as Ivy's stone form appeared behind him. He drew back at her almost accusatory tone, but either through swallowing his pride or the elder dragoness' tendency to cut off any early responses, he managed to stay silent as she spoke. When the healer had finished, Oltyth looked away, refusing to meet the construct's "eyes" as he stared at the deteriorating forest.
With a shallow, shaky breath, he finally said, "Even if I were to 'do something more useful,' the others are long gone by now. There's no way I could help from here."

[Midnightmoon]

Ivy smiled with a knowing glint in her eyes. "Aha, now your thinking strait, but not really thinking. All the dragons have quick ways to get around. Energy dragons are quick, wind dragons use the wind currents, light dragons use portals, you get the picture. Well so do we slow earth dragons. Your parents would have told you it themselves but," she gave a shrug. "guess they can try to chew me out later." Ivy backed into the forest and a tail protruded to beckon Oltyth to follow.

[Kauria]

Oltyth hunched his shoulders curiously, trying to peer into the depths of the forest. Finally, he gave up with a snort and slunk after Ivy, still trying to figure out where she was leading him.

[Midnightmoon]

They didn't have far to go. Ivy had stopped and was sitting beside a big hole. "You know what these are? Air gysers. I made my cave specifically around this part for two reasons. One, there is a abundance of herbs and plant life. And two, this. Earth dragons can't go fast on their own, as you know, so we need a push. That's what this does. You jump in and use your earth control to close up the opening and to make a tunnel for you to where you want to go. Then you run. All that air makes you go extremely fast. And once your at the end you put all the earth back where you found it." Once Ivy finished to pulled out a large satchel full of herbs. "Mostly energy and healing herbes, and this," Rummaging though the bag she took took out a rock. "The Earth Elemental Heart. Had it in my possession for a long while. You'll need all the energy you can get for this fight." Ivy dropped the stone back into and pushed it towards Oltyth. "One problem solved, another few dozen to go." The earthen dragon began to sink back into the ground. "Hurry up or all the action will be over, for the better" Up to her neck was gone, "...or the worse." and she was gone.

[Kauria]

Oltyth looked uncertainly at the heavy gemstone in his hands, then back at the place where Ivy had disappeared. "Hohmygoodness," he breathed as he gazed down at the stone again, claws trembling slightly. Pulling a tendril of vine from a nearby tree, the plant wound itself around his throat, curling around the Heart of Earth and nestling it at the base of the earth dragon's neck.
Time to rejoin the party, he thought with a faint smile as he crept towards the air geyser. A sudden flicker of emotion prompted him to look back over his shoulder one last time, unfamiliar words forming on his tongue.
"Thank you!" he called before he dropped into the tunnel, the earth above swallowing the light of the hole.

------

"Where is everyone?" Shya snarled as she leapt down from the rocky outcropping and stalked across the plateau for the third time that day, struggling to sight her fellow warriors. A gentle breeze stole across the flat stone, stirring the leaves of a tree below the top of the slope. Shya's eyes narrowed, focusing on the glimmer of scales she had spotted nestled in the branches. The wind picked up, and her suspicions were confirmed. Draped across the branches of the tree was a white female dragon, most likely air. A faint whistling sound emanated from her position as her sides rose and fell in sleep.
What're the odds, Shya thought with a grin as she spotted the silver crystal that floated steadily above the smaller dragoness' forehead. The little messenger.

(OOC: Two birds with one stone, yes? If we get our new air dragon sometime soon, Naïma will be there to provide a certain magical elemental stone. ;D )

[Awesomoman]

Gorn woke to find all the adult dragons surrounding him. "If i died and this is the after life, then i got screwed on this deal." He tried getting up but he was too weak from the beating he had just took. "Nope, still feel pain, im alive."

[Midnightmoon]

Dinara was a few seconds behind Pheonecia in joining the fight. She flew a bit higher and off to the side. When she was close enough she fired a concentrated beam of water at one of ribs of the monster hydra, cutting right through so that half of it was now falling into the abyss bellow. In the attempt to avoid any retaliation that might occur Dinara then spiraled off in a hasty -if temporary- retreat.

Back outside Starlight was concentrating on "watching" the battle in the catacombs by sensing the energys flit about.

Dinara was back again cutting off another rib, then a third. On of the few heads left finally noticed her and lunched down to snap at her. Instead of trying to fight off the jaws Dinara again retreated, weaving between the remaining pillars.

[Kauria]

Surrounded by nothing but darkness, Oltyth forced himself to concentrate, his breathing slowing. He could feel the loose remains of paths taken by other earth dragons spreading out in a network of former tunnels. The ever-present breeze stirred the leaves of the vine coiled around his throat, and the earth dragon swallowed uncertainly.
Which way now?
He opened the new bag, sifting through the dried herbs until his hand closed around the now-familiar crystal. He'd known it was still there, even now he could sense its power, but it was reassuring to touch it nonetheless.
Follow the Heart. The thought came out of seemingly nowhere, but the logic quickly became clear. It knows the others. It can find them.
Oltyth pulled his fist from the bag, blocky fingers still curled around the Heart of Earth. So how does it work?
Another idea formed, but his eyes slid to the side self-consciously, still seeing nothing but darkness.
You are alone. In a hole. No one is going to hear you or care, his mind interrupted again. His expression darkened for a second, until he realized that arguing with himself was probably even more stupid than what he was about to do.
He lifted the stone to his face and sighed heavily, rolling his eyes.
"Will you," he whispered to the power gem, "tell me where they are?"
He waited in silence for a response, face flushed with embarrassment. Knew it wouldn't work.
Just give it one more shot.
"Puh...Please," he implored, the strange word plopping off of his tongue like a piece of rotten food.
In the palm of his hand, he felt the steady hum of earth energy swell into a pulsing heartbeat, power pooling and ready to be released. A faint green-gold glow filled the space, illuminating Oltyth's face from beneath.
About time.
The splash of light snapped out into a ray, a pinpoint of green on the opposite wall of the chamber.
"That way it is, then," Oltyth announced cheerily, his voice taking on a pleased musical tone. The earth dragon replaced the gemstone and pressed his palms to the rock barrier, the stone rushing away beneath them.
"Let's see how fast a dragon can run with the wind behind him!"