At War // OxO // Closed

(opened this and immediately got KO'd by "dragon shifter pregnancy" lmao)
(also sorry for the wait dshfbj)

To be honest, Aron had volunteered because unfortunately he saw himself as the most disposable. Errol and Ryker were married, and he would hate for something to happen to either of them, and Lieze had too much trauma around dragon shifters to ever volunteer for this. So it had to be him. It always had to be him. He was stiff as Kaylum tried to teleport them, frowning as the prince appeared and disappeared, over and over again.

(HELP IM SORRY IT JUST CAME OUT OF ME)

It had only surprised Kaylum because Aron had seemed nervous around him earlier. It made sense though, looking at them all together. A part of him admired Aron’s boldness.
He took the human’s arm again, closed his eyes, and when he opened them, found Aron successfully beside him at the spot outside of camp. Kaylum’s eyes widened. “Oh! Yes! Is every part of you here? Nothing left behind?” He checked, then looked back at him. “Okay. Ready to go back?”

(sdjfgbksdjbgkjdh it's fine lmaoo)

Aron jumped when the teleportation happened, looking extraordinarily ill at ease when he realized it had worked. He cleared his throat when addressed, shifting his hands and patting absently at his arms as if to double-check that. "Ah. Yes, I…should be all here?" he finally replied, slowly, brows pulling together. "And I'm ready to go back if you are." would Kaylum be able to reliably repeat this, though?

“Excellent.” Spurred on by his success and excitement, Kaylum took Aron’s arm again and closed his eyes, immediately teleporting back. When he opened his eyes, Aron was once again beside him in the camp near the other guards. Kaylum allowed a small smile to spread on his face. He hoped— no, he knew he could do it for Nikolas too.
But then, he felt himself begin to sway. His vision blurred as his muscles weakened. Soon his legs gave out under him, and he collapsed and let out a groan. What was happening? Did teleporting with another person really take so much energy?

Aron stepped away a bit once they were back in the camp, then reached out to try and catch Kaylum as the dragon prince collapsed. He managed to catch Kaylum's arm, and helped lower him to a sitting position. "Are you alright?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Kaylum, concern in his gaze.

Kaylum tried to take deep breaths and balance himself. He nodded his thanks to Aron. “I’ll be fine. I… I think I just need food and water. Water especially.” He closed his eyes for a moment, starting to feel a little dizzy.

Ryker grabbed Kaylum a water bottle, holding it out to the shifter prince, and Errol grabbed some jerky and dried fruit for Kaylum to eat as well. "There you are." the healer said, coming to stand by him and keep an eye on him.

He opened his eyes, took the water bottle, and held it to his lips, gulping it down. Kaylum then took the food and ate all of it, though he tried to go more slowly. He remembered the possibility that he could choke. “Thank you,” he murmured.

Errol nodded slightly. "Of course." he replied, watching the prince through careful, studious eyes. "Are you going to be alright?" the healer was a kind man, with gentle eyes, and he seemed genuinely concerned for Kaylum's wellbeing. The rest of Nik's guards didn't seem to care quite as much, and seemed more neutral towards the dragon prince, but Errol was, at least, concerned for him.

Errol could likely see the sharpness of Kaylum’s teeth as he bit into the food, the way his pupils had turned into slits. “Of course. I’ll be fine. Just need to… to recover,” he muttered. As he finished up, he let out a soft sigh. “I just need to rest so I’ll be fully capable of teleporting again.”

"Of course." the healer replied in a soft murmur, taking a step back in order to give Kaylum some space. Plus, the sight of the prince's more dragon-like features had sent a shiver up his spine that he did not particularly care for. All four of Nikolas's guards had some sort of issue related to the dragon-shifters, though Ryker's were probably the smallest issues. He had never been involved in the war, as he was not originally Kevran. The other three were.

Kaylum was used to the kinds of looks humans would give him at this point. Part of him took pleasure in the fact that he could be feared purely because of what he was. It was a nice change of pace from being viewed as a child or a spoiled prince. The other part hated it. He was not one of the shifters who fought in the war, he had no clue how to fight. He certainly couldn’t pose any threat now, with his malnourished, flightless body. But aside from all that, he really just hoped the way they looked at him wouldn’t get in the way of them working together to save Nik.
He let out a breath. “Thank you again.” He walked off and laid down in the grass.

"You're welcome." Errol responded, looking up at Ryker after a moment and saying something quietly to him. Ryker gently squeezed his husband's elbow, trying to reassure him, and then looked around the group.

"We need to figure out an exact plan for rescuing Nikolas." Ryker said, voice low, but still commanding. "And once we rescue him, we cannot come back here for long. With just you missing, prince Kaylum, Seren has already added on more patrols. He's looking for you. Once he loses Nik, he will be tearing the forest apart. We won't be able to hide for long, and we will have to leave as fast as possible. The closest city is Duras, and it is a day away traveling hard. We…won't be able to travel that hard." he left out why. Kaylum was certainly not in good enough condition to push as hard as was necessary to reach Duras, and Nikolas…gods, who knew what condition he would be in.

His eyes drifted back over to Ryker, but he didn’t get up. He hummed, trying to think of something. “I’m assuming I can’t just teleport there and get him, then teleport back?”
Kaylum almost wanted to just separate from his body and check on Nik, or even wander around, but he didn’t. He had to be present.

Ryker frowned slightly. "I will admit I don't know much about how your abilities work, but considering how transporting Aron for a short distance tired you out, would transporting Nikolas from further not be even harder?" privately, he was also concerned about the monster Nikolas harbored under his skin. He wasn't sure when the last time that thing had come out had been, and he was worried that the transport might cause just enough stress to break it out. The last thing that any of them wanted was to have to deal with the monster, on top of everything else.

Kaylum sighed and pursed his lips. “… You make an excellent point.” He sat up. He tried to think. His mother taught him strategy, he should come up with a plan. “Mm… teleporting can be a backup, then.”

"Yes. It's nice to know it is an option, but it should be our last resort. There are other things we can do, before you have to use the energy to teleport." Ryker said, brows furrowing just a little bit as he thought through their options, about what to do about all of this. It was going to be hard, getting Nik out. He had always known that. That was why they had got Kaylum out first. He had been less guarded and easier to access.

“Can you do the same thing to get him out that you did for me?” He wondered. “Or, well… I suppose it would be difficult to knock out that many guards. Perhaps we could do a disguise…” he muttered, partially to himself.

"That's what I'm trying to decide." Ryker replied. "There are not enough of us for us to have to fight our way in or out, so we have to be as quick and as silent as possible." he tapped his hand on his thigh absently, trying to decide the best plan of attack. He fully intended upon utilizing Kaylum's abilities as much as possible, though how much that really meant was… well, debatable.

“Would you like me to astral project and scout the area again?” He asked. It took up a lot of his energy, but it was the best next thing he could think of. “Maybe I could look for anything we can exploit.”

"I don't know. I don't want you to use up all of your energy before we figure out what we're going to do." Ryker said, shaking his head faintly and looking around the group. "We need to be prepared to grab Nik and go. We won't be able to come back here." he looked over at Kaylum. "They're looking for you, but they still have Nik, and he was always Seren's main target anyway. There's history there." he shook his head minutely. "Once we've got him, they're going to hunt us a lot harder."

“I can still turn into a dragon, even if I can’t fly,” he said. Then he sighed. “Alright. You have a point. That’s all I can think of, as far as my involvement goes. Sorry.”

"It's alright, I'm not trying to shoot down all of your suggestions, but it's… a tricky situation, unfortunately." Ryker replied, frowning slightly. "I'll have to think about it." he glanced at the other three guards, raising his eyebrows at them.

Aron sighed. "I think we should just duck in and out. If Kaylum can teleport Nikolas, rather than us brute forcing it, wouldn't that work better?"

“No offense taken.” He nodded, then turned to Aron. “That’s a good point. Even if there are more guards, hopefully we can just be quick enough to avoid the ones you don’t knock out.”
He let out another sigh. It was getting hotter as the day went on. He wiped at his forehead.

Aron nodded, looking over at Ryker. "Would that not work?" he asked the other man thoughtfully. "If we have Kaylum get Nik out, really quickly, rather than us all getting in there?"

Ryker thought about that for a long moment, the gears in his head turning. "I believe it would work, but I will need to consider the logistics of it for a little longer."

“Well, if we go with that, I would only teleport once to save energy. But perhaps I can be stealthy enough to take care of the rest,” he added.

Ryker nodded slightly. "Just once? Would you teleport in, or teleport out?" he questioned, turning ideas over in his head to try and figure out the best plan to do for this. What was their best plan? "We'll need to pack everything up before we go, just to make sure that nothing gets left behind."

“Teleport out,” he said. Then he paused. “Or, well… hm.” He thought. “I guess his cell door would be locked, so we would have to take care of the guard with the key… and that way, I can just leave as soon as I have him, in case other guards are alerted.”

Ryker nodded slowly, thinking about it. "That could work well, though my concern would be about the possibility of the rest of us getting caught, and you being alone in these woods with Nikolas." he replied. "You don't know Kevra well enough for that, and I doubt that Nikolas would be in any shape to guide you."

“That’s a fair point…” He sighed. “It’s okay. I can teleport twice, and you guys don’t have to do anything. I’ll just… prepare, beforehand.” He wiped his forehead again. He thought he would get used to the climate here by now, but apparently not.