flying. it was a trivial feeling; one experienced by hundreds if not thousands of trainers around the world daily. yet, for someone like king, whose feet was so firmly glued to the ground, it was a truly rare sensation. while it was true he could take flight on one of his many garchomp, the feeling just... wasn't the same. they were clearly designed to swim through the earth, and not fly over it.
[break][break]
this beast though? lyune was bred and built to own the skies. it's only a top the great dragon, and with a beautiful woman on his side, does he feel slightly less emasculated.
[break][break]
"you'll be hard pressed ta," he says simply. king didn't belief in layering his words in fluff, or to sprinkle in soothing bullshit. his words, while usually blunt, couldn't be said to be anything but honest.
[break][break]
"not sure why ye want it 'neways. it's a cesspit."

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

her nostrils flare. there's a fire there in the back of her eyes, one that's been gone far too long. she'll drive every one of them out if it means getting back her home. her dragons haven't enjoyed their captivity in their pokeballs and she knows they miss the twining cavernous mazes of the estate's dens. 

but with a god at her side. she reaches up for the necklace, fingers gracing the black scale. she hasn't told king about her call with Eva Morales , or the meeting that's yet to come. 

no sense - she's not even sure if anything will come of it. 

"it's my home," she snaps. 

she's about to say more, drawl on about the glory of the estate and how she'd even try to make him feel at home, but they tip suddenly. lyune nose-dives, drawing his wings in close as draws them into a tight spiral. 

it's rare he does so without warning and king's lucky she had the wherewithal to strap his legs against the saddle since he's so inexperienced. 

"lyune!" she shouts uselessly, breath ripping from her throat. she curses under her breath and leans into him, fist slamming just to the side of his shoulder blade. his wings snap open and he tosses his head; a gout of flame streams from his lips and while they spin around in the air, freya can make out what he's running from. 

a dark cloud is ballooning, racing towards them at breakneck speed.

she pales and lyune struggles to regain his speed. the last thing she sees before the cloud overtakes them is king's face. and then they're falling.  

KING WAYLAND

☉

her bark was far worse than her bite most days, but he meets her gaze with the steel, calm blue of his own. home or otherwise, her goals were a long way off. it only breaks as the dragon beneath them begins to undergo some form of turmoil, and king's jaw turns to stone.
[break][break]
"what the hell is it doin'?"
[break][break]
then they're falling.
[break][break]
king loses his consciousness for a few moments, waking up to the rush of wind against his skin. blinking the deliriousness away king grabs a ball at his waist, summoning a noivern. quickly, if not a bit sloppily, it swoops king up and onto its back.
[break][break]
searching the night, king spots the descending form of freya morningstar.
[break][break]
then he's diving.

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

she comes to with the wind rushing in her ears. lyune's weight is not under her. she twists, panicked, crying out. there is a thick darkness around her, the smog of something otherworldly. sickeningly familiar. she's not thinking straight, doesn't reach for the other pokeballs at her neck. 

a shadow darts out from the smog and she curls away reflexively, but still they collide. arms come around her and her brain catches up, feeding her information with her spiked adrenaline. she's on the back of a noivern. 

light eyes open and her resolve catches up too. she rips away a pokeball from her necklace and hurls it beside them. 

another salamence joins their dive. this one is thinner, sleeker. nearly half the size of lyune, but he's the fastest beast she has right now. 

"ori! find lyune!" 

she sinks her fingers into king's shoulders, a wordless thank you. "we have to land. get our bearings."

KING WAYLAND

☉

king paces his breathing, not letting panic, anger, fear, or frustration in; they were useless in the face of this crisis, after all.
[break][break]
nodding to her statement, king directs the bat downwards. his eyes watered against the buffeting wind and an ache in his shoulder told him he might've dislocated it on impact with...
[break][break]
"what the hell hit us?"

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

the noivern circles down, down, down, and yet nothing rises to meet them. she squints through the blackness, but can't see much further. her fingers twist in the noivern's fur, a harrowing question that the beast doesn't understand. it's not part of her own flock. 

she grinds her teeth in frustration, reading its body language. it's agitated, almost as frustrated with its circling as freya is. 

her hand flies to her neck and she wrenches another ball from her necklace. aeris' snakelike body materializes in the air next to them. 

"give us some light." the dragon twists in front of them, tail sparking. a jagged thunderbolt arcs as she whips her tail. the lightning skitters through the air, illuminating their surroundings. what looks like ash is falling around them, but she feels nothing as she reaches out.

"no, no, no," she whispers, fingers curling. how did this happen? how is this happening?

"this place...i think it's like the other one. king, what if we're stuck here?"

KING WAYLAND

☉

king was more foolhardy than most, and wholefully ignorant on a plethora of subjects, most notably women themselves.
[break][break]
but not even he could miss the clear apprenhension freya morningstar was under.
[break][break]
"calm down," he commands, his voice subdued, soft, but no less authoritative. if left alone, the machinations of her mind could very well get herself, or both of them killed.
[break][break]
his mind wanders back to that night at the bar, in the bathroom, and the days that followed. she shared with him the events of that journey, and he could tell the trauma had taken a bite out of her — one she was still healing from.
[break][break]
they needed a level head here.
[break][break]
when the noivern lands, king dismounts, holding his hand out for freya to grab onto. once they were both safely settled, the bat returned to its orb, his gaze sweeps the area around them like a primal hunter.
[break][break]
"we're not stuck here," he says, back initially turned to her in his inspection. satisfied, he rounds his attention back onto her. "whatever this is, wherever this is — we'll get out." despite his confidence, he didn't feel it. if this was anything like freya's experience, the danger had increased dramatically. knowing this, he releases his lucario out.
[break][break]
"use yer AURA SENSE 'n try ta find her dragon."
[break][break]
it's sensing appendages twitch and float, before it turns to face a direction, and begins to walk. king holds out his hand to the woman, expression stern.

[break][break]
"let's go."

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

though tapu fini's presence no longer pervades her mind, she feels the madness crawling upon her. up her spinal cord, exposing the nerves in the back of her head, sending shockwaves back down her skeleton. she shakes in king's arms; the flash of light fades away and they're left to the darkness, nothing there to guide them while

calm down.

her jaw sets. eyes close. shoulders tense. with effort, she snaps the feelings down like a dragon might a rat. the change is visible on her features. 

she has not withdrawn like this since finding emma. cold, hard resolution covers her like a blanket. as soon as the noivern lands, she takes king's hand and grunts as she hits the ground. anxiety completely razed, leaving nothing but ash inside her, around her. 

her gaze slides to xen and she waits. aeris twists down to the ground beside them and goes to approach, but then stops, apprehension in her manner as she regards her trainer. 

"lyune can get us out," she says grimly. "we'll find him and he'll get us out." dragon ascent transcended the barrier once. she can't imagine this whatever it is has the same power to trap that the father winter figure did. he'd opened a portal and closed it. 

ash kicks up under her boots, but it crunches like a thin layer of snow. (a warning she won't understand until it's too late.) she is silent as the grave as they walk, arms stiff at her sides, following xen as though their lives depend on it. 

KING WAYLAND

☉

he hasn't a clue what she means — how could the presence of even a single pokemon, especially one as normal as her salamence, stack the decks in their favor. wisely, he keeps that to himself; no reason to tear the throne down from all around her, after all.
[break][break]
he does however rely on her experience. something to keep her grounded, mind on the goal and not the trap that lies in wait.
[break][break]
"what can ye tell me 'bout this place?"

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

freya frowns and looks back at king, but talking it through would probably be helpful. even if, after her time spent away, she still can't make sense of most of it. she drifts closer to him, knuckles brushing, because it's hard to make out his face with the ash in the air. 

"there's no end to it," she says. "i mean, it feels similar, but also not. so i don't think the same rules apply. for all we know, this ash is toxic to us and we'll die in a matter of minutes."

she articulates cleanly, years of experience on the field giving her a coat of arms. this is a freya that has seen war.

"most importantly, though? there's no presence here. no kyurem." no being hunted.

KING WAYLAND

☉

her comment on ash has him tilting his head up, regarding the falling mess with a incredulous expression.
[break][break]
"that'd be a shit way ta go." is all he says in his infinite, helpful wisdom. his own expression was one he'd worn often. it was hollow, and apathetic; a pre-lude to how his own face of 'war'.
[break][break]
"how can ye tell?" he raises an eyebrow, gaze searching the void around him.
[break][break]
just in case.

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

as far as she's concerned, she's living on borrowed time. in light of recent events and her coming together with king, she's less inclined to put herself recklessly into these situations. which, in the silence that lapses between them, is a comforting realization, albeit strange. 

"mm, but not the worst, probably. besides, it's highly unlikely. the pokemon don't seem perturbed." she nods to xen whose eyes are glowing softly as he guides them through the wasteland. 

when he asks for clarification, she taps her temple. "we'd feel it. hear it in our heads." that endless grumble, the sound that still plagues her in a crowded room. that low, hungry growl of a hunter toying with its food. 

she eyes him. they'd both witnessed death. that much she'd been able to parse from old league files. that and not many people go about their lives in hoenn without seeing a few bodies. the mangled corpses in mossdeep had been just the beginning for her. 

but there's something she's been thinking since the night they first....got together. something decidedly not romantic. 

but her curiosity begets her and with the state of things as they are right now, she feels now's a good a time as any. call it morbid curiosity or a desire for absolution.

"have you ever killed, king? been the hunter?" or am i alone in this? 

KING WAYLAND

☉

king chuckles, looking at the back of xen's head as they walk.
[break][break]
"i wouldn't use xen as an example. he could be starin' down arceus and not give a single fuck." they had that in common, he thinks. but, her next comment has him nodding his head. "felt somethin' familiar when i entered that large fuckin' tree 'n all. was pretty wild."
[break][break]
her question, however, forces him to set his jaw. the muscles flex noticeably.
[break][break]
"i've killed. i've hunted. sometimes i enjoyed it, most times.. i didn't." it might seem foolish to admit to a dragon, that he wasn't always the hunger filled predator.
[break][break]
"some.. i did."

[attr="class","notes"]freya morningstar[break]

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉