freya keeps an eye out on talia shortly after taking to the air, but her attentions eventually remain drawn on orion. it's not easy, clambering up the cliffsides with only one arm. freya and echo work to scout paths ahead for him to use, but more than once do they have to double back when orion can't safely make a jump. 

it's slow going to the point where freya starts to think she was wrong - they should have extracted them one by one. that thought, however, is dashed as quickly as it had come when the ground shakes around them. 

echo buzzes underneath her and orion clings to the side of the wall, nostrils flaring as anxiety takes hold of him. a rock dislodges itself above them and echo rockets upward; the dragoness blasts it into pieces with a breaking swipe. and though they'd avoided a catastrophe for the moment, they're far from safety. 

"echo, get to orion." the flygon alights on the shared cliff edge, claws scraping against the side from lack of room. freya looks at the man, white as a sheet. 

"you have to hold on. echo's going to take you, but you have to hold on. can you do that for me?" the earth grumbles again and he grits his teeth, nodding. freya reminds herself that the adrenaline of the situation will keep him up, if anything else. 

"take him to talia. stay close to her." echo crickets nervously and then slides off the cliff with the man on her back. 

freya crawls up orion's back. it's uncomfortable being seated upon one of her kommo-o; it's not often she rides them. but with both arms free, orion is able to scale the walls much easily. 

get them above ground, talia, she thinks. and then, just as orion takes to scaling the wall at a complete ninety degree angle, the earth falls away. something large and silver hits them like a train, careening out of the wall and taking dragon and rider with it. 

Talia Celes

☉

it takes everything in her not to get ripped off the kommo-o's back. freya is swearing up and down and they're going too fast, but her back goes rigid, bracing for the impact of the far side of the cavern. eyes closed against the darkness and once, she would have embraced this sudden, utter end, but heat writhes in her belly. indignation, that this is where and how it ends. 

orion snarls, frills rising. a wave of energy rolls off of him and meets the surface of the rock instead. the momentum shoves them a dozen feet into the earth before the barrier of protection cracks.

the steelix, angry and thrashing, attempts to shove its head into the newly made alcove. 

orion falls onto his front paws and his hiss slides into a deep-bellied noble roar. the steelix flinches back and behind it, freya swears she catches a glimpse of talia. 

Talia Celes

☉

she is low to the ground, but she is not cowering at the back of the cave. instead, she waits with anticipation, fingers flexing and unflexing. echo's buzzing trills float over the steelix's angry thrashes. rock crumbles and orion, braced at the mouth of the unnatural shelf, roars. 

"go!" he leaps, tail glowing with matchstick purple flames, illuminating echo just long enough for freya to scramble onto her back. 

the flygon chirps and nosedives, as though to join the fray, but freya urges her up. 

"orion, keep it down! talia, we need to go." with the steelix tossing its weight around like this, it's only a matter of time before the cave starts to crumble around them. another slam. orion's scales clang together, sending rippling shockwaves over the steel beast. "orion will hold it off."

Talia Celes

☉