(alright)
In the morning, Lieze woke up everyone by shaking their shoulders. Except for Kaylum. Him, she sent Aron to wake up. The tall guard approached the dragon shifter, a little unsure how to wake him in this form. "Uh…" he paused for a moment, then reached out and gently shook Kaylum's shoulder. He hoped the prince wouldn't wake up, startle, and kill him. That would be a messy ending. "Prince Kaylum?"
Somehow, Kaylum had a dreamless sleep. Though he was peaceful, sometimes he was disturbed on mornings like these by touchy human guards who would demand that he turn back into a human for some reason or another. This always made him on edge, and he did not fall as deeply into sleep as he used to. So, when Aron touched his shoulder, he did, in fact, startle awake. Instead of immediately killing him, however, he just jerked away from whoever was touching him, a growl rumbling in his throat and his feathers ruffling up. He soon recognized Aron, though. “Ah. Sorry.”
Aron stepped back at the growl, then shrugged at the apology. "Don't worry about it. Thought you would kill me, so a growl is nothing." he replied. "Ah…'s about 8 in the morning. We need to figure out a plan to get Nikolas out, though we'll have to wait until dark to enact it." dark was easiest. Dark would mean it was easier to throw off pursuers. "Seren already has men looking for you, so we might have to move camp, too."
“Kill you?” Kaylum said with a small laugh at the end. “Nah. Wasn’t that startled.” He stood up and shook himself, stretching out his wings. The primary feathers had been growing back, little by little. Right now they were just fluffy stubs, rather vulnerable to pain.
“Ah.” He sat down and began grooming himself. “Well. I will be glad to help in any way I can.”
"Ryker wanted me to bring you back to camp." he replied, shifting from foot to foot. Talking to Kaylum as a dragon made him…a touch uncomfortable, if he was being honest. He was used to dragons in the capacity of fighting them. Not speaking to them or working with them. And it was easier to forget what Kaylum was, when the shifter was in human form.
“I’ll be right there,” Kaylum said. “This shouldn’t take too long.” He was only going to groom the feathers on his wings, anyway. He couldn’t reach the feathers on his head and neck anyway, and he wished that someone like Xiomara or his mother could help him with that. His feathery mane probably looked terrible now. But, at least only doing his wings meant that grooming would go faster.
"Alright." Aron stood awkwardly for another few seconds, then headed back towards the camp with a soft, short exhale. Once back at camp, he explained to the others that Kaylum would be there soon, running his hands through his hair and just seeming a touch fidgety about all of it.
After about five minutes, Kaylum shook his body, then shifted to human form and reentered the camp, fiddling with his locs. He was tempted to undo them, wash his hair, and lock it again, but that would take forever due to the sheer length of his hair. Oh well. He decided to twist the locs into a bun as he approached the human soldiers. "Are you still discussing a plan?" he asked when he came up.
They turned to him, nodding. "Your teleportation abilities. Would you be able to take Nikolas with you?" Ryker asked, brows drawn faintly. It would make things infinitely easier if Kaylum could, but if he could not…well, they could work with that too. Either way, it was a useful ability, that Ryker wanted to utilize.
(Y’know, that’s a good question Ryker lol)
(lmao oh dear)
(You know what, I’ll just go with the safe option)
(ok lol)
They turned to him, nodding. "Your teleportation abilities. Would you be able to take Nikolas with you?" Ryker asked, brows drawn faintly. It would make things infinitely easier if Kaylum could, but if he could not…well, they could work with that too. Either way, it was a useful ability, that Ryker wanted to utilize.
He considered the idea. “I’ve never taken someone with me when I teleport before,” he said. “But theoretically, I should be able to as long as I maintain physical contact with him.”
He remembered years ago, when he was a small child with his abilities undeveloped, that his mother would hold him close to her and teleport them both when it was needed. Of course, it was only when necessary. Young hatchlings always learned how to fly before they learned how to teleport, lest they become overly reliant on it.
Ryker frowned. "Hm." he considered the response for a long moment. "It's risky, balancing the plan on something you say theoretically about." he glanced about at the other guards before his gaze returned back to Kaylum. "I would not want things to go wrong and then have Nikolas suffer."
(Why is this making me think about how dragon shifter pregnancy works)
“Me neither.” He paused, then sighed a little. “I understand it is probably still difficult for you to trust me. But I have seen it done before. I could perhaps practice teleporting with one of you first. If that’s alright.”
(ksdbfjasbhf WHAT)
They all looked at him with squinted eyes, all processing the words and weighing them. Did any of these four trust Kaylum enough to let him make the attempt? They barely knew him, and only trusted him due to his connection with Nikolas. The human prince had always been their main goal, here, and, well…did they trust Kaylum?
Finally, Aron moved towards Kaylum, holding out his arm. "I'll do it." he said, eyes flicking back to the other three guards. Lieze's fingers were twitching on her swordhilt, and Errol and Ryker were both leaning into each other, just a little, in a protective sort of way.
(LOL)
Kaylum’s eyes widened. He didn’t expect Aron to be the one to volunteer. “Oh, alright. Thanks.”
His ear twitched, and he took the human guard’s arm. He closed his eyes, imagining the place where he wanted to be. Upon opening his eyes, he found himself just outside of camp, the same spot where he slept the night before, but Aron wasn’t with him. He had teleported without him, and he was still back with others. Kaylum quickly teleported back and sighed. “Let’s try that again.”
(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.