Chapter 5-1

Chapter 5: Following Chaos

“Dragons 'nd dwarves 're stubborn enough alone. When you put 'em together, you get Garkhen.”

Garkhen quickly saw to his friends' wounds, calling upon the power of Bahamut to heal them. After he had, he wavered unsteadily, exhaustion slamming into him as hard as the Javni'Tolkhrah had.

Zakhin'Dakh chirruped worriedly. The half-blue dragon smiled tiredly at the griffon.

“I have... simply expended... much energy on... channeling Bahamut's power,” he explained.

Garkhen rocked backwards, sitting down hard in a motion that was as much involuntary as planned. 

Almonihah growled softly.

“Can't stay here. Must've noticed us flying in.” He shook his head. “Wouldn't 've thought someone could command Javni'Tolkhrah, but haven't seen three of 'em work together before.”

“Is that... what happened...” Garkhen was nodding off even as he spoke. 

 

With a crash, he collapsed to one side, asleep. Almonihah looked at him and shook his head. 

 

“Still can't stay.” He looked over at Zakhin'Dakh. “Suppose you'll just have to carry him, Zakhin'Dakh. Think you can?” 

 

“Yeah!” Zakhin'Dakh screeched. Carefully, he grasped the sleeping Warder in his talons, then looked over at Almonihah.

The Ranger mounted, and they flew off in the darkness. They didn't go very far, though—Almonihah directed Zakhin'Dakh to land after flying only a few miles. The night had gotten cloudy, and it was risky flying at night, even with Almonihah's draconic vision to aid them. That... and they were both almost as exhausted as Garkhen. Being healed didn't take as much energy as healing, but having serious injuries wiped away had still fatigued them, especially combined with being awoken in the middle of the night to fight.

“Just have t' hope this is far enough,” Almonihah commented on their new campsite. 

 

Zakhin'Dakh landed carefully, making sure to set Garkhen down gently before setting his taloned feet down. As soon as Almonihah dismounted, the griffon made himself comfortable and fell asleep. And in spite of Almonihah's concern about further attacks, he found he couldn't keep himself awake to keep watch.

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Yeah, a battle like that is going to take some recovery time. But can they afford it right now, with that artifact at large?