"I can't believe you agreed to this!" Sendaar roars as loud as he dares. Two guards are stationed outside our tent and check in on us every twenty minutes or so. The pyroraptin paces the floor and flicks his tail nervously.
"He did what he had to, Sen. There really wasn't much of a choice. It was for our sake after all." Naz steps forward, giving me a reassuring smile.
Sendaar continues to pace and heaves a sigh. "I know, I know. It's just that I can't believe it's come to this." His face droops as he slides into one of the wooden weaved chairs given to us by Aaryan. A clawed hand covers his face in stress as one of its fingers tap his forehead.
"So, what are we going to do?" Namazzi strides toward me in a slow gait, hoping for answers. I never did take a moment to admire the colors that blend so well in Naz's scales. Deep purples, exotic blues, sea greens: all of which fade into one another to almost make an illusion of an ocean itself wavering on the kelpie's body.
I shook my head, "The only thing we can really do. We will-" My ears perk forward during my pause. Rapidly, I scuttle over to my desk and begin to write. The others take this as a cue to rush over to the other side and take papers and sort them.
The two guards barge through our tent door and look around. My back is to them, but I can see their shadows dancing on the wall. A feeling of someone peering over my shoulder begins to overcome me. Heat emanates from behind me as a scrawny wolfwyre peers over my shoulder.
"The Overseer wishes to evaluate your progress." He hisses as he slowly grabs the papers from under my pencil with his long and unkempt nails scratching at the parchment. A nervous drop of sweat forms at the top of my forehead, but I dare let it show. I simply nod. The wolfwyre stalks to the tent door. He looks us once over and grunts, leaving us to ourselves.
"That was too close," Sendaar breathes irritably.
I shake my head slowly. "We are getting out of here, and soon." Marching my tail over to the long table in the center of the room, I grab a long piece of paper and roll it dramatically over the table top. I'm quite pleased with how it unravels. Snatching my pencil out from behind my ear where I left it after the wolfwyre wandered out, I begin to draw out a plan.
"Ok, so we know that there are three sentry towers set up around the camp. We also know that Krah, Aaryan's chilly pet, likes to do aerial surveyance until four, when the sun starts to show its face. We 'ave 'bout a fifteen to twenty minute window 'till we lose our cover."
"What about the two guards outside our door? They don't change shifts until high noon?"
"Y'er absolutely right, Sendaar. That's why we shall exit through one of the side panels of the tent. 'Tis just cheap fabric that I can rip with my claws. We'll cut out way out of here on the left panels, away from Aaryan's view in his quarters."
"And what if one of guards sees us? There's no way out of getting spotted." Sendaar said, playing the devil's advocate with me.
A take a step back and look at the schematics of the plan. I squint and take a deep breath. "We will go to plan B." Sendaar goes to speak, but I interrupt, "Which will involve us knocking down that sentry tower." Pointing at the drawing of the tower closest to us and the shoreline, I get a satisfactory Aha from the raptin. "That will cause a big 'nuff disruption in the armory tent here," I again point at another drawing and continue, "If we hit the correct support beams, the sentry tower will fall directly on top of the other tower, d'stroying all hopes of them retaliating."
"And we'll be free to go!" Sendaar exclaimed.
Naz stepped forward and chucked, "No, not exactly, my dear friend. We will still have to take care of the wyvern. Krah will be on our tails as soon as the first wolfwyre howls the alarm."
The pyroraptin moans and rests his forehead on a support pole. "So we're back to square one again? I mean, as soon as we're in firing range we'll be ice cubes! Unless..." He picks his head up and looks at me. "Why don't you do your plant... thingy?!"
"His what?"
"Enoki, you can control plants. Why don't you trap the beast in some sort of plant trap? Muzzle the dragon and tie 'em up!" Sendaar jumps for joy in the light of his grand idea.
I, however, don't. "I don't know, dearies. I 'aven't got much practice under m'belt. The last time I did it, I had barely 'nuff control on it to get the job done. I could've killed some innocent bystander if I wasn't careful."
"But you are careful. Right, Naz?" The kelpie just shrugs. Sendaar shakes his head in annoyance. "Look, I believe in you, I know y-" I slap his mouth shut and grab the plan schematics.
'They're coming,' is all that runs through my mind. What can I do with this? 'Eat it. Wait, what the heck am I thi-' Into my mouth it goes. Thankfully, it's well packed in and doesn't make a noticeable bump in my mouth.
The same scrawny wolfwyre barges in with the papers he took from me. All four of us look at each other in an off manner. The three of us weren't in the most unsuspecting position when he comes in. He grunts, and walks over to me. "Aaryan believes you can work faster than this."
I don't know what to say, or how, considering my mouth is full at the moment. I fidget, backing away from the soldier who obviously doesn't know the meaning of personal space.
"Oh, he'll get right on it! Very much so. Thank you for your message and inanity!" We both, meaning Namazzi and I, look at Sendaar in the most horrified way. The wolfwyre looks questionably at him.
"Sorry about him, old chap. I believe his cage was dropped halfway through our journey." Naz says slyly.
The wolfwyre scratches his head, as if he doesn't know the meaning of the word, and leaves the tent. Naz and I share a glance at each other and sigh. Then, we look at Sendaar.
"Inanity? Really?" The kelpie whines. He walked over to me and patted my back. "Quick thinking with the plans. I think it's safe enough now to spit them out." I nod in agreement and go to wipe my mouth free of the paper.
Sendaar sits down in a chair with a clawed hand going through his feathers. "I meant to say reliability but what I was really thinking was what came out instead. Besides, I don't think our scruffy friend is thoroughly educated in vocabulary." I can see Namazzi nodding in the corner of my eye.
"Yes, quite so. I don't think Aaryan was concerned much with their educational standards. A bunch of buffoons they are." The water horse snorts and walks over to the wet paper gob I had set on the table. "My goodness, what happened to the schematics?"
"They're sizzling. Should they be doing that?" Sure enough, the paper, and the table mind you, are sizzling. "Oh dear heavens!" The raptin grabs a spare pencil and flicks the wad onto the sand-filled floor.
"I'm sorry, I think I may have vomited after putting it too far down m'mouth. I think I gagged." Sensitive gag reflexes, it runs in the family. I shrug, but Sendaar goes to get a closer look at it. He sits there, murmuring, for a good long while. I go to ask him what he's observing and he replies rather quickly.
"I think it's some sort of Tropane alkaloid mixture. I've seen Vahra work with these kind of agents before; she uses them in her medicines. They just never have done this before."
"Must be some sort of toxic combination. I wouldn't touch it if I were ye." I peer closer at the crumpled, wet paper. The green tinted liquid has a mucus consistency. "I'm... going to run a few tests on this- see what this is n'all." I pull out my satchel, which General Wardell kindly gave back after looting it of all my kitchen knives and utensils.
'So much for eating like a civilized being.' I think while I sift through the remaining contents, looking for my Poisonous Plants and Other Toxins by Eleonora Berryweather. "Aha!" Pulling it out I get to work. Inside the book, I keep test strips to identify poisons of all types.
There I sit, multi-tasking; taking the cotton swabs and dabbing the mucus onto the strips while using my writing hand to continue to translate my writings, just in case they come back to check up on our, well my, progress. I have just finished one species and am moving on to the next. Most of these species entries are lengthy, which doesn't give me the illusion that I'm getting a lot done. I'm hoping that it will be enough to get by on, but Aaryan doesn't look like a fool to me.
"Ah, they're done." I take the strips and waft them in the air before taking a gander at them. "Well, well, well, what do we 'ave here? We 'ave some atropine, some hyoscyamine, and last but not least, scopolamine. Seems like I somehow produced Atropa belladonna poison- the deadly nightshade plant."
My hand strokes the fur on my chin and I scan through my book for the side effects of this venomous combination from the plant. "'Tachycardia, blurry vision, loss of balance, hallucinations, sensitivity to light, constipation, staggering, rash, flushing, headache, dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, confusion, urinary retention, delirium, and convulsions.' Hmm, this sounds pleasant. 'Ingestion of over twenty berries or single leaf is fatal in most all cases.'"
The other two both are looking over my shoulder as they read the book too. Namazzi whinnies out a quiet laugh, "Good golly, you're full of surprises, aren't you? How do you suspect you pulled off that hat trick?" He ends on a more serious note.
"Yes, I'm quite curious how that came out of you. Wouldn't you have the mentioned symptoms?" Sendaar adds.
I pull my tail in to my left side and rearrange the tail tip feathers. "I don't know, exactly. It might be in m'anatomy, but I can't know f'er sure unless I can perform a dissection which isn't quite possible at the moment. Heh."
Sendaar gives me a dour look while bashing my humor. "Very amusing."
"As f'er the symptoms," I continue, "I can't know f'er sure- I may be immune to the agents. The Professor could possibly figure it out."
"The Professor?"
I almost forgot that they probably don't know about Professor Achilles Blacktalon, so I begin to explain how I've been studying under the good professor ever since I was a small child. They both aha and nod in recognition.
"So wh-" Naz is cut off by the guard's rounds. I, still in my seat translating, pay no attention to the guard- as if this is the normal for me. The wolfwyre barges in and walks around the table, peering over my shoulder to see my progress. He grunts and wanders onward past the left side of the table and out the tent door.
"They are really starting to try my patience." Namazzi grumbles, kicking a small pebble they found on the ground.
"Not to worry, deary. We're getting out of here t'night."