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@denali-christianson

I gotta figure Niarok out again before I do the thing though… rose-colored-fancy would you mind initiating and interaction between Niarok and Aydin? I need to get back into Niarok’s character and that would be so much easier if he was interacting with someone he’s interacted with before.

Okay! Lemme see if I can pull something together…

And I’m going to use the antagonists idea becauese there’ll be so much juicy conflict *Evil laughter*

Aydin

The ceiling completely split open now and Liorah finally tumbled through. The castle had followed through on her dare.

She landed well, she had obviously practiced falling as well. Of course she had, her idea of fun was deliberately falling off a galloping horse. Despite the fact that she didn’t seem to have gotten hurt, she expressed her feelings by swearing. Loudly.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t retort.

There was some uproar up ahead, and I noticed Klein was looking over a pile of rubble. Someone unfamiliar was near him, talking to Niarok. He had the same accent as Lorcan.

Liorah scrambled up and ran up behind Klein and clambored up on the rubble before anyone could stop her.

“What in the eternal blue heavens is that?” She hissed.

“Dragon,” Niarok retorted, absently.

I stood next to Liorah, just about ready to pull her backward in case she was going to attempt to climb over for some reason. It was ridiculously stupid so I considered it well within the range of possibilities.

I looked past her. A huge, lizard-like winged creature lay coiled up, apparently asleep.

“I think we’re supposed not to wake that,” I pointed out.

“You’re really brilliant today, have I told you that yet?”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

There was a soft clink and rattle. I paused, uncertain whether it was real, but Liorah cocked her head and scanned the room.

“There,” she hissed, jerking her head at one corner of the room.

I looked past her and my heart plummeted. Someone was chained to the wall in the corner of the room. They were trying to squirm free without making any noise. I recognized the quick, agile movements and the dark hair draped over her face. I felt sick. I had hoped never to see her again.

Liorah noticed what I had and quietly swore again, then backed away and raked her hand through her hair.

“Okay, new plan,” she said, cheerfully. “We go the exact opposite direction and do not turn around.”

“Liorah, she’s trapped. The… creature might attack her.”

Liorah grinned.

“You really are brilliant today.”

“Liorah, no.”

Niarok walked over to the rubble barricade and glanced over, then turned back to me.

“Who is that?”

I sighed.

“Someone I never hoped to see again.”

“That was his girlfriend, you know, that one,” Liorah supplemented, without hesitating.

I flinched. How much had she told them?

___________

Denali, you’ll have to take it from here XD This took a shocking amount of effort. It’s practically impossible to write Aydin the same way, he’s gone through quite a bit of character development in-story and I keep slipping back into that XD

I think I need to take them out right after this challenge, since they’re making this as hard as possible XD