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Ravenar groaned mentally.

"It is a meat shop. It specializes in... exotic meats. I forgot I had purchased dragon meat one time experimentally..." He kicked himself mentally, as well. "I should've known he'd wander in there... Damn! We have to hurry!" He urged her, trying his best to move quickly. Of course, he couldn't. His knee was becoming more and more aggravated with each attempted step he made, and he had to take deep, slow breaths to keep himself from vomiting from the pain.

"Bah!" He said, slowing down slightly. "I'll only slow you down. Just go! Look for the dragon sign in front of the shop! You'll know it when you see it." He directed her.

"Hurry now, Imo's life may rest in your hands!" He urged her again.

"Who?" the woman asked, her tone confused. For the moment, it was no act; she had no idea what the dragon was called, and, not expecting anyone to come to his rescue, did not connect the threat with her charge in the back.

A second later her face twisted in anger. This was Sanito's work, that jealous b*****d! Sending in some filthy drow to threaten her... "You can tell Sanito to stop trying," she spat angrily, ignoring the blade at her throat. "He'll never get that trade he was pestering me about."

Of course, Lasha's actions were not to go unnoticed. Windows were an enemy at this time, and people began to notify the local guards. The guards that only came in during times of physical assault. They didn't bother with theft or anything petty. But murder or attempted murder was worth stopping.

It was the Mage District guard, each a mage himself, a group of about four of them that Ravenar came along. One was just about to command the door open, due to the Mage District guard's lacking of muscle. Ravenar swiftly cast a barrier spell upon the door. The Mage District guard turned and frowned. His identity became known to Ravenar swiftly; he had known this person before. Arminas, the head of the Mage District guard.

Arminas turned and tried to break the barrier with his own magic, but to no avail. He turned and grimaced at Ravenar. "I always told you to join up with us." Arminas said coldly.

"If you'd give us a chance to explain, maybe you wouldn't be going in there and doing something that might be a bit... too much for the situation. My Drow friend in there..." He began to assume too much, "Has no intention of murder. She is simply attempting to liberate her... dragon friend from the back area. I'm not letting this barrier down without you fellows leaving, so simply run along and this situation will take care of itself." Ravenar finished.

Arminas sighed. What was the use? "Very well. But, Ravenar, if there is blood spilled this day, it is on her and your hands!" Arminas threatened, and turned, walking off to disappear in a cloud of magical smoke, just as his entourage did.

Ravenar breathed a sigh of relief. Letting the barrier go down, Ravenar circled to the back. Imo had to be in there, due to the fact that the dragon couldn't have fit into the door.

Damn padlocks. He couldn't get the door to open, and the lock was almost certainly trapped or enchanted. He needed the key more than anything.

Circling around again as fast as he could, he burst through the door. "Lasha." He said quickly. "Find her key. I know where Imo is."

He hoped that he wouldn't see Lasha cradling the dead form of the woman...

(Isn't that lady old? Wouldn't it be ... ironic if she had a heart attack, and they all thought Ravenar killed her? Then we can have a really cool scene with Ravenar about to be executed and they all save him! I'm a GENIUS! xd xd xd )

Snatching the key and her dagger from the woman as the vile lady grabbed at her heart, she felt a tickle in the back of her mind. It was more like an itch, a feeling that was always assosiated to her with magic. 'Someone's using it nearby...' she thought as she backed off from the gasping woman, confused as to what was happening. There was a thin line of blood on the shop-keeper's throut, but her blade hadn't been poisoned.

Then she looked towards the door just in time to see Ravenar come bursting in and shout something about where Imo was.

"Where? Ravenar?? What's wrong with her??" She asked in a purely unworried, confused voice, and pointed to the woman now on the floor but cluching her chest like her heart was about to pop out.

((Oi!! Wouldn't Lashantha be right in there with him for the execution thing?? 0.o))

Canina couldn't breathe. Her chest was moving just fine, yes, but no matter how much air she forced into her lungs it still felt as if she was drowning.

Through several layers of stone, metal, and magic, Imolaured was also hyperventilating. His already confused and panicked mind was starting to drift into the nothingness of the unconcious; his eyes kept losing sight of the darkened outlines around the warehouse. Curled up in the smallest ball possible, he alternated shivering with attempts at more screeches for aide--though even to his own semi-concious ears, they sounded pitifully quiet and ineffectual.

"Just go around back, and quickly! You should be able to unlock it from there." He told her. "The back door's not as heavily warded, I think... if not, maybe I can disable them. Come with me." He turned and went out the door, and then travelled in half a circle around the shop, to the wider back door, the only door Imo could've squeezed through.

Yes, this was warded as well, and Ravenar began to chant under his breath, tracing arcane symbols in the air, his fingers trailed by sparkling blue energies. As these symbols became one with each other, the color began to change to red, making purple, and then the color changed to green, making a sickly brown. He was almost done.

Finally, the color of all the symbols put together made black, and the spells protecting the back door went down. This did not take care of the magical lock, however, but he knew that the key Lashantha had would take care of it.

Hopefully Lasha had followed him out back. "Get Imo out of here." He said, not even bothering to turn to her as he rushed back into the shop. Hopefully the guards were nowhere near here, so that she could get Imo to safety. Ravenar would be the one to blame for this...

The punishment, he knew, would be public execution. Many would love to see it happen, especially to him. But he had friends. Valgard, Yolanda, Deghar, and hope Lashantha and Imo. He hoped he had earned their trust...

'With luck, they might be able to set me free... or clear my name. But I doubt the latter would happen... the former, however, they could most certainly do...' He sighed, fiddling with his new bracer. Maybe it would come in handy... but they would probably confiscate it. He leaned heavily on Valbyl. This was not turning out to be a good day...

Imo's eyes swung around groggily to focus on Lasha; the orbs where now faintly covered with film and brownishly bleary around the edges. His scales had not yet lost any color (although they had lost a good deal of luster); as he starved from lack of magic they would gradually turn duller and grayer...

"She said magic can't get through... and she said it'll kill me..." The dragon fully believed the crone on both counts by this point. A sharp pain sliced through his forehead as he tried to think, his confused thoughts growing only increasingly jumbled. "No magic..."

At least I'm not starting to hallucinate yet one corner of Imo's mind commented to itself. Or at least he didn't think he was. The call was close; the fuzzing shape of Lasha was certainly strange enough to be a self-created illusion.

((word=ignite))

Imo gasped at the shock of a former abscence filled, his lungs stretching to their limit in only fractions of a second before the air rushed out again. Life! It was if he could suddenly breathe again, suddenly see, was suddenly aware of every grain of dirt on the floor beneath his feet and even whisper of air across his hide. Unthinkingly he dragon-spoke--dragon-shouted, really; dragon-shouted his exhiliration to the minds around him soundlessly through the blood-scented air.

He had not energy for more, however. Sliding and rolling himself a few feet from the place of his former entrapment, the dragon closed his eyes in strange exhaustion. It would be a few weeks until he was completely healed; a few weeks to a few months to replace all the deadened areas of his body with fresh, magically-rich tissues.

Meanwhile, Canina's world was slowly, inevitably losing its color to an encroaching blackness. She felt incrediably light-headed, as if any moment now she'd feel herself bump against the ceiling. The mental shout of joy and lightness that shot through her as the barrier broke only doubled the odd sensation... But as the seconds ticked onward her world deteriorated back into the grayness of the pain upon her chest.