[OPEN]

[dracobin]

Characters: Temeraire and YOU!
Date: April 26
Location: Outside the Palace of Landed Sky
Situation: Following the attacks, Temeraire calls the nascent Keeliai Aerial Corps to investigate the palace.
Warnings/Rating: Probably injuries as a result of encountering the barrier? Other exciting developments? WE SHALL SEE.

It was at once obvious something was wrong with the palace; in hindsight, he ought to have looked to it sooner. It was only that there were so many other things to occupy one's attention, when one's friends had been injured, and one's apartment had been converted into a makeshift shelter for one's kedan neighbors, and one's console flickered alarmingly, at the edge of one's vision, so one was never entirely certain if one was seeing it or not--

But now he kept the monstrous, spiky form of the palace firmly in view as he flew, with as many of his crew as he could carry clipped onto his harness. If there was anything that could be done, he resolved to find it; it was the least he could do, after his lapse in attention.

Comments

sorry to jump in unannounced!

[strategisch]

"Dear gods..."

What in the world had happened? Peering over Temeraire's scaled shoulder, the palace had turned not only impregnable, but downright ominous while he wasn't looking. The... decor absolutely screamed Malicant, as did every other disaster that had happened in the past few weeks, but where in the world did he muster the power to accomplish this? Wasn't the Palace supposed to be a protected area?

"Take care, I would not fly too close, or even overhead. I hope Han had time to escape..."

the more the merrier! \o/

[dracobin]

"I do not see him," said Temeraire worriedly, coming to a stop some distance from the palace and rotating his wings in a steady hover. "But he must have got out in time; I hardly think he would fit inside the palace."

And if he was not, well, their little band was hardly an army, but they might do some damage, might they not? "There must be some way of getting in."

[strategisch]

"It would be terrible if he were to be taken again, only just having escaped Kithika in the first place."

Not to mention Han was a large, powerful magic being, and could certainly cause damage if he were being controlled. But he had wings; he had to have gotten away at some point. Armin shakes his head.

"We'll see, but we'll do it carefully. What the Enemy wants is casualties. We won't be giving Him any."

[dracobin]

"At least he is smaller now," said Temeraire, "and less likely to level all of Keeliai at a blow."

Not that it was any sort of consolation; he counted Han as a friend, and Armin was right: it would be a terrible thing, to fall under Malicant's influence again.

"Perhaps if I were to throw something at the palace, to see what would happen," he suggested. "A rock, perhaps, or something softer?"

[strategisch]

"Yes, I think that would be a good first try. I doubt Evandau would care if we damaged the Palace in this state," he'd never seen a fortification with quite so many... barbs, "and keep your distance."

[dracobin]

It was the work of a moment to deflate his air-sacs, and drop toward the ground; a moment more, to scoop up a clawful of earth and pack it gently together, like a snowball. Temeraire looked up, gauging the distance, then carefully threw.

He did not know what he had been expecting: an explosion, perhaps, or fire, or alarms. But the clump of earth only struck an unseen barrier and bounced away, coming apart as it fell back to earth. A second attempt produced precisely the same results.

"Why," he said, very nearly disappointed, "it is only some sort of wall, which we cannot see!"

[strategisch]

Armin dropped off of Temeraire's back, watching in confusion and curiosity as he tested the barrier. The mud and dirt slid off the invisible wall like water off a duck's back. In a somewhat inadvisable act, he also let off his cables at the wall, and they were just as ineffective. They didn't even pierce and stick like they were supposed to, but bounced off and clattered uselessly to the ground.

"Well," Armin mused out loud, reeling his cables back in, "I think we are going to need a magician to puzzle this one out. Or maybe a very large cannon..."