| Details for Out of the Woods |
| Summary: | Part 3: After the rescue is successful it's a tense escape! |
| Date: | June 26th, 1941 |
| Location: | Rocky Lairs - Forbidden Forest |
| Plot: | Centaur Civil War |
| Related: | Part 1: Into the Woods Part 2: All the Better to Squeesh You With |
| Characters |
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Rocky Lairs, Forbidden Forest
At the base of the mountains that surround the hidden wizarding valley of Hogsmeade where rock and wood collide has made for many caves and rocky dens for the creatures of the Forbidden Forest to hide away in.
Morgana had to go into town to take care of some business, which allowed Lucian to slip off to do dangerous things that she would not approve of. When she returns to an empty house she is concerned, and starts roaming the grounds trying to see where Lucian had gotten off to. However the second he is in danger she feels it through the bond and that sends her into a panic.
Dashing to the Hippogriff paddock, it's amazing that she remembers protocol, she manages to push through the panic and fear and bow to Dragon. It doesn't take a lot of convincing to inform him Lucian is in trouble and he needs to be found. It's the first she's ever ridden Dragon and it takes a bit of adjusting on her part, but soon she, Dragon and a few other of the heard are flying off toward the forest.
It takes some time to suss out where they are, but soon Dragon finds the a cave and lands on the roof. Despite Morgana's protests he begins to dig out at the roof of it, expanding the holes that already exist.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* The observatory tunnel starts to cave in a bit more. Camilla wraps her good arm around her ward and gives her a tight squeeze despite being perturbed with her still. Mother's love. Hurriedly she escorts Josie to the ladder and has her go first before she crawls down with her one arm and her wand between her teeth like a pirate. It's with great relief that she watches her fellow R.C.M.C. Agents be able to apparate them and their side-longers away to the enchanted confines of the Centre on the edge of the forest. "What in the?" Is muttered around her wand as she lifts a hand to protect her eyes from the now very bright tunnel of sunlight coming down from the hole dug but the large hippogriff. "You beauty!" She calls up after pulling her wand out of her mouth. "Let's go kids!"
Lucian peers up to the newly dug-out hole. "Dragon! How did you…" he blinks. "Morgana's here," he says, though his paramour is not yet visible. "Anya!" he calls up. "We're Disillusioned! I'm sending Josie up! Josie, to the top of the pile. I'll hoist you."
Josie scrambles out of the tunnel quickly, getting out of Camilla's way, and then looks up to see the hippogriffs. Then she laughs, and nods, starting to climb the pile. Of course, she spent six years as a thief, so if she happens to see something interesting on the climb, that she can carry, well, she might not leave empty-handed.
Camilla stands at the base of the pile of loot as her kids are hopefully scrambling the heck out of this cave. Her wand held in her off-hand while her other hand is tucked into her jacket like a sling. "Communicate!" She can't see exactly where they are, so she needs them to tell her when they are safe. "Shite." is grunted out in Troll when one of the door boards shatters and like the idiot a troll is, a troll tries to wedge his face and body in through the splintered hole. Her wand trembles a little in her hand, being unused to wand wielding. "Over stayed loves…let's go."
"LUCIAN PRIDE!" Morgana bellows down into the hole. There is fear and panic in her voice, but it's laced with so much anger. "YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE." Dragon squawks down in the hole as well; he might want to stay in the hole with the trolls. Hearing from Camilla she looks down in the hole before she slips off of Dragon. She'll reach her hand down, just sort of awkwardly feeling around for someone. "Take my hand who ever is coming up! It sounds like we're in a very huge hurry."
"Camilla, get going," Lucian says firmly, pushing the bag of gold coins into her arms, "and take as much as you can with you. Feather-light Charms!" Wincing up at the hole…apparently he does decide to stay in the cave. He looks to the door with the troll breaking through, and undoubtedly getting himself deeper in trouble with Morgana, he rushes toward it. Keeping to the side to stay as far out of troll reach as he can, he taps the door with his wand, speaking the incantion for an Unbreakable Charm, "Infragilus!"
Reaching up, Josie takes the offered hand for help getting those last few feet, and says, "Thanks." Then she calls down, "I'm up!" She stands up, bows to the hippogriffs even though she's not sure they can see her, then looks back down.
Lucky for him Camilla thinks Lucian is still on the pile with her. So the wand goes back into her teeth so she can hoist up the bag with her one good arm for either Josie or Morgana to take. "Lucian!" She adds her voice to the scolding after he's cast the spell. But she realizes what he's done so she's in less of a hurry when her weaker arm meanwhile is opening up the satchel on her hip and upending it. With a good solid snap-shake rations, animal treats and everyday purse stuff comes falling out of the satchel. then kneels down and starts scooping glittering treasure and shoving it into the enchanted satchel.
Morgana helps Josie, or at least what she think is Josie up on the roof of the cave. "Hop on one of them, maybe not Bounder." She really hopes that Josie has ridden one of the griffs before, but right now that isn't the time to worry about that. She can see that some looting is being done and sighs. "That door isn't going to—" However she hears the spell and shakes her head. "Lucian! We need to go! Stop getting into more danger!" There was the worry that he was going to hold the door for everyone.
With the Unbreakable Charm holding (and the poor troll now firmly stuck in an unbreakable door), Lucian sprints back toward the treasure pile. "We can't let this opportunity pass. Morgana, Josie, get ready to catch!" He begins casting a series of Feather-Light Charms on three bags, one for each of the "kids" to carry. As each is made lighter, he tosses it up through the hole in the ceiling.
Josie nods to Morgana again, and says, "In a minute," before calling down to Lucian, "I'm ready!" When one of the bags comes flying up, she reaches out to catch it, pulling it back so it doesn't fall back down.
Camilla realizes that she's working on lowering the pile she needs to be rather high to get out, so she shifts enough that she slides down the side of the pile and hurries over to the throne. The immediate area around the throne gets picked clean as quickly as she can. But the satchel is getting too full and she seals it shut before she starts to shovel things into sacks, containers, chests and trunks and drags them over to Lucian so he can enchant them and toss them up, an organized chain gang starting to form. However when the door shudders and dirt and stone start to quake around the unbreakable door she quickens her movement. "Alright, this is enough. Let's go."
"We can't carry all of those trunks, Cami," Lucian advises as he reaches for her good arm. "Come on. I'll hoist you up. Morgana! Careful as Camilla comes up! She's got a bad arm!"
Morgana catches a few of the bags as they are thrown up and she does her best to secure them anywhere that she can. "How much is down there?" Not that she's going to turn it away, she knows how much the farm needs it. Either way she blidly reaches her arms down toward the hole hoping she isn't going to wack poor Camilla in the face. "Josie, you should get mounted up so we can get out of here as soon as LUCIAN STOPS FOOLING AROUND." Yes, the girlfriend is still angry.
Josie nods quickly, not that Morgana can see, and turns to climb up onto one of the hippogriffs, one of the ones that knows her. "Okay, I'm up." She holds on gently, watching as the others come up and and out of the hole.
Camilla is injured bodily but Transfiguration is one of her greatest skills besides animal and creature care so Lucien gets a shrewd Motherly Look (tm) and she chants, "Reducio." Three times and the trunks and things that were too bulky to carry are now small enough to fit inside of the remaining space that is in her satchel. Once that's all sorted she stretches and stands on the last trunk she didn't have time to shrink and it's enough that she can easily clambor up out of the hole with Morgana's help. The herd is bowed to once she's safely out before she turns away from them and back to the hole to make sure Lucian gets out alright.
"Lucian is busy SAVING EVERYONE'S LIVES!" Awww, they're bickering. Isn't it cute? He looks up at the hole above. The treasure pile has gotten lower, and there's no one to boost him up. "Alright…clear the hole, I'm coming up!" Since nobody can properly see him, once he's transformed, he lets out a proper lion roar to announce the change, and hopefully give the trolls pause. When it looks he has clearance, he engages those powerful feline muscles and bounds upward, scrabbling at the stone with his claws to climb the rest of the way out.
"Be sure to save your own damnit!" Yes, the bickering continues, but it's really the only way she can push all of that glaring danger sense away and focus on the tasks at hand. Once Camilla is up and settled she leans down to help Lucian pop up, but hearing that tell tale roar she starts scrambling back. There is a look of pure relief as Lucian is back in sight and she starts walking toward Princess. "We shouldn't linger here, we need to get back to the farm and make sure we're all okay."
Josie nods to Morgana, quickly, and says, "Yeah. But we did it! We saved Camilla, stopped the trolls, and found the missing centaur artifact so we can stop the war!" She's sounding very excited, as their victory starts to sink in.
Once Lucian is back on terra firma, he retakes human shape, and taps himself with his wand, "Finite." The counter-spell melts away the Disillusionment. He repeats the process for Josie, so everyone can see each other now. He lifts his brow in some surprise when Dragon turns and lowers to invite him to mount, without so much as a bow. It seems even hippogriffs can dispense with formality when circumstances call for it. He climbs onto the mighty beast's back and casts a broad smile over at Morgana. "You're amazing, you know. Thank you for coming for us." He pats Dragon's neck, "And thank you, too. Alright, everyone mount up, and let's fly!"
Camilla is probably friendliest and most in common with the calm and zen Silhouette. But even Sil is a bit jittery from the smell of blood on Camilla as the Ranger mounts up. A little stroking and consoling however does the trick and they are ready to take flight.
Once they are all visable, Morgana gives a quick once over to Josie and Lucian to make sure they're not bleeding all over the place. She opens her mouth to say something to Josie, about the danger she was in but decides to not rain on her parade. Lucain however gets a curt response. "I know I am amazing, but you are going to need to do a lot more groveling than that." Morgana says as she settles herself on Princess and guides her to take off ahead of the rest.
Having only ridden hippogriffs a few times, Josie isn't all that skilled, but she does her best to hold on and simply let the one she's riding follow the lead of the others, trusting the intelligent animal.
Lucian sighs and rolls his eyes. Yup, they're gonna fight. Though the post-fight could be something to look forward to, which brings a brief smirk to his lips. He waits for the others to get airborne before asking Dragon to follow. Down below, there is a great cracking sound of stone sundering, as the trolls finally break the door right out of the wall (woe to the poor troll still stuck in it). But without their "queen", they are in disarray, and will probably soon be fighting among themselves. Leaving the trolls to their confusion, Dragon soars up ahead of the herd, leading them back toward the Fawley Farm.