"Looks like I'll be here to welcome y'all into the morning, then," Tasha says.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
With sleeping arrangements settled, it didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep under the dark night sky. James was glad to be awake, since his mind was racing a mile a minute, and he wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.
He was way in over his head.
He had only a general idea of where Mickey was, and he had four lost souls that were... depending on him to get back to their respective homes. He still couldn't shake the weight of that. With a sigh, he rubbed his face with his hands, and looked out into the dark forest, letting his eyes adjust little by little. The darkness slowly became more detailed in the faint moonlight, and he could make out all of the four figures sleeping on the ground.
If only there as some way to summon dragons. Northerners always prayed to dragons, but it wasn't like they could hear... and it wasn't like they were gods. Everyone said they were, but at the heart of it, dragons were just... very powerful people.
But for some reason, he found himself whisper Mickey's name under his breath, with the slightest bit of hope.
About an hour passed in silence, with no notable sounds of movement apart from the steady breathing of his current traveling companions and the swishing of the horses' tails. Then, suddenly, he saw a splash of color pop up at Tasha's feet. Quietly, and rapidly, a pink flower sprouted out of the ground. Then another. Then another. They slowly lead up to his feet.
He stared in partial awe and partial panic. This had to be Mickey or else -
A tap on his shoulder. He whipped around, instinctively ready to throw a punch or dodge something. But instead, he was met with the face of Mickey - one he hadn't seen in something like a decade. Mickey almost looked exactly the same, apart from a few more grey hairs in the two long black braids that went down to his chest. He smiled, putting a hand on James's lifted fist.
"At the risk of sounding really creepy, or unsettlingly spiritual," Mickey whispered. "I was uh, in the area, and had a feeling you were around. And that these people are not from here."
James stared, still in doubtful shock. He didn't know what he was doing.
He had been feigning sleep ever since everyone else had fallen asleep, and had been doing a fairly good job at it - seeing that James, who had been up the entire time, hadn't noticed that Maahes wasn't truly asleep. But then there had been that sudden appearance of the flowers, followed by the equally sudden appearance of the man.
His eyes took little time to adjust to the darkness; they weren't exactly human, after all. Once they had, he found himself looking at a man who wasn't particularly intimidating. In fact, he looked relatively normal. But when he checked through the planes - and when he just felt, not like a human would, but in the way that a spirit was supposed to if they wanted to make sure they weren't dealing with someone more powerful than them - he found himself looking at someone who was far from human.
Maahes stared at him from within the shadows of his hood.
The man was a dragon.
And, more importantly, a powerful one. He could feel it in his essence. He hadn't even known that dragons existed, but he was getting the feeling that dragons were much stronger than he was. And for someone that had been convinced he was the most powerful person he knew - mainly because he didn't know anyone that wasn't Goa'uld, Alteran, Jaffa or human - that made him absolutely terrified. He tried to get himself to stand up - tried to do something - but this guise's limbs just weren't moving.
Wolfsbane was awake first, her hackles raised and her teeth immediately revealed as she snarled and stepped protectively over Tasha. Said Hunter was on her feet with sword in hand in moments, one-eyed gaze landing on Mickey and James.
They weren't fighting. This man had to be an ally - or, at least, not a foe.
Slowly she lowered her weapon as she watched the two of them and came over to stand beside James. "Leave it, Bane," she told her canine as she did so, and the dog's snarling stopped, though it still looked rather displeased at Mickey's presence.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
After watching the conversation between James, Tasha and Mickey unfold, Maahes finally found the courage to move. He rose from his sitting position and walked over to where James was standing, continuing to watch Mickey from underneath his cloak. He was terrified. He didn't like the thought of someone being both an unknown and more powerful than him, and James provided a strange sense of comfort - Maahes suspected it was because he had known him as a child, and therefore viewed him as someone who could protect him. It was a foolish thing to think, but he wasn't going to fight it.
She adjusted her grip on the leather-wrapped hilt of her sword as she answered, eye tinged with the deep amber that always came before her forms shifted.
"Tasha," she said. "My name is Tasha Hunter." The woman hesitated, then she extended her hand to Mickey.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Tavis had woken earlier on with the rest, but had decided not to move. Now that it seemed that Mickey was a friend, he briefly debated whether he should go back to sleep or not. Then he sat up. Pretending to be asleep would be bad manners, anyways.
As he got up, he cast a glance at Seung, who in his ill state had slept deeply through the whole commotion without so much as stirring. Even with his face tensed unconsciously due to his difficulty breathing, the guy seemed so . . . soft, vulnerable. As if he had been protected by others his entire life. He probably wouldn't be able to survive out here if he were on his own. Leonor would have wanted to make sure Seung got home safely before worrying about herself.
Thinking about her brought a pang to his chest. With a sigh, Tavis joined the rest. "I'm Tavis," he said quietly, "and that fellow over there is Seung. He has a bad cold, but otherwise I'm sure he would be very happy to meet you right now."
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
Mickey looked over at Seung with a worried glace. "Oh dear. Well, we'll make sure he gets better. But... as for the lot of you. You'll need food and a place to stay while we figure this out, yeah?"
James nodded slightly. "Yes but-"
"Already taken care of. I'll assume your preferred method of travel isn't getting transported through the earth?" he asked with a knowing grin as he looked over at James. James avoided eye contact.
"I think it might be better to go on foot," he replied.
"It's much slower on foot though," Mickey said quietly. "And Seung's sick."
"Look, I just don't think-" James stopped, and sighed. "These guys have had enough shock finding themselves here. I think the earth moving beneath their feet might be just a little too much."
"Would it?" Mickey looked at James, then at the others, as if to ask them to confirm James's assertion.
Tavis shrugged. "Falling through the earth? I've never done that before, but I've almost died at least a couple of times so, uh, that's fine with me." He hesitated. "It's perfectly safe, isn't it?"
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
Mickey nodded. "Well, yes! It's... I have magic to control the earth so - think of it more like controlled falling. I'll be guiding you through the earth into an underground dwelling."
Tasha glanced at James, noting his discomfort. She wasn't exactly partial to...going through the earth anyways, and even if she was, she didn't want to put James in an odd position. Then again, Seung was sick - moving on foot wouldn't be good.
"What if you take those two the faster way, and James and I will ride?" she suggests. "Seung is sick and Tavis probably wants to stick with him."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Maahes moved just a little closer to James, glancing over at Tasha from beneath his hood. "I want to go with James as well," he said, trying to keep his voice as emotionless and strong as he possibly could. He didn't want to be separated from James if he had to deal with Mickey, and the thought of being suddenly brought deep underground terrified him.
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