#/- They're finally in a place where things can get good sbiabia

[stranded-warriors]

 The greatest of their worries were done and over, but the stairway to the city proposed a new challenge: getting Kaz to climb them.. One foot after the other Kaz would slowly climb one fight, round the corner, and then see another flight waiting for time. By time the two of them had reached the fourth corner in the long spiral of doom, Kaz decided he's had enough. Gripping on the stair's railing in a death vice, he slowly leveled himself onto the nearest stair huffing and puffing a storm.

 “These steps are thrice the size for any ordinary man, and how long have we been climbing? I swear there's no end to this!” Kaz sighed “Care to give your friend a moment to catch his breath?”

 Feraligatr took watch in the turn, their back against the closest wall. There was no foul in giving the man some time to rest, but if they were going by Kaz's plan to keep as much attention away from them as possible, it didn't make sense to stand out on a staircase like a couple out-of-place strays, not to mention the dock workers along with whoever else were climbing had no problem getting upstairs. Maybe Kaz was just weak, maybe comparing a man who spent their lives study to a person who's clearly fought in wars was entirely unfair, but to tell the truth there wasn't too much harm in letting him take a break.

 Out of habit Feraligatr reached around to pull something out from the imaginary backpack, alas they still had nothing other than the armor they rode in here on. They even checked around their waist where they would occasionally stow rations in pouches, yet all they found were a few scraps of lint stuck to their armor like tiny burdock. Kaz was quick to catch on.

 “Ah, did you forget something?”

 Feraligatr shook their head, and breathed a sigh of defeat.

 “Whatever great force is responsible for putting us in our strange predicament, they were graceful enough to let me keep the few things I had. All it had decided to take from me were a couple scrolls, and a few odd tokens for the record. As if anyone was going to believe me in the first place.” Kaz chuckled as if what he said was remotely funny, “That said...”

 Kaz reached into his robes, pulling out a small black journal emblazoned with a symbol of a great serpent over its cover. Its crammed pages were somehow held together by a golden buckle and a leather strap. Just as quickly as he was to flash his prized possession he was swift to put it back where it belonged.

 “I would be more lost than I am without this.”

 They would've loved the chance to ask what it was all about when instantly the marching of many armored footsteps put Feraligatr on alert. Much to Kaz's disdain he was lifted up by Feraligatr, and made to begin walking  up the stairs alongside them. Kaz who was in the middle of being dragging their tired legs up the steep incline took a moment to see what had gotten his friend so riled, and whereas he only stopped to breathe earlier, they should really look at what was coming.

 Three dragon-types in varying degrees of armor – a sort who really seemed as though they were in charge – collectively hauled someone on a canvas stretcher. This poor somebody was adrift between a state of consciousness and unconsciousness, thrashing about like they were living out the last moments of their lives on repeat. They were fighting something more horrifying than all the things Kaz could imagine, and between their frothing growls and close swipes at their captors, Kaz caught a few words from the dragons muttering among themselves.

 “You think after the third one they'd stop going after foreigners?”

 “Who cares? We'll lock him up like the others.”

 As their chatter would suggest, this person clearly didn't belong to New Palkia. Their stark black fur and the occasional bouts of electricity which sparked during their panicked fits, meant they could only be one pokemon and one all too common where Feraligatr hailed from. Not only that, but most worrying of all about the Luxray was the ornate, charcoal-colored armor whom his captors have yet to strip from him. One look at the Luxary's helmet-less face, then back at the feraligatr who had decided to see the commotion for themselves, and something clicked.

 The guards would leave soon after, leaving the two pokemon to stir in an empty corridor.. The thoughts they had were each troubling. It seemed all too coincidental, and the painful sting of worry lingered in Kaz's chest. The guards had mentioned this had only happened to foreigners, and who were they but strangers in a strange land? Whatever was happening to these people, it seemed likely they would come into it's cross-hairs. Their safety couldn't be guaranteed until they got as far from New Palkia as possible, however they are supposed to leave this realm out in the abyss. As for Feraligatr, they clearly thought differently. They stared long and hard at the Luxray being hauled off to their imprisonment, honing their eyes into a glare sharp enough to cut the three who had taken their comrade away.

 “I hurts me too, but now is not our time.” he didn't need to look to see Feraligatr stare daggers at him, “It would be wise for us to find a roof over our head-”

 Feraligatr dismissed any notions about subtlety then and there as they left Kaz to march up the stairs. Kaz paniced, scrambling as fast as they could up around the bend only to see they hadn't beaten three fully armored beasts to a pulp, but his Friend stopped to behold something great, and bright. Each painstaking step would clear up the vast swathe of light Kaz could only see as a blur from below, eventually he would begin to see shapes: outlines of tall, rectangular structures; crystalline growth which defied all plausible explanation, twisted and transformed into chaotic shapes; the forms of dragon-types lugging their bodies through tight marble streets; above all was a great crystal palace held high in the stary skies by unfathomably large growths of quartz.

 It would be hard to mistake the palace as anything other than the home of this city's leader, so too did they know they've reached the thick of it: the city known as New Palkia. Whatever they will come to make of this place along with its denizens, the road out of here will be hard fought. Before they would ever think their way out of this they would need somewhere to speak quietly, preferably with a roof overhead.