Merrin raised her head, hearing footsteps - Kendath's, she assumed - and slipped off the ledge she'd been sitting on to look down the hallway. She swallowed her mounting anxiety at this strange 'journey', as he had put it, and tried to suppress an uneasy feeling that somehow she was getting the very short end of the deal.

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Kendath entered her cell and set to work binding her hands with strong hemp. He led her out and set her once more on Demon's back. The fearsome black dragon snarled, twisting his head to fix Merrin with a nasty glare.

The rider climbed on in the flight saddle behind her. He secured his packs, then took up the reins.

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Merrin let out a little gasp of pain, quickly stifled, as the rope cut into her wrists. She straightened in front of Kendath, trying to find a more comfortable position, and looked up to meet Demon's very unfriendly eyes. "I'm not scared of you," she told him (even though she was) with a very good pretense of bravery. "So you can stop staring at me like that."

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Kalma in the meanwhile had left the caves, he headed out for a high and open place where to transform back into his true form. He finally climbed up the hill in his clumsy robes, he cursed the weak form as it had such limitations and thus was glad as the magic began changing his form. Soon the Kalma was back as a dragon and took a deep breath as he looked around.

He would follow them and Garthag would accompany him, this was one battle they could not afford to miss for it could determine much in the world and that all concerned the two.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

(sorry have been ill with flu and bed stuck)

Evlyn regaind her self control and rode behind Kendreth. She scowled at Jemx's head but stayed silent as they rode though the dark corridors.

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Made by Lembas

[hope you get better soon]

In return, Demon only rumbled in amusement and bounded to catch up with Jemx. He sent his rider a private thought, The girl is strong. Admirable.

Kendath nodded agreement as they arrived at the titanic stone gates in the cliff face, which grated open for them. His dragon pumped his powerful wings and lifted into the night air. He sensed Demon's muscles wax taut. Understanding the implications, he leaned forward and tightened his hold around Merrin so she wouldn't fall off.

"Hang on, Renegade," Demon taunted. "I shall show you how the Meiltha have fun." With that, he angled alarmingly upwards.

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"You seem to have some curious assumptions about your opponents," replied Merrin almost in a shout, her dark hair blowing wildly back over her shoulders as the wind shrieked over her head. "I assure you - Wyvern and I know quite well how to have fun."

There was a pause, and then she shifted slightly and glanced back at Kendath. "I'm not so foolish as to throw myself off in mid-air, however strange you might think my other beliefs," she informed him, with the barest touch of a smile. "You needn't hold so tight."

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Evlyn let out a woop as Jemx spireled out into the night air. He shot up, then dived straight down likea bullet, angleing out and spinning up back ina cockscrew motion befoe leveling with Demon
"I thought you'd broken you're wing" she yelled
Well you fixed it and now i feel like showing off, and paying you back for loveing someone more than me he roared with a grin before carrying on with his acrobatics, his rider laughing on his back.

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Made by Lembas

Kendath was sorely tempted to simply let go and see how well Merrin could hold on with her bound hands, but he refrained and relinquished his hold just a bit. His knees squeezed tight on Demon's flanks as the dragon swooped upwards, accomplishing a full 360 degree turn in midair.

Frigid wind rushed into his face, stung his eyes, seemed to release him from the fatigues of the mortal realm. For once in many years, Kendath allowed himself a grin of pure exultation.

Halfway through another steep dive, Demon passed Jemx. The black dragon flashed his fellow wyrm a smug I-can-do-better-than-you glance.

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Merrin found her breath stolen away by Demon's wild swooping and diving, and she caught it again in what seemed a very brief moment that they were not whirling dizzyingly hundreds of feet above solid ground. She swallowed hard, wishing for Wyvern's silver scales beneath her with all her heart.

However, she strongly suspected - nay, knew - that Demon was trying to scare her, and was determined to display no signs of fear whatsoever. "Is that the best you can do?" shrieked the girl over the howling wind, her brown eyes still possessing a single-minded stubbornness out of which she was not likely to be cheated by a few acrobatics.

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Jemx saw the look Demon gave him and continued in his corkscrew. Well?
"Oh all right then"
3...2...1... He suddenly fell though the air, and she let go as he shot out above her. She twisted herself into a ball, then out again as he suddenly was beneath her and she apon his back. They carried on each time leaveing her to free fall for longer whilst he twisted, rolled, swooped and flew byhimself, singing his dragonsong as she wooped below him withexcitment, till finally she was almost hitting the gound before he caught her.

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Made by Lembas

Kendath's eyes widened as he watched Evlyn's freefall. If you do that to me, I swear I'll -

Demon flicked a highly entertained glance over his shoulder. Too late. With that, he jerked upwards in a sudden move, dislodging both riders from his back.

Kendath took one look at the ground rushing up to meet him. He was going to kill his dragon.

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Curling herself into a ball, Merrin tried but was not quite able to suppress a cry of terror. Anything coherent she might have thought seemed lost in the dizzying heights of sky, and had any readily graspable appendage been forthcoming - whether Renegade or Meiltha - she would have gladly clutched it tight as well as her bound hands would permit. Gods above... she finally thought dimly, as the falling stretched itself into an agonized eternity in her mind, if never again, help me now!

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The two freins wirled though the sky, with Jemx bradcasting to any drqagon in the vicinity Any thing you can do i can do better... as he looked with glee at Kendreth

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Made by Lembas

Demon glared and flicked his spiked tail at Jemx's face before stretching his lithe body into a fluid dive. He swooped in magnificently under Kendath, who collapsed without ceremony on his dragon's back. You imbecile... Get Merrin, we need her!

Ah, shut up. I'm at it. He angled his dive, shooting under the still freefalling Renegade. Kendath rose into the saddle, grabbing her arm and pulling her back on.

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Merrin gasped for breath as suddenly there was something solid beneath her again, and gladly scrambled back into the saddle as best she could. "Idiot dragon!" she hissed, trembling slightly. "You absolute halfwit - " and here she cut herself off, probably realizing that he could throw her off again at a moment's notice, and tried to convince herself that she hadn't been abjectly terrified.

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