Sin relaxed some when the creature stopped paying attention to her. She became tense again when it stood up and started walking, worried she was going to fall off. "What are they?" She asked, trying to distract herself with talking.
"I suppose we wouldn't have been using them the last time you were around. Dragoons is the more widely used term I've heard used." He stated, keeping his eyes forward. "This is the slowest they go, and we won't be going faster until we've passed around that forest." He pointed to the left, frowning.
She blinked and looked at where he was pointing, wondering why they wouldn't go faster until they were past a forest. "I remember wizards used to ride their own Ligereeps. Saved them from the trouble of having to tame or making a bond with a creature to ride since they already had a bond with their Ligereep." She mumbled offhandedly.
"Are you saying you want to be ridden?" Roderic snapped iritably, before adding onto it. "Besides, you have to let a ligereep grow large enough to ride before something like that can happen."
"Not by you." Sin snapped back. "I'm not just a Ligereep either, I'm a wizard too."
"Until you act like one, I won't treat you as one." Roderic stated, glaring some. "It's not a fact you need to remind me of either."
Her hand twitched, tempted to attack him with spells but resisted because she knew if she tried she'd be shocked by the chains. Instead, she insulted him in Worthil.
Roderic laughed at that. "Did I hurt the mage queen's feelings? Too bad." They had started to head around the forest now, the road turning and the ocean opening up to the right.
Sin growled at him and huffed. "How's things going with Roziaos? Oh right, she left you to be with Nevralka didn't she? Guess you're 'queenless' again."
Roderic grabbed her chin and leaned in to whisper again. "You'll be kingless soon. How will your mage find us if we're traveling anyway?"
She flinched when she was grabbed by the chin. She snarled at him and tried to pull away. "He'll find me!"
Roderic was about to make another statement, but stopped as there was a rustling in the woods nearby. He made a quick signal and the others traveling with them pulled in closer, surrounding them. "Watch the forest. If you see anything move, we'll take off."
Sin blinked in confusion when they reacted to a rustling in the woods. "What's the deal with the forest?" She asked, looking at the forest and trying to see what they were making a big deal about.
Nothing seemed particularly off about the forest, looking like a normal one. As Roderic didn't answer and they continued on though, it became clear that something had to be off about it, as it was perfectly silent. No birds could be heard and no insects were chirping. In fact, the dragoons seemed to be getting restless as well. She became even more confused at how silent it was and how everyone was reacting to the forest. She squinted her eyes at the forest, trying to make out whatever it was that was setting everything off as she tried to think of what it could possibly be. As she looked there was a rustling again, and where there hadn't been a tree a moment before one suddenly appeared, as if it had stepped forward. Before too much could be seen of it though, the black wizard from earlier kicked into his mount and it set off running, the others quickly following suite. To make sure she didn't fall off at the sudden motion, Roderic grabbed hold of her waist. With how quickly they were going it almost felt like they were flying across the ground, the forest and ocean rushing by.
Sin squeaked when they suddenly took off, immediately closing her eyes. She felt sick and frightened by how fast they were going. She gripped tightly to the Dragoon, hoping they'd slow down soon.
"It's following." One of the other wizards shouted over the wind. There was silence as Roderic signaled something before he spoke to Sin again. "You might want to hold on tighter. We're going to push them now." The sound of the Dragoons claws vanished for a moment as they temporarily went airborne, the creatures now leaping across the road.
She immediately clung tighter to the Dragoon when they started leaping. She still didn't know what was chasing them, but she wasn't even thinking about that as she was too concerned about the speed the Dragoon was going now.
The faint cry of "clear" could be heard nearby, and the dragoons slowly slowed back to a walk again, huffing some from the exertion they had been put through.
"You can stop panicking now." Roderic stated, letting go of her waist.
Sin slowly opened her eyes when the dragoons finally slowed down. She huffed at Roderic's statement and sat up. "What was that?" She asked.
"An escape." He replied, turning to look behind them before facing forward again. "Why? Did you see anything?"
"An escape from what?" She asked, annoyed. She then frowned and thought for a moment. "...I thought I saw a tree appear where it wasn't before..." She said.
"That answers what we were running from." Roderic stated, before edging his dragoon into a light trot with it having caught its breath again. They had moved onto plains now, away from the forest, but the ocean still going off in the distance. It was clear now that they were following it.
"....A tree?" Sin asked, skeptical. What was so bad about a tree that they had to run from it.
"The forest." Roderic answered now that they were well away from it. "A dryad's forest."
"Why would it be after you?" She asked before looking around to see if she could find out where they were heading to yet.
"They attack anything that gets near the forest, and eat anything that enters it." He replied. "We're only about a quarter of the way there, by the way."
Sin shifted a bit, wishing she didn't have to endure being stuck so close to Roderic for so long but at the same time wishing she wasn't there period. She tried to see if she could somehow slip her hands out of the chains. A small shock went through the chains as she tried to get them off. She flinched when she was shocked and glared at the chains. She then glanced at the Dragoon and thought about tempting it to bite her to trick it into biting her chains.
"If you try to escape, someone will turn you in." Roderic stated, somewhat annoyed. "They may even send you back to those that forest."
"I don't see why you keep doing stuff like this to me, grudge or not..." Sin said and looked back at him to glare at him. "..because all it does is give me more reason to come back and get revenge again."
"Yes, but it's so nice while it's happening." Roderic hissed, grabbing one of her horns and pulling back. "And that's dependent upon you getting back from where we're sending you."
She cringed when he grabbed and pulled back on her horn. She glared angrily at him, wishing she could attack him. "I escaped from the lab, what makes you think I won't be able to escape from wherever you're sending me?" She hissed.
"Because it's somewhere your little mage can’t follow you to." He stated, letting her go.
"What do you mean?" She snapped, shifting a bit and glaring back at him.
"Unless he has an imagination, which I doubt, you'll be going someplace impossible for him to teleport to." Roderic answered.
"That doesn't mean he won't be able to find me." Sin growled. "He's smarter than you dumb Wizards."
"We'll see how smart he is when your up north." He snapped.
"They say magic doesn't work there." Said a white wizard riding on their right, somewhat fearfully. Roderic just glared at him.
She was a bit confused by this, looking between them. She then scoffed. "Just because we're Mages doesn't mean we can't do anything when we can't rely on magik." She said. She tried not to show it, but she was worried about where they were taking her especially now she knew magic didn't work there. It would mean things would be a lot more difficult for her to escape.
"I could say the same thing about wizards." Roderic answered. "But I also don't think your mage is one that falls into that category. Has he ever defended you without it?"
"It's none of your business if he has or not." Sin retorted. "And if you Wizards could be fine without magik, why is Snow coat over there frightened?" She said, gesturing to the white wizard that spoke before.
"I'm not scared!" The wizard immediately answered, glaring at the name she called him.
"Because he's young and stupid." Roderic answered, forcing the white wizard to look away. He didn't want to risk getting punished.
"Yeah? And you're old and stupid." She snapped. "I think he has the better deal out of the two."
Roderic glared silently. If it weren't for the fact that the white wizard was there to take care of the dragoons he would kill him right there. As the white wizard tensed it was clear he was fully aware of that fact.
"Oh I'm sorry. Is that a touchy subject?" Sin said, glaring at Roderic. "That you're OLD? Older than old. Ancient even. You just use tricks to make yourself look young because you are self conscious of how OLD you are." She sneered.
Roderic grabbed hold of her horns again and yanked back sharply. "If anyone's ancient it's that mage of yours."
She cringed as she was yanked back before glaring at Roderic. "Difference is he legitamitely looks young because he's still young, just from a different time." She said as her eyes turned red. "You have an obsession with looking young as much as you do with touching. Stop touching me." She snarled.
"Why? Willing to risk the consequences now?" He asked before spurring the dragoon into a run again. "I'm not vain enough to alter my looks."
Sin was startled when the dragoon started to run again, her stomach lurching, getting dizzy and nauseous from the odd position she was stuck in with him pulling back on her horns. She resisted shutting her eyes to continue glaring at him as she didn't want to show how much she was freaking out. It became apparent though when she tried to grab a hold of the dragoon to cling to it.
Satisfied Roderic let go of her, laughing some. The dragoon let out a screech of unhappiness when Sin tried to grab hold of it but otherwise kept running. "No matter how angry you get, you'll still be a scared little kitten."
Roderic continued to grin, slowing the dragoon again to prevent it from growing over exhausted. "Is that so?"
"Yes." Sin snapped angrily before moving to sit back up when the dragoon slowed down.
"It doesn't seem that way to me." He stated, "It seems quite the opposite, actually."
She clenched her teeth, wanting so badly to turn back and slap him. "I bet you were absolutely terrified when Death came and ate your soul piece by piece!" She snapped at him.
Roderic stiffened, clearly frightened before recovering. "I'm sure he's aching to do the same thing to you."
"No." Sin said grinning and looking back at him, glad she now had the upper hand of the conversation. "He has actually saved me several times." She said. "I'm sure he'd have no problem doing it to you again though." She wasn't going to summon Cadvasus though because she knew better. She had to stop relying on him or Eteth to save her... especially now that it seemed things might be more difficult.
Roderic pulled his dragoon to a halt just as a town came into view on the horizon. Glaring he picked up Sin and dropped her to the ground. "Tie her up." He ordered the black wizard nearby. "We'll drag her the rest of the way since she's so eager to be away from me."
She frowned when he suddenly stopped before cringing and squirming when he picked her up. She flinched and stumbled a bit when she was dropped to the ground. Her ears bent back and she started backing up when he said they were going to drag her. "....W-wait...Can't I ride with Snow coat instead?" She said, pointing at the white wizard from before.
By now the black wizard had dismounted and was pulling rope out from one of the bags. Roderic was clearly thinking about it, but wasn't seeing any reason to give her a second chance just yet.
Sin kept backing up while the black wizard was pulling rope from the bag. She was looking around, trying to come up with some way of escaping. She looked at the Dragoons, wondering if there was a way for her to make them dart away with fright.
Roderic's dragoon had lowered its head to look at her again, it's dark eyes narrowed in annoyance.
She backed up when the dragoon looked at her. She then thought for a moment. Would they be frightened of dragons since they were smaller? She decided to access the dragon part of her and took a deep breath before attempting to do a dragon roar to try and scare them off.
The dragoons skittered some, sidestepping away from her before letting out a higher pitched roar in response. They were trained just enough to stay their ground if they were frightened, but clearly didn't like it. If anything it helped make up Roderic's mind. "Tie her up now." He yelled at the black wizard, who had frozen in place when she roared.
Sin flinched when they roared in response, shaking her head. She looked at the wizards and backed up again before realizing... her dragon form! They stopped her magik and made it difficult for her to run, but not flying. She tried to have her dragon wings come out, trying to have them appear and take off like a bullet before anyone could have the wise idea of immobilizing her. The only thing that gave away that she was up to something was the look of concentration on her face as she tried to access her wings.
"Magic isn't going to help you." The black wizard stated as he approached her.
She cringed as pain went through her back as she tried to make her wings appear, it was a lot more difficult to do than to just change to her full dragon form. She screeched to try and make the black wizard stop to stall and give her more time.
The black wizard backed up some, startled. Frustrated Roderic cast a silencing spell on her. "If you don't do it now you'll be joining her down there." He snapped.
Sin glared at Roderic when he silenced her. She then cringed and doubled over in pain when she made her dragon wings appear, having not expected it to be so painful. She didn't have time to recover though as she knew she'd only have a moment from everyone's shock. She quickly tried to take flight to try and get out of their magic range.
Roderic jumped down from his dragoon when his initial shock wore off and immediately tried to immobilize her. The other two immediately followed suite, the white wizard being more aggressive as he aimed shards of rock at her wings.
She flew to dodge the immobilization spells, but what did hit her was the rocks. The extra pain added on to her already sore back caused her wings to lock up. She cringed in pain when she crashed into the ground and silently swore in frustration and rage. She struggled to try and get up and attempt to get away again.
As soon as she fell Roderic sent his strongest immobilization spell at her.
Sin flinched when she was hit with the immobilization. She glared at them as she was stuck lying on the ground.