Just Along for the Ride

                Argent’s head hurt.

                It hurt a great deal. Along with the rest of his body. Every step was pain, and every breath was a task in itself. He looked ahead at the black and pale yellow feathers of the Utahraptor in front of him as well as the inky black feathers of the Sucho beside the raptor. The yellow rosettes on the tail of the sucho almost seemed to be looking back at him, his mind wandered and he could easily believe that there were actual eyes on the tail of the female before him.

                Hecate had found Argent almost as soon as he had fallen from the cliff, and had quickly dragged him off to mend his broken body. It had taken days, and he was not sure how she had managed to heal him as well as she had. He distinctly remembered his head facing a way it shouldn’t have, as well as his legs being bent oddly and at painful angles.

                But he was not going to sit there and question her ability to heal. He would just accept it for what it was. The sucho had an odd way of being able to heal the unhealable, she’d learned it from Ghast as well as the odd books that the humans had written. Though she had relied on the ones that were mostly picture based medical textbooks, and textbooks that had been used for healing animals.

                He hadn’t been sure how many days it had been between the fall and the first time he’d been able to get up, but in that time Cleric had come. She and Hecate making small talk until the day they had been able to leave that cave where Hecate had dragged him. All in order to get to another cave, one that had been guarded by Euoplos that they had easily snuck around.

                “I found this place while trashing the main building of the Atlantians. There was a bunch of treasure inside, but I had to get out before I could actually grab anything. I’ve been sticking around since then, but apparently there’s a big feast going on tonight. So I figure we get in there, grab everything we can, and then get out.” Cleric said, looking over at the Sucho beside her and turned her head enough to glance back at Argent.

                Had it not been for the odd glowing mushrooms that lined the wall, the three wouldn’t have been able to navigate at all through the cave.

                “Why were you here trashing the place to begin with?” Hecate asked, raising a brow as she glanced down at the little Utah that trotted beside her.

                “Because these guys are dicks. As soon as your Pale One comes out of the feast, you should ask him about it. He’s up there with my mothers. From what they were telling me, these Iguanodon Court guys just make all sorts of demands and expect to be waited on at all hours of the day. They are not kind, and just…expect things. It’s disgusting. They should at least work to earn what they have hoarded up in their storeroom.” Cleric replied, curling her lips into a sneer at the sheer thought of the Court.

                Argent found it hard to follow along with his head. The Court? Iguanodons? The Pale One was actually in the city? He never left the mountain, what was he doing all the way in Atlantis?

                “Watch your step.”

                Argent blinked, hearing the warning from Cleric and shook his head to clear his mind, almost tripping over the first stair that led up to a darkened corridor. The pair of women ahead of him had already made their way up a few steps but had stopped and were looking back at him. He carefully followed after them up the stairs, keeping his eyes on his feet to make sure he didn’t misstep and fall back down.

                “These steps were not carved by two-leg hands.” Hecate said as they proceeded up the uneven steps, a sliver of light ahead of them the only thing that could be seen clearly in the pitch black of the corridor they had started to climb up. In fact, the corridor itself had been haphazardly carved into the wall, and had it not been for Cleric she would’ve missed the entrance to the staircase between all the other shadows of the cave they had been walking in only moments before.

                “No. It’s been made by the Atlantians for sure. Was it the Court, to keep their treasure hidden and to secretly bring in all the good stuff without the commoners knowing? Or was it from the commoners so they could steal shit without the Court knowing? I don’t know, I don’t care. I just want to take their stuff so they can be pissy about it for a few days.” Cleric replied, lowering her voice as the group neared the top of the stairs.

                Argent looked over the pair, seeing they had stopped behind what looked like wood plants pressed against a hole in the wall, light shining in from below whatever had been placed in front of the hole.

                Cleric reached down, using her claws to drag the cabinet to the side to reveal the storeroom. Argent stared at everything he saw. Piles of random human trinkets, armor, various supplies for cooking food. Mostly just trinkets, though. Things that seemed to have no use, at least to him. There were rugs that had been crafted out of colorful yarns, clothes that had been modified to fit large dinosaurs, and random pieces of jewelry made for all sorts of body parts.

                “Grab what you can and let’s go. I’m not sure how often they check this room. And I don’t know how long we’ll have with the whole feast going on.” Cleric said and rushed into the room, Hecate following along after her.

                Argent made his way in after the group and before he even knew what was happening the pair had started to load him up like some sort of pack animal. They threw bags over his back and started to pack them full of everything they could find. Argent didn’t say a word about what was happening and allowed them to throw as much as they could onto him.

                For the first time in his life, he understood how Blight and Relic went through life. He knew how they felt.

                There were no thoughts happening in his head and he was rather pleased with just being told what to do.