Rangavar has a complicated choice to make. Meanwhile, a rather unlikely trio has finally made it into the basement of the research facility, but what they find might not be entirely what they expected.

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Hive Mind
Chapter 26


Rangavar had no idea where he was anymore. His mind was kept too hazy to make sense of his surroundings. All he knew what that they’d gone down more sets of stairs, through many twisty hallways, and all of it was empty. Not another dragon in sight.

“Where is everybody?” he brought himself to ask when his head began to clear. It was the first thing on his mind when she released him, and he started looking around.

“They’re already gone,” said the female Glitarian Darkal dismissively as she went to up a very slight incline and paused partway up. Rangavar was slowly aware that they were in an uneven, metallic hallway with a railing along the wall. He had no idea how deep they were at this point, but the facility seemed to have less offices and labs the further down it went until it eventually didn’t anymore. Everything simply became more sparse, metallic, and seemingly purposeless, although Rangavar suspected that a great deal of it was actually living quarters for the other Glitarian Darkals. Not that anyone else was here right now. Certainly not within the range of his aura senses.

She turned back to him after several steps. He stared. He hadn’t moved. She seemed satisfied with that, and gave him a grin. It was cold, as usual. “They’re enacting phase two of the plan.”

Rangavar felt somewhat alarmed, even though he had no idea what that meant. It sounded bad. He caught himself fidgeting and lowered his paws. “Phase two?” he said hesitantly.

“Oh yes.” She spread her paws. “We’re taking to Karraden’s skies. Nobody can control us now that we control them.”

Rangavar stared blankly, her words not making sense. Or perhaps his mind was still a bit clouded. Even though he felt able to turn and run if he wanted to, he found himself, well, not wanting to. He wondered if she were doing that to him, or if he was genuinely stopping himself. “Why?”

“The resources won’t arrive here fast enough. We’re going to meet them halfway.” She shrugged. “We might make a base up there, actually, for convenience’s sake. Dump all the non-Glitarian employees behind and protect our own. Who’s going to stop us?” Now she smirked. “Certainly not the government, now that we have control of all transportation.”

Rangavar blinked. All of it? Had they really done that? She wasn’t lying or anything. It just sounded absolutely insane, because it was. Like her. She was insane. “That was… fast.”

“We need to be fast. Once we were ready, there was no point in putting it off. The faster the better.”

“Before the containment cells fail and wraiths escape,” Rangavar inferred. Still, all of this seemed like an awful lot to go through. Couldn’t they have easily just manipulated a few people into letting their supplies through?

She obviously caught his expression. “Everything will be better under Glitarian control,” she promised, her fanged grin returning. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“Why are you trying to convince me?” he suddenly asked. “What do I have to do with any of this?” He’d obviously been left out of all her plans, so he wondered why she’d dragged him all the way down here. He didn’t have a good feeling about it.

“You think I’m trying to convince you?” She didn’t laugh, but Rangavar got the feeling that she almost wanted to. “I’m not trying to convince you. I’m telling you for what happens to you next.”

His brain was still working hard to make sense of that. “…Why?”

“Because as a Glitarian, but a defiant one, you’re caught in the middle.” She put a finger on her chin, still smiling slightly. “You’re a unique case, Rangavar. To be completely frank, I’m not quite sure what to do with you.”

He didn’t like the sound of that.

Suddenly, her demeanor changed. “Come here.” She firmly beckoned him over. He obliged, and he was certain it was of his own free will this time. He definitely did not want to know what would happen to him if he didn’t.

As he stood before her, she reached out and grabbed the side of his head in her paw, placing her thumb just beneath his central horn. At this point, he almost expected it.

He braced himself, ready for the onslaught of pain as the bones of his back felt like they shattered, contorting and rearranging into new places. His shoulders were the next to crack, the sensation of twisting, crackling nerves rendering his arms useless as the pain traveled downwards.

Bracing himself for the pain didn’t help at all, of course, and he growled as he felt his feet bend unnaturally and elongate. The growl caught in his throat at the sensation of his arches breaking, his ankles moving farther away from his toes, the talons of the spreading digits stretching out of the nail beds to press into the floor. He slumped, motionless in her unmoving grasp, while she watched with a satisfied smirk throughout the whole ordeal.

He inhaled sharply at the familiar sensation of his wings burning, and his body took the opportunity to push his fangs through his jaw, settling them past his lower lip. She didn’t let go until he was done, finally opening her tight grip on his head and watching passively as he collapsed to the ground.

He groaned. She raised a brow. “Your powers are equally disappointing every time. You should really be thanking me for the help.”

He would have weakly flipped her off, if only he was completely done with being alive. He wanted to be alive.

Rangavar suddenly felt a grip on his scruff and stifled a yelp as she dragged him off to the side of the hallway, closer to the wall. She fumbled with his wrist for a second before locking a cuff around it. As he leaned weakly into the wall, he didn’t resist as he watched her loop the chain of the other handcuff over the railing above him and then clasp it shut on his other paw.

She backed away, looking satisfied as she eyed him sitting there with the metal around his slender wrists, pulling his arms just over his head. He stared back at her without reaction. He was too exhausted for a reaction.

“I strongly suggest you stay put,” she finally said, sounding quite pleased with herself.

“Or what?” he growled weakly. She obviously knew that once he regained some of his strength, he could magic his way free. He would have done the same thing earlier with Arro, if he’d been given enough time to recover, but if she left him right now then he’d presumably have plenty. She didn’t seem like exactly the type to ‘check back in’ and see how he was doing.

She strode back over to him, leaned down, and took his head into her paw with surprising gentleness, in great contrast to her grip a few minutes ago. She softly ran her thumb over his cheek. He bared his teeth and tried to turn his head away, but her hold became more firm again, until his eyes shifted back to her own. She smiled. “It’s true. I’m aware you could escape eventually. And wouldn’t it be wonderful, then, if you could do what you wanted to afterwards?” She didn’t shift her gaze. “Or, well, whatever I wanted you to. You wouldn’t remember.”

Her words chilled him as he understood.

She released him, and he found himself slumping against the wall in defeat as she rose and turned away again. As she began to walk down the hall, she called back to him without turning around. “It would be a real shame if you got free and ‘accidentally’ hurt someone. Especially with Arro somewhere down here.”

Rangavar stared after her until she disappeared from sight. He didn’t know what to do. Free himself and try to escape the depths of the building without being manipulated, or wait to find out what happened to him if he stayed?

Either way, he was fucked.



“Hey, um…” Zark slowed slightly, his brow furrowed. “There’s something… weird, up ahead.”

Arro and Kraz were forced to slow too. Arro’s keen senses couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary, but, well… they couldn’t really detect anything at all. The entire time they’d been down here, the basement floor had been barren.

“I still say we should have went down more than one floor,” Kraz grumbled, bringing up the rear of the group. His lean, muscular body was the only one that wasn’t jiggling, and he padded quietly enough behind them that Arro could almost forget he was there. Not that it made Arro less self-conscious about the heavy rolls jiggling at his sides, which he was sure the other dragon was probably staring at.

Now that Arro had led them to the basement, it was really Zark’s job to get them were they were going, since he was the one who would be able to recognize the Darkals’ aura and lead the other two straight to them. The only problem so far was that, well…

Nobody was here.

Zark shook his head. “Maybe we finally found something. Come on, we have to at least check it out.”

“Is it a Darkal?” Arro stifled a yawn. All of his apprehension was gone. He sort of just wanted to go home at this point and call it a draw. Zark could go ahead hating Darkals or whatever; Arro had already resolved to stop hanging out with him over it. As far as he was concerned, they actually didn’t have to interact at all. Problem solved. The entire situation wasn’t ideal, but he was too tired with boredom to think ahead any farther than that.

Zark faltered. “Well, no, but…” He glanced back and forth between Arro and Kraz as he took in their increasingly uninterested expressions. “Oh come on, we came all this way so far. And now we finally found something, and you’re not curious to find out what it is?” he huffed.

Arro supposed he had a point about that. If something moderately interesting were up ahead, it would be worth checking out, or they’d have come all this way for no reason. “Fine. I guess I wanna see.”

Kraz crossed his arms, but didn’t protest as Zark led them forward, in a slightly better mood now that he was apparently onto something. Zark slowed again, though, as they approached a certain door. It was open like all of the others, nothing particularly unusual about it otherwise, yet he seemed almost uneasy. “Hey, um.” He flattened his ears, staring at it, not quite getting close enough to peek inside. He began to backtrack. “I, uh, I actually don’t think—”

“For the love of Vaugh,” Kraz sighed, and pushed by the shorter, tubby dragon. “You keep dragging us around with nothing to show for it, and we finally found something, but now you want us to—” He paused in the doorway, staring at something inside with visible surprise.

“What?” Arro moved past Zark next, more ponderously of course, his massive gut brushing the much shorter dragon’s smaller chubby belly. His thick thighs shook with every step, his bulging belly hanging in front of them, bouncing and jiggling as he walked; neither of them could exactly avoid it, as Arro squeezed next to Kraz to stare into the room. Finally, Zark took several steps up to the doorway too, not wanting to miss out. He was probably having a hard time seeing past the other doughy dragon taking up most of the space, though.

Arro wasn’t sure what to make of the weird room full of huge, tube-like containers. He was swept by an intense wave of déjà vu, though, as he took several tentative steps into the room and inspected the large, empty cells. Like there was something at the tip of his tongue, but at the tip of his… memories. As if he’d been here before.

“What are they?” Kraz asked no one in particular. Like Arro, he didn’t look bored anymore.

Slowly, Zark shook his head. “No clue.”

“No monster-Darkals,” Kraz observed.

Arro shot him an annoyed glance. “Hey, this is actually pretty interesting. Of all the weird stuff going on, I think this is worth checking out.”

“Oh, I agree,” said Kraz quickly. “I was just making a point. No matter where we are or how deep we go, we’re… alone.”

Stepping carefully, Arro went up to one of the glass containers, peering inside. It was hard to see through; the glass was really wavy, almost looking melted in places. He couldn’t even begin to guess at its purpose.

He turned back to the others. “What do you think this place is?”

Kraz shrugged.

“I don’t know,” said Zark, still looking uneasy. “But I don’t have a good feeling about it.”

“It’s just a bunch of sciency bullshit.” Kraz strode over to one of the tubes, his awe obviously waning. “Is it mysterious? Sure. Is it helping us right now? Probably not. I’m going to admit, I’m starting to look forward to getting out of here.” He shot Zark a rueful glance. “I’m sorry, Zark, but I think we might have to call it quits pretty soon. Not only is nothing down here, but the longer we’re down here, the, well…” He glanced around at the ‘sciencey bullshit’ around them. “… the creepier it gets.”

“It does also increase our chances of being caught,” Arro added. The corner of his lip pulled back as he looked at the black dragon. “Sorry.”

Zark’s ears flattened. “We just found a super-secret basement in the bottom of the research facility that we think is responsible for some highly illegal shit. There’s got to be something here! I know it.” He sighed and leaned back on the container directly behind him.

A quick white shape rose up behind him inside of the container, startling the other two dragons looking his way. Arro pointed with a claw. “What is that?!”

Zark spun around and screamed as the thing lunged for him and slammed into the glass, trapped in the tube. Zark tripped over himself and fell on his rump, fortunately cushioned by all of his plush fat. He didn’t stop screaming right away, finishing with a few terrified whimpers as he scrabbled backwards on his tail.

Kraz darted forward, wrapped his paws around Zark’s chubby arm, and hauled him back to his feet. They stared at the misty shape for a few seconds, the sight of it distorted by some ripples in the glass. It looked almost like a dragon, but… not.

“That’s the thing that attacked me!” Zark blurted.

“Well, it’s contained, so it can’t,” Kraz soothed him. Arro supposed that no matter how shitty Zark had been about Darkals earlier, his companion’s immediate instinct would be to help.

“I don’t mean right now! I mean before!” He was still staring at it with wide eyes.

Arro frowned. “Before when?”

Zark seemed reluctant to peel his eyes away from it, like it still might claw him through the glass. In his defense, it certainly looked like it was trying to. “I, I didn’t mention that part,” Zark stammered. He was clenching Kraz’s paw so hard that it was turning white, but neither of them seemed to notice. “This thing attacked me, the other day, when I saw the Darkals!” He quickly shook his head. “I think that’s why all the Darkals were here. I think they were here to catch it.”

Arro frowned. “Where do you think it came from?”

Zark finally squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “Dunno.”

Kraz took the moment to firmly detach himself from Zark’s paw. “Well, this is… fascinating,” he allowed. “I’m still not really sure it proves your point, but… well, I guess it proves the research facility is at least doing something people should probably know about.” He stared at the snapping monster on the other side of the glass, which stared back at him with an eerily draconic face. Not that it was any type of dragon, of course. There was no way.

Arro pricked his ears. In fact, the creature didn’t look like it came from Karraden at all. Maybe not any developed worlds. So if the Glitarians had it, it would mean… “If they’re trafficking these creatures, do you think it proves that the research facility is tied to the weird message we all got this morning after all?” Had it really just been this morning? It already seemed like a lifetime ago.

Slowly, Kraz shook his head, his brow furrowed. “I mean, keeping weird pets in a basement might not be correlated to halting our economy.” He shrugged. “But what do I know.”

Zark glanced up at him. “If they have this thing down here, then maybe the Darkals are nearby.”

“Zark, no offense, but can you shut up about the Darkals?” Kraz snapped. Even Arro was surprised by his tone.

Zark flattened his ears. “What?”

Kraz threw up his paws. “Look, we found out you hate Darkals. Okay? And that’s really shitty, and something we’re definitely going to talk about later,” he said pointedly. “Like, have a serious conversation about, because it might be a, uh. A deal-breaker. But right now, we don’t need to fixate on the weird Darkal-monsters when we just found… just found…” he gestured around the room helplessly. “…this. If anything, we should probably get going. Especially with stuff like…” He gestured vaguely at the mystery monster behind the glass. “Especially when there’s creepy, dangerous stuff we weren’t expecting.”

“‘Deal-breaker’?” Zark repeated blankly.

Kraz looked away with a suddenly awkward expression. “Uh… Well, yeah.” He sort of stared at the floor while rubbing the base of one horn. “I mean, I wish I’d known about all… that, before we got together. Before we, uh, became companions.”

Nobody said anything for a moment, and everyone ignored Zark’s dawning horrified expression.

“Look,” Kraz sighed. “Right now, can we just focus on getting out of here?”

Arro pricked his ears at some sounds coming down the hallway. “Uh, guys,” he spoke up softly. “I know this is a really, really bad time, but I think I hear something.”

Zark suddenly looked up sharply too. “Three people coming this way,” he said automatically.

Arro had no idea how his telepathy worked, but immediately believed him. “We should go.”

“The hallway is one long, straight corridor,” the chubby dragon hissed. “How do we leave without being seen?”

Oh. Right.

“Over here!”

Both fat dragons turned to see Kraz pushing some haphazard boxes together at the end of the room. It looked like some of the supplies in the room had been pulled away from the wall, and then abandoned for later. The boxes were about waist-height, sturdy, and long, and several of them were already double stacked, which was where Kraz was ducking now. He beckoned the two of them over. “Zark, can’t you disguise auras or something?”

The other dragon quickly nodded. “We’re going to hide?”

“Well, I have news for the both of you,” Arro interrupted, a sinking feeling in his gut. His large, very un-hideable gut. “I, uh…”

Quickly glancing around, Kraz simply grabbed another one of the boxes and lifted it as easily as if it weighed nothing at all. He jammed it on top of several of the other double-stacked boxes, then moved several more across the floor with his hips and shoulder until he’d built up what looked more like a makeshift fortress. He glanced back at Arro frantically. “It’s better than nothing, right??”

Arro didn’t waste any more time before going over to find out. The sound of the soft pawsteps outside was getting closer. He hoped Zark was already doing his aura-hiding thing or whatever.

Kraz moved aside, as close to the far end as possible, practically pinched into the wall. Zark, having dashed over next, was inevitably pushed into him as Arro brought up the rear, pancaking the unfortunate shortest dragon of the group between the two taller ones. “Sorry,” Arro said awkwardly as he squeezed into them, even grabbing at his own flabby sides with a paw to physically squish it as far back from the edge of the boxes as possible. Every inch might count.

“Can you duck a bit?” Kraz whispered. “I think your horns are taller than the boxes.”

Arro dipped his head just in time to hear three pairs of paws stroll into the room.

The three hidden dragons quieted their breathing. The three dragons that entered the room weren’t making very much noise themselves, but Arro’s sense of hearing was sharp enough to guess where they were. Ironically enough, they went over to the same test tube that held the captured beast. Arro tried to share a look with the others, to see if they could sense the same thing, but Zark had his eyes squeezed shut.

In contrast, Kraz had his eyes wide open, a sliver of light falling across his face as he peeked through a very narrow crack between the boxes. His pale gray scales were looking a bit more pale than usual. Arro wished he could ask what was going on. It was quickly confirmed to involve the creature, though, as he suddenly heard some tapping noises on the metal name plate he’d seen in front of the tube, and the unmistakable noise of air being pressurized. Were they opening it? He hoped to Vaugh they weren’t opening it. As it was, he was going to be having nightmares about it sneaking up behind Zark for a week.

“Last one,” he heard a voice grunt, and suddenly an electric crackling noise. None of the other noises that happened next were anything Arro could make sense of.

Kraz suddenly made the barest movement with his head to indicate the crack between boxes. He moved his head back slightly out of the way. The implication was clear. Arro leaned forward to sneak a glance into the room.

In his immediate line of sight was a lump on the floor, which he slowly realized was actually the same pale creature slumped in some sort of net-like prison. It was completely motionless right now, apparently subdued.

Suddenly, a paw grabbed at some loose bands of the net, yanking it upright. The docile creature inside rolled with the motion, limp, although very clearly still alive as its half-open, pupil-less eyes stared blankly at nothing. Arro was interrupted from studying it by something else stepping into view, tall, gray, and—a Darkal, he realized.

Well, it at least looked like a Darkal. It was tall, and its wings were covered in deep red feathers.

“Got it?” growled a soft voice. He watched as the other two also grabbed parts of the net. One dragon was already past the view of the wooden boxes, so Arro couldn’t catch a glimpse of him, but as the other one moved across the sliver of space, Arro could see that he was much the same, his unnaturally long feet digging in its talons as he swiftly crossed the floor.

The three Faerians stayed like that for quite a while even after the sound of the retreating dragons disappeared from Arro’s senses. Zark must have done a good job of cloaking them.

With a sigh, he tried to stand, realizing that his legs had cramped up from the tense, awkward squat. He got a paw over the top of the tallest box and physically hauled himself back to feet, his belly unfolding from its tight squeeze to hang over his thighs.

“Oh thank Vaugh,” Zark gasped. He took several deep breaths as he wriggled his way up. “No offense, but you’re really, really heavy.”

“How do you think I feel?” Kraz muttered, pushing his own, much fitter body back up to a standing position.

He and Arro shared a long, shocked look. “Okay,” Kraz finally said, “did you see that too?”

Silently, Arro nodded.

“Wait—You saw them??” Zark exclaimed. “I wasn’t sure either of you were close enough to the gap in the boxes, and I thought, it’s so ironic, they showed up, and neither of you would even—”

“Yes, we saw,” Kraz talked over him, trying to bring his excitable voice back down to a normal volume. Arro appreciated that too. He didn’t trust more of the Darkals not to show up. Or, ‘the monster-Darkals’, or whatever. He supposed that in context, the description was apt after all.

“And…” Zark’s voice quieted, but his excitement didn’t. “And you weren’t put in a trance, and you remember everything that happened?”

Arro and Kraz shared a look. They’d been so focused on just finding them at all that Arro had actually, completely forgotten that half of their experiment was to see if Zark’s powers could protect them against their supposed mind-control.

“I mean, I think so,” Kraz answered for both of them. “I don’t feel like there are any gaps in my memory. Would I know if there were any gaps in my memory?” He frowned. “That took less than five to ten minutes, right?”

“About that,” Zark agreed, looking hopeful for the first time all day.

“Hey, this is great and all,” Arro finally spoke up. He blushed as they both turned their attention to him. “But, uh.” He pressed his index fingers together. “Now what?”

Silence.

They all took turns looking at each other uncertainly.

“Maybe it’s finally time we got out of here,” Kraz eventually spoke up. He put his paws up at Zark’s glare. “Hey, alright, I know I’ve been saying that all along, but we actually did see what we came here to see!”

Arro took a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this.” He let it out through his nose, looking down at the smaller fat dragon. “But Kraz is right.” It was true. It was a set of words he’d never expected to utter in that order.

Zark flattened his ears. “I guess,” he sighed. “And it’s good to know that my powers can protect you both if anything else happens.”

The three of them stepped into the hallway, walking past the now-open glass tube warily. Nothing happened, of course. Nothing was there, and nothing stopped them. They encountered no one as they began to walk down the long, straight hall.

“How fuckin’ big is this place?” asked Kraz, after they’d been walking for a while.

Arro had been wondering the same thing. “I guess pretty fuckin’ big,” was all he could think to reply.

Kraz snorted.

Unfortunately, Arro’s ponderous gait had him tired before long. He’d been doing a pretty good job keeping up so far, but after hours of walking, stress, and more walking, the strain was starting to creep into his bulky body.

He realized that Zark, directly ahead of him, didn’t look like he was doing so well himself. He was panting a bit, the slight waddle of his pudgy legs pushing together making his progress slow. “You know, I could use a bit of a break,” Zark eventually admitted, turning back to face the others.

Arro glanced at Kraz, who was in the middle of rolling his eyes. “This wouldn’t be happening if you hadn’t gotten so fat.”

Zark’s ears flattened, and he scowled. “Hey!”

“Yeah, hey,” Arro butted in. He still didn’t want to get caught in a fight between the two, but figured it would be worth pointing out that as to whether or not they should catch a breather, Kraz was the one outvoted.

The much fitter Faerian crossed his arms and rolled his eyes again. “Ughhh. Fine.”

They dipped through one of the empty doors where they’d be less exposed. The room they found was pretty plain, and Arro realized that it was actually led to yet another stairwell. He wondered how many there were total. This one didn’t have double doors, and its one door was wide open. He was tempted to go sit on the stairs inside, since it would be easier than either standing, or trying to get up from the floor after, but still felt worried about getting too careless out in the open. Just because they’d gotten lucky so far didn’t mean they should push it.

“Well, this makes it way easier to get back to the ground floor,” Kraz muttered.

Arro suddenly pricked his ears at a sound from the hallway they’d just left. “Wait. I think someone’s coming?” He shot Zark a questioning glance, but the other Faerian stared back, unable to sense it just yet.

When he finally could, his face paled a bit. “Oh fuck.”

Kraz glanced from Arro to Zark. “Care to elaborate on that?”

“There are more people coming,” Zark explained. He focused for a second, his eyes gradually widening as he became more and more alarmed. Finally, he added, “Like, a shit ton of people.”

“More Darkals?” Arro asked.

“Does it really matter?”

“I, uh, suppose not.” Getting caught down here was dangerous either way.

“Alright, let’s just go up the stairs, since we’re already right here,” Kraz suggested, plowing by the two tubs of lard into the stairwell and heading up a few steps. He glanced back over his shoulder briefly. “Come on!”

Zark went next, Arro bringing up the rear. He could see the way the black-scaled Faerian’s chubby gut shook as he took a few tired jogs towards the steps, and knew that his own gut looked the same. It wasn’t really a mystery why the two of them needed to rest.

When Arro went to go through the single stairwell door behind Zark, he slowed significantly. The doorway was narrow, and as he tried to force himself through it, his love handles squeezed into the sides. He supposed it was probably an emergency exit not really meant to be used. Or maybe it was just for tall, skinny Darkals, or something.

Zark paused and turned back when he realized Arro was no longer directly behind him. His face fell.

Kraz noticed next, from the top of the stairwell. “Hurry up,” he hissed unsympathetically. Then he turned around and pushed on the door. There was a heavy clunking noise as the latch slammed against the inside of the doorjamb. It was locked. An oh-shit expression descended over Kraz’s face.

Zark suddenly looked downright terrified. “Nooo no no no no this can’t be happening.” His empty gaze cut through Arro, to the hallway beyond. “They heard that noise. They’re coming faster.”

Over the sound of his panting, Arro realized that maybe he could hear them coming faster too. Not that he didn’t trust Zark. “Can you do the aura-thing again?”

“I mean, yes,” Zark stammered. His eyes roved over Arro’s body filling the doorframe. “But I can’t make you physically invisible.”

Oh. Duh.

Kraz came back down the steps two at a time. “What if we just shut the door to the hallway?”

“Even if they didn’t blatantly see that, they’d probably guess we’re in the suspiciously closed door,” Zark pointed out. Then he looked away awkwardly. “And we’d need to get by Arro.”

Arro had been hoping nobody would notice he was actually having real difficulty. He was wedged a bit tight, his cheeks turning red with the effort of squeezing through. “Sorry,” he panted, giving himself another tug, jostling the front of his gut that hung forward. He had both paws braced against either side of the doorway, but couldn’t put enough force behind him from the awkward angle. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Who bothers making a door this small?

“This door must be an emergency escape,” Kraz said. It was the same thing Arro suspected. “That’s why it’s just a narrow, single-file little space tucked into a corner.”

Zark glanced back and forth between them. To no one in particular, he asked, “What are we going to do?”

“Well can you start by helping me out?” Arro strained. “Then we’ll go upstairs.”

“How do we unlock the door?” Kraz crossed his arms. “My foot still hurts from earlier.”

Arro’s ears flattened. He’d been too distracted by his current predicament to pay attention to that part. “I guess, uh…” He absently gave another unsuccessful shove against the wall, his body still refusing to budge on its own. The sprawling rolls of his sides were still pancaked on the wall outside the stairwell whenever he pressed forward. “I guess we go, downwards?”

Kraz snorted. “That’s stupid.”

“Would you rather talk nicely with the dragons about to catch us here?” Zark pointed out.

Kraz’s face fell. “Okay. You’re right.” He turned to squeeze by Zark and head down. “Now come on.”

“Hey, um, help!” Arro hissed. He could hear their pursuers getting closer. Squeezing through on his own was taking too much time.

Kraz looked him up and down. “Sorry. If you keep plugging the door, it gives Zark and I more time to escape.”

Zark gave him an incredulous look. “Kraz!”

“It was a joke!” Kraz rolled his eyes as he made his way back to Arro. Arro wasn’t convinced that it was.

“Alright, grab my paws.” Kraz held out his more firm, muscular paws, and Arro placed his pudgy ones into them. The Faerian wrapped the lean digits around his soft ones and threw himself back, pulling as hard as he could.

Arro felt himself slowly, excruciatingly slowly, squeeze forward. He was glad he hadn’t tried turning to the side, at least; the pressure of his hefty belly would have been just as tight.

“Hurry!” Zark hissed. “They’re almost here.”

Arro could see Kraz flicking his ears. They were obviously close enough that even an average Faerian could hear.

When Arro finally popped free, he fell forward at the sudden release, crashing into Kraz for a second. The other dragon was fortunately strong enough to catch him, the full weight of Arro’s blubber falling on him for a second before Kraz pushed him back off so that Arro could right himself.

“Thanks,” he panted, as he began to quickly follow the other two dragons running equally quickly down the stairs. Arro only paused to pull the door shut behind him, figuring that whether or not it locked automatically, it might at least confuse the people outside. “Dumbest emergency exit ever. Like, in an emergency, that wouldn’t have been helpful at all.”

“This sort of is an emergency,” Zark said.

Arro huffed as he tried to keep up behind them. “Case in point.” He tried to conserve the rest of his breath for running as they skipped down the stairs, deeper and deeper with no idea how many floors to charge down before dipping into a new hallway to confuse their pursuers. As long as they didn’t encounter anyone, they could presumably pick whichever floor they wanted. Ducking out of the stairwell seemed like their best chance to get away.

Arro belatedly found himself wondering if maybe he should have asked Rangavar to come with them after all. He had higher security clearance that allowed him to be down here during shifts, and probably knew his way around. It also wouldn’t have hurt to have a bit of magic protection.

And if he really were like the other Darkals down here, Arro supposed it would have been sort of nice to have that type of knowledge on their side, too.