Nall and Ruby reappeared in the clearing with Ruby's trademark red flash. She smirked and turned to the white dragon. "So, how does it feel having to depend on me?"
He did not answer immediately as the realization of his surroundings sank in. "By Althena," he cursed quietly. He reached for his sword hilt.
The clearing was a mass of writhing and clinging vines. Jia was almost completely covered in the tangle of greenery, and she rolled and twisted, wide-eyed against her bonds, but the sheer number of vines were overcoming her. As soon as the other two dragons appeared, the slithering green mass began reaching and clutching at them.
Nall fell into a battle stance as he drew his sword and called out to Ruby. "Stay as you are! In this case being bigger would only give them more to grab onto!"
"Duh," Ruby replied from slightly behind him. She pulled the boomerang off her belt and began to toss it a few times in her hand to warm up.
"Try and free Jia!"
"I know that," she snapped. "Next you going to tell me not to fry the vines because I might fry Jia too."
Nall ignored her, dashing to one side as he slashed a few of the vines that snapped out at him. His blade passed through them easily enough, but more continued to come. Ruby went the more elaborate route. Throwing the boomerang, she caused it to burst into flame in the air. It curved around in an arc, cutting smoothly through the vines, and returned to Ruby's hand, extinguishing right before she caught it.
"Show off," Nall muttered, and decided to a little showing off himself. He swung his sword to either side of him, beating back the vines as he moved towards Jia. With each arc of his weapon, he used his wind magic to accentuate his slashes, sending ripping blades of wind outward all directions to clear a path. The sharp winds continued to cut through the masses even after Nall had passed their position, slight distortions in the air that wrought disaster wherever they landed.
Jia continued to struggle, flexing the muscles around her head as she tried to speak, but her jaws were held shut by a green muzzle. Nall was nearing her, but suddenly fell forward. He turned to confront what he felt, and saw a green tendril winding its way around his legs. The other vines did not hesitate, and moved in on him even as he tried to stand. He swung his sword to kept the rest away, but he could not let his guard down to remove the one around his legs. "C'mon!" he growled. "I'm gonna get tired at this rate!"
A flaming disk spun by him, freeing his legs and shortening the vines closest to him. Ruby appeared nearby, catching her weapon. "Watch your back, Nall."
"Thanks, Ruby," he said as he pushed himself back to his feet, leveling his sword before him. He shook the ashes from his legs, noting that his pants were nicely burned as well. "I think," he added. If her disk had come any closer he would have been sporting a bad sunburn's worth of blisters.
Ruby continued to chatter in good humor. "Well, I have to take care of you, since you aren't capable of it yourself." She paused for a second, a spark going off in her mind.
"You know, I think we're going about this all wrong. These are plants, and plants don't do well in the cold."
Nall nodded. "Okay, one freak winter coming right up! Keep them off me a minute."
The white dragon held his sword vertically before him as he concentrated. He found it much harder to gather his power due to the drain. Gathering what resources he could, he focused his magic through his blade. White mist swirled about the sword's crossguard and up its sharpened edges. The temperature in the immediate area dropped. Twirling the sword, he jabbed the blade into the ground. Frost covered the ground and spread outward from his position. As it touched a vine, the plant would freeze and crumble. A few leafy tendrils suffered this fate, then the bulk of them began to retreat. He increased the intensity slightly, and the vines swiftly pulled away as if in pain. They released Jia and snaked back through the trees.
The blue dragon shivered slightly from the cold, then tentatively flexed her jaws to make certain they were all right. She then called out to her friends. "Nall, Ruby! They took Ebony!"
Nall cursed quietly, glancing to either side of the clearing. No small black form lay anywhere in the vicinity of where the vines had been. Ruby picked up a frozen vine then tossed it to the ground. She shrugged when Nall looked to her.
"Are you all right?" he finally asked, gazing back at Jia.
Jia took a minute to take a bodily census, and nodded. "I think so."
Nall turned back to the red dragon. "I thought you said this place was safe."
"It couldn't be..." Ruby murmured, ignoring the sharper edge of Nall's voice. She shook her head in disbelief as she again looked at the frozen remains of the vines.
"Couldn't be what?"
"The last time I came here there was a big plant monster, but we killed it."
He folded an arm across his chest and scratched his chin. "Is that so? Looks like a seed or two was left over."
"I don't care what caught Ebony, but he's helpless right now!" Jia broke in, leaning her far larger head between the both of them. "We have to find him!"
Nall nodded. "We will Jia... Come on."
He lead the way in the direction the vines had retreated.
The three had walked for about ten minutes, clambering over twisted roots and under gnarled branches. For once Nall wished that Jia could take a human form, but it could not be helped at the moment. Jia blamed herself for the loss of Ebony and fervently explained to the other dragons all that she knew had happened. She had fallen asleep, but woke from a constricting need to breath. She then found herself mostly bound and caught a glimpse of several vines slipping away with a furry black form. Ruby tried to comfort her, but Jia's tail flicked back and forth in an agitated manner, betraying her emotions. Nall held up a hand to signal the ladies to stop and inched forward to peer through the foliage ahead.
He saw a mass of vines writhing about a clearing, and in the center was what appeared to be a large blue female, clothed only on leaves. Next to the creature was a tiny green cocoon, with a small black tail emerging from it.
"It is a plantella," hissed a quiet voice behind him. "But it's much bigger than the one I saw before."
Nall turned his head and was unsurprised to find Ruby beside his elbow. She had never been one to take orders, especially from him. He nodded to show that he heard, then moved back to Jia with Ruby in tow. He explained swiftly in hushed toned what he had seen, causing even more worry in the blue dragon.
"We don't have any evidence that he's hurt, just wrapped up," Nall emphasized. "If she wanted to do any serious harm to him she would have done it already."
"We have to save him," Jia stressed. Her tail thumped against a tree trunk and for a moment the three of them froze. But if the plantella heard, it gave no indication that it did.
Jia hunched her shoulders and and lowered her head as she mouthed a "Sorry!" to her companions.
Nall waved it off. "First we need a plan."
"Why don't you just freeze it, Nally?" Ruby taunted.
The white dragon sighed, leaning against a tree and rubbing his eyes with a hand. "You saw how big that thing is--not to mention all the vines. I'm tired enough as it is from earlier. If I had my full power back I could, but until then..."
"You wussing out on me, Nall?"
"Stop joking, Ruby! This isn't the time. This Twyla thing is getting serious! Look at the inconvenience it's already cost us."
"If you aren't going to do something, I am."
But it was Jia who had spoken, not Ruby.
The blue dragon brushed past them both, easily done in her larger form, and headed for the clearing. Both the other dragons protested, but she ignored them. If left to their own, they could argue for hours. Ebony might not have minutes.
She came to the same sight that Nall and Ruby found and paused a moment to take it in. There were huge amounts of vines there, too many to fight alone. But perhaps if she acted swiftly she could steal away the cocoon before they reached her. The cocoon was formed of the vines themselves and hung suspended from dead tree near the center of the clearing. The distance was farther than she liked, but once she got there as least she could fly up where the vines could not reach.
Jia sidled closer to the breach in the forest, raising herself up on her hind legs. She measured the space which she had to take off, knowing that she would have to expose her presence before becoming aloft. Then she charged forward and used her strong legs to propel herself into the air. She flew towards the large, blue form in the center, half hoping the plantella would consider itself the target and leave Ebony open for rescue. Jia flapped her wings, trying to stay low to the ground, but vines snaked at her faster than she expected and forced her to gain altitude. She roared at the plantella, a strange sound that tumbled like rocks from her throat.
"And I thought she was the sensible one," Nall muttered.
He and Ruby began to run interference. Ruby hurled large balls of flame into the mass, all of which exploded, leaving darkened craters filled with ash and cinder. Nall used his ice and wind magic in much the same manner, trying to distract the thing and let Jia get a chance to get close. The two did not approach deeply into the mass of vines, but they leveled as many of their attacks on the plantella's main body as possible while keeping their own safety in mind. They had to convince it that the threat was to itself much more than loosing the presence of its single captive. Their efforts seemed to be working, the creature was responding to the more immediate danger instead of the aerial one. It was still was close to the cocoon, but another few seconds would be enough.
Nall whirled as Ruby cried out. He saw her collapse, crumpling to the ground in an ungraceful manner. The vines were already swarming about her.
"Ruby!" he cried. He swung his sword, driving back the leafy tendrils around him as he dashed towards her.
However, the vines were faster. Without her fire to keep them at bay, they knotted around her, trapping the red dragon almost immediately. Nall slashed at the vines around her, but for every one he smote five more would appear. There were too many. Nall glanced anxiously behind him when a movement caught his eye. The vines had coiled and circled around him to prevent his escape back the way he came.
Jia saw what was happening to the other two, then turned her gaze back to the plantella. The vines had started to leave her room, but now that Nall and Ruby were trapped the majority of them would soon be free to fight. She would not get a better opening.
The blue dragon dove, wings arced back and long ivory claws extended. She slammed straight into the humanoid plant creature, gouging her talons deep into the woody blue flesh as she snapped at its face with her jaws. A green fluid oozed from the plantella's wounds. But the creature did not cry out, or even change its mild expression. However it reacted immediately, recalling vines to snap around Jia. The blue dragon dared not use her lightning magic, in fear that the plant matter would conduct the electricity and harm Ebony. With a snarl she threw her weight forward, slamming the plantella prone. Jia clamped her jaws around its throat and dug her teeth in deeper than she thought possible. Sap gushed into her mouth. The liquid tasted bitter and foul, and covered her tongue like a slimy film.
The vines around her squeezed tighter, trying to pull her away. In response she bit deeper. The whole form began to writhe around her. Vines slipped tightly around her throat and began to constrict. Jia choked reflexively, trying to open her throat for air. Blackness swam through her head, before her eyes. Would it not die? She twisted herself, trying to break free of the hold without letting go. Her wrenching brought her teeth through a deeper layer of spongy matter. New watery liquid sprayed into her mouth, into her face. The vines squeezed tightly, once, convulsively, then went slack. Coughing, both from the lack of air and the liquid in her mouth, Jia wiped the ichor from her eyes with an arm, then glanced around to see the effect of her battle.
All around her the vines were going limp. The plantella's body itself was now sagging, like a dead tree in a swamp. Nall helped Ruby up at the edge of the clearing, though she seemed weak. And the cocoon of vines slowly slipped open to reveal the prone form of a black, winged cat. Spitting some more of the vile fluid from her mouth, Jia moved over and picked him up before he could fall to the ground.
"Ebony... Can you hear me?" she said softly as she held him close to her face.
Ebony yawned and stretched, then looked up at her.
"Oh, hi Jia, what's going on?"
The four had returned to the first clearing, away from the plantella where they could recover safely from the reminder of its presence. All of them had shifted back to full dragon form. Although Ebony was feeling better from his "rest", it became clear now that Ruby's power had been drained along with the other two. She had felt the abrupt shock of the drain during the battle, and even now her draconic face seemed sunken and weary.
"I can't believe you slept through all that, Ebony," Nall said, shaking his head. "You must have a head denser than Kyle! I used to think nothing could wake him up, but even he would've noticed if a plantella was stringing him up from a tree."
"It must have sprayed me with some sleeping pollen or something," the black dragon replied casually, waving a paw.
"Sleeping pollen? Yeah, right! I just think that you..."
"Is arguing all you are capable of?" a new voice cut in as a shadow blotted the sun.
The four dragons whirled to see a dragon, who looked exactly like Nall, circle in for a landing. And on his back was the woman who had taken three of their crests.