Jason looked to Ironhorse for a moment,blinked then seemed to almost collapsed. "Thank you." his lights blinked with his soft words. Surprisingly they escaped him,not very loudly though.

Ironhorse nodded once.

"You know, Im really starting to hate the insect life around here," Puck muttered. "Next time, remind me to bring a can of Off!"

Jason hugged Puck,shivering faintly. He wasn't used to this type of stuff,sure chaotic nightmares that ripped dragons to shreds before your eyes and could actually rip the world apart by the seams to merge it with the human world...but not this. For some reason he just couldn't fully handle it.

Puck held Jason, growling softly. He was so mad at Ash. He knew the Ice prince was evil, but he never thought he would do this.
"Dragon!" Grimalkin appeared, bounding up with his ears flattened to his head. "You are making too much noise. All of you are. We must leave this area, quickly." He glanced about, and the fur on his back started to rise. "It might already be too late."

Jason's freckles and underwings turned from light sick green and white to dark sick green and pale deathly white. His tail curled in and his wings flattened to his back. He couldn't shift still but he so wished he could. He silently blinked sorry with his dragonic letters.

Puck's heart nearly stopped. And not because of Jason. This time. The thorns around them were moving, hundreds upon hundreds of them, unfurling into tiny faeries with pointed, gnashing teeth. The air filled with the sound of buzzing, and thousands of tiny black eyes glimmered through the thorns. "Oh, this isnt good," Puck murmured as the buzz grew louder, more frantic. "I really, really wish I had that Off!"

Jason forced himself to bare his fangs and he clicked what Ice he had left and swirled it around a bit,causing a barrier of dragon ice around the four. He was using his dragon soul to hold it up and keep it from giving way or melting. "Let's get goin' then,huh?" He said softly,his markings glowing faintly,only hinting the faintest flickering.

"Yup! Run!" Puck pulled Jason along with him as he ran. The faeries swarmed around them, the hum of their wings vibrating the air, their high-pitched voices shrieking in their ears. They felt the weight of their tiny bodies on their skin, an instant before the stings. Puck snarled something unintelligible, swiping at them with his knives, and Ironhorse blasted flame from his mouth and nostrils, roaring. Charred, dismembered faeries dropped shrieking from the air, but dozens more buzzed in to take their place. Grimalkin, of course, had vanished. They charged blindly down a tunnel of thorns, through swarms of furious killer wasp-fey, with no clue of where they were going.

Jason kept his hood pulled around the two little ice dragons,Fatespeaker waking faintly. "Rrr-Rrr!?" She then growled,not able to really take damage,and began trying to eat them. She was ice,so it did no good for stingers or sharp points. Jason didn't dare let go of Puck's hand,swinging his stinger out at some and batting his wings here and there.

As they rounded a corner, a body appeared right in front of Puck. He had no time to react before he crashed into it, and they both went sprawling, his hand getting ripped from Jason's.

"Ow! What the heck!" someone yelped.


Swatting faeries, they looked into the face of a girl a year or two younger than 17. She was tiny and Asian, with hair that looked as if she'd taken a machete to it, wearing a ratty sweater two sizes too big. She had furry ears peeking out of her hair. Puck scrambled to his feet as the swarm buzzed around the strange girl as well. She yelped and swatted wildly, backing away.

"What is this?" she hissed, as Puck came up behind Jason and Ironhorse charged in, blowing flame. "Who the heck are you people? Oh, never mind! Run!" She darted past them, looking back once to shout "Hurry up, Nelson!" over her shoulder. They barely had time to wonder who Nelson was when a kid built like a linebacker barreled through them, somehow dodging Puck and Ironhorse, and pounded after the girl. He had gorillalike shoulders, muddy blond hair, and skin as green as swamp water. He clutched a backpack in his arms like a football and charged down the trail without a backward glance.