Quests & Challenges

following along with this has been absolutely heart wrenching. goddamn

@Aikka @ghostingskies

Me too I never thought this would be this emotional

Thank you so much - it's a joy to read the updates, I'm happy you enjoyed my little contribution too. :D It's a very special event you've crafted, Aikka, you knocked it out of the park, especially your first one.

@Crimsonpixie

Thank you too! Reverence's writing is so good, it was absolutely beautiful. There's so many emotions there. ;-; Thank you for creating it!

dude this is intense ;O;
i really did not expect this much sheer effort put into the storytelling aspect, let alone like character development and stuff, this has been a wild ride start to finish, can't wait for the grand finale

Rest in heckin' pieces, Sirocco o7 He had a good time with some new friends, which is all a guy could ask for, really. (And might just accidentally cause serious injury to the remaining climbers, but hey! You win some, you lose some [emoji=spiral winking size=1]) The emotions just don't stop coming, either.... I want to hug everyone and tell them it'll be okay [i]so bad[/i]. Competition who? This is now an emotional healing journey ;v;

[center][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/qnc/3093161/12#post_50059319]Find the morning update here[/url][/center] [i]What started out as an idyllic morning has turned sharply to catastrophe. After a cave collapsed due to one dragon’s carelessness, the unstable layer of snow from the storm has been shaken loose with a catastrophic boom. The contestants must escape the oncoming avalanche, or die trying. ----- [center][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/portraits/640056/64005582p.png[/img][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/portraits/553146/55314575p.png[/img] [b]Maolin, [color=red]Firefly[/center] “AVALANCHE!” Maolin screams, Firefly staring in horror at the tumbling snow heading towards them. They’ve 20 seconds, max, before it reaches them. “WHAT DO WE DO?” he yells back, the rumbling on the oncoming snow already deafening. “JUST GIVE ME A SECOND,” she replies, looking frantically around for a safe place to hide. There’s no way they’re outrunning this thing, and there isn’t enough time to get a running start to take flight. Maolin, recalling the tools in her bag, takes a rope hook and uses magic to quickly slams it into the ground, the rope already attatched to the end. She grabs Firefly and holds him close, the skydancer only letting out a quick “UH--” before she jumps off the side of the mountain. The edge of the avalanche hits them right as they leave the edge, pushing them out harder and faster than Maolin had planned for. They still break through the wave of snow crashing around them, but they’re swinging much faster and from much farther out than anticipated, and Maolin and Firefly slam at high velocity into the side of Sharktooth Mountain. Maolin slides 20 feet down the rope as her vision goes black and her side goes numb before regaining her grip on both the rope and on Firefly. She’s wheezing as she does a quick body check—can she feel her fingers? Can she wiggle her toes? Can she rotate her wings?--while she waits for her vision to return. All she can hear is her own lungs wheezing for air and the panicked thumping of her heart. As her vision returns, the first thing she sees is white. It’s stinging her eyes as she attempts to look around, but she quickly realizes that the snow of the avalanche is clouding the air, bringing visibilty down to 0 feet. She squints at Firefly as her vision swims, but now she’s noticing he’s disturbingly still. “FIREFLY?” she yells, desparate to be heard over the snow. No response. “FIREFLY!!” she tries again, shaking him in her arm. No response. She lifts his chest up as much as she can and is relieved to see he’s breathing, but only just barely. Now she notices the state of his face, the trio of horns on the right side of his head cracked and broken, and one of his antennae simply gone. Maolin does her best not to panic, to calm herself. Overreacting and acting rashly will only make the situation worse. She does the breathing exercises her mentor taught her as she waits for the avalanche to pass. She closes her eyes. She can’t bear to look at Firefly’s face right now. The sound of the avalanche begins to fade as the last of the snow passes over them, and all that’s left is the ringing in her ears as she looks up above her, knowing she now has to climb back up to the ledge. She hefts Firefly over her shoulder and struggles to climb up the rope, her entire body drained from the adrenaline rush. Her fingers tremble horribly as she grips the rope, and she prays to any god that will listen to give her the strength needed to make it to the top. She scrambles up onto the ledge, taking a few steps forward before gently placing Firefly on the ground. “Firefly?” she rasps. “Firefly, please say something.” Now that he’s laid out on the ground, she realizes his injuries are more extensive than what’s happened to his face. His right ankle is moderately swollen, and the frail membrane of his wing is torn. His breathing is shallow, but his heart rate is steady, at least. There’s no avoiding it. She turns around and looks out over the side of Sharktooth Mountain, ready to call the medical team, but to her horror, she sees three beacons for the medical team have already been called, and two of them are much closer to base camp than her. Looking back on Firefly’s limp body, she knows that he won’t make it if they wait here. She looks between Firefly and the beacons several times, before swallowing her nerves. It doesn’t matter if she’s exhausted. It doesn’t matter if she’s beaten and bruised. She gently places Firefly on her shoulders, tying him in place with her rope, before standing on the ledge, looking down on the mountain below. Tha avalanche is still traveling, beyond where base camp lays, starting to ravage the ravine below. She has no choice. She’ll have to fly. ----- [center][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/portraits/394345/39434442p.png[/img][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/portraits/577131/57713000p.png[/img] [b]Carmeline, Reverence[/center] “AVALANCHE!” Maolin’s voice echoes from somewhere higher up as the duo watch the snow begin to crash down the mountain. Reverence doesn’t hesitate to start beating his wings to take flight, attempting to gain altitude before the avalanche can reach them. Carmeline quickly follows suit, attempting to get a running start on the mild incline they were on, but she doesn’t get high enough ebfore the snow reaches their position. The avalanche, travelling at over 150 mph, creates a vacuum as it quickly passes through the area beneath Carmeline, sucking her into the snow below. She frantically swims to try to stay on top of the snow as it sweeps her down the mountain. She extends her wings as far as she can to extend her surface area, just barely keeping her head above the snow, her only focus on [i]staying afloat, staying alive[/i]. Reverence roars as he watches Carmeline struggle against the waves of the avalanche. He flails his tail in anger as he watches the small pearlcatcher struggle for her life against the flow, furious at his own helplessness as he can do nothing but watch her losing battle to stay afloat. Over a minute after she was sucked into the avalanche, she finally goes under, her hand desparately reaching up to the sky in a alst dtich eeffort to avoid being drowned out by the avalanche. Reverence can’t sit by idly anymore. He dives for her hand, grasping it firmly with his talons, and attempts to haul her out the snow, but only getting her half out before the avalanche overpowers him too. He crashes into the snowy sea, and Charmeline crashes onto [i]him[/i], clinging to his body now for dear life as it’s now his turn to struggle against the tide. After a few more moments, the snow grows still around them, and Reverence ceases his thrashing, collapsing onto the ground. After taking a few seconds to catch his breath, Reverence gingerly reaches out and signals the medical team. “I—wait, are you ok?” Carmeline asks, looking him over nervously. “...Yes,” he replies after a pause, “but you are not.” “...What?” He simply points to her arm, which has clearly been dislocated—the same arm he had grabbed in his attempt to pull her out of the snow. “Ohhhh ow. Ok. I’m feeling that now,” she winces, having not noticed her arm popping out of its socket. “Iiiit’s ok, I can just…” Carmeline takes a deep breath, bracing herself, before forcibly shoving her arm back into its socket, the action making an audible popping noise. Reverence is impressed with her. Both at how long she was able to stay surfaced during the avalanche, and the casuality she expressed replacing her dislocated shoulder. He realizes that he has likely underestimated her. Carmeline sighs. “Ok, just… give me a couple of minutes to recoup. And then we can get going again.” ----- [center][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/portraits/736041/73604077p.png[/img] [b]Bone Collector[/center] “[i]Oh GODS[/i],” Bone Collector cries, and it’s the only thing out of his mouth before he’s running. Bone Collector watches in horror as the mountain above him seems to turn to water, the way it moves in a smooth motion like a wave, as it crashes down the side of the mountain. He’s terrified for both himself and the others as he presses himself as tight as he can against the collpased cave entrance, hoping nothing else falls as he takes shelter. The snow passes over him, but just barely, as the cascade rushes inches past his nose, piling at and covering his feet, but otherwise moving on. This is, quire frankly, the most terrifying minute and a half of his life. Hands down. He hyperventilates as the wall of white never seems to end, the roar of the snow making his ears quiver in pain as his fingers desperately scratch at the rock he’s leaning against for any purchase he can find. As the last of the snow trails off, he holds his breath in anticipation of Avalanche 2: Electric Boogaloo, but after a moment of blessed quiet, he chances a peak out at the mountain above him. All is still there, but looking down, he can only see a cloud of white blanketing the lower half of the mountain. He lets out a distress beacon to the medical team, not forgetting about Sirocco, who’s surely been buried in the rubble behind him. As the white clouds begin to clear, however, he notices several more medical team beacons below him, and now he’s not sure if help will come on time. Well… maybe he could just go get the medical team and bring them here? Maybe if he finds the medical team first, they can prioritze poor Sirocco? He sighs. This is probably, like, the third worst day of his life now. ----- [center][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/portraits/371094/37109379p.png[/img] [b][color=red]Ranita[/center] There’s little time to think as Taibre grabs Ranita’s arm and pulls her under a nearby overhang. While Taibre’s first instinct is to get them out of harm’s way, Ranita’s first instinct is to put up the emergency signal—and so before the avalanche has even reached them, Ranita’s made their location known. Still, that doesn’t make the situation any less terrifying when the snow builds up around them, both the girls using magic attacks and barriers to prevent the snow from burying them alive. When the rumbling has faded and the ground has stopped shaking, the only light the two woman have left is the dissipating magic aura clinging to their hands. Taibre reaches for her lantern, fumbling in the dark to turn it on. The lantern sways in her shaking hand as they both take in the reality of their situation—they’re both trapped under a mountain of snow, magic reserves depleted, and supplies low. They had no way of confirming if anyone had seen their signal, if it was still there, or if base camp wasn’t even destroyed in the avalanche. Taibre weeps. It’s not the choking, body-wrenching sobs of before, but a soft, reserved, unending flow of tears, punctuated by the occasional soft wail and hiccup. Ranita, utterly exhausted, sits down, placing her head between her knees as she tries to keep herself grounded. [i]What can we do, what do I have, how deep under are we, how many hours of oxygen are left--[/i] “Is this how he died?” Ranita looks up, but Taibre isn’t talking to [i]her[/i]. She’s looking at the wall of snow—no, beyond it even—as her tears dribble down her neck, soaking into her scarf. Ranita finally allows herself to ask Taibre the question she’s been wanting to ask all morning. “Who is [i]he[/i]?” Taibre gasps, having forgotten Ranita was even there. Her knuckles strain and go white as she tightens her grip on the lantern. It’s quiet for a few beats before Taibre’s shoulders slump, the tension in her body disappearing. “My… brother.” She sits down next to the pearlcatcher, setting the lantern down between them, like a barrier. “He died when we were still children,” She takes a deep, shaky breath, trying not to lose her composure again. “He died in an avalanche, huh? I can uh, see how that’d be hard for you,” Ranita says. She’s trying to be helpful, but she can’t help but cringe a little at her choice of words. Taibre puffs out air from her nose, something between a sigh and a snort. “No, no. That’s not it.” Slowly, with her fingers gripped tight around her elbows of her sleeves, she tells Ranita of that night in the woods, his fall, her abandoning him in the storm. How she’d disregarded her mother’s wishes. How they never found her brother’s body. How she’d gone on this stupid expedition as some kind of stupid healing exercise, like picking some stupid rare flower from a stupid dangerous mountain was going to make it all better, wipe away her guilt and sins, let her move on with her life, maybe. It’s a lot. All Ranita can really do is just nod along as Taibre just dumps, and dumps, and [i]dumps[/i] a lifetime of trauma onto Ranita. It’s exhausting to listen to her talk down about herself over this thi8ng that happened so many years ago. “Are you done?” Ranita finally cuts in, interrupting some self-loathing tangent Taibre was going down. “Uh, uh,” Taibre stutters, shocked by the aggressive outburst. “Listen, I—ok, listen, ok?” Ranita starts, flustered, running one hand through her mane, “I get that like, your brother died in a storm when you were kids. And that sucks, like yeah, I can’t relate to that, but MY [i]god[/i], you’ve really gotta get over yourself.” Taibre’s jaw drops as Ranita absolutely goes [i]off[/i] on her. “All you’ve done is shit on yourself and talk about ‘oh woe is me, I was a bad kid and now I deserve to be miserable as an adult! Waaah!” she mocks. Taibre is offended. Royally. “ExcUSE me?” “You’re really sitting there and beating yourself up decades later over something that happened as a kid!” “Because it’s [i]my[/i] fault, I--” “THERE IT IS AGAIN!” Get over it! Get [i]over[/i] yourself! You were like, EIGHT! Dumb kids do stupid shit all the time and don’t listen to their parents and get in trouble, and get themselves hurt, and get other people hurt, and it’s like, eventually you gotta just move on with your life! You can’t keep holding this over your own head!” Ranita throws her own head back against the wall. Taibre’s fists are shaking now as she seriously considers decking the other girl. “Who do you think you are--” “I’m no one! I’m nothing!” she yells over her. “I’m not done talking--” “WELL I AM!” Ranita crosses her arms, turning away from Taibre. “This conversation is over. Done.” Taibre, hurt, letws out a curt, “Fine,” before crossing her own arms and turning her own back to Ranita as well. “Fine.” “[i]Fine.[/i] [center]~~~~~[/center] The awkward silence hangs in the air for a while, both dragons unsure of what, if anything to say to the other. It’s Ranita that breaks, heaving a heavy sigh, before going for her backpack. “Here, take this,” she says, handing Taibre her flower pod. Taibre seems hesitant to take the pod from her. “I… what does this mean? I can’t.. I can’t take your prize away. Shouldn’t you turn that in for the reward?” “Oh [i]please[/i], it’s been like, two hours since we got buried. The winners have already arrived and they’re popping the champagne bottles to celebrate as we speak,” she deadpans. “Keep it and put it in that memorial thing, for your brother.” She presses the pod into Taibre’s hands, not taking no for an answer. “Really?” Taibre holds the pod gently, unsure of what to make of the kind gesture, especially after that outburst. “If you’re sure…” “Yeah, it’s fine. Just do me a favor, and, get a therapist after this?” She chuckles as she runs her hand through her mane again. “Your coping mechanisms [i]suck[/i].” Taibre snorts, and then chuckles, and then laughs, and then scream-cry-laughs as the tension between them finally dies, Ranita joining her in her laughing fit. ----- Imma be real with ya'll I'm not gonna proofread this before submitting lol. It's late And with that, round 8 comes to a close! Only two rounds left, and then the game will be over… It’s ben a fun ride so far, hasn’t it? I’m glad you’ve all decided to join me in this journey as our friends have experienced the trials and tribulations of Sharktooth Mountain. Aid and sabotage can now be sent for round 9. Please remember to PM me using the form on the first page to send in aid or sabotage. The deadline for aid/sabotage is 05:00 FR time—any aid/sabotage sent after 05:00 will either be refunded or pushed forward into the next round. [center][i][b][size=5][size=3]Important Reminders[/center] As the event nears its end, I’d like to remind you all that [b]the last round, round 10, will [i]end[/i] at 18:00 FR time tomorrow.[b] Since it is the last round, I will be accepting aids and sabotages [b]up to 18:00 FR time[/b] tomorrow. In order to qualify for the Saturday badge, you must send your aid or sabotage in before 18:00 tomorrow. If you send an aid or sabotage any time today before rollover, you qualify for the following badge: [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/p6OoFG9.png[/img][/center] If you send an aid or sabotage any time tomorrow [b][i]BEFORE 18:00 FR TIME[/b] tomorrow, you qualify for the following badge: [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/b4Z9DvD.png[/img][/center] If you have earned all 5 previous badges, you qualify to earn the following badge: [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/9m15NCM.png[/img][/center] You can pay 10kt for any badge you may have missed on previous days. Please keep in mind if you want to buy the “all days” badge, you msut have already earned and/or bought all other badges before you can claim it. ----- [size=0][size=0][size=0][size=0] @posibee @ChaosSyst @Lucanidae @LouckyKoneko @Nihilis @COparade @Venusian @Mandragorum @Deladria @Bxy26 @lusbiana @EtherealEggs @TwelveBrackets @MUZAN @TinkaDreamChaser @Borkbean @cartographic @LynxSideris @MidnightMonarch @Cocolatia @SilentWanderer @Elfydragon @Doodlepede @Crimsonpixie @LynxSideris @Venusian @aredshroom @TwelveBrackets @ghostingskies @FelineThing @Ketchalin @findingpears @Deladria @ClearBright @Lucanidae

Ohh I love this, can I be added to the pinglist?

Oh god, four left, this is so intense.

my gosh, only four left! can't wait for the grand finale ><

darn, hope firefly makes it... maolin and firefly have such great chemistry, but woah what a wildly intense run they've had so far in the competition! they really gotta rest after this ends man.

and, thank you so much! i'm so glad you enjoyed reverence's perspective c: i honestly don't know what crown, i just found it really funny that so much weight is put on his crown and yet he isn't wearing one ^^ fr crowns are either massive and round or flowery and i was looking for something a little less flashy:") but yeah, he's just vibing with whatever strange head apparel i slap on haha

go off Ranita, she can't keep wallowing forever, i mean, is that what Ptarmigan would have wanted? its cliche, but would he have wanted his beloved sister to ruin her own life, in effect killing herself? no way. I still need to write his lore, I'll get to it one day, but no, he wouldn't want her to suffer for being a headstrong overzealous preteen like every preteen in Sornieth has ever been. it's not like she dragged him out there when he wanted to go home, he was just as willing! there was nothing either of them could have done. he fell into deep snow, and she panicked. everything else is whited out. she really did nothing wrong. she just has to realize that now

I don't blame Ranita for snapping at her, i mean, getting traumadumped on unprepared is an unenviable position for sure. what a perfect storm for them to be a little raw at eachother, and ranita isnt even a people person (dragons-dragon?) to begin with.

thoroughly enjoy the continuity between the little groupings that happened. everyone's affected. especially Firefly omg, poor fella