I'm the last person to jump through the portal, but before I jump I set up a ward so the portal will close after I jump through. I walk walk closer to the edge of the portal and prepare to jump, but I outstretch my wings, just in case I need to fly.
I hop in and land feet first on the ground, whilst Alex and Talia fell in a heap, with Claire laughing at them.
I look around and notice we are standing in the middle of a street with multiple people looking at us. Guys, get up, were attracting attention" I whisper to them. Talia stands up first "sorry, we weren't expecting a 6 foot drop" she says as Alex hops up beside her saying "yea, that was rather unexpected.." Alex says "and hilarious!" Claire chimes in with a giggle. "Shut it, ghostie" I say to Claire and she shoots me a dirty look "sure, bug boy" she responds. I sigh and begin to move towards what I assume to be a alleyway.
I reach it and the others are soon in the alley aswell.
"Ok, I recognize this place," I begin to say "it's a city, Alterra, or... New Alterra, after the war that happened here several decades before." I take a few steps down the alley and say "I know a guy who could locate Carter for us-" I hear a distant sound of what sounds like a flock of birds and I listen closer "what's wrong-" Claire begins to say but I cut her off with a "shh" the flapping definitely wasn't birds..
Dragons
"Ok, we have to move, now"
I say and begin to move towards the back wall of the alley "why? What's going on?" Alex asks in confusion "dragons, I assume it's Alterras police, although I don't believe the standard police have dragons, so special forces."
"What are we going to do?" Claire asks slightly worried "well, it's risky, but we're gonna have to climb up this to the roof and get inside, it should have access to a sewer" I say to the group as I prepare to hop up. "That's a 20 foot climb, theirs no way we're making it up there!" Alex exclaims. I sigh and say "see the pipes? Use them, now let's go" I unfold my wings and hop using them as a propeller, I sail a extra 5 meters above the roof and begin to fall down assisted by my wings. I land on the roof silently and call down to the others "hurry it up you guys!" Claire leisurely floats up to the top scanning the skies for dragons. "Don't worry, they're still about a mile away" I assure her "you can hear from that far away?" She asks "yup" now Alex hopped up onto the roof from the highest pipe, he leans down to help Talia up and outstretches his hand, he pulls Talia onto the roof taking deep breaths "wow... You are not light" we says "well, I'm not fat!" She says exasperated and Alex let's out a chuckle "alright, where are we off to?" Alex asks me "follow me," I say as I walk over to a hatch in the roof "this is the access panel to the attic, from their we just work our way down." I crack the access panel open and usher the others down the ladder into the attic, I go last and close the hatch. We make our way through the attic to the stairs "now, be wary, the house is old, so watch where you step" I say "thanks, captain obvious" Claire says "you don't need to walk, you can float, dummy" Talia says to her "yea, I know that" Claire responds "ok, shut up and follow me, step where I step, ok?" I say and take ginger steps forward, testing the floor. It takes about 10 minutes but we make it to the ground floor. Ok, this is the hatch," I tap the floor with my foot and Talia looks at me like I'm crazy "theirs nothing there..." She says. I call on my magic and my right hand glows as I raise it and the floor boards dissapear to reveal a hatch in the floor. I bend down and open it saying "now, this place is gonna stink, so, plug your noses" I hop down and my nostrils are immediately flooded with a awful stench of sewage. The others hop down each making disgusted crys. "Ok, theirs a sorta, underground black market not far from here, though these sewers are riddled with creatures of all sorts, so we have to watch ourselves-" as I finish my sentence I hear splashing, then see ripples moving down the water towards us. "Well, here comes one of said creatures, probably a sewer goblin of some kind, I'll deal with it" I say as I can see large spikes emerge from the water. "Oh shi-" suddenly a massive lizard - like creature burst out of the water and on top of me, immediately I'm thrown under the water and a spike forms from my arm and I stab it into the creatures underbelly repeadtly. It flops off me, and I catch a slight glint on its belly. I burst out of the water taking in breaths like a whale. "Are you ok?!" Talia asks in panic "yea, I'm fine.." I say taking deep breaths "Watch out!" Alex shouts as the creature jumps backs at me again, but I this time I get enough speed to dart out of its way, so it crashes into the sewer water. Is lumbers back and I can see it properly for the first time, it was a large lizard like creature, it was mainly blue in colour with a tan underbelly, it has spikes running along its back that lead down to a tail lined with needles. It's walking on four legs and seemed to slither like a snake. It had two red eyes and I identified it as a basilisk.
"don't let it bite you!" I shout as it charges again. Suddenly a bright ball of golden light shot at the basilisk and encased it. The basilisk let out screams and screeches as it was disintegrated. "That was close.." Alex mutters I walk over to where the basilisk used to be, in the water I saw a sparking gem,
A basilisk stone
I pick the gem up and Talia asks what it is " it's a basilisk stone, it's a gem on their underbelly, they can conduct magic and can catch quite a price at the black market. Which we should probably be going to, now" I say "is that really a good idea?" Alex asks "we have to, we need the money if we're gonna get supplies and board" and with that we plunge in ahead through the water.
