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[Haspen]

The vines snapped in half pretty easily with just a single slice.

Soon the wyvern was free from the vines. It also began to wake up. Hissing and whining simultaneously, it tried to stand up but fell to the side as if its muscles were gone. Moments later Prata tried again and this time he was more successful.

The thorny vines must be applying weakening poison or something of the sort into the captives as well.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Beryn hugged the wyvern's neck and gave him a reassuring pat on top of the head.

"You dumb sonuvabitch, I was worried about you!"

After spending a few moments with Prata, Beryn turned his attention to the other captives.

"You can go on and eat those snakes if you want. You're probably hungry anyway."

He knelt by Ethan and applied his knife to those vines as well.

[Haspen]

Ethan slowly regained counsciousness, and sat on the grass, rubbing his head. A moment later, he slowly stood up.

"Uhh... what? Who?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Good to see you back in the land of the living, Cap'n. It's me, Beryn. Aiesha and Jesseo made it, too."

Beryn knelt by Apura and started to cut the horse loose too.

"Looks like we're marooned, if that's the right term. No clue where everyone else is. You were tied up in these weird vines that kept you out of it."

The hunter gestured at the cut vines on the ground.

"There were, ah, some snake women of some sort gambling around you. I think maybe they were using you and Prata and the horse here as stakes. Winner gets whichever one they want to eat, probably."

"Good thing for you they're dead and we're here, huh?"

[Haspen]

"What about the white fog? Where's everyone else? Do you remember anything after the, ah, explosion or what was that?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Sorry, Cap'n. Just the explosion, then Aiesha waking me up on the beach to the south of us. We'll find the others, though. They gotta be somewhere on this island."

Beryn finished freeing Apura and sheathed his knife.

"Oh, and, uh... the ship's pretty banged up back there. I dunno if it'll go without some serious repairs done."

[Tiruin]

Cut the vines loose from my horse (but then keep a nice quantity of it for experimentation or sampling--or at least the liquid dripping from the thorns)

Then apply heal staff to everyone.

"Captain, no disrespect here--but I'd want to interrupt and ask you one thing: What do you remember before all this?"

[Haspen]

Ethan glared at Beryn for bringing bad news, then turned to Jesseo.

"Well, the combat against tentacles, then the underwater explosion, then the white fog, then another explosion and the ship started to rock... I tried to call you but no one was responding."

"And then you, uh, woke me up here?"

[Tiruin]

"No memory of waking up on the shore or any such idea? The last thing you remembered was on the ship? Aiesha, can you identify their captors?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

"How should I know?" Aiesha asked,  wiping her blade off on some handy foliage. "But it sounds like we all remember about the same stuff. With a big blank spot." Aiesha sighed, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "So boss, what's our next move? We followed tracks into the forest to find you,  but the trail disappeared pretty early. And we're still down like half the damn crew."

[Haspen]

"Searching the forest would be tedious and we don't even know which way is which." He looked at Prata.

"But we have a wyvern rider with us."

[SeriousConcentrate]

"I gotcha. Just let the kid have a moment to get his strength back. Those vines are no joke."

Beryn patted Prata's snout.

"You good to go? Alright then, let's get some air."

The hunter placed a hand on the wyvern's neck and vaulted up onto his back in one smooth, practiced motion. Prata reared once, and then with a few powerful flaps of his wings bore both of them aloft to get a view of the island from above.

[Haspen]

"Good luck. Find my crew."

Prata went up and up above the thicket of the jungle. Immediatelly Beryn could notice a large clearing to the north and some brown-orange protrusions sprouting from the ground. Those could be buildings, ruins of buildings, sublimely shaped rock formations; and little tiny dots were moving amongst them.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Beryn grinned to himself.

"All right, Prata, just like we used to do: buzz those buildings and give the people in 'em a good scare! I wanna get a good look at the place before they realize what's going on."

The hunter urged his mount into a dive that swept just above the protrusions, the wyvern letting out a loud shriek of greeting (that sounded more like a predatory bird about to seize its prey) as Beryn whooped.

"HOW'S IT GOING!?"

And then with that the two of them were back in the sky, Beryn having gotten his look at what the dots and protrusions were, and circled back toward the clearing he had left the others at.

[Haspen]

The angry, surprised and terrified faces of many snakewomen looked up at the wyvern as it passed.

The protrusions were buildings, but of material and architecture not seen before. It had dull orange color and had a metallic shine. The edges were smooth and the doorframes oval. For Beryn it was something strange, but those who were in House of Scholars would note certain similarities with the secret machine.

Only few buildings looked intact; the rest were missing roofs and various parts of the walls.

Of note there was also a large pit in the middle of the ruins; the piles upon piles of various bones couldn't be mistaken for anything else than mass grave.