Rainbow Dash blew a thoroughly disgruntled breath out her mouth. “Okay, so how are we doing this?”
Godfrey reached over to the wooden beams that barred their escape and rapped a knuckle on them, then squeezed a couple of them slightly between his talon. “Well if we’re working together I figured I should pull my weight and do the heavy lifting for us.”
“Heavy lifting?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yep. One second,” Godfrey grinned and stepped to the back of the cell. He then bounded forward at full speed and smashed shoulder first through the bars—carrying Rainbow with him thanks to the short chain and utterly destroying any remnants of the wooden barrier that had just held them. Broken wood clattered to the ground around them as Godfrey dusted himself off.
Rainbow herself frowned and stood up, rotating her shoulder after Godfrey practically yanked it out of its socket. “You could warn me next time.”
“Wouldn’t have been as fun,” he winked at her.
“Pff,” Rainbow snorted and rolled her eyes.
“Anyways… I suppose we’re getting out by following the way those lizards came,” Godfrey said and started walking down the hallway.
“I’m going to be in front, Godfrey,” Rainbow said and quickly sped in front of him. “I decide where we go, got that?”
He shrugged. “Fair enough.”
“And another thing. No killing. I know we’re probably going to have to fight our way out of here. But no killing. If we’re working together, that’s the one thing above all else that you need to follow.” Rainbow Dash glared at him.
“That’s fine. After getting a glimpse of these lizards I doubt they’ll be enough trouble that I’d need to go that far,” Godfrey grinned at her. “Silly for you to care so much though.”
“No, it’s wrong for you to not care.”
“Heh.”
Before Rainbow could retort to his apathy she heard the sound of running coming from ahead. Taking a better look at the hallway for the first time now that Godfrey wasn’t distracting her, she saw that the corridor went straight for about fifty feet before stopping at a wooden door. There were also several other cells lining the wall right next to the one she and Godfrey had been stuck in. When she looked inside the nearest one she realized that it was actually occupied, three lizards were chained up in it, shackled and hanging on the far wall. So the prison wasn’t just being used by her and Godfrey. They hadn’t made a sound this whole time though, maybe they couldn’t. Unfortunately she couldn’t really help at the moment—and they might have been imprisoned for a good reason, Rainbow truly couldn’t know. Either way the running soon stopped and the door at the end was thrown open to reveal a party of surprised and startled lizards.
“Guess they heard me. Want to say hi to the welcoming party?” Godfrey smirked at her.
“Doesn’t look like we have a choice,” Rainbow cracked her neck. “Let’s just get out of here.”
The two ran together at the lizards, Godfrey having to match her stride so he didn’t accidentally carry her away or drag her across the floor. The lizards started squawking and hissing loudly, yelling down somewhere past the door they couldn’t see. Rainbow narrowed her eyes—these ones who opened the door didn’t have any weapons like the others. They had come here in a rush, unprepared. That made things especially easy.
Godfrey and Rainbow Dash barreled into them, knocking all the lizards over and obliterating the door at the same time. Rainbow couldn’t help but grin as it happened—she may not have known what was up with these lizards, but they had imprisoned her for no reason, they had chained up her wings, and it sure felt good to show them who they were messing with. Godfrey had been right too, the lizards skinny frames didn’t pack much muscle at all. It had practically been as easy as bowling over a group of fillies. A few tried to stand back up but a few quick punches from Rainbow and Godfrey knocked them out or kept them down and in pain.
“Come on, come on, you could’ve at least brought some weapons to make this a little tougher!” Godfrey laughed.
Rainbow ignored him. “Alright, where to next?”
In front of them was a stone stairway that both went up and down several more floors by the look of it. A red arrow pointing down was painted on the wall next to a green arrow pointing up. And to the right…
“Hisss!” Several lizards with spears were running at them, loudly hissing along the way. The corridor they were coming from looked like it led into some kind of office or lobby. It was hard to tell because everything was the same sandy and dusty stone. Something told Rainbow Dash that this island wasn’t big on modern architecture.
“Since I’m assuming you want to avoid senseless violence what say we go up? Green’s a friendlier color than red,” Godfrey suggested.
“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded. “Let’s go—quickly.”
The two started running up the stairs together even as they heard the lizards chasing after them. There wasn’t any alarm going off—they probably didn’t have one—so it was likely that most of the rest of this prison didn’t even know they had escaped yet. That thought was proven when they turned to run up another flight of stairs and found a lizard guard casually walking down with spear in hand, not even in a hurry. He stiffened in surprise when he saw them but it was too late, Godfrey backhanded him into the wall and the two continued to run up to the top floor. At a few of the other floors they reached first they occasionally saw other guards who squawked and joined their pursuit, and even a few chained up prisoners being led to cells, but nothing major.
Until they finally reached the top floor and they came out in the middle of a large room with one barred window facing the ocean and the opposite wall having a locked double-door blocking the way.
“Would you mind using your key again?” Rainbow asked the griffon. From the stairs the rumbling of probably at least a dozen running and hissing lizards was coming closer.
“Gladly,” Godfrey nodded and ran towards the door. Rainbow followed with him as the griffon careened into the door and reduced it to splinters—the lock snapping like a twig from his weight and the force of the tackle. The both of them skidded to a stop along the ground just past the door and looked around.
Now this was the lobby. There were several more guards standing about, now incredibly confused, and a few chained up lizards that were about to be led through the door Rainbow and Godfrey had just busted through. Besides that there was a round area in front of them walled off by stone with more lizards sitting inside it, and a bright beam of sunlight pouring in through a hole in the ceiling that also—unsurprisingly—was barred. Most importantly was a large front gate at the end of the room. It had several windows in it that also let in sunlight from outside.
“There’s the exit,” Godfrey said.
The hissing of lizards from behind them had just reached their level too. “Sounds like we found it just in time.” Rainbow said as she glanced over her shoulder.
“Still a little ways to go!” Godfrey grinned and without warning started to run towards the gate, Rainbow Dash just barely catching on in time to keep from falling off her hooves.
“Watch it!” Rainbow yelled.
“Why don’t you try and keep up?” Godfrey laughed and jumped over the circular area in front of them while all the other lizard guards abandoned what they were doing to try and surround the two of them.
Rainbow was forced to leap with him and the two came clattering down on the other side of the stone floor, several guards rushing at them. To make sure they didn’t get stuck here while a stream of guards kept coming from behind, they had to work quick to take care of these ones and leave the prison. A wooden spear thrust towards Rainbow’s face was ducked under and she snapped the shaft with her hoof before grabbing the broken end and smacking it into the lizard’s face. Godfrey just swatted the spears coming at him out of the way and pummeled any guard he could. It was a little awkward for the two of them to fight right now since they had to be conscious of the other and couldn’t move recklessly. Rainbow herself was basically stuck where she stood since she couldn’t pull Godfrey, and he had to worry about yanking her around when he moved and potentially putting her in danger.
One last hissing lizard jumped in the air at Rainbow Dash but had his attack cut short when Godfrey’s powerful fist punched him right out of the air and into the wall.
“I had him,” Rainbow huffed at Godfrey.
“You’re going to complain about me helping?” Godfrey seemed amused as he looked at her.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get out of here.”
The two chained prisoners ran to the front gate despite the growing hissing coming from behind. The gate itself looked too big for Godfrey to force his way through but they didn’t need to this time. It was unlocked. The two threw it open and finally emerged into the outside world. It wasn’t like they had any time to sit around and take pictures, but both of them with their sharp eyes saw a lot at once. The prison’s entrance sat at the top of a plateau with most of the rest of the prison carved into the cliff behind it. Several large stone stairways made their way up to the plateau and other levels on it that were filled with other stone buildings—most carved into the plateau but some built standing free. The prison and the cliff it was inside looked to be on the southwest side of this part of the island, it gave both Rainbow and Godfrey a commanding view of the rest of the lizard city they could now see.
It was different from any other civilization Rainbow had seen on the Grand Ocean. And perhaps any she had seen on her entire journey so far. It looked more like something out of one of Daring Do’s adventures.
There were a number of large stepped pyramids in the valley under the cliff they were on. The roads and land between the pyramids was a dry and yellow dirt that didn’t look very appealing or good for growing anything. The other larger buildings in the valley were made out of stone as well with only a few rickety looking wooden buildings set up in other places. Some of the pyramids and stone buildings looked really dilapidated and worn out too, there were even a couple piles of rubble that Rainbow Dash thought might’ve been buildings at one point. From what she could see there were stone roads, or at the very least stone walking paths, but most were cracked and uneven.
To the west was just more empty land before it became cliffs and coastline but to the east there was much, much more to see. The plateau they were on tapered off at a decent slope until it ended and in the distance a huge jungle started pretty much right at the end of the valley, from what Rainbow could see it stretched for miles to the east and as far to the north and south she could see from this position as well. Beyond it was a cluster of large rocky mountains on the east side of the Lost Isle.
It really was like they had stumbled into some ancient and forgotten city. Which Rainbow Dash had to remind herself it was. They might’ve been the first outsiders to see this since the Necklace was brought here. From up here she could also see all the Lizard People out there, walking down the roads, up the pyramids, even up the stairs that led to the prison and other buildings on this side of the cliff. There were hundreds, maybe thousands just that she could see.
Rainbow bit her lip, she and Godfrey couldn’t fight an entire army if they brought one to bear. Especially not chained like this.
There wasn’t a lot of time to think about that though. A group of guards and other lizards from the prison burst from the front gate to catch Rainbow and Godfrey. They didn’t want their newly imprisoned criminals to break free and get up to trouble.
Rainbow and Godfrey turned around to get ready to fight them off but she shot a quick glance to the pirate too. “We can’t get caught up fighting here for long.”
“I know, I was thinking we head east to the jungle, we can hop down the cliffs from here and avoid the city completely,” Godfrey said as the first of several guards thrust their spears at him. He turned to his side quickly and actually let the spears harmlessly bounce off the metal chain wrapped around him. Then a few quick punches took out the ones closest to him.
“Sounds like a plan,” Rainbow replied as she ran forward just barely enough to have some slack in her chain and spun around to buck the first lizard charging at her. The next few attacks and spears were effortlessly dodged, despite the chain Rainbow Dash was still Rainbow Dash, she moved like water around her enemies. It would still be a hassle in most situations but she was already adjusting. Thankfully the lizards could only come from one direction right now too, they all flowed out of the gate and let Rainbow and Godfrey deal with them a couple at a time. But this still wasn’t where Rainbow wanted to be.
“Come on, Godfrey, enough of this! Let’s hurry up and get away from this city!” Rainbow said as she ducked under another spear and punched the wielder in the face.
“I’ll give us some space,” Godfrey smirked and grabbed one of the unconscious lizards off the ground. He threw the lizard at the ones just coming out of the gate, knocking them over and creating a pileup at the exit. “Now!”
The two ran to the east, quickly getting away from the prison as the guards tried to compose themselves. Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder briefly and saw that they weren’t immediately all just following but some were running down the steps and hissing loudly. Probably trying to alert the entire city now. Either way it gave them a momentary respite but soon they’d probably have an even bigger problem. The first problem though was there wasn’t even really a path down the plateau from here. No other buildings stood on this part of it or down below, it was a series of rocky, uneven cliffs and crags just a couple of hundred feet away.
In a normal situation they’d easily fly down.
If it was just Rainbow with her wings chained she’d easily jump down from ledge to ledge.
The two of them chained together was a little more dangerous.
They still didn’t hesitate for even a second. Both Rainbow and Godfrey started jumping down the cliffs in unison, their eyes easily picking out the safest route down and their athletic bodies and reflexes having no problem working even in this restrained state. Though there was a huge danger to both of them right now, as the slightest misstep or hesitation could send them both tumbling down, they didn’t even need to speak to each other to make it work. Rainbow was loathe to admit it but she knew to trust in Godfrey’s physical abilities at this point. And he knew the same.
Frankly, with the amount of chain the two had between them she could’ve just hopped on his back and that would’ve been safer. But she really didn’t fancy using him as a steed. He would probably also dislike that.
Instead they kept swiftly jumping and running down until they reached the bottom of the cliffs and the edge of the valley. They were beyond any buildings of the city, but the big pyramids, ziggurats, and other structures were still easily visible if Rainbow were to look behind her. There was also something else as the two briefly paused once their hooves and talons had reached level ground—a great frantic noise coming from the city behind them. Chaos. Mass panic. The sort of riotous noise that could be heard across an entire city.
Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Well the hard part’s over. Let’s say we hurry up and get to that jungle?”
“Ladies first,” Godfrey gestured towards it.
Rainbow blankly stared back at him. “You’re good at being annoying.”
She still swiftly ran off with him coming with her, the dense jungle not a far run ahead. There were no roads or paths that led into it, but that was good for them, they wouldn’t take those paths anyways when they were trying to escape and hide from the Lizard People. Rainbow just hoped that if these lizards really had the Necklace, that her next time at the city would go a lot better.