Terezi glanced behind her to see if the Witch was still hot on her tail. It was her fatal mistake. She never saw the end of the road coming and fell down the space separating the garbage from the town. After scraping her skin against several rocks, she crashed through wooden racks, chunks flying away and ended her fall rolling to the ground, laying unconscious on her stomach with teal blood all around.

Had Jade been any less a tenacious soul, she would have more than likely abandoned this entire endeavor the moment Terezi slipped through her grasp. The Witch and the Scale did not necessarily get along by any means. Nevertheless, under this thin surface of pastries and crackpot theories, they shared a greater, more vital common goal. The both of them dreamed of a rebellion—a rebellion that would translate to righteousness, equality, and justice. And yet, after all of that running and weaving through crowds, all the Witch had been able to gain was but the sensation of the troll’s sleeve against her fingertips. And then, the other young woman had vanished, lost to the crowds of Prospit.

Giving both a groan of frustration and a whine of disappointment, Jade slaps a palm to her forehead. Her pace slows to a more even trot, green eyes searching for disgruntled carapaces and trolls alike. Terezi, whether fortunately or unfortunately, had been in such a hurry, she had displaced many people along her way to wherever it was she had been heading. The trail was not tremendously arduous to follow—Jade just had to head off in the direction that the grumbles, mutters, and glares indicated. Soon enough, she finds herself directed to the Slums. While most certainly an area Jade was unaccustomed to, visits to the Apothecary aside, it still managed to be navigable. Such a feat just required a bit of assistance was all. It turned out some of those pastries Jade had purchased made for a valuable trade. Hungry young carapaces were eager to point the way the panicked, dragon-cloaked troll had headed off in.

The sight that comes to greet the Witch horrifies her. There is the distinct show of displaced items—rusted pipes and rotted, wooden crates turned over and sticking up at odd angles against a sloping landscape of muted brown. Yet, the most prominent display of color comes from the streaks and streams of teal thrown this way and that along the gentle descent. Green eyes wide in a nervous terror, Jade trips and stumbles her way into the odiferous garbage heap. Finally, her sights catch on the crumbled form of an unconscious, but familiar troll. Teal pools around her limp form, hood knocked from her once-mysterious visage. With a sort of morbid curiosity, Jade takes rushed, hurried steps forward before finally falling to her knees before the other young woman. Terezi does not make to stir. After swallowing down her rising panic, Jade ever so gently scoops the upper most part of the troll’s body into her form, so that Terezi is slouched up against Jade. The Scale’s face lies in the crook of her shoulder, the Witch’s arms loose around her back.

“It seems my powers will be necessary for this. I cannot afford to waste any time.”

Her powers come in a surge, like high-pitched white noise in her ears and electricity across the expanse of her skin. Jade feels superheated, while her entire being experiences the sensation of a desolate hollowness. There is a sinking feeling within Jade’s gut, and she knows that the portal worked as she had hoped. The last bursts of green light dance before the Witch’s eyes, and then die out to reveal all as it had once been, save for one important detail.

Terezi would be in the Low District Infirmary.

[To be continued here: https://skaianwars.rpg-board.net/t66-delicious-dangers-continued#609]