Brrr. Don't be weird, don't be weird. You are not supposed to know this man is a dragon, just - ordinary customer. Carry on.

"Yup! But honestly, I think we're just going to drop out and start doing this full-time, so our hours will get more conventional."

"An array of places - I can give some recommendations if you want them, sparse as they are. It's a pain to find people to teach magic. But, once you get the basics you can self-teach from there."

Stall. Stall. Bella's doing something, he's sure of it, his job is to be the distraction.

"That's truly interesting," says the dragon, and as the last syllable ends he lunges past Darren for the stairs, materializing a tail to knock him over with as he goes.

Of course it is red and scaly.

He's not surprised in the slightest. Winded, knocked over, yes - but surprised, no. He coughs, rights himself, and manages to gather enough air to shout.

"Bella!" he shouts, to Bella upstairs. "Dragon's coming! He knows!"

And then he starts scrambling up and retrieving scrolls and trying to figure out how the hell they're supposed to take on a dragon.

The dragon may be faintly heard saying -

"Pantheon."

Fuck.

Meanwhile, Bella doesn't hear Darren yelling at her because she was already in Pantheon herself.

"CAM! ADANA! DRAGON!"

Unhelpfully, it's Idania that responds.

"Wait, what?!"

Wings flaff out of her back. "He won't know how -"

He does know how.

Here he is, mostly human except for the tail and the claws.

Phix flings herself into the air, only for him to finish transforming and easily snatch her out of the air and slam her back down to the ground.

Oh.

"Rae!" she hisses, to the vial of sand. "Dragon, dragon in the Belfry, grab the daeva, I am going to be very very busy."

Let's see. Dragon. How does one fight a dragon - she's more maneuverable than he is, she bets, but what can she use on a dragon? Nasty concoctions are the best bet. Or magic, but she doesn't have easy access to that and her boyfriend has left for home. The nasty concoctions are something she knows. Just - can't get to right now. Right. First priority - make sure Phix doesn't die.

"Hey, ugly!" shouts Idania, retrieving a woefully insufficient knife from her boot. "Your mother was a toad and your dad was really fucking desperate! C'mon, going for the sphinx, first? Bring it, bastard, I can take you with my eyes closed."

That is a lie. She is pretty sure that even fully outfitted, she could not manage to take the dragon. But. Not like that's going to stop her.

Idania is swatted. Yup, that is definitely painful. Is that a fractured leg? Probably, good thing she doesn't need to walk. She can fly.

"Ow," mutters Idania, floating herself back up instead of pushing herself off of the ground. Right, maneuverability, maybe not actually a strength she has when the dragon is not flying. Where the fuck are the daeva?

Okay, offense, she can do an offense. Obvious weak points - eyes, ears, underbelly, genitalia. Wait, do dragons have-? Nevermind, not important. Less obvious ones - probably any of the dragon's joints - she has a particularly vicious visual of introducing her woefully insufficient knife to between the joints of the dragon's claws. Hey, all's fair in love and war. This one is definitely under the 'war' category.

Eyes are high value, but he'll protect those like nobody's business. Let's not. Not yet, anyway. Can she - aha, look, the scales overlap but if she tilts the dagger just so, she can just -

Stab. Oh, did you need that tail? So sorry, it's bleeding now.

That'll earn her another swat.

Phix seems to be trying to say something but she's a bit too squished.

This time, Idania actually sees it coming and barely, barely manages to dodge. Ow, bad leg, stop being pain, Idania's working here.

"Yoohoo, ugly, scaly bastard! You missed!"

What was her plan again? Oh right. Get its attention. Gulp.

And that is when Max makes it through the portal, scroll in hand.

He and starts muttering a chant, glaring daggers at the dragon.

The dragon's head whips around and he spits fire at Max.

This may not be good for the scroll.

It's not really good for Darren, either. His spell fizzles. Max actually hasn't tested being interrupted during a chant before - too much risk, with this kind of delicate magic. And now he gets to find out.

The force of the unfinished chant drives itself down his throat, like his head was yanked forcibly underwater and he's gulped down a gallon or two of water. He doesn't even notice being on fire, he's too busy doubling over and throwing up, retching pitifully. Interrupted chants - bad.

The dragon can breathe fire. That's - great. Just great.

"Rae!" she screeches. "Sooner rather than later!"

"They're not in my domain," informs her god. "I'm looking. Hold on."

"Great," hisses Idania. She is going to take out her anger on the dragon. This is going to suck.

She zips to where Phix is being held, and tries the 'stab between scales' technique again. Stab?

The dragon snatches at her with his spare forefoot.

And pins Darren with a hind foot, snarling. "Sphinx's little assassin..."

There is a flash of Spring's favored colors from an upper balcony, and then she's gone.

You know what else is bad? The only person here that's in any position to fight getting snatched. Idania is not only snatched, but the knife goes flying. Those are both bad things. Very bad things.

Right, okay. Her pouch of nasty materials is in her house. Her knife is on the floor over there. She has no scrolls, but Max and Phix probably do on their persons. Except, now she can't reach them. Because she is snatched.

"Hey, asshole! Kill us and Rae's collapsing the ceiling on your ass!"

He - can't actually do that. Not without a shit ton of work that really isn't worth the effort. But. She doesn't want to die.

The dragon stands on her a little harder.

"You are not a sphinx," he muses, peering at her.

Phix is being stood on hard enough that it's hard to believe that she can breathe, let alone speak. She seems to be mouthing words but nothing's coming out.