"I think it's probably best," answered 'Gold.'
Wandering over to where Flash lay entwined amongst the scaly tail, the homo sapiens shaped beast once again leant over and uttered another series of unrecognisable words. Fearing the worst, Flash channelled every ounce of strength and magic he had into breaking free, having had enough; he just wanted to fight to the death if necessary. But it did him no good. Gold's massive tail didn't budge at all. Offering up a sadistic grin as he finished off reciting all the words, the male form disappeared from Flash's field of vision, leaving him to wonder whether anything had been cast at all. Flash felt nothing, there was no difference to anything as far as he could tell. This worried him more than anything. Were they going to render him unconscious? Was it all about to end here? Two questions of many that darted around his very full, and worried, brain.
Gazing up into the distant sky which, now that the storm had subsided, had turned a warm and loving shade of blue, he wished to be anywhere else. With absolutely no warning at all, 'Gold,' shot forward at breakneck speed. In that fraction of a second, Flash braced himself, for all the good it would do, figuring perhaps a sharp drop on a steep downward slope was coming up. Imagine his surprise when a loud SPLASH bombarded his ears, before he found himself thrust into the coldest water imaginable. Writhing in pain from the iciness assaulting his body, which strangely the first mantra did nothing to protect him from, he desperately tried to fight the urge to open his mouth, knowing full well that death by drowning was particularly unpleasant. A few seconds after the initial shock, and despite the pain washing through him, he opened his eyes and looked in front of his face. A small pocket of air completely encased his entire head. Reluctantly, he opened his mouth and tried to breath normally. Marvelling at the magnificence of the magical deed, all he could think was that it would have taken an age for a dragon to achieve the same result, if that was indeed possible. It was so... simple, yet so complicated at the same time. As all of this zipped through his head, he zoomed along beneath the water of the underground stream, with great speed and purpose, gripped by the naga's strong tail. Through the bubbles and swift flow of water, he could see the human shaped naga, still sporting his stolen clothes, swimming clumsily behind them, also with a pocket of air surrounding his head. The blistering cold continued to batter his already worn body, so much so that he'd already resigned himself to whatever nightmare fate awaited him.
All of them continued to be carried on by the fast flowing icy water. Sharp twists, turns and descents would occasionally force Flash's stomach to do backflips, but overall, despite the bone biting cold of the water, the journey was remarkably comfortable. Flash knew that they were now somewhere deep inside the ice cap Law Dome. Escape now seemed utterly futile.
'Still,' he thought, bumping his head on an icy ridge, 'perhaps at the very least I can take a few of them with me.' With that in mind, he settled back and began to make plans.
* * *
Deep within Law Dome, the four prisoners' wretched incarceration continued. The human shaped scientist, along with the ragged, emaciated dragon, slept uncomfortably on, hanging on their secure chains. Staring blankly at his surroundings, whilst listening to the running water that just seemed to go on and on, intelligence flickered behind the naga king's serpent like eyes. Squatting against the cold, icy wall, having long since lost all feeling in his back, the half naked human shaped dragon continually flexed the toned muscles in his arms and legs, doing so with a faraway look shrouding his face, almost as if he were there physically, enduring the tortuous existence, but mentally somewhere else entirely.
Abruptly the cold, colourless, icy prison gurgled into life. Remaining asleep, the skin and bone dragon let out a loud, painful snore, while the human shaped scientist hung almost lifeless, too exhausted to wake. The naga king and the finely honed dragon disguised as a human exchanged the tiniest of glances. Someone, or more likely, something, was coming, they were almost certain. That's how it had happened with the scientist and many before. They always entered via the water. And it always started with the sound that they'd just heard.
Like a bath tub emptying, the gurgling continued. Strangely, the sound of the running water decreased, just slightly. It would have been barely noticeable to anyone else, but spending day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year in its company, the two prisoners could sense even microscopic changes in the running water's characteristics. Thirty seconds later there was a huge SPLASH, followed by a brilliant gold naga slithering out of the stream and onto the icy plateau next to it. Curled up in its tail lay a human, looking more relaxed than any being ever had a right to. Suddenly there was a much smaller splash, and a fully clothed human flung himself up onto the plateau.
Both the naga king and the half clothed prisoner could sense what stood before them: two nagas, one human shaped and fully clothed, and a dragon in human form, who was only now being untangled from the naturally shaped naga's tail.
Shaking some of the water from his shivering, frozen body, Flash's eyes started to adjust to the light in the icy prison. Rubbing his hands and legs together on the cold, wet floor, he took the biggest breath he could, now that he wasn't restricted by the giant tail of 'Gold.' Straining his head to look up, he caught sight of the ragged group of captives chained to the icy wall.
'So that's what fate awaits me,' he thought, trying to get to his knees.
With unwarranted brutality, the human shaped naga slammed his foot into the middle of Flash's back, forcing him back down on to the frozen, wet floor. As Flash's damp hair started to freeze to his scalp, a nagging sensation blossomed into life, right behind his eyes. At first he thought it was the pain from the cold and the shock of being immersed in the stream. But the sensation started to get stronger, almost like a knocking, but from the inside. With the naga's boot planted firmly on his back, preventing him from getting up, recognition finally bloomed within him.
'Someone's trying to speak to me telepathically,' he thought.
It was an outdated method of interaction, even by dragon standards, something akin to using line of sight communication in the human world. Opening his mind, just a little at first, fearing some kind of trap, he caught a momentary sliver of recognition from the semi naked, human shaped prisoner nearest to him. Deliberately he buried his face in the icy cold of the wet floor he was lying on. The cold cleared his mind, startling him wide awake. Opening his mind fully, he listened intently as he did so.
"Can you understand me?" asked a weary voice.
"I can," Flash replied carefully.
"We have little time. You have to listen to what I tell you without interruption. Understood?"
Lying as still as he could in the circumstances, so as not to give the two nagas a clue about what was going on, he replied,
"Okay."
"If you don't act quickly, you, like us will end up trapped here. Do you have any way of taking out the human shaped naga?"
For an instant, Flash thought it might be a trap, designed to make him reveal his true identity. As quickly as that thought entered his head, it disappeared. His gut instinct told him this was for real, and that he would indeed be trapped here if he didn't listen to what he was being told. Quickly he replied,
"Yes."
"Good. Once you've taken him out, you need to get straight back into the stream and follow its course."
"You're kidding me, right?"