Kidnapping without knowing what your kidnapping and failing at it

It was a peaceful night when the plan was set in motion.

Quick footsteps echoed through the empty hallways as a shadow hushed along the silver walls.

His dark red cloak billowed behind him with every step he took, occasionally showing the reason behind this operation.

A glowing baby-sized bundle that looked like it had been woven from the starlight itself.

Thorn had to hurry and return to the others before the guards could notice that something was wrong.

They couldn't afford to fail now.

Not when they had come this far.

Turning sharply at a corner he crashed into something hard, staggering slightly when he saw that said object was a wall.  

A wall that should not exist.

Cursing under his breath, he rushed off to find another path and perhaps calm his rising anxiety in the process.

But before he could get anywhere, a bright spark caught his attention.

Staring at the blank white stone, he carefully studied its smooth surface until he found what he was looking for.

A small sigil, that glowing little shit, was the culprit behind this illusion.

And there Thorn thought he had utterly doomed himself and the entire mission.

Filled with relief, he dispelled the sigil with a wave of his hand, revealing the hallway that had been hidden behind it, and began to search for the one person that would be bold enough to do such bullshit.

It was silent as he moved through the shadows.

Eyes flicking between the wooden doors that showed up along the path.

Muscles tense in anticipation.

In a split second his eyes widened, his body already moving on autopilot and fist crashing against the mask of the person behind him.

Reappearing out of nowhere, was his friend and self-proclaimed brother Silk. Who was now sprawled across the floor, just like he deserved for trying to sneak up on him. 

Groaning in pain, Silk sat up and readjusted his pale white mask before looking at his friend's face.

"It seems that your awareness of your surroundings has gotten better Thorn," He said, amusement ringing in his voice.

"And it seems like the stupid part of your brain has expanded as well Silk,"

Thorn scoffed, flexing his wrist and helping his friend up again.

"Ahahaha, you flatter me dragon boy. And there I was nice enough to think that you might need a quick lesson on how to identify illusions. Considering how bad you are at them."

"And also. Make sure that you put the mask on your face, next time we're on a stealth mission. Just because you look cute doesn't mean that the enemies will spare you."

Thorn's embarrassed blush, which he'll forever deny, was thankfully covered again as he set off after a chuckling Silk, who had decided to make the word stupid a part of his personality.

"Silk! Please explain to me what the frick you were thinking when you put all those tests and puzzles into the probably most important mission that we ever had?! Don't you know how long it took them to plan all of this?"

"Eh...Of course, I know. But there is never a better time to test your skills than under the high pressure of a mission. And it worked didn't it?"

Despite the bitter undertone at the mention of their caretakers, Silk's smugness continued to radiate from him like smoke from burning wood.

"Argh! You're an ass you know that? Stupid and brainless that's all that you are. But fine, I'll let it slide. We don't have time to argue. So did you get it?"

"Hmph rude… but yeah. It glows like a nightlight and to be honest, I'm surprised that no one caught us with such a dead giveaway in tow. One would've thought that they would keep them closely guarded, considering how important they are."

"Well, they can't be that important if we could get them. And besides, our caretakers have big plans for them. So as long as it makes them happy, I'll be happy too."

„How naive… no wonder you're the baby of the group...never mind you don't listen to me anyway."

Pouting under his mask, Thorn did his best to not snap at Silk again, since he knew that he wanted that and he refused to give him that satisfaction.

So he kept quiet, mild silence floating between them as they both continued to walk.

Thorn knew that Silk disliked the caretakers as he often claimed how something was off about them.

But personally? He thought that Silk was just paranoid. After all, how could someone who raised and cared for you be evil?

Suddenly Silk stopped mid-step.

Appearing to be listening to a faraway sound.

Thorn wanted to ask what was wrong, but before he could utter a single word, Silk pushed them both against the wall and behind one of the many pillars that decorated the halls in the building.

Pressing a hand against his mouth he listened too. Forgetting that he had a mask over his face.

At first, there was nothing. Only silence and the sounds of the night.

But then he heard it. The quiet and distant, but slowly approaching sound of rattling armor.

His body trembled at the realization.

A guard was coming their way.

And if they were to be seen with those bundles...

His heartbeat picked up.

The stench of fear invaded his nose and it only grew when he noticed that his body started to change.

Silk quickly began to whisper reassurances and stroke his dark brown hair in an attempt to calm him down, ignoring the sting of the growing Horns and scales on his palm.

It wouldn't do them any good if he were to transform in front of a guard.

The latter came closer and closer until they couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. Thorn's panicked breathing came to a halt as he froze.

Silk carefully peered from behind the pillar, flinching back when he saw him standing at the end of the hallway with his back turned towards them.

They both knew that they couldn't delay any longer and simply waiting for the guard to leave would take up to much time.

Handing his bundle over to Thorn who had calmed down by now, Silk unclipped his mask as it would only hinder him in what he was about to do.

He placed it into Thorn's gloved hands and smiled at him. His warm grey eyes filled with a normally hidden affection since he trusted him to keep it safe.

They were family, and he would do anything to protect those he loved.

Standing up, Silk's grey eyes were engulfed by the color of his iris and within the blink of an eye, he vanished from sight.

Then there was a moment of silence. Thorn listened with batted breath while clutching the items close to his chest. Even though he had faith in Silk's abilities, he couldn't quite stop the flicker of fear that passed through him.

He flinched.

A loud crash of metal rang through the night, followed by a surprised yelp and the dull thud of flesh hitting the ground.

The soft sound of a bell followed shortly after.

Releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding, Thorn stood up and made his way towards his friend, who was leaning a paralyzed and blindfolded guard against the wall.

The dagger with the paralyzing effects was sticking out of one of the uncovered areas of the guard's body, before Silk removed it again. Thankfully it hadn't pierced the skin.

Drawn onto the blindfold was another sigil, but this time it was meant to erase the guard's memory from this encounter once the cloth got removed.

At least it was supposed to.

Thorn always had been bad at remembering the different kinds of symbolic magic.

It was just too much work to memorize them all, so he preferred to stick to simpler things. Like weapon forging.

A sharp stinging pain snapped him out of his thoughts. Leaving him to stare dumbfounded at the hand that just smacked him.

"Ey! Ey Thorn are you with me? Stop zoning out we gotta go!"

Silk urged, his impatience clearly shown by the tapping of his foot.

"Huh? Oh yeah yeah. Sorry," Thorn replied sheepishly and rubbed his hurting cheek.

"It's fine...Just don't stick your head into the clouds that often, we have to focus. And stop pushing your mask up! I know they're uncomfortable but do you really want to risk getting recognized?"

Thorn quickly shook his head, that was really the last thing that he wanted. Not only would it cause more trouble than necessary, his gut feeling told him that something bad would happen to him and his family.

And he knew that his gut was always right.

The wooden door swung open in a wide ark when they finally arrived at the meeting point. Said door nearly slamming against the wall if Thorn had not caught it in time.

"Drama queen,"

He murmured as he watched Silk join the rest.

Their team, including them, was made up of twenty people.

The sheer size of it being painfully obvious in the small storage room that they had picked.

At least it was quite plain and easy to overlook from the outside, so they should be safe.

Looking around, Thorn could see that the other fourteen people that had gotten the same mission as him and Silk, also carried the glowing bundles with them.

The last four were their leaders and had stayed behind. They were busy stabilizing the world portal that bathed the room in soft white light. Which was also serving as the only light source in the windowless room.

It was only now that they realized that maybe bringing a flashlight with them wouldn't have been a bad idea.

The portal itself was a swirling mess of colors and could currently transport only one person at a time. As such, the bundles had to go first.

With a high amount of patience and care, they sent the bundles through the portal and if they were correct, it would take them about ten minutes to arrive at home.

So now it was the team's turn to finally leave.

A loud bang interrupted the concentration of the stabilizer.

The door burst out of its handles.

Loud shouting filled the room and silver-blue armor clattered inside.

The guards had arrived.

And disaster began.

Charging at the group of intruders, they started to fight them off. All the while the stabilizers tried desperately to fix the slowly breaking portal in a long-lost fight.

Lightning started to spread around it as the glitching got more violent.

The sound of static coming from the portal got louder and louder.

The surrounding fight slowly stilled when they noticed what was happening.

Each of them began to back up, trying to reach the exit as a chance of escaping whatever this was.

A bad feeling rose in their gut, skin crawling with fear and unease spreading around them.

It screamed danger.

Horror bled into their eyes when they finally realized that there was no escape.

Thorn was numb to his surroundings as he stared at the screeching portal. The screams and cries of the people around him strangely muffled in his ears.

He barely felt the hands grabbing him and pulling him to false safety.

His brain was sluggish and slow, as he realized that those hands belonged to Silk, whose panicked face filled his vision.

He couldn't hear his words. Couldn't hear his cries and broken sobs.

His pale blond hair fell into his face, grey eyes filled with raw and utter fear. The unclipped mask laying long-forgotten beside him.

Then it exploded.

Thorn felt the shockwave hit his masked face, a part of the mask chipping away in the process.

Blazing light burned away the unprotected skin.

The liquid fire spreading across his cheek and horrified screaming clashing against the numb silence in his ears.

It took him too long to realize that it was him who was screaming.

Silk's face twisted into a grimace of terror. Tears shone in his eyes, before the mask reappeared on his face through an automatic summon.

The shockwave blasted them into a wall.

The walls and ceiling, collapsing onto everyone in the room.

The last thing Thorn saw through his pain-filled gaze were the falling rocks. His senses flaring up in agonizing pain as his body was crushed beneath them.

After that, they were consumed in darkness.

And the ten minutes never came to an end.