Soon a young teenage dragoness staggered into the café. She wore a slight grimace and as she shuddered from the chill outside, her light pink scales rattled along when the nearby windowpanes and glasses on tables jingled in their places without cracking or falling over. Three orbs of marbled glass orbited calmly around Marver, seeming to happily float about the dragons ‘gravitational’ pull on them.

“Man, it’s freezing out.” she murmured as she hugged herself and rubbed her arms before making her way deeper into the café. The young reptilian seemed ill-equipped with the appropriate clothing for Snowdin – maybe she was just visiting briefly? – and looked more like she was better suited to endure the intense heat of Hotland. Marver wasn’t a regular here and took a moment to look about the establishment and soaked in the décor; then walked past Luis, Fia and Cliff, having not met any of them before and didn’t pay much mind to them for now as she made a beeline for the counter.

“Hi!” she greeted the feline employee, “Um, could I please have a hot chocolate…”
There was a pause as she looked over the savouries on display behind glass; to which Marver had subconsciously touched with a hand as she was making up her mind, “… and half a dozen choc-chip cookies please. Thank you!”

The Glassmith apprentice offered the required amount of payment, took a table number and made her way to sit at a table not too far from the opossum; still rubbing her arms to warm back up. A few more minutes went by as she waited for her order before she plucked one of the three glass orbs from its orbit and bit into it; the glass cracked and shattered from her bite in a similar fashion to a broken eggshell. However, any fragments which broke off and fell were stopped in their tracks mid air. It was a common habit the young apprentice had been keenly aware of doing whenever she consumed glass – for the safety of others of course.

The young dragoness winced in pain from the injuries she had accumulated from being thrown about as she pulled away from the hole in the wall. Looking around, she gasped with horror when she had regained her barings... and realized that the shards of glass she once had a grip on had scattered around the room and had lodged into some of the crying children.

She hurried over the first few, tears streaming from her eyes as she gently cradled them one at a time, murmuring, "I'm so sorry." over and over as she cautiously removed the larger pieces and tiny fragments of glass from their frail bodies. Said pieces of glass floated above her, at a safe distance from anyone in the room - unless they got knocked about again.

The dragon held onto each child as if they were her own, trying to sound reassuring whilst still sounding apologetic. By the time she reached the third child, one of the youngest ones, she let out a horrified yell when she felt the body she was hugging suddenly disappear to dust. All that remained was a particularly large, triangular piece of glass half buried by the Monster Dust.
"Oh no! No! No! No! I'm so sorry Kiwi!" she shrieked, clawing at the pile of dust; the pressure of guilt weighed heavily on her, "I should have been more careful..."

She was then suddenly distracted when she heard Cherry's voice call out for help. Fearing a similar fate, Marver's eyes shot open as she hurried over to where she heard her voice; tripping over the rubble as she went.
"Cherry!" she exclaimed when she realized the situation at hand before carefully attempted to free Cherry's leg from the chair by moving some of the other rubble aside.
"Does it hurt when I try to do this?" she asked before slowly and carefully moving the chair piece that was attached to her leg towards a more comfortable position; with any luck it may not be broken?

Somewhere underneath all the rubble, Undyne's helmet continued to rattle violently and noisily.
"I think it's somewhere over there." Marver answered, pointing towards a general direction of where the rattling was coming from. She then smiled at Cherry as she wiped the last of her tears from her eyes, "Yes! She is! She was yelling at someone out there."

The helmet suddenly shot up from the rubble and slammed into the ceiling; sticking to it, as though it was magnetized. Marver then let out a gasp of both surprise and happiness, "And my sister is here too! Cobalt is here!" she cheered before the very thought started to dawn on her and her smile quickly dropped. The dragon then placed her hands over her head, "Oh man, Coa is gonna kill me - but who cares! Maybe Undyne and Coa have friends to help us too!"

((Thanks Ty for the suggestion of being ruthless. RIP Kiwi...))

By this point Marver was feeling sick in the stomach and was already eanring a few bruises from being tossed around in the portable room.
"What is going on out there?!" she exclaimed before burying her mouth behind a hand to stop herself from throwing up.

As soon as the collar had been removed from Marver and fell to the floor with a heavy thud the dragoness let out a loud gasp. The shards of glass on the floor she had found and the glass vials of potions they all had collected immediately floated into the air and slowly orbited around the young monster. She had felt around the rim of her neck where the collar once was, patting it frequently, as if not believing it was gone; an almost naked feeling even. She teared up a bit as she not only watched, but also felt the glass float around her; even gently changing the speed of the orbiting slightly.

Marver then turned to look up at the ceiling, tilting her head in thought as they walked, "I think we may be under a house. I can sense a number of vertical, flat sheets of glass spaced out evenly from each other and clusters of cylindrical ones - among some other oddities scattered directly above us." she commented.

Once the group had entered the room filled with chairs and hammocks to head for the exit - with Marver following up the back to ensure that none of the children got left behind or wandered off - there was a locked door blocking their path. One of the keys in Cherry's hand would fit it, and when it was eventually found the door did anything but unlock.

The door behind them slammed shut, the whole room shook - hammocks swayed and chairs rattled in their places - and the room itself felt like it was shifting about to the right, physically moving. Reinforced metal walls stretched over the doors so that there were no longer any; boxing the group in. Outside they could hear a prominent voice, much more clearer than the others. Red may even recognise it to belong to that white, female Koray she had encountered before being brought here.

"It's time to move 'em out!"

Marver winced and couldn't help but squeak out an apology as she momentarily forgot about that facade. She didn't mean to trip her over that quickly! Though, thankfully she didn't seem to be too injured and after how Red had reacted to the guards behind her, it didn't matter that the dragoness had apologised anyway.

Red would soon hear a satisfying cracking sound soon after her endeavours. The bear-like Koray she had targeted was too slow and too stunned to have been able to react in time and before he knew it everything went dark in a near instant. His body fizzled to dust but before she could hit the ground a large, beefy hand coild around her neck and slammed her into a wall.

The chamber's walls were still active throughout the scuffle so to actually be pinned against the wall usually meant excruciating, white-hot pain for most monsters. This second bear-like Koray too roared in her face, "You're going to pay for that and die here foolish girl! May Aristide drink your pathetic dust with disdain!"

Panicked by the events transpired,  Marver found herself lunging at the beast pinning Red against the wall; landing on his back and biting into his shoulder with her sharp fangs. The Koray snarled, letting out a mere irritated bear-like snarl and tried to shake or slap Marver off with his free hand with little success.

The commotion in the chamber caused for the sleeping Koray canine to wake suddenly and bolt for the room, blinded by being half-awake and the other two in the kitchen too came running to see what was going on. They didn't notice Cherry was missing, assuming that she had turned to dust in the chamber.

--

The potions Cherry had attempted to reach for were all within her reach. If she chose to, could take as many as she'd like. There were three vials of potions which restored health, four which restored magic and two antidotes. There were nine unlabled potions which all looked the same, but it was hard to tell what they looked like what they might do or know if the effects of drinking them would be positive or not.

Upon entering the office Cherry would find that no one was present in the office. Though, like in the clinic the soda shark would find plenty of spots to hide in. Such as under the desk, behind piles of books or boxes, in between the large bookshelf and the wall or even behind the filing cabinet in the corner. There were a couple of sources of light to show what was around her, and that was coming from the desktop computer which was left on and a spotlight haging over a glass case containing a golden lamp in the shape of an exotic and eloquent teapot on the desk and next to the pc.The glass case was locked up tight with several locks which required codes to open and the glass appeared to be several inches thick.

If Cherry were to notice the titles on the bookshelf, she would notice that most of them had Aristide's name included somewhere in the titles, most books appeared to be relating to the subject of genies, substitutional magic, The Koray and curses. There were a couple of ominous-looking books which whispered sweet-nothings to Cherry, as if calling her and begging her to come over and open them with the promise of rewards for doing so.

On the desk there was also a keychain with several old-faahioned keys attached to them, as well as a piece of paper with a lost of names on them - most of which were crossed out already.

The walls started to grow hot once more as a low hum started to buzz. The children started to panic and whimper as they were quick to scramble for the centre again. Marver grit her teeth as she, along with the others, could feel their magic being drained once more. Though with the absence of the draconequus, the drain didn't feel as intense as before.

The dragoness, despite what was happening to them again turned to face the group as she heard footsteps head towards them again, "There's no time for a plan, we're going to have to wing it." she grunted, "The Koray are coming again, usually after this they take whoever seems to be the strongest in the room and try to exhaust them the best they can with labor. Cherry, be careful not to touch the walls, but there is a blind spot in the left corner where the door opens. When they come in and we cause a scene, that'll be your chance. Be careful, quiet and good luck."

Soon after the walls, while remained relatively hot as it drained away magic, the doors would open; but not so soon that Cherry didn't have time to get into position - should she choose to. Two hulking werebeasts stepped in, though they were not reminiscent of canine ethnicity like most other Koray were. These were larger, bulkier ursidae beasts. The pair plodded in, to see who was left and who remained... stubborn.

When the dragoness was sure they two could see the group, she was quick to head-butt Red before whispering a near-inaudible apology to her. Soon after she stretched out her wings, arched her back and let out a shrill roar at the guard.

Marver rubbed her eyes again, casting Red an appreciative smile, "Thank you Miss Red, that means so much to me. Don't worry, I won't ever give up!" she proclaimed, feeling more like herself again.

The young dragon went quiet as the others spoke, nodding on occasion, "You make a good point actually, the longer we're here the more likely we'll risk someone getting hurt. It'll be a bold move to try and get out of here as quickly as possible, but since I have an idea on what their routines usually are all we have to do is time it right." she replied in agreement before placing a hand to her chin and frown in thought.

"Hmmm... if I remember correctly, other than this room there are four others. There's an office, a kitchen, a clinic and a room with some chairs and hammocks hanging from the ceiling. There's lots of books, scrolls and a computer in the office, so if there is a blueprint of this place, that'll be out best bet. I also remember seeing an ascending staircase past a door where the room with hammocks is; and considering there are absolutely no windows in any of the rooms I'm guessing that we're somewhere under the Underground. Either that or they're just really adamant about keeping glass away from me. I don't know how many levels this place has for I have only seen what is on this floor. Though, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can find a map or blueprint, like you've suggested." she continued before making a shrugging motion with her wings.

She then turned to Kapral, "That's not a bad idea, if you all think it'll work. I haven't tried doing something like that before. I'm not very good at sneaking around so, I think it'll be safer if I stayed behind and be a part of this fake fight. I've also been wondering, if we do manage to get the collars off, how does your illusion work? Can you cast a group of monster illusions? If so how many? Or were you thinking of a substitute, like maybe a pile of dust or something?"

The silvery-pink dragoness went abruptly silent as she jerked her head towards the door. She could hear a familiar heavy set of footsteps trudging through the hallway; leaving puddled footprints behind as they went. Soon after the door swung open and Temmie was thrown in and the doors slammed shut again. Marver hurried over to her and checked her over like she did with any other newcomer for any serious injuries. Marver then sighed with slight relief before answering, "Hi Temmie, I'm Marver; and this is Miss Red, Cherry and Kapral. I don't know where we are, but we're going to try and find a way out but we have to keep it a secret from the Werebeasts, okay?"

The Glassmith Apprentice found herself pausing again as another thought had occurred to her before facing the group, "What I also want to know is, after we find out more about this place are we going to try and escape with everyone-" she then gestured to the other dozen children, "-or are we going to split up and then come back later for the rest. The way I see it there's pros and cons to this. If we try and escape with everyone we won't have to worry about tracking back and worry about any changes, but at the same time, I'm not sure how sneaking out a dozen kids and toddlers - plus ourselves - with little-to-no-detection will go. If we split up, then we probably could find a way out without them noticing... but who knows what will happen to the others in between the time we escape and come back for them. What do you guys think?"

The walls were no longer hot now and everything seemed to return to what was considered normal since before this ordeal happened. It seemed that this room needed to take a break from draining the magic from its captives. The children, though still terrified and hesitant at first, slowly clambered off of each other and huddled closely together, shoulder-to-shoulder. A few of the children whom were at the bottom of the pile gasped and breathed deeply once the others got off of them; deprived of oxygen it seemed. They had a few bruises too from the ordeal, but they were alive.

The young silver-pink dragoness' head perked up when she heard the familiar ambiance of one of The Koray dragging in what sounded like dragging yet another one in. Her heart skipped a beat but she didn't move from the pile of children and her wings stretched over them and Kapral as a desperate act of trying to protect the younger ones. She was petrified, but she felt like she had to be strong for the little ones since the pre-teen was the oldest in the room for the moment.

When Cherry was dumped into the room, Marver rushed over to her as soon as the werebeast whom brought her in was gone, "Oh no are you badly hurt?" was the first thing she asked, circling the soda-shark to see if she could spot any serious of life-threatening injuries. She did notice Undyne's helmet though and her eyes sparkled a bit, "Oh? You know Undyne? My sister made that for her!" she quickly added excitedly, taking another look at the piece of armor. She even ran a hand along the cold, smooth surface between Cherry's death-grip on the thing and Marver closed her eyes for a moment, shedding a single tear before quickly wiping it away.
'It almost feels like she's right here.' she thought to herself; referring to Cobalt.

The dragoness gasped when she heard her name, recognizing the voice instantly, "Miss Red?!" she exclaimed, rushing over to her and almost tackled her into a tight hug, "W-what are you doing here?! Wait, stupid question. Sorry, it's just, I'm surprised you of all monsters are here? No offence, but, you're kinda old." she added with a humorless chuckle, given the situation. Her eyes then wondered down as she noticed Stanley near her and she let out an, "Oooh." as though she had just pieced together a general idea of what may have happened. When Red looked over Marver's body she might notice that her scales had lost a lot of their lustre, large patches of them were messy and sticking up in different directions and void of any pieces of glass she had often kept on her body for protection. It was as though someone - or something - had gotten a large blade and removed any amount of glass that was on here in a similar fashion of indiscreetly descaling a fish.

Marver then went quiet when these questions were being asked, finding the right words to say before piping up again, "For those who do not know me, my name is Marver. I was here with the first group of children whom were kidnapped several weeks ago - I think. Some time ago, I'm not sure. It is difficult to tell what time of day it is before after what I have been through and learnt here, it seems like forever. Some of them are still alive but the rest... well. I don't think I need to explain myself further. Right up until Miss Red got here, I have been the oldest. So, I did my best to look after and comfort all of them - just like how my big sis would of me. It's hard, I don't know what I'm doing but... I try."

She took a deep breath, paused again before continuing, "This is one of the rooms we will all be moved to. They use this room to first weaken us by draining our magic away - for some reason these collars were not enough. You might find that your powers will not work as long as you wear them. The walls of this room is what drains us of our magic - it's probably being stored somewhere. Maybe. I don't know. I keep hearing words 'culling' whenever any of them were outside when the room is activated... I think they know that the weaker - often the youngest - can't withstand having so much of them being taken. So they... get Dusted. We're removed from this room and they sweep up any dust being left behind for some reason and keep it for something. It never looked like they were going to discard it." she explained as her tail rolled back and forth on the floor, "I do not know exactly where in the Underground we are in but whenever they come in with children I have noticed that they always had wet feet. I've heard that they call themselves The Koray - they're Werebeasts. Cursed monsters whom transform from a regular-looking monsters into demons when triggered to. Their demonic forms often resemble a bit what their monster forms look like. So I guess that means the curse could affect anyone? I have only seen one kind of them though... so I could be wrong about that? Their bronze teeth are their most dangerous weapon. It disrupts Magic and it includes a monster's magical power, magical flow to use said power and even their physical form. The affects are not permanent I do not think, I have seen Healers heal the children they think are more... 'useful', as they put it, alive."

She looked to Cherry and gave her a small, genuine smile, "If there is a way out I haven't been able to find it - not yet. I just know that I among others keep being moved from room-to-room... but Miss Red is here now! Undyne trains her! She is super strong! She can get us out!" her voice went up an octive from the excitement before turning to look at her again, "Right?"