Skyflower led the way, silent and precise in her movements, and Jacques followed in her steps. Risk moved close behind him, surprisingly silent for all his bulk.
Skyflower held up a hand and they paused; after a moment she lowered her hand and motioned them forward. Nobody spoke; they all just followed. Morrigan had turned into a massive bear, but moved with a surprising lack of noise for her size; she was sniffing the air, and apparently had some sort of communication worked out with Skyflower.
Yvette was staying close to her brother's back, evidently trying to step exactly where Jacques stepped -- which he appreciated, since she was far more of a scholar and a spellcaster than a rogue. Rose and Ash trailed them at the back, half-blind in the darkness but making their way quietly along despite that. They dropped back just a bit before the prisoners' pen came into view, in something that was evidently a shared decision.
A faint grunt reached their ears, and Jacques looked over just in time to lock eyes with the gnoll who'd just come around the corner of the pen. For a moment, he froze.
Risk had no such hesitation. He dashed forward, struck the gnoll in the solar plexus and then the side of the neck, and grabbed it as it sank towards the ground, gentling its fall and cutting off its air at the same time. He returned to the group with silent steps, then used his hands to mimic breathing; Jacques took that to mean that the gnoll would live.
Skyflower nodded and blew him a kiss; Risk grinned.
There was door near the corner of the pen, heavy wood crudely fastened together and held closed with a pair of bars on the outside. Risk glanced at Jacques, who nodded and made a go ahead gesture. The half-dragon slipped forward, slid first one bar and then the other quietly free of their clasps, and then caught the wooden door as it fell towards him. That left him balancing a wooden beam and a door, but Morrigan came forward and braced the door so he could set the bar quietly aside.
"Who's there?" whispered a voice from inside the pen.
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