Bitch.

The soldiers begin lugging all three prisoners towards the dungeons. Lan Zhan's limp has gotten worse.

Wen Chao has thick chains put on the girls. Jin Zixuan just gets shoved in a random cell and the door slammed and bolted. He ignores Wei Ying's continued fluttering that he should let Lan Zhan go, and shoves the two of them into a cell with hay scattered on the floor. 

Wei Ying has half formed some kind of wry, optimistic comment when her eyes land on the room's prior occupant and she freezes. After a stock-still second, she lunges back towards the door, but is shoved back inside and the door slammed shut, to the laughter of Wen Chao and some of his men. She falls over from the shove, then scrambles to the wall as far from the giant dog as possible. 

"-- Wei Ying?" Lan Zhan scoots closer to her, concerned.

"No no no no no," she whimpers, ducking behind Lan Zhan relative to the dog. 

...

The dog is indeed large and gruesome and looks like it could severely injure them at any moment, but it's still very strange to see Wei Ying react this openly afraid to anything. Lan Zhan puts her hands against the stone, chains and all, lifting her arms as a shield between Wei Ying and the dog. "Wei Ying. Wei Ying. Stay calm."

Wei Ying buries herself against Lan Zhan and takes deep breaths against her friend's collar. 

"Dog," she says shakily. 

Lan Zhan is abruptly Very Distracted from the dog!!!!

"W...ei ing?

You are frightened of dogs?"

Nod nod nod. Whimper. 

Oh no. 

"I won't let it hurt you."

Shiver. Huddle. 

"Thank you."

Lan Zhan very gingerly huddles around Wei Ying in turn. She places a hand on Wei Ying's shoulders.

...how is the dog doing? Is it leashed properly?

It is Super Not. It is growling and advancing on them menacingly with zero restraint whatever. 

Shit. Okay. Okay. Keep Wei Ying calm and safe, is the most important thing. Lan Zhan gingerly pats Wei Ying's back and looks around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Possibly she could choke out the beast with her chains?

The contents of this cell:

-The dog
-Wei Ying and Lan Zhan
-Their very heavy chains
-Various pieces of hay scattered across the floor
-Anything they had in their sleeves??? They weren't frisked before they were shoved in the cell. 

Lan Zhan hasn't been allowed to keep anything in her sleeves since she was taken at Cloud Recesses.

"What do you have in your sleeves?"

"Um--"

She rifles through her sleeves for a moment, firmly Not Looking at the dog, before literally just dumping everything out. 

There are a lot of papers, including her copy of the Wen precepts and a handful of talismans, not optimized for fighting a fuckoff dog. 

Great.

Well. Lan Zhan leans against Wei Ying to help her feel Secure while she gathers her chains up and waits for the dog to get too close.

Maybe it won't? Maybe it will just change it's mind, and Lan Zhan can continue feeling Wei Ying's breath on her neck helping...

The dog lunges, trying to take a chunk out of one or both of the girls. 

NO CHUNKS WILL BE TAKEN OUT OF WEI YING. Absolutely not permitted.

Lan Zhan presses Wei Ying behind her and swings out, trying to beat the dog back with the chains.

The dog makes a sound too deep and scary to be a yelp, then lunges again and sinks its teeth into Lan Zhan's arm. 

OW

-- she, doesn't cry out, ow, because that -- that would alarm Wei Ying, Wei Ying is very scared -- these teeth are very long, how. unpleasant. ow -- 

Lan Zhan lunges up and swings the shackle of her available hand as hard as she can at the dog's eye.

The dog lets go and seems about to lunge again when it suddenly collapses. 

-- hmm. Seems. Like nothing will immediately go wrong if Lan Zhan... also collapses, just for a little bit? She might. Take a moment to do that then.

Calmly.

Ow.

It feels rather like the entire left side of her body is set on fire.