The weight of Colette around his shoulders had grown mastadonic even as Darragh stepped through the door of the inn's rooftop storage area, thankful that the impending darkness and curfew had left everybody indoors. He shimmies his body sidelong to break past the frame of the door before huffing deep breaths, trudging toward the edge of the roof, praying silently for some avenue to appear that wouldn't involve jumping or throwing. For such a small wyrm - at least on a scale of wyrms - Colette was of rather tremendous weight, perhaps simply due to the fact that she was currently dead weight and unable to contribute anything beyond her gravitational pull. Still, even at half her weight, Darragh was rather confident that there was no jumping with her atop him from rooftop to rooftop, nor was there any chance of him launching her from one to the next.

His eyes quickly scanned for the storage area he had previously perused when he'd shown up earlier, examining for anything that might be useful, settling upon a wooden bit of plank that jutted out from a pile of garbage. Darragh sat Colette's still body upon the ground before hurrying over, yanking free what turned out to be a rather lengthy plank, sighing with relief, both at the find and, most fortuitously, Kilbell's layout, which was so immensely dense that, beyond the main street, the buildings were so tightly packed that he immediately scoped out the next building over, judging barely an eight foot clearance between the two rooftops.

"Gods damn, this is going to work," he muttered, more so in grim complaint than praise, stepping over to settle the plank in place, making sure the adjoining rooftop was indeed in the direction they were headed - the town's two exits were at the north and south ends of the settlement, and with Fardenn to the west, that was the portion of the town they would need to make their escape.

Their route in place, Darragh roared a growl as he threw Colette back over his shoulders, her immense wyrm weight seeming to have grown since last time, but he carries on, now terrified of the possibility of the plank giving way. Still, their options were now limited, as was their coin; it was either this, or a life of servitude for Colette, either toward Maggie Mitchell or the Magisterium. She didn't need to be conscious for Darragh to know the option she would have wished to take.

He took a step. The wooden board creaked but held its form. Darragh exhaled, ostensibly to relieve himself of whatever weight his lungs might have held with such a breath, but also because the moment had simply been so horrendous so as to render him speechless. Another step, and then another. Carefully, he begged his will to deny the urge to hurry across, knowing he needed the board to advance further yet, finally reaching the next rooftop and shooting this next breath into his lungs like a gunshot. Quickly lowering Colette, he retrieved the board, lest Lincoln Milne be on their tail, raising his attention as he peered out upon the town behind them.

"What in the...?"

The glow of flame and din of roaring voices had begun to take shape in the distance. He carefully stretched a head over the edge of the rooftop to peek down toward the streets below, finding many men and women trawling the roads with pitchforks and weapons of various usefulness, grumbling and yelling obscenities, all with the twinge of anti-Mage sentiment.

"No time like the present, then," Darragh muttered toward Colette as though she could hear him. He quickly repositioned the wooden board and retrieved her, straddled across his shoulders before carrying the both of them across the next span, much more confidently now that he knew they could be held.

It happened again, even, and another time further. Four spans in, Darragh loosed his weight and crouched down for a rest, his breathing ragged as she flames and uproar grew even more violent near the center of town, with auxiliary incidencies occuring around town, fires popping up here and there. Shaking his head, he turned, counting only one more rooftop before the next span would be the city wall; from there, it was a toss-up from what would be found there and how they would reach the ground, but it was a bridge to be cross at that time, not now.

Returning to his feet, Darragh wiped his brow, the collective heat of the town rising rather immensely, as he examined the penultimate span, finding a stretch of flame on the ground below. He bit his teeth; it was too late to circumvent this path, he figured, and the plank had been fine up until now. They hadn't a reason for worry. They would carry on as they had. He returned for the board, setting it appropriately and then going for Colette, tossing her over his shoulders.

"Fuck," he groaned, shaking his head, "Maybe that axe beetle wouldn't have been a bad idea, gods damn."

He battled the weight bearing down upon his shoulders, stumbling for a moment before pausing. Sweat poured down his forehead as his eyes remained glued to the final rooftop ahead of them, heavy breaths braving the coarse air that grew more choking with every new conflagration that overtook the town as more and more people joined in against the Magisterium's imposed regulations. The Mages would no doubt win, he knew, only strengthening their resolve and further weakening their resolve to remain relatively civil in their hunt for those whom had wronged them - he and the woman overtop his shoulders. There were no longer any moments left to waste, even before the thought of Lincoln Milne reached his mind.

Darragh fought back a debilitating cough as he stepped onto the board, its creaking having become all too familiar by now. He shifted his weight forward, the same as he'd done up until now, relying upon the same familiarity that he'd won, hoping as though the wooden frame of this instrument had built trust the same as he, as though the two were cohorts. He knew better, of course, but it was a comforting thought nonetheless, in a moment were comfort was a valuable commodity. Colette's weight remained, for what comfort that offered; for all the pain and difficulty it added, in nevertheless came as a reminder that there was yet mission ahead. She wasn't yet lost to the whims of that man behind them, nor the Mages.

Another step. Another creak came as a surprise. Nearly halfway across, he hadn't known the board to begin weakening at this point. His head lowered, watching the wood beneath his feet only to find the flames at the road below, reflecting off his eyes, recognizing what the sudden dryness of the air around him was doing. Darragh immediately took another step, readying to lead when the plank gave way altogether in a sudden brittle tearing sound, his arm reaching out and only just wrapping around a tiny chimney of brick as his body slammed against the side of the building.

"Ffffff-UCK!" he cried out, his voice a mixture of pain and strenuous exertion as he bore the weight of not only his own body, but Colette, which just as quickly began to shed from his shoulders.

He threw his head around, eyes wide in abject terror as Colette's body slipped free from his shoulders. With an immediate and instinctive reflex, Darragh's free hand flew through the air, not even thinking of its direction as it took hold of whatever scale that it could grab hold of, the tips of his fingers digging deep into solid keratin shards as his body immediate tore itself in two directions, all while hanging there off the side of a building.

"Gkh!" he strained, tears swelling up at his face, not only from the acrid smoke billowing across his face but from the strain he refused to submit to that gnawed at his every sense and nerve, "FFFF-!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Colette's voice pierced the veil in the span of a split second, her vision awakening as she dangled upside down, peering down at some obscure alleyway with an altogether uncomfortable feeling down along her side from where Darragh's fingers had been dug.

"Colette- PLEASE!" Darragh begged, his voice whetted with panicked desperation enough to immediately dispel all questions as Colette immediately spun her head around, eyes thrown open in shock as she took in the situation.

"Okay! Okay," she muttered quickly, thinking as quickly as she could, "If you can- I don't know, toss me up there, I can-"

His voice, mournful as it was, had melted into something desperate and altogether anguished, "If there was ever a time for you to figure out those muscles, Colette, I swear-"

"Gods damn," she drew in a breath, thinking aloud, "Okay, okay- Wyrms are, like, ninety-eight percent muscles, right? Let's just-"

She threw her body upward, but to little effect, though it was progress. It was more akin to a flail, though the muscles she had used where ones she had some control over and had been acquainted with, with some new ones she recognized as such and which bore some signals with which she figured she could recreate in the moment. She tried again, the result not much different.

"Stop, stop," Darragh begged, "You're gonna tear my arm off."

Colette eyed him, "Okay, well-" Her sensed tensed, but it was no time for the consideration of things well beyond this moment. "Lift me up, just enough. If I can time it just right, I can make it to your shoulder and shimmy up their if I can use your head. It may just work."

Darragh shook his head, "I'm game for anything at this point, just- Please make it count."

"When have I ever let you down?"

He didn't bother muttering a teasing reply, exhausted as he was. All Darragh cared about was survival in that moment - not only for himself, but for his travel companion as well. He raised his arm as Colette wormed her way in position, growling as he mustered up what little of his strength remained.

"GHAAAAA-!! GO!!"

Colette tensed her face, throwing her body in a flail to the side and, against all odds, managed to latch onto Darragh's shoulder, snagging her head onto his by locking her head overtop his shoulder. Darragh reached behind him, still bearing the weight of her entire body, but progress had given him a second wind, and he managed to grab hold of some scale of hers, offering her some support to build upon as she forced herself up and onto the rooftop.

She didn't bother with even a sigh of relief. Colette threw her body around the same chimney Darragh had to stabilize herself before reaching her head down.

"Grab on!"

He eyed her, the last of his strength waning, before giving out entirely. His grasp around the chimney failed just as he took hold of her head, his hand sliding off before he fell. The scene played out before him almost in slow motion - despite everything, it was to end like this? It wasn't over, of course; perhaps they could regroup, he could find his way up to the rooftops, avoid the Mages - assuming Lincoln didn't find her first. If Colette was smart, she would press on without him. At least he could find contentment in the fact that she could do so, even if he couldn't cross the finish line with her. Though, he found it rather odd how much that idea bothered him.

Like a viper, Colette's head flew through the air, teeth bared as she snatched Darragh's arm out of the air, sinking her teeth into his sink amidst a sudden shooting pain throughout his body as he swung into the building once again. He winced as the pain of Colette's teeth excoriated every nerve in his arm, singing even the nerves in his shoulder, his chest, causing his brain to burn with fight or flight despite his absolute exhaustion. He twisted his head to where Colette's wyrm face sat sunken into his arm, eyes wide in terror as though she'd been forced on instinct, tears streaming down her face as their eyes met.

Darragh's eyes, already molten, began to melt with tears of his own due to the pain, though he quickly drew a breath as the pain began to dull. He took his other hand and carefully took hold of Colette's scalp, digging his feet into the side of the building before him.

"You pull, I push."

She snorted in agreement, the two working in uneasy trepidation the entire way, especially as Colette's teeth began to tear flesh as she pulled along Darragh's arm. Her tears continued like a stream, offering something of relief, to Darragh's surprise, though he didn't bother to mention it, or tease her, exhausted as he was; or rather, how heartfelt it had been. As they managed the roof, Darragh grabbed hold, granting him further purchase and allowing him to pull himself up with one final tug where he collapsed onto the rooftop, unable to speak beyond his coarse breathing. Colette unwound herself from the chimney, watching him from afar, particularly his arm. She appeared almost horrified, if not by her own actions than by the results of them.

Darragh pushed himself up to one knee, turning his downturned head to find Colette, "Alright. We're too close to risk it on rest now."

A nod.

Be it shock, trauma, or the collective of both along with the simple willful act of forgetting, it wasn't much else he would ever recall of their escape from Kilbell.