[Ursa Assault] Cry Havoc... - Printable Version

Pride looked to Reign, gasping out a terribly worried "Reign! Are you harmed?!" Then he was stumbling, scrambling for the hole--and back again as he saw that something was wrong about it. Not just the massive beast scrabbling and growling at the pit, no: his eyes glanced this way and that, taking in (with dawning horror) the corruption spreading through the rock. "What is that?" he cried. "Is this Mother's work?!"

He backed away again, floundering in the deep snow, blinking against the wind, ears pinning back against the cold of it.

He wished to rush to the pit's edge, to look for Giggle, for Sora--for anyone else who had fallen without his knowledge--but he couldn't get close. Nor was there any way he'd hear Sora, almost forty feet beneath the ground, past Draconua's gibbering and the roar of the wind around them--hell, he could hardly hear anyone right next to him, right now. Tahi-shei's words barely brushed past his mind, and he had to struggle to focus himself.

The white stag looked around.

The world seemed to slow as he fought to take it in--to really get an image of it to project to the other deer. Even as he did, rage gripped him briefly--Tahi-shei was blind? Fully, truly, completely blind--and had not asked anyone to show him the way? Had he even scouted Ursa out, or were they simply wandering in now, for the first time? He hadn't bothered to ask if Tahi-shei knew where he was taking them because it had seemed an obvious answer. Surely he knew. But no--they were prey. Bait. Unprepared, unable to make this attempt.

When his link established it was a brief one--faltering, flitting with faint touches of that anger, of that surprise, of his fear and grief at what was happening. That was not to say that Pride was out of control--he was thinking, fast, his logic overriding all else. But he was certainly not happy.

The churned black earth, Draconua pawing at it. Others pulling one another free, the snow rising in a vortex--no, two of them--raised by magic. Wyvern, seriously injured, blood streaming down from her waist as she hauled herself clear of immediate danger. It was a brief, chaotic glimpse--and two of them were missing from it.

The image faded.

"WE NEED TO FIND THOSE WHO FELL-!" Pride called. "WE HAVE TO GET THEM OUT!" He had a horrible feeling, however, that given the worm's descent alongside them, there'd be nothing left for the group to retrieve.

Clutched and dragged to safety, Madhukar felt frozen in time. No words came, only a heart pounding and wild eyes staring straight at Twisted. It was not a gaze like daggers, like fire; it was the gaze of a frightened animal trying to register difference between the words "enemy" and "savior".

All while wounded by the whispers. They were only whispers, rising whispers, impending whispers... for now. But the way they called to her, the way they said her name, like it was love... It was her very heart and soul screeching from her chest to be set free into the open air. The milieu of this time would impede the process, good or bad as that was for them all. For now, Madhukar had to indulge it in more inconspicuous ways...

Tahi-shei called for her. To him, as to whispers, she would listen. Turning wordlessly, stiffly away from Twisted, to the blind deer Madhukar would shout: "MADHUKAR SAFE!" Either she would fall later, or not at all. Turning then -- for a blink of a moment -- back to Twisted, Madhukar would nod, almost smile. Then she would shudder, shake her head, live again.

Next was the draconic beast sticking its stupid head in the tunnel Tahi-shei wanted to go down. Madhukar couldn't allow that. This one was certainly familiar, a heaving mass of trouble. It was they who turned upturned ground and cackled with ugly lightning. Madhukar didn't imagine they would listen to mere words.

So Madhukar would march up to the idiot, as close as she could get -- yes, even marching back over the corrupted ground -- and would try to let loose several chains of lightning. Instead, the magic backfired again. Madhukar felt the shock and terror course through her body. She began to shake, a painful migraine pounding at her head. This did not make her chrysalize, surprisingly -- if anything, it was the delivering bolt of life to Frankenstein's heart. "DRACONUA?!" Madhukar shrieked, only making it worse and worse-- "MOVE!"

It might have been a somewhat pitiful display, but Madhukar had gone through worse. This would only add to whatever was within her now, the chorus of whispers adding to the volume in her head. She was hurting, so she would make everything else hurt worse.

Mercifully, Wyvern was finally released, but she just kept falling as dark whispers swirled in her mind. Her wings flapped weakly, but the hole was not nearly wide enough to open them fully, and they had been seriously damaged anyway. There was more yelling, and the voices were so insistent that she listen... but it was difficult to pay attention to anything in this chaotic milieu. (Or maybe that was just the blood loss talking.)

All the voices seemed to dim, fading into the background. The edges of her vision blackened, and Wyvern thought maybe it was better just to keep her eyes closed. There was less pain if she stayed still. Air rushed past her, faster and faster--until at last there was a tremendous thud, and there was not even time to recognize the blaze of sensation as pain before the rose quartz encased her.

Zhusha flinched away from the ice worm's strike, everyone else's voices briefly muffled by the thunderclap beats of his heart in his ears and the gnashing jaws of the monster. But it missed, and he was unharmed, and the bird-dragon was free--"NO!"

His cry was drowned by the howling wind. She was falling, her feathers stained red, her wings unable to unfurl in the comparatively narrow hole. How far is it--? Could she even survive, injured and unable to fly, with the earth around her black and jagged? Draconua roared, fire erupting from her jaws--THIS IS YOUR FAULT, he thought with blind fury, wheeling around in the air to face her.

He could not see how far down the voidfire reached. He had no idea that Sora was unharmed, or that Wyvern and Giggle were safe in their chrysalises. He only knew that it was fire, black and roiling with toxic smoke, and that there were PEOPLE! down there. Sora's words themselves were snatched away by the wind and chaos--he only knew that there was the peccary's voice, screaming.

"GUTLESS WORMS--!" he shrieked at the group below, half-hysterical with tears welling up in his eyes. "DO YOU JUST LET HER KILL YOUR FRIENDS?" How had they not realized that such a beast could never be trusted nor controlled; how had no one thought of how bad of an idea this was? All they could do was watch helplessly and beg futilely for Draconua to stop while their allies screamed and burned.

Zhusha despaired. They were still making noise, thankfully--they weren't dead--but who knew what Draconua might do next? Who here could do a single thing to stop her, if she wanted? he wondered bitterly. There was absolutely nothing he could do to defend the ones below. He could not lift them, nor go inside to stand beside them, nor stop the chaos beast's frenzy.

But perhaps--he could redirect it.

A distraction, like the one that had diverted the ice worm's attention away from the poor wyvern? Zhusha did not know if it would work, but he was too desperate and too enraged to care anymore. He dove once more, a mere speck of brown next to the valkhound's towering size, driving his beak forward as he had with the ice worm. The back of her head, an eye, one of the... ear crest things... Zhusha did not care what he struck, as long as he struck something.

The world was spinning around him and suddenly-- it stopped. An invisible hand grabbed at Reign and pulled him back from the brink of black, cold earth. Something flashed through his mind during the grab, something dark and scattered and corrupted, before settling into the back of his brain. And he was out again.

The cheetah took a moment to breathe, gasping, trying to regain all the energy he lost while splayed out in the snow. His cloak still hung around his shoulders, if barely. Amber eyes turned to the pale deer. "No. I'm fine. Thank you, Pride."

The spotted knight hauled himself to his feet and looked at the aftermath. The militia fell apart so quickly. Everyone was shouting, the great beast (he knew she was a bad idea) was regurgitating black flames down the now-empty hole, injured gembounds were everywhere-- 'This is bad.'

The first thing he saw was a crane, spiraling through the air and aimed for Draconua. His heart skipped a beat. As much as he disliked the beast for causing this mess, turning on eachother would only make things so much worse. Reign suddenly made a charging movement forward before skidding back, forcing the kinetic energy to form an invisible barrier between him and the valkhound. "STOP FIGHTING! All of you! Our enemy is MOTHER, not each other!" his deep voice was booming. "You're drawing more attention to our location! Let's all calm down, and think this through STRATEGICALLY. Pride is right-- some of us need to go down and find those missing. Are we going to do that, or are we going to continue spitting flames?"

For a moment, everything was still. A lanky, snow-frosted siamese gripping the hand of an anthropomorphic torbie, dangling over the edge of a chasm. Two twin pairs of green eyes reflecting animalistic fear against each other. Mirrors. Twisted didn't dare breathe.

Then the Ice Worm retreated back underground with a hooowl of wind and a snap of ice, and Twisted realized they had to get out of here right now. She pulled both of them away with a grunt of effort and pains from muscles not meant for pulling, a gust of snowy wind assisting her, and then she collapsed onto the black-stained snow, panting. They were safe.

Oh, and there were whispers in her mind now. She didn't particularly care right now. Her first-row seat at the edge of the crater gave her a spectacular view of draconua's massive, corruption-laced claws gripping the edges. She still didn't care. When enough seconds passed that she could actually stand up without losing all her energy she finally cared enough to shout "TWISTED HERE!" just like the other feline did. She didn't dare look at her again. Let's unpack the emotional turmoil later, when she's not in the middle of a wartime crisis.

She flomped back onto the snow, too tired to listen to anyone's dictation.

The black serpent was on his feet again, scurrying this way and that, his already frenetic energy driven higher by the pulse of chaos all around him. He darted over the corrupted ground, jaws open, hissing; his eyes stared wide this way and that at all the noise and movement.

Those shouting at Draconua drew his ire, his impermanent loyalty flaring briefly high. He hissed and snapped--at a distance--from Nemo as he shouted, and then when Zhusha folded wings and dove, Nidhogg bolted to try and meet the attack. With open jaws, of course--he wanted to leap, to scramble up, maybe claw up Draconua's hide himself, snag the crane in his teeth, crush it eat it kill it-

He soared almost gracefully in his leaping arc through the air, and for a moment it seemed like he might even snag Zhusha like some vaulting cat. But he impacted the invisible shield raised by the cheetah--and to Nidhogg, it was like he'd hit a nonexistent wall.

With an ungraceful squawk his body flipped around, tumbled back into the snow in a hissing bundle; he was on his feet an instant later, looking around and bristling.

"WHO HIT ME? I'LL EAT YOU. FUCK OFF!" he yowled, at nobody in particular. Or, rather: at everyone.