Finally, after what seemed like ages, the tightness in Rift's chest alleviated and he was able to scramble back to his feet. More chaos roared in the clearing then before as lightning began to strike any and all gembounds caught in its path. A cloud of something was drifting around and there were cries and screams from all around. He didn't know who it came from, all he knew was that if he kept trying to attack, he'd just get caught up in it.

He whipped around and leapt away just in time as a bolt of lightning smashed down where he had been moments before, incinerating the plants and leaving a space of pure black deadness. It almost tore his heart in two watching it happen but he forced his mind to not worry about that right now. This was just too much of a mess. Once he was out of range of the spores, he turned himself around, ready to strike back at whoever would pursue him. He couldn't leave, no, not while his friends were still fighting. Never.

@Elderberry @Jayberry @Yewberry @Sebastian @Enka @Oliver @Pride @Beyr @Artume

Pride flinched back at the sound of crashing thunder. It was out there--out at the center of the fight--and he could hear cries, smell the threading smoke from charred feathers and fur.

As the hostile magics faded, he dared to poke his head around the corner. Rift was, it seemed, down--and the hateful goose was flailing toward him, though seemingly dazed by a hit of some kind. There was light fading from before her eyes, and she was screech-honking for others to kill Rift.

What is wrong with this fiend?! and then, close on that thought's heels, She needs to be taken down. She needs to be ended. Too much of a threat to the caves. Too much risk. Even the knowledge that her own child was in mortal danger meant nothing to her.

Pride focused, magic flickering up, flaring, hurtling into a white-hot ball within him. His intention was to ignite the ground beneath the goose--to turn the gentle moss and ferns into searing, blinding plasma. To make her gone, to remove her from the caves in a flash of white fire and a smoldering of remaining feathers.

It didn't happen--to put it simply, he missed. A nearby stick flashed and flared--going up in white fire in an instant, but too far from anyone to be dangerous.

He was too far away.

Frustrated, he swore to himself, staring after her.

Pride would have to get closer--there was no argument on that now. Slowly he stepped out, preparing to charge in.

Everything was still going crazy.

The lightning was crashing, though Oliver was still safely tucked away in the bushes. The spores reached him where he was, but only faintly; the horrors of the fight around him seemed to amplify, with further, darker figures rushing through and among the combatants.

Fear thrilled through him, and his only, despairing thought was that Rift had to be protected. Someone was yelling about attacking a cat--did they mean him, or the other, black cat?! Oliver could not be sure. He struggled upright, and spread feathered forelimbs. A clumsy, lurching run led into a skyward leap, and an awkward glide for Rift. He was quick, at least, scrambling over the moss and ferns for the green cat, trying to land so as to cover his body with his own, between him and his would-be attackers.

He reached Rift and turned, scrambling, stumbling, barely able to keep upright--then pushed over him, ear-tufts flattened back in fear, wide blue eyes staring at the attackers--which in his hallucinations seemed far more horrific and numerous. He could feel his heart hammering with terror in his chest, feel the world swim around him, unreal and nightmarish. But he spread his wings out over Rift, shoving forward so as to protect his body with his own.

He wanted to call out again--to beg everyone to stop--but his voice would not come, mute lump choking his words away. So he simply tensed there, staring up with dizzying fear, trembling.
{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

The screams ran deep into Huckleberry's ears as his lightning hit their marks, but he didn't care. He wanted to go home. He wanted things to be normal again. He didn't want to make magic or fight or kill. He wanted to curl up next to Mama like they did when he was young. Or...he wanted to curl up with Cloudberry and tell her the truth. Tell her everything. And love her like he should have as a parent but could never. Yes, that's what he wanted.

But just as he lifted his head to find his daughter, the image before him seared into his brain, as if in slow motion. Cloudberry spiraling up, panicking, before a bolt of lightning, his own lightning, struck her head on. His eyes widened and his ears pressed back as she fell back to the ground. The smell hit him a moment later, smelling of burnt flesh and charred feathers and that's what jolted him out of his strange torper. And the first thing he did was scream. It was a scream unlike anything anyone had uttered this fight. It wasn't a scream of pain for himself but a scream of disbelief and utter despair. He scrambled to his feet and dove towards Cloudberry, not caring anymore about his vow to stay silent and to not get close. He didn't care anymore. She was dying, his beautiful, precious daughter, she was dying she was dying!!

He cried in anguish as he saw the chrysalis trapping her to the ground. He threw himself on top of it, as if to save her from the gem but there was nothing he could do. Cloudberry was encased in a gleaming sapphire.

He had to get her out of here. He had to get himself out of here. With movements suddenly full of vigor, he pushed himself to his feet and perched his front legs on the chrysalis, wrapping them around as much as he could. But as soon as he tried to fly, walk, or even move, he found that his strength was nothing near as much as he needed to get it out of there. Desperate, he pushed with all his might, but to no avail.

His heart began to race and he whipped around, as if expecting an attack from any direction. And then he saw the glittering white body of Pride. As if he had completely forgotten his earlier declaration, he called out through his tears. "Pride! Pride please help me, please!" He sobbed and he tried again to push on Cloudberry's chrysalis. "Please, someone help, anyone!"

While the terror spell had ended, the poorly timed hallucination spores had quickly grabbed hold of the tail end of the vision and twisted it into a nightmareish mixture of real life and delusion. The faces around her blurred, morphing into shadows and then back again. She couldn’t tell if they were alive or not, what was real or not. Everything was a strange mixture of terror that got amplified in her head as her senses and ability to be oriented was kidnapped by both the spores and the fight around her.

Long gangly legs stumbled as Enka attempted to move forward. Rift seemed so far off. Sebastian, too, appeared beyond her reach. Instead she was surrounded by a monstrous crowd, many of which was covered in blood of some sort. Her own blood was running down her side to drip onto what few flowers remained despite the mayhem.

And then there was a cry, actual words accenting the air. Enka couldn’t make sense of where it came from; it was difficult as it was to even register what the words are. A plea for help … but from whom? It was terrified and deeply pained. Her own eyes watered as the emotion behind such a cry struck a cord with her own worries of her family. She bellowed, joining in the cry though words would not come.

Words would not come. Her mind was a dizzying cacophony of sounds and shadowed images that meant nothing. Instinct tried to take over, to do the one thing she had always been able to do. But that too failed her now. Instead of beautiful flowers growing at her hooves, small thorns began to appear. The carotene of her hooves protected her legs but may or may not for those around her as she thrashed about trying to steady her body enough to reach her father before it was too late, if it wasn’t already.

---

Speech
Thoughts

Tags:
Notes: I hope this is an acceptable crit failure result. If not, let me know and I can change it.

Brother, understand whySee it's burning me to hold onto thisI know this is something that I gotta doBut that don't mean I want to

This was Hell.

There was no other word for it, Sebastian had never found anything like it before. His forest, his home, was under siege, and his brother was in danger.

The panther laboriously staggered to his feet, his fur standing on end. Everything hurt, the agony of his eye lost among the pain that engulfed him. But even with his eye gone, he could not miss the goose approaching his brother. Staggering forward, he retched, forcing up a mouthful of burning bile, spitting it as far as he could, hoping that it would strike the goose.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

What I'm trying to say is that, I love you I justI feel like this is coming to an endAnd it's better for me to let it go now,than hold on and hurt youI've gotta let it burn

Jayberry gasped, panting for breath on the ground, ears ringing and head throbbing. Oh, she hurt! But even with the distortion of her vision, she was unable to miss Cloudberry's ill-fated flight, taking to the sky only to be struck, crashing to the ground in an explosion of feathers. The she-wolf's eyes widened, and she gasped in horror, watching as she was encased in her chrysalis.

Baring her teeth, she scrambled to her paws, unable to miss the brown and tan of a deer - a prey. Her muddled mind caught onto that, and she snarled, flashing her fangs as she charged after Enka. The she-wolf coiled, and leaped, jumping after the antellope - but missed, soaring harmlessly through the air, rolling as she hit the ground and springing back up on her paws with a growl and a shake of her head.

"She speaks." 'She thinks.' She does.

Oh, she was having the time of her fucking life!

Yewberry watched with a feral grin as the springbok fell to her Terror, stumbling and beginning to be affected by her Mother's hallucinations as well.

But, then, lightning was striking around her. The hummingwolf yelped, jolting backwards and leaping away to avoid being struck, huddling down. Cloudberry was struck down, and her eye was caught by the winged black wolf standing over their target.

The hummingwolf smirked, and barreled after him, coiling her legs and leaping, aiming to knock him off the puma. But her eye was caught by Mother falling, and she laughed, distracted. Missing Oliver, she hit the ground and rolled, coming to her paws and twisting to face him in a motion just like her Mother's.

Blackberry whipped around, confusion banging around at the sides of her head. The lightning was everywhere and the spores were beginning to mess with her head. There weren't many left now, though, so it didn't affect her so violently. She shook out her head and turned. Rift was gone. Where did he go? Something hot, really, really hot suddenly smacked against her back and she honked loudly, whipping around to see the offender. The black cat again, his mutilated eye dripping with blood. She spat. He was becoming an annoyance. She opened her wings and, as fast as she could, flicked out all the stinging saliva. It still burned her and a few charred feathers floated off but she didn't notice.

She didn't even spare the black cat another word. She turned herself and lunged towards where Rift had retreated. She was almost there, almost ready to tear into his fur, when another creature came and blocked her way. She honked with frusteration and raised a claw, stained with blood. She didn't know where the blood came from. Perhaps from the cat or from some other creature. Or perhaps it had been there before. She brought it down, trying to give a strike strong enough to stun him. Long enough so she could get to her target.

Battle Report
Rift has avoided the lightning and is off to the side, choosing a target.
Pride attempts to create a supernova at Blackberry's feet, but fails and instead steps out into the clearing.
Oliver rushes forward to protect Rift, putting himself between him and the fight. Blackberry attacks him to get him out of the way.
Huckleberry feels massive guilt for hurting his daughter and gives up the fight, pleading Pride to help him get her out.
Sebastian is still chasing Blackberry, trying to slow her down to save his brother.
Enka accidently creates a number of thorns springing from the ground to harm anyone nearby.
Jayberry attacks Enka but misses.
Yewberry attacks Oliver but misses.

Rift growled with frustration when Oliver suddenly blocked his way. "No, don't! I can handle this!" He saw the strange hybrid thing roll towards Oliver and, in the corner of his eye, he watched as Blackberry came near. Her claws were flashing and with a streak of horror he realized she was aiming for Oliver. "No!" But there was nothing he could do. Nothing. The thought speared at his head and he grew angry. Oliver was innocent. He had no fight, he had not fought at all. If she was going to go after his friends, he would go after her children. No more mercy.

He dodged around Oliver and took off into the battlefield, looking around for someone, anyone, that he could target. Divert Blackberry's attention. Make her hurt. His eyes caught on one of them that was nearby. The tall one with Blackberry's head. As his paws touched the ground in his run, he struck magic into the soil and felt the plants writhing angrily beneath him. Roots rolled along with him and as he got close, he aimed carefully. With one more burst of magic, a few strong roots, tree roots, burst out of the ground and shot towards Elderberry. He aimed to skewer the hybrid or at least cause some damage.

@Pride @Elderberry