Cloudberry thrashed against the binds that sprang up around her small and sensitive muzzle, clamping firmly around her face. She screeched and thrashed in fear, which only tore at her skin; then she was thrashing in pain, wings battering the cage.

She heard Mercurius say something distant--LUNGS BURST?!--and then there was fire. She only fought harder.

She flung herself across the cage, trying to free herself in a frantic panic. She heard a crack and felt a lance of pain in her side as her ribs impacted the gemstone bars; she flipped herself back and away with the terror of a caged wild thing, and felt one of her rear wings shatter against the bars. A moment later she collapsed down, her sides vibrating with impossibly-rapid breaths, her eyes springing open to stare wide and glassy at nothing. She sank down motionless, bar breathing and trembling, with the dangerous shock-state of a rabbit or a small bird trapped. Her heart was hammering deadly-fast in her chest, but she could no longer see or feel the world around her--bar one thing.

There was a distant, pleasant chiming, a quiet tinkling, and to this--and only this--her mind anchored. She lay still, the vines twisted around a bleeding face, a self-battered body slumped against the gemstones bars.

@Yewberry

"STOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!" Yewberry continued to wail, only vaguely aware of what the others were saying. They were too loud and there was too much happening, she wanted them to just "SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!"

But then there was a sudden blast of light and heat, and she cut off with a loud squawk, like a startled parrot, flinching back against Mercurius through the cage. "Whu!" she yelped, at the same time as the lion's woof. Fungi of various sorts shot out from her paws, coating her cage. But she did as he said, breathing deeply--

at least until there were suddenly vines squeezing tight around her sensitive beak. "Hnf!" she shook her head, straining back against the back of the cage, then, attempting to free her head even as it loosened. It was only the antelope's music that made her stop fighting, seconds before the vines released. Her beak throbbed, and she licked at it, listening as the green cat spoke. She blurted out, the thought slipping into words, "Will! I... I will. I'm... I'mm Yew."

Brothers aren't simply close,

Sebastian wheezed, fighting to catch his breath as he tasted ash. Shaking his head, he coughed, licking at his lips. Okay, no more breathing fire... ever. That hurt.

He felt guilty as he watched Enka leaping into the air, obviously startled, as everyone else was, the one that had died under his jaws cowering, the stag and his brother, flinching. The puma gasped a "Sorry," furrowing his brows and closing his eyes as he listened to Rift, opening them

and noticing for the first time that he could only see out of one. His stomach churned, then dropped, and Rift's words faded away. He was half-blind, he couldn't see out of one of his eyes. That was right, the goose had pierced it with her beak.

He shivered, barely listening to everything else, reaching up to rub his paw against the scarred side of his face, then his forearm, before his paw again, finding the skin there itchy and irritated.

brothers are knit together

@Mercurius

For the first time in his life, Mercurius was well and truly disgruntled --- the closest approximation to anger he could stand to feel, really. His magicka sparked against the puma's, but seemed to find no purchase. Rift was bent on keeping these poor children further trapped than they already were. What more, Oliver had begun to shake and left from a panic attack.

Mercurius's disgruntlement went up another level.

The old storyteller's ears flickered back, brows furrowed as he sighed, "yes, I will care for them." Vines slipped away from the hybrids, relinquishing their abrupt and terrifying hold. Yewberr --- no, Yew --- pressed against his side gently, licking at her thin beak and nursing it. Mercurius was actually mad and he quickly realized how much he disliked the feeling. His gaze flickered to where Oliver had fled to, yearning to follow. He had to deal with matters here, first.

Moonlit eyes fixated on the new King, presently ignoring the beautiful chiming that seemed to be soothing and grounding the ex-Bloodberries. In a low tone, just loud enough for Rift to hear, Mercurius spoke, "I would urge you, Rift, not to frighten the children further by casting magic on them." His voice was stern, severe, though not one bit of his body betrayed aggressive posturing. If anything, he seemed disappointed.

Mercurius's statement was worded as if it were a suggestion, but his tone seemed to suggest more than just suggesting.

@Enka

The state of panic that the hybrids were sent in made Rift realized the level of mistake he had made. A little shocked, he pulled the magic back and the muzzles were completely gone from the cages. He stared at the three, wondering why the hell he had just done that.

Guilt again. It seemed to be a recurring theme in this whole discussion. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself before standing again and walking forward towards the cages. "I am...sorry for my outburst. You are our guests now. I should not treat you so." He stopped in front of Cloudberry's cage and observed her injuries with great sadness. If he hadn't been so stupid she wouldn't be so damaged. He reached a paw forward and paused it just at the edge of the cage. He willed her health to rise, for something within her to do smoething to help her feel better. He could not heal her from here, when she was in such a panic, but perhaps he could at least give her some of her energy back. "Please...do not be afraid. No more harm will come to you. I swear it on Eridanus."

He looked back towards Mercurius and dipped his head. "Please forgive me, I lost control for a moment. I don't want to make your job any harder. I won't do it again." He looked around for where Oliver had gone, hoping that he could help heal the bird hybrid's wounds but he was nowhere to be found. His brow furrowed in concern. "Oliver?" He spotted the crow hybrid a distance away from the gathering and he made for him. As he passed Sebastian, though, he finally noticed what he hadn't before. The puma was rubbing at his eye or, at least, where his eye had been before. In his haste and in all the excitement, he hadn't even seen it. He felt rage boiling in him again but he forced himself to calm and not get too worked up again. "Sebastian. We'll talk later...but for now can you prepare a place under the roots where we may keep the Berries? Find an area that's protected but spacious. Make them some nests. Please. If you need my help rearranging the roots, I'll get back to you. Enka can help you as well." He glanced towards Enka and gave his brother a small lick like he had when they were young before turning towards Pride. "If we've come to a consensus, I'd like they out of their prisons. It doesn't seem to be doing much help for them. Since I'm guessing you're the one that made the gemstones. Mercurius, if you could help him keep them contained?" He sighed. Hopefully that would be sufficient for now while he helped Oliver. He padded towards where the hybrid was standing and tried to think about what he was going to say.

He paused a little ways away, unsure of how he was supposed to deal with something like this. "Oliver...are you okay? I'm sorry for losing my temper." He wanted to say something else, like offer help or someplace to be alone, but he wasn't sure how to word it so he fell into a slightly awkward silence.

@Pride

Pride blinked as Rift told him to... remove the cages.

So, when he'd made these, his intention had been to ensure they didn't escape, upon hatching again. Hell, he'd half-intended to just kill them, but Mercurius had talked him down, and cooler heads had prevailed. But he'd never, not once, actually put thought into how to remove them.

"Err--... Of course," he answered Rift--then proceeded to stare at them. Blankly.

He hoped he looked like he was casting a spell, because for the life of him...

The only thing I can think of is Supernova, and that would incinerate the bars, perhaps, but quite possibly burn those inside. The last thing we need is a fire again, and no way to get to the victims. Is there--a way to move--aha! He closed his eyes, for a beat, then reopened them--and this time, he was casting magic.

Right, I just need something of equivalent size--let's say, some trees... no, Rift won't like that. Dead trees, then--logs, there--and there...

He made a mental note of their locations, and then, in what was undoubtedly a drastic mistake and one he'd never repeat, he attempted to swap all three cages with dead plant matter at once.

In a sense, it worked--if one considered the fact that suddenly the trees and bars were all inside one another and shattering horribly "worked." In retrospect, at least they didn't impale any of the cages' inhabitants--that... could have ended badly. Not only for them, but for Pride. They'd never have believed I didn't mean it.

As it was the shattering gemstone, the falling logs, the thrashing of dead branch--it might certainly cause a scratch or bruise here or there. Pride was quick to call out, tone mildly horrified.

"I"m sorry! That--I am sorry, that is not what I intended to do!"

Oliver's heart was hammering in his chest where he lay pressed against the comforting coolness of the foliage.

At Rift's approach, he glanced up from his shrouded hiding spot and for a moment, it didn't seem as though he understood. Then--briefly and softly--he spoke.

"Yeah. I just need time." It wasn't anything more than a pathetic whisper, and he made no motion at all to move from his spot. At Rift's apology he just shook his head a little, as if to dismiss it--but his tense body, his staring eyes... he didn't seem really up to speaking further. Instead he just settled flat against the ground, waiting, for now.

Waiting for what, though, he couldn't quite have said.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Huckleberry

Huckleberry wasn't listening to anything. He simply stayed where he was, curled up, with Shiny pressing against him but as soon as Pride cast his spell, Huckleberry very much took notice of something. The cracking and breaking couldn't exactly be ignored.

He leaped to his feet, grabbing for Shiny to protect her as, all of a sudden, he was surrounded by dead branches and broken gemstones scrapping at his body. He was beginning to freak out again as it seemed the world was closing down around him, reaching out with deadly claws. He opened his wings to try to create some kind of wind to knock them away but all he did was scratch them up, pull out feathers, and generally make things worse. At least the cages were finally gone.

Shiny was shivering beside her but his protective stance had kept her from getting hurt at all. He looked towards where Cloudberry's cage had been and tried to reach for it, but he'd gotten his wings stuck in the branches. "Cloudberry!! Cloudberry are you okay?"

@Cloudberry

She felt her consciousness slowly stir, like dizzying circles down a whirlpool but... backwards, as Rift's magic touched her. The muzzle, she realized, was gone--had it been gone for some time?--and slowly she pushed up and back, trembling.

She didn't speak, simply nodding to him, afraid.

When the bars came crashing down around her--all logs and gem and roaring sound--she shot out like a flushed pigeon, up and into the air with all four wings frantically beating. It was, at first, just instinct... a terror that drove her from the sudden explosion. But she didn't turn back--she would, in an instant, be gone out of sight among the treetops and beyond, unless someone had the reflexes to stop her in that time.

(Cloudberry will exit unless stopped/captured)

@Yewberry

Was the lion mad?

Yewberr-Yew-was confused. She had never seen someone be mad like this, speaking without yelling, without lashing out. Her wings fluttered, and she balked, side-stepping away from Mercurius, pressing against the other side of the cage for fear of him lashing out at the nearest Gembound, which would be her.

But then the cat that Grandmother hated was approaching them, and she pressed against the back of her cage, wanting away. "A-away." she stuttered, shaking her head, feathers rising on end in an attempt to make herself look bigger.

And then everything went so wrong.

She shrieked, some horrid mix of bird and wolf, as the cages seemed to explode, feeling shards of gemstone gash at her skin. Everything was a blur, and she found herself unable to react as she would have wished, and without thinking she lunged towards Mercurius, attempting to scramble under him in an attempt at a living shield, shaking like a life, unaware or, uncaring, of the fact that she was not much shorter than he was.