He felt his kick connect, and stumbled; as he turned to side-eye her, he saw Draconua recoil. Savage triumph, with the stupidity-induced lack of fear, roared through him. He was tired, though, from everything that had gone on; he was already reconsidering pressing this attack.

As if he would have had a chance, were he not worn out.

Her head was already crashing toward him again, like a giant hammer (but with teeth), and his red eyes sprang wide with alarm. Weary calf muscles instantly trembled with the effort required to propel him sideways fast enough not to get simply eaten; cloven hooves scraped briefly across the ground.

He wasn't sure what happened next, though there was a horrific screaming pain down his left flank and haunch; he'd probably been caught at the back end of her too-damn-long mouth, the sharper teeth puncturing, tearing--but he'd avoided (barely) being actually gripped in her jaws. A cry of pain escaped him, and then a baby's bellow of anger; he saw red, and whirled, and twisted, but agony ripped through him.

To onlookers, he was a brief bucking bull: but a baby, an angry black rodeo calf of a couple hundred pounds, whirling in a brief spray of blood. Wounds bled freely down his side and he turned, racing in first one direction, then the other, as if unsure where to actually go.

Instinct overtook him, pain but more importantly exhaustion driving him, and he bolted for the back of the group.

What the three kings said made sense, for the most part. They were granting the gembound something - what was it? Magic? It was just about the only thing he could understand anyone could give. He almost wanted to know what the others got for actually being in the fray - how different were they for actually taking action in two different ways? Enough of the gembound only watched, but many also aided or went against the quarry. Those who only watched were not weak, though.

It was too bad that he couldn't even see his own magic if he was able to use it - Aran could feel when he got the spell. It made his body feel different, in a way. Only for a short moment before that difference was nothing and he could feel how he normally did. At least this time he could say he thought he did the right thing - not participating all the way. Not even because he was blind. Because nature had to take its course.

He could feel when the spell was cast, but not see what it did. Blue wispy fireflies would take their spot around him, along with those glowing blue wispy wings. He could feel their pressure despite them being magic - as if he'd grown another limb from nothing. Was this what James felt like? Surely not, a limb would feel different from magic, even if it did feel somewhat real. He still couldn't exactly tell what that limb pressure was from, but being at the shoulders one could make that connection if they'd seen a bird before. Especially if you could move them...

It felt interesting. Too bad he wouldn't be able to properly do much unless he could see it.

Comet smiled at James, laughing as he nuzzled her ear. "You did great renny. The Quarry got away!" And now, it was time for her to try out the new magic she had gained.

Large blue wings sprouted out from her back, twenty feet across! "WOW!" A strong blue glow surrounded her, this was amazing! She wondered what it would feel like to permanently have wings like this, it must be so cool being James! Comet tested them out by giving a flap, and was lifted several feet up into the air before she landed again.

And it was over. The whirlwind of crashing paws and flashes of magicka ended with a simmer, the spectral hunters dissipating into nothing as their prey escaped. Sharp watched it all, still cowering behind her boulder, until the last growls silenced and the city fell quiet again.

Her heart was still beating. That was so cool! Even if she spent the entirety of it watching, it was cool! The lizard slunk out of her shelter just in time to see an oh-so-familiar bird. "T-three kingies?" she whispered, echoing the words she said when she was just a little grub. It was the Three Kingies!

It took her a moment to scamper over, and a few more to actually remember why she got involved in the first place. Wings, right? Wasn't there something else, too...? Meanwhile, the other creatures had already given their answers and were prancing about in streams of magical light. She had to give a reply quick!

"It was the safest," a scratchy voice blurted out, the reptile looking up at the spectre. "Run with the prey, and you risk being prey yourself. S... same with the hunters. I wanted to see it, but I didn't want to get involved if I could've gotten hurt, y'know?"

'Also there were no shinies involved,' but that was left unspoken.

© ©

The responses to the answers hurt like a parade of daggers racing through Madhukar's gut, stabbing all the softest places. For the aids of the Quarry, they had chosen selflessness. Protection. Kindness. They were the givers of the one thing Madhukar wanted most: security. And they were composed of people that she had deliberately driven away. Hurt and burdened. Biggest example was James.

Then there were the watchers, those who thought before they acted. Tahi-shei and Comet... Madhukar was comparing herself to Tahi-shei and Comet. All that she was learning was what she knew, she knew it, she knew it and she ran but she knew it, over and over and over again... you can run from most things in life, but you can't run from yourself.

Then there was the response to answers like hers. Kitty's was so naive, and that terrifying dragon beast's was just brutal and... well. Wrong. Wasn't it? Wasn't it? What hurt most, though, was the response of the one who had sent them out on this Hunt. "Be STRONG! Prove you're worth surviving! NEVER stop fighting!" She hated it. "We are what we prove ourselves to be! No life exists without consuming. She was staring into a mirror, it showed her everything she had done. All her choices. "Take my power, and flaunt it!" It made her feel sick.

The red light that came for her, granting her with more "power to flaunt", might as well have scrambled her insides while it was at it. Madhukar couldn't be here any longer. The envy, the wrath, the disappointment... a cauldron in which she boiled, lonesome and exposed.

The others began to fly. Madhukar would stick with running. She would run out of here. Take this power and leave. It was the only option in her mind.

Some Voidcrawler she was. Some friend. She didn't need wings to remind her that she was a m--

"This is Speaking."
This is Thinking.

- exit -

Effluvium had lost the quarry at some point. It'd darted within a building, the turn too sharp for Effluvium to follow. The unwieldy beast crashed into a half caved building, finishing off what was left of it. It groaned. By the time it rose, the thrill of the hunt was gone. There were simply the odd hounds milling about, and the things on horses. It joined the hounds in sniffing, unable to scent the food. The prey was gone. It huffed, anger blooming. And then, it began eyeing the hounds. Thin, spectral. It wouldn't be difficult to take one down. But how much food did they have?

They began to fade and drift. Unlike any other, sane gembound who'd either watch or keep distance, Effluvium took that as a sign of weakness. A sign it needed to move now. It attacked the closest one.. Its jaws closed over the form of a hound, but there was no taste. No feel. The barest sensation of wind passing through.

It did not notice the judging stares it received from the hunters. The hounds disappeared faster than it could attack them, but that didn't stop it. It continued for the sheer enjoyment, and it spent a good few minutes simply searching for any stragglers.

Obviously, it was among the last to arrive. It had no idea it'd been in the hunt. It just saw something running, a bunch of things following, and decided to chase. Likewise, it had no idea what was happening now. But it noted that, among large gatherings of gembound, something usually happened. Its mind wandered back to the river of death, and its mouth watered.

It settled on the ground, a pool of mucus beginning to form beneath it. Effluvium barely gave Altinak's question any thought, before it blurted out: "Chase fun." Effluvium's eyes drifted to the other gembound, looking for signs of blood or meat. "Food is gone?"

"When I speak."

When I think.