He startled slightly at Marshmallow's voice on his back, and went stiff for just a moment -- but he recognized it. She'd spoken with him before. She was one of Arwen's, and tiny... well, being on his back was a good thing, then.

Tahi-shei was a prey animal. He did not need to see to feel the creeping fear of being exposed. They were out in the open, with nothing but their own formation to protect them, in a horrible blizzard. He was somewhat adapted to the cold, but he could certainly feel the chill. At the very least, he could close his eyes to protect them -- in all this white, they weren't doing him much good.

There were so many people joining them. He recognized Wyvern's voice, too -- this was Carja's aunt, yes? He did not know who the many-armed one was, but his ear flicked. "WE SEEK THEM. PRIDE -- TELL THEM MORE, PLEASE." Tell her and that bird that this was a fight. That they were an army. That there would be bloodshed, that-- Stop spiraling, he told himself, sharp and clipped. You are the Fungal Prince.

He focused on what was around him.

"BIRDS," he announced. She knows we're coming. Of course she did. He would have been a fool to assume anything else, wouldn't he have been? Tahi snorted against the cold. We just need to keep our wits about us. "LITTLE ONES NEARBY, A BIG ONE ABOVE." Too far away for anyone to strike at, he imagined, but still -- he wanted them to be aware of it.

You know who I am, Dontacael, he thought, ear flicking. You know that I'm coming for you.

"SHE KNOWS." They were never going to have the element of surprise, of course... but still, Tahi-shei did not want them to expect her resistance. Soon, he'd need to get his frills up -- however, he worried that the wind was so sharp that it would damage them before they could do anything.

Tahi-shei huffed out a breath, and followed in step with the ones in front. This, at least, was easy -- he had not spoken it aloud, but his placing the healers in the middle was a twofold strategy. First, it kept them able to hit people on either side of them, should they need to -- second, it kept him as insulated as possible against danger. It was selfish, but he was no saint. He was a general, public enemy number one -- and he had children to think about.

@wyvern and @pride specifically

It seemed safe here, oddly. Twisted's eyes widened in surprise as a huddling, bipedal shape moved in right next to her. "Cold?" she echoed, confused. Well yeah, it was cold. What about it? But then she looked up at the "stranger's" face.

Oh.

Oh.

A wave of pretty much every emotion from anger to annoyance to regret went through her mind. Mainly embarrassment, causing her to trip and stumble on the snow before quickly regaining her composure. Madhukar. Someone who, in their few encounters with each other, defined her life. Did she even remember her? The siamese certainly did.

But now she didn't feel like fighting, or hissing, or taunting, or any of the things they used to say to each other. Right now she had decided to do one good thing in her life, and she didn't know if she'd live past it. Might as well tie up loose ends now.

Her voice was quiet. They were already making enough noise as it was. "... Right, cold. Hey, Madhukar, (she refused to call her by her full name before) uhm, I just wanna say I'm--"

And there she went to shoot some enemies out of the sky with her magic. Twisted's ears drooped. Gee, there went her opportunity.

The feline focused the rest of her energy on just plodding through the snowy plains. It didn't strike her to look for enemies simply because just earlier, she hadn't seen a single thing threatening. That is, until their leader shouted out the warning that "She knew" and her dark-furred head shot up in warning. What was out there?

Marshmallow certainly wasn't the smartest gembound in the world, but even she could tell that they were very exposed out here. Not that she knew completely what was happening, but she didn't like how they were out in the open. That's why she liked to hide under leaves, it made her feel safe.

She did know one thing she could do though. Hopefully it would be able to hide them better. Marshmallow felt for the tingly feeling in her nose, and pushed it out! The light around Tahi got slightly darker to hide him.

@Tahi-shei (interaction sort of)

Tahi-shei shouting at him to offer summaries was surprising, a little baffling, and slightly infuriating. He was here to help; he was not the other deer's servant, there to cover the groundwork that Tahi-shei apparently did not feel like handling. But he'd said 'please,' at least, and Pride, though his hackles were raised at the request, said nothing to him.

He turned to Zhusha instead, calling out to the bird. "IT IS DANGEROUS. WE ARE HEADING INTO POSSIBLE BATTLE. IF YOU ARE NOT AWARE OF IT, I SUGGEST YOU LEAVE THIS CAVE--I CAN SHOW YOU THE WAY, IF YOU NEED." A pause, as Pride inhaled a burning-cold breath of air (and struggled to ignore the thrashing chaos of dead birds and backlashed spells around him). "IT IS A FUNGUS THAT CONTROLS THE MINDS OF THOSE INFECTED. IT WOULD NOT BE WISE TO REMAIN IF YOU ARE NOT HERE TO FIGHT IT!"

And what of him-? Him, with children on the way; and he was out here, stomping into the snow, into a storm, blindly. With Tahi-shei hiding in the group's center and calling demands; with Vargas hiding at the entrance; with Astraea who the hell knew where.

Anger flickered up in him.

"I CAN SHOW YOU THE WAY BACK TO THE ENTRANCE," he shouted a second time to Zhusha--and he was sorely tempted to merely leave, then and there. This was a fool's errand, and nothing good would come of it.

Giggle was quieter. She was getting that prickling feeling of something bad about to happen; they were exposed, out here in the snow. At least if they were blind, then so was their enemy; but did Mother have magic, too, to see through the storm?

She cast out her senses, silently pensive. Her magic flickered outward, tracing along the snow, reaching through Ursa as a whole. It laced through the storm, touching this Lesser and that, jumping through the cave--but before she could get any sort of decent reading, it flared brightly in her mind. Gray, gray--everything was gray--and she staggered, a low groan of pain escaping her as her entire mind was eclipsed by it.

Was this Mother's doing-?

"Fucking bastard," she spat, swaying where she stood--and then, blinded, called out more loudly. "SOMETHING'S MESSING WITH MY MAGIC."

Unless, of course, it was just her own failure.

Somewhere distant, Omen was calling along their shared link--checking in at the sudden spike of pain and blindness, wanting to know what was wrong. Giggle hastened to reassure her, but it was past a grimace; this backlash of magicka had left her temporarily blind to fungus.

Which... was a very bad thing to be, right now.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

Next to nothing would have changed Zhusha's mind about the group after what he'd seen: the ridiculously monstrous shapes of the valkhounds, the twisted black lightning--come on, name one good person who used that kind of stuff--and the horrible screeching of Draconua, who, quite literally, dripped with evil.

Luckily for them, the idea of mind control fungus happened to be the one thing that could stir enough hatred in Zhusha's heart that he immediately forgot his previous misgivings. Anyone or anything that took over others' free will and used them as its puppets was utterly, irredeemably evil, and if these people were fighting against it, then Zhusha would join their ranks.

"I'M NO COWARD!" Zhusha cried for a second time. "I WILL FIGHT! DEATH TO THE FUNGUS!" He arched his neck to the sky, honking out a piercing battle cry. Then he was surging upward, into the jet stream Nemo had carved out with his magic, the blood of a valiant roaring in his ears. It did not matter to him that this was dangerous--there was danger everywhere in these caves. He did not want to live only to survive; he wanted to burn. Only through burning could there be light and warmth--and even if it was only for an instant, it would be worth it to be the flame that guided and protected.

Lofty goals for a barely-adolescent crane, feathers still bedraggled from fighting past the gales to reach the safety of the jet stream.

@Pride for completely ignoring his advice lmfao
Zhusha is rolling a perception check for the next round.

Lip contorted into a now-permanent snarl, the Sleepless Chaos whirled towards her side; muscles twitched and seized with the motion. Oily tear-tracks streaming down her face-plate, she yowled directly into Nidhogg's face, "NO." All snapping teeth, her claws gouged deep into the drifts, "IT DARES TO DEFY ME."

(Distantly, she heard the alarm bells ring, Tahi-shei calling from the middle of the pack. A pair of eyes shifted up to stare into a blinding white.)

Black smoke billowing from her lungs, Draconua howled, "HOW DARE IT—" Pause. A twist of the wicked, crooked lip. Twelve eyes glared upwards. Limbs shook themselves free of residual entropy. One of Vargas' ilk had shown her this, foolishly—perhaps—granting her a gift: flight.

Roiling, bloody chaos took shape at her sides; all gargantuan and nightmarish leather and spines. The Valkhound let off a wheezing roar as they spread wide and caught the blizzard beneath them. (Maybe, she should have practiced more in flight than she had with Khavur in Orion, once, but—) A few lurching steps and a sweeping downstroke, and she was fast-headed into the air.

Jaws split wide open and snapped to and fro as she went up.

She screamed at him. He cowered, flinching back, all bravado gone. And then she was taking wing (and like Draconua, Nidhogg mostly missed, or ignored, the other conversations shouted through the storm).

His eyes widened. "TAKE ME WITH YOUUUU!" he screamed after her.

And-... she did, snatching him up (he was sure with a grin, or was that his imagination?). At once his excitement, the thrill of such power, turned to terror. She was gonna drop him-! What if she DROPPED HIM?! He writhed in her grip--then stopped, because oh boy he did not WANT to be dropped. The air up here was even colder, bitter, and he shrank up against her as best he could.

He stared down, shocked into silence for once, his mouth dry as he squinted against the winds. Maybe at least he could see something from up here, but this was honestly just scary.

If they, too, were seeking the lost, then Wyvern supposed she'd have to help them. With my luck, Carja will be having great-grandchildren before I find her family. This is the best chance I've got. But knowing this didn't stop her from feeling like fear and guilt were going to turn her inside out. She had abhorred violence since she was a hatchling, and now here she was, about to head into possible battle. The warband had already killed two birds--birds that had done nothing wrong; birds that had been vulnerable and had had their wills taken from them, just like Bone.

And if they continued, there would be more: more danger, more violence, more death. She would be taking part in it willingly.

They were being followed: more birds, above and away to the side, trailing their path. Wyvern shivered despite herself. Would they have to fight the birds? Would there be more infected animals waiting for them up ahead? An ambush, perhaps? Ursa held dangerous wildlife; would they have to fight those?

She just wanted to find Carja's aunt so they could go home.

But on she trudged, without complaint, through the snow. They were all risking something, Wyvern supposed. She flinched at Draconua's roar, huddling her wings tighter around herself, but did not take to the skies to follow her. Her magic seemed... unpredictable, at best, and Wyvern did not want to be the next victim of a backfiring spell. Two little birds were up there already, and the smallest seemed especially ready to charge into battle... what was with that, anyway? Didn't he just find out what was going on, like, two minutes ago? She did not understand his eagerness for battle, but at least they were working toward the same thing.

A hyena groaned, swayed, then yelled out something about failing magic as she stumbled. Wyvern made her way over, blinking through the wind and snow. "Do you need help?" she asked softly. "You can lean on me, if you want."

@Giggle for interaction

Reign padded forth, trying to keep his grip on the snow. Luckily his coat provided some protection, but it was still cold. He tried to keep his attention solely on the trek ahead, only looking back occasionally to check on the stragglers or blink snowflakes out of his eyes.

He was going to do this. He was going to charge forth and help save the caves. But looking at their mismatched legion the cheetah worried what if this is a bad idea? What if they fail? No, he forcibly told himself. As long as they keep a level head and a strong heart, it will all be fine. Hopefully.

He squinted his eyes against the bitter wind. They could really do with a barrier between them and the blizzard, and he knew just the spell. Reign briefly surged forwards in the snow, hoping to conjure an invisible shield to hide behind. Nothing came. He frowned, shook out his fur, and continued trudging forth as if nothing happened.