The creature's eyes blinked open at the sound of claws scraping its trunk. Perhaps assuming another of its kind, at first, it peered over the edge--and upon spotting the strange dragon heading for it, its pupils dilated to alarmed black.

A baffled, catlike Mrrrrp?, albeit in bass tones, rumbled down and it scrambled up and back along its branch. Clearly frightened, it glanced around for some potential escape route, realized it was cornered, and resorted to a loud hiss down at Arquia. The sound was half reptile, half scared feline.

The deinocornus was an ambush hunter, and this one wasn't hungry; for all its life, the trees had been a safe haven for it.

Suddenly, no more.

Claws scrabbled at the bark, splinters falling away, as it backed precariously further along its branch, hissing another warning with gaping, glowing blue jaws.

@Aran

When the dragon moves to start climbing the tree, Aran is momentarily stunned. Doesn't she have wings? Are they not usable? He supposes the heavy brush would make flying difficult... But climbing the tree? Seems a little like a bad idea. But he's not going to rain on her parade. The failed spell was unfortunate But he could always try again.

The creature - of which he assumed would be more aggressive, like a lion - looks like it's trying to retreat, and he almost feels bad for wanting the stone from it. Okay.. A lot bad. It's too late to ask the dragon to retreat now, so he'll live with the guilt.

The creature makes an odd noise, and Aran takes his chances with the spell again, with the creature still again his line of sight is clear. If only he could find a better way to fight it with what he has.

@Arquia

As Arquia looked up at the deinocornus, she felt a rather weird emotion. It looked so frightened. She had come for a fight. Not an execution. Was it pity that she felt? Guilt? But these thoughts were brushed away. It had no less of a right to life than the mice she hunted everyday. All lives were bound to end eventually. She would try to give it a swift death.
Though she is a bit impeded by the height of the tree, she scales it soon enough, arriving at the same branch that the dinosaur was balanced upon. Arquia noticed that she had to be careful, it may not fully hold her weight, or worse, she may fall if she lost her balance. Not wanting to test the branch, she opted not to go for a full on tackle, instead aiming to bruise its leg.

The creature retreated rapidly, hissing with that blue-glowing mouth. The branch creaked, and cracked. Though Aran's magic struck it, the only real sign for now was a squint, a confused shake of the creature's head, a sneeze. Illness might prove fatal for it--but this would take time.

Arquia had to be twice this Lesser's size; it was large, yes, and muscular, but unused to encountering larger predators on Lacerta. It steered well clear of those very few, and having one clamber up a tree after it--into its own usually safe haven--frightened it. Yet when she lunged for it--impacting its leg, startling it into a terrified, pained shriek--it lunged right back as any cornered beast would.

Much like a cat, cornered in a tree, might immediately lunge for the face of a bear cornering it there, the creature threw itself for Arquia's face and neck in self-defense, tearing with saber fangs and--more importantly--the foot-long dagger-like claws on its forelimbs. Its attack was brutal, fast and savage, aiming directly for her face and the sides of her throat--and whether it failed or it succeeded, it would release after struggling to inflict as much damage as it could. It was unable to hold on with a wounded leg, and tumbled down from the tree the entire way, intent on fighting its way free and rushing for an escape.

@Aran

She wasn't sure if Aran was doing anything. If he was doing magic, she could not tell at all. Though it did sneeze? Arquia was not familiar with prokaryote magic so she had no idea what it did. Or that it was really... a thing. But that was alright. As long as she made sure the Deincornus didn't attack the deer this should be successful. Considering she didn't really trust him to defend himself if the dinosaur straight up charged at him.
The counter attack hit, leaving long marks marks along her neck from its claws. Though they weren't deep wounds, they started to bleed almost immediately, staining her neck in red. And now it was running away. Well, it wasn't really running. You couldn't really run when you were on a tree branch about thirty feet in the air. Arquia didn't expect it to emergency eject itself out of the tree and fall. A very, very long way. But she could not rely on that distance to kill it. After all, if it made the jump itself, that meant it thought it would survive it. Flying was not an option. Climbing was too slow.
She jumped. If this worked, she hoped to land on it. And if it didn't... we'll get to that when we get to that.

@Aran

His spell connects this time, it does not do much now but give it a few moments... The creature will be writhing on the floor. His emotions feel disconnected from him, he feels aggression kick in. And then they start falling.

The creature attacks the dragon, latches on - he can smell the blood before he can see it. His nose has always been his best sense. Whatever the green one decides to do does not work, and they're nosediving.

"WINGS YOU FOOL!" He yells, moving from his perch in an attempt to find a better line of sight.

To heal the girl, or to attack the creature?

Unfortunately for him, Aran does not know Arquia can't fly. He decides to target the creature. The faster they kill it, the faster he can figure out how to help her.

@Arquia

The heavy creature hit the ground rolling, crashing into the underbrush before scrambling upright. Already favoring one bruised leg, it yelped as it struck earth, a short and pained sound. Then it scrambled up and tried to flee, its low, squat body looking much like a huge badger barreling through the underbrush.

It did not aim for attack but to save its life, instead. It was quickly out of sight in the jungle, albeit loudly audible crashing through the trees. But bruised, it was slowed, and could be caught up with by a swift pursuit... or left for Aran's magic to slowly sap its life, and tracked at the Gembound's leisure.

Already its vision was blurring, water rising before its eyes and streaming from its jaws in sickly ropes; a sense of fever was leaving it feeling miserable, feeling wrong, an ache pulsing through every joint and muscle. Its body perceived an attack that wasn't there, and fought back... targetting the Deinocornus's own flesh.

@Aran

The deinocornus was too fast, she quickly came to the realization that she would not be able to dive bomb it as planned. She would be face planting into the earth. Aran's voice rang through the air. SHE HAD WINGS. No- it wouldn't work. She couldn't trust- IF SHE DIDN'T DO IT SHE WAS GONNA DIE. No it was too late now. Too late to stop herself- DO IT.
Arquia opened her wings. The sudden transition in speed caused her jolt backwards for a moment, and she felt her breath catch in her throat. But it worked. She was... floating? No, not quite. She was still descending, but at a much slower pace. Though she hadn't flown ever since Kethri tried to force her to, she was a dragon. It was embedded in her instincts that she was meant to fly. But how? She thought- no. She was proven wrong. But what to do from here? Deep breaths. Go forwards, follow the dinosaur. The hunt is not over.
Arquia tilted forwards, settling into a glide over the treetops to follow the deinocornus. It was terrifying to be at such a height, and she didn't like it. But at the same time... it just felt right somehow. Natural. "Continue the pursuit!" she called down. They could not give up now. She needed her revenge.

He watches the creature dart off, trying to escape - once again Aran feels bad for the things they're going to do. It's like a scared herbivore, something Aran is well acquainted with. But that thing... Even if there's two against one surely it could win with some luck? Maybe it just doesn't have a brain enough to really think about those things.

As Arquia glides down, Aran gives chase. It's loud enough that he can hear where it's going - but just in case. Is it going back to it's lair? Do they have those? Just keep going. They'll figure it out later. The spell goes and he can sense heartbeats... Focus.


@Arquia

The Deinocornus ran headlong, panting, crashing through the underbrush. It would be hard to follow on the wing, purely given the thick nature of the jungle, but Aran could track it once he'd picked its racing heart from the myriad other red-shift creatures teeming through Lacerta.

This was the ony one, after all, running for its life.

It faltered, slowed, panicked and sped up again. Stumbles and staggers grew more frequent, its breathing labored, the wheezing becoming thick and wet with illness. Twice it tripped, picked itself up and pushed on.

This was it, for the Deinocornus. Should the two lose it in the jungle, somehow, it might yet find shelter, rest, heal, survive... but if they kept up with it, it would be a final confrontation, and then--most likely--the creature's end.

@Arquia