This was, quite honestly, the stupidest shit he had ever done in his life.

As soon as the stench of carrion and bones (not the good kind, he clarified mentally) hit him, he wanted to turn back. But he had already prepared for it, rolling in a mud puddle and sullying his perfectly clean and kept fur and feathers in order to mask his scent and make it untraceable. The hunk of brown fur was still tucked between his toes, now tied together haphazardly with a crumbling blade of glass. He didn't want to lose a single string of it, for whatever reason. Eythan flew on the quietest wings he could, ensuring that he stayed away from the omnipresent light. He was impossibly careful, feline instinct driving him to move silently and purposefully.

But, of course, as he alighted rather sideways on a rock outcropping higher up on the wall --- still obscured in the rare shadow --- his talons crackled as they buried themselves into rock. His breath hitched and he immediately went to make himself as small as possible.

She was admiring the new gem, the new member of the family, when she heard the sound of cracking. Blackberry flinched and whipped around, heat boiling in her stomach at the notion that someone would dare to enter her home, that someone would dare come unannounced. She knew the smells and sounds of her children well...this sounded like none of them.

"Who's there?" she hissed, standing from her roosting spot. She couldn't see the creature in his shadowy spot, but she certainly knew there was someone there now. Fury and anger burned in her eyes and her talons scratched at the ground, eager to find the intruder. While she was angry that someone had entered her home, she hadn't had a good fight in a while - she was ready to tear into some pathetic creature's hide.

@Eythan

Eythan's ears flickered back as he saw the monstrous thing down below, admiring a shimmering stone that most certainly was growing life within. There were more growing like a sickly hive of murder, as cliched as it sounded. The hybrid's ears flattened against his skull at the hissing. So, he hadn't been as quiet as he had hoped. He forced his heart to steady itself and his breathing to be quieter than ever. He'd been through worse. He could make it through this. Just think, think, think!

Searching eyes glanced over everything in the hoard, from gems to an entire, suspiciously intact skeleton of some avian creature. The skeleton was closest to him, and he turned his sights on that first. To snatch even a bone from it, he would need a distraction first. Perhaps... something involving that pile of gems in the corner.

His wings unfurled from his sides, slowly and carefully as to not make any sound or reveal himself. He shut his eyes and covered his horns with the thickly feathered parts of his wings, stifling any resulting glow from his stone. With a quick prayer to the bones themselves, Eythan called upon his magic, trying to focus on the shell. A slight breeze flowed by the pile first, sputtering softly. With an extra push of focus, it picked up into a breeze great enough to knock over some of the gemstones as if something had run through it. And he watched and waited, wings primed and ready to swoop in as quickly as possible.

@Blackberry

The wind that suddenly picked up was quite unexpected and it was strong enough that Blackberry knew that it had to be artificial. Maybe magical. But there was a clattering behind her and she whipped around to see the precious gem, the bird's blue moonstone, glowing yellow with magic was rolling out of its cage between the skeleton's ribs. She hesitated - there was still someone here...but this was more important.

She shot towards the gemstone and quickly slammed one of her claws over it to keep it from rolling away. She moved it back to its position and sat herself on top of it to make sure that it didn't roll away again.

She turned back towards where she had heard the noise before in case someone was still sneaking around.

@Eythan

The breeze hadn't quite been enough to properly disturb the gemstone pile and distract the terror-bird. As such, Eythan didn't bother to leap at the tiniest window of opportunity. Instead, he took a moment to watch the goose warily and perhaps take a look at any better things to snatch. Maybe just a random bone would suffice, as he chanced that the Collector would likely somehow know where it came from. Or one of the gems in the pile he had tried to knock over. But first, there needed to be a better distraction.

He drew his wings up again over himself, trying to focus all of his magicka and energy into strengthening his wind and knocking the goose over. Even a little bit of a strong enough wind could be enough to stifle any movement toward him. Again, magic sputtered but rolled from him. Bright eyes watched carefully, limbs primed and ready to make a split-second decision as needed.

The wind came again and this time it was blowing right against Blackberry. She felt it catched under her wings and her feathers lifted. Not enough to send her flying away but it made her unsteady and for a moment she almost lost her balance. She tried to hook onto the ground with her claws but it wasn't getting her anywhere. She fought against it for a moment before the wind finally shoved her back. She honked loudly as she tumbled backwards, falling right off of the blue chrysalis.

She screeched angrily into the darkness as she tried to regain her composure. "WHO'S THERE THAT DARES TO MAKE A FOOL OF ME, BLACKBERRY!! SHOW YOURSELF!!!"

@Eythan

He physically had to restrain himself from becoming too limp and prepared and falling off of the rock as he waited for the wind to catch the monstrous goose just right and --- oh! Oh! With the swell of wings, Eythan tried to cast his magic into shadow (and failed, unfortunately) and dove down. Spreading his talons out and depositing the gnarled mass of fur in his wake, the hybrid prayed that the wind would keep up long enough and he'd be able to escape without a single scratch. As soon as his claws scraped something --- a miscellaneous gemstone ---he flapped his wings as hard as possible.

He wouldn't bother to listen or respond to the goose below as he twisted his back, turning and steadying himself in mid-air with a tail. Clutching his limbs to his chest and making himself as aerodynamic as possible, Eythan was focused only on escape. As quickly as possible, he took off down the tunnel, climbing to the ceiling at his soonest opportunity. Insurance.

As Blackberry struggled to keep herself steady she saw something swoop from the shadows and her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the weird creature that came soaring down. It grabbed one of Huckleberry's gemstones and left a piece of fur. Not that she cared of either but like hell she would let some nobody come in and steal anything from her home!

She screeched and shot forward, the talons on her stomach flexing angrily as strength return to her muscles. She dug talons around a rock and pushed herself off, fighting furiously against the wind with all her strength. "YOU AREN'T GETTING AWAY FROM ME!" She reached out with her beak and tried to stab at the hybrid, hopefully to latch on and at least slow down his escape.

@Eythan

Holy shit did Eythan want to make some snarky comment back at the monstrous goose suddenly on his ass, but he clicked his beak shut so that he could focus on not dying. Plus, he'd annoyed the murderous thing enough and he didn't want to end up like that poor bird skeleton down there. Instead, he just focused on climbing higher and higher into the air.

Well, as much as he could with a horrendously sharp beak now piercing his leg. An involuntary gasp escaped him as he kicked out and flapped harder. Clutching the gem ever-closer to his chest, the hybrid called upon his unfaithful magic to add a little pizzazz to his next action. Of course, it lived up to its name as he tucked his wings close to himself and turned downward, diving and diving and diving.

@Blackberry

Blackberry felt her beak big into the hybrid's leg before a sudden jerk and the foot connected with her chest. It dislodged her but didn't stun her for long enough. She beat her wings strongly against her momentum and followed him into his dive.

She hissed and honked loudly as she struggled to catch up with his hind leg, reaching again to grab at his pelt. She tried to pull herself forward, opening the claws on her stomach to close them around the thief's leg. If she could clamp herself against him, he wouldn't be getting away.

@Eythan