strong language

Lemonface was perched on the tallest tree he could find upon immediately entering Eridanus, his brand spanking new pair of goggle on his face, giving him protection from the wind if he ever flew at speeds faster than coasting. Vultures weren't known for flying fast, but then again, Lemon wasn't your average vulture.

"OKAY!", he crowed suddenly, "Ozzie-! Ozzie-man, Ozzie the Great- have I got a lesson for you-who!"

He spread his wings and pointed up at the ceiling, "I'm gonna fly all the way up there and then when I reach the top, first imma touch it, then I'm gonna divebomb down to the ground and go feeeeew through the trees faster than you can say, 'stop Lemon, this is a bad idea'!"

He took flight and looked down at the other, "But don't tell Dammy! She'll tear me a new one."

Probably. She cared deep down, he knew, but that was why he didn't wanna tell her, because then she'd chew him out because Eythan sure as hell wouldn't.

BUT ANYWAY!

Lemon flew up higher and higher, doing spirals so he didn't stall or tire himself out too fast, and flipped onto his back, scraping the ceiling with his talons and folding his wings in. He shot down to the ground, the wind making it a bit hard to breathe, but with the goggles his eyes didn't water, so that was good!

He snapped open his wings, expecting to be awesome and swoop up before darting through the trees like a bad ass, but alas... he was kind of stupid.

Lemon's wings snapped back and wrenched in their sockets, ripping a screech from his throat. He crashed into a tree and tumbled through the branches, hitting almost every single one on the way down before landing in a heap of feathers on the forest floor.

"... O-ow," he said, hissing and trying not to cry as he tried to pick himself up, bruised and battered.

He struggled to even pull his wings in, his shoulder joints aching, cuts and scrapes all over, bloodying his pretty white feathers. More feathers rained down after him, having been ripped out on the way down. He looked to his wings and carefully lifted one, gasping in pain as it screamed in agony, quickly letting it fall.

"FUCK- okay," he said, trying to breathe, "Not doing that... okay."

Lemon pulled the other wing in and tucked it close, but his left was fucked, dislocated at the shoulder, having been wrenched out by the stupid maneuver. But now he was grounded and Ozzie was in no way big enough to carry him home, so... he was fucked. Very very fucked.

"O-Ozzie?!", he called out, "Oh God..."

It was terrifying down here on the ground, flightless, unable to run from anything that decided he looked like a snack.

@Ozzie

Action. Thought. "Speech."

Ozzie had been lured into going along with this under the guise of "eridanus is safer than canis because it has more plants to crash into and break the fall", not by lemon, mostly himself. even then, lemons idea sounded bad. awful.

Ozzie was not really expecting good things to come from this. he loved lemon, truly, but every single atom in his feathered body said this was a terrible, awful, no good, VERY bad idea.

and not telling dammy? worse! so much worse. what the fuck.

he watched. oooh did he watch. anyone close enough would be able to see him flinching with every flip, and then..... crash, boom, bad.

branches, twigs, leaves, other birds? all went flying. every single crack was ear-splittingly loud as lemons body tore through them high-speed on his way down and his mind lagged so far behind him he could barely stand to keep his eyes open and not scream, flinching terribly.

"L-LEMON!!!" he cried out, distressed. he flew over. he let out an overwhelmed whine at lemons SCREAM of pain, aswell, letting out the worst cry of relief as he finally found him in the underbrush. "oh gods- fuck that looks bad- lemon holy shit WHY-" he stammered, breathing labored.

WHY DID LEMON THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA TOO MUCH NOISE TOO LOUD EVERYTHINGS TOO LOUD LEMON IS HE OKAY I CAN'T THINK I NEED DAMS I NEED DAMMY I NEED-"

"we need HELP, we need DAMASK, i can't- i can't carry you ho-oooh lords lemon are you okay??!!" he panted, stuck between a panicked mental breakdown and trying to comfort lemon.

"i-i can try to drag you home- maybe i can- FUCK maybe i can- no-" he mumbled to himself more than lemon. "i dont know how to get us home i dont know where home is- GODS, ARE YOU OKAY???"

@Lemonface

Lemon was shivering, definitely going into shock. He was shivering and sniffling, feeling like someone stuffed cotton in his ears. He managed to push his goggles around his neck and flapped his good wing despite the other being jostled in the process.

"N-no! Ozzie! Ozzie look at me-"

Why was he the calm one? Probably the adrenaline.

"Ozzie just- don't get Damask. There's shit like snakes d-down here, if you just leave I'll be exposed,", he said, and tried to think for once in his life.

What would Dammy do? She'd probably bad ass her way out of this situation, but he wasn't Dammy, so that was out of the question. THINK, damn it!

His eyes landed on a vine and he hissed, trying to drag himself towards it, "Okay, Ozzie grab that vine and wrap it around my wing. I-I can't lift it so you need to lift it and tie it for me, o-okay?"

Lemon couldn't panic, not now. He needed help but he also needed Ozzie to stay clear-headed, so he'd panic when the bird left for help.

"I'm gonna be okay, Oz," he promised, "A-and I'm never doing something like that again."

Well, not with Ozzie here, at least. He'd bring Avi along next time, they'd totally be into it and would probably laugh at him, but wouldn't panic.

"When you got that handled, go get help, okay?", he said, sniffling, trying to hold back tears.

@Ozzie

Did someone say... Avi?

Okay, nobody did, but Lemon thought it so it's basically the same thing. Plus the two doofuses could really use some outside help right now.

The alien griffin saw them leave around an hour or so ago. It was kinda hard not to notice their absence, given the fact the three of them were practically glued to each other's sides. They didn't think too hard about it. Lemonface and Ozzie were always getting into hijinks, what harm would a little trip to Eridanus ('er-ee-dan-us? These caves had weird names, man') do?

But then they got bored. And lonely. And bored and lonely. And then they decided to follow after them.

It was a bit hard. Leaving Canis itself was something Avino didn't like to do, and they had to fly through that creepy tunnel, too. But they got through it, and they swept through Orion and the staircase tunnel, and they touched down in a cave full of creeping vines and massive ferns. But Avi wasn't too interested in the sightseeing. If only they could find Lemon in all this jungle...

A screech tore through the trees. Lessers fled from the sound. There he is!

The glowing creature touched down a little while later, haphazardly perched upon a forest vine. A pair of sunglasses-- the same ones the vulture got for them a little ago-- hid her first pair of eyes, while the second were free to look in vague confusion at the scene below.

"Hey hey Lemon! Hi Ozzie!" Their voice was as cool and easygoing as possible. Avi tucked their leathery wings in, noticing at the same time the vulture's own drooping limb. "I got bored and... ooh, what happened to your wing?"

The griffin crept down to the forest floor. They didn't dare touch him-- even the velvety tip of their scythes could be painful-- so they just stared blankly at the scene. It... did not look good. Ozzie was hyperventilating, Lemon's eyes were glassy, and the massive trail of broken branches above them hinted at more than your average trip.

"Ya need help, right?" Avino chirruped. "I can help!"

And, surprisingly enough, they did. The bonebound bounded away through the trees, scouring the vines until they found some water trapped in a leaf. Then they bounded back, pitcher in beak, and set it down before the Egyptian Vulture, all the while rambling:

"I saw something like this before, y'know. On the bones in Canis! Was a funny little skeleton, shaped a little like you, and both its wings were splattered all over like blam! I thought it looked pretty cool, so I pulled it aside to look at it more. Turns out-- wait, where the heck's water...?" (their voice got fainter the further they went away) "... Ooh, found something! A'ybay, I bwooked ad id, ad id durned oud dese fracdures had sealed loonb before id died, meabinb it broke id's winbs and libed widout eider of 'em! Blech-- Here, I found this water for you! Maybe if you drink it it'll hurt less, and then you can let your wing soak, or something... That was a cool story, innit? Just wanted to distract you from... whatever that happened. What happened, anyway?"

There seems to be no limit to her babbling, is there?

@Lemonface @Ozzie