Keeping Ahead.

[Thalron]

The woods were far from empty on this night, birds and animals could be heard from all around. Sqauwking, screeching and doing whatever it was that they did in the night.

It didn't last long however.

When the more prominent species of this land soon made their presence known, all the sounds ceased and were replaced with a strange and eery silence. The strange moment of silence was soon broken though, as a loud crack sounded out through the night scattering the birds in a great exodus to the sky. Soon enough the source of their fright became much more evident as lights and sparks began to fly from beneath the branches of this somewhat secluded locale.

The source of the lights was obvious enough if you were nearby, what appeared to be a gryvern was fighting a... hatchling tsume? This would likely seem to be a horrible thing if it were not for the fact it seemed that the child was winning, or atleast good enough to keep it on the defensive. Dodging through the air and throwing strange multicoloured orbs of light and darkness, which burnt or exploded upon contact. The gryvern was just lucky it was fast enough to dodge most of them.

On the ground, some way behind the tsume there was another youngling tsume on the ground... It almost seemed as if the fight was simply to draw the gryvern away.

[Sera]

Drawn by the light show, a large Air Gryvern, let himself drift closer. The woods weren't known for being entirely friendly to those who might wander them, but he, at least, wasn't really afraid.

One could think his lack of fear was based on his looks-- the large horn protruding from his forehead bespoke his fighting abilities-- but, really, it was more his personality to be rather easy-going about everything until he needed to not be.

He came in close enough to make out the first of the adversaries and his head tilted curiously at the sight of the Dark gryvern growling ferally and curling back just long enough for the Air to catch sight of a multitude of wounds running the length of his body. What was surprising, though, was the fact that the other just as suddenly launched himself back again towards his opponent with what appeared to be no real concern towards strategy; just enough to try and dodge some of the orbs being thrown at him.

"No!" Samir roared himself, trying to be a distraction as he charged in towards the two. . . a white tsume covered in wings. . .black feet and tail. . . surely not. . . "Rovea!" He needed to stop the fight long enough to find out what was going on, but the Dark didn't seem to be listening, still charging headlong towards the tsume.

[Thalron]

Things were getting better, or so thought Rovea atleast. The gryvern was beginning to slow down and maybe she could last this long enough that he'd come back to his senses and run away. This thought was quickly snuffed though as she heard an exclamation from near them, both combatants paused for a moment... Unfortunately they both did not idle for the same length of time and before Rovea turned back the gryvern lunged forward and managed to clip her with its claws.

The strike would have been merely superficial for most creatures, but when you're that small it's a bit.. more serious... There wasn't very much blood, but several wires appeared to have been yanked out in the process. Who knows what they were doing beneath her skin.

After getting knocked back like that one would expect her to fall, but instead she steadied herself in the air wings buzzing dangerously... Then they both turned red and she shot forward, striking the nose of the gryvern as it began to lunge towards her again. The second her little claws made contact there was a horrid crackling and crunching of bones, even the skin over its face split as some wave of force blasted up through its skull... It's head nearly exploded as fragments of bone and flesh ripped up, and then through the back of its own skull. Flying out in a wide splatter of blood and gore. Then it fell to the ground lifeless... While the small tsume continued to hover there, looking stunned and... out of it.... As well as covered in blood, a good deal of which was her own.

The brown tsume continued just lying there... It looked like it was probably unconscious.

[Sera]

Rovea wasn't the only stunned one, that was certain for sure. But the Hunter wasn't trained to sit on his haunches while the world went to pot around him. There was nothing he could do for the gryvern now, and he knew that the little tsume had been injured. So he put the fight out of his mind, the reasons, and the corpse out of his mind as he darted forward to help steady her as she hovered in the air.

"Whoa, there, Rovea, I think you're pushing a bit too hard. Come on down and let's look you over, hrms?" He moved so he could hopefully catch her if her wings gave out. He continued to not look towards the brains splattered all over the nearby trees.

[Thalron]

She didn't turn to him, or even acknowledge his presence as he approached... Mentally she was trying to figure out how to explain this to Samir, she really didn't want him to go away... He was the closest to a father-figure as she had ever met. When he spoke though, she snapped out of her thoughts and just sort of fell against him. Little wings sparking, then winking out.

Then she began to whimper, and make small pathetic squeaky noises as she clung to whichever part of him that she was caught by. She didn't cry though, she was pretty close to.

"I... Didn't want to hurt him..."

[Sera]

The little tsume was now clinging to his head and muzzle and Samir was just glad that she had missed being impaled upon his horn. He turned his head carefully so she could drop onto his back and eyed the other tsume warily for a moment. It looked as though the gryvern may have done a number on the pair of tsume, but for the life of him, Samir couldn't imagine why anyone would attack the two.

"It's all right, Rovea," he answered with a soft croon, even if he wasn't entirely certain he was telling the truth. "You only did wot you had to do and now we're going to get you cleaned up and fixed up." A quick sniff around gave him a beacon towards a nearby stream and Samir quickly and smoothly headed that direction. "Why were you fighting?" he asked gently.

[Thalron]

Rovea didn't appear to get the signal that she should drop down onto his back, and simply continued to cling to his long muzzle... Although a few drops of blood did drop down onto his back as she was held above it, and her tail continued to curl and uncurl in an unsure manner.

"I just wanted to make it go away..." she coughed a few times and tried to look over into his eye, but her grip was beginning to slip. her little claws scrabbled against his snout a little bit, although not with enough force to scratch him as she began to slide off.

She... Wasn't looking so good. Her little sparkly wings were completely dark, and even her ethereal looking ones seemed to be a little more disjointed than usual... The huge claw marks across her side didn't help too much either.

[Sera]

It wasn't until he realized she wasn't going to get down that he'd checked the other tsume and assumed that she'd be fine holding on there. . . until she started to slip. He carefully turned his head again and dipped it down to his back so she could feel his blue and white hide beneath her feet.

"It's all right, Rovea. Sit here on my back until we can get you cleaned, all right?" He tried to soothe her and encourage her at the same time.

[Thalron]

She didn't seem to be listening to him very much anymore as her grip began to slide again, although this time she wasn't able to regain it. It was lucky that he had managed to move her to his back first, but just after she landed there she just collapsed. Promptly sliding off the side of his back unless he managed to catch her.

She was over-acting a bit, or perhaps she had chosen to act somewhat how a creature of her age and physique should but truth be told she could likely heal herself in some manner... But she didn't want to, she liked feeling helpless sometimes.

Not too far away Lacere was beginning to stir a little bit.

[Sera]

Samir hastily caught the side of his cape as she began to slip down his side. She fell gently into the folds of the cloth and he just kept his end up and carried her as though she were in an actual sling. With her carefully constrained now, Samir gently walked her down into the water and settled her in some of the shallows.

Her body contained within the small rocks he quickly began to gently clean her up.

[Thalron]

Rovea didn't really move that much until she made contact with the water, and found out that it was really cold... She lurched forward a bit then whimpered. Gently pawing and gripping his muzzle as he cleaned her. The wounds became a bit more visible when the majority of the blood splatter was gone, it didn't seem as bad as before but... She probably needs some medical attention, soon.

"It's- _It's cold.. I- _I don't like the wa-_water"

Her voice was glitching somewhat, almost like a stutter but more mechanical... Like a skipping cd. Regardless of the odd intermittent distortions, it was obvious that she was afraid.

[Sera]

"You'll be all right," he told her gently, though he didn't want to keep her in it for too long. IT was cold to him as well and there was a good chance that she'd go into shock. Her strange way of speaking made him nervous and he swiftly finished cleaning her up. Using the bottom half of his cloak again, Samir picked her up and quickly carried her back to shore.

He brought her close to the other tsume, glancing at the other one for a moment before turning his attention back to Rovea. Placing her gently on the ground he squeezed the water from the bottom of the cloak then took the dry half and draped it over the female.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked gently as he began to chaff her dry very, very gently.

[Thalron]

She only whimpered in response to his words, and even those noises were starting to sound a bit... glitchy. needless to say she was happy to get out of the water, and clung to Samir's cloak. She didn't say much for a few moments as she was laid back down on the ground, but when she noticed the blood dampening his cloak she whimpered again and half heartedly pawed at it.

"S-_sorry I made y-_your cl-^cloak dirty-_y..." her voice was a bit warbly as well now, which somewhat added to the pathetic cuteness.


The other young tsume, that had somewhat longer fur than most that he'd likely seen was sitting up now, rubbing it's head tiredly as it looked around...

The first thing that really stood out was the near-headless body, and blood/brain splattered trees... her gaze then immediately fell upon Samir, then further down to the injured Rovea then back to samir again. "What happened!"

She was somewhat torn between running over to try and rescue Rovea from this obviously dangerous gryvern... But then again it looked like it might be trying to help her, and she wasn't very good at doing that herself.

[Sera]

Samir absently licked across the top of her head. "Don't worry about the cloak," he said, eyeing her worriedly again. "I chose red for a reason." He absently noticed that the other tsume was moving, but he wasn't yet worried about her. Rovea, however, didn't seem to be recovering, not even after the dunk in the cool water.

His ears twitched and he turned his attention briefly to the unknown female then back to Rovea again. "That is an excellent question," he prodded gently. "Wot did happen, Rovea?"

[Thalron]

Rovea made a small faultering purr as he licked over the top of her head, attempting to lean into the little sign of affection weakly before laying back down against the ground. Her little hands reached up to touch the end of his nose lightly, some odd mumbly noises coming from her as she tried to say something... She didn't manage anything comprehensible though.

When asked what happened rovea just looked up at him, managing to get one word out. "..Bo/_om."



The brown youngling jumped up though, apparently the fact that Samir could actually speak was incredibly reassuring and she promptly ran up to him. Nudging in against him a little bit to get a better view of her injured friend. "We were attacked by that... umm... thing, it was acting crazy. I think I fainted when it came after me." she explained quickly as she examined Rovea... She wished they had some bandages or something, rovea seemed in rather dire need of them.

Samir would probably notice one somewhat odd thing about the little furred tsume, foremost that she didn't seem incredibly freaked out anymore. Secondly that her fur was very, very soft, even that little brush of it was nearly addictive.