The Wild Series: Reign of Ashes (Outskirts)

Anastas felt his anger die down into a mixture of grief and regret. 'No, no, no. He was badly injured. The other shade's would have killed him...she isn't right...' he tried to push away the scathing and painful truth that she was telling him. None of it could be true, could it? 
   The Harris hawk met the shade's malevolent gaze with his own, defiantly holding his beak high towards her, even though a creeping shiver ran down his spine, threatening to expose how he truly felt about his scouting companion's death. He wouldn't forgive this stupid shade, this unnecessary evil standing in front of him who dared to threaten them. "Your death must have meant nothing, seeing as no one wanted to spare you from such a fate..."

The female shade watched Vex go with the everlasting grin on her beak, but her eyes held an unamused gaze.
Now where is he off to?
Then at hearing Anastas, she let out a huff of laughter and tilted her head towards him with a smirk.
"My, my. What a cold-hearted pair you both make," she sneered with a slight spread of her wings. "It's kind of weird though. Why do you talk as if I've already died?"
With that parting statement, she took off after Vex, snatching a short, flat piece of bark laying on a boulder as she passed.

"You know, I was offended back there," the female shade called as she soared after Vex, "What with you calling my kin 'vile' and 'disgusting'. I'm almost mad enough to take you to my superior! Or chase you out of my territory, whichever's easier."

(Quick question, is Anastas wearing silver battle laws too, or is that just something that's provided to the captains?)

Anastas took off as soon as the shade did in quick succession, keeping pace with her as she continued to taunt Vex and him. However, the Harris hawk kept his pace, knowing that at any moment she could come back and decide to attack him. He needed to distract her from the captain, and in that moment he Slammed into the bird from behind before pulling to her left.

(He doesn't have any silver claws. Only Vex does.)

{ Wild, do you plan on having your shade escape from the situation somehow, or can Vex kill her (with some difficulty xD) ? }

Vex was already flying fast, making a wide arc around the rocky outcropping that the shades had come from, the female shade's voice drowned out by the sound of the wind rushing past him. As he flew, the plan began to formulate better into his mind, and he was fairly certain it would work. On the off chance that it didn't...hopefully Anastas would be able to escape alive.

I kinda want her to live to be honest XD But I dunno! I mean I'm not gonna make her completely invincible. She's a shade, so without silver, she'd be nearly impossible to kill even thought it's two against one. But since Vex does have silver, she's gonna be on guard, especially against him. So unless he can get a lucky/well-to-do shot or whatever, she's going to live. But remember how she mentioned other outposts? If they are fighting for too long (I'm gonna say maybe three more posts on my part), reinforcements are gonna come and Vex and Anastas will have one or two more posts before they are outnumbered if they continue fighting her. Or something like that?) (To answer your question, whether she lives or dies depends on what happens these next few posts. But the chances of her living are greater than the chances of her dying)

---

The female shade let out a squawk as something ran into her from behind.
Crud! He's faster than I thought! She hissed mentally with a sneer when she spotted Anastas on her left.
"Look buddy, I'm gonna tell you one more time," she spat, "Get out or you're DEAD!" 
On the final word, with the piece of wood gripped in both her talons, she twisted her body slightly so her left wing was out of the way and rammed into Anastas' right side, being sure to ram into his right wing as she did so.

{ Well, I'm thinking that since Vex doesn't know all that much about shades, maybe he just manages to injure her, and then he and Anastas flee. That would make the most sense I think. Spoiler, I'm probably going to have him try to dive-bomb her at high speeds, so I guess it's up to you how she fends off the attack. 

Also gonna let Crow reply first.}

Earth's Eco wrote:{ Well, I'm thinking that since Vex doesn't know all that much about shades, maybe he just manages to injure her, and then he and Anastas flee. That would make the most sense I think. Spoiler, I'm probably going to have him try to dive-bomb her at high speeds, so I guess it's up to you how she fends off the attack. 

Also gonna let Crow reply first.}

(I figured he would do that since he's a Peregrine and that's what they do XD Spoiler, she's expecting that too and she's prepared)

(And that sounds like a good plan of action. Whether or not he manages to injure her depends on what happens next, but fleeing does make sense.)

Anastas glanced towards her with a sudden sound of surprise at her swift response, even as he anticipated the blow and tucked his wing in to prevent any incapacitating damage. "Dang you, shade!" He dropped behind her for a moment to right himself while shakily dodging several branches, the tip scrapping roughly  across his chest several times.
  "Dang it, dang it.." he hissed out in pain at the numbing sensation of the shade's blow and shot forward in a burst of speed to catch up with Vex.

"Heh heh!" the shade sneered as she circled a good distance above the blackened tree Anastas had scraped past. She let out a hum of amusement as the hawk shot up ahead of her before curving her path upward and following suite.

Vex was gaining altitude now, following a loose helix pattern up into the sky, caught on the warm air currents. He glanced back to see Anastas fly faster, and silently hoped that he could keep the shade busy for just a bit longer.

Anastas glanced back carefully towards the shade while she continued to follow them upwards. "Alright..." he tensed himself and suddenly threw himself into a backwards half-loop, diving down towards the shade from above her without hesitation. 
  "This should work." He inwardly prayed that this worked, knowing that they needed to get out here, and slowing this shade down was their only hope of doing so.

With a lazy smile, the female shade stopped in mid-air. She hovered to the side just out of Anastas' path while she timed his fall. As he was diving passed her, she shoved into his midsection with the flat of her board, since it was still in her talons. Her move pushed him slightly out of his path, but she wasn't sure how much he'd be disoriented. She hoped she would at least get to see him flail.
As for the shade, she sprung in the opposite direction. With a raise of her wingtips and a grin, she winked at no one in particular.
"Nope!"

(If this were a comic or a TV show, she'd be shrugging and winking to the audience. Her "Nope" is a reply to Anastas' "This should work." )

(Oh goodness. XD a class act! Truly!)

Anastas didn't think twice about his decision with an anticipatory dive that quickened him just enough to come off with a scathing scrape and a hard shove of his bottom half that threw him off by two seconds of time. He forced him to land on a nearby branch to prevent any more harm, but launched off of it again just far enough away to avoid any moves she might make. 
  "Stupid shade." The Harris hawk mumbled at the shade's reaction time again. These birds were definitely supernatural in reflex and physiology. And what was with her attitude? Did she just wink? 

Meanwhile Vex was now high above them, flying fast. The height lessened, but the speed only increased as he dropped into a classic Peregrine dive, speeding towards the female shade like a bullet, silver talons ready to extend the moment he made contact. He was just hitting the peak speed of the dive when the shade winked to the audience, and he winked to the audience as well as he changed the angle of his dive ever so slightly. He flashed by the shade, inches from their bodies colliding, one pair his silver battle-talons ripping across her wing near the shoulder, and the other catching a bit of her face due to the way her head was tilted, and then hopefully scoring along her back.

Lol, Vex XD )

It was the move the shade had been waiting for. But she had been distracted by Anastas and by the time she looked up to spot the diving Peregrine, she was almost too late to defend herself. Almost.

"Oh sh-" 

The shade spun around, angling downward with her back facing the ground, and whipped her board in front of her like a shield in just the nick of time. Where his silver talons would have scored through flesh, they went across the bark instead, leaving deep gouges and breaking small pieces off with it. But with Vex's strike, the board was ripped out of her talons and collided right into her head. And so, unscathed by the silver claws that would have killed her but unconscious, she free-fell to the ground. It was only a few seconds later that she opened her eyes again, and a heartbeat later that her body hit the ground. As she felt every bone in her body shatter upon impact, the shade's body burst into black and violet flames. She didn't grow in size, but her entire form flickered and distorted with they flames, making it so it was no longer possible to tell that she was a Shikra. She lay on her back with her wings splayed on either side of her, and with her broken body still healing, rolled to her talons. She held herself, barely even crouching, and glared to the skies.

Vex wasn't hesitating any longer. As he swooped down to the ground near Anastas, he screeched, "WE NEED TO GO. NOW!" He quickly flew over to Torris's body, grabbing the body in his battle-talons, flying as fast as he could with the body weighing him down. He wasn't happy that his silver hadn't even grazed the shade, but with that fall, she should be immobilized long enough for them to get away. Should be, he thought.

Anastasa stared coldly at the broken shade, a spark of gratification flaring inside him before dying down at realizing they would get caught by another patrol of shade's. 
  "Vex. I think we need to leave." He nodded urgently and lifted off above his captain. Vex, however, was thinking several steps ahead of him. "Right!" He hurriedly followed without looking back at he shade.

The female shade let out an infuriated hiss as she watched the intruders flee at the same time that several shades from another outpost finally made their way towards hers. Any one shade could have easily caught up to the fleeing intruders, but seeing as they would be out of range, she doubted any one would care to try.
By the time the shades from the other outpost had spotted her and landed around her, the Shikra had fully healed. She extinguished her flames and turned to face the other outpost captain.

"There were three intruders that flew much too close to my post. There were four of us, and the three under my command attacked them. Two are dead, and the other is severely injured over there. I'm not sure if he's still alive."

As she said this, a couple of the reinforcements flew over to check on her injured comrade.

"One of the intruders was injured by one of my own," the Shikra continued, "His comrade put him down on the false assumption that he would turn into a fellow shade. I engaged in combat with the surviving two, but the leader sent me to the ground, giving them time to flee."

The other shades glowered at the Shikra. She could feel the judgement in their eyes. She could practically hear them asking, "How could you lose to normal birds? What's wrong with you?"

With shadows cast over her empty eyes, the Shikra responded to the silent questions. "The leader was wearing silver battleclaws."

Immediately, the judgement changed to shock, and more importantly, understanding. The questions were now, "How did a normal bird get enough silver to forge weapons? Who were these birds? Why were they here?"

Whatever the answers, the Shikra knew that once she reported this incident to her superiors, the information would make it's way to the Alpha Shade. She also knew there would be a good chance she would get called in to the Alpha Shade himself to report her first-talon experience with the silver-wielder. She only hoped she would not get punished for failing to capture the surviving intruders.

Earth's Eco wrote:

Wildwing wrote:Kae nodded in reply to Jury, hoping the tunnels did connect. Seeing as the other two had gone ahead of her, she started after them. The minute she cleared the entryway, a stone slab dropped down right behind her with a large bang, badly startling the she-wolf. The slab was perfect in size and cut, completely blocking the wolves' exit. After giving it a once over, Kae ran to join Silence and Jury, silently deciding to stay near the two as she entered the next room.

(Alright Silv, since Jury entered the room first, you can say what is or isn't in it! You also have the option telling one of us to do that instead if you don't want to. It's completely up to you! )

Silence looked around the room they were now in, noticing it was still light enough to see, but the light wasn't quite as bright as on a night with a full moon. Instead, there were deep shadows in places, and the light seemed almost eerily magical, as if it wasn't entirely of the natural world. Silence took in the walls around them first. There was, like the room they had come out of, four arches, one on each side, the one behind them now closed. The design of the room was similar, except there were no markings above the arches. Silence took a moment to try and lock the orientation into his mind, then moved towards the western opening, his paw-steps landing dull on the stone floor without echo.

Kae briefly surveyed the room before following after Silence. She wondered why the markings above the arches were gone now. She silently told herself to remember which way was North so she didn't lose orientation. They were headed west now, so she would look towards the northern entrance in the next room to refresh her orientation.

Unfortunately, the western opening was not an opening. Though it looked like there was a tunnel leading to another room, it was some sort of illusion. The western 'opening' was actually a wall. Meaning that if Silence wasn't paying really close attention, he would run into it. He was in the lead, after all.

What should Vex and them do now?)

Silence, not really paying close attention, failed to recognize to 'opening' for what it really was. However, he was lucky to turn at the last moment to look back at Jury and Kae, colliding with the wall shoulder-first. He let out a growl of surprise, stumbling to the side. "What the--!"

Jury, having not recognized the wall for what it was until the last moment, had opened her mouth to warn Silence, but once he crashed all that came out was a loud laugh. She trotted up to him still chuckling, giving his shoulder a quick glance to be sure he wasn't really hurt, before making her way to the Southern hall connected to the room. At first glance, the room didn't seem to be any different than the rest, but then she caught sight of what rested in the middle.

It looked to be a ball of sorts, made of...metal? Sniffing it revealed nothing, but that wasn't surprising since it'd been awhile since anyone had likely been in this place to leave any scent behind. Instead, she called to the other two to come see what she'd found, poking the sphere with a forepaw.

(Lupa: She rolled even! Nice!)

Kae stumbled to a stop, almost running into Silence. She was confused about what had just happened, until she realized the "tunnel" was actually a wall.
Uh...I guess we should pay special attention to the entrance from now on, she thought.
After asking Silence if he was okay, Kae followed Jury to the Southern-
Wait a minute! In the previous room, we chose the Northern tunnel. Which means if we head South now, we'd be heading back to the room we just left. But that's not possible, because that tunnel is closed off. Right? Is my orientation wrong?


(I don't know how I remembered that, but I went back and checked and XD Don't feel bad, it was dumb luck I remembered. So I'll leave it up to you! Did the southern tunnel open back up and lead them to a different room? Did they get their directions mixed up! It's up to you! Magic or mistake? )

Kae stayed a short distance from the sphere, narrowing her eyes at it in suspicion. She watched it roll in the dip it was settled in with each product from Juryoku. It didn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary. She took a moment to survey this current room. There were only three tunnels now, including the one they had just exited, at three of the cardinal directions. That only left two paths to take.

(I had no clue where they came from I just chose a random tunnel, pretend Jury messed up with directions or something xD) 

Jury watched the sphere with mild interest for a moment, curious as to why it was there. When it did nothing and nothing about it seemed to be worth the time, she just pushed at it again and turned her attention back to the others. "So, which way now?" 

(I have no clue what to do with the sphere, Jury is disappointed in the lack of interestingness it has whoops)

Lol! I dunno what to do with it either. I'll leave it up to Eco.

---

RPG!!!!


Pick it up?
>Yes
>No

(JK XD) (It's aaaaaall up to you, Eco!)

---

Kae, after regaining her orientation, realized the group had in fact headed north instead of South. So in the current room, the tunnel they had exited-the southern tunnel-was closed off. The only possible directions now were West and North. Either direction was good with Kae, since the plan was to head north and west to better the groups chances of meeting her pups. She looked to Silence to see if he had a preference.

The first rays of sunlight that peeked through the cracks of the cave walls, did not wake the sleeping wolf. In fact, it wasn't until midday that the sun was finally warm enough to rouse the injured alpha from his exhausted dreams.

Drellan stretched before he opened his eye, and for a fleeting moment he had forgotten the week that had passed and the horrors he had experienced in the forest behind him. When he finally was able to see, his vision focused on a blurred bark-colored shape before him. He was still getting used to his new sight, and took him some time to realize that the shape was not merely a part of the tree roots that spiraled down from the ceiling of the damp cave. After a moment, he froze, his half-asleep heart skipping a beat.

A wolf!

As Drellan stirred, the brown and tan she-wolf's ears flicked. Water slooshed in the moose antler that lay at her forepaws. A moment passed before she turned to look at the wounded wolf with what seemed to be concern.

"You're finally awake," she said patiently. She stood on all fours and turned to fully face him. "I have come across a number of collapsed wolves in my life, but you by far are a most interesting case."

Wildwing wrote:As Drellan stirred, the brown and tan she-wolf's ears flicked. Water slooshed in the moose antler that lay at her forepaws. A moment passed before she turned to look at the wounded wolf with what seemed to be concern.

"You're finally awake," she said patiently. She stood on all fours and turned to fully face him. "I have come across a number of collapsed wolves in my life, but you by far are a most interesting case."

Drellan tried to focus on his surroundings, his pounding headache he had felt for most of the week slowly returning to the base of his skull as he stared at the wolf who was speaking. The fur along the ridge of his spine prickled as his breathing picked up. His mind flew to the dangerous possibilities of what this wolf was doing in his cave. "..... What?"

Silence trotted towards the cave entrance, two rabbits hanging from his jaws. His hunt had taken longer than he had originally planned, and for not much profit it seemed. He ducked his hulking head as he squeezed into the short tunnel leading to the cave he currently called home, along with the wolf he still was wondering why he truly was traveling with. Hearing talking, he paused, stopping in the shadows just as he entered. He stopped just in sight of Gretta, wishing his bulk wasn't so cumbersome in the small confines.

Behind the she-wolf was a large exit, where the sun shone and the outside could clearly be seen. There were patches of snow along the yellow ground, and some tree bases outside could be seen. The wind blew in, shuffling her fur in the slightest. Her eyes moved subtly to an area somewhat to the left-Drellan's right-to where the tunnel entrance was. She made eye contact with Silence and quietly willed him to stay put with her eyes and ears. As he was in Drellan's blind spot, she was sure the wounded wolf would not be able to see him unless he turned his head. She knew he would have scented him by now, however, but she was not worried. He would have scented the rabbits as well, so perhaps that would help put him at ease?

At Drellan's confusion, the she-wolf smiled apologetically. "I am sorry. That was a horrible introduction. My name is Gretta. My friend and I found you collapsed. We were worried for your safety, so we took you in to our temporary shelter." Her expression grew solemn as she focused on the side of his face that she had bandaged. "That wound... You must have been through something truly awful..."