Tyrian scooted further out on the branch and then took a deep breath. Sparrow had claws. He'd said she wouldn't and yet somehow she had, which now meant they were similar enough for her to be smug. And her smugness irked him which meant he had to do everything in his power to maintain his superiority. Which was why this was really, really going to hurt. After digging his front claws into the wood, Tyrian leaned back and allowed gravity to slowly pull him down. He lowered himself slowly so that his claws had a chance to gouge their way down the side of the branch and he wouldn't accidentally shake himself loose. The boy was successful; soon enough he was hanging from the branch by his front claws. And he was right - it did hurt to support all of his weight with them. Swallowing the pain, he forced himself to speak normally so she wouldn't know how badly he was hurting. "See? Easy peasy. If you're really strong you can do this too." He kicked his hind feet, swinging them nonchalantly, to emphasis how easy it was. Hopefully when it was her turn to try it would hurt too much. Then she would know what he already knew - he was still better than her. "Speech"

Sparrow in no way was going to let Tyr outdo her. She watched him as he moved slowly, cautiously. Not like a big cat at all. He looked out of place even though he tried to make it sound so easy. Sparrow was jealous, but not convinced of his ease. She had seen cats before. And squirrels. Lots of things climbed trees and almost all of them did it better than Tyr in her opinion.

She still wanted to hang from a branch too, though. She made her way slowly up to where Tyr had first stood on the branch. she looked down at him with a serious pout, "You got your claws before you were born, right?" she asked, her head tilting. "So why aren't you as good as Zahir? You look... stiff."

She bent down, weighing the consequences of hanging beside him or chickening out. "Maybe it's cause you're fat... Or just bad... Maybe I can ask Zahir to teach me instead." Yes, that was a good excuse! If she went to look for the actual cat, maybe she wouldn't have to hang from a branch. "Besides, what good does that do? Can you even get back up?"

She really hoped he couldn't. If he could, then she'd be forced to try to show him how she could use her claws. And if that happened... if she failed it would be bad.

"Because," he snapped with a pained wheeze, "I'm a wolf, not a cat. We're not supposedto have claws, duh." Okay this was really bad. Tyrian felt as though his claws were being pulled out of his paws in his fight against gravity. Sheer pigheadedness was the only thing keeping him from letting go. He wasn't about to arm Sparrow with a display of weakness she no doubt would use against him every chance she got. It's certainly what he would do if she did something similar.

He snorted to cover a huff of pain and then snarked, "Yeah, sure, you ask Zahir. See where that gets you." She probably would teach Sparrow, but he wasn't going to foster that idea. Zahir would try to do a really good job and then him and his niece would be even, and he couldn't have that, could he? "It's for in case you fall, so you can save yourself. Anything that climbs has to know how to catch themselves. And...of course I can pull myself up," he muttered, eyeing the tree limb. It was so far away.

Tyrian was on the verge of trying when a rumbling boom deeper than any thunder he'd ever heard caused the birds around them to take flight. He flinched and it was then that his claws failed him. He fell and landed on the ground with a solid thud, but immediately bounced to his paws and directed his attention towards the sound in order to cover his mistake. As he watched bright orange specks began to fall around them. It was like glowing snow. At first he was intrigued by this and watched as the strong winds blew embers in by the drove, but then the creep of smoke along the ground drew his attention downwards. His ears fell back and he instinctively glanced around for Zahir, who was rarely far from him. "I think...we should maybe get my dad."

Okay, as much as Sparrow would refuse to admit it, Tyrian was kind of sort of making sense. She huffed in his direction. "Zahir is actually nice unlike you." Of course Sparrow could catch herself. She caught herself falling pretty often and only got bloodied up like ONCE, so she really didn't see what the big deal was.

"Yeah well I'll jus-"

Sparrow was pretty sure in that moment that she had gotten struck by thunder. Because that was totally a thing she still believed in. Not that she'd tell anyone. It sounded like the sky was splitting open above them and all the birds decided it was a good time to get out of Dodge and took off. When Sparrow went to look back at her uncle, she found that he was much further down than before. Sparrow hadn't seen him fall and assumed he got down on his own- luckily for him. Sparrow hopped/fell down the tree after her uncle and came to stand by his side, her fur fluffed out like she had just left a wind tunnel.

Tyr suggested they get his dad and Sparrow nodded slowly. She was taken aback by... the everything of it all. She almost wanted to catch one of the glowing bits in her maw but some instinctual wrongness stopped her. She glanced back in the direction of the commotion and saw... something on the horizon.

"Is that him?" Sparrow asked, squinting. Well that didn't look like either of their dads, so that couldn't be it. "No-" Sparrow corrected herself, "but uh... what IS that?"

Maybe Chaos would have been a better wolf to notify being the alpha and all, but in that moment Tyrian was scared and his thoughts went to the one wolf who wasn't afraid of anything. He was of the age where his dad was still invincible so it made sense that now, when faced with an ominous scene, his thoughts jumped immediately to Valentine.

"Uhhhm..." Tyrian squinted at the quickly approaching figure. Its movements were strange. Had he been a little more world weary Tyrian would have likened the uncoordinated movements to those of a drunk. He watched as the harried, smoke hidden figure stumbled and caught itself, and then suddenly bolted towards them as though chased by a monster. The boy had just enough time to widen his eyes and sidestep before the creature - a coyote! - slammed into his hip and was shunted off to the side. Had he been just a beat or two faster the coyote would have missed him altogether. "Hey!" he snapped.

Tears ran from the smaller canines eyes and though it didn't click with Tyrian, anyone with a little smoke experience would have been able to tell the coyote was struggling to see. Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of another animal, and thinking it must be under attack, the coyote lashed out. Its spun around and went after Tyrian. Initially the boy was startled enough to simply want to get away. Tyrian reeled away from the coyote - more from instinct than anything else - and then when his brain caught up with what was happening, fury took over.

Tyrian leapt at the coyote and the two briefly disappeared in a cloud of dirt and smoke. Every once in a while the coyote would squeal as Tyrian got a good blow in, but for the most part the only sounds that could be heard from the boy were expletives and snarls. Only once when the coyote managed to sink its teeth into his haunch did he trade the expletives from a startled yelp.

Somehow they ended up on the ground which worked in Tyrian's favor. He was bigger and heavier and clawed. He was more suited to grappling on the ground than the coyote. Using his forelegs like a cage, Tyiran pinned the coyote to his chest and set about bunny kicking it in the rump and belly. His claws were out and he could feel his toes moisten as blood soaked through his fur. The coyote wasn't a helpless victim during all of this. Though there wasn't much it could do it still did what it could. And what it could do was repeatedly bite his neck, chest and the inside of his forelegs. It put everything it had into the assault and soon both he and coyote were stained from throat to ribs with his blood. They rolled around in the welter of their gore; fixated on savaging one seemingly without regard for what was happening around them.

Though it felt like an eternity the scrap was over in a matter of seconds. Tyrian kicked the coyote away as the smoke around them began to grow thicker and then turned to Sparrow with a panicked expression - though he had been focused on the task at hand he wasn't been completely oblivious to what was happening around them. The smoke was too ominous to ignore. "We gotta go - run!"

OOC: Iko has permission to PP Tyrian!
WC for the thread is 1609

As the ground and sky shook, Sparrow felt her very core shake with it. She had never felt so small and useless in her entire life. She could think of a handful of adults, and yet none of them were right here to come and protect them or tell them what was going on. Sparrow's very heart burned as her mind clunked and churned for action. Fight or flight instincts raged in her system, clashing and ultimately causing her to to freeze. Her body was rigid- waiting for instructions that never seemed to come. Her own mind couldn't generate what else to do in this moment. Her eyes fixated on her uncle- the only other being in proximity to where she could look. Would he know what to do? He had to. He at least acted like he always knew what to do, but now, with the earth and sky booming around them, Sparrow wasn't sure even he would know how to react, much less take the time to consider how to incorporate Sparrow into his plans. It was a long shot, but Sparrow wasn't sure what else to do other than to call out to him. She opened her maw, but no words came forth. She tried again, but was cut short by the coyote barreling into her uncle's hip.

The coyote and Tyrian began to wrestle and Sparrow wasn't sure what she could do to help him. She looked around wildly for his companion, but the darkness and ash was getting to her eyes. She wiped them in vain on her legs to get rid of the bleary, burning sensation. There was not only the one coyote, but a few other animals fleeing from the chaos of the volcano. Sparrow couldn't keep track of them. She couldn't keep track of where Tyrian was or where they coyote was. She couldn't tell who was or would be victorious. They vanished into the smoke and only made appearances briefly. Their voices could be heard occasionally, although only barely over the immense roaring going on all around them. Something slammed into Sparrow's chest and she attacked in both fear and instinct. Once it stopped moving and she felt big and confident that she had killed a coyote just like Tyrian would inevitably do, she looked down to find that it had only been a rabbit that had crashed into her. She would have made it a quick snack usually, but this time she opted to drop it. She needed to find Tyrian.

Sparrow tore through the smoke looking for her uncle. She managed to come to him just in time for him to tell her that they needed to leave. Finally some direction! She followed his lead, their paws slamming against the ground with a furious roughness. Smoke and ash billowed around them and the air itself became hot. The trees and ground were blotted out from the sunshine they enjoyed just moments ago. The bright white light of the day time sky was soon replaced with he ominous red glow- the only light to peek through the thick and heavy smoke was that of the blooming fires and the sheer heat and light from the volcano itself. The ground beneath them seemed to be on fire. Running became painful and Sparrow wasn't sure if she was tired from running, or if it was her cat paws, or something else entirely. All she could smell was burning. All she could see was burning. It was as if even she herself was burning- her nose, her eyes, her lungs, and her paws. She felt like she was being eaten alive by the fire, but she kept going. She was sure Tyrian felt the same, but he kept going and Sparrow didn't want to be outdone by her uncle.

Eventually, the two seemed to exit the area of immediate danger and stood sucking in breaths in greedy gulps. Sparrow's throat was dry and each breath scraped its way down to her lungs, but she savored each and every one. With the sharp breaths came ragged coughs. Her lungs felt like they had been left to dry in the sun and they creaked and cracked with each cough. When she could finally think to focus again, her eyes went to a very blood-caked Tyrian. She let out a small and painful gasp as she looked over the one bite on his butt, many many bites on his chest, neck and the insides of his arms. She thought to say something witty to break the tension, but nothing came to mind. "Wait here," Sparrow rasped. She needed to find something to help him with before they did another thing. She could find dandelions and marigolds still. What else? Neither of those were binding and they couldn't heal him. Sparrow admittedly didn't know a ton about healing and hadn't shadowed any healers in the pack, but she had been able to pick up a thing or two. They should probably rinse it, but until they found water, it was important to stop the bleeding.

When Sparrow returned to her uncle, she had marigold and yarrow wrapped in some large and harmless leaves she had found. Sparrow took her time to clean Tyrian before trying to apply any medicine. She then took the herbs and chewed them as she had been taught was common and applied them to Tyrian's wounds. With a poorly slapped-on leafy bandage, Sparrow was comfortable with moving on. "I can do better, just wait. I just gotta... get the right things. And maybe Rhythm should help," she said, rambling out of nerves as she prodded her uncle to start moving again. "But we'll get you fixed up. We'll be okay, right? Both of us?"

WC: 958
TWC: 2567