sorry but i was running from an elephant

He’d already been heading on his way from the top of the hillock to patrol when the angry noises of an elephant – several elephants? – blasted across the plains to his ears. They had some of the most incredible noises, he’s learned from their elephant hunt a week or so ago. You didn’t just hear them with your ears. You felt them through your bones and feet in the ground.

They overlaid a yelp of a wolf, and as he paused and squinted, Ardyn potted a distant blue speck and the grey forms of at least two elephants, chasing after the speck. They were far off still, but headed toward Valhalla’s wall.

“Lunira, Sädir, get torches and head the elephants off before they hit the wall. If we hurry, we should be able to stop them.”

The two big cats departed, taking a shortcut down the hill while Ardyn barreled down the path, letting Lyr point the way once he was out of the wooded base of the hill and in the tall grasses that stood above even his shoulder sin places. Lunira and Sädir caught up, carrying two lit torches in their teeth. The bypassed the blue yearling that had fled right into Valhalla, though Lyr circled above, following the yearling’s continued headlong flight while Ardyn and the cats took on the task of chasing off two very angry family members.

It took a great deal of convincing, but the threat of fire was one of the few things the beasts actively feared, and instinctive fear of fire won over the anger of motherhood and matriarchy. The elephants broke off and left to collect their calf and move on. Ardyn made a note of the animals, wondering at the continued appearance of Austerian prey animals wandering so far north. What was going on in the southern continent?

Once he was sure they’d left, Ardyn turned back and followed the yearling male’s trail, glancing up to scan for Lyr’s form in the sky. The raven was stationary, circling like a vulture over one spot, and Ardyn picked up his pace to a trot, his path made simpler by the similarly sized hole made in the grass by the unwitting trespasser.

He finally came upon the yearling, woofing softly. In another circumstance, he’d have attacked an intruder, but he’d seen what led up to the boy’s trespass, and he wasn’t going to throw the boy out for saving his own hide.

“You alright?”

The yearling certainly didn’t lookalright. He hadn’t stayed on his paws, and Ardyn had heard a yelp among the bellowing trumpets. He perked his ears, listening intently to the boy’s breaths before he introduced himself.

“I’m Ardyn Adravendi, Ard Rí of Valhalla. Normally, we’d attack a trespasser, but I think you had a really good reason. Do you need a healer?”

He slanted a look up to Lyr, and the raven veered off, winging toward Eramaya’s little hut. Sädir bolted away into the grasses to seek Legacy or a first aid pack, whichever he found first. Lunira took a seat nearby, pale lavender eyes watching coolly for any sign of subterfuge. She wasn’t so readily trusting, even though it was pretty clear the yearling intruder wasn’t up for causing mischief.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think