"Speech"

"Not far now..." Eltrys muttered to Lia. They had slowly walked through the night from the Aspen Dam and their fight with slavers to the Fossil Ridge. A common hunting ground for Eltrys. The dawn was slowly lifting the moist morning mists away from the bones that littered the ridges.

The antlered fae was leaning on him since she had been wounded in the previous fight. He wanted to bring her to Polaris as quickly as possible but he didn't want to rush her due to her injuries.

A sound echoed through the ridges and bones suddenly and Eltrys froze. Something... was not right. He ran his tongue over his lips and lifted his head to peer around at their surroundings. Then there, silhouetted against the rising morning sun was a large antelope buck. Something about it was setting his teeth on edge.

"Lia..." He warned, locking eyes with the prey that seemed to try its hoof at being the predator for once.

The buck bleated again, lowered its horns, and charged at them! Eltrys pushed Lia out of the way if she hadn't chosen which way she would dodge yet and bolted himself opposite so the buck would barrel right between them! What level of hell did he wake up in? First slavers now a rampaging meal? He snarled and faced off with the beast, standing before Lia with his head lowered. The skin on the nape of his neck had begun to ache and pull from the battle earlier.


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Lia took the offered help of the Polaris wolf, leaning on him as he led her towards his pack. That slaves had targeted him, and his willingness to fight them off had endeared him to her. No one should have to suffer at the hand of slavers. The walk was a long one, though she was no stranger to pain. That didn’t mean she liked it, but she could keep her suffering mostly to herself.

She had fallen into a mindless walk to eat the miles, and was startled by Eltrys' voice beside her. She blinked, getting her bearings and saw what he had. An antelope buck, with a strange gleam in its eyes.

She knew young bucks often fought in spring as their new antlers grew in, but this looked like something… more. Sure enough, the deer charged them. Attempting to take on two wolves made it mad in her books. Perhaps there was a disease of some sort eating up its mind. Regardless, they needed to do something about it. It wasn’t going to give them a choice.

Eltrys pushed her to the side, and she struggled to get her balance, staggering out of its path as it barreled between them. As it turned again, Eltrys put himself between the deer and her. “That’s not going to help us.” She told him, but her voice was gentle. She pushed aside her own pain, straightening on her paws. “Dive out of its way when it charges, give me an opening.”

wc: 255


"Lia"

"Speech"

Eltrys squared off, his head lowered ready to fight. He glanced back to the antlered fae and was reminded of the formidable opaline antlers on her head. He nodded curtly, she was still injured but the adrenaline to survive would hopefully win out.

The buck swung around, reared, and kicked its front hooves diving into another charge. Eltrys waited... His ice blue eyes bore into the crazed antelope as it came at them. At the last minute, he dove out of Lia's way and allowed her to step in.

He rounded himself and launched at the flank of the beast. Ready to take it down. He didn't know if he should bother taking this one home in case it was diseased.



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Lia took a few deep breaths, centering herself. Pushing past the exhaustion and pain that had started with the fight against the slavers. Letting the adrenaline do its work, making its way through her veins with a feeling of fire. They had to face this foe before they could reach shelter and safety. She was a long way from the helpless fae that had been led to the Hallows, wide eyed and skittish. She was a fighter now, with experiences hard won. The Hallows. She pushed aside thoughts of home and the people she loves. She would not and could not go home, not until she had finalised her strength and independence. The wolf that returned to them would be vastly different to the one that had left.

As she found her strength, Eltrys stood in its path, staring it down and daring it to make its next move. When it charged, the Polaris Guardian dived out of the way of the attacking antelope, giving them the opening she needed. She dove at its side. Her own crystalline antlers, stronger and sharper than bone, bore into its side. She felt a brief moment of regret for its suffering. But something had stirred it into attacking them. Some unhealthy craze. What they were doing now was a mercy killing.

As her antlers dug it, the momentum of her attack shoved the deer to the side multiple steps. Causing it to stumble, and ending its mad dash. It stumbled, confused, skewered on her crystals. There was a brief few seconds where it was just the two of them, and then Eltrys was there. She could feel the weight and push of his body as he attacked its flank. Through the position of her head bowed and antlers lowered, lessening her visibility of the fight.

She pressed a black dipped paw against the deers side and used that to leverage her antlers off its body. Tearing the wound further as she pulled herself free. The deer didn’t know it yet, but it was dead regardless of how this fight ended. A wound that bad would not heal. She shook blood from her fire toned antlers and lunged at its side, aiming to knock it over and off its legs. So it could not run, or charge. The main way a deer could fight. Of course, its hooves would still be a hazard.

Wc: 401
Total: 1028


"Lia"

His muscles ached as he sprang aside for Lia to take advantage. He could hear the sounds of her antlers score into the side of the crazed beast. He spun in a fluid motion, his eyes of ice locking onto the scene before him. He was determined to find an opening and dive back into the fray. His muscles coiled as he waited again. Lia must be beyond exhausted. The buck faltered its footing and he found his opening along its flank! His teeth sank into the flesh of the antelope and its guttural cry to the herd beyond the knoll to scatter nearly pierced his ears.

A strange wet sound made him temporarily falter his brutal onslaught. He saw her place her ebony paw over the buck and wrench his body free from her opaline antlers with a sickening squelch to it. It made his body shiver at the effect. He couldn't imagine what it felt like to have your head weighed down by such mighty appendages and then get them caught on things.

It was not dead. It just seemed more enraged and energized, its wounds seeping and spurting gore over the ground and running rivulets down its legs. It was distracted by Lia once more and he took the opportunity to rush at it again. He snarled as he leaped onto its side, decidedly knocking it over while it flailed hard against him. What was wrong with this beast? Its unrelenting energy was something to be feared! He prayed it wasn't some sickness driving the ungulate to hate them. This was prey! It had attacked them first! It writhed and screamed out to its absent herd. It seemed Lia had the same idea to knock it over. He sat on the beast, his ice blue eye peering into the goatly orb of the buck beneath him. Its mouth frothing from the pain and its eyes rolled from exhaustion.

Eltrys was panting as he tried to hold it down. He wanted to collapse into the pool beneath lazuli falls and just let the water wash over him into oblivion. His eyes drooped at the thought but flung wide open as the terrible prey-turned-predator thrashed beneath him. He snarled and leaped at the creature's throat with a renewed energy! A second wind with thoughts of home and baths and brilliant green eyes renewed him.

The beast was beneath him, he sank his teeth into its throat and felt the gush was fresh warm blood wet his tongue. The wild blood lust had him pull its head up and dash its antlered head into the ground. It would rise no more. Whatever enraged it, whatever made it fight them instead of flee died with it. A mercy.

He didn't dare take his usual hunters portin, no, this was tainted meat if he ever saw any.

He nodded to Lia, his energy waning.
"Home is not far now."

"Speech!"

487 w
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