[ THE CALL ]
The inhabitants of the Temple were all assembled in the Dining Hall. It was a large room with high ceilings, warmed by the fire in the fireplace opposite the main entrance and several smaller braziers scattered between the tables. The three large tables, normally set side by side, had been pushed against the walls to clear a space at the center of
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She was blinded for a moment and shook her head to clear her vision. She could hear screaming and looked around quickly, golden eyes widening in surprise. "What in the name of .."
And that's when the chair came crashing down on her back.
The gryphon skreed softly and turned to face her attacker, grimacing at the aches she was already feeling the bruises sure to follow. She quickly put aside the moment of 'where am I' to defend herself, flaring her wings to push the attacker back.
She hissed, feather and fur bristling as her ear tufts pinned to her skull. She shifted her weight, muscles gathering before leaping forward at the woman brandishing the chair, talons at the ready. She swiped when she landed within striking range, trying to back the woman away long enough to take in the surrounding area.
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The damn thing was fighting back however, and Raina grit her teeth, awkwardly handling the chair.
Why wasn't Eir doing something already and sending them back?
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She rears back onto her hind feet, gaining nearly two feet in height as she lets out something between a mix of a hiss and a snarl. "Who arrre you?" she manages, reaching out and snatching to grab hold of the chair. If she manages to snag it, it goes flying in the opposite direction with one swift motion. If not, the game of tug 'o war will begin in rather close conditions.
Her brief glance around, though interrupted by the chair cutting her, had afforded her the proof that she was not anywhere she recognized. Whether it was Vikteren's magic gone awry or something else she knew not.
"Fatherrrrr!!" she calls over the crowd, searching for the Mage. "Sssssssssssskan!!" There is blood staining the feathers about her eye and she has to shake her head to clear her vision, inner lid flicking over the surface. Her gaze is dangerous as it falls on Raina, ear tufts flattening as she lowers back to all fours. She is breathing quickly and shallowly as she snarls out her next words, moving to half circle the woman. "Wherrrre am I? What isssss thisss place??"
For the moment, her attention is entirely on Raina and not the screaming people around her. Clearly, something was terribly wrong with this situation.
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The damned thing could talk.
Raina lost her grip on the chair and immediately backed away, eyes scanning away from the creature to the crowd, and then back. The chair hit the wall and broke apart onto one of the tables.
She heard Loe's gun go off and Eir yelling at him to stop. She couldn't worry about that. Raina focused on the gryphon as her hands reached for the next available chair, platter, anything with which she could defend herself.
It's clear that the creature is winded, but that it stops to speak gives Raina more time to try and come up with some sort of plan.
"Vertiline," she answered succinctly, "Now back away."
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Her attention shifts to the woman again as she speaks and she growls, shaking her head and grimacing as the motion leaves her dizzy. "Thisssss is not Velgarrrrth?! Wha-"
And then she is being ordered to back away and her good eye widens before the pupil pins into a small dot. "Back away?! BACK AWAY?! You sssstruck firrrsssst, human!!" Fur and feathers bristle, standing nearly entirely upright down her spine, her tail lashing back and forth.
"I do not know thissssss place .. Wherrrrrre is Sssskan?!" Her voice rises again and if you catch it, there is an unmistakable hint of panic rising in it beneath the bravado. "'DRRRRRAKE?! SSSSSSSKAN!!!!" Her gaze is off Raina entirely now, a forefoot wiping ineffectively at her bleeding eye ridge as she tries once more to locate Urtho, her father and the leader of their army. "FATHERRRR??!!!"
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Eir had already gotten to Loe and pulled him away from the spider-girl, and Raina was next. Most of the people of the temple had already fled the hall, and all that was left were its main caretakers.
She approached Raina and shoved her away from the panicked gryphon. She approached carefully, holding her hands up as inoffensively as possible.
"Shhh, shhh," she started, looking at Zhaneel pleadingly. "Please calm down. I know she hurt you first but she doesn't understand that you're not a threat..."
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She keens softly, the sound scared and soft. She is no longer shouting, but clearly distressed as Eir moves between herself and Raina. The motions she is making are meant to be placating, and Zhaneel understands this as much as she finds it hard to understand.
"I do not underrrsssstand," she says softly, voice strained as her head begins to throb where the chair made contact. She begins hissing her syllabants and trilling, the stress effecting her typically clear words. "Sssshe .. But I wassss .." She shivers slightly, shaking her head once as she grinds her beak. "What hassss happened?"
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"We've only ever called humans here before so she mistook you for a monster," Eir added apologetically. "Will you let us tend to that wound?"
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While she understood what she was being told, she didn't understand. "But .. Sssskan .. wassss waiting forrr him to rrrreturn. He hadn't made it thrrrough the Gate yet .." She begins to tremble, limbs quivering in tiny convulsions as she keens low in the back of her throat.
She tries to mentally call to her mate, but there is nothing there. Her eyes widen briefly, the right more than the left, which has swollen and remains partially closed. She can't keep from panting softly, hing legs practically giving out and collapsing her to a sitting position before Eir.
"You brrrrought me herrrre?" she asks softly, her voice soft as she searches Eir's face. She had been in the middle of possibly the final battle in a war, trying desperately to save what they could in the process. She'd been waiting for her mate to return, keeping busy with the evacuation .. now .. To the question of tending to the cut she nods her beak once, taking advantage of her already seated position. It hurt and the blood was beginning to clump her feathers and make it even harder to see out of the eye.
"Arrrre therrrre no grrryphonsssss herrre? We arrrre not sssso rrrarre a crrrreaturre anylongerrrr." Perhaps she was simply in another part of Velgarth. She could send word and find out about Skan, Drake and Urtho soon enough, right?
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When Zhaneel sits, Eir approaches cautiously.
"My friends and I, yes, we brought you here. Our world is becoming overset with monsters and we have no one to defend the people but those we call. You...your kind is considered a monster here, which is why she attacked you," Eir explained, and pulled at the top layer of her skirts to reach out to try and stem the flow of blood.
"My name is Eir. What is yours?" she asked, trying to keep the conversation normal, friendly. It was surreal to be talking to one such as Zhaneel, but she knew her magic had not failed. Something had changed to bring all these creatures with the humans.
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"An underrrssstandable missstake," she manages weakly and flinches as the cloth presses against her cut. However, she makes no move to lash out or otherwise 'attack', certain that the other woman is waiting for any excuse to continue hammering at her.
"Zhaneel," she returns softly, beginning to get control of her breathing. "My name issss Zhaneel.." She searches Eir's face from such a short distance, nearly dwarfing the small woman by sheer mass of body. It was no wonder she'd been attacked if her kind were not known here. Another question surfaces and dread fills her at the answer she feels she will likely receive. "Do .. do you know of thosssssse not called? If they arrre ssssafe?"
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"It's nice to meet you, Zhaneel," she says, keeping her tone forcefully light. "I'm sorry I don't have any information on those back home. It was all I could do to bring so many of you here as I did."
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"It isss alrrrright," she manages, but it very clearly is not. She is hurt, confused, scared and now has no idea what's happened to those she's just been pulled away from. She is admittedly not okay, but there is very little she can do about it just now. Her good eye sweeps the crowd, wings still half open as she takes in as much as she can. "Doessss it alwayssss go thissss well?" Her tone might even be considered sarcastic.
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"Usually things go much better. Usually Loe does not shoot anyone, and Raina does not attack with a chair, and we manage to explain everything to everyone at once before wining and dining them to help them deal with the shock," she replied, still tending to the cut with slow, careful attention.
"I don't think this needs stitches but at the very least it should be bandaged. Will you allow me to take you to the healer's hall so it can be looked after?"
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Her eyes is swollow and sore and though she will not decline medical aide she pauses, head tilting slightly at the mention of stitches. She hadn't heard of such things before, but it did not sound as if they involved magic of any sort.
"I think that would be besssst," she replies. She shifts then, for the first time since sitting, and moves to regain her feet. She grimaces, her back and shoulders aching as much as her head, if not more. She had taken that first chair swing directly and she'd not fault Raina for how well she'd managed in the brief warning she'd had to find a 'weapon'.
After a moment she settles her wings, loosely though, and realizes her crossbow is missing. Something for another time, she things idly. She looks around at the chaos and the trail of blood the spider creature left behind in her wake of fleeing. She was another Called ..
"I am ssssssorrry my appearrrrance caussssed thissss," she murmurs softly, ear tufts pinning against her skull.
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"It isn't your fault," Eir replied. "Your arrival was unexpected for everyone, and it certainly couldn't be helped that you resemble some of the things we're currently defending our people against."
Though, considering all things, Eir wasn't really sure how the peasants would react to one such as Zhaneel, even with best of intentions, much less whether or not Zhaneel would be willing to fight on their behalf.
"This way," she said, loud enough to be heard above the noise of the others in the hall, and lead the gryphon out.
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