Once upon a Time... (Open)

[Rista]

The sound of wings grew louder, and finally Rista seemed to become aware of the approaching danger. Her face paled as the hawk began flapping its wings on her wrist with a distressed look and as a shrill screech sounded above the dark-haired girl quickly looked up. Darker than the shadows above her head, bats swarmed in the air and darted back and forth, diving down between the giant hats of the fungi, wings starting to glow faintly as they scraped against the luminescent spores. Feeling the air stir from the beating of hundreds of animals all around her, Rista didn't need the panicked sound of Reo's voice to start moving. She quickly wrapped the predator bird in her arms, not caring about the distressed squawks Layla made as his wings were locked and he was kept from flying off. It would be impossible for him to make it against those bats, she had to keep him safe as she ran towards the sound of the mans voice. The girl felt how the claws of the bird dug through the leather of the sontav and into her arms, the beak of the panicking bird biting painfully at her chest. A sharp pain stabbed at a wound on her stomach, she gritted her teeth at the realization that the wound had opened up again. The healers wouldn't be happy to know that, not at all. There was nothing to do about it now though, she only gritted her teeth and kept going, almost reaching the relative safety when the bats suddenly were all around her. Flapping in her face and obscuring her vision, the short yasi cried out in pain as claws dug at her shoulders and back, the stench of wild animals thick in the air around her. She could hear the twang of a bowstring and felt a sharp sting as an arrow whooshed by her cheek, biting into her skin. What the.. "Don't shoot without aiming you petching vagik!" she hollered furiously and hunched over, protecting the little bird as much as she could while fighting her way over to Reo and the shelter he seemed to have found. Her eyes were wild as she finally caught sight of him through the swarming bats, the stench of ammonia that hovered around him making her recoil. A trickle of blood ran down her cheek, more stained her chest as she grabbed the furious little bird and thrust him over to his owner. "Let's trade, shall we? Your bird for my bow." She didn't give him much time to argue on before she tore the bow and quiver from his hands, stress and pain making her hands rougher than what was necessary. The injuries to her gut and shoulders protested as she slung the quiver over the back and turned around, an arrow quickly finding its way to the string. She plied and turned around in one movement, her aim jarred by the movement; taking a deep breath and relaxing her muscles as she focused was probably the hardest thing she had ever done, but as the black shape of a bat came darting down towards them she knew she didn't have time to fail. This wasn't a training session with Kovac, they were in deep trouble here. The mushrooms wouldn't provide shelter for very long. The girl took aim and fired before reaching for another arrow, not pausing to see if she had hit or not. Her shooting was probably sloppier than normal, the aim off and affected by the pain in her injured muscles, but the sound of pained shrieks in the air was rather satisfying none the less. At least she was hitting something, even if it wasn't killing strikes. Five arrows later she ducked and moved back into the shelter, breathing hard and with the face pale from strain of keeping herself upright. Her skin was tainted by bloodstains, mostly her own, and as she looked at the tall man there was a tense expression on her face. "We need to get out of here" Rista said and checked the quiver, trying to count how many arrows she had left. "We're not going to survive otherwise, these things are as big as me."