Closed What Happens When You Leave the Gate Open

[Alea Davenport]

25 Spring, 513

It was just passing into late afternoon when it happened. Maybe it was the peaceful warmth of the arriving spring. Maybe Alea was just distracted. Whatever the reason, when she came back from fetching some water for them, she noticed something deeply disturbing. A couple horses were milling around outside the yard, exploring vegetation that they were not normally allowed to consume. Before she could wonder how they'd gotten out, she saw her terrible mistake. The gate was wide open.

She tried not to let the sick feeling of failure completely cripple her. She could feel guilty later, but right now she had to make sure the horses were all right. She walked briskly into the yard, setting the buckets of water down just inside the gate. She walked to each of the horses, gently coaxing them back inside one-by-one, trying to hide her impending panic, because she knew by now that horses could somehow sense people-feelings. She made absolutely sure to close the gate behind her this time.

She breathed a sigh of relief that she'd gotten the horses back in the Yard without mishap. She did NOT want to be the one to tell Jakobi she'd let some of the horses get lost. He would pretty much kill her; he loved the horses more than she thought was quite healthy, to be honest. She picked her buckets back up, and had dumped them back in the trough before another thought began to bug her.

What if she hadn't found all the horses? She'd only seen the ones that were still fairly close to the yard, but what if some of them were more adventurous? She tried counting the horses. She knew roughly how many there were, so she should be able to tell if a lot of them were missing. Though sometimes travelers came and went (though not often) so the number changed occasionally. Of course, the horses were almost impossible to count, because they kept moving, and there were too many for her to figure out whether she'd counted one already.

She decided that the horse population did not look any smaller than usual, and anyway, she had only left the gate open for as long as it took to fetch water. Surely not many more horses than she'd seen could have gotten very far in such a short amount of time. She continued working, trying not to worry about it, but she couldn't help worrying a little.

Twilight began to fall, and with it came possibly her favorite sight: the glow of Gilding coats coming out like stars as the light faded. There were a few Gildings in the Yard, but they were few enough to count, and since her own horse was a Gilding, she tended to notice them the most easily. She watched each of the glows dotting the yard, trying to pick out her horse from among them. Beast was on the opposite side of the Yard, ignoring her again it seemed. She still wasn't sure what his problem was.

As she picked out each of the Gildings, she finally realized what had been bothering her. One of them was missing. There was a foal, almost a yearling, who had escaped the Yard before. That foal was missing now.

All at once, Alea was panicked into action. It was almost nightfall, when the worst of the predators roamed. If she did not find that stupid horse before some lion or wolf or bear ate it... Well, suffice to say she did not want to find out what Jakobi would do to her. She gathered up her Gidling's tack, and raced across the Yard toward him. She ran all out, faster than she would dare send him, because he had a tendency to throw her off at high speeds. Unfortunately, he seemed to take this approach as a game of chase, so he pranced merrily away. She tried running after him, but she was winded after only a few chimes, he was more than capable of outrunning her, and she did not have time to pin him down.

She stopped running, standing in the middle of the field, trying to assess her options but too worried to think straight. She felt a fine mist start to form in her eyes, thinking about the fate of that Gilding foal and how it was her fault. Just as she was about to burst into tears, Beast came trotting up nonchalantly, as if he had only just noticed her (a trick he'd learned from the cat, no doubt). He butted his head against hers by way of greeting, and she instinctively pulled back, grabbing her hair in case he was planning to eat it.

Miraculously, the Gilding did not seem inclined to go anywhere for the moment, and she managed to saddle him without much trouble. She led him outside the Yard, remembering this time to close the blasted gate. She looked around for something she could stand on to mount the horse, but there was nothing nearby, and she was anxious to begin searching for the foal.

She had very rarely been successful at mounting Beast from the ground, but it looked like this was going to have to be one of those times. She rested her hands on either side of the saddle, psyching herself up for the jump. She tried to remember his various tricks, taking a step one way or the other when she was trying to mount. She knew better than to assume he would be nice and stand still in this critical situation. He might be able to sense her distress, but for all she knew that would only make him MORE inclined to mess with her.

Finally, she put a foot in the stirrup, and lunged up and over as of she were intending to vault over the horse entirely. Luck was with her tonight, since Beast had opted to take a step away from her this time, and as a result, she landed actually rather squarely on his back. Still, she had no time to celebrate this good fortune, as it has turned fully dark, and predators were potentially around every gargantuan bush. Her way lit by Beast's Gilding glow, she worked him up into a brisk trot, peering into the darkness for a similar glow.

[Deadfang]

Deadfang was sitting atop a large rock, hidden from a small clearing by a rather bushy plant. She was rather hungry, having gone two days with unsuccessful hunts. And this night was not going well either. She'd already failed to take down a doe she thought was alone, only to get chased off by a massive buck. She'd even gotten desperate and went after a tortoise, but found it too heavy to lift, and couldn't find a way to get it out of its damned shell. So here she sat, stomach tight with hunger, her ears twitching, seeking the faintest sound of prey. She listened to the sounds of the forest. She could hear several grasshoppers chirping noisily, the flapping of tiny wings belonging to small types of bats. She could hear a slight breeze passing through leaves, a subtle rustle. Crunch! The sound was faint, and distant, but it was followed by several more, similar sounds. From the quick succession of steps, it sounded like the animal had four legs. And was fairly heavy. And heavy meant large. But she needed to eat, so she'd have to try and take down something she normally wouldn't. She waited until the creature passed into the nearby clearing, when she risked a peek over the bush. And what she saw was wholly unexpected. First it was an animal she'd never seen before, four long legs, with long hair upon its hair and neck like people. It wasn't too big, she suspected it to be a young version of whatever it was. But the most surprising part was that it seemed to give off light, much like Leth above did. Maybe it was a type of anterless deer. Either way, it looked like it could be eaten, and didn't seem to be that dangerous. She waited and listened to see if any companions were going to join it, but detected nothing. It was all alone. She quietly opened her wings, readied her claws, and lowered herself to a crouch atop the rock, her leg muscles coiling, ready for launch. She pushed powerfully off the rock, launching herself over the bush, toward the unsuspecting glow-creature. She pulled back her right hand, her claws shining under Leth's smile, as her wings flapped powerfully, spurring her closer to the prey. She was aiming at the animal's throat, for the easy kill, but it did something surprising. It reared back, standing on its back two legs. She was moving too fast to be able to adjust her course quickly enough to react. She flew past it, twisting just slightly to avoid breaking her wing on the creature, when pain shot through her left arm. The damned thing had kicked her, and hard. He left arm was throbbing from pain, as she leveled out her flight, flapping hard. She wrapped around a tree to try for a second attack on the kicking glow creature. Turning toward the clearing, she saw it running rather fast west, away from Leth's smile. She twisted her body while flapping hard, adjusting her course to give chase. The creature was fast, but she was faster. She continued to power forward, her right claw ready, while she kept her injured left in close to her chest. She flew in right over it, nearing closer and closer to its ever vulnerable neck. She slashed downward with her right claws, scoring deep grooves where its shoulder met its neck. It wasn't lethal, but it definitely put the horse into a feared frenzy. It ran even faster now, leading out ahead of Deadfang now. The Zith hissed loudly, continuing the chase, waiting for the creature to tire. But that time never came. What did happen was in its panicked state, it tripped on an exposed root. It fell forward, tumbling and rolling to a stop, squealing in pain. Deadfang flew just out of reach of those deadly legs, studying her fallen prey. She saw at least two of its legs bent off at strange angles, and knew it wouldn't be able to escape again. She crept around the horse, keeping her distance. She crouched down next to its head, "Caiyha wouldn't want you to suffer young hornless Leth deer. May Dira ease your passing." Then she slid a single claw across the creature's neck, slicing it open, spilling its life onto the forest floor. Finally, she could eat. Until her ears picked up sounds just like those of the dying creature. Except moving much faster. And in her direction it seemed. She turned toward the sound, expanded her wings, raised both arms with claws at the ready, and let loose her loudest, most vicious scream she could muster, hoping to scare off whatever came her way. If anything tried to keep her from her meal, she'd fight fang and claw.

[Alea Davenport]

When Alea heard the squealing of terrified foal, Beast was already galloping toward the scene, beyond Alea's ability to control if she'd had any intention of stopping him. With all the bouncing around, she was amazed she could see as much as she did, but here eyes were stuck to the sight of the flying creature--Zith, as she recalled--crouched over the foal.

I have to save him! Alea thought with determination. She silently urged Beast faster, knowing that they had to reach the foal in time. She bent every ounce of her will toward that goal, and for once, she felt in complete harmony with Beast. The Zith raised a claw. I will reach him in time. The Zith lowered the claw to the foal's neck. I will save him! The Zith slit the foals throat.

The foal ceased squealing. But it was replaced by even louder cries. A terrible whinny came from Beast as he galloped, but Alea couldn't even hear it over the sound of her own throat-wrecking scream of anger and anguish. Her mind did not know how to accept the fact that she had failed, failed to save the foal, and so it flipped straight to uncontrollable vengeance.

Without even quite knowing how, Alea leaped out of Beast's saddle, aiming straight for the Zith. Every ounce of her was bent towards murder, fists punching, fingers grabbing and gouging, just trying to get enough of a hold to cause some serious damage. Everything else faded into the background as Alea fought to destroy the creature that had just destroyed her.

[Deadfang]

Deadfang's eyes grew wide when she saw a human fly from the back of another glowing anterless deer, right at her. She faltered a bit, taking a step back, not ready, as the woman's shoulder collided with her chest. The momentum carried her backwards toward the ground, as a punch struck her in the jaw, followed by another. Deadfang tucked her wings in before hitting the ground, so as to not damage them, as they rolled together from the tackle. Deadfang slashed wildly with both sets of claws on her hands, ignoring the pain in her left arm from the animal early. This human was dangerous, to fight so viciously without weapon against a Zith. Rolling backwards over her shoulders, she kicked outwards with both feet, hoping to get the woman off of her. Her ears picked up the creature she'd ridden here, having run a short ways away, but not an immediate threat. Deadfang managed to scramble away, screeching in pain and anger. She quickly stood up, baring her fangs at the blasted woman, her jaw and chest and back all hurting. She took several steps back, keeping her ears trained on the creature, just in case it decided to get involved as well. She unfolded her wings, ready to take flight at any moment. "Get away from my prey human, you have no right to my kill."

[Alea Davenport]

Alea had just enough self-preservation to try to move her most vital parts out of reach of the razor claws, but she was frighteningly willing to sacrifice her face and arms to get close enough to inflict damage on the Zith. The Zith's kick tore through layers of Alea's clothing and left shallow gashes in her stomach, but Alea was undeterred.

The Zith's argument only fanned the flame of Alea's fury. "HE IS NOT YOUR PREY!" She screeched, running at Deadfang and jumping onto her, scrambling to find purchase for her hands, and wrapping her legs around the Zith's torso so it couldn't get away. She bit onto anything she could reach (aiming for the Zith's ear, which was closest), intending to use her teeth as another (painful) way to hang on.

[Deadfang]

Deadfang had never met a human so determined to fight a Zith unarmed, she was vicious enough to be considered a mate to some of the male Ziths. She was fast, strong, yet it seemed predictable. She did the same thing as last time, leaping at her. Deadfang couldn't dodge, as the woman leapt on her torso, wrapping her legs around her. Deadfang couldn't hold her weight up, and dropped to one knee, then another, then fell backwards. Then extremely unexpected, the woman bit into her ear, eliciting an incredibly loud, high pitched, pained screech right in her assailant's ear. Deadfang couldn't reach with her legs, but used her arms to start slashing at the woman's upper legs. Her ear was on fire, but humans weren't the only ones that could bite, and weren't even the best at it. She couldn't reach the woman's face or throat since her own ear was captive, so she went to bite her in the shoulder near the neck, knowing her fangs were sharper and longer. Why did this woman fight so hard for the corpse of a glowing deer? She already had her own, so there really wasn't a point. Deadfang truly didn't understand, but she was still going to fight all out.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea winced at the screech, closing her eyes hard against the irritating pain of the noise so that she would be less tempted to let go and get away from the awful sound. The sting of claws on her legs gave her something else to focus on, though the claws were mostly hitting thigh muscle, which hurt, but wasn't as debilitating as it would be. She would later discover the sad state her trousers were in, but her mind was focused on other things at the moment.

Her throat made a strange, strangled sound when the Zith bit her shoulder--not even Tom bit that hard--but the pain only made her bite down harder on the Zith's ear. Her anger was starting to be supplemented by her stubbornness, which was a dangerous combination, since stubbornness lent a measure of calm thought to an otherwise reckless assault, without taking away any of the determination to "win".

With that being the state of her mind, she grabbed onto the Zith's head with the arm whose shoulder wasn't being eaten, to utterly prevent movement as she got a more solid bite on the ear. Then she bite down as hard as she could, as if she were chewing through a piece of meat, while tugging hard on the ear and pulling her head back as far as it would go.

The ear came off in her mouth, and blood gushed onto her tongue, making her gag. She spat the ear onto the ground, the foul taste of blood refusing to go away. The horror of it returned some measure of sanity to Alea, and suddenly all she wanted to do was to make everything go away. She pounded the new wound on the Zith's head with her fist, trying to get it to let go. As soon as she was free, she shoved herself away from the Zith, racing back to the Gilding foal's dark corpse, standing over it defensively. Whatever else happened, that monster would not be allowed to desecrate the body of the creature Alea had failed to protect.

The back of Alea's mind which was not focused on the Zith, noticed that Beast's glow was also nowhere to be found, which made the night rather a bit dark. It seemed that the horse had run off, which gave her mixed feelings. On the one had, it was a bit cowardly of him, but on the other hand, at least he was safe. Unless, on the other hand, there were more monsters waiting for him. Not to mention that she was now almost entirely without light, barring any moon or starlight that filtered through the trees, which was negligible. She tried to focus on what she could hear, not wanting to acknowledge any disadvantage to her enemy.

[Deadfang]

Deadfang's screech reached a point so loud, so high pitched, it would surely wake every creature for miles around. Her mind was going white with pain, when she felt a tearing in her flesh. With a rip that only she could hear, and never forget, she felt part of her ear give way, and separate. She dug her claws deeper into the woman's thighs, hoping to cripple her, or bleed her out. Then she felt something hard and heavy collide with the side of her head. The woman distanced herself from the struggle, and was now standing over the corpse. While hurting, Deadfang hadn't been injured severely, shaking her head to get her senses back about her. She noticed that her sight had increased, which meant that the light nearby had dimmed. She couldn't hear the steps of the woman's glowing deer, so she assumed it had run off. She stood up, checking her ear. It hadn't ripped off completely, half of it still attached to her head. Her hearing was hardly affected, more likely due to the blood than the injury. The woman guarding the deer was standing in near total darkness. She decided this would be a good time to use a tactic she'd been taught when fighting Zith in the daytime, when their eyesight was quite diminished. She flapped her wings, flying high above the woman, circling her, knowing her wings were anything but silent. But it mattered not, as Deadfang began shooting of loud, piercing screeches, aiming them at trees, and at the woman, to help drown out the noise of her flight. Screeches that could disorient, confuse, and possibly debilitate prey that couldn't see. She kept the pace of the screeches fast, and seemingly random, so as to be harder to be tracked. Her prey would be bleeding, though she wasn't sure if it would be enough to kill her. But the longer Deadfang waited, the more tired her prey would be. She hoped the woman would bolt, making her easier to take down, just like the deer she so desperately protected. If she didn't, Deadfang had a few other ideas in mind.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was breathing heavily now. The initial rage-induced adrenaline rush had worn off, and she was starting to really feel her wounds. She tried to press against the gashes in her thighs and shoulder, trying to slow the bleeding, but she didn't have enough hands to cover all the wounds at once. She was still trying to guess where the Ztih was, but it was flying around so much and making a bunch of inexplicable noise. There was pretty much going to be no way to predict when or where it would strike until it did.

Alea's first instinct was to find the most defensible position possible. But...she still wanted to protect the body of the horse. She wasn't sure what appropriate death rites were for a horse, but she had no intention of abandoning him to the Zith. She knelt down next to the foal, mostly to conserve her strength for the Zith's next assault, and to make herself a smaller target, but also to prevent the Zith from somehow getting around her and taking the foal.

Her wounds were bleeding fairly steadily, but she didn't think she was feeling any blood-loss effects yet. Until her head got a little dizzy, and she had to put a hand to the ground to steady herself. Said hand by chance landed on what felt like a fallen tree branch. She waited a few ticks for her head to stop spinning, then lifted the branch a bit to judge how easy it might be to wield. It would not do as a staff; while the main shaft was a good thickness, it had branches sprouting almost all the way down its length. But Alea thought she could swing it if necessary...

But as the screeching above her continued, threatening to drive her made, she came up with a better idea. This would make better cover than weapon. She pulled the branch up so that it was above her crouched back, offering a slight shield that would at least hinder the Zith's momentum if it decided to swoop in and attack. With this meager defense in place, she wanted to find more branches, but another wave of dizziness made her press her hands to her thighs again.

[Deadfang]

Deadfang began circling the woman at a lower and lower altitude, keeping a fair amount of distance between them, keeping up her assault of screeches. She saw her beginning to tire, and knew that if she kept her distance, she would win. She watched the woman grab a branch and use it as a meager defense. But Deadfang never intended to get close enough for it to matter. She eventually made it so she was flying just above the ground, searching for the tool she needed, wondering if her screeching, now lowered, made the woman more paranoid. Then her eyes spotted it ahead, a large, dark, hard mass, the size of her head. A rock, a rather large on at that. She let her voice go silent as she landed, quickly scooping it up, holding it in a single arm, when she saw another nearby, a little smaller, but still suitable. She scooped that one up too, held both to her chest, then flapped hard, upward. She knew her position would be given away since she silenced her screeching, but she was okay with this. She flew high above the woman, just beneath the canopy, her wings out of earshot, hopefully. She looked down, lining herself directly over the woman. This idea came from when she'd discovered turtles, and how tasty they were. But it had been such a pain trying to get the meat out. Until she learned that you could drop them on rocks, and split them open. Only this time, she'd drop the rocks. And she did. First the heavier one, directly over the woman, then the lighter one, a bit in front of the woman, on the opposite side of the dead deer's body. She screeched loudly, a different tone this time, so as to attract the woman's attention, and hoped she'd look up, thus delaying her reaction time. At best, Deadfang hoped to brain the woman, at worst, cripple a shoulder or foot, or at least drive her from the corpse. She turned into a dive, silent, keeping her wings steady, instead of flapping, a quiet approach. Her claws were ready, and would be looking to slash at anything exposed, then flapping her wings and escaping. A flyby, to wear her down, hope for a lethal strike. She made no screeching noises, no war-cries, only the very slight sound of wings slicing air, following the rocks from above.