Completed You and I [Razkar]

[Tinnok]

She cursed as a rock scraped against her palm, tearing open flesh. It was a precarious journey they went upon, and foolish as well. She made sure her grip on the rock face was secure, and she leaned her forehead against the stone face, lamenting that very fact. And what was she going to do if and when she found the cubs? How did she justify bringing Eagle into it? He probably thought her some idiot on a fools errand.

But wasn't this-?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the screeching of the bird and more cursing form below. Golden eyes trained down upon Eagle below, making sure he hadn't fallen to his death. At his question she gave a bark of a laugh.

"Have you ever seen me actually talk to those birds?" She spat and continued upwards with a lean smirk upon her lips, an expression that faltered every time her injured hand slid upon the rocks.

Sweat gleamed over her body, arms straining to pull her weight up. Every now and then a rock would break, a foot hold would come loose, but her grip on the stones remained firm, and though progress was slow, she could feel Eagle doing the same not far below.

It was such a strange sensation when her hand patted a flattish surface, with no more hand holds to grab onto. Tinnok put both hands over the edge and yanked herself upward, waiting for Eagle to make the last of the climb before offering him her arm to help with the final pull.

"Good work out, that." She grinned and threw her legs over the edge of the cliff, staring out over the small mountain they had just traversed. A momentary break wouldn't be out of place, but even so her eyes surveyed their surroundings. Tracks here would be hard. Patches of earth and greenery lay scattered, but for the most part it was clear that the surface was purely mismatched overlays of rock and nothing else, it would be hard to find tracks, but easy to scour caverns at the very least. Tinnok's ears were pricked for a sign of mewling cubs, but at least at this moment there was only stillness.

[Razkar]

"Gods, woman, let me see that..."

Even through the myriad of sounds in the jungle, the pumping of blood in his ears, Razkar could hear the slow, steady dripping sound. He looked around... no, not from the trees, and the waterfall was further away. From one of them? Not him...

Then he looked down and saw the rivulets of scarlet snaking across Wolf's fist, pooling at the bottom of it and... drip... drip... drip...

By the time she'd turned around he had her hand in his own, ripping a strip of vine from the nearest tree along with a chunk of moss from a slimy stone. Hardly the best field dressing ever fashioned, but it would have to do. Eagle looked back up at her glare and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, don't try that look with me, female. I was raised by women scarier than you."

He planted the moss over her cut and tied the vine tight until she winced and growled, telling him it was enough. Then the male straightened up, peering around the mess of green vines and shrubs and trees, black rocks, fallen branches... all leading upwards and away in a gentle slope.

Razkar breathed out slowly, almost silently, but Tinnok noticed. He knew a challenge when he saw one. There would be no trace of their prey but what they could gleam from the rocks, which were hardly the bet sources for tracks. He knelt down and sniffed, ears pricked, but... no... nothing.

"If they're underground," he said thoughtfully, scanning the shadowy gaps between the boulders, "We wouldn't hear them anyway, apart from echoes. And the way the rocks are here... we'd never know the right direction."

Eagle got back to his feet and shrugged off his bow, notching an arrow and carrying his weapon ready but not pulled back. His eyes were narrowed slightly and fixed on their surroundings, sweeping back and forth, steady, watchful... and blind, for all intents and purposes.

"Looks like this is your time to shine, Wolf," he said, flicking a glance at her that went well with the quick quirk of his lips, "See what your green goddess can do for us now... or this is gonna take bloody forever."

Razkar's eyes looked up for a moment, peering through the tangle of foliage and seeing the shards of light pierce it, strong and bright... but less than they were an hour ago

And we do not have forever.

[Tinnok]

She flexed her sore hand a couple times, hiding the wince that threatened to move through her at the disturbance of the wound, but rose steadily from her perch. It was a wide swathe of rocky land they had to work with, certainly better than balancing on a narrow strip, even if it didn't help the search.

She rolled her eyes at Razkar. It wasn't as if rocks were living, and could help her track the cubs, and that was what most of their surroundings were made up of...but perhaps the moss.

She began forward, callused feet treading as softly as she could over the tumultuous landscape beneath them. She tried to imagine those flashes...as the jaguar failed, the light in her golden hazel eyes fading, thinking of her children. Was that how it felt to be a mother? It pained Tinnok to bring up the image, the pain of the creature whose throat she had slit to end her misery.

But this was besides the point...there were cubs that needed finding.

There weren't more images that she could recall, perhaps the darkness of whatever small cavern she kept them in, the colors of ground around the entrance, the strangely colorless images of the cubs racing and stumbling over each other when she returned from a kill.

She kept walking, kept listening. She paused at a dark alcove, placing her hand on the moss leading into the entrance. The feelings she got from such a plant were far different from a massive jungle tree or giant fern. This a fungus more than a plant, relying on water and warmth only to survive, but whatever bit she touched it did not extend far enough to give her any signs of life apart from its own.

She retracted her limb and kept moving, every bird call and frog croak setting her on edge. They weren't going to find anything and this was all going to be for naught. He'd think her more the fool-

A high piercing shriek echoed within the canopy. An odd sound, not one belonging to a jaguar cub, but a hawk. Hawks, however, Tinnok had thought wouldn't dwell at such low elevations, preferring to get their prey off of...mountain sides.

Glancing down at the rocky cliffs beneath her feet, the open stretch of air above their heads where even the jungle trees hadn't reached yet, Tinnok began sprinting off over the surface, just before she heard a mewling squeal.

[Razkar]

"How the fuck...?!"

Razkar couldn't think of any more cogent response when he gazed down the cliff and saw the flurry of movement below them. It wasn't really a cliff, he supposed; not quite sheer enough for that, but still daunting to anyone but a mountain goat or something with wings.

Or a terrified trio of jaguar cubs, apparently.

Razkar had waited patiently, sweating silently, and watched Wolf try to work her djed on the mossy rocks. He observed her closely, carefully, but for the life of him couldn't work out exactly how or what she was doing. Her gnosis glowed and her hands seemed to waver over the ground... then they did not. Then she walked and seemed to be whispering, talking with her lips closed, and he frowned. Was it with the rocks? The moss? The air? Or... bugs?

"For a servant of Green Goddess," he said with something of a huffy smile, gazing up at the clear sky, "This is a little vague. Perhaps you-"

Then she was off, moving swiftly over the rocks before his mind had even processed that strange strangled cry from... above? He couldn't tell. But he followed her, trusting her ability until they came to the edge. Eagle frowned, following her gaze-

"There!"

There was a glimmer of movement, like the way a shadow moved when something passed across it. The tangle of rocks and moss and fallen trees was a nightmare, but at least over the edge of the "cliff" there was less of it to hide in. He narrowed his eyes and saw the shifting of form and scenery there, bunched up close to the edge-

-right before the ear-slitting call of the hawks bought his eyes up... but they were still moving... circling...

"They didn't go down there to escape some hawks." He said aloud, hands reaching up to brush his bow out of instinct. "The hawks came because they left their little burrow... so what scared them out of it?"

Mewling seemed to answer him, high and confused and definitely female. She didn't answer him, just stared down with such intense empathy that Eagle really did wonder if this gnosis was a blessing or a curse. To actually be able to feel the hopeless terror of these creatures...

Then something growled behind them, hidden but distinct, and he whirled... saw nothing... but felt eyes on both of them...

"Wolf," he said slowly, eyes scanning around and his hands frozen, sickening comprehension dawning on his face, "I think... and this is, ah... only a theory... but... I think it was waiting for us to get here..."

[Tinnok]

They were isolated, having fallen off whatever ledge that might have led them back to their cavern. Just two cubs, huddled and crying for help. Crying for their mother. Tinnok stared up at the sky and saw one of the hawks...and it had victory clutched in its talons.

Shyke.

She shook her head. Couldn't begrudge a predator its free meal of a tasty little cub after all, but Goddess they weren't getting the other two. Their mewling was renewed when the two Myrians were made visible over the rise.Two new terrors to add to the list of things that wanted to kill them, and the half breed completely forgot about Eagle's sage warning. What had driven them out in the first place?

But all she could see was desperation and terror, when the little female's gaze met her own and she saw strangely colored flashes of the hawk swooping down, the dark warm cave devoid of her mother, her brother nosing her and playing...then gone.

And all the pain that came with it. She rested a hand on a nearby rock for...stability? Then got down on her knees over the cliff ledge, reaching for the cubs. They were tawny little cats, ears round and flattened to their skulls, fur on end. At first they hissed, both brother and sister edging as far as they dared away. Tinnok's eyes pleaded with them. She was not their to hurt, but all they could see was the pain and threat of death, the fact she was not their mother.

Her arms strained, closer inch by inch, mind sending out the warmth of fur and warm bellies. She could not be their mother, but she could save their lives if they just moved a gods be damned foot closer.

Her finger brushed against the brothers fur and her bit her hand, but the physical contact ended up aiding Tinnok more than hurting. She sent her own sort of desperation through the link, urging the little cub to jump into her arms or be eaten by the hawk, and when Razkar stepped closer to see what precisely the witch was doing, she was rising with two jaguar cubs cradled against her chest.

[Razkar]

"Wolf? Wolf?!"

As the female scrambled behind him, Razkar kept his eyes on the shield of the foliage and rocks it was using. Just "it" for now. It could have been the other jaguar; it could have been a wold dog, a tiger, a petching Dhani for all he knew (though they didn't growl).

Myrians are hunters, and like true hunters, they know how the think like their prey. Or, in Razkar's case, feel like them. Eyes. Watching and patient and hungry. Simmering, animal rage at being denied its prize of three succulent young cubs, three future adults whose rivalry it could have quashed while they were still helpless. But now these apes had ruined it for...

Him. It has to be a him. Razkar thought, licking dry lips and raising his bow, tracking it left and right, trying to see everything at once. Only a male could be this...

Ambush killers. That was what jaguars were. They laid in wait for bells, seeking that perfect moment when their prey was weak and oblivious, then striking like a furred bolt from the green. It could be still... or moving. He didn't know. He cursed savagely and turned quickly, sparing one eyes to peer over the edge.

"Wolf?! Goddess, woman what-"

The world stopped, even the hawks' complaining, as the breathless, wide-eyed female emerged lifting up two tiny, mewling cubs, pink mouths and tongues wide and stark against their dark fur, still yet to gain any real texture or pattern. They squirmed and complained but the female had a strong grip, gingerly picking her way upwards-

To be greeted with a stunned snort of laughter.

"I don't bel-"

Razkar had seen how they killed. Long front fangs that crunched through skulls, piercing brain and spine. Instant death. Unless they were paralyzed. Then, well... you got a front row seat to dinner theater.

The young male wasn't thinking any of this. Then the trees and shrubbery to his extreme left wavered, shuddered, exploded into a black nightmare, he twisted on his side, bow half-raised, drawing back hard and loosing-

A roaring shadow.

A maw so wide and furious.

Eyes that burned with an elemental power even the gods barely knew.

Crashing into him as his arrow buried in its chest.

"Wolf!"

His cry ended in a howl that was a mirror of the screech ripped from the jaguar. He felt the feathered end of the arrow scratch against his bare chest as three hundred pounds of airborne predator smacked into him, arrowhead carving and slicing inside the thrashing thing's ribcage-

Thrashing.

Gouging.

Tearing.

Razkar's screech rose to true pain as both he and the big cat tumbled over the edge, trailed little arcs of crimson as they both flailed, agile feline form shifting in the air, reaching out-

"FUCKER!"

Razkar swung and miss, crashing to the stone and sliding down partway until he thudded into a larger rock, rearranging most of the contents of his ribs. The jaguar had four legs to work with but the arrow inside its torso was... deep. Black blood, from far inside it, pooled under its fur as it finally came to a stop. The Myrian had thrown its landing off, back leg crunching under the impact and a hiss that was more a strangled roar sent the hawks circling higher, calling down for one of them to die, already!

The male gasped, panting, every breath tearing at his battered, scraped body. One arm felt numb... fuck... not good. That meant it could be broken. He looked down... no... perhaps worse. Ragged tears from sarp claws were oozing out over the hot stones, matching patterns on his side, his shoulder.

Goddess... he could have petching laugh. He just seemed to have no fucking luck with big cats of Falyndar.

He started to back up the cliff, back towards Wolf, one arm dragging along the stone, another fumbling for his gladius.

Dying. Crippled. But far from dead. The jaguar began to crawl after him, even making that pitiful movement a stalk, wide black eyes fixed on him, unblinking, endless, hateful snarl vibrating the blood in his veins as it got closer, closer-

Razkar gasped as his shoulders thumped into a rock. Too big to go around. To broad to dodge. The male shot back a look and the fear moistening his eyes was suffused with... not bravery. Not quite.

Defiance.

"Wolf?!" He roared, even as he coughed and crimson splattered onto the stone, soon to mar the jaguar's slowing paws. "If you can spare the fucking time... and if not-" an impossible quirk of his lips and a cough that could have been laughter "-make sure they tell tales about this!"

The jaguar was not impressed. Apes. Scum. Meat. All of them fit for nothing but fuel for her body and sport for his mind, sustenance for his children, perhaps, at least until they got too big to handle. And now, he was to be killed by one? A leg ruined, one of those odd hard sticks lodged in his chest?

It stopped. It's haunched bunched up... and Razkar knew what would follow.

"Come on, then," he muttered, then raised his gladius and bid Tinnok a silent good luck. "COME AN' 'AVE SOME!"

[Tinnok]

She had sometimes imagined what it would be like to hold a babe in her arms, one born of her womb, a slimey slobbering mess. In that moment she thought it would be a fine thing, even if the only children she was like to have would have more than two legs, perhaps tails, and scales, and skin that always was covered with slime.

And that wasn't something to be sad about.

The piercing cries that went up as Eagle was dashed upon the rocks out of her vision made Tinnok's eyes squeeze shut. The siblings' terror was back in full force and she felt every image, sound, and smell. His musk was up within her nose even though her weak senses hadn't caught it before. Thick and male, reeking of old blood and rot of previous kills, of dark earth and moss soaked into dark fur.

"Please shut the petch up my lovelies." She crooned, one jaguar cub under each arm, crying as if they wanted Syna herself to hear them. Wolf was sure the Sun Goddess probably could.

Her eyes darted back and forth. To put them down might mean having to find them again, to keep then in her grasp could mean losing Eagle. One Neither choice was easy, but...

Fur, squeals, and frightened growls followed as Tinnok wrapped the cubs in their own mothers' pelt. It seemed a sick thing to do, but the calm it sent over her confused children was almost instantaneous. Her fingers surged through thick fur, sending thoughts of teats filled with warm milk and scraps of animals, the comfort of a full belly and the warm darkness of their cavern, free from territorial males...two of whom were butchering each other just out of sight.

And she leapt up to see her Eagle limping towards her, a look somewhere between annoyance and determination heating his black eyes.

Her dagger was in hand as she saw the jaguar...in worse shape than the Myrian pulling himself over the rock. She took a step forward, hurling the dagger at the cat, who looked at her with something akin to disdain as it bounced off of his pelt.

Its haunches lowered, its yellow eyes ready for the final lunge, and its gaze was only for the tattooed male whose arm it had mauled. That was her advantage.

"Petch you, cat." She muttered under her breath. It happened fast...but slow as well, drawn out from the injuries both males had incurred. The abomination pressed herself against the rocks, and hunched herself as well. It wouldn't be graceful, or well done, but as the jaguar lunged, so too did the she wolf, and her shoulder slammed with something that made her bones shudder in its socket as her weight came into the cat's side, and all three figures fell upon the floor. Her other dagger slipped into her fingers, and she felt his pain, his rage, and his hunger, a strange sensation flowing through her bones as she used those same emotions to plunged the knife deep into the back of the cat's neck and yank it at a horrendous angle, feeling a strange crack for her efforts.

The massive feline was on top of her legs, and over Eagle's torso, and Tinnok had to grip the cat's ear in her teeth to get enough leverage to pull it a bit off, rolling with it to get it off of Razkar.

She wasn't sure whether to tend to the male or the cubs first, but the scent of his wound brought her to Eagle's side, hearing the mourning calls of the hawk's above.

"Someone just loves being the petching martyr." She glanced at the arm, crimson filling and over flowing from the gashes. She wrenched her dagger from the cats pelt and began sawing at the fur. It was a shoddy job, and a small part of her winced at ruining such a fine pelt, but the thick fur would make for a good stopper for the blood, and so the strange piece of flesh, muscles still dangling from it, acted as the perfect make shift bandage to wrap around the arm, Wolf wincing just as Eagle did, as if feeling the pain of the wound...which did pain her to look at for too long.

"Come on, we need to get you laying against something." She helped Eagle up, guiding him to the patch of rocks near where the cubs sat curled up in their mother's pelt. They hissed at the Myrian and Tinnok hissed angrily back, cowing them momentarily. She wasn't in the mood for their games, and wondered if those romantic ideals of being some parent were really just a wash, as she didn't seem to have the patience for it.

"Not like anyone would petch me to find out." She muttered under her breath, seating Eagle down and searching around for some moss. She checked her clothes, but the garments drenched in sweat, and now the jaguar's blood didn't seem of a high enough quality to use as wrapping. She ran a hand over her head, glancing worriedly at her companion.

"I'm sorry...this was such a huge...I shouldn't have asked you to come."

[Razkar]

The terror was there, stark and bitter on his tongue... but so was a clear-eyed but feral chance to survive. Razkar knew what it was like to accept you were about to die: when it was so undeniable and obvious that all you had to to was decide how to face it.

That was liberating. What in that moment before the jaguar lunged? The battered Myrian was still flexing his fingers around his gladius with his one remaining arm.

One good thrust, that's all I need. Just one...

Lips curled back from nightmare fangs, the jaguar caterwauled insanely and lunged, slower due to its injuries but still impossibly fast, covering the distance between them in a blink as Razkr screamed back, thrusting-

-into nothing-

-as another blur slammed into his killer/final kill-

"WOLF!"

-and both abomination and jaguar slammed into him, bowling him even further back and his gladius sunk deep into the jaguar's chest, carving thrust muscle and organs... that were already still.

No whirlwind of dying fangs and claws. No howls or struggles, snapping jaws or glaring eyes that exulted victory or swore silent revenge in the next world. A cold, dead corpse atop him... and Wolf's dagger in the jaguar's neck, clear through the spine.

"Someone just loves being the petching martyr."

Razkar just groaned in lieu of witty conversation, letting his body finally relax, wincing already in anticipation of his adrenaline fading and the full shock of his injuries violating his already-tested nerves. But he did manage a rasping cough, kicking the vast but lithe form of the jaguar away as she got to work.

"Only so you can play the petching hero. We all know how you just love to play to the crowd..."

Her response and his own chuckle mingled in with each other as he lay back, vision swimming... but not sunken. Eagle knew enough that passing out when hewn as he'd been was not a good idea. He forced his eyes to stare out at the jungle, listen to the birds and the rejoicing crows who spied a tasty meal... and the ripping, heaving sounds of fur being parted from muscle.

Prince of Ambushes and Terror of the Jungle one chime... bedspread and breakfast for army ants the next. What a jester Dira is...

He chuckled again and it strangled off into a growled gasp when Wolf began her ministrations. Despite his grumbling and wincing she managed to get a few decent lengths around his arm, stemming the crimson tide from there down to a trickle.

"Come on, we need to get you laying against something."

"Oh, you're so maternal..."

Was it his imagination or did she drop him onto his new bed at the rocks?Probably the latter. Of course. Surely.

"Ow!"

Then she hissed and muttered something, probably directed at the curled up and motionless balls of fur buried in their pelt, faces seemingly made up of eyes and pink mouth with tiny teeth. Razkar bared his own at them and they just seemed to take umbridge, one of them actually getting up to arch its back-

-until Eagle hurled a stone.

"Petch off! We saved you!" The two retreated back into the comparative safety of their mother's dead skin, but four glowing, challenging eyes glared at him. He rolled his eyes and leaned back, trying to wriggle some comfort into his back. "No fucking appreciation..."

"I'm sorry...this was such a huge...I shouldn't have asked you to come."

"Oh, fuck off, female." The tone, the words, both had her head snapping to his in shock, but Eagle was far too bloodied and high off his own miraculous escape to be cowed. Breathing heavy and stained in two kinds of blood, he still managed to shrug it off. "What, I was going to let you go alone? After two cubs, and a jaguar? Don't be sodding ridiculous."

More was revealed in the blase answer than he'd wished, if one had mind enough to read into it... which, unfortunately, she did. He saw Wolf's scowl soften for a moment and decided to plow ahead, aching sting rippling up his arm and chest only making it easier to do that.

"Moss is on the sun side, remember? Find it there. Vines, too, for binding. Oh-" he said as she started to turn "-and there's a tree, y'know, the one with red roots, the bark's kind of yellowish when it molds? Scrape off some bark. When ya chew it up good, its good for patching up wounds."

A long, surprised blink and Eagle narrowed his eyes defensively.

"Aya told me, thank you, and yeah, I do sodding listen sometimes! And good luck chewing it up for me, too. Stuff's fucking revolting..."

[Tinnok]

Moss on the sunny side...strange colored roots. Tinnok glanced strangely at Eagle, grinning as he shouted defensively at her, then began searching around. It was easier to look just because of the relative lack of foliage...at least compared to off of this rocky slope and in the depths of the jungle.

She found the moss and ripped it off swiftly, pooling it in a shallow cup of her clothes as she looked for the roots he had described...yellowish bark.

All she saw was grey-green, green-green, teal-green, teal-grey...no there! The half breed dashed forward, inspecting the yellowish protrusions from the trunk of the tree, peeling yellow moss that looked more like flowers than the wiry things she held against her chest. A look down confirmed the root color, and she began peeling the bark off, putting it in her mouth and chewing. It couldn't be as bad as he said, it was probably-

She returned to Eagle with eyes looking as if she'd rather cut off his arm than chew anymore of the shyke in her mouth. Regardless of her feelings on the matter, however, the half breed crouched down and peeled away sticky dark fur, spitting out the concoction and rubbing it on his wound, the fur having shown her the injury that lay therein. She was no doctor...but at least it looked like he was going to keep the arm. He'd just have a few nice sexy scars to show for it. Aya would like that.

The thought struck her bitterly and the half breed shook it off. This wasn't precisely the time for that sort of thing, but then again...it wasn't a set of feelings she could just bring up and put away at her own whim.

After she had gone through two sets of chewing the foul, bile piss combination of bark in order to spread it on most of the gashed arm, Tinnok gingerly and liberally applied the thick moss, cutting a new strip of panther flesh and taking the time to cut off the muscle and swipe blood off the fresh pelt, creating quite the tourniquet for the wound. To finish she hopped up, dashing off to the shallow tree line before returning with fingers caked in sap in order to seal the last hanging strip of fur, drawing the strange thick bandages tight across the skin and wiping her sticky fingers upon the rocky ground.

Now...to her other two patients.

The cubs complained, chuffing, mewling, and hissing their protests as Tinnok flipped them up and around, tickling their stomachs, scratching their ears and nipping their necks playfully to assess their health. Unlike her male companion, neither infant seemed to have gained any injuries from their near death experience, and by the time they were done, both were in an amiable mood, even going so far as to nibble on the strap holding Eagle's loincloth to his leg, making the Eagle let loose a very un-Myrian giggle before transforming it into a much more Myrian hacking cough.

But there was one sensation she still felt from the cubs when her hand slid through silky fur: Hunger.

Warm milk with a slow diet of finely chewed meat still made up their diet, at least from the images that her physical contact showed her, one of which she had no way of providing.

Removing jerky from her pack, Tinnok began chewing, something that helped immensly in getting that foul taste out of her mouth. She passed a section to Razkar, who she would hurt bodily if he attempted to move, and after about a hundred chews decided to offer the now mashed meat to the cubs.

They turned their nose up at it...but the little sister began licking the blood of their fallen cousin off of Tinnok. She glanced ruefully at Eagle.

"A little cannibalism never hurt anyone...right?"

[Razkar]

"A little cannibalism never hurt anyone...right?"

"If I was them, I wouldn't complain..."

Eagle managed a weak chuckle, and felt the lightness of it, jarring against a mind still afresh and alive with victory. Goddess... was he really this fatigued? His eyes flicked up and through the ragged slash in the canopy the hill provided, he could see Syna already beginning to make her way to the earth.

"We may... We must stay here tonight." He shuffled restlessly, the idea of sleeping on bare rock not exactly to his liking... but they'd have a fresh pelt to use within a few bells. "Now to justARGH!"

The male reached for the freshly slain big cat and his body buffeted him back without mercy, a thousand tiny jaws biting into his flesh, sending fire flickering up and down his damaged arm and shoulder. Eagle curled back like a hawk with a broken wing, a turgid gaze of mingled anger, irritation and a ghost of fear thrown at his friend.

"Sorry to keep you out on this barren bloody place, female." He said, cracking a wry smile as he heard his own words. "Yes, yes, soak it up. I look like hammered shyke, and yet you get the apology. Flying boars and orange moons next, I'm sure..."

Something persistent and wet nudged his thigh and he lurched for his gladius, hissing in pain even as he did-

-looking down into the wide eyes of that damn... what did he even call it? A kitten? Surely not, the thing was larger than a house cat. But now it was playing with the string of his loincloth, again, until his dancing, bloodied fingers provided more entertainment, tiny paws slashing up, a hunter learning to strike in the most adorable way.

"Sad, silly female just had to save you, didn't she?" Eagle whispered to the little cub, shaking his head when it yawned - and Goddess, no mouth needed to be that big - and settled into a surprisingly small ball next to him, "Well... she could have picked a worse target for her sudden urge of goodwill..."

The male looked up at the kitten's brother, or sister, curled in Wolf's lap and its eyes already closed, having decided her lap was now its territory so there. Razkar shook his head anew and shuffled around some more, getting comfortable with the tiny, warm bundle pressed to his side... oddly reassuring against the gradual but gaining darkness.

"This was... a good sentiment, Wolf." He said, frowning before speaking again, smirk splitting his features until he flexed his crimson-sodden shoulder, now wrapped and stinking with wood pulp. "Petching stupid idea... but a good sentiment."

He sighed, looked out over the jungle below them. Darkness reigned throughout so much of it, and now, with Syna's retreat, that became yet more stark. At ground level, nocturnal creatures were already prowling, shadows joining each other in Razkar's eyes until whole swathes of greenery were patches of unfathomable darkness.

He smiled. Yet we light a fire in the darkness, and we make our home in this place of predators...

"You honored them." He muttered, feeling his eyelids weigh and weigh until they tipped the scales, as it were. "Your goddess... our mother..."