Tapestries: Pablo - Saturday, December 23, 2006, 5:18 PM

When we last left our heroes, Yiska had just finished showing off his rock and string trick, and the pack had decided to move on, heading towards the mountains, which still seem like quite some distance away. It's mid-afternoon, and it's nasty hot out, the sun beating down hard on the pack. It's not quite as sticky as it was in the jungle, but there's no ready source of water here, either, which means you only have a couple days' supply left. In the far distance, herds of giant animals -- both dinosaurs and megafauna, roam the praire, but they've yet to come close to the pack.

Tony takes a quick inventory of the water and food, and decides there's enough for at least another good day worth of travel. There must be some source of water for this many huge animals to be living here, so it shouldn't be terribly hard to find new water when the time comes. As the day wears on and the heat gets bad, he takes his shirt off, ties it around his waist, and cheekily suggests the girls do the same.

Bits, still in hispo form, says, 'My shirt's already off. Or something. I try not to think about where it goes.' Hope just gives Tony one of those looks. "Aren't you supposed to be, like, making sure we don't break the Litany and stuff, not encouraging us?"


Yiska jerks to a halt and perks his ears, his hackles bristling as he snaps, 'Quiet! Something is coming!' He sniffs into the air and starts to slowly back off, pushing Bits behind him.

"No crime in looking," says Shay absently as he pushes aside some grass. "So, any-" Yiska's outburst silences him. 

Tony snickers at Hope and Shay. "Like he said. I don't see..." He gets cut off as well, but instead of backing up, he takes place in front of Yiska, crouching, dropping away his joking smile. "What is it?" he whispers to Yiska.

Bits backs up as Yiska pushes her, and Hope is already shifting up to crinos form, though she's crouching to stay under the height of the tall grass. There's a hissing noise that comes from in front of you, a sound none recognize, though that's to be expected here, and it's close. The thickness of the cover make it hard to tell how far away it is. 

Shay wisely slides back, behind Hope, putting the rest of the pack between him and whatever it is. Not out of cowardess, but he's the only one capable of healing; he's rather important.

Yiska slinks to the side, still peering through the tall grass, trying to get a view of the thing. As Tony and Hope push past him he gives up and just gets ready to fight.

Tony moves into crinos form with Hope, standing with her as whatever it is approaches. Hopefully it is nothing dangerous; some herbivore who will spook when it sees the wolves. But it may be anything. He sniffs the air, ears perked towards that hiss, his body coiled like a spring.

The large head of some manner of feathered reptile pokes through the grass, peering at Tony and Hope, weaving its neck back and forth and hissing as it watches them move. It doesn't move closer, yet, just seems to be watching the group, as if appraising it. If it were standing upright, it would be half again as tall as the crinos werewolves, though it is leaning forward. It opens its mouth, showing many sharp, pointy teeth... and a somewhat familiar black ooze dripping in its maw from top jaw to bottom. [http://www.dinosaur-world.com/feathered_dinosaurs/species/deinonychus_antirrhopus.gif]

Shay blinks. It takes one look at it and something, somewhere, clicks in his head. "Tony, Hope, shield your eyes. This is *exactly* what happened to that fat guy in Jurassic Park! He got arrogant and got a face full of spit!"

Yiska glances to the left and right, making sure this is the only thing that's going to attack and not some sort of trick. He's not sure why a predator would just meander up on them from the front unless it was trying to distract them.

Tony is having the same thoughts as Yiska. It seems kind of crazy for a predator to just walk straight up to a group of unknowns, as if it wanted to shake hands. His eyes dart left and right, though he keeps his attention on this thing in front. That black shit makes him growl with worry. ~He's sick,~ he tells the others. ~Don't let him bite you!~

Hope gets a little confused as to whether she should cover her eyes or not. So, she compromises and covers one, and watches the beast with the other, her right claw out, as lets out a low warning growl. It's only at this moment that Tony and Yiska, glancing around, notice the two other shapes crouched nearby, one on either side, giving them each a couple precious seconds to react before Bits and Yiska are pounced from both sides. Shay, on the other hand, is both lucky and unlucky. No one noticed the particularly stealthy raptor who snuck up behind him, but its aim is not true and it succeeds only in tearing off half of the theurge's shirt, and touching the flesh without causing any serious harm to him.

Yiska attempts to still himself for a moment, attempting to dodge out of the way just as the beast attacks so he can hit it from the side, catching it off balance after-pounce. He snarls and raises his hackles, 'Don't cover your eyes, you're only fighting blind, just don't get hit!'

Tony is of the school of fighting that suggests the best defense is good offence. Rather than wait to see what this thing in front of him intends once its friends show up, he lunges himself at it bodily, his big hands reaching out to grab it around the middle while his jaws aim for the thing's long, unprotected neck.

Shay squeals, totally not expecting the attack from behind. And he doesn't even have time to process that they're not spitters. No, he panics, but the garou in him doesn't want to let him run. No, the fear turns to anger, and the anger boils out of him in an angry scream, as his Crinos form is torn out of him. Since the thing pounced at him and missed, it puts Shay relatively behind it. To which he grabs hold of its tail and, digging claws into the flesh, and, swinging his body around, attempts to Hurl the ugly thing at one of its friends. 

In the front of the pack, Tony and Hope take on the raptor who was trying to distract them. Tony grabs and rakes at its flesh, ripping feathers, skin and muscles from the body. Hope, meanwhile, blurs into Rage-fueled speed, striking once with her claw, but blowing by and missing with a bite. She swings around and stikes into the leader's back with her other claw, howling out her anger as she does so. Having fought the crocodile before, it's obvious to those two that this creature, at least, is not as easily torn to shreds by their supernaturally sharp claws. [more]

In the back, a very angry Theurge rips into the tail of the beast that struck at him, and rips away at it, but finds that the twelve-foot long monster is a little too heavy to toss, even when he's in the war form. Bits is taken by surprise, and doesn't have a chance to dodge, her flank laid open by the bite of that raptor, as it grabs onto her. To the right, Yiska moves out of the way of the charging beast, a bite snapping only at air and fur. Anger fills the lupus as he strikes back, though his bite barely finds purchase on his attacker.

Bits, now that she's aware that she's being attacked, shows that she is quite good at getting the hell out of the way. The raptor who tries to strike at her with its massive vicious footclaw misses so badly that it seems like it couldn't possibly have been aiming at her. In the front, the lead raptor seems to have decided Hope is more of a threat than Tony, and strikes at her, biting at the ahroun's arm. She takes a blow there, but seems to shrug it off, not really injured by the sharp teeth. To the right, Yiska seems likewise not trying to hard to get out of the way, and his raptor takes advantage of this by striking at the hispo's foreleg, tearing fur and flesh from him. Wheeling around in the back, the last dinosaur leaps at Shay who, the gleam of Rage in his eyes, rolls out of the way of the strike, spinning around to attack in return.

Tony sees that the beast in his arms is more interested in Hope than him, and why not - Hope is noticably bigger. He takes advantage of this, thinking in his angry haze that if its skin is so tough, he'll strike some softer - its eyes. Giving an upward lunge from his position, he sends both hands over its head, trying to gouge the thing's eyes out while once more trying to bite its neck in his jaws.

The lead raptor made quite a mistake ignoring the smaller, but quicker... and highly combat-trained philodox. With a fast strike to its head, and with a shake of his jaws, he tears out its throat and it flops to the ground, dead. As the creature drops, Hope wheels around to gauge the other opponents. She leaps at the beast which was attacking Bits, and claws and bites at it, though it seems to be quite a tough creature as it shrugs off the ahroun's mighty strikes with very little injury.

Shay's not combat trained. He's gotten into a few scrapes, so he just knows what he's learned. And one of those things is, something can't stand if its legs don't work. So he hurls himself at his raptor's legs, teeth and claws tearing. He's ready to scurry away after assaulting at its calves though.

Yiska throws himself hard against his dodging target, his jaws snapping in rapid succession as he simply turns into a blur of fury. The Galliard looks as if he's trying to climb on top of the beast, as his powerful claws tear into its side and his jaw snaps at anything in front of him.

The inexperience of Shay shows through. He's earnest and eager in his swipe at the raptor's leg, but, unfortunately, he's not in the least bit accurate, the dinosaur picking up it's hind foot out of the way of the attack. Likewise, Very Angry Galliard has not attacked with a paw all that often, and he ends up overcompensating, and falling flat on his face. It would be quite comical if not for the life and death situation. He springs back to all fours quickly, though, and makes two bites (yes, that's much more natural) at the raptor, tearing bites of flesh out of its flank.

Tony wastes no time in making sure the beast under him is dead. If that didn't kill him, they can't be killed. Tossing himself with another of his lunges at the beast nearest, the one Yiska is climbing over, trying to tangle himself in the thing's legs and topple it, perhaps giving Yiska the chance he needs to sink his teeth in.

Bits turns around, though her strike seems more timed, more calculated, than anything. She leaps forward, mouth bared, and grabs onto the raptor's thigh in a particularly vulnerable spot, tearing and ripping a surprising amount of flesh for the little no moon. Tony's skillful attack is also well-placed as he knocks Yiska's raptor over onto its side, leaving it vulnerable and prone. It hisses and cries out in surprise and alarm.

Okay, so going for its legs doesn't work. But with the thing squatting in its stance, the crouching Shay can think of only one place to really hit it. With a bare of teeth, his face flashes forwards, stuffing between the dinosaur's thighs to bite at the thing's groinal area. Every animal has to want to protect its way of breeding, right? 

Yiska continues to snap wildly at the downed creature, though he seems to have calmed from his rage, his strikes being a little bit more tactical as he goes for the things face. He bounds about though, always making sure he's keeping well enough away from the beast's thrashing claws.

After Bits's bite takes off the thigh of the raptor, the beast meets with the whirling dervish of claws and bites that is so ironically called Hope. She rips and shreds at the flesh, tossing feathers and blood about, until the monster drops, thunderously, against the ground. Yiska's raptor flails around as the Wendigo Galliard rips at it, tearing deeply into its side, wounding it greviously. Shay, meanwhile, finally successfully strikes, biting between the raptor's legs, though, like most birds and reptiles, it keeps its jewels on the inside and doesn't seem too wounded from the nipping. It does leave Shay vulnerable to a vicious attack from the dinosaur's monstrous foot-claw, ripping down his side, breaking a couple ribs and leaving his flank fileted.

Tony is unfortunately wrapped up with his own raptor, unaware of Shay's danger. Now that Yiska has scored a wound in the thing, Tony twists and grabs its head, trying to bend it, bend it until it cracks, a loud snarl of anger rumbling out of his chest and across the grass.

Bits and Hope, however, notice Shay is in trouble, and both rush at the raptor attacking the unfortunate Theurge, the ahroun in crinos rakes across the dinosaur's neck, pulling it one way while the little ragabash in hispo strikes firmly at the creature's back, biting into its spine. With a growl and a satisfying *snap*, Tony takes care of the flailing monster on the ground, and its motions quickly still.

Shay opts to just scuttle the fuck out of there, backing up quickly to let Hope and Bits handle the raptor while he bleeds.

Yiska leaps from the now dead carnivore and waits at the side, striking at the last creature if any opening arises.

Unlike a normal or right-thinking animal, the lone raptor continues to attack, striking out at Shay while the wounded Theurge moves backwards. It just strikes air, however, and in the next few seconds quickly goes down to the combined attacks of the rest of the Gaian's pack, soon collapsing as the others have.

Tony scrambles to his feet, panting heavily, just in time to see the last raptor being killed by the rest of the pack. He stands where he is, long arms dangling, ape-like, his breath like a gurgly bellows as he now looks around for anything else that might jump out at them.

Sniffing, but smelling nothing but blood, and seeing nothing overtly deadly, Shay shifts back to human form. And collapses. 

Yiska huffs and slumps to the ground, panting hard and flopping to his side..
Somewhere on the muck, Sasadi has disconnected.

Hope is also panting, and sits down on the ground, sliding back into her birth form, exhausted but unwounded when nothing else seems to come out of the woods. She grunts. Bits runs on all fours quickly over to Shay, and noses him, worried, 'No, no, you have to be in another form to heal quicker.'

Shay prods his current wounds and winces. Good thing that at the very least they aren't magical or something, to be gravely serious. He shifts into Hispo and winces when trying to stand. Ow ow ow. 

Pablo (OOC) says, "They are aggravated wounds, actually, Shay, otherwise you'd heal in seconds."

Yiska stands up and pads over to Shay, sniffing at his wounds and then laying down next to him, not really sure what he can do about it.. besides mud and such.

Tony stays in crinos for the moment, slouching down and kneeling beside Shay and Yiska. He winces at Shay's injuries, but like Yiska, isn't sure what to do about them. ~Just relax,~ he growls, turning his eyes to Bits now. ~Are you okay?~ he asks, not having seen what trouble she got into.

Bits assures Tony, 'Just a scratch. I'm okay. But what are we going to do about Shay? Can we go on with him hurt like this?'

Shay leans his head down, licking at the wound. "Shouldn't this have closed up? This isn't... normal for an animal attack, is it?" He grffs, and starts inspecting the wound for that black goo. "I can heal myself, but I don't know if that's a good idea; someone else could get hit worse later."

Yiska shakes his head, 'It isn't normal, right? Those things were strange, look at them, that same black goo..' He huffs and changes into human form, so he can better tend his wounds.. less fur.

Pablo (OOC) says, "Today, my job is to contradict everything Shay poses. Mother's Touch can't be used on the owner of the gift."