Flashback [Nesting Area] Unsettled Upheaval

[Lavira]

Timestamp: Spring 1, 512

Tulaj had been missing for for nearly twelve hours after having not returned during one of their training exercises the previous day, and Vira was somewhat concerned. The albino bird had been a special case and had proven a never ending challenge in terms of training. Raptors did not experience joy and sadness and anger the way humans did. They knew hunger and pleasure and pain. What other emotions they might otherwise posses was difficult to transpose.

But Vira needed to do her job first. As a nesting attendant, her work tended to be both challenging and easy, depending on the moods of the eagles. There were well over a dozen caves with eggs in them this season, all of which were anticipated to hatch sometime this spring. The other nine caves had various ages of hatchlings being looked after by one parent or another, usually the mother. Yet, when the teenager entered the nesting area, the sound that greeted her was absolute silence.

It had been like that since last night when huge droves of birds simply took to the air and fled from the volcano, as if sensing something the humans could not recognize. Even Vira, having spent a good amount of time with most of the current mothers, did not know what to make of it! The eagles themselves seemed tense and snippier than usual yesterday; but the absolute silence that greeted her as she made her way aerie to aerie to check in on each one before getting to the bigger part of her job was bothersome.

When she poked her head into the first aerie, she did not see the mother bird, only the silhouettes of the birds in the nest. She frowned and moved on. The second cave had a pair of one year old chicks, both of which were wide awake and staring at the wall. The behavior seemed very peculiar to Vira as she continued on, making a note in her head to check the vents. In the third and fourth cave were Dek, cleaning out some food bins that she would be filling later.

The next several caves held various aged young, from last years hatchings to two years ago, the chicks fat and large, their feathers just beginning to mature to prepare them for flight. The same behavior was observed in these as well and Vira decided to enter one of these and approach the next. The mother bird was gone here, too, and the hatchling that lived in this nest was standing at the edge looking up.

Vira followed its gaze skyward and saw the massive circling of the dire birds, their dark bodies appearing and disappearing constantly as they rotated around the peak of the volcano. "Weird, I've never noticed them do that before." She remarked to herself. "Hey, Insurq, come here!" She called, remembering that she'd seen the Dek woman in one of the previous aeries as she went by.

The hunched figure of her friend came in and stopped beside her. "What do you make of that?" She gestured with a hand towards the circling colony.

"I don't know; I've never seen them do that before."

"Exactly what I said. Were they doing it last night?"

"I don't remember, Lavira. Maybe we should get an Endal?"

But the teen shook her head. "No, they have probably seen it already, too, and would just tell us to worry about our work and let eagle business be theirs. Funny how it is our business, though..."

The Dek laughed and headed back out, leaving Vira to watch on in silence for a while longer.

Nearby, the not-quite fledgling was flapping its immature wings, screeching at the heavens and nearly knocking the teen over a few times in its near frantic actions. "Hey, hey, calm down! It's okay!" But the chick just snapped its beak at her and continued in its funny and nervous dance.

Shaking her head, Vira turned to head on to the rest of the aeries, not seeing that one of the birds was descending towards the nesting area rapidly along with three more of its brethren.

[Lavira]

When she came to the final aerie, Vira was knocked to the ground when a pair of older birds suddenly landed and pushed alongside one another to the large entry. They were screeching at them, their minds pressing fiercely at the Inartans, the intensity enough to make their noses bleed.

Vira rolled onto her side and got back to her feet, very aware of the lethality of what could happen if these birds were angered. Just last season, a new Dek had been sitting in one of the aeries, admiring an egg, when the mother became very upset and removed him forcefully and deadly. She flinched when the birds stepped very near and hurried to get to her feet, moving away from them and out of the nesting cave.

When she looked back, she noticed that the pair which had landed in this particular aerie had their wings spread out, forcing the Dek and herself back. "What's going on? We're just doing our jobs!" She declared only to jump back when that razor sharp beak suddenly snapped down towards her, yelping in dismay and fearing the birds had lost their minds. But the pressure of their minds was on them and the larger of these particular two spoke, clipped and brief, Go.

Nothing more, just that firm command that their massive bodies and deadly natural weapons could not be argued with. Back down the pathway, two more aeries were emptied of their human guests as birds came onto the small stone pathway, ushering them all back.

One of the birds that had forced her and the two dek previous out hopped onto the ledge, turning awkwardly and continuing to use his wings to force the gingers down and away from the exposed caves. Vira wiped her nose with one hand, blood smearing the back of it as she moved down along the path, throwing glances into the various nests. If it wasn't the adults, it was the fledglings and and chicks that were blocking the way, forcing all of them down slowly but surely. When they came to the warren, there were even more people, all muttering the same stories that the birds had told them to get inside, and if not told, were forced to leave.

Some even reported the birds acting aggressively to people who resisted, killing a few brash young men in another location higher up the mountain. It was all very strange, and quiet. Really quiet.

Why hadn't she noticed it before? Except for the low and cautious murmurs of the mass of humanity looking deeper into the mountain for somewhere to go, everything was extremely silent and still. She cleared her throat, but even that felt too loud to be of comfort and eventually, the young woman fell into a silent trot as well.

Along every opening that lead to somewhere outside, eagles were there. Areas that had already been cleared were prevented from being accessed again by the raptors mere presence, wings wide and covering the paths (nobody wanting to risk the beak and talons that these giants used so effectively for hunting.

As the short path leading to the Courtyard was passed, Vira paused and looked out. Two more eagles stood statuesque , watching the bodies continuing to move. One of them turned its eyes on her, then, and she swallowed, unnerved by its ferocious stare, like a lion to its prey. What were they sensing? It must have been serious if they acted like this!

[Lavira]

Suddenly, before her, the birds heads rose to the sky and those that were still in the city took flight en masse once more, rising to join their kin. Only a handful were left to protect the citizens from the outer portions of the city. One of the pair before her remained while its partner rose into the sky.

It lasted for bells then, the silence that draped over Wind Reach, palpable to her residents. It was a weight that made your skin crawl and your hair stand on end as something unknown waited...

Vira returned to following the mass of humanity along, eventually coming near the Tisuma baths. Here, her attention was caught once more and her head turned to look. Nothing seemed out of place when she looked, though, it was just steamy...until all hell broke loose.

The entire mountain trembled, knocking many in the corridor off their feet (those that weren't already hunkered against the walls), including Vira. She fell with an oof, one of her hands stepped on as someone tried to keep their balance but eventually fell atop her neighbor on the floor. Everything continued to tremble and with the trembling came a more frightening sound. Rocks breaking off the mountain and steam searing through cracks, toxic fumes escalating to taint the air with rotten egg smell.

Several screamed, including herself, the teenager crawling away from the quivering entrance to the baths, the steam billowing from it a horrifying sight. She did not want to be caught by it if the springs exploded, but it was impossible to stand among these quivering and fallen bodies. There had to be somewhere safer to get to than the corridor, somewhere like a doorway or another cave!

The sound of breaking rock continued to resound, deafening all within as the build up could be felt within their very hearts. It was in that moment that a strange...something pulled her (and everyone around her) gaze up to the ceiling of the corridor. It made her pant, her cheeks flush in excitement, her heart flutter rapidly in her chest. Her hands pulled at her vinati and all around her, others were doing the same, pawing at their chests before, as one, they threw their hands up, and tossed their heads back, screeching in ecstacy, "AHH!!" It was the sweetest pleasure from a long awaited release and it beckoned her to a name, the source of this overwhelming delight, "AAH!! IVAK!!" The torture of euphoria unexpected had hit its peak and in crying out that name, the teen, along with everyone around her simply collapsed into unconsciousness.

[Lavira]

When consciousness began to return, the first thing the Chiet noticed was how much her head hurt. It hurt so much her nose had begun to bleed again at some point during the darkness of faint. What had happened when the mountain began to shake? It couldn’t have been long because when she stirred, the world around her was chaos. The massive amount of heat in the corridor was unbearable, each breath searing her lungs. People around her were running in different directions, screaming, and a name she had never before known continued to creep from peoples lips.

Ivak…

The teen rolled over and got to her feet, nearly being trampled in the process when a group of Avora hurried past, screaming about a break in one of the many vents and lava pouring through it. The sound of tearing rock was still happening, too, deafening the Inartan as she at last found her balance and looked around. There was another sound as well, something like boiling water. Her head turned towards the entry to the baths some yards back and saw steam pouring from the entrance, blocking people from going that way. There was a pair of reimancers standing nearby it, sheets of res pouring forth from them and creeping up the doorway to the public bathhouse.

Rubbing at the side of her head, she went that way, concerned. “Hey!” She shouted, though only one of them turned to look at the lower caste member calling out to them. “Hey, guys, it’s not safe, you should go!”

“No, we need to block it off before the springs explode!” The one that had turned to look at her said.

“No, that will be worse! The steam will keep venting out, but if you cut it off, the whole thing will pop when the pressure gets too high, come on!” She tugged on the one talking to her, hoping he would follow. But he shrugged her off and turned back to the work at hand, calling on his res and pushing to solidify it, creating a seam with the wall it was melding to. They just had to hold it there until the masons got there.

But the masons would not be coming. Everyone was on their own, did not they understand that? The whole world had gone nuts and they wanted to focus on that?! They needed to find shelter! She needed to find shelter, but she couldn’t let these idiots get themselves killed by standing there hoping to cu-

BOOM!!

Just like that, the springs erupted, scalding water spraying out of the bath house and into the corridor; Vira grabbed the one that had not been paying attention to her first, yanking him back hard and fast before the explosion caught him. It startled the young man out of his concentration, though, and he turned to look at his savior, panting as she pulled him further and further from the destroyed baths. The water that was coming from it went back down the path in the opposite direction from them, cutting off escape that way.

“Are you okay?” She asked, her single eye searching the Avora’s. He nodded.

“You saved my life.”

“Well your colleague wasn’t exactly acting very smart about it, would you rather I put you back?” She replied with an anxious laugh.

“No, no, that’s fine, thanks!” He then took off up the corridor as well, Vira following close behind them. The steam from the baths billowed along the ceiling, forcing everyone to keep their heads low until it could find a way of escape, too. During this time, Vira and the others that were still in this particular corridor slowly worked their way through to somewhere safer, a bigger room or something, anything, which would get them further away from the vents that might otherwise prove lethal.

As they wound their way through, they eventually came to a covered walk way, the click of talons outside making Vira pause to peek. She immediately wished she hadn’t as the world before her seemed in absolute chaos. Massive chunks of rock were raining from a sky lit in strange and fantastic colors. In the distance, other mountains were exploding, enormous pieces blown clean off of them to hurtle through the air with the force of a tempest. They were thrown everywhere across the sky, sometimes hitting each other, other times hitting mountains, and still third times hitting the giant birds, killing them instantly. The sight was horrible!

And some of them that were not killed by the rocks, were being mutated before her very eyes. Once of the raptors landed on a ledge outside, its huge form was convulsing in strange ways and its feathers mutating into even stranger and nauseating colors. One moment it was solid white, the next it had changed into a sickening yellow with purple eyes; then it was a blue so brilliant it seemed to burst into flames, and in the way that its feathers flapped about, she thought that it very well MIGHT be on fire!

The bird shrieked, throwing itself against the covered pathway suddenly, its head bashing against it. The sharp curved beak had turned into what looked like a toothed muzzle and she was sure the tongue in that mouth had been a fern and not a tongue at all! Then the feathers began to alter, shifting on its body to hang in silvery strand from its body. The strands were sticky, she noticed, and clung to the rocks of the walkway, making her think of silk.

The bird was struggling to free itself from the rock now, screeching miserably. When it finally did pull itself free, Vira had to turn away, the sight making her gag. The wild djed had so drastically altered the eagle that it had softened its very tissue; when it tried to free itself from the rock that its morphed feathers clung to, it had taken off the entire flesh, straight down to the bone, the sight of its heart beating in its breast a horrible thing to behold.

[Lavira]

The sheer chaos of it all was the worst part, Vira pulling herself away from the sight of the dying eagle and hurrying along the walkway to find somewhere safer to be. But with how the mountain shook and the world outside exploded in ruin, she had to wonder just how much of Wind Reach was now safe?

The teen reached another corridor but ahead was darkness. She frowned as she looked down into it, but jumped when someone pushed past her to move into it. A few ticks later, the same person suddenly came running back up the corridor, shouting something about a bloody bird. “What the-“ The teen stepped curiously towards the entrance and squinted into the darkness, wary of progressing but knowing that there was not many other ways to go at this point. It was either take the chance and go or wait for the steam to clear out of the other hall or try and crawl outside via where the eagle had died.

And then, the very ‘bloody bird’ that the other Inartan had mentioned appeared. It was indeed a bloody bird! The poor thing was covered in the sticky, red, and clotted mess. Its feathers were soaked through, making it look somewhat sick and pathetic. It chirruped in dismay before collapsing in front of Vira, gasping and twitching. “Oh shyke!” The teen cried, dropping down in front of the bird and wiping fervently at its face. She had worked with the raptors enough since she was little to know how to care for them. Considering the wet breaths it was making, whatever had happened to it also got into its lungs. “How’d you get down here anyways, little one? We are awfully far from the nests…”

She wiped at its eyes until it was blinking clearly and then, with tongue in cheek, stuck a finger into its nose and swept it clear of the clotted mess. “Okay, don’t bite me, but it’s got to be done.” The hatchling coughed in reply, its mind voice too young to form words but it could impress emotions upon her. Vira scooped the chick up, draping it over her shoulders with a hand at the back of the skull, directing its head downwards. “Come on now, cough.” She gingerly massaged the chick’s throat, trying to coax the fluid up and out as best her mortal abilities could allow.

The hatchling was exhausted, from whatever experience it had endured, and by the time Vira managed to get the gunk up and out of its lungs, the poor thing was weak, its head in her lap and beak opened as it panted tiredly. The world continued to wreak havoc behind her, but the young woman remained focused on the young bird for now, glad to have saved its life. She fingered some of the stuff that clung to its feathers curiously, though not curious enough to see if it was toxic. If it was, Vira did not have anything that might clean the bird up and free it from the gunk.

“Welp, little one, why don’t we go find somewhere safer than here.” She gently lifted the chicks head from her lap and laid it on the ground before getting to her feet again and gathering it into her arms. Though young, it was still bulky and heavy, an awkward load for the Chiet to tote. She moved back into the warren that the hatchling had come from, using one hand to stroke along its side comfortingly as she walked. The chick just chirped quietly as they walked, though they both jumped whenever a new explosion rocked the city

[Skerry]

Grades

Lavira

Skill	XP
Animal Husbandry	1
Observation	5

LORES :

• Discovering Ivak
• The effects of Wild Djed
• 1st Spring 512 AV: Day of chaos
• Animal Husbandry: Clearing a bird’s airways

Notes:
Well there was a lot going on here but I couldn’t give you a lot in terms of XP and lores but it was still a very good thread.

Remember if you have any questions or problems with your grade then feel free to PM me.