A Time To Heal. (Closed)

[Talen Stirling]

Talen looked around, desperately trying to get a resemblance of control and understanding of the situation. That was no use, obviously, as Lysander threw himself at Cousin Seo sobbing and moaning in despair nonsensically. A massive roar called out the presence of something much larger and deadlier than the cat, and for an instant Talen stared around in panic before he realised that one more threat had appeared on the field. Talen looked at the three to take action, just as the Vantha boy put his tail between his legs and ran as fast as his thin legs would carry him. Probably a good call. "Stop moaning and get out of here! Cuz', get your bow, and get a grip!" He yelled in a steel voice, like the hands that gripped at Lysander and Seodai's shoulders, pulling them apart and shoving them in a direction away from the chaos. "Move, and stop pissing yourselves!" A tremor of a nervous grin quivered at the corner of his mouth, but there was no time for any humour as he turned around and roared across what few people were still left on the field. "Leave the festival quickly! Help the young and the old!" With that, he pulled down his shield and placed it carefully around his left arm as he looked out for whoever needed someone to watch over them. That was what a watchman did, afterall.

[Syllke Skyglow]

Syllke loped through the crowd, bending and leaping to avoid panicked people and overturned chairs. The noise was rising, the sound of alarm almost overpowering the strange music. His eyes sought for Murphy, but the wolf was fleeing even faster than he was. But as his gaze swept the space where the festival feast and dancing had been set up, he did see another familiar figure. Vanos! Swerving to avoid a woman who was screeching loudly, Syllke headed towards the food laden table at which the Isur stood, stolidly shoving a honey cake into his mouth and already reaching for a strawberry tartlet. Coming to a breathless halt beside his friend, Syllke grabbed for the Isur’s huge arm. “Vanos! Come on! You have to help me find Murphy – he’s run off. Something is wrong with the kelvics, I think – did you see Galio?!” It would have been quite hard for anyone in the crowd to miss the huge grizzly and his angry roars. Syllke, unsure of how much of this Vanos was taking in, shook his friend a bit – but that was like trying to shake a boulder. “Come on!” He pleaded. “Come help me find Murphy!”

[Vanos Strongarm]

Vanos was not completely stupid when it came to the chaos around him, he simple chose to categorize the insanity as something that humans just did. There were many things that Vanos placed in this category and the roar of the bear and running of people around him - while everything else appeared normal - was probably some silly human thing they did when the party got dull and boring. How would he be able to leave the table, especially one covered in such succulent desserts, when he hadn't had a chance to try everything yet? It wasn't until the tug on his arm from Syllke that Vanos finally clued in that, perhaps, this wasn't human insanity after all. "Vhere I see bear? Bear is not on table." Vanos said simply as he scooped the tart in his hand carefully, as if it was the most precious thing in the world. He looked up towards Syllke and saw the panic in the Vantha's face as he let out a groan while placing the dessert back on the table; there was a time and place for everything and this wasn't it. "This Murphy, vhat he look like again? Vas Murphy not Kelvic, too? He go veird vith vest of veirdness?" As he was trying to question Syllke, the Vantha was too impatient and wanted to get moving. His little tug on Vanos arm did nothing but he got the hint after the way the fingers were trying to dig into his flesh. He grumbled out something in Isurian, comparing the desserts to the most prized possessions and wishing he could lock them in a trunk, as he sealed his lips and gave a nod of his head. "Ve find Murphy." Vanos growled out as his hand was being pulled by Syllke's hand and the Isur followed the Vantha wherever he was going to lead him.

[Lucy]

When Lucy woke up she heard screams and saw afraid peoples running in all directions, but there were no annoying music anymore. She still felt numb and she could not move. She felt she's in human body, but she remembered being eagle. She saw grizzly Galio attacking everybody and she wanted to tell him to stop, but she was too weak. Somebody stepped on her stomach while running, luckily too fast for her to feel his whole weight. She felt pain in everything. Her head wanted to explode and yet everybody were screaming around. She felt like her whole skull is broken, but yet it was alright. She felt enormous pain in stomach because of man who stepped on it, but she could breath and she hoped she's not bleeding. She wanted to ask for help, to stop Galio, to do something, but everything she really wanted was revenge. She was angry on whole world. She finally felt good here, in Denval, with her brother, but now they had to remind her that Klevics are not important. There are few Klevic on the festival and nobody noticed they're not alright. And now, yet, nobody isn't noticing her. And nobody can't help Galio. It seemed like she hear that music again, even nor nobody wasn't thinking about playing it now. All her pain gone away and she was eagle again, but this time she didn't wanted to attack, she wanted to go away, to the wild, as far as she can from those terrible peoples. She hoped Galio will see her, but she didn't cared even about it. She will come back for him. If they don't arrest him or something because of this. When that came into her mind she turned around and came back. She took her clothes and morphed. Everything felt even more panic. She wanted to help, again, to these humans who were mean, as always, she approached to Galio, but then she felt something punching her in face, and she felt claws. She fell on the ground again. Galio must haven't seen her. Her arm was wounded and bleeding. Damn humans! She saw black points, and then nothing again.

[Daroes Murphy]

Murphy kept bolting toward the hills dodging to the left, to the right, running, passing little kids leaving them scared for it seemed as the wind ran past them. Murphy had never run so fast. He saw a small wall blocking his path which he lept over with ease. The Kelvic boy ran up the hill, up the sloop, not stopping. When Murphy finally reached the top and he was a flatness in front of him. He stopped, but he could still feel the power of the music, even though he couldn't hear it. He turned back toward the town of Denval, and looked toward the sky and howled, as loud as the young boy could anything to block out the sound and shut up the screaming. Murphy held the scream until he became dizzy, he stopped and took a breath a howled again. He screamed in his animal language, that non of the humans would understand. That is until he morphed back human and passed out of the hill.

oocI know its short but I felt like I wasn't contributing.

[Syllke Skyglow]

With Vanos in tow, Syllke quickly set off again, this time pacing himself as he searched about for some sign of where Murphy had got to. Denval did not have that many roads, and they all ended at the edge of the small town, except for the one that would one day be the road leading to the outside world. The clinic, where the festival was going on, was near the sea cliffs, towards that edge of town, and Syllke made an educated guess that the wolf kelvic would have simply headed for high ground. He and Murphy had scoured these cliffs and the slag heap hills rising up beyond, on many a day, and night, since their arrival back in the summer. He would head in that general direction and hope they would somehow find his friend, despite the growing darkness. It was even possible that if Murphy was really scared or in some sort of alarmed state, he might head back to the Lyceum. The cliffs were a round about way home, but it would be the nearest route that would allow him to avoid people. So with little ado, Syllke and the Isur started heading inland and upwards. Though it might have been like looking for a needle in a haystack, luck was with them, for the moment. After long minutes of climbing, alternating with scrambling and then running where they could, and then climbing some more, Syllke paused, and then halted, putting his hand on Vanos’ arm. The Isur, for all his squat, solid bulk, was surprisingly quick and agile, and had kept up with the taler, thinner Vantha with no apparent problem. “Listen” Syllke said, and it didn’t take supernatural hearing to know what he was talking about. The extremely long, thin howl was loud enough to echo around the slag. Syllke couldn’t say for sure that it was Murphy, it was night time after all. But not many wolves ventured this close to the town – especially not in the early fall when game was so abundant further out. To the Vantha’s ear, the cry was plaintive and full of both fear and pain – but that might have been his over active imagination at work. What was remarkable was the length of that howl. It seemed to go on and on and on. “Come on – I bet that’s him!” Syllke said, setting out at a lope once more. As they veered to head towards what seemed to be the location of the howl, it finally broke off but was taken right up again, by another eerily long, gut wrenching sound. Syllke hurried, but before they had come across whatever creature was responsible for that pitiful wail, it stopped. This time it was not repeated. “Damn!” Syllke swore loudly. “I hope he doesn’t run off again.” All they could do was keep on the same course. But it paid off for within no more than two minutes, they stumbled upon the insensate kelvic – once more shifted back to human form. Syllke dropped to his knees beside his friend, unsure of whether to try to rouse him or not. Perhaps being unconscious would at least save him from whatever it was that was making Murphy so upset. Syllke looked up at Vanos, a dark silhouette against the now twinkling stars. “What should we do? Do you think you could carry him all the way to the Lyceum? Or should we try to rouse him first?” This evening had gone from good to bad to worse in quite a fast paced progression. As far as Syllke was concerned, it could end really soon and he’d be more than happy to reach his own bed and sleep. He’d about had it with weirdness.

[Vanos Strongarm]

Rock climbing was something that Vanos had no experience in, despite being from a city within a mountain. They had roads. Vanos didn't need to learn how to scale a rock cliff, but when he was thrust upon it in order to save Syllke's friend he found it not that difficult as long as he didn't look down. Not that what he and the Vantha was doing was pure rock climbing, but to the Isur who had lived his entire life on flat surfaces, near the ground, it was as close as the stout grey man would get to that vertical climbing sport. Hunting was another thing that Vanos wasn't very good at, that and tracking someone. Not that he would have been very good at it on a good day, but his stomach was full and he was wanting to do nothing more than sit and not move. The Vantha, however, had a different plan as they neared where they thought the Kelvic was and they found him in his human form on the ground. Vanos frowned as he looked to the small body and back up to Syllke. "I carry, no problem. You vill have to help, maybe - vay here not very easy to valk on." Vanos said as he bent down beside the fallen Kelvic. He scooped the man up easily into his rock-hard arms and stood back up as he looked over to Syllke with a grin. "I lead, you follow?"

[Legion]

Brusque orders scoured the air in an attempt to organize the chaos, loud and calm, from the mouths of the guards surrounding the clinic grounds. Captain Astrid had released the hand of her child's father to raise her own, voice a steady beacon of command. A lingering glance was leveled on Sitkanis, her expression clear: their conversation would continue later. Then Cinna, a corporal of the guard, was pulling her away at a rushing jog toward the edge of the orchards and the festival where torch light and the shadows of watchmen alone seemed to be holding back the night. "Stirling!" Delano Marx, Lieutenant of the Academy, gripped Talen's shoulder, seeming to be spat out by the frantic crowd. Bark brown eyes sought the paler hue of the young guardsman and he jerked his chin toward the local musicians who were still wailing that strange music to say, "You and your friends," here he indicated Seodai and Lysander, "Make them stop. Now. I think the music is what's maddening the kelvics." The boy and the elder fiddler seemed in a trance, motions slow and eyes closed, oblivious to the eruptions surrounding them. Delano pushed past Talen and crew in the next minute, having caught sight of the Vantha hunter tear off after the kelvic bear who had recently come to town. Once free of the crowd, the lieutenant broke in a dead run. Air whistled in his ears and the dirt road leading from the cliff side clinic down into Denval proper flew beneath his feet. Time was running out, however, and he was not fast enough. Digging boot heels hard into the packed earth, he skidded and scraped to a halt when the grizzly shape of Galio was visible in his charge of Haraza. The composite bow glowed like a bone moon as the lieutenant jerked it free of its sling. He rocked back, lean shoulders straightening and an arrow fleched with gull feathers sliding through his fingers. An eye narrowed and if any were around him, they might hear his breath stop. Haraza and Galio were over a hundred yards out, but the path was clear and the stars were bright. A whispered prayer was risen up from the archer's mouth and he bellowed, "DOWN!" The arrow shot through the sky and in proof of the lieutenant's mastery or Denvali fortune found its mark in Galio's thigh. The last thing Delano wanted to do was kill the kelvic, but he also did not want the kelvic to kill the hunter. "Veldrys, keep Hanno close," Jarret was saying while climbing to his feet, gnarled hands glittering with blood black and silver that was difficult to discern as having been the contents of the exploded vial or of his own veins. "And come with me, please," he ordered, a man as military as the rest of those born and raised on this edge of the world. Jarret snatched a beaten leather bag out from beneath the display table and strode through the crowd, clearly certain that his demands would be met by the Symenestra and Vantha child. The guards were slowly but steadily beginning to calm the crowd, for reasons not yet even rumored refusing to let them past the circles of torch light and watch rings surrounding the clinic grounds. Instead. they were ushering the elderly and the terribly small through the gardens and into the clinic itself. "Move it," Jarret snapped at an antsy, over excited shop keep, gave a healthy shove to another roaming citizen and ultimately dropped to his knees beside the wounded kelvic Lucy where she had fallen. "Be calm," the old physician grouched with an oddly reassuring manner down at the girl. Shoulders shrugged and Jarret let go of his jacket to drop it over her naked form, two stained and trembling fingers stabbing through the air in silent direction for Veldrys. "Help," Jarret said simply. "Don't even think about it," Jarret warned Hanno next when it appeared to his wise, old eyes at least as if the girl was about to bounce and jolt off, possibly in search of her father. A soft, low whistle collected up all of Lucette's feral attention. A shadow shifted and from the glare and glow of embattled torch light stepped Cian Noc. The priest's face gleamed with Rak'keli's opal kiss as he sank into a partial crouch, empty hands spread palm up before him and gold flecked eyes holding the lithe, growling cheetah's regard. "Lucette," Cian pitched his words as he would with any patient, smooth and competent. The fingers of one hand crooked slowly, beckoning as he fought to keep the dangerous cat's attention targeted on him. He prayed somebody would stop that damnable music. Past the borders of torch light, at angle from where Delano Marx had run to spare two lives, another figure bolted. Cinna Dahl's long, pale ponytail bannered as she sought in the direction her captain had pointed her, sword jangling at her hip and footsteps echoing against the walls of empty streets. "Hey!" She cried, rounding a corner to spy the strange silhouettes of Syllke, Vanos and the crumpled Murphy. "Hey, hey, hey. Is he alright? Petch. Vanos, isn't it?" Pond water eyes tilted up at the Isur as the lithe young woman stumbled to a halt, bending over with Syllke over the fallen kelvic. "You can carry him then? You need to get back to the clinic grounds. It isn't safe out here." Meanwhile, Cinna pressed her fingers beneath Murphy's jaw, concern tugging at the corners of her mouth. She looked back up, this time focusing on Syllke. "It really isn't safe," she reiterated. "You need to return to the festival, where there are guards. Where you can help. Denval needs you. There --" The tell tale scrape of steel being bared to the night cut off the guards woman. Her eyes slanted sideways, toward the ally from which the sound had come and then she was shoving up straight, reaching for her own sword hilt. "Go," she whispered. "Run."

[Lucette]

Lucette’s long, lean body slipped through the crowd easily. No longer did she cower or feel the submissiveness that had plagued her life each day until this moment. The music pushed the Kelvic’s senses, edged them further into animalistic fury and aggression. Every hair bristled on her spotted back, and her gaze was filled with the fire of the predator as she searched for the weak, young or infirm. Chaos surrounded her. Humans fled running, some yelling. Their noise angered Lucette further, as did the music that never stopped. They were too loud! Her slanted eyes caught them, evaluated each one as they passed quickly like a startled herd. And there! A young child! Slow and weak… and tender. Lucette’s head, and then her body shifted to follow it, turning smoothly to begin the deadly stalking of her target. Slowly she pursued… and the Kelvic’s hunger grew with each step. Blood and the crunch of bones called her, and pulled her along. The Cheetah’s body lowered in preparation, her haunches tensed for the run that would bring the child down, and in her savage excitement, a drawn out chirruping rattled from deep within her throat. A whistle sounded, to break Lucette’s concentration. Her heavy head turned to see Cian Noc crouched as he called her name. The Kelvic snarled in agitation, lips curled and sharp teeth exposed. Indignant that the man would disturb her, she focused all her enraged attention upon him. Feral eyes noted his open palms, and the finger that beckoned her closer. Indulgently Lucette’s body turned to stalk the foolish man. Her breath came heavy, and thick, non-retractable claws sank into the ground with each step. The ringed tail thrashed, wildly in answer to his call… as her body prepared to run down this new prey…

[Haraza Frostfawn]

Haraza's eyes narrowed as the bear rose, its bulk much more impressive and intimidating than his own. Galio definitely filled him with fear, the way the monstrous animal roared out in front of him. Its dark brown eyes seemed nearly black at the angle Haraza peered across at the bear at, black and angry. And as expected the beast charged, running forward towards Haraza barreling its weight towards him. Haraza's just stared the bear down for a moment as it charged, his muscles all tensed and ready. He needed to make sure it wouldn't attack someone else the moment he was out of sight, he had to wait and let the bear come closer. He was scared, yes, but he had no time to let fear control him. He had to help. So with his spear firm in front he just waited for a second longer. Haraza didn't hear the whistling of the arrow fired from so far off. He was focused on the giant animal that was getting so close, ready to spring out of the way and call it towards him again. But opportunity struck at the same instant as the arrow did. As the wooden shaft sank into the creature's leg Haraza rolled to the side, throwing himself towards a side street and turning back to the bear. He hoped his actions would throw it off, but he needed to keep the animal's attention. "Hey! Come and get me!" He yelled, screaming loudly to challenge the bear. Haraza still needed to get the dark brown beast away from the other people who fled the streets, further away from Hanno. He bolted down the alley, wanting to put some more distance from the sharp claws and brutal strength he knew this monster had.