He stared into the black expanse of the Other Side, wondering exactly how big it was. His thoughts melded together and his mind began to go blank as he slipped into his own form of meditation. Almost instantly, Shadowfang detected a shriek, and an ear-splitting roar broke the silence of the forest. As if his legs were loaded with springs, he stood and ran away from the sound, fearful of whatever could make such a noise. Then, another set of noises joined the roaring and crashing of branches. Screams of fear were coming from the same area as the other noises; the screams sounded familiar. He turned around and, for some strange reason, began running towards the disturbance, passing by the still open portal.
When he reached the source, he could barely comprehend what he saw. A very familiar girl was lying on the forest floor and, behind her, a large black bear, obviously angry at something. Everything that Shadowfang did from that point onwards was automatic, a product of his protective instinct taking over his mind and body. He screamed at the beast in Zithanese. The ultrasonic sound caught the bears attention and forced it to wince in pain. It turned towards him and roared again, appearing to suddenly disregard the girl lying on the ground. Good, that was step one complete, now he just had to keep the bear from killing him. Shadowfang drew his dagger and flapped his wings, ascending out of the bears reach as it charged at him.
The beast was beyond mad. It roared and swiped at the airborne Zith in an attempt to bring him down but Shadowfang was still just out of its reach. He needed to come up with a plan to kill the thing or at least distract it long enough to run away. The bear swiped again and Shadowfang took his chance. He grabbed the dagger in both hands and pointed it straight down, folded his wings behind him, and dropped like a rock. His method should have worked, but he was still very inexperienced with his weapon of choice. He landed on the bear's back with an
"OOF!" half stunning himself. The blade merely glanced off of the bear's thick fur, pissing it off even more. It thrashed around and he dug his claws into its fur, hanging on for dear life. He raised the dagger again and plunged it into the beast's tough hide.
The bear stood on its hind legs and thrashed around again, effectively throwing both Shadowfang and the dagger to the ground. He rose and ran for the dagger, only to be hit in the side of the face. The bear had pawed him. His left ear was ringing and he felt a burning pain all over his face. He cried out in pain and anger. His ear was ringing and his vision went fuzzy. He was uncertain if the bear had clawed him or simply hit him with his paw, neither was he sure if he was bleeding or not. He lay on the ground dazed for a moment. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the bear standing on its hind legs, from his other eye, the glint of his dagger. He crawled as fast as he possibly could, reaching for his only chance at living. His hand closed around the hilt and he raised his arms, pointing it a the bear and letting an angry roar of his own escape his lips.
Luck. Pure luck. That was the only thing that saved him. The bear fell on top of him, almost crushing him. He tasted and smelled blood, his own, the girl's, and the bear's. The beast had collapsed on the blade of his dagger. He was not strong enough to keep his arms stiff, and the hilt of his dagger had been slammed into the ground next to his face. The blade had embedded itself in the bear's neck. It twitched and writhed for a moment, then went still. The fight was done. He began trying to wiggle his way out from underneath the heavy animal, wincing as his wing bent into an uncomfortable position. After a long, painful struggle, he managed to move himself out from under the bear and removed his dagger from its throat.
He limped to the still unconscious girl and dropped to his hands and knees, positioning his own face over hers. Now that he got a better look at her, he knew exactly where he had seen her before. To be exact, he had accidentally kidnapped her on a previous night. A drop of blood fell on her face, adding to the blood that was already present. It took him a second to realize where it had come from and putting his hand against his face confirmed it. He was definitely bleeding from the hit to the face that the bear had given him. He looked at the bandages on his arm, then to his fingertips, then to her forehead, and decided what he would do. He unwrapped his left arm, revealing horrible pockmark scars and patches of missing fur that had been hidden underneath, and placed the well-used bandages on her head, wrapping them around the blood once or twice before tying a knot in the back. Why? He did not know. It was an automatic response. She was a comrade; part of his family, and to him family came first.
OOCHoly crap that was a long post. Sorry if it's a little too long.
