FSE

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The incident with the bliss ball had passed just as quickly as it had come upon them, though Finley struggled to put it entirely past him... At least until the still-relatively-humid air decided to dry his shirt off. He pinched it by each shoulder and flicked his wrist, shaking the fabric about in an attempt to invite the cooling air to lift Kenki's excitement. A conflicting emotion of embarrassment and temptation hung over him. Ashamed at how kinky he had let himself become, yet tempted to try and find a way to break Kenki's walls down to take it a step further.

Six had been instructed on the hunt, switching her formation from a point position to an ambushing position. She wandered in and out of sight, occasionally switching sides as she kept a wide flank. After some time, Finley noticed her no longer carrying the bliss ball around. "Looks like she finally buried that thing," he noted towards Kenki, looking up at her to watch her reaction. The large avian masked her expression well, but her crest feathers drooped back against her head in a subtle tell of disappointment, rendering an amused smirk out of him. "Aww, well, help me earn some coin and perhaps we can buy you your own," he teased.

She narrowed her big eyes somewhat. After having some time to process her thoughts, she concluded that she despised such manipulative magic, despite any welcome sensations that she may or may not want to admit to herself. "It is but a wicked device. The mind should not be meddled with so recklessly," she protested, flicking her wing away as if dismissing the notion. To a monk, her mind was precious, like a well manicured garden, and one she devoted a lifetime towards taming. To be subject to such invasive trickery was highly offensive, in her point of view.

His eyes shifted, debating if there was perhaps some hypocrisy at play here. The drug she used last night meddled with the mind as well. But he was sure she had some silly rationale, and decided not to contest it. As for Six's ill-gotten device, he couldn't help but at least acknowledge a scholarly reverence, being an arcanist. "'Aww, come on now Kenki, you may not like it, but you have to admit it's quite ingenious, kinky or not," he replied, making a reference to the affinity of magic the sex toy made use of. There was a hint of jealousy and fascination in his voice, as wave magic was often considered the most difficult affinity to make sense of. Waves of energy, traveling faster than anyone was able to measure, were able to scrawl illusions to the mind, or concentrate into focused, pinpoint beams. But it was rare to see its use outside of enchanted devices.

The scenery transitioned into a very rocky, cliff barred terrain as they ascended higher and higher into the mountains. Just as the winds increased, the temperature decreased, eventually prompting Finley to pull his green hood over. The two of them kept the chatter to a minimum while they kept a constant survey, doing their best to avoid an infamous ildin ambush. As a cold wind lapped along his cheeks, he continued the conversation from earlier. "She realizes she's never going to recover these things she's burying, right?" he said bitterly. "I'm going to have to try talking some sense into that beast. We'll be sleeping in the chilly mountain air, outside, if we've no coin for lodging tonight," he warned.

That aroused a chuckle out of the fluffy bird. "'Chilly', you say? This feather was just about to praise the welcome air," she smiled in the slightest, finally escaping the hot, humid jungle biome.

"Yeah, well, we're not all built for frozen wastelands," he smirked, taking the opportunity to reach out and poke at her side, finger deep into warm feathers. Light hearted as he was, the reality of the situation caught up to him. The only thing he might catch out here is a cold, as the search so far has been fruitless. He really didn't want to sleep outside in this region, especially if the enemy was lurking about. Bitter, he had a delayed aftershock of resentment, blurting out, "We wouldn't need to be out here had someone not stolen my coin. I ought to make a feather coat out of that--," he started, but was shut up by the back of Kenki's wing.

"The fallen," she explained, pointing at a cluster of still bodies off in the distance.

Finley's human eyes were no match, and he couldn't make out much more than a bunch of specks along the base of a cliff, as if the corpses had either fallen off or were thrown over. "I can barely see."

Kenki slowed her pace to a stand still, narrowing her eyes. "A mixture of races, including the ildin," she explained, looking towards Finley but otherwise seeming quite distracted. Her crest bounced once and she slowly stood tall to look around.

His eyes widened slightly as he watched Kenki straighten her legs and back, affording her yet another head of height over him. She was even taller than she first appeared, towering over him. "What's wrong?" he asked, picking up on her uneasiness. He received nothing but a nerve rattling silence for several extended moments until he followed her gaze. However, she was just staring at a nearby wall of granite.

"It is nothing," she finally replied, falling back down into her regular posture and resuming. "Let us investigate."

They walked with a careful stride towards the point of interest. Finley looked around, not seeing Six anywhere now, and small plateaus bound by sheer cliffs were increasingly surrounding their route. He didn't like it.

Neither did she. "This terrain is unwelcome," she said quietly, twitching her head all around, especially watching the vantage points above her.

"Well...there's no other way over there," he stated the obvious. Though it was dangerous to be walking around here, he felt rather safe around the birds, armed with their incredible senses. With suspense hanging in the air, the walk seemed longer than ever, but they eventually approached the bodies. There were close to two dozen corpses in total scattered around.

"Hmm, these are odellians," he gestured towards a squat, badger-like denizen. There were about just as many white rats as there were badgers, suggesting they put up a respectable fight but were ultimately overwhelmed. "And a pair of newodds," he added, pointing towards a couple red, short billed jungle birds. Most of the laborers were wearing clothes suitable for a surface miner... Bloody clothes, slashed and torn by the sword. They did little to hide the missing limbs, spilled guts, and scorched feathers and fur. It was a grave, depressing sight. He gulped and stared, slack jawed, having not seen such mass brutality in years. "This is...horrid," he shook his head, turning away.

Kenki looked over the bodies with a studied eye, seemingly less affected by the bloodshed than her companion. She pointed out an observation, "It would appear as though these ones were cast away from above," she stated, noticing the broken and dislocated limbs on many of them.

The two of them looked up the cliff, towering above them, just as they heard a distressed, feminine cry coming from above. "Oye! Is some'un down 'der?!"

"Hostages?" Finley uttered. It must have been. Though he wasn't expecting this to be a rescue mission, he wouldn't leave his worst enemy in the hands of the ildin. Just as he opened his mouth to holler back, Kenki perked up and jerked her head to the side, lifting her crest high. A rustling of feathers was heard as she suddenly spun around to look behind them, and saw it. "Rawk!" she squawked as she hopped backwards and twisted to the side, narrowly evading a glowing blue, magical projectile. It grazed the feathers on her chest and shot past them like a screaming, apple-sized bullet of wild energy. Before Finley could react, Kenki shoved him hard with a winged arm, knocking him out of the way of a secondary assault aimed towards him. She let out a distressed chirp as her pinions took the arcane impact, the sheer force blowing a few of them right off her arm while the rest burnt into a black singe.

With a startled grunt, Finley barely palmed down onto the gravelly earth, catching himself. Under fire, he scrambled into a defensive position as quickly as possible. As he looked towards Kenki, she was pointing out the assaulters. One was on small plateau quite a ways away, and a second much closer, up on his own perch. "Marksmen," she warned in a quick tone.

Both of the rats were armed with staves which they were wielding like muskets, looking down its length to aim yet another long range shot. Finley didn't have time to question why ildin were uncharacteristically using magical weapons. The jewel on the tips of their staff lit up, signalling another incoming shot. "Eyes sharp," Kenki warned, feathers fluffing out aggressively and taking a few steps back. Looking around, there was no shelter to take cover behind in time. Much quicker to react than the human, Kenki once again evaded the missile, side stepping with an agile hop. The missile curved somewhat, trying to seek her, but ultimately found its home in the granite cliff.

Finley on the other hand was unprepared against the missile's incredible velocity. They were, in fact, quicker than anything he's gone up against, with the sound of that distinctive screaming thrill barely outpacing the missiles themselves. Despite his best effort, his adversary was much closer than Kenki's, and he had too little time to react for what his feet were capable of. The glowing blue streak of energy curved towards him and sunk into the side of his abdomen. He was knocked back by its force, while the energy itself burned past his skin and saturated his nervous system with enough energy to glow his flesh white, rendering him temporarily paralyzed and unable to prevent himself from falling onto his back. He yelped in pain, but he couldn't hear his own voice over the internal crackling he was hearing in his head.

Unlike Kenki's red magic, however, his body had become resilient towards blue magic thanks to the constant exposure he subjected himself to with his craft. The crippling effects wore off within seconds. Aside from the burn, the consequence of the blow left him feeling like his body was flooded with an ethereal taint, the same effect as if he had processed a large number of spells. He doubted he could take another shot like that, lest his body become completely overwhelmed and shut down.

The world around him was crepitant and confusing, and he was uncertain how long much time had passed before the whiteness in his vision was understood to be clouds. He blinked, snapping out of it. The return of his hearing was greeted with a sophisticated hawkish whistle nearby, but before he had any time to focus on it, a pair of large avian hands took him under the arms and effortlessly pulled him up until his shoes were barely touching the ground. "Ugh," he grunted, realizing Kenki was trying to drag him along.

"I have you," came an assuring voice from a friendly beak just above his ear.

"I'm okay, let go," he mumbled through clenched teeth.

She didn't believe him, instead only securing her hold on him. "No, they are too fast for you, dear human," she denied, doing her best to make her way over to the closest towering steppe.

With the curse of fatigue catching up to her once again, Finley could hear her dyspneic struggles. "Really, I'm--" he began to protest, wiggling around a bit in her embrace, but was cut off by an evasive maneuver. The familiar screams of two more missiles approached, and he just about experienced a case of whiplash as Kenki stopped her forward advancement and sprung backwards, allowing the first streak to pass in front of her. He was jerked about again as she stepped off one foot while hopping to the side to avoid the second shot, coming in low. While it missed her right leg, the energy projectile clipped her left foot with enough force to sweep it off the ground.

"Rck!" she squawked, hopping about on one foot to keep her balance. The energy seemingly didn't take, resisted by the hard scutes on her feet, though still subject to the impacting force. For a split second, the hidden chainmail under her feathers lit up bright enough to cause her to pulse, but after a moment, all that remained was a bit of light smoke coming off her foot.

Finley was set down, though, more like dropped, during the impact, and he hopped away and turned around to check on his friend. "Kenki, you alright?" he asked with a wavering hint of panic in his voice, looking down, seeing her standing on one leg now.

"No time to squabble, we must find cover," she replied in a collected manner, even now keeping her composure despite all the chaos. Resuming her run with a limp now, she held a wing out wide to try and herd Finley along with her.

He grunted again, clutching his side as he hobbled along with Kenki. Around a couple dozen paces separated them and an outcropping of stone large enough to act as a shelter. "Dragons almighty, their weapons are lethal," he pointed out. A significant observation, as few magical weapons had the sophistication and potency to outright kill on its own. The shot would have been fatal to many, and as far as Finley knew, weapons like these were usually only in the hands of powerful organizations or royal armies. How were these ildin so well armed? Were all the second planar ildin like this? What have they mixed themselves up in? He wasn't expecting a challenging fight when he thought of this idea. Ildins were usually pushovers. On the other hand, he couldn't help but digress that their weapons would be worth quite a bit of coin to the right buyer.

But he didn't have time to dwell on it, as the shooters were almost ready for a forth volley now. Kenki was fast, he realized, and he didn't need to worry about her. Instead, he needed to not be any more of a burden than he had already been. And a part of him wanted to prove himself to her ever since he was rescued yesterday, to demonstrate he wasn't as incompetent as he may have appeared against those bandits. Having learned his lesson, he concluded he couldn't avoid these assaults naturally. He'd need some aid. Adrenaline surging, he threw together his plan of action within the few remaining seconds. "I'll handle the close one," he informed Kenki, forcing himself into a quicker stride, fighting past the lingering disablement.

Turning to face him, she could see a strong resolve and look of determination in his face and tone. There was no changing his mind, she figured, and so she gave him a nod of blessing. "Be strong, friend," she bid him farewell as she split off to find cover.

A bubble of kinetic energy began to pressurize around his hands as he bent over mid-stride. He could feel his body swimming with magic. After taking a forced injection of energy to the gut, he wouldn't be able to subject himself to much more. He figured he could safely get a couple more spells off. They had to count. Waiting for the flash of the weapon's crystal to be his cue, he delicately let the bubble burst in a practiced technique, launching him diagonally into the air towards the nearby steppe.

The screaming magic missile streaked by him and stubbornly tried to adjust its course to reach its human target, sending it curving straight up into the blue skies. Kenki once again evaded the projectile, this time dropping herself belly down onto the ground, allowing the violent missile to sail past her overhead.

The wind rushing past Finley's ears was loud as he flew through the air. Launches like these were often fun and would force a smile, but instead his face transitioned into a frown as he realized he was about to fall short. Instead of landing on top of the steppe as he had planned, he belly flopped into the side of the rocky cliff with a grunt, just shy of the top. The blunt impact wasn't nearly as bad as the notion of falling down, causing him to enthusiastically cling onto the edge, fingers grinding into the stone.

An antagonized, shrill taunt in a foreign language found him. He looked up and saw the white ildin one steppe adjacent, ears flat and frowning as the human encroached upon his sniping proximity. As described earlier, his race was indeed a bushy, snowy white, with fur looking wild and unkempt. Nudity appeared to be the custom of Kenki's Harlodian homeland, as this one did not adorn himself with anything other than some footwraps. Most alarming, however, was the fact that he was aiming that deadly staff towards him.

Bruised and scraped all over from the collision, Finley pulled himself up with a struggled give of strength, keeping his eyes on the rat. Weapon hot and primed, the ildin suddenly jerked away and turned to face his cohort, as if he heard something the human's ears couldn't pick up. He looked over and gawked as he witnessed the distant ildin's silhouette being adorned with a pair of flapping wings and whipping raptor tail. Reinforcements have arrived.

The ildin let out a vengeful hiss as his ally was apparently quickly slain by the beast, dropping into a furry lump. Deciding to ignore the human to sate his revenge, the ratkin aimed his staff towards Six and let off the buffered shot. Finley froze as he helplessly watched the blazing blue projectile rip across the ravine. He heard a whistle from Kenki, presumably to warn Six, but it was too late. His toes curled and fists clenched as he watched the unsuspecting creature turn to face the warning, only to take the shot to the chest, sending her end over end. Finley couldn't see her very well after she fell flat, and there were no signs of movement coming from the distant plateau other than a scattering plume of small feathers. Not even a squawk. "Six!" Finley cried in alarm, his heart sinking. As small as she was, he feared the worse. However, he had his own business to contend with, forcing him to set his emotions aside for now. "Kenki, get Six, she's down!" he blindly instructed to the unseen avian down below before turning towards the ildin with hateful scowl.

The rat turned as well to face off with the human, black eyes vividly illustrating his disgust for the situation now. Finley got as close as he could to him from the adjacent steppe. He could jump over there, but there was no need for that, he was close enough. He hated ildin as much as the next man. Everyone did. Every nation, every plane. These pitiful, xenophobic creatures held no remorse or rapport for any other race, and would pilfer and exploit without hesitation. But until now, he hasn't had a personal reason to loathe them. He'd avenge Six, or die trying. And it had to be now or never, as the ildin began to lift its staff towards Finley. "You shouldn't have come here!" Finley sneered towards him, channeling an inspired, thick stream of magical flow through his system. With a ethereal flash of light, his hand lunged forward to release a narrow fork of electricity. Its burning, buzzing crackle was drowned out by the rat-like squealing as the ildin began to shake spasmodically, bushy hair and whiskers standing on end.

Without being a specialist in electrical magics, the spell was more of a deliverance of torture than a lethal attack, as it was difficult for a human to convert magical energy into electricity fast enough. Still, he watched with a cold face of vengeance as his enemy began to smoke, desperately attempting to mitigate the electrocution. As if summoning a second wind, the ildin snarled loudly, willfully commanding his muscles to overpower the effects of the electrocution just enough to ground his staff and invoke it with a positive charge. Acting as a lighting rod of sorts, the electric forks diverted and safely traveled into the staff. Finley frowned and aborted the assault as soon as it was effectively countered.

The ildin was fast, wasting no time to lunge its weapon towards Finley and try to get off a close attack. Adrenaline racing, he had to act now, knowing he wouldn't be able to avoid, or survive, another shot this close. Magic was all he could depend on in his arsenal at the moment, even though he was hating the effects right about now. Quickly as could muster, he conjured up a mighty compression of air in front of him. His hands immediately began to shake, and nauseous beads of sweat littered his body as his body grew fatigued and sickened by the excessive ethereal exposure coursing through it.

The ildin was trying to cast, but the weapon was struggling to ready itself as little sparks of static electricity danced along its length, disrupting the flow of magic. But his luck was about to run out as the weapon eventually began to glow, priming the deadly shot. "Oh no you don't," Finley countered, and ready or not, released all he could. A resounding boom shook their ears as an violent explosion of air recoiled him back a couple steps. Hurricane like winds assaulted the ildin for but a brief moment, but it was all Finley needed. The rat lost its balance, stumbling backwards until there was nothing left to stand on. Still shaking with electrical shock, the ildin tumbled over the edge and broke his body over the granite on the way down, ultimately snapping his neck upon colliding with the pebbled floor, rewarding Finley with a satisfying crunch. With a long exhale, the fight came to a sudden conclusion.

Any celebration he may have had was cut short by a sickening wave of nauseousness wrecking his body. He wobbled about a bit and dropped to his knees, noticing his flesh was letting off a subtle, unearthly white glow. As if drunk on magic, any practitioner knew the feeling at least once in their life, and he braced for the inevitable. Coughing a couple times, he vomited as gracefully as he could hope to achieve. With an exhausted groan, he rolled onto his back to rest for a few moments, letting the excess magic vent from his poor body. "That was too close," he uttered to himself.

The sound of bird feet down below prompted him to sit upright, just enough to see down into the ravine where he saw Kenki running towards Six's location. It was an awkward sight, seeing a flightless avian running. Her winged arms prevented her from pumping her arms as a human would run, instead comically and girlishly holding her wings out to the side. Aside from carrying a slight lump, she wasn't moving very fast, and her stride seemed to be unprepared for this world's relatively higher gravity. All he could do was hope for the best, knowing that Six's trauma couldn't be healed by magic, as that would only make matters worse. "Come on you bag of feathers, you better be alright..." he muttered to himself, then, remembering the hostage's voice he heard earlier, looked over towards the top of cliff again. He was still too low to see anything.

With one last survey to ensure the danger had passed, he shouted, "You still up there?!"

"'Dey gots me all tied up!" returned that same female's voice. If he had to take a guess, it was one of the odellians, her voice carrying a hearty mountaineer's accent.

Finley looked towards Kenki, approaching Six's steppe, then looked back, replying, "Are you in any immediate danger?"

"Nah!" she replied after a delay.

"We'll come get you as soon as we can, our companion is injured," he relied, cupping both hands around his mouth. She didn't reply. With a big inhale of mountain air, he forced himself back up onto his feet to press on, miserable or not.

"Now, how do I get down from here?" he wondered, wincing as he edged up on the side of the plateau he was on. Walking a circle around the perimeter of the flat top, he frowned as he found all sides to be unhelpful, and so he got running start and leaped over to the adjacent plateau the ildin was using. There in the back he found an a suitable series of declines he used to make his way down over the course of a couple minutes.

While Finley descended, Kenki was meanwhile ascending her own steppe. With her tall, lanky body and sets of claws, it was not too difficult, the main challenge being her fatigue and the fact that she needed to use more strength than she was used to in order to pull herself up onto ledges. After some time, and one last groaning lift, she saw Six lying next to a bloody, dead ildin, with a large black scorch mark burned into her breast. "Oh, sweet dove..." Kenki said solemnly and with a broken expression, kneeling next to her.

There was little she could do to help, but she ran a hand over Six's plumage to check her vitals. As it sunk into her chest to check for a heartbeat, Kenki's crest bounced optimistically when Six stirred, tail twitching slightly. She let out a relieved exhale, knowing that in situations like these, they'd either be dead or alive. If Six was still alive, she'd recover eventually. "Rest, precious ally," Kenki said to her in a sweet voice, petting her on the crest. As she observed the raptor some more, she honed in on Finley's arcane goggles around her neck, centered over the scorch mark. They were now destroyed beyond all repair, the chiming crystals on either side of the lenses cracked. "Riches riches, little one, greed has found you well this sun," she said to herself, cupping the goggles in her hand. It seemed as though they had attracted and absorbed a great deal of the offensive energy, sparring Six.

"Is she okay?!" came a distant, impatient human's shout. Kenki looked down into the ravine and spotted Finley back down on the surface.

While Kenki understood his concern, she wished he kept his voice down, lest their hollers attract any more nearby hostiles. "Yes," she replied with a calculated silence, just enough for him to barely hear. She stood up and and took a step over to the ildin, looking down at him with a look of disagreement about her. While the ildin back in her homeland were regular hostiles towards her people, she did not harbor any special disdain towards them, as resource wars in the wastelands were understandable and common. The ildin were but one of several aggressors. Finding them here, however, increased the stakes. She wondered if they were trying to empower themselves here to gain the upper hand back home, disrupting the balance.

Next to him was a recognizable metal staff, built from a twisted pair of twin metals, one silver, one gold, terminating with an apple-sized, blue cut crystal. She lifted her crest in alarm as it occurred to her the human would likely be ignorant of its defenses, and she quickly turned around and hollered, "Refrain from touching their weapons, human."

He asked why, but she didn't reply as she busied herself pushing the staff over the ledge using her flask as an improvised tool. She didn't want to touch it herself. It clanged a couple times, grew silent for a moment, then broke loudly on the rocks below with one last particularly destructive sounding crash, rendering a satisfied smile out of her. Turning her attention towards the ildin's again, she found its tail along with its demon-like, hardened spade at the tip. Scraping at the tail's flesh for while with her talons, she managed to cut it and pinch the tiny caudal bones apart, snapping the spade free to return to Finley for the bounty, as instructed earlier. She then cradled Six into her clutches and began to descend back into the ravine.

With his mind put at ease by the news that Six was okay, Finley collected his proof as well. He stared at the weapon for awhile, but decided to wait for Kenki before messing with it. While waiting for their return, he decided to give the corpses a second look. "Silly," he thought out loud, occasionally clutching his burn and rubbing the bruises as he walked. The only reason he was up here was because of them. Because of Six. He's had a bumpy relation with her, to say the least. Though only together two days now, he felt considerably concerned over her well being, as if he had known her as a good friend. Was it just because of the sex, did that bring them closer together? Or were this just wishful thinking, clinging onto the idea that he could establish a harmonious, long term relationship with her? Though now that he thought about it, he had no idea how long they had intended to stick around.

He brushed away the mixed emotions as he looked over the grave sight. These people wouldn't be seeing a proper burial for awhile. He'd have to alert the town, obviously, and let them deal with this disaster. His eye honed in on the dead birds, and he stepped closer to them. "Hmm," he hummed to himself, giving them a one-over. He considered the fact that the alleged hostage was their next step, and he was still very weary about exposing Kenki to any more people. Especially with these second planar ildin being on everyone's mind. Though he took no joy in looting from the dead, exceptions could be made given the right motive. One of the dead birds wore an intact blue, civilized looking loincloth, with a matching avian shirt designed for a creature with winged arms, fashioned without any sides, instead just hanging over the shoulders and coming halfway down the chest. It'd be a tight fit for Kenki, maybe, but she was at least lanky and thin, so it would probably work.

After some time, Kenki approached, holding one unconscious Six. "How is she?" he asked her, walking up to meet her.

"The energy must release, in time. She will recover," she explained while trying to mask her exhaustion. She then removed the broken goggles from Six's neck and returned them to Finley, along with the bounty proof..

After looking them over and realizing where Six was struck, he realized what happened. "Wow, lucky bird. I'm glad she's alright" he said, arching his eyebrows. He couldn't help but think back at how he was wanting to reclaim his goggles throughout the day before she broke them. It was one of the few times he could sincerely be thankful for his own failure. "How's your foot?" he asked, looking over his companion's state now, then noticing a bunch of burnt feathers on her wing. "Kenki, your wing?"

"It is of little bother," she only said while in turn returning the favor, looking over his injury. In typical magic missile fashion, it had mostly passed right through his clothing without significantly damaging it, as if it weren't even there. But there was still a subtle blackening burned into the fabric. "You are burned and bruised, friend. Shall I alleviate?" she asked, extending a free hand towards him as if about to zap him.

Finley clutched his side as she reminded him of it, but then held up a hand in a halting manner. "Whoa, no thank you. I'm already feeling nauseous enough. No more magic. These injuries aren't fatal," he rejected. As with any practitioner, with each inhale of magic he used, not all could be exhaled, and it would be awhile still before his body vented itself free of the unspent energy. "But thank you..." he added as he stuffed the broken goggles back into his pack. He looked up at the cliffs once more. "We need to check out that odellian hostage. But first, eh..." he stalled nervously, turning to face the corpses. "Those clothes would probably fit you..." he pointed, implying his intent.

She glanced down with a dissident expression. "Yes, I imagine they would," she only said, but not making a move otherwise. After an awkward silent, Kenki faced Finley again.

Without words, he gestured with his head and body as though to say, "Well? Go on..."

Kenki stiffened up and took a small step back. "Absolutely not," she refused, meeting him in the eye after an enthusiastic shake of her head.

He let out a long, tested sigh as though expecting this argument. "Kenki...you're going to attract too much attention otherwise," he pleaded.

"To pilfer from the freshly fallen, have you no respect?" she asked, as though offended.

This was not an argument he wanted to have, chiefly because he didn't support either side at the moment. Frustrated and without a solution, he rubbed his temples. Looking over Kenki, her body had at least returned to its normal condition. Oddly enough, after being around a naked companion for so long, he had gotten used to it, no longer blushing or turning his eyes away.

"Fine, forget it. We'll....figure something out," he aborted. "Let's head up there," he pointed towards a way up the cliff, some ways away. "Oh yeah, the weapons," he remembered, looking over at the nearby rat.

"Leave them be, friend, for they are dangerous," she warned.

"What, you mean like bound?"

"No. Truly, it is protected with racial defenses. Only an ildin may wield it," she explained. "Rest assured the other staff is now broken," she added with a nod.

"Arg, why'd you do that for? Defenses are made to be broken, as they always say. I'll take a look," he scoffed, doubting the ildin would be capable of a defense he couldn't handle. "I'll meet you over there, don't wait up," he added in a cocky tone, storming over to the dead ildin's staff. Bolstered by a fresh disposition against the ildin, he was determined to dwarf their defenses, as though it were one last challenge he could conquer. If for any reason, to prevent them from rearming themselves.

When he got there, he knelt down next to the weapon, looking over it. Just by looking at it, he couldn't see how it could be warded in any significant manner, and theorized that if there was anything to it, it would be a low energy zap. A discouragement, at best. Working up some courage, he tapped it with a single knuckle, but nothing happened. Then, he tapped it with a finger, each time a little longer, until he picked it up. When nothing happened after several seconds, he shrugged, and began to walk back, giving a snarky grin towards Kenki who was watching him instead of moving on as he had asked. "It's not defended," he told her as he approached.

Kenki at first seemed pleasantly amused, but her face shifted to alertness. "Drop it," she instructed him, lifting her crest.

He furrowed his brow and wondered why, but ran out of time as its crystal suddenly pulsed red. Finley promptly dropped the weapon, but that didn't stop the it from carrying out its vengeance, sending a brief surge of red electricity towards the interloper. Finley yelped in pain, throwing up his arms to shield himself. Another surge hit him, then another, pulsating energetic red forks every half second as if trying to fend him away. While it was successful, driving him away step by step, the weapon's defenses were never quite satisfied, and demonstrated remarkable range. Whereas his blue-based electricity was designed to cause harm, red-based electricity did nothing more than agitate the nerves, causing a pure, albeit harmless, rendering of consequential pain. With his insides feeling like they were being torn apart by a million burning glass needles, his yelps transitioned into a long string of profanities, borrowed from other races and foreign languages. Every curse and slur he could think of.

The tortuous barrage of magic finally let up to the sound of a crack and hiss when the weapon's arcanic seal was shattered. Teary eyed, he looked up and saw Kenki kneeling next to the weapon with a large rock in her hand. She smashed it once more for good measure, until the intricate work cracked apart under her heavy assault.

"What 'da drake is going on down 'der, did someone die!?" the hostage hollered from above a few seconds after Finley seized his outcry.

Catching his breath with a few pants, he frowned, looking blindly up the cliff. "We're coming!" he shouted back with no shortage of irritation in his voice. Though physically unharmed, the red lightning would ruin anyone's day and put them in a foul mood, cutting a deep gash into his charisma.

As he walked over to the broken weapon, Kenki dropped the rock and picked Six back up. A clear "I told you so" expression was strewn across her feathery face. "Not...a word," he cut off her before she said anything, holding up a hand. Looking down at what remained, it wasn't so much a weapon as it was a beat up metal staff now. Picking it up again, he inspected the damage. "Damn, you cracked right down to the core. Well, so much for that idea..." he complained, though he figured he could at least sell it to a scrapper and salvage something of this nasty situation. Now that he knew the defense, he imagined he'd have better shot at disarming the second weapon had Kenki not broke it. With no shortage of frustration and now only wanting to get to town and be done with this day, he dismissed salvaging the second weapon and led the way towards the ascension.

Kenki slumped her shoulder and limped behind him. With the added burden of carrying Six, her struggles grew louder and she began to fall behind when they made their way up the steep incline.

Using the broken weapon as a makeshift walking stick, he let out a tired sigh and closed his eyes when he reached the top, sensing Kenki was lagging. "We can take a break in a minute," he spoke without facing her, and resumed before she had a chance to catch up.

One last ridge, he finally spotted the hostage, casting a look of disgust towards the sight. "Oh, mother of mer..." he groaned, turning away. It was worse than he thought. He was correct, it was a female odellian, but he wasn't expecting the rats to rape the poor badger. They had fashioned some sort of stockade which she was locked up in, conveniently angled in such a way that the first thing he saw on his approach was her business end. As Kenki caught up, he gave her a bit of warning before she had a line of sight, saying, "They spared this one, only to use her as a... plaything. A sex slave."

"Spared, nonetheless," Kenki replied, beak parted and holding an utterly exhausted expression.

"Well... yeah, if you want to call it that," he lowered his voice.

"'Zat you back 'der?" demanded an impatient voice, followed by an immediate "Gimme out of 'dis thing!"

Out of pity for the badger, Finley diverted his eyes as he approached her, though as he drew closer and had look and to see what he was doing, his curious eyes couldn't help but glance at her exposed, exploited backside. Her vulva was dark and difficult to make out through her equally dark fur, and with an undeniable smell of spent semen hanging in the air, it obvious she was well used. Matted fur and dried cum could clearly be seen under her tail, all the way down to her feet. He imagined there must have been dozens of them getting off on her, bringing a disapproving frown to his face. Rapists deserved death, in his opinion, and his recent victory only felt more justified now.

"I got ya'," he said in a reassuring voice as he fumbled with the twine that was holding together the palm wood stockade together. It was curiously competent in its design, as though this sect had experience fashioning it, but it eventually fell apart when the twine was removed.

"Ahah! Freedom!" the odellian shouted and laughed in celebration, but only made it two steps before falling over onto her back. "Oof!" she grunted. "Ooh, damned paws'a cramped to hell 'n back!" she complained, leaning upright to rub at her limbs.

Finley felt the familiar feeling of being around newly met, naked company, causing him to nervously shift his eyes all about. She took on the classic odellian pattern, like that of a badger. Black stripes ran down over her eyes, bolding clashing with the adjacent white stripes. "Let me, uh, find you some clothes," he finally mustered some words, turning to look through around the outpost.

"Fates have mercy, ya' saved me hide. About a breath shy from madness bein' up here for three days now I am!" she spoke in a quick, brogue accent.

Finley turned to look over his shoulder as she thanked him, a bit caught off guard by her choice of words. Instead of the broken, dispirited rape victim he expected to find, she instead struck him as feisty but otherwise fine. Turning back to his salvaging efforts, he frowned as he couldn't find much to rifle through.

Looking up from tending to her aching feet, she noticed Finley approaching an empty crate. "Fo'get about it, ya' won't find anything. 'Dem rats all packed up and left," she explained, then shifting to towards Kenki as she caught up. "Oye, ya' must be the squawker I heard down 'der," she greeted, then looked down the feathery creature she was holding, but seemed to find her lack of attire more alarming. "No clothes either? What happened?" she suspiciously asked with a little frown.

"What I wear is what is worn," she vaguely replied, but declined to comment on it further, "What might be your name be?"

She blinked, seeming a little put off by the response, but upon realizing attention had been placed back on her, she perked up to prepare her usual introduction. "Duit of House Warcoff, prospector of Division Eight I am!" she said proudly while tugging her whiskers.

Finley furrowed his brow, trying to make sense of her morale. Did she realize what happened here? Not to mention her being suspiciously carefree with her nude state. Sitting down on her buttocks, her stubby legs were parted as she rubbed her feet, doing nothing to hide the intimate gem between her legs. Kenki he could understand, but an odellian was part of his own society and culture. He caught himself staring and nervously cleared his throat, turning away as he spoke up. "Lady Duit, uh, you are aware of what happened to your peers, aren't you?"

"'Lady Duit'? Hah, ya' city boys tickle me ear fuzz with ya' fancy pleasantries," she replied, but then shifted to a more serious expression. "Mm, my crew? I dun' know where they are," she explained, folding her ears back flat as she looked away. She took to her feet with a groan and rocked her neck about, stretching it, then sighed. "If ya' be referring to the sorry sods down 'der, those are the fivers. Emm, that would be division five's crew. Fools'a went'a hunting for bounty, took more than they could chew. Reinforcements swarmed in from outa' nowhere and caught me up in 'der mess while I was out prospecting nearby. That was three days ago, though."

"Mercy, you been an ildin hostage for three days now?" he gawked in disbelief, only getting a silent nod in response. His mind briefly flashed at what it must have been like for her. Other than some aches, she seemed to be physically okay, but he could only imagine the emotional trauma. And yet she wasn't really showing it, but perhaps it would catch up to her later. A sense of accomplishment from the rescue washed away his foul mood, only to be replaced with an empathic vibe. Combined with his growing uneasiness around her exposure, he removed his shirt and took a few steps over towards her, handing it to her. "Here. I know it's pretty big for you, but it'll do until we get back to town," he offered. Right away he inhaled sharply as the comparatively brisk mountain air brushed along his bare, hairless flesh.

"'It'll do?'" she asked, squinting her eyes as she learned in and flared her nostrils. "Mister, I know ya' mean well, but no offense, that shirt is gross. It's bloody, burnt, and smells more like sex than my fur," she objected, looking over at Kenki suspiciously with that last part. "I dun' even know your names," she added, throwing an arm up in the air.

Finley bit his lower lip in embarrassment as she called him out. Looking his own shirt over, she was right, and he mentally kicked himself for overlooking the condition of what he had offered to a lady. "Pardon my manners, miss, this has all been a bit overwhelming to say the least. I am Finley, and this is my, eh, harken friend Kenki," he introduced themselves, using Kenki's fabricated story.

"Well, ya' be needing that shirt more than 'dis furball, judging by the looks'a ya'. Nah, don't you worry your pretty face over me, I'm fine. 'Sides, you human types look kinda' funny running around shirtless," she explained dismissively, then looked him over a bit closer. "It's true what they say, hm? 'Dey really do stand firm when it's cold," she vaguely said in a quiet, amused tone.

"Huh?" Finley blinked, then looked down at his masculine nipples, responding to the cold. "Oh..."

"Cute. It is like feather fluffing, only with flesh," Kenki mused, noticing this too.

Finley turned away, not exactly too thrilled to be the one being made a spectacle of this time. It encouraged him to forget his offer and put the seasoned shirt back on. As he did so, he heard Duit speak up again. "What's 'dat thing? Looks quite dead it does."

Thoroughly exhausted, Kenki settled down into a squat and laid Six down next to her. She let out a long relaxing exhale before answering Duit's rather blunt statement, considering her choice of words for Finley's sake. "Dead? No, mustelikin. She is a veloc. A companion, and this feather would kindly ask you refrain from referring to the one largely responsible for your rescue as a thing," Kenki replied with unamused eyes.

As if have either too short of an attention span or too thin an interest in Kenki's response, she started waddling away before she finished. "No no, don't settle down, Squawks! C'mon, let's get out of here, I can't take another minute of 'dis place!" she demanded. And a waddle it was, appearing as though she was sore in all the wrong places.

Finley turned and subtly lifted an eyebrow towards Kenki. Though she was being as polite as ever, he sensed she was on edge, only soured further by Duit's lack of attention and perhaps less-than-desirable nickname given. A flat crest and expression illustrating her displeasure with having to get back up as soon as she had settled. Finley only followed for a few steps before suggesting, "Hey, how about we rest for a moment? We just got out of a battle, you know," he pointed out.

"Not here! Come, come, we've a right good hideaway not far in," she explained, making a straight line for the outpost's dark mine entrance. "We'll rest 'der," her voice becoming quieter as she distanced herself, moving along at a brisk, no-nonsense pace.

Finley slumped his shoulders at the notion of another detour. But he resigned to the idea that resting inside would be safer than out here in the open. "Here, I'll carry Six this time," Finley turned towards Kenki and liberated her of her load. A faint chirp was heard as she passed her off, the raptor's eyes slitting open in the slightest.

"Welcome back, sweet dove," Kenki told her with a weak smile, leaning down to meet her in the eyes. Though the raptor's eyes were open, she seemed spaced out and unaware of her surroundings, and so Kenki fell back into formation. "You handled that ildin well, human. I am glad he did not best you."

Finley gave her a smile and was about to reply, but Duit cut in. "Ya' gadders up here bounty huntin'?"

"That would be the gist of it, yes," Finley replied.

"Eh, ya' dun' look like no fighter to me, no offense. One of 'dem mages, are ya'?"

He curled his lips towards her common ignorance. She was probably a laymen on topics concerning magic, he figured. "I am not a mage, Lady Duit. Traditionally speaking, one bearing the title 'mage' would know have the inborn ability to wield all five affinities. That is, kinetic, thermal, materialism, wave and electrical, but more importantly know how to multicast different affinities together to form useful spells. For example materializing a fuel, setting it on fire, and propelling it with kinects. Fireball... Few can multicast like that. It's like trying to write with both hands," he casually lectured, as though he had done so many times already.

"O'right o'right, wasn't fetchin' for a schoolin' in magic, Mister Magic Man. Or whatever your surname name might be. What house did ya' say you's from?" she blindly asked, several seconds ahead of them as they entered into the mine. There at the entrance were a few spare lanterns, which she made use of, bringing it to light and leading the way.

He pursed his lips and didn't answer straight away. With her honed interest on family name, Finley guessed her family had some hold of power in this region. Perhaps landowners or involvement in city affairs. He knew the odellians often had wide, yet tightly knit families, so that was no surprise. "Mm, that's because I never disclosed it," he said. With Duit already asking him questions, he realized his appreciation for Kenki's company. She didn't ask questions, which meshed well with his need-to-know stance concerning his life. Well, other than her quirky sexual questions. "Frigart, but you wouldn't have heard of it," he added.

Kenki turned and gave him a funny look. He met her piercing gaze for a brief moment, as though she knew he was passing an alias.

The party grew silent for a few minutes, bearing no luxury to speak while trying to keep up with the badger. With squat legs affording her a low center of gravity, she navigated the cavern terrain with expert grace while the others had to invest a more focused effort.

"Okay, Mister Frigart," she finally broke the silence. "So if you's no 'mage', then what are ya'? 'Cause you're certainly no spelunker, 'dats for sure!" she teased, tilting her head around to observe his lagging.

"What, you mean my trade?" he asked as he hopped down from a ledge, catching up to her. "Eh, I'm just an opportunist that knows a bit of kinetics," he said with a shrug. Once again Kenki, just as soon as she caught up, gave him that look, and he turned away. He nervously grinned, wondering how she always knew. After only a day together, had she already picked up on a tell? Their escort had no business knowing his profession and identity, as far as he was concerned.

"Don't suppose either of ya' got some grub on ya', hm?" she completely shifted topics a moment later. "Nasty rats didn't feed me nothing other than their cum, nck!" she grunted. Oblivious to the reaction of the others, she rambled on unfiltered, "Those ildin may have small peckers, but let's just say they're right well designed to spread 'der numbers. Fates have mercy it's not much for taste at least."

With a strong case of secondhand embarrassment, Finley flushed in response to Duit's lewd statements. Caught off guard, his response was delayed, starting with a nervous clearing of his throat. "No, sorry. All my food was...lost," he explained. The mention of food woke up an adrenaline-suppressed sense of hunger in his mind, and as if on cue, his stomach complained that it had long since processed the wild fruit they've been feeding on. Not expecting any detours originally, he was hoping to just tough it out the remainder of the day while they hurried along to Juno. Not able to do anything about it now, he tried to occupy his mind with conversation. Again, he was quite perplexed by how Duit was behaving, talking as lividly and carefree as she was. He had to press the subject, "Um, Lady Duit, are you alright?" he asked in a tone of doubt.

"I'm fine 'n dandy, sir, just sore between me legs."

"No... No, not physically. I mean, you been through what I could only imagine to be a hellish experience, no?"

"In here," she ignored him, tucking out of sight suddenly. When he caught up to her, all he saw was a narrow slit in the cavern wall. He slipped in, having to suck in his shoulders and avoid bumping the awkwardly shaped Six into the cavern walls as he made his way. Duit was getting away from him, the pitter patter of her feet sounding farther away now, and soon her light left them. "Hey! Arg, Kenki, little light, if you could?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder.

She nodded once and lifted a claw, releasing a stream of unrefined, raw magic, acting as a dim, red-tinted light. The two of them weaved through the narrow, winding passageway for what seemed like forever until they finally emerged into an opening. The sound of running water was heard, and a few more steps in revealed Duit hanging the lantern up on a hook in the middle of the room.

"Pretty nice, eh? We miners, we like to sneak back here sometimes," she said, giving them a quick glance before dropping down to drink from the underground stream. Thirst partially quenched, she let out a happy sigh and continued. "Sometimes just to play cards 'n gamble," she paused for another generous few gulps, "other times to blow off some steam," she finished, standing back up and licking her chops dry. "If ya' know what I mean," she snorted, biting her lower lip as she watched her company file into the room. Kenki lagged behind by a few seconds, but eventually popped through entranceway with a labored squawk as though she were barely about to fit, being as large as she was.

Finley walked about the cavern room, looking around and giving off a tired but content sigh. It was just big enough to comfortably keep them all sheltered, and the air smelled fresh and cool. He laid Six down near the water, listening with one ear as Duit spoke, though the last part caught his attention. "I'm sorry?" he asked, turning to face her.

As if having a conversation with herself, she ignored him and continued. "Those foolish fivers..." she scoffingly smirked before her expression saddened slightly, glancing down at the dusty rug someone had brought in. But it was a brief moment of solace, as she turned and began rummaging through a recreational cache in the corner. Snout deep in supplies, hanging over the crate with her feet dangling over the ground, a muffled voice went on. "'Dey had a couple newodds on 'der team. Only time I seen a bird up here in 'da mines, 'ya know. Ya' beakers don't much take a liking to tight spaces, eh Squawks?" she asked, speaking over the noise of glass, metal and wood clanging together as she rifled through the large crate.

Kenki tilted her head as she listened to the small denizen. Reflecting back to her homeland's dependence on natural shelters, she replied, "Truly, I am content with this," as she stretched her wings.

"Well step on my tail, it's still here!" she cheeped in celebration as she fell back onto her feet and turned around, lifting a gold tinted bottle victoriously towards her rescuers. Immediately, she bit down on the cork with her thick teeth, popped it free, and rewarded herself with a greedy, unladylike swig.

While Kenki leaned over to fill her water flask, Finley's obsession for answers reached a new high. Determined to shake some information out of her, he upped his blatancy. "I must admit, I am quite take aback at how...well you are handling yourself after being, well... raped for three days," he asked as he cautiously crossed his arms.

Duit plopped down, soaking her tainted, furry legs in the running, foamy water to presumably wash herself of the ildin's essence. Naked and uncaring, she tipped back the bottle and took another swig, then offered the bottle to Finley.

He approached her, accepted, and sat down nearby. Though he was expecting some sort of mead, he got more than he had bargained for upon taking a sip. "Whoof!" he retracted the bottle quickly and coughed. "What is this, straight up honey?" he asked, smacking his lips at the sweetness overload.

"What can I say, think me ma' may have been a honey badger," she snorted, and seized the bottle back when she assumed Finley didn't want any more. She took another sip and the two locked eyes for a moment. Acknowledging Finley was still patiently awaiting his explanation, she softened up and let out a sigh while flashing a toothy grin. "You're right well curious, aren't 'ya? Way I see it, the ildin, they just used me like an object, they did. Hmph," she snorted, turning away and looking off into space, "wanting nothing more than some warm 'n wet holes for 'der jollies, the savages... No interest in acknowledging me, much less hurting me. Though... being the only sexual relief for an army may be some lass's fantasy, except 'der sexuality is... simple, like an animal's." She paused for awhile, leaving the hideout quiet for a moment as she took another swig before concluding with a smirk, "Really, it was sorta' boring, if ya' ask this odey."

Finley quietly listened, studying her subtle body language to hear the whole story. Through a few brief moments of eye contact, it appeared as though she were actually disappointed by the experience not being as remarkable as she imagined, for better or for worse. It was certainly not the story that Finley was imagining. Instead he thought she'd be the center of their villainous intent all day long, trying to break her, exploit her, and ravage her. He let out a curious huff, wondering if he had fallen victim to mainstream mythical depictions on whoever was the current public enemy number one.

Meanwhile, Kenki would have certainly had some input on the matter as she was more familiar with this sect of ildin. But, respecting Finley's intentions for her to remain clandestine, she kept quiet. Rather, most of her attention was on the strange beverage, riling a clack of her beak as she felt left out of the exchange.

"An army?" Finley muttered to himself as that one particular keyword struck him. These ildin were demanding far more attention from him than he imagine. He had come here expecting to pick off a few rogue cells, not to deal with a well armed army. Deciding to interrogate Duit for more information, he asked, "I must ask, how many did you see?"

"Oye, hard to tell ya, right so, staring at a cliff all day. But, off the shoot of me whiskers, I'd say...'bout a hundred or so," she answered as she leaned over to wet her paws, washing herself off.

"Finley," Kenki spoke up from her perch upon a rocky ledge, "such a force will ravage this land if left unchecked," she warned with a degree of sincere concern in her big eyes.

"I know...I wonder what they're up to. Did you hear anything? You said they packed up and left? Any idea where to?" he pressed Duit for more.

"Ehh," she stalled, rubbing and picking at her fur for a silent moment as she thought it over. "Higher into the mountains, if me ears heard right. But 'dey don't work as good as 'dey used to, what with all the blasting going on down here."

"Higher..." Finley scrunched his face, wondering why. He turned to Kenki for guidance.

Kenki seemed equally as stumped at first, rubbing at her beak, but after a moment her eyes lit up. "They intend to reach a high enough altitude to hop to Tin'sera," she predicted.

"The third plane? Why?"

"Truly, their motives are lost to this feather," her gaze shifted in lost thought, "but I suspect it cannot be good. I must consider this deeper," she trailed off, scratching her crest.

Duit cut in with a grunt. "Blah, I've not the foggiest what ya' fuzzheads are yakking o'bout. Pardon me tongue, but I've just about enough ildin to last me a lifetime, could we not talk about 'dem? Der'll be plenty of time for 'dat when we get back to Juno," she frowned, clearly mentally exhausted with them.

"Very well," Finley nodded. Though she made herself out to be spirited and not easily demoralized, it was obvious her capture was a sore subject right now. With talk of heading to town, he looked around and considered their next step. "Do these caves leads back to town, Lady Duit?"

"Oh, Mister Frigart, 'dey lead everywhere if ya' know your way o'round," she casually remarked, no doubt effortlessly knowing her way around this place. She turned her head and stared at him for a still moment with a hard to read expression. "Did ya' want to be leaving so soon?" she asked just after she polished off the bottle, lifting it in inspection to verify its emptiness. Kenki's chest fell flat, any hopes of trying out the foreign drink washing away along with the bottle as it was discarded into the running water.

He paused to look around the room, taking inventory of the group's status. Everyone seemed tired, hungry, and injured in one form or another. "Well, whenever you all are ready, but we should try and get there before too late into the night," he answered.

Duit didn't seem to be too eager to leave, and instead fell backwards onto her back, hands tucked under her head as she stared at the rocky ceiling and dangled her lower legs in the water. "I've been gone for days, 'dey can wait for but a spell longer while I straighten the hide," she explained in a tired tone, resting her eyes.

"Rest sounds good," he slowly bobbed his head, slouching to make himself more comfortable for the extended break. The room fell deathly still and quiet for nearly a minute. Finley's gaze shifted back and forth between the girls. Kenki had occupied herself with a face full of pinions, either pulling out the damaged ones or preening the others. His wandering eyes settled on Duit's sprawled form as she lied naked on her back. He hadn't really seen a furred denizen naked before, at least in any presentable manner. Stealing the opportunity, he counted three small pairs of nipples running up her lower torso. Below that he found her vulva, which looked about as swollen as he'd expect from days of continuous involuntary arousal. He pulled his gaze away when Duit stirred, moving back over to Kenki. Much to his surprise, he found her looking back, her eyes wordlessly communicating the fact that she caught him peeking. Yet, she didn't seem upset, but mildly curious, as though she were curious to see what he'd do next.

Duit drew in a loud inhale and stretch, breaking their stare. She rolled onto her side and faced Six, nearby. Having now had a chance to settle down, she began to better acknowledge the burn marked. Lifting her chin to face Finley, she asked, "So what happened to your turkey...and why in 'da name of Thameria is it wearing a bow?"

Finley spent a couple minutes catching Duit up on the ambush, briefly lifting his shirt to reveal his burn in doing so. "...and then Kenki smashed it until it broke," he finished, holding up the broken ildin staff. "Warding with electric red... that's just nasty. That's the one form of magic they ban in arenas, after all," he frowned. Reaching down, he clutched at his burn again. Now that the excitement of battle and distraction of introductions have worn off, the pain was making itself more and more distracting.

Kenki hopped down from her perch with a loud rustling of feathers, then approached Six and squatted down. "By now, it is safe to tend to this burn. You as well, dear human," she explained. They watched as Kenki rested her hand on the raptor's scorched feathers. She spent a moment concentrating her intentions before her hand glowed red. Six's eyes shot open with a strained squawk as the unpleasant technique took place, thumping her feathered tail against the ground and wiggling about. "Be still, dove," Kenki said in her most soothing voice, using her other hand to pin Six down.

"Dove..." Duit muttered to herself, wondering about that. The magical demonstration coaxed her to sit back upright and watch, cocking her head. "What'a ya' doing?" she asked. Like Finley yesterday, she hadn't witnessed red-based healing before.

Though explaining this would perhaps raise further questions with someone magically adept, Finley wasn't too concerned about Duit's understanding. "It is an alternative form of healing. It hurts, but it works quite well," he vaguely answered right as Kenki finished.

With a loose shake of her hand, a faint smoke lifted from her scaled palm as she finished up and backed off from Six. "But 'er feathers are still burnt to a crisp. 'Dey won't heal?" Duit pointed out, eyes pinned on the raptor's breast.

"Heal? No, feathers do not heal, just as a rock would not heal," she explained. "Regrow anew? Perhaps, but, truthfully such divination struggles with aesthetics. That is to say, the color would not exactly match, friend."

Duit processed this for a moment, scratching her nose. "Hmm, maybe 'dat explains the foreman's oddly colored patches of fur," she wondered out loud.

Kenki scooted towards Finley. "Lift your shirt."

He breathed in a bit of courage and did so, looking away and bracing for the sting. And it soon delivered, causing him to tense up and clench his teeth and eyes. He squirmed about and began to sweat, but he exercised his will to the extreme to endure it, as if perhaps trying to not show any weakness in front of their guest. It soon came to a peaceful conclusion, and his side returned to its normal state. He let out an exhale, relieved. "Thanks, Kenki."

Kenki stood and returned to her perch, settling down for a meditative rest. As she did so, he was reminded of her faint limp. "What about your foot?" he asked.

"No, human, the pain makes it impossible to safely cast red magic upon yourself," she said, holding a wing out in resignation to the fact.

It was a concept he was aware of, but had more or less forgotten about since it didn't apply to him or any of his former colleagues. Before he had a chance to reply, Duit cut in with a little frown, "Ya' know, in some countries, it's right rude to be referring to one by only by their race," she stated matter-of-factly towards Kenki.

Kenki arched a feathery brow in wonder. "Is it? This escapes me, for he is human," she replied.

"And me ma' always slapped us upside the snout for referring to one in the third person in front of 'dem like that!" she yapped, throwing her arms out.

She wobbled her crest and blinked a couple times, unsure how to respond. "Very well, this feather will refrain from referring to you as human," she backed down, though with a tone of confusion and uncertainty.

Finley chuckled at the exchange. "It's alright," he said dismissively, "It's kind of endearing in a way. I don't mind." He about to question how conflicting her rant was, considering she spoke a "peasant's tongue," but when the badger suddenly cracked up, it told the tale.

Looking quite proud of herself for having successfully riled up the bird, she confessed, "I just be tugging your tail feathers. That's what I love about ya' quirky birds. So concerned over manners!" Having drank a considerable amount, the warm buzz of inebriation began flooding the badger's stout frame, and her amber eyes began to glaze over. "Oye, expect for 'da fact that you be as naked as a spring chick. Well, as am I, but I've a right good excuse. A hen such as you struttin' around with a man... you two a couple?" she said in between licking her chops.

"No," Finley replied.

"Friends?"

"Yes."

"Friends?" she asked again, this time running her claw between a ring of fingers, giving Finley a naughty look. "Yeah..." she snorted, noticing his reaction, "don't think I didn't smell 'dat shirt of yours earlier. 'Bout as ripe with ladylove as could be, it is."

Finley smirked, looking away and flushing a bit. "Um," he stalled.

"Curious, though I know hundreds of sign gestures, that one is lost to me," Kenki interrupted, interest piqued.

"Really? Use your imagination there, Squawks," Duit replied, repeating the gesture much more exaggerated now.

Basing her understanding on bestial signing logic, Kenki considered the meaning. "Hm, you refer to entering this cave together. Or a dwelling. We do not live together," she answered.

"Oh Kenki," Finley groaned and face palmed, "you're such a featherhead. It's the universal sign for sex, good grief," he explained, then turned to Duit. "Yes," he answered, though thinking it was none of her business really. "She's not really from around here..." he added quietly.

Duit snickered, holding her snout with one paw. "Ya' dun' say."

Kenki straightened up and tilted her head. "Sex? Oh, the finger represents a phallus then. Clever," she mused, then turned to Finley. "No, dear Finley, we most assuredly did not," she protested.

Finley subtly rolled his eyes, though Duit was watching closely, finding the shift in conversation much more appealing to her interests. "Well did ya' or didn't ya'?" she prodded for an explanation, nosy as ever.

"Truly, seed on my plumage and in my cloaca alone does not constitute for sex," she debated.

Finley's face turned bright red at the sudden escalation. "Kenki! Kings help me, am I the only one around here that believes in a private sex life?"

"Wait, what?" Duit asked, smiling even more now. "I'm sorry, lady," she started, holding up both her paws, "but a man's seed on ya' feathers is one thing, but inside too? 'Dat sure sounds like sex to me, it does," she said as she made the lewd gesture once more.

Kenki's feathers ruffled somewhat in riled disagreement. "Truly, it was merely an accident, the results were circumstantial," she calmly retorted.

Duit snorted in mockery. "Story of every lass, Squawks."

Finley smirked, but chimed in, "Well, it literally was an accident...hey, so maybe we should get moving back to town before dark?" he tried to blatantly terminate the conversation.

Ignoring him, Duit asked, "Accident, what's this accident? Can't get a odey all worked up and back down!" she complained as she flattened her small ears.

"Exploiting magic to prolong sexual kinship resulted in uncontrollable consequences," Kenki put it as she twirled her finger about, releasing a red stream of uninstructed raw magic that promptly dispersed into nothingness, like a gas.

"Eh, wait, what sex? Ya' just denied it," Duit squinted, confused.

Finley simply could not glow any redder, not at all liking where this was going. Or where it had gone already, still not yet comfortable talking about his sex life with others, especially someone he only just met. "Kenki, we should really get going," he urged her, casting a stern expression her way.

Falling back into her teasing ways, Kenki only looked Finley in the eyes as she answered Duit. "No, not with me. He was deeply engaged with the dove."

"The dove? Ya' mean..." she looked towards Six, "Oh. Oh!" Duit's head zipped back and forth between Six and Finley, getting enough of a reaction out of her get her to stand up. "Kingdom high, never knew ya' humans to be such sexual deviants, goodness me. Ya' must really have a thing for feathers, Frigart. Gih gih gih," she chittered incoherently as only an odellian could, "I've done some strange things, I have, but never got down with an animal," she rambled, folding her little ears back. Looking between the two of them again, she tried to process the logistics of the remarkable size difference, holding up her claw and taking invisible measurements. "I dun' even know...understand, how...?"

"Oh for crying out loud," Finley fell onto his back and covered his face, embarrassed as he listened to her go on. He feared there was going to be some social blowback with his involvement with Six, and it was already beginning. "It's not like that, she's not an animal. She can talk and it was her idea," he defended himself. "Well, not talk talk, she uses her hands to..." he stopped when he looked up and found nobody listening. Both Duit and Kenki had perked up and were looking towards the entrance.

Before he could see what they were looking at, a ruffling of feathers were heard as Kenki lifted a wing in front of herself, as she may have shouted something, but Finley couldn't hear it over the sudden thunderous boom which climatically shook the small cavern. No sooner did a blinding flash paint the the room a deathly white, immediately followed up by a shockwave.

Duit was swept off her feet and thrown against the back wall, and Kenki was violently removed from her perch with a squawk, leaving a wake of feathers before splashing into the water behind her.

Finley, being the only one who wasn't facing the shockwave and already hunkered low, weathered the event with little more than a momentary daze and a roll onto his side.

"Ipe ipe ipe!" Six sounded an alarming string of squawks, having been forcefully awaken from her slumber, flapping and flailing about until the messy mound of ruffled feathers transformed into her regular upright self.

"What the fuck was that?!" he shouted to no one in particular, quickly scrambling to his feet. Particles of rocky debris bounced off his head as the cavern acknowledged the blow, and the fading echo of the boom never quite seemed to find an end.

"Nngh," Duit groaned to herself as she rubbed her stunned head, slouched up against the wall. A ringing in her ears jammed her hearing, unable to make any sense of Finley's words.

Just as fast as he could muster his senses, Finley quickly tried to figure out what was going on. The apparent explosion had passed but there was otherwise no other changes to be seen, other than..."Kenki? Where's Kenki?" he realized. Not receiving an answer from his dazed party in an acceptable response time, he began to scramble around in search until he stepped up to the spring and saw her shape under the water. With such poor lighting and the opacity of the foamy running water, he squinted, wondering if that was really her. "Kenki? Kenki!" he called, waited a second, then cursed. Having been perched near the entrance, and wide open against the blast, he realized she must have been knocked out from the concussive shock, and so he promptly hopped into the waist high water.

"Come on you big featherhead," he grunted and strained as he bent over and tried to lift her, finding the task to be no small effort. With the amount of water her feathers could absorb, she was heavy, especially factoring in her hidden armor and the struggle against the current. Six attempted to motivate Finley along with an excited volley of barks and squawks, and Duit had come around just enough to help receive her when he eventually got her top half out, pulling her out.

"Is she breathing?" Finley asked Duit as he lifted himself out of the water.

"I dunno, birds breath strange, they do," Duit replied with a quick panicky reply, unsure what to do.

Finley looked over the sopping wet bird, watching her chest for signs of lung activity, but couldn't quite tell. He leaned an ear down next to her nostrils to listen. "Shit, I don't think she is," he proclaimed, his mind racing on how to appropriately engage.

"Well...do something!" Duit flailed her arms about. "Give her mouth to beak or something!"

"Uh," he grunted, trying to think clearly. Logically assuming she had breathed in water, he figured a chest compression was the best solution. While he readied himself for the procedure, Six caught up to the scene and nosed at her companion's beak, trying to coax her back to life with a helpless whine.

Though he was a scholar, traditional healing and medical practices was a lost art to him, growing too complacent with the company of professional healers in his society. And he only had a basic grasp on anatomy, much less avian anatomy. Either way, he gave it his best shot on how he thought it would work, pressing his palm against her chest and repeatedly dropping his weight on her. He wasn't even one-hundred percent sure he knew where a sylvinian's lungs were, exactly.

As the procedure went on without results, his racing heart began to sink, realizing his resuscitation efforts weren't working. Duit and Six stepped about in place, watching nervously. Giving up on the compressions, he tried Duit's idea. Parting her beak, he did his best to wrap his lips around the awkward shape to forcefully breath into her.

"Come on!" he shouted against fate, feeling himself beginning to be torn up inside. Kenki had made herself out to be one of the strongest individuals he had known, and he was not at all prepared to lose her so quickly. Not when their budding relationship still had so much more to reveal. He tried again with a redoubled efforts, taking her head by both hands as he came down on her beak.

As he did so, Six's feral patience was at an end, no longer desiring to helplessly watch as her lifelong companion died. "Onk onk!" she honked in warning just before she lifted a foot and kicked Kenki twice in the chest with enough force to hear a rattle of her chainmail.

"Rawk!" Kenki squawked to life with a spitting of water into Finley's face.

"Kenki!" Finley shook his head of the water, giving her a most relieved smile. "Dragons almighty you scared me to death's door," he exhaled a long breath of relief.

Kenki continued to gasp and spit awhile until she stabilized. With one eye closed, she looked up at Finley, then all around, as if confused and unaware of where she was.

"Mrip!" Six chirped victoriously at the relieving news, licking at Kenki's featherface.

"Glad ya' came 'round, Squawks," Duit stood over her in greeting. Just as soon, she turned to Finley, "I'll go see what happened," she volunteered, then waddled off.

"W...what?" she groaned, then tried to get up. "Rck," she grunted as she clutched her chest where Six had kicked her, motivating her to give up on that idea and remaining on her backside for awhile longer.

"Some sort of explosion, not sure yet. You were knocked out and thrown into the water," he explained, looking her over and lifting her limbs and body parts as if looking for any potential bleeding. Her plumage was matted and soaking wet, disorderly clumps of feathers shooting off in all directions and quite miserable looking. "How's your head? How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked, though he wasn't quite sure why. It was just something he always heard the professionals use in these situations.

She remained quiet as she processed this and stared at his three upright digits. Though her composure was slowly returning, it was not fast enough, seeming as though she were in a fog and just spaced out. Her mind grinded, trying to make sense of things, as well as her own condition.

Finley gave up on waiting for an answer and looked down at her with concerned eyes. She reminded him of how a regular bird acts when they crash into a window. Six nosed at her companion some more before plopping down next to her and resting her head on her chest.

"Nck!" came a distant grunt. "They done blasted us in!" Duit's voice came echoing from afar. Within seconds, her pitter patter of feet approached as she rejoined the group. "Cowards too scared to come fight us, so 'dey try and trap us instead," she frowned.

"Trap? ...Ildin? They blasted the way out?" Finley asked.

"No," Duit shook her head, "'Dey blasted the way in."

Finley stood up and walked over to the narrow entrance they had come through, looking down it. He hummed and squinted his eyes at the fact that the ildin were still lurking about and had tracked them down. They must have assumed, or had known, that this dwelling was a dead end, and preferred to simply trap their opponents than deal with them head on.

Duit went on with her rant, "Didn't think 'dey had infiltrated the mines too. Prolly stealing supplies, like 'dat blasting powder." She looked over towards the birds, seeing Kenki just lying there. "How'sa Good Lady?"

"Out of it, I'm afraid. She probably has a concussion."

"Nck," Duit scoffed, sizing up the scene. "Seen it a dozen times, I have. But at this range, she should be okay, I think," she shared her wisdom on the topic of blast mining.

A whine brought his attention back to Kenki, where he saw Six standing again and chittering about as she pulled on Kenki's arm, extending it out. She then nosed around her upper arm for a moment, then stood upright as she turned to face Finley. "Onk!" she demanded.

"What is it?" he asked, approaching her.

"Ip!" she called again, then signed to him.

"Help?" he translated, his lessons already coming in handy.

Six bent over again and nosed at Kenki's arm some more until he saw it: Kenki's void space accessory. Six looked up at Finley, then down at the device before tapping at it with her claw and repeating the gesture.

Finley knelled down on the other side. Kenki just stared at the ceiling with a slack beak and glazed over eyes. Perhaps Six was suggesting Kenki had some medicine in that assortment of her's. Cautiously, he reached down to touch the band, and checked a response. Six's little crest lifted and she watched him with eyes that reminded him of a pet about to be fed.

He began cycling through a number of different invoking methods until he found one which worked, sending an unnatural chime through his mind. He didn't know how to respond to it, but despite his hand being in plain sight in front of him, it felt like it was somewhere else. Somewhere cold and wet, perhaps underwater. With his mind, he grabbed at the first thing he sensed and retracted a vial of blue liquid which materialized out of a black mist. "Huh...this?"

Six's crest bounced as she watched the result. "Ip..." she quietly chirped, then tapped the band again.

"No? I don't know what any of this stuff is..." he complained to himself, and tried again. Again, another item came out, a tiny pouch. Six didn't react positively, but he took a leap of faith that she knew it was they were looking for. He drew out several more items at random, and the floor around Kenki was beginning to look like an alchemical store. Eventually he extracted a vial of clear liquid which was met with the reaction he was looking for.

"Mrip!" she chirped with a smile and a couple of hops, and then leaned over to tap Kenki's beak while looking up at the human.

Finley arched a brow at her reaction. "Okay, nurse..." he smiled nervously. He uncorked it and gave it a sniff first. "What is this, vinegar?" he asked with a disagreeable face. "No healing remedy I've ever seen," he mused, but Six remained enthusiastic about the idea. He lifted Kenki's head up and wedged the vial into her beak, tilting it back until the contents were gone.

Within a matter of seconds, her eyes blinked away the glaze and she stiffened up, letting out a few more weak coughs. "Finley?" she chirped, looking around with much more conscious eyes this time.

"Welcome back," he greeted her.

She coughed again and clacked her beak, showing her tongue once before she saw the empty vial in his hands. "You administered...oh chick," she sighed.

"Six seemed adamant on the idea of giving you this medicine," he explained.

Kenki looked a tad uneasy. "Sadly, that is not medicine, but rather a combat stimulant. Ten doses," she let out a squawking groan.

Finley's eyes widened somewhat. "What? I thought this was just one serving! Are you going to be alright?" he ran a hand through his hair.

"Riches riches, I suppose I will not nest tonight," she said just as her body made an involuntary jerk as though she were hopped up on a spike of energy.

"Oye, 'dats about the strangest thing I've ever did see," Duit cut in, having quietly witnessed the whole interaction from the sidelines. "That's one smart turkey squawker," she added, lifting her furry eyebrows.

Finley returned a soft smirk, but then turned back to Kenki. Now that she had come to, he repeated the explanation on what had happened to her.

Kenki sat herself upright as she listened and processed what had happened. "Mm, I see. You scratched my back, my dear Finley, just as your trinket spared my precious companion earlier," she gave a brief beakish smile. Her words were spoken with a noticeable tone of forced suppression, as though she were about to burst out of her feathered coat. Finley looked down and saw her hands and knees were beginning to shake.

"Phew, well," he gave the drugged up bird a weary look, "we can count scores later if we get out of this alive. The ildin, unfortunately, collapsed the passageway, trapping us in here," he caught Kenki up on the situation.

"Nn, nn," Duit stepped forward with a disagreeable grunt, "I said 'dey tried to trap us." Finley furrowed his brow, awaiting an explanation as the badger walked over to the spring next to Kenki. She stared down at the water for awhile until her eyes lifted up to the point where the edge of the water swept under some stone and drained down into who-knows-where. "How long can ya' all hold yer' breath?"

Nobody was quick to answer.

End Notes: Stay tuned for more feathery fun! As always, comments are welcome. I'm wondering how people will react to Duit. She ate up a significant amount of my time as far as trying to establish her personality and mannerisms.