Ryujin13 and I

[Ryujin13]

(It was a sinus infection, probably from allergies or something similar. I'm better now though, so yeah...)

 

Defas went down after the second hit to the head and slumped against the tree. Even in an unconcious state he was still perfectly balanced and didn't seem to have any trouble staying in the tree.

 

Dalnr shook his head, jumping again and grabbing ahold of a large tree.

"The only reports I'm getting are about the water. Nobody has reported any issues with avoiding it, but this seems to be a very large flood. I can't speculate on the cause beyond it probably being unnatural, so it seems like the only course if action is to carry on."

 

A buzzing sound was heard suddenly, and a smart shape seemed to just fall from the sky and crash into a tree nearby. Though it seemed to be a crash landing, in reality the whole thing was carefully orchastrated. Suddenly a being pulled itself onto a long bare branch where Shaza and Dalnr could see it.

 

Dalnr's weapon was instantly on the new being, it's barrel unwavering and aimed perfectly at the center of the beings chest.

 

Pikna's wings folded back into her chitin gracefully as she turned her gaze to Shaza and Dalnr. She smiled as best she could, which was could be quite frightening to other races due to the way she looked, then began to speak, her mouth not moving and instead a mechanical sounding voice speaking for her.

"Hello! It's so nice to meet a new race, two races is even better. Lets see, bipedal, a mammal and reptilian, interesting alliance to say the least. Advanced bioengineering capabilities, the other has an obvious emphasis on strength. Thick, durable armor coupled with very powerful weaponry. Race appears reliant on a different atmosphere for survival. Obviously a carnivore, evolution has left many claws and burs that would act as both offensive and defensive weapons in a fight." Pikna finished.The whole set of observations had been rapid fire and precise, each obviously thought out well but at alarming speed. Pikna almost continued, but stopped and cocked her head, considering Shaza and Dalnr again. "Oh um, sorry, you're both quite interesting and I tend to get carried away with myself, I'm Pikna, and I'm a Krahn. We're a peaceful insectoid race that lives in a large complex of floating islands a few hundred miles that way." She said with a gesture. "But what about you two? Both of you are very large by any standards and seem to be used to authority judging by the way you were acting towards each other. Very peaceful goings on if you two really are in charge. Most races get into fights over who's in charge of what, very silly if you ask me. It just slows down everything that needs to be done, which makes it less likely that people will get to do what they want." She continued to chatter like this for almost a minute, going from the starting subject to economy to science then to some of her own hobbies before Dalnr got a word in edgwise.

"Stop!" He said loudly. Dalnr did his best to recover gracefully and gave her a smile before continuing. "It is very nice to meet you um, Piknas, but we're kind of in a rush. Both of us have had a son abducted and we believe they were dropped out here by one of those drones. We would love to talk, but we need to get moving."

Piknas made a tiny jerk as she seemed to think, her wings buzzing slightly, then she smiled again.

"Oh the drones! Those things are really strange. An artificial intelligence designed for maintenance, defense, as well as testing that this place does on a regular basis. I'd love to get inside one of them. But I don't know where they are. The flood will last anywhere from a day or so to a week. It's a very interesting cycle that this place goes through, very nourishing for the soul, you see..." Just like that she was off again, rambling about the local environment as well as the fauna and flora that lived there.

Dalnr just looked at Shaza with an exasperated look on his face and gestured at Piknas. He knew that he would get angry before long if he had to deal with her much longer, so it was better to remove himself from that seat.

[little lost dragon]

Varren sighed and looked around wondering what to do now, his injury's prevented him from making a long jump thanks to Defas. Even with out teh load he'd be lucky to grab the next branch. Maybe Defas could make it but he'd sooner kill Varren or ditch him then help. Maybe he could find a large fork here in the branches and they could ride this one out. As he was hearing trees falling down in the distance. He grabbed the knife wondering if this tree even had such a fork.

 

Shaza nodded and kept going till the crash happened. She came to a stop when a figure showed up after the crash landing. She looked at Dalnr when he pulled out his weapon before looking at the figure her helmet covering her own face from view. Then the new being introduced its self and then seemed to just get ahead of its self as it spoke. She looked at Dalnr before his line. The 2 had a few words and few as in Dalnr got one line in before there visitor started to fly in the direction they resumed. She nodded seeing the look on Dalnr's face and picked up speed catching up to Pikna "I don't mean to interrupt however we need to know if you've seen any drones heading over in this direction over the last few hours." she asked "As for talking" she lowered her voice "Both I and Dalnr are very concerned for our sons, if you could tone your talking down to information that might help us and advice for now, I'll introduce you to my son and colony and you'll be free to do all the talking you like." she said seeing as this one seemed to a young one, as she hoped it was not a adult one of her race, if adults where that talkative then she did not want to see the kids.

 

((I just relaized, no idea how tall her race is, Pikna's))

[Ryujin13]

(Oops I put it into Pikna's character sheet not the races. The overage height for her race is around six feet tall. She has a weird gene that makes her exoskeleton the shiny blue-green that it is and also makes her way shorter, only around five feet tall.)

[little lost dragon]

((My bad, I looked at the race sheet there lol, ok.))

[Ryujin13]

Piknas stopped speaking just as suddenly as she had started before nodding. "Ok, um I saw a drone this morning." She said, obviously forcing herself to slow down and concentrate on what information they were asking for. "It was a class 2 maintenance and testing drone, distinguishable by the twin ion-boosters as well as oval shape. It was carrying two bipedal humanoids in a class three paralyzingly field. It dropped them 232 miles from my starting location. I travelled a distance of 98 miles to get here, heading away from that area. That means they were dropped off about about 251.85 miles from here." She said, forcing herself to close down and stay focused. "That was about five hours ago. I don't know what your races average walking speed is, but it seems like it would be a lot an-" She stopped herself and held the sides of her head, closing her eyes. "Based on the previous behavior of drones, it can be speculated that the drone initiated a test of some kind involving your sons, probably a survival or teamwork test of some sorts. These tests are not uncommon and have been observed numerous times over many years by different people. The drone itself was heading 112 degrees south-south west, at 938 miles per hour." She stopped after this and took a breath before opening her eyes and lowering her arms. "That's all the information I know." She said, looking at Shaza. "I um, do you want me to just wait or meet you somewhere? I really would like to talk to you more."

[little lost dragon]

Shaza nodded her helmet morphing to show her head to show her smiling a bit. She seemed to be paused for a few moments till she blinked and nodded "Stay here, I have a scout going to meet up with you and he'll take you to the colony if you would like to meet more of my race. You'll be welcome to stay there as long as you want, maybe once I know where or what happened to mine and Dalnr's son's are we can send you back to your people so you may tell your leadership and we could have a meeting. Bigger the pack, the higher our survival." she said before looking back at Dalnr "We must go though but thank you for the intel, just let the scout know if you need anything, he has my permission to address them." she said before her helmet morphed back over her head and she rejoined Dalnr giving him a nod before taking off again at top running speed along the coordinets provided. "We now have a more direct location and path of where the drone went." she said before saying the details Piknas gave after Dalnr caught up.

 

Varren sawed at a large branch feverishly trying to get a deep cut. He had found said fork but he did not want it to break yet. Afterwards he grabbed Defas's bundle and hauled him onto the branch fork. If all went well, when the tree fell it would snap the fork off now sending him and Defas to where ever the water was going, at least they'd be on a flotation rather then flailing around. "Try calling me stupid after this one dufas." he muttered "Cut it all the way and it would dump us, to little and it would be useless." He muttered holding the blade activated to put more chuts into it the tree started to fall.

[Ryujin13]

Piknas stood quietly and watched Shaza and Dalnr jump away. Before she sighed and sat on a branch.

"And just like that I'm all alone again." She said, throwing a piece of rotten bark into the water the was flowing below her. Suddenly her eyes snapped wide open and she stood, looking in the direction that Shaza and Dalnr had gone. It didn't even take a moments consideration before her wings unfolded and she was buzzing off after the two. It took awhile to catch up because of how fast they were going, but when she got close enough she shouted to them and landed in a tree where they would see her easily.

"Wait, I forgot something! I'm sorry I must have been so excited to meet new people and learn new things that I just completely forgot the important stuff which is wierd because I remember everything, course I guess that just means that there's lost of thigs to rem-" She stopped and held her head again, trying to quiet her thoughts and keep herself focused. "You can't go in there because of the flood." She managed, slowing herself down so that she wouldn't rush. "It's a natural flood, seemingly natural to the race which lived here. They're gone though. I've always wondered what could have wiped them out though, it's not like this place doesn't give everyone what they need and-"

"Enough! What do you want to say." Dalnr growled.

Piknas visibly shrank at the harsh words and she squeaked in fear, moving behind the trunk so that only part of her showed.

Dalnr squeezed his nose slightly before turning his back and gesturing to Shaza.

"Um, the flood is a natural phenomena that happens once every decade or so. It is caused by the porous earth which allows liquid to seep through the soil and down into the bedrock. The trees survive well enough in the dry heat, but like all forests, overpopulation of trees can lead to very bad repercussions. The flood is caused by regular geothermic heating that forces the water to rise. The whole thing raises until almost all of it is pushed out of the surface, then it begins to swirl like a drain. No explanation has been offered as to why it does this, although the prevading hypothesis is that the magnetic poles act on the mineralized water. The water continues to swirl for anywhere from a week to a month depending on tree population. Most trees are knocked down by this occurance and their seeds suck up the water like sponges. The seeds themselves excrete a substance when released from the tree which causes them to stick to the first mineral object it encounters, in this case the ground. When enough of the flood water has been sucked up by the seeds the leftover water sinks back into the ground and the cycle begins anew with the seeds."

She paused and shook her head at this, clutching the sides of her head again. "I'm very sorry, it's so hard to stay focused. But I'm here to warn you, so here it is, this water could get up to twenty miles an hour." She stopped and looked at Shaza again. "Um, I don't know what else to say. Can't you fly or something? Even if you made it to them you wouldn't be able to get back."

[little lost dragon]

Shaza paused when she heard Piknas again and looked at her as she said there was something she for got. The Dalnr did not have the patience to deal with Piknas and it showed. She came over to the tree she was hiding behind and crouched to level her head at her level her helmet showing her face again "We thank you for the information Piknas, and while we can't fly as of yet, 2 questions, first of all, how much further and how long at top speed do you think there is before we reach our sons? And second, would you mind if I mimiced your form? From the sounds of it we'll need wings." she asked her eye's where calm and focused. She would not be able to hold such a form for long but depending on the distance and speed she might be able to get there sons to safety in the form. then again if worst came to worst she could just find a bird of some kind as well. "My kind is able to mimic other forms by covering them. Its a harmless process you won't be harmed. I'll just coat you for a few moments then you'd see a second you but it would just really be me. I won't be able to hold that form for long but it sounds like it could help." she explained

 

More tree's fell and eventually even Varrens. "I hate you." he muttered as there tree started to tip over. The tree suddenly stopped part way as if hitting a rock throwing both Varren and Defas off it into the swirling water. The motions caused him to flail as they fell and it caught the knot of Defas's binds before they hit the water. Varren tried to swim but the current was strong.

 

((Think Shaza might be my new main character.))

[Ryujin13]

(Lol yeah, I'm leaning that way with Pikna and Dalnr)

 

Pikna seemed to respond well enough to the gental nature that Shaza was showing and moved out a little. "You um, you moved 1389 feet in the 23 seconds it took me to catch up to you. That means you were moving at 41 miles per hour. At that rate it will take you six hours to reach them in a straight line. Assuming they are moving directly towards us at the same rate it can be guess that it will take you three hours to reach them without the added time for searching." Pikna stopped again and thought about what what Shaza had said.

"I-I guess so." She said, obviously frightened by the thought. "You would go faster I suppose. I can fly an average of 163 miles per hour at top speed. That would cut your trip down dramatically. I'm small though. The smallest of my kind on record. You won't be able to carry them." She said. "You can try if you want to I guess." She was still scared, and it was obvious by the fact that she was beginning to talk fast again. Her wings and chitin were buzzing slightly as she moved nervously. Part of her found the fact that Shaza or anyone could take on another's form fascinating, but the prominent part found the thought if being covered with another being terrifying.

[little lost dragon]

Shaza nodded and looked at Dalnr "I'm going to take on her form if you don't mind I'd like to test the limits of what I can carry with you." she said before her armor morphed off her showing her full body wearing nothing as that was normal in Shatong culture. "I'm going to seem to melt very fast, then I'm going to stick and cover you, if you wish to stop just say the word and I will alright." she said quietly and softly waiting a few moments and if given the go a head she would turn into what seemed a puddle before slowly going to Pikna's feet and started to cover her slowly. If she was allowed to continue and completely cover the young aline she slowly took the color and looks of her before she seemed to step away from Pikna looking like another.... Pikna. She flapped her wings experimenting a bit before looking at Dalnr gesturing if he would allow her to try to pick him up or not as he would weight around the same as both sons from what she could tell. Though being much smaller was a interesting view perception and she found she could not talk instead clicks and other things would happen.

 

((Easy to fix though, who said anything about the sons needing to live through the test? Could be for Shaza and Dalnr.))

[Ryujin13]

Pikna's eyes went wide as she was slowly covered in the goo, but she managed to keep herself from struggling, even when her face was covered. A second later there was another Pikna standing in front of her. Everything was the same down to the last detail, including the chip in her exoskeleton from when she was in the egg sack.

Pikna understood what Shaza said when the other tried to talk, but she also knew that nobody else would.

"Um, here." Pikna said, undoing the clasps that held her helmet onto her head. The helmet wasn't armor in any sense of the word, indeed it left the face open and instead covered from where the forehead would be, all around then down in a skirt like thing that covered the neck. (Sort of like this)

When she had the helmet off she gently put it onto Shaza's head and redid the clasps. The whole thing was form fitting, matching the ridges and shapes of the exoskeleton beneath it and allowing what spines there were to protrude.

"There, now you should be able to talk." Pikna said before realizing that Shaza wouldn't be able to understand her at all. Shaza didn't speak Pikna's language, and even though Pikna could understand the rudimentary words that Shaza had managed, Shaza couldn't even do that.

Dalnr watched the whole thing with disgust. It didn't show on his face, but if he and his son were together they would both agree that the whole goo thing was disgusting. When Shaza looked at him and made a series of clicking noises, he nodded, already knowing what she meant and grabbed hold of the offered arms. Shaza could lift him, but only just and it was extremely. Difficult to hold him up let alone fly.

"I don't think hauling them out will be a viable option." He said after Shaza set him down. "You could try and lead them out though."

[little lost dragon]

Shaza looked at Pikna when she was being fitted with the helmet translator. Then all she heard was more clicks and other sounds from Pikna. When Dalnr took hold of her arms she started to try to use her wings though the size difference and weight was tiring her faster then what would be safe. She nodded "True I co-" she started to say though now with the helmet on it translated the clicking and stuff into words Dalnr could understand "....could. But not right now." she said before nodding to Piknas and after some help undid the helmet and gave it back to Piknas before her form grew and reverted back to her default form. "Would help for guiding, but we need to find them first. Piknas, if you can hold your talking I request you come with us to help guide us. Yes there is a flood but there's still a chance." she said before looking at Dalnr "She'll be my responciblity." she said with a nod as she went back to her armor and after getting it loosely on it morphed covering her entirely from head to toe though she was completely unfazed by it "Lets move."

 

Varren flailed about in the water trying to find something to help him float. He last sight of Defas which worried him. Last he needed was the idiot popping out of no where to kill him.

[Ryujin13]

(I'm saying that Defas is dead by now. He's been underwater long enough that he's probably drowned. Even if he woke up he's still tied up so he couldn't really help himself.)

 

Dalnr frowned and gestured for Shaza to come closer.

"This is a bad idea." He said. "I know you're taking responsibility for her, but I don't think you're looking at the consequences. If she dies while with us, we get blamed which could lead to a war. They find us with her and we could be blamed for an abduction, leading to war. Even if neither of those things happen there are so many other things that can go wrong. We should tell her to go home or even just leave her here. It's not worth the risk." He said, looking around suddenly to see Pikna standing nearby. Even though she didn't show emotions the same way as Shaza or Dalnr, it was still obvious that she was upset by what Dalnr had said. Her limbs and spines had drooped and she was backing away, her eyes sad.

[little lost dragon]

Shaza sighed and closed her eye's for a moment before opening them "I know the risks and what they could lead to, But we don't have another guide we have a set of coordinates in a flood zone. Her calculating could be what gets us our sons back. She's able to fly and she can listen, something happens to her your free to leave so her kind does not find you involved. She can leave at her own will as well." Shaza said before looking at Pikna seeing her sad features "Besides the impression we leave on her is what her race will have of us when she returns to her people." Shaza finished off saying before looking at Pikna again "You may come with us if you wish Pikna, we can use all the help you can offer." she said for Pikna to hear with out needing to listen in too much.

 

((Defas got freed when the flood hit Varrens tree, as he flailed her slit the main knot of the roping around Defas.))

[Ryujin13]

(Whoops, missed that part.)

 

Pikna didn't like Dalnr, not at all. He was mean to her, he yelled at her, and now he said he didn't want her around. "I'm not really with my people, so you don't have to worry." Pikna said. "I ran away, so you can't be blamed for finding me." She said, edging closer to Shaza. Pikna liked Shaza, that much was obvious. The older woman treated her like a normal person, and was very nice. "I can help though. I can do calculations, and I know lots of different stuff, and that sort of thing." She explained.

 

Defas woke when he hit the water and struggled, realizing his hands were free. He grabbed the first thing he touched, attempting to latch on with his claws, only then realizing that they were nubs that couldn't grip anything. He couldn't swim which was even worse, and both together meant that it wasn't long before he went under. The debris around him was going faster and faster, and he kept slamming into trees and larger rocks that were beneath the surface, each of which drove the air from his lungs. Finally his body succumbed and he fell unconcious again as his lungs began to fill with water.

(Your choice if you save him or not. Doesn't matter either way.)

[little lost dragon]

Shaza nodded her helmet showing her face again and she smiled a bit "Well there we go, nothing to worry about repercussions if something happens. Not that I'll let anything happen though." she said before looking at Pikna "We'll talk about further plans after we find our sons, for now, lets stop staying in one place and start moving." she said before looking at Dalnr "She won't talk your ears off as if she does not, she can talk all she wants once where back at our homes. She'll be joining me at my colony if she wants." Shaza said "Pikna, with the calculations of the flooding, how far off course would the children be if they where hit in a tree on our course?" she asked "Rough estimate." she asked "I'll redirect my scouts along the perimeter you give me." she explained

 

 

[Ryujin13]

Pikna looked down at the water, thinking to herself, then shook her head.

"There are to many unknown variables to take into account. I can't even make a good guess. If they dropped into the water at the very beginning they could be anywhere from five to ten miles from their starting location based on how far they are from the center." Pikna was doing what her race did for crying, which was excreting a distress pheromone. It wasn't particuraly strong, but it could still be smelt. "I'm sorry, I don't know what else to do. There isn't enough data!"

[little lost dragon]

Shaza nodded "Its alright, come on, lets get to the flood zone though, then we can fallow the water to where is going, with any luck we'll spot what where looking for as we go." she explained before taking off in a sprint, she wished there was time to confert the young one but right now 2 lives could be hanging in the balance of life and death. "Dalnr, have your scouts scout the edges of the flooding, I'll have one of my scouts stay with each member incase there caught as well. We'll keep going till we find the flood, Pikna, could you fly over the flood zone and look it over as we go, Dalnr and I will stay on the edges like its a large river." she said as she went.

 

It was over.... Varren struggled but the current the bashing the being thrown around on top of the injury's Defas gave him was too much. He hit a log and cough not knowing he had stopped the water current keeping him pressed against it washing up to his head keeping his eye's closed. It was hard to breath.

[Ryujin13]

(Not sure if you want Varren to be found or not some I'm going ahead with it. If you didn't then I'm sure we can find a way to kill him. Say he has internal bleeding from being beat around so much or something like that.)

 

Pikna was confused by what had just happened, but the pheromones coming off of her subsided and she nodded, her wings unfolding and beginning to buzz as she flew up and away. Soon enough she was over the flood, looking down at the area. It just looked like a bunch of dirty water flowing in a clockwise motion to her. Debris and such were in it being tossed around, trees splintering and uprooting, others standing strong through the whole thing. She couldn't see anything though, at least not anything beyond the trees and such. Then she saw it, a faint shape unlike anything else in the water. She carefully went down to it, staying far enough away from the water to avoid the temperature differential, and finally found it, a smaller version of Shaza. It was a safe bet that the person was Shaza's son, but he seemed to be stuck on a log or something. Pikna knew she couldn't lift him out of the water, but he seemed to still be floating somewhat, so dragging was an option.

Pikna grasped Varren as best she could and hauled him away from the lot where he had been trapped, trying to keep him from hitting things and trying to keep his head above water. It was hard going, but she managed to get him free. After that it was just a matter of dragging him with the current towards the edge of the flood. This was the worst part though. Varrens weight, coupled with his size made dragging through the water extremely difficult. Add on the fact that he kept catching on things in the flood and the fact that she had to take an irregular course to get past the trees and it meant that she couldn't go far. In fact she only made it halfway before she finally found a hill of sorts. The top was pretty high and wasn't covered in trees, which mean that the flood didn't reach that high. That was good because Pikna literally couldn't fly anymore. She barely got Varren dragged out of the water before she collapsed herself, her wings more sore then ever before. She could barely fold them back into her carapace let alone use them, but she still managed to crawl to Varren and look at him even with how exhausted she was. Carefully she squatted above him and looked, trying to determine his condition without hurting him.

"Reptilian, bipedal species, requires oxygen. Non-amphibious, possibility of drowning." She said as though reading a text book. She carefully leaned in, listening for breathing, but she couldn't tell over the sounds of the flood and her own thudding heartbeats. "Some species need to have cariopulmonary resuscitation performed when not breathing. Training required." She stopped at this and seemed to slump, the distress pheromone coming up again, this time in extreme amounts. Pikna covered her head as she tried to think, but was unable to do anything. The books were very clear, don't attempt the resuscitation without training. Her mother, father, and teachers said that following the rules was the most important thing no matter what. Failure meant pain. She flinched at the thought and rubbed her wrist where her exoskeleton was a different color.

"Can't go against the rules, can't fly, need someone else, um..." She looked around, then gently went to Varren and looked at him. It didn't look like he had a helmet on, so she was going to have to do something else. She groaned as she stood , already rubbing her wrist again. "Don't fly if you're tired, you'll hurt yourself." She said, looking around as though she expected to be yelled at.

Piknas wings extended and began to buzz as she lifted off, all of her hurting from the effort. It took her about 15 minutes to find a scout party, but when she did she landed in front of them. The being that looked like Dalnr leveled her weapon at Pikna, but the one that looked like Shaza shook its head and approached.

"Please, I found a person who I think is Shaza's son. Could you tell her? He's only a few miles from here." Pikna said, obviously exhausted. She was now spewing an alarm pheromone was especially smelly even to the worst noses. The being who looked like Dalnr visibly gagged and walked off a few feet but the Shatong reported in all the same.

 

(Assume that Pikna shows them to Varren. If you want him to die there are a couple of different ways. Say that he gets swept away because he was to close to the waterline, he had internal injuries or whatever. There are a lot of ways. You could even say he was dead when Pikna got him. She's very young and can't tell the difference.)

[little lost dragon]

The Shatong kind where used to many different chemicals including at worse the smells Pikna was emitting. However hope full she never became ready in a Shatong colony as that would make most of the females sick and ill till it ended.

The scout nodded to Pikna and after a few moments Shaza showed up with or with out Dalnr. She was took a deep breath in and looked at the water before looking at Pikna "I got your report, thanks Quen." she said to the scout who nodded before going off to find the Kas-mah scout he was paired with. "My son, you said you found my son." she said looking a bit stressed and paniced. It was clear she wanted to get her young one back. "Any sign of Defas? Dalnr's son?" she asked "If your too tired that's alright, just let me know and make my way, Shatong can be swimmers."

 

((True, sometimes I feel kind of bad, you make these large posts and mine are so small at times compared to them. Not complaining just don't feel like I'm.... matching you I guess?))

Edited September 5, 2013 by little lost dragon

[Ryujin13]

(Don't be worried about it. I write short stories and stuff for fun. This is just good practice. I also put down the huge posts because I don't like having to work off of small two sentence posts. If I write a novel the person I'm talking to then they as more likely to give me things to work with. I also do it because I like to. Anyway, for worry about it.)

 

The Kas-Mah frowned but shook his head and pointed to Pikna. "She found him, not us." He said.

Pikna had slumped against the tree and was sitting against it, her breath coming in and out quickly as she tried to regain it.

"He's um, he's on an island 2.84 miles into the flood. But I didn't see anyone like him." She managed, pointing at Dalnr. "I can try and take you there." Pikna was obviously extremely tired, but she opened her wings slowly and turned to head in the direction she had come from. Her wings buzzed again, and she lifted off to drunkenly fly off towards the island. It took her awhile to get to the island because of how tired she was but when she did, Pikna immediately sat on the ground, her eyes barely staying open.

Defas followed the girl to the island, but didn't even check for Varren, instead he went to the edge and started looking for any sign of his soon. He didn't like the way Defas acted, but the boy was his son and Dalnr was obviously worried about him.

 

(Left it open for whether Varren is there of not.)

[little lost dragon]

Shaza placed her hand on Pikna's shoulder "Rest, we'll take it from here." she said before going to the edge of the flood spotting the island. She aimed her self at it. Took some steps back before going into a full sprint before leaping as hard as she could. Her tail streaming behind her. It was hard to miss the distance she flew doing this. She landed a little short though in combo of using her tail as a rudder and propeller with her hands and feet she latched onto the island and looked frantically around till she spotted Varrens limp form. She quickly grabbed him had har armor open on the chest placed him part way inbetween her breasts before having the armor close back up making her chest look much larger then normal. Though it freed up her arms as she looked around for Defas. But could find no sign of him. Kas-Mah where visibly not made for swimming what so ever, over all she was not suprized to not find him, but looked more just in case. She saw a hint of him though before waving her arms in Dalnr's direction before lining her self up again and jumping after a few sprinting steps landing just past Defas's body. He was face down in the water she quickly rolled him so he was face up before starting to make way to the edge of the flood her tail and feet propelling her. Her armor kept her safe from the wrath of the water and the bits of bark wood and more that it carried. However when a log caught her it started to take her with it further down stream. It was not for a while till they caught up to see her hauling her self and Defas out of the water before she sighed

[Ryujin13]

Defas continued to look for Defas while Shaza was rescuing her own son. When she waved to him and he saw Defas he was immediatly in a nearby tree. Unfortunatly for him, he couldn't swim and neither could Defas. He also couldn't reach Shaza, so he was left sprinting along the edge of the flood until he spotted Shaza. He helped her drag Defas out of the water then went to the boy and put his head to Defas's chest. There wasn't any breath or even a heartbeat, but that didn't stop Dalnr from grabbing a belt from his pouch and dumping it onto the ground. Inside was a small amount of medical supplies, mostly bandages and anti-infection medicine. A small round device fell out and he placed this on Defas's chest it blinked a few times, then Defas's body jumped from a large electrical jolt. Dalnr did this a few more times before switching to his hands, trying everything from breathing air into the others lungs to shaking Defas's shoulders. Finally Dalnr rocked back onto his heels and gently began to put the items back into the bag on his belt.

Dalnr folded Defas's arms carefully, then stood and walked away into the woods, not saying a word to anyone.

Pikna had followed the group on foot to their current location, and now stood to the side, her eyes wide at the sight before her. The one that looked like Dalnr looked dead and the one that looked like Shaza wasn't moving either. When Dalnr stood and walked away and it was confirmed that Defas was dead, Pikna retched and threw up. She threw up a couple times before she managed to get behind a tree where she sat down and began to whisper to herself. If one were to get close they would hear her reciting words on death from books. Her distress pheremones were flowing again, more then any of the times since she had met Shaza.

[little lost dragon]

Shaza was holding her own son again on her knees running a hand over his young small head as she cradled him in her arms. Her breath was slowly becoming more erratic as her son as well was dead. Judging by all the cuts that had been reopened he had been drained of his own blood in the flood the pressure of the water on him when he was against a lodged log before Pikna found him and pressed and drained him of too much. She closed her eye's before taking a very shaky breath and stood up. The scouts of her race where slowly gathering around there helmets morphing off in respect.

She stood up trying to keep her self together. She looked at Defas and then at his father before looking at her own. She could see signs there sons had scuffled, all of Defas's claws where now stubs, Varren had many more cuts in him then when he had left. She hugged his dead body close before kneeling down again laying him on the ground near by Defas. Soon after Varrens body lost its cohesion and melted into the soil only leaving a now slimy patch where he had been lain. She blinked and stood up before looking at her scout team "You may return to base...... there's nothing more for us out here." she said quietly before they nodded and started to vanish into the under growth again, the flood still raging behind them. She came over to Pikna and smelled the pheromones and came to a stop beside her before kneeling down on one leg and placing a hand on her shoulder. Shaza's own eye's fighting back tears but she did not want Pikna to feel its her own fault.

[Ryujin13]

"-find that loss can be dealt with in multiple ways, each different to an extreme from the others. Some races do not view death as a bad thing but as an eligntenment, while others view death as the end of all thigs. No matter the case, dealing with loss is a process which takes time and must be dealt with by the individual on his or hers own timeframe. All species have been observed showing physical signs to a loss. Though the Krahn use pheremones, others have ducts hsed to lubricate their eyes which also function to show emotional stresses, both positive and negative. It has also been ob-"

Pikna flinched when Shaza touched her shoulder, but looked up at the older woman all the same. "I'm sorry I didn't save him." Pikna whispered, hugging herself tight. "I tried, I really did, but he was to big, and I didn't know what to do! I didn't have training, and I couldn't try because that would be against the rules! Please don't hurt me it was an accident, I wanted to help!" If Pikna could have cried she would have been sobbing by now, but instead she just shook and gasped while the smell of pheremones got stronger. "I just wanted to help, but I couldn't and now he's... He's..." She couldn't even finish the sentence before she stood and went to the side where she threw up again, shaking more. "It's my fault, if I'd broken the rules he would be alive. But I was afraid of bein hurt. It's all my fault!"