Where was the comfy? [OPEN]

[Windra]

Seriously.

Where was it?

Only a short while ago she'd been huddled up at the base of a tree, wrapped in a warm snuggly sweater. The air was so warm but she desired softness against the entirety of her torso, whereas her legs were covered by the resting skull of a dragon's large maw. Mishayirth was sound asleep with her muzzle tucked beneath Naira's right kneecap. It was a wonderful afternoon. The quaking and shaking tapered off a while back, and the Soul Reaver, formerly a Grim Reaper, though for one flickering moment that the worst was over and life would carry on as it always would.

Boyo, boyo, was she wrong.

As the earth shattered and groaned, trees uprooted and splintered, falling en masse; splinters flinging themselves this way and that. Mishayirth flew awake with a startled scream. Her yowl echoed throughout the woodlands like that of a kicked dog, but fiercer, more bestial.

~ MINE! ~ There was no realization in her vocals - only a reckless terror and confusion over the ordeals that had begun to unwind.

In an almost fluid motion, Naira had wrapped her arms around the dragon's large neck. "Calm yourself, love!" The dragonling's eyes were swirling with cataclysmic yellows and reds. Nothing could quell that turbulent storm that swarmed the confines of within. But if they didn't move soon, they would be crushed by falling trees or rocks. Naira stood, trying to bring the Xuveance dragonette with her. "We gotta find some cover, girl. C'mon!"

It was like pulling a boulder with twigs, but it had to be done. Mishayirth's young mind could not comprehend the natural disaster - this had to be the most frightening experience in her life thus far. Claws were reluctant to pry themselves from now churning soil. And things were falling apart all over the place ...

"C'mon, Mish! Don't make me have to pick you up and carry you!"

~Make it stop!~

And above them, a thirty-foot-tall oak tree swayed and bent over. It buckled under the uneasiness of the terrace. All it took was one especially violent jerk to send it falling downward chaotically ... with the two companions directly in its line of fire.

[Luxon Cobrat]

Somewhere out of sight, Rekka studied the scene. So the half-dragon had ended up back here. The incubus spent a moment grumbling in frustration at Zom's apparent show of mercy, but there wasn't much he could really do about it now. The vampiress wasn't his inferior on the chain of command, and any retaliation against her would come back on him eventually. Even so, though she was far more murderous than Entropy, she did appear to share much of the succubus' mental weakness. Even apart from Entropy, Naira was a threat in and of herself, and therefore should have been eliminated.

But then, Entropy roamed free again somewhere as well, even though Zom had delivered her to Wrathmont not more than a few days ago. All the incubus knew was that "the shadowgod's business with her was concluded." Rekka had never questioned Wrathmont's wisdom before, but he did not understand such merciful treatment of the former Overlord- more generous than what Entropy had gone to Druin to offer.

On the other hand, the shaking ground was an immediate concern that Naira might be able to help with, given the right push. And he had been tramping around the Forest for the last several minutes with just the right instrument to deliver that push. Honestly, he didn't know what else he had intended to do with the newman aside from making her squirm for a while, so there was nothing to lose by playing the card now.

"End of the line, kid," Rekka informed Nei.

Misreading the incubus' meaning, Nei tensed herself up for what she though would be a forthcoming killing strike. Her shield remained in effect and had not weakened since she had run into Rekka and been dragged off by him, but she was less than convinced that he couldn't find some way through it if he meant to. Then the incubus simply disappeared. Glancing around with paranoid apprehension painted on her face, the newman knew her captor was going pop back into reality right wherever she least expected and run her through.

But then she noticed the tree falling towards Naira and the dragon that accompanied her. Her fear of Rekka thrown aside that instant by the urgency of the emminent disaster, Nei threw caution to the wind, lept out of the place where Rekka had been hiding with her, and sent a blast of psionic fire at the tree in hopes of reducing it to a cloud of scattered ash before it could do any harm.

[Windra]

So caught up in the heat of the moment, Naira herself was throwing caution out the window. Realization that danger was approaching was an impending fact, but what the hell could she do about it now? Teleporting was a good idea, but with Mishayirth flailing the way she was ... so terrified, screaming in fright ... it was likely that the dragon would be lost from the humanoid's grip and slip Between. And since Mishayirth knew nothing of Between, she would likely not know how to get out ... The loss of her companion was not something she wanted to bear.

Naira could live through getting crushed by a big ol' piece of fauna like the oak. Mish could not. And time was running out. Nemo yanked harder; the dragon skid along as a sled being pulled by a rope and a very determined child.

"Come, Mish!"

And suddenly ...

BAM!

Fsshhhhh ...

Half-expecting that the oak may have snapped in two, Naira threw herself over the dragon as best she could and braced for impact. Surely that hard, heavy piece of wood would smack her in the back, crushing her spine and rupturing most internal organs in one go ... She could only hope the dragonette would not be harmed ...

... and splinters were cast aside, falling all along the ground, landing in the curves of her back. All at once, it seemed calmer. Mishayirth was no longer flailing underneath the small body of the human, but had stilled. The ripping noise of stick and twig had sent a shock through her body that somehow halted the fear ... and now it was no longer Naira trying to protect the dragon, but vice versa. In one swift motion, the Xuveance flipped the Soul Reaver onto her neck and tore off on all-fours, running for shelter underneath an boulder jutting from one of the many hills in this locale. Nemo, on the other hand, was looking back, puzzled and perplexed ... until a familiar visage became clear to her one good eye.

"Nei!" she howled, frantically waving her arms. "Nei!" Over here!"

[Luxon Cobrat]

After blasting the tree, Nei felt a sudden rush of guilt as she felt its lifeforce die. Being uprooted had doomed it anyway, but it was her that brought down the stroke of death upon it. But despite such inner turmoil, she immediately went back on guard against Rekka, though she doubted there was much she could really do to defend herself against the incubus if he knew how to get past her shield.

But once some time went by with no sign of his return, she started to grow more concerned about the chaos unfolding around her. If something heavy were to fall on her, her shield might save her from the initial crushing blow, but she didn't know if it could do anything about the continuing pressure of the weight. And even if it could, how long would it last?

On hearing Naira call out to her, Nei realized that her best chance of getting through whatever was happening safely was to get to the half-dragon. Naira had found a spot under a boulder that looked safe - as long the boulder itself didn't come down on them. Hoping against that possibility and putting her trust in Naira's survival instincts, Nei bolted towards her old if often-scarce friend, putting every priority below getting to relative safety as quickly as she could.

It was a hard run that seemed to take forever, but her life in the Forest had at least forced Nei to stay in shape, so she was only a bit winded when she reached the shelter.

The first thing she did after coming to a stop was to glance over Naira for any apparent injuries. Then she turned a more intent gaze upon the dragon, never having seen the creature before.

"Um... hi," she finally thought to say.

And finally, her attention returned to her own back. If Rekka was planning on attacking her, it didn't make sense that he would have waited for her to join up with these two before striking. Unless, of course, that was simply a ploy to get her guard down. If she dropped her shield for even a fraction of a second, the assassin might appear from nowhere and deliver the deadly cut, only to return to nowhere just as quickly. Naira and the dragon might have noticed, therefore, that the glow of the shield outlining the newman remained, as intense as it ever was. Of course, the shaking ground could have accounted for that, but Nei also put her back against the wall as soon as the idea struck her. And aside from that, the look on her face of somebody running from something would have been hard to miss. Her eyes may not have been darting about like the typical person's in such a situation, as she was used to letting her psionic sense tell her when any creature with any semblance of a mind was approaching, but her face remained a portrait of dread nonetheless.

[Windra]

Portrait of dread or not, it wasn't so unordinary ... considering that the world was falling down around them. Yes, Naira took into account that Nei seemed more frazzled now than she had ever been before - save for the times when her life was in danger - but didn't this kind of measure up to that? Therein it only earned the Newman a slight exception and a glance here and there, before the Reaver settled down into a sort of unnatural calm that was severely out of place for this chaotic moment.

"Good to see ya again, Nei. What's shaking?"

That pun ... totally unnecessary ... but she just had to do it. A gloved hand was placed on the dragonette's muzzle, for they were now settled beneath the jutting rock face and were clear from any falling debris that might harm them. Panting and frightened, the gesture didn't appear to do much for the golden-hued draconic being. But the multi-faceted eyes did slowly stumble in their whirling and adapted more baby sheens of yellow and orange.

~ What's going on? Why is the world quivering? ~ It was mindspeak directed only at Naira ... well, only at Naira primarily because only the Rider of a Pernese/Inoran dragon could assume normal conversation with one (unless the dragons spoke to dragons, of course).

"That - this - is an earthquake. It happens when large masses of land shift on the planet. They rub against each other and ... " Pausing, Naira stuck out a lip and shook her head. "Heh. Maybe another time, eh?" Pressing her forehead against the dragon's seemed to take most of the edge of the larger creature And then Nemo faced Nei, glee returning to green eyes, mixed with worry for their predicament. "You aright? This quake's been going on for a while Not hurt are you?"

[Luxon Cobrat]

Under different circumstances, Nei might have snarked about the pun, but she was a bit distracted at the moment. And being unable to hear the dragon's part of the conversation, she wasn't sure if Naira was trying to tell her what an earthquake was, or if it was the dragon she was talking to.

Either way, she decided her safest bet was to let it pass without acknowledgment.

"It's been one of those days," she answered the last question. "Or, two of them, apparently. I seem to have missed a couple of years. Unless Rekka's a liar... which I guess he is..."

She shrugged.

"I remember that war with Ryvius like it happened a few days ago," she said. "I mean, really a few days ago. I don't remember anything about two years going by."