Rat Pack|Haven, Ilyamen

[Darastrix]

Ivy was hurrying down one of the main streets of Haven. Down the middle of the street, in fact. Courtesy to riders and carriages be hanged; it was foolishness to walk too near the buildings those days. The alleys and spaces between were good hiding places for those damned rats, and she had even heard of the odd attack during broad daylight when a person wandered too close to an alleyway.

She looked up at the sky and fervently wished it were daylight. When the venomous rats ("demon rats," some called them, for their red eyes and horns) had started to become a real problem, she had, like many, restricted her outings to the daytime, but when one was a healer, one wasn't always able to choose. Illness and injury were seldom ever convenient.

Ivy turned onto a side street and pressed her fingers to the sign beneath the lower rim of her glasses. This mess just had to start during the last half of the year, she thought as she chanted and rose a foot above the cobblestones. Any other time of year, she might have made some use of her Earth sign, but the plants that didn't die back were sleepy and sluggish in winter, and at her age, she didn't have an abundance of energy to pour into rousing them.

Keeping an eye to the dark, ill-lit spaces around the corners of buildings, she made her way toward her home, wind-walking as quickly as she was able. Sounds of scurrying made her push her element further, her free hand dropping to the small dagger at her side. The dangers at home were making her travels through Beleg en route to Autus seem almost safe.

Where are they? Ivy didn't dare set foot on the ground just to take the time to amplify the noises around her; she felt certain that she'd see a rat as soon as she landed. Or rats. She wasn't sure she believed the new rumours about them seeming organized. There was enough worry about them as it was without adding something so frightening and unlikely.

There's the little bugger. She eyed a gorge rat that was roughly the size of a small cat and altered her course a bit toward the other side of the street. The rat seemed to track her with its beady red eyes, but seemed otherwise uninterested in Ivy as prey.

When another, smaller rat scurried along a window sill above her and dropped onto her shoulder, she realised why. The lone gorge rat had been a distraction.

She yanked her dagger free and tried to stab at the rat while keeping herself above the ground, but the angle was just too awkward. Sharp teeth sank into the hand touching her Wind sign and she jerked away on reflex. The gorge rat was flung into the shadows and Ivy dropped to the ground.

With the strength found in sheer terror, she touched her Wind sign again to amplify her voice. "HELP!" She didn't waste her breath again, instead calling on as much Wind as she could muster to shield her from the gorge rats, her dagger gripped tightly in fingers that were fast growing numb.

Efil preserve her, and if not, Worg grant her the power to at least kill some of them first.

[Skittlebug]

Drystan was in high spirits, the first leg of his journey over with and halfway to the Beastlands. The ship he had taken had enjoyed a safe voyage to the coast and he had taken to the air soon after, glad to feel the wind again. While he was starting to miss his home, the feeling was far overshadowed by his curiosity of the mainlands. Taking pit stops mainly during the day, he had made good time and Ilyamen was now in view.

He spins in the air excitedly as the city looms closer, though hesitates as he sees the size of the walls, and the dots that were guards all along it. For now he decides to keep high enough not to draw attention to himself, night may not be the best time to 'drop in' on the city. He contents himself for now with studying the layout of the city from a birds eye view, it was so large! He imagined himself getting lost in there, glad for his wings, then imagined how many pretty ladies there would be in a city that size...

He was stopped short in his revere by a scream, a woman's scream no less. His ears twitch as he locates the source a the scream before folding his wings and diving. His night vision good enough to see the woman, and the small creatures surrounding her. Gritting his teeth he flares his wings and lands next to the woman, no time to worry about startling her. He plants himself between her and the rats, flaring his wings impressively and shrieking at them, doing his best to scare them off. This had better work, he thinks grimly, I'm not that much of a fighter.

[Darastrix]

All of Ivy's focus was on trying to repel rats with wind for as long as she could. The gorge rats, however, seemed content to wait for the venom to take full effect. At Drystan's arrival, the rats, startled, scurried back into the shadows, but did not flee. They were pure predators, and the Beast's size just meant more food.

"Our food! Our prey! "the mischief declared, the high-pitched squeals seeming to echo in the street. They didn't know whether the new creature was trying to claim their meal or if it were part of the first one's pack, but either way, they would defend their claim.

"I bit", a single rat stated. "Prey will fall soon; it won't run."

"We have to get out of here. Th-they're not normal rats," Ivy said, her words slurring. She didn't take her eyes off of the creatures. "If they bite you, you'll be paralyzed."

[Skittlebug]

Drystan's ears flattened and he let out another shriek toward the rats, trying to seem powerful enough to buy more time. Now slightly panicked both by what the woman said, and the rat's own squeals. Although a small part of was almost enjoying this, it was a completely new experience. He wasn't even sure he remembered diving down to the streets, it had been pure instinct. Though now he did need to find a way out of this, he sure as hell wasn't going to let a few, well..large, rats get the better of him, he hadn't even seen the city yet!

Of course! He backed even closer to the woman, crouching a little and keeping his wings flared, not wanting to seem a smaller, and easier target. " Can you get on my back? My pack is big enough you should be able to get on top of it and hold on. " He held the stance, hoping she understood. He was confident this would work, she seemed small and couldn't weigh very much.

[Darastrix]

At Drystan's second shriek, the rats just bristled. He'd surprised them before; they weren't bothered by the noise itself. As he backed toward Ivy, the rats crept closer. His posture and actions screamed "prey!" to their instincts, and they were hungry.

One of the advancing rats scurried forward a few feet. "Go behind and climb," it squeaked, and a pair of rats broke from the main mischief and darted into the alleyways on either side of the building.

Ivy flinched and tried to brandish her dagger at the rat, but her movements were slow. "I can try," she said, sluggishly attempting to do so. "But if I fall, don't be bloody stupid."

[Skittlebug]

"No more time, they're circling around, you can pass out later just hold on for now okay?" With that he reaches back and snags her arms, lifting her forward and doing his best to quickly wrap her arms around his neck. Hopefully she could lock her hands together long enough to get out of here. His pack was low on his back, strapped around his waist instead of his shoulders due to his wings, hopefully that would help a little too.

Launching himself from the crouched position he gives a heave of his wings and jumps, catching the air. He had been right, she wasn't very heavy, but he still wasn't used to flying with a passenger, and was angled too low. He has to twist and kick off of a building with one leg to straighten out, hoping he doesn't jostle the woman too much, and that the rats would be too surprised and frustrated to hinder them.

[Darastrix]

"If I don't," Ivy murmured, as Drystan pulled her arms around his neck, "have someone get word to Hat-ib in Autus." She dropped her dagger so that she could grasp her wrist without accidentally stabbing the Beast. As leaden as her body was beginning to feel, it wouldn't do her any good in any case.

She tensed minutely when Drystan took to the air, and hoped that her grip was still tight. When her companion twisted to kick off of a wall, however, her already tenuous hold slipped, hands gone limp, and she fell from his back.

[Skittlebug]

As the woman slips Drystan squeaks and tries to twist, or do something, anything, to keep her from falling, resulting in one of his wings buckling and him following her. His reflexes were quick however and he landed only a little roughly on all fours next to her. Baring his teeth he does the last thing he can think of, though he's never actually tried it before. Hoping that these rats are still more beast than monster he tucks his arms against the signs on his sides. He reached out through his beast signs with as much force and power as he could, doing his best to give a strong resounding order. ~ Stop. Away. Now. ~

[Darastrix]

Our prey, our food! the rats squeaked back. It was theirs and no member of their prey's pack was going to chase them away. YOU go!

"Oi! What's going on here?" a new voice called as the tromp of boots on flagstone and the jingling of chain echoed in the street. The light from a torch illuminated the gloom as it came nearer, making the rats bristle. "Damn. Eleka, we've got more rats."

A figure stepped out near the torch-bearer and, with a loud crack, a flash of light brightened the area as though it were day as lightning came down on the rats furthest from the pair. There was a stench of singed fur and burnt flush, and the remaining gorge rats squeaked in alarm and scurried into hiding--the humans who could make light and fire appear, they'd learned, were some of the more dangerous prey. They would abandon this street for a time, and seek out food in another quarter.

The guard holding the torch aloft watched the direction of the gorge rats' retreat. The way they'd been working recently, it would be a foolish thing to send someone after them alone. He'd seen the rats use that method as a ruse before and had nearly lost a man for it. The second guard, Eleka, stayed close by, electricity dancing over her fingertips as she stayed back to provide another bolt if needed, while two others moved toward Drystan and Ivy.

[Skittlebug]

At the sound of voices, Drystan begins to relax, it was about damn time though, they couldn't have shown up a minute ago?. The sudden lightning bolt not only startles him but nearly blinds him, he flinches and raises a wing over his face by reflex as it goes off and lets out a low hiss. Blinking hard and seeing stars, he tries to see the woman beside him, reaching out to shake her gently. Although he was fairly sure he wouldn't be able to rouse her, remembering what she had said about the rat bites.

[Darastrix]

"Was she bitten?" one of the approaching guards asked. "She'll be like that for a quarter-mark at the most if she was." He grimaced. "That's the worst part of these things, I tell you. Animals that can kill you, fine. Get bitten and die, get mauled and bleed to death; I can deal with that. Those things just make it so you can't move while they eat."

"Hush, Rex," the fourth said as she knelt beside them. "We don' need to hear it again, an' by your point, she can hear, too." She looked at Drystan. "Woulda been here sooner, but we was takin' care of another bunch of the damn things when we heard the call for help. Oi!" she called, looking over her shoulder. Bring the torch; it's black as Taed's eyes over here. Damn lamplighters been too scared to do their jobs again, else they lit 'em too early."

The remainder of the patrol walked over, keeping a sharp eye out as their companion looked Ivy over. "Well, if we hadn't got here, she wouldn't've felt anything," she said with a wince. "Looks like she cracked her head." That could be bad; head wounds were tricky.

"May need a litter," Eleka commented. "You hurt any, Beast?" She wasn't sure whether he was young enough for her to call "boy;" she'd always had trouble gauging ages of the more animal-looking Beasts.

[Skittlebug]

Drystan shakes his head," I'm not a fighter...I wasn't able to help her. " slipping his arms carefully under the woman, particularly careful of her head, and stands up, cradling her easily. " Where can we go for help? "

He's still blinking and squinting a bit from the lightning bolt, but he's determined to get her someplace safe. The thought of a head wound worried him though, that would be completely his fault.

[Darastrix]

"Take care," Rex told him. "Sometimes folks seem to be more or less in one piece after a hard blow, then you move them and things go south."

"And whatever can go wrong, will," Eleka sighed. "We know. But he's got her up, and she's not choking on her own blood, so let's assume she's fine to be carried. Rip, do you have any water left?"

The other woman shook her head as she rose from her knees. "'Fraid not. I'm tapped out like a keg at Sinfest. I think a healer lives near the end of this row, though, right?"

The guard holding the torch peered at Ivy and Drystan for a moment and swore softly. "Bloody hell, Mistress Epps--she is the healer. All right, we can't stay around here too long for the rats and we need to get her somewhere warm. Hers is the closest healer's house and she probably has some water on-hand there that we can dose her with." He pointed at Drystan. "You: follow me. Rest of you stay around them on the way."

[Skittlebug]

Drystan's ears swivel around and his his muzzle wrinkles in what might be a grimace as he listens intently for any more signs of the rats, not wanting to be taken by surprise if he could help it. It was true he wasn't a fighter, and he just wanted to get out of here.

"She's the healer?!" His jaw drops slightly at the guards revelation and his shoulders droop a little, "She's the healer..." He sets out in the direction the guard had indicated and mutters to himself. "If I'd known the mainland would be this much trouble, I'd have stayed on Aluvar..."

[Darastrix]

"Not the only healer in Haven, of course," Eleka told him as they walked, "just the one who actually lives around here. Once she's settled, we'll probably run for another."

Rip caught Drystan's other comment, but decided to let it lie until Ivy had been taken care of. She thought it likely that he might be from a village in Firegem, though, if he was calling this the mainland.