Topic: Forests
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Shadows flitted between the trees, hunters pursuing their prey.
Malero panted as he concentrated on the next tree branch - high, high, low, swing, grab a vine and -
SMACK!
A blunt force hit him from the side, knocking him off balance in mid-air and sending him sprawling down, down, down. The branches and debris raced past him as he wildly flailed around in his thorn jacket and gauntlets, to try and catch on to something before he fell all the way down to the spiky thorns of Fanghorn Forest.
As the thorns grew closer, Malero felt a vine snake around his leg, wrap around him like a tentacle, and - YANK! - changed his trajectory once more back to the canopy.
Chaxa! he thought as he oriented himself.
That's right, you damn oaf, Chaxa replied. Now get yourself together before they find me fucking exposed as a leaf!
Malero landed on a branch within a mess of leaves, biting into his face and arms as he crashed through. He frantically caught his breath, scanning the shadows for danger. The dying sunlight created confusing silhouettes, but from a cautious glance, they all seemed to be moving away from him.
Where are you?! Malero thought.
Save your thoughts. Jump sunwards - Jericho needs your assistance. Chaxa replied tersely.
Malero looked down, up, considered the branches around him, and clambered on to one above him, with a flatter portion for him to stand on. Breathing deeply, he squatted down into position, shifted his breathing into a rhythmic pattern to draw out the tree's energy, and gathered it into his thighs.
As he closed his eyes to ready himself for the jump, his treesight tapped into the root network, and noticed a group of creatures clambering up through higher canopy pursuing a smaller figure about two jumps away.
"Sorry about this," he grumbled to the tree, as he gathered another glob of energy to adjust for his jumps.
Opening his eyes in the rapidly waning twilight, he sprang up and out through the trees, letting out a guttural roar. The branch snapped, wasting away as if it had been dead for a long time. His reddish-bronze mane lengthened as he fought through the pain of partially transforming while in the air, claws springing out from his growing paws and his upper body thickening with bands of muscle.
He landed on the first tree in his canine form, and used the momentum to rapidly bounce off the tree. He jumped to the second tree, targeting the lead figure of the pursuing group, flashing his lengthening teeth in readiness and calling out,
"Jericho! Let's go!"
Malero landed on to the trunk of the tree, and swiped powerfully at the hooded figure, who dodged just in time by flipping off the tree altogether. A grappling hook shot straight back out of the darkness, and embedded itself into the tree just above Malero's paw. With another roar, Malero swiped at the rope, severing it, and springing to the next victim as he hears the scrabbling below of a figure barely keeping their hold on the trunk.
"Jericho, where are you!?" Malero screamed, as he kicked out at another hooded figure, who deftly dodged and slashed back with a emerald-green dagger. Malero barely parried the blow with his thorny gauntlet, and wrenched the dagger out of the figure's grasp by twisting it within the thorns on his gauntlet.
Concentrating for a moment, he called upon the tree's power to close over the bark below him. It responded quickly, smoothing out the holds in the bark and causing the black, hooded figures to flip away from the tree in fright.
Glancing upwards, Malero noticed a wingtip poking out from a hollow further up in the tree. Scrambling quickly as the bark closed over, he arrived to see Jericho's pale body hunched over, panting, with his white feathers bloodied and matted over.
"Shit, Jericho, what happened?" Malero gasped. Chaxa, can you close us in?
Yes, but be careful as you'll have to break out.
That's fine. An Astra always pays the price. Malero watched as the opening healed itself, building knots of wood and leaves until darkness covered the two hidden creatures.
"I'll be fine," Jericho said weakly. He gestured to his wings, "Fuckers don't work as well when you're hurt." He coughed and lay back in the darkness.
"I thought they were shielded!" Malero said, rummaging for his medicinal pouches in his pockets. He froze.
Shit! They must have fallen out when he had been hit.
The pouches were nowhere to be found.
"Nothing?" Jericho whispered, eyes closed.
"We're gonna get you through this" Malero twisted his face into a weak smile.
Chaxa, what do I do? Malero shouted in his mind, terrified as he watched Jericho slip slowly away.
Silence.
CHAXA!
Realisation dawned on Malero. There was no way Chaxa had not heard, which meant there was a course of action he didn't want recorded.
That could only mean...
No no no no we can't do that! Malero thought, horrified. That damn coward!
We have to, Malero - he's dying.
Jericho's breathing had slowed, and the scarlet-red bloodstains on his white wings were rapidly spreading.
"What did Chaxa say?" Jericho asked softly.
But he can't be forest-bound - he - his - he has wings...
Silence again.
"Chaxa...he...he says..."
"That bad, huh?" Jericho coughed raggedly, this time spitting up blood.
"You won't...you...you can't..." Malero felt the adrenaline deflate his transformation back to his humanoid form.
"Just do it, whatever it is. An Astra always pays the price," Jericho whispered.
"An Astra always pays the price," Malero echoed hollowly.
But this was so steep.
He closed his eyes and damply wiped away his tears.
His friend needed saving.
Please, he begged the trees. Please help me save him.
Tapping into the root network, he regretfully gathered the energy from a number of surrounding trees and shaped them into the forbidden shape.
An Astra always pays the price.
Slowly, he pushed the energy through Jericho's yielding body, and built the roots of the energy to his wings. Muffled through the trunk, he heard a cost being paid as trees fell through the forest, wilted and sucked dry of vitality.
"Ahh..." Jericho sighed and his breath slowed rhythmically as he fell asleep.
Malero slumped back from the exertion, cocooned in the trees hollow embrace. As sleep came for him, his last thought to Chaxa...
Tell Sarse I'm sorry.
Goodbye, Malero. She'll understand.
And he slept.
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