Neolani grinned as Melia and Azarius continued to tease each other. She leaned against Alexei contentedly boneless. It had been a very… relaxing day. Swimming, playing, hunting, grilling the fish they'd caught. She had even snuck off with Alexei for a few hours, the evidence was more than just skin deep.
Alexei was carefully adding strawberry jam to a pastry for his lady love. He couldn't even remember the last time they'd had a spontaneous moment, certainly nothing in the last two years. Alexei also enjoyed the benefit of Caius's blessing so he was feeling pretty good about life in general. The stamina perk alone was worth having the foxes around.
Neolani opened her mouth so Alexei could feed her as she closed her eyes, "We should do this more often. Maybe set a day or two aside a month…" Alexei held the pastry to her mouth before she could keep talking.
"Love, if you plan them out, they're not spontaneous. We'll figure it out when we get back." Alexei promised as he ate the last bite of the small pastry then started spreading jam on another morsel. They had been hard at work today after all.
"EEEwwww! Get a room! Or a tent… or just not at the table!" Azarius complained. They had been all over each other since they disappeared after lunch. Azarius shared a gagging motion with Melia.
"Maaaa! One little brother is enough," Melia added picked up her plate and moving down the table so she wasn't directly across from them. Just because she knew where babies came from, and she was thinking about her own future… didn't remove the ick factor from her parents making babies!
Alexei grinned as he flicked a bit of jam directly into Azarius's open mouth. Give the boy a real reason to gag.
Melia burst into laughter as Azarius fell out of his seat, spitting out the strawberry jam. She even had to wipe tears away from laughing so hard. Melia was half wheezing from her efforts to breathe. Beast gods above… she couldn't remember a single day where she'd had this much… fun. Truth be told, she'd been half expectant, half dreading Ashton joining the pride. But if the days continued to be like this, family time, mom not always rushing around as Regina, Neveu taking over his own tribe instead of them acting as the go between.
Life might really be better with a beast around. Melia glanced over to see Caius's head practically smothering Ashton into his nest. Having two beasts around, one who inspired passion and chaos, the other control and balance… what more could a girl ask for?
As they finished eating, they wished Ashton a good night then retreated into their own tents. Melia decided this would be a good night to not share a tent with her parents, so she and Azarius shared with some of the younger warriors.
Vigan opened one eye, the human male was asleep. He glanced around the room warily, then slowly stepped out of his makeshift nest. Even without the moonlight, his night vision was more than enough for him to see the warded window. A pity the door was not only locked but warded. Tisk tisk, did they really think such a mediocre locks would keep him contained?
Vigan leapt up onto the windowsill swiping at the metal frame along the glass. The glass was undamaged, but the frame had been cut clean through. How silly to only ward the bottom from opening. Vigan tipped the square so the edges protruded, then silently used his tail to place the window piece on the side. Perfect size for a cat.
Vigan glanced at the human, eyes narrowed… he'd let the human live as thanks, after all… how else could he have entered the territory of an injured, helpless, baby bird without raising alarm? Vigan leapt down without a sound. The bird warriors were taking shifts, patrolling the area along with the dragonkin warriors, easily avoided with his much smaller size. His spotted fur was an excellent camouflage.
Vigan kept along the edge of tents and behind guards passing by, he made sure to stay in the shadows as he took the long way to the nest. The foxes were either sleeping or had run off to enjoy the night. Clearly, they hadn't thought of him as a threat, believed too heavily in the bird's protection, maybe even a combination of the two.
Vigan leapt up into a tree so he could peer into the nest. He would have to be fast as lightning, then ready to run. Fortuitously, the nest was only a few yards from the tree line, but the fox had wrapped the small bird up in all his tails… Vigan crouched on the tree limb, tail swishing beneath him. How to take the beast core without alerting the fox… even the smallest opening would be enough.
Vigan watched as about twice an hour the fox would shift his tails, and supposedly the injured bird inside. Occasionally, feathers would escape the tails but… no openings big enough for more than one or two feathers at a time. He only needed it to be big enough for a human hand to fit.
Four hours went by, an opening between two of the tails! Vigan waited for the fox to settle back down, he had roughly thirty minutes… after the bird was dead there would be no point in chasing him. Vigan didn't wait long, only three minutes before he quickly leapt to the ground. Approaching as carefully, but quickly as possible. Vigan didn't dare leap up onto the nest, so he slowly climbed, missing a limb and claw was so inconvenient sometimes… but not for much longer.
To Vigan's absolute horror, there was a shifting of grass just out of his line of sight. He stilled, that hadn't been wind, something had deliberately made that sound. Vigan only moved his eyes to look to his left, he wasn't the only one approaching the nest…
Caius's ears perked up but he didn't otherwise move, he kept his eyes closed, breathing even. Either his Little Snack didn't see any threats or wasn't concerned enough to wake up. Caius waited, if the daring little cat retreated now… he wouldn't eat it. Just as Caius was about to settle back in for the night, something jerked on his whiskers.
Caius immediately lunged snapping at whatever it was with a snarl. There was a slight flowery smell but it was gone, the cat on the other hand was still clinging to the nest. Caius slowly turned his head to face the cat, "You dare?" the cat immediately fled into the forest without a backward glance. Caius's chest was heaving from the effort to not chase the cat as he looked over the clearing… he hadn't even noticed a second creature so close… close enough to pull on his whiskers. More worrying, it was fast enough to escape without notice…
Caius opened his tails to check on his Little Snack who hadn't stirred. The moment he opened his tails a hundreds of red feathers were carried off by the wind. "Little Snack?" Caius asked in a whisper not daring to move, he couldn't even breathe. "NEOLANI!!!!!" He roared as he immediately activated a six-fold shield of fire around the clearing. Three walls of fires erupted all around the clearing keeping everything out. Next a twofold barrier of wind to keep everything in. Hundreds, no… thousands of feathers were now floating around the clearing.
Talvi leapt up activating a prepared three-layered spell of ice, wind, and water around the tents and nest. The Adarians might be inside, but that didn't mean they would live to leave. She raced to the nest thrusting her head inside, papa bird lay limply in father Caius's human embrace, red feathers filling the nest but that wasn't that had her stomach clenching.
Papa bird's skin was flaking off… patches of muscle visible all over, new skin clearly growing in. The slightest shift of father Caius as he reached to see if papa bird was breathing. Every movement, every breeze, every breath… caused the skin just… flaked away like pastry bits. As soon as the skin stopped making contact with Father Caius's fur, clumps of skin and feathers fell away.
"Little Snack, open your eyes, okay?" Caius couldn't feel his Little Snack's chest moving, or breath leaving his nose. He was so cold… beast gods above his little snack was like a lump of soft ice.
Neolani hadn't even bothered to get dressed, her sleeping robe barely on as she ran out of her tent, the rage and anguish in Caius's voice chilled her to the bone. Her heart was racing the same way when she'd felt Alphonse's heart start to crumble away. Neolani flung herself past Talvi and pulling herself up over the edge of nest.
Alexei had come running out behind, wrapping his shendyt haphazardly as dozens of warriors came after chasing him, weapons drawn regardless of their state of dress. The temperature had already jumped at least twenty degrees, and his adrenaline certainly helped push the sleepy fog from his mind, but Neolani's scream as she threw herself into the nest reminded him of a day he'd all but forgotten.
"ASHTON!!!" Neolani could barely breathe as she crawled through a pond of feathers closer to Ashton's limp figure. "What happened?!" She demanded as she climbed over the writhing tails, Beast gods above, what was happening to him? As she approached a bit of skin was carried away and turned into a red feather… so many feathers. Covering the entire bottom of the nest and even spilling out as Caius moved, red feathers everywhere.
Caius used a tail to fling her away before she could touch him, "GET BACK YOU STUPID GNAT! DON'T TOUCH!" he snarled keeping himself protectively around his Little Snack, "Where is his heart?! HOW COULD YOU NOT NOTICE?!" Caius bellowed as she collapsed on the far side of the nest. Could she not see how injured his Little Snack was?!
Neolani pushed herself up, her sleeping robe barely covering her as tears poured down her face, "Its not reacting, oh gods, Ash, can you hear me?" She sobbed crawling back over as she pulled his mana core from between her breasts.
Caius tried to snatch the heart up but silver flames burst around the damaged core, it didn't hurt but it was clear no one else could touch it. Caius didn't waste time on words as he wrapped her up in a tail dangling her over his Little Snack, "Put it back!" He ordered as his own tears were pouring down his face. Please, please, open your eyes little one!
Neolani yanked until the enchanted necklace broke as she tried to shove the shard into Ashton's chest. Not only couldn't she reach, a bone numbing cold shot up from the contact. "It won't go in!" She didn't stop trying as tears fell on his chest. There were so many feathers… skin flaking off, oh god, make it stop! "Ashton! Wake up!" She screamed shoving her hands onto his chest as frost started spreading up her arms.
Caius flung her out of the nest, "Fire! He'll freeze!" He roared as he wrapped his precious baby up in his tails to condense his fox fire. If Neolani wasn't of any use, best she was out of the way!
Alexei caught Neolani, "Three ring fire around the nest! No one gets close! Pick up every one of those damn feathers!" Alexei roared as some of the feathers were turning to ash. There were already hundreds of ash outlines on the grass, but some were tumbling away. All the warriors immediately set to organizing themselves and doing what they could. More than 150 of the warriors immediately surrounded the nest while the rest started to pick up any feathers that hadn't turned to ash.
Alexei set Neolani on her feet and grabbed her by the shoulders as he looked into her eyes. Tears were still pouring down her face but she'd composed herself as she clutched Ashton's heart. "Tell us what to do," was all he said.
Neolani nodded, "If anyone tries to take or hide a feather, kill them! For every one missed I will personally flog you!" She roared glaring at the warriors who had started picking up the feathers. Neolani was clenching the damaged core in her hand… it was barely big enough to be seen through the gaps in her fingers… she didn't have time for this!
"YES REGINA!" Came the echoing roar as the warriors used the firelight to search every centimeter as half moved away from the nest, the other half searching from the outside looking in.
Caius looked out on the tribe, "I will eat anyone who tries to keep a feather." He vowed threateningly as he continued to hold his Little Snack close. He was breathing, it was slow, painfully shallow, but his Little Snack was breathing!
Zane had been sleeping in cotton pants and a loose shirt when he'd heard the roar of anguish. As he stumbled out of his tent it was like he was in the middle of a bonfire, the foxes darting back and forth, Inago warriors already casting spells over the nest, fires reaching at least thirty feet all around the hunting grounds… Waters of the Sea… what had happened?
Rommel shoved his way forward with two fire enchanted armbraces, "Fifth-tier fire attacks! Take it!" He roared over the commotion as he reached the nest, the warriors didn't let him enter their protective ring around the nest but he didn't care. Whatever was happening could be figured out after, Young Song could not die here.
Caius gently rubbed his cheek on his Little Snack's chest, he was so cold. "Little Snack, wake up okay? Tell me what you need." He was willing to beg, not again… he couldn't watch another mate die… please… he'd do anything… Caius glared at the Adar general… this had to be their fault, no one else could have hurt his Little Snack without him being aware except that bitch.
Ashton opened his eyes, he felt like he'd been submerged in an icy lake. His thoughts were traveling like a slug through sap. "Shhh, I'll… be okay." Ashton murmured as he lifted his right hand patting the fox's face. Ashton felt as if his armed weighed more than the Dolquist Mana fruit tree. The tears dropping onto his face were surprisingly warm… but everything else was so cold… Ashton curled up against the larger chest as he closed his eyes. He'd thought he'd be done molting before anyone woke up alas, just a bit longer…
Caius trembled as he brought his Little Snack closer, "Okay, its okay Little Snack," Caius murmured cradling the little bird close as he rocked gently back and forth. It was going to be okay, his baby bird was going to be okay. He had to be okay. If there's really a beast god watching over them, please keep his baby bird safe.