Faekawn decides to practice flying some more, so she flaps and scrambles her way up one of the cliffsides, and tries to make it to the opposite cliff. But she's still learning, and still stiff from setting Altair's eggs, and just winds up in a heap at the bottom of the far cliff. She picks herself up, shakes herself out, and sighs... then starts climbing up again.
V'rrathi pads out of the library quietly, pausing only to cast a brief glance around before she finds a nice shady spot to lay in, crossing her foreclaws and closing her eyes halfway, prepared to just enjoy a nice, quiet time away from her work.
Faekawn repeats this process a half-dozen times... sometimes landing partway up the cliff, but never managing to make a level flight across. Eventually she has to take a break, and finds some shade to flump down in, panting.
V'rrathi flicks an eartuft at the sound of something flopping down on the ground and turns her head towards it. She spots Faekawn, and shakes her head in bemusement, having briefly noticed her attempted flights. "Careful not to strain yourself too much," she comments, shifting her forebody slighly into a little bit more comfortable position.
Dove pads out of her cave, stretching her forepaws out before continuing outside. She looks around and smiles at Faekawn's attempts. She sits down nearby to watch and help if needed.
Faekawn nods wordlessly, panting for a minute or two, then says "I know... but I'm gonna fly peak to peak someday soon, an' then Aubri'll let me come hunting!"
Dove chuckles at Fae's hopes and let's her practice on her own. A spirited young one, she thinks to herself.
Windshadow slips out of the cave he shares with his mate MoonFrost, stretching each foreleg and his wings before springing into a glide to the plateau below. He chirrups a greeting to Dove as he pads towards the water for a drink, watching Fae's practice and chuckling as well at her eager assertion. "It'll be a good start."
Dove calls a greeting back to Windshadow as she watches Faekawn.
Faekawn ducks her head a little, feeling so many eyes upon her. "I'm gonna!" she asserts, then goes back to panting, holding her wings out from her body a little as she cools off.
V'rrathi parts her beak in a wide yawn and lays her head across her foreclaws, just hmming thoughtfully in response to Faekawn.
Windshadow meanders over to join Dove, offering her a gentle greeting preen as he settles down to watch Faekawn. He thinks of the eggs his mate broods, and the hatchlings that will be testing their own wings before much longer.
Faekawn gives V'rrathi a small smile, and says, "But I will be careful." She trots out and tries again, and again... always with cheerful happy shrills and squawks as she takes flight, feeling the wind filling her underwing.
*V'rrathi had to disconnect at this point*
Dove chirps over to Faekawn, "Need a good perch to leap from, little one?"
Faekawn pauses before leaping from the ledge she's scrambled up to, and shakes her head, calling down to Dove "No... I gotta learn the hard way... easy is cheating!" She decides to catch her breath for a bit, and watches the other gryphons flying, trying to learn from them. She cocks her head curiously, and looks past them, at the unusual patterns in the high-high clouds... then shrugs, spreads her wings, and struggles across to the other side... landing partway up it this time.
Dove looks up at the clouds suddenly. She stares at them for a bit, then wing-shrugs and goes back to watching Faekawn practice flying.
Windshadow's gaze lingers longer on the clouds, his expression set in a mild gryphish frown. As Faekawn continues and Dove watches her, he studies the clouds... not certain why, but finding something vaguely unsettling about them.
Faekawn chatters and squawks happily, scrabbling her way up to a more steady ledge, then bouncing around in happy circles.
Dove chuckles at Faekawn's simple antics. She remembers those days of sweet innocence. They were a lot of fun. She decides to join in and pounces off just behind Fae, as though she were chasing her.
Faekawn squawks and laughs, launching herself back into the sky, flapping her way in a circle, back to the ledge.
Windshadow shakes his head slightly and banishes thoughts of the clouds for now, watching the chase in action. He calls encouragement to the young one, urging Dove faster in pursuit and just generally having great fun egging them on.
Dove chirips happily and pounces after Faekawn, not quite catching her, but always close enough. She calls out playfully, "Gonna catch you, little one!"
Faekawn squawks her laughter, bouncing freely from cliffside to air and back again, using her hindlegs to throw her higher into the air, when she can. She tries a few fancy manuvers to get behind Dove, but she's very clumsy in the air, still.
Thunder rumbles softly from somewhere far away, the direction lost by echo and re-echo.
Dove holds still every now and then so Faekawn can move around safely. She giggles and paws at her, trying to catch her that way. She looks up briefly at the thunder, but ignores it for another storm and continues playing.
Windshadow stands and stretches again, testing each broad wing as he watches the fliers and considers getting involved in the playful chase. The thunder catches his brief attention, but he shrugs it off as a storm on the other side of the peaks, no doubt. Eyes on the cavorting pair, he pads closer and ponders chasing Dove in turn.
Tanna pads in, large eyes peering at the other Gryphons. She stops in a shady area, twisting her head to clean her feathers as she watches.
Above, the squad on patrol duty soar through the winds, keeping a safe watch over the aerie below.
Dove is busy playfully pouncing after Faekawn that she does not notice the new arrival.
Faekawn finally surrenders, laughing as she rolls onto her back and flails her paws and claws up at Dove. "I give I give!" she squawks, giggling.
Far higher than any gryphon can fly, the thin clouds slowly shift, fade, and reform... faintly arc-like shapes, though still indistinct.
Windshadow is likewise intent elsewhere, not yet noticing Tanna as he springs towards Faekawn's yielded form, deciding to surprise Dove with a pounce.
Dove chuckles as she finally catches Faekawn, saying playfully, "See, I'd..." Her voice fades away as she looks up at the sky, her attention suddenly pulled away from the gryphlet before her.
Tanna pauses in her cleaning and spreads her wings, testing them. She takes a careful step toward the others before following Dove's gaze, raising a curious eye toward the sky.
Windshadow leaps and grasps Dove's haunches in his foreclaws, saying in a good-humored rumble, "And now -I've- got y..." He trails off as well, gaze pulled along with Dove's by her unusual behavior. Gazing upward, he murmurs questioningly, "What...?"
The distant clouds sharpen in their shapes, now a very obvious set of concentric rings, focussed someplace west.... and then... suddenly they are haze again, indistinct and misty.
Faekawn also looks up, blinking. "Whazzat?" she chirps in innocent curiousity.
Dove completely ignores Windshadow's grip on her legs and the gryphlet beneath her as she just starts walking slowly. She says nothing, but her eyes go hazy, unfocused, yet she still walks.
Windshadow's head cranes upward as he watches the rings in concern. "What in the skies...?" Dove slips out from beneath his claws and he drops to all fours, following her but with gaze still skyward. "Dove? Dove, what is it?"
Faekawn rolls over and scrabbles her way back on her feet. "Dove?" she chirps, wondering if this is some kind of play... but feeling that somehow, it isn't.
Dove stops about the middle of the plateau and just stands there, looking westward with that vacant look. She's completely ignored everyone at this point.
Tanna stops moving, her attention split between the clouds and the Gryphons. "What is it?" she calls over. "Are they supposed to do that?"
Windshadow divides his attention between Dove, and the misty remains of the concentric cloudrings. Growing more concerned by the minute, he rumbles to Tanna, "No. No, they decidedly are not."
As Dove just stands and stares off, her body shimmers. One second it is her normal white, the next it is her metal coloring. It is a slow shifting between the two, but doesn't stop on just one. White, metal, white, metal, white...and on and on slowly. Her eyes are stil vacant, but are getting brighter. This is defenitly not like her.
Faekawn bumps her beak against Dove's lightly, peering first in one eye, then the other. "Dove?" she chirps again, starting to get worried. She can just feel the way the other gryphons are getting more and more worried. And when Dove starts to change like that, she squawks in suprise and fear, and jumps backwards, her feathers fluffing out.
Tanna takes a few more careful steps toward the group, wanting to be near them if something happens. She chirps worriedly, watching the changing colors and glancing around.
A slow ripple flows across the highest clouds, from far to the east, moving westward. Again, soft echoes of thunder sound, from everywhere and nowhere.
Windshadow backs off slightly, watching Dove for a long moment, then closes in again to place his claws on her and give her a good shake. "Dove? Dove! DOVE!" Looking over a wing, he calls at top screech, "Healers! Summon the healers! Dove is...!" His voice falls silent as his attention is drawn upward again, watching the ripple flowing across the sky even as Dove continues to flicker between states. "Something... something is VERY wrong!"
Faekawn doesn't want to.... but she can't help herself, and kreeels out an anxious "Momma!?".
Windshadow glances at the nervous gryphlet, "It will be okay, Fae, we will take care of everything. Go to your nest, right now." He tries to sound soothing, but his tone is undeniably tense.
Dove changes colors a little faster now, unsure wether to be naturally white or metallic white. She doesn't move or make a sound as she is shaken by Windshadow.
Faekawn shakes her head, and runs back and forth a little, looking back and forth from Windshadow, to Dove, to the sky. "What's happening?" she asks nervously.
Worried skrees and cries echo back and forth along the plateau as other gryphons notice the undeniable feeling... something _is_ wrong.
Windshadow says honestly, "I don't know. But you should be safe in your nest. Go wait there until I call you."
The patrol flying high above falters for a moment in their flight, the air suddenly not being there for them. They cry out just as their wings catch the returned wind.
Windshadow continues to try and get Dove's attention, or some response, but is no longer sure the healers or anyone can help her... it is something to do with her maic, and no one in Grylra is qualified to say what is happening to her.
Faekawn runs back and forth in fear and worry, and skrees again for her mother. But she obeys Windshadow... at least partially, in that she moves closer and closer to her parents' cave. Her eyes are wide as she looks up at the changing sky, watching the clouds do things that clouds were never meant to do.
The ground starts to rumble all across the plateau, making footing unsure. Only Dove remains motionless, the quaking coming from her it seems. But she is oblivious. Her shifting is going much faster, her eyes are glowing solid red now. Yet she is quiet and still as a statue.
Windshadow twitches faintly, and lifts his head, wings quivering. Something feels... wrong all of a sudden. moreso than the nervousness already in the air, the air itself is not... right.
Windshadow very gently releases Dove... and begins to back quite resolutely -away- from the changin gryphon. "I have a /very/ bad feeling about this..."
Faekawn shakes and fluffs her wings out, making frightened lost-gryphon sounds, and huddling up into the entrance of the cave... but afraid to go inside.
Tanna freezes where she is, crouching down a bit. In a shrill tone she asks again, "What's happening?"
Windshadow stands, tense and roused, watching Dove, and watching the skies. He feels suddenly very exposed, but prefers to remain where he can see just what is coming... and something -is- coming, that is undoubtable.
Windshadow has no idea, but calls simply to Tanna, "Get down!"
Faekawn huddles against the ground, staring up with wide eyes, as though she expects some huge monster to come crashing down.
Tanna crouches more, not quite lying down, her head tilted up staring nervously at the sky.
The clouds shift, flicker, reform... then all is quiet. For a moment.... then another low, rolling boom of thunder... seeming to come from all of the eastern skies at once.
Windshadow crouches as well, watching warily... something is about to happen.
A violent wind whips across the peaks, peeling the last dregs of snow away and flinging them up, and cascading sand and pebbles downward. And then just as suddenly... it stops.
Faekawn trembles, and lays her head flat against the ground.
Windshadow shelters his head, then slowly looks up in the quiet afterwards.... is that it...?
Dove stops flashing, now a solid metallic white, eyes glowing bright red. The rumbling gets worse around her, shaking small rocks loose from the cliff edges. She then crouches down, letting out a blood curdling scream of pain and rage, half deafening all nearby. At the same time, all gryphons airborne falter in flight and start to fall.
A shockwave echoes from somewhere to the northwest... and then suddenly the air swirls, ripples, and sweeps back the way it came, pushing against every part of you... a physical force, dragging at you, without motion of air at all, just the pressure of it. Terrible, overwhelming pressure... and then the complete lack of it, as though one were high above the highest clouds. There is a sound, like splintering wood, from everywhere at once.
Faekawn squalls and screams in a fear so strong it turns to rage again, snapping and clawing and biting at the air, trying to get the unseen THING off of her!
The air lifts... crackles... bright sparkles forming, rippling, evaporating westwards... and then suddenly every bit of lift is gone from the sky.
Tanna lets out a short scream and shudders. She lies down the rest of the way, every muscles twitching, wanting to get away from whatever is happening.
Windshadow drops to his underside and clutches the ground with all four claws, anchoring himself against the unseen tidal wave of pressure. Hackles stand tall and eyes are squeezed tightly shut as he skreeees in echo of Dove, defiance of the profound twisting of the air that envelopes him, the WRONGNESS of it... and as he skrees, the air is also filled with the panicked cries of gryphons suddenly left to plummet unaided towards the ground.
As the air clears and feels light again, the rumbling in the ground stops, as does Dove's screaming. The reason is simple, she's passed out and falls to the ground. What is odd and unsettling for those who know her, she is not metallic. She is her normal white self, although with her eyes closed, it's not known if her eyes are glowing still.
Somewhere to the distant northwest, the sky glows with reflected orange light, as though, for a moment, a THIRD sun were rising... and then it vanishes.
Faekawn shakes with terror, her eyes wide, staring rapidly this way and that... then squalling and jumping to the side as a guard crashes to earth next to her, his body broken and splintered by the fall.
The cries of falling and wounded gryphons soon fill the air as once-airborne gryphons are pulled back to the ground against their will as the magic that once sustained them is taken away.
Faekawn stares at the dead guard, stunned... then tenatively steps closer to the inert form, and nudges it with her beak. She's never seen a dead gryphon before, and she can't really believe it. OTHER things die... not gryphons! Then the blood from his body reaches her foreclaw, pooling around it, and she squalls wordlessly, running back under cover.
Dove lays unconcious and inert on the ground at Windshadow's feet.
Windshadow lifts his head and slowly stands, gazing about himself with concern which progresses quickly into horror at the sight. "Skies, what has happened here?! Healers! Summon all Healers!" Continuing to shout for the Healers, he stands at Dove's side, gaze darting across what has become a scene out of nightmare. HOW could this have happened? What has gone wrong with the sky? Reaching for Dove, he grips her in his claws and begins to chake her, calling her name and checking her breathing. PLEASE let her be all right now. "Dove! Dove!"
As he shakes Dove, trying to wake her, a falling messenger gryphon falls right across his haunches, pulling him down with her. She groans on the ground, but at least she is alive, thanks to Windshadow.
Tanna squalls, staring at the dead Gryphon. She gets up onto shakey legs, turning her worried gaze to Dove.
The cry for healers can be heard echoing from many places... though for most who fell from the sky today, those cries are in vain. But still, some can be saved, and the healers run - trying to fly - from one to the next, helping those who can be helped.
Windshadow squawks with surprise and pain as his hindbody is forced to the ground by the plummeting weight of the messenger. Thank goodness he's not a frail gryphon, but he's definitely going to have some bruised hips for a while. Pulling himself from beneath the downed messenger, he shrugs off his own pain and checks her quickly, calling with renewed urgency for a Healer, and wondering when his mate... his mate!! He goes silent as the horrified realization dawns that MoonFrost was out of the aerie, flying...!
Faekawn cries out a soft call for her mother... as though afraid she might answer. Or even more afraid... what the answer might be. She looks to Windshadow, and can see the same fear in his eyes... and creeps away from the safety of the cavern entrance, closer to he and Dove.
A healer runs up to Windshadow and the fallen messenger. She stops when she sees Dove passed out on the ground nearby and groans, "Don't tell me this is *her* doing!" The healer just sighs and starts checking over Windshadow's back and the fallen messenger's body, knowing Dove will not be moving for a bit still.
Windshadow takes a long moment to consider the possibility, but.... "No. No, I don't think it was her fault. Something happened, something at... the interface? Oh, by my mate's eggs..." He falls silent again, staring intently northwestward where the false sun shone for a brief time. Could it be...?
Faekawn eeps and ducks out of the way of a passing healer, then looks up along the cliffside... and then breaks into a run and starts scrambling up the rugged stoney surface, struggling to make her way to a wounded gryphon she sees there.
The healer ignores Windshadow as she checks over the messenger. She mutters out loud as she works, "...broken ribs, cracked keel.....Windshadow, your rump must be made of stone or something!" She just continues trying to help the fallen gryphon, not even trying to be funny.
Tanna stands back, watching the healer work. She doesn't know what to do, and simply tries to keep out of the way.
Windshadow settles his rump, which is becoming very vocal in its complaints now. "Feels more like gravel at the moment, but I will live... Tend to her, I will watch Dove... I do not know what we can do for her yet."
A healer rushes past Tanna, noticing she is standing and perfectly fine, except for being scared witless. He grabs her shoulder and shakes, asking, "You okay? I could use some help if you're able too."
Tanna leaps back, startled at being grabbed. Then she starts nodding quickly. "What can I do?"
The healer by Tanna points at the fallen and wounded gryphons, "Help find the ones still alive. Call for a healer when you see one. If you think you can help, do it. Thank you." With that, he dashes off as yet more cries sound out.
Faekawn helps the wounded gryphon down, as best she can... but it's hard, with the other's broken wing and foreleg.