Stormdancer's Cave
This is a fairly large cavern, with a high ceiling. The faint scent of smoke lingers in the air, but it's almost hidden by the rich scent of gryphons, furs, and bedding. Several large stone benches are formed from the native rock, forming comfortable places to lay upon. Near one wall is a great expanse of furs, hides and grasses, which form a nest large enough for four or five gryphons to share comfortably. The artificially smooth and flat floor slopes slightly towards the tunnel that marks the exit out to the plateau.
Carteth is still asleep, oblivious to the events having already happened today. She dozes, snug and warm under the furs, dreaming of various things...
Stormdancer pads heavily into the cave, reeking of blood, and death. He only did the most basic of cleaning before coming home, and his forebody is coated with mostly dried blood. He growls, then chiurs, "Carteth... lover... wake up."
Carteth stirs faintly, as a voice wakes her from light slumber, and raises her head. She looks about with fogged eyes for a moment, finally locking onto Stormdancer...and, woo, what a smell. "Mmmh?...Smell of kill, love."
Kibbe is sleeping still, in a pile of furs and blankets swiped from the nest shared by Stormdancer and Carteth.
Stormdancer hrrrrs, panting, still tired from his flight... and the battle. "Raigaa," he growls. "We killed one. We lost... too many."
Carteth blinks a bit, trying to let this get through. "Rr...Raigaa....Oh, the lion things." She ponders a bit longer. "Aren't those what you thought were killing kin?" Okay, so she's relatively calm in her lack of being awake, so far.
Stormdancer nods, something very unpleasant still awake within him, reflected in the cruel, aggressive arch to his body... much less the dark blood dried on every visible surface as he stands facing you. "Yesss. One of Rhenemet's people. She killed two... a third is... probably not going to make it. But we now know, for certain, they're what's kinkilling. The others will fall. And I need to fly to Windhaven, and ... converrrssse, with Rhenemet."
Kibbe yawns a little, the voices starting to wake him up, wings twitching, stroking a little against the furs with a soft rustle.
Carteth is becoming a bit more awake, and frowns slightly. "Nnnh...Near here? Near our home?" This thought is troubling. The last kills had been quite a ways away...
Stormdancer shakes his head. "Near to the river... a long way by ground. But too near for comfort. They'll never get much closer, our guards are too thick. That's how they were caught. Well... thisss one."
Carteth nods softly, as she raises from the furs. She moves to her Mate, softly nuzzling him, sensing how tense and angry he is. "You need to take a bath, love. Get clean. Make yourself feel a bit better, bodily, rr?"
Kibbe blinks his eyes open and lifts his head, glancing around a little, eyes dialating, then pining as he adjusts for the light levels in the room, feathers ruslting a little, he actualy gets a little worried, and chirps up quickly, "Faekawn allright?" as he comes out of his little nest.
Stormdancer bobs his head slightly to Carteth, then twitches his gaze to Kibbe, arching his head to beaktouch the little one gently. "She's... beaten up pretty badly, but she's alright. She... is why we caught it."
Kibbe blinks and cocks his head, "Caught what? Why's she beat up, what happened?"
Carteth listens in, then gazes outside curiously. "Who was killed?"
Stormdancer growls deep in his throat. "Gavan, and Telkis. Gavan felt nothing. Telkis... I don't know about yet. There's.. hrhrr... their families will be taken care of." He frowns, and looks down at his chest. "Skies. I really do need to bathe. The Raigaa's head is being removed, I'll fly it to Windhaven, to ssssee if Rhenemet knows her."
"Come, lets get you clean..." Carteth idly wonders...why did her mate come to her with this news. Is it something she's somehow -supposed- to know...Gavan, and Telkis. Neither name rings a bell in the least, either. She sighs softly, and just tries to be there for her Mate.
Kibbe cocks his head a little, "What's happened to Faekawn? She allright daddy? What you mean that she is why you caught it?"
Stormdancer closes his eyes, and leans heavily against Carteth. "Skies," he whispers, a shudder rippling down his body, from shoulder to hips. "You're sssafe," he whispers, as if to convince himself, more than you. Still leaned close against Carteth, he says "She stopped it from getting to the river, Kibbe," he chirrs. "She broke it's spine. We couldn't have kept it from getting to the river, if she hadn't."
Carteth nuzzles Storm gently, and watches him. "Bath, mm? You reek, seriously."
Stormdancer laughs softly, and thumps his beak firmly against the hen's wing, then nods, and turns. "Come on..."
You make your way through the long tunnel, and out onto the northern plateau.
Northern Plateau - Grylra
The most noticable feature here is an immense water-filled crater, 30 to 40 meters across, in the dead center of the area. A clean and sparkling stream flows from a hidden spring in the western rockface, and flows downhill to the glass-walled crater, filling it completely, the overflow splashing onwards downhill. On closer examination, the pool is quite deep - 8 meters at least... but along it's edge is a nicely stepped set of ledges, shallow enough for a gryphlet to wade in.
The ground here is hilly, and scattered with the green of grasses, shrubs, and bushes here and there. Immense boulders are scattered about near the east and west sides of the plateau, a fair number of them having been Shaped into perfectly formed couches, exactly right for gryphons to lay about on in great comfort. Blackened marks extend far up along the cliffs on the east and west, evidence of an incredible fire that must have swept through here sometime in the past.
The cliffs and hillsides are peppered with hundreds of caves - the homes of the gryphons that live here.
Carteth comes out of Stormdancer's cave.
Carteth has arrived.
Stormdancer pads to the stream, and smashes through the crust of ice with his foreclaw, before breaking a larger hole, and starting to bathe himself in the manner of birds, dipping down, then shaking vigerously to shed the blood and water.
Carteth settles down, nearby, as she watches Storm bathe. Hmmh...awful smelling, if that's what a Raigaa smells like when it's been bled. She quietly ponders what he was saying before... "So, how long will you be gone?"
Stormdancer continues his bath, gasping a bit at the fierce cold of the water. "I should get to Windhaven by mid afternoon... I won't fly back until the next day, probably. So by tomorrow afternoon, I hope. Carteth... can you do something for me? Can you make sure that the Mates of the victims are cared for? I don't know if they both know yet... and I don't yet know who they are."
"Uhm...love, I don't know them either. Or the ones who were killed..." She tilts her head slightly. "I don't quite know what I could do..."
Stormdancer shakes himself out vigerously, then looks himself over to see if he's at least moderately presentable. Deciding that he is, he starts rubbing and fluttering in a snowdrift, the sharp crystals helping to finish the job. "You can do it," he says firmly. "You're my Mate, beloved... you share much of the resources of the aerie. You have only to ask. Aubri will help you. He's... pretty badly hurt, but he can tell you who to ask."
Carteth sighs faintly, but gives a nod. "Alright. I will, that I can..." She slightly bothered by all of this. Take care of them? Skies, she's only just learning how to LIVE here, and now her Mate wants her to help those she doesn't even know, without having a clue HOW to help?...
Stormdancer gives another vigerous shake, then pads over closer, mostly clean now. "Lover," he says quietly, gazing into your eyes, "You can do this. You don't have to do it yourself... skies no. But help make sure that it IS done. I would do it myself, but... I don't think this visit can wait."
The rest of the rp is suspended due to the late hour...