eachdraidh | Video - OPEN to both Courts

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Video - OPEN to both Courts

There is nothing visible from the locket's facing initially, but there is plenty enough to hear to make up for it. There is a horrific sounding snap, followed immediately by a shrill inhuman shriek. The shriek cuts through the blackness of the image, filled with unmistakable pain and fear.

Worse still is the laughter that follows; cruel and amused.

There is the sound of something being dragged in the darkness, heavy and unwieldy; and breathing. There is muffled breathing from within the closed off space, fast and panicked.

"Remove its cover... I want it to see."

The darkness slides away as the rough material is pulled away, leaving Zhaneel where she has been left trussed and unable to move. Her breaths came fast and panicked through her nares, her beak tied securely shut and unable to open. There was scarce enough room for her to properly breathe, let alone move, and her bindings cut into the fragile bone and tendons of her wings. She had tried to struggle, but had only succeeded in digging them in deeper, blood caking around the open wounds.

It was not her own injuries that held the gryphon terrified and transfixed, though. It was the sight that greeted her upon her sight being returned to her. The locket broadcasts the images as her own mind tries to sort them out.

There is a gryphon laying before her, bound similarly but with its wings outstretched at its sides. No... its wing. While one remained secured and stretched at the poor creatures' side, the other lay shattered and crumpled on the ground. The gryphon appears to be barely breathing and young... painfully and horrifyingly young. Zhaneel keens, the sound clamped off and caught in her throat as she scrabbled uselessly against the stone ground, but it awarded her nothing but a sound kick to the side.

"You'll deliver a message to your Father."

The voice sneers down at her and her golden eyes roll up toward it. His face is indistinguishable, save for the grin that plays across his lips. There is movement before her as the gryphon kit begins to struggle, and there are people around it again. She tries to reach out with her mind to its mind, to offer it at least a swift death, but she can't seem to reach. Without the mind speech, she cannot engage the death spell. She heaves against her restraints, but they hold firmly and she can only watch as another faceless figure approaches the fledgling with a large blade in hand.

While Zhaneel is forced to watch, the kit shrieks and struggles as both of its wings are hefted upright. Broken bone grates and cracks, blood flowing freely from the severed arteries, but they continue hefting the wings until they are held aloft. The human with the sword steps in and looks toward the bound Zhaneel, and she struggles for breath through her closed beak, sides rising and falling as she begins to hyperventilate in her panic.

"Tell him he has no hope of victory."

And with that, the figure gathers his blade and swings, cleaving the fledgling's wings from its body. The poor creatures emits a series of nearly unbroken shrieks, flailing and jerking in its bonds as blood sprays all around. One wing was taken off entirely, but the other lays half removed at the gryphon's side. Its eyes roll in mindless horror and pain, until as if finally granted some reprieve, the poor gryphon falls silent and still...dead.

"Burn it."

Zhaneel watches in terror as they set flame to the gryphon, the feathers catching all too easily. The scent of burning fur and flesh fills the area.

"Will you pass out message, little one?"

Zhaneel's pupils contract to mere pinholes as she darts her gaze up to the faceless figure. She is trembling hard enough that her beak would be clacking were it not tied shut and the figure smiles at her again.

"Excellent... Set her free."

Zhaneel experiences a moment of hope within the fear, but it's not long lived.

"But cripple her first. I wish there to be no misunderstandings."

She struggles against her bonds again, eyes darting from the burning gryphon corpse before her to the man approaching with his sword to the faceless figure and back again. She tries to hold her wings in against her body, but they overcome her and extend them forcefully. She shrieks within her beak, the sound that of pure terror as the sword begins its downstroke.

As she thrashes, her locket flies free and clicks shut, but within her shriek could be heard the echoing bay of a hound.

**OOC: Feel free to hear her anywhere within or around Caer Glaem... as that has been where she's been calling home. Zhaneel was caught unaware but a fear dog and is dealing with the results.**

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[Aubri has been splitting his time between Caer Glaem and... well. Everywhere else. He's at the castle now -- and it's a good thing, too. It's the shriek he hears first, eerily echoing dimly in the air around him and over the locket.

Zhaneel. Hers is a voice he knows near as well as his own. She's near enough to hear but that doesn't surprise him; he knows she's been staying at the castle. From one of the courtyards near the castle proper, Aubri takes to the air and lets loose a shriek in answer.

Where hers is full of fear, his is angry, demanding.

Concerned.]

[She hadn't expected the dogs within the castle grounds proper and so she'd not shown a better amount of caution. This one had found her near the gardens and while she'd been foolish enough to walk about on the ground rather than taking to the skies.

As it entered the garden, Zhaneel had been caught in its web of illusion and left at its mercy.

She is entangled there now, quivering away from not what she sees as a hulking black hound, but as her tormentors and torturers. Another strike falls within the illusion and she convulses on the ground, a choked cry of pain slipping past her beak.

The dog moves in closer, its red eyes glowing in the darkness of evening. It snarls low in its throat, head lowering as it stalks forward. A short way off, a second and third bay echo in the night as the hound's companions approach its chosen prey. ]

[He hears the dogs again before he hears her; he desperately squashes the fear in his heart that she won't be where the dogs are and goes that direction. The sun is setting, long shadows reaching from darkened corners. It's Aubri's favorite time to fly, because the breeze is cool and the day is quieter then, but the gentle breeze is the last thing on his mind now.

He saw her first, cowering and seemingly not even watching the dogs coming for her. Aubri reacted before thinking, shoving aside any and all consternation over her posture. He dove, screeching a challenge.

In hindsight, it was probably that shriek that alerted the dog that something else was coming. It moved quickly and Aubri hit the ground heavily, talons digging wicked furrows as he sent dirt flying with the impact.]

[Zhaneel huddles before the beast as it draws closer and closer, feeding off of the fear it has her wrapped within. As Aubri comes screeching in it jerks back from his taloned grip, snarling and circling around the pair of gryphons. The hold the dog has over Zhaneel is severed and she shudders as the illusion drops and her surroundings settle into being again.

With the dropping of the illusion comes the full realization of what's happened and the gryfalcon's trembling moves from terror to anger, feather and fur rising down the length of her spine.]

How dare you?! [She shifts, rising back to her feet as she stalks to Aubri's side. She seems at her most collected, in that moment, a touch of her future self showing through as she bristles bodily and boldly. Her ear tufts pin back against her skull, tail lashing angrily as she stares down the dog.

It's larger than any dog she's ever seen, it's fur seeming made of the very shadows it stands in while its red eyes glow back at her. Hers hadn't been a memory of her own, for Zhaneel herself had never been captured or tortured in that manner. She had seen the remains of said torture, however; Ma'ar had never been terribly concerned about their remains being found. He'd been pretty forward about them being found, actually.

The dog's lips pull back, baring fang as it snarls deeply at them both. The growl is picked up as the other two fear dogs join their comrade, facing off the pair of gryphons from perhaps ten yards away.

For the first time in her life, instead of contemplating fleeing or simply letting the creatures kill her, Zhaneel rears up onto her hind feet and skrees a throaty challenge, forelegs spreads and talons held at the ready.

The dogs leave no more room for contemplation or conversation, leaping forward as one unit to attack.]

Edited 2014-11-20 23:46 (UTC)

[Nausea doesn't begin to explain what he feels at seeing this video. Having been around enough bond-birds, he has an idea of the amount of pain both Gryphons endured. Anger soon overtakes the pain and he feels his magic crackling at his fingertips, ready to be used on the one(s) responsible.

Oh he would make them hurt and they would be begging for death by the time he was done.

Giving his head a sharp shake, Vanyel brings himself back to this poor Gryphon, eyes filled with tears.]

Tell me where you are, leeka. [His memory of the bond-birds is helping him to recall some of the Tayledras tongue. He has found it to be soothing towards those with feathers.] No more harm shall befall you.

Edited 2014-11-20 08:06 (UTC)

[The shared illusion hadn't been a memory of Zhaneel's own making; not wholly. What had been shown to others by way of the locket had been a collection of images taken from her mind from things she'd seen during the mage wars. All too often, the patrols would encounter the bodies of scouts that had failed to return. Gryphons, most often, that had been made an example of by Ma'ar when they'd been captured and refused to give any information over to their opposition.

The Mage wasn't at all forgiving when he didn't get his way and enjoyed leaving reminders for Urtho's people. Unfortunately for they of the winged persuasion, said reminders were in the form of torture and execution.

Zhaneel hears the Herald speaking through the locket in a brief moment, tearing at a fear dog that dared to get too close. Her beak and feathers are covered in blood that is both hers and that of the dog and for once in her life, the gryfalcon appears alive in battle.

There is a familiarity with him that gives her pause, his body alight with magic of a world she knows; but it's the word that really catches her attention: leeka.

She'd heard the word from the hertasi and the army's kestra'chern for most of her life; it meant child. Though he might not be of her time, as Aubri himself was removed, he was at least of her world.]

The vision you saw wasn't all it appeared to be sh'el... long ago and far away are those foes to us now. [She is distracted by one of the fear dogs as it moves in, thinking her wholly distracted from the fight. She catches hold of it with her beak, and it jerks free with a yelp of pain and anger. Blood covers her beak and she pants heavily, ears pinned as she hisses in response.]

I'd not turn away another hand with these beasts, though. [If Vanyel wanted an outlet for his magic, the fear dogs would be an apt target.]

[She has shed enough blood. His movements are slower than usual, thanks to his own wounds, but his anger numbs him to his pain. He can't stand to see her fighting alone and encountering such monstrous visions.

Teeth grit, hands clenched, he runs to the stable, leads out his white stallion and mounts him with a growl of discomfort. Fumbling with his locket, he peers down at her, quickly leading the horse into a gallop.]

Bite and claw, sh'aen! Do not give them a chance to touch you. [He looks up and guides the stallion with the practiced motions of one who has been a rider his entire life. With a leap, the stallion clears a bush and whinnies unhappily. He doesn't like being near the dogs either.

Not that they will live long.

With ruthless accuracy, Vanyel rips, tears and shreds the dogs with lightning bolts summoned from the sky. The very ground is scorched, but Zhaneel is never in danger.]

You will not harm her again! [His voice is powerful and his eyes flash with ferocity.] Mages and Gryphons will show you no mercy.

[Neither gryphon will show mercy toward this particular enemy. Aubri hasn't yet felt the fear that they send rolling across the the mind like powerful waves but he has seen it in action, has seen Zhaneel cowering in the face of it. That's enough for him.

Already on the ground -- having dove in upon a dog and missing terribly -- Aubri wheels in place, talons seeking to rend flesh from bone. The dogs are fast and Aubri is more powerful than fast -- but he is not ineffective. Even though he misses, he clears a good area, screeching and hisses in angry challenge.

That is, until fear washes over him and he stills.]

[Zhaneel tore at the dogs with a ferocity she hadn't shown toward any of her enemies in the past. She slashed with beak, talon and claw, drawing blood even as they scored successful hits on her in turn. The three hounds had pulled back, allowing she and Aubri a brief respite and she'd taken advantage to respond to Vanyel while she could.

She knew that he was a Mage, but she didn't know for certain if he would come to them or not, or even how far he was from them. As she bloods the hound and it draws back, she steps back and tries for a breath. She's panting heavily, her sides bloody from the claws and fangs of the dogs, but she has just as much of their blood on her feathers and fur as her own.

And then things fall silent to her side, where Aubri had been ripping into the hound closest to him. She half turns, voiced filled with curiosity and concern.]

Aubri? [What she sees draws her up sharply, beak opening in an angry hiss. Aubri has been captured in he fear dog's gaze and stands stock still as it closes in on him.

She skrees loudly, the sound a challenge filled cry of alarm and anger. She doesn't have time to leap toward the dog, however, drawing up short at the whinny of a horse and the sudden surge of magic nearing them.

She jerks to one side, the lightning missing both she and Aubri completely, but half-blinding her in the process. She shields herself under a wing, head tucked under it until the flashes die away as quickly as they came.

She blinks rapidly several times, gaze settling onto the scorched ground as she slowly regains her feet. Her yellow gaze lifts to Vanyel atop his mount.]

You have our thanks...

[She looks toward Aubri, yellow gaze alert and concerned.]

Aubri...? [There is much asked within that one word, but the most pressing concern is if he is well. She knows he has seen things worse than she on the battlements, both on their home world and in the Drabwurld.]

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Video - OPEN to both Courts

[video -> action -> whatever]

Huzzah!

no subject

no subject

[Video]

[Video]

[Video] -> [Action]

[Action] just gonna... bring these three together

That sounds like a lovely idea! Aubri-->Zhaneel-->Vanyel work for everyone?