Nobody Dies

SUMMARY: Rak and Murder and Wilfred and Silverwing come together for an unplanned family outing! Silverwing doesn't bite Murder, Murder doesn't stab Rak, nobody dies. 

Ordinarily, when Rak is out patrolling or hunting with Silverwing outside of the mountains, they stay on the ground. But travelling in two dimensions is BORING!!! (And OK, maybe he's still feeling kind of smug about his wings finally being strong enough to carry him.)

So for the last half hour or so he's been flying, and Silverwing has been padding along the road beneath him, making it VERY clear that he will pay for this later.

Jealous kitty feelings notwithstanding, they've been working out a fairly good hunting pattern between them... Silverwing flushes prey from the underbrush with a pounce and roar, and Rak takes it down with his bow.

They'd initially been travelling with some younger Egalrin, apprentice hunters from the Aerie whom Rak is helping train, but the fledglings have headed off with a deer and an elk, and now Rak and Silvie are just goofing around for practice, with the ranger just tagging his "prey" with blunted arrows.

A certain Gobbo is hiding in the brush nearby. Well, hiding is not the proper term, she's actually checking her traps for rabbits and other prey, but to someone romping around the countryside, the difference may be minimal. The Worg is no where to be seen, but he often ranges far about. Murder focuses on the task at hand: pulling the prey free, dealing with it appropriately, and resetting or rebuilding the trap as necessary.

The odds against Silverwing choosing the particular underbrush that Murder is not-hiding in might seem astronomical, but it helps to remember that injured animal in Murder's trap probably smells awfully tempting to the winged cat. Also, Silverwing is a bit of a wise-ass. Regardless of the reason, Silverwing charges into Murder's copse, shrieking loudly.

The Gobbo jumps straight up a few feet, and then runs off squeaking noisily, leaving a path of broken traps and bent branches and twigs in her wake as she disappears into the distance. A few moments later, she returns, sword raised in two hands, her eyes literally glowing a deep red, and howling in a manner that suggests she's surrended to the goblin urges of old.

Erakirak draws and nocks an arrow as Murder is startled from hiding, and is about to loose an arrow when he recognizes his prey. "Murder?" He whistles an Auran command abruptly and Silverwing backs off, but shortly thereafter she is on the attack, and he lands in her path. "Murder, stop! It's just us!"

Having her name called seems to tug at some bit of her consciousness, and she slows, ending up before the Egalrin with her blade still held high. Breathing heavily through her nose, her eyes still glowing a bright red.

Erakirak dithers as Murder charges, unwilling to either strike her or allow her to strike Silverwing. He's MOSTLY confident that she won't hit him. And it turns out he's right. Which he probably shouldn't be quite as surprised by as he is. "I, um..." he says, "it occurs to me we never mentioned that the whole 'I don't kill you' thing goes both ways?"

The red in her eyes sputters and goes out, and the sword drops from her hands. Followed promptly by her sitting down with a thump. And then bawling loudly.

"Hey, hey, it's OK," Rak consoles her, crouching down beside her and putting a wing over her shoulders. "It was just a mistake, is all. What's wrong?" Silverwing approaches as well, slinking along the ground apologetically.

Murder buries her face in his chest and just wails unconsolably for a little bit. The tears do slow and stop after that. "It's what I am. A little bundle of rage."

"Well, sure... it's part of what you are," Rak replies matter-of-factly, before he puts things together. "Oh. I mean... does that bother you?"

"It bothers me that I would come at you and her with my sword raised.", she snuffles, hiding her face away. "I don't often rage at the drop of a hat. It's so tiresome."

Erakirak nods. "Yeah, I could maybe be OK with never doing that again," Rak agrees mildly. "But, I mean... you thought you were being attacked, right?"

Murder huffs and keeps her face to his chest. "That and that I was really scared for a minute there. Which makes it worse, I know she was just being silly and having fun with me."

"Sure, but you didn't know that _then_," he stresses, holding her. "I mean, it's not like you recognized her and decided to attack. She scared you, is all." He grins. "Tough little bloodrager, scared of a little kitten, eh?" he teases her gently as he scrathes behind Silverwing's ear with his foot.

Murder huffs gain and rubs her face against his chest. "Startled is a better word for the situation. If I were really scared, I'd have not charged back in headlong." She sniffles and holds out her hand to Silverwing, wiggling her fingers. "I feel really bad now."

"Hey, she was the one who scared -- I mean, startled -- you, remember? You have nothing to feel bad about." He thinks about it for a second, then asks "Is there something else going on?"

Murder motions for Silverwing to come over, and she looks up at Erakirak. "No, I don't think so. I was just idly thinking about stuff and fixing my traps and wondering about dinner tonight and all the usual little things you think about during the day, yanno?"

Erakirak nods, reassured. "What, you weren't thinking about me?" he teases, mock-sniffling. Silverwing looks up at him for permission, and he nods, and the griffon rubs her head against Murder's thigh.

Murder wraps her arms around the griffon as best she can, and the tears start up again. "Y.y..yeees, you f..feature prominently in my thoughts and dreams.", she snuffles.

Erakirak preens. Not that he was serious, but still, it's nice to hear. He wraps his other wing around the griffon, and the three cuddle quietly for a bit... until they are interrupted by a Worg bark that it doesn't take magic to translate as "Hey what about meeee!?!" as Wilfred charges into their midst.

Murder turns her head to see the newest interloper, and burbles and sputters as the Worg licks away the tears, dirt, stray bits of grass, and griffon fluff and feather bits. Basically anything or anyone that gets too close gets 'cleaned'. Or maybe tasted. Who knows?

Only the worg knows for sure, and Wilfred isn't telling. Rak skritches his neck with one foot-talon, Silverwing's flank with the other, cradling Murder against his chest with both arms, and sweeping his wings around the whole tableau. Murder might notice that his wings are quite a lot stronger than they used to be.

Murder noses at the birdyman's neck. "So how're your wings coming along? They feel firmer. I guess all the flying you have been doing has made you stronger, yes?" She then pulls both giant furry heads closer, holding Silverwing in one arm and Wilfred in the other.

"Yeah," Rak replies excitedly, "they really are! Like, they got strong enough to fly with, but, like... I can carry twice as much weight as I used to!"

Murder giggles. "Luckily I don't weigh much at all. I'd hate to be a burden."

"You're never a burden," Rak replies, grinning, "but yeah, it's pretty cool getting to fly with you. Silverwing gets even _more_ jealous when we do that."

Murder snorts, "Goober, you shouldn't tease her like that, she's gonna get her wings and you're gonna find it hard to keep her at bay."

Erakirak shrugs. "THat's gonna be hard no matter what I do," he observes fondly. "I can no more keep up with her than keep up with you. I'm just lucky you both put up with me."

Murder giggles and squeezes 'Rak tightly. "No, you put up with me. You're a sweet person. I'm lucky to have you in my life." She kisses his beak several times.

"You are! We're both lucky," Rak agrees, then squawks in dismay as both Wilfred and Silverwing join Murder in licking his face. "Aack! Too many of you... I can't guard my flanks!"

Murder giggles. The Gobbo squeezes Erakirak tightly once more. "I'm sorry to have scared you and Silverwing."

"Well, what was the word you used? Oh right, 'startled'. We were startled!"

Murder nods. "Still, I have to do better. It is something that can be a struggle. I hope you all can be patient."

Erakirak shrugs. "You're fierce. It's one of the things I love about you. I've never seen you hurt anyone by accident, though."

Murder nodnods. "I hope that I never do."

Erakirak nods. "Totally. If we're gonna hurt people we should totally do it on purpose."