rubyrubyruby

Oh that Ruby. She came practically begging and pleading for the help of a good Ranger. In her mushmouth way, stressing about things worse than Elkasaurus' and people with grey harpoons. Something that she promises is a threat just waiting to happen. It's not in Arden or Amber yet, but left unchecked, it could cause a future headache. Truth!
Ruby purports to be less than awesome at things involving tracking or hunting. Anything involving the outdoors and animals, if they've a molecule of instinct, her aura winds up spooking them or driving them off. The equivalent of a bright pink van with radar dishes on top parked next to a stake out. What she /could/ do though, through dubious information, was know when something was going to be spiraling closer to the prime realms. Orbiting and rampaging through shadow in an ever tightening circle. And so to shadow she goes, dragging Moxon along with promises of 'owing' and free passage on her ship if he ever needs to Range across the ocean.
This place could be Ghenesh or Arden, with some Mrs. Dash Oregano Cibola. It's a little alien in how the air smells, but the oxygen is invigorating. Rich. A dusty plain with tall grass thick enough to lose a badger in, and copse's of trees where smart folk might avoid the orange sun that beats down relentless. "I be sure...I be sure they'll come through 'ere. 'Orrible things. 'Orrible. An oasis of sorts is nearby. This really is close to a savannah if the heat is any indication. But the vegetation isn't suffering. One might have a sense of rich loam or earth below the surface. Moist.

Something's definitely using this place as a highway. There are trails running through here, and the oasis has signs of spoor and feeties. Four legged and bipedal sorts with strange markings. Moxon's keen attention to detail uncovers almost weekly transits that use the oasis as a crossroads. Two slashes of directions that crisscross a horde of creatures. There's skin that's been sloughed off like a snake, some scales and hard nubs of tough hide. An intimate knowledge of the pattern and those who abuse it to travel the multiverse will show that if this were a carpet, it'd be rather well worn. Either someone is diligently making paths for future node creation, or they're cattle-driving repitilians, wyerns or other scaley sorts quite often. Perhaps to market? Perhaps this is a waystation from Point Aaah! to Point Scree! Nothing has been coming out of the oasis, but plenty of things have been at it. The banks of it have been stompy-stomped a lot. Heavy things that weigh as much as an elephant addicted to fastfood. There are also some smaller tracks, of the two legged. All evidence points towards reptiles or dragons, or both. Attempts to create a hatchery have been cruelly aborted on the opposite bank. Something started...but stopped, and was attempted to be erased.

The shadow paths lead off to the horizon, one leading to a copse of trees that would serve those tricky forest walkers. And another bisecting that path (helping to created the X-crossroads) comes from the plains, which might favour those pale Gheneshians. Pattern walkers could use either, and if herds of things are being moved, there's a strong chance a Pattern Initiate is ~helping~

Moxon surveys, which mostly consists of sniffing dirt and tasting fec-- no, wait, other way 'round. He checks soil composition and stares into the distance a lot. Nods to himself. "Big lizards, innit'?" He asks Ruby back over one shoulder: "... you got any cold-making tricks?"

Ruby shadows Moxon, making a disgruntled face as he uses his expertise to find out a few things. That she can't do what he can, irks her, and it registers in her expressions and frustration. "Whut?" The question heightens her cannot-doo's and she pushes her shoulders back. "Whut me? Nah...naw. Whut you mean big lizards? You mean drakes?! Bog's barnacles..." There's a melodramatic tone to her voice and she swallows, peering towards the horizon. "Can't make cold, unless you mean deaded."
"Know some femmes and blokes who ~can~ though..."
Someone say cold making tricks? Chase was pulled through after a breif conversation with Ruby, she had him at 'hunting trip' he peers about the the area, "maybe I should go aloft?" he offers, "'course that might scare off whatever it is we're hunting...what is that again by the way?"

Wynter drifts along in utter enchantment. Taking in the strange place with glee. Never mind the reasons why they're actually here. To hunt strange and horrible things, as Ruby says. "Big lizards? Well that should prove interesting. We're hunting them? I was never clear on the why's of this but a Ruby in need.."

Ruby straightens. She eyes Chase carefully, reading into what he offers. "I ain't good at ambushes, Truth. We 'ear tha thunder 'o feet before we see'm. I mean...maybe." There's ambient sounds of insects coming from the oasis, and they quiet when things interrupt their leg-rubbing courting songs. They resume soon enough though, their little legs and appendages sawing upon one another like a chitinous symphony. "I not sure 'ow many." She looks to Moxon. "But I know they /driven/. An tha's what worries me. It be too much. This ain't natural, an natural be one 'o me favorite things, next tah balance. This unbalanced in me opinion. Whut you wanna doo with cold tricks, Moxon?"

Chase flexes his fingers, "Dead or alive?" he asks, then peers off into the distance, "I can bait them like we did that other thing...draw them to a kill site...or capture site...you know whichever?" he offers, "big lizards you say...how big?"

Moxon shakes his head, amused. "You want to stop a lizard? You put that bastard on ice. Makes 'em kinda ... close down." He sniffs the air, curious. "It's warm enough here that's a sound tactic against anything, I expect, but you're right about we'll see them before they see us." He nods. "If you're keen on bite-sized things, check the hatchery on yonder bank for feral survivors?"

Moxon says, "Incoming."

Wynter says quiet for the most part. Simply taking in the area and listening to what's going on. She can't help herself though when Moxon speaks of cold and lizards. "That may work on most but then there are giant lizards like this one here who love cold." She says nudging Chase with an elbow.

Moxon stands, checks the ugly-looking pistol stuck in the small of his back. *click, click.* Frowns. He draws a bow, something recurved and Gheneshi-looking. Nasty, short, powerful. Like its cycloptic owner.

Ruby stands up straighter when Moxon says that 3-syllable word. Like meer-kat anxiously trying to look everywhere at once. The Ranger's audible readying of his strange armaments have her baring her teeth but biting her tongue on the matter. She hisses at the situation and reaches for the kukri sheathed behind the small of her waist. "Fook me...Wish I 'ad some 'o those big 'arpoons. They were made good an strong." She looks to Chase and Wynter. "I thought we'd 'ave more time, Truth. Maybe we could just let'm pass...or..." She growls. "Nah...Nah, I not say if they need tah die or not. An I ain't squeamish. But they be'ah threat tah Golden Circles if they directed there, you get me? They don't belong there none. An I gots a feelin they nudged."

"Dragons are not lizards, and most of them hate the cold." he says rather primly, he cants his head and listens a moment, then takes two quick steps away from the group. His form blurs, when he comes back into focus, where once a man stood, now crouches a dragon, "we need a plan" he rumbles in a not quite human voice. "I can draw them off?" he flexes his wings, "or run them in circles until you signal?"

Moxon offers: "We could watch? Or, you know just ... 'go.'"

Wynter offers a smile and a nod of understanding to Chase's prim words. "As you say. Still learning about you dragon folk." She movees to take a look at the this hatchery, peering at it. "I know we should have some caution. But at the same time we do need to move forward, right? Lets get a eye-full of what they actually are and then make some choices."

Moxon starts backing up. He, whether or not his companions do, wants to ... see ... something. "Should've brought my ghillie suit, eh, Rubes? Anyone asks, I'm just a grumpy bush." He pops down into the veldt, observing.

Ruby suddenly very much regrets her height. She reverses her knife and then tries to make haste to find a place to hunker down. Hunching over, it's like a game of hide and seek was suddenly announced. Ruby grunts at Moxon and looks down at the zebra-stripe tattoo along her leg. She curses and moves down to the oasis to crouch near the bank where the failed hatchery is being seen to by Wynter. Chase's dragon form gets an anxious glance because: Dragons omg. "I don't wanna get eaten by big lizards."
Ruby has a thought and pipes up just as more auditory and visual clues manifest far out on the plain. "Uh...I just wanted tah add, this ain't me fault. I just a concerned...amberite, Truth."

While the surface of the oasis doesn't ripple cinematically, there's a faint tremble in the earth. Spongey beneath the harder dustier crust, it absorbs some of the stampede coming, but doesn't neutralize it completely. There's a tight mob of four and two-legged beasts coming at speed. Clustered in a tight column...there's actually some fool riding the lead chicken-walker, and the rest follow. All going at the same pace, they're definitely using the more worn path across the savannah and will come quite close to the oasis if they continue along.

Chase's frills flex, his crest raising in a full theat display, he launches himself at the Giant lizards letting out a bellow of challenge, the air before growing bitter cold as it fills with a thousand needles of ice hammering at the face and eyes of the front of the herd. He climbs gaining altitude as he strikes, the ranger says cold, he can deliver cold...

Wynter's brow rises as the vibrations strengthen and then the rider and his herd come into view. She opens her mouth to speak when Chase bellows and lets loose a blast of ice. There is a small frown and then a sigh.
Still she uses her own magic at this point to speak directly to the rider and hopeing the rider speaks their language. "Hold your beasts for a moment." She says. The words transfered directly to the rider's ear.

The Outrider at the head of the swiftly moving procession spots the airborne Chase and is stunned by the sight of the flying drake. He's actually saddled on the creature, though a harness that's an elaborate webbing of leather to allow freedom of movement. Stirrups and every darn thing. He's dressed for the plains, bearing a few fetishes, primarly braclets and beads, hide (but of rather excellent fabrication that has a mass-made quality). He also has many tons of saurians behind him, and he can't easily get out of the way.
The Rider's two-legged Raptor mount spreads its own wide frills in an answering challenge, and then pain as it's pelted with ice. The weird warbling cry of the lizard creature splits the column and they start to peel off to either side. Still coming towards the oasis at a gallop, but not at running-from-the-devil speed. More outriders appear at the flanks as the mob experiences confusion, and the shadow of a dragon instills an unfamiliar element to this pitstop.
Rider-Dude looks like he's not sure where he belongs. A cross between Turok and Steve Erwin by the way he dresses. Something more akin to the land down under. It's an unharmonious meshing of stuff you could buy at a store, and things you'd acquire within a tribal setting. The glint of metal here and there. Grizzled and hardened, but odd because he's striding two cultures, or unable to give up one completely.

Moxon says, "Wynter, can you get him to parley with us?"

It's sort of a good cop, bad cop situation. Chase has used a phonebook to the face, and Wynter has offered a diplomatic word to the ear. The rider tries to get clear of the beasts, slowing without outright stopping. Intense confusion as he stares and puts fingers to his lips to whistle shrill tones.

Wynter looks at the added numbers heading their way. The larger number of beasts and others. She doesn't glance back at Moxon but instead speaks softly. "I can try." And muttering to herslef she rises up into the air above the grasses and floats along til she is somewhat near the flying Chase. She waves to the lead rider and trys her trick again, speaking directly to him. "Are you willing to speak with me?"

Chase continues to climb circling the herd from on high, at the moment trying to get an idea of just how big it might be, and besides nothing says friendly like the shadow of a dragon passing over your head. He casts a glance at Wynter, hoping the others can cover her as hovering is not is strong suit.

Liya simply stays quiet, watching with some bemusement. She and her big cat have been here all along, but quietly. As she gets acclimatized to this shadow her senses become more attuned and Liya can start using them. Her gaze goes from left to right, up and down, and then she turns to study behind them for a long moment.

Moxon might be muttering the conjugation of various Gheneshi verbs to himself in the bushes. Quick! Refresher course!

Ruby peers from where she crouches, scanning the widening fan of creatures that have had a wrench thrown into their travel plans. The dust rising from them all is rising high towards the sky, and their approach sending thrummy vibrations up through the heels. Cantankorous hronks and cries issue from the assortment of saurians. A great deal of effort is undertaken by the outriders to collect and maintain a grouping of the saurians. There might be approximately a dozen rather huge bronto types. Half that number of ride-able raptors. Four-legged sail-backed hissing types that the flintstones could use as stationwagons. And one very large T.Rex type...with something in its mouth. It's only now making its way forward, and the beasts in front make way. There's an actual person riding in the open mouth, in a hammock strung from the upper maw. Painted in a kind of blue wode, there's definitely an air of this person being in charge. The Rex stares with bloodshot eyes, drooling copiously from a red-lined maw of fangs, and it's rider.
The group on the plains finally comes to a halt and faces off against the group already at the watering hole. Their saurians grunt and huff, some pacing or swinging their heads until a Rider uses a long pole to prod them hard in the head or haunch.

Liya literally stops to stare at Ruby at her comment. She shakes her head, one hand atop Mayhem's head, as she keeps the big cat close. "There are definitely strange things in shadow, I agree."

Wynter takes the pose of someone seated in the air, rising up high enough to be on par with the crazy person within the t-rex's mouth. She smiles and inclines her head in that direction and then causes her voice to boom loud enough to cover the distance and be head by them all. "Greetings to you."

Chase rolls sweeping lower over the herd, rolling as he passes over their heads, the Trex seems to have his attention at the moment.

There's an audible gasp from the wranglers acting as mounted sentries for the pack of dinos. The flying dinosaur is one thing, but so is a flying and levitating person. They turn to their leader with worried glances, and the leader regards Wynter with the practiced air of despot. He's certainly almost lounging in the maw, like he belongs on the cover of a metal album. Difficult to tell from the slouch, but he must be near 7 feet tall, heavily muscled and doesn't mind Rex-breath. He grabs a serrated dagger and jams up into the roof of the Rex's mouth, whom them bellows long and hard. He smiles even as his eardrums nearly bleed. Greeting delivered. He points to Wynter and swipes his hand hard to the left. ~Begone~

"There is magic - " well, Liya is no doubt not needing to tell the person floating in the air there. But the others should know, right? "And it looks like the beasts have something on them that isn't quite healing right." That definitely doesn't set well with the beastmistress, by far. Mayhem mrowls softly, and Liya turns her attention to the cat briefly. "Beware the poles the riders have and that whatever in the big jaws."

Moxon calls, from the bushes: "I can shoot Mister Whatever. But we're trying diplomacy!" 'See? The ogre thinks he's people!' is the tone that's in. Fondly, though, fondly indeed.

Wynter waves a hand from side to side as if to disperse the stinky dino-breath. She smiles and raises the hand she was waving and brings it down like he did to the side. A crack of thunder pealing as she finishes her movement. "~NO~" She laughs then. "Come speak with me or you begone."

Ruby is close enough to Moxon and Liya for her non-stealthy whispers to be heard. Her gobbledegook accent simply unable to be properly low and is a running commentary from her headspace. "They big...look't all them...So much meat I bet..." Slight slavering. "...Big steaks...wonder what kinda meat...Nnnnnggh...Taste like...Dunno....Thick."

The dramatic way Wynter punctuates her side of the discussion startles the saurians, making them stamp their feet or paw at the plains beneath their feet. The Rex swings his head to the side before he's cruelly made to face the Pathian with a kick down to the dino-tongue and tapping the flat of the vicious blade against a fang with a resounding ~twonk~. Leveling a furious gaze, the leader of the Dino-rustlers leans forward to contemplate this face off. There's a moment of weighing the odds and then he leans back and raises a hand to claw away at some of the body paint upon her person, exposing his breast and the tattoo beneath. With a growl, he shouts loud, an inarticulate cry that his followers take up. Some reluctantly, but vigorously joining in the mob mentality if they know what's good for them. With hard prods to their mounts, a screeching chorus comes from the raptors and short bows and sharp poles are readied.

RPG: Moxon challenges a difficulty of 9. Moxon chooses Resolve and the gifts FGT-MM, SKL-QM, and STY-UE. Moxon succeeds.
RPG: Chase challenges a difficulty of 9. Chase chooses Wits and the gifts BLD-MA, DRG-BS, ICE-WM, ICE-WR, LIF-HH, PHY-ST, SKL-AR, and STY-DF. Chase succeeds.
RPG: Liyandra challenges a difficulty of 7. Liyandra chooses Resolve. Liyandra succeeds.

Moxon has spent time since the chief's denial of Wynter's *perfectly reasonable request* drawing a bead on the bastard's forehead with the recurve-bow, and accounting for swaying and wind and the like. If he were Graceful or Forceful the shot might've been cleaner, but today he calculated a shot that ... simply must land. No matter the odds, or the barriers, or the Rexes. He picked a point beneath the Tyrannosaur's chin, a boneless dot, and let fly the arrow that might just find itself through the ignorant chief.

Chase banks toward the T-Rex and dives awaiting the right moment to strike as he gains momentum a huge lance of ice forms, the Ice dragon roars sending a spray of needle sharp ice shards into the beasts eyes, when it reacts the ice lance flies driving toward whatever tender point the monster presents intent on if not killing the beast getting it to bite down upon it's rider.

Liya doesn't move. She simply settles where she is, one hand on Mayhem's head, her gaze fixed firmly on the herd of 'saurs. There is no sound out of her, but her look is intent enough that one might expect lazers to shoot out of her blue eyes. They do not. She concentrates though, that much is obvious. Complete intent concentration, as the beast master works so very quietly and subtly, that animal empathy of hers not something that can be seen or heard. At least, not unless it works.

Wynter doesn't move an inch as the chief and his people bluster and yell, getting ready for some sort of attack one thinks. The tattoo is looked at and she shrugs, leaning to the side and placing chin apon palm. Elbow apon a non exhistant chair she floats in. "Unwise." is her single statement.

The fool still has his mouth open in his long braying yawwwwwp when the arrow whistles in and strikes true. The arrow is just entering his head...and there's a sharp flash and it half-embeds in his darn skull. Bleeding profusely, the tattoo angrily flashes and spins like a propeller of ink. The chieftan reels in his seat as Chase makes his attack run. Just as pandemonium strikes, and leaps from first one dino, to another. They're quite agitated, but something moves like a current through the line. Four-legged and bipedal, the urge to move, to go, is happening. Bellowing and roaring, and a chaotic stampede begins. At the center is the Rex getting run through by the ice lance, as it penetrates the saurian's hide and it flails about, waving its little arms and snapping angrily at the passing dragon. It stumbles forward at a run, it's chieftan in its maw being swung around as he bleeds profusely from his head, almost given a quick lobotomy and dazed and barely conscious. The herd takes off on all directions, and the outriders draw a bead on Chase while some charge the oasis with some panicking animals.

Ruby rises up as some of the herd start stampeding in their direction. She looks quickly for a place to climb, but what the oasis provides isn't exactly great for getting out of the way. "Bloody 'ell!" Looking at her knife, she runs left, and then right, like she's picked up some of the panic of the saurians. She stares down the advancing beasts and tries to decide what to do. Flee or fight.

Moxon reloads, picking off the nearest chargers likely to leave large saurian footprints on his friends.

Chase weaves in and out of the panicked Dino's, not wanting to be an easy target for the arrows or spears as he decides how best to drive the panic home.

Wynter shoots up a good twenty feet from where she was as the arrows arc intowards her and the others. She 'stands up' from her chair and shakes her head looking at all the targets and where her allies are. There is a nod from her and she raises a hand and brings it down and around from the side, as if she wer tossing something. Below, those getting a touch to close to Ruby, Moxon and Liyandra get a huge blast of air are near torndao speeds.

It's a beautiful mess of disorder. The dinos appear trained to follow commands, but they're receiving a call and direction from different sources. And instinct is so hard to put a leash on when the hind brain sinks its teeth in. Perhaps the most terrible thing of all is the mortally wounded T.Rex and the inarticulate Chief covered in paint. The amount of blood and ucky saliva being tossed about clears more wode from him, revealing more tattoos, one of which probably spared his life from being immediately snuffed. The dinos run from the Rex as it gurgles, half-dead on it's feet and jaws closing on the carefully constructed captain's cockpit hammock, the occupant, staring almost cross-eyed concussed and bellow just...sounds and bewildered emotions.
Arrows fail to find targets, snatched by the air, redirected by gusts of strange wind. The mass of saurians blunder past most of group, some trampling into oasis itself, some felled to create shallow furrows along the ground as they slide to a halt.

Liya's gaze moves from one to another of the beasts, as she continues to amplify their fear, nudging them towards out of control. Their herders might be too busy to throw spears or shoot arrows at people, if the beasts are stampeding with all the finesse of an elephant in a fine china shop. She is stubborn enough to keep that up for a bit, until she gives a satisfied look, and then stands ready for - whatever happens next.

Ruby does a little side-step shuffle and blunders into the path of one of the four-legged sail-backs. An uncharitable thought would be to say she was trying to escape everything and leave the rest to be trampled. She gets bounced aside and rolls into the path of a bronto with its head down...It's just had a T.Rex death-rattle behind it, and it's not stopping for anyone. Ruby gets to her feet and then screams as the beast trips upon a Raptor and its rider, and the whole mess lurches at Ruby and Moxon. Ruby can't outrun it, and tries to raise her hands and resist the oncoming tonnage, trying to brace herself and dig her feet in.

RPG: Moxon challenges a difficulty of 10. Moxon chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB, PAS-HG, and STY-UE. Moxon succeeds.

Moxon charges for Ruby, building momentum and muscular power as he goes, tackling her in a vicious sommersault he hopes will drive them both clear! "Sorryaboutthiiiii-iiiiii-iiiiis!"

Ruby makes a loud 'hhhhhhuff!' as the wind is driven from her, which has the happy happenstance of stopping that horrible wailing of panic from Ruby. She's tackled clear and the world turns over and over. Did anyone catch the license plate of the bus that clipped her?

MY HERO. That's the license plate. Yup. Liya is somehow managing to stay out of the way of the crazy 'saurs, somehow. She and Mayhem goggle at Moxon's charge, and then have to hot foot a few feet out of the way of another panicked critter. Liya slams an empathic emotion at the thing, hopefully sending it skittering off even faster. Away from the troupe. That's the ticket. Run! Away! stupid! Saurs!

Wynter sucks in a breath as the dinos nearly take out the group on the ground and then a brow raises again as Moxon and Ruby go flying in their own right. Well.. that happened.
She shakes her head as if to clear it and hold her arm out to the side muttering as a bow forms in her hand. One of lightning. She brings it up and pulls back the string as an arrow forms. Finding the closest rider she takes aim and fires and forgets, looking for real issues... the humans controling the beasts.

The Rex stumbles closer to the oasis, it's blood pumping from wounds, half-blind and with this thing keeping its mouth open. The straps and stanchions of bone and metal to keep it perpetually yawning or roaring creak alarmingly. The vitality of the dino is incredible. Even as the clock of its life ticks down, it's practically a force of nature unto itself. A big blundering beast, branded and forced into servitude and about to meet its end of enslavement. The chieftan in its maw tries to claw his way from his seat, cutting his hands on the fangs of the creature as he tries to make his escape. Blood streaming from his lacerations and nearly naked with the blue running wetly from him. He's got quite a number of tattoos. He starts to cackle madly. Ecstatic giggles as his bare foot steps onto a bottom tooth and protrudes from the top. He looks like a crazy bezerker, and the worse he wounds himself, the more zealously happy he becomes. The Rex lurches hard to the left...and then the right, almost on top of Moxon and Ruby.

As Moxon and Ruby tumble clear of the thundering herd Chase begins a hissing chant, te sylabols so profane as to be forgotten as soon as they are heard, the air between the pair and the thundering dinos grows bitter cold the little moisture freezing implace as a frosty wall spings up, guiding the panicked animals away from the pair, the wall growing taller and thicker until Chase is confident nothing will be able to knock it down.
Wynter's shots have the luxury of a lovely death-from-above sightline. The lightning finds the riders and blackens them where they strike. The close connection usually means the raptors get a licking or a bit of electrical transferance. Some are spared though, and only the humans get the worst. Any direction or Order is completely gone. It's a mass migration going anywhere but here, thanks to the efforts combined and used.
The Rex rolls its remaining eye up in its head and slams directly into the wall of ice. It's like the sound of an arctic ice shelf cracking, before detaching before dropping into the sea. It makes the dino's jaws hinge shut with a second, smaller, ~crack~.
Dino fall down go boom.

Liya continues to egg the 'saurs on, until they're off elsewhere. "Ruby, Moxon, are you both okay?" she calls. Since it seems those two might be the ones closest to trouble. Mayhem mrowls, nudges at Liya, and if it's safe, she lets him trot over to check on them.

Moxon, still ass-over-teakettle-plus-Ruby, asks: "Did we win?"

Chase lands on the fallen T rex, letting out a blood curdling roar, his claws dig into it's chest as he stares down anything approaching the fallen giant.

Ruby pries open an eye to peer out as the dust begins to settle a little. Still feels like things are trampling off, at least it's away from them. Splashing through the oasis and out the other side.
Making for the plains. Making for the forest down the other well-used trail. "We alive?" She struggles out from under Moxon. "We alive...we won...I think." She looks up to Liya, not even sneering at the Mayhem. "Somethin 'it me. I think it was a mountain."

Wynter slowly starts to decend, spinning around in that slow motion way that allows her to scan the battleground and it's aftermath. SHe notes what seems to be left of the leader in the t-rex's mouth and makes a 'bleh' face. Finally her feet touching down to earth again. Thankfully the ice wall blocks most of the Chase eating sight. She makes another face and shudders.

"Seems so, but I'm still not clear on what we won," Liya says. She rubs at her head, feeling the effects of all that empathic pushing and shoving, so to speak. "Also, are there more of those things likely to be attacking?"

There's a final gurgling laugh from inside the T.Rex's mouth, as if the beast was giggling over being torn into. But it's definitely dead, and the sound of pleasure or mirth dribbles away, and is coming from smaller lungs.

Moxon dusts himself off. Checks he's still got at least one eye. Right. "Whoo."

Wynter lets the bow disapate into nothing and steps closer to Ruby, peering hard at the woman for a long moment. "Ruby, my dear. Would you mind telling me why everyone we've run into recently that's causing trouble seems to have tattoos? Magical tattoos at that."

Ruby touches her side gingerly. A powerful twinge has her clutching at her abdomen for a moment and she makes a sickly expression, waiting for the discomfort to get worse or turn into something else. Waiting for her body to tell her something different. She regards Liya, "Lots 'o track 'ere. Movin things back and forth...or from one place t'other. Lots 'o times looks like. Maybe we got lucky, an came across biggest troublemaker causin..." She turns to eye Wynter. "...trouble. Whut? One 'o them 'ad a tattoo? Whut, again?" She bows her head to wipe perspiration and dust from her face, smushing her face about with a muffled groan.

Chase does not bother himself with why's as he rips into the T Rex's chest, with a slash of his tail the ice wall shatters, and blows away in a flurry of snow, Chase rips the heart from the huge animal, looking to the group with the still dripping heart in his maw. He drops the blood heart near Ruby's feet, and looks her in the eye.

Moxon, already nursing stress-fractures from knocking Ruby to her knees, pelted with ice and snow. "Marvelous," he croaks.

Liya, clueless, but here to see what's going on. "Quite the adventure," is what she says, dryly. Her eyes gleam a little brighter, as her life sense is activated and she sort of winces at the sight of Ruby and Moxon, seen in this view. "Might be we need a doctor," she suggests softly.
And nope, she doesn't eye the Dragon with some asperity.

Wynter dusts herself off. The sudden snow making her grin but then theres an uggh! from her as the heart hits the ground. She makes another face and dances away a few steps. "That's just.. just .. ughh! At least cook it or something."

Ruby's stomach gives a wet gurgle as she hears the wet heavy thump of the heart. Oh gawd, look at it all glistening and gross and seeping ruby red stuff. She looks towards it with a grim expression on her face. It's huge. "Bog's barnacled bells..." Another fluh-fluh-flurrrrrrgh from her stomach and she turns away. "I don't want no bloke or femme peerin 'ard at me insides. I be fine. Keep tha 'eart if you want Chase. It be yours...You took't down."

Who said Dragons don't share! As Ruby did want none, Chase dids in , ripping out chunks of the still hot flesh, and snapping it down. His white silver scales splattered with crimson and bits of meat.

Ruby blinks rapidly and peers over towards the Tyrannosaurus. And then the numerous bodies near the crossroads. "I'm gonna need tah clean up some 'o this. Unless it leaves an important message."

Moxon shrugs? "Do we know what message we're leaving? And to whom?

"Those large lizards are still around, Ruby. Are they even suposed to be in this part of shadow? Or did that tattooed man-man bring them here? Clean this up..? Why, Ruby?"

After his meal Chase stalks toward the others, "is everyone alright?" he asks in a not quite human voice. "and perhaps someone can explain why were on this hunt." he notes the tattoo on what's left of the chief, "this have anything to do with the dust up at Bloody's?"

Ruby swallows and squints her good eye shut. "I'll let you in on a little extra information." She looks left and right, ridiculously, like there's a danger of being overheard beyond the group. "I gots this theory. Amber be tha apple 'o tha eye 'o anyone with a brain. There's this thought tha it be the most important part 'o anything. Things don't trickle there, they trickle oot. Tha's me thoughts. An anythin outside tha...tha shadoos, well, they gots greedy eyes. An things we do, they echo, an then them echos sometimes get a little fierce. Some even be real, an then they marshaling their resources to circle like sharks. This right 'ere...these things weren't being used like cows or goats. Same with ships I found floatin around ootside some golden circles. Boats full 'o animals all gettin trained and bred for conquest an war an everythin." Ruby purses her lips and raspberries. "I gots this theory tha there be this group, or just this motivation 'o echos or entities, tha wanna be on top 'o tha hill rather than circle around. They wanna climb to us."
"Aye, it all be connected. This be like karma, or ripples. Maybe." Ruby takes in a deep breath and sighs. "Everythin someone does, I think it can ripple. Good and bad, roight? Well, there's a ripple tha's tryin tha get stronger. Com-pe-tition."

"It ain't me fault 'o course." Ruby adds quickly. "But...uh...maybe someone like me been spreadin their art around without much responsibility."

Wynter mutters nad sits back down on thin air again, lest she sit in the disolving snow and blood. "So. Because someone made tattoos in Amber people all over are collecting animals and going mad and tring to get to Amber to.. take it over? That doesn't even make sense. Why would a tattoo make people crazy like those people at Bloody's and this guy here?"

Moxon looks skeptical, but is perhaps too battered to presently follow up. "I should follow Liya home, I expect. Don't have to go on patrol, but do have to at least pretend to leave a log for the Rangers' physician."

"You have seen this Ruby?" Chase asks before snapping back the last bit of heart. "If this is happening we need to learn why, and who/

Ruby shrugs enigmatically. "I 'aven't worked it all out. I mean, I ain't tha smart, Truth. I just react, never pre-act, Truth." She does a little foot to foot shuffle. "tattoos be magic, right? Proper magic though, they be tha best, cause you can't 'urt no one with them. Not directly. They supposed tah protect." Ruby nods eagerly to Moxon, "Aye, we should goo. I'll clean up some 'o this. I need tah look at what's left. Compare ink."

Moxon says, "I'd like to see those notes. Soon."
Moxon makes that 'not really a request' voice.