Welcome to Gaia! ::

To reiterate: Both groups are now able to see/interact with each other. Khia has become a huge, creepy monster that can/will attack anything in it's way. There are creepy effin' crows that want to harass your Tales flying around and...a crazy old Wizard is more than happy to use all the kids as meat!shields. :3

Post~

The echoes of Donny's cry rang out across what Elena was viewing as castle grounds. The familiarity of that voice calling her name caused the girl to whip her head around, precipitating yet another blinding headache and intense wave of dizziness. Closing her eyes briefly in an attempt to stop the disorientation, Elena opened them, smiling brightly. "Donny!" she called out in greeting, privately wondering and worrying about how he - and the only now noticed others - had gotten here.

Before she could move towards him, however, he struck his trident on the ground and held it in a defensive position. What...? Elena turned again, this time more slowly and saw descending specks of black quickly resolve themselves into crows and.....well, that can't be good. Mentally deciding to blame Tybalt for all that had gone wrong, the girl shuffled an anxious step sideways towards Donny and hopefully refuge from whatever the Very Large Thing lurking about dangerously was.

The world suddenly broke, releasing a wave of malevolent crows, the barrier between themselves and their fellow Tales--and Tybalt's dagger. Momentum carried him back and down, and he didn't have time or balance enough to right himself before he fell flat on his back.

A group of crows, thinking him easy prey, took that opportunity to try their luck with him. They regretted it, cawing, wheeling, and in some cases dying as Tybalt struck up and out with hardly a thought and less regrets. He fought his way to his feet, shaking his head to clear it of the muzziness the sudden fall had brought.

A glitter too bright for this dark place caught his eye, and he instinctively turned to look. He found himself immensely glad he had and called over the shrieking of the crows, "Donny? Not that I'm complainin', mind, but how th' hell'd ye get here?"

"Jeez! What the..." Sylvester staggered to his feet and immediately dodged to one side, holding a hand up to ward off the wounded crow veering past his head. There were a bunch more people in the room now all of a sudden, including MiniPope and Chai and the sparkly kid with the wings he had met half a lifetime ago, in a new, larger size. The drippy crow had been... redirected by one of the two brandishing weapons, and maybe, Sylvester thought, it would be wise to make himself less of a target again.

He ducked back to a crouch and started to brush the hair out of his eyes, only to see that his fingers were spotted with crow blood. He rubbed his thumb through it, searching for the feeling most blood usually awoke in him, but there was nothing. Very uncool.

The crows loosed by the nightmare Tale bled scarlet and pitch when wounded - shadows and blood; they were real enough to bleed, but not so real that the blood was...blood, if that made sense. Magic did strange things in this place inbetween.

As Donny and Tybalt were actually fighting back, destroying some of their number, the black beasts whirled and turned on them; focusing their attack where they felt it was most needed. That's not to say that there weren't crows zooming down, wings a black-blur going after those that were too weak to defend themselves. Elena would find herself with two or three of the wretched magic-born creatures clawing and cawing at her starry hair and her elegant clothes.

Sylvester's giraffe-tennae were another target for them, as were Diae's goggles (which they ripped and clawed at because they believed - wrongly - that the child's eyes were hidden behind the protective lenses) among other things.

Newly arrived Tales - blinking and bleary eyed, unsure of what was happening - were likely targets. The others had somewhat banded together in a protective unit...but the ones brought by Elana's final, desperate calling had no such preparation, no warning as to what they were about to find themselves face-to-face with...

Gallu sniffed at the air, growling -- these flying things, these children...all of them were in it's way! It's prey was "hidden" away from it and those between it and the Wizard were very likely to become targets of the slavering, multi-eyed beast's wicked jaws and razor-sharp claws.

Some of the crows had the misfortune to single out the Gallu for attack; they met with a quick but painful fate under tooth and fang. Distractions...but not enough! The Tales - newcomers as well as those that had been trapped within this Betwixt and Between magic - would soon find themselves under the Otherworldly monster's blood-hungry gaze.

Although Donny was worried for his friends, he couldn't help it. He felt some kind of exhilaration flooding his veins. This.. this was kind of fun. He knew somewhere deep down he really shouldn't be thinking that but, oh man, did it ever feel good to put the primal urges that pumped his blood to good use. He pushed himself off the ground with one foot and kept his wings as compact as possible as a right hook from his trident knocked a crow out of the air like a homerun at a ballpark. They were swarming, pecking at his wings uncomfortably, and it was all he could do to keep them off him, but it was worth it. With every whack, twirl, and stab, he felt alive.

The feeling vanished into the pit of his stomach when he spotted one of the crows aiming it's descent directly at the back of Elena's head. The girl was herding the Tales into a safer position, and though she might have been able to notice the crow in time, Donny felt ill at the possibility of collision. The crow bent it's talons forward as it flew for the girl, intent on injury.

With a determined growl through clenched teeth, Donny ignored the crows that ripped at his wing feathers, and dropped back down to the ground. The landing was only a springboard, lasting a split second to give him a boost as he sprang back upwards to cut off the crow. There were others on their way, and Donny knew he was about to collide with Elena, so instead of knocking that foul bird out of the air and leaving her open to others, he surged directly for her and swooped her right out of harm's way. His body twisted even as he grabbed her, and he landed with a skid on his bottom, bouncing like a stone skidding off the surface of water before it's eventual sink.

But of course, there wasn't time for chit chat; they weren't even close to safety yet. His eyes searched Elena for injury before he grimaced as he felt the crow intended for her, climbing up on his back. It had collided and ripped it's little talons into the back of his shirt, leaving bloody trails crawling down his back. He reached back and grabbed the crow by it's neck, pulling it out in front. It squawked and flailed, enraged by it's capture. Now, at least, Donny could get a good look at them.

"You are not pretty." He announced, before breaking it's neck, it's ugliness enough reason for it's demise.

"Shut yer yap, wench, lest I feed ye to 'em," Tybalt called over the cacophonous screams of the crows. His words, though sincerely meant, held less heat than they would have were he not currently occupied--and enjoying himself thoroughly. The dagger, covered in ethereal blood and gore, had become an extension of himself, swinging wildly and slashing at any bird fool enough to challenge him. Those crows too injured to stay aloft had found their demise under talons much larger than their own. Tybalt himself was not unscathed; his shirt was cut to ribbons clear up to his elbows, the rest stained with blood not belonging entirely to his enemies. He was bleeding from dozens of shallow scratches and smiling through it all. This was his element.

The sudden departure of his brother-in-arms went largely unnoticed; the crows that took off after him did not. The murder thinned enough to see through: he could see the group of defenseless Tales through flapping wings and stabbing beaks, and beyond that...

Beyond that was a completely new creature, shadow and blood and danger that made his feathers stand on end, snapping the crows between knife-like teeth as if they were toothpicks. But whose side was it on?

Donny felt a little guilty for killing something in front of Elena, when he saw her initial reaction. He had let her go, but stayed seated for a bit after the event, to let his bottom stop stinging from the slide and his back stop aching from the scratches. However, these feelings seemed to disappear when he felt a kiss on his cheek. It was curious that it had just happened, and he blinked at Elena with clear confusion as she stood up and walked away. But why? Donny got kisses on the cheek all the time. Why did his cheeks flush now, and the pain in his body fade as if it wasn't there to be noticed? It was weird. He scratched his cheek lightly with his hand and wondered if one of Elena's powers might be at fault, then stood up and found himself in a world of pain. Oops, the pain was still there after all. He winced and tried to twist his head back to look at what he could see, but instead his eyes caught sight of a big, black, something. He turned around and swiveled his trident without thinking, as his mind snapped back into a clearer, quick thinking state. There was something fighting the crows too, but.. really, whatever that was did not look friendly. In fact it looked downright evil. He didn't like evil things; they were very often ugly.

Donny began a slow backup until he felt something bump against his legs. A quick sideglance informed him that the something was Sylvester and another Tale he didn't know, Tiwaz. Sylvester was crouched on the ground, and almost made Donny trip over him. "You okay?" He asked the long-necked Tale and the other, while keeping his eyes fixed on the black shape that loomed close by. He didn't dare look around for the rest of his mates; he had the feeling that one second of looking away could be the end of things.