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A tall spruce is unfortunately the best available shelter around. It's not much of a shelter, but if a few Sentinels sits close to the trunk of the tree and huddles together should probably last the night without freezing to death. Hopefully.

(NOTE: This shelter is for players who are missing the beginning of the event.)

It wasn’t like Catchfly, who was always a slower, more careful flier than other Sentinels, to come screaming out of the night and almost collide headfirst into a tree trunk. As it were, his second-slower reflexes had taught him impeccable steering and a good sense of planning.

But that particular tailwind had rather ruined the night for him, and winging home was most certainly not an option with the Thunderbird’s fury bearing down on him. So he had angled toward the only reasonable shelter and.......well...

He managed to avoid colliding with the trunk, but bounced into a clump of needles and all but fell from the higher branches to the same altitude at which the other Sentinel roosted already, currently undetected by Catchfly. For the time-being, the apothecary was heavily immersed in shaking water from his wings and checking himself over for damage. It was only when the sound of another voice came to him that he looked up from his preening (flight feathers were mercifully undamaged, but he imagined that his chest was a bit bruised and wished he had his salve for that sort of thing). When he realized he was not alone, he froze. Racket was bedded down in Catchfly’s territory...which meant that he would have to fend for himself. With another Sentinel.

He gaped for a moment, all but gasping for air, soggy feathers fluffing in spite of the water weight they still carried.

For a moment he considered leaping straight back into the storm, but settled for shuffling into a thick clump of needled branches and remaining motionless, hoping his rather noisy arrival had gone undetected.

Amethyst was out and about collecting a few sprigs of mint when the storm hit. She was running low in her little supply collection and wished to try a new sort of balm which required more of it. The storm had started when she had just begun to gather the small scented twigs when her and her chirop, Tad, noticed the winds beginning to pick up.

All too soon the great thunder bird began to quake above them and the winds tore violently through the canopy. She thought nothing of it at first, until sheets of rain began slipping through the tall tree leaves. She had become quite worried and had rounded up her friend who was still below gathering what they had come out for in the first place.

"Come Tad, we must seek shelter before we both drown." She yelled down to her friend

"I...*pant* come. Me wonder when us go...," He responded, gasping as he fought off the wind to cling to the back of the wild sentinel. Her friend in place she glanced around to spot the nearest temporary shelter. She had seen through the very dim light of the forest a very tall and bushy looking spruce about only a distance of 4 meters with a pretty good pathway of tree branches leading to it.

"Hold tight to me now, I don't want to loose you on the way there." With that warning she spread her wings and half jumped and half let the wind guide her to the next closest branch. She continued this process, only stumbling slightly once on a somewhat sappy pine, till they reached the closest branch of the spruce.

She made one last hop and landed amongst the evergreen needles. The branch itself had bounced a little under her weight and once it stabilized her chirop friend climbed down onto the branch with her, and dug his two claws in it to steady himself.

"I smell others" Tad said, looking up into the branches above him. "Many others." A quizzical look upon his small rodent like features.

Amethyst looked up also seeing a couple of taloned toes like her own standing a good few branches up.

"I guess we weren't the only one's caught out in this storm, better make our way up to greet them. Go ahead and hop back on Tad." She spread out a wing to let him climb back on, which he did, and she began to make her way up the spruce in a sort of spiral direction, hopping carefully from branch to branch around the spruce to greet the other possible inhabitants of this tree.

"The Shadowstalker had not expected the weather to change so suddenly, and The Shadowstalker is shamed to admit He had other things on His Mind."

Shadowstalker slowly pivoted his head, as if on watch, though the only thing he could possibly see was the steady sheet of rain pouring down on them. It was for show only, and he thought it made him look dashing, though he would swear he could see for miles, if only to gain the attention of his peers.

His Chirops, all called Bat, clung to Shadowstalker's feathers, shivering in the cold. They peeped miserably to the other Chirops, all mute and with limited intelligence.

"The Shadowstalker would like to inquire about the ladies names?"

Twitching, Shadowstalker turned his head, and peered at the male.

"The Shadowstalker smells fear in the night. What business do you have here, suspect? The Shadowstalker must ask, for the ladies' protection."

Amethyst clicked happily nodding her head towards the blue eyed sentinel's break down of mint and it's powers of healing and refreshing. "I had to travel pretty far from my hollow to find some for a balm I've been working on. There wasn't much when me and Tad had found it though. There was an early patch of Mentha Spicata growing near a shady stream only about 4 meters that way." She pointed in the general direction from whence she came. "I don't know what I would do without Tad's sense of smell." She took a moment to acknowledge the small clump of wet fur and wings clinging to her back. He had grunted, trying to reposition himself to get situated better.

"So you too are an apothecary." She said looking back. "I'm quite new to the practice myself, but I'm a quick learner. My name is Amethyst... It's nice to meet you all." She said directing this to the others that shared the temporary protection of this wonderfully aromatic spruce. She quickly preened a few of her chest feathers that had been sticking out at odd angles, " I wish we all could have met under better circumstances." She said, a remorseful tone while looking out into the seemingly endless rain.

Might I inquire your name?" She asked the bright blue eyed Sentinel while shivering from a piercing breeze. She clicked her beak and moved closer towards the center of the tree in hopes of finding some sort of warmth there.

"The Shadowstalker accepts this explanation, and while He agrees that the inner branches would be better protection against the rain, The Shadowstalker urges you to caution."

Shadowstalked ambles along the branch as best he can, careful of his Chirop companions. Peering around the darkened branches, Shadowstalker carefully checked for movement.

"The Shadowstalker will scout on ahead, for who knows what horrid creatures could rest in the midst of this spruce. If The Shadowstalker perishes, do your best to remain calm, and always keep The Shadowstalker in your hearts."

Shadowstalker wedges himself in to the smaller branches of the tree, and disappears from sight.

From within the tree, he still speaks.

"The Shadowstalker takes his job as Scout and Protector seriously. I will avenge..."

Shadowstalker's words faded in to the night.

Amethyst found it to be no warmer near the center of the tree then it had been further out on the branch. She scooted back to where she was before standing near Catchfly on a slightly lower branch and tried to settle on her toes a little to try and keep them warmer with her body heat and feathers.

"I fear my toes might give out if it gets any colder." She said to no one in particular. "Had I known it would be this kind of weather today I wouldn't have gone searching for mint as I did." She turned her head a little when she felt Tad shifting again. He was now a little ball of shivering fur close up underneath the back side of her wing.

She looked around, feeling a bit awkward, wishing she were in the comforts of her own hollow. She began to worry about her supplies that were messily organized by the port of her hollow and how, when and if she gets back, she'll have to salvage whatever she can.

She glanced up as the Shadowstalker, who was going up further into the densely needled spruce to scout around, disappeared from immediate sight.

"See anything up there?"

Away from the others, Shadowstalker was quiet, to the surprise of himself. The thunderbird was clapping His wings above him and Shadowstalker had never seen a storm such as this one. It frankly frightened him, getting in the way of his scouting and it worried him. Anything could be lurking in the tree, in the below, or even above them, and Shadowstalker wouldn't know. He had never been without his senses as much as this night, and he had many things on his mind, determined to keep the others safe, though they never asked for it. He was a Scout, nothing else. To be anything else would be lying to himself, but he knew that others didn't take him seriously, even found him comical. But that didn't matter, as long as they did listen to him, for he was only trying to protect him.

Shadowstalker emerged from the branches, and nodded to Catchfly.

"The Shadowstalker applauds your efforts to keep warm, but we should move nearer to the trunk. The winds seem to be picking up."

The Shadowstalker tried to speak without his usual banter, but he was so used to speaking like that it was hard to break. But he did not want the three of them to decide not to listen to him, if only because he seemed different.

"The Shadowstalker MUST keep you all safe."