Who knew that stealing a sailscale from a sermal would piss them off?

Zyphire grinned like a madman as he darted across the rocky terrain. His morning stroll had resulted in quite a turn of events and the shifter found himself grateful that he was accustomed to darting about mountain paths. Coming through Sauti to get back into Zena was supposed to be an easy walk, a leisurely time for him to travel and enjoy things, but he had once again managed to screw things up. The sounds of an injured sailscale had touched his heart and the shifter had followed the faint noises to a crevice in the mountain path. “Oh hey there little guy.” He whispered as he took a few attempts to avoid the creature’s frantic biting and hisses before moving the rocks from its injured wing. The little guy was fairly young and had swirling gray patterns against cream scales. It would have blended in perfectly with the pale mountain rocks if not for the splotches of crimson against its sides. Zyphire assumed those surely were injuries from its fall down the mountain side. Perhaps it hadn’t fully learned to fly yet or something had spooked it into falling faster than planned?

“Either way let me get you out of here.” He winced as the sailscale made a few additional clawing motions and actually dug into his arms. “It’s okay, this is fine.” Zyphire whispered to both himself and the scared creature as he carefully tucked it into the leather satchel hanging from his side. What was a few crumbled herbs in the face of an injured animal? Surely Talisia would understand. Now that he had rescued the sailscale from the rubble, Zyphire glanced upwards to try and find some sort of nest. But if he returned it now while injured...wouldn’t it simply fall again and have issues flying? The shifter let out a sigh before making his decision. He could take the guy to the sanctuary in Zena and then see what to do from there. “Recovery first.” He stated before walking away from the debris.

Of course things were never so simple. A growl echoed through the passage and it was at that moment that Zyphire realized there was more than some scattered rocks creating the sailscale’s distress. A wary smile crossed his lips as he slowly turned to face the large feline creature who was staring at him and causing the sailscale to make soft, scared noises from his pack. “Oh hello there.” He managed as he studied the larger creature with dark sleek fur that had jutting protrusions and large fangs which were surely ready to devour him and the sailscale whole. “I see that I probably interrupted your lunch but you see I have a soft spot for injured creatures and….oh boy.” Zyphire backed up as the creature started stalking forward with another growl. Apparently sermals did not have his same heart for protecting the weak.

“Oh look over there?” Zyphire made a show of his arms before throwing a rock down the path behind the sermal. Thankfully it was momentarily distracted by the rock tumbling past its paw and Zyphire took that moment to bolt. What did they say? Act bigger and don’t run? Well he figured that logic was over with when he was carting about its stolen food. There was only so much slowly backing away would have done for him then, especially with the fresh blood on the sailscale. It was like trying to wave a steak before a hungry and wild raptrix. Not the best idea indeed.

So he ran. He ran and he jumped and he darted about all the various mountain obstacles. Every so often he swore he felt the warm breath of the sermal on the back of his neck, but Zyphire continued pressing forward. If he stopped at any point he was afraid that he would be the next meal with the sailscale as some sort of appetizer for the larger creature. His experiences at the animal sanctuary often proved that if anything pissing off an animal may divert its attention from its intended prey but that did nothing to save his own skin. However, climbing seemed to be a good idea. Smirking, Zyphire reached out to grab a tree that was leaning towards a higher area of the cliffs. If he could climb that and get onto higher ground then he could probably dart through the rest of the mountains and surely the sermal would grow tired of its hunt. “Hang on little guy. I’m going to get you out of here and to a new home soon enough.”

Pulling himself up along the tree, Zyphire let out a grunt before managing to swing his hand towards a good and solid rock. Praying that it wouldn’t disappoint him, Zyphire crawled his way from the edge of the tree and pulled himself up onto the higher path. He definitely had gotten his workout for the day. As an afterthought the shifter left some herbs along the ground where he walked and tossed some jerky down into the path where the sermal would surely soon appear. Maybe the treats would entice it to give up on its hunt or at least slow it down for a few moments but Zyphire did not want to wait around and find out. No, he was on higher ground and going to continue walking at a rather brisk pace until he left the mountains and found shelter at the nearby village along the border of Sauti and Zena.

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