Welcome to Gaia! ::

Chase closed his eyes as something heavy hit him straight in the chest and gasped for air loudly when the weight left him catching his balance on the branch. Slightly stunned, he turned his blurry eyes to the furry creature, adjusting himself to a more aggressive posture.
“Oi, Oi! Roth, what are… you…” as he clacked his beak angrily, the image in front of him became quite clear and he suddenly realized the furry creature was definitely not a skurri.

All sound vanished, all the colors were gone. The world consisted of only himself and the dark animal standing too close to him. That shape he recognized all too well. His feathers ruffled around the neck and chest, wings fell weakly, beak tightly shut and a slight tremor ruffled the plumage every few seconds. Taking short deep breaths, Chase’s head fell almost all the way to the bark and vacant eyes watched the furry form without really acknowledging it. One might be interested in his thoughts at that precise moment. Yet despite all the changes in his body, his mind was thoroughly and utterly blank.

"Why...? I... Why... you... little...!" Tousled was slowly building herself up from astonished to fuming, every word marking a new level of enragement as it was forced out of her contorted throat. "I look like this because you scared me, you... insensitive... stupid little..." she hissed, rather loudly, before she finally managed to get a grip on herself. Taking a deep breath, she glanced over at the Shadow - CloudChaser - and had to do a double-take before she could really grasp what she was seeing. At first, she thought that the martes must have hurt him, somehow, but then she took a better notice of his body language: the drooping wings, the motionlessness, the tiny tremors, and most importantly, the unnaturally blank look in those wide-open eyes.

The poor sentinel was scared half out of his mind!

Worried, she quickly glanced between the panicked Shadow and the seemingly clueless (and, upon closer inspection, rather harmless-looking) martes, and decided to try to get the furry little creature away from there as fast as possible.

"Er..." She composed herself again and sent the companion another stern scowl. "You are being terribly rude, jumping on people and frightening them like that! Where's your owner? Go on, get! Go away! We don't want to talk to you if you are going to be that misbehaved!"

The little Deep Woods made shooing gestures with her wings, all the while sending worried glances over at the catatonic CloudChaser - and trying her best to keep her voice down.

It looked at him, the martes did. He saw the head turn, the jaws move, the tail flick. It might have said something… he wasn’t sure. And that sound… the beating of his own heart… had it always been this loud…?! It echoed through the small world that had ensnared him like the thunderous voice of the Above, roaring an endless compass. And here she was, this martes, standing so close just like it once had, sitting on the… branch, was it… yes, she was on a branch, they both were.

There was something different about her, he could tell… dark hairs grew in place of the shining white fur she once had… but she kept the black collar around her neck…. no, it wasn’t black now… it had turned a dark shade of… brown… like the bark beneath them… yes, they were standing on a branch, pretty high on the tree… it would be a deadly fall… why wasn’t she afraid? She would fall, she would get hurt, it had happened before, he couldn’t let it happen again, he had to prevent it, he had to help her, he had to stop it, he had stop her!

He felt his will approach it, the martes. Something inside him drew closer to the companion, intending to drag it back to safety but never quite reaching it. Chase saw a wing. It was there, he was sure, right behind her! He followed the bark until he caught sight of another shape, one much larger that the martes. He gazed into the odd creature’s eyes and found a pair of eyes looking back at him. And he froze again.

It was speaking. This creature, this ball of feathers. He could hear the voice in the distance as if they had the whole forest between them but its beak (oh, it had a beak!)apparently wasn’t moving. He couldn’t understand what it was saying. Maybe it was because of the loudness of his heart. How he wished that noise would stop. Well, the noise not the heart, he certainly didn’t want his heart to just give all of a sudden. The though seemed to clear his mind a bit and Tousled’s feathers gained a small amount of color. He looked below again and saw the brown back of the martes right next to him and instinctively hopped backwards without losing sight of the companion, trying as hard as he could to control his breathing. The distance only seemed to improve his condition and it wasn’t long until his eyes strayed to the other companion present.
“Feather…?” he mumbled softly “ When did you…?”


((just popping in for a small introduction))

An elegant ghost Sentinel landed silently on one of the lower branches and just as talons touched bark immediately her whole body shifted to a rigid position. Head held high, she turned her critic gaze towards the crowd. She couldn’t really understand what would drive these fully grown adults to sit quietly while they listened to fledgling stories. Speaking of which…
The blood red eyes fixed on two little fledglings sitting side by side, listening attentively to the bard’s voice. The male had good constitution, he would surely grow up strong… and maybe become a ranger or a hunter. The female was smaller, more graceful… properly trained, she would become an agile flyer… a perfect scout. The bard was speaking of the Above. At least it wouldn’t be a complete waste on the little ones. It was never too soon to teach them of the dangers that lurked over their empty little heads.
“Why are you hiding?” She hooted impatiently without so much as looking at the female skurri concealed behind the branch’s foliage.
“Martes.” The companion said without moving, her soft voice barely heard, was nothing more than a whisper.
“I’ve noticed it. Are you telling me you’re afraid you’ll be attacked while I’m standing next to you?” the ghost added with a certain degree of annoyance, still not looking back.
The skurri didn’t say a word but slowly came into sight and sat very close to the Sentinel, little nervous eyes fixed on the carnivorous companion.
“We’re leaving.” Breeze said in one long exhale, glancing down at the furry tail as she preened her chest feathers. And with a powerful jump, she dived off the branch and disappeared into the dark night, closely followed by the small furry shape of her companion hopping through the tree branches.

Confused and a little hurt by the ruffled Sentinel's outburst, Hazel drew back, black beady eyes raised in a sad puppy-like expression. He glanced at the Shadow male, who seemed to be alright...and the companion next to him.

After taking a last, rather hungry look at the colorful pica, the Martes pouted sulkily, and stalked off, melting away into the dark. Hazel rushed to Raine, chittering incoherently.

"Andthen-Hazel-meppfu-saff-ruf-wier-druffle-featha-Sneintel-"

"Wait." Raine interrupted his excited tirade. "Oh, do slow down, you little butterball! I can't make heads nor tails of what you're saying."

Making a few pointed paw-gestures, Hazel was able to convey his meaning. His owner turned and cringed, unsure if she was able to look at what could be yet another potential chaotic scene, delivered by yours truly. One golden eye peeked open, followed by the other, as Raine sighed with relief. The strange-feathered Sentinel and the Shadow male were sitting, apparently unfazed by Hazel's little excursion.
Hazel didn't make any trouble...I hope...

Once the martes had jupmed off their branch, Tousled immediately turned her attention on the Shadow, for the time being ignoring the pica, since he seemed to be helping and not making anything worse in any way. She was so worried about him that she didn't even flinch when he approached her this time - even though that empty look that he had given her still lingered unpleasantly at the back of her mind.

Then again, she never liked being stared at, no matter how or why.

"So... it was the martes," she mumbled, half to herself. Stepping a little closer to CloudChaser herself, she gave his features an earnest, worried study and quietly asked: "Are you sure you're alright now, Mr. CloudChaser?"

The insight slowly dawned on her that she wasn't really frightened of him anymore. He was still a stranger, and still a very large and impressive male, but no matter what sort of intentions he might have had in approaching her like he had, they were now on a much more even level:
He had unintentionally shown her a weakness, almost on par with her own disobedient plumage, albeit not as obvious.

But she didn't feel so much empowered by this revelation, as she felt safe - the possibility of being bullied or decieved by this male had just dropped drastically. She felt her feathers slowly re-settle as she begun to relax a bit in his presence, and she looked away for a moment to finally pay some attention to the brightly coloured pica, giving the companion a grateful little smile.

"Thank you, very much, for helping out."

"Neh, Rae-Rae! Hazel go with down-down. See Fluff-Sential. Wierd. Strange. Fetha. See again, again." Not having had enough of his short but exciting encounter, Hazel was eager to further examine Tousled, now dubbed "Fluff-Sential". He had no clue as to the trouble with Chase that he had caused.

"Huhm..." mumbled Raine, eyes riveted on the performing bard, mind imagining the Above. Blinking, she looked over at the shaken Chase "No...no I don't think so..." Raine knew. Not all Sentinels Hazel had met harbored friendly feelings for the Martes. Perhaps they felt instinctive uneasiness around the predatory mammal, which could, and would, prey on eggs and hatchlings. Even fewer were inclined to accept her particular Martes, insensitive troublemaker that he was. Besides, if they went back over, she'd have to talk to the other Sentinels...Raine wasn't keen on that. Her experience at the Longest Night had shown how inept the solitary Ranger was at keeping company.