Welcome to Gaia! ::

Xaviera had not noticed the tension settling across the herd; she had spotted the rain clouds, but paid them no mind, intending to enjoy the sun while it was out. They needed the rain, certainly, and looked forward to the cool water beating down on her wings, but for now all she had was the warmth of the sun on her back as she glided easily over the mountains. She raised her wings and flapped them down, catching a thermal to bring her higher up into the air -- and there, in the peripheral of her vision, she spotted the lone, unfamiliar fluttercorn. It wasn't one of theirs, was it? Xaviera squinted at the mare with a small frown; if she was new to the herd, she certainly hadn't heard about them yet. Perhaps that was the case; after all, the fluttercorn would have escorts otherwise, wouldn't she?

Smiling now, she tilted her wings to turn her easy glide toward Grimoire, intending to introduce herself. "Well, hello there," she cooed softly at the mare as she flew up along side her. "Are you new to our herd? It's grown so much, I can hardly keep track these days!" she chuckled, but the fondness in which she spoke said she didn't truly mind. She certainly helped add to their numbers herself with children of her own! "You have such lovely glowing wings. May I ask your name, dear?"

Leonhart circled around the side of the mountain he had been patrolling, making his way back to the herd lands to do a once over when he spotted the stallion -- a wingless one, no less, and without any of his herd-mates escorting the stallion to meet Balrog and Stormwild. He frowned as he eyed the vicious horns adorning the deep blue stallion's horns and the razor-like spikes on his shoulders. He spared a glance at his familiar Zephon, who flew beside him gracefully -- he had spotted the suspicious stallion, too, and was no less concerned by it's appearance. Leonhart circled the stallion once from high above the ground before he began his descent toward the stallion.

Beside him, Zephon screeched out a warning; Leonhart quickly realized it wasn't directed at him, but the small mare below who was standing a short distance away from the approaching stallion. His heard leapt up into his throat when he recognized her -- how could he not? "Gabrielle!" he shouted down to her, tucking his legs up closer to his body to quicken his descent to the ground. His landing was swift but he hit the ground hard on his hooves in front of Diogenes, separating the stranger from his mate, his chest heaving from exertion. "Who are you?" Leonhart demanded with a threatening stomp of his hoof, his wings flared wide to make himself seem larger. "You should not be this far without an escort. This land belongs to our herd."

Shinoma's eyes snapped open at the sudden spoken words, taking a quick look at the approaching birds just to confirm for her own self and then she too had taken flight, the smoky edges of her body and wings looking even more insubstantial in the air. She followed the pack as they soared and crested the waterfall, but broke off from the pack, taking a long arc around the edge of what would soon become a battlefield.

Ember peeled away from Shinoma; they had discussed the hawk keeping an eye on her children and reporting at once should they be in trouble, but for now Shinoma was hunting..and the hawk knew to keep out of her way.

The mare wheeled around, her tail whistling through the air as she scanned the ground, and she caught sight of one of the ground attackers, a large fellow with curved horns. He was facing off against a winged stallion, but just behind was a winged mare and she grinned, diving groundwards and landing heavily a wings breadth from the mare...

Rephaim was just returning from gathering berries and other fruits when he saw them -- he'd had to travel further than usual to find healthy food to gather due to the drought, scavenging what he could find -- a large group of soquili flying up along the waterfall to the herd lands, many of them fearsome looking, many of them Kalona. He swallowed down his fear, knowing this could only be one thing -- an attack. He had to warn the others!

Before he could turn away, however, he spotted one of their own -- Stormfall -- being cornered by three of the attackers, and for a brief moment Rephaim hesitated as he tried to decide what to do. Warn the herd or help Stormfall?

It was an easy choice. Rephaim dove down toward the attackers surrounding Stormfall, shouting to try and distract them and draw their attention away from her, if only for a moment. He saw the fiery black Kalona crush into Stormfall, and Rephaim aimed his body toward her, flying at full speed, aiming to crash into Megaera and knock her away.

Infernum was furious with himself for missing with his initial attack, but more angry that he had telegraphed his move so broadly. He underestimated his opponent, and that was a rookie mistake. He had flown with his herd, participated in hunts, but truth be told - as bold and competant as Infernum was, war was a new thing to this soldier.

He landed hard on his front hooves as the mare dodged deftly out of the way, leaving him shaken with the impact that was supposed to be soft flesh and not hard earth. But he saw, as he shook hsi head and shook out his legs that his mother was hot on his tail, swooping by for a second pass when the mare had already expended her efforts with dodging. He smiled, his humiliation passing. War was certainly not a solo endeavor.

He looked up to see a purple-spotted white winged soquili heading quickly after them and his ears lay back as he saw the way he was headed. No. No that would not do. His mother was quicker than he, perhaps, but not nearly as solidlly buit. He kicked up, gunning to interpose himself between Megaera and Rephaim with the force of his strength and bulk.

Stormfall's body took the brunt of the blow from the descending Kalona mare as she literally buzzed over Stormfall's head. Her opponent had taken the opportunity to strike at her in a moment were she had been vulnerable and open to attack. Pain radiated from an area on her back and Storm grit her teeth to push through it. Her legs trembled briefly having been forced to impact the ground in an awkward position. The good thing was that her wings had not been struck in the opening volley. She would be no help to anyone if she was taken out of battle with one hit and that was a likely scenario if her ability to fly was taken away from her.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts and reassess her position Stormfall caught sight of another flier arcing towards the ground. However this one she knew; it was Rephaim. Stormfall still had to keep her wits about her as she realized who Rephaim was targeting. But to her horror the burly stallion was now targeting Rephaim. She was about to enter the aerial battle to assist the angeni stallion before her gaze locked onto the strange white stallion. Her gaze narrowed on the intruder. He was the unknown factor that could swing the battle back to the side of the invading group. Keeping the stallion in sight Stormfall shook of any remaining vestiges of the earlier strike and readied herself to fly back into the fray.
---

Flapping its wings in a frantic pace, Stormfall's winged companion could just make out an opening in the distance. The target area was in sight. However all of the weaving and dodging it had been doing in an attempt to shake the mare on its figurative tail had done nothing. It was almost there, almost home free though. Surely nothing could catch it; not now. The creature put on an extra burst of speed but found itself sinking to the ground before it could really get moving again. It was trapped. One of its wings was caught in the mare's teeth. Awkwardly it flapped the wing that was still free, trying to pull free as the red-colored eye came to focus on the blue mare holding it captive. It had failed.

Seance's coils expanded when the Kalona mare spoke to her. She heard Diogenes barrel in behind her, but she paid him no mind. He was distracted by these two other Soquili, so maybe this one was hers.

"I am Seance!" she said, with a grin that was hard to determine if it was sincere or not. "I am here to take your home," she said, so matter-of-factly and with an oddly friendly tone.