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"This is Andrea Horra, Municipal Judge and Guardian! This is a message to all the good people of the city of Jeburen: please seek shelter immediately! If your house is not made out of stone, please go to the City Shelter for the time being. Thank you and please stay calm!"

The voice of the judge of Jeburen rang out across the city. Of course, it wasn't really her voice, but the voice of many loud Parakweets copying her voice and words and sqwuaking it across the valley. But the message was clear enough: get inside.

The reason was because there were many large birds in the sky. Large, fire spewing, angry birds.

They were known as Firebirds; an accurate if not terribly creative name. They were beautiful and loyal to their caretakers, and were usually kept as pets by the richer citizens of the Center. But if mistreated, Firebirds quickly turned from loyal pets to wild beasts. It was unknown even to the Judges of Jeburen why the Firebirds were terrorizing the Lake City of Jeburen, as they tended to live in dryer regions and were not known to migrate. Nor did they know why the birds were so malevolent.

Regardless, the three Judges were desperately trying to get a message out to the Center government of the situation. The three judges were normally able to handle threats on their own; however, they were all trained to handle water based creatures, not fire based. In addition, Firebirds are rare and are nearly on the Endangered Magicial Species act; the last thing the Judges wanted was to be executed for violation of the Act.

So they needed the Center to help them, or at least approve deadly force. But none of their messages were reaching the Central government. This was probably because at the moment the Central governmental offices were having their own problems with a rather large swarm of deer flies scrambling their telecommunications, mostly by swarming and jumping onto the building where they received distress signals.

At any rate, after repeated attempts to contact the Center, the Judges finally decided to go to their last resort: A very loud distress signal that could be heard in a several miles radius. Adventurers would hear this signal and know that whoever helped the signaler was promised a large sum of money -- the bigger the problem, the bigger the reward.

So, will YOU hear the signal and come running to help in return for the reward? Or will you just get singed by an errant flame and decide to beat up whoever ruined your recently washed clothing? Whatever happens, the City of Jeburen depends on you!

The sky was cloudless today and this resulted in it being hot. It was the perfect occasion for spending time in and around in the lake. After locating a more private section of the lake shielded by brush Elliot had stripped of his clothing and was now sitting in the shallows enjoying how wonderfully cool the blue-green waters were. He avoided going too far out into the water for he didn't much like swimming. This is where he was when fire started falling from the sky.

FWOOSH. Fire. From the sky. Patches of grass were now up in flames as well as various other things. Fleeing from the water he struggled to pull his clothes on over wet flesh which proved to be a bit difficult, but he managed. Buckling the straps of his pack and grabbing his spear he emerged from the bushes to find the citizens in this section of the city in a state of panic.

The mimic of the Jeburen judge didn't seem to matter much seeing as there was fire falling from the sky. People were all rushing out of their homes carrying their children and possessions. Some of them were trying to drag their livestock to the City Shelter. This wasn't working out particularly well. Resisting the urge to ecscape all the chaos and go back into the water he joined the crowd in their rush twoards the shelter. He had nearly made it when he heard the signal. After convincing himself with difficulty that he was a hero he made his way out of the crowd.

When he got to a space large enough for him to spread his wings he had already recieved a rather nasty-looking black eye. His hair was dripping wet and full of leaves and he felt like he had some sort of nasty bug in his stomach. Well, technically, he did. This morning he had eaten some maggots he had found underneath a log, but they couldn't be squirming because he had cooked them first. Taking a moment so that he could slide his left forearm through the wooden handle of a barrel lid that would be used as a shield and to pick up a large rock, he lifted off. Wings beating so quickly that they were but a glittering blur he rose higher slowly scanning the skies for the enemy.

They weren't really that hard to find and with speed of the insect his wings resembled (A dragonfly, if you are not aware.) he zoomed twoards a bird and flung his rock at it. This wasn't exactly the smartest move, but hey, neither was being up here in the first place. His plan to get the bird's attention worked rather well and he would have been proud of himself if he wasn't so terrified of the fire-breathing bird flying directly at him. Elliot was pretty sure that he didn't want a hug. Letting out a frightened yell he dodged a ball of fire that erupted from the creature's beak and landed onto a pile of straw on the ground below. The straw, being flammable, burned.

Elliot stared at the straw pile for seconds that seemed like an eternity as it proceeded in being reduced to cinders. Goosebumps covered every inch of skin and his heart was beating so quickly he feared it might suddenly explode, which would be inconvenient. Collecting himself once more he flew at the bird again, and when close enough struck it with the blunt end of his spear aiming at its wings. As luck would have it he actually hit his target. It sunk a few feet in the air screeching in pain or anger. Elliot didn't speak firebird, so he couldn't really tell.

The bird wasn't down for long, however. Though it wasn't flying quite as well as it had been before it was feeling well enough to blast a fireball at the Ferin and crush his moment. There was another scream, but this time it was from Elliot and was expressing pain for upon his right pant leg was a small patch of flame. Drawing his right hand into his sleeve he beat it, which he found hurt the wounded flesh an awful lot. His eyes watering with pain he looked up just in time to narrowly miss yet another fireball. His feelings of pride quickly evaporated to those of being way over his head.

The bird had apparently forgotten whatever mission it had previously been on and was now focusing all of it's attention upon Elliot. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and dripped off the tip of his nose as he continued his battle with the firebird. Fortunately the rest of the flock was still occupied with the village, but mayhaps not for long. Twenty minutes into the fight he had recieved another burn on his upper left arm and his shield was lying on the cobblestone street suffering the fate of the straw pile. As for the firebird it appeared to become more and more frustrated and finally decided to charge him. It all happened in seconds and Elliot remained unsure of how exactly he had managed it but a there was the sickening crack of a hollow bird bone and spreading and the firebird had backed off and glided down onto the now empty section of street where it was now limping about spitting fire at random objects. Lowering himself to the ground, blood now running down his forehead as well as the sweat he spotted a coil of rope draped on the fence of a flaming house and a plan formed in his mind.

Flying to the fence he grabbed the coil and then behind a nearby house that wasn't on fire where he proceeded to tie it into a noose after leaning his spear against the wall. Withdrawing his flute from one of the pockets he began to play a soft, slow melody and after a few minutes the firebirds screeches became louder for it had just been blinded with a common bard spell. Named, creatively, "Blind". Replacing his flute Elliot stood up again and got ready to capture the firebird with his rope. It took an understandably long time considering he still had to dodge fireballs, but he did eventually manage to bind the bird and tie it to a fence with several knots. Straightening himself out and placing his hands on his hips he admired his handywork as his chest swelled with pride.

And then there was another screech and he was reminded that there was more than one firebird burning down the village. Turning his chin to the sky he spotted the bird. "Aw, buttons." Though he had ecscaped their attention for an extensive period of time his luck had run out and now exhausted and weaponless a firebird seemingly distressed at the state of its struggling companion was unleashing its feathered wrath. And oh what feathered wrath it was.

Damen was fairly close to the city now, close enough to see the ensuing chaos. The plumes of black smoke, the gouts of flame, and especially what appeared to be flaming....well, he couldn't decipher what they were just yet. He still had the feeling that he should move a bit more quickly than he was. He hastily finished up his salted beef (he kept pounds of it on hand, it was delicious) and gripped the unnecessarily thick haft of his unnecessarily large spear. It would have looked even more ridiculous on a man of lesser stature. His mouth turned upwards as his knuckles whitened around the intricately carved shaft of wood.

He leapt forward and started a mad dash towards the city. He needed to move fast so that he could get there before the conflict ended, and judging by the looks of things it would end with that town being a smouldering pile of ashes. Damen concentrated slightly, feeling his bone conduit resting against his chest as he focused on himself. He felt like invisible strings were pulling on ever part of him as he dashed forwards. His feet barely touched the ground, and they hardly even touched down. He moved faster than any human should be able to run, taking long leaps through the grass as the city approached rapidly. The wind howled in his ears as the grass flew by him, his vest trailing out behind him and his spear trailing behind as he let it dangle behind.

Other sounds began to fill his ears, the sound of people screaming, the familiar roar of a great fire. He cursed slightly as the city rapidly approached and threw himself into a higher jump, focusing harder and narrowing his eyes as he concentrated on his own body. He felt the familiar tug on himself, and he felt it triple in it's insistence as he launched his body like a human missile towards the city. He arched towards the city, throwing his feet underneath him as he landed heavily on a shingled roof. Several shingles slipped from his feet from his rude landing and he almost tripped and fell...in any case, it wasn't a pretty landing. He grunted slightly from the impact and finally stood up straight, having a better view of the city from here.

He rested the heavy iron blade of his spear against the roof and narrowed his eyes. Large flaming eagles of some sort were harassing the city, laying waste to everything. The people were trying to flee in droves, getting cut or burned down as they ran. Damen sighed as he saw a group of people fleeing in the street next to him, a flaming bird was diving down into them, about to incinerate a good number of them.

Damen raised his eyes for a second, he could have sworn he saw something else flying around...it wasn't a bird. He dismissed it quickly and leapt over the row of buildings and into the street behind the running group. He landed lighter this time, standing slowly and at the ready to meet the bird as it dived down towards the previously unprotected group. Now the bird had a very irritated Damen Ocra looking it in the face with a savage grin on his angular face.

Damen cocked his head to the right, feeling all the tendons and joints crack and pop in his neck. He raised his spear, leveling the heavy blade with ease.

The bird didn't even alter it's trajectory, it flew over him without even paying him any heed.

"HEY!" Damen called as the thing flew just over his head and out of reach. Damen sprinted after the bird, and thrust his hand out in front of him. The bird suddenly sqwacked in protest as an invisible missile passed just to the right of it, clipping it's wing and altering it's flight. Damen grinned as the bird wheeled around towards him. He launched himself up slightly, arching up towards the bird as it dove towards him. They passed in midair, Damen felt his spearhead slice into what he assumed was the creature's shoulder...he didn't have time to celebrate as he landed, hard, on the ground and rolled slightly.

He lay on his back for a few moments, forcing himself into a sitting position after a few moments. He put a hand to his head and pulled it away...nothing. Then he looked down and saw the horrible gash in his side. He groaned as he forced himself to stand up. He looked around somewhat desperately as blood coursed down his side. He saw the body of a dead woman laying on the ground and used his spear to cut the bottom of her tattered dress. He hastily wrapped the cloth around his midsection. It was almost immediately soaked through with blood, but at least he had pressure on it.

Damen saw the struggling bird trying to flaw awkwardly away. All pain and indeed any emotion left his face as he walked after the bird. There was a new glint in his eye, but that was all.

He limped after the flying creature. The bird itself stopped going anywhere altogether. Suddenly it was slammed into the ground hard enough to raise a small cloud of dust. Damen walked over to the broken bird as it cried out in pain.

Another heard it's compatriot in pain and attempted a foolhardy dive at Damen, Damen didn't even look at the bird, it suddenly crashed into an invisible wall and crumbled to the ground, its neck broken. He sidestepped the large fireball that came his way, barely noticing that it singed his flesh quite badly.

Damen stood over the bird for a few moments as it lay in a puddle of it's own life blood. It opened it's beak at Damen, but Damen would have none of it. He rammed the heavy spearhead down into the bird's open maw. The blade sank into the bird's head, and the thrashing stopped.

Damen unceremoniously wrenched his spear from his latest victim and turned. The group had gotten away, at least. He allowed himself a sigh of relief and limped along to find more to do even as the blood seeped through the tourniquet he had made for himself.

Damen navigated the alleyways like a pro, ducking every time he saw one of the profiles of the large birds flying overhead and briefly wondering how long they would keep attacking before they retreated...hopefully they retreated eventually, he couldn't kill all of them. He looked down at the bloody rag at his side and tried to ignore the warm, sticky feeling...not to mention the searing pain.

He seriously wondered if he could kill even one more of those things, he only hoped that the opportunity didn't present itself. To make matters worse he had a throbbing headache and he didn't know how much more he could do with his mind at the moment. He only knew that he would have to try, because his body was pretty much useless at the moment.

Another loud cry echoed overhead, Damen crouched down in his alley as it flew overhead. He wondered if they noted the two dead birds laying just a few streets behind him. There certainly seemed to be a lot of them around here, either that or there were a few that were honing in on him. He shook his head and ran a hand through his mop of red hair. He was pretty lousy at hiding, but then again large size wasn't exactly condusive to stealth...he hated to admit it but he would need to hide at this point. He was bullheaded, no doubt. However, he wasn't a complete moron.

He was hunched over and panting heavily as he looked at the cobblestone alley floor when a few pieces of loose slate crashed to the ground right by his feet. He groaned and looked up slowly, knowing what he would see.

There, sure enough, was a fire bird perched on the edge of the building just above him. It glared at him with fierce, predatory eyes.

Damen dove from the alley just as a fiery ball slammed into the space that he had just occupied. He landed gracelessly on his stomach as fire spewed from the alley behind him. He exhaled harshly as he landed directly on the wound in his side, and he felt a fresh wave of warmth as the hardening scab in his side opened up again. He winced visibly and stood up, running unsteadily into the nearest building as another ball of fire crashed to the ground where he had just been.

He turned around and noted with little interest that he was in a bar. He found himself wondering what proof the alcohol was and trying to remember if proof equaled percent or not as he looked on the side of the barrels and saw 180 proof stamped on the side.

He was pretty sure that meant that the contents of the barrel were flammable...

Fantastic.

Having just shot out all the contents of his stomach out of his nose and mouth he was panting and spitting into the off-white and chunky puddle attempting to catch his breath when he heard a deep, rumbly voice. Looking up to see who had spoken, for it was not polite to ignore persons, he spotted Ulrich holding out a handkercheif.

A feeling of shame burned up in his stomach, but was not detectable in his cheeks for they were already flushed. Standing up the squeamish adventurer stepped accepted the handkercheif from Ulrich, wiped his face of mess, folded it in half and handed it back to Ulrich.

Still trying to catch his breath speaking was difficult, but he made an attempt. "Thankyou. The city... is being.... attacked." Elliot gestured to the bird lying dead on the ground. "Firebirds. People are being evacuated to the town shelter." He pointed in the direction that everyone had been running before. This section of the city had been deserted, but faint sounds of the citizen's screaming could still be heard as well as the not-so-faint screeching of their avian invaders.

Walking to where his spear lay on the ground he lifted it and wiped the head on his shirt tail before starting twoards the noise again at a brisk walk. "Come on."

Damen grunted as he leaned against the flammable alcohol barrel. His breath was coming slightly easier now, and his headache was almost entirely gone. Still, he needed to do something about this injury or he was in trouble when the next Firebird found him. So far he hadn't even taken on the scarier looking ones, he could only thank fate for that.

The dull roar of a fire began slowly approaching. Damen cursed his luck and rolled his eyes, of course fate liked to mess with people. He looked around frantically, searching for something that he could use to help him. His spear was too unwieldy to swing around and he was using it for support. His eyes fell on a knife block with five knives left in it, those should do. He needed to avoid straining himself as much as possible, so he knocked over a table and used it for cover, crouching sent fresh waves of pain up and down his side and he grit his teeth in an effort not to cry out.

The knives floated silently from their sheath and hovered in front of him for a moment. He grinned at them, the moment that bird appeared in the window he cou-

There was a huge burst of fire overhead and a large portion of the roof went missing. Damen found himself looking up at the distant shape of a firebird, he knew it to be the culprit, though. He sniffed suddenly and noted how the air was smoky and groaned. The ball of fire had caught one of the tables and reduced it to hot cinders. However this was a bar, and drunks weren't notoriously well balanced. As a result the floorboards were pretty well soaked with years and years of alcohol. The fire spread fast.

Damen grunted and limped to the door even as the building started to burn around him. He entered the street and walked slowly, the five knives hovered around his clenched left fist as he walked. He kept the energy around them tense, ready to fire. He heard the cry of one of the firebird overhead and looked up. Sure enough it was diving down at him, and sure it enough it was about to release a gout of flame at him.

Damen thrust his left hand up and unclenched his fist, the five knives rocketed towards the Firebird. Damen saw the bird sqwak in surprise and veer off sharply. Damen cursed and tried to alter the trajectory of the knives, he managed to turn them slightly but he had basically lost his hold on them. He still noted with satisfaction that at least two of the knives had sunk into the flesh of the creature's wing.

He also noted how the damn thing didn't even seem to flinch, but just wheeled around and headed towards him.

Then he heard the female voice of the parakweets all around him, he especially noted the part about the healing. He frantically tried to remember where he had seen the shelter when he had been on the roof and set off in that general direction. He looked up to see the Firebird diving at him and he started to run, using his ability to help carry him as he dashed away from the diving bird. He turned a corner to see two people standing in the street. There was also a puddle of vomit with questionable contents on the cobblestones.

Some non-panicked part of him registered that these were probably not regular citizens and may have been the other heroes that the Parakweets had referred to. Of course only a small part of him registered this as he turned the corner and sprinted right past them.

"Heads up!" He shouted and he was off, leaving them behind him. He had been in their company for no more than a second.

He used his spear to vault over the injured firebird and continued his mad dash towards the shelter, leaving a trail of blood as he moved and hoping that the firebird that had been following him would attack those two. They looked well enough, except the Ferin fellow looked a bit sick. Had that been a Ferin? Was that a Ferin? He shook his head and kept running, he dared look over his shoulder to see the sky was empty behind him. The Firebird had found new prey.

He breathed a sigh of relief but didn't stop his furious pace, he needed to return to those two the second he was healed or his conscience would never let him live it down.