Welcome to Gaia! ::

Once Rob reached the hotel, he gave himself a minute to catch his breath, and his composure. Those bloody birds… He shuddered as he settled the civilians he'd managed to collect between the lodge and the hotel in, making sure they were okay. Luckily, all they were was shaken. So was he, truth be told. What the hell was going on here?

He spotted a familiar form head out into the snow. "Tara?" he said to himself. Where was she going? Setting down his pack of supplies, he followed the young woman outside. Almost immediately he spotted one of the huge birds heading for her. He stopped, squinting against the glare of the snow, and finally got a good look at the thing. Its beak didn't look right -- neither did its feathers. They looked… metallic. "What the bloody s**t is this?"

Brandishing his greatsword with both hands, he made his way closer, ready for battle.

"Tara!" Rob yelled as the bird-thing swooped down at her. "Look ou-" His warning came too late, and as she turned back to the bird and loosed her arrow, the creature slashed at her with razor-sharp talons. He charged for her as fast as he could manage in the shin-deep snow, wishing he'd picked a smaller sword as he was having trouble keeping the weapon from flapping all over the place carrying it with one hand and balancing himself with the other.

As he approached, the bird looked up with desperately wrong eyes, and with a blood-curdling screech lifted itself into the air on metallic wings and dove at him. Well, he'd accomplished one of the things he'd intended to: he'd gotten the bird off Tara. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the timing and didn't have enough time to ready the greatsword for a blow. Swinging it ineffectually with one hand, he found himself under attack by the monster.

Once more Rob was in a fight for his life. The monstrous bird was too close for him to swing the greatsword; the best he could do was try to pound the creature with the sword's heavy pommel as it scratched and bit at his face with its bronze beak. "s**t!" he swore. "s**t s**t s**t!" The weight of the monster knocked him over and he landed on his back, thrashing in the snow as he fought the bird-thing. He nearly dropped his sword, but managed to hold on and continued to fight as best as he could.

The bird suddenly squawked loudly and lifted up. "b*****d!" Rob spat after it. As it once more flew at Tara he saw an arrow sticking out of its back. Good girl, she got a shot off. Now if he could just… Struggling to his feet, he took a rage-filled swing at the bird. The blade of the sword glanced harmlessly off the back of the monster, doing nothing more than dislodging a few metallic feathers.

The bird flew at Rob again, screaming as it raked at his face with its talons. Raising an arm to protect himself, he flailed at it with his sword -- then it shrieked as Tara's arrow found its mark in the exposed flesh his glancing blow had left. He managed to shove it away, but it went to dive at Tara again.

He had about had enough.

Taking a deep breath, he grasped the hilt of the greatsword with both hands and swung a mighty, adrenaline-fueled blow. The long blade of the sword broke through the metallic feathers covering the bird, knocking several of them loose, and buried itself in the flesh underneath. He kept a firm grasp on the hilt, not wanting the creature to wrest it out of his hands. It flailed and screamed as it struggled to free itself, wings flapping violently.

"Take that, you bloody b*****d!" Rob shouted as he wrestled with the thing. It finally freed itself and fell to the ground shrieking in agony, its wings still thrashing as it tried once more to lift itself into the air.

Rob eased his grip on the sword's hilt, knowing he'd given the bird a mortal wound. He watched Tara dispatch the flailing monster with one final arrow, and wondered what was going through her mind. She was one of Artemis's, after all; protectors of animals and nature. And despite the clearly supernatural nature of the eagle-thing, it was a living creature. His heart was still pounding in his chest even as the adrenaline from the battle drained from his system and he felt the cold again, on his face and his hands, bloody from the bird's beak and talons.

He let the sword fall to the snowy ground and took a few steps toward her as she approached him. "I'm fine," he said, studying her scratched face. "Are you alright, love?" Before she had a chance to respond or fight, he gathered her in his arms and held her tightly. He needed it as much as he figured she did.

Rob was glad Tara hadn't struggled against his hug. He had definitely needed it, to help himself calm down. He'd been in many a bar fight in his young life, but he'd never had to fight for his life before -- especially not against a monster. It really gave him pause. He knew he wasn't made for fighting and killing as his primary purpose; he wouldn't have been Chosen by Dionysus if that were the case. Still, there was something almost satisfying about taking out the creature. There was going to be a lot of deep thinking done once he got back to the Prytaneum.

"Yeah, we must look a sight," he chuckled at her remark. "I left my supplies inside, so we can…" He trailed off as she went back to the bird-thing. Puzzled, he watched her scoop up a small vial-full of its dung. Then he smiled. Ever the naturalist, he supposed.

Crossing the snow, he touched her arm. "Come on, let's go inside and patch ourselves up," he smiled.

[Rob got nothing but the satisfaction of defeating the monster!]