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What should have been a fun evening out had turned into a chaotic mess. Rana had been minding her business and doing some window shopping when a cloud of freaking huge, angry bats had swarmed in and started attacking everyone. In the heat of the moment she'd ended up fighting them off with her bare hands, and managed to avoid any major damage. Once things had quieted down, she was quietly surprised she'd managed that.

But "no major damage" didn't mean "unscathed"; she'd ended up with some small nicks and scratches, mostly gathered on her arms and hands as she hit and shoved the creatures away. They were more irritating than anything, but she should probably get them cleaned up so they didn't get infected or anything. Paramedics were on the scene almost as soon as the last of the bats left, so she made her way over to one that had sent up a first aid station. There was a line already, and she was hardly in critical condition, so she joined the end of the line and waited her turn.

Rana was staring at the line and trying not to be impatient at how long it was taking to get treated - she wasn't badly hurt, but all those little scratches stung - when a voice spoke up beside her. She turned to find a guy who said he was a reporter and wanted to ask about what happened. He certainly seemed calmer than most people in the area, and she'd seen others around the area, so it seemed reasonable that he was one.

She had nothing better to do and figured answering questions would kill some time while she was waiting, so she shrugged and said, "Sure. What do you want to know?"

Rana nodded at the question. That was a pretty easy one to start with. She thought back to what had happened once she got to the festival. "Let's see...I was mostly just checking out the festival at the time. Got some food, was browsing the shops, and so on." Specifics of what she ate and was considering buying didn't seem important. Though come to think of it, she never did get to ask that stall about the wings. Oh well, back to the topic at hand.

"Nothing seemed strange to me," she continued. "There was the usual kind of fair foods, rides, crafts and things. Music was typical, if a little loud. All the staff and attendees seemed to be acting normal." She tried to think if there was anything at all that might have tipped off that something strange was about to happen, but couldn't think of anything. So she just shook her head. "Nothing really stood out." She started to itch one of the scratches on her arm, then noticed what she was doing and folded her hands instead. Better leave those alone until they could be treated.

Rana made a face at the thought of getting a tetanus shot, and possibly others. Shots were never fun, and if she had to get a bunch at once, that would just be worse. She rubber her arm uncomfortably at the idea, then stopped when that just made the scratches sting.

So she shook her head and focused on the questions. “A picture? Sure. Do you want me to stand any way in particular?” she asked. She took a step away from the tent she was next to and turned a little, trying to offer a clear shot.

Then she considered the other question. “Details of the bat attack…” she mused. “Well, they pretty much came out of nowhere. One minute people were enjoying the festival, and the next bats were descending from the sky. Oh, I did briefly notice what looked like a dark cloud in the sky, which turned out to be the approaching bats, but that still didn’t leave a lot of reaction time. Then the bats were just everywhere.” She shivered at the memory. “Huge ones, easily 5 or 6 feet across. They were all swooping at people, biting and scratching. Acting like monsters out of a movie more than real bats.”

“There were so many I couldn’t see far, but it looked like people were either running and trying to hide, or trying to fight them off with their bare hands, or whatever was nearby. That’s what me and a few people at a nearby stall were doing, anyway. Nothing nearby looked like a useful weapon, so I just beat them off with my hands, and backed up against a tent so they at least couldn’t come up behind me. I managed to keep them off for the most part. I got scratched up, obviously,” she held up one arm as evidence, “but they didn’t get a chance to bite me.”

“It was hard to tell how long it lasted, but after a bit the bats backed off. I was pretty excited at first,” she said with a smirk, though it quickly dropped as she continued, “but it turned out they were just making way for even bigger bats. These things were massive, with wingspans bigger than many of the craft tents. These were harder to fight off, and they were when I got most of my scrapes. But eventually they left too.”

She shrugged and finished, “After that, I noticed paramedics arrived pretty quickly, so I went to see about getting cleaned up. Better to get that done sooner than later, right?”

Rana noticed Ryan frown at her story, and how he seemed less enthusiastic to talk to her after it. She expected she knew the reason for that, too. Sure, it was a pretty unlikely story, and she probably wouldn't have believed it either if she hadn't lived it. But it was the truth, and she wasn't going to tweak her story just because he didn't like it, so he could just deal.

She took his card anyway, more to be polite than because she actually expected to have anything else to tell him. She'd already told everything she knew, really. "OK. Have fun with your interviews," she told him. She tucked the card in her pocket, then turned back to the see how the line was going. Was she almost at the first aid station yet?