Sure, that'd be great

[part 2]

"Hey, curly-tail, get up."

Lilly received a rude awakening the next morning from her hunting partner, Yale, a large male Vulnyx. He stood in front of the rose bush, poking under it with one of his long, curved claws. Groaning, Lilly rolled over onto her back, looking over to find Flower still sleeping beside her. Right, she'd slept under the rose bush with her last night, because of the nightmares. It seemed to work--Lilly had no nightmares last night, but she'd also had no dreams at all. She couldn't tell if this was better or worse.

"Come on, I said get up," Yale repeated, bringing Lilly back to earth. Shaking her head, she dragged herself out from under the bush, yawning loudly as she shook dew from her fur. The weather was one of the worst parts of sleeping outside, but she felt strangely warm, as if the wetness of her fur didn't reach her skin. "We get to go out hunting this morning."

"Uh-huh. Where?" She walked closely beside Yale as he walked through the garden, going up to the fence and jumping on top of it. Lilly followed suit, and the two of them balanced on the fence for a moment as the older male thought.

"Forest." The sun was only just barely starting to rise over the horizon, and Yale jumped down, stalking off towards his destination. Lilly followed, tail wagging slowly as they went. "Most of the prey will just be starting to stir. We'll catch them off guard." Before he became a part of the home, Yale was a wild Sylesti all of his life, and had learned to hunt out here. Lilly had learned to trust his judgement, for the older male was rarely ever wrong about hunting.

The two of them were barely inside of the forest before they noticed a rabbit, hopping about the undergrowth. Seizing the rare chance, Yale motioned for Lilly to circle around it as he dropped into a hunter's crouch, sliding forward almost on his belly through the grass. Lilly circled around towards the front of the creature, getting herself into position for when Yale drove the creature towards her. She held her breath, not wanting to make a single sound as both Yale and the rabbit inched closer, heart fluttering in her chest. There was one moment when she froze, as the rabbit lifted its head, sniffing at the air. She feared it had scented her, and that they might have lost their chance.

She need not have fear, though, because as soon as it happened, Yale burst out from the grass with lightning speed. Frightened, the rabbit ran straight into Lilly's paws, where she killed it with a quick bite to the neck and smack on the ground, just to ensure that she'd finished it off. Kill still warm in her jaws, she looked up to Yale, delight sparkling in her eyes.

"You can have it," the male said gruffly, turning his back to her. "I heard you had a pretty rough night last night." Lilly shrugged as she started to pick the fur off of the rabbit's skin so that she could tuck into it more easily, acknowledging Yale's question before she took a bite.

"It's nothing. Just weird dreams." Yale grunted in response, still searching out another good spot for the two of them to hunt in. Some of the prey in the forest was too large for just the two of them -- a full grown deer was much too large for the two of them to hope to grab, but perhaps a fawn...

Lilly finished the rabbit quickly, her instincts telling her to eat her meal hurriedly and then dispose of what was left over. She kicked a bit of dirt over the bones and fur that remained, knowing that some scavenger would come by to take the scraps later. Although she was tame, she was knowledgeable about how the wild worked, and used it to her advantage. Once she was finished, she hopped over to Yale, eager to continue their hunt.

Before they could search for new quarry, however, they were interrupted by a loud flapping in the bushes beside them. Immediately, Yale started to growl, walking stiff legged over to the bushes, hair along his back and neck rising in an aggressive display. The flapping continued, before there was a quick "honk" and something tumbled from the bushes, feathers flying in all directions. It was a dark blue and white Aurleon, followed by a navy blue Lighira with red wings, who pounced on him to hold him down.

"You idiot! You got us all turned around!" Snapped the Lighira, who was clearly upset and ruffled. The two of them looked as if they'd been in a fight, recently, and they were totally ignoring Yale and Lilly.

"It wasn't all my fault, that hunter shot at us! What was I supposed to do, die?"

"Maybe he wouldn't have shot at us if you hadn't dove at his head!"

"I thought he was aiming at a Faelora, how was I supposed to know it was just a deer? You know how my eyesight is--"

"Uh, excuse me?" Lilly finally said, seeming to end the two Sylesti's argument. Their heads whipped around to face her, and they muttered a few quick apologies before separating, the Lighira letting the Aurleon up. He quickly began to preen his feathers, trying to put himself back together it seemed. The Lighira sat to give herself a quick grooming, before facing the other two again. Yale, upon realizing the two meant no harm, allowed his fur to fall flat, but he still stood in front of Lilly, eyes narrowed.

"Sorry about that, my partner here--" the Lighira elbowed the Aurleon, nearly sending him sprawling, "got us a little off track. We're looking for some Sylestis, do you think you could help us?"

"We can try," Lilly replied hopefully. They'd probably scared off most of the prey around here with their bickering, which made her grateful that she'd caught that rabbit earlier. "Who are you looking for? Do you know if they live around here?"

"I believe so. They're--tame Sylestis." The Lighira spoke the words as if they were foreign to her. "We're looking for a female Zolnixi named Lilly, and a male Vulnyx named Yale."

For a moment, Lilly was so stunned that she didn't speak right away, so Yale did it anyway. "That's us. Are you two wild?"

"Indeed," said the Aurleon, who seemed to be recovering. "We are two representatives from the Eastern and Northern Mountain Tribes. I am Whipporwill, and my partner here is Tempest."

"Mountain tribes..." Lilly's mind immediately flashed back to the male Lighira she'd seen in her dreams. He had said that his tribe had been chased out of the land from where he lived...could it be? "You...wouldn't happen to have a leader named Perseus, would you?"

"That is my Tribe leader," said Tempest, dipping her head to Lilly. "He told me about you. It is an honor to meet you, Chosen One."

This time, both Lilly and Yale were in shock, and they spoke in unison; "Chosen One?"

[part 3]

"Yes, the Chosen One," Tempest echoed, looking Lilly in the eye. She had the urge to look away, but kept staring at her levelly as she spoke, tail twitching slightly. What were these wild Sylestis talking about? They must be confused. Sure, she'd been having weird dreams, but there was no way that she was that special. "Surely you must understand what we mean?"

"No, I don't," Lilly answered firmly. "I have no idea what's going on, and I don't know why you're here!" Now it was the two wild Sylestis' turns to looked shocked, looking between themselves and then back to the tames. Realizing that she'd raised her voice, Lilly tucked her tail between her legs, and looked away bashfully. "I'm sorry, there's just been a lot going on recently and I--"

"It's alright," Tempest said, stepping forward and resting a wing on Lilly's shoulders. Yale stiffened visibly, which wasn't surprising. Although the two were not related, and hadn't grown up together, the older male seemed to view Lilly as something of a daughter. The two had known each other for such a long time, he may as well have been her father, and he was nervous whenever she was in a potentially dangerous situation. However, Tempest meant no harm, and Lilly sighed, letting her shoulders sag under the weight of the lighira's wing.

"It must be tough, having the weight of such a thing on your shoulders," Whipporwill said, waddling over to the other three once he was finally finished preening. "We were unaware that you didn't know about your--er--status."

"To be fair, I have been having some strange dreams," Lilly told them. "But still--what does Yale have to do with any of this?"

"Our star-seer told us that she had had a vision of you, Yale, and one more Sylesti, a female Zolnixi. We believe her name is...Flower?"

"My mate," Lilly gasped. "That's my mate--but they haven't been having these dreams. Right?" She looked at Yale for conformation, who nodded in response.

The two wild Sylestis shrugged. "We're just going off of what our leaders and star-seer told us. We know just about as much as you do."

"Well, how about we go back to the ranch and talk all of this out," Yale finally spoke, stepping forward to address the others. "It seems like there's a whole lot that we need to get sorted out, eh?"

"Ranch? Is that a...human residence?" Asked Tempest cautiously. "Because if it is, I'm not sure that we should go there. They may attempt to capture us."

"Our human does no such thing," Yale assured them. "All of the formerly wild Sylestis who live here had their trust gained by our human, and chose to live here of their own accord."

Although the two seemed apprehensive, they decided to follow the two tame Sylestis back to the ranch, something which seemed to relax Lilly just the slightest bit. Most of their walk through the forest was in silence, with the occasional growl from Yale's stomach. Upon hearing it, Lilly paused, looking at their little party.

"Yale, do you want to hunt before we leave?" She asked. "I mean, we've got some time, right?" Before Yale could answer, Tempest interjected,

"You hunt? I thought tame Sylestis were given all of their food by humans."

Lilly shrugged. "Well, some of them are, but since we live out here, so far away from the nearest city, our human takes us out hunting pretty often. He says it "saves him money", whatever that means. Plus, since we have formerly wild Sylestis with us, they like to hunt their own food most of the time."

Tempest looked down at her feet, ears twitching. "Humans work in strange ways...though, I suppose if you would like to stop to hunt, you should." She sat where she had previously been standing, and as Lilly took a better look at her, she noticed something startling. Tempest looked to be in a similar condition to Perseus, the male lighira from her dreams. Her coat was dull, and she was thin, her skin seeming to cling to her ribs and hips. Whipporwill didn't seem to be in great condition, either, with dull feathers and a hollow look to him.

"Maybe you should hunt too," Lilly suggested, padding over to nudge her with her nose. "Come hunt with us. We could take down bigger prey with you around, after all."

[end of part 3]

After getting Tempest's agreement to help with a hunt, the group of four broke off from the path towards the ranch, and instead set off towards the right side of the forest.

To the left of the forest sat the ranch, and to the right sat an open meadow, where the smaller cousins of the Faelora, deer, liked to graze. Normally, deer would be off the menu for Lilly and Yale, as they were too small to bring them down on their own. However, with Tempest on their side, they had the final link in the chain that they needed, and fanned out to form their hunting party. Whipporwill perched himself in a tree; Aurleon preferred eating fish and sometimes small rodents to meat from a kill, as their beaks were designed for swallowing prey whole, not ripping it apart.

The three Sylesti focused on a single target in the herd, an elderly stag who had become separated from the rest. One of his hooves appeared to be damaged, as he was limping heavily. He was an easy target, and taking him out would allow for more resources for the stronger, healthy deer, as well. Such was the balance of the forest, and it was the job of the hunters to keep it in check.

Lilly was the first to strike. Her task was to scatter the herd and make them nervous, as well as drive the intended target towards the two larger hunters. She did just that, weaving in and out of the herd, nipping at the deer's heels like a cattle dog. Confused and frightened, they scattered every which-way, not noticing as Yale and Tempest moved in for the most challenging part of the kill.

Once the old stag had limped close enough, it was Tempest's turn to strike. Her large size meant that she was the only one who could pull down the animal, and pull it down she did, pinning down the deer so that his final struggles wouldn't injure anyone else. The weight of her body kept his hooves from flailing about, and kept his head from thrashing too much.

Yale did the actual killing, thanks to his huge saber-like teeth. Because they were delicate, he couldn't pin down the animal and then kill it, so Tempest's role was vital in the end. With nearly-scientific precision, Yale drove his great fangs into the creature's neck, severing the windpipe and slicing through major arteries. Death was nearly instantaneous, and as soon as the final breath shuddered out of the creature, Yale let go and stepped back to wash his face.

"A good, clean kill," Yale commented, looking over at Tempest, who seemed to be regarding it with apprehension. "Go ahead and eat, we won't stop you."

"Well, you are the one who killed it," Tempest said, shifting so that she was no longer resting on top of their kill. "Shouldn't you take your choice of meat first?"

"I'll be alright, I'm not the one who's starving," the Vulnyx replied gruffly, motioning with his head to the Lighira's skinny form. Lilly couldn't help but smile at that. Yale tried to pass himself off as rough and uncaring most of the time, but he had a big heart, and did let it show at times. As he stepped away from the kill, Tempest could control her hunger no more, and fell upon the deer, tearing into it quickly.

When he went back to stand beside Lilly, she heard his stomach growl yet again, and she frowned. "If you're still hungry, why don't you--"

"She needs it more than I do." His eyes were focused intently on the Lighira, who had already made her way through half of the kill. When she was finally finished, her belly bulging, there was little left of the kill, and she laid down to rest for a moment, cleaning her face and paws of any scraps. Giving a heavy sigh, Yale looked over at the remains of the deer and narrowed his eyes. "Looks like we'll have to bring that back to the ranch. We didn't manage to kill anything else."

"We'll go out again later," Lilly assured them, resting a paw on his shoulder for a short moment before letting it drop. Seemingly unconvinced, the older male padded forward to retrieve the rest of the deer, and then started to haul it towards the trees, and back towards the ranch. With the two wild Sylesti in tow, they finally began the trek back home, knowing that their strange ordeal had only just begun.

[end of chapter 2]

Chapter Three: A Farewell to Stables

"So. The Exiled think that they have hope?"

The high-pitched voice of a female Nephini echoed throughout the small cave. Upon hearing her voice, a male Griffi lifted his head from where it rested on his paws, tail twitching slowly. Lady Kai Darkwing, the Nephini who had spoken, was hunched over a small crystal ball. Turning it around in her paws, she looked over to Master Snowmark, the male Griffi, and beckoned him over with her tail.

"Come here, you big oaf. We need to talk about this." Yawning and groaning, the Griffi got up, slowly plodding over to the much smaller creature and then falling down beside her. The sudden motion caused the crystal ball to roll out of her paws, and Lady Kai gave a soft squeak of alarm before grabbing it again. "Careful! If you break this thing, you know I'll be--"

"I wouldn't break it no matter what I did," Snowmark snorted, resting his head on his paws again. Lady Kai growled in response, the noise coming out pitched and warbled. "Now will you quit your squealin' and tell me what you're blabbering about?"

Rolling her eyes, the Nephini rubbed her webbed paws over the crystal ball again, blinking slowly. "The Exiled sent out two scouts to find three tame Sylestis who they believe can defeat us and lead them home."

"Three tame Sylestis, beating God's Warriors?" Snowmark laughed, then moved as if to get up. "Listen, next time you wanna talk to me about somethin' stupid, can you please let me finish my nap first?"

"Would you hold on, you half-brained imbecile," Lady Kai snapped back at him, eyes narrowing. "These tamed pets...they aren't like others. Their auras are different. There is something...strange about them."

"But they cannot possibly be stronger than us?" A third voice asked. Trotting into the cave was a small female Zolnixi, shaking mountain snow off of her paws and pelt. Her ornate red-and-gold fur identified her immediately, and Lady Kai seemed to brighten a bit at her appearance.

"I do not know, Script," she said as the Zolnixi came over. "They are not the strongest fighters, but...they glow with potential. They could spread unease throughout the Cult, and if they do, our influence will fail."

"But we have the talismans, and our Uppers have the elemental orbs," Script pointed out. "Even if they do, they cannot overpower the Uppers."

"Still, we must be careful," Lady Kai urged. "I say we should send out a few scouts of our own to counter them. Better not to let them get stronger, and get rid of them while they're still weak. Then there will be no chance for survival." The other two nodded in response.

"I'll get Silver and Amara," Snowmark said gruffly, finally getting to his paws. "They'll be the best for this job." Lady Kai nodded in agreement, then turned to Script.

"Follow them to ensure nothing goes wrong," she told her. "We might need you for backup in case this doesn't go as smoothly as he thinks." She motioned to Snowmark, who was now out of earshot at the front of the cave. Script nodded, and quickly ran off to follow him as he unfolded his huge wings, taking off with one mighty flap.

Left alone in the cave, Lady Kai turned back to the crystal ball, rubbing it again with her webbed paws. "Yes...we shall remove the threat while it is small."

awww my pets <3 and that was really good xD if im not supposed to or allowed to reply, please chid me xD

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! And yes, you are allowed to reply.

Nicely done!

I won't be looking at Lady Kai the same way for a while now, I think, lol... I've always thought of her as a gentle soul, but now I see her true colors! *grin* I wonder what she really thinks when I send her out on Missions these days, lol.

Now Master Snowmark... yeah well, he's an old battle scarred curmudgeon, but don't be fooled. He's not nearly as much the dumb jock as he looks, lol.

For those interested in seeing them-

Lady Kai Darkwing
https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1510552


Master Snowmark
https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1344918

Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it, and I'm glad I portrayed them in a good way

[part 2]

Upon reaching the stables and the human home, the reception for the four Sylestis was, for lack of any better words, awkward. All of the tame Sylesti who lived in the stables were trying to figure out who these outsiders were, where they came from, and how they knew Lilly and Yale. Lilly and Yale, on the other hand, were trying to seek out Flower, and figure out why the two wild Sylesti were here as well, to get to the bottom of this whole mess.

"If we have to leave on some magical journey of faith or something," Yale muttered as they searched the yard and barns for Flower, "then we'd better do it soon. If the human finds out, he'll try to track us down, and I doubt the wild Sylesti will welcome a human with open arms."

"We've had enough trouble with humans," Whipporwill snorted. "I assure you, if he manages to find us, he won't be treated kindly."

"Humans would only get in the way of the danger," Tempest explained, a bit more mildly than Whipporwill. "It isn't that we hate them. Our foes are much too powerful for any normal human to beat, and bringing them around would only put them in danger. Besides, we've lived apart for thousands of years. There's no reason to change that, all of a sudden."

"But humans could help you," Lilly pointed out. "They could help to feed you, and take care of your injured. We have healing potions that--"

"Would only be a burden to us," Tempest interrupted with a flick of her tail. "Many of our Tribe would have their pride damaged knowing that they were helped by humans, myself included. You, however, are a different matter. Although you may be pets, you are kin." Lilly wrinkled her nose with distaste at the word "pet", but perked up as soon as she saw Flower. Noticing her with the two wild Sylesti, Flower gave her mate a strange glance, but came over when she was beckoned.

"Flower, this is Whipporwill, and Tempest," Lilly introduced the two Sylestis, who dipped their heads respectfully to Flower. Still a bit confused, she waved a paw. "And this is my mate, Flower." There were a few confused greetings, before Lilly looked around the crowded stable. Perhaps this wouldn't be the best place to talk...

"Let's go outside," she suggested, starting off towards the door. "We can talk more about what's going on out there, and the fresh air should be nice." There wasn't any resistance to Lilly's idea, and the two wild Sylesti practically bolted to the door, obviously uncomfortable within the stable. She didn't blame them; it was a new, strange environment, and it could get a bit stuffy at times. Besides, they wouldn't have to worry about eavesdropping as much outside, where everyone was scattered around.

"Alright, so explain to us everything that's going on, please," Yale said to the newcomers as the five of them sat in a circle. By the look on the other two's faces, Lilly could tell that this story was going to take a while, so she settled onto her belly to listen.

[end of part 2]