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Was Valona still en-tow? He glanced over his shoulder to gesture her after him as he ascended. Hopefully that wouldn’t offend anyone, as clearly it was a den area; but everyone was kinda mixed right now, anyway.

His ascent was always a bit funny on the plateau, because most of it was comprised of narrow ledges, and a few choked off passages through the sanctuary loaned by nature for the… smaller ones. He had to take curiouser and curiouser pathways to the top due to his bearish size. It wasn’t always a benefit to be big.

The top felt weirdly desolate to him without his father’s statue standing boldly atop it, but that was really how it used to look; Sol and Drathir likely didn’t even know the difference. The old den was empty, save for odd tokens he, and anyone else, decided to bring to the original alpha’s den. Those who came after him didn’t feel right moving into the old den. He lifted his head at plateau’s edge, following Drathir’s walk to the old ruin-falls from a distance and casting curious eyes on a fire. Well, seeing as how none of the fire pups of Wehfre’s kin survived, and it lacked the ethereal flame of the spectre—Auroch tilted his head, curious. He hadn’t seen a controlled burn like that since John visited the lands. “Human?”

“…And a big bird.” His nose told him a lot of things, but didn’t seem to have a definition for “gryphon” yet. Ask him what a raptor smells like, though, and you might find unusual comrades in the area.

The plateau did offer an excellent view; to the west and running at a slight northward slant was the canyon he had given her a preview of, and opposite of it were plains that became desert and deadlands, but still promised powerful mountains. Forests rolled to the north, and west granted highland plains, and eventual cliffs toward the Oceanside spray. This side of the plateau offered the most fertile lands, as eastward led past savannah style plains and eventually the encroachment of the human nexian city.

In this, it was the sunset that Auroch appreciated more than anything, and dusk had a certain way of hypnotizing him over the land.

Drathir snorted and glared at the creature who called herself a gryphon. She had no idea what a gryphon was, all she knew was what she saw in front of her. “Feathers, beak, wings.” Annoying chirping voice. She thought. “Bird.” She was aware she was being confrontational but these two had really got her hackles up and after what had just transpired with her sister, these two were barring the brute of her foul mood.

She gave another unimpressed snort when the human described the object he and the not-bird sought. “Very large or very small? Sounds like you aren’t exactly sure. Anything more tangible you can tell me about it?” Right on cue he started to fiddle with...some human...thing and brought up an image of the object. Humans and their machines. Why was not scent, sound, sight and memory enough for them as it was for wolves? She pondered where that particular race would be without their unnatural creatures. Now was not the time though to be considering the two-leggers position in the world. She showed no reaction when he mention others who were also searching for this thing and who may not be as co-operative as they were being. She merely shrugged and replied simply and bluntly. “Then they’ll be killed.”

If what he said was true then realistically there was no reason not to allow them into the pack lands, under extremely close observation of course. She rolled her eyes up to his muzzle-less face when the glowing hologram vanished back into his forelimb mounted device. “Yes you do. It’s not my decision to make. If you are permitted into our land do not expect to go about freely, though if what you are saying is true then it could well be of importance that you find this item quickly. I will call our alpha female for you.”

She’s been so pre-occupied with this bizarre duo that she hadn’t noticed Auroch above her. She threw her head back and closed her eyes as she loosed a low tone howl which filled the surrounding air with its mournful sound that held quite a lot of power for a single wolf call. It was a call to Bella and within its somber sound it told of two strangers with a quest in mind.

Sol’s ears twitched as he picked up the unmistakable sound of his sister’s calling howl. He turned to Bella with a somewhat frantic look in his eyes. “That’s Drathir! Something is wrong!”

Bella had been talking to Valona, but it seemed that she wanted rest more than healing. Her ears would twitch at Drathir's howl, and Sol's alarm had her nipping in his direction. "No, be quiet and listen." Bella's ears twitched with the sound of Drathir's howl, and she would tilt her head back, replying with her own howl and letting Drathir know she was on her way.

Her attention would drift to Sol, "If you can be quiet you may come. If you fear you will lose your temper, you had best stay behind." With that, she would set off in Drathir's direction.

Draeval was just kind of sitting there and listening to his siblings when low and behold he might be useful. He shifted and pushed himself up onto all fours, hanging back from the two but following like the dutiful wolf he was supposed to be. Of course, Bella probably wouldn't want him along but he wasn't going anywhere, surely she could use support right?

Jace winched as the wolf seemed so resolute on their ability to kill Pact-Partners. But, he couldn't blame it for ignorance. They where a new thing, it had no idea of their capabilities. But Jace knew better. They might take down three or four, but the power of ascension threw a wrench into every plan. After all, how can you ever expect a creature to suddenly change form and powers? Jace chewed his bottom lip as he gave thought to their situation.

Skvanda gave Jace a look, she was done talking to the wolf, and was now trying to figure out what her friend was thinking. She knew her partner would be cross if she took actions against the rude dog that had interrupted their meal. She wanted to show her how bad a situation she had just stepped into. One Earth Light barrage or a Prism Claw to the face, not to main her, just enough to warn her off and make sure she wouldn't bother them anymore. The key piece was waiting, others would be coming for it, and here they were, chatting with an over-territorial mutt over ceremony. What a nuisance.

Jace returned to looking at the Wolf. "Very well, we shall wait for her and I will show her the urgency of our achieving our aims." It was then that the watch began to peep rapidly, Jace raised it and looked into it's face. "You might want to make your message a little more...compelling. We might be having a visitor soon."

Drathir turned her head and glared at Jace when she was prompted to re-state the calling she had made. “My howl was compelling enough, the alpha female is already on her way. Bella had already returned her howl and it had been more than loud enough for this human’s weak ears to hear. Bella may not be her favourite wolf in the world right now, but she was looking forward for her to put these two self-entitled trespassers who were so ignorant of wolf ways in their place.

She darted toward Bella as soon as she appeared on the over looking hill, meeting her halfway. She cast a glance toward her brother to let him know that she was alright, certain that he had been worried about her. Then she turned to Bella and spoke low enough that her voice wouldn’t carry beyond the range of the three of them.

“They claim to be searching for something dangerous which may be in our lands. They were very vague on details but the human male carries with him technology from their race that displays an image of what they seek. The bird-creature is brash and arrogant and the human is slightly more agreeable but both feel it is their right to be within our territory and they know nothing of wolves."

Sol did follow behind Bella, wanting to keep himself in check but already forming plans on how to best protect Drathir if need be. As they ran toward her he felt that he should say something to Bella but his mind drew a blank so he said nothing. Every time he looked at her his stomach knotted up for the disappointment that was in her eyes whenever she looked upon him. What they had, it was lost forever he knew, but he wondered if he could win back her respect someday.

He glanced behind once and spotted Draeval looping behind them. He said nothing to Bella of this, not wanting to spite him since Bella likely would order him to remain behind.

When they reached the hill by the ruins the fire wolf looked at once for Drathir and was relieved to find her immediately. However his ears pinned back against his head when he saw two unknowns with her. One a human and the other he was unsure of. Intruders in any case. He gave a soft whine when Dathir reached them and moved to nuzzle her once she had spoken to Bella and she gently nipped at his muzzle in return.

Both of them then followed Bella as they closed the distance to the two creatures in the ruins, Sol’s gums peeling back just slightly to show a slight glint of his jaws. Despite Bella’s warning it was hard to keep his instinct in check, and trespassers should not be greeted lightly.

Jace had turned his back on the wolves, "Where I come from, Wolves can't talk. And after hearing you, I think maybe there's a reason for that." He grinned ruefully, it was now his intention to rile them. Upset them. He had a plan. He kept his back to them, as the beeping watch on his wrist began to signal with much greater intensity and frequency. "It's dangerous, but only because of the sort of people that come looking for it. And in the fairness of impacting your lives as little as possible I leave myself intentionally vague. Hang around, you'll see what I mean."

Skvanda knew that sound, the pact-tool had many beep, bloops, and other electronic sounds, but each was distinctively and warned of something. And normally, when it started beeping like that, it meant bad things where about to happen.

Jace gestured to his gryphon partner, and waited as she padded her way over to him on silent cat's paws. She looked up at him, he was biting his lip again, before whispering down to her. "Get ready. We might have to defend those wolves."

Skvanda looked back to those, and gaped, "Why? They are so rude. They've called us nothing but bad things since we got here."

"Feathers..." Jace just shook his head, as the beeping became louder, Jace brought the watch up...six dots illuminated the screen now. He knelt down and continued whispering, "I've told you this before. This is the place they live. This is their world. We're just traveling through, we could do whatever we wanted without repercussions. But they have to live here for the rest of their lives. You know this. That's why we have to try to not disrupt this place. It's...not right."

Skvanda sighed, "But it puts us on such a disadvantage. We could already have been traveling towards the Piece by now if that she-wolf didn't interrupt us. We'd have a head start on..." She pointed at the annoyingly beeping watch-face, "Those guys."

"I know, I know. But that still doesn't make it right." he stood and looked back towards the waterfall...as a long tremor began to shake the ground.There was a rumble, the massive grinding of stone upon stone, as the waters of the falls swelled suddenly. "Skvanda, think you can transform again? Like last time?"

Skvanda looked up at Jace, and her expressive eyes clouded with a moment of self doubt. "I don't know. I feel a little of that power now. But it's nothing like it was before. Maybe?"

Jace nodded grimly before turning his head to look back at the assembled wolves. "Excuse me, if you would be so kind as to maybe take around twelves paces backwards?" he doubted the headstrong wolves would do as asked, but hey, they had to live and learn. He reached his hand to the watch, depressing the left button, and the bottom of the watch snapped out with a metallic click. Jace waited, his body tense and ready for whatever was to come.

Bella knew Draeval was following along, she didn't really mind. She was actually glad of him being here since the way Drathir was talking, these people didn't know their place. She'll approach slowly, her tail held high. She isn't going to correct Sol for growling, these were intruders on family land and they needed to be dealt with.

"No. We will not back up twelve paces. My sister tells me that you have been rude. You're trespassing on our lands, and unless you can give me a good reason for your being here, I'm going to ask you to leave." And by ask, she meant she would force the two of them out if she had to. Hopefully the 3 wolves behind her would let Jace know that she meant business.

"Suit yourself." Jace replied.

The tremors reached the bank where they were standing. And then, the waters falling stopped as something very large obstructed them. The heavy rumbling of grinding stone ripped through the air.

Suddenly, the cliff face of the waterfall exploded into a hail of rocks and water...as several new things immediate flooded out into the Wild Lands. They could see from here the small hole in space, a ripple like a mirage sat perched on the remains of what was the crown of the waterfall. Through that wavey image, they saw a forest...but it was...wrong. The trees were different, and through the mirage-hole it was the wrong time of day.

And several large creatures had emerged from this mirage-hole.

The first was a massive, hunched over stone creature that moved like a massive gorilla...a giant stone golem made of a red stone that clawed it's way loudly down the cliff-face of the water fall. It's stone fingers tore huge gashes in the cliff as it moved. Atop it's back...stood a human..but a truly odd on, as this human had bluish skin rather than the usual color. The human held a square black tablet computer in his hand. The golem stood easily sixteen feet tall and was almost ten feet from shoulder to shoulder.

Next from the fray, was the sky serpent. A pale blue and white serpent that soared through the air on a multitude of reptilian fins and wings. The creature was at least twenty feet in length. It's snake-like head snapped wildly, as it wheeled in the sky, turning back towards the Golem. Upon it's back was yet another human figure, in strange, outlandish, fantastic robes. In a hissing voice, it shouted it's warcry, it's tongue crackling with lightning. As the Golem came in range, it spat a long bolt of blue lightning from it's mouth to the golem.

The stone giant raised it's hand, defending the human upon it's shoulder, black char marks covered it's palm. With it's other hand, it grabbed a massive plate of rock from the bottom of the pool of water at the foot of the falls. As another creature dove from the mirage-hole.

A third monster arrived, a red tiger wearing exotic black war armor. It's mouth bore a pair of huge sabre-fangs. It wasn't as large as the other monstrous arrivals, but it still was easily twice as large as a tiger should've been. And beside it, another human. This one in more modern t-shirt and jeans, but he seemed oddly pale for a human though, and his eyes where a bright violet. The Tiger locked eyes on the serpent, and was about to unleash it's own attack...When the Golem threw the large plate of stone at it, taking it by surprise.

A fourth and final creature arrive...and it was a humble creature, carried in the arms of a barbarian. It was a mandrake, a root creature bearing a minor human form no more than two feet tall. His human though was an intimidating figure. A seven foot tall barbarian wearing the skins of wolves and elk, bearing a spear with a black crystal spearhead. He stood before Jace and Skvanda, a clear challenge.

Jace looked back, "This is my good reason. You want my help or not?"

The trembling land made the young wild's ears press back in a moment of fear and confusion, head darting about long before the rift opened. For being a big male by nature, he was still young enough to startle; his connection to the land was not by gifting such as Goh's, but rather earned in treading the pawsteps of his father's memory, and being nurtured by the woods and the wild. Having no birthmother made him an odd one. As the portal flared open, he went from fear to bristling. That was too close to his favorite place, memory, and personal project. He barked out loudly from his deep chest, overseeing from high vantage the emerging golem. "Wards! Wards! Wards!" he was of no rank to demand anything of the alphas, but was in the position to see what was going on. If Bella could use the charged stones to balance the land this could be quickly stifled. Even with the dark lords gone, apparently they could still come in handy. Hopefully Bella would be quick to call on her stored elements, but in case something(c)

-- went awry, he was in motion. No hesitation for the ruins. He took dangerous shortcut down, springing for boulders over the edges and sliding dozens of feet, running parallel the plateau and abandoning his company above; his sprint brought him to a sharp natural curve, from which he launched and flew from twenty feet in the air, momentum hurling him. a slight yipe escaped upon impact, weight too much but adrenaline pumping too much to care as he barreled towards his sister-mother, a section of his pact, and even beyond to the gorge's end to stare into the canyon the waterfall carved and snarl. Let's see just what all manages to bear through and not, once Bella establishes a law field. Regardless of that, he looked primed to damn near kamikaze leap to his death on whatever might threaten his home.

er, *section of his pack

The thunderous explosion pounded in Sol's skull with a stabbing pain. His ears pinned back against his head and he shut one eye while squeezing the other down to half mast as he fought through the shock and the harsh sting of the violent sound. However as the unpleasant sensations cleared he was witness to sights which made him quake and despite his pugnacious nature he slunk back a few steps as he stared wide-eyed at the multitude of monstrosities which had spilled forth into their land.

His eyes darted from one horror to the next as he struggled to take in everything he was seeing. His fur was standing straight up on end out of fear for perhaps the first time in his existence. His mind raced and he looked frantically between his sisters, sight coming to rest on Bella.

"What...What the hell are those things?" He barked in frightened desperation though he didn't expect her to have an answer.

Having been gone for so long and in isolation he had forgotten the extent of the powers which were available to Ma-Wolves and even his own abilities. Were Bella to remind him of how to draw upon his powers however his steely demeanor may just return.

Like her brother Drathir had been thrown into something of a panic by the sudden appearance of so many bizarre and monstrous things. Her upset was not helped by the sight of humans being alongside these entities. Her jaws had parted and she stood dumbfounded until her terrified trance was broken by the words of the human before her. Her eyes shot toward him and narrowed. His evidence was impossible to deny but who was to say this was not directly caused by his presence here? Him and that strange bird creature.

Like sol she too was suffering from a lack of practice with her powers and abilities though she knew at least that Bella would ensure the pack and the lands were not totally defenseless against whatever those things were. like her brother she turned to her sister. She tried to keep focused but her concern and fear was evident in her widened orbs as they met with her alpha.

Jace paid no mind on the wolves, he was absorbed into the act of fighting. He was tense, as he reached up and tipped the brim of his hand down so no one could see his eyes. His hand brushed over one of Skvanda's feathers he kept tucked into the band. The barbarian laughed, "Another child, barely into his adulthood. Hardly a fight. At least you have the sense to bring an offering of wolf pelt along with whatever key pieces you've collected."

The corners of Jace's face creased into a frown, "You aren't touching the wolves."

Beside the Barbarians, the mandrake monster shivered and shifted, it's root face contorting in a pleased grin. The barbarian just laughed again. "Then try to stop me, soft hands."

Jace reached a hand into his vest, as Skvanda took on a defensive posture in front of him.

On the face of his pact-tool, words scrolled: Ready...Set...Go!

The mandrake was the first to attack, letting out a shrill shrieking scream and made the air about it ripple and vibrate. The ground rumbled angrily, as from the earth giant root-like spine shot up from it's earthen soil. Each spine was around ten feet tall, and they traveled in a long spread from the Mandrake, towards Jace, and towards the Pack.

Jace pulled a silver plastic disk from his vest, and slapped into the extended tray of his watch, pressing a button swiftly as the spine raced towards them. The concealed tray snapped closed with a resolute snap. "Feathers, the pack!" The watch's face displayed words again...

Speed Drive...
Installing....READY!
0:15

The numbers began to tick down, as the bipedal gryphon monster raced into action. Her small talons began to glow with a kaleidoscopic luminescence like so many neon, the light trailing behind her as she ran to interpose herself between the wave of spines and the wolves. She shouted out the name of her attack as she struck with it, "PRISM CLAWS!"

The speed drive activated, much like what these wolves might call a "Spell", and empowered her, increasing her speed until she was nothing more than a black and glowing blur. She scythed her talons, moving rapidly through the wave and cutting down the traveling spines of wooden root.

Meanwhile, Jace had his own worries, as he began to run from the wave as well. He barely made it free in time, having to leap clear at the last moment.

By this point, the disk's magic had run it's course, it ejected itself from the tray in Jace's watch. Jace caught it expertly in his hand and stowed it away in his vest. He glanced over the other monsters in their fight. They had a three way confrontation and their attention was not on this confrontation. But it might shift, he needed to find a way to finish the Barbarian and the Mandrake before they figured making it a five way battle royale would be wise.