Wyverns and Wolves [CONELL]

[Orys Durrandon]

A name for his town. That was an impossibility in itself, for he was no architect or city planner or anything of even near the sort. He was a king, and things like these were not usually decided by kings. Yet here he was under the dim setting sun, wondering upon his barely standing wooden keep on the name of his settlement. Many names had been suggested. Some of his men had whispered about Durrandon's Town, a simple name. Some had suggested Wyvernskeep, others Drakensgard, others Skraelinggard, and one joke suggestion called the 'Exilion'. What a strange word, it was not even real. All but a fake. That man had been made to clean the outhouses for the next week or two. Although the word exile rung in his head, no-one had truly cast him or his people out of the lands of Elibe. He and they had left out of their own free will.

And so he sat in his wooden keep. It was not even truly a keep, more like a wooden building that had just been finished. It would not last for a long time, only until his men would start a mine. And once his other people would join them from Nabata. Around the keep were tents and campfires, and a small wooden palisade erected to keep wildlife out in case of an emergency. Behind the palisade was a lone guard tower placed so it could guard the forest in case something would come in or out, a bowman ready to fire at will if it seemed dangerous. Outhouses were placed somewhere near the shore, the contents collected each day to be then shoved into the ocean. It would stink a bit, but the fishes would not mind too much. In fact, it seemed to attract some. His men were a bit... Disgusted at the thought of eating fish that potentially consumed their feces, but they had no other choice. They hadn't started farms yet.

As the evening went on longer and longer Orys released a frustrated sigh, rising from his wooden throne as he left his men there. Some architects and designers he had recruited, wondering upon the placement of the upcoming buildings. The lumber mill and the mine were the most important buildings, although stocks and living quarters and houses were also needed greatly to keep the upcoming town up and running safely and without trouble. He felt frustrated. He had reached his goal. His kingdom was moments away from an actuality, and he could soon have his crown. Yet, he felt as if... Something was not right. That the stars were not favoring him. Was this the jitters of his upcoming rulership bearing down upon his back? Perhaps. He could see Balerion flying above the small settlement, roaring in content. At the very least his lazier and rougher side was content, but Orys Durrandon as a man was not. He could feel something strange. Something so... Life changing. As if he was being watched.

[Conell]

The air stirred next to the huge, black haired man as a woman with sharp eyes and large brown wings landed next to him. She was called Korra, and despite being of a different Tribe, she was apart of the black haired man’s pack. “They’re mostly just building, Con. Same as yesterday and the day before that. Are we going to make contact with them or not?” The large man stayed crouched in the forest, watching the handful of men working outside the walls with large emerald eyes. He was not like Korra, always rushing into trouble and trying to force a fight. He was patient, cautious. He understood the importance of knowing your prey when the time came to hunt. His voice was extremely deep and rough, “Not yet. Give it time.”

Closing his eyes, he focused on what he could hear and smell, the looked to the sky. A strange lizard flew in the above the settlement, seemingly having a grand time soaring about, roaring away. “That’s not good.” Said the soft voice of Kyraz, the cat scampered down the tree she’d been perched in, “That… thing. It shouldn’t be flying around like that, screaming as it is.” the greyblue cat taguel leapt off the tree and landed almost inaudibly. “I saw their alpha riding it. It must be some sort of… pet.” The black haired man nearly spat the last word. “How one could lead a tribe while relying on another creature just to fight in battle…”

The wind gusted from off the mountains behind them and suddenly Conell understood what Kyraz had been implying. “I more meant that some creatures might take it as a challenge.” The black haired man spun toward the mountains. “They already have.” A strange cry filled the air, a eagle’s screech with the force of a roar. Tearing through the sky at a horrifying speeds flew a pride of creatures native to the Island. Their enormous beak was built for ripping and shredding, their talons were razor sharp. It’s fur covered body lithe and built for combat. A pride of gryphons flew. Straight toward the sky lizard.

[Orys Durrandon]

Balerion's flying was never meant as a true challenge. He was a wyvern, lazy, yet with his territorial pride. None had been seen yet on this isle, which had driven him to a sense of superiority which only worked up to try and attract females of his species. It had been a good while since Balerion had some runts, after all. Yet what he had attracted was not the female member of his species, but something far more sinister and louder. For a moment Balerion lazily turned it's head to stare at the murder of... Something or other's flying towards the camp. At first, Balerion took it as no threat. Birds had never been a threat, even in flocks. So he charged with a mighty roar, causing Orys to look up in confusion. Balerion did not usually get riled up in such a manner. How strange, perhaps boredom had gotten even to him.

Only a few moments of fighting went on until Balerion was sent towards the earth, a loud boom echoing as the wyvern landed into the sand near the sea, roaring in both fury and pain. The beaks of the birds were so strong they could rip trough the hard scales of the old and battle hardened wyvern? A few had been ripped down as well. Although the wyvern had not fallen without a fight, some birds stuck in it's jaws as it roared in loud pain. Orys blinked a few times before shouting loudly. "BATTLE POSITIONS! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"

[Conell]

“Well. They had a nice run. At least we won’t have to get our hands dirty this way.” The woman with short, grey blue hair shrugged as she began to walk away. The Black haired man’s wolf like ears twitched as his mind raced, but he knew that they could use this situation to gain the upper hand over the humans. “Not yet, Kyraz.” His deep voice growled, “There are too many humans there for that many gryphons to wipe off the map. Even if most of them die, they might just come back with a larger army… Get ready to fight.” Korra’s face lit up at the thought of combat, “We’re going to eliminate the humans?”

The Black haired man shook his head briefly, “We’re going to help them. It will give us a chance to see what they’re capable of upclose. And show them just how capable we are.” A smirk barely lit up the wolf’s face, “Korra, take to the sky, Distract them for as long as you can. Kyraz, you’re with me.” The Black haired man moved at seemingly impossible speeds for something on two legs [quicksilver], while the cat and hawk looked at each other with conflicted looks. Korra shrugged and took to the air with a laugh, her body morphing into a bird of unusual size. Kyraz rolled her eyes as she ran off to join her leader.

The wyvern crashed into the ground and the two gryphons that that attacked it circled above, preparing to dive for another attack. One of them had a nasty bite on it’s leg from where the wyvern had nearly torn it off, but they were otherwise not overly harmed from the encounter. The rest of their pride began to dive down and attack the men below who were scrambling to grab bows and arrows in a bid to hold off the ariel predators, their talons and beaks tearing the slower or less armored amongst them to ribbons. The largest of the gryphons, most likely the alpha of their pride swooped down to finish off the grounded wyvern.

Conell entered the camp, watching the gryphon prepare to dive human alpha’s pet. The people were not fairing as well as he had hoped they would, it appeared that many of them were not even warriors. “RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH” The black haired man roared, his battle cry grabbing the attention of battling creatures, man and gryphon alike. [Predator] A deep instinctual fear rising in the lot of them. Many of the gryphons immediately taking to the sky once more and noping out. The alpha gryphon diving to finish the wyvern looked away from its prey and came out of its dive, landing on the roof of one of the wooden structures instead. It’s large amber eyes watched Conell cautiously. It’s fellow in the sky, most like the beta of the pride, landed behind it. The smaller gryphon looked as if it wanted nothing more than to flee, but held its ground to stand with its leader.

Conell locked eyes with the Human Chief, as his tail and ears began to grow larger “The alpha is mine. Take your pet and distract his second.” His body was morphing to nearly twice it’s natural size, becoming covered in shaggy black fur. “My pack will help your people. Make sure your tribe doesn’t attack them. That would not go well for you.” The black haired man had finished shifting. On all fours he stood at 6’4”, with a body length of 13 feet. His enormous muzzle was designed for crushing and grabbing, while the claws on his feet were prepared to rip and shred any gryphon that dared too close. The great black wolf’s head tilted upward and a howl pierced the air. A familiar sense of Fearlessness and clarity hit Kyraz and Korra. But suddenly Orys and his sky lizard were hit with that same feeling. [Emperor] The alpha and its beta took to the sky once more, and the immense black wolf began to run toward battle.

[Orys Durrandon]

For a moment it was all chaos. The men were rushing out of their tents only to be ripped to shreds, some managing to barely only lose limbs or to only be maimed to near death instead of dying off. His people were getting torn apart, and all Orys could do was watch as dread overtook him. It only lasted for a second as one of those devil's birds rushed towards him, claws open. His people might have been sheep and these things might have been the wolves, but he was the shepherd. And he would protect his herd even if it was the last thing he would do in his whole life. He quickly drew out a javelin from his quiver of about ten javelins, throwing it towards the charger with force, impaling it's wing and causing it to fall down with a loud shriek. It wasn't dead, but it'd stay down until he---

What was that. His eyes turned to the disruption, this roar that made him feel a cold shiver. The feeling of death crept up upon his back for a moment as he stared. A man, a large one. Around the size of Orys at this point, yet so furry. A native? Possibly, the natives could have--- He couldn't think clearly, shivering a bit on the spot as he stared. He could see all of his other men freezing too, even those who were screaming in pain just before. Some died with fear being their last thought. Was this the end of his kingdom? Nature itself was striking against him to rob him of his future? No. Not just him. But his people as well, robbed of it all and robbed of the peace they wished for. How ironic, the end was such a quick thing. He closed his eyes, preparing for the end.

Yet no end came. Instead it spoke, the beastman spoke to him. It told of alphas, of tribes and packs. He understood very little, yet he also felt as if he understood everything in such a little time afterwards. He nodded and held his spear. "MEN! Do not attack these people! If you do, if even ONE slash of the sword or one arrow hits them, you will NOT be under my Kingdom anymore, and you will be KILLED!" He raised his spear into the air to make his words clear and loud as he soon rushed over to Balerion. He had already climbed up from the beach muds, roaring victoriously at this sudden rush of adreanaline. Orys hopped up onto his back, patting his neck a few times as they flew up into the air to fight against this new foe.

Meanwhile his people stood still for a moment, confused and examining the beastmen before then roaring in anger, claiming their weapons as they prepared to fight against the skydemons.

[Conell]

The human chief had made the right choice, telling his tribe to not attack the Arbiters. At the very least it meant that he could be trusted not to be a complete fool. Maybe, just maybe this particular tribe of outsiders would not be as much trouble as the immense black wolf had thought they'd be. As the sky lizard and its rider returned to the air, Conell continued forward with a newfound certainty.

Korra was locked in combat with a pair of gryphons. They were faster than she was, but her hide was tougher than most other hawks, and even the sharp claws of a gryphon struggled to cause too much damage. And beyond that, she felt nothing but the desire for battle. She had no fear of failure. No fear of death. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted one of the gryphons soaring in for an attack on her flank. She dove, dodging the blow, then circled back upward and grabbed the beast’s left wing in her talons, raking it and leaving deep gouges as the creature lost control of its flight and began to plummet toward the earth.

Kyraz did not have the benefit of flight in this fight, but she was good at remaining hidden and faster than any other taguel in Conell’s pack. She watched as a human archer shot an arrow at a gryphon, managing to clip the lionbird’s wing. The creature landed on the ground, its glide down far from graceful. The archer and a spearman charged at the landed beast. Kyraz realized what was about to happen and shifted into her beast form, bursting out of hiding at blinding speed and tackling the creature before the foolish humans could get close enough to be torn apart.

Conell was not quite as fast as Kyraz, but as a wolf the taguel was a difficult target for the Gryphon alpha to hit, despite the lion bird’s incredible flying speed. It swooped down and talons extended to tear a hole in the great black wolf. Conell ran forward at top speed missing the creature’s attack, before jumping and kicking off of a small wooden building - knocking it over in the process. The black wolf rammed into the landed alpha, his claws tearing into the creature’s front legs in an attempt to disable its use of their talons. He felt a deep rip through his fur on his chest as the claw of the gryphon managed to rake him. The wolf yelped in pain and grabbed the gryphon’s assaulting arm with his enormous jaw, clapping down with all his force. There was a sickening crack as the left talon’s arm was snapped in too. The gryphon’s cries of pain filled the air.

Conell kicked the gryphon with his hind legs, knocking them both away from each other. The two beasts stared at each other, panting and bleeding as the fight continued to rage around them.

[Orys Durrandon]

Meanwhile, as the taguel took most of the lead during the battle, his men were much more sidelined. They shot arrows and threw spears and kept their distance, each man trying to stay alive and weaken the beasts over trying to kill them. It seemed like their new furred friends were going to handle the situation a lot better already. Some might have tried to aim for the necks of the large beasts attacking, but most of the time these attacks did nothing to the beasts but annoy them. Some of the men died, but most kept up their supportive attacks.

Meanwhile Orys had taken to the air, watching the battlefield. Most of the gryphons were fighting his men and the taguel, a few weaker straggles circling the airspace, probably to try and catch up onto the spoils of this possible slaughter. How pathetic, even in the hierarchy of beasts there were weak links. He almost felt sorry for the alpha for having such beasts under him, yet that feeling of sorry dissipated as his eyes locked on the beta of the back, planning on trying to bounce his newfound ally as he fought with the alpha. That could not do, not at all.

Orys calmly clicked his boots to the sides of Balerion's neck, causing the beast to roar in a loud fury as it charged forwards, Balerion's jaws snapping ever so threateningly. Just as the beta was about to lunge down towards the fighting pain Balerion slammed against it with all of it's might and weight [SMITE], sending it down into the sand with a loud thud. Soon Balerion landed, still roaring and snapping it's jaws as if challenging the beta.

[Conell]

Conell and the gryphon alpha stared at each other, the great black wolf panting. Gryphons were dangerous in the sky, yes. They were the faster flying creatures Conell knew of, outside of some very skilled taguel he’d met, but they had maneuverability problems when they were air born that made them less capable of fighting bird taguel. Where they were surprisingly dangerous for an ariel hunter, was when they were grounded. Their talons on their front legs and their lion like claws on their hind legs made them incredibly deadly on the ground. But they were not as dangerous as a monster that had grown up hunting on the floors of the forest, and Conell had the same advantage on the ground that a gryphon had in the air; speed.

Moving at close to 60 miles per hour [quicksilver] the taguel charged at the birdlion. The soft dirt beneath his paws was kicked up as he moved, darting from the left to the right, to keep the bird’s focus on him. If he could keep it confused, he’d most likely be able to keep it grounded; a necessity to winning a gryphon fight. The bird lion took the bait, and tried to lash out at the wolf taguel when he was close enough with its good talon. Conell took the glancing wound to his shoulder and tried to bite at the beast’s neck. The Alpha realized it had been trapped and pushed off to fly away and get some distance, leaving Conell with a mouth full of feathers and a fight that would not end.

[Orys Durrandon]

The beta rose soon enough from the ground, one leg limping lightly from the rough landing before then roaring loudly, presenting it's wings as if it was accepting to the challenge. Orys spun his lance around for a moment before taking aim, preparing to throw. As he released the javelin to be delivered by the air currents the gryphon flew up into the air, causing the javelin to fly into the sea with a loud splash soon following. A few curses left the king before he then ordered Balerion to fly into the air, to follow the Beta before it could escape.

The air felt thick. Perhaps it was the smell of blood, of battle. It reached even the skies at this point, yet Orys dared not look down. He did not want to see the possibility of all his had work failing under some half birds. Such a thought disgusted him beyond relief, so he took onto something that would instead make up for some anger management. The bird would be pummeled. The wyvern and the gryphon circled each other, eyeing their opponents up from head to toe. Balerion was wounded yet also filled with rage, while the wyvern was battered but not yet beaten. The gryphon attacked first, roaring and charging towards the flier. Balerion managed to mostly dodge out of the way, the gryphon's claws slicing trough the side, ripping a few scales as it went. Orys turned to throw another javelin, although he missed. Curses, he would need the beta to land to do more damage.

[Conell]

Korra was now faxing only one gryphon, and in her eyes, one was not nearly a challenge enough for her. She let out a great screech in her bird form, taunting the lion bird into attacking her once again, despite having just seen its fellow fall from the sky. The creature dove once again, this time not quite close enough to hit Korra and luring the hawk taguel into attempting another attack and missing. The Bird lifted out of its dive and flew vertically at the arrogant hawk, managing to rake at her wing due to her exposed position. The Taguel cursed at her foolishness for allowing a gryphon to trick her during combat, and began to glide down to the ground again, not wanting to risk an ariel fight when her wing was wounded. As she landed, she shifted back into her human form and called out to a pair of archers to attack the gryphon that was bound to be preparing for another attack.

Kyraz was having more luck in her fight. She grappled with the winged creature, her fangs tearing into the top of its neck as her claws dug into its back allowing her to hold on. The Cat taguel shook her head, wildly, trying to snap the gryphon’s neck, but had no such luck as the creature rolled about on the ground to knock her off. She hissed as she was flung aside and into the humans she had protected from their prey, but quickly rebounded and renewed her assault.

Conell had had enough of the flying creature before him. He did not particularly enjoy fighting to protect the humans, especially since these gryphons were only acting off of instinct when they saw the freakish sky lizard in the airspace. But the only way to send the remaining creatures running was to break their leader. Either physically or morally. The Gryphons was trying to remain stationary as it flew, eyeing Conell with unending rage. It seemed it was ready to end this skirmish as well.

It began to dive in his direction, but the immense black wolf was not interested in another grapple. He ran and leapt at the beast, his huge huge muzzle opening and grabbing the alpha, not at its wing, or throat, or even its leg. Instead, he snapped his mighty jaw down on its lion like tail. His huge, heavy body, pulled the beast quickly to the ground, but he swung his neck with all his might and let go of its tail. It crashed into one of the human’s structures on its back, the wind knocked from the poor creature’s lungs. Conell landed and leapt once again, pinning the beast to the ground, barring his fangs and staring its amber eyes down with his emerald ones. The roar that escaped him then was more fearsome than most of the men in the human encampment had likely ever heard [Predator], and it was enough to shatter what remained of the alpha’s will to fight. As the creature scrambled to escape, Conell allowed it to do so, the fleeing beast leaving blood in its wake. When they saw their leader flying away, so too did most of its pride. This was a fight they knew they could not win.

[Orys Durrandon]

The men were doing well with their turtle tactics. A few had been claimed, grappled into the air to be torn apart in a bloody mess, but most kept together in small bunches that shot arrows and threw javelins quickly enough to keep the gryphons away while also helping the giant wolf man's pack. The men were gaining some moral slowly but surely, the small clusters slowly pushing out to claim larger tracts of land as more and more of the gryphons either fell or fled. A rare sight of beast and man working together to vanguish a foe. Some of the philosophers back at Elibe would be proud.

Meanwhile Orys was already preparing another attack, before then noticing that the beta was fleeing quickly. He looked to see all of the other beasts quickly flying away as well, leaving behind those wounded too much to move and those dead. His men and the taguel could finish up with taking out the trash. Orys soon landed next to the wolf of a man, causing the wyvern to collapse onto the ground. Balerion hopped off of the wyvern, grunting. Balerion wouldn't die, and he was not too harmed. He was just tired. So, he turned his attention to Conell.

"I... Am thankful for your assistance, and for your men. Without you present I fear our kingdom would have fallen." A sad thing, but his death would mean the end for it, except if Lucius could somehow garner enough interest to keep the idea alive as the new king. "If you do not mind the destruction and the cleaning duties, we can offer you a small feast. Emphasis on small, but. It is the least we can try and do to show our gratitude for this aid you have given us."

Orys did not trust these beast men yet. They could be potential invaders or annoyances, yet he would have to treat them well to gain their trust. They were potential allies, and in such a foreign land a king needed to make personal sacrifices for his people and for the future of his kingdom.

[Conell]

As the great black wolf watched the pride of gryphons fleeing the partially damaged human encampment, he felt like the taguel had achieved what they had wanted from the encounter. While not entirely weak or incapable beings, the humans were not universally warriors. It seemed, in fact, that most would be unable to take a hit from a true taguel and survive. But what this tribe of humans did have were somewhat large numbers, tactical understanding, and ranged weaponry. If a fight broke out between the taguel and the humans, Conell felt sure that he would be able to operate against them. If was still the question, however.

The taguel’s shape began to morph back into that of a mostly human form. He stood taller than most humans ever reached, his black wolflike ears resting on the top of his head, and his deep emerald wolf eyes scanning the Man Chief that had landed beside him and was getting off of his mount. His sky lizard seeming more exhausted than wounded. Which was good, who knows what the rider would have had his men do if his pet had been killed. He seemed to be a more formidable fighter than most of his men, even if he did so on the back of another.

“We thought that some aid might have been needed for you and yours.” The wolfman responded, his deep voice measured and controlled. he tilted his head at the foreign vernacular. “I’m sorry that more of your buildings were not spared, but I’m glad your ‘kingdom’ is still standing.” He gestured toward the slightly damaged but more or less intact keep that the wyvern rider had been sitting upon beforehand. “Is that it there?” While frustrating, it made sense that the human pack would have different words for things; they came from across the world, after all.

The sound of wings beside him told the wolf that Korra had landed to his left. Looking to his right, he was not surprised to see Kyraz standing silently beside him — he wasn’t sure how or when she’d appeared, but he had grown used to her almost preternatural ability to sneak up on people. “I suppose… we should stay for a meal. There may be things to discuss.” Looking around at the carnage from after the battle, Conell saw a couple gryphons had managed to be slain during the fight. “Does your tribe frequently cook gryphon?” He could not help but wonder. He thought for sure that they’d never so much as faced a gryphon attack before.

[Orys Durrandon]

"Yes, yes, there are many things to talk about... Mhm. We cannot sadly cook gryphon. This is the first time seeing the beasts. Anyways. Buildings can be rebuilt, and wounds can be tended to. Yet a kingdom, an ideal... Cannot. Not easily. Nor can those who have fallen." Orys turns his head almost solemnly, gazing at a few of his torn apart men before soon averting his gaze out of either pure sorrow or disgust. Perhaps a mix of both would be applicable. "If you can excuse me for an hour or so to help some of my men bury ours. I'll lend..." He grabbed one of the passing by men by the shoulder, yanking him over. "... Ronald over here, guide you around and answer any of your questions." And so Orys went, hands folded behind his back.

Ronald was a young lad, about sixteen years or so of age with brown hair and blue eyes. A bit scrawny, although he was made to run fast with his lean build. He'd be a good archer once he grew up a tiny bit. While the about five and a half foot boy tried to look up to the wolfish hulk of a man, there was some clear fear in his eyes. Although once the boy spoke in his clear tone, it showed none of that fear that hid within his eyes. "If... Sire and his retinue could follow, I'd be honored to show you around Durrantown." Another name for the capital that had been suggested. "Um..." He turns to the keep. "That there's Durrankeep." He turns again, pointing to the tents. "That's where we live." Another turn. "That's the harbor." And one last turn to point to the outhouses. "And them there would be our outhouses, if you. Relieve yourself like that."

[Conell]

The huge, black haired man watched the self proclaimed king spoke on the merits of kingdoms and the rebuilding of homes. What surprised him the most was that the leader of the small outpost didn’t seem to feel any need to use the gryphon meat from the dead creatures. It was only right to eat your kill. It was the only way to honor the Earthmother after taking a life. Conell looked down at Orys, his dark green eyes meeting the wyvern rider’s, “Bury your dead. We will prepare the gryphon. It is not right to let their death be nothing but a slaughter.” Personally, Conell was not a fan of gryphon meat. There was not a lot of the bird-lion kin around the Craigs that his original pack had called home. Korra seemed to be practically salivating at the thought of gryphon wing, so he hoped that the hawk taguel had some notion of how to cook them better than he.

The human presented to them was little more than a child. “You’re a scrawny thing, aren’t you?” Korra questioned, prompting a swift smack to the back of her head from Kyraz. “I don’t think we’ll be using your… Outhouses. Thank you.” The great wolf looked down at the dead gryphons, wondering where they should prepare the meal. “Would you mind showing us where we can begin cooking, little one?” Conell spoke softly, not wanting to scare the young boy anymore than necessary. These humans may be invaders or refugees or simply explorers. But children are children and Conell didn’t feel right having someone so young being afraid of him.

[Orys Durrandon]

Ronald stared up to Korra with a glint of defiance in his eyes. It was more adorable than threatening, really, with a teen trying to stare down someone who was both taller AND more fearsome than himself. He soon enough dropped the defiant look and just sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "I know I ain't that impressive, ya know. But being here is better than trying to farm some land back at the isles." He didn't even realize these people wouldn't know about the western isles, nor would they probably understand any other terms he would throw at them. "Orys came to the isles ages ago, and he began to talk! Of some new kingdom and all, a place for people who were tired of the other powers poking them with pointy spears! So dad and mom and sis and me went with him!" Nodding. "I might be scrawny, but I'm still useful!"

The boy did not even realize the miniature tangent he had gone on, soon shrinking a bit due to embarrassment. "Uh... Cookery. Um. Follow me, sire and. Lady." He quickly turns and scampers off, hands motioning them to follow quickly. They arrive to one corner of the tent camp, where he presents them with a large fire pit with some stakes, pans, and such spread around it. "Since we're kinda fresh here and all, we haven't made any real spaces for foodmaking... But we do cook things we fish or hunt here! An', an', we're making a farm!" He seems excited once more. If nothing else the boy had some real spirit for this sort of ambition.

Meanwhile, Orys was busy burying the men that weren't torn apart by the gryphons, a rather grim look on his face as he did so. He had the few priests available to bless the dead while sending a few other men to deliver the dead gryphons over to the fire pit.