Under The Full Moon

Battling the Beast

Gale's bellowing roar echoed off the trees as she felt the beast's fangs and claws sink into her flesh, a paw of her own coming up to grab it about its sunken waist. Gale attempted to pull the creature off her shoulder, though it didn't do much good. The beast was on like a leech, its head shaking from side to side as it attempted to remove a chunk of her flesh. Hissing, Gale moved to drop to her side. With the threat of being crushed, the beast let go of Gale and immediately tried to grab for her throat, though the dragon used a large forelimb to swat the beast aside like a biting insect. For a brief moment, as the creature tumbled over the ground with a screaming yelp, Gale thought she had rid herself of the monstrosity. However, when it came to a stop, it lay where it had landed only momentarily before it was on its feet and rushing at her again. Getting up, Gale took a couple of rapid steps back before she spun around quickly, using her tail to slap the beast away from her. She heard something crack as she hit the creature, the heavy thuds of its body hitting the dirt following, and then silence. Slowly, Gale turned to see what had happened. 

The form of the creature lay on the dirt path, unmoving. However, after what she had seen before, Gale was hesitant to investigate. As she watched from where she was, she could feel the ache of the injury she had sustained growing a little more painful by the second. Turning away from the beast, Gale started back toward the overhang she had been using to sleep previously. She didn't want to risk either that thing or any others like it to take a chance at her. As she moved, she looked away from the beast that she had been trying to rid herself of. This seemed to be what the beast was waiting for. Jumping up, it rushed at her, one of its arms hanging limp. When she turned to face it, another creature like it hurried from the forest to its right. This one looked to be a feline, a gurgling snarl leaving its throat as it ran into the wolf-like beast from the side. Snarling, the wolf creature turned its head and turned to deal with the feline beast instead of going after Gale. Seeing them better, she understood what this was. 

The feline of the two had seen the struggle, and from what Gale gathered, it understood that both of them were injured. However, the wolf-creature was more so. This was the feline's attempt at making itself a meal, and not of something that would easily kill it. It seemed the feline, in whatever kind of mind it had left, was still a little wiser than the wolf. Backing up, she watched the creatures as they began to fight viciously, the feline grabbing the wolf by the ears and trying to bite at its throat only to be shoved backward with a forearm to the throat. Taking her chances, Gale turned and started for the mountains, at first running forward, though the injury that had been inflicted on her shoulder made running hard. Stretching her wings, Gale took to the sky. As she looked back, she could see that the beasts had abandoned their fight against each other and had tried to give chase. However, her being in the air, they soon lost her and she could only assume that the fight between the two of them had continued. Gale didn't stop until she had reached the mountain perch she had taken up before, her ears flicking back as she looked toward the path. She would have to find a way to warn her friends of the beasts unless they chose to ride through during the day. 

Gale sat down on the rocky outcrop, looking to her shoulder. She could see the dark stain of blood against the white of her fur and when she tried to set her paw down on the ground, the movement made it rage with pain. Running hadn't helped the torn muscle beneath her hide. Growling, she looked toward the path again, letting out a roar of anger. Luckily, the beats were probably too involved in their fight against one another that they wouldn't come searching for the source. Snorting after the roar dwindled off, Gale bared her teeth momentarily before she turned and limped over toward the mountain further away from the edge of the outcrop. The incident had kept her from wanting to sleep any further, pain and adrenaline coursing through her so thickly that she wouldn't have been able to if she tried. Instead, she sat as she was, watching the distant valley in hopes that her friends made it alright. The chanting had gotten to a point that she could now ignore for the most part, though it was still there. Hearing something in the distance, she turned her head, listening as the sound of a howl reached her. Apparently, the wolf-creature had won, even with his injured forelimb. Gale snorted, standing up from where she was seated. 

Taking wing, Gale flew over the area high enough to see what was going on, but not enough to be seen. Sure enough, the wolf-creature was bent over the feline, devouring the beast in a ravenous manner. Baring her teeth, she flew lower, opening her maw as she reached them. Drawing in a breath, she exhaled a roar that was followed by a stream of flames. By the time the creature had lifted its bloody muzzle, it was already too late for it to react. Gale flew away as the beast was engulfed in flames, and in her mind, it was one less worry to deal with when her friends made their trip this way. She knew there were probably more like the two that she had encountered, but at the very least, those were two less. When she landed at the mountain outcrop again, Gale settled herself down and took to cleaning the injury to her shoulder. Touching it made it hurt worse, but it needed to be done. Once it was clean enough, she limped over to a spot near the edge of the outcrop and laid down. Resting her head on the edge, she looked out over the path once more, smoke rising from where she had burned the beast. The fire was gone, leaving behind a plume of smoke that would disappear by morning. Snorting once, Gale turned her gaze further down the path toward the campsite she had left behind, wondering where her friends had stopped for the night if they had stopped for the night at all in their need to progress forward. 

With a sigh, Gale felt the adrenaline wearing off, leaving her feeling exhausted once more. She hoped that her shoulder would hurt less with a good night's rest or an attempt at one. Grumbling a little, Gale allowed her eyes to slip closed, though this time she was a bit more intuned with her surroundings. She didn't want to encounter anything else that might be worse than the beasts.