Blue walks slowly through the forest, her nostrils occasionally checking the air for any potential dangers and her eyes keeping track of every potential thing that could threaten her. But her heart’s not really in the right place to go hunting. She’s feeling… Frustrated. And murderous, of course. But also… Ashamed. She didn’t truly mean to attack the Caretaker, she just… Couldn’t help herself, when she saw them run past her, looking so weak and defenceless and vulnerable… So, if anything, it’s really the Caretaker’s fault that Blue attacked them.

  But the fact of the matter is that Blue did attack the Caretaker. And Blue put everything that she had into that attack. She didn’t hold back at all, giving in fully to the killing urge pumping through her veins and singing in her instincts.

  And she still lost.

  Pathetically.

  And wow, did that do something to the poor little baby’s ego.

  She’s an apex predator, after all! She was born to rule the top of the food chain! The forest denizens should be cowering in fear from her, not sending her flying with a simple wave of their wiggly, fleshy bits!

  She lets out a furious roar, the sound reverberating through her larynx and up her lanky neck until it comes out as a hissing, threatening screech. It hits the forest denizens like an omen of doom, scattering the small critters nearby as fast as their legs can take them. The birds scatter for the wind, as the forest denizens hear the long-dead roar of a creature that went extinct millions of years ago.

  She watches them all scatter and feels slightly better about herself, her dominance against this forest’s weak and pathetic (besides the drop predators) denizens once again established. She gazes at her sharp talons on her arms, trying to will them to glow just like Caretaker’s, but failing to do anything of the sort.

  If only she could finally figure out Caretaker’s wiggly-fleshy bit thing, she’d be able to defeat the Caretaker without a problem.

  Suddenly, a flurry of new smells hit Blue’s nostrils, the acidic tang of fear and sweat mixed with the underlying odour of Caretaker’s kind. Blue smells five of them, growing stronger and stronger, and her keen eyes pick out furious movement in the bushes nearby, moving straight towards her.

  Blue ducks her long neck back into the foliage and blends in, deciding to observe what she’s up against before making her decision as to what she’s going to do with them.

  -------------------------------------------- ?? --------------------------------------------

  The ‘Furious Five’ rush through the forest as fast as they can, Angela leading the way while the others follow behind, dragging the floppy form of Maddie between them. Erik and Rachel are red-faced and sweating profusely, having to drag the heavy mage between them while trying not to trip and fall over snagging roots and reaching branches that seem hell-bent on taking them down to the ground.

  “Alright, alright. That should be far enough,” Brad says, as he slows his running to a slight jog and then all the way down to a stop, “I stopped hearing that big lug minutes ago.”

  “That was a rock golem.” Angela replies, as she slows down with him, stopping with an impatient hand on her hip.

  “Yeah, and it was a big one as well.”

  Angela lets out an impatient sigh, rolling her eyes at the big, bald man.

  “And it was a rock golem.”

  Brad gives Angela an impatient look. “Your point being?”

  “My point being that they’re slow and dumb, but relentless. That thing will follow us until either we’re dead, or some other smartass attacks it.”

  At that, the whole group glances at the aforementioned smartass, whose still being carried between Erik and Rachel like a sack of potatoes. Her chest rises and falls, and as everyone continues to stare at the mage, she starts to snore dramatically.

  Brad sighs, waving his hand dismissively towards the two. “Drop her. She’s already awake.”

  “No I’m not…” Maddie murmurs.

  At that, Rachel and Erik share a look, before letting go of the dramatic mage and letting her fall painfully on her backside. Maddie lets out a sharp hiss of pain as she rolls around on the ground, rubbing furiously against her tailbone.

  “That’s no way to treat a damsel in distress!” She bemoans, as she points an accusatory finger at Erik and Rachel. “What if I had a broken back, huh?!”

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  “If you had a broken back, we would’ve known.” Rachel replies testily, as she crosses her arms and taps her foot.

  “Oh, yeah? And how would you have known? You didn’t even know that I was awake!” Maddie replies smugly.

  “Because I’ve seen people with broken backs, and they almost complain as much as you do when you wake up in the morning.”

  Erik points at Rachel in confirmation. “She has a point. If your back was broken, the whole forest would've know about it by now.”

  Maddie turns away from her awful party with a huff, pouting about the injustice of it all. “I can’t believe you’d treat an injured patient like that. We should revoke your license! This is… This is patient abuse!”

  “You’re not hurt, no one’s license is getting taken away, and the only abuse happening right now is to my patience.” Brad replies with a groan, a headache already starting to form behind his eyes as Maddie starts talking again. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was next to impossible to survive this forest for long without a mage, he would’ve left her behind long ago. “We should’ve just let you keep on pretending.”

  Maddie gets up onto her feet, brushing her clothes off with a victorious smile. “Exactly! I was having a fantastic nap, and you guys ruined it!”

  Hey, guys –” Angela tries to interrupt, her eyes darting back and forth from shrub to bush in wary caution.

  “Yeah, while we were carrying your fat ass! You try to carry someone for miles through a jungle!”

  “-- Guys!” Angela tries again, as her eyes catch movement in the bushes nearby, as Blue starts hopping from foot to foot in anticipation.

  “So what? Exercise is good for you! And if it wasn't for me, we would've been flattened by that rock golem by now!” Maddie replies proudly, as she puffs up her chest.

  “Shut up and listen to your scout, already!” Brad shouts, his thunderous voice putting a stop to any more arguing and causing Blue to flinch.

  All eyes turn to Angela, an expectant look on their faces. She lets out a sigh, as she shakes her head at her hopeless teammates.

  -------------------------------------------- ?? --------------------------------------------

  Blue's foot tapping quickens, as she watches the fleshy things backs turn towards the forest, and recognizes this moment for what it is.

  The perfect time to pounce.

  “We really shouldn't be making this much noise in here. Do you know how many things could attack us with a moment’s –”

  Whatever she was about to say is suddenly cut off, as a massive, furry shape pounces from the treetops and lands on the archer, letting out an eagle’s screech as it starts tearing into her weak and yielding flesh like butter. The rest of the fleshy things panic and start attacking with their silvery claws, desperately trying to get it off of them, and the drop predator swipes back at them, keeping them away from its meal.

  “Don't worry, I've got this!” The cocky one says, as her hands suddenly glow in that telltale way. Blue perks up at the sight of it, never having seen anyone else besides her Caretaker and that little green fleshy thing do that.

  Blue watches as the fleshy thing points with one of its wiggly bits and starts tracing a pattern in the air, the shape of it looking intentional and artificial to Blue’s eyes. An idea forms in her head, a fantastic one that'll help Blue out immensely with her Caretaker problem, she just knows it will.

  She'll practice her attacks on this one!

  With an excited chitter of her beak, Blue bursts out from the foliage, quickly reaching her top speed. Her eyes narrow to pinpricks as all of her concentration zeroes in on the fleshy thing with the glowing wiggly bits, her mouth beginning to salivate at the thought of tearing into their flesh and eating them.

  The fleshy thing hears Blue approach and turns towards her in surprise, their eyes wide and their fleshy mouth bits wide open in a gasp. The fleshy thing swings their hand towards Blue and the glowing pattern follows it, pointing right to her.

  But Blue has seen this happen a hundred times with Caretaker before, and Blue is a very clever girl.

  Anticipating the violent, sharp wind to shoot out like how Caretaker does it, Blue ducks her head and jumps to the side, suddenly changing her position in an attempt to throw off the fleshy thing's aim.

  Unfortunately, no matter how clever Blue is, she's never encountered another mage before. She has no idea what they're capable of, or even that they are capable of other things besides wind.

  And as the mage finishes her pattern, she smashes into it with her wiggly bits, and a pillar of flame gushes out of it with a furious roar, clipping the side of Blue's gorgeous, mottled flank and singeing off some of her beautiful, pristine feathers from her flank.

  Blue lets out a cry of pain, but doesn't stop, already determined to run down and attack the fleshy thing with all of her might. Changing directions, she runs at an angle towards them, constantly keeping in front of the flames while still approaching them.

  After a bit, the fleshy thing with fire lets out a cry of pain, her hairy face bits scrunched together in strain, and the fire sputters out all at once.

  And Blue dashes as quickly as she can towards them.

  She leaps into the air and uses her majestic wings to adjust, landing true on the fleshy thing and digging deep gouges in their chest with her razor-sharp talons. She hears the fleshy thing's companions cry out in anger and fear as she does so, and decides to not waste time.

  She rears back her head and brings her sharp beak down onto the fleshy thing, barely missing their skull but piercing their neck deeply. Blood starts to flow furiously out of the wound, and the fleshy thing clamps her wiggly things against it in a desperate attempt to stop the tide.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Blue spots the big fleshy thing with the large shiny claw rushing towards her, its face red with fury. Knowing that her time is up, Blue lets out a victorious chirp, before sprinting back into the forest, having gotten all the practice she could need and having done all that she needed to do.

  As well as leaving the Furious Five down two of their pivotal members.