An Expedition of Mythosauric Proportions{GUIDE/Mandalorians}

[Isaiah Dashiell]

A wet tongue met Izzy's face, several in fact. Slimy and rough the golden hounds yipped and barked around them. Izzy grinned and scratched the ears of the canine-species.

"What do you mean?" He chuckled, "Shouldn't you be taking notes? These guys are probably the friendliest things in this Star forsaken forest."

The budding explorer stood and dusted off his armor and walked to Magda, scattering the Hounds. They followed at his heels barking happily.

"C'mon we got find our way out of here. Maybe these guys can help us out!" He grinned back at his young boss.
[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"I can't take notes!" Magda pulled several ferns down around her and swatted at the bouncing beasts with them, "Shoo! Everything I need - uff! - is in my bag! ...no!"

She flinched and twitched away from a smaller beast as it snooped in to sniff at her, receiving a swat to the snout with an oversized fern. And then, seeing an opportunity and seizing it as the dogs bounded off, she quickly scooted forward towards [member="Isaiah Dashiell"] and popped up behind him.

Magda stood on her tiptoes to peer over his shoulder, "...are they gone? They're gone, right?"

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

"Mhmm."

Indeed they were all gone. His employer's insistent swatting had scared them away. With a sigh he checked his blaster before shoving it back into its holster. The cawing from the beast that had attacked them earlier was much farther away now thankfully. The sun was beginning to set and if this world had taught him anything, Mandalore was going to be a dangerous place at night.

"Let's find your bag and try and find a homestead. Maybe the neighbors are more friendly than the animals."

A happy employer was a paying employer after all. With a sigh he fitted the broken helmet over his head and began to walk towards the column of smoke in the distance that was their rental speeder.

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Good plan," Magda nodded, "I like that plan," sticking close to Izzy for several strides to make sure the beasts were well and truly gone.

She would be able to concoct better plans once she had her bag.

They walked for what seemed like hours. That is to say they trekked for what felt like hours. This jungle certainly was no walk in a park; there were no trails to follow aside from the ones made and meant for the local fauna. Mags was leery to follow those given the pawprints in the earth, but she was far more hesitant to get separated from Izzy. He at least seemed to have some sense of familiarity about the place. Something about his mannerisms she couldn't quite figure.

Magda chalked it up to lifestyle.

At long last, as the sun slowly slivered over the horizon and left the skies beyond the canopy in a state of fading purple, the smoldering wreck of the speeder came into view. She picked up the pace, skittering through weeds and over roots with a barely contained franticness.

Judging by the charred remains the entire thing had gone up in flames, only now starting to die down in the overwhelming humidity. The seats were melted, the windows shattered. Magda held a hand to her face and swished the other through the thick clouds of smoke, coughing. Too difficult to see, she craned her neck this way and that to try and get a good view inside the front seat. No luck. Magda turned to look at the back end of the wreck and with no hesitation at all followed a tugging at her instincts.

She clambored onto the back and ducked in through the rear window on her belly, eyes strained through the smoke with a sputter. She squeezed her diminutive form over the frame of the front bench seat.

"I think I see it!"

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"]

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

Heavy wing beats filled Izzy's ears. A familiar shriek sent shivers down his spine and an overwhelming sense of danger filled his stomach.
"Mags, grab the bag, we've gotta go..." She vanished coughing into the smoke. The beating wings grew closer, almost drowning out the crackle of the flame.

"Mags, seriously, leave the bag!"

A flurry of wind buffeted the smoke away from the wreckage as the Shriek-Hawk that had brought down the speeder before swooped in. It must have been waiting for something to come back to the wreckage to check it out. Or maybe it knew that people would come back. He cursed and leaped forward, the Force propelling him forward unwittingly. A primal snarl pushed through his mostly human vocal cords and his eyes shifted from the grey blue to their natural orange.

But he was too late. He couldn't see if she had grabbed her bag, but the Shriek-Hawk surely grabbed her. Its talons gripped around her arms. It struggled at first to take flight again but lifted her small, light body off the ground with ease. It was in the air before you could say-

"Kark me..."

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"I've - almost - got it -"

Magda stretched over the bench seat, fingers reaching frantically for the strap just sitting at their tips. She couldn't hear the shriek-hawk over the roar of fire still encompassing a good portion of the forward speeder engine block. Smoke filled her senses. She sputtered and coughed.

"Mags, seriously, leave the bag!"

"It's right there! I just need- IZZY!" something latched around her middle, shoving her forward just enough to finally get a hold of the bag strap before bodily yanking her out. Magda thought it was Isaiah pulling her from the speeder and in the flurry of wings and smoke and surprise she'd flipped around just in time to see that, no, it wasn't him.

Bird.

Magda choked on a yelp as massive taloned digits grappled her around the arms and scooped her up off the back hood of the wreck. Thrashing madly, frantically, she fought against the beast and felt herself slip free - only to be caught again, one of its talons digging into her side. She didn't have time to scream in fear or pain, Magda was far too concerned with the fact that the ground, and Izzy, were falling away from her faster than she could have imagined.

...

Gasp.

Wheeze.

Whimper.

"...IZZY!"

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"]

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

A stream of curses left his lips as the giant thing flew away. A million and one things ran through his head;

What did he do now?

Maybe its friendly.

Does it have chicks? Is it going to feed her to its chicks?

Pacing back and forth in front of the smoldering wreck he shouted profanities at Mandalore and kicked at the dirt. He paused and ran a hand thorough his hair fighting back tears of rage.

"Alright, we can do this. Let's just do this. Gotta get her back, okay!" He slapped his cheeks in an attempt to psych himself up. Piece by piece the plates of his armor fell to the ground kicking up ash and dry dirt.

Thud. Thuck. Clank.

He swallowed hard as he slid out of the body suit that had been underneath his armor and took a deep breath through his nose. A sharp pain made him jerk, his spine shifted and morphed under his skin. The process was never pretty. Suppressing his polymorphic abilities for almost his entire life made any sort of shift painful, some more than others. His shouts echoed throughout the woods, drawing out the curious Galek Hounds from earlier.

​

When all was said and done he shook himself free of the wet debris sending a spray of red mist into the air. The Gurlanin in his true shape took a few cautious steps forward, looking for any sign of Magdalena. He smelled blood, and not his own. He stood from atop the wreck and looked down, his orange eyes scanning for clues. His eyes narrowed at the small trail of red splotches. He had her scent, the chase began.

​

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

She couldn't be sure just how long they'd been aloft. Felt like hours and her only indicator was the light of the moon breaking over the horizon as the winged raptor swooped in low over a rise of mountainous hills and deposited her into the branches of a massive tree growing out of the side of a cliff face. Magda tumbled with a yelp along the main trunk line and rolled to a stop within a gigantic nest.

Heart hammering inside her chest, lungs crying for deep gulps of air, Magda groaned as she rolled off her shoulder and to her stomach, slowly looking up through her mess of hair at her new surroundings. The bag had landed several feet away and her side felt like it was on fire. A short investigation of the gash told her it was likely worse than it felt and was bleeding a lot. She pressed her right hand to it as memories of survival lessons surfaced to her mind.

Keep pressure on the wound. Stop the bleeding.

Get the feth out of dodge.

Easier said than done.

Magda very slowly pushed herself to sit up, glanced around to see where the bird had gotten to and then decided to try and reach her bag. She was certain there was something in there that could help.

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"]

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

This was...Strange. He felt like his senses had opened up and blessed him with a third eye. Instinctively as he dashed through the forest he followed the trail. Echolocation warned him of obstacles he might not have seen otherwise. In the distance he could hear a chorus of howls. From the trees came growls and barks, the Galek hounds had come to aid the young Gurlanin in his endeavor, though how they had found him he would never know.

Izzy grunted in recognition and pressed ever onward. The trail was getting harder and harder to follow, but he his sensetive snout could hear the heavy wing beats of the avian creature now. The moon was just beginning to rise, darkness took the land woodland. Under his breath he cursed this mission and this planet. His anger at himself for letting the stupid young girl leave his sight pushed him ever onward, charging the Force like a battery. His four legs quickened and quickened and-

Then he was in the air.

He had been so focused on his anger that he had forgotten what they were chasing. Talon met flesh and Isaiah whined in pain as the great bird lifted him into the air and into its nest. It deposited him near the edge. He landed in a tumble and growled. The massive bird wrapped its massive talons along the edge of the nest and blinked twice curiously at the new creature and shrieked, spreading out its wings to show off its impressive wingspan threateningly.

"Well Kark..."

He didn't have time to check to see if Mags was alright, nor check her reaction at what the new creature the bird had deposited was.

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]