infernus

acruxx.
The monster is horrifying.

Massive, and it doesn't seem to be buckling under any attacks. There were so many mages throwing magic at the damn thing, and it isn't flinching. There's roaring, swiping of its huge head, but there's no weakness showing. It steadily still moves north, and she's drawn to it like a moth to the flame.

She's already sated most of her appetite, feeding off the corruption and wayward magic. But she needs to do more. She has to try and do more damage, right?

Pandora turns herself, small wings flapping a little before her eyes widen and she staggers to the side for a moment, wings flaring wide open. ANOTHER monster!?

She breathes hard, panicking somewhere deep down as she surges forward. This one is spilling something on the ground, hot and sticky and black. Was it trying to spread the fires? So many were trying to help but this one wasn't, and now she flaps, taking off into the air. This one is massive too, and she can't help but coast around the blackened beast, using the heat of the fire to hover better, her magic reaching out, latching onto what she can feel.

But it's.. weird. Not like the acrid magic of the Pyre. This is different, but she feeds regardless, feeling the way the magic washes over her body, rejuvenating age old bones back to a youthful state.

Abby
EVERYTHING WAS SO HOT. She was BURNING up inside; she thought she might evaporate like a pond in a drought under the nslaught of the flames. Again and again she'd come at the beast, distracting it and glueing its hooves to the ground and buying time for Aquilo and other ranged mages to direct an arcane fuselage at its hideous combusting bulk. Every time she melted she mixed with the foul mire dripping from its swinging battering ram of a skull, flying of its deadly tusks in great steaming gobs.

She couldn't spend too long near it. The heat stripped the earthbloos from her body, exposing her corpse and making it blister and crackle with heat, heat far greater than the fire that burned within her ancient and unruly form. And then she was vulnerable, ready to be skewerared through the mummified core or smashed to mash where she should not be pudding. Or just char broiled. Her outside was nearly impervious; she wasn't sure what her core could take.

The ichor was making her sick and she was very angry and very perturbed and even a bit stressed. She trickled in a disgusting rivulet down an incline, muddying the currently dry stream with oil, which combusted. Not helpful! She had to get away, reconstitute.

So she did, though one of the dire wolf zombies didn't make it, crushed to pulp beneath a great black hoof. Now she was glad they were unfeeling and unthinking mockeries, unlike herself and her familiar. The great cat, the ground beast, and the other direwolves she pulled into her supernatural core, leaving Flopsy free to watch her back.

As soon as she was able, she picked herself up into solid form again (well, shaped like a solid form anyway) and started making a black wall to stop the flames of the Pyre from spreading towards a group of injured mages and the medics trying to rush them to safety. It was effective, though it looked like vomiting- paving the earth with her breath weapon of tar.

Then she...felt something. Flopsy whirled around, silent-barking and silent-snarling at the sky. Danger! he warned her.

Labrea looked up and spotted the tiny winged monster eating at her soul silhouetted against the lurid orange sky. In a twist of the light she beheld the child assailing her with vampiric magic. A pushenko, an eater of the heart, like the tails from around her uncle's fire! But this was a wildfire, and the pushenko was real! The fact it was so young made it ten times worse, ten times more uncanny for something so evil to take the guise of something so in need of protection.  Something ate at her, besides the magic, maybe a familiarity of uncanniness.

Or maybe it was the familiarity of being hunted.

Was this....a person?

Oh, not again.

Stop, she mouthed, not that anyone could read her lips.

acruxx.
This monster was a strange one. While it spit up black, spewing against the ground, Pandora had seen what had happened. The roiling black in the water, which was now a blaze that others were rushing to combat.

Up high like this, she can swing her tiny body almost effortlessly, and her wings bat down hard when she takes on the sight of.. there’s more?! Canines, felines.. she hadn’t seen any of them when she had wheeled herself to face this secondary threat, and now her tiny little heart is in her throat. Maybe she was taking on too much. She wasn’t much for fighting, only feeding off things.

The magic washes over her, and she has to stop taking, feeling her body tremble with too much. She hadn’t planned for this; it would last her for the weeks to come. She wouldn’t need to duck into seedy bars, seeking out drunken mages. It was a relief, but also something terrifying. She feels so much smaller than usual, and she swings her tail to bring herself around, startled when the beast lifts its head at her.

She has a moment of panic, clear as day across her face, fearful that the black ooze would be thrown at her instead of the ground. Covered in that, she could potentially be very very flammable, if the river has anything to show for it. Fear trickles in, and she can.. she can see the mouth move? Pink eyes narrow, and she can… almost make out a word? Does it talk?

Monsters don’t talk.

Monsters don’t talk.

“Are.. are you not a monster?” The breath wracks from her lungs, a tiny voice calling out over wildfire screaming all around them. The heat at least makes it easier to stay in the air, and with as much energy as she has now, she might as well be a child given candy without supervision.

“I’m SO sorry, if you’re not a monster! I — I’m really new at this!” Her voice wavers, and she feels a tinge of fear trickling through her. Would this be her own undoing?

Abby
Had the life sucker gotten just a little bit smaller as it fed? They weren't supposed to do that. Labrea found herself a bit smaller as well, drained of magic, not that that was saying much.

Finally, at last the feeding had stopped. She was so drained having already been tired, and she stumbled a bit. Above her, a childlike voice quavered, asking a question. Hard to make out the words, over the noise. It was hard enough when she barely knew the language without adding in the tumult of battle and the roar of a pyrocataclysm. Something about "sorry." Something about "monster." Were they apologizing for what they were about to do or had done?

Ugh. Life was so much simpler back when stories were the answers to all monsters. Maybe the world was more complicated now, or maybe she was just learning more. Or both. Could be both.

When the feeding did not continue and the small supernatural kept winging frenetically over the fire, Labrea decided it was probably the former option, and relaxed, slightly, before noticing the blaze she'd accidentally started joinin the main fire, and she sighed, a long, drawn out puff up and thin out rather than a real intake of breath.

A fireball came roaring out of the sky, and half on reflex Labrea blasted it out of the air with a stream of non-flammable tar, away from the winged child person pushenko kid. First the crone, not even a fire based supernatural, and now this thing, the Pyre. Maybe fireballs were just a Bad Monster thing.

acruxx.
It's getting a little harder to stay afloat, the muscles in her shoulders tightening and her wings coming down harder, in longer strokes that kept her bouncing up and down. Hooves tucked, tail dangling, she looks more like a misplaced child than any sort of actual mage, and she closes her eyes for a moment, trying to draw in a breath.

It's hot, acrid. The taste of the true monster is still in the air, clogging her throat and lungs, and she has to blow out a breath through her nose, trying to clear the stench as her entire head shakes from the force of it.

Slowly, her wings begin to lower her down, each beat down dropping her another foot or so. At least, until there's more heat and the sound of fire becomes a lot louder than it was.

She turns, just in time to see a fireball that's suddenly put out by a spurt of black tar that makes her nose wrinkle from the smell of. But.. this one had saved her?

She drops more and more, until tiny pink hooves hit the ground and she's craning her head up the best she can to look up at the massive not-monster, and the thing running around her too.

"T-thank you." She manages to say it louder, moving toward the fire with her wings spreading open.

She kicks up hard ground and mud, smacking it with her wings and sending it towards the flames that the other had been battling. Some of them sputter under wet mud, fizzling out, and she perks up a moment. Okay, maybe she can help with this, instead! It would be a lot easier than trying to feed off the monster and only giving herself some more trouble for it.

Abby
Well this went a lot better than last time someone mistook her for a thing-that-shouldn't-be and tried to end her, Labrea thought to herself, and nodded when thanked. Seeing the vampiress trying to put out the flame with dirt, she pulled herself together. Keep going. There's no other option. This confused squirt was fighting fires despite evident distress, and her heart softened a little. Maybe she was a good pushenko? No such thing, but maybe she was a good fake pushenko. Like Labrea was a good whatever she was. If the vampiress could keep going even in terror, Labrea could keep going even in exhaustion.

The Weeping Colossus was angry at the fire, so she decided it wouldn't exist anymore, and stomping forward with a frankly sickening ploshboom, ploshboom, ploshboom! she tackled it like the sane person she was, splashing across it like a wave (not too close to her new ally). Given when she wasn't tired and confused and barfing up the wrong earthblood (petroleum, but she didn't know that that meant anything, only that it was the exploding goop) she was made of inflammable liquid, it kind of did work, smothering the flames in a decent radius.

Ugh, more heat. She found herself face first in a puddle of the black ichor, and it made her sick- the only cause of that physical sensation since the day of her death. Not a feeling she ever missed. But at least the smoke didn't bother her and feeling sick couldn't have any...results.  Sometimes it was nice that she didn't have to breathe and couldn't puke.

acruxx.
The fear is itching at her, but not so much at this not-monster. More so at the fact the actual monster is still stomping around, not too far from them. Far enough that when its mighty wings of flames suddenly snap forward, the roaring wave of flames dies off before ever reaching them.

The heat is sickening, making her throat a little raw. The more she combats the fire, the more smoke ends up in her lungs. It itches, scraping at her insides, and she has to breathe out a cough or two, shuddering from it. But she shakes it off, scowling a little.

When she looks up, the not-monster is moving, the sound making her stomach queasy, and she makes a slight face when the tar splashes up and around, smothering fires.

Worry itches at her, and she flees for a moment, tiny hooves carrying her toward the river, where she can find a small bucket, abandoned. It's not much, but she fills it, running back toward her newfound companion, throwing the water on them, unsure if it would help.

They look hot and that's not good.

There's also viscous ichor everywhere, turning spots into a disgusting mud that puts her teeth on edge.

She hasn't been this terrified since she was a small girl, running for her life from a village that was beginning to chase her down.

Shaking her head, she pushes the thought away, and instead roots around with her nose to find more mud, using her wings to scoop at it and bring it over.

"I hope this helps..." it's a murmur, more than anything, and she dumps the mud on the colossus, looking uncertain.


Abby
Labrea felt a splash of warm, but cool by comparison, muck wash across her slightly pancaked shoulders, and pulling herself into shape again she saw the friend was trying to cool her off. It's barely effectual but also just about the nicest little act she's been graced with in this age and she decides that this one's not dying today no matter what. Supernatural or monster or no she's the sort of creature who has to, well, breathe.

Labrea felt herself losing shape under the pyroclastic onslaught of the heat waves from the Pyre's sky-spanning wings, and came to the realization that they needed to beat a hasty retreat. I'll be back, she thought as aggressively as she could in the direction of the monster.

Flopsy tackled the last flame in that spot, bouncing between them with savagely playful splats! It was a game to him, almost everything was. He bopped Labrea on the leg as if to get her attention, and she splashed tar over the divide between the burning and the not burning, sealing off a gap between burnt and unburnt fuel.

Looking at the winged supernatural choking on the air and trying so intently to help her, Labrea set her will to the formation of a plank of solid asphalt upon her great back. NEED AWA GET, she wrote hastily in the muddy sand with her foot. Seeing the doomsday wings beat down once more, she tried her best to shield the smaller mage from the flow of blistering air and smoke. COME BAC AFTR BREETH ON GET If the mage had the energy, flight would certainly do as well; Labrea just wasn't sure. She reformed the saddle-palette-turtle-shell thing quickly and waited for a response. 

acruxx.
It looks like mud but smells absolutely horrid. But there's a lot of things right now that smell bad. The black stuff, the fires, the monster's magic coming over like radiating waves that buffet against Pandora's senses. She isn't sure it this newfound friend has some of that nasty black ooze mixed in with her normal ooze, but it might be the case. The ooze is bad news and she doesn't like that it's making someone as big as this one become weak.

Or was it her? The gnawing sensation of guilt rests in her chest, and she tries to push it down for the moment. No. No. It had been an accident.

Her mother had been an accident too. No, that was her fault. The voice of her father creeps in a moment, and Pandora feels her muscle stiffen a moment.

It's the wet splat of.. was it a dog?? that got Pandora's attention back to the present, and she's suddenly aware her friend is now standing up, forming, melting, reforming. What was this friend made of?

Her eyes dart down, surprised to see writing. Crude, yes, but easily understandable.

Her eyes water, and she blinks away the stinging as best as she can, dipping her head a little lower before she feels a roiling wave of hit blister over her. It sucks the wind out of her. Is this what a raisin feels like? She vaguely wonders it before looking at the words and back to the friend.

With a heave of her wings -- and a LOT of effort -- she manages to get a little airborne, barely managing to scramble onto the hardened platform. Her hooves click and she finds herself suddenly hunkering down, wings spreading slightly, cooling her off just a little as the leather membranes ripple. She presses them down a little, even trying to shield her friend like this.

Everything is really smokey up here, but she won't make it far on her own.

Abby
At that, Labrea charges forth, rather more sloppily than she would prefer, and leaves the new firebreak to find...somewhere with air that wouldn't roast them like her mother's crispy plantain bananas. A low bar! And yet a hard one!

It was kind of a blur, the running, just a haze of trying to concentrate on keeping the muck of her back solid because who wants to be knee deep in her back that's gross and she's not keen on the idea either and evading the areas of the worst smoke. Eventually Labrea reaches a rocky hill, mostly devoid of fuel except a few fire resistant crag trees, slightly to the south of the heavily waylaid monster, upwind of it thank you Good Thing (by which she meant Grace), perfect for a respite.

Lowering herself, she made sure she didn't relax too much. It took a long time for something of her size to cool down when it was heated to its already warm core, and thus it took a real effort to maintain the solid state of -

Wait...

Solid!?

Warmth! The warmth made it not solid.

Aquilo's cold rocks! They were always on top of water or turned into water but actually THEY WERE WATER! She realized, having an untimely epiphany about the frigid mage she sometimes traveled with. It would have been understandeable given she'd never seen snow, except that now of all the times to realize a rule of basic physics was ridiculous timing.

Labrea was an easily distracted soul.

acruxx.
The smoke claws at her lungs and eyes, it even feels like it's muffled up here. Maybe that's just the panic crawling into her chest, heaving it in and out a lot faster. It doesn't do much in terms of oxygen, and everything is getting a little more than blurry.

She isn't sure how far they've gone either, until the smoke begins to clear.

She coughs, her entire tiny frame rattling from it, before her wings finally tuck up against her body. They meld right against her, tucked hard, and she has to breathe in a little harder than usual. It stings her throat, and every breath is a cough, but it's CLEAN AIR and that's all she could care for at the moment.

A shift, and she drags herself up, staggering before her wings open again, and she manages to glide off the larger mage. She lands, albeit a little sideways, before her wings are tucking again, and she's grateful to be away from most of the blaze.

"We have to help.." she manages to croak. "We ... I ... can't just be useless here. It might hurt others." Pandora lifts her head, and coughs a little again, but looks at Labrea.

"Um.. thank you. I--" cough. "I'm Pandora."

Abby
Labrea finally remembered the enchanted pen (really an enchanted stick) tucked within her form, pulled it out with a glorp and wrote, neater this time, I'm Labrea! Hi Pandora, hoping it was spelled like it sounded.

Was the supernatural worried about hurting others? Labrea wasn't sure what all the words she said meant.  "We have to help" made sense though. She'd heard that one a lot. But "use less?" What were they using and how would they use less? Was it fuel??

Oh well. One of those sounded more urgent than the other. What can yu you do to not have axident so we can them help? Labrea wrote, proud of remembering to use that X letter. It was not, in fact, correct, but don't tell her that. Neither was her interpretation of the vampire's words correct, but it might be a useful tangent nonetheless.

She added, as an afterthought, sarry, new languije no vos voike voy voic  e. The e at the end had what would have been a comical air of uncertainty were it not for the dire circumstances surrounding it. She thought about adding "too old" but honestly, that was probably more confusing.

Get wet cloth for air breeth bet more bet better

The colossus harumphed and whacked at the dirt with the stick in irritated frustration at writing in general. Enough of that. Back to monsters.

acruxx.
A.. stick? Pandora is sure she might be seeing things at the moment. Why does this mage have a stick??

Why -- oh! She looks somewhat startled at the fact that it's used to write, like a quill, but better! She smiles a little, laughing a little softly.

"Labrea.." she tests the name, hoping she has it right. There's more writing, and she swallows a moment. It takes a second to detangle the words, and she realizes they're to be spoken as they're written. Phonetically! Well, that makes it a lot easier, really.

"I can't get close to the monster," she says, almost a little sadly. "But I can help put out fires. I just need to make sure I'm not using my magic." Her eyes glide over the words, and there's a patience about her that definitely doesn't usually stick around someone that looks her age.

"It's okay. I'm glad we can communicate! I --- I really am sorry for using my magic. Are you okay? It doesn't last long, the tired feeling I mean." Another small glance, and her ears perk up. Wet cloth, of course!

Another small laugh at the bit of frustration, but nothing mocking. "Once I catch my breath, I can go help with the fires, this time with the wet cloth. If you want to go back, please be careful. This heat doesn't seem to be too good for you? Maybe you can stand in the water or-- or somewhere that can cool you off!"


Abby
Labrea thought about the life eater spreading out her wings to cool off and seemed to consider the miasma of smoke in the distance. Slowly, she let herself collapse into more of a pancake, allowing the excess internal heat to steam off.

Within the center of the mass, the lumpy bulge of her old body was visible as a tar covered, irregular bump, curled up as if asleep. Only her head, neck, and shoulder retained some of their shape.

Wut yor yur your machik is? Can you off it turn? It is oka. Just axident.

Not shur how to good well fite  fight this monster. Made of deAd. Maby we can fire fight and I can get hurt ones gon out.

She paused, thinking. Or others cannot breething on air yuc. Hopefully the meaning was coming in clear.

The undead mage looked at the worried vampiric one. Do not wurry I will protec T and you do good firefight.

acruxx.
Oh. Oh.

Pandora's tiny hooves almost skitter from surprise, her ears shooting upward as the other just.. melts?! Is that.. is that possible?? Pandora has to lean in a little, almost squinting at the other. The smell isn't so bad now, but maybe that's because there's some of that more gross stuff on the outer edges more than the middle.

It's strange to look at, even more so when the pen keeps going, and she turns away from the lump in the middle, uncertain what it is. Is that.. that the actual body? That's weird, right?

"My magic is.. is vampiric. I-- I feed off magic," she says, swallowing a little, looking around a moment, as if spooked someone was going to just swoop in on her and scoop her up to arrest her. "But if I take too much, I start to feel too full and.. and it makes me younger than I want to be. It--" She frowns a little, nose wrinkling a moment before she sits down, just flops down on her butt.

"Yeah, we can help with the fires and the ones that are hurt and need help!" She seems to perk up at that, smiling a little. "We can bring them wet cloths too, and bring them here, away from the smoke. The monster is going north, I think? It's just.. been walking that way the whole time." Which was weird. Weren't monsters supposed to destroy things around them? What was wrong with this one?

Her tail swings around, the plume of hair fluffing from the movement before falling still, and she nods. "..are you cooler?" she asks, wondering, before glancing around. "I need to find some cloth, and I can tear it apart for myself and others.." It's more like talking to herself now.

Abby
Eats magic! That was really interesting, and explained a lot. Too bad Pandora found her magic hard to deal with!

We will leev warning to fast people. We will look for people in the path stuck, get them out, I look for my friends and we help any worreeyiors who no wut what to do

Yes more cool, can go fite fight monster agen and Labrea reformed herself from the uncanny puddle. She was ready to follow Pandora’s lead if she had a plan.


acruxx.
She worries, that maybe this mage would dislike her for doing what she had. It wasn't as if it was out of her control, because she could control it. Just the fact she had used it against Labrea is what made her feel bad at the moment. Innocent accident or not, she had still drawn from her without permission.

She's drawn toward the pen again as it moves, tilting her head just slightly, letting her mane tumble around her neck and her forelock just flops off of her face, before straightening once more.

"Okay." The smile forms, softer this time on a skull marked face. Slowly, she stands, feeling the strength return to her limbs slowly. It isn't as bad before, but still. For a moment, she casts a glance around the empty hill, nose scrunching.

"First, we go to that building." She gestures with her nose toward a building that's in the distance. Far enough that it isn't burning yet. "We'll find cloth there, and then we'll go back to the fires, and help as much as we can." There's a nod from herself. With a wet cloth, she could at least stay out there longer and help more.

Abby.
Labrea nodded intently, and began to run towards the unburnt dwelling. Hopefull the residents have evacuated or are ready to-

Ah, good. They'd dug a firebreak against the incursion of fire. She could see, through the haze, figures widening it- suids digging with their snouts and hooves and shovels raised through the air on dim, smoky gray telekinesis. Since they aren't directly north of the Pyre of the North, they would likely be okay. The Weeping Colossus hoped they had materials they could borrow. Also that they'd heard of her and wouldn't mmediately freak upon seeing her.

Quickly Labrea reabsorbed the tar covered corpse of Flopsy's corporeal form, and the familiar reappeared as a slightly ghostly brown dire wolf pup. If these people were familiar with familiars perhaps that would make it more obvious she was a mage and not a monster. Pandora was also a bit odd looking and monstery, but that was life, they would have to try their luck.  

She glanced over her sloppy shoulder. Above the horizon flapped the grounded wings of the Pyre, flaming plumes rippling through superheated air, carving paths in smoke. A pyrocumulus fulminated in the sky above the blaze, devoid of rain, fueling the fire with hot winds and generating new lightning struck blazes far away. It was just like the day her father had saved her form the roaring blaze in the jungles of her home, during the Great Draught. He'd carried her upon his back as she screamed and choked when she was small.

Now the tables had turned, and she was the one fighting the violence of the blaze. 

acruxx.
Oh.
Oh.

She wasn't sure what the other tar covered thing had been but now she can see it, and her tiny hooves clatter a little on the ground in muffled thumps that are barely heard. It's a ... dog? Wolf! Canine! That's it.

She doesn't say anything about it, and instead turns herself toward the others in the barn, bustling about. "We need your help," she starts, clearing her throat. "I'm Pandora, this is Labrea. We're mages, and we're trying to fight the fires and help people caught in it. Can I have some cloth to soak in water, so we can go back in?"  

There are a lot of eyes on her, and she bites her lower lip slightly with little teeth that are somewhat sharp, and she breathes in and out slow, steady. When the tension breaks, it's a farmer that brings the rags, eyes wide. "Please help our friends and coworkers. There are some still out there." She nods, looking up at Labrea as she gathers up the cloth with telekinesis.

"I think we can do that." A smile, and she feels herself relax, despite the danger coming up. She has a friend, that's all she needs at the moment.


Abby.
Labrea was glad for the positive response from the naturals, though of course everybody loved mages when their lives depended on them. But that was the way it was, and you never knew who might be very genuinely grateful as opposed to just trying to send out the disposable magical meat bags against the terrors of the world. In any case these folks needed Pandora and her to help their friends something something some still out there, 

Pandora looked up at Labrea and the tar ghoul's soul warmed in the light of the comeraderie in her eyes. The Weeping Colossus nodded firmly and rotated, liquid legs churning in a scircle of slop to reposition her body facing towards the fire. With a spark of tempered ferocity in her dull but lively eyes, she charged, summoning forth her drowned beasts and her familiar to charge forth at her side, knowing Pandora would fly along swiftly in tow. They would find the scattered survivors among the burning fields and sparking marshes, and they would provide the support required for others to put an end to the terror more effectively than they could.