Manhunt

[nightingale]

The afternoon sky was hot and clear overhead, the same way it had been for longer than many at Selenitas Weyr cared to admit. The drought was slowly creeping it's way to the forefront of many a holder's mind as it stretched on into the growing season, but Saeo was among the blissful few individuals who took another day of pale blue skies to be simply another jolt of good luck on her behalf.

"Hurry along now Raylin."

The girl called cheerfully over her shoulder, being careful not to set her foot down on a line of trundlebugs as they made their way across the scorched earth in front of her.

"I don't have to carry you on my back do I? Come on! The kitchen staff said he left an hour ago, so if we hurry we might still catch him!"

She was dressed in her own clothes, having found that her Candidate uniform was far too stifling for travelling anywhere outside of the Weyr in the summer heat. Her oak brown hair was shining and well brushed, her eyelashes carefully darkened around her grey eyes in a mannar that suggested she was on her way to a Gather instead of wandering through the brushland.
This was of course, nothing out of the ordinary where Saeo was concerned.
So far, their target had managed to elude them. That Cloar certianly could be difficult to track down when he set his mind to it, but Saeo wasn't the type to give up the chase once she'd gotten into the swing of it. Nope, she wasn't heading back until she tracked the little bastard down and either forced him to accept her training request or had thoroughly beaten him about the head and shoudlers with the stick she'd picked up off the path ten minutes back.

[Rei]

Raylin rolled her eyes at Saeo’s enthusiasm. How anyone could be enthusiastic about traipsing through the jungle in the blistering heat was beyond her. Vega gave a croon and rubbed his tiny head against Raylin’s jaw line and she reached up a hand to stroke the flitter reassuringly. Vega was still not used to Saeo’s random outbursts and they frequently sent him sprinting between to the cabinet where he had been born. Raylin was getting quite tired of rowing back to the infirmary to collect him before he made the patients in the infirmary even more miserable with his frightened keening.

The candidate sighed heavily. Still she wouldn’t trade the flitter for anything in this world or the next. Vega hummed happily at his bonded’s touch and wrapped his tiny tail as far around the girl's neck as he could manage. His eyes whirled a happy blue which contrasted strangely with his almost white colored head. “I am right behind you Saeo. Vega was just positioning himself better and I didn’t want to risk him falling so I slowed down. Believe me I doubt he is going anywhere to fast in this heat.” The candidate’s voice contained just a hint of irritation. Saeo made things interesting and Raylin had been bored lately. This trip proved a welcome distraction from the ever looming promise of Aslath’s eggs.

Raylin eyed the stick warily before she hazarded a query. “Saeo what exactly is that stick for? You never said. You’re not planning on trying to beat Cloar for something are you?” He voice contained a bit of worry on Cloar’s part but mainly just curiosity.

[dragon]

Cloar was wandering aimlessly through the underbrush of the jungle, picking berries that had yet to be raided and poking them into his mouth. This late in the season, they were beginning to get a tad on the overripe, fermented, and shriveled side. But they still tasted good. In fact, some of the more fermented ones tasted a lot like wine! In very very small sips that he had to chew. He chuckled to himself lightly as the thought ran through his mind.

Cloar wasn't dressed in much, today. It was too hot to wear much. So all he had on was his trousers. He had left his shirt back at the barracks, and was quite happy without it, despite the scratches he had sustained on his sides. They were small ... nothing really noticable by sight or feel. And probably were forgotten shortly after having been acquired.

He paused what he was doing when he heard two very frighteningly familiar female voices go running past where he was crouched in the shrubbery. He held still for a moment, wondering if he should go see what they were fixing to get into this time, or if he should sit still and hide until they were well and gone. The last time he'd interacted with those two, it had gotten him both bitten and reprimanded.

And then he heard them mention his name. Now why were they talking about him? It was rather suspicious that they were in this particular part of the jungle, where he just happened to be at the moment, and were talking about him. Surely they weren't [/i]looking[/i] for him, were they? Why would they be looking for him? He couldn't think of anything they could possibly want him for.

But as always, curiousity got the better of him, and he stood up and turned around to see them hurrying away from him down the path in the jungle. "Hoi!" He called. "Where d' ya think you're going?!" He called out.

[nightingale]

Saeo sighed, pausing under the shade of a large tree as she waited for Raylin and her adorable little parasite to catch up. Frankly, she'd find Vega to be an infinately charming creature if he would just stop vanishing every time someone raised their voice. She was positive that Raylin was doing him absolutely no favours by coddling him as well, and was about to tell her just that when a familiar voice sounded from nearby.

"Ha! There you are!"

She cried, grinning in an almost maniacal way as she brandished her stick at Cloar in an exaggerated pointing gesture. Well, that hadn't been so hard now had it? She cleared the space between them in short order, rising up onto her tip toes so she could look him more or less in the eye with a slight scowl.

"We've been looking for you! Aren't you aware that we're not allowed out in the jungle on our own anymore? You need to keep up with these things!"

She gave his forehead a light, repremanding tap with her stick.

"In any case,"

She continued, her mischevious smile returning as she removed her makeshift weapon from grabbing range.

"Since you're out here, you can do us a favour! Raylin and I want to learn how to fight -with swords and the like. You know how to do that, don't you?"

[Rei]

Vega gave a shrill keen and dove behind the curtain of Raylin’s hair as Saeo brandished the stick. “Saeo would you watch where you are swinging that thing.” The older girl said with a slightly exasperated tone. She reached behind her and plucked Vega from her neck. The blue fire lizard gave no resistance as she moved him back to her shoulder his eyes whirling a yellow color. “It’s ok Hun. She wasn’t swinging it at you.” The candidate spoke to the lizard in a soothing tone and his eyes started a slow change back to green.

Saeo was effectively ignoring her as usual speaking to Cloar with animated gestures. One thing in particular her friend said to the boy had her backpedaling. “Hey I never said I wanted to learn to fight!” She exclaimed in an affronted tone. “When were you going to let me in on this decision?” Vega peeped in agreement. As to what he was agreeing with he had no clue but he always agreed with his. Wasn’t she always right? Raylin tapped her foot as she waited for Saeo to answer. Unfortunately she would probably come up with a valid excuse.

[binker]

Pepsi usually ignored it when people were wandering in his jungle. Sometimes he followed them from the trees, but he didn't like hanging around; Felines were tricky beasts, and they knew how to pick up the sound of a person thundering through the underbrush. Pepsi respected the felines, and he thought they felt the same, since the groups around here typically didn't try to attack him any longer. It was a shaky, unspoken truce that neither predator would attack, and when he led humans towards a pride, the felines never attacked him. He was starting to think they might like him for his abilities..

Still, sometimes they tried to test him, which was why he was up a tree, staring indignantly downwards as a feline pounced, trying to catch him with razor-sharp claws. He scuttled back, baring his teeth, but froze at the sound of raised voices; as did the two felines that had him trapped. Ears flicked and the felines shared a glance, ignoring Pepsi as he scampered down the tree, hesitantly brushing his hand along a fuzzy flank. Feline-eyes turned to him, and Pepsi gave a grin; these Weyr-people, they would make a better meal than him.

The felines turned away, sitting in the clearing and giving him a pointed look as they hunked down in the tall grasses, melding perfectly in to the brush. He was to draw the people close, and they would attack. Pepsi didn't have a problem with that...

He clambered back up his tree, moving through the branches towards the source of the noise. Plucking a withered fruit from the tree, he came to a halt near the trio, and tossed his projectile towards Saeo. "Get!" He snarled and bared his teeth, not daring to leave until he had them following. If he came back without food, the felines would eat /him/.

[dragon]

Cloar rubbed his forehead where Saeo had knocked him with her stick, and frowned down at the girls. "I might know something of the sort. I might not. But knocking me upside the head isn't the way to earn any favors, I'll grant you that." Cloar told her, noting that she whisked the stick away quickly as if she had expected him to snatch at it.

Cloar looked over at Raylin and her little flitter, and then his attention was totally snatched by something falling out of the tree ... or had it been tossed ... in thier direction. His gaze wandered upwards, and he frowned again. "Pepsi?" He asked, wondering what the kid was doing way up there.

[nightingale]

Saeo didn't seem the smallest bit concerned by the fact that hostility seemed to be cropping up on all sides of her. My, wasn't everyone just so testy this afternoon? You'd think they were all brooding golds...

"Oh you're not hurt."

The girl huffed, allowing her free hand to rest on her hip as she eyed Cloar.

"In any case, I'm not so naive as to think you'd teach us just because we're endearing and close to your heart. I brought you a present!"

With that, a wide grin broke across the girl's face, and she plopped herself onto the ground where she stood. She set her stick aside and quickly went about disentangling herself from the miniature travel pack she had been carrying.

"I was going to let you know when we found him of course!"

The girl responded cheerfully to Raylin's displeased tone of voice, her face a perfect imitation of genuine innocence as she cast a sidelong glance over her shoulder at the older girl.

"I knew you would have agreed to it eventually, so there was no real point in telling you early on so that you could protest the whole way here! Now let's see here...my family sends me a little package of useful little things every month or so...and this time my brother -ha!"

From the darkness of her bag, she produced an exceptionally well polished leather sheath -probably for a dagger or knife of some sort, but she hadn't really been able to tell by looking at it. It wasn't especially ornate, but the fine stitching around it's edges promised that it would probably live to serve it's purpose longer than it's owner would.

"It's just stuffed with cotton now,"

Saeo explained, shouldering her pack and rising unsteadily to her feet as the uneven weight attempted to tug her backward.

"Because daggers are terribly expensive these days, but he told me that if I could sell it at the Weyr he'd give me half of the profits. I however, would prefer if you would take it as payment for our lessons."

Before she had the chance to offer the sheath, Saeo found herself caught off guard by a small, wizened redfruit that landed next to her foot. She glanced upward, wondering where on Pern it could have fallen from when she suddenly recognized a familiar figured perched in the branches of a nearby tree. She scowled.

"Oh, so we've slipped from knives into overripe fruit have we?"

She called up to the Pepsi, her tone decidedly unamused.

"You've no right to order us anywhere, so either come down her and attempt to cohabitate peacefully or go find yourself a tunnelsnake to harass."

While nobody had named him as the reason, Saeo was quite certain the fact that candidates were no longer permitted to wander the jungles on their own was most definitely the wildling's fault. That alone wouldn't usually be enough to make her dislike him, but her near disemboweling at his hands less than a sevenday ago still had yet to be completely forgiven.

((Wow, I got a little carried away. Sorry guys. ^__^;)

[Rei]

Raylin rolled her eyes, ok so her friend did have an excuse but not a very valid one. The dark haired girl sighed in defeat. No point in arguing with Saeo, one NEVER won with her. Once you got past that fact friendship with her was usually quite easy. She looked on with interest as Saeo started to rummage around in the small bag she had brought along. What was she carrying in that thing anyway? Rocks? She wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

Vega fluted and stretched his neck out as Saeo started digging in her bag. Raylin looked at her little lizard as an anticipative emotion flowed from him. He thought everything was food these days. When her eccentric friend pulled out the sheath Vega’s enthusiasm deflated and he busied himself with grooming one of his wings. Raylin shook her head at her little friend before turning to watch Saeo offer the sheath to Cloar. Payment? Then she really was serious about this learning to fight thing.

Vega suddenly snapped his head up and hissed. Raylin spun around to see what had alarmed him, causing the lizard to shriek in protest. A redfruit rolled across the ground coming to rest a few inched from Saeo’s foot. The questioning and angry reactions from her companions caused her to raise her head from the fruit to the tree.

Who was this Pepsi person they were both somehow familiar with? What met her eyes was not what the girl had expected. He was roughly their age it seemed with a wild almost feral look in his eyes. What was his problem? Vega hissed again his eyes whirling a yellow and red color. Raylin raised a hand to calm him but the whitish blue lizard shied away from her continuing to hiss at the boy in the tree. “Umm guys,” Raylin started a hesitant note in her voice. “Who the heck is that?”

[binker]

Oh, /shards/. These were more of those candidates... Pepsi wouldn't have had a problem with feeding Saeo to the felines; it had, after all, been her fault he had been chased across the jungle with two dragons on his tail, but... Cloar had taught him words. Words were powerful in the Weyr, so he felt like he owed the boy something.

He frowned, but crouched, grabbing the tree limb before stepping off from it, arms suspending him in an arch around the limb before he released it, grabbing a branch of another tree with ease. Muscles flexed as he slowed his descent, releasing the limb to hit the ground in a roll. He was up in a moment, frowning angrily at the three. "Why you here!? Stupid! Go now! Felines will-"

Seemed the felines hadn't felt too patient with him today, since a snarl ripped out through the underbrush, a shaggy form moving towards them in a crouch. Pepsi snarled back, twisting to flash the candidates a superior 'I-told-you-why-didn't-you-listen?' Look before he unsheathed his knife, lunging towards the cat.

He had a feeling the others would try to scare the cat away by making lots of noise and trying to make themselves look big; it didn't work with the felines. They were smart, and they were not impressed by anything other than strength and pain. The feline was not expecting the rush, but she was still fast enough to spring away, making the slash intended to split the feline's face only rake across her nose. The feline was quick to retaliate, raking out with her claws and catching Pepsi's forearm, though he ignored the pain to instead slash out again.

The two predators circled each other, before Pepsi leapt on to the feline's back. That got an angry yowl, silenced as a knife plunged through through the skull with a squishy crack. The body collapsed under him, twitching in the throes of death, but Pepsi drove the knife through once more, just in case, before he glared. "Stupids! Feline be angry now!" He didn't seem concerned that he was covered in feline gore, though he did move to flick a chunk of brain off of his cheek and prod the carcass thoughtfully. It would make a nice sleeping fur....

[dragon]

Cloar watched with some curiosity as Saeo rummaged around in her pack. What in the world was she doing toting around a pack that heavy, in this kind of heat? More curiously, what in the world did she have in that heavy thing, that just had to come along? When she produced the sheathe and offered it to him, Cloar allowed an eyebrow to ooch its way upward. He looked at her face for a moment, trying to decide whether or not she was serious. Sheaths were no cheap things … especially not ones that well polished and well built. His gaze dropped to the sheath for a moment, and noted that while it was a very nice sheath … it was not big enough to contain the knife he had hidden on his leg. It was too narrow … and not quite long enough. The blade he carried had been made by his father, and his father had a habit of making his blades broader than most tended to be. Why, Cloar wasn't entirely sure.

He took the item, and looked it over for a moment, before his attention was taken away again by Raylin's comment. "That's Pepsi. He can't really talk very well yet, so don't expect much of a conversation out of him. He's still learning the language." Cloar glanced up at the lad, just in time to witness with some shock the ensuing battle between the lad and the big feline.

Cloar stepped backward away from the feline as it dropped dead, finally gathering his wits about himself. Normally he was a pretty quick individual. But being confronted with a feline like that and then witnessing Pepsi slay it like it was a tenth it's size was something one just didn't experience every day. To be totally honest, Cloar hadn't even known that such monstrous beasts roamed the forest so close to the weyr. Shards! There were likely more of them around.

And just as he thought that thought, he spotted the other feline coming up behind Pepsi astride his dead mount. Cloar reacted instantly this time, a little more prepared for such and instance. He shoved Saeo toward the path with both hands, leaving her with the sheath at the same time. "Run! Both of you! Get back to the weyr!" He ordered, while at the same time snatching up what had been previously Saeo's stick. Turning, he launched his own bulk toward where Pepsi was perched, snatching at his own knife while at the low point of his leap. Having grabbed the blade through his trousers, the material ripped as his fist came away with the bared blade. "Pepsi! Look out!" Cloar slammed to a halt again, using his momentum to aid in his throwing of the stick he had seized. It was not the best stick in the world to be throwing, but it was what he had. He had aimed for the feline's big sensitive left eye, but the stick did not fly true. It flew more or less straight, but it did not impact where he had intended for it to.

Instead, it inserted itself neatly up into the feline's right nostril, slamming to a stop up in the sinus cavities. This made the rushing animal stop in shock and in pain. Eyes suddenly very wide, the feline howled and slung its head around to try and dislodge the stick. Instead, it pounded the protruding end of the stick off a tree trunk, and did even more damage to the sensitive tissues inside its big head.

"Well … not what I had in mind, but okay." Cloar mentioned, as the beast howled in pain again. Jumping and running up over the dead feline, Cloar shoved Pepsi out of the way, down into a slot between various limbs of the dead cat where he would be harder to access. Leaping from the dead cat to the thrashing live one, Cloar uttered a bellow of his own, landing on the animal's face. The feline froze for an instant, startled and confused at this new occurance. Before it could react, Cloar kicked what was left of the stick solidly with his boot, sending it farther up into its head before clambering over the top using its ears as handholds.

Thrashing harder and roaring in frustration and agony, the feline made it quite difficult for Cloar to get anywhere. Cloar knew that there was just one spot on the beast where he would be more or less safe from the clawed feet … that was the shoulders. That is … if the smaller domestic felines were any indication of where a feline couldn't scratch itself. He finally managed to get there, after nearly being slung off a few times … thank Faranth that felines had lots of hair to hang onto!

Locking his strong legs around the beast's neck just in front of those powerful shoulders, Cloar grabbed a new handful of fur in his left hand, and started stabbing at the back of the neck with his right. His muscles bulged and rolled as the blade sank all the way in most of the time, but not always. Sometimes it was connecting with vertebrae in the neck. The feline was bucking and heaving and thrashing and tearing its own shoulders up trying to scrape the young man off, leaving giant gouges where its claws rent its own flesh.

"Come on, where are you? Come on!" Cloar swore, hoping the girls were getting away while they could. Finally, the knife hit bone, but didn't stop … it skidded sideways in the meat, and then sank farther down in again, all the way up to the hilt.

Just as suddenly as it had been moving, the big animal dropped in its tracks, totally still. The knife had succeeded in totally severing the feline's spinal cord, rendering it not dead yet, but completely paralyzed.

Cloar just sat there astride the beast for a moment more, completely wound up tight to the point where it was hard to move. That, and he was starting to be a little shocked, too. What kind of nut, was he, anyway? Had he seriously just leapt in the face of a giant predator, and knifed it to death? If someone had asked him, he would have denied being able to do any such thing … he would have professed to turned and run instead. Apparently having others around that were also in danger made a big difference in his own actions … and luckily, too, apparently. Because now as he thought about it … there would have been no way he could have outrun something this big.

Cloar blinked, and then slid off the feline and staggered away from it before dumping over into the tree litter on the ground to stare at the beast. He still clutched the bloody, dripping knife in one hand, but he was not aware of it. All he could see at the moment was that giant animal before him … the one that could have eaten him in a moment without a thought to the side.

Shards.

[nightingale]

Saeo wasn't really given the opportunity to do much more than stagger backward a few paces and watch as the battle unfolded. Well, in retrospect she probably could have run, but wasn't there some old saying about never turning your back on the enemy? Besides, horrifying as it was she couldn't bring herself to look away...look, look it's right over -shards, stab it! Stab it quick!

It was over more quickly than she expected. There was a lot of blood, but it was hard to tell from where she stood if any of it belonged to the boys. Well, neither one of them way laying on the jungle floor moaning so...wait, maybe that feline wasn't as dead as she'd thought. The paralyzed creature was no longer capable of moving it's body, but that didn't keep it from snapping it's jaws, it's rapidly glazing eyes flashing fury and agony at it's tormentors.
Hmm, hello rock...

With a loud crunch, Saeo dropped the small, pointed boulder atop the half-dead feline's skull, effectively crushing it and ending it's pain filled existence. She then promptly turned on Cloar, grey eyes flashing an unreadable mixture of intense emotion as she stared him down.

"What did you sharding well think you were doing?!"

She cried, quickly checking over his blood-spattered frame to make sure that he was still in one piece. Satisfied, she re-focused her aggression on his face.

"You could have been killed, or maimed or-or...KILLED you idiot!"

She wanted to punch him -square in the jaw- for taking such an foolish risk. She would! She would punch him -but for some reason her muscles rebelled and she found herself unable to raise her fist against him. Instead she turned away quickly, taking a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm herself as she shifted her attention toward Pepsi.

"And YOU!"

She huffed, her voice neither loud nor angry, but obviously exasperated as she advanced on him. It would be no good to punch Pepsi, she decided. He'd probably just hit her back twice as hard and in any case, she couldn't quite bring herself to strike a bleeding man.

"First you're trying to stab me and now you're protecting us from felines?"

She moved cautiously to his side, gloved fingers deftly unknotting the silk kerchief at her throat as she tried to be ready in case he felt the need to tackle or otherwise harm her.

"How's a girl supposed to know what to think?! And now, as if Lennae's knife wasn't enough you've gone and opened up another piece of your arm."

She removed the scarf and shook the wrinkles out of it, then held her hand out to him, the gesture obviously communicating that she expected him to show her the wound.

"Now come on. Let me get it covered or you'll bleed to death or die of infection before we can even get back to the Weyr."

[Rei]

“Pepsi? He’s still learning the language? Where is he from?” Raylin rattled off questions as fast as she thought of them and as she turned to examine the lad in question, her eyes widened in horror. A huge feline had slinked from the brush and was snarling menacingly. She stifled a scream as Pepsi charged the big feline. Was he mad! The feline would kill him! Her fear was for naught it seemed as Pepsi easily dispatched the feline and even had enough breath to scream at them in a shrill angry voice. "Stupids! Feline be angry now!"

“Stupid? Are you Dim! You’re the one charging a cat about five times your size. If anyone’s stupid you are!” The dark haired girl retorted. Her emotions were all mixed up shouldn’t she be scared? Instead no she was standing here screaming at a wild boy who had just gotten himself clawed up by a monster feline. Raylin took a deep breath trying to calm herself. Screaming would do no good she had to think rationally. They were safe now right?

Vega had detached himself from his during the battle and was perched in a tree a few yards away keening in anger and fear. He was so so so frightened but he couldn’t leave his. No he wouldn’t. She was his to protect. Now his was angry at the wild boy. Stupid boy why did he make his so angry? The flitter glided down from his perch and landed on Raylin crooning to her. His should not be angry everything was ok. Look was not the feline dead? The candidate stroked her blue flitter and took a few deep breaths.

Suddenly Vega tensed and let loose another hiss just as Cloar screamed "Run! Both of you! Get back to the weyr!" Raylin opened her eyes just in time to see another feline slink from the jungle and stalk steadily towards Pepsi. Shards how many of them were there? Raylin fought the urge to run as the second battle took place. The bloody violent scene was sufficient to keep her rooted in place. Fear and the burning desire to see the outcome whatever it may be disallowed movement of really any kind. Whatever Cloar had mumbled as the stick found its curious mark was lost in the din of feline yowling and her flitter’s shrill screeching.

It had seemed like it took hours for the second feline to meet its doom although it really couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. She flinched as Saeo dropped the rock and a sickening crack resounded in the humid clearing spelling the doom of the second feline. Her friend then proceeded to rage at the two boys in a display of pent up emotion. Whether it was real anger of just a reaction to the fear that had dominated only moments before Raylin couldn’t tell at this point.

As Saeo took care of the two men Raylin concentrated on gathering her emotions and soothing her firelizard who was out of his poor little mind with fear and worry. They needed someone with a level head right now so as soon as Raylin had gathered herself and Vega had quieted to a few peeps every so often she strode over to the group. “I am going to send Vega to the infirmary to let Meira know what happened. How bad is Pepsi’s wound?" She half turned to Cloar before continuing. "Cloar could you keep an eye out for more felines? The scent of blood is sure to attract more, the sooner we get moving the better.” Her voice was calm and composed which was surprising considering the mess her emotions were in right now.

[binker]

Pepsi's eyes widened in alarm as he leapt off of his dead mount, rolling to sit up with a snarl. He could have been mauled just then; he hadn't expected both of them to come after him... But where his kill has been silent and as painless as possible, his peers were far less skilled; a stick and mad stabbing? The whole jungle probably knew something was going on now...

He looked at Saeo as she blasted the other boy, sniffing in disapproval. Stupid girl, worrying over the other... If he hadn't done something, the feline would probably decide to chase them all down and kill them. She shouldn't sound so angry...

Eyes blinked lazily as Saeo moved to him, peeking at his wound. Adreneline hadn't quite worn off yet, so the gashes didn't really hurt. "Not now, go to Weyr! Go go go!" He side-stepped Saeo, moving over to Cloar and giving his shoulder a rough shove. "Come now, up! Must go, before get eaten!" He could almost feel the felines heading towards them...

"Girl, not send to 'firmary, send to dragon! Get them out, burn felines!" He hauled at Cloar for a moment, before he glared at the girls, expecting no complaints. "Now move, back to Weyr! Must run!" The corpses of their own would make the felines pause for a moment, but they would want revenge...

[dragon]

Cloar blinked at Saeo, rather shocked by her own reaction to things. By the first egg, why was she screaming at him like that? He'd probably just saved her idiot life. She shouldn't have still been there to scream at him. Hadn't he told her to run? He was pretty sure he had told her to run. He was pretty sure he had even shoved her at the trail back to the weyr.

And then she moved over to Pepsi, to deliver a similar scathing speech. Shards! What was wrong with her?? Cloar looked over at the feline he had mortally wounded for a moment, trying to get his mind to start working properly again after that stunt he had just pulled. It was a major miracle that he had survived that.

He grunted when Pepsi shook him. "Yeah ... I'm up." He rolled to one side and got to his feet. He looked at his fist which still held the knife, and then started for the trail. "Come on. Let's get out of here before we can't." He said, loud enough for the others to hear him, but not loud enough for the whole forest to hear. Cloar gestured at the trail, and started herding the fussy girls toward it. He didn't bother to put the knife away or even try to clean it. Not yet. Having a clean knife was rather moot if delaying to do so got one killed.

"Back to the weyr ... hop to." Cloar ushered, hoping they would hurry, not just mosey back to the weyr. He didn't look to repeat what he had just idiotically done.