Rose saw the kargaroc dig its talons deeper into Tiberius's shoulder. She moved to bite the leg off for when it eventually died and fall to the ground, but it was at that moment the other bird attacked her underside. Roaring in pain and frustration, her head instinctively shot down to attack her attacker, but her dragon eyes picked up a familiar (and yet drastically different) sight. She once again used her flexible neck to get at the kargaroc on top of her, this time in an attempt to sever the leg.

Tiberius, however, was now unable to attack. A combination of Sheila grabbing his sword arm to keep from falling off of the druid and said arm getting whipped forced him to let go of his sword. He growled in anger, for while he didn't dare witness it he knew his only weapon was falling to the ground. If only he had asked for the time to return to his home and grab his dagger.

Once the girl had recovered from the attack on her, the Hylian once again tried to stab the bird on her uncle's shoulder. Doing so was still as awkward as before.

Seth, lacking his original target, swore and resheathed his bow, for he had saw that trying to shoot the third beast was going to be a near impossible feat. With only one weapon left at his disposal, he fumbled for his rapier. But then he realized that by leaning forward to take a stab at the other kargaroc, he would mess up Sheila's chance. Loudly swearing, he rammed the rapier back into place.

As for the familiar sight the Tarm woman had saw....One would wonder how such a wide beam of light came from such a small, luminous ball. But the tiny faerie's holy magic had the potential to be deadly to the bird and man underneath Rose.

The kargaroc on Tiberious shrieked as its leg was pierced by Rose's fangs, but the rider wasted no time in retaliating. He raised his whip and whirled it around his head, snapping it down into the dragon's eyes with a loud crack. He brought it back and whipped it out again, leaving small gashes in Rose's face in an attempt to free his mount from the beast's grip. Meanwhile, Sheila's lack of balance didn't serve her well, as the kargaroc easily swung its head out of reach, and then snapped forward, biting down on the spear's shaft and pulling, attempting to dislodge Sheila from Rose.

The kargaroc beneath Rose visibly licked its teeth with a quick flick of the tongue before deciding to take a bite out of its foe. Its jaws latched around the base of Rose's neck, which had curled around into reach. It tugged and tried to drive its teeth further past the scales, which was a difficult task. When completed, it could have been deadly if not for the tiny savior that was Natasha. What her attack did to the mount and its rider is not fit to write in such a publicly available place, but what I will tell you is that half a kargaroc fell to the ground, wheras the rest was not to be found. The rider's bonds had been severed by the attack, and he fell helplessly with a long, drawn out scream, thankfully too far away when he landed for the horrible crash to be heard by the group.

The young Hylian would have indeed been thrown off of Rose had it not been for her cousin; Seth managed to grab the back of shirt in time.

The Tarm woman was not pleased that her eyes had been targeted. Luckily, the whip had missed the eyes themselves, but blood was trickling down into them, effectively blinding her. Perhaps for any other creature, this would stop her from attacking, but with a heightened sense of smell, she was able to pick out the human enemy. She made a quick, but careful, lunge towards that smell.

The faerie was indeed Natasha. Once above the final kargaroc, she assumed her usual size of approximately two feet. Seth, recognizing the faerie, was shocked at what she was wearing; it certainly wasn't her usual green cloak. Instead, a breastplate defined her curves. Underneath the light weight (and yet strong) metal was a green shirt, which only the sleeves and collar were visible. A green skirt went down to her knees, and green, high-heeled boots covered the rest of her legs. Her hair, which usually simply hung around her neck, was pulled into a ponytail, held together by a green ribbon.

However, two new features scared him. The first feature was the punching dagger in her right hand and the protective guantlet covering her left arm. Natasha was never one to take up weapons; he couldn't even recall her using offensive magic before.

The second one scared him the most. On her face was a look of fury. He could never imagine such a visage on her young face. She had always been so kind; he didn't want to know what had happened to her on Hyrule's eastern continent to bring about this disturbing change.

"Desere," she said in a commanding voice filled with anger. "Leave my friends be." She entered a dive, bearing her new weapon down onto the bird's head, holy magic surrounding the blade.

Blood spewed out of the kargaroc's leg as they were released from Rose's vice-like grip, and immediately began to tug on the spear harder than before, the added weight of Seth impeding the beast's efforts only slightly. Then it became obvious why Rose had dislodged herself--She looked towards the rider for just a second before she struck, just enough time for the pair to react. The kargaroc released the spear with one final tug, leaving it to fall freely down towards the riders, and possibly the ground if it wasn't caught soon enough. With lightening reflexes typical of a bird of prey, it intercepted the dragon's vicious attack and sunk it's razor-sharp teeth into the snout of the enemy, stopping her from reaching its master just in time. It began to jerk back and forth vigorously, trying to saw deeper into the dragon's flesh.

The rider, meanwhile, caught a strange sight. A ball of light had appeared above them, getting closer and closer until its shape was revealed to the rider's eyes--A fairy, of all things! He smirked ever so slightly as he drew back his whip, his vision too blurred by the sweat and the goggles to see that there was a vicious quality about the magical creature. He lashed his weapon of choice forwards towards the miniature being, flicking straight towards her torso. However, the weapon was blocked by the fairy's chestplate, dealing damage only to her inertia. However, the effect was minimal as Natasha carried through with her attack, passing straight through the kargaroc and emerging on the other side with crimson blood splattered haphazardly over her emerald clothing. The rider gazed in wonder at the formidability of the tiny fighter before feeling the rage welling up inside him--His mount's head was still attached to the dragon's snout, with blood spraying out of both ends of its neck over the entire enemy party. He lashed out angrily with his whip once more, this time with a vertical strike, the cord slicing from the back of the fairy's neck all the way to her lower back, knocking her perilously downwards with a small gash where the armor didn't cover.

The attack, however, threw his mount off balance, and since it no longer had control over its muscles, the body began to lean to the right. The rider, realizing his mistake, hastily stuffed his whip back in his pocket. As he toppled over the side of the dragon, he produced two vials from his inner pocket. Ripping the stoppers out of both at the same time with his teeth, he hurled them towards the party, the yellow and orange liquids sloshing this way and that. Then, they crossed paths, and a srange gas began to emerge, of an amber hue. Should the passengers breath it in, they would find the world spinning beneath them, their senses of direction and balance lost in a whirling stupor. Though the path of the dragon's flight would take them away from the initial cloud, some of the liquids landed on Rose's scaly back, and dribbled into each other, causing small quantities of the gas to rise upwards at each crossing. The rider cackled as the body of his mount took him over the side of the giant lizard, Tiberius Sinai still clutched in the kargaroc's talons.

Rose roared in pain as the two remaining Hylians on her back screamed "Uncle!" in unison. The mid-faerie, ignoring the pain from the whip, calmly shouted, "Cover your mouth and nose!" While she entered a dive, Sheila and Seth did as she instructed. Rose, not quite being able to cover her both her mouth and nostrils, merely took in a deep breath and made both of them go away. The Tarm druid entered her own control dive back to the ground to get away from the gas.

Natasha, on the other hand, collided into Tiberius. "Nayru, tutegoc weam." A blue crystal appeared over the falling group and began to shrink. However, the magical armor covered only Sinai and her faerie companion. They were now safe from harm; the same could not be said of their attacker.

Though Rose's reaction was swift, it did not stop the passengers from catching a small whiff of the fumes before the descent. Any second now, they would lose their orientation, and would be hard pressed to stay aboard the dragon. Making it even more difficult was the fact that the fumes were emanating from Rose herself, the liquids crossing at points all over her scales. Seeing as how dragons are unable to close off their nostrils, she would have no choice but to breathe in much of the gas herself as they passed the basin and came out over the forest, the top spire of the Castle showing as a single dark point on the orange horizon.

Below the party, a shape approached them. The first kargaroc's rider had finally managed to grab back on to the mechanism, and regain control of his ride. He saw his falling comrade and urged his mount forward as fast as possible. He saw a small twinkle, but ignored it, disregarding it as shrapnel from the fight shining in the sun. He was but twenty yards from the split kargaroc and approaching fast when a blue wall suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He couldn't pull out of the rush fast enough--He jerked back on the rod, and the kargaroc's wings seemed to flip completely around--Then they ripped, leaving a bleeding seam running down the inside of each wing. The beast shrieked as it barreled headfirst into the protective spell, spiraling off to the side and falling to the forest floor below, the rider yelling as he jerked the mechanism this way and that, his mount screaming as it jerked around. They hit the canopy and were gone.

As they fell, the remaining rider continued to whip at the fairy, snorting as each attack was retarded by the wall. He saw the trees approaching and reached into his pocket, retracting a knife. He began to hack at the bindings on his other arm, trying to free it before they hit the green sea below them. He reached his arms up triumphantly as he succeeded, and proceeded to do the same to his legs. He freed one in relatively few strokes, his blade carelessly carving into the kargaroc's body as well. He saw the fast-approaching ground and snarled, pocketing the blade. He flexed his arms as they arrived ever closer, and when they hit the branches, he groped about wildly, catching a branch near the lower part. He strained to hold on as the weight of his dead mount pulled him downwards, the tree bending over and eventually snapping, dropping the carcass, rider, fairy, and uncle to the ground in a jumble.

Sheila had fallen off onto a tree branch, rather unharmed, for she had not slipped off of Rose until the group was close to the bottom of the forest. Seth had managed to stay on until the dragon touched down; he was on his back, and had he been in a state of consciousness he would've noticed how uncomfortable the twigs poking his back were. The Tarm druid had noticed this of course. Thinking it was safe, she gave herself nostrils and a mouth again, taking in deep breaths. A big mistake, for the gas that were still rising from her scales began to effect her. What? was the only thing she had time to think of, and then she was face first on the forest floor, only a pair of tattered dragon wings suggesting that she had previously been a dragon.

In the same forest (of course), Tiberius and Natasha struggled to their feet. "Let me heal your wounds," were the mid-faerie's first words, and she was immediately a ball of light hovering near the Hylian's shoulder. He felt the skin close, but the pain lingered.

"Thank you...Natasha?"

Back in her true form, she nodded. "And you are Seth's uncle, are you not?"

"Indeed, but now is not the time for a proper introduction." He looked at the bird and rider and reached for his sword. Except it had fallen while they were still over the Ruto Highlands. Damn! he thought. He cautiously approached the rider, unsure if he was dead or not. The safe assumption was that he wasn't. He looked for a weapon he could use, all the while making sure the rider didn't suddenly attack him.

[Awareness Check and Dodge Check]

The rider lay on the ground, breathing, but injured. As Sinai began to approach, his eyes opened a little and he groaned, sitting up and shaking his head. It seemed to take him a while to remember the situation after the crash, but his eyes opened wide when he did. With a surge of adrenaline, he hopped to his feet, shouting, "They're over here!" to any allies in the area. He saw Sinai approaching, unarmed, and charged towards him, hoping to strike him quickly. However, he seemed to have forgotten that his leg was bound. He fell flat on his face as the bonds tugged at his calf, and he swore as he hit the ground. Then he saw his knife, but two feet away from his head. Reaching out to it, he came a few inches short of the handle. Panicking, he started to lunge forward, dragging the half-corpse with him as he got closer and closer to the blade.

The man's sudden movement and shout startled the Hylian and mid-faerie. Unsure if anyone would come to his aid, Natasha formed a ball of light and shot it towards the man; the magic formed into a beam as it did so. It was not as strong as the one from before. She only intended to silence him, for she was sure that her companion would want to question him.

Tiberius, however, made a move for the knife, confident he would get to it first since he wasn't burdened with the dead weight of a large bird.

OOC: Urgh, that undoubtedly could've been better.

OOC: It's fine, you don't have much to work with.

IC:The rider saw the fairy was up to something--Remembering what she had done to his mount before, he wasn't too tickled with the idea of getting in her way. He threw himself backwards, rising back up on his feet as the shot went past. He sighed shakily as the beam of magic blew a small hole in the ground, burning the grass around it and sending chunks of earth flying. Then he saw the old man going after his weapon--He knew that if he didn't grab that, he was done for. With a surge of strength, he took on last leap forward, grabbing Sinai's wrist as his opponent closed his hand around the blade. He pulled Sinai towards him, sinking his teeth into the old man's hand as he resorted to the primal means of warfare that had been passed down from generation to generation, unchanged and still effective and essential to survival.

Natasha swore as she missed; there was no doubt that had Seth been both conscious and present, he would be thoroughly shocked with her. Such words did not escape her lips, let alone the lips of any faerie, be they lesser, mid, or greater. She made to attack again, but now there was a good chance of hitting Tiberius. It wasn't a risk she was willing to take.

The former Hylian Knight grimaced, but for the most part ignored the pain. Sub-consciously, he was glad his niece wasn't there to suddenly jolt his arm, therefore making him drop the dagger out of surprise. With the hand that wasn't firmly grasping the man's weapon he formed a fist. Tiberius reached back and built up the power in his arm. Once he was satisfied, he sent his fist flying towards the man's eye.

The rider clasped both hands around Sinai's, struggling to pry his fingers off the hilt of the dagger when he felt an explosion of pain. He was knocked backwards a bit, bouncing along the ground slightly as he tried to clear the ringing from his head. He clutched his head in one hand as he sat up, shaking it to dispel the cloudiness as he worked his jaw up and down a bit. It felt a bit strange, there seemed to be something in his mouth. He spit whatever it was out, then looked down in shock for a while as he realized he had kept a bit down harder than he thought. When Sinai had punched him away, he had ripped some of the skin off of the old man's hand. He quickly jumped to his feet and spat again to try and get the bloody taste out of his mouth, and had a sudden spark of inspiration. His teeth had been strong enough to rip flesh from bone--Surely they could handle ropes, no? The bindings were already weakened anyways. He slid onto his back and lifted his leg up near his mouth, observing the fraying near his foot and bent forward, digging his incisors into the fibers. With a few gnaws, the weak bonds were severed, and he fell backwards with a defiant laugh. He kicked himself up to his feet, and looked to see what his foes had done with their few seconds' reprieve.

The pain of flesh tearing away shot through his hand and up his arm, but he still didn't let go; army training had a tendency to stick to a man for the rest of his life. And now that the man had let go of him, Tiberius could now stand properly. The old Hylian shifted the dagger to his other hand and held it straight at the man's neck. Meanwhile, Natasha made her way to a position behind the man, her punching dagger aimed at the man's heart; it would only take a jump to become level with the vital organ and puncture it with greater ease.

"You are outnumbered," Tiberius said in a commanding voice. "One wrong move, and we will kill you. Is that understood?" Without waiting for a response, the former brigadier general continued. "Why did you attack us?"

The rider lay still, trying not to gasp too largely as he lay in submission. He hadn't been quick enough--He would be chastised for this...He gulped, feeling the blade tickle his Adam's apple. "We attacked you for protection." He began, his eyes darting between the two figures above him. "Were you not stopped, people would have suffered. That's all I have to say." Then, with a wicked smile, he added, "Plus, the kargarocs were hungry." He chuckled at his clever joke.

Tiberius growled, not finding the joke funny in the slightest. "Perhaps you should have fed yourself to them instead," he replied, adding a small bit of pressure to the knife against the man's neck to remind him of his position. "Protect who from what?" the Hylian demanded; he didn't care if this man had said he wasn't speaking any more about it. Sinai had had his arm nearly torn off, fell hundreds of feet from the sky, and his hand was bleeding from where the man had bit him; he wanted answers.

"If you talk," Natasha added, "I just might find it easier to pray for your soul." Despite all that had happened to her over on the Eastern Continent, the mid-faerie was still a cleric.