Deviation Actions
Literature Text
“Boss.” Merhab’s voice cut over the whir of the drill in Kestrel’s paw, and he slowed and stopped the machine, lifting his face shield to look back at the slender fantail waiting at the door to his den. Merhab waited, paws vibrating and frill twitching, for permission to speak. Amethyst eyes gleamed back at him, illuminated by the light behind the fantail. Bright. Urgent.
Angry.
“What’s up?” Kestrel asked, uncertainty crawling up his spine.
“Urgent news from sources in Obsidian Bluffs. Antikutan’s barrier has dimmed.” Merhab spoke as quickly as ever, as any of the strange serpentine fantails Kestrel knew ever spoke, like every moment of breath needed to be used with perfect precision. “Land’s dead.”
The uncertainty turned white hot. Into anger. The scars across Kestrel’s body burned, and he set his drill down to stand.
“Has the barrier broken?” he asked, careful to enunciate each word to keep himself from snarling. Merhab didn’t deserve his misplaced anger. His excitement. Antikutan was down. The Construct would be rampaging.
A flash of the fantail’s frill and a tossed head before too-long pearly teeth were gleaming and purple eyes bored into his own. “Not presently. Only dimmed. Guro’s weak and angry. What’re our orders, Boss?”
Kestrel strode forward, brushing his shoulder fondly against the fantail’s as he passed. “Thank you, Merhab. Gather the rest of the team.” he ordered, and immediately the serpentine fantail was dashing back down the hall towards the core of The Vanguard’s headquarters. Only once Merhab was gone did Kestrel lower his head and rasp his tongue over the melted flesh on his shoulder, white hot anger burning in his chest. Guro had made an enemy of the wrong ketucari. He’d been too weak to defeat the beast before, but this time… snarling low in his throat, he strode into the armory.
==
Plumey white stood before Fieris, warm scent wrapping around the toa with all the familiarity of the medallion around his neck. At the side of the plumey white that made up the billowy, cloudlike shape of his mate, stood a pool of darkness, gleaming with points of red. Killian’s purr vibrated through the ground and into Fieris’s bones. Fieris himself stepped closer to Evangeline.
It was a selfish request. Selfish, yet understandable.
“I would appreciate if you fought alongside me. Quelling Guro for the sake of the world is well and good, but… I have more personal reasons to face him, and I would appreciate the aid.” Spirit had said.
Fieris recalled Messus. The streets of cobble, the way the world had split and rumbled, Guro’s screeches and his teeth. His paws trembled. He could feel Killian’s pleading gaze, and Eva was quiet in that way she got when she was trying to translate her thoughts into words with meaning and not just the huffs and growls typical of those outside of cities.
“Someone needs to watch the cubs.” he’d interjected, hoping that would be that. He didn’t want to fight Guro again.
“I can.” Killian spoke up. “I’ll keep them here where they’re safe--”
Illahaesa was Dying, too, though. Would the Silverglade truly be safe? Could Hyperion keep a grieving Kalet out of his lands?
“Dear,” Eva’s nose touched Fieris’s shoulder and he jumped, a cold feeling in his gut, “We should fight, I think.”
“Perhaps I should watch the cubs--” he tried to protest. It wasn’t his fight. He cared for Spirit but this wasn’t his fight, his vengeance.
But he could see the shake of Eva’s head, and her muzzle pressed under his chin. “You need to face this fear, my love.”
His gut coiled into a knot, and in desperation, he looked to Spirit, unable to read his love’s blurry face. He smelled of hope. Of grief. Of anger. “...Who… are you avenging?” he asked.
“An old love.” Spirit answered, sorrow in his voice. “He captured her many years ago, and Anti… Anti killed her. Please. I know this isn’t your fight--”
It wasn’t. It shouldn’t be. Inwardly, Fieris cursed.
But it was so hard to say no to his loves.
==
How long had it been since they visited the Bluffs? Kishi sighed contentedly and nuzzled into his mate’s shoulder, enjoying the cushion of Naveen’s plump side, and the warm weight sprawled against him to fight off the chill. Laying with his mate always made the world seem less threatening, less dangerous. They could enjoy the clifftop and the sprawling fields surrounding Antikutan and not worry about--
Naveen’s entire body sudden went rigid, and a growl erupted from his throat, startling Kishi out of his reverie. “What th--”
“Antikutan…” Naveen stood, suddenly, with enough force that Kishi found himself thrown aside, rolling across the cliff top. Huffing, he looked at the distant dome of purple energy, squinting at it to see it clearly.
What was so strange about Antikutan? Aside from it existing at all?
As if to answer his question, it flickered, and he leaped to his paws with a snarl. “It’s falling?”
“...Guro…” Naveen’s voice shook, with snarl and fear, his ochre claws digging into the cliff. “He could get loose again… What if… what if he attacks Messus again?”
Messus.
Kaleo. Alda. The kids--grown now, but still their kids--he knew all too well what a crushed cub looked like.
With a snarl, he threw himself into a sprint. “Come on! Let’s go help!”
A moment later, Naveen’s thundering pawsteps followered. “Right!”
==
“HAWKE!” a slam and a familiar voice cracked through the walls of Arianna’s estate. Groaning, she lifted her head from her mate’s chest. Cahlan grumbled and shifted his arm around her, sinking blunted claws into her feathers to keep her from pulling away.
“Who’s breakin’ in, doll?” he drawled the question. Who’s breaking in and demanding her attention, are the friend or foe, did he need to be worried (of course he did, he always worried), and did he get to kick their ass for likely breaking her door.
A growling yap answered all of those questions, Njall’s delighted barks filling the estate, and the resonant coo of a familiar voice answering him.
What in the names of the gods was Kestrel doing here? “Let me up, dear.” she told Cahlan, and grudgingly extracted herself from his warm embrace, licking the fin between his ears as she went. Cahlan sighed and propped himself up, carefully standing and trotting along after her when she headed down the stairs.
“Kestrel Duval! Ever heard of knocking, or have I committed a crime?” she called, circling the railing. At the base of the stairs, the smooth feathered elder had rolled onto his back and tucked in his toxic spines and was playfully batting at Njall’s chin. The ketucabra yapped and nipped at his sheathed claws with all the energy of a puppy.
“Who’s this, love?” Cahlan peered around Arianna’s back and resting his elbow against her side.
Clearly is presence made Kestrel do a double take.
“Better question, what is that?” the scarred toa asked, rolling to his paws and lifting his spines, a hiss low in his throat.
Arianna sighed, shaking her head. “Cahlan this is Kestrel Duval. We’re… acquaintances?” she was never certain if she was allowed to call him a friend. Certainly she trusted him with her life but…
“We get together to kill gods.” Kestrel supplied, schooling himself into a more neutral stance, though his eyes remained fixed on Arianna’s love. Cahlan kept his fins up and extended, his ears folded back and his muzzle pulled back into a lazy grin.
“Right. Call me Cahlan. Arianna’s partner.” he answered, thumping his tail against the step. Kestrel’s lip twitched. “I’m a Rixixi. Think of me as an alien, it’ll be easier to wrap your head around. So Mr. Duval, whataya want with Ari?”
Arianna didn’t wait for a reply. “If you’re breaking down my door I can only assume there’s to be a raid?”
“Antikutan’s fallen.” Kestrel promptly decided to ignore Cahlan, tail curling over his back. “It’s Guro.”
Her heart stopped. She thought she’d been tracking Antikutan well enough… “You can’t seriously want to fight him again--”
“Call me foolish but maybe this time we can keep him down for good.” Kestrel swiped his tongue over his tusks, a furious light gleaming in too green eyes. Honestly it would be endearing if she hadn’t been there struggling to save his life after the last time they fought the monster.
Still, she forced a laugh, “I think you just want revenge for him scarring up your pretty face,” she strode forward, hooking her tail around Cahlan’s shoulders to tug him along. Kestrel’s ears twitched, his frill flicked, and he grinned.
“You’re not entirely wrong, no. So are you in?”
How could she really say no?
==
The sand shifted. Fieris stumbled, feathers bristled out and entire body trembling. Fighting Guro on his home turf in dying lands was… not a prospect that appealed to him, but…
This was what Ketucari were good for, wasn’t it? So he’d best just… try to keep his footing. Eva walking beside him helped, but what little vision he had here was useless when the land was this dead.
“Fieris!”
The voice caught his ears, and he tilted them backwards to… ah yes there was the thumping gait of the young toa he’d come to expect during Raids. And beside him… Lighter steps, heavier breathing. His partner. “Naveen, Kishi.” he greeted. “Raiding?”
“Yeah! We saw the barrier flickering, so we came to check it out!” Naveen announced, surging past him. “You’re here, too? I’m glad! Who’s your--” Naveen was loud. Excited. It grated against Fieris’s spine. He wanted to be home with the cubs, not walking into death for a vengeance that wasn’t his. He could hear Naveen sniffing, “your mate?”
In the distance, lightning flashed, and Guro screamed. The scream shook the earth. Fuck.
“This is Eva. My mate and Matriarch.” he explained as if it would block out the scream. It didn’t.
“Pleasure to meet you.” Eva’s voice was warm. Soothing. “I wish it was under nicer circumstance.”
“Yeah, charmed, can we get to the whole killing a god thing now?” Kishi charged forward, a beacon of caramel against the purple hues of the earth. “C’mon, let’s move!”
“Is the youngster always like that?” Eva pressed her weight against Fieris, and at his other side, Naveen sighed.
“Yeah, always. He’s right though. Nice to meet you, ma’am!” and with that Naveen was thundering off. After a moment, Evangeline pushed forward and followed, and Fieris, unwilling to leave his mate to Guro’s wrath, cautiously charged after her. He could handle Antikutan when it was living. Not so much when it was dead.
Something moved. A crunch, a rumble, a--
“KISHI!” Naveen’s shout filled the air, and Fieris snapped his head up, squinting against the barrier’s dim light to see the young toa struggling in a purple mass. A tentacle, a--the ground split under him and he roared when one of the massive masses erupted under him and hooked over his back, trying to drag him back into the earth, his back turning into fire agony burning and his ears rang as the dry earth scrapped against him. He could hear Eva screaming for him, and he clawed at the earth, trying to wriggle out of the mass of muscle and sinew--
Guro screamed and suddenly Fieris was on his feet, leaping from the mass and the sudden stench of burning flesh and
“Got one!” Kestrel’s voice rang out, thunderous pawsteps charging past. “I’m rifting! Fieris, on me!”
What? Fieris staggered, trying to make sense of the sudden chaos--it was easier when the world was just shadows now there was color and depth and he couldn’t process this and--Eva was soft under his chin.
“Go with your friend.” she soothed. “I’ll watch over the young ones, let him watch over you.”
Glad for direction, and knowing that Kestrel wouldn’t drop him on unstable ground, Fieris nodded and trotted after Kestrel. A second flash of lightning freed Kishi from his tentacle, a fluffy mix of pinks and whites dashing past to help Kishi to his feet, then vanishing into a rift. She smelled like Kestrel. One of his packmates?
“Wait up boys!” another familiar voice, and Fieris found hope swelling in him.
“I brought Arianna.” Kestrel supplied with a purr. The phoenix in question charged past, laughing. “The team is back together! Now hurry up, I can’t hold this Rift forever!” Kestrel vanished into the mass of blue, and Fieris followed. Immediately he found himself face to face with Conflict. Ketucari everywhere, dashing in and out between Guro’s legs and tentacles. Guro slamming his teeth down to try to devour the mouthfulls.
Kestrel vanished, up onto a rock formation no doubt. Fieris didn’t have that option, and settled for his usual tactic. Keep off the ground as much as possible, and strike Guro when he had opportunities.
Arianna and Naveen raced by, Greheli cloaking them as they made their best efforts to make as much noise as possible, both laughing in delight at their strategy when Guro went to slam a fist on them and they swerved away.
Fieris growled, emboldened, and leaped atop a chunk of sandstone. Guro turned, tentacles flapping in the air like snake tongues, and made a sound somewhere between a vixen’s scream and a banshee’s wail, thrashing his tentacles within the sand.
A sandstorm.
That was fine by Fieris.
It wasn’t like he needed eyes to see, anyways.
Maybe this would be okay after all.
He just had to not think about Messus.