With a reasonable amount of force, sufficient to cause his 'sloop' to tilt over as the waves crash it into the shore, the small iceberg that Girshu had been riding to Egjora crashes into the beach and solidly lodges itself into the mull sand. Girshu slips slowly over the slippery surface onto the beach, not at all pleased with the wet salt water and the dirt of the sand soiling his previously somewhat dry robes. The water freezes around his tail and feet as Girshu slithers out of the sea and onto more proper land.

It was about damned time that he got to this place, it had been nearly three days since he left Itjivut and he was getting sick and tired of seeing nothing but sea and looming storms. Stupid frost pixies, having the only proper port in Itjivut. Them with their stupid elven city and their stupid dominion of the bay of Gleymt. There were a whole bunch of ships going back to the mainland, now that the insect threat was dealt with. The gods had prevailed and the bugs were squashed, and unfortunately Hiadref hadn't been turned to ruins in the process. But Girshu, despite easily and definately being the most superior, achieving and useful champion of that battle by virtue and accomplisment, couldn't even take one ship back to the mainland? Damn elves, thwarting him.

Well, they didn't really stop him moreso than that he never tried to get on a ship, he ahorred the thought of having to spend time in such cramped quarters with so many smelly humans, but that was besides the point damn it! Those damned elves probably would've found some excuse to capture him or deny him entrance, knowing their treacherous kind. Girshu was too smart to allow them, yes. They can't stop him when he wasn't even going to try boarding a ship!

Girshu tries to feel accomplished for fooling those elves who definately still remembered the existence of his race and their long bloody conflict, and who'd stop at nothing to thwart him. But he couldn't. He was wet, dirty, hungry and still sea-sick from the ride here. And from the sight of the mountains in front of him, he had missed Egjora city by a few miles and would have to go around the Borse mountains first.

Urgh, he could really use someone or something to vent his frustrations on right now.

But, this place was a desolate wasteland. Too cold for the human's crops to grow and the sea winds were too strong around here too. The place was rather barren, with only the hardiest vegetation surviving the strong gales that carried salt water. There were forests ahead, small patches of pine trees and bushes, but Girshu didn't assume that game would be plentiful around here. Great, another annoyance to add to the list.

Girshu tries to slither forwards, only for him to barely make headway. Stupid sand, being too mull to properly grasp with his lowest arms to pull himself forwards with. Another annoyance. He had to put extra effort in his tail slithering to even get forwards, and there was still quite a bit of beach to go before he'd reach more decent soil. Then there was still a very long distance to go before he'd reach the city. He didn't even know how far it was, he could've landed anywhere on the island. And once he got there, he'd have to find a ship to get him further north at a reasonable price too. He hated bartering, and knew that the people always asked more of him than others because of his looks. He already knew that it was going to be just another headache, and a most unsatisfying chore.

"I sswear, if one more thing annoyss me, I'll…"

He'd what? Freeze the ocean? Impale a few trees with ice shards? Punch the sky? These weren't the kind of problems he could just kill or at least severely injure, unfortunately. Girshu looked up, almost expecting that it would spontaneously start to rain to vex him further and challenge him to do something about it.

"Sstupid elvess troubling me, sstupid weather, sstupid naussea from sseafaring. Grumble grumble…"

A small rabbit hopped towards the beach to investigate the strange creature that had just crawled out of the water and onto the beach. She was careful to not display herself in case the creature was hungry. A little rabbit hopping around might turn out to be a great meal to a reptile that just got done swimming through the ocean. The creature probably already was able to sniff or hear her. If he smelled her, then she would smell like grass, horses and sweet raspberries. Kyra loved raspberries. Anyway, there really was no point in avoiding the creature or hiding from him. With her long ears she was able to hear him speak.

This surprised her greatly for she didn’t know what he was at all. Or that he was intelligent enough to speak which made this creature become incredibly interesting to Kyra. She would not just avoid this thing. Especially since she wanted to learn more about him and possibly improve his grumpy attitude. And he did have a grumpy attitude. There were thousands of ways she could improve his attitude and many different ways to also play a prank on him. Kyra loved tricking people. And creatures of all sorts. Even if it didn’t turn out well. Grumpy people…or in this case creatures….were some of the best to prank on. Why? Their reactions were far funnier than anybody else. Unless they had gotten so used to pranking that they didn’t care. Then it became sad. Hopefully this would not be the case. Kyra hopped over to a bush and peeked out from behind it. Still a rabbit, she watched him try to move his way to the soil.

Suddenly Kyra had an idea. She used her Teleportation Spell and vanished. Now she appeared in some random elf’s house nearby. She then searched around the kitchen until she found exactly what she wanted. A large cooked bird inside an oven, probably an imported turkey. In fact it smelled exactly like a cooked turkey. Kyra transformed back into her half elf form and carefully removed the turkey from the oven. She needed to act quickly before whoever lived here returned and saw her. Kyra waited for the turkey to cool down a bit then…made some carefully planned adjustments to the food. Once she was done, Kyra carefully placed the bits of turkey that had fallen off and made it look as if an animal had broken in and somehow gotten to the turkey. Hopefully it would be enough for the owners of this home to remain unsuspicious. Then Kyra took the turkey and placed it onto a plate.

She used her Polymorph spell to transform back into a rabbit. Kyra stood on the plate and turkey, hoping it would come with her when she teleported back to the beach. It did. Now the fun could start. Kyra was back behind the bush and was standing on the plate with the turkey. She hopped off the food then began to push the plate out where Mammon could see it. The turkey smelled like a delicious, regular turkey. Even Kyra’s mouth was watering at the sight of it. And she was a rabbit! Or at least she was at the moment. Kyra pushed the plate with her little head until it was on the line between soil and sand. Perhaps the food would provide as motivation to get out of the sand faster.

Then Kyra bowed to Mammon as if to show him some sort of respect. It was probably a strange sight, a rabbit bowing to Mammon and giving him food. Hopefully he would be too distracted by the food to notice how strange she and the situation actually was. Kyra then backed off to a safe distance. Once Mammon took a bit, well things might easily go south very quickly. Perhaps it seemed mean to do this but in truth it was going to be funny. Funny and somewhat mean. But she had a backup plan. Just as long as he gave an entertaining reaction, that was all that mattered at the moment. 

Muttering, complaining and just generally being terrible company if he had, well, company, Girshu continues to slowly slither off this nuisance of a beach. He was in a terrible mood, even for him.

Thanks to this mood the movement in front of him evoked his ire first and foremost, before turning to the more rational and normal reaction of confusion and curiosity. A rabbit was in the process of pushing a turkey onwards. And not just any turkey, it was pushing a turkey on a silver platter, spicing and all. What a vegetarian would do with sch a meaty meal was beyond him, though the question as to how the rabbit would've obtained it was certainly a more premanent question.

Girshu's stomach growls, despite him usually detesting any kind of meal that was heated and seared as the humanoids tended to do to their meat, and he prepares a few spells to take the turkey from the rabbit. The spells were primarily precautions because a cunning mastermind like him, in teh event of a trap or ambush of some sort. Girshu knew that he was definately a world-class mastermind and not a 'paranoid fool' as some called him, so he would never just blindly walk into a trap like this. Such a strange sight was quite definately some kind of distraction or lure. One too silly and out of place to fool someone as intelligent as him.

Girshu carefully inspects his surroundings and the rabbit. It did seem to be magical in some capacity, though the turkey wasn't and Girshu didn't detect any trap or offensive spells around either. He didn't feel any spellcasters around, nor did he notice the presence of any non-magical beings nearby. Perhaps the rabbit was on their way to a powerful entity nearby, to appease it with this gift? It seemed like the most likely explanation in this situation, by lack of alternatives.

He slithers towards the rabbit a bit faster, ready to scare it away and/or kill it. Rabbit meat would make for good rations for tomorrow.

As Girshu comes closer though, the rabbit turns to him and bows. A strange sight of sophistication and intelligence, especially considering the contradicting shine of grease on her forehead and paws after pushing the turkey and the general outlandishness of an animal being granted intelligence rather than becoming some demihuman form of said animal. And didn't intelligent animals wear clothes, though rarely a full attire?

It didn't matter. The rabbit bowed and then left quickly, leaving the turkey behind. Girshu looks around again, and then nears the turkey. The heat was still radiating off of it, as if the damn thing had been taken out of the oven a mere minute ago. Which made no sense, as the pace with which the rabbit was pushing made it impossible for it to have pushed it far in that span of time. Maybe it was conjured up, which only raised more questions as to what kind of being that rabbit was. Or perhaps the turkey was magical after all, enchanted to remain hot for much longer.

Hopefully the latter wasn't the case. Girshu holds one hand out to it and carefully applies a breeze of cold air and ice to it. Snowflakes stick to the grease and quickly melt, and the shine of the grease turns more dull as the heat fades. Once the turkey is no longer heated, Girshu picks up the platter and carries it over to a nearby fallen tree. Using the tree as a makeshift table, he takes out his fork and cuts out a slice of the meat with one of his talons.

"I don't know why you're doing thiss and if you did it to appeasse me then I apprecsiate it, but know that I'm not agreeing to becoming the new protector of thiss foresst or anything by accsepting thiss gift." Girshu says out loud to the empty darkness of the forest ahead of him, just in case. "And thiss better not be ssome vengeful fairy'ss doing, trusst me when I ssay that you don't want to end up like the lasst one that crosssed my path."

There was no response from the forest, and Girshu looks back at the turkey. The humans had some saying about things being handed to them on a silver platter, but what was it again? Hm… Knowing humans, it was probably something about selling the platter later for additional profit. And there was virtue in that, so he might just as well. With that decided upon, he begins to eat. Not bad, the spicing was good despite being meant for one of those awful heated meals. And as hungry as he was, Girshu could eat anything right now. He grimaces when the stuffing of the turkey turned out to be nothing but fruits, red ones nonetheless. Or were these vegetables, Girshu could never remember. Girshu pulls the turkey open and takes out a whole paprika with stem and all. What a strange choice for stuffing, and definately something that filled the turkey with a lot of air.

Girshu shrugs and throws the paprika into the forest. Not even he would complain about a detail like that when he was presented with a whole turkey while being this hungry. You don't look a gifted horse in the mouth, after all. And if the rabbit was hungry too, then they could now find and eat that paprika without having to gather the courage to come within his sight again. Which was fine, cowardise was a trait that the rabbit strongly represented and it was a tactic that had yielded their evolutionary success. Girshu could respect that.

Continuing to eat, half the turkey is soon gone. Feeling his previous ravenous hunger slowly being sated, Girshu begins to wonder if and how much of the meal he should turn into rations for later. There was an unknown amount of days between here and the city of Egjora, after all. Carelessly picking out the paprika and tossing it away onto the ground, he tries to get a reading on how much meat there was left in volume and weight. He'll salvage everything that was left into rations, and eat the parts that were stuck to the bone now. Those bones would be dead weight taking up too much place after all, so it would be okay to still eat it despite no longer being hungry.

As Girshu is trying to rip as much meat from the bones, an arrow whizzes out from the darkness of the forest. Girshu snarls in pain and surprise when the missile strikes him in the shoulder, and quickly summons up a blast of frost to counterattack with. A dozen or so shards of ice are launched blindly into the direction that the arrow came from, most striking the trees or disappearing into the darkness harmlessly. At least one spike strikes true however, as some humanoid voice screams out in agony.

"Damn you, thieving monster! I'll get you back for this, just you watch!" A voice, presumably male though a bit feminine in tone, shouts angrily. The response is followed by loud shuffling away as the assaillant quickly retreats further into the forest.

"Damn it!" Girshu hisses as he tries to inspect his wound. The arrow was lodged into an unfortunately rather awkward position that he couldn't properly look at without bending his neck in impossible ways, so he couldn't quite tell where and how it had wounded him. And pulling it out might be a very bad idea without proper sight of his wound and no one to help him patch things up if the wound was more serious than it felt. He would have to leave the arrow in, at least for the time being. "Damn it, damn it, damn it! I knew thiss wass a trap! I knew it! That sstupid rabbit sset me up! Oncse I get my handss on that little woodland fiend, I'll…"

"But firsst, the witnesss. I can't have them sspreading word of a monsster roaming around, preventing me from ressting and ressupplying in the nearby ssettlementss just becausse of thiss stupid missundersstanding makess me the new outlawed monsster that all the adventurerss will be looking for." Girshu says, beginning to persuit the one that had attacked him. Following was easy, as the man left a trail of blood and broken shrubbery in his wake. Considering how he had snuck up unnoticed before, it might mean that Girshu had struck him in the leg, or some other reason for this male to now move around like a brute. Whether this would allow Girshu to catch up on him was the question, though.

Kyra realized that she grease on her fur and began to lick it off. The grease by itself was disgusting and Kyra quickly regretted her decision of cleaning herself that way. Yet she continued on and soon she had a clean fur. Then she waited patiently for Girshu to come up and eat the turkey. Instead of eating right away, Girshu talked to her. Which was rather unexpected but it did make her feel a bit guilty for adding the paprika to the turkey as stuffing.

The creature was thanking her for the meal. Kyra then watched as he took his first bite of the food and felt incredibly disappointed. All that Girshu did was grimace. Then he threw the paprika into the forest. That was a little more entertaining but not as much as she was hoping for. Kyra was hoping for a more disgusted expression or maybe even anger. Oh well, it was time that Kyra gave him a proper meal. Her plan was to use magic to conjure some food for him using magic. She had been hiding in the forest.

Suddenly Kyra spotted an elf with a bow. She quickly slammed herself into his leg in an effort to stop him from lodging the arrow into the creature's neck. It worked but the arrow still hit him. Then Kyra bolted away from the area to avoid the counterattack. Luckily she made it out in time. The elf, well he wasn't half as lucky. His leg ended up being damaged and he started to shuffle away. Welp. This went well. The elf was completely unexpected. Had she known that the elf would have appeared then she would have never done the prank in the first place. Now Girshu was mad. But this was not the type of anger that Kyra wanted to be involved in. However she would not leave until she fixed her mess. First she needed to take care of the elf man before he went off and revealed everything to the villagers. So she transformed into a Hippogryph, using the Mythic Polymorph Spell.

Kyra plucked a moderately sized rock with her front claws then soared into the air. It was difficult to find the elf after he ran into the forest and the trees didn't make it any easier. However she did eventually find him. He was limping and trying to get away as fast as possible. Kyra would have apologized for what she was about to do next, but as a hippogryph, she couldn't speak. Life sometimes didn't give people the chance to apologize. Kyra dropped the rock onto the elf's head. There! Now he would have amnesia. That was how rocks and heads worked. Just drop a rock on somebody's head then they would forget all the things you don't want them to remember. Kyra then landed on the ground next to the elf to see if he was alive. He was living.

All was well. Except for the large bruise on his head but that didn't count. He'd be fine. Hopefully. Kyra then went through his bag and noticed there was a health kit. Perfect! Now she could repair the situation with Girshu! Kyra picked up the health kit in her talons then used her sense of smell to find where Girshu was. She soared into the air with the health kit. Girshu was nearby luckily so she identified where he was. Soon she could see him on the ground below her. So she dropped the medic kit and then started flying out of the forest. Only a few moments later did she realize that the medic kit might have hit him in the head too. Welp. At least when he woke up he would have a medic kit to take care of himself. All the problems Kyra had caused were now solved. She transformed into a hawk since a hippogryph form was more difficult to hold up. Kyra put that disaster out of her mind and headed towards the sky ready for the future. 

Girshu dashes into the forest after the elf, leaving the rest of the turkey and the silver platter behind without any concern. He couldn't worry about those right now. He quickly slithers, giving no heed to how loudly he was crawling through the shrubbery.

Another powerful beast wasn't too cautious about being detected either. A hippogryph, soaring overhead and being quite noticeable on account of flying rather low yet still in the wide open. Girshu stops moving noticeably and quickly takes some more cover. How powerful and dangerous were these creatures again? How aggressive? And how hungry? Girshu remembered his previous theory about the rabbit wanting to please some great flesh-eating predator with the turkey, this creature would certainly fit that description. And because he didn't remember how intelligent these creatures were, there was no telling whether it'd attack him for either eating their offerings or just for being in their territory.

The hippogryph lets go of a rock that they were holding, and it falls down. Girshu hears a sickening crunch and a short yelp, and immediately got wary of how the hippogryph could apparently strike moving targets from that height with such accuracy and ease. A very dangerous opponent indeed. The hippogryph circles around and lands near the elf, probably to deduce whether he was dead.

The hippogryph rummages through the elf's pack and takes out some kind of item. It flies into the sky again and turns to him. Girshu quickly runs away, trying to maneuvre in a z-shape quickly to minimise the chance of the hippogryph's bombardment hitting him. Despite his efforts, something strikes him square on the head and Girshu falls down. Pretending to be knocked out cold, he waits and listens for the sound of something landing near him. But the flapping of wings seems to get further and further away.

Girshu gets up again, watching the hippogryph fly away in the distance. And transform into a hawk. Huh.

This did make sense, actually. It explained why the rabbit would make an offering to him, it must've assumed that he was this morphing monster. Girshu looks at the object that the hippogryph chucked at him. A medkid, though the beast probably didn't know what it was meant for. Useful for his wounds, though. And while it had some sharp edges that might've killed a human, Girshu's scales saw to him surviving getting hit by this item. Girshu picks up the battered medkit and looks at the direction that the hawk was flying. Morphing or not, it was probably headed for their nest. Maybe Girshu would give persuit to catch and or kill it, else he'd be sure to travel in any direction but that one.

But first, the witness. Girshu returns to the place where the elf was felled. As he arrives at the clearing, he can hear the man groan. The elf was just getting up rubbing a wound on their temple when Girshu approaches them. Upon feeling the cold that Girshu radiated and him nearing, the man quickly scrambles to his feet while trying to find his bow. A single ice shard into his gut prevents him from drawing his knife and attacking Girshu when he cannot find his bow, and another shard through the neck makes him fall back down again while gurgling up blood.

"There. No witnesssess. At leasst none that are humanoid. If I ssee that rabbit ssomewhere, though…"

Girshu sifts through the man's belongings and confiscates his silver and some useful items, and then turns back to where the turkey was. The rations and silver platter were too convenient to just leave be. And the open sky of the beach would offer better light for when he'd remove this arrow from his shoulder and treat the wound with his medkit. While this was a most unpleasant experience, it could've been worse.