It was high noon as the heat of the day bore down on the bleached skeletons like fire in an oven. The deathly quiet was interrupted by the sight of a leathery-winged creature flying above while a figure on foot was chasing it in hot pursuit. The only reason why she was brave enough to come here was because it was daytime, there was no way she'd try this after the sun went down. Tiny screams were ebbing away as a small green-skinned individual was caught in the horrible flying thing's claws–which by the way resembled a madman's chimera of the stuff of nightmares. Generally humanoid in appearance, large bat-like wings, and an ugly face to boot. The flying monstrosity which likely became the inspiration for castle gargoyles let out a hideous cackling scream that drowned out the cries of its victim. Shiloh was running as fast as she could trying to keep it in her sights, desperately trying to figure out her next move before the poor goblin became another addition to the list of missing people. 

It happened when she was in Mamjaku meeting a group of new merchants starting out their trading business. Onnen was a lot more tolerant towards non-humans than the other continents, so there was more variety when it came to diversity. There were rumors of the locals hearing and seeing something flying around at night along with sudden disappearances. At first she thought it was some vampire causing trouble and didn't think much of it, but when the local urban legend snatched one of the vendors right in front of her–that was a different story. It was a mad dash out of the outpost and across the wilderness as she tailed the monster, leading her to the Elephant Graveyard. It must be trying to shake her off, as the large skeletons and dangerous territory provided plenty of obstacles to slow her down. Shiloh had no idea if this was the only monster. This one could be bringing the goblin back to its lair where others might be waiting. And if she didn't rescue him before that…she'd have to prepare for a funeral.

"No time to stop, no time to shoot–how on earth is this thing so fast?!" She cursed under her breath. "Looks like it has above average intelligence." There was nothing worse than a monster that could think.

Gaia and Lio wandered lazily through the graveyard, though the noon heat was starting to kill their enjoyment of wandering and exploring new things together. After their wandering of the elephant graveyard sometime past with Lenora to find the stashed object she’d been searching for, they’d come back to this graveyard and opted to wander it some more curiously, this time just for fun rather than to searching for one specific spot which held the item she sought. Scaled forefeet were getting sore with the heat cascading from the ground that the sun plagued. She turned her head towards Lio who sat upon her shoulders in front of her wings.

“I think we should get headed somewhere cooler…” She chuckled but her train of thought was disrupted by a beast she’d never seen before. She blinked as her eyes followed the beast as it past, some many yards away, she turned her head back the way they were headed and saw a woman running. She tilted her head and turned around, watching the pursuit, her sharp angled ears picking up the sound of something being carried by the monster. She turned her head 180 degrees and looked back to Liono…

“We always run into weirdness here… and that’s coming from me… Should we see if we can help?” She asked as she looked to him “Sounds like that beast is carrying something though I couldn’t see anything….”

She rested her head back against Liono slightly as she waited to see what he thought about getting involved. They together seemed to like to help people as this was not the first nor last time they’d happened upon someone in need of assistance.

after heading back to the graveyard to look about again it seemed to have been a bad decision this time as the heat that day was making them uncomfortable,  they stopped and took a seat in whatever shade they could find at that stage, he looked at Gaia as she said "I think we should get headed somewhere cooler…” he laughed at her thinking she wasn't wrong this heat was like being in an oven, " i cant agree more with you this is to warm to be doing this crap, maybe we could head of and go find water and have a swim if your up for it" he sat there thinking a swim would differently fix there heat problem right now,

as they sat there just about to start of again, a beast flew past at speed followed by a woman hot on its tracks, "what the hell was that?, i don't think i've seem one of them before, have you?" he asked her as he turned to look at her, “We always run into weirdness here… and that’s coming from me… Should we see if we can help?  Sounds like that beast is carrying something though I couldn’t see anything….”  he turned to look at the woman running after the beast, and thought to himself maybe they should go help cause he wouldn't like to think something had happened to her and they sat there and did nothing to help he tuned his eyes back to Gaia, " your right there its the second time we have been here and the again meeting someone who needs help, but yeah maybe you should follow just in case she needs a little help, we wont get to close just in case she doesn't want it but close enough that if she does need it we are there"  he stood up and set off after her.

She couldn't keep chasing it forever. If it was just knocking the creature out of the sky, Shiloh would've done it a long time ago. But she had to reconsider most of her ideas since the goblin might end up as collateral damage. That was the problem with specializing in lethal options. Pushing her legs to run faster, her eyes locked on its claws and cast a curse to weaken its grip. When that wasn't enough, she hurled a dagger, striking its leg. The sharp pain finally let the goblin loose as it began falling to the ground. Gathering up the air currents around her, Shiloh propelled herself upward to break the vendor's fall. The boost wasn't enough to reach more than a few meters high, so the goblin smacked into her on the way down. The impact wasn't as bad as it could have been, but her body still felt the sting. "Ok, good–he's still breathing. Hey! Oh…" Maybe the shock had been too much for him, as the vendor was out cold. His vital signs were fine at least. "Now we just need to get out of–"

Enraged that its prey had been stolen, the flying monstrosity let out a loud, high-pitched shriek that sent her reeling. Grabbing her ears, it was like someone had torn out her eardrums. Her acute hearing made that awful sound a thousand times worse, and she felt like her head was going to explode! That sound–by the gods, that sound! Like nails on a chalkboard or the wailing cry of rusted hinges, it wouldn't stop! Paralyzed by the sensory overload, she was hunched over the unconscious goblin as the bat-winged creature was circling overhead. Readying its wicked claws, it opened its maw revealing several rows of serrated teeth. With a tuck of its wings, it began hurtling towards the two aiming to dive bomb them both. 

"I cant agree more with you this is to warm to be doing this crap, maybe we could head of and go find water and have a swim if your up for it"

She chortled softly and nodded, a swim would be fun, though whether it would cool them off in truth would be left to be seen. 

"what the hell was that?, i don't think i've seem one of them before, have you?" 

They both watched the scene for a few moments before Liono responded to her asking if they should help.

" your right there its the second time we have been here and the again meeting someone who needs help, but yeah maybe you should follow just in case she needs a little help, we wont get to close just in case she doesn't want it but close enough that if she does need it we are there" 

Gaia bounded in the direction of the beast and woman, watching them as the woman was able to get the apparent prey the beast held, free with the throw of a dagger. The beast screamed loudly, a high pitch ear splitting sound she skid to a stop, her sharp hearing making the sound far louder and she shook her head rapidly trying to get the ringing to go away. She growled to Liono, the sound having frustrated her….

“Jump off, i’m going after that thing before it goes after them.” She said quickly, opening her wings to ready herself to take off, if he opted to stay mounted he would definitily need to hold on tight. She swayed slightly as the beast started to edge towards the woman.

as there got up to go help he keep his eyes on the woman as she run towards the beast, he could see how her speed was slowing down but it didn't stop her she kept going as she pulled what looked like a dagger and throw it hitting the thing making it drop whatever it was carrying, she had stopped running and was bent down when all off a sudden this noise filled the graveyard, it was like nothing he had ever heard before causing them to stop dead in there tracks bringing him to his knees, the sound echoed through his whole body. 

when the sound stopped he got back to his feet as Gaia growled at him as he looked up and seen the beast heading to the ground towards the woman “Jump off, i’m going after that thing before it goes after them.” Gaia yelled at him he run towards her and jumped on as quick as he could as she took flight rather fast, he held on as tight as he could before saying to her,  "Gaia hit the thing on the side set it of course" she flew faster than he had ever seen before, as they approached fast he seen how close it was getting to the stranger "faster" he shouted at her, within a few seconds she plowed right into the side of the beast tossing it of course as it hit the ground missing the woman, Gaia slowed her self down and flapped her wings as she come in to land, he jumped of and turned and looked at the woman,  "hey you ok over there? what the fuck is that thing?"

The agony was overwhelming–the pain was so bad that she was hyperventilating. Everything was telling her to shut down, to close off her senses just to make it stop. The world was spinning and her ears were throbbing. Even when the source of the awful noise was cut short, the sensory overload had done a number on her. It was a good thing the goblin was unconscious, because it'd probably faint again if it woke up now. The flying monstrosity was knocked to the ground, stopping its ungodly screeching. Unfortunately it wasn't dead, and its muscular body didn't seem too injured. It was momentarily disoriented, buying Shiloh and the vendor some time before it recovered. When Gaia tried to speak to her, she couldn't hear anything more than faint mumbling. Being so close to the creature when it let out that piercing cry had given her short-term acute hearing loss. When she sensed something close to her, she gave the stranger a wild-eyed look that told Gaia she was not in a good state of mind.

But she wasn't only looking at the woman–her gaze was fixated on what was behind. It looked even worse up close; its lamprey-like teeth in a mouth that split open into four parts. Its hairless body showed every vein and muscle underneath its taut, leathery skin. Its long forelimbs and shorter hind ones gave it efficient quadrupedal movement as its wings folded partially. With a seething hiss, the thing rushed at the three. It prioritized going after whoever looked weakest–in this case, Shiloh and the goblin. As it charged, its movements staggered for a brief moment before continuing as before. In the next moment, there was an ornate lacriamium spear lodged in its chest. Suddenly an explosion came from the spear, blasting out the abomination's chest cavity beyond repair. With a gurgling squeal, the hideous thing skidded along the ground as its body registered the damage. Shiloh's shoulders slumped as the arm that was raised now fell to her side. 

For a split second, Gestalt had caused a distortion in perception of anyone that was within thirty feet of her. This distortion created a delay in the monster's mental processing, meaning it never saw the weapon coming. Before the spear left her hand, a skyfire blade enchantment was placed on it to deal maximum damage. The result: a lethal blow with a nasty mess. With her hearing coming back, the graveyard was quiet with the flying fiend dealt with. The lacriamium spear gained a soft green glow as it absorbed the life of the creature, though she wouldn't need to deal a second blow this time. "…It's dead. It's dead. Thank the stars it's finally dead." Now without the pain or panic to block her focus, she realized there were two other people she didn't know. "What–who?" She asked, words and thoughts mixing together.

"hey you ok over there? what the fuck is that thing?" Lio said as she landed gently besides the woman. She was struggling more than Gaia thought she would be. The woman looked to her, wide eyed and obviously very scared. Her ears pivoted as she listened to the beast behind hear, without worry, she didn’t bother to really take the sight of it in, but she knew where it was in comparison to her and the others. A dangerous hiss escaped its throat before it charged and Gaia spun to face it, to see it stumble. She took a deep breath, readying herself to shift to her half form which would be more agile and strong against this beast.

A spear hissed past her, finding solace in the beasts chest as the world seemed to distort around them with a sickening wave of nausea coming over her, within seconds the spear exploded leaving a gaping hole in the beasts chest. She blinked at the suddenness, stepping backwards away from the gore as the beast gurgled as it skidded along the ground, coming to rest in front of them. She tilted her head before turning it to Lio with a raised brow.

“I venture to say she got it under control….” She chortled slightly, fluffing up the heathers along her neck and head as she folded her wings slowly and looked back to the woman, then the beast. The spear within the beasts chest glowed an eerie green and the woman spoke as Gaia turned her head back towards her.

"…It's dead. It's dead. Thank the stars it's finally dead. What–who?" 

She looked to Lio, then to the girl… and back stepped a little more, letting him answer, as the woman seemed a bit confused and a talking griffin may only add to the ultimate confusion the poor woman was going through. She stepped back far enough that she could stretch out her forelimbs slowly, then lowered her haunches to the ground and stretched her hind legs out behind her, stretching out as much as possible. She opened her long wings as well, to allow airflow between her body and her heavily feathered wings, trying to cool off some. Her beak fell agap as she panted slightly, letting them talk.

he stood there looking around very confessed about what had happened and what was going on, the woman looked defeated even thou the beast was down, maybe something else was going on with her that they didn't know,  as he watched her he noticed the beast turn to face Gaia and hiss, he went to run towards her as he noticed the woman launch a spear towards it going right through its chest, as the spear was bedded in its chest it exploded, he walked towards Gaia and stopped beside her, as he looked at her she said,  “I venture to say she got it under control….”  he smiled at her and raised a brow, "it certainly looks that way, should we go speck to her make sure she is ok?" 


there walked towards the woman who had made her way towards the beast a little more, "…It's dead. It's dead. Thank the stars it's finally dead."  he stopped as she spoke and looked at Gaia before walking a little closer, when out of nowhere she said, "What–who?"  with a panic and confused look on her face, he walked towards her kneeled beside her, "are you ok? is there anything we can do to help?"

She was no longer in immediate danger. The threat had been neutralized. There were two strangers here, not inherently hostile. The tone of voice confirmed that. It took her a while to fully calm down and readjust her mental state. With so much sensory information in need of sorting, Shiloh was quiet as her breathing rate returned to normal. Her hearing was back, and she could make out the words someone was saying to her now. "No–yes." Looking up she stared at the man next to her. With some difficulty she elaborated on her terse initial reply, "–Do you know which way Mamjaku is? I need to send him back home." She gestured down at the unconscious goblin dressed in a vibrant patterned cloth tunic. "I need to get out of here. I don't know for sure if that's the only monster flying around." Her head was still aching, so she wasn't going to press her luck with opening a portal. If she didn't maintain her focus, the vendor might end up bisected on accident. 

Pushing herself to stand, she slowly walked over to the spear and dragged it out of the beast's carcass. She poked it a few more times to make sure it wouldn't get back up again, then shook off any giblets that were still stuck. Lucky for her, the residual migraine had her focus more than the smell. Pouring some water over the spear head, she made the weapon disappear once it was rinsed off. Her expressions and tone were flat and monotone in contrast to the visible panic that gripped her earlier. The shadows grew long with the sun shifting position in the sky, the heat still unrelenting. Shiloh eyed the griffon, though her limited knowledge of animal body language told her it wasn't aggressive. Being in the presence of a well-adapted predator always made her a little nervous.