Oops

[thecanopycrew]

It's still early in the morning as the increasing winds roar outside the little fairy homes, rustling the small balconies and gusting slightly through the crack in the fourth floor wall. It's nothing but a bit of bad weather, something the week has been full of.

...that is, until a deafening crack is heard outside the tree, only to thunder into the tree itself with such force that it shakes the whole trunk.

The air is quickly filled with ash and soot, blackening everything outside.

Comments

Action!

[hairsay]

When the winds had begun picking up this week, Jolene had admitted that it might be time to turn in. She'd even gone so far as to try to hang around the interior hotsprings, albeit in her usual clothing, to see what the fuss was about. So far, public bathing seemed like a nuisance that she didn't see the appeal of, though the option to scrub at her stained clothing was appreciated...

But then the trunk shook with a thunderous crack and water spilled up and over the sides of the rock piles and Jo leapt to her feet, various prudish thoughts completely forgotten. She had been soaked by the splash and now she stumbled out into the open through a harried flutter of lanky limbs, soot clinging to every part of her as she came out on a limb that was occluded by the ominous weight of the fallen tree.

The air smelled foul and the wind howled and Jo, mind flashing back to the life she'd been dragged from, froze up in a panic that locked down all limbs and all thought. To anyone else who was nearby, it would be clear that the wind wasn't responsible for that level of yowling; it was the soot-soaked adventurer jarred out of sorts. Her hairsays were quick to leap on her panic: she saw in the fire-struck tree the towering monoliths of her city transformed into half-living monstrosities, and the hairsays, too stupid to distinguish between reality and a memory, were trying to communicate with it.

...She might need a shake or a punch in the shoulder or perhaps to be dragged back inside.

Re: Action!

[celena]

Celena had been soaking her kitten-weak body in the water nearby when the tree had struck. She staggered over to Jo a minute after the tree struck, her blouse and leggings clinging to her wet skin, dragging her sword behind her.

"Jolene! Jolene?! Jolene, move! We have to escape!" But Jo was lost to her panic. Celena swapped her sword to her left hand, twisted, and slapped the other woman across her face, hoping to knock her out of her daze. Had she been at her full strength the blow would have been enough to knock Jo off of her feet, but in Celena's current state it was only enough to rock the other woman.

Re: Action!

[hairsay]

Even if she'd lost most of her strength to her food poisoning, Celena's slaps were still a thing of jolting precision. Jo rocked, alright, but she also stopped yowling like a rusty gate under heavy torsion. She blinked so blearily she looked like she'd been under some heavy sedation, but her gaze focused on Celena again after a few moments. "Wh.. h... what the fuck's happening, are we safe?! Where are they?!"

She seemed to get ahold of herself all of a sudden, and circling around Celena like a mantling dog, she whipped her head around through the haze of black and looked up and down the branch, up at the half-fallen tree, into the hole that led to the bathing room; she looked like she was ready to throw someone over the side of the tree and down several floors to their doom. It was only when she couldn't spot anyone in their immediate vicinity that she whipped her attention back on Celena and looked her over; she looked like roadkill, but she didn't look threatening. "We're going inside," Jo decided forcefully, taking Celena by the wrist.

Re: Action!

[celena]

At her full strength, Celena would have objected to being tugged, but right now she was glad someone else was taking charge. Once knocked out of her panic, Jo had good instincts. If only she knew how to use a sword, Celena would have felt sure entrusting her safety to he friend.

As she staggered after Jo, she called out. "We should hide downstairs! If an enemy comes, we can escape through the food altar branch!"

[hairsay]

"Yeah, yeah," Jo agreed, at first off-hand, and then the suggestion sunk in. She found her lungs full of soot, slowly building up, and gave a raspy cough as she tried to clear her face. Her skin was a darkened mess, and she felt as though whatever had slammed into the tree was still fast on her heels. It meant that she was not as delicate with the poor gut-wrenched Celena as she ought to have been, but by the time they careened into the edge of the floor where the stream still glowed a rich, soothing gold, she was ready to spread her wings and save their descent from being an ankle-breaking excursion to one that merely jarred bones and spilled curses.

Jumping into the light beam with Celena in tow also had the side benefit of calming Jolene significantly. The light quelled her hairsays immediately, and the pounding fear of pursuing enemies lessened to a fog of uncertainty.

Never the less, they were already making their way to the next floor down rather more expediently than Jo would have liked, even with her wings thrumming as hard as she was capable of wrenching them. She hadn't given Celena the opportunity to help as much as she knew the younger woman ought to be able to... but then it could have been the difference between tumbling to their residence's level and being swooped up and killed.

Their force and vector caused them to bounce and tumble, and Jo lost track of her slice of rock; her wings fizzled out and she spent a moment or two groaning over a jarred elbow, but then she was on her hands and knees, assessing the level and trying to get her wits back about her.