Eagle slayer wanted, part 3 or Terminator birdy person.

We first meet Riana in this log http://rwmuck.limitless.org/rwmuck/content/eagle-slayer-wanted-part-2-or... the log you are about to read happens after that :)

North Path: Before Bridge

/[][]=============== Mossflower - Before Old Stone Bridge ===============[][]\

The cool winds of the north call you forward from your postion by this old stone bridge. This old stone bridge has stood for countless years, the builders are unknown, but what is known of it tends to agree that it is truely the gateway between the north and south. You can see over its long span and see down the dirt road, almost catching a glimpse of the Black Gull, or maybe even the fabled Redwall Abbey. Around willow tree wreath this passge and await your choice. Walk towards the cold and mystery of the north lands, or find your adventurous spirit in the lands of the south?

\[][]====================================================================[][]/

Exits: [E]ast, [N]orth, [S]outh onto Bridge

The mid day sun shines down upon the woods of Mossflower. Spring is in the air and currently in battle with winter for control of these woods. Fresh green grass shoots up where snow has begun to melt. Leaves are starting to grow back here and there among the trees although the vast majority of them are still barren.

A large pillar of smoke rises from a clearing in the woods where a small group of beasts have gathered.

A sizable camp fire has been erected here. A wooden spit with a roasted sparrow has been set up over the fire to cook. "Miss Xiiiiaaaa...I have questions about this plan!"

Xia rolls her eyes. With a heavy sigh she replies, "Trsk, we have been over this like...a thousand times now. What is it now?" The fox lay spread out across the grass, not too far away from the camp fire as she devours meat from a previously cooked sparrow leg. A small pile of bones lays behind her from breakfast and brunch. About a week of camping out in the woods, cooking wood pigeons, sparrows, and robins in various locations to lure out their elusive eagle has not been kind to the fox's already obese waist line.

With her fur growing tight to cover her bulky body the section of skin showing through on Xia's tummy has only grown larger. Rolls of flesh bulge under ever part of the fox's hide, even on her tail! And when she leans forward far enough her stomach very nearly grazes the forest floor. "What's not to get? We dig a small pit, you sit in the pit as bait and when the eagle comes to eat you, we pounce on it with a net!"

Not too far away from the vixen is a small freshly dug pit. It is only about a tails length deep and square in nature. Deep enough and narrow enough that the bird has to land to catch Trsk instead of swooping in to carry him off. In it sits a small red scaled lizard with a black under belly. The lizards thick squirrel hide vest and brown tunic do little to hide his own pot belly that has been growing over the course of this adventure. "So...why is my foot shackled to a wooden post?"

The lizard holds up his foot to show a chain running from it to a small wooden post nearby. "Oh, that? That's to keep you from running off like the little coward you are."

Nearby, under a pile of grass and leaves woven into a net like mesh Kinktail chuckles. The grey furred rat can't complain about this job. She gets to sit, eat, and laze about until the eagle comes. It's a welcomed break wandering the woods collecting the bird traps for Xia.

Unbeknownst to the hunters below, they have become the hunted. If Riana the golden eagle had a nose, it would be wrinkled in disgust right now. Don't these stupid creatures know that lizards give her indigestion?! Yuck! Shaking her head, the raptor continues circling the camp from high in the sky. Should any of her prey look up, they would probably assume she was a sparrow or something equally small. She notes the fire, the weapons, the pit. She even thinks she sees the rat, but she's not too sure. She starts to think, formulating a plan...making her circle wider, she starts to look for the thing to use. Ah! There it is! She swoops down into the forest, making sure that her prey doesn't see her...

"Hey! That robbin was going to peck my head in!" shouts the lizard. He crosses his arms and pouts, "And it was only the one time." He pauses, "Ok, two times."

The heavy set fox rolls her eyes. Shaking her head Xia preforms the laborous task of rolling onto her feet. Xia of course realized that she had no one to blame but herself for her current...girth. Switching professions from body guard to bird hunter had been good to her wallet, but that was no excuse for letting her self go so baddly.

But the damage was already done so why bother worrying? Thought the plump vixen. After this job was done Xia and her crew would be set for life. Bringing down the beast had its own reward, but there was more money to be had in capturing the bird. She could already count the coins she would get from selling eagle feathers and claws...

"Well, let's pack it in. I don't think the bird is going to show today." Xia said as she stretches and yawns. None of the beasts seem to see their quarry sweeping in towards them...

Riana lands far in the forest, out of sight and hearing from her prey. She grabs a huge hollow log and starts flapping laboriously into the air with it. She ascends high into the air and starts her descent, swooping down at an angle towards the camp. She gathers speed as she flies, and by the time she reaches the tops of the trees at the edge of the clearing, she is going a good 150 miles per hour. Silent, she throws the log down to the ground, twists in mid-air and flies out of arrow range. The log picks up a bit more speed before it hits the ground, bouncing and rolling as it flattens the camp. It reaches the fire and scatters the burning wood. A bouncing log of doom.

A startled cry erupts from each beast as the camp is primitively bombed by the bird. The wood catches fire as it rolls through the fire pit and bounces towards Xia. She yelps and leaps to the side, trying to roll to her feet she instead flops flat onto her belly. She would make some snappy reply about needing to lose weight if she were not so darned shocked and terrified at the moment.

But she is not nearly as terrified as poor Trsk who is still chained to the post by his paw. Despite her jesting, Xia put the chain there as a last minute precaution in case the eagle managed to carry the lizard off. With the log bouncing towards him the chain is proving much less of a safety feature than a life threatening hazard. "AIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" He shrieks in fear before throwing himself to the ground. The log bounces over his hiding place and keeps rolling until it comes to stop in the tall grass...still ablaze.

"Holy..." Kinktail begins. She seems to sink more into her own hiding place. "What in the blazes is happening!" The rat shrieks.

Riana schreeches as she dives down, a rock clutched in her talons. She throws it at the rat, who did a good job of revealing her hiding spot. Whirling her great wings in an awe-inspiring maneuver, the eagle changes course, extends her claws and goes to grab the fat fox by the tail. Riana hates being hunted. It's so disrespectful.

Kinktail lets out a small squeak as the rock lands in front of her. Standing up in fright she trips over her own net and falls backward. Landing on her rump she is quick to get back to her feet but not in time to save the fox from having her tail grabbed by the eagle. "Bleedin heck!" Xia yelps as the eagle grabs hold of her tail. It appears the bird is trying to carry the bird catcher off!

"Xia!" Kinktail shouts. She scans the area for her weapon, or where did she leave that? The rat reaches down and retrieves her spear that was laying next to her. Trsk meanwhile dares to poke his head above his hiding place to see that the log has caused the grass to catch fire...

Riana screeches as she goes to pick up the fox by her tail and throw her onto the burning log. If she succeeds, she will give out an undignified squawk because the fox is heavier than the bird thought. Perhaps carrying her off isn't such a good idea....

Xia let's her displeasure at being roasted for the birds lunch be known in the form of a terrible howl. The fox is thrown on top of the burning log but rolls off and away from the burning grass. Xia uses the momentum to get onto her feet at last, kicking dirt as she skids to a halt. The fox then begins to frantically pat down her singed fur and the fire set to her tail. "Hothhothothot!" She yelps again and again.

With that done the fox turns back to the eagle. She managed to hang onto her trusty halberd while being dragged off. She levels it in both paws towards the bird. Light shines off of the curved blade. "Ok! Try that again you bird brained feather tail scoundral!" Little does the fox realize that the fire has cut her off from the members of her own party...

Riana screeches with rage, flapping her wings powerfully as she lands onthe other side of the fire patch. "I shall eat your marrow!" The wind from her wingbeats spurs the fire, encouraging it to grow larger.

THe fox's ears flatten against her skull as the fire highlights the eagles form, making it appear like a pheonix rising out of the flame. Her paws shake as she watches the eagle and realizes for the first time how big the creature really is. She remembers something the hare at the tavern said earlier. About creatures eating foxes...

Xia though is not going to become someones meal so easily. Shouting to steady her own nerves Xia moves forward, swinging the deadly halberd over her head twice before slashing at the eagle's chest.

Kinktail meanwhile ignores the please of the lizard to help him get free and instead dashes off into the brush with her spear in paw. The fire wouldn't spread for ever, not with snow still on the ground here and there but for not it was proving the effective barrier to try and cross...

Riana ducks out of the way, but is unable to avoid a small slice. Shrieking in rage, she leaps over the fire, flappign her wings wildly, going to plant a set of talons firmly in the fox's shoulder. Bringing her beak down, she goes to peck the vixen in her other shoulder.

The vixen lets out a pained gasp. The halberd falls from her paws and she falls backward onto the dirt behind her. "Kinktail! TRSK!" She shouts in panic.

"Xia!" Kinktail shouts again. The rat leaps over the fire from the fox's left, she dashes forward, trying to pierce the eagle in her side.

For all of this Xia is pinned under the weight of the bird above her and her shoulder is lit up with pain. She tries to kick and claw at the avian by pure instinct.

Riana hisses in anger and goes to whack the rat with her huge, strong wing. Giving a pained squawk, the eagle lashes down and goes to kill the vixen with one quick bite to the neck.

The eagle get's the taste of rock, one which Xia reaches over to grab and thrust upward while Riana was busy tossing the rat off to the side. Kinktail is thrown into a near by tree with a loud CRACK. The rat collapses and falls to the ground where she lays unconcious.

"Bleedin useless henchbeasts! Why did I bother hiring them!" The fox shouts, trying to wriggle herself free of the birds grasp while fending off her deadly beak. "Trsk! Trsk! Where are you!"

With no lizard help on their way, and being unable to roll onto her side the vixen holds up her paws defensivly. It's time to pull out the seceret weapon. Begging. Something which all canines are good at, right? Right? The fox hopes so because this fight is going down hill and fast! "Wait! Wait! Don't eat me! Stop! We...we can work something out! Just...stop!"

Riana hisses her defiance. "I don't make deals with my prey. SHAMBALA!" She goes to land onthe fox's stomach and swipe at her neck with a talon.

The fox makes a startled gasp as the talon slashes her just below the neck, across the collar bone. The shock of the gash startles her, causing her to go still except for the rise and fall of her stomach as she breaths. A paw clutches at her chest. She let's out a cry but nothing seems to escape her muzzle. This...this can't be happening. This was all a dream! The bird can't be about to eat her!

Sorry for the cliffhanger. *NOT XD Thanks for reading!

Here's the end of the cliffhanger ;) : http://rwmuck.limitless.org/rwmuck/content/eagle-slayer-wanted-part-4-or...