((Bunnying of the griffin was given the okay.))
As Brigitte swept upward with the ninja and Shadar loosed the five claws from his right hand, he realized there was another shriek in the air. At first, he thought it was just his ears playing tricks on him. It was proven that Brigitte’s war cry could damage hearing, so maybe having heard it so many times had taken its toll on him and skewed the sounds of magic exploding all over the cage. Closing his eyes, and ignoring the ninja in the process, he shook his head as if that would stop the bird-like shriek from sounding like two.
Brigitte, as she pumped her wings to pull the ninja upward, was under no such delusions. Hearing the call that was not her own, she swiveled her head and suddenly became silent. The man-sized griffin was almost upon her. Its wings and limbs seemed to blur, but the razor sharp beak and claws were clear enough. Frantically, she shook the ninja off and twisted in the air. Only in the instant before impact was she able to raise her feet and catch the griffin’s forelimbs. With their talons locked, she was plowed backward through the air and straight into the side of the cage. The metal shook as her body slammed against it; a sound that seemed to echo in her skull like a legion of rattling swords. Through the noise and the pain, she could only make out one other sound. It was directly above her, and it called out desperately in the all too familiar voice of her protector. “Brigitte! Hold on!”
Gritting her teeth, she did hold on. She locked her talons around the griffin’s tighter and spread her wings against the mesh. If the creature of light tried to peck at her, it was too late. With one strong push, she propelled herself upward over the beast’s head. It had no choice but to follow as her strong feet pulled its own upward and rolled the beast a quarter turn backwards.
With his own words just barely out of his mouth, Shadar raised his other hand. The claws turned to liquid in that instant and flowed together into the form of a wide, thick dagger. It was heavy enough that gravity would do most of the work when he threw it. The instant that he was about to, though, Brigitte took control of the griffin. His arm was ready to throw it, but he held it still in the moment that Brigitte was in the way. The muscles burned from the sudden delay, and then snapped downward viciously as the path was clear. The blade shot straight toward the griffin’s exposed underbelly, ready to enlighten them all as to what innards this creature really had.
However, Shadar couldn’t be bothered to find out. He glided down to Brigitte’s back and wrapped one arm around her waist. Startled by the sudden but reassuring touch, she kicked away from the griffin’s claws and winged them both to the very top of the cage once more. At arms length from the ceiling, she stopped and hovered there with gentle, controlled strokes through the air. Shadar hovered directly in front of her, his form completely still. “I wanted to say, let me take the lead,” he admitted quickly, “But, you clearly don’t need me to.”
Brigitte’s reaction was mixed. Initially, she smiled; a very satisfied, almost smug, showing of teeth. Then, she looked slightly up above his head and her eyes widened to the size of condor eggs.
After a moment of confusion, Shadar caught on and snapped his head back to stare upward. The first thing he noticed was that the spider leg illusions were still there and apparently supporting him. He had forgotten completely about them, which meant that Jackal must have taken over to keep them from faltering.
You’re welcome, the dream demon growled with a tone of ‘you owe me’. Then came a more surprised, Holy elephant butt!
That was exactly what they were staring at. It was impossible to fathom, but in all the confusion, a pachyderm had somehow gotten on top of the cage. Shadar could do nothing but stare, even though Brigitte was shouting in a very urgent voice, “What’s that?!” and Jackal was humming the circus song. After a few seconds of flabbergasted jaw-stretching, he realized that this animal was actually talking. More surprisingly, he was hurling potent insults at the very man Shadar wanted to smear across the steel mesh.
It didn’t take long to put that together with the fact that some heavily armed guards were surrounding the elephant. As far as the half-elf was concerned, there was only one thing to do. Shouting as loud at he could to be heard over all the battle noise, he said, “If you’re an enemy of Seth, you’re a damned good friend of mine! Get in here and help me mash him into peanut butter!” As he finished, the texture of his gloves shifted to a rippling viscosity. Both palms, he pressed directly to the mesh under the elephant’s feet. At the instant of contact, a single pulse traveled out through the metal and rendered it momentarily transparent. For the next second, it wasn’t steel but simply a shadow of what existed. With a very rational fear of the now unsupported beast above him, Shadar darted out of the way and stopped by Brigitte’s side. Finally, he answered her question in a hushed voice. “It’s the biggest, ugliest godsend every.”
((The spider illusion didn’t falter, and it still appears that that’s how he’s staying at the top. A small section of cage at the top has momentarily turned ethereal, so the elephant should be plummeting into our midst any second now.))
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