The Sword and Staff [All Welcome]

[Philomel]

Whining, Veridian struggled on the floor, between hissing and spitting and hateful yowling. He twisted and turned as piles of cold and spiteful acid gathered around him, smog and coalescing liquid in one. There was even a voice who tried to say something about something stolen but really, that, during this?. He gritted his teeth as large portions gathered around him, stinging directly against a huge portion of his flank.

Whump.

From his side something collided with him, just before a new spawn of acid began to fall like silver rain. He was pushed out of the way, just narrowly missing an attack directly to the face which strangely rang an old bell.

He skidded across the counter top somewhat, chest heaving and frantically looking around to see his new saviour. There sat Mao, not far from him, still in normal size but head tipped to the side in her curious primal way. Her nose pointed off and away, over to ...

Fenn. On the ground with that plant-head Madison and her whole weight on his back. At first Veridian began to growl, getting up but then he saw the small boy, smiling awkardly and lifting up ... What? Paper, card, the strange pictures Veridian had seen falling before.

Then it struck him. Stealing. Someone stealing the voice had said. Struggling as the pain continued to burn, and likely would still for a long time more so long as the spirit of fire in him endured it, Veridian made a strangled noise between a moan and a frustrated growl.

Mao nudged him with her paw, huffing and shaking her head once - a communication thing she had learnt from Philomel. Steadily the rabbit was growing in intelligence. And steadily now did she start to grow in size, at a strangely rapid rate.

But it was not aggressive. Merely it seemed to be, "By the way I am doing this now, Kay, thanks." As casually as one might get up from a chair she leapt from the bar onto the floor, and when she was there she was massive - about the size of a large dog. And then she sat there, in full view of everyone, huge ears and mighty back legs. She turned her eyes to fix a single, full dark eye on Madison and simply watched for her reaction.

Then she gestured, with an upraised, gentle paw, first at Veridian, and then at Fenn.

"Please can I have that," she asked in a non-vocal voice, but with a language so peculiarly based in body language that no one could understand it, in the end. "Please?"