[Event] Losses are Expected

Another day, another round of playing guards. 

This time Piper, Crucible and Moonbeam were babysitting a duo of scouts that were Lahna and Mischief . Lahna, a quilled Oviraptor with a dark tabby, Siamese, pale unders and socks, green warpainted vines adorn her neck and scars rake her arms. Mischief is another brown Oviraptor, spiked with dark bands and a lighter underblaze. Her warpaint is teal, making a thorny branch running up her neck to throw leaves on her crest. The job of the two scouts was of course scout out away from the Atlantean dome and help spread and fortify the influence of Atlantis and their plants. They would be at their most vulnerable while on the move, traveling into unknown territory. Piper could only offer so much guidance as even though she traveled quite a bit she still did not know the ins and outs of every part of the islands. The two scouts, although staying close, were still leading the group and relying on the speed of the others to catch up to them in a time of trouble. When trouble came, it was sudden. Too sudden for anyone to do anything about it. 

They had come to a natural choke point in the Highlands where the dense jungle intermingled with a flowing stream that carved through old volcanic rock, the perfect place for camouflage and ambush. 

Out from the jungle burst a massive Acrocanthosaurus, black and starred like the night sky, a shooting star along its flank and with a menacing white face with black marks. It grabbed Lahna, catching her with a solid bite to her middle. Lahna was immediately in danger and bleeding from the onslaught of its serrated blade-like teeth as she was picked up by the much, much larger theropod.  

Piper yelped in surprise, almost jumping backwards she moved so quickly in the direction of the larger Albertosaurus that were there as escort. Mischief as well let out a squawk of surprise and concern, freezing for a moment before she moved towards the two bodyguards. Technically three. Crucible and Moobeam quickly moved forward, with Crucible staying by the other two (Piper and Mischief) and Moonbeam charging the Acrocanthosaurus. If there was a chance to save Lahna, if she wasn’t already dead, they’d have to try. Or, at least, recover the seed bag Lahna had been carrying.

There was risk there but Moonbeam took a bite at the giant theropod, successfully managing to miss poor Lahna and bite the larger predator on the snout. The Acrocanthosaurus probably didn’t expect the hodge podge of their little pack and probably wasn’t expecting to get bit on the snout so quickly, they dropped Lahna to the ground and tried to pull their heave back as Moonbeam tugged a bit before letting go. She snarled and stood between the Acrocanthosaurus and the stricken down Oviraptor. Moonbeam from where she was couldn’t take her eyes off of the meteoric Acrocanthosaurus, so she couldn’t check on the Oviraptor that was laying on the ground. All she could do was stand guard over her now. The Acrocanthosaurus snarled at her, straightening up and suddenly feeling very offended by the strangers in its territory. It squared off with Moonbeam and the Albertosaurus stood her ground. “What are you doing here?” The beast would ask the Albertosaurus.

As they stood off, Piper would sneak up with Mischief, the two of them trying to use their smaller size and agility to try to inch up and grab Lahna. If they could grab Lahna they could try to pull the wounded Oviraptor away from the two snarling predators. As they did this Crucible moved up with them, wanting to be there in case something else decided to come out of the jungle. He didn’t think anything would, though he never knew the Acrocanthosaurus well. They were never really a problem he had to deal with.  With some care Piper and Mischief would be able to grab Lahna and move Lahna back towards the bushes and away from the stream, trying to move the Oviraptor into cover.  Unfortunately the wounded Oviraptor didn’t seem to be doing well so for now Piper would work on what she did best which was trying to tend to the sick and wounded. She also technically was the last line of defense just in case something got past Crucible and Moonbeam.

“We were just passing through, there was no need to attack us. “ Moonbeam would respond to the Acrocanthosaurus,.

“No reason? That is my dinner!” The larger beast snarled and took a step towards Moonbeam, trying to intimidate her. An Oviraptor it could easily crush but an Albertosaurus not so easily, there would probably be injuries.

“Well, you should have been more wise as to who you were attacking. Now you’re in the bad graces of that Oviraptor’s pack. “ Moonbeam argued back, not letting herself be intimidated by the Acrocanthosaurus. She sidestepped a little, trying to get a look for any opportunity.

The beast matched her.

The beast scoffed. “ I couldn’t care less about that, get out of my territory!”  The beast followed the command up with a loud sort of roar, Moonbeam couldn’t really describe it. Afterwards, it lunged forward and tried to snap at her. The Albertosaurus sidestepped it and dipped in, trying to go for its neck. As she got barely a nip into it the Acrocanthosaurus moved in close, and took Moonbeam by her own neck with its clawed hands...scratching at her.

While they were occupied, Crucible moved in to back Moonbeam up and flanked around the Acrocanthosaurus to bite at its shoulder and ribs, using heavy but quick bites to rip flesh from its body in an attempt to get it to let go of Moonbeam. To protect Mischief and Lahna they needed to dispel the Acrocanthosaurus and that meant rescuing Moonbeam from her predicament as well. Seeing the struggle and that Moonbeam was awkwardly being overpowered, Piper would also try to move into the fray. She had to be careful to not get trampled by the larger theropods and she swung around behind the other after jumping over the stream. Piper was going for a lower target, and started to take bites at the Acrocanthosaurus’ legs, going to make things even more painful for it as she left rips and tears against its muscles. The fight was quickly turning into a free-for-all as the Acrocanthosaurus managed to get Moonbeam off balance and slammed her to the ground, bruising if not breaking a few ribs.  Mischief let out a squawk, not sure what to do as she watched the beast now try to turn on Crucible.

It leaned over several times, trying to bite at the pale Albertosaurus who now had to back off. It took turns between that and trying to kick at Piper and keep her from biting its legs anymore. As furious as it was, having multiple dinosaurs come at it was a little overwhelming and it wasn’t sure it really wanted to die for a meal of that size. Moonbeam was trying to get back onto her feet, while Crucible paced around it.  Piper somewhat behind it, sort of stepping side to side as she tried to wait her chance to bite again, trying to go for joints.

“You know what… now we’re going to take your territory for Atlantis. “ Crucible would decide, by himself of course. He lunged in and the Acrocanthosaurus responded by bashing his head away with its own. It temporarily distracted both of them, letting Mischief work up the energy to rush in now and join the fray. The banded Oviraptor jumped up and bit onto one of the Acrocanthosaurus’ arms, just about ripping it off as they hung from it. With that Piper moved around as well and tried to bite onto its tail and stiffen its balance.

It was quickly getting overwhelmed, and with Moonbeam now back on her feet the Acrocanthosaurus decided that maybe this wasn’t a fight it wanted to push. That Oviraptor, Lahna, would probably die from her wounds…but so would the Acrocanthosaurus if she pushed a one versus four fight. Thankfully with a good swing of its head it was able to take Mischief’s tail in its mouth and pull the Oviraptor off of it as the Oviraptor automatically let go in panic. The Acrocanthosaurus threw the Oviraptor to the ground before pivoting and pulling Piper along as it started to retreat into the surrounding jungle, done with this fight.

Piper sort of hung on for a few steps but she quickly let go and went to go protect Mischief and make sure Mischief was okay. As for seeing the Acrocanthosaurus out of the newly awarded Atlantean territory? Moonbeam and Crucible gave chase and ran it off. Mostly Crucible, as Moonbeam lagged behind because of her injuries.  While they were occupied with that Piper tended to Mischief, who would be okay, and Lahna, who wouldn't be okay, and would make sure they were protected as well as they could be until the heavy hitters returned.

One loss, it was bad for Atlantis, but the ground gained? That was so..so good.