Deserted. [Laura]

[Royce Raider]

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[atrb=background,http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i319/sketchedesigns/ROYCETABLEBG.png] It was that time of the year that Royce dreaded more than anything else in the Menagerie. And that was saying something, for there were countless things to dread. It was the summer. The time of the year when the sun consistently beat down on everything in the path of its rays, withholding mercy from everything, living or not. Royce had a problem with light anyway, and the summer intensified it to the point where Royce wanted to stay hidden, down in the cellar of the Speakeasy for the remainder of the months of summer. But he just couldn't do that. Being down in a place like that for so long would just kill him. He was a bird, for God's sake, he needed to be out and about. But if the sun was so intolerable at this time, why was he flying over a hot desert that he'd never seen before? No, it didn't make much sense to him, either. The barn owl flew high over everything. Over the blistering hot ground that seemed to go on forever. He really had no clue why he was here. Yeah, he knew that this was Fallenring territory. He also knew that he probably shouldn't be here, despite the apparently still standing alliance between Fallen and Fulsi. Royce still didn't think that he was going to be very welcomed there if anyone found him. Looking straight down so that the sun didn't get in his eyes as much as it could, Royce spotted something glimmer and almost blind him in the light that it let off. After blinking hard a few times to help get the sudden sear of pain in his head to go away, Royce realized that they were train tracks. He would have laughed. Train tracks in the middle of nowhere. What a funny thing. Royce really was having second thoughts about being where he was. He really was in the middle of nowhere, and he was getting terribly hungry. Of course there was nothing to eat out in this desert. The owl in the sky circled around and lazily followed along the train tracks a little while one way, then turned around and went the other. Maybe he would just die out here and end his miserable life. It seemed like a fitting place.

[hiccup]

[atrb=width,400,true][atrb=border,0,true][bg=f2f3ed] Laura wasn’t exactly sure what had prompted her to shift into her considerably smaller form but she couldn’t really say she regretted the last minute decision. Everything just appeared so different when she was no longer a human but instead a tiny pygmy bunny. The world suddenly seemed so much larger, the desert so incredibly vast, everything so never ending. It was a tad mind blowing, and she supposed the drastic change of perspectives was the real reason she didn’t mind having such a defenseless shift. That and because she always had a weakness for cute and fluffy creatures, she mused with a twitch of her nose. Tentatively she took a hop forwards, wary of the sand that would be stirred by her movement. She rather liked the desert the Fallen inhabited but that didn’t mean she enjoyed the grainy stuff getting in her fur or worse yet clothes. Thankfully the spray of sand her bound sent upwards was light and her fur was still more hair than sand. With her cleanliness insured, Laura bounced off further into Fallen territory without a care in the world besides exploring and a nagging worry for her siblings. She’d thought of them quite often since she’d arrived with her twin Pru, who had also managed to get lost albeit Laura had a sinking suspicion that her sister had simply left while she’d been sleeping. Still she had Fylnn to fret over, he’d been gone for the longest time but yet Laura had never really stopped thinking of him and his oddly spelled name. It was hard to just forget about a bottle blond who liked to prance about speaking old English after all. Though in all seriousness she was actually fearing more for his health than reminiscing on the happier memories of her life outside the Menagerie and it’s glass walls. Last time she’d seen her silly brother he’d been so pale and frightened as the Keepers dragged his skinny frame out their door. She found it hard to believe he would last terribly long with his hero complex and flirty demeanor, those traits would lead her brother straight into conflict. She didn't think he was best of fighters. Sighing softly, Laura turned her head upwards. Staring into the bright sky or rather through glass, she hoped Pru and Fylnn would be okay where ever they might be. She closed her vibrant green eyes in resolve, she would find them both someday and when she did she’d hug them both so hard they’d have to use a crowbar to pry her arms away. A glint of something shiny took her from her thoughts, hopping off some more to her left with a curious glint in her eyes, Laura found herself staring up at the tracks. A quick hop left her inside the metal flat lying ladder and there she found herself a bit of much needed shade. She found it mildly amusing that she had been oblivious to the scorching heat up in till she had found herself this nice patch of shade. How strange the minds of humans were, she thought with a bunny’s version of a smile. Curling up into a ball, she briefly closed her eyes, the warmth of the sand was lulling her into a peaceful state so much so that she failed to register the sound of wing beats drawing nearer.

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[Royce Raider]

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[atrb=background,http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i319/sketchedesigns/ROYCETABLEBG.png] Royce was getting kind of bored of looking at the same strip of track for as long as he was. The sun was beating down on his back the entire time, and he was sure that he was getting sunburn. If birds could get that. He tried to amuse himself by spinning in tight corkscrews through the air, not paying attention to anything around him. He did wide loops and nose dives dangerously close to the ground before he pulled himself up. But nothing was working. He figured he should just turn and go back from where he'd come from, the Fulsi territory. But just as he pulled up from another one of his nose dives near the railroad tracks that he thought were a little random, his sensitive vision caught something that was inside one of the large metal beams of the tracks. It looked like something small and furry. Royce felt his stomach gurgle in response to the sighting of the small creature, and he once again realized that he was near starving. The barn owl flew high in the air, contemplating the little animal, and flying at an angle so he could observe it. From when he zoned in on the creature with his eyes, it looked like a tiny rabbit, possibly a baby. He didn't want to eat a baby bunny, the poor thing hadn't had life that much yet. But he figured that his survival meant more to him than the life of any baby bunny, and he alighted on the opposite metal track to see if it was still alive. He got close, heard a heartbeat, and didn't think anything of it. Royce grasped the small rodent in his downward-facing beak, and within two beats of his wings was up in the air again. He felt the furry creature that fit almost perfectly in his mouth struggle against him, and kind of felt sorry for it. He began to squeeze down on its rib cage, attempting to break them, but he just couldn't do it, and stopped. He merely carried it around with him in flight, preparing himself for killing a helpless animal. Little did he know that it wasn't that helpless.

[hiccup]

[atrb=width,400,true][atrb=border,0,true][bg=f2f3ed] Laura certainly hadn’t expected to die so soon. She knew that eventually something in the harsh glass prison would get her but the thought that she’d be eaten by a fluffy owl within her first week had never crossed her mind. Yet here she was being carried off to who knows where, how odd. Laura didn’t really feel in the mood to panic and she was sure that her twin would have smacked her silly for being so contented with her fate but honestly she couldn’t fault the creature for choosing her as it’s next meal. Rabbits tasted quite good in her opinion plus she did fit rather nicely in the bird’s beak. It was almost like it was fate. Suddenly her death musings were irrupted by a single thought. Her brother Fylnn’s face flooded her mind and vaguely she realized that while her dying might mean little to her, it would mean a lot to bottle blond who had thrown away his future for her and Pru. So with that fact in mind, she began to struggle. She didn’t want to disappoint her older brother by dying so easily, it just wasn’t in her blood to go down without a fight as he used to say. Mind racing, she tied to work out a plan. Laura figured that if the owl dropped her however unlikely that was, she could shift into a human to break her fall. Hitting the sand as a pygmy bunny would leave her with far too many injuries then she felt like attending to. It wasn't like the owl was that high up, she would be fatally hurt or at least she didn't think so. Her preparation was in vain however as the bird didn’t drop her, it instead began to squeeze down on her ribs. Panicking Laura increased her movements, almost thrashing now. Her ribs felt like they were about to break and though she was medic, trained in these sort of things she didn't know anything about the anatomy of her shift or even how much pressure it's bone could withstand. Trying to calm herself, Laura desperately tried to clear her fear clouded mind. Halting her movements, she prayed that the bird would just stop the pressure if she appeared dead or at the very least subdued. Unconsciously she held her breath. Pain made her eyes water and she nearly cried out before all of the sudden there was no longer a break clenched against her fur. She felt herself shaking slightly and whether it was from relief or just the remnants of fear she couldn’t tell. Laura wondered what in the world was going on, an owl wouldn’t just let her go like that. But perhaps it was not an owl, perhaps she had been caught by a shifter! A shifter could feel pity, a shifter might let a catch go, a shifter would be a blessing right now. It would also explain why the owl had caught her in it’s beak rather than talons. Now she wasn’t an expert on owls or any bird really but in every nature show she’d seen, the birds had snatched up the poor little mice with their clawed feet. This tiny bit of a possibly incorrect knowledge brought her mind to a close. The bird had to be a shifter. It had to be. Renewed hope rushed through her veins and her ears perked up in half hearted glee. Unless the shifter flying around with her was a cannibal, which she highly doubted, all she had to do to get herself free was to say something. The simpleness of it all nearly made her laugh. “Umm excuse me.” She called out tentatively, the worry that the bird might just be a normal bird returning. “It’s nice to meet you, sir or madam but I’d rather not be eaten today if that’s alright with you.” Ooc: Sorry for making you wait so long, Royce!

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[Royce Raider]

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[atrb=background,http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i319/sketchedesigns/ROYCETABLEBG.png] Royce was mentally scolding himself the entire time he was just flying in circles. He had been in this glass prison for an extremely long time, and yet he'd managed to survive. And he was only an owl! Yet he didn't even have the guts to kill something to eat. He was already way too thin as it was, and he desperately needed something to eat. At this point, he really wasn't paying any attention to the tiny rabbit in his beak, and was really focused on the internal conflict between his needs and his compassion. So when he heard a tiny voice pipe up from the furry body that he carried, he was startled. Badly. It’s nice to meet you, sir or madam but I’d rather not be eaten today if that’s alright with you. There was a sharp intake of breath from Royce, as he about jumped right out of his feathery skin. Royce, in fact, did not jump out of his skin, but instead accidentally dropped the small rabbit from his beak. As it went plummeting helplessly to the ground not far below, the barn owl let out a loud shriek in surprise at two things. The bunny had talked, and it was now falling to its death. The owl's wings flapped vigorously as he angled himself differently, diving for the tiny rodent and quickly catching up to it. He caught it in his beak once again only a couple inches before it hit the ground. Flapping his wings lightly this time, Royce alighted on the ground and placed the rabbit firmly on the desert surface. He knew that there was some reason he wasn't able to kill the animal right away. It wasn't just an animal. It was a shifter. The barn owl stood directly in front of the small rabbit, who he was sure he'd given quite a scare. "I'm really, really sorry about that." he said before shifting into a lanky, boy-ish man. Royce was seated in a criss-cross position on the ground in front of the rodent. "I really am." he said once again, looking the bunny over. "And I thought I had a vulnerable shift. . ." The statement was said more to himself than it was to the other shifter. Royce really didn't know what to do. He held his hands out in a position that said he wanted to help, he just didn't know how. "Did I hurt you?" he asked in worry, looking at the other with icy grey eyes.