World of Terra

Alex watched Jay Jay and said, "Your safe now, I promise." He looked around and then looked at everyone. "We need to leave, there is nothing here for us." he said. He knew that most of them probably didn't like having someone tell them what to do, but he was right. There was nothing left for them in this camp and they needed to go before more people showed up and made it harder to do so. He had a new animal to protect, this blue jay. He didn't mind, he would protect them all if he had the chance, Alex just wanted to help.

Melisa frowned. "Whatever," was all she had to say to Jay Jay before walking back to where the main fight was. She didn't feel like talking to the blue jay: after all, Melisa thought she was doing the dirty work of ending violence against animals that the blue jay wasn't willing to do. Ignoring Alex's suggestion to leave, she walked to the two important-looking people, bloody and beaten. Having no sympathy for them, she said "Now, if either of you are well enough to talk, you've got some explaining to do. Now."

Rory, however, liked the idea of leaving this arena. He wanted nothing to do with it. First, though, he wanted to know more about Jay Jay. Her comment about living somewhere where humans hadn't disturbed yet made him more interested than normal. He had assumed no such areas existed anymore, except for the far northern lands where it was too cold for either humans or animals. "Nice to meet you," Rory said with a smile to Jay Jay, "m'name's Rory." Rory looked down, remembering he still had his all black stealth suit on. "I'm sorry about this, I don't usually dress like this... I'm not as scary as I look, honest. Could you tell me more about where you live? I'm a mapmaker by trade, I may have visited it before, although I don't remember too many places that haven't been taken over by humans already."

Apollo glared down at Kyra before glancing at Jay Jay as he layed his hand across the cut on his face. Pain shot through him and he winced. The wound would most likely scar and he wasn't at all happy of recieving yet another scar.

Kyra growled. "She doesn't like it." She spoke out the words as she stared at Jay Jay. The 'it' she was talking about was most likely Jay Jay since she was staring at the girl like she was a disgusting insect. "When's it leaving?" A growl lurked behind the flat words as she made her way toward the Blue Bird girl. She smelt the air around the stranger and sneezed. The girl smelt like chickens. Chickens had been part of her meals when Apollo used to feet her in the mornings.

Apollo watched as his tiger friend pushed herself between Alex and Jay Jay and nudged Alex aside with a rough head butt.

Alex, Rory and Apollo belonged to Kyra, and no one else. The odd smelling lady decribed as Melissa wasn't her's. Neither was Jay Jay. After head butting Alex, she rubbed her head against he leg and glared over at Jay Jay.

Jay Jay, looking like a scared little child, stood there. "Well, where I live isn't going to be human less for long. There's a group of humans getting closer & closer to the nest as we speak." she would have said more, but when the tiger came up she was too scared to say anything. "Did I do something wrong?" Jay Jay said like a scared child as she looked at the tiger. She could only hope she did nothing wrong. But with her luck today she probably did. So she stood there shakeing like a left, waiting for an answer to her childish question.

Alex felt Kyra butt his leg and rubbing her head on him. He wondered why she was so affectionate all of a sudden. Had he finally redeemed himself in her eyes? He hoped that he had, but he also hoped that she would get along with Jay Jay. The bird was scared, and she needed help now. Alex gently ran his finger's through Kyra's fur and said, "kyra...we need to help her. Her home is in danger. think about if you had a nice home, with me and Rory, and it was going to be in danger, you would want to help right?" He asked her. Alex looked at Jay Jay and said, "You did nothing wrong." He knew the girl hadn't, other then her being a bird, which wasn't her fault.

"Kyra...we need to help her. Her home is in danger. think about if you had a nice home, with me and Rory, and it was going to be in danger, you would want to help right?" Apollo snorted when Alex tried to reason with Kyra. No one could reason with a tiger. Stubborn, hard-headed, annoying were the best descriptive words you could use to describe any tiger. He walked over to the metal fence and open it so he could walk out.

A grumble came from Kyra's chest as she looked at Jay Jay. She disliked the chicken girl, but it seemed her opinion didn't count. She growled and loped out of the giant ring as Apollo was about to walk out. She was tired. Really tired. Her shoulders sagged as she walked out of sight of the ring. Her paws felt like cement blocks and her tail felt like it was chopped off. Her whole body felt like it just went through the meat grinder. She knew it was far away, but she was heading to Rory's house.

Rory watched Kyra stare down the blue jay before slowly walking away. Ever since Kyra tried to attack him, he was more cautious than usual about Kyra meeting people. "Don't worry too much about Kyra," Rory tried to say, "she's still... very much a tiger." The explanation sounded lame, but Rory didn't want to go into Kyra's full story at that point. Rory then turned over to Apollo. "Nice to meet again, as friends," he said quickly, hoping to defuse anything still going on from the last time he met. Rory also looked over to where Melisa was: she was looking at something behind them, still looking angry. "Don't worry about Melisa, she'll catch up if she wants to." She probably had a lot of things to sort out, but she'd be back. And... wait a second, where is Kyra going?

Rory looked over to where Kyra was going. She seemed to be going back the way they all came to get here. That's weird. Rory gave a shrug to Alex. "I guess we follow her?" he said to nobody in particular. "Hold on... I need to get my normal clothes and my bag from where I hid them, I'll catch up with you." Rory removed his disguise and flew off in search of his gear. If Kyra was going where he thought she was going, this was going to be a little awkward...

"Okay." Jay Jay said shyly and quietly. She wasn't sure if she should go with them or not to where ever they were heading. So, that left her with two choices. Go back to the nest that has probably been destroyed already. Or go with this group of people and animals and risk maybe being killed by a tiger in the process. She decided to just stick with these people, but she's flying the whole way. She flew up above the group and did some twist and turns so she doesn't get to ahead of them. She has no clue where there going, but shes not taking her chances with that tiger. Cats scared her too much.

"She is heading for your home Rory, the only place that she knows other then here." He said. Alex nodded and knew Rory would easily catch up. He looked at Apollo and said, "Your welcome to come too...and thank you." He then started to follow Kyra, watching Jay Jay fly around. He sighed softly and looked back ahead, walking faster so he could catch up with Kyra. "When we get back can I look at your wounds? They should proably be dressed again so they dont get infected." He asked her, hoping she would agree since he just wanted to take care of her.

Kyra shook her head and let out a deep gutteral sound that was a cross between a growl and a snuff. Tiger become independent after spending at least two years with their mother, and Kyra was just becoming independent. Her senses were telling her that if they traveled in a group it would mean more mouths to feed, meaning that's they'd have to fight really hard for food. And food meant alot to her.

A fly sat on her poor exscuse of an ear and she growled this time. She hadn't noticed until now, that there was actually a whole swarm of flies surrounding her. They buzzed and sat on her wounds. Engrossed she began to pick up her pace and throw herself at the tree trying to get them off and away from them.

"She is heading for your home Rory, the only place that she knows other then here."

Well, that's interesting. Rory thought it strange that his house had suddenly became a sort of animal shelter. He didn't mind, of course, but thought that was more of Alex's sort of thing. Rory's house wasn't designed for caring for animals at all, really: just for making and selling maps. As he flew over the heads of Alex and Kyra and were about to land, Rory suddenly realized that he had no idea how to take care of other animals at all. The realization stung more than he expected: his previous attempts at saving animals only dealt with killing those who harmed them. He wasn't a healer or a caretaker at all. He wasn't even sure what blue jays ate. How was she going to stay at his house? Sure, Rory had perches, but they were far too wide for Jay Jay's talons. "Some animal savior I am..." Rory thought to himself as he put back on his disguise upon landing. He was now wearing his normal hiking clothes, with his stealth suit packed neatly into his bag in case he needed it later. Rory walked with the group, suddenly somewhat saddened and doing a poor job hiding it.

Rory then noticed Kyra looking getting frustrated. Flies? They seemed to be going after Kyra's wounds, and she was doing all sorts of violent maneuvers to get them off. That wasn't good. Rory tried to stop Kyra before she hurt herself. "Whoa, Kyra. Why don't we find a stream or something so that you can get cleaned up before we go further? I'm sure Alex or Jay Jay could find one pretty quickly." To be honest, though, he wasn't sure if Jay Jay could, he just was hoping she felt included. Rory also figured that Kyra wasn't going to listen to her and just walk/run/hit things straight to his house, but at least it was worth a try. She wouldn't be able to say that he didn't care about her well being.

[I'm going to post tonight without Jay Jay, we waited long enough]

Alex walked over to Kyra and he said, "I know that your tired, but there is a stream not to far away. Let's get those wounds cleaned up and then we can go rest." He was worried they would get infected. So he swatted a few flies away and he watched her, seeing what the tiger would do. He hoped she wouldn't refuse their help, anyone could see that they were just trying to help out.

Kyra made a snuffing noise and stared at Rory. She was tired, but she didn't want to admit it and what he had described suddenly sounded like it was millions of miles away. Instead of doing what he was talking about she walked into his house, climbed onto the bed, and lied down with her head on her paws. Most tigers in the would need at least 20 pounds of meat a day, and she only got about five pounds of meat in the past few days. It was definitely showing. Her ribs were showing and her coat looked unhealthy. It was supposed to not feel heavy and itchy but it was rough and not as clean as it should be. Her wounds were also wide open and just letting the flies know she didn't care if they sat on her and infected her with diseases. Tigers were also supposed to be noturnal. She hadn't really slept in the past days either, so when she closed her eyes, she was asleep in seconds.

Alex saw her fall asleep and he knew she was tired and underfed and all those things. They ahdn't had time for things like that, and so now they could rest. He went and he got water, cleaning and bandaging Kyra's wounds and then got her some meat from the town. It took him a little to get there and back, but soon he was back with food for all of them. Alex was trying to take care of everyone but himself at this point, and he was pretty beat up as well. He hadn't eaten or gotten rest in a while now.

Kyra didn't even stir when Alex bandaged her up, but she did yawned before rolling onto her side, dangerously close to the edge of the bed. She was too tired to realize that she was dreaming of nothing more then blackness. It seemed to be a blink of an eye before she woke up, but it had actually been a few hours of sleep that she'd stolen.

Kyra began to twitch, growl, and then she rolled over again. A loud thump filled the cabin as Kyra cried out and seemed to barely restrain herself from striking out with her claws. Shaking her head, she looked around and smelled the meat in Alex's hands. She darted out of the cabin and met the human head on. She jumped up, placing her paws on Alex's shoulders, being careful to hold her claws back, and bit into the bag which supposedly held the meat. She locked her jaws into a vise and darted away as if expecting Alex to chase after her. Stopping in the shadow of the cabin, she dropped down and began to chew on the paper bag to get it off the meat. Growling with frustration when part of the bag got stuck in the corner of her mouth she began to claw at her face with her claws.

Alex was surrpised she was up and around like this all of a sudden, she had to be really hungry. He watched her run off with the food and he sighed, thinking he could find something in Rory's cabin for himself and Rory. He went to Kyra and he helped her get the bag off her now, since she wa shaving trouble and he didn't want her to claw herself. Alex sat down now, not making a move for the food at all since he knew she might get defensive with him. "I don't know what we are going to do now Kyra...the people around here might not want us around anymore after all the trouble we caused." he said.

Kyra pulled back a little when Alex came near, but knew enough about humans to know that he wouldn't take her food. Humans don't want the good stuff, was what she first learned on the black market. They'd eat the meat burned and chalky, instead of the way it really is. She gnawed a piece of meat off and swallowed it whole, before grawing another piece off. Throughout her eating, she tried not to think of the other humans, or the fact that it was a problem. All she tried and was doing, was to focus on her food.

Alex slowly pet her back, careful of her wounds. "We have been through a lot together in the last few days. It's funny really...I never expected to find an animal out here, let alone all of the ones that we met." he said to her. He stopped petting her since she probably just wanted to eat. Alex hoped that the two of them could stick together for a while, he dind't want to separate and have something happen to the tiger.

Kyra gulped down a piece of meat before turning to lick Alex's arm. She didn't want to go back to the real world where they had to think before acting, where the humans could do anything to animals and not be chastised for it. She just wanted to eat, run, and play. What was the matter with what she wanted to do that had humans hate her for it. She was just a four legged animal. Kyra was confused by everything, and how pointless it was. Yes, she was an animal, but weren't humans animals too?

Shaking her head she rested her massive head on Alex's knees before closing her eyes and going to sleep again.

Alex hugged her softly and held her for a while as she slept. "I wont let anyone hurt you again...and I wont hurt you either." he whispered softly. He then fell asleep as well, not able to stay awake anymore since the both of them hadn't slept really in at least a day, he had lost track of time at this point since everything had been happening so fast for them.

Kyra purred while in her sleep, her entire cat body beginning to vibrate as her mind began to weave itself a calming and peaceful dream. There was a fire, and behind the fire was a face, and not an animal face... Or was it? Lips were drawn back to show blunt yellow teeth, and below the set of teeth was a scraggly bushy tail and above the two were more scraggly bushes. Or was it fur? She sneezed and bared her teeth at the face, keeping her eyes on the face. Black beady eyes stared back at her from under it's patch of brown bushes. Through them she saw a human standing beside another tiger. Another Tiger?! She let out a throaty bark, glad to see another of her kind, but behind the human and the tiger were.... Other humans and animals. Behind the tiger and man was a bear and a woman, behind them a weasel and a child. Behind them were doezens more. The dream dumbdounded her. What did it mean? What was this face with the beady eyes and scraggly bushes?

Kyra jerked and then she was rolling away from Alex and into a crouch. She whined as she stood on her bad leg. Bad leg? She looked down at her paw and sniffed before looking at Alex.