Onatah Cliffs

Wistfully looking behind, Nova watched as the winding corridor slowly blocked out the clearing they had been in just moments before. They were officially in the canyons now. Looking about, he was relieved to see that the path they were on was quite straightforward for now, at least, they hadn't taken any forks in the road yet. Studying the ground, Nova figured the route they were on was used to light to medium foot traffic, and as such it would be unlikely that they would be alone on the trail for much longer.

His allies seemed to be holding up, Dey was being her usual anti-Nova self and Durandel seemed to be relieved that he wasn't having to act anymore. There isn't much to staging a wolf pulling a cart, when indeed you were a wolf pulling a cart. For his part, Nova tried to help when he could. Push to help get out of a ditch here, move a couple rocks out of the way there, all while occasionally grunting a loud "keep moving" for the benefit of Ash. That she-wolf didn't really seem to care about anyone except herself and her gems, and as long as she just worried about that, they shouldn't have to worry much about her.

Durandel

Durandel wondered what she was going to say next until he was so rudely interrupted by Ash. He couldn't help but glare as well at her intrusion. Still he had to hold his tongue lest he may give them up. It was then that the Dimitrios decided to work on Dey's nerves, pushing her and pushing her. Durandel began to worry about her exploding...so far the she-wolf has been shown to have a temper. It didn't take too long for the situation to escalate from antagonizing to fighting.

Suddenly Dey lept forth and tackled Ash to the ground. "DEY!" Durandel shouted. He then looked towards Nova hoping he would have an answer to this. Unfortunately for them, this little outburst will be the least of their troubles. Then over the next horizon came a group of Tenneth and Canicus as their leader shouted, "NOW!" Soon the two Canicus howled and stomped on the ground as an eruption of molten lava separated Durandel and Nova from Ash and Dey. "NOVA!" Durandel shouted as he quickly bit down on his scruff and with his strength forced him off to the side, narrowly saving his hide from a splash of lava. The lava slathered itself all over Durandel as he growled. Soon his harness was melting away from the intense heat.

"DURANDEL! You traitorous filth! Not only you consort with the Ausi but now the Dimitrios as well!? Oh ho, ho! We are going to enjoy watching your public execution!" The Leader barked. "Now Tenneth seize Durandel, they want him alive, but no need to be gentle." The Leader ordered. "What about the others?" A Tenneth asked. "Seize the Ausi and the Dimitrios, kill the nonessential." The Leader ordered. The Wolves nodded as they moved in.

"Nova! We need to get out of here, now!" Durandel shouted as he moved forward and spewed lava to halt the Tenneth advancement. "Move in Canicus don't let his lava stop you!" The Leader ordered. Soon they moved in as well. Damn, what could they do? He looked over to see if Ash and Dey were alright. Luckily they rolled far enough away from the splash zone but only barely. "You two, get up and move! The lava will reach you soon!" He shouted.

Standing on shaky legs, Nova immediately wished he had not risen as his eyes were instantly assaulted by ash. That is, the flying blacks stuff, not the wolf. Having dropped back a little to examine what he had thought was a trail marker on the side of the cliff, Nova was completely caught off guard with the explosion of activity that had suddenly appeared. Trying to make sense of what was happening, he heard Durandel speaking to him. Leave, yes...they needed to leave.

"They're awfully persistent..." Nova said with a slur, watching Durandel fight back. The heat would be choking to any living thing, and molten rock was all the more debilitating to an ice wolf. Taking a few steps backwards -thankfully the right direction- Nova couldn't help but think about the time he had been in that forest fire. That was exhilarating. The only problem was that that had just involved burning trees. Now he was facing wolves spewing burning rock.

He wasn't going to do any wolf good by passing out, so fighting against the lightheadedness he turned around and fumbled backward through the smoke caused by newly burnt ground cover. Funny, they had gone to such lengths to get into these Onatah's being undetected. In one short moment, they had probably become the most interesting thing these canyon walls had seen in a long time.

Durandel

The situation went from bad to worse in a few moments. Not only were they effectively separated his allies were failing all around him. Well it's no surprise, they have been run ragged by the ordeals they have all faced in such as short amount of time. He couldn't see too well, but he did notice the lack of another wolf behind him. "Dey!? DEY!" He shouted as he turned to growl at the Canicus. The snarled at Durandel as they nipped and bit at him. Durandel raised a paw and performed a swipe at the two Lava Wolves but they stayed out of his reach. He noticed Nova head for cover and he wasn't looking so hot himself. It must be the lava, it's detrimental to his element!

But what can he do? He could recede the lava pit to a smaller, more manageable size, but that will take time, time he cannot spare. Perhaps Ash could move the Earth and have the lava sink into a deep pit? It was then fireballs went whizzing over his head at the sight of Dey fleeing. "Don't bother! These are the wolves we want, make sure that Dimitrios has no where to run!" The Leader barked. The Tenneth had their eyes trained on the escape routes she could make on foot, making any more escapes rather risky. Durandel continued to fight off the Canicus as he shouted at Ash.

"Hey, She-Wolf! I need you to listen to me! We need to manage the lava from this pit, the heat is messing with my friend over there and we need all the help we can get to fight these wolves off! So I need you to create a deep pit and have the lava sink into it, hopefully we can reduce the heat!" Durandel barked. "Fools! Your plans will amount to nothing! Give yourselves up now and maybe we won't break a leg or two!" The Leader threatened. "Wolves, see Durandel's friends do anything I don't like, light'em up." The Leader ordered his Tenneth.

__________

"Are you ready?" "Ready."

Then suddenly, what looked like shadows moving on their own, burst from the shade of the nearby cliff walls as they darted forth and quickly spirited away two of the Tenneth. This made the Fire Wolves jump at the sight of their disappearance. "BOSS! I-I don't know what happened...but, something got Aedan and Conley!" A Tenneth shouted. Looking around and feeling confused he decided to stare at the wolves before him and barked, "They must have done something! Fire at them!" The remaining Tenneth shot fireballs at their general direction. "You two down there, hurry up and capture Durandel!" The Leader shouted. At his request the two Canicus's launched themselves at Durandel as they began to wrestle him down.

Ash's escape was cut off by a tenneth, and as she quickly changed direction to her last attempt, it was cut off too. Corned she bared her teeth, Damn! Her wolf-ish instincts weren't especially strong in her, but at this moment, they were roaring at her to shake the earth and force these Tenneths to take a dirt nap in order to survive. But if I use my powers, I may not be able to control them.

In the melee, she realized that the Tenneths that had ambushed them were trying to take Duranel and Nova prisoners... So why are they doing that? Why is a Tenneth traveling with Nova? She growled in irritation when she realized that all three had probably been playing her.

"Hey, She-Wolf! I need you to listen to me! We need to manage the lava from this pit, the heat is messing with my friend over there and we need all the help we can get to fight these wolves off! So I need you to create a deep pit and have the lava sink into it, hopefully we can reduce the heat!"

Ash snarled over at him, "Oh go f-" Her response was cut off as the ground began to shake. She fell to the ground shouting, "Earth quake!" Maybe a more ambitious Dimitrois would have taken credit for an earth quake, but Ash wasn't so. Those damn Canicus! Pulling Lava to the surface... Just when the quake was over, she yelped as a large boulder just fell from above and shattered into pieces near her. "YOU IDIOT FIREHEADS!" She howled at the Tenneths and got to her paws as the ground began to shake again, but for the reason that the cliffs around them were beginning to crumble into a..... Landslide!

The earth above them began to growl, and roar as the debris from above became loose and began to rush down the side of the cliffs.

"Nova! Khan!" She barked for them as she reached them just in time to pull open up a pit beneath them. She knocked them into it and sealed up the opening. The sound from above was horrendous. "Is everyone okay?" She asked the darkness.

His eyes struggling to pull any light out of the darkness so that they could adjust and see, Nova recovered from a fit of coughing that came from the ash and dust that had been stirred up. Lying weakly on the dirt floor of their shelter, he wondered how much rock had just fallen on top of them. "Probably about as okay as any wolf with ten tons of ore teetering over their head" Nova groaned when he had enough breath to speak.

Blast, if only they were still above ground. The lava, he could have relied on Durandel for that, or at the very least he could have run away. Under this mound of earth, the only wolf they could rely on to escape was Ash, the wolf whom they had just conned. He didn't fancy that she would crush them, she just didn't seem to be that kind of wolf. But he tried to refrain from any further snarky comments that would give he a good excuse to do so. She had just gone from the duped to the one holding all the cards. A lot of use his element had been on this journey. Some wolves have it all just by having the right parents.

Listening to everyone's breathing, he realized that they were short a set, and was rattled when he recalled that only three of them had been pushed into this hole. "Did Battle get...out okay?" Nova couldn't help but ask, fearing the likely answer.

Durandel

Durandel coughed up bits of rocks and dust as he struggled to find out exactly where he was. Last thing he noticed was falling into some hole after those Canicus wolves backed off from the sudden quake. He worried that they all were crushed and buried deep within the Earth. It wasn't too far off from the truth except the dying part that is. Durandel looked around but noticed nothing but darkness, they were alive but how?

It was then he realized that Ash must have saved them from certain death. He could hear her voice and Nova's but where was Dey? "I'm...alright." He spoke in response to Ash. "As for Dey, I don't know...I think she escaped." Durandel spoke. "Just, where are we? How do we even get out of here?" He asked worried over their predicament. It seemed the Elements were against them today, being nearly drowned in a flood and now nearly squished in a rock slide.

Scratching at the ceiling above his head with a claw, Nova was rewarded with a couple of rocks chipping off into his eyes, and he silently cursed his luck. Ash's insinuation was almost enough to make him forgo his earlier resolve not to mouth off at her, punk as she was, but he felt that Durandel's health was more important than a few verbal victories. As for his own health, it was clear that fate thought little of it.

"Well, its clear that you would lack the patience for the long version, and we lack the oxygen to tell it, so here is the short version. We were running from those wolves you just killed and needed a place to hide, and these cliffs seemed perfect. Your kind doesn't really like my friend here" Nova paused, gesturing to Durandel, or where he thought Durandel was. Realizing that nonverbal gestures didn't work in the dark, the ice wolf resumed.

"Anyway, since he and Dey would probably be killed before stepping paw in here, we decided to put on a show for you to try and save our hides from those renegade fire wolves. You just happened to be in a position to help us" Nova concluded. He didn't trust Ash in this place, her supposed control of her element thus far represented a pup trying to control a butterfly. Not much.

Astonished at the destruction that was before them, Nova gawked for a moment before slamming his jaw back up. The entire western cliffside had given way, leaving nothing but a pile of rubble filling in the canyon floor. There was not a trace of lava or wolf, or any living thing for that matter. Nothing could have survived that.

"I owe just about everyone, you'll have to get in line" Nova mumbled as the novelty of the sight slowly wore off. Well, the whole reason they had come into these cliffs was to throw off their pursuers, and now that those wolves chasing them were dead, there wasn't much reason to wait around and see what other wolves would show up. The only hitch was BattleDemon, where had she gone? Hopefully she survived the crush.

Giving Durandel a questioning glance, Nova wondered if they should even still be sticking around this Ash. But, as she was heading down the rubble in the direction that Dey had apparently gone, there wasn't much of a choice but to go along with it. His mind not in the conversation, he absently responded that if there was any relationship, it would probably be one sided. "After all, I was ordered to kill her once, and probably would have if she didn't jump me first" Nova added with a little laugh. That incident, and all of his other shortcomings, would understandably be hard to forgive.

Sticking to her general path, he over-stepped every now and then and bumped into her. Every time he did so he froze to watch the gravel trickle down to for larger clumps of moving rocks down the hill, imagining what it would be like to fall down the side. "Your a good guard rail" Nova said after the third time, never a fan of heights and vowing to step more carefully.

Listening to the others, Nova began to realize that Ash was taking a lot more than she was giving. She was beginning to pry for a deeper history, and all they really knew about her was her name. It is what it is. He would just back out and return to the comfort of his own thoughts. Nova was just happy that their boulder to boulder leaps had translated into more of slippery hike along an angled gravel pile. Not doable without concentration, but manageable with. A loose rock slipping inwards would land him with a nice sprained paw, and outwards would send him tumbling down the side. Not the most comforting thoughts, actually, so he decided to switch channels.

He didn't know why Ash was so concerned with something as superficial as their relationship, when she could be asking more about why the heck they were here. Relationships seemed so fickle now, everyone was looking to either use violence or exploitation to get what they want, and it was only marginally better within packs. No one seemed to really care about other wolves' happiness. In fact, the last wolf he truly did care about was the only one who could make him genuinely laugh and smile lately. It was a tragedy there weren't more wolves like Cerise.

Looking up to where they were going, Nova peered down the bend of the canyon, past where the rubble had come to a stop. Were those...figures? It appeared to two black wolves walking along the canyon floor, one being rather large or just carrying something. His heart skipped a beat. The last thing they needed now was more wolves.

Durandel

Durandel absent-mindedly responded to Ash's question. "Oh...well, it's hard to explain, if I can even explain it." Durandel began to think back to when he met these oddball wolves and went on these perilous adventures with them. BattleDemon was the most mysterious of all, with all of the weirdness that seems to have happened to her. Especially from what he heard when he asked wolves like Cerise about her. He didn't think Ash would understand or even care to understand which made him stop and think about her actions.

"Huh? You're quite curious all of a sudden. But I guess that doesn't really matter." Durandel spoke retracting from his inquiry. He wasn't in the mood to trade words with the she-wolf. He was just tired and felt down on his luck from this whole mission. It was to be one of peace not war. How did it go so wrong? Durandel continued to cautiously walk down the rugged path as he noticed Nova stop. "What's wrong?" He asked. He looked down the canyon bend and noticed more wolves, well, rather two.

"Oh...that, I hope it's not Dimitrios coming to investigate...no, wait their walking away. Good, maybe we can avoid them altogether." Durandel optimistically spoke. He then looked at Nova, "Well, what do you think?"

"I think that even if those stupid wolves capture us, at least we'll have a nice cage to sleep in" Nova grumbled, watching as Ash squealed at the distant wolves. He wanted to be mad at her, he really did, but her actions were so...her, that it didn't feel right. Besides, he was sure that he could collapse into sleep on this rock face if he wasn't so paranoid of heights. Amid all the running and fighting his body was now begging louder then ever to stop and rest.

Looking up the rockfall, it was apparent that if they started now, they could probably pick their way up the grade before the wolves came for them, and if they made it to the plateau they could make good time away. Away from the carnage, away from Ash, away from the Dimitrios. And away from BattleDemon. Blast, did they even know if she was still alive? Nothing could have survived the crush, and in order to spare his emotions he he began to force himself to give up on the notion she could have survived.

"Blast it, we should just leave while we still can. They'll kill you as an enemy and kill me as a traitor, and I don't think Dey would appreciate seeing us so soon on the other side. You still have your peace to bring to the world" Nova said, suddenly firm. He didn't know what peace he was really referring to, their previous peace accord had so far failed epicly. But Durandel seemed to be the only other wolf in the world right now who yearned for peace, and they may as well try to keep that hope alive.

Nova

A little confused at why Ash would need to be offered a place to stay in her own pack, Nova nevertheless began to plod after her, shrugging to Durandel at who the owner of the howl could be. It did sound familiar somewhat, but it seemed out of context. Kind of like when you are used to seeing something at work or on patrol, but suddenly seeing them at the fishing pond. It just didn't quite fit.

Happy to have the rock bridge, Nova began to walk a bit more confidently towards the other wolves. He had about zero reason to trust anyone that showed up, so he figured he would get just close enough to talk, and nothing more. Edging closer, he confirmed that there were indeed three of them, one being carried upon the back of the other...a black shewolf. "They found her..." Nova whispered, relieved.

Forgetting his caution, he trotted as quick as safe down the bridge, soon to arrive in front of the other wolves, arriving at the one who had come up to greet them. He scarcely heard Dey mutter her name in the distance, which was good, because it meant she was breathing. Taking a moment to remember the other wolf's name, which he seemed to be having trouble with recently, Nova said warmly to Mydnyte, "Long time no see mate, you seem to have a knack for showing up on time."

Durandel and Mydnyte

Durandel groaned at Ash being so careless as to go and greet these wolves, and even more careless is to make their trek to them even easier! Still it seemed Nova decided to go along with and reluctantly he followed. As they etched closer to these new wolves he eventually made out that one of them was carrying Dey! She survived! He felt many times better to see her but then he worried if it was just a dead body. Yet upon coming in closer there were the faintest of mutters coming from her that his ears barely picked up. She was alive.

Within this close proximity Durandel looked upon the wolf before them. While the one carrying Dey was a complete stranger, the other wolf was one they met before, the Kamarian. After Nova greeted him, the Canicus blubbered, "Mydnyte?" The Kamaria Wolf looked at them both with a smirk. "Yes it has and you two seem to have a knack for defying death." Mydnyte quipped. He then looked over to Durandel who spoke his name. "Glad to see you remember me." "Well, nearly drowning in the underground cave is kind of hard to forget." Durandel spoke mentioning the time the both of them escaped Rashid's Prison.

Mydnyte looked over to Ash with an inquisitive glare. "I don't recognize you." He spoke. It was then Durandel said, "Is she okay?" Pointing his muzzle over to Dey. "Yes, BattleDemon is hurt but still alive. She's being carried by my friend and ally, in fact, FANG! Come over here with Battle!" He shouted as the other Kamarian came walking to the group. "Hello, my name is Fang Hunter. Mydnyte has told me alot about you or at least what he remembers of you." Fang spoke. "He too is apart of the Kamaria Pack and has been traveling with me for a while now. Anyway as stimulating as reunions go, I'm afraid we should continue this conversation elsewhere. Not only do we need to get Battle some medical attention, we should disappear ourselves in case curious parties start sniffing around. Especially with Prometheus after the lot of you." Mydnyte spoke as he turned around expecting them to follow.

"Wait!? What do you know of Prometheus?" Durandel asked. "Quite a bit actually and because of that, we have some very important things we need to discuss, but here and now is not the best time. We should move." Mydnyte spoke continuing to walk as Fang followed him. Durandel feeling impatient decided to follow the two Kamarians, he then looked over to the others, "You guys coming?" He asked.

Annoyed that Ash was boxing him in, Nova returned her yelling with a scowl of his own. "You want to know what? That what is that you can go home now. Sorry again for tricking you, and thanks again for saving us from that landslide you created. Hope you have a nice gem filled life, Ash" Nova said brusquely, though honestly. Pushing past her to catch up with the others, and giving her a literal cold shoulder as his fur touched hers, he gave out a pent up sigh.

He considered asking her to pass on a note to his parents that he was okay the next time she saw an Ausi down here, but she didn't seem to be the type to do favors without a price, and he had nothing to give her. Ayesh, was he really going to walk away from home again? Here he was, practically at the base of the mountains, and yet he was walking away. He told himself that he was protecting them by trying to stop this war, but long term goals don't always satisfy short term feelings.