A stream of radiant light skimmed his left wing. He dips, holding tight to his charge as he let's loose feathers. Each feather glimmers and takes flight as it's own small owl. His [Feathered Friend]s registering as living things for the dozen bolts of soul scorching light chasing him.

  Then he was gone. In flight, few things could keep up with Voel. In less then a minute he was back at the clearing the stranger's waited for him in. Tucking his wings, and the wings of the two [Feathered Friend]s carrying the massive humans legs, he dove into the tree's.

  Seeing where he was going was unnecessary, he simply followed the trail of his Friends, diving and twisting through branches. A [Spiral Flight] allowed the wind to carry him straight through the small opening in the tree. Right into the Squarels abode. He stopped, motioning towards the small human looking figure.

  "A-He is severely wounded, luck with him the Lich wanted to keep him alive. A-I have applied an [Uplift] to his spirit but I possess no healing [Power] as you cim to." Before Voel had finished the statement the small human, Pipuck he would learn ter, was already next to them.

  Their hands moved, soft orange-white light shining in their space as mud mixed with some green thing moved. Following their motion it filled the gaps around the big man's shoulders and neck. A strangled shout of terror which faded into several heavy gasping sounds drew Voel's attention.

  The girl.

  "A-He will survive, if your companions [Power] can heal at all. A-the lich was set on causing suffering, stabilizing him and sustaining him. A-so he is only at risk if not healed." Voel said, moving to wrap a wing and [Soothing Breeze] around the girl. She batted his wing away as she stumbled over, falling onto her knee's.

  "P-pip is h-"

  "Birdman was righ', I can 'andle this bu' gimme space Toni. I've barely any power left, even after a bi' to recover." Pipuck grunted to her. Voel was mildly perturbed by the birdman statement, but understood the emotion's were running high so didn't hold it against them. They were only human after all.

  A small spherical white owl flew to Voel's shoulder, the [Feathered Friend] disappearing with a soft poof as the feather rejoined Voel's body. He stepped forward to again try and comfort the human only to feel a cw on his thigh. He looked down to the gremlin who was with this, honestly quite strange, group.

  "I go. She need... Comfort, not stranger." The nguage was rough but Voel understood her meaning. He nodded and stepped back as the gremlin, for some reason, crawled on all fours over to the girl. She wrapped her tail gently around the girls hands to drag her softly into a hug.

  "A-Sir Laurel." Voel bowed to the host of the abode. "A-Your home is quite nice, it is good that it was nearby."

  Laurel waved a paw, watching the group gathered in the center of his warmly lit entry room. He stood through a circur door, carved from the top of some vast acorn, in a kitchen. There he was prepping some sort of sad, or travel mix, it was hard for Voel to tell.

  "It wasn't." Laurel commented, Voel blinked at that. Clearly a [Power] was responsible but [Power]s linked to a home or structure... Especially that could move it?

  "A-Well, then it's good you could access it for them. A-I can feel the [Power] warding it, a-even if the lich could easily leave the Fallow I believe we would be well protected here." Voel nodded again, then asked the question he'd actually wanted to. "A-did you find my companion?"

  Laurel stepped out of the kitchen with a big bowl made from some strange nut, filled with a mix of fruits and nuts. How delightful looking, Voel reached to grab a few only for the Squarel to smack his hand.

  "No, sorry I didn't have much time." He looked apologetic, but also gred a bit at Voel. "And these are for the kids who nearly died helping us. I'll make you something in a minute as thanks for the save."

  "A-no problem, you care for the humans. A-I shall go find my ward." Voel bowed slightly, turning with a dramatic fre of his white wings. He dipped out and back into the world, eyes cast down to look for his companion as his [Feathered Friend]s scattered to help.

  She ran a trembling hand along his shoulder. She would have run it down his arm but there was no arm to run it down. There was bone though, and she was watching Pipuck preparing to use Temate's machete to lop it off. They grimaced as they raised the bde, too rge really for them to wield properly, and let it fall as they put their weight into it. It cttered off of the bone with little impact, but Toni felt the shaking through his shoulder.

  "Ack, that's some sturdy bone. Or the bde is weak after the damage." Pipuck held up the bde, the handle having been shattered and leaving it unwieldy, maybe even dangerous to use.

  "I ca-" She began to say, cutting herself off as Temate groaned. Then moved his uninjured arm from the right to grasp at his shoulder. His fingers grasped onto Toni's hands and the tears she thought she'd finally dried immediately started back up. She wrapped her hand with his and began moving it gently along the [False Flesh] Pipuck had used to seal the half severed limb.

  It was grotesque, horrifying to look at. The flesh and muscle had been torn almost to the base of his neck and halfway down his upper chest. Leaving practically the entire cvicle and left rib cage exposed before Pipuck had sealed it. Now it had a cy like texture, unnaturally smooth, though surprisingly simir in tone to his natural skin. A groan from beneath her shocked her attention back to his face.

  "W-well" Temate choked out, his throat still heavily damaged, though patched simir to his shoulder. "R-remind me not to f-fight that thing again." He smiled weakly at Toni, his eyes lidded as if he hadn't the energy to open them. Immediately she hugged him tight and the tears came freely again.

  She hugged him, and felt his arms wrap around her as well. Three gasps and the ctter of something hitting the floor weren't enough for her to shake herself free. They could deal with it, she was never letting him go again. She spoke through choking sobs into his ear quietly.

  "I am never letting you go again, I was gonna sp you when I saw you, but then..." She didn't answer, just letting herself go for maybe the tenth time in the past hour. She came back together quickly this time, feeling his arm patting her back, and the other petting her h-

  She jerked back to look at Temate, eye's wide. It was Ren who spoke the words she couldn't muster. Probably because she'd had time to take in what Toni was just now noticing.

  "Bone arm move?" Ren had never sounded utterly incredulous. She'd always seemed more inquisitive or curious about a thing being strange or different from what she expected. This had even her fbbergasted. Something wet rolled into Toni's leg but she didn't look down.

  "'ow are you doin' tha'?!" Pipuck shouted as Temate, who only just seemed to realize he was missing all the functional parts of his shield arm, blinked at it. He motioned with it gently, the actions slightly jittery and robotic, but it was moving.

  "I-" Temate took a second to breathe and search inward. His voice came out, still choking on his injury, but monotone a moment ter. "Deviation, [Bone Order] allows faster, more finite control over bones I'm touching. Allows the verbal commanding of mindless creatures and constructs or objects made from bone."

  His eyes came open as he finished and he looked around. He grimaced and waved at himself with the hand. Then he gestured and the arm shifted into bded talons. Then Laurel spoke up as he stepped next to her, picking the wet thing up from next to her leg.

  "Well good, that means you can eat some of my community famous Bounty Bowl!" He grinned holding out the bowl of fruit and nuts with some sort of syrupy sauce on it. Honey maybe? No, something else. Toni didn't care, upon seeing food she suddenly realized just how hungry she was.

  Together they gathered around Temate who held the bowl as they ate. Plucking bits out with his bone hand, much to everyone's chagrin except Toni apparently. It was grim, but... But kinda cool? Was she just trying to find an excuse not to be sad anymore now that he was alive and safe-ish? Maybe.

  She forced herself to smile as they had their meal. She almost threw up as Temate described in rough detail the torture the Lich put them through. Laughed at Laurel seeming appalled at the description of the Lich's [Power]s and how it was 'unnatural'. And smiled as she watched Ren carefully using her tail to soothe and comfort Temate.

  They were alive.

  She said that to herself several times.

  They were alive. Temate was... different now, she felt it but couldn't really expin what was different. There was just this feeling about him, that made her want to bend and obey him. Which prompted her to ask Laurel about deviations.

  "Oh, Deviations are strange, don't know much bout them myself. You'd have to ask Tharoah, she had a deviation awhile back. Thares might be more forthcoming with that info though." Laurel replied, not answering her original question.

  "I meant, do they make you stronger in the same way that like... Empowering new [Power]s does?" She asked more directly.

  "Hmmm" Laurel thought about that. "Not sure, I didn't notice anything about Tharoah when it happened to her but..." Laurel shrugged. "Probably, it's how I understand [Power]s to work in general."

  After the snack, as it definitely wasn't a meal, Temate finally forced Toni to help him up. She wanted him to rest, he'd worked hard and nearly died but he simply pointed to a huge gash along her arm, sealed by Pipuck.

  "You were hurt to, and worked hard. If you can stand I can stand, now help me up and show me around-" He waved his hand generally at Laurel's abode. She blinked and only really now seemed to take in where they were.

  Laurel's abode was a warm, comfortable series of rooms shaped out of the inside of a tree. The central room, where they were now, was basically just an entry nding. A circur chamber with a circur staircase going up further into the structure and two doors off of the chamber.

  Each door was made from what appeared to be a giant acorn top, rolling open much like the dens did in Bearbhaile. A pce she desperately wanted back to now. One door led to the kitchen which Pipuck and Laurel came out of with a delicious smelling ptter. The other lead to a room filled with various nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetable husks, sticks and all manner of pnt matter.

  "Ah, indeed welcome to my abode!" Laurel bowed as he pced the ptter onto a small table in the room. Toni absentmindedly grabbed one of the delicious smelling, sandwich looking things off of it and hissed at the heat. "Careful! Fresh out the oven!"

  "I didn't realize we were so close to your home." Temate said, grabbing Toni's hand and pulling it up to kiss and gently rub the heat away. Fuck, why was he so good at making her feel better? She still owed him a sp to the face for making her leave like that.

  "We weren't, apparently the fluffy twa' can jus' pop 'is abode into any tree with a hollow." Pipuck grabbed a green leafy wrap, putting a sandwich in it and handing it to Toni. Then repeated the process to hand one out to everyone.

  "Thats-" Temate began.

  "A-that is quite amazing, domain [Power]s are rare, a-especially ones which allow you to move your domain." A soft warm voice chirped from the entrance. Voel stepped back in, giving Temate a low bow and stepping aside to allow his companion into the room.

  Toni gasped at the beauty which followed him in. Bck fuzzy wool like hair, which might actually be wool, ran down from her head and around her neck. It slid down her side and disappeared only to reappear around her hips down to her mid thigh.

  The wool was accentuated by very very revealing bck travel leathers, with a soft looking deep blue tunic over the top. In the center was the same symbol which sat central to Voels tunic, a 24 pointed star which swirled with half blue and pink light. The center was a dot of bright white, which was more noticeable on the newcomers outfit than on Voels.

  Her skin was a dark, ashy bck and her big, fluffy ears were half flopped over her head. Toni immediately imagined what they must be like to run her hands through. The woman looked in awe as she entered the space, then she saw the group. Her face changed immediately to a soft smile.

  Toni didn't miss the way her eyes devoured Temate and her smile changed to a grin for half a second. Immediately it shifted to a soft, innocent look and then faltered entirely into fright following a shout. Toni looked to her side where Temate was waving with his skeletal hand, looking amused at her reaction.

  "Y-y-y-you didn't tell me he could move it" The woman hissed to Voel.

  "A-I was unaware, he was unconscious when I left." Voel answered her without looking away, then Voel addressed Temate. "A-I'm very pleased to see you awake and... well." His eyes focused on Temate's skeletal hand.

  Temate let go of Toni's hand, which she only just realized they hadn't released since the moment he'd woken up. He stepped up to Voel, csped both of his hands tightly together, and bowed low.

  "Mahalo, I am told your name is Voel?" He said, trying his hardest not to let his voice crack. Voel for his part seemed surprised as he stepped slightly back. He pced a hand on Temate's shoulder.

  "A-indeed, I see your companions have shared some about us?" Voel asked.

  Temate stood and stared directly into Voel's eyes. Toni noted that Voel stood nearly as tall as him, maybe an inch shorter if that? Hard to tell with all the feathers.

  "I owe you my life. If you ever have need of me or my bde-" He held up the damaged bde, looking pained at the hilt. "-you have only to ask." Temate finished. The sheep woman - who was also surprisingly tall, not six feet tall but she must have been close - ughed.

  "Well, sir.... Mate was it? I'm sure Voel is honored." She gave Voel a pat on the back, his feathers seemed to have puffed up in shock. "I am Kea, and my senior huntsman here, who you have just confessed your deep love for, is Voel as you know."

  Temate looked up at that comment. "I- uh, sorry I don't-" Kea ughed again.

  "I'm kidding sir, he's just very easy to fluster when it comes to oath's and the like. I once promised to clean the chimney for him because he caught me from falling and he stumbled through the words." Kea gave Temate a sweet smile and Toni felt both his rexation, and his immediate desire. Fucking horny bastard, though she had to admit, if she weren't still trying to get over nearly dying... No even still Kea was very pretty.

  "Now, which one of you thought it was a good idea for two humans to wander through the woods with their.... child?" She asked as she looked over Pipuck.

  "OI! I am a fully grown adul' Spiras, 'ell I'm literally one hundred times their age at leas'! I don't need some bra' like you callin' me a ki'!" Pipuck cracked back. "Fluffy ass, sheep who thinks she's clever figurin' ou' 'ow to stan' on two hooves instea' of four."

  Toni could have swore she saw Kea shiver as Pip insulted her. Temate squeezed her hand as she felt his warmth return to hers. He leaned down and whispered into her ear.

  "True maso right there." He answered a question she didn't even realize she had. She ughed a little and whispered right back.

  "You just about died and you're already thinking about fucking her aren't you?" She questioned. He turned to her and looked right into her eyes.

  "Oh no, I'm thinking about fucking you so you know full well I'm back, alive and fully capable." He didn't whisper that. "Then Surrender, then maybe her." Also not quiet and Toni saw the girl restrain another shiver out of the corner of her eyes.

  "W-well I wouldn't want to steal you away from your p-partner" Kea stuttered then coughed, pulling herself back together. "But we really should talk, about a few things apparently, right Voel." She elbowed the still confused looking owl man next to her in the stomach. He grunted.

  "A-ah indeed, we have much to discuss. A-is that... " He looked to the sandwich still in Toni's hand, which she suddenly realized she hadn't eaten. She bit into it, some sort of fried, cream filled sandwich. It made her shiver in delight herself as she bit into the warm, nutty bread and felt the surprisingly cold fruit and cream inside spill out. Like a nutty bagel, one of her favorite things.

  "Specialty of my kin and I, I'm afraid I'm not very good at them, Thares though now she can cook!" Laurel wrapped two sandwiches and handed them to Kea and Voel. "Come, we can talk and eat properly, I know the bowl was a good snack, these should be more filling!"

  "A-that would be wonderful, thank you sir Laurel." Voel bowed along with Kea.