Vex immediatly took to the sky, her brighter colored fur making it easy for them to follow her as she easily flew around and in-between trees. She steadily leads the others towards a cliff, pausing after a moment when she spots Hurricane shoot ahead of her. She then turns around mid-flight and dives straight for the small group of consumed that was steadily gaining on Sobena. She manages to gain the attention of four of the consumed while the fifth kept heading towards Sobena. She lead the four consumed away from Doom and Sobena, aiming to loose the group before looping around to regroup with the others. She easily maneuvers around the trees, easily keeping ahead of the consumed, before she realized she would have to lead them as far as she could.

Doom raced along, his paws battering the ground, he tried to keep Sobena in sight, but the Volmyrs took flight. He saw the Consumed following Vex in the sky, but one was lacking, keeping its sights on Sobena. He hissed and swung back, barking aggressively at the Consumed. It twisted its head and began to chase him instead. He ran in circles around it, snapping at its heels, dancing to keep it from biting him.

Using most of the energy she has left in reserve, Sobena could feel herself struggling to keep up with Doom. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as great pants escaped her partially opened maw. Her paws were passed aching at this point. Now they were burning with the strain of trying to keep herself one step ahead of the onslaught of Consumed on their heels. She occasionally glanced upwards, catching site of Hurricane as she led them towards the cave. Vex had already spun around, gathering the bulk of the Consumed and leading them away deeper into the woods. However, one was persistent. It was closing in on the dire fast. That was when Doom did something she hadn't expected. He had turned around and started to distracted the Consumed. Sobena skidded to a stop. Her feet splaying in all directions as she came to watch the last moments of the battle. The Consumed, however, did not go without a fight. It got ahold of the Bracchus' leg. The thing was dead. But now Doom was also in danger of becoming Consumed himself.

Vex started to breath heavily as the consumed continued to pursue her, causing her to slightly plumit. She caught herself before she ended up in the consumed jaws. She spotted a deep hole and shot towards it, leading the consumed over, hoping that they would fall in. She managed to land on the other side of the hole, skidding to a halt before whipping around to stare at the consumed as they raced towards her, however she neglected to keep an eye on her surroundings, making her easy prey to the snake consumed that was resting in the tree she was now under. Sensing that she was in trouble she takes flight, just as the snake pounces on her, coiling its sticky coils around her body, trying to sink its fangs into her neck. She manages to grab the snake by its neck and bite down as hard as she could. The four consumed that had followed her had already fallen into the hole and were struggling to get to her. The snake however, was thrashing and struggling to get free before it goes limp, taking its last breath. She lets go of the snake and spits out the blood and slime that had entered her mouth. She then fly's towards the cave, not realizing that she had accidentally swallowed some of the consumed's blood. Her eyes started to get a slightly green tint to them as she gets closer to the cave, slowly turning into a consumed herself. Or is she?

Doom panted, eyes fuzzy. He sliced through the leather cord of his neck pouch, clawing it open and digging through the herbs inside. He found himself leaning on Sobena, not realizing her panic was influencing his. He grabbed a dark green herb and swallowed it, then used his shaking paws to roughly scrape the Consumed goop off his leg. He grabbed a different herb, chewing it and slathering it onto his leg.

Sobena watched as Doom began to work with a pouch around his neck. He made quick work of the leather cord wrapped around his neck. The satchel made a quiet thump as it fell to the ground. The Dire had no clue what he was doing. Not until he managed to open the sack and pull out some kind of herb. The first he popped in his mouth and gulped it down. The second he began to chew. Sobena couldn't help but wrinkle her nose. The smell coming off of this chewed plant was bitter and strong. Instead of also swallowing this one down he spat it back out onto a paw and rubbed it upon his open wounded. She blinked as she continue to watch him, but when he pulled away from her, she couldn't help but feel slighted.

Clearly he wasn't okay. He still seemed out of it and as she made to try and offer support again, Doom was quick to say she needed to find the others. Her ears pinned back against her skull. She really didn't know how to respond to him. His words came out in a string of slurred speech. After a few seconds she did as she was told. However, she wasn't quick about it. She loped forth in the direction she had seen Hurricane fly, but kept her pace slow enough that Doom wouldn't lose sight of her. With the cave coming into few and the prospect of a long climb ahead she paused, as if waiting for the Bracchus to catch up, but continued to stay silent.

~x~

The flight into the cave was a rough one. The landing, even worse, as Vlade continued to wiggle around within Hurricane's grasp. As soon as the Volmyr landed and released her hold on his scruff, the Lupin bolted away from her. With several feet of distance between the two, he wheeled around, baring his teeth at this stranger. His hackles rose and he began to growl deeply, eyes locked on his target. That was when Hurricane began to explain rapidly the events that took place. With each second of explanation, Vlade began to show signs of calming. Though, he did not entirely lose his guard. "Hmph," he huffed, shaking his head as he sat down. He suddenly felt extremely drained. "I guess I should be thanking you." he stated, almost indifferently, as he looked around the dimly lit cave taking in what little he could see. Not much in here, but there were a few ceramic jars and sacks pushed off to the side. Taking in a deep breath he caught the faint hint of salted meat. Not that he was prone to steal, but really, what other option was there?

When she asked him about his scruff, he simply shrugged, as he let out a sigh. "I've had worse." he replied. His cold demeanor seeming to make the air around the two even chillier. He continued to eye the Volmyr. He found himself not fully believing her story. Even if he could smell his sister's scent about Hurricane, he still wasn't inclined to take her word as truth. Not yet. The silence between them felt thick. He let out another huff as he curled his tail around his side to rest on his paws as he continued to sit and stare at Hurricane. "Where's your sister now?" he questioned, "Surely she should have been back by now, huh? Usually doesn't take that long to lead off Consumed unless something else happened." He was almost hoping his words would instill some form of panic within the Volmyr so she'd leave the cave to go look for her sister. He could use that time to yoink some of the preserved food, maybe some water, and sneak away and try to find his sister, if she were even still alive.

Doom sniffed the air, trying to clear the scent of Consumed from his nose. He saw Sobena stop to wait for him and loped forward to catch up. He could faintly smell Volmyr, but wasn't sure if it was Hurricane.

Vex shook her head as she desperately tryed to clear it of the sudden spout of dizziness. She spotted Doom and Sobena and dove down to land in front of them. She was unaware of the slight green tint in her eyes, "I can carry you up Doom. Your clearly hurt." She said, observing the braccus's wounds. She lowered herself for him to get on her back. She was calm yet a slight tinge of darkness was rolling off of her. She was clearly unaware she was turning or at least evolving. Of course no one is completely immune to poison but this poison might give her powers if it didn't turn her into a consumed which was very unlikely.

((OoC: Just wanted to let you guys know that the kiddos just started back to school after one week being out from Helene and the next week being out due to fall break. So now I'm back to my normal schedule of getting them to and from school on top of all my other household duties and errands so my replies are going to be extremely sporadic at best. You don't have to wait for me. I can always catch up. ^-^))

Sobena remained quiet. She watched, thoughtfully, as Vex landed beside them. There was a strange scent about her. One that stung the Dire's nostrils. Taking quick note of the state of Vex's fur, the dark ichor-like liquid staining her pelt, the small tinge of blood, and then... Sobena would have gasped in shock if a jolt of fear hadn't caught her by surprise first. Vex's eyes had a glow about them. A green glow. Oh no.. no, no! Sobena whimpered. What were they going to do? Now not only was Vlade's health a concern, but Doom's and Vex's as well. Her ears drooped a bit. This was her fault. She could have tried harder to stop Vlade from chasing after those deer before. If she could have gotten him to slow down they wouldn't have run into the Consumed one... which meant neither Doom or Vex would not also have been in danger of turning into a Consumed themselves.

The her state of shock and fear, she neglected to see just what the Bracchus was doing. Doom seemed to have noticed the greenish tint to Vex's eyes as well. He was back at his pouch again, digging away, until he found what he was looking for. Another plant of some kind. At his words Sobena's face crinkled in disgust and her tongue kind of stuck out. However, if vomiting meant that Vex could expel the poison from the Consumed's bite, maybe it was the best course of action, even if it sounded downright disgusting. Finally, she managed to find her voice again. "Maybe I should go get Hurricane?" she questioned, mostly to herself, as she turned away from the two before her and began to climb up towards the entrance of the cave.

~x~

Vlade's eyes squinted. This sounded like a trap. Something within him stirred. He felt the air chill even further around him. So cold, in fact, that the exhales from his nostrils now hung in thick sheets about the air. He got to his paws, slowly edging his way closer to the Volmyr, never taking his eyes off of her hulking form. Even with him now standing somewhat beside her, he had given them enough room between them so that if Hurricane tried anything she'd have to actually move to do so, giving Vlade just enough space to defend himself if need be. He shifted his gaze away from Hurricane then as he moved just enough to peek over the edge of the small cliff face to look down below, when suddenly a rather massive furry face popped up out of nowhere. Vlade let out a yelp as he fell backwards onto his rear end. Icey shards shooting out of his paws.

Sobena's face peered up over the ledge as one of her large paws gripped onto the lip's rocky surface. She was panting slightly, but a wide smile cracked her face. "Hey! Vlade! You're awake!" she laughed excitedly, pulling her other front paw up and then slowly lifting the rest of her bulky body up and over onto the ledge as well. She sat there, panting. Trying to catch her breath. She had climbed up here far faster than she thought she could, plus, she hadn't expected to see her brother up and about and, well, looking quite normal. This was a good sign. This made her so happy. If she wasn't completely out of breath she would of glomped him.

Vlade let out a growl. "Don't do that!" he snapped, swiping the spikes of ice he had just created away with a paw. The ice shattered into tiny pieces and scattered all about the floor.

"Hurricane,... Vex and... Doom... They... They..." she huffed and puffed between pants, "They may... need... some help. Consumed... got them."

There came another grumble from Vlade. Of course. Once again his sister had taken it upon herself to try and make friends with strangers. The Lupin didn't like this. His sister was much too trusting and naive. This wouldn't end well.