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[notachickenhawk]

Starving. His Beast is starving, and Tobias knows it. As the days go on and he can't seem to find a decent something to feed on, he knows what's going to happen. He knows, and he tries to drag himself out somewhere in the middle of the night where he can sleep, far away from anyone he knows.

He doesn't make it very far. His Beast's exhaustion and need to feed catches up to him, and he holes up in an abandoned house at the edge of the Sixth. He doesn't have much on him, but that's more in case someone finds him and tries to rob him. He curls up against a wall and closes his eyes, dropping off to sleep.

And inside the realm of nightmares, the great hawk shrieks to the skies and bursts pasts its barriers to hunt.

[[ooc; How this log works: Post a toplevel with a general description of a dream your character is having. Tobias' Beast will come in and attempt to terrify your character. Those with dream-combat experience (like some Changelings) are likely to fend him off easier.]]

[[Please note that this will leave your character feeling restless and disturbed when they wake up if they do get spooked. If it goes particularly bad (or well) for your character, there are other effects that are possible.]]

Comments

[notachickenhawk]

The thing sways for a moment, tilts its head the other way, and lets out an earsplitting screech, loud enough to shake the leaves on the trees. It doesn't speak in words, but it lashes out with its talons, knocking over three of the larger trees. It grabs a log with its talons and digs in, feeling the wood splinter under its grasp. There's a feeling, a wave of dark enjoyment, and it brings its head down low to stare right into hers.

It has red irises, but the pupils are huge and dark. It spreads its wings, shaded dark red fading into brown. Its breath smells hot and smoky, as if it was just near a fire.

[runs]

Okay, that's-

she's going to drop a sphere of darkness on this frightening sight (following the ages old childrens' wisdom of 'if I can't see it, it can't see me, just with something to back it up), and then dash across the clearing, until she can slip under a bush at the treeline and hide between the leaves, before turning around and looking back at the eagle thing.

The darkness is simply a huge ball of pitch black, covering the area that the horror is in and then a little bit of area ahead of it, and doesn't affect anything but vision.

[notachickenhawk]

It huffs a bit, pushing through the darkness before lifting up into the sky to get out from it. It searches for her, scanning through and spotting a likely area of brush. It lands nearby, cracking some of the trees. The wind whips up worse, starting to tear some of the leaves off of the trees.

It's there. It's hunting. It will find her. Once it pounces, it will tear everything away from her but her life.

[runs]

She presses against the ground when she hears the trees crack, not daring to shut her eyes in case one of them falls on her or the hawk is getting closer.

The hawk.

Hawk. She feels like she's missing something, like there is something very important that she can almost grasp, it's at her proverbial fingertips...

Tobias's horror.

And it's after her.

So this is a dream? It has to be a dream.

Just that that doesn't help her in the slightest, because it just means that there's nowhere to run to. Dreams are always faster than you are. Drek drek drek drek DREK.

She can feel panic rising within her. She cannot get out. She can still see, so it's not as bad as it could be, but... there is nowhere to run to, still. And the horror clearly is hostile towards her.

What happens when you are eaten in dreams?

[notachickenhawk]

The hawk pauses for a moment, looks around - and then swoops down on her, grabbing her with its huge talons. They don't cut into her, but hold her securely like a cage as it flies off through the clearing.

It flaps up, up, and into darkness. There's no heat, no cold, and no light, but on it flies, before diving down towards light. There's another clearing, though the trees are dead and bare, long stripped of their leaves. A trail can be seen as they approach, and though the wind blows fiercely it doesn't affect the hawk.

It sets her down in a tree, perching nearby - before lashing out towards her, intent on swallowing her. Of course, cats aren't like people - and its usual prey is humans. Given her reflexes, it's likely she'll just get away with a bite on her side.

Thankfully, dreams aren't fatal. Usually.

[runs]

She can't quite see him anymore from where she is and scoots forward a bit to try and get an idea of where he is again

and then he's suddenly over her, and the beak is closing over her. She jumps almost half a metre up and to the side, and then for a moment hangs precariously with three legs pressing against the outside of the beak and one of her hind legs and the tail still inside as it closes.

It's a dream, and the crushing of bone and flesh is as painful as it would be in life because she know the feeling, but she also knows that if she doesn't lose too much blood - it's only a beak. She'll heal.

And at least she got most of herself out of this beak.

She hits the ground with a pained yowl and tries to crawl away as quickly as she can with three legs, deeper under and into the bushes, hoping that he won't be willing or able to follow her there. She needs to concentrate - a barrier is what she needs - but between being frightened and in pain, that's really hard.

[notachickenhawk]

Usually, the Horror is more particular about the division between ruining bodies and ruining property, leaning more on the latter side. But tonight, it's too hungry. Tonight, it doesn't care. It tilts its head and looks at her, throwing its head back and gulping down what it's caught.

It squawks, and stomps towards her, attempting to go after her again. It's chasing her towards the 'trail', fortunately for her - if she can reach it, she can leave. But maybe just a little more food would be nice...

[runs]

At this point, she's just moving away from the hawk as fast as she can, limping on three legs and wobbling dangerously because her balance is completely shot without her tail.

She needs to slow him down. Maybe... she barely has the concentration for it anymore, so it won't be very strong, but she still manages to throw up a barrier behind her, about two metres high and glowing faintly in the air between them. It should at least buy her a few seconds, hopefully.

[notachickenhawk]

It slams into the barrier, and growls. What is this? It hasn't encountered something like this before. It tries to go around it, but it's slow going through the trees. It doesn't really want to knock down its own trees... even if they'll grow back.

[runs]

...No, it's going around it. Still, that might buy her a few seconds, time to-

stumble and try to catch herself and with only three legs and no tail be unable to keep her balance and thus fall flat on her face. She whines in pain as she hits the ground hard and for a moment just lies there, breathing hard and trying not to faint.

She can't risk using magic one more time, it might knock her out for good. As might falling again. And it's not like there is a way out. Maybe if she loses consciousness in the dream, she will wake up in the waking world? But that would just mean defeat. She'll at least try to ...something. Get away. Getting back on her feet brings dizziness, but she tries to ignore it. She needs to continue...

[notachickenhawk]

It keeps coming, but it's hard to get around trees when you are a giant bird. In frustration, it kicks over a few trees to free a wing. It doesn't really want to, but it's got no choice at this point. The trail is still there, close.

Really, most people end up eaten by this point. It just wanted to feed as quickly as possible and didn't think to take her far enough away from the path.

[runs]

She wobbles and doesn't fall. Takes a step forward, and then one to the side, and just stares at the ground right before her feet, just trying to concentrate on the next step. Away from the sounds of crashing trees.

This really is the worst dream.

[notachickenhawk]

It finally breaks through the trees, snarling and snapping. The wind picks up, but ti doesn't seem to affect the bird very much - and low to the ground, shielded by trees, it probably won't affect Kitty much, either. It's annoying, to hunt something that's no fun - she doesn't have things do destroy.

But the Beast needs to hunt. There's no getting around that, and it knows, instinctively, that it must feed.

[runs]

...There is something ahead, something that she can see out of the corner of her eye, and it isn't trees. She has to stop to look properly, because walking and moving her head is just very likely to knock her over (and/or out) right now.

But it's worth it.

There is a trail, not even that far away. If she can only walk a bit longer, then... she isn't sure. But she should at least be faster on it than in the underbrush.

[notachickenhawk]

There she is. It rushes after her, trying to drive her along, back towards the clearing. It can't touch the path, not unless it wants to leave - and right now, it doesn't. Never leave prey in your lair alone.

But the path is definitely there, well-trod, just in front of her. It's close, but so is the Beast.

[runs]

She freezes when the thing is suddenly breaks out of the trees, shooting towards her.

No, no no no.

She needs to... She takes a step, but it's parallel to the path, half-backwards, trying to flee but frozen in place and the vague idea of wanting to reach the trail still being on her mind complicating the situation.

[notachickenhawk]

The great hawk growls and snaps at her, keeping its claws away from the trail. It lashes out and attempts to bite her, aiming at one of her front paws this time. Maybe it'll just toy with her... that could be fun... enough that she'll remember.

[runs]

She tries to dodge, but her reactions as sluggish now, and even then her body only performs the orders sent to it haphazardly, unable to put speed or much dexterity into anything.

When her front paw gets bitten, she has barely started to pull it back and can't do much more than yowl in pain and panic, and even that is coming a bit belatedly.

[notachickenhawk]

It flaps its wings at her, attempting to throw her off balance with the gust, and attempts to slam one clawed foot down on her when she tips over. It's already taken everything it can from her. If it can manage to get its foot down on her, it'll squeeze, enough to 'kill' and wake her up.

[runs]

It's really not hard to throw her off balance at this point, and she doesn't only fall but rolls over multiple times, being pushed away from the trail a bit, until she hits the trunk of a tree.

This time, she only whines weakly, trying cutely to at least crawl around the tree and get that meagre protection.

When the foot comes down, she tries harder, but there's really not much that she can do any more, and-

then when she wakes up panics, because it is dark and something heavy is pressing down on her and she doesn't want to die under some bird's foot.

It takes her a solid minute to realize that she's struggling against the clothes that she wore when she went to sleep and must have shifted while dreaming, and that she indeed still has her tail and all her legs. Crawling out into the cold air of the night wakes her up a bit, but she still feels terribly shaken. Back home, she would find Chantalle, or Simon if they were somewhere away from home. But here... She shifts into her human form and quickly pulls all her layers back on, and then heads over to where Tobias should be sleeping. He isn't there, so she ends up just curling up on and under his things, too miserable and exhausted to get back to her own tent, but not daring to get back to sleep, either. Eventually, exhaustion still takes her.