Beauty and The Beasts: Rain

41. Okay Then

Third and final update for today, May 17th.  Enjoy.

     There were no issues during the first few days. The bear king lead the caravan, while Rain's group and the bear king's sons picked up the rear. The bears constantly released part of their pressure to ward off any weaker beasts.

     Some of the caravan members were brave enough to approach Ezra, but there were no fights to prevent. The males would often grow bored of the spider's lack of reaction and would quickly return to their duties.

     Rain stayed in her beast form and only shifted back to sleep in between Harvey and Third. The most trouble they experienced, was Ezra attempting to snuggle in for warmth. The only one who had enough tolerance for him was Harvey and that was a barely.

     On the morning of day five, Rain woke with a start. Something had crashed close by and she bolted upright. Harvey and Third did the same. Under the tree where Brice perched, was Ezra on his back. He blinked sleepily and stood up like nothing happened. Rain looked up in the tree to see Brice's feathers heavily puffed up.

     Rain gathered what happened and chuckled. Her irritation at being woken was replaced by amusement. She assured the two bears that came to check on the commotion, that all was well and drifted back off to sleep.

     On day seven, they were attacked by a group of rootless beasts. Their aim was the food that they carried to trade with for salt. Rain's group fought and defended the tail end of the caravan. Asher, the younger of the two bears, was ripping through the enemies without a care. Rain could feel his bloodlust from far away. The older bear was preforming similarly.

     Rain left Ezra and Harvey with the food. Ezra lacked presence despite his four strips and was great at surprise attacks. If the foolish beasts managed to get past herself, then they would be in for a quick death.

     Rain went to fight two wolves. They were annoying to deal with as their coordination was good. Rain shifted to her half form and startled them into a frenzy. She shifted back just as she dodged through their attacks and bit one in a hind leg. She retreated quickly and shifted again once the second wolf pounced.

     Rain wrapped her half shifted tail around the wolf's neck and squeezed. She heard the bones snap and pulled the body in front of her. The second wolf bit into the fist wolf and Rain fully shifted again. She strangled the wolf with her coils and let go when its heart stopped. The fist male had only a stripe, but the second had two. From her feeling, the second wolf had recently received his second mark.

     Coiling was Rain's strongest method of killing, but it left her open to attacks. Thankfully the first wolf was weak enough to finish easily. She looked at the second one. Her venom barely slowed it down, but she also didn't give it time to spread. If she dragged out the fight for a few minutes she wouldn't have had to be that hasty. Thankfully, the wolves reacted strongly to her mating form. It gave her the opening she needed.

     Rain glanced around at the battles around her. Brice was circling and waiting for an opening to help her or Third. Third was ripping out the throat of another leopard and the bears were mauling whatever beast they touched. It was violent and bloody. Rain turned her attention to the sky as Brice fought another hawk. They were too high for her to assist unless she could convince one of the blood covered bears to throw her up there.

     Rain had no need to interfere as Brice was able to grab his foe's wing and break it. The hawk fell and crashed into the ground and Third finished it. No beasts got past them and soon, the sounds of battle died out.