Lone Stars

Chapter 7

Lexus grew excited, a time to finally put her skills she had spent two years training on to the test. "Yes! I'll take care of them, just take good care of my bike, Cid."

He chuckled and nodded, "Of course! You can find these pesky things out West, near The Three Valleys." he informed her.

"Got it, I'll nail those birds down in a flash!" She said, punching her fist into her palm excitedly.

Cid merely shook his head with a chuckle as she made her jog West of Hammerhead. "Gotta find the spark in that one."

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It was a long trek, Lexus was glad she ate and had her energy replenished from her meal to make the long jog to The Three Valleys. "I will be so thankful Uncle Roland and Ajax had me jog every morning."

Her eyes were scanning the sky now and then, keeping an eye out for the brightly colored birds. She remembered reading that these birds can be about eight feet in length, which she assumed was wingspan. Lexus extended her arms out, trying to get the idea how big exactly.

Her eyes wandered upward, finding herself at The Three Valleys and found bright blue and orange birds flying high in the sky. She frowned, hands on her hips. They were too far high in the sky to shoot from her stand point, she needed higher ground. Lexus ran over to the rock formations and got herself onto a higher flat landing, taking off her crossbow.

"One, two, three four.... About five should give the message." She figured, loading her bow and raising it up to aim.

Lexus shot at the birds, mostly aiming to kill for an instant death then clipping their wings. She preferred to just take a few down rather than hurting and making their survival more trivial. One fell right beside her, making her jump at the thud. She got a good look at the pretty bird, it's long tail feathers really were a sight with its long blue wings. The tail feathers started at blue than faded into orange toward the end. She noted to college a feather or two, Lexus wouldn't put it past her if these things were hunted for their feathers often.

After four were shot down, the rest seemed to take the hint and flew off further North West. With huff of success, Lexus knelt down to the bird, resting her crossbow as she plucked a long beautiful tail feather, feeling the softness against her fingers.

The sudden sound of a low moaning roar, Lexus looked over into the small open field to see a Dualhorn wandering about. It was different from the photos, it was dark shaded with its horns glowing bright red.

"Woah, that's an insane looking Dualhorn!" She stepped closer to the edge, seeing it stomp about wanting to charge at something.

That something, -or somethings- came into the distance. What would've been the odds of Lexus running into the same damn four guys again out in the middle of nowhere? Well, seemed pretty well done since those exact men were approaching the said Dualhorn.

She watched from the edge as Gladio stood up front, a large broad sword in his tight grip. The stomping turned into a charge as the red Dualhorn ran at them. As if swatting a fly, Gladio used his sword and swung at the creature, knocking it over to its side. She could hear Prompto cheer at the action, making her grin. Lexus could even see Noctis looking eager to fight the thing.

Once the struggle of the Dualhorn got over to get back on its feet, the four guys attacked it left and right. Gladio stuck by Noctis as he used a shield that materialized now and then, but kept use of the broadsword he held. Prompto kept his distance, the sound of gunfire echoing from him as she jump and slid about to get angled shots. Ignis jumped between ranged attacks with his daggers to close in stabbing with a polearm. Then Noctis, who moved about more than the others. One moment he was slicing his sword at the hind leg of the creature, then the next appeared somewhere else in the blink of an eye. Lexus found herself trying to keep track of the warping prince, but wasn't focusing on her balance of where she was.