Verissa could see the swarm within the village was dwindling heavily, but being more scattered, they were much more unpredictable. She saw a small group of them floating around an alcove at the head of an alley, looking for something. It seemed they were closing in on a small hole in the wall, small enough for something to be stored. Verissa summoned her magic and pushed it into her staff, forming two balls of magic at each end, glowing lavender lightly. She swung the staff around over head, and slung one ball at the hole. Just before its collision she took control of it, and spread the magic over it, forming an invisible shield over it. The skeeters hovered confused, sniffing around until there was no more scent. Until they found another. The little blonde mage was already slinging the second ball of magic, it flying low. It sunk into the ground before the group. Once deep enough, easily passing through the matter, she rapidly solidified and expanded it. This rapid expansion threw large chunks of rock and earth outward. The shards took out the smaller skeeters, but did little to stop the larger male. It was coming at her fast now, planning to take her down easily. She spun to the side, just barely getting her shield protected staff between her and the bladed wings. She could feel that the shield was severely weakened from all the constant use. This fight needed ended quickly. Thinking back to a lesson in hunting from Asher, he always emphasized finding an enemy's strength and finding the weakness that strength creates. The bladed wings gave a lot of maneuverability and offensive power. The skeeter dove toward her again, when she thought of a plan. Pushing more magic into her staff, she made a deep, unformed layer around the end of it. She readied herself, and made no attempt to dodge. She swung her staff up. When she felt the bladewing sunk into the magic, she snapped it into existence. The wing caught but the skeeter continued forward, crashing into the woman, its wing breaking off in her magic. It threw her to the ground hard and tumbled past her. With just one wing, it spun in circles trying to lift off the ground. Her dogs made quick work of it. Verissa laid there, hurting from the collision, looking around to see the numbers pretty much depleted. A flash of light in the air made her look up. Something, or someone, was on fire in the air, then suddenly, was falling out of the sky like a stone. She couldn't make out what it was, aside from red. Really red. She saw the thing fall somewhere on the other side of the village. Remus and Remilia were nudging her to get up, not seeing any immediate threats. Moving slowly, Verissa made her way for the crash site, using her staff for support. But she found a woman with her arm sliced off along the way, a strange looking half-elf nearby, having seemingly finished off several skeeters. [color=bc8dbf][i][b]"Someone crashed over that way,"[/b][/i][/color] pointing to where she suspected the crash to have occurred, [color=bc8dbf][i][b]"Go check it out. I have a feeling its an ally."[/b][/i][/color] She knew the man had no reason to listen to her, she was just a Screamer after all, but she figured in a moment of chaos a little leadership could get people to do anything. She knelt down by the woman, pulling out her healing kit, already applying a shield to the arm nub when she had an idea. Maybe she could reattach the arm. She'd learned a lot from Shenzi and knew she needed to push her boundaries as a healer. She picked up the woman's nearby arm, finding the cut right at the elbow joint, was quite clean. Setting to work quickly, she cleaned both nub and severed arm, glad to see healthy bleeding from the live side. She shielded both exposed ends, stopping the blood, and lining them up. Shenzi told her that with her magic, to not think like a doctor, to go beyond what a doctor could do. Hands glowing, she permeated both sides of the joint completely. She pressed the arm to the joint, knowing that it still wasn't yet connected. Her instinct was to try stitching, but there were too many internal features to try that. She could feel them with her magic, they were identical on each side but too small for stitches. A bunch of different types of tubes, cut off from one another by the walls of her shield. Her eyes widened and she was chewing her lip in concentration, having to focus completely on feel now. She adjusted her magic, using it to move the arm into place, matching everything up more precisely. Then, she started opening the walls, little by little, so that artery met artery, vein to vein, nerve to nerve, so that everything could flow again. She did this so slowly, trying to make sure as to seal each thing the moment she reopened the tube. The ligaments were trickier though, she had to stretch them to meet in the proper places and stick them there. She didn't notice that nearly a full stretch had passed before she rested back on her haunches, having just finished putting salve on the outside of the wound and bandaging it up. The woman stirred, groaning in pain. Her eyes fluttered open, and both hands came to her stomach, gripping it tight, fingers winding in the cloth. Verissa saw that somehow, she'd made it work, the arm was working. She was exhausted, physically and mentally and magically. The woman got up and immediately ran away, back home she assumed. Verissa just leaned back on the ground, trying to rest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the far side of the village, the local stable had a new occupant. A crimson, naked half-dragon woman had crashed through the thin wooden roof and landed in a pile of hay. The hay helped stopped the worst of the injuries, but the roof had done some major damage. Her left wing was bent at an awkward angle, broken in at least two places, with a large slash in the membrane. Her face was heavily bruised from the impact, and she was covered in small slashes and splintered pieces of wood. And despite being unconscious, she'd survived. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One that looked quite similar approached the Argonian bounty hunter. He was a black half dragon, old, scar covered, scars that appeared to be burns. But he stood out from all the others, for his wings were gone. He had scars where they'd been. He wore a simple tunic, a set of twin swords on his hips. [color=bc8dbf][i][b]"You might want to get moving bounty hunter. That princess corpse will attract beast and wealth monger alike. The corpse is worth more than you'd make in a lifetime. Though you might want to take some help, it might get bloody." [/b][/i][/color] He turned as a lone skeeter dove at him, a straggler from the fight. Half dragon merely kept walking toward it, and it in a blur, the creature was halved, quartered, sliced into so many pieces. He never stopped walking, his swords already sheathed. Once he'd walked through the space, the creature's blood spurted out of the pieces of his corpse, and not a single drop landed on his tunic. He made his way out of the city, heading for the two fallen dragons. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Drache's plan had worked, even better than intended. The skeeters altered course, diving after the smelling clothes and ignoring her completely as she fell. Skeeters all throughout dove into the ground, attacking and assaulting all that the scent touched. It took only a few breath attacks from stray dragons to vanquish them all. Galceledes stirred weakly, taking a mental check of himself. He would be sore for a while, but it seemed everything was in order. He lifted his head, seeing Vesenthicar nudging at old Tam, finding no movement. Galc looked around, saw the grooves in the earth, and quickly discerned what had happened. Tam had saved him. Galc pulled himself slowly up on all fours and moved over to Tam, shoving Vesenthicar out of the way. He roared as loud as he could in Tam's face as loudly as he could muster. But the old silver didn't move. He was gone. He let out a mournful roar, and all dragons knew that meant that one of their own had fallen, and that they would all be expected in consuming its corpse. When Galceledes looked down, to take that first bite, he saw a [url=http://imgur.com/qoXlTi0] woman[/url] standing atop Tam's corpse. He'd not sensed her arrival in any way, and even though he could see her, he still couldn't be sure she was there. She smirked, giggled once, and disappeared, along with Galc's corpse. There was no trace of scent of the fallen brethren. Galceledes immediately went into a frenzy of rage and frustration. Vesenthicar flew away from him silently, to report what had happened to the rest of the dragons, letting Galc vent.