[hr][center][color=808B96][color=8493ca][h2][b]X e l l[/b][/h2][/color]Marshland [b]-[/b] The Fall[/color][/center]
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"'Sides, this is how I see it: the worse things are, the more you gotta laugh. What's the point of being miserable over stuff you can't control, or paralyzed with fear over what might happen? 'Snot like that helps any. Life is for living! Might as well enjoy it, yeah?"

“Yeah… I guess…!” Xell growled in response to Nikki’s comment. Continuing to step through the soupy marsh which was as comfortable as trying not to step on an ulcer under his foot.

[i]‘Well… isn’t SHE just a ray of sunshine?’[/i] that ethereal voice resounded through his mind. Causing the Draconi to check his surroundings, even though he really should’ve been used to this by now.
[i]I could change that. Help her learn how complicated life can be.[/i]

“Don’t think even [b]you[/b] could dampen her spirit.” Xell sniggered with a red glint in his eye. But then wiped the smirk off his face instantaneously as a shadow draped his face.

Xell bit his lower lip at the unwelcome welp that arrived within the bogmarsh scene. A canine novan gawking creature with a wired look in eyes. Frolicking in the muddy wetlands with a gun wavering in an almost drunken manner. Shouting at the top of his lungs. He looked like an asylum patient who had escaped a methadone clinic.

Xell stopped to wonder with what borrowed time the sorrowed mongrel spent in these pits. Hours. Maybe days? However much time it may have been, it appeared chronic anxiety and shackling fear had driven him to irretrievable insanity. 
Xell stood with a fatigued open mouth as his eyes crawled from the grubby novan arrival, to Taffy. Where he appeared to be making his way. 
[i]‘Well, this just go interesting.’[/i] The voice sniggered in his head.
Almost as if Xell’s eyes got forced, his eyes fell upon member to member on the group as the beast spoke. It took over and forced him to speak in a tone so calm, so tranquil and well spoken, but with an air of deception that may make one feel uneasy. 

“This got VERY interesting indeed!” earning the attention of everyone, causing the group including the newcomer to turn around. 

“A forlorn Coon who acts as tough as nails to cover her pain. Blinded by goals, outcomes and expectations of others when really she’s just running from something. Ha, micro manager.”

The draconi smiled with gnarled teeth as he turned his attention to the otter novan, and then addressing other members consecutively. The howling wind blowing grit passed them. 

“A fallen kid whose guilt is consuming him so much he can’t even decipher what his purpose is anymore. What did you do, urchin? You’ve got the weight of the Universe on your shoulders there.”

“A forest guru who’s blind but SOMEHOW knows her way. Not very sus at all… is it?” his voice sang with amusement. 

“…a run and gun hog who coulnd’t take the strain…” Xell mused out loud “an abomination of a bird girl…”

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, rainbow and sunshine. That’s one pair of glasses to look through… what are you going to do when it all comes crashing down? Go running off with the Unicorns?” Xell laughed hysterically as he looked at Nikki.

“You can’t join us by the way! We’re full!” Xell pointed at the scruffy Novan newcomer, before clasping the air as if squashing him to dust.

The novan looked on, shaking deliriously with the gun by now pointing at him.
Before he could pull the trigger, he found himself tackled to the ground by the Draconi who leapt up into the sky with his elongated wings and dove head on to knock him into the swamp. Bubbles surfacing through the black murk as the reptilian novan dealt him fistfuls.

A huge gasp was heard as the canine found himself lifted from the mud by the scruff of his neck. His body dangling as Xell’s teeth and eyes could be seen from his muddied silhouette. Holding the gun in the other hand.

“Now we have some bait for our pest problem!” Xell turned to the group “a reasonable sacrifice, would you say? Hahahahaha! Just say the word and I’ll throw him!” the Draconi leaned his head towards the vines that were moving more than ever.