[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/E5HMKt3.png[/img][/centre]

"TOOOOOOOOT!" Manehair blew into his wooden horn from his place at the twig-boundary of Highholt, and within seconds another two feighd were by his side, looking over the protective barricade to see the danger. A great beetle was making its slow way towards them. They had by now grown accustomed to this sort of thing. Only yesterday they had spotted a couple of termites chomping on the barricade, and in the end could only chase them off by poking them with sticks whose tips had been set alight from the firefruit. However the beetle that was now coming towards them was far bigger than any termite and its bony exterior seemed utterly impregnable. Manehair placed a small projectile in his pipe and blew it at the beetle, but it bounced off and did not seem to have any effect at all on the beetle. It only kept coming closer to the barricade, and if anything the projectile seemed to draw its attention to their very location.

The three feighd tooted their horns and each one of them took up a stick and prepared to engage the insect, but just before they did so their Queen had suddenly arrived and was surveying the scene with her imperious gaze. He considered the beetle with distaste and gestured to the firefruit. Immediately a burning stick was brought to her. She looked at the firefruit for a few moments, a curious but determined look in her eyes. She gestured for everyone else to step away and then flew over the barricade so it was only her and the beetle. In length the beetle matched the Queen's height, though the Queen towered above the sturdy and heavily armored insect. They had come across one just like it before, and no matter how much they poked with their sticks, even burning ones, it could not get through its tough armor. It was as hard as tree bark, if not harder since the firefruit could burn bark at the very least!

Now the feighdqueen stood before the insect, which luckily had no mandibles (unlike other beetles, some boasting enormous mandibles or great long horns). This one's great strength was clearly its impregnable armor. When their attempts to dissuade and hurt the first one they met failed, Bluebell had suggested flipping it over to see if maybe its underside was more vulnerable, but try as they might they could not flip the heavy, stocky insect over. And it was in any case a swift creature and turned on them with its small mandibles and forelegs, forcing the smaller feighd to retreat. Now however it was the feighdqueen who stood before it, and she had a glint in her eyes and a degree of excitement. As the beetle closed in, the Queen sucked in the firefruit until it was all gone. But rather than swallowing it, as she usually did, she held it in her mouth and took a deep breath. Then, when the beetle was less than an inch from her, she exhaled with all her might.

Fire exploded from her mouth and nose, and it erupted even from her fingertips. Mixing with her latent magic, it grew towards the beetle and ate at it. But it was wild and untamed and burned at the Queen also, and she screeched in terror and pain and backed away. Her face was singed and her beautiful hair and wings were blackened and burnt. Her fingers were blistered and puffed, and her beautiful dress of leaves and plants came loose and fell apart, leaving her in her primitive nakedness. Instinctively she covered herself, and tears fell from her eyes even as her loyal feighd fluttered around her and attempted to cover her with leaves and vines and petals. It was only when they had clothed their Queen once more that their attention returned once more to the beetle, and they were awed when they found that it was utterly dead.

They turned to their ailing Queen and ooed and aahed, and she for her part tried to look regal and powerful. But she winced and weakly gestured for them to return her to her flower throne. And so they did. She stayed there and hung between life and death, and when Treeface brought her some of the firefruit so she could eat her eyes widened fearfully and she screeched at him to keep it away. And so she grew only weaker... [sup][Because what she did is quite big, I'm leaving it to the GM whether she recovers or dies][/sup]

Meanwhile, Redflower and Bluebell had been busying themselves around the beetles carcass and had managed, by flipping it over to its vulnerable underbelly and by using little sharp stones and thorns, to strip its extremely hard exoskeleton. They reasoned that just as the beetle used it for protection so could they! They would fix it and work on it until they had made a fine beetle-armour dress for their mighty and glorious Queen!


[hider=Summary]The feighfulc fight a beetle, protecting Highholt. Their Queen comes down and uses fire innovatively in combination with her innate magic, defeating the beetle. But this does untold damage to her too and she now hangs between life and death. (Her fate is up to our wise and mighty GM!)
Two of the feighd reason that just as the beetle used its exoskeleton for protection, so can they. They strip it and attempt to make an beetle armor-dress for their ailing Queen.[/hider]