Makia groaned. Something rumbled underneath her. She thought it might have been her stomach. Whatever that thing she'd tried to eat was, it was most definitely not a fish.

Makia felt nauseous. She watched with interest as the giant lizard steadied himself. Their eyes met. He looked disgusted and violated.

"Did you feel that?" he muttered.

Well, yes, she did. Makia cocked her head. Surely she wasn't that sick?

And then, the ground shook again, much more violently this time. Makia's eyes widened.

There wasn't any snow here, but when the mountains shook, it meant those who could take to the air, did so. Those who couldn't, fled into caves or holes or simply ran for their lives. A sea of snow swallowed all who couldn't escape.

Makia had no intention of being swallowed by an avalanche of mud. She was at times brave, mostly empty-headed, but she was no fool.

The open sun, beaming down on her, had baked through most of the mud caked on her feathers. As she spread her aching wings, the dried mud splintered and fell, splashing into the water in a shower of dust. With a running leap, Makia took to the air with a triumphant cry. Beating her wings, she rose quickly above the swamp, and soared upwards as long as she could, before her wing could no longer take the pressure, and she glided down to the top of a scraggly tree. The branches rattled, whether in the wind or from the deep rumbling, she couldn't tell.

A small bird, perhaps an Aurleon chick, stumbled out of the branches in distress as its parents fled. Makia caught it quickly in one claw and bit down on its tiny head. It would never have survived an avalanche if its mother had already gone. A snack would have to do for now. Makia looked down smugly at the overgrown lizard on the ground. Both of them had come out looking for food today, but only one of them had found some. At least it would make up for what she lost minute earlier.

The rumbling shook Makia in her perch. She looked up with alarm. Where was the incoming wave? Up in the tree, at least, she would have a few seconds after the avalanche hit to fly away. The stupid lizard was standing there on the ground doing absolutely nothing.

In an avalanche, all creatures help each other. Morkkos pick up Bulboris with their yawning mouths, and Faelora gallop away with baby Lupora clinging to their backs, bounding Lupora packs howling encouragement as they ran. Makia had once been picked out of the trembling snow by a Vulnyx, and she, in turn, plucked out a squirming Zolnixi. The law of survival ruled all in the mountains save for the Griffi that lived on the peak.

Makia gulped down her snack. The lizard wasn't moving. She had to get him to move.

Makia swooped -- or fell, depending on what one constitutes as "flying" -- down from the tree and landed next to the lizard. He wasn't looking at her. Desperate, Makia kicked his leg.

"What are you doing?" She shouted, "Run!"

This was not a damn avalanche. Nothing made sense in this godforsaken place.

Makia watched in horror, flapping away from the ground, as the earth groaned and split like so much ice snapping free from a glacier. Water poured into the cracks as mud sloshed over the sides. The lizard, she was happy to see, was finally hightailing it out of there, although the way he was plodding through the shifting swamp, Makia wasn't sure he would make it.

Nothing she could do about it. She weighed 70 pounds. With some struggling, she could maybe carry half a Zolnixi.

Wait, why did he stop?

Makia looked up and saw what he had seen. A Faelora sat nonchalantly in the mud while the world fell apart around it. A Morrko and its cub eyed the lizard with more suspicion than the splitting ground.

Makia didn't pretend to understand what they were doing, but the law of survival took over. She winged down towards them as fast as she could, screeching for them to flee. The Faelora looked up at her with mild amusement. Then, its eyes widened.

And then it was gone.

Makia blinked.

What?

The Morkko, seeing the Faelora swallowed up by the earth, growled and nudged its cub away. The baby whined as it jumped forward in leaps and starts, followed closely by its hulking mother. As pieces of the swamp ripped violently open, the mother became impatient with the young cub's incessant complaining. She picked up the young Morkko, flung it on her back, and fled.

From the sky, Makia could see the water level dropping. Tiny cracks snaked from the edges of the newly formed cliffs and plunged under the cover of the mud. What was once an endless mass of land was quickly tearing into pieces of isolated ground, like islands surrounded by an ocean that was a never-ending chasm.

The lizard was swiveling around painfully on its right side - Ha! - looking for something. He didn't seem to see the Faelora disappear or notice the Morkko leaving. By the way the ground was rending itself apart, it wouldn't be long before he was stranded. And by the way some of the more distant islands were already collapsing in on themselves, he wouldn't be stranded long. Couldn't he see what was happening?

Damn this earthbound lizard.

Makia swept up next to him. Without waiting for permission, she wrapped her talons around his right leg. Maybe, with just the extra bit of wing power, he could make these jumps...

With that, Makia began pulling him towards the edge. Flapping as hard as she could, she screamed into his ear:

"Jump!"

Makia hit the ground with a dull thud, cringing as her pinion feathers snapped. With some effort, she pried her claws from the lizard's leg.

Driven by instinct, Makia turned back towards the crumbling swamp. The far edge continued to recede as it crumbled, although the violent shaking of the earth had quieted down to a deep rumble. The sun beat down on the drying land as the last of the swamp slid away, dragging crumpled vegetation and snapped trees with it. From all the nooks and crannies of the new-born terrain, there were others still crying for help. But there was nothing she could do for them now. Makia could barely move, much less fly back around and carry them to safety. She peered over the edge of the ledge but there was nothing but darkness. She didn't hear anything hit the bottom.

Makia sighed. With so many lives lost in this broken landscape, it would be a long time before this place could support any sort of high-level predation. There was unlikely to be anything left to eat here, nor would there be for awhile, and a little Aurleon chick wasn't going to sustain her for long. She didn't know about the lizard, but Makia knew if she didn't find more food soon, she would quickly become too weak to hunt. And then it would be over.

Well, good riddance to a dirty swamp, at least.

"...Thanks kid."

Makia turned to look at the lizard. She was annoyed he had called her a kid but was too exhausted to care. He didn't look in much better condition than she was. She didn't like the way those yellow eyes were staring at her.

Makia took a step forward. She cringed as the pain flared in her arms. Nope, that wasn't going to work. With her pinion feathers hanging loosely from their shattered shafts, she wouldn't be able to fly very far either.

Maybe she could hitch a ride on the lizard?

Makia sat down and looked at him, at a distance she was comfortable he wouldn't be able to cross in a single bound.

"Say," she said nonchalantly, cocking her head, "Can you still walk?"

Makia frowned. She was a Nytekrie, obviously. She didn't think she looked particularly like any other animal, except for maybe a Griffi if you squinted hard enough, although you would never find a Griffi in a swamp.

More importantly, she was hungry. Still hungry, actually. She briefly considered whether or not she could still take down the lizard, but decided that she'd had enough dangerous, traumatic, life-threatening experiences for one day. Whether or not she wanted to admit it, Makia needed help.

She stretched her neck, clacked her beak a few times and ruffled the last of the mud off her feathers. As she shifted, her feet left thick prints in the drying mud. Watching the lizard's eyes flicker, she felt an overwhelming urge to drop to the ground herself.

No. She needed to stay awake and get out of here.

"I'm Makia," she said finally.

She glanced around. Far off in the distance, with all the swamp trees splintered away, Makia thought she could make out the shadow of a forest. Rising out of its dark wreath was a line of majestic peaks, capped with the last remnants of snow from the spring melt. Somewhere on the second tallest peak was an alcove nest made of brambles and haphazardly bent sticks, lined with old leaves, fur and small bones. It seemed...so far away.

She looked back at the lizard.

"And you?"

(OOC: That's alright. Life happens. I'm just glad you still remember this is a thing. I gotta say, though, the redesign really makes Miles look awesome.)

-----------------

"....Name's Miles,"

Miles? How many miles can a two thousand pound lizard really go anyway?

Haha.

That said, high ground sounded like a good idea. Like cliffs. One can dive on prey from on top a cliff and save having to fly as much. Makia imagined Miles the lizard dive-bombing a Bulbori from atop four-foot ledge. The thought made her smile.

Makia looked around. From one perspective, it could be said that there was high ground all around them, tiny little sheer cliffs all around, only the bottom lay at the bottom of the earth. Actually, she was curious. What did the bottom of the earth look like? She wanted to flit down and find out, but she was afraid she'd never come back up again.

High ground, where else? Makia's first instinct was the fly up and see, but as she spread her wings, she found she could only raise her arms up to her shoulder. They felt like lead and hurt like hell. If only there was something around she could climb, besides all the destroyed ground and splintered trees.

Hm.

Mountains are pretty high off the ground, right? Mountains, like, perhaps, that one, over there on the right, next to that craggly piece with the leaf-shaped patch of snow?

Makia pointed to the distant peaks.

"There's high ground over there. And food. And shelter."

She waved at the hundred miles between them and home.

"All I need to do is get out of this swamp, get through the forest, climb up the mountain, and go home. You should come. I'm going to start walking this way."

Makia winced leaned on her front paws. Her beautiful, luscious tail was mangled and dragging in the dirt, but that was a problem for another time.

She looked back over her shoulder and was thankful her neck hadn't started aching yet.

"Coming?"

"There's high ground over there. And food. And shelter."

High ground. Food. Shelter. Oh it sounded like heaven.

"All I need to do is get out of this swamp, get through the forest, climb up the mountain, and go home. You should come. I'm going to start walking this way."

Miles frowned a bit. Her home? He should come? The lizard hesitated. Chances are she was leading him back to more of her kind where he'd be made a meal of sorts. Wicked honeys blinked, looking between the mountain and the collapsed ground behind them, his gaze finally landing on the puke bird as she wandered away.

"Coming?"

He groaned. What choice did he have? If she wasn't here, he'd probably have still been heading towards the mountain anyway.

"....Yeah I'm coming, I'm coming..." He sighed, shifting his bulk and wincing slightly. The pain was beginning to numb with rushing fluids, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before it ached worse. He picked himself up onto his hind legs, hulking slowly as a biped, which he was obviously not pleased about.

"...So other than myself and swamp slugs, what do you eat? Going to need to find something eventually."