Alyx searches in his inventory for something he has and pulls out his scraps. Maybe he could throw it at the beast? Would he actually hit it? They shakes their head at the improbability of actually hitting the pigeon-thing. He looks up at the pigeon-thing, "Please don't hurt any of us. We don't want to fight. Though it looks like you want to hurt us so words probably won't change anything."
Alyx cuts themself off and looks towards the child, "I would really suggest being quiet right now. Perhaps this pigeon-thing doesn't like noise. Maybe if we're really quiet it will let us be?"

Kanoa's mind races. He doesn't want the pigeon-thing to get the child. But why did he care? He shouldn't. He owed this child nothing. He keeps quiet, torn between gaining the beast's attention once more or letting the pigeon-thing continue its course of action and injure - possibly kill - the others.

Illya watches the creature noting what Alyx is trying to do. She hopes Alyx is able to get the kid to settle down and quit acting like a literal fish out of water. Her ears are pinned back to her head as she watches the pigeon creature.

The beast seems unfazed by Casey's rope, it stared at him for a short second...judging? It kicks at the ground, ripping dirt and grass up by the roots and flinging the mounds at the group repeatedly, mostly focusing on it landing on Illya and the child. It glared at Kanoa, looking him in the eye and glancing back and forth between its wing, silently threatening to slam him into the ground again, but showed a preternaturally, vaguely human-ish, smirk, as if it were egging him on, wanting him to try something. It ignores Alyx, not seeming to understand what they were saying.

Casey looked at his feet in embarrassment, but at least he got its attention for the second he did. When it wasn't looking, he shuffled even closer to the kid, the rope still in his grip. He's dealt with a lot of lost kids, one of which was forgotten, so he had a grasp on how to calm her down. Casey knelt to her level. "Hey there, kiddo.", He said gently, taking one of her hands. "You're going to be okay, calm down." Casey kept his voice as calm as possible, as not to sound unsure of himself and worry the little girl more.
"What's your name? Mine's Casey.", He used the "asking questions" tactic to distract her from the immediate danger until they could figure out how to get out of the situation.

Illya just uses the lit candle to try and keep the creature's attention, "Ignore the creature's smirk Kanoa. It's trying to bait you." She never takes her eyes off the creature.

Illis looked at Casey, still sobbing but she seemed to calm down slightly, "M-my name, i-is Illis" they said, she started to take some deep breaths like papa Mike at taught them. She stopped crying but was still distressed, they said, "Why am I cover in these hard things?" She asked

"What a pretty name!", He smiled, settling down onto his knees with a grunt. Casey felt accomplished that he could get her to calm down a little bit.
"That, I don't know.", He admitted with a playful shrug. "But I think they're super cool." Casey gently took the little girl's hand and looked it over, acting like it wasn't bewildering at all. "Maybe they're here to protect you?"

Illya smiles slightly at Casey as if saying good job. Illya focuses on the creature trying to determine it's next move. Keeping calm Illya watches the pigeon creature trying to determine where it came from and where they were.

Kanoa glares back up at the beast, his hands bunching into fists even though he knew he wouldn't be able to get a hit in before the wings threw him again. He gives a start when he is addressed.
Kanoa gives the one with fox ears a thoughtful look, "Are you talking to me?" He hadn't told anyone his name yet. Sure, he'd understand if he was referred to as 'Dragon', his last name was on his uniform, but his first name was something he had not disclosed to anyone. He shrugs and tries to ignore the challenge the beast had given him.

Alyx is just fine with being ignored. Maybe. He didn't know quite what to feel at this point in time, so he didn't bother trying. He was glad that Casey had managed to calm Illis down some and wasn't at all disappointed that his attempt at calming someone down hadn't worked. As long as someone else managed to get the objective done, it was all good.
Figuring out what to do with the beast would be a bit harder. "Maybe we should all try to back away and see if it will leave us alone?"

Illis stared at her scales, "Ooh really! That's so cool!" their eyes filled with excitement then she looked at Casey, "Why don't you have armor like mine? Don't you also need protection?" They asked as though they worried for Casey's safety.