Grey shifts her position, hackles slowly falling. "Okay. Just no funny business. Mrs. Mouse is my friend." She says, sitting down and starting to groom herself.

The bear, Dew, tilted her head. "What, do you think I'd eat the mouse?" She lets out a laugh. "She'd barely be a mouthful." She lays down. "I'm Dew, by the way."

Scarlet looks the same exusted as she tries to make sure the group is still together. At this point she was worried about Augustus and the others a good deal more then escaping.

The laughter continued as they ran. "Why can't you children be good and behave? I've made the perfect collection. If you leave, I'll just have to snatch more!" The wind shreiked but it never touched Jay and his friends. Just what kind of intimidation tactic was this? Could the witch not actually stop them? All show and no bite?

"Run faster, both of you! I think we'll be fine if we run far enough!" Jay shouted, wishing he could do more than give directions. Still, he hoped it would be enough as they finally ducked under the outcropping and he rolled to the ground with an 'oof'.

~~~

Although the rain still pelted down, full of the witch's shadows, something reached out and shielded August's form. In front of him stood a beautiful woman with waves of cinnamon hair rolling down her back. Her eyes were like ocean waves and her dress as soft as the meadow grass with a corset like oak and dragon lilies blooming around her feet. It was a striking image to say the least.

"You poor thing. It must have hurt to fly through that. You shouldn't try to push yourself so hard. Please, rest here for a while until the rain stops..." With a flash of a smile, the woman kept the rain off of the parrot like a mother would a child.

~~~

Mrs. Mouse stepped up, afraid she would have to stop a fight between the two--and wouldn't that be a funny thought? A mouse trying to intervene between a bear and a wolf! Thankfully it didn't come to that. "It's alright, Dew. You're quite forgiven and we're glad to meet new friends. You didn't happen to uh...see any strange light though, did you?"

Scarlet huddles down in the cave she was not about to push the witch but so she ignored the witch's mockery.
"One of these days you two someone will defeat that witch," Scarlet speaks softly so as to hopefully not be heard by anyone outside the group.

Dew thinks for a moment. "Come to think of it, I did. A flash of light woke me up in the first place. I guess I didn't think about it but yeah, I definitely saw something." Dew rumbles.

August shuffled back a pace, grateful for the shelter but also wary of the stranger. His first thought was that this person was the reason he was stuck here to start with.A detatched part of his mind related to those crows he used to leave out bread for by house as a child; opprotunistic, but cautious. He briefly shook the water off his feathers before adressing this person.

"And who might you be?"

"Interesting. We just noticed the strange light being the light that filters through this place. Mrs. Mouse and I were looking into it before we just... woke up... here, here being a different part of the Menagerie." Grey says before grooming herself slightly. She didn't completely trust the bear, but she was willing to take Dew into the 'pack' - a mismatched array of wild animals that still knew they were human. "My name's Grey. Howdyado?"

Jay hopped over to Scarlet giving her a reassuring pat on the leg. "You really think so? If anyone is going to defeat her, it should be us. I thought we should just escape but she's just going to get more victims isn't she?" If they didn't do anything, it would never end.

~~~

The woman smiled again, showing off her ruby-red lips. "My name is Meloreia. You could call me a protector of sorts." The rain was gradually beginning to lessen, the darkness in it disappearing so that nothing seemed unnatural about the rain. "If you want, you can come to rest in my home."

~~~

"Yes, you can call me Mrs. Mouse. I wonder if the light was a portal...or perhaps we died and were replaced here...?" She sighed, feeling weighed down by this conundrum. "Well, either way, it was a one-way thing and now we've met you, Dew, so I guess it was a good thing after all! How long have you been in The Menagerie?"

Scarlet ponders what Jay say for a molment, "Alright how would we defeat her? I agree we need to do something to keep others from being victimized." Scarlet was slightly worried about the seemingly magical rain but she knew they would get through it.