Tatsu & Ainsleigh

Homecoming was anything but bittersweet. The shades they fought weren't difficult, but they were unrelenting. Inevitibly, the foes were vanquished and considering the combat their wounds were relatively few. Most of the flyers had to glide themselves in and those that had started to fall below level needed aide. Riker needed to organize the remaining guilders to drop vine nets for those flyers to virtually crash into and climb up.

Tatsu had landed alright and Ashleigh along side him. All in all the father-daughter team had effected an exceptional wing despite what little time they had together in the past. They had banked, covered and counterstriked off one another in a pattern variety that kept the air shades guessing until they were eliminated.
Ainsleigh had even managed to become entrenched in their melee, whenever Ashleigh or Tats could faint a shade flyer low enough to get iced. Though on one occasion she had leapt off the cliff face to severely shread a Ny'vene's wing with her bare claws and her family had to fly in and carry her to safety. But it was very satisfying.

Blue and Tomen and Damian did not join the others in their fight despite the protests from the two Toms, and were now trotting at a high pace in a direction the Vixion wasn't being kind enough to mention....

" Blue! Slow your******down!" Tomen shouted struggling to keep up on the ground, Blue had mad it clear they were traveling on foot and not to exhort any magical energy. " Blue! Could you at least tell us where your taking us?!" With that the Vixen looked over her shoulder cutting him a glare that could have cut his throat on its own, but she spoke to make herself clear " One more word....and I'll leave you to bleed out right here!" Damion stayed quite surprisingly keeping up in his old age.....

Blue was sure of herself, the others would be fine, and the three nixi would not be of help there, but there was something else she could do. She was going back to the dungeon there was something she felt they missed and if it saved her children then she would try.... she would try and turn back time

Once the Dungeon was in sight Blue bolted faster her legs burning Damion and Tomen being hopelessly left behind....

she skidded to a stop before entering flattening her ears and closing her eye as she entered not opening them and trusting her feelings o guide her.

Tomen was about to yell at her when she bolted off when a fluffy tail wound up in his throat " Keep your mouth shut.... this is no different from your missions together, act like you trust her.. shes had enough rejection for one day" he scoffed with a smirk " she was always better than you... don' hold her back like her father did" he said. Tomen flicked his ears and sat down seeing where he was wrong, though not necessarily wrong, he was being a bit selfish not considering her thoughts. and Damion was right she was more brave and reckless but she was a great warrior and had never let him down before. after that the two walked slowly to the entrance.

Ashleigh
Ashleigh tried her best to keep herself up. She leaned against her sire, who leaned back slightly the way he would against Ainsleigh; but his mass was a little too much for her. She started to tip back her direction and her mother happened to turn to to compensate the weight in the nick of time.

Ainsleigh & Tatsu
"Thanks Mom." She said gently, then groaned a little. "How did you ever manage to support Daddy when he got like this?"

Never being one too much for words, Ainsleigh simply told her daughter. "Practice. Find a partner and do the same."

She blushed a little at what her mother was implying. Find a male that was mutually willing to touch her? The thought only made her blush more, until her tail was flicking with embarrassment.

"I can see at least one candidate that might not mind giving you the attention." Tatsu replied, butting into the mother daughter conversation. As they both turned to look his direction, he used his snout to point at Basil, who was only just coming in for a landing.

Ashleigh's scales began darkening from the blood flushing her capillaries and her tail twitched even more. She was nearly mortified at how shameless her parents were about suggesting that she go do something as intimate as lean against Basil so warmly. She would have preferred seeking a male privately and introducing them later. But her parents were making it plain that draeyl society was far more barbaric than the ways of the guild.

"B-b-but Basil's my fr-friend, h-he's probably just as t-tired as us from the f-f-fight." She attempted to protest.
Ainsleigh chuckled in her daughter's ear. "Nonsense, I can smell his glands from here, then added accusingly, and I'll bet he's not the only one."

Thankfully Tatsu, didn't bother to share if he could smell Ashleigh's pheromone glands responding to seeing Basil. Rather he raised his free wing and flapped it distressfully in Basil's direction to get his attention. Ashleigh was clearly uncomfortable with Ainsleigh's openness about her daughters affairs so he hoped Basil would at least try to save the day.

"Basil, was it?" He asked rhetorically, but didn't bother to wait for an answer. "Here lend a claw and help my daughter back to the guild hall." He told the younger male as he grasped Ashleigh by the shoulders and virtually shoved her into Basil grasp.

Ashleigh's draeyl mind wanted to launch a protest against her parents, but her respondent body was siding with them and virtually willed her to comply with rather than fight her sire's brute strength.
The two couples walked alongside one another to the guildhall where a small group had started to form. Riker and Inferno were clearly preventing the others from getting inside; A and Tats didn't care for the dramatic overture of the situation. Tatsu thought it rather rude to prohibit the fighters from going inside without an explanation. Ainsleigh, however, was concerned about another matter. With all of the other adults disappeared, Damien, Blue and herself were candidates for next in command until the guild leadership returned. She was curious if Riker was intending to turn over the reins to one of them after a long grace period.
With that, it suddenly dawned upon her and Tastu at the same time as they looked back at each other. Blue and Tomen weren't there! Where had they gotten off too? They both nodded intending to find out what happened to them once they learned what Riker or Inferno would hopefully share with all of them soon.

Blue flicked her ears and Kept her eyes closed trotting quickly in the direction of the sound. She came close to tripping a few times, but she managed to sense the stone slabs just in time, it was clear that she was a little uncomfortable with not being able to see, but she seemed determined as her ears rotated and her snout scanned the icy cold stone.


With Blue now moving at a slower speed Tomen and Damion were able to catch up. as they entered Tomen looked around while Damion was focused on blue who was approximately 200 yards or so in front of them. " hmm, flowers and Ice.... not something I would picture in the same place," Tomen whispered almost inaudibly to Damion who simply nodded showing his agreement. they paused for a few minutes watching Blue as if they were stalking unsuspecting prey," I think this is a good distance... lets let her work it out if we get in her way I'd greatly dislike to see her blow a fuse on the lot of us" he said flattening is ears a bit worried before examining the flowers a bit more closely" lets see if we can get any intel that she is scoping past.... Take the right side... I'll get the left..... and refrain from interfering with the lead" he said flicking his tail and trotting to the left wing of the dungeon. Tomen didn't argue and took the right wing keeping a great distance between him and Blue.

Ainsleigh & Tatsu

Ashleigh was already in a little emotional turmoil, as she nestled into Basil's embrace. Her parents open mindedness, combined with Basil's compliance to her sire's request, was deeply reassuring but her body was still quivering from the nervousness of the way her mother had read the situation.
She was dumb as they walked in on the conversations that had been plaguing the guild for the past month. Ashleigh wasn't prepared for the weight of leadership that guild law was going to impose upon her. The return of their parents was assuring to her, but it wasn't going to change the fact that she would be in charge and she didn't know how her elders would feel about that.

Normally, Ainsleigh's instinct would be to challenge by combat for authority; it was the draeyl way. Despite it being her daughter she was still in her prime, firm and strong, and ready to dish out pain to anyone unworthy to lead her. But she knew her mate would stand in her way, and he had proven himself against her several times.
Seeing the opportunity available, Ainsleigh leaned Tatsu against the wall and made her way close to Riker and Inferno. "You younguns' are considering guild law too openly." She said directly to them. "Might I suggest, allowing myself and my party act as an interim guild council, since we are the seasoned veterans for the guild at the moment? Allowing Riker to act as executive officer to Ashleigh and the guild council for a probationary period during this transition of leadership? We can work out the finer points with an election in accordance with guild law."

Tatsu nodded his agreement to what his mate suggested, while Ashleigh appeared a little bit relieved.