The Chase: We Aren't in Kansas Nutmeg

        Raisa watched Tazmyn run off in baffled exasperation. Did they seriously just do that? So much for teamwork… The winged lioness sighed before turning her attention to her own stryx, her beloved harpia, Nutmeg. Said stryx had turned her head as best she could to look at her person on her back.

        “Well that happened. Guess we’ll just have to do what we can on our own, huh?” Raisa began, voice dry. Her legs gently nudged Nutmeg’s sides to encourage takeoff, though it had not been needed. The harpia, upon hearing her partner, had already begun to run forward, wings snapping out and starting to flap. With no real take off point, this would be a bit easier and smoother than the straight vertical climb that would otherwise be needed. Most wildborn stryx probably would have done a vertical jump, but Nutmeg had been living with Raisa since the lioness found her as a hatchling, changing that habit to something easier on riders.

        Powerful and rapid wing beats swiftly bore the duo up into the air, sharp harpian eyes already peering into the dangers of the Edge of the Word. Neither particularly was looking forward to heading closer to the active and even erupting volcanoes, but needs must. Raisa was quick to discard her shirt, and even tossed it away only to watch as the first lava flow they flew over consumed it. Honestly she had only worn it as a courtesy to the others in the group she came with. The females of her race lacked the fat stores in the mammary glands that some other races had and thus had no breasts to speak of, so what did it matter to her in the end?

        “Nutmeg,” Raisa began, waiting for the small shriek that said stryx used to signal her attention was gained during flight. “There will probably be hard to see clouds of toxic gas hiding around here. I can’t breathe in them, you’ll have to guide us around them as best you can!” Her words got a confirmative bellow, right before Nutmeg swerved to the side to avoid one of said clouds. An overlooked perk of having a stryx who can spit their own cloud of toxic gas, they usually have an easier time telling where other such clouds exist.

        Unfortunately the dodge didn’t get them entirely out of trouble. Nutmeg let out a loud, startled screech as an unexpected thermal jerked her upwards harshly. Raisa flinched and pressed herself as close as she could to her mount’s back, the thermal not as surprising to her considering what she knew of volcanic areas. Her ears pinned back as she made sure to pull her own, if small, wings in too. A twinge of pain in the left wing told her she should have done so sooner. The Edge of the World was the worst. It took several tense heartbeats for the soil harpia to right herself in the air. That could have very easily broken one of her wings, perhaps more so due to her small size than the other harpias Raisa had seen, especially the behemoth that was Adrastos. Though granted, Adrastos would have been unable to survive this hellish place, considering part of his bulk was his dense royal feathers.

        The extreme heat of the Edge of the World soon caused Nutmeg to tire, and even Raisa was feeling a bit exhausted. “Look for a relatively safe spot to land! We need to rest for a while before we continue.” The lioness called, though she couldn’t help a feeling of unease as she did so… It kind of felt like they were being watched by someone. Or something. Something that had malicious intentions. Raisa tried to pass it off as simply the location getting to her, but the feeling remained. So needless to say she was tense even as Nutmeg began to descend down to a patch of charred land that seemed safe. After the stryx landed, she looked around before even considering dismounting. Nothing. Her feeling must have been a fluke then.

        After a few minutes of resting up against the side of her stryx, Raisa felt her prickle of unease sharpen into a blaring warning of danger. Immediately she stood up and grabbed a hold of one of the saddle straps as she gazed into the nearby smoke. Her blood turned to ice. Two piercing, ominously glowing red eyes gazed back at her from within. It looked like their quarry had found them instead. Which would explain her previous unease - it likely had been stalking them from below. The creature stepped forwards, exposing itself as it moved out of the smoke. A very large, unfamiliar and likely unknown breed of runner with teal feathers with tabby like markings and a chest glowing the same way as their eyes, veins of corruption starting to spread up its neck.

        Raisa tightened her grip on Nutmeg’s saddle, getting ready to pull herself up onto her mount. “Nutmeg, we need to go. Now!” But before either could do anything the corrupted runner pounced with at them with a screech.

        The harpia moved quicker than either the runner or Raisa could have expected. Nutmeg had stood up and wrapped her wings around her rider. In the meantime she breathed deep and then exhaled a large cloud of black smog crackling with red lightning in the direction of the other stryx. The sticky, tar-like substance forming that toxic cloud would probably only slow down the corrupted runner a bit but every second counted in this upcoming desperate flight back to camp. Not to mention piss off the runner, and keep it chasing them. Hopefully Nutmeg could fly just a bit faster than it ran.

        Raisa threw herself onto Nutmeg’s saddle from within the slight safety of the harpia’s wings. “Back to camp! Let’s hope the others have the pit ready for this thing!”

Nutmeg let out an angry rumbling bellow far deeper than any the lioness had ever heard from her before, disagreeing with the order to flee rather than to fight. But she listened and launched herself straight up into the air, needing the quicker takeoff than a running start would have provided. She doubted she’d be able to outpace the other stryx on land after all, even if they were of similar size. The advantage a runner would have over a similarly sized stryx more used to flight was not to be overlooked.

        As the duo took off back in the direction they had come from, the enraged and now sticky (and likely poisoned) corrupted runner pulled itself out of the toxic tar pool left by Nutmeg’s attack and gave chase. More than a few times Nutmeg had to pull up suddenly to dodge the other stryx’s attempts at a jumping attack. Thankfully though, it didn’t seem to have any breath weapon of its own. Small blessings in a frantic chase through what amounted to a hell on earth. And what a hell it was, Raisa thought, directing her partner around a sudden lava geyser from what had been a steadily flowing stream of molten rock a scant few heartbeats before. The other stryx jerked to the side as well, but cleared the large and otherwise deadly jump with envious ease.

        Raisa could feel Nutmeg’s exhaustion in her sides and in how her wings beat, even if the latter was still powerful. They hadn’t really been able to rest before, and the sheer amount of exercise combined with the extreme heat was really doing a number on the harpia. Hopefully they would reach camp before Nutmeg just couldn’t take it anymore. The lioness looked up from the corrupted stryx below to look for their destination. There, only a minute or two more ahead at this pace, was the camp. And what looked to be a mostly complete pit, hopefully deep enough for the monster behind them. Relief and determination settled over Raisa at the sight, and she gave Nutmeg one last encouraging pat on the neck as she pointed it out.