Kamryn/The Return
[Sagan Observatory]: Kar-dragon's Room
Background: Kamryn and Lux haven't been seen for quite a while, it's otherwise a normal day.
Kar is at his bedroom, resting on it after a day of work. His children are doing various activities around the room, and it seems that Lillith is back into keeping order.
Zen had given Debbie a call earlier in the day, explaining that he would like to spend some time with her and Kar in the same room. With their scheme to try and prank their friends and family, seeing how he interacts around Kar would certainly help out. He waits outside his room before giving her a brief greeting, "Heya Debbie, hope you've had a good day so far. Mine has been the same old routine." He gives a nod and walks towards Kar's room, unlocking it with his key, stepping inside, and holding the door open so that Debbie could enter. Not seeing Kar initially, he looks towards Lillith and asks, "Hey Lillith, how're you feeling? Is Kar home?"
Debbie arrives at Zen's place, dressed in her work clothes. "Hey Zen" She says giving him a hug. "Can't stay too long, but this should be interesting. I've really only seen Kar in a group setting." She follows after Zen, but sees someone she hasn't met before. She gives Lilith friendly smile and extends her hand. "Hi I'm Debbie. Nice to meet you."
Lillith avoids eye contact with Zen when he addresses her. "He is upstairs, resting." She says. When Debbie extends her hand to the gryphon, she takes it. "Pleased to meet you Debbie. I'm Lillith, and those around here are my siblings."
A few moments after the door closes, a sudden rapid thudding can be heard coming from the lobby, muffled but sounding like someone banging on another room's door. "Dad? You there?" a hoarse voice calls out urgently, clearly that of Lux sounding somewhat distressed. After another few thuds and a short pause she moves closer and knocks loudly on Kar's door. "Un- uncle Kar... Blitz, auntie Lillith... Dany..." the voice calls out, trailing off a little before weakly adding "anyone?"
Zen gives a meek smile to Lillith before nodding and walking past her, brushing a tail to her as he passes and heads for the stairs. He waits for Debbie to finish introducing herself, ready to show her the way to Kar's bedroom. However, before he could take the first step up them, the banging on the door grabs his attention. His ears perk up and he rushes towards the door, yanking it open with a surprising quickness. "Lux!? Wait... w-whats wrong? Where is Kam?" He asks, rapid fire. He runs out to embrace her in a tight hug, also looking to see where Kam might be. With her tone, he was worried. He had been for some time after not seeing or hearing from them, but hearing her tone made a bit of dread well up inside. He knew that he didn't have to shout for Kar, as some of the other would certainly get him if he hadn't already heard.
Debbie sees Zen and Lux looking worried and nervously echoes "Kam?" as she looks around with Zen. She's not quite sure what's going on, but Zen seems concerned about Kam, which worries her, but she stands back, not really sure what's going on, much less what to do?
Kar hears the banging on the door and wastes no time jumping down the platform, using his wings to control the descent. He quickly moves to the door and looks at Lux. "Lux? What happened?" He asks as Zen hugs her.
Lux almost collapses into the room as Zen pulls the door open as she was leaning on it for support. She stumbles into the room and hugs him tightly for a long moment as she catches her breath. Her clothes are torn and dirty and she's clearly sustained numerous injuries across her whole body, though her nanites seem to be handling them. Lifting her head without letting go of her father she tries to speak, but her emotions overwhelm her and she just starts sobbing uncontrollably, tears streaming down her cheeks and adding to the pattern of faded lines already crossing her mud and grime matted fur from previous occasions.
Managing to calm herself down a little and control her sobbing, Lux relaxes her grip on Zen a little, still not quite ready to release him again just yet. Exhausted, she takes a moment to collect her thoughts. "It's mum..." she says flatly, seemingly drained by her emotional outpouring. "She... we... we were attacked" she continues in the same hesitant flat tone. "I- I don't even know what it was. It was chasing us for days - always there, but staying just out of sight. Every time we tried to get back to the city it got ahead of us somehow, always hidden in the trees but making sure we knew it was there, growling and shaking the trees. Sometimes we thought we saw movement in the shadows but never what it actually was. We couldn't even call for help - I don't know how it did it but as soon as it showed up, the comm system went down". She starts to tear up again as she adds "It was doing it on purpose - pushing us further out to keep us scared and alone".
Zen continues to rub his hands over her back, taking note of the terrible condition her clothes were in and the wounds on her body. He backs up some, still holding her shoulders and looking over her with a tremendous amount of worry. When he heard they were attacked, fear and anger started to boil within him. Since Kar had shown up, he turns to him and asks, "Kar, can you help her? Please... whatever you can do to heal the wounds." Looking back to Lux he asks, "Where, where did you two get attacked? How long has it been?" He had so many questions, but tempered himself, trying not to overwhelm his frail looking daughter. "I'm so happy you found us, but... anything you can tell us... please, I promise I'll do whatever I can."
Kar is about to ask of Kam's whereabouts when Zen asks for him to care for her. "Alright, Zen. But as soon as she is safe, I'm joining you." He says as his fingers start glowing blue. He places his hands on Lux's shoulders, allowing for his medical nanomagic to accelerate the healing process.
"I'm OK" the skunksune says unconvincingly, closing her eyes and slowly starting to look a little better as Kar's nanomagic takes effect. "Thankyou" she says quietly, half turning her head to Kar. As her wounds heal, some strength returns to her voice. "We were out in the woods. Mum was investigating a report of some strange activity for Zephyr. It wasn't supposed to be anything dangerous - she said it was probably just some ferals passing through - so I went with her". She swallows nervously as her voice quavers a little. "I don't know how long it's been - I lost track between the sleepless nights and never knowing if today would be the day it stopped chasing and attacked". Opening her eyes again she looks around at everyone, noticing a few changes. "How long is it since you last saw us?"
Zen looks at her pityingly, feeling sick to his stomach at hearing what a hard time she has had. Still, he didn't have much to go on... He could try and track her trail in reverse, but more information would help, anything to give him a better idea where to look. He nuzzles the top of her head before answering, "I haven't seen you in months..." He glances to Kar before saying, "Just... calm down and try to relax... try to recall what sort of things you've seen on your way here. Landmarks, interesting formations, like that trip we took through the woods before... Did you cross over any streams, any particular smells?" He presses his head to hers and kisses again, looking thankfully to Kar and his healing nanomagic.
Kar keeps on working his nanomagic to revitalize Lux. "We will need as much information as possible if we hope to track that thing." He says while moving the focus of the healing to her back. "I swear, as soon as I find it, I'll drive my spear through it's skull."
Lux lifts her gaze to look at Zen, eyes wide in shock, not quite believing him at first. "No, it can't have been..." she starts, shaking her head in disbelief before adding "really?" as she looks around at the assembled family again. An increasingly worried expression develops on her face. Hesitantly, she continues "We... we were near the mountain at first - that must have been weeks ago though. I thought it couldn't have been more than ten days or so it was stalking us before...". She pauses, taking a deep breath as a shudder passes over her. "Before it decided it'd had enough of scaring us and attacked. We'd stopped to rest for the night by a stream, and tried lighting a fire - it had always kept its distance during the day so we thought maybe the light would keep it away. I think there was a cave nearby, I'm not sure - we'd been running all day and I was exhausted". Looking back up at Zen she adds "Sorry dad, I can't remember properly. I have no idea where we were. Maybe if I hadn't got so lost trying to get back here I could retrace my steps..."
Zen looks to Kar, fully understanding his sentiment. He doesn't say anything, but gives a slow nod. A spear through the skull would be a merciful act with the sort of sadistic torture he was envisioning. Of course, he would do his best to suppress those thoughts, caring more about getting Kam back safely first. When Lux starts to recount some of the details of her trip back, he nods and nuzzles her again. "No, don't feel sorry. You were through a lot, and you did well to remember that much." He says with a reassuring tone, pulling away from her and looking back to Kar and the rest of the family who seemed to be nearby, looking on with worried expressions. It looks like his is debating saying something, obviously conflicted about it. With a shake of his head, he resolves to issues a different order, "Lux, stay here... get something to eat and rest... I have a few ideas of where to check... and I'll call a favor with the scouting teams..." He looks to Kar and says, "I'm going to go... I don't like the idea of waiting around. I... I know you can fight..." He looks to the rest of the family before saying, "I think you should trust in us to bring her back... I wouldn't want to lead any of you into more danger..."
Kar nods. "You go ahead. I'll make sure that Lux is safe before following." He says as he keeps working his nanomagic over Lux's body. "I'll call the local hunters too, see if they can help track whatever it is down, and make sure it doesn't hurt anybody else." Without the need of extra orders, the children start scrambling around, preparing everything to care for Lux while the adults are away.
Lux shakes her head with a despairing look. "No - no, I can't stay here, I've got to help find mum. I should have stayed with her and fought, not hidden, but she insisted...". Taking a step forwards she stumbles, almost collapsing to the floor before Blitz rushes in to support her. Realising she can barely walk unaided, she closes her eyes again, not wanting to accept the inevitable. "I lost her comm unit too" she says quietly. "She gave it to me before she led that monster away, and told me to keep it safe. She said it was important and might... it might help if anything happened. I must have dropped it somewhere when I was running"
Zen nods to Kar before saying, "Thanks, make sure she is taken care of. I'm going to make a few calls and head into the woods to start looking. I'll keep my comm active at all times... If you see it flicker or dip off, then that could mean I've encountered whatever it was that was stalking them." When Lux starts to protest, truly showing how weak the journey had made her, Zen shakes his head and adds, "I know how you feel, but she would be happy you've made it back to us, and she wouldn't want you to go back into that. You've endured enough... just let us take it from here." He then gives a glance to Kar and says, I'll wait for you at the entrance to the forest, meet me there in 30 minutes. With that, he leaves to go into his room and prepare, immediately starting to call someone on his comms. As he leaves the room, it sounds like he was talking to someone about scouting missions, trying to find out if there were any similar occurrences or any additional locations that would match the information Lux had given him.
Kar helps support Lux as she almost collapses. "Easy there, Lux. You are weakened and need to rest." He says to the skunksune before looking to Zen. "It will take longer than that to get everything in pace. You go in first, I'll track you down later." He and Blitz help Lux inside, before he starts sending messages with the details of what happened to all hunters in the area.
With the adrenalin from recent events rapidly leaving her bloodstream, Lux tiredly nods in reluctant agreement and doesn't protest further as Kar and Blitz take her to bed, sleep rapidly taking hold over her. "Mum was... skunk... last time saw her..." she mumbles before succumbing to exhaustion.
After getting himself ready for a potential fight, padding his usual clothes with kevlar, Zen is the first to head out. There wasn't much time to sit idle, Lux had managed to make her way to the Observatory, and her scent trail was fresh. He uses his radiotelepathy to speak through Kar's comm, expecting him to still be getting stuff ready and tending to Lux. "I'm heading in now, I'll go to a few places I'm familiar with that might have matched what Lux remembered. Maybe I'll pick up another trail then, maybe I'll find the comm unit she lost." He starts into the woods, using the best of his tracking ability to get him to a good starting point.
Kar pings Zen back with a message. "I'll make sure she is stable before heading in, but you can expect me bringing the big guns when I do."
Some time passes as Zen tracks through the forest...
[Deep Forest]: Hidden Cave Entrance
As you trudge through the undergrowth you happen to notice an overgrown crevice in the side of a nearby rock face. Heavy foliage hangs down around the crack, it's a wonder you saw it at all. As you inspect a little more carefully you notice crushed plants and grass around the ground, it seems something uses this place...
After tracking Lux's route for miles, a task made easier by the heavy element of fear in her scent and the fact she's been living in the woods without a shower for a couple of months, Zen arrives at the mouth of a small cave. With the air cool and moist from the nearby waterfall, this could be the place Lux mentioned she'd tried to make camp with Kamryn on the night they were attacked. A few minutes search locates some signs of a long-extinguished campfire and several gouges with dark splotches that could be blood.
Zen follows the trail as best he could manage, hoping that he would be led to a solid starting point. His ears and nose seemed to be particularly sensitive, almost as if hoping to find a sign of Kam... A familiar scent, or even hearing her voice that he hadn't heard for so long now, anything. When he finds the signs of a campfire, he swells with a bit of excitement, Lux had mentioned that she was with Kam when they built a fire to try and stave it off. He smells around before noticing those dark patches on the ground, giving them a closer inspection and touching them. How much was there... was it enough to fear bleeding to death, was it even blood? Wait... if Kam and Lux, were here, at some point, that must mean the comm unit is somewhere here, or along the path he travelled to get here. He starts searching around some more, relaying what he has found so far to Kar.
The gouges in the ground form a trail leading away from the cave, starting to spread out into a wider, looser pattern from a few yards away from the campfire remains. A new series of marks are mixed in with them starting at the same point on the trail - black, round, sometimes elongated shapes that are starting to blend back into the soil. Whatever happened here definitely involved a lot of fighting.
Zen doesn't initially get a response from the comm unit, something he somewhat expected with it not broadcasting its location. But... perhaps he would be able to manage something by fishing for a response from the antennae itself. He could amp up his own signal to release a wide spectrum resonance pulse to try find suitable devices in the area, even if they were powered down. He doesn't fully know how to do it, but such is the wonders of nanomagic, and within a few minutes he is prepared to give it a shot. The pulse echoes back two locations along the path he had taken before. He shares that information with Kar before explaining that he was going to check out the cave nearby. So, with that thought in mind, he enters the cave, trying to be as sneaky as possible in case whatever had caused the scene outside was still around. Unfortunately, he manages to step on an unstable rock and is tossed off-balance, catching himself but sending the rock crashing against the rock walls with an echoing clattering. A drove of bats swarm out and past him, clearly spooked and probably annoyed for having their sleep disturbed. With the element of stealth gone, Zen continues to search the cave for any signs of what might have been living there. After a thorough investigation, he would then head back to the closest of the two echoed pings.
Zen searches around the cave for a few minutes, finding nothing but the gnawed bones of small animals and bat faeces. Whatever had used this cave during the attack certainly wasn't there now, and might not make a habit of habitually using it. With a sign of disappointment, Zen leaves the cave and returns to the campsite before checking in on Kar's whereabouts. Referencing the previous ping with Kar's location, he was able to see which was his. "Hey Kar, did you want to meet up at that ping I sent you, or do you think you can handle it on your own? I can try and figure out where all of this fighting went... I didn't see any torn clothes or a discarded weapon... the cave was also empty too. Though, it looks like there is a lot of blood."
Kar sends a message back to Zen. "I just passed the location of the ping, so it's faster if you keep the search while I pick it up. I'll get there as soon as possible."
