“Spare me your moralizing, Red!” Rob snapped back. “I wasn’t the one that... what...”. Uncertain as to why, he felt the hairs on his neck prickle and stand on end as she produced an ugly greenish crystal from his sleeve.  By reflex he jumped back as she threw it at his feet.<br/><br/>That paranoid reflex probably saved his life.<br/><br/>Jagged lumps of twisting crystal erupted from beneath his feet as the ground hardened and froze in an expanding circle.  He twisted and kept, dodging frantically in an awkward parody of a dance as he struggled to evade the grasping jagged fingers that groped towards hm.<i>Fuck!  Fuck!  <b>Fuck!  </b></i>He didn’t give voice to the profanities, though. That would have been a waste of air.<br/><br/>Worst of all, the moralizing bitch just wouldn’t shut up!  Even lost to sight behind the emergent stones, she kept<i>hectoring</i>him.  More crystal erupted beneath him, and this time he balanced on it long enough to leap and grab the thick limb of a towering oak, pulling himself up and away from the magical death trap exploding beneath him.<br/><br/>“I... fucking...<i>hate</i>... magic...” he gasped, clinging to the broad limb like a lifeline.<br/><br/>“Wolves don’t kill for sport, you filthy animal.”  Fuck. She was<i>still</i>prattling on. “He was cowering in his boots and you never even gave him a chance. You could just as easily have subdued or unarmed him!”<br/><br/>Anger blazed up in him. “Right,” he growled through gritted teeth. “That is fucking enough.”<br/><br/>Forests were a long way from being his preferred environment, but he was steady and surefioted and had good balance from a lifetime of rooftop work. All of those skills were tested as he kept and swung from branch to branch through the trees, trying not to watch the grinding maelstrom of stone below.  But then he was clear of it, with nothing but forest trail and the redhead below him.<br/><br/>Leaping from the closest tree, he tackled her from behind and rolled, letting her and his own twisting motion absorb the brunt of the impact   It still hurt like hell, and he’d have bruises, but it was worth it to end up pinning her to the ground. “Ever tried to knock someone out?” he snapped, gripping her throat with his left hand and bringing his right up in a fist. “It ain’t fucking easy!”