<span style="font-style: italic">“Fuck off!!!</span>” Zesiro bounded up the rest of the way toward the woman, swatting at the bone-bird-thing with his arms.<br/><br/>It made a click-click sound and hopped off into the night air. Zesiro watched the impossible happen, the wings had neither membrane nor feather, there was only air between the bones, still it was able to fly, gliding in little circles above them.<br/><br/>“<span style="font-style: italic">Magic rat.</span>” He muttered, scowling. Kneeling he examined the woman. Trying to lift her hair from the pool of blood (<span style="font-style: italic">impossible</span>), examining her wound (<span style="font-style: italic">fatal if she wasn’t already...</span>)<br/><br/>He pressed two fingers to her neck to feel for a pulse.<br/><br/>He felt a rumble.<br/><br/>“Huh?” There was no warning, that gentle rumble rumble gave way to a crack. The ground shifted, then tilted.<br/><br/>It’s caving in! He grabbed the body of the woman and slung her over his shoulder. Her blood soaked through his t-shirt. He he half-fell down the mound with her, trying to keep ahead of those massive ancient stones that hadn’t moved in hundreds of years… now rolling and crumbling...<br/><br/><div style="text-indent:1em;"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="text-decoration: underline">The Temple</span></span></span></div><br/>There was so much weight atop the old structure, it had not felt the weight of so many feet in hundreds of years. So many feet, so many bodies, so much blood, so much strife and stress.<br/><br/>The night before the thing had been shaken and burned, struck at the highest point by an awesome power. That had weakened the structure greatly, and now all this weight was in the weakest point of the old thing.<br/><br/>It collapsed inward.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic"><div style="text-indent:1em;">Meanwhile...</div></span></span></span><br/><br/>After they had awoken the night before, they had quickly eaten their fill of the fresh carrion around them. After a quick nap in the morning sun, they set out to explore the territory. They could run faster than any man could walk, and could thrive in the climate, but not without prey… of which they found none. So they danced over the hills, around eddies and over ravines easily, and returned to the place they had awoken.<br/><br/>They were not disappointed. They smelled<span style="font-style: italic">fresh </span>prey.<br/><br/>They quietly approached a tall outcropping of rock, between two was an oblong metal thing covered in fake leaves, it had not been there before.<br/><br/>One ventured out, approaching from the south-west side. It would be seen as it would see the quarry. A fresh young thing that walked on two legs. Soft skin, soft hands, flat teeth. Easy prey…<br/><br/>It had a long scaly snout, wide amber eyes, tiny sharp teeth, a long sickle-like claw…<br/>Ascot would recognize the thing immediately. It wasn’t quite the same color or shape as scientists theorized, yet, the general skeletal structure and thumb-claw made it’s identity obvious.<br/><br/>One would be seen, walking out into the open, facing the boy head-on. The others remained hidden spreading out around the outcropping, some headed toward the larger structure... Which cracked and collapsed.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><div style="text-indent:1em;">Meanwhile...</div></span></span></span><br/><br/>“Wooooaaah!” Twain jumped away from the structure as it cracked and fell. Dust blinded him, he ducked his head and ran south of it. He coughed into his radio: “Rooooll Call! Guys? Guys? Everyone okay? Zes? Diz? Morgs?” No reply. He ripped off his earpiece scowling at it.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><div style="text-indent:1em;">Meanwhile...</div></span></span></span><br/><br/>Dzel saw the thing collapse. She turned her back to it.<br/><br/>She was ordered to take rear guard, and intended to do just that until further instruction. She knew that the obvious danger was not always the most pressing...<br/><br/>Her green eyes caught sight something strange darting around the place they had hidden their helicopter and left Ascot. She sprinted toward it.