AnnAtomic

she/her

atomic always knew this was going to happen. well, she didn't know. but she suspected. she isn't happy to be proven right. now she's gotten harder, fiercer, and where once she expected discipline, now she demands it. as arch defender of the clan, she manages the watches and patrols, and investigates every newcomer (traveler, student, or otherwise) that enters the territory. no. exceptions.

- fierce, with a vicious temper, and an unconquerable will
- some students complain she's paranoid to the extreme. to which atomic orders they take an additional climb up the pillars
- while porticullis is arch over the tier training, she pays heed to atomic as well
- specializes in aerial combat
- her mate riddle helps groom the scales between her porcupine spines, which can itch like a [expletive]

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reached level 25 on 12/27/2020

Sleep it off! [ day forty-three ] [ day fifty ]

coli quests
- notn rivalry counter
- all venue fams
- all boss fams
- pale pink rose apparel thingy . . . woodland path
- pinkerlocke OR kingdomlocke OR fodderlocke
- hibernation reverse pinkerlocke - Sleep it off!
- fest coli challenge

~~~~
Atomic scraped her claws against the stone, examined them, gave them a couple more scratches, and narrowed her eyes at an uneven edge on the rightmost claw on her right foot.
“Leave it,” Tibia suggested, flitting overhead with an empty potion bottle larger than her body clutched to herself. Had the container held anything, it likely would’ve been heavy for the fae to carry. “Beastclanners won’t notice.”

Atomic watched her fly towards her mate, hesitate ever so slightly, then sneak over to hover over his head and let the bottle slip. It fell only a short distance and plonked against the guardian’s horn, not shattering but bouncing off and arcing away to land in the tall grass. Lamp jumped straight in the air, nearly knocking into Tibia before she dodged away, then laughed when he saw the culprit. Then both bent back over the supply packs he’d been tying together with rope.

Atomic shook her head, heard the porcupine spines on her neck rattle, and shook herself all over, flexing her wings and stomping her feet as the spines rippled down her back. It was a satisfying sensation, but not enough, exciting her agitation rather than settling her nerves. “Let’s go!” she barked, launching herself into the air and soaring over her companions’ heads. “Time to settle this once and for all.”

A glance back showed the fae and guardian exchanging looks, but Lamp hoisted the pack onto his back and Tibia secured the ties around his chest. Both took off after Atomic, the fae light as a songbird, Lamp getting a running start before shoving off the ground.

Once both were airborne, Atomic wheeled around to let Lamp take lead and pick altitude and favorable wind currents. Tibia flew just behind and to the side, riding his wake with ease. Atomic brought up the rear, scanning the horizons frequently for signs of pursuit or ambush. They wouldn’t be taken by surprise. They wouldn’t be taken at all. She would get back what was theirs, once and for all.

~

“Suspicious we’re meeting in the trees,” Tibia murmured to Atomic once they’d descended to the forest floor after Lamp.

Atomic assented with a grim nod, not folding her wings against her back even after touching down, in case it was a trap and she needed to escape quickly. She turned a wary circle, mouth open to draw in all the scents of the forest, pale eyes flicking to and fro every small movement that surrounded them. No ambush yet. She tested the ground with measured presses of her feet, placated to find the dirt firm but not parched; good for fighting.

Lamp, meanwhile, threw the pack off his back and eagerly tore through it, humming a merry tune as he put down a clean pelt and laid out the pack’s contents in a neat row, as orderly and friendly as if setting up a shop at the trading post. Atomic took a deep breath in and out, trying to ignore him and instead looking to Tibia. “Anything?” she asked in an undertone.

The fae hovered near Atomic’s head with only the barest flutter of wings; a purple mist, faintly glowing, surrounded her in a ghostly aura, ebbing and flowing like wind across grass as the mage concentrated her power. “I’m not sensing anything,” she whispered back, her eyes fixed on a point past the physical world. “Not too surprising. Beastclans.”

“Do not underestimate them,” Lamp murmured softly, apparently having heard the exchange, even as his claws continued their dance over the spread of items. “We were fooled once before.”

“Never again,” Atomic growled, but her irritation at Lamp had melted away. Though his tone had been light, though his body language gave nothing away, an undercurrent of rage burned through him. He presented a calm front, but when their eyes met, his gaze was icily cold, mirroring her own.

“Here they come,” Tibia warned, and both their heads snapped up to face the opposite end of the clearing. A couple seconds later, the harpies arrived, flowing into the clearing like sand poured across stone.

Atomic leapt in front of Lamp and his array at once, flaring her wings and sinking her head low, every porcupine spine set bristling as she hissed, “Only three were to come!”

A harpy with predominantly lavender plumage and wearing a bronze mask furrowed like tree bark replied, without a trace of heat in their voice, “And so only three shall remain.” Even as they spoke, the majority of their group faded back into the trees, disappearing into shadow. Atomic curled her lip. Though unseen, she knew the excess Beastclanners remained, silent and watching, waiting to be called back by their leader at a moment’s notice.

Lamp touched her shoulder with a wingtip, and she reluctantly stepped back, letting him move closer to the clearing’s center. “Greetings,” he said, voice polite, posture neutral. “I am glad you have come.”

“I am not,” the same harpy as before replied crisply. “This meeting is a sham, your accusations shameful.”

Atomic spat, and even Lamp bared his teeth. “You stole our egg,” he growled.

The lead harpy lifted their beak. “You have no proof.”

“No?” Tibia said archly, dropping to land on the pelt. Lamp moved behind her as the fae held up one item after another. “A broken necklace of jade beads. Blades fitted for talons. A blue feather. Braided grass. A clump of auburn hair, torn from a bloody scalp. Some of the remnants collected after a skirmish between ours and yours at Nettle Cliffs two days prior.”

“And this is your evidence,” the harpy sneered. “How could we have stolen it? Do you bring your unhatched into battle?”

Tibia held up a claw. Purple magic pulsed around it. One by one, she touched the items with the glowing clawtip, infusing the objects with the same magical aura. She gestured with her other front foot and from Lamp’s pack streamed a flow of bones, intact and dust alike, which flew to the objects and drew them up off the ground. Bones formed incomplete skeletons, with the clouds of dust filling in the gaps, revealing rough shapes of harpies, each with a particular named object serving as their keystones.

The harpies had drawn back with hisses at the display, fearing an attack, but Lamp bid them to wait and watch, and to Atomic’s surprise, they did, warily holding their positions as Tibia lifted her snout and quietly ordered, “Begin.”

Like a theater performance choreographed beforehand, the magicked figures began to move, diffusing across the clearing into a familiar scene. They fought invisible enemies, dancing and weaving in an exchange of blows and dodges. With the shapes all being of the same purple aura and pale bone, it soon became difficult to tell individuals apart, mimicking the confusion of battle--until a pair suddenly broke away, the clump of hair and jade necklace, sprinting into the trees and collapsing in a pile of dust the moment they left the scene.

“Although we did not notice,” Lamp said, “in the midst of our battle, two of your number fled and followed our tracks to our den. They broke in, found an untended nest, and stole the egg there. I should hope,” he added, “you still have it.”

“As you claim,” the lead harpy said. “You said you found these objects at the site of the battle, not at your den. If two of my warriors did flee, you cannot say they went into your territory, nor committed theft.”

“Spots of blood,” Tibia said, “scattered around our nest. Along with two fallen beads.” She withdrew them from the pack, both jade, one cracked along one side. Atomic went and retrieved the necklace and auburn hair for comparison.

“Our mage’s wards alerted us to the entry of intruders,” Lamp said. “We surrendered the battle to fly back.”

“We were too late then,” Atomic finished, ripping her claws in and out of the dirt. “But we aren’t now.”

“Final chance to admit your guilt,” Lamp commanded quietly, and the cold rage had finally seeped into his voice. His bulk loomed in the clearing, the silent stillness of it just as menacing as Atomic’s raised hackles.

There was a long moment of silence. One harpy shifted their stance in discomfort. Then the lavender harpy lifted their head to a proud angle. “Or what? One wrong move, and we’ll smash the thing to pieces.”

Atomic launched herself forward, slamming the leader to the ground with her claws around their throat. The other harpies sprang on her immediately, and the leader slashed at her belly with their talons, but while her clanmates fended the other two off, Atomic slid a claw up underneath the leader’s bronze mask and ripped it from their face. They shrieked and beat at her with their wings, but Atomic smashed her tail against one, breaking the bone, and snarled, “Tell me where the egg is before I slaughter the entirety of your clan. I’ve seen you now, I have your scent. I will not stop, for rest or food or injury, before I see them all dead.”

“We left it,” they croaked, voice wavering in fear and pain. “St-stashed it away . . .”

“Where?” Atomic roared, giving them a shake.

They closed their eyes and told her. Atomic stepped off them and threw them away in disgust. “Lamp, Tibia,” she called, already beating her wings to get aloft, “to me!”

They broke off immediately, leaving the harpies--including those who’d hid in the trees--and following Atomic into the air.

“How do you know they’re telling the truth?” Tibia asked, panting and flapping hard to keep up with Atomic’s fast pace.

“They’d better,” Atomic growled.

“They’re just kids,” Lamp explained. “Young, terrified, stupid younglings. Barely grown out of hatchlings, but warriors.” He shook his head. “That wasn’t the leader of the clan. Matriarch. I’d guess an offspring.”

“They were frustrated at losing the battle,” Tibia said slowly, putting the pieces together. “Wanting revenge, they stole our egg. But they couldn’t bring it back out of fear of their elders.”

Lamp nodded enthusiastically. “It explains what happened when I first went to negotiate! The clan matriarch seemed totally shocked by my accusation, and the clan chased me out. Only after, did that purple harpy follow and offer a time to trade. I suppose they feared I would continue nettling their leader and she would get suspicious.”

Atomic snorted. “So they did plan to attack us here? Even with their greater numbers, they were no match.”

Lamp shook his head again. “Just stupid kids. Too young for this.”

“Arrogant and undisciplined,” Atomic seethed. “Sloppy enough to leave behind evidence, needing to meet with us to confirm we’d figured it out, planning to kill or beat us into submission right then and there, panicking the moment I’d pinned them down—I don’t know whether to be embarrassed at or for their trainer.”

“More the benefit to us,” Tibia said softly. “I fear what might’ve occurred had a more competent pair planned this attack.”

Atomic snapped her jaws irritably at her. “There won’t be a might. Clumsy, competent, a Deity themself—it won’t happen again.”

Again, that exchange of glances between mates. But Atomic didn’t care. The battle had been too short, this flight too long, and a broiling rage simmered in Atomic’s gut, not yet dispelled. Kids, Lamp kept calling them. But had they not yielded, Atomic would have opened their gut then and there, like the full-grown warrior they so desperately wanted to be.

Just as she would to every enemy from now on. And she would train her clanmates to do the same.