Warrior Training- Nikyak Defense

The three quelliit circled menacingly around the herd of nikyaks. Tej was in the middle, bravely trying to shield his beloved herd from the monsters. Aliyah had her back to his, so that at least one of them had an eye on each quelliit at all times. Eteri, Aliyah’s drakern, was circling in the sky above. They were stuck in a stalemate right now, but it was clear the quelliit weren’t thinking of backing down. 

“On the count of three, we make a move, ok?” Aliyah suggested. “One of us has to do something and I'd rather it wasn’t them.” She carefully placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready.

“Alright,” Tej replied shakily. “Let’s try and herd them like the nikyaks. Chase them together so we circle them and hopefully that’ll allow us to scare them off.” He reached deep into his pocket and grasped his shifting stone in his big paw. He took a shaky deep breath to steel himself for the shifting transformation.

Aliyah began to count down quietly. “Three… two… one…”

She drew her sword, Sever, from its sheath with a menacing hiss of steel just as Tej transformed into his shifted state with an almighty roar. The quelliit were startled for a brief moment, but then they charged forward with astonishing agility. Tej clashed head-on with one of them while Aliyah dodged attacks from another, driving it backwards with wide swings from her sword.

The plan had almost worked, except the third quelliit had spotted an opening in their defence and made a dash for the nikyaks. Aliyah caught the movement out of the corner of her eye but she was unable to disengage from her current duel. She put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, and then moment later Eteri dove out of the sky and plucked the sneaky quelliit right off the ground. It made a guttural cry as the drakern’s talons dug into its sides.

The cry caught the attention of the two remaining quelliit, and in that moment they seemed to decide that they couldn’t win, and turned around and retreated hastily back where they had come from. Eteri flew a good distance away before depositing the quelliit back on the ground in an undignified heap.

Tej slowly transformed back into his normal form and Aliyah sheathed her sword. They were both breathing heavily but immensely relieved that they had succeeded.

“I don’t think they’ll be back anytime soon,” Aliyah panted.

“No, I don’t think they will,” Tej replied. “Thank you, I’m not sure I could have chased them off without you and Eteri.”

“I don’t think we could have done it without your help either.” Aliyah echoed.

Tej rubbed his paw to the back of his neck, suddenly bashful. “Uh, I should probably go check on the herd, y’know, make sure they are all ok and all that.”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll see you around.”