The hunt for the great skywhale[Training]

The girl had heard rumors of a magnificent beast the soared the skies. Apparently it was a massive, some comparing it to a floating boat. No one had directly seen it by the sound of the stories. Some had claimed that whenever it appeared that storms would follow soon after. There were people gathering together to hunt the mighty creature down. That's exactly why the young girl had decided to go on this journey. It was possible they just wanted to kill it for the glory or the fame. The white haired lioness would not sit by and be idle in such a time. After all, if this beast was powerful it was just only trying to live. It hadn't caused any damage so she would be here to save the day.

Sky whale word count: 134/2000

The wind calmly fluttered, the beast had yet to show itself. She waited calmly in the open area, she had arrived before the hunting parties she had heard of. If the girl was lucky the magnificent creature would appear before them. The grass swayed back and forth, the calm air was starting to pickup a little. As if gusts of winds were slowly moving toward her location. Keeping an eye on the weather would be her best bet. It would help find where the creature was if the myths were true. Yet it sounded difficult to her. If the beast appeared during storms wouldn't it be harder to find or kill. Or maybe the creature was moving away from said storms, being massive and in the clouds could make it susceptible to lightning strikes. She was curious about what had perpetuated the legends of it, and what its correlation to storms were. If all went good this would be more than just a a journey, it would be a learning experience.

Whilst she was camping out she would hear something approaching her location. Moving towards her location seemed to be a caravan. Yet upon closer inspection it seemed the group was carrying weapons, the wagons behind them were filled jars and what seemed to be arrows and bows. The group stopped about 20m from her location, she was crouched down, hiding beneath the tall grass. They unloaded the wagons bringing out the jars and started prepping for their hunt by the looks of it. She couldn't get an accurate headcount from her distance as they were moving in and out the wagons. Her rough estimate was that there was around 25 to 30 men in their group. Only one of them stood out among them, a man adorned with elegant looking furs. A large man, portly but clearly strong. It was possible he was a man of power, and it was certain he was here for glory.

As the man gathered they started crafting their weapons, by here guess they were making explosives for the beast. Hoping to knock it out of the sky was her guess. They were all moving around prepping their explosives, except for their leader. Strapped to his back was an odd item. It was long and what looked like a barrel of some sort, like a small cannon. By its odd and glowing look she assumed it was a sort of magical item. She had dealt with the sorts often in her adventures but nothing like that. She would certainly have to be weary of him,.If possible avoiding any form of conflict would be preferable, but by the looks of it they weren't going to let this go. They were here to kill something and they wouldn't leave till they got the chance to do such. Her stomach churned slightly at the thought of this, killing something for sport was despicable. She once killed people for such a thing, but now her regard for life was different. Sadly these men would have to pay, as most of them would be unable to repent.

The winds, picked up more, the sky started to blacken. A storm was coming, but the question was, what would destroy more, the beast or the men.A thundering bellow filled up the sky, drowning out all sound in the vicinity. The noise so powerful it filled their hearts and shook their bodies. Distantly the leader screamed at his men "Get in formation, form three rows for the volley, first row be ready to fire on my mark, second and third be on standby but ready to aim and fire at a moments notice"

The fanalis unknowing of what they were saying to one another kept her eyes to the sky. Coming from the dark clouds was a marvelous creature. A blue whale, with a beautiful and adorned body, massive wings on each side instead of fins. It moved with grace, the sky was its domain. That was clear by looking at the massive beast, it was not something easily trifled with, yet these men were her to try to take down such a creature. As its body was visible the archers had unleashed a volley of explosive arrows. The floating sky whale flapped his wings with great force, a gust of wind knocking the arrows away. As its wings drew back the second and third volley would follow after the creature. This time aimed above the beast, causing it to move down. The explosives exploding around him more so then actually being able to hit it. The storm was managing to keep the creature safe. It seemed they were using their bows to keep the creature contained, or trying to redirect it closer to land.

The lioness wouldn't be able to stand watch. Her sword on her back Merrze would starting running towards the group. Soon breaking into top speed. As she closed in on them in a matter of seconds one of the archers would notice her signalling the others. Aiming towards her three of them would fire a few explosive arrows. Merrze barely avoiding them jumped to the side, the explosions knocking her down. "I really don,t have a good history with explosives" she muttered to herself. Their leader would let out a loud order to his men. "Get the beast as close to the ground as possible, I'll make take care of this girl quickly, then we shall kill the beast.

The portly man would walk close to her, drawing his magical tool from his back, holding it by the barrel. "Alright girly, I'm going to kill you which is dreadful, you would've made a good slave." He would bring down the weapon trying to strike her. The fanalis drawing her sword from her back would knock it away with a swift motion. Parrying his blow caused the man to stumble, she would attempt to slash him, using the tool once again he would clash with her sword. She kicked him in the shins, then kneeing the man in his chest. The blow caused him to fly away from her by a couple feet. The warrior would leap with her sword in the air attempting to strike him. It would prove to be in vain, with his magical tool in hand he aimed it upon Merrze. A blast of concussive energy striking her. Sending the fanalis far away from the group of men.

He had a triumphant glare, believing he had bested the girl. Certainly she was in a great deal of pain. A burning, stabbing sensation had filled her chest. A couple of ribs had been broken from the blast. She stumbled a little yet managed to regain her footing. Adrenaline filled her system, making the fanalis move past the pain. Her eyes lifted towards the horror of the hunt. The whale had been forced closer to the ground, fighting back with winds and the storm. It was winning, but slowly it shifted, the creature was waning. As if hungry, its possible they had been following the beast for a while and tried cutting of its food supply.

Their leader approached near the creature ahead of them with his magical tool out pointed towards the beast. The tool glowed, and a thud happened as something from above forced the beast down to the ground. Strength magic, that's how he manged to knock down Merrze and keep the creature down. He held the rifle up keeping it pointed, it seemed he needed to maintain it to keep the sky whale down. "Grab your blades men, we want this to be a clean kill after all, I'll keep the creature down. Make sure it dies and stayed dead. Aim for points like its eyes and the wings, make it bleed out" he chuckled out his command, a wicked grin ran across the mans face. The fanalis face filled with rage, a man so vile did not deserve to escape this.

Her legs buckled, as she pushed herself through the pain. Mustering as much strength as possible, she pressed forward. The earth thundering under her foot with great force. Stampeding towards their leader she let out a loud roar. Catching the attention of his troops and even the whale. She held her hand open, slamming into the face of the portly gentlemen. A loud crunch followed by a scream was made when she grasped the mans skull. Furiously slamming his head into the ground. Then tearing up with great force to remove it from its torso. Bloodcurdling sounds being released as the flesh tore and the bone snapped. The whale screaming as it was freed, but men were on the creature. Stabbing it, harming the creature, seemingly damaged by the crushing force that it was freed from.

Her onslaught was not over yet, she would grab the mans magical tool. Then with it in hand she would charge the troops. First leaping upon the floating beast. She would dash towards the ones attacking its vitals. Bashing them with the blunt of the item in her hand. Knocking them off the beast, bones breaking some of them dying from the impact other injured to the point they fell of the beast. Singling them out she managed to get the ones atop the beast of it, the rest were climbing up to surround the fanalis. Ten of them surround her with swords, knives and axes. Charging towards her the fanalis swept knocking most of them away. Some got close, managing to stab her left thigh. She swung the item in her palm against his skull shattering the bone inside. Sending the man flying.off the beast. Then using her good leg she would leap target to target, breaking bones. Knocking them off the beast.

With the injured creature free it ascended into the sky slowly, moving at a much slower speed then before. The fanalis tired and in pain fell on her back. Lying on the creature, the stormy sky poured rain upon her as they entered the clouds. Her eyes started to close. Tired out from the fight she drifted off to sleep, hoping the whale didn't knock her off while she rode upon it..

When the fanalis awoke she would find herself still upon the beast. Riding it's back.she stared off into the sky. The sun was starting to set. The skies color changing and as was the weather. The clouds from earlier when she was awake were disappearing. Small streaks of black clouds littered the sky. It was a beautiful sight, her body was aching and so was the whales. But they got to share this beautiful sight of the sunset. She would begin to speak to the animal as the enjoyed the few of the tiger stripped sky.

"Alright little buddy, now that I've gotten a chance to rest how about I heal the both of us up." Pulling out her metal vessel as she spoke to it.

---

She As a few days had passed she had learned to get to know the creature. Learning about his eating patterns, how it lived. Surprisingly the creature could sleep while flying which was interesting. The had bonded as she healed it. Their wounds were better and strong bond was forming. Seemingly it understood her. She had yet to know if it was capable of speech, but they had their own way of communicating. Now they headed towards her camp, she had a new and powerful ally to help with her battles.

word count: 2056/2000