Matriarch pet prompt 1 - Taha, Elise, Lillie

Enchased in the stone laid the Matriarch, her body a mix of crystals and blood from where they were removed. She had been laying there, whimpering, for hours. The reos with healing magic had depleted their strength, but the workload was high, so they could not stop, even if she was in pain. 

 

As some point, while the four reos worked on cleaning crystals from the cave bed and bringing them to the designated area to be brought outside, Cailu and some other caregivers had brought the Matriarch a creature they had never seen, a kind of porcupine of some sort, only instead of quills it had crystals growing out of it's back, all slim and prickly like those of a porcupine. The Matriarch's pain was heard by all of them, with her low whines, cries and hisses, but once she saw the nyxthorn she had smiled, as if they could quell the pain with their presence alone. Cailu had explained that they were like pets, for her. That they had lived here with them for a long time, mutated, and that this specific family had been very close to the Matriarch for years, living amongst them instead of in the tunnels. 

 

The nyxthorn had stayed with the matriarch for an hour, but someone collapsing from exhaustion and falling 5 meters from where they were extracting crystals, as well as every reos rushing to aid them and check they hadn't broken anything, all the commotion scared the poor creatures.

 

So Cailu came to them, who were the less busy of the flurry of reos helping the matriarch, and requested them to go search for the nyxthorn once again, as the Matriarch could still use the distraction of seeing her pet play, at least for the next hour they all had agree to work, where crystals would be pulled from her body without any anesthesia or healing spell.

 

Their search began with tracking small signs of their passage, with a quill found smack in the middle of broken crystal shards. It would have been impossible to find, but Lillie had good eyes and spotted the slim shape along the bigger pieces. The quill shimmered differently as well, a multicolored hue instead of one single color like the other crystals around it. 

 

Taha looked around the area where they found the quill and pointed her nose towards a tunnel to the side, "this way" she said while jumping towards it. 

 

Lillie spread her wings and started flying in the tunnel, as the tunnel was big enough to do, and Elise considered doing the same before giving up, knowing it wouldn't be wise to leave Haldor all alone to get lost in the tunnels. 

 

Lillie kept in the air but did not stray too far away from them, just guided them all forwards when she saw something shine below her. On the ground, Taha, Elise and Haldor followed the sparsely scattered quills, clearly broken ones from the rush of getting away instead of carefully dropped as a path.

 

They followed the trail until they found the family of nyxthorns in another crystal room, edges all jagged but surface wide enough for a small creature to stand. It was too small for a tyrian or even vayron to stan on though, so they stopped at the entrance and looked at them.

 

Looking at each other and understanding that Haldor would be useless, Taha, Elise and Lillie took to the air, wings beating powerfully as they reached the top of the cavern, this also covered in crystals, and dived down to the nyxthorn's positions. There was four of them, so they would have to prioritize three and get the last one later on. Each of them chose one of the nyxthorn and started the pursuit, waving through crystals and changing directions as soon as the small creatures did. It was chaos, with three tyrians flying in the same confined space, but they managed to get all three of the nyxthorn they had set their eyes on. 

 

They went back to Haldor and deposited the creatures on the ground, and while they were holding them, Haldor tied a rope around them and tied them to his body, so that they would not be able to escape. 

 

The last nyxthorn however, it was fast. It darted left, then right, its body twisting and turning with an agility that defied logic. It scurried up the side of a crystal as if it had suction cups for hands and then vaulted off, its quills bristling as it landed to stop any of the tyrians from grabbing it.

 

Lillie folded her wings and dropped, leg talons outstretched, but the creature twisted at the last moment, dodging beneath her. Elise dove down face first and snapped her jaws inches from its quills, getting nothing but air.

 

In the end it was Taha that caught it, cutting it's escape route from Elise's mouth and grabbing it with her front paws. She then had to do an emergency flap, as she almost fell and impaled herself on very pointy crystals. 

 

As they all went back to Haldor, they tied the last nyxthorn and secured it to Taha. They then detached two of the three from Haldor and, with each of them holding one tied to themselves, they started the trek back to the Matriarch's chamber.

 

They would surely bring her comfort once she saw them again.