Deathmaw and it's chasing someone, or something

John kneeling near the tracks started to analyze it in hope of determining if there was any threat around before setting camp for the night. He knew one of the tracks were those of a deathmaw and the other was left by some footwear, the young man didn't really like the idea of getting ambushed in his sleep by a deathmaw or anything for that matter.

" Humm, deathmaw definitively running after something, not more than a couple of hours ago." Said the prince to himself, the other tracks were not so deep and the distance between them seemed to indicate a biped not too tall, a bit shorter than the average human. That left John with a dilemma, Either he followed the tracks and see who had won the fight or he stayed here and set his camp. On one hand, if the deathmaw had won he was probably well fed and wouldn't look for other prey for a while. On the other, the prey might still be alive and in need of help.

John decided that having someone or something, used to at least the wasteland between the scar and the wildlands, owing him would be a good thing and started to follow the trail. After about 10 minutes the incubus arrive at some old ruins where he found some blood along the trail.

' Not much of it and it's red, not the blue of a deathmaw meaning the prey is wounded. Well, at least it was not enough to stop it from running away.' Thought the young tracker while carefully venturing into the ruins. It didn't take long before he started to hear a sound he was familiar with, the growling and whining of a deathmaw was a distinctive sound and also meant that the beast was still hunting. John silently moved around a corner and found his target, the animal was pacing along a wall, sniffing the air and growling toward the top of it.

(note... imagine that a bit bigger and with 6 legs. If anyone has a better pic pls PM me, that was the best I could find.)

The deathmaw was distracted but John knew it was still a big risk to engage it, especially in a confined space like these ruins. With minimal room to evade, the animal agility would give it a big advantage. Another problem was his sword, the strategist knew the weak spot of a deathmaw but to strike it in a confined space was easier said than done. He could try to surprise it and just strike as hard as he could, but the top of a deathmaw was incredibly well armored and if it didn't work it would leave John wide open for his maw.

There was only one other thing to do, so the incubus carefully moved to the center of the room before getting the beast attention.

" HEY! " Shouted John holding his sword firmly in front of his body. The effect was immediate, the deathmaw jumped around and quickly scooped John with his eyes before emitting a low threatening growl. The young incubus was regretting not bringing Lety with him, although there was not really any space here for the mare to fight any more than he had.

It surprised John that the deathmaw hadn't attack yet, It was looking at him with its head low and paced left to right like it was trying to find a weakness. John knew he had to push the animal to jump at him so he could strike at its underbelly, so the strategist lowered his sword until it was pointing toward the ground, at the feet of the deathmaw hoping it would take the opening and jump at his throat. The deathmaw didn't move from his spot, still eyeing John and trying to intimidate him with growls and small twitch of his spinal spikes.

' Great, fall on the one deathmaw who seems to have a brain ... in ruins ... with barely any room to maneuver. That's just my luck, so fucking great.' Thought the incubus trying to think of a way to bait the animal to attack.

" Come on boy, don't my neck is tempting enough?" Asked the prince starting to lose patience.

" It's a female, way more intelligent than their male counterpart." A voice informed John, it was coming from an alcove in the corner of the room. John could only guess it was the prey since it was too dark to see.

" Great, just great ... have any weapon? I wouldn't mind a little help here." Asked the prince staying focused on the beast.

" No, I usually use magic when him in trouble. However, she dodged anything I threw at her so I thought I would come in here to limit her movement." Answered the voice. John guessed it came from a girl since it was a pretty soft and high pitched voice.

" Well, don't let me stop you, I would do it but I'm not that good with offensive spells." Said the strategist fighting the urge to slap himself in the face for not thinking about it before engaging the deathmaw.

" Yea, here is the thing. I thought it was a good idea until I got here and realized how unstable these ruins are, anything I throw has a good chance of collapsing that ole thing on us." Revealed the stranger in an apologetic tone.

" Just fucking great! OK, here what's we're going to do. I'm gone a try and lure it outside and when we're out you can blast it with everything you got ... and please don't miss." Planned the incubus before slowly backing away and trying to keep the deathmaw attention.

After some effort, John was finally at the entrance of the ruins and getting ready to lure the beast outside. With the females being more intelligent it would make it way harder to bait her out, but John knew just how to do it. When he had some distance between them he would take off and run, hoping to trigger the maw predatorial instinct when he would turn his back to it.

However, as soon that there was enough room the creature launched out of the ruins and moved around him. Now the deathmaw was trapping him against the ruins and when his mysterious friend showed up the chance of hitting his spell would be low. Still, with both of them, their chance was far better than alone. The deathmaw was slowly circling and watched John carefully, What was odd was that it wasn't growling or moving its dorsal spikes anymore.

" Interesting, that's not typical behavior for a deathmaw, even a female would be acting way more aggressively in this situation." Curiously said the now revealed male. Before John could respond the female deathmaw emitted a loud high pitched sound while looking at the prince and then took off walking away from them at a steady pace. When the stranger started talking again John took the time to look at him.

" It is truly fascinating, I've never seen a deathmaw react that way before. It seems to have decided we were too much trouble to hunt but not enough of a threat to run away." Said the elf clearly curious about it. John didn't really care what it was thinking as long as the deathmaw left them alone. The young incubus made a quick assessment of this stranger and decided that he could at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

" Name's John, John Shepard. You're welcome by the way." Said John amused by the elf rambling and quick talking.

" Yes, of course, you have my thanks, John Shepard. If you hadn't found me it would have been problematic, deathmaw are known to be ... quite tenacious when it comes to a potential source of food. My name is Link, just Link." Thanked the elf while offering his hand which John took and shook before noticing a little blood on his arm.

" You going to be alright there." Asked the incubus at the sight.

" Oh yes, just a scratch, nothing to worry about I assure you. However, if you have any water I would appreciate it, running for one's life can give quite the thirst." Said Link before accepting John gourd and drinking some of it and giving it back.

" Well, I was just about to set camp for the night, might as well do it here. You're welcome to stay if you want, need to get some sleep if I want to make any progress toward the great forest tomorrow." Said John mentioning his destination deliberately. Link smiled a little before nodding.

" I saw some dry wood in the ruins that would be perfect for a fire, I'll go get it." Said the elf helpfully before taking off and leaving John. After having set the camp and started the fire, John took a rabbit he had killed when looking for a suitable place to sleep and made quick work of preparing it for cooking. The incubus offered half of it to his new companion when it was ready.

" Thank you, John Shepard. It is rare to find generous people this in these part." Thanked again Link, while eating the offering.

" Don't worry about it, and please call me John." Offered the incubus before returning to his dinner.

Link was very sensitive to magic and everything about his new companion was screaming powerful, what surprised him was that he didn't felt threatened at all. This man had some kind of warm and comforting aura, The young elf didn't know why, but he immediately trusted him even before they had talked.

The question was, why does this intriguing young man was heading to the wildlands and if Link wanted to tag along? It was usually a good thing to have someone you can trust in these part, but the elf mage also knew power like those always attract trouble and unwanted attention.