Dog-beasts

On the balcony with Lady Relia's young neighbor were two dog-headed beastmen. The two creatures circled the young woman toying with her like a pack hounding a young doe. By your side Demetria sees her sister's plight as clearly as you.

"Please, you have to get Thalia!" Her small hand reaches up to grasp your forearm with surprising strength. "I'll do anything you want. Don't let those things eat her." You rather suspect that what those two drooling beasts might have a different plan for the Athenian maiden dressed only in her sheer nightgown.

The memory of the young maid thrashing under the toadmen is still burned into your mind, if her sister wasn't clinging to your arm, you might have ended her misery with a carefully placed arrow. Even if her sister had not been watching your every move you doubt you could even pull off a shot like that anyway. The three bodies on the balcony are moving in a chaotic dance as the dog-headed beasts play with their prize.

"No, get away!" Thalia's panicked cry pierces the unnatural half-light of the night, and you see the larger of the two beasts teeth rip away the poor young woman's thin gown. With a grunt of frustration, you nudge Swiftwing towards the ledge and prepare for another dive from the drake tower. The rush of the cool night air as you take flight is a cold reminder of how risky this second foray into the madness of what is happening.

Swift rises with powerful beating of his wings and you are ready with an arrow as you climb level with the balcony and see the two have positioned Thalia (appropriately enough) on her hands and knees so they could mount her from behind. The shaft hits the beast-man square in his back so hard that it sinks almost to the fletching. With a howl, the creature jerks upright and whirls around but by the time he realizes where you are you are already thirty feet above the beast. A second arrow strikes down on his neck right in the gap just inside the collarbone. Either one of these shots would have been almost instantly fatal on a normal man but instead of dropping to the tiled floor on the balcony the dogman reached for the shaft by his drooling teeth and snapped it off with a snarl of pain and anger.

The other dogman has the sense to start dragging the older sister back into the safety of the mansion, but the larger of the barks something at it and the two join together on the edge of the railing snarling and jumping in excitement. You could continue to launch arrows at the pair but considering how little effect the first two arrows had been you urge Swiftwing down again hopefully far enough away for the creatures as you swoop around the West wall of the mansion and come up on the far side. You were half expecting one or both of the creatures to leap out at you, but the figure that flies from the balcony is the naked sister who lands on the drake's back just behind your saddle.

"Get out of here!" You're not used to taking orders from naked women, but under the circumstances the advice is as timely as it is sound. just as you veer away the shape of the smaller of the pair flies by before slamming into the ground twelve paces below with a yelp. To your surprise, unlike her panicked sister, who you had to hold tightly to keep her slipping from your grip, Thalia swings easily behind you, wedging her feet into the fighting straps on either side of you and her hands grip your shoulders firmly. It is the 'riding second' position Riders learn even before they are allowed to mount their own drakes.

You take the time to take a circuitous route back to the drake tower where the rest of your motley party are waiting. It may not work, but the last thing you want is to lead a pack of those unnatural monsters right to your refuge. As you fly, Thalia settles against you with her knees tucked under your arms and her chin resting on your shoulder. It is not your imagination; this young woman is as comfortable on the back of a drake as you are.