Age of Destruction: Fire Emblem CYOA

Bird does < Dog, but bird has backup this time.

A2,

C Rhett is hurt and he needs help.

C. Have Rhett run. Run far away. RUN ALL THE WAY TO RAND, RHETT, RUN AWAY!

"Rhett, retreat!" Alice orders.  She hurls a sphere of wind between him and the doog to give him some room.

"K," he says.

He's already running when Sylvia has the wherewithal to shout after him.  "Don't go too far, just heal up and come back!"

"K!" he calls back.

The doog tries to give chase, but Allune swoops down on it.  She rakes her talons across its back, picks it up, and hurls it into a tree.  The doog doesn't get back up.

Sylvia hurls a fireball at one of the mogalls.  The flames splash over to the other.  The mogalls glare at her.  One narrows its eye, then unleashes a spell as it snaps open.  Rings of black magic surround Sylvia and slam shut.  She gasps as the evil waves crash against her, then hurls another fireball at the monster.  Alice steps up to draw their attention.  She open her tome, recites an incantation, snaps her arm, and flings a blade of wind at the weakened mogall.  It staggers for a moment, then both attack her at once.

She manages to escape by rolling through the first set of rings.  She leaps up to find herself imprisoned by the second set.  They tighten and begin to crush her.  Alice closes her eyes and blocks out the pain, focusing intently on the spirits surrounding her.  "This... is nothing!  Know the power of nature!"  A tornado erupts at her feet, enveloping her in a cloak of wind.  The dark rings shatter as it flies at the offending mogall.

Alice stumbles from the force of her own spell.  Sylvia leaps to her aid, slashing a mogall with her blade.  She slices through its tendrils, then stabs the blade through its eye.  She yanks it free as the monster falls to pieces.  Allune, reverted to her human form, kicks the other repeatedly.  She hops up, raises her leg high, and slams her heel down in an axe kick, driving the corpse into the ground.

Rhett strolls back with a few of his wounds treated.  "They're dead," he points out.  "And you're not.  Great."

"Yeah, barely..." Sylvia groans.  She plops down and starts catching her breath.

The howl from before rings out again.  Allune and Sylvia can hear something tearing through the brush, running quickly towards the sound of battle.  It's clearly running, not flying.  It doesn't sound particularly large - smaller than a bael, for sure, though maybe a bit larger than most mauthe doogs?  Whatever it is, its howls sound furious.

"Whatever that thing is, the monsters were running from it..." Sylvia points out.

"I...  maybe it's just hungry?  If we leave, maybe it'll be satisfied with these corpses," Allune suggests.  "If we have to fight, though... we should get into the trees and be ready to ambush it."

"There's no point in setting up an ambush if it finds us," Sylvia tells her.  "If it was able to hear the fighting...  It may be best to just spend this time getting into a defensive formation."

---

Alice: 6/10

Allune: 11/14
(transformation gauge: 80%)
Sylvia: 5/13

Rhett: 12/12

(A) Run
(B) Set up an ambush
(C) Hide and try to avoid it
(D) Stand your ground and prepare/heal

Assuming it's a Gwyllgi- which I'm 99% sure it is- trying to run is a horrible idea. No way we're going to outrun a Gwyll. Hiding is also probably not a good idea, since Gwyllgi have an extremely good sense of smell. That means ambushing it is also probably going to be really difficult.

I'll go with D as well.

Alice quietly pulls out a vulnerary and begins rubbing the medicine across the worst of the ligature injuries.  Sylvia and Alice follow her lead and begin treating their own injuries.  Allune puts herself between the others and the forest.  After some nudging by Sylvia, Rhett takes a place beside Alice.  Sylvia guards her other.  They quietly wait for the incoming threat.

After a few short moments, the sound of its approach is audible even to Rhett.  Allune pockets her vulernerary and wraps herself in her wings, bursting out as a hawk.  She hovers just in front of Alice, ready to intercept the threat.  A shadow appears, darting through the brush, moving closer and closer.  Finally, a young man bursts out onto the trail.

"Stupid monsters... making me chase them all this way..." he mutters to himself.  He wears a dress shirt with a proper jacket, fancy black pants, and unusually fine shoes.  He has the furred and pointed ears usually marked for laguz, and a large, well-groomed tail - black, with a light-purple tip.  He picks twigs and leaves from his short, carefully trimmed lilac hair.  He suddenly seems to notice the others for the first time.  He looks between them for a few seconds, looks at the dead monsters, sniffs a few times, and finally settles on Sylvia.

His demeanor shifts on a dime, and he swaggers over with an unnatural confidence, tail wagging in time with his steps.  "Well, what have we here?  Looks like a trio of lovely ladies went and snatched up my prey.  A lovely young mage, a mature and beautiful hawk, and the foxiest fox I've ever laid eyes on.  Guess this hunt wasn't a total waste, seeing as I got to feast my eyes on you charming cuties.  Heh heh...  On second thought, the hunt's not over.  I've just got some different prey."

Sylvia looks at him in confusion, unsure how to respond by his brazen advances.  Allune reverts to her human form and hides her face behind a wing, trying not to laugh in his face.  Rhett steps forward and points his axe at him.  "She's not prey.  You shouldn't threaten her."

He holds up his hands defensively.  "Whoa, hey, no.  I'm trying to hit on her."

"You'll find she's pretty hard to hit," Rhett says.  "I would know.  We spar a lot."

The young man looks at Alice, suddenly not so confident.  "Um...  Little help here?"

(A) Let him get himself out of this
(B) Call Rhett off
(C) Take him down personally
(D) Flirt back

(1) Ask who he is first
(2) Ask what he's doing here first
(3) Ask if he's what the monsters were running from first

A1

Alice gives him a small grin and a shrug.  The young man frowns and turns back to Rhett.  "Look, uh... I'm not sure if you're serious?"

"No, I'm Rhett.  Who're you?"

"Suarrure," he says reflexively.

"Swa... roar...? Sawrer...? Swa... Swa... Swarooo..."  Rhett frowns as he stumbles trying to say it.

Suarrure cracks up laughing.  "Good try!  A lot of people have a hard time of it.  And I actually kinda like that pronunciation.  Swarooooooo!" he howls. He laughs a bit more before calming down.  "Thanks for the laugh."

"I've never seen you around the village," Allune says.  "But you're clearly no beorc."

"The village...?"  Suarrure thinks for a minute before realization flashes across his face.  "No way, don't tell me I wandered all the way to Sefa Forest!?  Aw, I need to get going.  Enjoy the corpses!"

"Hang on," Sylvia says.  "We just killed these things because they attacked us, we weren't hunting them.  You're welcome to the bodies, though I can't imagine why you'd want them.  We were just going to burn them."

"Burn, huh?"  Suarrure looks throughtful.  "Nah, it'd probably be best raw.  Eh, but it doesn't feel right eating something I didn't kill myself.  Or a member of my pack, at least."

"Eat them!?" Alice says.  "You want to eat monster meat?"

"Well, not particularly," Suarrure admits.  "It's not great.  Keeps you alive, but I'd rather have some nice deer.  But I haven't been able to hunt anything but monsters lately."

"That meat can't be good for you," Allune says.  "Here, I brought some oats and seeds to snack on while I tracked down this little pain."  She glances at Alice.

"Oats?  Seeds?  Er... Thanks, but, uh... no, thanks.  I'd rather have the monsters."

Sylvia smiles knowingly.  "Yeah, I get the feeling.  That type of food's for the birds."

Rhett nods in agreement.  "Yep, it's for Allune."

Sylvia ignores him and starts digging through her pockets.  "Hang on... it's in here somewhere.  I don't much care for travel rations, so I make my own sometimes.  In case the hunting's scarce.  Always keep some on me...  Ah, here we go."  She pulls out a handful of jerky and offers it to Suarrure.  "You can have a bit if you're that hungry."

Alice and Allune share a worried glance.  Rhett turns around to hide his disgust.  Suarrure sniffs at the meat in Sylvia's hand before accepting it.  He takes a bite, then hungrily snarfs the rest.  "Oh, wow...  Maybe it's just that I haven't had a decent meal in three days, but...  No, this is just really good.  You really made this?"  His tail wags happily.

Sylvia starts wagging back. "Yep!" she says, beaming.

Suarrure looks up in wonder.  "Such an amazing dish...  Am I hallucinating?  Or did I die from hunger?  No, now I understand!  That luxurious, silver hair... those glowing, golden eyes... and that sleek, silken tail...  And to show such kindness to a stranger...!  Surely I've stumbled upon a goddess?"

"Nope!" Sylvia says.

Suarrure takes Sylvia's hands and stares deeply into her eyes.  "Then it's not blasphemy to ask for your hand in marriage?"

Sylvia giggles.  "You're moving a bit fast, there.  How about we start with a proper date and a few more compliments?"

Suarrure grins.  "Is that a serious offer?  Bec- oh, whoops."  His ears perk up and he looks to the sky.  "Well, this is a problem.  Looks like they caught up while I was distracted by your beauty.  Forgot to stay in the trees.  You guys should probably get out of here."

Allune and Sylvia are immediately on their guard.  Alice cranes her neck and manages to spot a forms circling high above.  "Are those... crows?"

"Ye-e-e-ep," Suarrure says.  "They've been chasing me for days.  Pretty sure they want me dead.  And they're scaring off all the good game, too!  Even the monsters get a bit freaked out when they're around."

"What'd you do to them?" Allune asks accusingly.

"I just tried to flirt a bit.  And ma-a-aybe I was thinking about trying to steal their eggs, but I didn't even get to try.  As soon as I called out to them, they attacked.  Seriously, something's not right with those guys.  Though there were a lot more a few days ago.  I've been picking them off every time they try to get me.  Pretty sure at this point they're just waiting for me to pass out from exhaustion.  But I'm still rarin' to go!"
 Suarrure flexes his muscles.

"Shut up," Allune says.  "Something's wrong with them, all right.  Really wrong."

"Yeah," Sylvia agrees.

Even at this distance, Alice can tell they're right.  The forest spirits are screaming warnings in her ear.  Three are visible right now, but more could easily be concealed by the clouds, or out of sight thanks to the trees.  "They've been chasing you for three days?"

"No, closer to a week.  I managed to shake them for a bit, though.  They're not so great."  Suarrure starts loosening up his shoulders.  "Looks like they split up, though.  Probably just some scouts.  Now, you guys should get going so you don't tick them off, too.  I'll see if I can't buy you some time."  He pulls out a beaststone and starts playfully flipping it into the air.

---

Suarrure

---

Class: Wolfskin
HP: 14        Str: 12
Magic: 4      Skill: 9
Speed: 11     Def: 9
Res: 6         Luck: 5
Skills: Odd-Shaped, Flierbane

---

(A) Stand and fight
(B) Grab Suarrure and fall to the wayside head into the trees
(C) Ditch Suarrure

I mean, no one in this party is any good at taking hits from regular ol' monsters, and crows were way bigger pains in the asses in comparison.

B.