It was a bright, warm afternoon, and the radios hosts final broadcast had went off earlier that day.
Asra’s cheery voice rang out over the radio frequency, announcing a new ‘challenge’ for the townsfolk in the form of terrified, rampaging, Nostrambus.
Sure, there was definitely a good handful of worried finley out there in the town proper, but Jessie instead just snorts at hearing the announcement, wrapping up some of her activities in the Varkery stables as her boss, also named Jessie, walks through the door.
‘Heya bossman, that radio spirit said she brought some nasty critters with her for the final challenge….should i bring in Teef and Peacekeeper from the paddock early, just in case? Dont want Peacekeeper getting carried away by some bigass rat with wings.’
The Leporid Nyulop leans against a support beam of the stable, scratching his goatee for a second as he thought, before nodding to the Fire Draken.
‘Might as well. Damn shame though, its a lovely afternoon for this late in the year. Though I think i seen one of them “Nostraumbus” critters flying around about a mile or so south, so be on the alert y’hear?’
The Fire Draken nods to her boss, moves her hair out of her eyes before grabbing a couple ropes, and jogs out into the enormous paddock. She squints as the sun hits her eyes as she scans for any sign of the Varkery pair, unable to catch sight of either animal on her cursory glance over the acres of long grass.
Grunting in frustration as her still child-sized wings flap uselessly on her back, Jessie begins the hike on foot further into the paddock, going to check near the strand of trees far out into the prairie in front of her.
Unfortunately, thats also the direction of a tiny black speck circling high up in the sky above. She assumes thats the Nostra that was prewarned about, and her teeth grit together. A fight wasnt exactly the highest up on her list, though she was plenty capable of handling herself when it came to combat.
Around thirty minutes pass as she continues her search for the Varkery, a wary eye kept to the sky every once in awhile. The dark speck had been getting lower and lower, details of the beasts build coming into view the closer it got.
Four large purple wings beat the air, gliding on the warm airstreams the unseasonably hot day brought with it, and its head seems to be tilted towards the ground, equally watchful to the bright orange Draken walking through the pale yellow and ashy green grasses like a neon sign.
The tension between the Draken and Nostra was palpable, both wary, on edge, and watchful. The further the Draken went towards the forest strand, the closer the Nostra came to the ground, clearly guarding something.
As soon as Jessie was within a mile of the trees, the Nostra bellows, and starts to dive towards the ground, folding its wings in towards its sides, and opening its maw, teal embers flying out as it charges a fiery attack.
Jessie, seeing the sudden change in demeanor breaks into a sprint, an errant “FUCK” flying out of her mouth as she bolts to cover. While fireproof herself, she dosent feel like containing a rampant wildfire this far away from town or water. With just half a mile to go, the Nostra lands in front of the Fire Draken, skidding to a stop and whipping around to face its newest prey target with a snarl on its muzzle.
Jessie slides to a stop, nearly stumbling over a concealed rock, but gets into a fighting stance quickly as she recovers. She glances behind the Nostra, catching a quick glimpse of Peacekeeper's rusty spotted coat darting through the bushes, the tip of Teef’s large horn close behind. So the Nostra WAS guarding the Varkery, seeing Jessie as a threat to its food source…thank the Circles she came out to the pasture when she did.
“Alright ya big sombitch, i aint letting you eat those Varkery, so you best get out of here ‘fore i punch that nasty mug of yours. Or we fight proper. Its your choice really.”
Jessie’s foot scoots out to better center her gravity, eyes locked firmly onto the enormous beast in front of her. Beady emerald eyes bore into the Fire Drakens frame, and massive glistening white fangs are exposed in a warning snarl, the Nostras breathing heavy, and throaty. Bright green-blue sparks still fall from the beasts mouth, and the Nostra roars as it lunges its neck forward, unleashing a stream of bright teal fire directly upon Jessie’s body.
She yells instinctively as the flames lick over her skin with a tingling, warm, sensation, and jumps further into the flaming onslaught, uppercutting the Nostras jaw with a harsh clicking of fangs and sudden cuttoff of fire. Using the beasts sudden distraction, she runs forward with one of her ropes in hand, leaping onto the Nostra’s back and firmly grabbing handfuls of the copious amounts of downy fluff gracing its neck.
A startled bleat leaves the Nostra’s mouth as Jessie’s weight settles between its wings, and its wings spread instinctively, preparing to launch itself into the air where it has dominion.
“ Oh no you dont you nasty bastard, you’re staying right down here.”
The Fire Draken states, struggling between the Nostra’s frantic movement and wing flapping. She holds the rope between her claws, reaching around the Nostras neck, trying to loop it around the beasts muzzle to contain the fire, which she DOES end up doing thanks to her practice with rowdy Varkery, but Jessie also unfortunately ends up getting solidly uppercutted by the Nostra flinging its head back, her jaws clashing together as the beast struggles underneath her.
Blood runs down her muzzle as her nose bleeds from the impact, but Jessie continues wrangling the beast, thighs clamped over the main set of wings to prevent the now panicked animal from taking off.
Once she has the jaw confirmed secure, she grabs the rope harshly, yanking the Nostra’s muzzle back to its neck, trying to tip the critter onto its back where she can further tie it down. A muffled roar erupts from the Nostra as it flails backwards, smoke billowing from its nostrils as flames extinguish inside of its maw, unable to escape due to the makeshift bridle.
Jessie yanks back harder, a grimace clear on her expression as she uses her entire body’s strength to wrestle against the flailing Nostras might, the beast losing its balance as it steps backwards repeatedly, before catching on a rock similarly to how Jessie herself did at the beginning of the fight, and proceeding to fall onto its side, minorly crushing the Draken hugging onto its neck.
Jessie grunts as the animals weight crushes into her, but using her experience, rolls out from under its neck, and quickly begins to tuck its wings to its side as it struggles to get up. Rope flies under the Draken’s experienced claws, wrapping the Nostra’s wings up securely to prevent flight, and tied off with a hardy knot that's resisted many a rowdy Knight Varkery.
She finishes tying up the Nostra’s maw once she secures its wings, and gets up after finishing, panting harshly and shaking from adrenaline.
Blood drips into the grass from her busted up nose, and she absentmindedly wipes it on the back of her wrist.
The animal in front of her was still harshly struggling to get up, its back legs thrashing wildly into the grass, trying to get purchase and balance without its main set of wings to help, which isnt helping the animal much at all.
Jessie whistles loudly for the Varkery hiding in the trees behind where the spectacle took place, grabbing an extra length of rope she dropped on the ground to wrangle Teef for a quick ride back to the stable. She's going to need all the help, and all the rope she can get to properly hold the Nostra captive properly. The large grey Vark lopes out of the brush with a snort, his smaller mate trailing after him.
Jessie pets the Knight’s muzzle fondly, before swinging herself up onto his back, and gently spurring his side with her heels to get him to break out into a gallop towards the stables. She glances back at the hogtied Nostra, watching as the beast catches its breath in the grass.
Here's to hoping it stays down as she grabs help…
Within the half hour, shes back with her boss in tow, and quite a bit more rope tacked onto their Varkerys. They plan to drag the Nostra back to the stable using their two Knights, where they can secure the animal further to an empty tie out. They’re going to have more townsfolk come out to properly help secure the Nostra, and find a way to make it more comfortable…without risking a massive fire outbreak.
She didn't intend on interacting with Asra’s challenge, but successfully winning a solo fight against the Nostra has meant she was one of the few finley to lay claim to the fearsome beasts as one of her own, and Jessie was not planning on releasing the animal to cause more chaos. So, she was now the disgruntled owner of a rather peeved and panicked beasty…..taming it was going to be one HELL of a challenge.