Oskar limped along, trying to shake the feeling that he’d failed his brother and friends, frustrated and angry.

I didn’t see or hear anything. Caught completely unaware. It was just suddenly there.

He’d actively scanned less than a minute before the attack, regularly reached outward using Sora, on top of looking and listening. He didn’t know what else he could have possibly done, but the weight of responsibility wore down on him like the suns directly above him.

Despite everything, Oskar stayed focused and didn’t let himself become too distracted by his self pity. His eyes remained fixated on the expanse of sand, which remained, to his senses, devoid of any movement.

Not that that means anything.

Oskar knew he was being petulant, but that last comment had been his breaking point. He cracked a bitter smile.

You can’t learn from your mistakes until you stop feeling sorry for yourself.

That had been a Erik-ism he’d lived long enough to know it to be true.

// Glad that's over. //

I know, me too. That takes a lot of energy.

The scene was eerily silent outside the constant wind overhead that sounded like this planet’s final, dying exhale. Oskar realize he’d been holding his own breath. He exhaled and then inhaled deeply, and the scent of dry desert air filled his lungs as he continued to scan the barren landscape.

In retrospect, the only hint anything had been amiss was Penny had been moving quickly back towards the camp, yet even that wasn’t unusual in itself. She wasn’t exuding panic or anything close, just a general anxiety he occasionally felt from her when she’d been away from him too long. She’d been darting around for over an hour in every direction but up, so it hadn’t put him on edge.

He suspected that, like him, she’d also not been able to identify the exact threat. Unlike him, however, she had picked up on some animal instinct that had told her to go back to camp. Now finished beating himself up, he began working on figuring out exactly how the strange, winged Croc thing had escaped his awareness and his natural senses.

It wasn’t anything the Kobolds had ever seen. Moreover, the thing had been covered in a strange black material- had that both masked its injuries and provided it with wings that gave it its astonishing speed and dangerous maneuverability?

There was so much Oskar didn’t understand. He didn’t enjoy being a liability, ambushed and out of the fight before it had properly begun. Luckily his big brother, frail as he was after healing Oskar, had used an ability that Fox claimed damaged and tore away the viscous black material. It had been effective enough that they could damage and kill it. Fox had claimed Erik’s power had done the bulk of the work, even destroying the black wings which seemed to be made of nothing but the blackness.

Touwon had nodded and even offered a rare thumbs up and a raised eyebrow at Fox’s praise of Erik. The official Touwon seal of approval. But it had cost Erik. He rallied a little after an hour of rest and Wayspring water, but the costs he’d paid was too much.

The only thing I do know is that we need to keep him from using his power as much as possible.

Oskar hadn’t had time to stop and make sense of what he’d learned about his own powers, and unfortunately, rest was still not possible. Sora gently spun around him like a gentle breeze brushing against his skin. Patterns of Talau settled after the group walked through, and the thought occured to him he might be able to use Talau to track others, but even a new use of his magic only gave him a small burst of focus.

God, I’m tired.

Ever since the attack from the strange, dark covered creature, they'd hardly stopped moving. They'd been hit in the middle of the night by another trio of Hyena Gliders. Erik had lost all the recovery progress he'd made using his abilities, but even when they stopped to eat and refill their water, Erik slept, and then ate and drank as he walked. After the night and day they'd had, though, Erik was the only one sleeping, and was probably in as good a shape as any of them by now.

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Other than the amputated arm and tongue, and his long term undernourishment. Dude can go to sleep in like thirty seconds. By the time I got my leg off, he's laid out flat. He's snoring by the time I get my liner clean. And he can stand up and walking by the time he's awake. Even with the sleep he's getting, If things keep going like this he's gonna walk himself to death.

The Hyena-men trios always knew where to look as they left the Great Collective, and the Dorn Collective found themselves in this weary cycle of defending themselves and running. They’d taken out two other teams after the midnight attack. After those fights though, the Hyenas had stuck exclusively to fly-by attacks, and Oskar wasn't able to bring his burgeoning powers to full use.

Oskar didn’t want to pull one down with Sora and let the others get away to share his new ability, so he’d been careful to only use the ability when they were sure they could finish the job. However, their enemy didn’t seem to receive updated real-time instructions, so the group had to keep moving while making their way towards the Gryphus' lair, haggard and harried. The tried shifting direction and even did a switchback to throw off the Gliders, but they were quickly found and were forced to watch the sky for ambushes again.

The day before they hoped to get to the Gryphus Vulture's lair, the group thought they had finally lost their pursuers, having pretended to stop at nightfall only to leave a tent standing and set back out without ever stopping.

They were looking forward to having a decent night's sleep, and tried to keep an eye on the sky as they made their way closer to their goal. Exhausted by almost three days with limited sleep, though, they’d made it within half a day’s walk when their luck finally ran out.

The Gliders had become desperate, being pushed almost as hard as Oskar’s Collective. Their sloppy patrols became more unpredictable than ever, which paid off for them when one patrol flew over the group from a blind angle, apparently at random if their frantic hand gestures meant anything.

Using Sora, Oskar had pulled down the rear Glider as the other two were turning to attack, but the other two Hyenas unexpectedly abandoned the attack completely, disappearing over the nearest dune. The clock was now ticking. If they’d forced the Gliders to retreat all the way back to the Great Collective, the group might have had time to escape. However, a minute later an impossible-to-miss yellow smoky trail stretched across the sky far above them. The color stood stark against the red sky like a guiding arrow. One that was pointing right at his new family.

Well, that sucks. The chase is on, now.

The two remaining Gliders stayed far overhead, gliding back-and-forth above them. Ominous, mocking laughter put Oskar’s nerves on edge. He didn’t know if it was a skill or not, but the mockery was making him irrationally angry.

I need to keep moving and not get baited into something foolish.

// This is smart tactics, though. It may have been Valla's orders. //

I really hate her.

He was trying to keep an eye on the Hyenas in case they switched tactics again. He'd turned and was looking up for Hyena-men overhead when Oskar felt something snap in his prosthetic foot. He stumbled at the abrupt loss of momentum and caught himself on his hands, sunk to the wrists in burning hot sand before he straightened and tried to keep moving.

Oh, this thing is completely fragged, Oskar thought with a bitter smirk.

One of the hardware screws that attached the socket to the prosthetic foot had snapped, so the whole thing was now rocking and shifting with every step, and was getting looser. Consequently, his gait was worsening. This finally drove him over the edge into angry desperation, and his survival instinct shifted into something much more violent.

It’s one thing to get stuck on a desert planet with a foot that sinks into the sand every time I run; it’s an entirely different thing when I'm about to get his entire Collective killed because of a freaking hardware issue.

His PUB chimed in, uncommonly serious.

// We doing this? //

Yeah. We are. Target rich environment and all that, Oskar replied, seeing more Gliders in the distance.

Running on instinct- and a fair amount of frustrated anger- he channeled both Sora and Talau. Small rocks and sand lifted around him. They began circling him as the current he was channeling spun about him with growing speed.

He ran awkwardly. Touwon was well in the lead, but both Erik and Fox were seeing his situation unravel. Fox face was calculated and Erik’s showing his rapidly growing concern. Oskar finally came up with a plan.

// More of an idea, really, but I'm with you. You obviously can't keep running on that thing. Good news is, every time you have a crazy idea, I get new data. //

Ahead of the group, the dune valley took a gentle left, so Oskar called out, “Leg is busted. I’m dead if I don’t get in the air,” and kept going straight forward, half climbing, half hopping to the top of the dune to reach the currents above. Erik shot a look back, watching Oskar make his way up the dune.

The wind currents above played out in colors and lines of direction and speed, and suddenly, he realized he could predict it like the melody of a favorite song. His steps, as he climbed the last few yards, grew lighter as Sora pulled him up to where he belonged… spear in hand and into the sky, singing the song he'd had stuck in his head all morning, "Fast As You Can" by Fiona Apple, of all people.

I’ll soar the uneven wind, complain and blame the sterile land.

But if you’re getting any bright ideas, quiet dear. I’m blooming within.

Big, tough, Marine with a Fiona Apple song stuck in his head.

// I don't music shame. Sounds like a catchy tune. //

Oskar smiled at the PUB, and set his eyes on his unsuspecting victims, Sora and Talau still surrounding him.