AN AUTUMN MOUNTAIN ☆ open, fox "attack"

[RHINESTONE.]

[glow=#b8dcf8,2,300]▶ NATURE'S CORRUPTED IN FACTORIES FAR AWAY ◀[/glow]

It wasn't often that Palmclan found themselves having to deal with animals from the forest. Although one of their boundaries was very much in the middle of the forest, it wasn't often that most were brave enough to explore very far into it. In addition to that, it was exceedingly rare for anything to come out of forest, either. Most animals were perfectly happy where they were among the thick trees, and they saw no reason to leave their safe area and head out onto the beach. In most cases, this worked out well for both parties. The animals within the forest remained undisturbed – save for a bit of forest prey that the clan hunted – and Palmclan never had to worry about getting invaded by feral beasts. Rhinestonestar was particularly glad for that as of late, seeing as the clan was only just beginning to recover from the chaos that the hurricane had wrought upon them all. If they had bears or wolves coming out of the trees trying to hunt them, then they would've had far from enough warriors to even begin to imagine fighting them off. While they now had a dinosaur on their side in the form of Stormspine, Rhine still wasn't exactly about to go beating on the trees looking for trouble.

Unfortunately, sometimes trouble came looking for them. It had been the early hours of the morning when Rhine had emerged from his den, shaking out his pelt and taking in the salty morning air. He had stretched his lanky body out, claws digging into the sand as he did his usual wake up routine. Turning, he headed towards the freshkill pile, intent on getting himself some breakfast to chomp down before he maybe went for a swim. However, he paused in the middle of his search for food, startled by the sound of shifting rocks and sand from up above. His gaze narrowed, moving upward to the edges of Palmclan's sandy valley camp. To his horror, there were two red foxes standing there, their long snouts up in the air as they sniffed about, obviously having caught scent of the clan below. With the fur along the back of his spine standing up, the leader found himself yelling around the camp, tone desperate, "Foxes! There are two foxes out from the forest, someone make sure that the nursery is defended!" The foxes hadn't yet attacked, but one of their heads shot up when Rhinestone spoke, letting out a high pitched yip as they began to descend into the camp below.

[Luciferr]

STORMSPINE - male - spinosaurus - palmclan - warrior

Storm had been idly dozing, as was his wont when nothing seemed to be urgent and he had no current duties - but Storm, ever since the days he’d been nameless and lost his nest and their family in the savages attack had garnered a habit of being a light sleeper.

So it was when the call came up from their fearless leader - that the great behemoth rose up as a bulwark in front of the den - the fearful mothers that had gathered their kits now looking up as his shadow blocked the opening, the great spine and bulk of him unsurpassable to the red furred slightly bigger small ones.

Sly ones - foxes - and a great rattling hiss rose from his chest, enough to send the chills through any creature smaller than the spined lizard.

Which were a great many creatures given his size.

The foxes paused at the sight of him - ants to a titan.

Stormspine did not roar - not yet - for he did not wish to rattle the ears and frighten the very kits he was trying to protect, but he did lean further, teeth snapping at the sly ones and claws flaring.

If they made the terrible judgement of leaping in an attempt to get through the gaps - well they’d end up skewered.

Stormspine took his job very seriously - and he would not let one small one hatchling be lost on his watch.

He was not a helpless hatchling to a savage one anymore - now he was the Titan to the far smaller would be savages.

[RHINESTONE.]

[glow=#b8dcf8,2,300]▶ NATURE'S CORRUPTED IN FACTORIES FAR AWAY ◀[/glow]

Rhinestonestar silently thanked Starclan for the fact that they had sent Stormspine to them. After all, the group probably would've been able to deal with both foxes quite handily even with just their feline members, but the towering spinosaurus certainly did make both of the mischievous creatures stop in their tracks. Rhine immediately leaped from his perch atop the meeting rock, snarling right alongside Stormspine as he stood tall. One of the foxes seemed to get the message, opting not to go for the nursery, but instead dart towards the prey pile. The vulpine got an eyeful of Rhinestone's claws as soon as it got close, a hiss leaving him, "Away from our food, you horrid little wretch!" That seemed to be enough, considering the creature reeled back with a hounded howl, snapping its jaws at Rhinestonestar before turning and rushing out of the camp, towards the trees.

However, the other fox was either too stupid or too naively brave to be properly terrified by Stormspine's presence. It let out a loud wail of fury as its companion darted off, descending into the camp and directly towards the nursery. Rhine turned just in time to see the fox leaping towards Storm's face, attempting to drag a clawed paw down the massive creature's face and over one of his eyes. Despite the fact that he knew Stormspine was far from in a lot of danger, Rhine still found himself calling out instinctively, eyes wide, "Stormspine! Face!" He then twisted away from his position at the prey pile, ready to strike if the spinosaurus could somehow not handle the sly creature leaping at him.

[Luciferr]

STORMSPINE - male - spinosaurus - palmclan - warrior

He’d turned to watch the one scamper off when rhinestone’s warning reached him in time for his snout to swerve away from the claws aiming for his eyes and instead those deadly conical teeth were what the Fox got a face full of instead as they gripped the small mammal and a wail across from the sly red furred creature at the sudden pain.

Stormspine was not cruel however - and his tastes resided more with aquatic creatures though if when food was scarce he’d have reconsidered, but he tossed away the wounded sly one, watching it sail away over the nest border to land painfully and quickly limp away.

It had been lucky Stormspine hadn’t simply killed it this time - but deterrents were good enough and for such a large predator, he didn’t feel the need to be ruthlessly cruel unless they didn’t learn their lesson and came back again anyway.

Turning, the spined dinosaur shifted to look inwards at the nesting den ”is everyone alright?” he asked softly at the nursing mothers and their hatchlings - to which a chorus of shaky yes’ answered the two tonne predator.

[RHINESTONE.]

[glow=#b8dcf8,2,300]▶ NATURE'S CORRUPTED IN FACTORIES FAR AWAY ◀[/glow]

Relief flooded through Rhinestone as he watched Stormspine's actions, even though he knew full well that there was little chance of the beast truly getting hurt. The most the fox could've done is injured the other's eyes or more vulnerable areas – which was exactly what it had attempted to do – but the warrior had shut it down handily. Despite this, the leader still felt a knot of worry in his chest as he moved over to where Stormspine was standing, feeling incredibly tiny next to the male as he looked upwards, "Stormspine, are you alright? It seemed like you had it handled, but... if you have any injuries, I don't want you hiding them." Thankfully, it seemed as though the leader's warning had been enough to save Stormspine from any potential sight-loss, something that would have been detrimental to the entire clan. After all, you didn't want a massive prehistoric reptile stumbling around in a half blind state. Not when your camp was so incredibly vulnerable – or in general, really.

After questioning Stormspine about his physical state, Rhinestone turned his pale gaze towards the tree line, watching the forest carefully. He could still see the retreating forms of the foxes, and he found himself shaking his head before he mumbled, "I'll need to send more patrols along the forest border... just to make sure that this doesn't happen again." They were lucky that Storm had been here today, but the warrior couldn't constantly remain within camp.