Orabella sped along through the air, her wings pushing her forward in rapid bounds as she gave chase after an uninvited guest. It was a sizable shadow that had passed overhead initially, which wouldn’t have been the true cause for alarm if not for the fact that said shadow circled back again… And yet again. Circling over her home once, twice, THRICE… Her patience had worn thin rather quickly. And so that’s how she found herself now in hot pursuit of a beast she hadn’t yet ever seen. Another of her own kind, almost. A gryphon, without a shred of doubt, but the bald nature of its wrinkled face from the brief glimpse she had caught was very much not a noctua. Rather her target was cinereous, a vulture. 

And it truly did appear like their lesser relatives, only with the hinds of what looked to be hyena in nature, spotted and tan in juxtaposition with the dark feathers of its gigantic wings. Good fortune was one Orabella’s side, however, for despite how large her ‘visitor’s’ wings were, it seemed that the opposing gryphon’s own size slowed it down significantly. The Midaas made quick work of catching up, falling into enough range for her to part her golden beak and fire off a hefty stream of paralytic luster powerful enough to have completely emptied her dewlaps. Her strike landed true, freezing up the fleeing gryphon’s wing mid-downward flap and sending the beast careening down towards the rolling sands below. Orabella dove after the falling form by tucking her wings to pick up speed on the incline. She outstretched her glistening claws with a terrible and sharp screech, reaching towards the unguarded flank of the tumbling cinereous…

Only to be met with the other’s claws in kind, swiftly grabbing a hold and locking their talons together. Orabella gasped, then growled as she tried to pry her claws back away to little success. The haggard looking gryphon below her let out a wheezing cackle, pulling the heiress closer as they rapidly approached the desert floor. The vulture spun them around quickly, flipping their roles last second and slamming the noctua into the dense earth below. Orabella spat up blood upon impact, the sand effects acting as solid ground in opposition to the massive force pushed straight down against its surface. 

The larger gryphon threw her head back before swinging downward towards Orabella with her hooked beak aiming straight for her eyes. The half-dazed noctua had to act quickly despite how the world spun around her; in an instinctive move, she tossed her own head forth, clipping the cinereous right upon her beak with a small but dreadfully dense horn of hers. Orabella shoved that drooling maw away from her and kicked upwards against the soft underbelly of her opponent. She raked her draconic claws down that furred stomach, drawing blood from the crazed gryphon as she forced her back and away. 

Orabella rose to her feet as the larger avian staggered backwards, dripping blood onto the hot sands below. And for a moment, a hot breeze passed between the two of them, a sudden silence that allowed even the dunes that surrounded them like a bowl to breathe. Orabella shook herself free of the tangling thorns of long dried plant life annoyingly digging into her flesh like pinpricks.  Her opponent broke away the metallic casing that kept her wing locked, scattering shrapnels about the hot earth to be immediately forgotten about by the less luxurious of the two. With the beating sun bearing down upon them, Orabella wouldn't be surprised if what had fell to the hungry sands began to melt into the gritty flooring directly. Not that she was mourning the loss; not at all.

The Midaas quickly inflated her dewlaps once more, the golden energy already beginning to swell and swirl just beneath the translucent skin of her chest. She threw her wings open wide, making herself appear that much larger than before. “State your business, beast,” She ordered the cinereous, faint glitters of gold breathing out from her parted beak as she spoke. The wrinkled face of her opponent twisted into something of a wicked smile before the elder woman began to laugh in her face once more, much to Orabella’s ire. 

“I am the living, breathing embodiment of bad omens to come, my dear,” She grinned as she shifted her stance into an offensive position, “Best to keep watch of that city of yours… Of that flaky man of yours—“

“SILENCE,” Orabella cut her off before she could dare continue down that line of insulting drivel. She reared up upon her powerful hind legs, and so too did the other gryphon to meet her. They dug their claws into one another with a loud cacophony of hisses and squawks and screeches, their tangle of flapping wings kicking up a massive cloud of dust that swallowed the two brawling giants whole.