Heron Lake Plateau and when you wanted someone else, i withdrew

Svalinn briefly retreated after being struck— watching on impotently as hunger begged that he act while fear of retaliation dictated that he stay back. He looked a little helplessly towards Caiaphas, who appeared suddenly to have inherited an emotionless pair of fish-eyes; dead to the plight of her own children. Elwood's harried expression was slightly more reassuring by comparison, but he did not come rushing to the Eyjolfur children's aid either.

It would be Svalinn's first hard-learned lesson— to either fight on or go hungry— but it wasn't likely to be his last.

Adrenaline and need pressured him forward in staggered steps while Raleska was proactively throwing the beaver completely off-balance, wearing their quarry dangerously thin as she dragged it along by its paddling tail. As it tried to reach her— repeatedly and unsuccessfully craning its rotund tenement towards her, with tittering clacks of its carving fangs— the beaver also exposed its fatal weakness to the second antagonist on scene.

Svalinn surged forward and took firm hold on a side of the beaver's wounded neck, pinning it to the ground. The worn rodent could not retaliate effectively; too exhausted now to overcome the pressures of the gold boy and his raven companion as they pulled him from opposite ends. Svalinn bit down as hard as he could to keep the beaver from either turning its head to bite him, or getting its legs around to scratch him again.

He was so desperate to prevent this from happening again that several seconds into compressing all his weight behind this drilling bite, there was a light, barely audible pop and the beaver went completely limp without losing consciousness.