Cat Got Your Face? (Dedrallow)

One moment, Cassander was clinging onto the giant's tongue for dear life and the next, he was being catapulted across the air. He desperately tried to regain control of his body: he flapped his wings frantically and screeched, well, like a banshee, but it was no use. It all happened for fast. One minute he was airborne, flying faster than he ever had in his life and the next, he smacked head-first into a tree and fell through a series of branches until he landed, with a final thud, on the ground. His vision had gone black on the first impact.

It was quiet, except for the sounds of the fire burning, and it would no doubt turn into a forest fire unless someone saw fit to do something about it. Then there was the sound of a cat meowing and the disgruntled feline from earlier picked his way through the wreckage to tickle Cassander's slimy, bloodied and bruised face with his whiskers.

Cassander groaned and wrinkled his nose as something tickled it. Something tickled his face again, along with a low purring sound, and Cassander tried to bat it away, but he could barely move his limbs. They were heavy and weighed down by something sticky and wet and every muscle in his body hurt so badly that it felt like someone had lit them on fire. He let out a gasp and with great effort, forced his eyelids to open.

He was staring back into the face of the cat he had saved earlier, the same cat who had so valiantly come to his aid and who was now pawing at him, despite the giant's slime he was covered in. The banshee suddenly felt a rush of affection for the creature and wanted nothing better than to take him home, feed him fish scraps from the kitchen and cuddle him along with his black cat, Circe. In spite of the pain, he reached forward and scratched the cat under the skin. Purring for a moment, the cat's face scrunched up as he hissed, looking up and a second later, Dedrallow appeared and for once, Cassander wasn't unhappy to see him.

"I'm...ow..." Cassander managed, confirming that he was able to wiggle each set of fingers and toes. "I'm going to need some help...standing up."

He hated doing it, asking the creep for help, but as lovely as his new pet was, the cat couldn't help him to his feet.

Cassander raised his head with the sounds of the goo squelching around his ears, but he managed to see the spreading fire in all of its glory. He groaned. How could he help out it out when he couldn't even stand up. He couldn't just let the fire burn the school, burn everything he loved and everything he stood for?

"Help me up. Now!" He ordered, struggling, his wings rustling as he struggled, painfully, still not strong enough to stand up by his own willpower between his injuries and the slime.

"I don't know, why don't you transform into a tidal wave or a tsunami? Isn't that what you people usually do in these situations?!" He barked, losing his temper. He would have thrown his hands up in the air in exasperation, had he had control of them. "And was that really the only way to get rid of the giant? Really? You couldn't transform into another giant and perform the Heimlick maneuver on it? You couldn't just transofm into a, I don't know, a bigger giant and scare it off? Honestly, man, don't you ever think--" But he cut himself off, his face freezing in an expression of shocked genius. That was it! Why hadn't he thought of it before?

"Stand me up!" He ordered. "Don't argue--just do it now!"

Cassander groaned in pain, despite biting his lower lip in an effort to prevent any sound from escaping. Although he could wiggle all of his toes, his right leg was burning in pain. He looked down to affirm that it was not on fire too, only to discover that a small tree branch was sticking into the flesh. He gulped, feeling not only the white-hot pain, but a sickness stirring in his stomach from seeing his own flesh gruesomely disfigured. But he couldn't focus on his injuries right now. What was important, was saving the dragon-changeling, he-didn't-even-know fire from burning everything he loved to the ground.

The banshee dug down into the pit of his stomach, down straight into the depths of his toes and through the top of his head. He focused all of his energy, every nerve-ending, every fiber of magical tissue and flesh he possessed on this spell. He had read about spells like this and about much bigger spells than this one in books, but he had never performed a spell of this magnitude in reality. He wouldn't normally attempt something this without proper adult supervision (he didn't think that Dedrallow really counted as a 'responsible adult'), but today presented special circumstances.

He felt the pressure pressing up from his toes, through his legs and his torso, the power rushing through him and he opened his mouth in a scream as he released the waters. The lake rose up, the waterfall spilled over the rocks at twice it's normal rate. Thunder rolled across the sky, accompanied by a flash of lightning and rain poured from the heavens. Cassander felt the water alight on his skin and the cry died in his throat as he keeled over, his eyelids fluttering. Barely conscious and unaware of Dedrallow's help, he dragged himself into a slumping position against a tree, fighting to prop himself up on his elbows, completely drained.

"Yes," He rasped, "It's done."

"Necessary." Cassander managed to rasp. "Couldn't let it all burn."

He surveyed his work with something close to pleasure. Well, he know knew that he could conjure the natural elements without completely killing himself. Good. Next time, he would prefer not to be nearly eaten by a giant, not falling from a tree and hitting all the branches on the way down and not being covered in slime, although the water had washed away the worst of the slime and know, he was only covered in a thin layer.

"The infirmary at the school." He said, reaching blindly for the changeling's hand. He grasped it and immediately gave him a weird look, even though he didn't let go. "And change back you're seriously starting to freak me out."He demanded. "Please..."

Maybe it was being in a giant's mouth, maybe it was nearly falling to his death or performing a spell that had left him completely exhausted and nearly killed him, but Cassander's patience had worn short and he was less frightened of Dedrallow, even if only for now. Right now, he just wanted to lie down and take a nice, long nap.

Under normal circumstances, Cassander would have objected to being lifted up by strange changeling men who were creepy creepers who creeped onto their even creepier changeling animal friends who turned into horses, but right now, he didn’t have much of a choice, and he was so drained that he just didn’t care anymore. He allowed Dedrallow, who had mercifully changed back (because, as much as he allegedly didn’t care about anything in his current state, it would have been truly bizarre to have himself lift…himself up, and, well, he had to draw the line somewhere). Just as mercifully, Dedrallow didn’t appear to ride double and climb up behind him, although Cassander didn’t see how he could; his now-slimy wings would have gotten in the way of everything.

Under normal circumstances, Cassander wouldn’t have given creepy changeling men with even creepier names his name, but as previously discussed, these weren’t normal circumstances, or circumstances in which Cassander was induced to care. “Cassander.” He supplied, without much ceremony. ”Your name is creepy.” He added, his filter long-gown. ”Sounds like some Satanic ritual involving the blood of virgins. By the way, it’s faster to go that way.” He pointed at a rough pathway through the trees leading up to the castle in the distance.

There was a rustling in the trees and the orange cat appeared. Through his exhaustion and slime, the banshee boy grinned, genuinely, and gestured to the cat with a tired, floppy arm. “Give him to me, please?” He requested of Dedrallow.