Look Out Below

[birthright_npc]

The night was clear and cold. A weather front had blown through the day prior and dropped the evening temps into the thirties. A pale sliver of last-quarter moon hung over the desert, its edges sharp, and only a few wisps of clouds obscured the stars. Into this stark landscape a meteor streaked just before midnight.

It landed on the outskirts of town at the end of a dirt path. The land was part of an old horse ranch, abandoned in the early 1970s, so no family emerged from the cabin to investigate the fiery hole in their property, and no animals paced nervously along the fences.

A cactus sizzled and popped as it caught fire near the crater.

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[cian_oneill]

He had been tempted to let Siofra cover the ground more quickly, but Cian had seen the bouncing, almost erratic flickers of a set of headlights on the path out to the source of the residual glow. If there were others already there it would be better to be able to hear them, perhaps even speak with them. That wasn't going to be too easy as either Siofra, or naked.

So turning the motor off and rolling his bike behind some scrubby bushes off the side of the dirt track he looked around, checked the air, then started to trek across the dark terrain, circling around the meteor crash site and approaching from the opposite direction, where the abandoned cabin struggled to remain whole against the vagaries of the desert air and random vandals. His boots were a frustration he tolerated as they guaranteed at least some protection from the bite of any disturbed rattlers, and he paused as he reached the cabin to check again on the direction of the night air. He could hear noises from the paddock, the odour of incinerated plant and debris wafting his way now, and making his nose twitch and wrinkle.

The gate that had formerly held back the stock was hanging derelict from its hinges and Cian crossed into the paddock, the faint glow from the pit not enough to illuminate the area, but enough for him to discern the shapes on the other side. He followed the glance cast upwards, wondering for a brief moment if in fact the cause of the crater was a natural cosmic phenomena, or something more deliberate.

[wolfs_daughter]

In the darker shadows cast by the abandoned house, something was moving. The short days of winter meant that cover of darkness wasn't in short supply, and not all the residents of Searchlight were tucked into their beds, even at midnight. There were some clothes piled together under the dilapidated porch awning. The shape in the shadows had already been out for a few hours.

When the streak of light tore down from the sky, Echo-Wolf was just returning to the minimal shelter of the deserted house. She streaked out of sight as the cactus caught fire. Canine ears flattened, and a growl issued from the darkness. The desert was so quiet at night that any disruption was a cause for alarm, and this close to town, anyone could have seen the bright light.

And the Wolf. That meant shifting back, and quick.

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel wasn’t alone. He heard the woman before he smelled her, both footsteps and respiration, and once she had neared enough for the vampire’s eyes to make out her features, he gave her a quizzical look. “Where did you come from?” Her walk was a curiosity, as was her way of tilting head and sniffing at the air, at him, and it led Daniel to a tentative conclusion:

She was a space alien.

“Oh shit,” he muttered and staggered back from the crater. “Hey, listen, if that’s your luggage, you’re welcome to it. I’m… I’ll just be—”

Car. Get in it.

Just then, his nose ferreted out two other scents. Animals?

[primordial_visitation]

"Somewhere else," came Sabra's non-commital reply. She was good at those. Although, truthfully, there might not even be a word which would convey where she was from.

What he next said, however, caused her to frown in equal suspicion and confusion, repeatedly glancing between him and the impact crater, insect-quick, as if expecting a sudden clarification to appear. "My luggage?" She asked, deadpan.

Of course, the reality about her was that his guess wasn't too far off the mark... Just not in the way he was concluding.

"It is not-"

Her attention, too, was swayed by the arrival of others. Spine straightening as she caught wind of the new visitors.