Meteor Effect

Agitated Instincts 2: well that was rude

As flames spread around Tango, engulfing his body in their painful hold. The heat is unbearable, peeling at his skin, clothes, and hair. He can't help but shout in shock as he falls to the ground thrashing. Smoke starts to fill his lungs and fire burns his mouth. Each gasp of breath only brings in more and more flames, then ash. Pieces of ash flake off his body, then larger chunks, then entire limbs fall into piles of grey ash as he collapses into a mountain of ash and soot.

It is blissful to be separated from the painful heat. Slowly the panic and fear leave Tango's mind, letting him rest. Tango opens his eyes slowly as a warm feeling surrounds him, pulling his mind closer to life again. He wakes up covered in ash. A bit taken aback he shakes his head to clear the ash off and attempts to stand back up. Feathers now cover his body and the smaller size disorielents him greatly. Squawking in surprise he hops up onto unsteady legs and promptly falls back down.

As the others mill about the shopping district, trying to get a feel for their new forms although most were still laying on the ground, Tango flaps his wings shaking off the extra ash that clings to his body. He looks around to his friends, noticing some of the others struggling with their movement, stumbling over paws and extra limbs. His eyes land on a small brown parrot-like bird sitting on the shoulder of Mumbo. Grian, he deduces, is trying to snuggle close to the robot, chirping incessantly, flapping his wings, doing anything to gain the attention of the robot. Grian was growing more and more anxious over the lack of Mumbo's attention before stopping in an instant when he realized the Robot had shut down. Drawing his wings close to his body, he silences himself. Tango looked closer, finding his eyesight had nearly doubled to what it had been, only to see Grian start to shiver and ruffle his feather to keep some warmth.

Suddenly something worms its way into his chest; he doesn't like seeing his friend cold. With newfound determination, Tango marches his way to the feet of Mumbo. Once at the feet of the robot, he saw just how much taller Mumbo is compared to him but that made little difference to Tango. He flaps his wings to bring himself up to Mumbo's eye level before landing on his shoulder the side opposite of Grian.

Carefully he coos and chirps to get the small brown parrots attention; he's not sure he could even talk to him so he sticks with bird sounds. Grian lifts his head to a far larger bird towering over him and shrinks in on himself, overcome with a sudden fear of the hawk-like bird. Again Tango coos as softly as he could, trying to seem less imposing. He flutters down to the ground and turns to look back at Grian. The brown bird shifts back and forth on his feet glancing between a dormant Mumbo, and Tango on the ground beckoning him to come down.

'What do I do?' He thinks to himself, 'What do I do?' Tango continues to coo and chirp to him hoping he'll look over and snap out of his stupor,

"Please Grian, listen to me," Tango chirps, finding his voice and tucking his wings in. Grian nods and is slowly convinced to hop down.

After a few moments of talking, Grian leaps off of Mumbo's shoulder. He flutters down in a mess of feathers, lacking any of his usual glace, and lands next to Tango in a heap of dirt. Quickly Grian picks himself up and shakes what little dirt he can lose from his feathers before ultimately giving up with a frustrated huff. Tango lets a squawk of amusement leave his beak before leaning down to the little bird and starts to help clean the dust from Grian's feathers.

Grian starts to lean into the preening, content that the dirt is being removed from his body, and the warmth Tango gives off brings him closer to the phoenix. In a matter of minutes, any dirt stuck to his feather has been deftly removed by Tango's preening.

Once Tango finishes his work and double-checks to make sure that the younger bird is clean, he glances around at the remaining hermits in the area, all of them dealing with their transformations with varying degrees of success, when his eyes land on the tree that hosts Stress' potion shop. Yet again a strange feeling grows in his chest and he finds the need to get Grian over to the tree, to make sure he's safe. He quickly grabs the attention of the small bird and motions over to the tree with his beak. Grian looks at the tree, then back at Tango, then back to the tree, seemingly unsure if he understood the phoenix. His fears resolve themselves when Tango starts to flap his wings and raises a few feet off the ground, waiting for Grian to join him.