There is value in surprise attacks.

Sadde is now travelling upwards.

Well is there much she can do about this? She could push against the force he produced before, maybe—

Okay, no, no strategy. Frenzied newborn. Her eyes turn blood red and she reserves only a small part of her brain to rational thought and lets her instincts guide her.

She thrashes and tries to push against and away from the force.

She starts moving toward the ground for a moment, until the force redirects and compensates. Now it's pushing in random areas, shifting away as soon as she tries to move against it.

End result: Bobbing around in the air and taking a lot of concentration to keep that way, but not actually getting anywhere. 

"Shall we try the same when I do not have the advantage of surprise?"

Goshdarnit she is fast she should be faster than him how dare he keep her up there she growls and tries getting away and—

"Yeah, probably."

Being fast doesn't really change much when it still takes a few hundred milliseconds to reach the ground after reacting.

But he lets her down.

She dusts herself. "Surprise is a pretty good strategy, yes. But I think that was draining to you, yes? Whereas the vankire wouldn't get drained, so your best strategy there would've been holding them up until they managed to calm down."

"Not so much draining as, requiring concentration. It was much like sparring one of my own kind. Rapid dances of opposing force in unexpected directions, one wrong twitch and the fight is over. You best me on speed, I was able to do it only because you could not move me in turn."

"Makes sense—"

And now she is running towards him very quickly. Clumsily, her whole body is being thrown with the movement, there is very little grace in her movements, but she's fast.

She abruptly shifts course in midair and hits a tree, which nearly cracks in half.

Sabella shrieks and now Sadde is covered in thorny vines.

Karil mutters, "Oh dear. This may have been a mistake."

"You're damn right it was! No more of this! Count yourself lucky that was just a tree and not one of mine."

Karil drops his head contritely. "I am, indeed, lucky and ashamed that luck was needed to aid me."

She snarls again, starts shaking herself free, then stops. "Oh. I'm sorry." Her eyes return to their previous golden colour.

"I'm leaving," Sabella says, "And you've attracted attention. The diggers are coming."

"I do apologise," she repeats, sounding like she means it.

"It is not the end. Things break. A lot more easily than they are built, so take this as a lesson." Her figure-manifestation steps into a tree and disappears.

And yep, something fairly big is digging its way towards the area.

She waits for the fairly big thing, trying to look as nonthreatening as she can.

Out pop two little beaver-things. Well, their heads. "What'd you do to annoy her this time, Mr. Knight sir?"

This time, she noted. "It was partially my fault," she says apologetically. "I was discussing the ins and outs of my species and he wanted to see whether he could contain a newborn."

"And let me guess, this broke a tree." He sniffs the air, not seeing the splintered mess right in front of him. "Yep, that's broke-tree-smell. Twice this year. New record."

"Yes. Oh, I'm Sadde, by the way. Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, I'm sure."

The little one is the quiet type. He whispers in the other's ear in an unfamiliar language. "Yer smell's awful strong, she says. Like poison flowers. It's a compliment I swear."

She sniffs—

They're rather unpalatable. Earthy. No hint of rot, though, just soil and stone and fur overpowering their blood's scent.

—and replies, "You smell like the earth," having done this quickly enough they probably did not notice. "Vankires do have a pretty strong smell, though. Humans tend to like it."

They nod knowingly. "I can see why they would. Happy to meet another kind with a real nose, by the by."

She grins. "Likewise. What kind are you, if I may ask?"

"They just call us diggers. New on the block, you see, no time for the language that named us to die yet and stick us with somthin' weird like 'reltik'."