ORIGIN

Each breath was agony, as he tried his best to remain on top of this feeling. No, he wouldn't go down because of the shock. Heck that was even more embarrassing than losing half of his face and his determination to not be shown up as a weakling drove his will to live. There was no serendipity in Louie's life, rather it had run out the moment his chrysalis had given birth to this vile prokaryotic creature. All of Khloros' bad feelings were bringing him down, he wanted to scream and shriek at the boy until he had gotten a hold of himself.

But he was just as scared, so instead he remained silent as he focused on living. Again, he tried and prayed to whoever was watching them that he'd be OK. That he would live another day and not die a horrible death at the hands of shock...

...Everything in his being began to straighten itself out. It was slow, it was excruciatingly slow as time seemed to hinge on these moments. These moments where he might appear to have a handle on things but instead he really had no fucking idea what he was doing and he was simply winging it. Well he was winging it right now as he had no way of controlling it. Breathing beginning to normalize, he turned to the side and coughed, hacked and then retched. Shivering uncontrollably, he whispered, "Khloros... Come here..."

Khloros stilled as Louie seemed to regain control. He saw the flurry of activity within the fox, saw it seethe and swirl and calm, but he could tell that there was still a great deal wrong, a great deal that maybe Louie couldn't control.

He still didn't know how he could help, but when the fox summoned him closer, he obeyed without hesitation, driven by concern. What would the fox ask him to do? He didn't know, but he'd do his best to do it. It was obvious that the vulpine--who'd risked so much to rescue them, so Khloros thought--was in dire need of aid. It didn't occur to him that Louie might have ulterior motives, or the like--the black foal was young and trusting.

He took a few swift and unsteady steps forward, stretching his long and almost grotesquely-thin neck, extending to meet Louie muzzle-to-snout. His ears were pricked up, his eyes bright with worry and hope.

"What can I do...?" he asked softly.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

While originally, he had been wanting to bring Khloros over to scream his lungs out at him and blame him for everything wrong in his life, he couldn't do it and he slumped backwards. Damn he was going soft, but he couldn't scream at the only creature that appeared to give a damn about him. Vulnerable as he was, he didn't want the fellow plague monster to see this as an opportunity to poison the life out of him, but he appeared more scared than he was and so it didn't look like things would be too nasty for either of them. Sighing, he shook his head side to side as he continued to shiver, the tingling on his face was fluctuating and he wanted nothing more than to sleep.

"Nevermind. Just help me up." Still breathing slowly, and the vile taste of stomach acid in the back of his throat he tried to roll himself onto his legs so he could push up. Worse for wear and with every muscle in his body aching, his attempts to push up and regain his footing were lost as he tried and fell to his knees multiple times. Tongue running over the front of his teeth, he kept pushing and kept falling down. The will was strong but his body had given up for now. He couldn't take that he was merely a mortal like the rest of the animals in this cave and he had to try harder. Push further and he would one day become the strongest being in Origin Cave. In both mind and body.

Khloros watched with concern, which immediately blossomed into confusion as Louie made his request. Help him up? But how? He shook his own head, a little, as if to clear the stress-induced fuzz that threatened to creep over his mind and send him into hysteria or blank sleep. Instead he focused, gathering himself, willing himself to look at the situation logically.

At last, very carefully, he tried to press his soft small muzzle under Louie's flanks--and lightly flip him up, trying to worm his way under the fox. His hope was that he could stand, carrying Louie on his back.

The foal wasn't all that large, in fact so small that carrying Louie might be a strain, but he was big enough to do it. The question was, was his balance good enough, and would Louie let him?

As soon as he had his head in place, though, Khloros staggered and dropped heavily to his own knees, the clack of bone on rock bringing a wince to his face even before the brief, sharp pain struck. He couldn't get him up, himself.

"Try to climb onto my back?" he offered quietly. There wasn't much more he could think of doing.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

Even the foal was pretty useless at helping him up and he just pushed away the soft velvety nose with his front paw. Wobbly, as though he himself had just emerged from his chrysalis he took a few moments to just remain in the upright position as that was a task within itself. But now he had overcome shock, at least most of it as his body was still violently in spasm with shakes, he tried to think of where he would go now. What was the best option to preserve his dignity and status within the group. Faintly, he heard the plague horse offer him a ride on his back and he debated this before shaking his head.

"I'd probably fall off your back and crack my skull open. You're quite tall. Maybe next time?" He wondered if he could have a whole "call in a favour" type deal with the boy. Louie gently pressed the rock formation on his face knowing it would have to be peeled off relatively soon to avoid it becoming a permanent fixture on his body. "Wonder why that spot-beast was in such a rush to leave us," sneering, he looked to Khloros, "Friends of yours I'm assuming? Or why else would you have thrown yourself in the heart of Polaris to be turned into gembound crisps, the Dragon's favourite treat I presume." Dry and sarcastic, the reflections off the ceiling made him look skyward. What was skyward for them anyway.

It made him melancholy, "Ever wonder why everything revolves around the idea that gemstones are what drives us. Why the light is powered by a machine within the heart of Polaris?" Damn his thoughts were all over the place, but he couldn't stop his mind ticking. Adrenalin had been pumped into his blood and as it was fading it was causing his thought train to be all loopy. As such, he found himself falling sideways again leaning on the foal's tall bow-legs, "And you. Why are you here with me now rather than gone?"

Khloros stared as he listened, watching Louie as the fox spoke and sat upright. He was asking a whole lot of questions, and Khloros's mind was still young, but he was a logical little thing and he tried his best to gallantly gather himself and focus.

"I was staying there, living there," he began, quietly. "With Booker. I don't know why the other ones left. I'd never met them before."

Louie was then looking up, gazing toward the starry streaks in the quartz ceiling. Khloros tried to follow his gaze, but ended up tilting his head to view it with one eye more than anything, which made him briefly lose his balance and totter a little bit sideways.

A machine? What's a machine? he thought. But before he could ponder too much on this topic, Louie was asking why he was still here--why Khloros remained. The foal looked back to the fox, peering at him quietly for a moment before responding.

"You're hurt," he said simply, and then "and you helped us. It'd be wrong to just leave you here, hurt. You might die," he added, his childlike earnesty leaving him oblivious to just how tactless this statement was. Instead, to drive the point home he stepped forward, snuffling as he tried to give Louie a gentle little nuzzle between the ears.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

Lightly, the man snorted as he let himself crumple over the boy's tiny hoof. Booker, interesting name but he had yet to meet the fellow. "Polaris is an odd place to live. Not exactly hospitable even at the best of times." Slightly shrugging, he tried to think of where they could have come from. Dark, well of course he knew Dark but the other spotted thing he'd never seen before. Arrogant and rude, he could live with never having to see him again.

Quiet passed between the two, but then Khloros mentioned how he was hurt and as such, that was what drove him to aid Louie. A strange feeling, one he had never come across before but was most definitely guilt began to tug on his soul. Feeling the soft velvety muzzle between his ears, he almost purred but didn't. Regaining lucidity and no longer in the mood to just talk about things, he pushed away from the plague horse and straightened up as best he could. Ears down and a brooding expression on his face, he glared from the corner of his eye, "I thank you. But it's best we part ways now. Follow me home if you wish, Polaris is only a dead man's land now." Not used to feeling like this, he ground his teeth together painfully. Feeling bad emotionally wasn't part of the deal!