ORIGIN

Orion.

Sometimes, it was just a routine patrol through a familiar part of the cave; he'd look to a stone building and remember another time that he had passed by it, he'd remember hearing of it on the voices of others, he'd look for traces of trouble or interesting changes to the room like he would anywhere else. Other times, it was revisiting a darker part of his past. He'd look up at the glittering quartz ceiling and suddenly he would be sitting with Zetos again when all they had were each other. He would bathe himself in the crystal cold water of some of the small streams weaving through the room and he suddenly he'd taste the salty tears that had streamed down his face when he left Makyna. He would remember the pain and how he tried to numb himself to it.

Then he would remember the POP, and he'd remember Cancer, and then he would remember Amaria. His heart twisted, and then it felt angry; he'd blamed Cancer for everything. He wondered what the black leopard would say to him now if they crossed paths. It was a morbid curiosity that drove him through Orion. He kept to his duty, as he'd promised to Maji Walezi - this was just another routine patrol. But there was nothing stopping him from finding Cancer. In fact, maybe it was the only reason why he maintained his patrol instead of veering off to another, happier room.

And yet his guilty paws too him to the tower, where he knew he wouldn't find Cancer - no, this was where his memory of Amaria lived. He advanced on the tower, and there he saw the images of he and the young clouded leopard, far smaller than him at the time, curiously peering into its entrance. He heard their laughter and suddenly they plunged inside, but he knew that they were running up the stairs, racing each other to see who could get to the top first. And then Amaria tripped, and Leon accidentally hurt her pulling her back up. They'd tumble back and she'd land on him and he'd bang his head. But it was okay - neither of them were hurt too bad, and they carefully trudged up the rest of the stairs. He'd only wanted to protect her, but maybe she'd grown exhausted of his restless watchfulness.

Leon lingered at the arched entrance, peeking into the familiar darkness. He wasn't sure what compelled him to do so, but he called out, "Amaria?" as if that would somehow make her appear. His voice, wistful, sounded alien compared to the emotion that truly simmered inside of him. A sinking reminder - shame. Leon's shoulders dropped with a small sigh, expecting to hear nothing but the echo of his voice as it crawled up the tower and disappeared into the air above.

He waited there just a few seconds more, wistful for some kind of answer. But at this point, he felt like he was just praying to some false, non-existent God. The bear's vigilance did pay off when something did in fact move, but it hadn't come from the tower. Leon found his short, stubby ears twitching and twisting back, turning his head just in time to witness the approach of another Gembound, the clacking of hooves in the dirt betraying his identity as a deer. The bear leaned back and narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to identify the approaching animal, but... for a second, he nearly didn't recognize him. He had grown, now hefty and muscular, sporting a rack of pointed and dangerous antlers atop his head. Disappointment lingered in his heart - this was not Amaria, but he should have known better to expect her to be here.

The stag spoke out, asking what he was doing here - and then his name, and his voice... yes, it was familiar. He remembered now! This was the deer that Arkrael had been sitting with, back during the truth or dare game. It had been so long ago, the memory nearly escaped him. "Vazi! I-" His voice cut off as the deer coldly advised him that he was no longer welcome in Orion, sending him into a flurry of confusion. Leon furrowed his brow and tilted his head, angling his body to face the deer. "What do you mean?" It was all he could do to question the stag, after all Leon couldn't comprehend any reason for why he wouldn't be welcome here in Orion.

Was it Cancer's doing? Was it because he belonged to Maji Walezi - had something transpired that Leon was not aware of? Unable to fathom why Vazi acted so coldly towards him, he simply waited patiently for an answer, uncertain of what to make of the situation.

The bear found himself slowly narrowing his eyes as the stag corrected him with a new name: Hasira. Something really wasn't adding up here. He didn't remember the deer being so cold when they had met the first time, especially considering Arkrael seemed to have held him in high regard. High enough to call him a friend. Still, he was willing to sit and listen to what the stag had to say... so when Vazi - Hasira - started to explain that he was evil because he was a carnivore, Leon's alarm bells finally began to go off. Something was definitely wrong here. His facial expression very obviously twisted into a frown as the deer went on talking some shit about his lands and how he didn't want evil in it, which Leon obviously was because he ate meat, then gestured with his head back to a creature that was slowly crawling towards them.

Leon traced his gesture to the tiny white lion that began to approach the pair of them. He'd never noticed the feline before, but his heart instantly went out to the creature who so closely resembled his fiance, who so obviously suffered the treacherous effects that this stag's control had over him. He was thin, the curvature of his ribs pressing against his ratty white hide, betraying his obviously undesirable diet. Was Vazi forcing him to eat plants instead of meat? The bear's frown grew, and it could only grow more when Vazi suggested that he 'renounce the evil in his heart'.

Bow to him, and be subservient to all the herbivores - no. No way in hell. Sure enough, Vazi's self righteous nonsense ignited a spark of anger inside of him, and he wondered in the back of his mind if the stag had something to do with Amaria - or worse, Cancer. Or even... "And what does Arkrael think about all this?" The bear asked slowly through gritted teeth, restraining himself from lashing out at the stag and his stupid ideals - at least, for now. He could forgive the deer for having a strange way of life because, apparently, Leon did have a choice not to involve himself - and he wouldn't. However, the mistreatment of the lion behind him was obvious, and then there was Arkrael... Leon would suspend judgment, for now.

Leon hadn't expected such a violent response from the deer, but in all honesty he should have. He should've known something was up when the stag started talking about his hate boner for all things with sharp teeth, and he couldn't imagine that with such fervent rage he'd make an exception for Arkrael, even though when he'd first seen them together they looked perfectly happy in each others presences. Something had happened to sever that connection, and Vazi made that clear as he spewed vitriol about the wolf and started doing the crazy man ramble about how they'd all be mowed down, like... like grass. Typical herbivore talk. "Hey watch it stick-legs, I don't know what happened to turn you against literally half the cave but it's--!"

The lion had crawled up to Vazi and quietly asked him if he could plant the berries by the throne. Without any warning, the stag turned and wailed on the adolescent, cutting off Leon's words and causing him to flinch at the sight of the obviously painful attack. "Vazi, what the fuck!" He shouted, curling his lips back in a snarl. It was at that point the bear's protective, parental instinct had taken over. The image of the lion - it was like Makyna. It was like he was seeing Makyna slashed open and punished by the psychotic deer before him. That was enough for Leon to lose his grip on his emotions, anger rolling through him as the need to help - to save the poor starved little lion consumed him.

It was Vazi's mistake to turn his back on the bear - Leon lunged forward, cracking his jaws open as he summoned forth the heat from his chest. Taking a few bounds towards the deer, he attempted to spit a blazing mouthful of bile at the stag while reaching for his back side with his paws. If he could make contact, then Leon would try and immobilize the stag in his grip while using his fire to burn a hole in the back of the deer's skull - at this point, he didn't care about leaving Vazi alive. He needed to save the lion. Makyna.

Round 1/5
Attacks: Lunging at Vazi, spitfire @ back of his skull and trying to grab his backside to hold him there
Defenses: None
Injuries: None