For a second, she had the seed in her beak, but that no good liogoose had ratted her out. As the marmoset yanked his (impressive) bag from her, the seed fell out of her mouth. Riffi squawked in surprise, not taking into account that such a thing could happen. Startled, she stumbled back, feathers involuntarily puffed in astonishment. She did not hesitate to clumsily flap to the nearest shrub where she clutched her tiny perch tightly as she stared at the other two Gemobounds with wide eyes. Had she possessed the feathers of an adult, her crest would have flared in regal anger and surprise, but instead, the gray down on her head spiked as if she had been shocked by electricity. She looked like a startled, ball of fluff, swaying in the shrub. She was supposed to look bigger with her feathers puffed up, but as baby bird, it just made her look ridiculous.
Riffi regretfully realized how stupid she looked, and flattened her ruffled coat. Her dark, beady eyes shot Serendipity a look of anger with a side of annoyance. If it wasn't for that stupid liogoose, she would have had that seed by now.
@Tukluk @Serendipity
Tuck gave a blazing, angry once-over to the bird who had tried to steal from him before finally turning back to the hybrid. He tucked his bag close to his body, against his stomach, and wrapped both arms around it, just in case the bird got anymore ideas. He managed a smile through his annoyance when Ser gave her name.
“I’m Tuck,” he replied.
“Well, Tukluk, but no one calls me that. Not even me.” He studied the Gembound for a moment, trying to decide what she was, before finally giving in to temptation and just asking.
“I can’t figure out what you are. You look like some kind of giant weasel, but there’s more there. You’ve also got Cat features…”
Tuck had never met a lion before, or a mongoose, so he had no reference for those
specific Gembounds. He studied her features closely, unaware that he could be coming across as rude right now. He was just curious, that was all. He was only a cycle old, after all! And while he was maturing rapidly, due to a very many circumstances — like fighting a pack of rats, and discovering that he could heal others — he still had that newborn curiosity that all baby Gembounds had.
Words: 208
@Serendipity @Riffi
Riffi rolled her eyes at the monkey, still fuming over Serendipity's betrayal. She was tempted to try and steal the seed again, but now with the element of surprise was gone, the jig was up, especially with the liogoose's watchful eyes. She gave the liogoose one last glare before fluttering off into the treetops where she disappeared behind the lush leaves.
-exit Riffi-
“A liogoose?” Tuck repeated, sounding skeptical.
“I’ve never heard of that kind of Gembound before.” He then listened as she explained that a liogoose was a mix between a lion and a mongoose. For some reason, the thought of a lion and a mongoose having babies made him laugh, and he did so, loudly.
“That’s weird,” he said, guffawing. Hopefully the Gemling wouldn’t take offense to his laughter or he’d probably be dead meat. She asked him then what
he was, insisting that he looked like a tiny squirrel. That made him stop laughing, and he scrunched his eyebrows at her in annoyance.
“I’m not a squirrel! I’m a marmoset! I’m a monkey! And just because I’m tiny doesn’t mean I can’t kick butt! I’m really good at Magic! Wanna see?”
Words: 131
@Serendipity -- sorry for the wait, school sucks
Hmph. Maybe Tuck shouldn’t have helped this annoying liogoose. She wasn’t particularly nice to him now that she was all better, and insisted on taunting him. Well… he’d show her! Smugly, he pointed out,
“Well, you already did see some Magic earlier when I gave you those leaves to chew to make you feel better! That was a spell I can do where I grow plants out of my own body! Now watch!” He looked around for a juvenile plant somewhere in the water or on a patch of dry-ish land (nothing in Cetus was dry).
“Aha!” he said excitedly, spotting a sapling of a tree which would someday join its brothers and sisters in casting a shadow over all of Cetus. Tuck had never worked with something as large as a tree before, but in his wanting to show off he brushed off the possibility of such a plant being far too large for him to handle.
He focused on his Magic, mentally telling the tree to take his Magic and use it to grow larger. His eyes glowed a bright forest-green, pupils lost in the color so that it looked as if he were blind. Heat built up in his collarbone where his Stone was, and then the sapling began to grow taller. The trunk began to widen and small branches began to form here and there, the pre-existing ones growing longer and bigger. Within ten seconds, Tuck was exhausted and cut the spell off, collapsing into the mud and feeling a headache coming on in his temples.
“There, see,” he panted weakly.
“That’s what… my Magic can do…” He continued to pant, trying to catch his breath from the exertion of working on the tree. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready for something so large…
Words: 300
@Serendipity
Tuck grinned at Ser’s praise, feeling exhausted but quite proud of himself. But what was this about helping a
group of Gembounds?
“Huh?” he said, still trying to catch his breath. He sat up properly, not really noticing the mud and gunk clinging to his fur.
“Helping a group? What kind of group?” He watched the liogoose’s face as she began to formulate some kind of plan. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head, and it made him very curious.
“I’ve never been part of a group before,” he mused, mostly to himself.
“I like to stick to just myself, mostly. Being part of a group seems like too much of a hassle. But… I mean, if it let me use my Magic more often, I guess I would join.”
Words: 133
@Serendipity -- short post is short, but there wasn't much to say XD