ORIGIN

The black puppy limped, and Pride watched. He watched her, careful in case she should fall, ready to try and aid--though he knew not what he could truly do. He watched, too, Polaris--peering into the mist, tensed to intervene should they be attacked.

By some miracle, they were not--not yet, at least--and he turned back to her.

"No, it is not far. We would be... safer, farther. But it would be, I think, too far for you. Hold on. I will try to make it easier... to walk. When we arrive, I must sleep. This is... I am tired." He did not know the words for exhaustion. Perhaps there were no words to explain how tired one was after expenditures of immense amounts of magicka, followed by the rush of adrenaline, then long moments of panic, of hours of watchfulness, and then even more magic use. No word to describe the feeling of one's eyelids slipping shut even as they tried to remain awake. Of the body going into deep, slow breathing as one struggled to see the world around them, to fight off the dreams that encroached upon reality.

He did not bother to look for such a word. He was just too damn tired for it.

Instead he focused on Aster, on trying to gently lift her weight some, focusing on her flank just before her hind legs. If he could use his mind to lift some of her hindquarters off the ground, they could perhaps move more quickly. "I am tired, so--it may not work. I do not think I can lift you entirely but I can, I think, make you lighter. Try not to stumble."

It came a little stronger than he'd expected. He found himself able to lift most of her weight, and with a gritting of his teeth, he decided to just plow on. I must get this over with, and sleep. I haven't much left in me.

"Try not to move too much."

Pride turned, doing his best to lift Aster clear off the ground, and hobble her forward--she could still touch the rock if she so wished, and he walked alongside her, moving her at a simple walking pace. He didn't lift her too high, for fear that his magic might falter and he would drop her. He kept her very close to the stone as he moved. "This way," he said softly, and picked his way toward the Spire through the mist.

Aster almost did not notice that she was being lifted off the ground. Only when she looked down and saw her paws a few inches off the cave floor did she, in fact, notice.

"... oh," she mumbled quietly, waving her front legs around briefly before she began moving along after Pride. She wondered, briefly, if she could have done this herself-- to her own self --and used her own mind to propel herself around like a black dog-blimp.

It would have to be something to test later, perhaps, while she was in recovery-- assuming her leg would even get better in the first place. Unblinking eyes focused onto Pride as she turned her head towards the fawn, thinking for a moment.

Eventually, she took a breath. "The... place, with bones," she began. Canis. "After you.. sleep, will you return?"

The thought, for some reason, of Pride leaving after he slept and leaving her behind, hurt. She had no other friends, those that she did know had not yet experienced the ordeal of sparring and getting hurt, and no one had quite helped her like Pride had.

With the realisation that she probably owed the fawn something other than hunting a plant, she turned her head forward again, thinking. "Do you... need something," she murmured, "other than.. plants, and sleep? Something I can-- help you with?"

Pride considered, as they approached the little den. He gently lowered Aster down, warning her with a quiet-- "Here--brace yourself, pick the bad leg up." Once she seemed to have her balance he released his hold, and then slowly curled down on the stone, exhausted.

"You will need someone to hunt for you." This was his answer. It was not really an answer, and so he elaborated. "I do not know how long your leg will keep you from it, but I imagine not eating is--bad. I will do what I can until you are mended. I do not need anything more." He spent a few long, tired moments licking moisture off the mist-covered rocks in silence; he then glanced about. "I do not know how long the mist will last. I hope... long enough to sleep. Perhaps I changed the weather."

It never occurred to Pride that Aster owed him anything; he was very matter-of-fact about aiding her. She needed help, so he would help. She was hardly being disagreeable about it, and so it bothered him very little--and then, there was the lingering guilt. What if it had been his fault..?

At length he sighed, looking around. "I need to move some stones. Are you able to help... to try, with your mind, or are you too tired?" Was she even capable? He could not remember. He knew she could throw things, yes, but had that been the magic of energy alone?

He shook his head, too weary to attempt to recall specifics, and turned his attention--and his mind--to a nearby boulder. Around it was empty space, through which they had come. He would need to leave them an exit, but hide them from sight. Cautious, he focused his magic on a nearby rock--one a foot or so high--and struggled to lift and move it closer. The entire thing shook and trembled--as did his body, as the last of his magicka reserves began to drain away. At length he managed to move it so that he himself was hidden, his bright white coat now neatly sealed behind a black rock.

Pride looked to Aster, tired. "I do not know how much more I have in me."

Aster managed to lift the hind leg in time for landing, nails clicking against the cave floor once she landed. The dog carefully lowered herself to sit down with a gentle grimace and a sigh, looking around.

"What of your... home?" She asked quietly. "Your friends, the.. the lizard and the seer? Won't they... worry...?" The words felt a little unnatural coming out of her own mouth, but the concern was present.

The dog sighed, looking forward, frowning. "The.. the weather," she said quietly, testing the word. "It.. should be okay?"

She thought for a moment, frowning. "I can... move the stones, if you want to.. focus on.. making the weather? I... think I can. I think I have the.. not-tiredness." Energy, was what she meant. "Or you can... rest, and I will tell you when.. the weather.. fades."

With this, she turned her head towards a rock, focusing quietly for a moment. It was a bit easier than she initially suspected. With the pain in her leg mostly forgotten in favour for concentrating on her magic and moving the rocks. It gripped a smooth boulder, hauling it a foot or two into the air and hovering along to set down neatly next to the boulder that Pride had already moved.

Pride curled his legs beneath him and lay upon the stone, laying his head over his forelegs. His grey eyes immediately began to drop shut, but he managed half-coherent words, lost in near-slumber already. "Do not... tell others, but I do not trust... Reseda. Her goals... her motives. They are..." He considered, groggily searching for a word. "Ugly," he decided at last.

"The seer I do not know. I have spoken to her only once. They will not... worry. And if Reseda does, then when I return... she will no longer be worried."

He focused on the mist, for a moment, on thickening it, but he found himself too tired to even attempt, and a quiet bleat escaped him. "I am too tired," he apologized. "What you have is... energy. Like magic. But... not magic."

He turned, tucking his head against his flank. "Hide us, and then... rest if you wish. Or watch, but... I must sleep."

Aster turned her head from one boulder to another, focusing. Magic folded around a boulder once again with ease, lifting it up and placing it along the other two boulders that had already been moved, beginning to form the very basics of a shelter. It did, however, need work.

A slicked-back ear flicked towards Pride, briefly. "Ugly," she repeated quietly, fascinated, finding a meaning to this word fairly quickly before replying to the fawn. "I won't.. tell others but.. if you don't trust her then-- then why..."

She paused for a moment, half unable to find the correct words and half-considering something else. Had Pride moved away from Canis because he didn't trust Reseda? He said he only came here to practice, but was he lying?

Aster wasn't sure. The pup shifted, briefly. "How are her.. her motives, ugly?" She then asked quietly. "Why return if.. if she's ugly, and you don't trust her?"

There was quiet intrigue in her voice. Not demanding, but gently curious. She turned her attention back to the rock formation with a frown, shaking her head a bit. "I will.. watch," she murmured, "as you have, once we are hidden."

The fawn shook his head gently against his forelegs. "I do not think she is ugly. Her... motives. Are ugly. Her goals. For others to fear her. To be... a master of all. She teaches what she knows. I learn... and I offer my... mind. I will see what she does... and see it done... my way." He sounded calmly indifferent.

"She does not know that I can read... thoughts. See thoughst. Hear them. Speak into minds, as she can. I will keep it unknown to her, and use it if I need it." He was half-asleep, exhausted, but he knew that he should not be telling others this. Yet, Aster already know of this ability of his; it was a matter, then, of warning her that it was meant to be a secret.

Before he could ask Aster to watch, again, or thank her for her offer, his mind was spiralling away into exhausted darkness, and sleep claimed him.

The borzoi could tell that the fawn was beginning to crash, and instead of questioning him further, she focused instead on dragging a final rock along to the shelter. She turned her head to a rock, wide eyes staring unblinking for a few moments.

As magic lifted the rock up, Aster guided it along to the pile of others and set it down neatly, making sure to do so gently as not to make any noise. A part of her assumed, however, that Pride had fallen into a fairly deep sleep by now.

With her leg still aching, Aster shuffled forward. She didn't quite lift her haunches off the ground to move next to the deer. The broken leg dragging along sent more pain shooting up her spine, but for the time being, she ignored it in favour of keeping watch.

In silence, Aster did just that. She watched, staring off at Polaris, guarding her new friend.

Pride awoke only hours later, coming out of a deep and groggy sleep. The mist had faded, and he was left in a peaceful quiet lit by the flicker of Polaris' lights. Looking around, he found Aster keeping watch, and spoke, after a moment of gathering himself.

"You are still awake." He shifted a bit more upright, yawning and blinking, vaguely remembering some confused dream of a deep and humming river filled with vague shapes. He supposed, in retrospect, that the humming had come from the magic filling the room, but he could not be sure.

He shivered a little, and shuffled himself closer to Aster--not obnoxiously close, but he was a little cool and instinctively, he sought warmth. "How are you feeling?"

Pride glanced at her sidelong. If she is hungry again, I will again need to hunt. If she is thirsty we can try to make it to the river, or I can I suppose create more mist, if that was enough--but I am unsure that it is.

Unsurprisingly, it took the dog a few a few moments to even notice that Pride had spoken, nevermind the long seconds it took for her to translate what he had said in her own head. She eventually nodded, faintly, staring off into the distance still.

"I have been keeping watch," she explained quietly, only turning her head to look at Pride when he got close. She didn't quite realise that he might be cold, but either way she offered a brief nuzzle to the top of his head before looking back out.

Her leg felt alright. It ached when she moved it, but nowhere near the kind of ache that came with the initial break of the limb. She was hungry and her mouth was dry, but that wasn't something Aster took a lot of notice in.

"I'm... okay," she eventually decided. "How are you? Do you.. need more rest?"