ORIGIN - to the sea, innocent skylark

Currently, he was upside-down, posturing aggressively on one of the walls of Polaris. "H-hey! Piss off!" He crowed uselessly down the wall at a gathering of gigantic cave rats. His toes dug further into the slippery rock, tail fanning out to look bigger. Vinea growled, bio-luminescence at an all-time bright. As for how he, an enormous alien-hyena hybrid, managed to get himself stuck in this situation. Well...

The creature had initially taken residence on Polaris's ceiling, peering down below with wide eyes for any meals left behind. Due to the delicate fragility of his bones, Vinea preferred scavenging over hunting on his own. As he swooped down upon a seemingly abandoned carcass and stuffed it gleefully down his throat, a mess of lesser Gembound swarmed from the woodwork. They came upon him in a snarling mass, hissing as they realized their goodies were gone. So began a game of cat and mouse, except he was the mouse and the rats were the cats. One thing led to another and he was in the unfortunate situation of being unable to clamber further up the wall due to facing down and becoming rather tired from scrambling up the slippery wall constantly. He'd tried summoning some shiny bananas, but they just angrily ignored them and continued to clamber over one another to get at him.

This was the end.

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
What did she have here?

A strange-looking gembound had managed to get himself in quite the tangle. Thothaga clung to a stalactite as she watched the whole debacle unravel. It was quite entertaining. He kept trying to summon these sparkly bananas to appease the livid rats. Did he not know? Cave rats don't eat fabulous bananas.

She would have been content to watch his amusing struggle, until she noticed him tiring. If he fell, he would be eaten alive! A creature of such magnificent luminesce should not fall to rats! Thothaga stepped into action, crawling along the ceiling. The strange gembound was not hard for her poor eyes to see. He was lit up like the Spire on overcharge. Thothaga hoped he wouldn't mistake her for a large cave spider and knock her off the ceiling, that would be bad, so she laid down a safety line of silk just, in case. She approached the hanging gembound effortlessly, because, unlike him, she could cling to Polaris' wet roof for hours.

"Need help?" She simply asked him, without breaking a sweat.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Vinea // OOC:

The rats did not give up, refusing to even give him a single opening. One jumped up and nearly got his toes, causing him to scramble a little higher up the wall. Its rotten breath fanned over his face and he screwed up his face in digust. ”C’mon, let me just go! Finders keepers!” Vinea pleaded uselessly, fanning his gliders out to look bigger and more threatening. As if he could be any bigger and more ominous, considering he towered over quite a majority of the Caves’ denizens. Apparently cave rats didn’t care. Much like honey badgers, they just tried to eat anything and everything.

Then, because his day could get worse, an enormous spider approached, easily and rather eagerly traipsing down the wall to meet him. ”Ack!” A sharp yelp escaped him as he arched his tail up towards the spider, waving it back and forth. Again, trying to look bigger. He was about to conjure up another fabnana to hurl at the creature when a chirping, rather pleasant voice came from it. ”Oh, thank goodness. You’re actually not a Lesser here to ruin my life some more by tearing me to pieces and stuff.”

He paused.

”Yes, I’d like some help,” he added shyly, bright eyes peeling themselves off of the interesting creature before him and staring back down at the snarling mass of cave rats below. Fun, wasn’t it? The whole lot. ”I ate a random carcass because, y’know, scavenging. Then these jerkwads came up screeching because apparently it was theirs.” Vinea scoffed again to himself, ”didn’t someone teach them ‘finders keepers?’”

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
Thothaga was a little apprehensive approaching him. A lot of gembounds mistaked her for a lesser and he seemed no different. Thankfully, he seemed to calm down when she proved she could speak.

"I don't know," She replied when he paused. "I could still tear you to pieces." She paused too, her pedipalps curling with amusement. Thothaga stared awkwardly at him for moment, expecting a laugh. "...That was a joke." She quickly added, realizing that he might not have picked up on her subtle nuances.

Thothaga looked down at the rats. They were clambering on top of each other to reach glowing gembound, frothing with anger. It was too bad they could not understand greater speech, then the hyena-hybrid could enlighten them with the rules of "finder's keepers". "They do not understand our language." She said to him. "I know, I tried." When Thothaga was a spiderling, she used to seek out the lesser spiders to talk too, thinking that she would feel some kinship towards them. Unfortunately, they did not offer much in the way of conversation. Sometimes, they would run away, but mostly, they tried to eat her.

"Let's see..." She mumbled as she looked around the room. "Maybe, I distract them with spell, then you run." Thothaga had learned a new trick and was eager to see if it would work. She would send her voice behind that boulder over there then the rats would check it out. It was fool proof!

Thothaga pressed herself against the wall and wiggled her abdomen in preparation, but as she garbled out a chitter, the magicka slipped from her grasp like an eel and left her looking like a chirping fool.
Thothaga wanted to throw herself into the pile of rats.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Vinea // OOC:

As soon as the spider even suggested tearing him up (and probably eating him, which was implied, definitely), Vinea yip-screeched "no!" Seeing little arms(???) curl up in what he assumed was amusement, the hybrid sighed in blessed relief and wiggled his antennae appreciatively. "Your mouth is weird. How do you talk?" He commented rather off-handedly, waiting a moment before nodding resolutely. "Mine is too! Check it out," and then he spread his bottom jaw as wide as he could. The mandibles split apart, revealing two sets of teeth within, floating in the segmented jaw. With an audible click! he shut his mouth. A couple of yawning motions later to reset it, he looked just normal again. Secret feature!

"Anyways," he chittered matter-of-factly, rolling his eyes at the foaming-at-the-mouth rabid rats underneath the two, completely comfortable in the spider's presence. "Rats." His eyes lit up at the mention of a spell. Perhaps this new friend knew something other than fabnana summoning! He sure could see fungi around the world, but that didn't serve him too well if he was going to be honest. Magic definitely rolled through the air as his new companion wiggled her furry butt and garbled out something he couldn't understand no matter how much he tried.

Well, there was nothing after that.

Rather confidently, Vinea cackled and huffed, "any minute now! Right?" If the caves had comedic timing, there'd be crickets chirping away. "Maybe try it again? If you climb on my back, I could glide with both of us, I think! As long as you're not too---" he looked Thothaga up and down, "big-boned. Do you have bones? My mother sure does."

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
"You can glide?" Thothaga turned to and gave him an eye that would have been puzzling could she emote her face. "I thought you needed help."

Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed her foot. Thothaga shrieked and kicked her leg, sending the rat that bit it flying. The pile of rats were growing, and now some were only a few inches away. Anger tore through Thothaga's body. Beads of venom dripped from her fangs. "Leave me alone!." She shouted towards them. The magicka around her swelled.

Then, as if an invisible claw had snatched them, a few rats in the middle were flung from the horde. With their support violently ripped, the top of pile crumbled down, but it did not destroy the entire horde and the rats were quick began rebuilding, except for the few curiously floating in the air.

The spider's mind held the floating rats firmly, and she was quite pleased with herself. Thothaga did not know she could do that. Her beady, black eyes lit up sadistically, and she began to beat the floating, shrieking, rats against the wall like a child beating a toy.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Vinea // OOC:

"Well, yeah, but—" if he were able to, Vinea'd gestured vaguely, "—not far out enough to escape." And it was true, to be honest. He'd jump and catch air for a little while, just until he was past the swarm of cave rats. "I'd just end up stuck slipping down another wall— oh d-ANGIT!" His voice pitched higher as the spider was bitten and shrieked. Magicka crackled fiercely through the air and Vinea instinctively pressed closer against the wall.

Rather interestingly, some rats began to straight-up float up into the air. Then into the wall, over and over. Vinea laughed for about two seconds before looking incredibly worried. Ears flicking back, he chanced tapping Thothaga with his tail. "Hey—uh, maybe just use them to knock over the others? Maybe they'll fight each other if they think they're attacking one another?" Cave rats were dumb. It'd work, right? Right?

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
As Thothaga spun around to listen to the creature's proposal, her mental connection severed and the floating rats dropped from the air . "Oh!" She simply said as she watched his the possibility of his plan disappear in into swarming, furry horde along with the rodents' broken bodies. Thothaga mentally shrugged. "Oops." She must have to concentrate on the target in order for it to work. She lifted a leg up as if to signal the hyena hybrid to be patient. "I will try again."

Thothaga turned around and suddenly shot a thick line of silk towards a low hanging stalactite from her rear like canon. She then attached her end to the wall and gave it a few tugs. "Hope it holds." She shot the hybrid and glance that could have been interoperated as knowing, or amused. Thothaga climbed onto her silken tightrope with ease and hung upside down like an eight-armed sloth. The silk stretched under her weight as she crawled towards the center. "Or it will be very bad day for Thothaga indeed." She casually remarked on her ascent. Thothaga peered down at the seething rats below her. "Very bad day, indeed."

She attached another cord to her tightrope and carefully lowered herself closer. She still hung above their reach, but her line were to break, Thothaga would plummet straight into the angry horde. It looked death defying, but the spider had done this before, she had complete trust in her silk and her fear of heights were practically none existent. She just needed the magicka to work with her. In this vertical hanging position, she could see the rat pile better. Make them tumble like a pile of stones. A spark of magick surged through the air and rats at the base were flung outwards a few tail lengths from the horde as Thothaga's spell took hold.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Vinea // OOC: sorry fo the wait!

Vinea watched rather mournfully as the broken rats fell into the horde --- both over a possibly lost meal and the death of his plan. But, it seemed that the oversized spider would still try with the idea in mind. The hybrid couldn't help but to watch in curiosity as she very casually shot a line of silk to another stalactite. Then, with an amused glance(? He wasn't sure about that) she shimmied down the tightrope. Taking it as a suggestion, the hybrid spread out his gliders and arched his tail side to side as he gripped the silken support. It was thickly coiled, most certainly capable of holding what little he actually weighed.

Immediately, his limbs sighed in relief as they no longer had to strain so hard to keep him on the wall. Bio-luminescence pulsated from his being unintentionally as he shifted higher up the tightrope, carefully and slowly. His fins moved as they needed to, keeping him perfectly balanced. Bright, wide eyes glanced down below.

Like a very magical frame of bowling (not that Vinea knew what that was) rats flew every which way and they hissed and squeaked in surprise. The dumb rodents began to scramble over one another, betrayed uproar rising. "Ha ha!" He crowed, flaring out his tail in amusement. "Dumb rats!" Immaturely, he stuck out his long tongue and flicked an ear.

@Thothaga