ORIGIN - Ambushed by a peppery peep

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There-Kalama spots him. The bird cat that had won the fight, with the tufts of fur hanging off his beak. It looks like a fuzzy caterpillar, she thinks to herself. She huffs and stands as tall as she can manage, taking care not to stumble on her spurs. She walks as balanced and regal as she can manage up to him, driven by the need to impress him. It isn't very impressive.

“You! Caterpillar beard.” The chick says.

She struggles a bit with the big word, but manages to spit it out. Her chest is puffed up, and the chick is noticeably taking shallow breaths to keep it that way. She wobbles back and forth on the tip toes of her legs, trying her hardest to seem as if she had some form of authority against the much larger gryphon, or at the very least make her seem like an equal. She barely comes halfway up to his ankles.

“Teach me fight like you. Ok? I Kalama.” She’d seen the battle between him and the cat with black ears, and it had blown her away. Even now, she was impressed, the orange and yellow flecks in her eyes glittering with childish wonder. The chick knew immediately that she wanted his mentorship. She been poised to ambush the cat as soon as he came back to the sidelines to watch the proceeding fights. It had taken her a moment to gather the courage-which she'd never admit-but she managed to do it.

"I want beat people bad." It wasn't exactly a noble goal-far from it in fact, but it was a good reason in the chick's eyes.

@Eythan

Eythan was just trying to take a piss behind some rocks, okay? It's a perfectly normal part of the Gembound life cycle. Aside from all of the obligatory socializing and interaction, all a 'bound really needed was to eat, sleep, shit, and piss. The latter two seemed to go hand in hand, but the gryphon could hold onto solid waste. Better to not be rude to the rest of the folks here enjoying the stink-free Polaris air. There was a skull back home calling his name---

Ah, shit, there's a kid here calling him --- caterpillar beard?! His horns whirled about as he stood abruptly from his squatting position. Trying to collect any lost dignity, he flexed his wings and tossed his head. He was totally just stretching behind this rock, not pissing or anything. Dismissively and completely on auto-pilot, Eythan chirped, "haha, yeah." His ears flicked forwards as he finally actually processed what the chick had said --- with his own two brain cells, nonetheless.

"Kalama, eh? Did you happen to watch me fight?" His spotted head lowered, trying somewhat to be eye-level with the kid and failing. Without breaking his spine, he still had to tilt his head downward to peer at the little one. "I'm not the best fighter in the caves, I don't think, but I sure can try to teach you, I guess?" It was just a mentorship. Nothing bad could come from this except for--- oh, no.

Bright eyes narrowed as Eythan quirked a brow, "beating up people just to do it isn't a very good thing, kiddo. You'll just get beat right up and get fu---flipped over."

Caves, I still have to piss.

@Kalama

Kalama felt excitement well up when Eythan acknowledged her. She had impressed the large catbird. She had caught him while he had been training in secret, stretching his wings. Her eyes glittered. She would learn this secret rock technique.

She watched his wings closesly, trying to memorize the way he had flapped them. She could replicate that, she thought. She would ask him to show her later. She was taken out of her short lived concentration when he mentioned her witnessing his fight. She had seen Eythan fight, and he was aware of it! She nodded feverishly at his question. It was the coolest thing she'd seen yet, granted she hadn't been on Origin for long.

"You strong, caterpillar beard." She said. Her eyes twinkled with delight when he agreed to tutor the young chick. She barely held back an excited series of hops. She needed to seem cool. She would become strong enough to even beat up that big white dragon she'd seen fight.

Though she was confused at how he implied that beating up everyone she saw was not a good plan of action. She tilted her head. Her stance relaxed, but only out of sheer confusion.

"If I beat up everyone, they respect me. Know Kalama strongest." She scoffed at the idea of someone besting her. "I beat them harder. They not beat me. I not get fuhflipped." She nodded to herself, finding no flaws in her logic. That sounded like a perfectly reasonable plan. "I not lose if they lose first."

@Eythan
((Oof this feels off lemme know if i forgot anything :v))

Wow, can't believe I left a fuckin' impression, the gryphon thought with a click! of his beak, on a kid, nonetheless. Bright eyes met twinkling, orange-lit ones as Kalama seemed to be visibly unable contain her excitement --- the chick was tiny, but boy was she shaking. It sort of reminded Eythan of that little cat friend of Aure's: Wilder. Once that one got stimulated even a little, she talked a mile a minute and bounced all over the place.

Strong? That depends on the situation... "Thanks, kiddo," he chirped with downward tilt of his head, "but m'name's Eythan, y'know?"

What was worrying was how confused the chick seemed by the concept of not beating up people for the sake of it. That kind of 'get them before they get me' mentality wouldn't end well for anyone involved, if that monstrously-sized spur on the kid's leg was any indication. "Well, you can't ever lose if you don't get into fights, kid," Eythan demurred with a furrowed brow. "There's other ways to get respect, y'know, by being nice. Fighting should just be a last resort."

Basically, his point was, he wasn't going to teach this kid how to fight if she was just going to become the next serial killer of the week.

@Kalama

Kalama blinked. She had never considered that she wouldn't lose if she didn't fight. Not only that, but the thought that being...nice could give her respect? It was a foreign concept to Kalama, to say the least, the thought that being decent could grant her as much power as beating up her opponents.

She'd gotten by pretty well these past couple of days attacking anything smaller(and sometimes larger) that she'd spotted, simply for being nearby. She looked at the floor as she mulled over the thoughts, uncharacteristically quiet and in thought. It was the first time she had to really think about something. She pawed the dirt with her right foot.

She didn't see how Eythan's ideas would work, but if the strong gryphon thought it would, she could too.

“Um, Ok,” she conceded. She looked back up at him, a bright spark in her eyes. “I try being nice, Eythan.” She nodded. “Fight less.”

It would be, in the lightest of terms, a difficult task for Kalama.

@Eythan

Being nice --- what a concept! At least, it really seemed to be to this kid. Eythan narrowed his eyes further, barely a red squint reflecting the general light of Polaris. After a brief pause, he simply shrugged, hoping Kalama had taken this all to heart.

"If you do have to fight," he began, pausing only to fix the neonate with a warning look, "you shouldn't be lookin' to hurt or kill 'em unless you absolutely can't avoid it. Self-defense, and all that." His ears flicked back, a sullen look falling over his face for a moment. Just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. "Since you'll probably be smaller than your opponents, yet, you gotta be careful. Don't get stuck underneath bigger opponents. Trust me, that doesn't end well."

Going through the motions, the gryphon walked off a distance, then turned. Squaring off against some rock relatively the same size as himself, Eythan lowered his head. "Hit to stun, not hurt. Be fast and be defensive." To demonstrate, he balled up his right fist and fixed a solid wallop! upon the boulder. "Usually if you're hitting the face or the back of the head, you'll be fine." He relaxed again, head turning toward Kalama.

A moment to try it out for herself, if she so desired.

@Kalama

Kalama shrunk a little under Eythan's gaze, but nodded. "Self defense." She repeated.

Kalama notices Eythan's look, and resolves herself to impress him, to cheer up her mentor. She'd impress him. Kalama shakes out her fuzz. Ok, she thinks, she could do that. Only attack when attacked. Even if she really really hated them. Really really. Stay from underneath bigger opponents. Another thing which she silently locks into her memory.

Stun, dont hurt, and attack fast. Another snippet of advice packed into her memory. She watches closely how Eythan hits the rock. She could replicate that with her feet, probably. Kalam shifted her stance, getting ready to charge the rock. She rushes toward it. Too fast, Kalama realizes too late. She makes it halfway before she trips, landing on her stomach, and skidding within inches of the rock. That did not impress.

Anger roils in her at the ground, her balance, and the rock itself for being slightly too far. Kalama rockets back up and charges the rock with a rage ridden chirp. She kicks the rock in a minature temper tantrum, banging it with her left foot until sparks shoot out. The small amount of destruction she'd inflicted calms her down slightly. She heaves in angry breaths, and she shakes herself out for a solid ten seconds. She turns to Eythan, oddly calm and voice even, as if she hadn't had a tantrum seconds ago. "I do again?"

Well, everything building up to the chick's assault on the stone seemed to be perfect. Eythan watched with quite a bit of an impressed smile on his face --- only for it to twist into a grimace and wince as Kalama tripped, fell short, and proceeded to grind her flint-bound spur against the rock. The sheer force of it, quite literally, made sparks fly. The gryphon stared for a moment, astounded.

The motivation's not the only fuckin' issue here, he thought as he nodded hesitantly toward Kalama; his ears were back slightly though, with a look of concern twisting his face some more. It was akin to a grimace, but not quite as strong. Brows furrowed, Eythan paused and nodded again, "that was a good attack but--- uh, practice will make perfect, kiddo."

How best to put the reality of life and its shortcomings to a very new, possibly fresh Gembound?

"You can't go around going nuts at every failure. Sh-- things happen and you can't always succeed out the gate."

Okay, back to praise, he supposed, adjusting his wings to his sides and sidestepping to get a better view of Kalama's singular spur; "that's quite a stone you got there, kid. Didja cast those sparks or did it make them?"

@Kalama

Kalama beamed, aglow with an amout of pride verging on arrogance. She had impressed him, she thinks. Eythan looks surprised. Surprise is a form of impressing, right? Though his expression soon darkens, and Kalama's pride to sink from a boil to a simmer. But, he'd said that even though she'd failed, her attack was good.She tilted her head.

"I not go nuts. I just..." She paused, beak open, as she tried to think of a good enough excuse. She hadn't really thought about anything she did since she hatched. She narrowed her eyes in thought. Well, Ayr had made her think as well. All this thinking everyone was doing made her uncomfortable. She shifted. Kalama just wanted to hit stuff.

"I just like hit things. I can hit rocks?" The end of her sentence came out a clashing breed between a question and a statement. It was half true, at the very least. She did go nuts, admittedly, but she did enjoy hitting the rock. Her eyes flickered to the far off rock ceiling, as she began thinking once more. She was torn between her need to impress Eythan, and her love of hitting things just because they existed.

But her pride swelled again (and she mercifully didn't have to question her actions anymore,) when he asked about her spur.

"I did!" She said, voice rising in pitch and taking on a squeak. She bounced a couple times. "Stone makes sparks." She lifts her spurred leg up, trying to keep her balance on one leg, flailing her wings to hold it.

She stopped, and refocused herself. Eythan had given her the go-ahead, it was time to hit the rock. She backed up a few paces, and fixed the rock with a determined glare. She wouldn't fail this time. She charges the rock, managing to keep her balance, and hits the rock. The blow nearly glances, but she lands a hit. She loses her balance afterwards, but the fact she'd did it made her swell with pride. She turns to Eythan, bouncing with joy. "I did it!"

@Eythan

"Well, at least it isn't other Gembound you're hittin' like that, kiddo," Eythan conceded with lowered ears. It was fair to want to vent frustration --- however childish --- on rocks, he supposed, but not to drive that blade of flint through the flesh of another. "As long as you aren't sparkin' up somebody, you'll be fine."

Rather dramatically, he ogled at the immense spur, bright eyes reflecting its dull surface. Kalama set her foot down after a moment, then focused intently on the rock in front of her. Her footwork was balanced and at just the right speed, this time. With a strong approach and quick aim, the chick drew her little talons over the stone. Eythan's ears pricked forth at the subtle grinding sound, impressed by the strength of it.

Immediately after, the little one seemed to explode in sheer delight. "That was good!" Eythan trotted forwards to inspect the rock, keen gaze trailing over minute gouges in it. He raised his own talons to point at it and feel it out, clicking his beak. "Wow, you left a mark, kid! See it?"

@Kalama

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