ORIGIN

Monoceros was a bit of a hair-dryer these days; or, maybe, more of a feather-dryer since it was Aure that was still wet from his brief jaunt into the lagoon. Caves, he hadn't even gotten close to the waters. The deluge was enough to soak him to his core, apparently. Furthermore, the bone pit had the gall to be humid even with desert heat still blasting out of Hydra --- actually, that likely contributed to the problem.

Regardless, here the hybrid was, gliding through the thermals, far from the windy gorge's heart. He was skilled in flight and his wings imitated a parachute at times, but not even he'd risk being tangled up in that raging storm. It took a brain cell to try and be the Bone King, and he was proud of the healthy little bugger. At times, it also took learning to busy your claws with unimportant nonsense. An idle hand is the greatest curse of a mind, or something like that.

So, as he flew and waited to dry off, he wondered about wisps. Bright eyes flicked to and fro, ears pricking. Aure reached out to his magic, calling to it and beckoning it forth in the form of nothing but a vague sense of annoyance. He scowled, and if he had been on solid ground, he might've kicked a rock over.

@Shango

Shango was there for entirely different reasons. His children--back in Eridanus--were safely stowed away, or at least were safe as far as he knew.

Shango was not the most hands-on father in existence.

For now, though, with the rain pouring throughout the caves, it'd struck him that some normally-dry caves might be wet, for once. He wanted to see Monoceros' twister raging through black clouds and lit by flashes of lightning, but apparently, that hadn't happened here. The rain had fallen, periodically--or at least the darker sections of rock made it look like it had--but he saw no rain now, no clouds or even mist.

He was disappointed for all of five seconds, and then determined himself to make it rain. He was the Stormbringer, and a Champion of Hydra who'd made it rain there. Surely this wasn't beyond him?

He paced up to one of the highest ledges he could reach on foot, peering out now and again toward the Twister. He could not, himself, truly fly; he could only glide, at best, and he wanted a high point from which to leap should he succeed. A long moment of focus, then, his eyes narrowed into the hurtling dust...

The thin dust in the desert room's air began to coalesce, or so it seemed. It became a mist, and the mist thickened into clouds.

When Shango shot past Aure a moment later, having leapt and glided out into the chaotic winds, there were hot, fat drops of water falling all around.

"STOOOOOOOOOOORM," he crowed--and circled as he lost altitude, peering up at Aure with wild-glowing eyes.

@Aure

Aure spent a few moments trying to spark a wisp into being, before abruptly whipping his head to face the high-vaulted ceiling; what suspiciously felt like a baseball-sized raindrop had smacked into the center of his back, where his feathers were puffed up. Despite its warmness, he flinched and shuddered. Within a few seconds, a torrent of water began to fall. It wasn't quite as intense as Pisces's storm, but the hybrid looked down to face a likely culprit --- another hybrid of quite a bit more oddity than himself, nearly flashing blue and green in the darkened room.

His suspicious were confirmed when the hybrid looked up to him and crowed about the storm with all the eagerness of a child that wants their crayon drawing pinned to the fridge. Crayons and fridges do not exist. Aure has no concept of them. He tilted his head downward, fumbling instinctively with his magic to keep himself from not getting wet somehow; this, apparently, involved depressurizing the space around him so that water boiled and vaporized at room temperature. Smart, but unintentional. Interesting for future reference, he supposed.

Furrowing his brow, the wyvern called downward, "hey--- did you make that storm in Pisces?"

@Shango

Shango blinked at Aure as he himself descended, flapping scalefeather wings to try and stay in place. It didn't really work, so he called upon his magic again, as he'd done a thousand times. It was easier here than elsewhere, as the warm air and updrafts were already there, already controllable. Or well-... Perhaps "controllable" was an understatement.

The hot air gusted skyward, sending him nearly tumbling, then fell away and howled off in the wrong direction. Okay, "chaotic" was a better word for it. Shango barely managed to right himself, squawking indignantly, as he drifted swiftly back down toward the ground.

Taloned feet touched down with a strangely hoof-like clack, and the hybrid turned his green-glowing eyes back up to blink at Aure.

"No!" he called up. "I didn't make THIS storm, too. I made the rain," he added, looking around with a satisfied expression (his failure immediately forgotten) and a flick of his point-tipped tail.

Peering back up again, he blinked water from his face, looking rather blissfully past the rain. "Who are you?" he demanded, in the oblivious childlike way of one who is far too direct without meaning to be rude. To his credit, he then tacked on an introduction, but the pride with which he did so--including puffing out his chest--was questionable. "I'm Shango. I'm the STORMBRINGER, and a Champion of Hydra!" He still wasn't quite sure what had made him a champion of a cave--there'd been lots of other champions too--but whatever. Titles were cool; he'd roll with it.

@Aure

Despite the odd hybrid's wings, he seemed only able to glide and ride thermals with pure luck; a bit like Eli, in that regard. Also, like Eli --- well, Eli before... --- he was optimistic, forgetting his brush with the chaotic winds of Monoceros and the dangers they provided. Not even being on the floor was safe, yet this one was perfectly at ease. If only I could relax that much, he hummed internally, before taking a calculated risk and diving down towards the cavern's floor; he couldn't hold up his magic forever, and already felt it begin to fizzle out. The low pressure was starting to push his lungs to their limits.

Within a few wingbeats, he was on the ground, tucking his wings to his side and feeling his feathers plaster against his sides with a dejected sort of sigh. At least someone was enjoying the stormy weather that plagued the Caves, intentionally or not. Bright eyes narrowed at Shango, Stormbringer, Champion of Hydr--- oh, what, --- not entirely convinced that he hadn't made the torrent in Pisces. Not initially, anyways. Once logical reasoning kicked in, he noted that that sort of rain would likely be unsustainable for a Gembound, especially not from Monoceros. That was quite a distance and quite a lot of water to just draw from nowhere.

"I'm Aure," he began, puffing out his chest. He paused for dramatic effect, thinking over Kera's flippant use of titles, "King of the Bone Pit." Oh, that felt wrong. "Son of Aza'zel." Maybe, he'd get used to it. Aure shook himself, the distinct smell of wet-dog (with hints of fungi and rot) rising with the motion. The water coming off of him in sprays was quickly replaced, much to his chagrin. Luckily for Shango and the rest of this storm, his mind was drifting off to Hydra.

"You--- you were in the trials? Did you see a..." his voice cracked, hesitating, "a white bird, there? He had big, black wings and was very loud." Maybe, maybe, maybe there was a chance that--- Vicenzo was alive, that he was fighting back in that barren waste, lost and unable to find his way back. It was a feeble, ill-placed and -fated hope, but Aure couldn't bear to not cling to it.

@Shango

Shango wrinkled his nose up a little bit at Aure's stench, but before he could comment, the other hybrid was offering his own titles and name. To his credit, he listened carefully, though at once he became rather baffled. What was a "bone pit?" And what--"Who's Aza'zel?" he asked, bluntly. He didn't know that one.

Now Aure was asking him another question, and he paused to think about this. White bird, white bird... His green-white eyes flashed wide in sudden recognition. "Oh!" he said cheerily. "Yes. He died," he added, attention straying somewhat. He peered out into the still-gathering clouds, and did his best to intensify them--he wanted a black storm, a thick storm, pouring rain and sundered light. "...He didn't want to go in, skull-face went in, he followed. Friends," Shango added, though this was an assumption. "A big bird ate him."

The clouds darkened... a little too abruptly, and suddenly even Shango looked nervous, glancing up. There was a strange static to the air, and his scalefeathers prickled--

"NO!" the hybrid protested, tensing and leaping--catlike--off to one side. It wasn't clear what prompted this--until a sudden blinding, bolting arc smashed down, searing into the ground and along his side, sending him tumbling. Close on its heels came the CRACK, reverberating off into a rolling roar that echoed out through Monoceros.

Shango seemed to have been struck a glancing blow--though it was hard to tell, in the thickening storm--and when sight cleared, he could be seen lying half-curled and dazed a dozen yards away. A faint trail of smoke rose from his hide, and he lay blinking for a moment, panting with his lips peeled back as if in pain. A dark, lightning-shaped wound carved over his hide.

He looked up, after a moment, his ears flattening back in his mane and his eyes narrowing accusatorily. "JERK," he called up at the storm, but it was half-hoarse with injury. He didn't seem to be dying, at least, if he were still able to insult the... clouds.

He shook himself and took off, no longer interested in lingering here.

editing in an exit due to inactivity
@Aure

Auré

Shango

Auré

Shango

Auré

Shango