ORIGIN

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The scrub grasses were over, ending where the feeble flow of water through the crucible did. They lay in the few bits of light that hadn't been choked out by sheer cliffs and the shadow of Eyehooks high above. In the dark, things stirred. Things with gnashing teeth and sharpening claws; with crystalline shells and still wet with newness.

V was a case of the latter - her birth membrane still clung to her scales, pieces of it shed with every passing slithering motion as she coiled, uncoiled, furled, unfurled. Getting used to the body she had. Learning its capabilities.

Coming to an understanding that she was hungry and thirsty after a few hours.

So, the newly-born serpent stilled, eyes staring blankly ahead (as they always did) and listening for the thrum of water, however soft, and flicking her tongue out for the musky scent of it - somehow already learned and memorized. Instinct, perhaps.

The scent was faint, but perceptible, and V took after it with the predatory fervor she might after a proper prey item. It came into sight, and she moved until she was half-submerged in its lukewarmness. To her, it was icy. Without so much as a glance around, she bowed her head and started to gulp water heavily.

@Warrior

He lay curled in a nest of grass himself, just a little upstream and well-hidden in the dark. That didn't mean he was hidden from things that could sense heat, or things that could smell, but so far the vultures hadn't spotted him from above, and he hadn't yet encountered the things known as sand worms.

Had he, he might have been hesitant to call out when he heard something rummaging at the water's edge. But thus far, he'd seen little on the ground that he could not outrun; the spiders and scorpions frightened him, but he could outdistance them well enough, even as a foal. He had not, thankfully, yet run into a giant one.

As for this quiet rustling, it was--he reasoned--probably a quillmouse, or one of the bone hares that slipped down, eerily skeletal in the darkness; or maybe even a deer. Still, the faint hope gripped him--was it Oleander--could it be? He'd lost the zebra filly who had hatched beside him, lost her just after they'd been attacked by a second vulture. He'd never seen her again, but it didn't stop him from calling softly out each time he heard something stir in the darkness. As it always did, his body tensed, both fear and hope curling higher within him.

"Oleander..?" came Warrior's voice, hopeful, hesitant. The foal didn't stand, yet, but he was tensed to spring away and to run. "Is that you?"

@Vee

V sighed contentedly as she stopped drinking - taking a breath out of necessity - and then continued. Looking at the sheer volume of water slurped up, one would wonder where exactly it was going. She wasn't exactly puffing up with the signs of added water weight, but she most certainly seemed more relaxed. More at ease, brighter-eyed than before. Now that dehydration wouldn't be a problem for a few days, she hoped, she could focus on something else: figuring out how to hunt.

But, maybe not the voice that was calling out. The sounds were distinct, with a flow and rhythm. Speaking. Another to be approached, trusted!

The serpent, odd-looking as she was, moved directly towards the sound, hanging back a few meters from the lying foal and staring. From here, she could see that it was definitely not like her. For one, it was much fatter! That couldn't be too good for slithering around. Its head was strangely-shaped, too, with only two holes around the mouth and protrusions. And it was scaleless.

But, without a single hint of distaste, V peeped, "I'm not Oleander!" Words came naturally, as a surprise. "I'm -" ah, she didn't think she'd get this far, "I'm V!" Childish and a bit rudely, she started in with a question of her own: "how do you slither with all of that - fatness? Where's your tail?!"

@Warrior

Warrior's ears pricked forward, nostrils flaring. The thing smelled just a little rank, faint, in the manner of snakes; and it moved... strangely. But he couldn't help but admit that it held a beauty all its own: graceful, elegant.

At its question, though (and certainly he was relieved that it was sentient, and not hostile), he pushed up. Long and knobbly little colt-legs unfolded beneath him, and he turned with a soft snort to nudge his own left front knee. Undoubtedly, the scabbed-over wounds across his face would be visible as he did this.

"I have legs. I don't--slither. My name is Warrior." He then paused, quizzically inspecting himself for a moment longer, before peering to the snake. "-Am I fat?" He hadn't thought that he was, but maybe this thing was older than him. It's smaller than me, though, he reasoned; surely that couldn't be right? But I've only been here a few days and I don't think I was that small. Maybe some stuff's just smaller. Like the mice.

V didn't look like a mouse, though. At least, he didn't think so.

A soft skittering--the briefest rustle in the grass somewhat upstream--and a black shape crept forth. Eight legs, iridescent blue shimmering like moonlight over its myriad bristles, far too many glinting eyes...

The Spire Spider was nearly two feet long, tall and broad, each leg slowly clicking forward as its abdomen rased high. Hypnotic patterns gleamed and danced across the upper side of its abdomen, threatening to entrance one or both children...

Warrior and V must both roll a Barely Successful or higher in order to avoid the Spire Spider's hypnosis. Failure to do so will cause the victim to become entranced.

@Vee

V reared up, mostly to accommodate the sheer shock and awe that rolled through her being at the sight of legs. It was quite a thing, legs. Extra bones for the sake of movement. Feet. Hard feet, at that. Those extra bones granted height too, since the foal now towered over her. Her eyes, bright in the half-light, glimmered in wonder as she inspected. Still holding her head high, the rattlesnake slithered forward and inspected Warrior's kneecaps closely. They really were something else!

"Maybe! I've never seen legs before!" Well, that was an obvious statement - "I've never seen a lot of things before..." she trailed off, the subtle vibration of spider-feet dancing towards her. Rattle rising of its own accord and shaking, V hissed, unaware of the hypnotic effects of the Lesser's abdomen. Since she wasn't exactly at liberty to just close her eyes and look away, the snake resorted to a different method of getting this spider to skedaddle-skedoodle away from her.

Magic.

A sizable rumbling started to emanate from her - possibly striking Warrior, possibly not - but definitely aimed towards the Spire Spider.

@Warrior

Warrior turned at the sound, half-jumping, though part of him assumed it would just be another quillmouse, or the like. Puzzled, he peered for a moment at the Spire Spider's oddly hypnotic pattern, the strange way it swayed its colors and its body...

He stared, motionless, utterly entranced. Some distant part of his mind screamed a warning, but Warrior wasn't listening.

"It's so pretty," he murmured, taking two slow steps closer.

The spider skittered sideways, avoiding V instinctively. It was if it sensed her magic being used, and deemed her the more dangerous of the pair--and anyway, Warrior was the fatter meal, indeed. As its web of hypnosis closed around the foal, the Spire Spider's chelicerae rose. They gleamed black in the dim light, glinting glossy and dripping with venom.

Slowly, it crept toward the colt, even as Warrior moved toward it: ready for the hunter's embrace.

Warrior must roll to free himself from the Spire Spider's hypnosis--or can be rescued by Vee, with a Barely Successful or greater roll. Failure to do so will result in Warrior being envenomated and returning to his chrysalis.

@Vee

The spider moved away at her rumblings, which was definitely great, but wound up approaching the now-hypnotized foal. V quickly concluded that extra bones for legs was definitely a waste, since there seemed to be no brain matter up there. "Hey, hey! Snap out of it," she cried, already attached to this dumb horse.

Her eyes moved rapidly towards the spider, since yelling at Warrior didn't seem to be helpful at all. She could take a coward's way out, and simply leave him to die at the hands of a spider (as was the assumption) or she could - oh, that was a better option, by far!

V slithered away some distance around the spider. Within a moment, she charged forwards, fangs bared and getting ready to latch onto one of the spider's legs and deliver some undisclosed amount of venom (heck, she didn't even know how much she was letting out, if she even landed.)

She did not.

@Warrior

Perhaps it was the shaking ground, so like his own magic; or maybe it was that voice crying out in his head that something was wrong. Or maybe it was the sinister gleam of the spider's fangs slowly approaching.

Whatever it was, the foal blinked, and his mind swam up from its trance as if he were drowning in oil.

"Guh?" he managed, and then blinked again, and then whirled with the clumsy speed of youth. Instinct guided him: his hind legs lashed out, double hoof-tipped punches toward the spider... putting him, however, directly into striking range should he miss.

Against the odds, his little hooves connected; he felt a quiet crack and a squelch, and the unpleasant sensations of bristles underfoot and the brief scrape of a sharp point over keratin. His next motion took him in a rocking leap in the other direction.

"Run!" he squealed, in warning--and then side-eyed the rattlesnake. "Um. SLITHER!"

It was definitely time to flee.

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Vee

Warrior

Vee

Warrior

Game Master Dark

Vee

Warrior

Game Master Dark

Vee

Warrior