ORIGIN - of the dead and the wicked

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The spider, though large, was a hypnotic ambush predator. It did not care for a sustained fight--too risky; and the foal's sudden strike had come as a shock to it. It was bruised, at the very least--and facing two enemies, neither of which seemed to be succumbing to its magic, felt unwise.

The spider decided upon discretion as the better part of... staying alive, and scuttled backward, vanishing into the long grass.

@Vee

V met the ground in a perfectly straight line, leaving a sizable divot in the ground where she lay. There was, of course, a soft oof! accompanying her landing. Her head twisted wildly as the spider continued to scuttle towards her new friend, fangs bared and getting ready to put Warrior into an early, child-sized grave.

But, in a twist of fate, the foal managed to give the spider a decent set of kicks and call out. V didn't need to be told twice, and tore after Warrior - following him eagerly through the honeycomb maze of the Crucible.

Her only regret was that she hadn't landed a bite on that spider. Stinky arthropod!

@Warrior

Warrior ran--but he was careful, glancing back frequently (and down, by necessity) to ensure that V was still behind him. It was a rather clingy sort of stare, in fact: he didn't want to lose another ally, another friend, in this inhospitable world.

"Don't get lost," he cried, as quietly as he could, as he ran. "Don't get lost!"

When he came to a clattering halt a couple dozen yards away, his eyes were wide, his nostrils flaring, his flanks heaving. But though he stared stiffly back the way they'd come, he could see no sign of the spider.

For a long moment he stood silent, and then he looked to V, quivering. "Are you okay? -Did you bite it?"

It was confusing, to him; it seemed that the spider had been the thing with fangs, but he was sure that V had struck for the spider, in turn. "Do you have teeth?" he then asked. It was, perhaps, a strange question--made stranger still by Warrior peering down, leaning in close to inspect the hatchling's jaws.

@Vee

For not having a set of four legs that stretched for three miles, V did a good job of keeping up. Each time the foal looked back at her, she rattled her tail and pushed harder. In retrospect, it may have been smarter if she'd found a way to ride Warrior, but ah - well. The past was the past, and she could try it later.

Once they found a spot of quiet, the snake coiled up, rattle flicking in annoyance. "I tried! That stinky spider - oh, that stinky! It moved right when I went at it!" While the spider had been about three times as big as herself, V had held a secret hope of finding a meal in it. She wanted to munch one of its dumb eyes! "Yeah, I've got teeth!"

In a smooth, unpracticed motion, V bared her teeth: a set of gleaming fangs and a few other backward facing ones specifically for latching on. "I was getting ready to hunt - and then you came along, and then that dumb spider came along and you kicked it away - that was really nice, by the way! I'm sorry I didn't save you!"

Imagine if he'd just died right there and then, in front of another baby no less.

@Warrior

Beneath his dark red fuzzy-colt-coat, he flushed at the compliment.

"Oh, um--thanks. It was a good bite. I bet it woulda hurt a lot if it hit," he hastened to reassure V. (If only he knew.) For a moment he paused to look around, again, breathing heavily and trembling, then looked back to the snake.

"Are you--very new? I dunno what the spider-thing was. But there's giant birds that tear out your eyes-" (he'd seen this firsthand, or at least, very near to it with the zebra filly)"-so we can't be too loud, in case they hear us. Uhh--that MAGIC--was that you? With the--" and here, he immediately forgot his own advice of being quiet, reaching for his magicka. The ground began to tremble--not powerfully, and not for very long, but enough to vibrate in a confused manner and send the pebbles hopping over the stone. "-Like that?" he asked, peering bright-eyed at the snake. He'd only met two other Gembound in his life, but neither had used the same magic that he had. "Maybe we're, um-..." Warrior reached for a word, found it missing, and grabbed the next best thing. "Sisters!"

Yeah, that sounded right.

"Also... Hunt? You hunt? I eat grass. And stuff," he added, with scientific detail that would blow a nature documentary away.

@Vee

(If only V knew the full ramifications and consequences of one of her bites, too.)

"I would've shown that spider what-for," she hissed, puffing up proudly. New as she was, she knew her fangs were something to be proud of. They were deadly weapons, she bet! Sharp and pointy and flipping out whenever they wanted. After spending a moment eyeing Warrior's teeth, she concluded that they were the best - his were strange and flat. They definitely would hurt in a bite, but wouldn't stick in.

Harrumphing, then sighing in quiet contentment at the chance to relax, she nodded, "I'm probably a few breaths old." Probably. She inhaled and exhaled. There's another one to add to the counter. V continued, "I came out of some hard, green thing, slithered around a bit, found some water, and now I'm here." It was quite the life story; a new spin on the classic tragic backstory so many creatures were host to - as she'd maybe find out later in life. Being quiet wasn't too hard - little snake body meant little snake lungs.

But, of course, Warrior was ignoring his own advice to put on a show. V bumped around a bit on the ground like a pebble, but nodded eagerly. "That was me, yes! I dunno how I did it or knew how to. It made that spider get away from me, at least! I was hoping it'd go away from both of us, though..." Oh, well. Once the pebblequaking settled down, the serpent puffed up with eagerness, tongue flicking out. "Like magic-sisters!"

If she had flexible lips, the snake would've turned it up at the idea of eating grass. It looked like it would get all stuck up in her teeth. "I think I do! But, everything's too big."

Of course, all that she had seen was a spire-spider and one horse.

@Warrior

Warrior listened solemnly.

"I came out of a black rock," he replied thoughtfully. "It was already in the water so it looked like a bubble? And there was another one and Oleander came out. She was like me but white with black stripes." Or was it black with white stripes..? "I... I don't know where she is, the foal went on, his head dropping down and his ears pinning back. He studied the ground sadly for a moment.

Hope briefly blossomed, and then died, visibly across his face as he then looked up and added, "Have you seen--no, you're only some breaths old. Oh-... well, I'm sure she's fine." The colt sounded as though he might cry.

In fact, he even sniffled a little, turning his head aside, before trying his best (with an admirable effort for one so young) to pull himself together. He blinked large, wet eyes at V, sniffling a little. "Um. We can try and find--smaller things? For you to eat?" He had a faint misgiving about the idea of hunting, but if it was one of these jerk spiders or an evil, but somehow very tiny, vulture, he wouldn't complain at all.

@Vee

V flicked her tongue out, jaws unhinging momentarily as she relaxed her fangs and nestled them back into their place. Her head tilted up, enamored with the weird black thing on Warrior's forehead, all of a sudden. "It looks like you have some rock stuck on you still! Or maybe - it's in you?" Worried, raising herself as high as she could go, she called, "does it hurt?"

While she was very small and a few breaths old (add a few more to the tally, since the past sentence,) the snake immediately knew that Warrior really missed his friend. His fellow leggy-friend with stripes, yeah! Maybe she was like his sister too. A sister of his was a sister of V's. "We could go find her! But after I hunt..." If she had the tummy-rumblies, they'd be a bit like the pebblequakes they'd both conjured up earlier.

Attention caught suddenly, the rattlesnake lowered her head and pressed flat against the ground. Slithering to and fro, V flicked her tongue, tasting the air - for what, she wasn't completely sure yet. Perhaps for a warm scent. A new scent, like the one that clung to her even now.

@Warrior

Warrior raised his head and twisted, trying to see the horn above his own eyes. He spun a circle in the attempt, head craned backward.

"Um--is that stone? I can't see it--what color is it..? I didn't--it doesn't hurt. I used it to poke a bird that attacked us!" He turned, blinking, only to realize that the little snake was slithering off in hot pursuit of--something. Or was she trying to vanish on him, too?!

"H-ey! Wait up!" he cried, and broke into a clumsy, childish gallop after her. "Oh--hunting?" Her words registered with his brain several long seconds after they'd first reached his ears.

"Um--maybe I can help..? What are we looking for?" he asked, uncertainly.

Warrior lowered his own head to the ground, briefly, his wide nostrils flaring with warm air as he took several deep and sniffing breaths. He smelled-... grass? And wet. And rocks. And rusty, dusty dirt. And somewhere distant, bird stink. There wasn't any missing that. Also a bit of his old blood, and V's slightly rank, faint odor.

Past that, he wasn't really sure. She seemed to be hot on the trail of something, at least. She must have a better nose than I do, he realized, with admiration-... And then saw her flicking out her tongue.

The colt squinted--was she tasting the air? Had he been doing it wrong, all along?

Warrior stuck out his tongue, flopping it up and down with little tosses of his head, but he couldn't smell a damn thing. It just dried out his mouth, a little, and he pulled it back in with a grimace. "What are you doing--like that, with your tongue?" he asked her.

@Vee

V giggled as the foal tried to look between his own eyes - they were too far apart, it seemed. Not very good for looking forward. Yet another odd feature of her new friend. Maybe they were for looking for places to turn. At least he could actually move his eyeballs. "It's black! It looks very pointy," she called, then started to peer around at her own body. If there was a piece of stone on her sister, there must be one on her too.

When she failed to find it, she set right back to her hunting tactics. "Shhhh, I'm looking for... something to eat. I don't know what smell I'm after but -" she paused, head looking over her nonexistent shoulder, "I dunno how to describe it. It's just weird."

V flicked her tongue out again, green eyes fixating on a particular crack in the sheer walls. It seemed like a good place for small things to hide, at least. More quietly, she added, "I'm - smelling? Tasting?" So far, it was a lot of dust and dirt and the faintly sweaty, dirty scent of Warrior. There was stinky bird doo-doo somewhere, definitely, but also something else. Something like what her reptile brain suggested looking for.

It was just a matter of hoping it was where she thought it was. Which - no. The wind must have shifted, fooling her little baby brain.

@Warrior

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