He himself had not slept, although Hydra had been kind to him. He had created a child, and from there, simply
lived: content in Hydra's heat, in the shadows of the Crucible, in the sparkle of its rivers. He was, in a word, happy. It was a simple life, but a good one, and as a cautious creature he'd been relatively safe. He knew where to sleep to avoid the spiders; he knew to watch the skies, and stay under cover, to avoid the Eyehooks (though his size kept him mostly safe from them, now). He avoided the Dunes altogether and, when he
did skirt their edges, he kept close watch on the subterranean worms with his magic; and he had magic, too, to distract them if ever one
did draw close.
The trial, though, still weighed heavily on his mind. Warrior now paced slowly, in a leisurely manner, along one of the ravines toward the Dunes, to where Cryogen had hatched. He enjoyed lying there, in the overhanging shade, watching the endless dunes and their sands shifting beneath the light. But as he walked, memories--nightmares that still haunted him--flickered past his mind now and again. The cold; the snow. The Great Worm, and its death; and the deaths of those who had failed the tests.
He shivered, despite the heat of the day, and his hide twitched at the motion.
The horse turned his attention to his surroundings; it never did to be lazy, to lose attention to one's surroundings. Magicka flickered up, dim red shapes showing against Hydra's glare. One in particular, near the edge of the Dunes, caught his eye: a slightly-moving, almost...
vibrating, little rope of red.
Oh-!
His pace picked up, a swifter walk, ears pricking up and head rising. Was that Vee-? It was the only long-small-shape he knew, though if it
was Vee she'd grown a little bit.
"Vee?" he called out, softly, as he rounded the final rocky corner;
"Is that you?" And then, remembering that he'd changed, that he looked different, now:
"It's me--Warrior!"
horse stock: colourize-stock.deviantart.com