ORIGIN

Warrior was a little bewildered.

He had an intrinsic knowledge of language, but some words still escaped him. 'Hands' gave some sort of image of... of limbs, but he couldn't quite resolve it past that, and so he peered to Haven with faint confusion. "Uh, what are hands?" he asked, still running his mind past all the limbs he knew, struggling to remember. Surely he'd known-?

And then, in confusion--"If you're keeping it, why are you leaving it there?" he asked. This was doubly confusing, to him. It felt as though a faint wire mesh had been dropped around his mind, as if everything wasn't quite making sense, but should be.

Long pale head swung back toward the Throne. "Anyway, uh--I wanted to check that thing out, next," he said, eyeing its distant shape. "Want to come with me there, too?"

Scent-marking and caching were relatively unknown to Warrior; the only thing he'd ever 'owned' was a single piece of diamond that he'd quickly granted life to. But it was an interesting concept, and he eyed the pile curiously. "That makes sense," he offered, before turning and trotting off.

Hooves clicked along the stone, tail swishing. He covered the distance between Tower and Throne relatively quickly, but it was still some distance; he spoke as he went, curious about what lay ahead. "So-... Do you know anything else about these caves, Haven? Like, who made any of this, or why--or where we come from, maybe? It seems like there's, hm. A lot of society, I guess it is, out here. But in Hydra we just sort of--find things out for ourselves. I only know I was hatched there, and I know about Hydra itself, but that's it," he finished.

The Throne loomed ahead: ancient stone that had once been red, surrounded by its crumbled walls. The skeleton of a large reptile lay draped across its back, staring down at any who approached, half-encased in the diamond that kept it there--and near the throne, a large white creature lay, seemingly asleep, antlers branching from its head.

"What's that-?" Warrior asked, more quietly, hesitant now to approach--his trot slowing to a walk, and then a standstill.

Running up to thump a sleeping thing with knives on its head didn't seem like a great idea, but Warrior had time to interject only "I don't think that's..." before it was done and over with. His own prey nature had him startling back in response, ears flattening, head raised, wincing; but he didn't go far. He hadn't been that shocked; it was just sort of... empathetic.

"No! he hastened to assure Pride. "Sorry, my friend--this is Haven; she seems quite nice. She is blind," he explained, glancing to her worriedly. Then, more quietly, coming up alongside her: "I think you scared him--he was sleeping."

"My name's Warrior. I live in Hydra, I'm just--exploring other caves. Do you--want us to leave you alone?" he asked, uncertainly.

He watched, listened, uncertain and mostly just standing in place. The Seven. Ahh-... Fireheart, Nassir... He grimaced.

"Sora... I don't know all their names, but I think she was one of the ones that were--brought in? They were terrible; they did not help one another at all. No-... that's not fair. Some of them did--and they died. The rest left them to die--Nassir, Fireheart, myself, others--we tried to save them. We did save a few, I think. But when I confronted them, when we all woke up, later-..." He paused, his own expression mirroring Pride's--taut, unhappy--and he shook his head. It did no good to say terrible things about those, even if they had been awful to one another. "They were... traumatized," he said, reluctantly, at last. It was mostly a lie; he hated them, really. He also couldn't quite remember which one Sora had been; his memory flicked between the black bird, the Morganite, and Sora herself, as he tried to remember. "But the ones who survived--they were out only for themselves, and maybe they'd be dead otherwise, too--like the ones who helped--but... I don't want to speak ill of them, and I hardly know you. But I would not risk myself to help the ones who lived," he added, darkly.

He paused, then, bitter, and shook his head, already regretting his words, anger stirred in his chest.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to barge in and bring this up--it's good to meet you, Pride, and... Nassir and Fireheart saved a lot of Gembound in there," which was a hollow, empty assurance. The trial had been too chaotic--he had seen them helping, but that was it. Though, he could say--"I think without Fireheart, we might not have made it." He left out the part where it was purely by chance: they'd needed fire to progress, and the wolf had been the only one with any.

But it didn't really do to clarify.

Warrior glanced to Haven, then, regretting, too, dropping this heavy conversation on what had been a pleasant bout of exploration. "Sorry, Haven. I don't mean to be dark," he told her, quietly.