ORIGIN

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What made a creature... strong? Victorious? Worthy? A champion, of sorts? What was the trick? They were all meant to be this 'strong'. Big purple had said so! So far, they'd all been rowdy, fun, companionable. Did that count? Was that a form of strength? Khavur's mind insisted that strength had 'forms'. Such a mind insisted many things about language, but strength and its permutations were most interesting to the giant abominable dinosaur. Because that was, in essence, the word on the street.

Khavur was currently curled into a nice little ball, with its two heads sticking up in opposite directions like dual periscopes on a single wacky-colored cherry-flavored submarine. The wind carried armies of dust particles in its stream, twirling and twisting them about in lazy spirals, like hawks drifting over thermals, like Khavur's mind idly spinning around this single concept that it was failing to entirely understand...

It wanted one of its siblings. Maybe more. It wanted to convene with them, hold some kind of juvenile conference. Or maybe it wanted Vargas? Magic attempted to dip into the senses, for seeking out any form of life. It wasn't a superb attempt, but work it did. Within a perhaps pitiful radius around it, Khavur could detect beating; a surge of quiet drums marching amongst what should've been only silence and soft, occasional gusts.

Let's see here... did one of those rump-a-tump tump's belong to a sibling?

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two was limping up the tunnel, having been pacing up and down for about an hour, but had tired decently quickly and had to stop and rest at the end before returning. Here he was, making his way to the lump known as his sibling(s), and bleated once he'd come up to its rump to butt it gently.

"Blehh!! Khaaa!!!" he said, making his way along the other's tail to clamber up on top of him before tumbling into the crook of his body with a yelp, having mistepped.

He poked his head up and shook it out, his steps sure now, but still hurting quite a bit, despite what Doctor had given (read: force-fed) him to help. Whatever it was tasted awful.

Chaos-Two shook his floppy ears out and pressed up against Khavur, sneezing gently as he confidently clambered on top of it again, wobbling a bit, since skin wasn't as stable as rock. He ended up laying down on top of Khavur, licking his nose as he lay his head down, content to nap upon his sibling.

@Khavur

An itty bitty heartbeat was detected. Okay, so maybe it wasn't itty bitty, it wasn't like teeny weeny-ness of the tiny not-talking critters Khavur had found running around sometimes. And had also eaten. Based on the noises accompanying that beat, Khavur was doubtless that it was, in fact, a sibling. Based on the dull sensation fluttering in Khavur's hide, it was probably one that could climb. Of course, Khavur's heads were watching it all happen, so it knew very well who it was and what it was doing, but knowing that the action could be sensed in multiple ways was interesting. In three or four different ways, Khavur was being climbed.

"Bleh." Khavur responded with the large-horned head, while the small-horned head stuck out its tongue a little. Both pairs of eyes gleamed with curiosity, seemingly entirely unworried about the little one falling down. Based on prior experience, falling down seemed to be a perfectly fine and fun activity, that often resulted in climbing on yet another thing. It seemed this small one, whose heartbeat had already left Khavur's senses, was going to climb Khavur again. Yes. That was good, and fine, and kept with the pattern of Khavur's past observations!

Strength. Khavur watched the little one press up against its hide in its flopped-over position. It was so small, so gentle, Khavur could barely feel it. Like wind passing over; negligible. If its four eyes hadn't been trained on the subject, it wouldn't have even known it was there. Soft. Delicate. Did Khavur's sibling know strength? Was it strong when it climbed, or when it slept? Khavur was confused.

Magic attempted to reach out, like the little grubby hands of a toddler trying to reach out and feel the object deemed "unknown". Strength. Understanding. 'Show me what you know, little one.'

The brain chemistry changed to match a base instinct. Sleepiness. That's what the little one knew. Well, Khavur wasn't going to argue with that.

Together, they would rest.

- timeskip to wake up time -

Four eyes slowly fluttered open. Khavur took a moment to breathe, remember where it was. Yes. The Reaver and its little sibling had napped. Now they were awake. Something about strength wandered through Khavur's mind, but something about food took precedence over it.

The small-horned head would try to nudge the little one awake, if it wasn't already, while the big-horned head would softly question, "Hungry?"

@V-Chaos-Two

As well as there being a very large amount of sleepiness, underneath it all was a curiosity. An urge to know and to find out why. Why what? Well, that's what they wanted to know!

Though as Khavur awoke, Chaos-Two lay on his back, legs up in the air as they slept soundly. When Khavur nudged them, they flailed and rolled over, bleating in protest before sliding down the chimera's body and onto the ground. He slowly stood and shook his body out before picking his way towards Khavur's head. He snorted and made his way to his sibling's heads, licking his lips and nodding wildly at the question. He didn't seem to speak all that much yet, but he understood a great many things, even being a few days old.

"... What eat?" he asked softly, rubbing his face against his leg, "Teef hurt."

He opened his mouth to reveal that one of his front teeth had started to grow in, his small tail wiggling happily. Maybe if he was give a bone to chew on, he could gnaw on it and help his baby teeth grow in better.

@Khavur

The small-horned head gave a small, idle smile when the suggestion was met with such vigorous nodding. Yet again, the sibling had fallen. But it wasn't climbing up another thing. Its hunger probably distracted it. Now to the important matter, what to eat? The little sibling's 'teef' hurt. Khavur didn't really feel much pain, even when it was supposed to, so the idea of hurting teef was unfamiliar. The two-headed beast observed the teefs inside the open mouth of its sibling and magic attempted to reach out again, to feel that unfamiliar sensation of pain, if it could.

That sensation began to bloom for in Khavur's mouth; pain, but dim. A bland, discounted version of the pain the sibling was truly feeling. Bootleg toof-hurt. It was more pain than Khavur had ever felt in its jaws before, though, so, like a naive tourist in a grocery store of another culture, Khavur marveled at things that were probably pretty mundane to everyone else. There was also happiness in there, an excited kind, though also dim and dulled down in Khavur's mind due to weak magic.

Quickly, those feelings that Khavur had (poorly) imitated faded away, and Khavur was left feeling sort of... out of its own mind, or its own body. It was strange. Uncomfortable. Just as quickly as the feelings left, Khavur rose to its giant feet. Shaking one head, then the other, the REAVER OF THE DARK ABOVE!! would move on from this delving into deeper things such as emotion, and start thinking about far more familiar things, like food.

"Mouse?" It suggested, thinking of tiny things for its tiny sibling friend to eat. Maybe a hunt would make Khavur's soul feel more inside of its body. It wasn't like it felt egregiously out of place, it just felt... misaligned. Somehow. Yet another thing that wasn't understood or explained.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two shook his head out and limped forward, licking his lips before looking up at Khavur, eyes darting between the two heads before they nodded, "Mouse."

He wasn't sure what a mouse was, but if it involved him not being hungry, then perhaps it was food. Maybe it was yummy!

His hoove clip-clopped, muffled by the sandy floor. He galloped forward and looked back to Khavur, ears perked up. He wondered why the other wasn't coming, why they weren't as excited as he was. So he turned and ran back towards the other, tripping and falling once or twice, their legs failing to keep up with the rest of them, before putting into Khavur.

"Go!" he shouted, before letting out another bleat and a sneeze.

They had mouses to find! Many mouses, so many that he couldn't even count them all, not that he could count anyway.

@Khavur

Khavur watched bemusedly as the little one went "speeding" off to find a mouse. It seemed to not know what it took to catch a mouse. Perhaps the beast was a little too caught up in its amusement, because it had forgotten to actually follow. Instead it got the mild pleasure of watching the little sibling scramble back to order it around. A quiet, placid giggle peeped out from the small-horned head. Massive limbs responded to the tiny command by rising at last, stretching wings, and then focusing, honing in.

Khavur's senses weren't all that great. It knew this. But it had other ways of handling the things it lacked. Sometimes its weaknesses could be construed as secret strengths, hidden by the tunnel vision of the general populous of this tunnel. All eyes were on perfection, and experimentation often had little of that to offer.

Focus on the senses attempted to bring magic forth, to extend the reach of Khavur's hearing, to sense those little rumpa-tump-tumps of heartbeats, drums, pounding away at life. Mice might be hard to find otherwise.

Luckily, the magic was running well, like blood through its stream, unstopped and unburdened by impurity. Khavur moved slowly in the direction of a tiny, elusive heartbeat, even smaller than its little sibling's. "Follow quietly," Khavur would lean down one head to whisper into the little sibling's ear, while the other stayed vigilant and targeted the prey.

Chaos-Two clapped his hands over his mouth and nodded, fighting back excited giggles. He stood up and very carefully followed Khavur, rising onto his hind legs to try and peer around the other. He wanted to see what was going on, and got back down to pad forward, ears perked up.

"Mouse," he whispered, before shushing himself gently and following the trail of Khavur's tail.

He followed his sibling (his favorite, in his humble, childish opinon), looking up at the other in childish adoration. He barely looked where he was going, mimicking Khavur as best he could, crouching a bit, keeping quiet, being the best hunter he could possibly be.

He watched both heads like he was watching a tennis match, darting from face to face in an effort to keep track of both, though it really only served to make him unfortuntately dizzy, which didn't help his already messed up balance.

@Khavur

Trying to sneak up on something when you were as big and as obvious as Khavur was... well, to put it lightly, it was impossible. There wasn't much cover around to disguise the vibrant purple and pink spotted flesh of the great two-headed beast. It seemed that whichever colors played the role of backdrop in any given situation, Khavur's hide would call them gaudy and protest by choosing to be the exact opposite of them. So much war stored in a single organ of such a gently gigantic creature. Hunting wasn't war; if you were loud and brash while hunting, you lost your prey, and therefore you lost your battle.

Maybe the little sibling wouldn't lose.

Khavur slid its tail up to quietly gesture in the direction of the mouse's hiding place, behind a little rock amidst the sand a few Khavur-steps away. "Behind the rock there, tiny mouse. Get close and scare so I can chase, or use big shards." Khavur was referring to the shards it knew the little sibling could generate from the earth. It might be a better option than chasing after such a small creature. Either staking it with a spire of glass or trapping it between walls would do.

Then again, what mouse could outrun a monstrosity like Khavur? If the little sibling ended up going with the "scare and chase" option, Khavur was an eager and willing participant.

It was all up the the little friend, whatever they chose.

@V-Chaos-Two

"I will I will!", Chaos-Two said, scuttling forward, nearly on his belly.

His legs dragged behind for a few strides, so eager that he forgot to pick them back up, but slowed down and held his breath, peering around the rock. He and the mouse met gazes, the two of them freezing. He blinked and didn't quite know what to do, and slowly reached forward with a paw to tap it.

It was off like a rocket, of course, and the child bleated and took off, trying to keep up with the thing as his legs lagged behind, aching as he tripped and fell, whining softly as he shook sand off his face. Ouch...

"Catch it!", he said, head whipping to face Khavur, hoping it could succeed where he failed, "Mouse!"

Eyes wide, he turned back to watch, half-crouched with his ears perked up.

@Khavur

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