ORIGIN

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- THE LEVIATHAN -

Puzzlement rippled through the Leviathan, his toxic gaze cutting from his children to the strangers. The one looked like every other white wolf he'd seen passing through, and there'd been three or four only recently. The other, though, was interesting; large, pale, draconic in its nature. It reminded him somewhat of Asimona, but ursine, and he studied it briefly.

He then looked over the scene again--the damage and the like--and grunted. The little one was blunt in her answer, Khavur as well, but apparently no why was coming, and so he paced forward.

"Well, don't," he said bluntly. "Don't move." And then, belatedly, as he reached a forearm to snap away some of the shards keeping Jotun in place; his eyes traced the wounds on its haunch. "And why are you fighting? -Is it a spar?" Training was good, but--"If you are going to train, warn me first. We have much to do!" With two shards picked away, Vargas went for a third; the hand slipped, slamming straight down, six-thumbs first, around a shard. The glass impaled itself through his palm and he let out a sharply-pained hiss, surprised; a grimace crossed his rigid features. For a moment the hulking monster simply stood there, staring dumbly at the forelimb he'd impaled upon the glass.

He cleared his throat.

"If you are guarding the tunnel, and they were attempting to pass through--there is nothing beyond this tunnel but death for you. It is the cave of Trials and this one," and here Vargas nodded sharply at Jotun, "would not last a moment. A hot place, and a dry one."

A wince and he jerked his hand up, trickles of toxic-green blood brightly staining the shard he'd left behind. He lifted this limb, going back on his haunches to cradle the damaged hand in the other, rubbing it; and he looked up.

"So which was this? Training, or was someone doing something foolish?" The way the eyes narrowed and the voice lowered into a rumble suggested that doing the latter was not a particularly good idea, in the Master's mind.

@Jotun

Chaos-Two sprung up like a cat as Vargas arrived, making room for him to pass by before following clumsily, ears perking forward as he peered around the larger creature's body. He trotted up and around, watching as Vargas seemed to just... stab himself with glass. Okay.

The calf slowly approached Vargas and tapped him on the shoulder, standing on his hind legs to do so (they were really far up there-). He stood up and put his own hands, absolutely tiny in the goliath's own massive paws, hoping that the spell he'd learned from Doctor worked at least to stave off infection. He inhaled as he felt the magic worked, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Cleaned it," he said softly, patting Vargas' hand twice as if to comfort him- as if he needed comfort, but Chaos-Two certainly didn't like pricking himself with glass, so it was probably safe to assume that Vargas didn't like it either.

Once that was done, he stepped back and sat down beside him again, fiddling with his fingers, hoping that the Master appreciated it.

This monster wasn't even scared of these glass shards! Which made sense, considering how big he was. But on the third shard, he impaled his hand through it, and Comet flinched. How unlucky. "Um, yep! We were just training." which seemed to be the only good answer in this situation. She didn't feel like getting killed right about now, so she would have to perhaps lie about what their intentions were. In a way, this was training, so it wasn't too far from the truth.

@Jotun

Jotun

It was hard for her to disengage from the natural fight-or-flight response that fueled her; carried away on adrenaline and the sharp twang of pain from a few of the glass shards having penetrated her skin, Jotun wasn't ready to back down yet. Breaths pealed from her snout in a misty haze, lending a deeper draconic vibe to the beast's appearance. She wanted to drive home to point: do not mess with me! But more importantly, Jotun wanted to make sure Comet was safe. The wolf was so small compared to the two monstrous creatures - and that didn't include the newcomer, who was bigger and more intimidating than the lot of them!

The aggressor stopped fighting just like that. It was as if the chaos they had wrought never came to pass, but Jotun stood there surrounded by ice and shards of glass, glaring first at Khavur and then the giant, with their cat-like lackey settling nearby. Comet spoke first, then the beast confirmed.

A spar..? It had been self defense! This ugly thing had come out of nowhere to attack them, and now that they were caught attacking strangers, Comet backed down and that left Jotun to gape at everyone. A low rumble began in her chest as she fumed her frustrations, but the dragon did not say anything. There were no words - she was too agitated, and was more likely to snap at anyone coming close to her than anything.

She couldn't even look at Comet, who had been the first to back down after the booming command of the giant - this Vargas, to whom the stabby glass-summoning beast appeared devout. Had she chosen the wrong person to befriend? What good did being spineless serve when faced with these monstrosities?

@Khavur

Well what would happen first would be an order to stop. That was done. What would happen next would be a... an order for an explanation? A scolding? Comet... was covering for it. Why? Comet could have-- maybe should have gone on about how Khavur had come out of nowhere, attacking the two of them on sight, offering no explanation and coming at them with deadly spells and-- You get the point. So then why... '...COMET IS STR-- COMET IS NOT AFRAID OF ME. COULD HAVE JUST PUT ME AT THE MERCY OF MY MASTER. DIDN'T. NO FEAR. KNOWS I AM NOT... KNOWS I CANNOT HURT AS MUCH AS I SEEM TO BE ABLE TO-- AS MUCH AS I SHOULD BE ABLE TO.' Was that it? Or was it something else? Comet may have been incredible with magic, but did that truly eradicate need for fear? Khavur was huge compared to the little puffball, and the little puffball couldn't be entirely sure what it was capable of. So...?

So the next thing that would happen was that one of Khavur's glass shards would impale Master Vargas's hand. Oh no. The little sibling was there... to help the wound, it seemed. To clean it, probably with magic. It was a little surprising how many creatures in this room were willing to cover for Khavur right now. 'Why why why why why--'

Master Vargas had, while ineffectively nursing his hurt hand, explained (vaguely) what was beyond this tunnel, in an especially threatening manner. The ursine did not seem very pleased at all. Khavur could... understand that. Only it knew the reason for its own actions. To the Reaver, everyone else was a mystery.

And yet the mystery all these mysteries seemed to want to solve was the Reaver itself: Khavur. "I.. Comet tells the truth, and I understand, Master Vargas. I will warn you next time." As if there would ever be one. Chances were unlikely -- this attempt at a lesson had been sour, largely unfruitful. Too risky for what it was worth. Khavur had decided to go with the lie because it was, well, easier. Far, far easier than having to explain the confusion, than having to face the... consequences. I mean, Khavur did want to explain, just... not now. Not after it had done something clearly foolish. Maybe in private. Maybe when things weren't so busy. Just not now.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Chaos-Two's quiet approach went unnoticed, until the slight tingle of prokaryotic magic flickered through the open wound. Vargas glanced down in some surprise--a surprise amplified tenfold when the child patted his hand and if he were the emotional type, well, wasn't that adorable? But he was left baffled, if genuinely grateful. After all, he was always the sort to reward those in his employ (so to speak) who aided one another. "Very good, Chaos-Two, thank you. Where did you learn that?" and it was as if he were speaking to an equal--genuinely interested, not the patronizing tone of a patient, indulgent adult.

His attention went to the wolf cub, then. Just a spar, she said, just training, and toxic eyes cut to Khavur. "Please do, yes," he rumbled, appeased. Then he looked back to Comet. "And know, little one, that those here are not all fully-trained, themselves. If you wish to train I can always supervise you, and offer what I know," he added: a genuine offer, despite the fact that neither Comet nor Jotun were of the Sentinels or the like. There was no reason not to strengthen everyone in the cave, anyone who asked it--they were all in here together.

"Carry on, if you want, or do not, but do not actually cause harm to one another," he added gruffly--there was no reason for these so young to be permanently damaged before reaching full potential. Such tests were never fully accurate.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two's ears perked up in surprised, the normally droopy shells perked up high. He smiled, a little derpy thing made so by his awkward tusks, but it was endearing all the same.

"You're welcome, Master Vargas. I saw from Doctor," he said, linking his fingers together as he sat on his haunches, happy that it had worked and that Vargas appreciated it, "I don't know who he was treating but I saw him cast the spell and wanted to learn it, so I did. I'm glad because it came in handy."

Handy.

"Pun not intended, sir," he said sheepishly, and sat himself back down comfortably, returning to silence, preferring to listen and observed now that he'd fulfilled the small mission he'd set for himself.

Chaos-Two peered at Khavur and offered a wave, as fond as their sibling as ever. They occasionally looked back up to Vargas to see what he was doing, taking mental notes of the Leviathan for later, either to mimic and learn from or to possibly assess the Master's personality and how he behaved and acted. It was impossible to know without reading their mind.

@Comet

Comet could tell there was something wrong with the bear hybrid's silence. But she was too preoccupied with looking between 'Master Vargas' as she learned from Khavur addressing the huge being, and Khavur himself. She breathed a sigh of relief when he decided to go along with her partial lie, and Vargas seemed to accept it. And even offer to help train them later! The pup was surprised by this offer, coming from someone who started out so ferocious. "That would be nice." she smiled up at him.

But now, with the fight ended, there was nothing more to do here. And continuing on with 'training' wouldn't do, since she was too tired for that anyway. She poked Jotun. "Hey, let's go."

@Jotun

"Exit"

Jotun

Jotun wasn't exactly pleased with this outcome. They had been set-upon by this creature, and the creature was not being punished for attacking them? There had been no reason for the battle at all; the dragon had been trying to defend her new friend, this spineless fuzzy thing that was so little and appeared so weak even to her sleepy eyes; and now they were to turn tail and leave like nothing happened? The dragon huffed. The displeasure on her face wasn't fading away. She leveled a glare towards @Khavur as if to silently say, 'I will not forget this,' and after a second or two, turned to follow after Comet.

Whether or not the ursine creature would continue with the wolf's company was anyone's guess, but at this point she was unimpressed by the lot of them - alien monstrosities and Comet included. Her blood boiled with adrenaline that slowly eased its way to being a sense of agitation. The dragon felt cheated - but now was not the time to face-off against something like that mutated beast, not when it had ample backup.

(Exit.)

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Vargas

Maximus

Comet

Jotun

Khavur

Vargas

Maximus

Comet

Jotun