Fisher couldn't believe his ears when the bear told him that he hoped that he FELL. Fell! Really! "As if!" He yelled, closing his eyes tight as he strained up the last little bit. He was so close, he could almost taste it. His claws scrabbled just a bit more, and...
The air was definitely thinner here, but the magick energy was even stronger. Mystical wind swirled around the Spire at this height, and it made his so nervous that he really would fall. He refused to admit it though, as he kicked his way up the last meter. Almost there, almost.
Leon let out a yell, crying out into the air. It actually hurt Fisher's small, rounded ears and made him want to cover them with his paws, but he couldn't let go of the Spire or else he would fall. Maybe he was really close to the top. He dared open his eyes and saw the tip just within reach. Of course that was what the bear was yelling about, he was going to win! If he had looked down, he might have seen the brown fluffball plummeting down, but unfortunately Fisher was a bit of a fuzzbrain sometimes, and he was much too caught up in the moment.
"Yes, yes, yes!" He cheered in reply, smug and eager to claim his prize. Feeling a burst of pride and hope, he whacked his tail against the crystal and made one last spring for the top, claws unsheathed and ready to reach the very tippy top of the beautiful, blue light.
Speech was eluding Louie as he tried to make sense of the world around him. Instead of simply joining in the antics of the others who had emerged so clumsily from the pupae like state he had chosen instead to slip into the background. Shyness wasn't his goal, but he couldn't afford to trust others, especially the carnivores which seemed more abundant than any other species. Including himself. Wrinkling his nose, the kit moved quietly towards the exit of the core as more and more of the beings emerged from their crystalline tombs. There was a Spire, and while the dazzling lights were certainly an attraction, he was more preoccupied with watching two of the creatures try and gain scope up it.
This amused the young boy greatly and he took a place within an area hidden from the view of the tan creature with large claws and the dark brown cat-type creature. Even if they weren't carnivores, they were easily his size or bigger. Leon was huge and he kept most of his attention focused on the adolescent. Both of them scaled the structure, the larger one a bit more clumsily but the agile brown blob was surprisingly fast. Louie mused to himself that he should join in, but his extensively quadruped body would prevent him from going up something so vertical.
It was fun and games, until the larger one miss stepped and came plummeting towards the ground. The elongated cry caused his fur to prickle and he backed away further into his hiding spot, peering out from it with mild interest as he watched the bear's fall from grace
Without so much as a slip, Fisher had reached the top and curled himself around the point, copper eyes shimmering. The blue light they gave off cast a beautiful scene for many meters in every direction, and for a moment he just stared at the fungi and crystals that grew almost everywhere. The ceiling was a glistening sky, and the world bellow a natural city of purples and oranges, washed blue under the reign of the spire. His whole body trembled with excitement, the accomplishment sinking in. He was over ten meters in the air, and he had never felt taller. He could see forever, and he couldn't bear to leave--
Bear. Where did the bear go? Leon was how Fisher knew the fluffy creature, and now he realized that the bigger animal wasn't on the crystal anymore. Had he given up? Fisher's eyes searched the sea of cyan light, his claws digging into the magickal perch he had dominated.
The height got to him as he saw Leon, and another creature he thought, at the bottom. His fur fluffed as he listened and tried to make sense of the scene before him. Vertigo made his head swim and he clung tighter, wobbling. His heart was racing as it did on occasion when things got worrying, and as he pulled himself away from the edge he thought about using his trick from before, a bit of magick... But he had a feeling he needed his strength to get back down.
Fisher had been the first on the tower, and the crystals at the top had not a single pocket mark or indent. So, while he strained his ears to hear what was happening bellow that he had missed, he took out his claws and tried to scratch a score in the spire to mark his success. This was His victory and he was quite proud. He would scurry down to rejoin with the group once he left his mark on the crystal structure.
The magical blue spire was tolerant of the two creatures climbing it for the first little while. The air crackled with thick magic, a side effect its gleaming crystals could not control. Only when the small fisher decided to carve a mark into its crystals did it suddenly react, a powerful crack of white-blue leaping from the damaged crystal point into his extended claws. The feeling would be explosive and startling, enough to jolt his nerves and leave a numbness in his veins. Depending on how well the fisher is hanging on to the spire, it may even send him flying from its peak.
Once he lost his grip on the spire completely, the bear couldn't control where he was going to go next. He felt himself falling, crying dramatically and squeezing his eyes closed out of fear for what might happen. Leon fell against the wall of one of the crystal points, sliding down then bouncing off as he hit a small bump. He collided with another and continued to tumble downward until he rolled onto the ground, thumping his thick skull against the rocks. When Leon finally stopped rolling, he laid there for a moment, dazed. His body welcomed several new bruises and cuts, and he definitely had a large lump growing on the side of his head. And there was pain. Not like burning his paws. This pain was low and achy, setting in after a couple seconds of realization.
He didn't like it. Not one bit. So upon opening his eyes and realizing how far he had fallen, fear of what had happened to come overwhelmed the little bear. His eyes began to well up and he let loose a shrill cry, laying on his back. The bear cried and cried, which made his head hurt even more, and mucus and tears well up in his snout. Snot bubbles popped gracefully from his nostrils as tears slid, with quite a heavy volume, down the sides of his face. Anybody observing from afar could probably guess that he was crying from hurting his head - and sure, the pain was pretty bad, but in all truth it was simply the fact that he had fallen from such a great height that had scared him. And now that he realized he was just on the floor and had already fallen and there was no more accidents to be had, he didn't know why he was still crying.
But he was, because it felt like it made things better. Besides, he was still upset. Very upset. At everything.
A loud thud resounded out from where the bear landed on his side and in response, Louie winced and blinked a few times at the child with sympathy and honestly, he felt a laugh want to bubble forth. It was pretty funny seeing him come crashing to the ground like that, after all it wasn't everyday you watched someone just make a mistake like that. Especially with one that ended in flailing limbs. Empathy wasn't something the red fox felt and the male blinked a few times before looking back up the spire at the victor who was attempting to scratch his own mark into the magical rocks. Prick.
Another shrill noise and his attention was turned back to the cream coloured grizzly and as the tears begun to fall, along with all the other bodily fluids associated with crying, he rolled his eyes. Carefully making his way over, he tried to remain in the shadows before taking a step out towards Leon. Unaware of the magic that the spire was casting onto Fisher, he focused his attention on the kid and thought of all the positive benefits of getting on his good side. Physically superior, the bear should be able to succeed in displays of strength and he wanted to be on the winning side.
Louie tried to focus the feeling he got from his gemstone, it was different to anything else in his body as though it wasn't truly connected as of yet. All he got was the feeling it might help and he put the attention on Leon trying to make him feel good too.
Spell Roll
Fisher was holding on quite carefully, actually. He could have probably stayed up there forever and a day, but nope, apparently the crystal wasn't having that. In true Noodle-Animal fashion, the fisher jumped out of his own skin, wiggling in the air like a fish as he tried to get away fast enough. The white-hot blue energy ran through his retractable claws and up his skeleton, his paws feeling horribly sore and equally-- he realized this as his body hit the lip of the ledge-- numb. The mustelid tried to grab the edge but his toes didn't react, sore and tingly, and in slow motion the small mammal watched the edge pull away from him as gravity claimed him.
How stupid could he have been! He sensed the danger all along. It was all he could do, as wisps of blue-tinted mist flew past him. He made a horrible screech, a frantic, horrified wail as he went faster and faster. He had cleared a few of the crystal outcroppings, which meant less scrapes and bruises, but also meant he was gathering a ton of speed. It wasn't too high, so it didn't take too long for the ground to get close.
At least some sort of instinct clawed into his brain and he managed to get himself upright so he wasn't flying head first into the ground, but his flimsy body landed with quite the thump. Fisher bounced slightly, and rolled to a stop.
At first, he was only dimly aware of the pain. It grew a bit as he got over the sudden stop and his vision stopped spinning, but the air had been knocked out of him and he could barely breath. He strained to get up and felt a sharp, hot pain and flopped back down. There was a bit of red, sticky liquid that he didn't recognize, but he didn't want to be near it. Of course, it wasn't like he could move.
He could hear Leon crying not too far off. It sounded like the bear was in pain, Fisher thought as his eyes watered and he made his own, weak sobbing squeak noises. Had he fallen too? It was all his fault, and everything hurt so much, except he couldn't feel his paws and there was red stuff coming out of one and when he looked he felt like he might faint. It looked horribly wrong, didn't it?
Fisher was sure he was going to die.
As much as his cries echoed throughout the chamber, Leon didn't realize how loudly he was sobbing, or that it could in any way be annoying. Only when another creature had emerged from the darkness, and the bear heard its footsteps, did his sobs finally begin to die down. Leon's eyes slowly opened and he blinked away the tears, sniffling as he turned his head. He watched the fox inch closer to him, only barely; first, he was a subtle movement in the shadows. Before long the fox did reveal himself, stepping out into the light. Leon watched him, still whimpering, uncertain of what the kit was doing. Was he going to make fun of him for falling off the spire? Oh, that would be so rude - the thought alone was enough to make Leon crinkle up his face and release another upset sob.
But then something began to happen. He felt a warmth within him. Not just a single part of him, but everywhere in him. The sensation was both startling and confusing, and Leon's cries died down again, replaced by quiet sniffling. "Wh- wha-" He blubbered, unable to comprehend what was happening. The bear continued to lie still, and eventually he began to feel the scrapes on his skin grow warm as well. Not only that, but the pain was beginning to ebb away.
Thus he realized what the fox was doing. Leon blinked a couple more times and slowly rolled onto his paws. There, he tested out his balance, hoisting himself up. Alright, so there was no permanent damage to his legs. In fact, the only real injuries he sustained were the cuts and bruises from falling, which were already starting to feel better. "Woah! Are you doing this!" He exclaimed, wide-eyed. Soon enough, though, he heard another thump - Leon turned his head to see the fisher land on the ground, roll, then come to a stop. "Oh no!" Almost immediately, he forgot about his own injuries. He didn't mean for the fisher to get hurt too! He didn't mean for him to fall!
Leon stumbled away from the fox and towards the other mammal, but when he spotted the red leaking from him, he instantly froze. The red did not look good. It didn't smell very good either. "Are you okay...?" He asked with hesitation, fearful of what the answer may be.
Focusing all his energy was tiring, as he was only a small critter and Leon was easily twice his size. Soon as Leon made the comment, if he was doing it or not he let it all fell apart and he felt his head pounding, skin crawling and he shuddered with a curl of his lips in distaste at the feeling he was getting throughout himself. On the one hand it was slightly pleasant, the tingling of all the nerve endings in his body reacting to the surge of good bacteria he was pushing onto another. Though it made him feel rather exposed and almost stripped naked. It was horrifying.
Without saying anything, a flash of blinding light and the cries of the fisher beast brought him to attention and by the time he was even aware of what was going on, Fisher was laying crumpled on the ground. An acrid smell began to fill the air and hot red liquid was now dampening the ground beneath him. Pupils constricting to slits, despite the lack of light and the one bright flash, he took a few steps back. Tail twitching behind him, he raised a front paw in anticipation of simply sprinting off into the darkness. Never to be heard from again.
A few steady breaths brought him back to his senses and he wondered if he would be able to project and manipulate the same good feelings in the boy. His own head was pounding, but he couldn't compromise his goal of gaining allies and it appeared that the grizzly was concerned as well. Glancing from one, to the other, he took a few steps forwards again but this time, he wanted to actually be touching the body of the other. See if that contributed and made him feel less woozy and distant in his own body. Not wanting to get too close to either of them, he placed his small black paws on the thick tail of the fisher beast and tried to get the same feeling back. Projecting what he had just done to the bear onto the smaller creature.
It tired him, it was working but it tired him and in the process he let out a gaping yawn. Before he stood up straighter and kept his shoulders rigid. Weakness. No weakness.
To make things worse, the bear came over with some other kind of animal in tow and they started fussing over him. If he had to experience this, he wanted to do it alone away from everyone. There was nothing he could do though, his paw hurt just to move and he doubted he could stand on it. As Leon asked him if he was okay, his eyes nervously shifted back to the wound. So much red! His brown fur was slick black with the stuff, and out of instinct the creature knew he had to stop the flow somehow.
"I'm okay," Fisher replied, his voice shaking as he fought back against the terror and tears. "Did you see? I got to the top and then the Blue Thing attacked me! I won, I did," he insisted, trying to feel proud about his accomplishment instead of so scared. The red animal who had joined them and unbenounced to Fisher had healed Leon came forward and then trod on his tail, but he was distracted enough that it didn't bother him.
An odd feeling surged up his tail as the magick worked its way through his system. Feeling the sensation, the fisher kit remembered his own magick. He had no idea if it would work, but he had just the slightest feeling that the red goo-- it was starting to clump up now-- was being pumped out off his body with his heart.
So, a bit dizzy and lightheaded, the long fisher gave it a shot and tried to slow his heart just a little so he wouldn't lose anymore blood. He hated the sight and smell of the crimson liquid around his swollen paw.