QUESTIONABLE PERFECTION - Printable Version

The other children were talking--playing--and V-Chaos-One observed. Cunning, mischievious eyes watched Vargas as the Master's attention turned this way and that--and like a snake Nidhogg darted out, tiny jaws snapping open to try and bite down on one of the over-long forelimbs.

It had no real motivation for this, other than a sense of malice and the knowledge that Vargas had hauled it from the swamp. And the fact that Vargas had, if only for a moment, looked away.

Tiny needle-teeth got in between two of the big arm-spikes, up closer to Vargas' elbow, and the little one held on--twisting, hissing, as if fully intending to somehow kill the Leviathan with only an eight-inch jaw.

Chaos-Two's eyes shone with glee, and it shook its head out before jumping up and running around in a circle, tripping over its leg and falling to the ground in its excitement. The praise felt good! It felt like they'd accomplished something!

They shied away when Vargas snapped at their sibling, pausing to watch silently before deeming the situation perfectly suitable to return to. Chaos-Two blinked and padded after their fallen sibling, and pounced on their tail, gums clamping down, head shaking back and forth in an effort to defeat the tail they held.

"Grr- BLAAAA!!" they blurted, before growling again and returning to trying to playfight with the other.

When Vargas called out, they looked up, wondering what a 'designation' was. Was it food?

They simply burped in reply and continued to gum at Nidhogg's tail, paws holding it down as best as they could.

Nidhogg neither knew nor cared what a designation was. It cared that it had been peeled away and tossed back--and it was snarling to hiss up at Vargas when something grabbed its tail. In time that tail would be covered in deadly quills but for now they were mere stubs, and the tail was caught.

"Ssssssssss!"

The creature was a savage little creation, and it knew nothing yet of "play." Only "fight." So it took this as an attack and with a swift attempt at a strike, curled over itself and lunged for Chaos-Two's face.

It would not be a very damaging strike, if it hit--it was an attempt to latch on, snag the head in its jaws and thrash but it was small, newly-hatched, and weak; its teeth were needle-like but not long or broad as yet. Pinpricks, perhaps, at worse, but it was vicious in its hit.

A tiny bully, really.

Zoisite quieted down as the rest of the clutch began to eeeeeeee around it, scuttling back out of the way as Nidhogg went rushing past it. The red grub inched its way to the edge of the tunnel wall, tilting its head this way and that until it had found a good position to watch from the sidelines as all hell broke loose.

There was a lot going on, and it had missed a lot of what was going on. Master Vargas had a lot of big words to shout and demand, but the topic of hunting kept coming up, mimicked by the freshly hatched babies. They were probably hungry; Labradorite-Sibling had been quick to snatch up the bit of rats it had presented.

If the family was hungry, then... Golden, faintly glowing old eyes locked on Orthoclase-Alpha, quills bristling at the dangerous burst of magic. Mandibles clicked together, and the Zoisite lowered to the ground, and quickly began a scamper past sibling after sibling, weaving around the shards of glass. It had to keep its head parallel to the ground, however, and that meant it couldn't see where it was going very well, using its peripheral vision blurred by its crest, and its sense of smell and sensitive touch from its belly of quills.

Soft shell bumped into obstacles here and there, and stumbling over its own feet, it managed to run headlong into one of Orthoclase-Alpha's legs. Mandibles snapped shut with a click, and it lurched backward, flipping its head up and nearly tumbling over on to its back.

"Wait," it protest, shoving legs out to try and balance. A deep inhale through parted mandibles, tongue clicking, and it grunted its request, "Take me!" Simple enough words. Its eyes gleamed up at the parental figure (if any of the Sentinels could even begin to qualify for such a role) that towered over it. Fur puffed out, quills rattling in an almost imitation of what it had seen Alpha done a moment prior.