one with the BEAST - Printable Version

Ruby-Beta picked its way across Pegasus, dragging its large leaf behind it. It was starting to show some wear and tear from the number of times it had been dragged from here to Draco and back again. It glanced at some of the tearing fronds and noted to itself to replace it soon. Now, however, it was carrying a pile of long, dried grass and would have to suffice for this one last trip. Upon reaching the edge of the river, it released the leaf's stem and stepped over to the flat, muddy earth that had served as its workspace for the last few cycles. It was growing hollow with the amount of earth it had scraped away, but it all worked out - it had become an efficient place to mix together the ingredients for mud bricks. A small funnel led straight to the river and moving a large rock allowed it to flow into the hollow - replacing it cut off the flow.

Before doing so, it stalked along the edge of the river, scooping up sand from the edge of the water and tossing it into the hollow until it measured an acceptable amount had been dumped in. Returning to the hollow, it moved to the stone, watching the water pour into the hollow until there was a few good inches pooling on the bottom. And now for the harder work.

Beta replaced the stone and jumped in, stomping around in the mixture of mud, sand, and water, mixing it as good as it good and mashing it together until it was thick and hard to wad through, getting stuck in between its claws and clumping in its fur. It once had hated the feeling of getting wet at all but it had grown used to the sensation.

Once it had deemed the mixture finished, it reached just out of the hollow, grasped the edge of the leaf, and dumped the grass into the mud. It once again took up stomping through the mud, evenly dispersing the fiber and kneading it all together - and there was its recipe for mud bricks.

Many times throughout its work, Beta paused and looked around. It couldn't shake off the feeling that someone...was watching it. It had felt that way ever since entering Pegasus and as it continued working, it felt more and more uneasy. Something was wrong.

Azrael had been stalking the beast since he'd spotted him walk into Pegasus. He'd intended on minding his own business for the day, gorging on his hunts and resting on the cliffs, but as soon as he'd seen that coat of purple fur and the flash of acidic green, the hunt had begun. It had been a long time since they'd met, since it had bested him in a contest of hunting, but Azrael never forgot. And he was going to win this time.

He slowly made his way down the walls and crouched low to the ground, almost crawling across the meadow on his lower set of arms, using the shadows of the ferns and grasses to wreath him in darkness. If Beta looked back, all it would see was a shadowy patch in the grass. He followed it carefully, making as little noise as possible and watched as it worked at the riverside.

Azrael almost laughed at what he saw. This hunter, who had best him - him! Azrael! - had taken to mixing sand and dirt and grass at the edge of a river. For what purpose, he had no idea, but so intent on its work and mixing random things together, it didn't see him crouching not far away in the shade of the long grass. Perhaps it had never been as important as Azrael thought. He'd seen others of its kind around the caves, with the strange triangular face and similar purple or green colors. A whole family of them, perhaps. All fearsome hunters, maybe? Perhaps some warriors and spellcaster as well. But this one...it seemed like it was only a grunt doing hard labor instead of the important work Azrael had imagined it would be doing.

He watched for a while, smirking to himself. This would be fun.

It paused again, partly through mixing the grass into the mud mixture. Something was itching at the back of its head. Someone was watching it and it was getting tired of ignoring what could be a potential threat. It raised its head and snapped its gaze around swiftly, trying to catch the sight of moving grass or flashes of color, if someone was trying to quickly run away and hide. But no, everything was still. If anything, the shadows in the grass seemed...darker. More menacing. It's nostrils twitched, trying to catch a scent, but all it could smell was the mud and grass, damping any scent that could have been in the air.

With a huff, it sent out a spell, feeling for heartbeats, for breath, for anything that would alert it to the presence of a beast. In its ear, suddenly, a loud THUMP THUMP THUMP rang through its brain and Beta jumped, surprised. It was like...someone was right next to it! It whipped around, swatting through the air, but nobody was there. Not even a fly buzzing around its head. For a moment, it swiveled erratically, trying to find the source of the heartbeat until it realized it was hearing its own. It stopped moving and cut the magicka off, feeling heat fill its face. It sure hoped nobody was watching.

Overcome with embarrassment, it turned back to its work, trying to ignore the feeling at the back of its head. Better finish this up quickly and get back to Draco.

Azrael froze when Beta began looking around. He hadn't bothered to put reflection on his fur, so if it looked too hard, it would find him and the hunt would be up. But then it started whipping around, as if it were trying to catch a fly and he watched with amusement and confusion as it went on for a few moments before it stopped. He had no idea what had just happened, but all that mattered is it had gone back to work, back to Azrael.

Perfect. He carefully stalked closer until he was a proper distance away and then dug his hind legs into the soft earth, lunging out of the shadows with a roar, reaching with his top arms to grab the creature and hold it down. The push off was slippery, however, as he didn't realize how wet and muddy the ground was around this area and he scrabble to grab a hold of the purple fur before it slipped away.

The loud roar had Beta jumping nearly a foot in the air and whipping around just in time to be slammed by a large heavy bulk of dark crimson fur. It screeched, letting out a loud "What the FUCK" before it tried to slip out from the grip threatening to throw it to the ground. It felt large claws grasping at its fur as it scrambled away, slipping and sliding over the ground. It wiggled out of the beast's grip by the skin of its teeth, barely making it a foot before the thick mud and its balance thrown off had it tumbled to the ground, falling flat foward into the mudbrick mixture.

It looked back to face its attacker and widened its eyes at the familiar sight of the dark-colored, four armed demon standing up in the mud and wiping off the worst of the mixture with its lower arms. It honestly had never expected to see him again, much less have him attacking it out of the blue. "You!" it cried as it stumbled to its feet. "What are you doing here? And what the hell are you attacking me for?!" It tried to remember if it had done something to deserve this, but besides their meeting cycles and cycles ago, it hadn't so much as seen the beast once since it'd moved to Draco.

For a moment he thought he had it, claws digging into fur and skin, and he gave a triumphant growl, but then the slippery little shit wiggled out of his grip and went stumbling forward through the thick mud and sand it had been working on before he'd grabbed it. He lunged after it, trying to get a grip on it again, but he slipped and went falling as well into the mud, the thick mixture splashing across his front. He snarled as the unpleasant, chilling sensation of the mud plastered to his short fur. He climbed back to his feet, swiping off big globs of mud, sand, and grass from his body. What the hell was this stuff even for?

He glared at the creature, standing up taller and opening his wings a bit to look more intimidating. "You as are slippery as last we met, beast." The question had him smirking again, letting out a single gruff huff of laughter. The hunt had...well, it hadn't been a success, but neither a failure either. But there were other ways to prove his strength to himself and to this creature. Last time it had made its own rules, but this time they would play by his. "You bested me last time, but I will beat you now. I am STRONG. Get ready, beast, we are going to FIGHT." He felt his blood growing hot at the potential for a good fight with a worthy opponent. Yes, this is what he had been craving for cycles. This is what he needed. He didn't care if it wanted to fight or not - he would have this battle. He gave it a moment to prepare - common courtesy and all of that, he had no intention of making this an unfair fight - before he lunged forward, immediately falling flat into the mud as it grabbed at his legs.

Shame pounded at his head and embarrassment only fueled the flame in his veins. He looked up, pulling himself to his feet, growling louder then before at his wounded pride. "We are fighting OUT of this accursed mud."

Beta stared at him, barely believing what it was hearing. A...fight? Right now? It hadn't signed up for this when it had walked into Pegasus to do more Forge work. It had thought it would be able to finish up the latest den and then take a nice, long, relaxing nap but here was this wrench in its masterful plan, demanding a damn fight of all things.

Beta groaned and climbed out of the pit, thinking for a moment that it could run. But it remembered how fast the beast could be, how far his flames could reach. There was nothing to do here and it wasn't going to put the energy into running its heart out, only to get dragged into a fight anyways. "Fiiiine," it grumbled, leading Azrael to harder ground, better for sparring on. But it had a feeling this was going to be worse then a spar.

It took a moment to wait for him to join him on the solid ground, digging its claws into the dirt in preparation to begin their fight. Azrael might be intending on a fair contest of strength, but it had no such plans to follow with that. There aren't any rules in war. As soon as Azrael was facing him and ready to go, Beta swiped forward, throwing dirt directly towards Azrael's eyes, but it overshot, the spray of dirt and sand going over his head. And it had forgotten to account for the multiple eyes in his many hands.

Azrael frowned at the beast's complaining, a threatening growl slipping past his lips. It better not try to run - he intended on fighting this battle one way or another and if Beta ran, Azrael would follow and beat it into the ground. He followed it out of the mud pit, glad to have solid ground beneath his feet, and turning to face it once they reached the spot where it intended to fight. It flexed its claws, giving it the first shot, as he had failed his first before. Despite all of Azrael's shortcomings, he had a sense of pride and honor.

But Beta then proved to him that it, in contrast, had none. A cheap trick, an attempt to subvert the rules of fair fight. He saw it coming and ducked, letting the dirt fly over his head before embers leaped to his eyes, the glow in his chest intensifying as anger coursed through his veins. "A TRICK. A CHEAP, COWARDLY TRICK!" He threw himself forward then, smoke rising from the hand he threw forward, making to grab Ruby-Beta by the throat with a hand smoking hot and burning. Any chains he was intending to put on this fight were broken now - he gave in to the beast begging to escape and let out a roar as he let go to brutal anger.

Ruby-Beta felt its chest sink as Azrael screeched at it. Well, now it was well and truly fucked. It tried to back up, but Azrael's claw came lunging forward too fast, wrapping around its thick neck and pulling. It snarled and clawed at his hand before screeching with pain as it began to register the intense heat that was coming from his hand. It squirmed and struggled, not ready for this, not at all. At first it swiped blindly, trying to free itself, panicking as the pain intensified, before it finally cracked its eyes open, aiming to strike directly at the elbow of the arm holding it by the neck.

A large front paw struck forward, slamming against the weak joint, but it didn't nearly hit hard enough, shaking too much from the heat around its neck. It scratched more and more, but Azrael wasn't letting go. "Come on, man," it choked out, "cut it out! I don't wanna fight!" Maybe it was a coward, but it much preferred living and not being hurt.

Beta's weak scrabbling had Azrael pausing for a second - not out of any compassion or guilt at hurting it, but out of disappointment. It had always thought of this creature as strong and a good hunter, having managed to best him before, but now it was crying for mercy, trying to call off the fight. NO! He had gone far too long without a good fight! But this...this was PATHETIC.

The anger in him had his magic coursing too hot, to fast, and it ended up singing his hand as well as Beta's neck. With a grunt of pain, he released the beast, pulling his arm back with a low snarl. He stepped back, spirits and beastly anger dampened by Beta's cowardice, but anger still boiling over. "This is STUPID. You are WEAK and COWARDLY. If you do not want to FIGHT then you CONCEDE TO ME." He crouched down, moving his face so that he stared directly into the many eyes of his adversary. "TELL ME. Before, you were training. WHY? There are others like you. WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? If you will not fight me, then take me to someone who WILL."