A Warning - Printable Version

Rift, as per usual, was hanging around in his garden, doing his daily upkeep to its health, watering, weeding, and cleaning up any sickness he found. Something rang through his sensitive ear and he paused, glancing over in its direction. A flash of white and he stood at the sight of Pride. But...that wasn't right, that wasn't Pride? Was it? The way the light shone on its fur just wasn't correct.

It turned and disappeared into the forest and Rift, ever suspicious of intruders, and even more suspicious of this not-Pride but almost-Pride, leaped after it.

Thankfully, his suspicions were for nothing as the double led him to Mercurius's garden where the real creature awaited. He slowed to a stop, blinking slowly as he gazed at the white stag with concern. "Pride," he rumbled. "Is something wrong? Does Orion require our aid?"

The old storyteller had already been in the grove as Pride's urgent call came, clear and sharp in all its bleating glory. Moonlit eyes met a silvery gaze, Mercurius hoped, as he pushed out from the garden's entrance. They were hooded slightly, fogged slightly with a half-awake daze; not inattentive, by any means. As the ferns shifted to allow Rift --- hot on the tail of a drifted copy of the white stag --- through, Mercy offered a quick glance towards Pride. Such urgency seemed to require privacy, and he bowed his head to either Gembound.

"Come in, come in," he murmured softly, backpedaling through the grove's entrance. He turned as soon as he found the room to, pacing toward the back of the glowing abode. Barely indicating toward various moss beds, Mercurius took a seat, tail curling lazily about his paws and tassel flicking gently.

The news was both a shock and basically a punch in the gut. Jayberry was here, here, in Eridanus. She'd harmed one of his citizens and he didn't know about either her presence or the injuries. He knew nothing. Nobody had told him and he hadn't found out himself. A growl began to rumble in his throat as he observed the illusion that Pride conjured before him. Not just out of anger towards Jayberry, but anger at himself, for his negligence - he had sworn to defend his Kingdom. He'd sworn the safety of Eridanus. And he'd failed. One of their greatest enemies had slipped in right under his nose, hurt and beat one of those that was being protected, and he'd done nothing.

"Where is she now? Do you know?" he managed to get out beneath the rising growl. "And why didn't Huckleberry speak to me about this before? Or Yew?" That was another thing. He'd allowed both of them into his Kingdom, given them a home, given them safety. Mercurius had cared for and nurtured them. And they'd paid them back with nothing but silence. He closed his eyes to try and steady his anger. He was going to have a long, long talk with Huckleberry soon.

A warning.

Magic shimmered and rippled through the air, taking the clear shape of a distorted canine creature, black as the shadows that once plagued Clover. Glistening yellow eyes, curled horns, fangs glistening even in the dance of lights. It was a wretched creature. It was Jayberry, and she had hurt one of the poor children in his own care.

Mercurius's lips pulled taut into a thin line, a feeling close to anger blossoming through him. It was the same thing he had felt as Rift --- supposedly a king --- had impulsively bound the then-Bloodberries by the mouth rather than soothing them. Moonlit eyes drifted over to the chlorophyll-ridden cat, visibly seething and growling. It is a blessing, Mercy reassured himself, calming himself down with the gentle ebb and flow of magicka as he attempted to spin it into a dance of moths, that she seems to have survived. Pride would have come out with it, if Yew were to be dead.

Instead of glimmering white moths, a swarm of vantablack locusts threatened to form in the space before Mercurius with a deafening buzz in his own mind. Pain lanced across his vision, and he immediately cut off his flow of magic. The locusts vanished from sight, scattering in inky-black sparks. He dropped his head, dizziness overwhelming his thoughts for a moment (at least he had something to think about other than his quiet frustrations.) Shaking them away, against his better judgement, he huffed towards Rift, "I know it isn't much in the way of--- of condolences, but you cannot be everywhere at once. What is done is done, and we can only clean up the aftermath."

Eyes glassy with the migraine clawing at his skull, he stated firmly to Rift, "I will find her. Please do not pressure Huckleberry, if you see him --- I don't believe it will... be helpful, in the long run. Simply speak to him, if you must."