Oof. The poor kid went to call for someone--who'd just left him here. Harsh. Rex winced a little, then glanced down.

He listened to Qflugr even as he carefully tore open the present Naskital had given him, unwrapping white paper in his teeth and touching snout, puzzled, to tiny glass ball. Its illuminated glow faded when he prodded it--but he felt like it'd taught him something.

But... what?

Eh, he could figure that out later. For now, he was hunkering down, squatting low enough that the cub could clamber onto his back if he wanted. "Climb on, if you want! I don't know which cave you mean but if you give me directions, I bet we could get there quick! You can be, uh--captain of the Rex ship!" he laughed.

Not that he'd ever seen a ship, before, but he had pretended to be one anyway, sometimes, when paddling around off Lacerta's coast.

"Your teeth are big! And what happened to your tail?" he asked. Maybe it was a painful question, but Rex didn't think of that; his curiosity got the better of him. "Oh! The skull's from, uhh--have you ever seen a Benjamin? They're big round guys that when you bite 'em they swell up like huge bubbles! If you're too small they squish you, though," he added, the cheerful tone never leaving his voice. "I've never seen one around here, though." So, the cub would be safe from those, at least.

He scooped the little bit of glass, along with the glass ball he'd been given, into the side of his jaw. It made him talk a little funny, but that was all right. "So, uhh--where to, kid? Qflugr, right? Where to, Qflugr?"

Even just standing around all that company'd been fun; it'd be nice to have a friend around.

we can exit here & start a new thread if you want? feel free to toss one up wherever Cap'n Qflugr'd guide Rex to!

@Qflugr

The Sentinel took the pack of hot chocolate and did not look at it. Instead, he stared at Spark. "It offers... thanks," he said at last, slow, the words rumbling out in an unfamiliar fashion.

Only when the hybrid had left did he look to the pack now in his hand, studying it closely. He had baubled tinsel, and this he now draped across one shoulder, turning to study its pale glow sidelong. It was so very different from his own shadows--uncorrupted--and different too from the whispering chaos of his poleaxe, or the new, thrumming, distorted energy of the knife.

The Sentinel did not have many friends, but it did not escape him that the exchange with Spark may have been... rather one-sided. Not that he could not say that corrupted scales of The Black Serpent were not a rare, or even valuable thing--certainly they were limited, perhaps never to be seen again--but a magical dagger was far more useful to him. So he looked at the departing hybrid, marking then in his mind as someone not to kill immediately on a whim. If Spark misstepped, came into Draco and attacked a Forge, perhaps Sentinel would even give them the benefit of the doubt.

...Not that this was friendship. But even so.

He lifted the packet to his snout, inhaling. Food.

Hot water? Very well. He would go to Vargas, then, and ask the Master's advice: where to find hot water, how to make... whatever this was, and eat it.

Likely this would take him on a strange adventure to Nedies, to Cepheus, to sipping hot cocoa on a voidlit marble patio, but... the Sentinel did not know that, yet.

exit Sentinel