Alpha learned a number of lessons from its peers and authority figures. The Overseer worked on battle tactics while the Commander and Chief Officer worked with stealth. It was not sure what the cat Ruby-Beta had been modeled after did, nor the near-bald bird. Astonishingly, the child hadn't injured itself and necessitated a doctor's visit.

The orthoclase also taught itself a number of lessons, such as the following: no, you cannot punch rocks apart; yes, you can clobber a rat to kill it and eat it. Stomping was less efficient than a well-placed bite, but Alpha was in a bit of a hurry with the realization that it was a growing, molting hybrid monstrosity that apparently needed to eat quite a bit on the daily.

It was shaking off the last of its first molt onto the ground as it sauntered into Canis. The shed exoskeleton almost immediately drifted away, carried by the breeze coming out of Tunnel P. Alpha lowered its head, and sniffed long and hard. This sensing just went plain ignored, though, as it went to the same place it always did to hunt rats: some conveniently-left ribcage or other body part that the rats loved to massacre.

As expected, there were a few. Alpha dropped as low as it could without dragging part of its quills or arm-spikes along the ground, and then lunged forwards in a loud flurry of movement. It lashed out with a single arm, snagging one of the bunch by the tail and immediately yanking it back. Faced with too large of an opponent and certain death, the other Lessers vanished into the woodwork. They left its unfortunate companion with the dishonor of having its neck squeezed in one meaty forepaw and being smacked against the rock as hard as possible.

Chittering oh-so-softly in eagerness for another captured meal, the orthoclase tossed it into its mouth and trotted off into the bones to eat it, almost using a shoulderblade like a gruesome plate. The sight was plain grisly, entrails going first and bodily fluids just going everywhere.

Beta had, unfortunately, learned quite quickly that the Commander and the Chief Officer weren't going to be doing its hunting, even though it was definitely still a child and barely knew how to stalk its prey. Well, that wasn't true - it did, it just didn't want to. Stalking took time. Being quiet and sneaking consumed too many minutes. But running after prey without a care took far too much energy for the yield. It was strong, yes, and fast, but lessers were sometimes faster.

So, with an annoyed grumble and a lot of reluctance, Ruby-Beta left the tunnel to wander around the room of bones in search of something to eat. It seemed to be doing this a lot more recently.

The smell of something familiar distracted the hybrid from its hunt though and a quick glance up showed that Orthoclase-Alpha was not far away, smashing the head of a rat against a rock while a number of others went skittering away, right in Beta's direction.

Well, it wasn't going to pass up this opportunity for an easy meal and jumped forward towards the closest one, bringing one of its powerful paws down on its neck. It didn't miss - in fact, it his the rat right where it intended with brutal force, but the death was so violent and sudden that the bones within broke immediately, shattering under Beta's smash, the largest of which, part of the leg, spearing upwards, through the rat's skin, and impaling Beta's palm.

It let out a terrible screech and stumbled back, trying to get the rat bone off on instinct, but the bone had lodged itself in its paw, blood already beginning to drip from its skin. It wasn't concerned with Alpha anymore, nor with its meal - that hurt and it really didn't like it at all.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha'd just been enjoying making a mess out of its meal with ripping and tearing (crooked and mangled teeth made it pretty hard to eat cleanly, even if the hybrid monstrosity tried to) when a horrific screech grated through its mind. Acidic-green eyes snapped in the direction of it, somehow just now noticing Beta's general existence.

An existence which was currently miserable.

Gathering up its rat in its crooked jaws, Alpha shouldered through the bones towards Beta. Looking at the injured paw and mangled rat... the orthoclase had to laugh. Its own quarry smacked down wetly on the bones as Alpha started howling in laughter at its sibling's predicament. "SMASH RAT BAD, HMMM?" it guffawed between laughs, eyes narrowed with pure glee. "IDIOT."

After that moment of pure Cain instinct passed, though, it lowered its head and sniffed at the injured paw concernedly. If Beta was injured, then they couldn't train or tussle. That wouldn't be good for the Overseer. The Overseer wanted them to be strong and capable.

Alpha clucked and fussed at the wound, sticking its tongue out to lick it gently around the bone. "You be ok?" Should we take it out? The bone, that is.

@Ruby-Beta

Beta was unsure of what to do with its impaled paw. It wanted to take the bone out, but something told it that that might be a bad idea. It wasn't bleeding a lot, but it made sense that it would if the thing stopping the blood was removed. It sat still for now, considering what it should do when laughter caused its head to turn.

Alpha was striding forward, mangled gore staining its jaws - from its own successful hunt, probably. Was it laughing at Beta's expense? It sure seemed like it, although Beta did not see what was so humorous about the situation. It's paw hurt a lot and there was currently a large bone wedged inside of it. Still, Beta wasn't one to turn down the opportunity for mirth. After all, the laughter coming from its sibling was already starting to lighten its mood a bit. It let out a few chuckles itself. "Made a mistake. Now look at me," it raised its paw, the rat dangling from the wound and, suddenly, it realized what was so funny and threw back its head, a booming laughter joining Alpha's at its own injury.

It took a moment for Beta to calm down - because now it realized how ridiculous this all was, trying to hunt and getting impaled by a bone - and it turned its attention back to what on earth it was going to do about this. "Not ok, I think. Paw hurts a lot. Might bleed if bone is out, but can't leave it in. Maybe break off rat." It sat back on its haunches and reached in with its other paw, grabbing at the rat and curling its injured paw to hold the bone in place. Beta tried to snap the rat around, to break off the bone that was currently stuck in its paw, but it caused such a spike of pain, and a spray of blood, that Beta flinched and stopped. "Huh. That hurt."

@Orthoclase-Alpha

For the record, the orthoclase's laughter had not been to lighten the mood. It truly had been laughing at Beta's expense, driven to childish hysterics by seeing such a silly sight. "RAT CATCH YOU," Alpha boomed, sending itself into a second fit of chittering cackles and narrow-eyed glee. Just look at the damn rodent - it refused to let go any time soon. Incredible. How did something like that even happen?

Beta started to sober up at around the same time, laughter and mirthful expression morphing into a wince. Having a bone stuck in a foot couldn't be fun; Alpha didn't think it'd be very helpful to walk on one, even. Breaking off the rat would just make it harder to get out later. Clicking its teeth together, quills flaring up in thought, the sextaped scuttled forwards.

Then full threw its weight at Beta, bowling the poor thing over so it could grab the injured paw and fix its jaws around the bone. It pulled at the wrong angle, apparently, sending a spurt of Beta-blood directly into its eyes - and a very expected howl of pain.

@Ruby-Beta

Alpha's laughter was getting kind of annoying. Yeah, yeah, Beta got a rat bone stuck in its paw, very funny. It laughter with its sibling for a minute, but now that the moment had passed, Beta really only cared about getting it out. It was very painful and it was starting to get uncomfortable standing on three legs. It continued trying to break the rat off for the moment, but each wrench caused another spike of pain that made it unwilling to try again. There had to be a better option.

It seemed Alpha wasn't going to be patient, though, as it suddenly felt itself shoved over by a massive weight. It hissed with surprise as it slammed to the ground, injured paw waving in the air before Alpha clamped its jaw down and tried to pull. The blood that sprayed into its face was accompanied by a roar as pain shot though Beta's entire leg. Instinctively, it batted Alpha away with its other paw, pulling itself away with its back legs. "OW," it yelled, wrenching its paw back towards it.

But it was growing impatient as well and just wanted this to be over with. It leaned over and clamped its own jaws around the rat, tugging once with all its might, this time at the correct angle. It hurt, a lot, but the rat bone was pulled right clean out of Beta's paw, which was quickly followed by a surge of blood as the wound was opened.

Beta dropped the rat and began furiously licking at the wound with its acid-green tongue, but the blood was just coming. "WHAT," it shouted down at its wound, as if it would have an answer as to why it was bleeding so much.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Completely on instinct, Alpha growled as the ruby batted at it. Acidic-green eyes narrowed, but it relinquished its hold on the rat-bone warily. After a few moments, Beta'd ripped off the band-aid with a grunt. Blood sputtered right out across the bones, yet again. So much, its thoughts grumbled, looking at it.

"Keep licking," it offered, more as a question than a statement, before casually going back to eating its own eat. Alpha figured the blood in its hatchmate's paw must run out eventually. That was how it worked, right?

@Ruby-Beta

Beta continued trying to lick the blood, trying to stop it from flowing so freely from the wound, but the bone had apparently done more damage then it'd realized. There was a lot of blood - a lot - and it just wasn't slowing down. Fear started making its way into Ruby-Beta's head as it resorted to trying to press down on its paw. But the pain kept it from being too harsh with itself, so it didn't even do much so stop the bloodflow.

Things were starting to feel weird. A chill was settling over their body. "H-hey," it mumbled. "Feels weird. Cold. Getting dizzy." Was it because of the blood? Is that what happened when too much blood came out? There was certainly a lot on the ground - it was pooling at their feet at this point. They must have hit a lot of blood vessels...or an artery?

Alpha would probably make fun of them, but Beta didn't care. It wasn't feeling so good. It looked up at its sibling with desperation. "Help?"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Hm. It seemed that blood in a certain part of the body just didn't arbitrarily run out and stop bleeding. Each organ wasn't self-contained. Alpha stared worriedly at the limb as it continued to sputter down Beta's forearm and pool on the ground. The ruby was complaining about cold and dizziness. It seemed to wobble on the spot, eyes almost desperate.

At the same time, a voice boomed down from the mouth of Tunnel P: I AM HOSTING A LESSON. A few moments later, and - I expect all the new brood to be here.

Acidic eyes fixed on the smaller, purpler sibling, teeth grinding together in a grumble. Pacing a few steps, it considered. Wasn't there a - medic? A servant just for helping with this kind of stuff? Alpha grunted a few times to itself, quills rattling with annoyed thought. They were on short notice, given the Overseer'd called for them.

Finally, it smoothed down its quills with one arm. "You, climb on back." Leaning down lower, it already started to grab gently at Beta. "Hold blood in?" Lowering its head, it grabbed its own rat and the ruby's. Once Beta was on (it hoped) it started scuttling towards Tunnel P.

;exit alpha
@Ruby-Beta

Dammit, the blood just wouldn't stop coming! Beta didn't like the feeling of pressing too hard on its palm, it sent a spike of pain running up their leg and they flinched whenever they did it. It ended up just stuffing the whole of its paw into its jaws, licking at the blood with its tongue and trying to staunch the flow as best it could. Still, it dripped from their chin onto the ground despite their efforts.

Vargas's booming voice didn't register for a moment, their head too filled with fog, but they processed it a moment later and looked up at Alpha, offering to give it a ride. Grateful, it groaned and limped forward and tried to pull itself up with one arm, but it needed Alpha's help to clamber on, weakened as it was.

It was draped over Alpha's back, essentially sucking on its entire paw and spilling drops of blood all over its sibling's back, wavering between waking and unconsciousness.

*exit