Khloros looked down at himself, for awhile. He stared at his form, and thought.

She is made of fire. Then what am I made of?

He looked up, blinking at Nemesis.

"Booker was made of... friends. Mushrooms. But not--made of them. But he could grow them? I... I have friends, inside me. But they are sickness. Death. Is that what I am made of?" He asked this with the most naively innocent of tones, plainly curious in a childlike way, his large eyes lingering on the trino unblinking.

She knew everything, it seemed; she was kind, and friendly--large, and gentle, and warm. With a sudden trickle of affection, the dark colt suddenly and impulsively turned, pacing slowly over with gangly legs to stretch his neck toward Nemesis. He blew a gentle greeting of warm air through flared nostrils, and tried to outright nuzzle her, like a foal finally finding his long-lost mother. It was perhaps somewhat incongruous with his question, but the friendliness was genuine, nonetheless, just as that question had been.

"Will you be my friend?" he asked, quietly and abruptly.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Nemesis

Nemesis

Nemesis listened to the horse try and sort out what his friend, Booker, was made of-- and what he himself was made of. She batted her eyes at his gangly form of blackness, of shadows, and saw the Earth in him-- a sort of decay that gave birth to life of all sorts. Where there was sickness and rot, there was potential for growth in the dead. He came to the conclusion he was made of Death, and she gave him a gentle nod. It seemed true enough, and explaining that he felt like Earth to her would be complicated.

The foal stepped closer, their breaths mingling for a moment. The colt was surprisingly warm, much more alive than he appeared. Again she found herself struck by the surprising potential and life in those who seemed so sick-- Magdalena, Khloros. She tilted her head, craning her pointy bits away from the black plague-bearers muzzle, and found herself absolutely stunned at the affectionate touch from the boy.

She had no idea what to do with it, but it filled her with a stirring that made her uncomfortable. It reminded her of gentle touches she longed to share with her princess, not this awkward prince of Louie's. Yet she didn't shy away-- he was innocent in his intentions, near as she could tell-- and instead took a step forward and nosed him back, snorting. No one had ever asked to be her friend. No one had ever wanted to be her friend... Not even Magdalena-- she had fought for that companionship herself every step of the way.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Came her flippant response, brushing it off as she turned her head away from his, though she did not back away. That heat that burned in her ears didn't seem to let up-- she was surprised she hadn't abruptly caught on fire, frankly. "We can be friends, and family," she told him, her deep midnight eyes catching his endless green gaze, "and if anyone wants to mess with you, they'll have to go through me." It was a swear, an oath, one that she extended to only two others-- sure, there was the other Merrymen... But only Fang and Magdalena she valued over her own life.

And now, this weird, diseased horse. Well, at least he was a very kind, very sweet sickling.

The foal moved closer, trying to lightly lean on Nemesis. He was curious about her, he found; she was surely the largest and most powerful being he'd seen, aside from Raheerah, and yet seemed gentle and kind. And this was despite the heat that licked off of her body in waves. He thought, for a moment, and then decided to ask her questions, though he was afraid it might come across as a little rude. He tried to lean on her as he did so, not realizing that the patches of illness on his body might be off-putting to some.

"Were you born here?" Khloros asked softly. "Who else is your family? Are they all nice?"

Were they all heroes? Louie had saved him from the dragon, and now Nemesis was offering her protection. And that reminded him.

"I'm not strong, but maybe one day I will be?" he said quietly. "And then, if anyone wants to hurt you--they have to go through me, too. Family," he agreed.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Nemesis

Nemesis

Nemesis felt a smile creep up on her features no matter how she tried to look all tough and cool. It was absolutely wonderful to have a friend, a real friend, after all this time. It was even better that he seemed to understand what Family meant-- of course, he was a herd animal just as she was. Strength in numbers, safety, companionship-- all things that ran deep in her hot-running blood.

"Yeah, I was born here. Up on the cliffs. I set myself on fire immediately and nearly fell off the edge... But Fang helped me." She paused in that moment, considering his other questions. Was her family nice? She considered their behaviors, the way they treated other gembounds.

Her ears flicked back against her frill as she stared off towards the cliffs. "My family isn't the nicest bunch, it's true, but they're loyal. The Merrymen are my family-- but mainly Fang and Magdalena," she explained softly, her large foot scuffing at the earth under her. "Fang's our Queen, she's a bit of a sharp-witted, demanding lil' thing, but she means well. Magdalena is my... She's m-- our-- princess, and she's lovely. She's blind and frail, but she's stronger than her disability, y'know? She can be harsh, but she's real sweet once you get to know her."

Nemesis wondered if that was the best way to describe either of them, but seemed satisfied enough with her response. It was honest. "You already seem strong to me, Khloros. You look like you should be dead, but you're not." Heat rolled off her body as she let him lean on her, snorting softly. "... Welcome to the family."

Blind and frail?

Everything Nemesis said to him, all of her words, lingered and spun in his mind. He remained silent, giving them their time, their due. They deserved to be pondered, considered, thought over.

She had been born here. Fire, rescued. Her family was tough, but meant well. Scrappy, strong--the way she described him. Perhaps they were misfits, tough, different... He remembered Rafael, the strange winged stag that had insisted that he was different, stronger, better.

The idea had repulsed him.

But maybe if enough of them were different, well, maybe they were pretty normal after all. Khloros turned large lamplike eyes to Nemesis, gaze steady.

"I didn't know she was a princess. Someone told me that I was different, stronger than others. I was thinking... You made me think. I don't think I'm better than anyone. But if all of you--all your family--is different, and stronger? Then maybe you are all normal. Maybe it's normal to be different?" He turned the idea over in his mind even as he said it, knowing with some deep instinct that his words were contradictory, that the concept made no sense. And yet... it did.

They were a family, normal in their strangeness, bound together by their odd toughness against adversity, against their oddness. He wasn't sure what normal was, anyway; Booker had been one-eyed and coated by fungus, tiny. The owl he'd briefly met had been blind, and Magdalena, too. Only Delphine had seemed healthy and normal, and perhaps the other birds that had been nearby, and the lion. Or were they the normal ones? Maybe the rest of the cave was filled with Gembound like those, ones without strange outcrops of frilled bone, or maybe ones not twisted by blindness or illness.

He snorted, softly, pushing the idea aside. "I don't think it matters," he suddenly said. "Family is family, and everyone is different. I like you."

And nothing else mattered, did it?

He snorted, softly, pushing the idea aside. "I'd like to be family. But I don't know anyone else in it. Are you my sister, now? Or something else?" He had the faintest hint of playfulness about him as he asked this, glancing up, eyes partly squinted in amusement.

"Big Fire-Sister? Or Great-Aunt Nemesis?"

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Nemesis

Nemesis

Nemesis leveled her gaze on his once more, another snort flitting through her nostrils. Her tail twitched, flicking across the back of her heels-- it was odd having such a huge limb, weighted down towards the ground compared to her old tail. She still wasn't used to it. It distracted her from answering, her mind lost in what he was saying and less in what she should be saying back.

Khloros understood what family was about, instinctively, and it filled Nemesis with a great comfort. "I like you too," she replied softly, considering all he had said about different being all the same... And then the silly, strange half-dead horse suggested that they were siblings, or something more like aunt and nephew-- which felt weird. She was holding off a laugh as she replied, her face hurting from the pull of muscles in that unavoidable smile.

"Let's just stick with sister, yeah?" She gave him a playful nudge, as soft as she could manage (the kind of nudges she gave tiny Magdalena) and stepped backwards in an awkward, stumbly gait. As she stared at the dark horse for a moment longer, she was caught on the glisten of his eyes-- wondering if his gem was the same glowing, vibrant green, and where it was-- and remembered the tiny blue shell growing in the safety of her home.

Blustering social clumsiness building, she realized she had best go check on it-- she had no idea how quickly those weird eggs grew... Or how baby gembounds worked at all. Last thing she wanted was for her little babe to come into the world, on fire, and not have someone to tell them to stop drop and roll.

"Um, actually, Khloros, I nearly forgot-- I need to go check on a chrysalis... You can come, if you want," she offered, finding that she held out enough trust to let him know of her second biggest weakness in the world.

She nudged him, and he gently nudged back, watching Nemesis quietly.

A chrysalis? What did that mean? He wasn't sure; he had a vague idea that maybe it was like the rock he'd been born from, but he wasn't positive. Either way, he found his curiosity piqued, though... at the same time, he was reluctant to leave this pit.

He looked out over the gorge, committing its scorched image to memory, and then turned to follow Nemesis.

"i'll come with you. What's a chrysalis? Is it like.. a newborn-rock?" He hesitated, wrinkling up his nose a bit; he wasn't sure if he'd described it right.

'Newborn-rock?' What does that mean?

He shook the thought away with a brisk shake of his neck and head, his short half-grown mane tossing over to the other side of his neck. He'd go with her, in any case.

Khloros found that he felt a strange sense of... being cared for. Not being alone. Something about following this larger, friendly creature felt natural to him, like something he'd been missing--ever since Booker had died.

He didn't die. He's alive. ...Somewhere. I hope.

He sighed softly to himself, sadly, through briefly-widened nostrils. Even following the tiny numbat around--while Booker had provided him a sense of security, safety, love and belonging--hadn't given this same strange instinctual satisfaction.

Nemesis might have called herself his sister, and Khloros might not even know of mothers, but he felt as he followed Nemesis along that he'd perhaps found his at last.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Nemesis

Nemesis

"Yeah-huh, it's where gembounds come from. Some gems you can like... put your magic in, and it makes a baby creature. Or something. Fang showed me..." The trino explained as she led Khloros to her roomy crack in the wall-- the place where she had set up her bedding and her little gem-nest. It was a bit cozy for a huge gembound, and certainly they wouldn't both fit in there, so she stopped just outside of it and glanced back at Khloros.

"You remember the story about the Fire and Wind? The gembounds who took the gems-- well, Fang took two. She gave me a small, round blue gem, and told me that I could create..." The memory of the conversation flooded her with a new wave of embarrassment-- the talk she had with Fang had left her flustered as all hell. Mostly because Fang had called out the fact that she was quite attracted Magdalena. That they could raise the baby there.

"A-hem-- anyway, um, yeah. Feel free to check it out." The alcove would be plenty roomy for the thin horse, at any rate-- with dried grass littering the dusty, scorched floor-- and sure enough, in the back corner, a small blue gem had begun to grow into a chrysalis, still quite small, but it had a light heat wafting off of it-- a true sign that it was Fire's child.

Khloros paused, peering inside.

There was something attractive about the small space, something warm and comforting and cozy, but at the same time, he felt a sudden cold thrill of claustrophobia. Did he distrust Nemesis?

He mulled the concept over and decided that no, he did not. More likely, he was remembering Booker's little cave.

The cave his friend had probably been in when Raheerah's fires had swept through Polaris. He shivered faintly, and sighed.

"I'm sorry. Booker had a home in a little cave. This is nice. Warm. Dry." He stepped inside delicately, pacing over the straw, peering down at the small blue gem-cocoon. He snuffled gently over it, feeling its heat brush over his soft muzzle. He brushed velvet lips over it, and closed his eyes, trying to sense any life within.

What came was a searing scream, as if the heat within the cocoon was overpowering to his magic, to his mind, to the bacteria that stirred within him. He took a staggering step back, rapidly shaking his head, disoriented and feeling abruptly feverish with the sense--as if the heat of the gem had prompted his own body into sickness.

He backed quickly away, murmuring just loudly enough for Nemesis to hear.

"It's strong... It's fire, as you say." He grimaced, but forced the expression away as he turned back to the trino; he didn't want her worried, or disappointed. Instead he seemed relaxed and friendly as he approached the exit of the little nook again, slipping quietly out.

"You'll be its mother?"

Khloros peered up, eyeing Nemesis curiously, glowing eyes flicking over her form. He wondered if the child would be like her. Would he be its uncle, then?

Shaking away the lingering sense of fever, he looked back at the blue cocoon.

...He didn't think he'd mind.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Nemesis

Nemesis

Nemesis listened, watching the ebony horse as he went in, and felt a surge of overprotectiveness that she had to fight down. She had invited him here, and so she would wait politely outside, resisting the urge to attack or burn the horse who had gone so close to her precious baby. It was a dumb instinct-- she trusted him, she knew it would be fine.

He returned, telling her that her little gem looked strong and full of fire, and a great sense of pride boiled up in her chest. "Thanks," she started, as he asked if she was its mother-- and she supposed, in a very literally sense, she was.

"Yeah, I guess so. I hope I do a good job, I mean, I've never been a mother before-- and it's not like I had a mother, not like any of us did, I think." She wondered, absently, if once the little one hatched-- would they have a real herd? Khloros, Nemesis, and the little one-- of course Magdalena and Fang, too, but they weren't so much herd animals, and it never really felt like she had a true herdmate among them.

"... I wonder how we all were made, honestly. I mean, if I did have a mother, where did she go?" On one hand, the trino was willing to believe she was born straight out of the power of Fire, lingering magic in the cave, but on the other-- well, she really wished there was some gembound out there who looked like her, who knew what it was to be a rhinoceros. If only.