As it would turn out, Eythan's strategy would not be the most successful of the duo's. Nothing in aerodynamics was working for him and he struggled against the blustering winds as he dove. Up ahead, he could see the cobalt gryphon speeding toward the wall with ease --- at least, it appeared to be so from miles above. The race was already lost by the time Eythan alighted with a snap! of his broad wings.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, inches away from the wall, he flopped onto his side. Every bit of his fur and feathers were puffed out and he panted to cool himself off. "Ah," he wheezed between breaths, closing his eyes, "good race." The thrill of competition had been fun while it lasted, but he was over it already. Was it worth being this tired? This exhausted? This spent?

He had lived through worse, he supposed.

@Amras

As soon as he had touched the wall Amras sat down with heavy breaths. It had certainly been a while since he'd last exerted himself physically like that! The effort had paid off though, and it was a fair few seconds later that his opponent came diving in to hit the finish line and collapse.

"Good race to you as well" he replied with equal labor as he leaned against the wall in an attempt to keep sitting upright. " Gradual acceleration seemed to have worked a bit better for me than my original strategy of sputtering through the rapids to the finish."

A few moments were spent in silence as Amras, and he suspected Eythan as well, slowly recovered from their race. Truth be told the even if results of this one were no guarantee of overall prowess Amras felt a sense of pride at his victory. More than that, however, there was a distinct sense that the victory itself was not what was most satisfying. The competition had fed a hunger that the gryphon didn't even know had been gnawing at his insides.

Had his magic practice been a competition with the universe itself? Now that he had access to the twelve had the feeling of a challenge gone by the wayside. Could that be why he had felt so... unmotivated lately?

As soon as breath came easily enough to talk without pauses in the middle of his sentences Amras held out a talon between the two of them, his gem glowing again as he tapped into a bizarre magic that had been inherited from a magical relic long before. A ghostly yellow energy began to manifest near Eythan, sparkling and shimmering as raw chaotic magic gathered within its shape. Layer by layer the ghostly image took on physical properties even as it floated in the air. Three individual sections of pulp, growing as though printed by magic, strings growing upon the outside like veins, and finally as though made of a self-replicating ooze a layer of tough cellulose entombed the edible insides.

Even as the magic stopped and the banana fell a few inches to the floor the fruit didn't stop sparkling. "I may not have eaten food in a few cycles, but I always found this conjured food to be rather tasty, even if it has a few strange side effects. You can have the first one; it is harmless and edible by carnivores and herbivores alike."

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Dried Mothers Tear mushrooms (25 in3)	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Eythan
notes: None

Ugh, thank goodness his opponent was just as worn out as Eythan was. If that hadn't been the case, the gryphon would've been content to act like he wasn't even tired at all despite his lungs feeling like they were going to explode from his ribs. Damn, his lungs hurt. He opened his beak to respond yet a whistling wheeze escaped --- pointedly not speech nor a response. Coughing and sucking in an obnoxiously deep breath, the spotted hybrid nodded and shot back with a smirk, "and my strategy of --- of doing sick stunts to wear you out didn't work out too well>" Was it possible for his wings to fall off from exhaustion.

He supposed it was.

Then, suddenly, there was a banana before Eythan. He looked down at it and back up at Amras. Glancing back down at it, the spotted one of the duo suddenly felt --- what could be best described as --- a spook crawl up his spine and he felt the need to bat at the strange, sparkling fruit. With a suspicious glare at the odd yellow berry, Eythan furrowed his brows and looked back up at his companion, questioning, "what... kind of side effects?"

"Was this just a way to make me unable to escape so you can feed me poison?" he added in an awkwardly joking tone, ears back but beak cracked in amusement.

@Amras

At the suggestion of poison Amras couldn't help but let out a sharp single noted laugh... followed up immediately by a short stream of coughing.

"Oh no, If I wanted to do that I'm sure any number of spells would have worked better to get that result." he 'reassured' Eythan with as much of a grin as he could muster while recovering. "The fruit is so full of condensed magic that it tends to make the skin sparkle while it's being digested. Perfectly harmless but might make it hard to hunt for an hour or so."

The gryphon took another breath, easier this time, and held his talon up again. As before his gem glowed and the yellow food slowly manifested in the air before dropping down into his grip.

"Assuming you do usually hunt, of course. I know I used to have to take breaks from my practice to chase down small game but there are so few of our kind I have no clue if that's universal." he continued, taking a bite of the banana peel and all (the monster).

---

Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Dried Mothers Tear mushrooms (25 in3)	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags: @Eythan
notes: None

"Yeah, you're probably fuckin' right," the spotted gryphon scoffed, talons scraping against the earth, "magic doesn't like fucking listening to me unless I am on the verge of dying. Then, it makes it annoyingly slow and painful." Eythan laughed as if there was nothing to be worried about in that sentence, so desensitized to his own traumas and such that it was completely normal to him. There was a banana to discuss, though.

Bright eyes examined the fruit once again, talon sticking rather easily into the peel. Sparkly fruit, it seemed. Well, it made sense, considering the thing was glowing as the duo spoke. "How did you learn to summon one of those, of all things," Eythan blinked, ears perking forward in genuine interest. As far as he knew, he had never seen anything quite like it. He wasn't even sure how to eat it. At least watching Amras gave some clues. The spotted gryphon picked up his magickally-charged meal in one paw and crunched right down on the thing, peel and all; how could he possibly know better? This was all he had ever known.

Eythan tried his hardest not to physically recoil at the taste of the peel.

"The skin tastes absolutely awful," he said as gently as he could, carefully taking the tip of his beak to the apparent seams of it and peeling away. Whatever was inside looked a whole lot more appetizing. Content to munch down on it now and glow brilliantly, Eythan smirked. Swallowing (it was rude to eat with your mouth full, damnit) his bite, the hybrid nodded, "yeah, I usually hunt down rats and shit. I live in Canis and eat bones too, even though I choke on them half the time. Pretty hardcore, eh?" Puffing out his chest with a laugh, he shook his head. "I think Remedy could just kind of eat whatever. She'd hunt rats and eat bugs and stuff. Rats more than bugs, obviously."

@Amras