Sergei froze for a moment as his ear was pulled on. He was learning a valuable lesson: agile was dangerous. Then again, an ear tug would be a different story than, for example, getting one's throat torn up.

After a moment, he spoke. "You have won," he declared--and then stepped forward, trying to tug Eythan's ear too.

Assuming Eythan did not stop him, he would then sit back and sombrely add--quite incorrectly, of course--"Now it is a tie."

Round: 10/10
Attempt: Ear tug (totally cheating IC)
Defense: None
Injuries: None

@Eythan

Character: @Eythan Age: +36 (36 Cycles) Magic Level: +3 (Brawler) ROUND 1 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +1 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +10 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +15 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +15 Penalties: -0 ROUND 6 Attempt: +5 Penalties: -0 ROUND 7 Attempt: +0 Penalties: -0 ROUND 8 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -0 ROUND 9 Attempt: +2 Penalties: -0 ROUND 10 Attempt: +12 Penalties: -0 Total: 113

Character: @Sergei Age: +7 (7 Cycles) Magic Level: +3 (Brawler) ROUND 1 Attempt: +6 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +13 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +5 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +6 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +3 Penalties: -0 ROUND 6 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -0 ROUND 7 Attempt: +0 Penalties: -0 ROUND 8 Attempt: +8 Penalties: -0 ROUND 9 Attempt: +5 Penalties: -0 ROUND 10 Attempt: +10 Penalties: -0 Total: 73

WINNER: Eythan

As soon as beak met the cartilage of an ear, Eythan let go and flapped his muddy wings. Landing in the muck with a rather loud plop! the gryphon puffed out his chest. "Yes, that was a good match---!" In the midst of his pride, he had perked his ears right up and left them wide-open to assault; this was an opportunity that Sergei took without hesitation.

"Tha---" he started, lifting a single talon. No, it wasn't worth contesting. He smoothed down his feathers and simply nodded, plodding over to the stream. "Yeah, guess it is a tie. Three for three." Eythan settled down in a deeper section of the waters, immediately setting to bathe himself much like a bird does: by shaking out his wings and splashing water everywhere.

@Sergei

Sergei watched Eythan go about bathing himself. This was good, in his mind, for--as he'd mentioned prior--the hybrid most definitely needed a bath.

He was satisfied with their sparring, content with the practice and with the exertion. It had been--though the bear wasn't a particularly playful or frivolous type--fun.

"It is good to fight," he told Eythan at length, plodding down to drink briefly from the creek--upstream of the muddy feathers. "Thank you for practice. You live alone? You live--here?" he then asked, turning his gaze to the bird.

Sergei knew a few of the caves, but was curious about more of them--and he wondered if perhaps there weren't other, better places in which to fish for his dinner.

@Eythan

Eythan rolled once or twice in the water, dunking his head under in order to get every bit of himself drenched. As he preened away, the gryphon kept his ears proverbially open. "It was good practice, yeah. Dunno about fighting being good to actually do," he chirped, pausing to nibble at the quill of one of his coverts.

"Nah, I live in Canis with a couple of others. Room full of bones? Ominous, dreary, kind of horrible?" Why did he live there, actually?

@Sergei

The bear's brows wrinkled up, and down he looked into the water. He slapped one great paw down at a briefly-glimmering flash of silver, speaking as he did so.

"The bone place. Yes. ...I remember it," he added thoughtfully, after a long rumble. "It is the first place I was. I came out of stone, there." For a moment, Sergei focused on the water. He'd stunned a fish, and now spent a moment fumbling it from the stream, losing it twice before finally flipping it onto shore. A single bite crushed the life from it, effecient and swift; he then tore it in half with his incisors and lobbed half of it toward Eythan.

A gift, it seemed.

"Not enough water, there. I want a place with more water. I have been to a place--big, large--" he explained, as if one word added something that the other hadn't already explained--"with all-water. But it is very empty. I fish here but streams are small."

His tone was lamenting; apparently the bear was looking for prime bear real estate, and had yet to find his perfect home.

@Eythan

The thickly accented bear had faded somewhat to the back of Eythan's mind as he further ruffled his feathers and cleaned himself. It'd take some doing, but eventually his white fur would be clean and pristine again. The gryphon wasn't vain, by any means at all --- it was just the fact that water and mud made him feel clunky, inflexible. Besides, better to clean up before it dried and caked onto him, hm?

Rounded ears flickered forward, bright eyes widened in slight curiosity as Sergei mentioned actually coming from Canis. "That's pretty fuckin' neat," Eythan nodded, before staring down rather aghast at the halved fish that had been lobbed his way. "There aren't that many hatches in Canis; somethin' about being so damn far from the core or some shit. I don't get magic that much," he mused aloud, mostly to himself; his friend didn't seem to be too socially adept.

Next came the mention of some large cave with a lot of water--- "Fornax?" Eythan settled for what bathing he had already done, crouching down to delicately take the fish tail into his beak and move to the drier bank. He shook himself, head-to-tail, flaring out his wings and sending river-spray all over the place. Somewhat dry, the gryphon plonked down and set to picking off a decent chunk of fish. "My sister lives there, last I knew. She kind of looks like me but without front legs and blue."

The resemblance was striking.

"I don't know any other places with rivers other than the Core, but, uh... the bank's pretty steep and dangerous, y'know? There's some swamp room around here, too." But apparently that place was full of fucking sentient rocks bent on beating your asshole in. Yay.

Eythan, in a rather undignified way, took the fish into his beak and choked the whole thing down, giving up getting a normal piece of it and munching on it.

@Sergei

Sergei listened sombrely, tilting his head a little at the mention of 'the Core.' After a long moment, he gave a rumble of thought, turning and watching the water again.

"What is, the Core?" he asked, a questioning lilt to his deep voice. "And do you know where is the swamp?"

Awkwardly-phrased, perhaps, but Sergei at least seemed quite at ease now with Eythan. He thought, for a moment longer, and then he gave a bearlike shrug, still studying the glittering water for any sign of more fish. Despite a halfhearted shove of his face beneath the river, none seemed to be coming.

"I think it was Fornax. Yes," he seemed to decide. And then, perhaps unnecessarily, he added--"I did not see your sister."

@Eythan

Eythan coughed slightly on the literal tail end of the fish, not too chuffed by how the fins tickled his throat. Once he was done hacking like he was about to pass a hairball, the gryphon blinked. "Uh, there's a tunnel that's basically covered in ice and real fuckin' cold. You can get to the swamp-room or the Core through there. The swamp smells really wet and kind of muddy. Core's just kind of very bright and glowy." He paused to cough again, swallowing. "You can't fuckin' miss it, dude."

Sergei hadn't seen the blue wyvern, which wasn't exactly out of the ordinary. "That place is fuckin' huge and she likes to swim around, for some reason." Why was quite literally beyond Eythan's understanding.

@Sergei

Sergei rumbled in slow and deliberate thought.

"Hrmmmm. I have been to that tunnel. But I have not been to the swamp. I will find it," he decided, and bobbed his massive head in thanks toward Eythan.

He seemingly had little more to say, and went back to his water, pawing at it--watching, ever-alertly, for fish.

To all else he became oblivious, and to Eythan's farewell he offered but an absent grunt.

exit Sergei

@Eythan