In the shadow of the massive shifting spire was a tiny chunk of oily gemstone. It would not register as a chrysalis to most gembound- maybe an odd, inconvenient rock, but not something holding life.

And most gembound would be wrong.

There was very little fanfare as it hatched. In fact, it would be hard to notice at all. The webbing of cracks forming over the surface of a gem and a small chunk falling away, just the right size for a thin insectoid body to squeeze through. The new valkhound stood on top of the gem, beating it's wings to dry them. All of it's eyes flickered around wildly, disoriented in it's many visions. One by one, they all focused on the same thing. It had found what it was looking for. A pitch rat.

Food.

It reached out it's mind towards the rat, sickly sweet and oil-slick. So tantalizing, so alluring... Obviously it would want to-

Nothing. The chaotic wellspring in it's gem writhed unagreeably. There was a frustrated hiss accented with hunger. It buzzed a few feet into the air- out of reach should the rat notice and try to eat /it./

A fair distance away from the Black Spire, Ruby-Beta was cleaning. What was cleaning, you might ask? How could one clean a cave of pure chaos? Well, you can't, not completely. But some of the beasts that lived here were damn messy and the usually lazy beast would rather be living among a place that wasn't littered with scraps of fur and bone and covered in oil stains wherever you walked. Not that it could do much about the latter, but what it could do, hopefully, would go noticed by somebody.

Whatever. It didn't have anything else to do anyways. Things could be so boring.

So it trudged along the paths of Draco, sweeping aside bones and remains where it found them, pawing them against the wall where they could be decomposed in peace and out of sight. Some bits of oil where here and there, after which Beta quickly wiped its paws off against rough stone with disgust on its face. Didn't need to be cleaning itself later and getting that all over the place.

It didn't notice the bug - how could it, so focused on its work? It didn't approach too close to the black spire either, afraid of its chaotic radiation. But it was close enough for the bug to notice and perhaps...consider it prey.

@Koinobiont

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

Parasitic nastiness

There was very little that escaped it's sight. However, keeping track of all this stimulus and actually DECIPHERING what it saw in it's many, many visions was a different matter entirely. The movement was what attracted it, at first- a large, lumbering creature sulking around the perimeter of the cave. The movement resolved into a beast, and the beast into.. something unlike the pitch rat. There was purpose, beyond mindless hunger and survival. Intelligence.

A mind to manipulate.

The buzzing heightened in pitch for a moment- a squeal of excitement preceding the expectation of food. Again, it's mind would reach out- but this time with another mind to receive it.

A calm, gentle tugging, like standing in a cool stream. The parasite would approach, but it's magic would attempt to soothe any disgust or fear the ruby might have at such an insect into calm indifference. It would land carefully, nestling itself in between Ruby's shoulder blades, among it's quills. A heavy pause- the calming flow would become heavier for a moment, a mind-numbing blankness like plunging into icy water.

Ruby-beta would probably still feel the four panels of hooked teeth sink into his flesh, though.

The calm would become sputtering and inconsistent, as the parasite struggled to balance it's euphoria of being nourish with the need to keep it's host pacified. The 'calm' would fade before becoming abruptly overpowering, returning to 'intended' levels and repeating the cycle yet again. It's stinger twitched, just barely touching Ruby's flesh. It didn't WANT to have to waste venom, but it certainly would in order to secure it's food.

Any pain from the initial bite would quickly fade as the poisonous saliva from it's stomach mouth did it's work. Ruby-Beta might feel feet hooked lightly into its flesh, though. Or the stinger that anxiously grazes its back on occasional- not enough to inject venom, or even leave a scratch. Or the antenna that brush against it's skin, drinking sweat, checking for spiking stress hormones.

But what did Ruby have to worry about? It was just a little bug, after all.
@Ruby-Beta

So empty was Beta’s brain at the time (letting the menial task take over was a great way to completely empty the mind of all thoughts) that it barely noticed the tug of attention. It couldn’t actually see the parasite as it approached - Ruby-Beta was quite large and the bug was quite small, but when it fluttered into the air, Beta caught a glimpse.

Not that it was concerned. Nah, everything was fine here. It was a nice day out, actually. It slowly began to stop its task, finding that it didn’t really care to continue it. Indifference borne of magic had completely spread to completely consume the cat creature into a complete state of sloth. It yawned and turned, ready to head back to its nest, when suddenly everything began to blur a bit. It was like static had suddenly filled its mind, everything a haze of cool nothing, like it was trapped in a dream that it didn’t want to leave. Suspended in a realm of absolutely nothing where no thought or emotion could break through.

A sharp pain at the base of its neck, however, broke it right through. Suddenly Beta was swinging back into the regular world, a horrid sensation spreading over their neck and shoulders. Panic flared suddenly and it flinched, about to reach back and paw at whatever had stuck to its flesh, but then the static returned. Overpowering, overwhelming. Beta sunk to the ground, all the fight having left its body. It only lasted for a moment, though, when it retreated again and for a second Beta thought that it could sense…joy.

Something is happening to me, was the brilliant thought that made it past the static that was taking over again. There was something on its back - not painful anymore, so it was not something that Beta was concerned about…wait, no of COURSE it should be concerned! It could barely think straight through the static that dipped in and out of its brain. The next time it felt itself regain its mind for a moment, it tried to do something - anything! Reaching for that chaotic bit of itself that the Forge had given it and suddenly a little puff of spores burst from their fur.

Well…shit. That wasn’t helpful.

It trembled where it lay on the ground, subdued, the static at last taking over again and staying where it was, leaving Beta prone on the ground, for now, as it struggled to get a hold of itself and the fight slowly left it…slowly left…drained away…until it was all gone.

Everything is fine.

@Koinobiont

This time, the feeding went delightfully smoothly. Even with it's perilous hold on it's magic, it's prey put up pleasingly little resistance. But not no resistance. A move to swat it away before an overpowering blast of magic brought the food source to submission. It felt muscles shudder and relax, the intoxicating brief panic-fear smell fade, and thought that was the end of it.

There was another spike of the tensing fear-nearing-action, and Koinobiont buzzed it's wings in wary warning, it's stinger pressing ever so harder against skin- but still not enough to puncture the monster's thick hide. It was expecting another swat, or maybe a frantic shake in a futile attempt to dislodge it from it's hide.

It was not expecting a spray of.. dust.

It's mind-magic would cut off abruptly in favor of pulling the last of it's nutrients from it's bloodbank as it lifted away, leaving a four-ponged bleeding star in it's wake. It felt full in it's guts but hungry in a vague, ephemeral sense. Hunger exaggerated from it's extensive use of magic on an empty, newly-hatched stomach. It hummed unhappily, buzzing just out of the ruby's reach.

"WHAT WAS THAT? WHY?" It hummed, it's voice like a chorus where each person produced only a single note. "YOU WERE HELPING; I WAS FEEDING; I WAS THANKFUL."


@Ruby-Beta

It was with a sudden lurch that the Ruby was deposited back into conscious thought, suddenly feeling very cold and very tired. Its head was spinning and there was a really really bad pain in the back of its neck. Worse than the first pain, but more dull. Like a wound had been opened. But where was its attacker?

The cat beast scrambled to its feet but weakness in its legs made it suddenly collapse right back to the ground. Apparently, losing blood was detrimental to the body’s movement. It swung its head around, instead, trying to ignore a wave of nausea from the spinning headaches searching for its opponent. ”Who’s there? And what the fuck did you do to me?!” It was only when the voice chimed from above that it was able to locate the source of its problems.

It took a second to see, but then it was unmistakable. A bug. A large bug, but still a bug. Beta stared for a moment, wondering how on earth something so small had rendered it helpless so easily. The words caught it off guard, though, and it lost its train of thought for a moment.

”Uh…what? Thankful for what? How was I helping? What the hell even are you?”

@Koinobiont

"I WAS FEEDING. YOU WERE FEEDING ME." It responded. And then, belatedly. "I AM KOINOBIONT" Truthfully, the name had just now sprung to it's mind, now that it wasn't focused on magic or food.

..for the most part, anyways. A part of it was always hungry, but that part was more easily silenced now, for the sake of 'polite' conversation.

"YOU MADE DUST. WHAT WAS THAT?" It demanded, buzzing pitching higher for a moment. "YOU SHOULD NOT HURT ME. YOU DO NOT NEED TO." It could've backed up this 'suggestion' with a burst of magic, but it wasn't in the mood to expend even more magic on a being that was no longer food.

"I AM SORRY IF I SCARED YOU." It added unsympathetically. "I WAS HUNGRY. VERY HUNGRY. YOU ARE BETTER FOOD THAN A RAT." World's strangest compliment?

@Ruby-Beta