Oilstone T-One has pleased by its magical strengths. Already, it was casting spells easier than it had ever done. It was following long term orders, to learn and familiarize itself with its magic. Yet, when Oilstone T-One had heard rumors of magical items in Centaurus, it could admit to being intrigued.

If it had a magical item with a solid use to it, then it would be able to better serve Overseer Tectus. That being the case, it had asked its Overseer's permission to venture to Centaurus to search and retrieve a magical object. It would not let itself fail in any mission.

One would not expect a being with fur like its own to find the high temperatures of this cave in its current state comforting, but Oilstone T-One was a hot-blooded being, quite literally. Its internal temperature was such that other caves often felt cold.

It began to search.

Its first attempt was a failure, and there was a part of it that wanted to find that grating. But Oilstone T-One knew better than to succumb to irritation, for that way led to mistakes.

No, it would continue its search, inhaling the air and prowling, trying to look around with keen eyes.

It would not succumb to feelings of defeat, because failure was temporary, a lesson to be learned from. It was not defeated. It would never be defeated, so long as it had Overseer Tectus.

It felt closer, suddenly, and that pleased it. Yet, the journey had been long to arrive in this cave, and its stomach was making itself known.

Mentally, it marked where it was in the cave. It would return here, after a hunt. But first, it was time to locate some prey.

It found prey easily, a distance away perceivable by its eyes. Reptilian of some kind, as it seemed the fauna were currently. Idly, it wondered if these lessers had stones.

They sped up on the barren landscape, perfect for a speed-based predator like itself. Not that it was lacking in might, either, being nine feet tall and fifteen long excluding its tail.

And then it pounced.

The creature Oilstone pounced on was not dangerous, per se. It wasn't the sort that would suddenly rise up from the sand in towering ten-foot splendor, while the creature upon which it had pounced had initially appeared small and manageable.

But there was a feature along its pebbled, mottled hide that hadn't been obvious at first glance: it was armored.

And it was armored with vicious, thorn-like barbs.

These, at least, weren't venomous. And the creature wasn't enormous; only three or so feet long, plus a long, whip-like tail. Given the bite it attempted when it whipped around to try and defend itself before its death, it wasn't really a predator; more an eater of insects, perhaps, or even tough plants, with a row of short, triangular, sharp teeth.

But the thorns were the sort that upon a pounce would embed themselves thoroughly in flesh; would lodge there, their barbs painful to pull free.

Not a dangerous mistake, exactly, but certainly a painful one; the sort that might cause bloody pain and future infection in paws and mouth, and wounded pride, for now.

There would be no gemstone to find upon this creature.

@Oilstone T-One

Even though its paws were made of thick, reinforced skin, Oilstone T-One still ended up with bleeding paws. It was a fascinating creature, and it found itself oddly disappointed this being did not have a stone.

It rolled over the corpse and began to feast, enjoying the meal but leaving the barbs alone. Then, carefully, it licked clean its own paws to clean them, then attempted to use a superheated blast of air at close range to maybe cauterize the wounds, or at least render them sterile and not bleeding.

Its spell came out strong, and performed exactly as it wished it to. Fire might be a precarious element, but Oilstone T-One was learning control, exactly as the Overseer wished. It made the valkhound feel a metaphorical warmth, a pleasure at its own success at the task given to it.

Still, the strength had taken some of its stamina, and the valkhound decided to take a moment to rest after eating before returning to its search.

Its search was important, but so was staying in optimal condition for all missions.

There was barely any recovery of magic so far, so Oilstone T-One decided to wait a bit longer.

Many a way there was to succeed on missions, but the highest rate of success came with being in optimal condition. There was no immediate danger to this large valkhound, so it was best to rest some more.

Soon, it would resume the search, but not yet.

Now, Oilstone T-One felt closer to optimal condition. Yet, it occurred suddenly to it that these items may have guardians, perhaps.

In which case, more rest was essential, as much as it wanted to continue now. It would wait a little more, not enough to be completely filled to the brim with magic, but enough to be nearly such a state.

Preparing for possibilities was another part of any mission.

Now that it was prepared, it was time to go back to where it had been searching. Hopefully, it would not be to relocate the place it had last been.

It desired to get back on task. While resting was important as it knew, its purpose was not to rest. It was to seek.

Today, at least, that was its purpose.