Panic wasn't the reaction Eleven was expecting - had she actually hurt Gravedigger? She obliged, worried for his safety, unaware of the face that he'd been acting in the interest of her own. While she didn't know about the acidic properties of his blood, she still shrunk away from the spray, uninterested in staining her coat today.

When they sizzled through the rock where they landed, she put two and two together. "Oh, shit. Thanks." It was nice of him to warn her, and she appreciated it. Not many Valkhounds were mindful of their collateral.

She offered him the same kindness in return. "I'm fine. I wouldn't lick that if I were you, though. The rash might spread to your mouth." Her spines were coated in irritating compounds. Less deadly than acidic blood, but still a nuisance.

She took this time to stretch her legs, surveying the internal damage their spar had caused - nothing more than a few bruises. "Soo... Where'd you come from?" As in, 'who made you and why?'

Eleven felt he owed him a bit of polite conversation, at the very least.

@Gravedigger

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

Gravedigger was mid-lick over the puncture wound when Eleven said that and froze, almost comically, in place. It slowly took its mouth today, retracting the glowing tongue. It had tasted a little funny, and its tongue felt tingly. It hadn't even considered that the spines might be toxic. Oops.

It quickly spit, hoping that it would clear some out, but it was probably too late. Oh well. It would just drop a little blood on the floor. "Thanks," it returned in kind. That was nice, that it would warn. It, too, decided to take a moment and see the damage that the fight had done to it. Not much, besides the puncture. They had spent most of it just throwing themselves aimlessly at each other, so the damage was minimal.

And here, apparently, was where the small talk began. It stared at Eleven after she asked and then shrugged, raising a claw to point towards the Womb. "I came from there." Simple, straight answer. "Hatched with uh....the Black....Tangle? And the....Vale-theer. Vala-there. Something like that. Master Vargas said I will wreak Chaos throughout existence." It blinked, like this was a normal thing to say to a newhatched child. "What about you?"

buried under broken bones

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Eleven's eyes followed the direction where it pointed - somewhere deeper and darker within the Forge. Somewhere more important. And he'd been given instructions too, ones that sounded clear-cut, in the sense that the intent was easy to read. Was that envy rising in her chest?

From her stretch, she lowered into a sphynx-like position to rest her legs. She didn't intend to get up anytime soon. "That's cool. I was born closer to uh, Tunnel G." She flicked her head in its vague direction, guided mostly by the distant smell of Pegasus grass. "Valkhand Aethril was there. She said I was interesting." Or merely that she was interested. Eleven didn't really know what that meant. She doubted she'd ever get a clear answer.

"Master Vargas told me the rules. That was a bit afterwards, though." Eleven was lower priority. fuck, she didn't like that. She didn't like thinking it, either. "Did he explain what 'wreaking Chaos' meant, or did he just kind of... Leave you with that?"

@Gravedigger

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

The Gravedigger perked up, just a little bit. "Valk-hand. Vargas mentioned one of those. Lord...Dhracia. She will take me away from here one day." It was so...casual about it. It didn't seem particularly proud or excited, perhaps because it didn't truly know what that meant. There was a curiosity and a faint anticipation. Very little had been fully explained, only that it needed to train and be ready. But nobody else here seemed to have the same urgency. It wondered why, what made it so special.

It glanced at the tunnel Eleven pointed out. "I have never been there. I have never left." Maybe it should, sometime. But the rules had been laid out - no wandering. So it had stayed here. "What is...Tunnel G like? Does it have a big rock thing too?" Referring, of course, to the Black Spire.

It shrugged, again so casual about the purpose of its creation. "A little bit. Vargas said I must train. I need to be strong. I don't have a long time. And then Lord Dhracia will come and take me to wreak chaos. I hope it means I get to break things." It assumed it did, because Master Vargas had created it to destroy. It was what it always craved and enjoyed the most, much more then sparring or hunting.

buried under broken bones

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Eleven blinked, the new information piquing her interest. "There's other Valkhands?" Considering what she'd been told about their abilities, that probably wasn't a good thing - for her, specifically. She was disposable. She was at risk of being turned inside-out next, if she didn't give anyone a good reason to not do that, thanks.

"You're allowed, I think. It leads to Pegasus - its where we're supposed to hunt." But the prey offered was... Well, it wasn't ideal for a newcomer. ONE DAY she'd take a deer down... Maybe she'd even do it by herself.

Gravedigger had gotten more guidance than she had, at least.

"How long do you have, before you get taken? Did he say where?" She hoped on his behalf that 'taken away' wasn't a euphemism for a grimmer fate.

@Gravedigger

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

Gravedigger took a moment to remember exactly what Vargas had said. Had he mentioned other Valkhands? Besides the Dhracia one that would unleash him onto existence to sow chaos? "Hmmmm, maybe?" He didn't remember Vargas mentioning anyone else. "He just mentioned Dhracia. She is not always here. She sounds a little scary." But if he was actually scared of her was hard to tell - it was hard for him to tell either, he'd never actually met her and he also had yet to experience true fear so he didn't know what it was supposed to look like. He would just say he was scared if asked and move on.

"Oh," he looked a little surprised. He had only shared prey with others so far, or eaten rocks. They weren't super filling but they were something. "I don't know how to hunt. I just know how to fight." Kind of. Limited battle training. He figured that it was more important then knowing how to hunt, considering it was his purpose, for why he was created. "Um...four cycles. That's what he said. And he just said I would leave the caves. I might die out there." Again, he didn't seem scared and he didn't know if he was scared. What was death, anyways? He had not seen or experienced it. He had yet to bring it to others. He wasn't sure if it was something to be concerned about.

buried under broken bones

@V-Chaos-Eleven

"I mean, We've got Dhracia and Aethril. That's two Valkhands." Two too many. We only need one tall lady who can kill you in the blink of an eye. We're good.

"If she's a Valkhand, she will be. I heard Aethril turned a Gembound inside out." Not from the most reliable of sources, mind - but her father's imitation of the noise it'd made was uncannily specific to be completely uninspired. And considering Aethril's inherently intimidating aura, Eleven trusted that she was capable of things of a similar caliber.

I don't know how to hunt. "Well, it's like fighting, except you have to chase them, and kill them, and eat them. You should practice before you go." Maybe he'd be able to do what she couldn't (KILL one of those GODDAMN meadow deer).

She tilted her head. "I mean, that's rough. At least you're dying somewhere else? It might be pretty." Not that death was ever the desired outcome.

@Gravedigger

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

Eyes widened at the...inside out thing. He tried to wrap his head around what that would even look like, being turned inside out but unfortunately he just wasn't creative enough to come up with a reasonable explanation. He also wasn't properly experienced in the horrific, gruesome displays of murder and violence that were required to even think of turning someone inside out as a method of execution. Chaos did some pretty nasty things to people, huh.

"Wow, that must have been....cool? No...horrible. Uh, crazy." It wasn't sure how to categorize "turning someone inside out" in its brain. Chaos said that was pretty awesome, but not-chaos said that was pretty awful. Crazy was what it landed on.

It shrugged, not bothered much by the thought of learning how to hunt. "I mean, I guess. I assumed I would be eating my enemies." Oh that sounded a LOT worse saying it out loud, but it was in the air now and Gravedigger could not, and would not take it back. It wasn't...not true, but he assumed his enemies would be eatable-sized, and also that it was not morally incorrect to eat them. They were dying anyways. Hopefully they were edible at all. "Maybe I'll practice. It couldn't hurt."

Another shrug. "Yeah. I'm looking forward to that a bit. I don't know what it'll look like. Vargas said there's a "sky". I don't know what that is."

buried under broken bones

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Eleven noticed his shock in response to her regurgitated description of the killing, and she felt a hint of satisfaction in knowing it, and being able to share it with someone. To see her expression on someone else's face.

She liked to imagine that Gravedigger too, felt that same shock of existential terror she did. That if someone willed it, they could all simply... come apart. But did she want to be on the other side of that? If she had all the power in the world, would she use it the same way?

I assumed I'd be eating my enemies. If Eleven where a better person, she might have a problem with that - or she might have an ethical argument prepared justifying why it's good actually (recycling). But in truth, she didn't really care. They weren't enemies. I dare say they could be friends.

"Oh. How big are your enemies?" Who was the better question, if Eleven had enough brainpower to think of it. She did not.

"Maybe you can turn them inside out, too. When you're out."

@Gravedigger

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

Gravedigger thought for a moment, trying to figure out if Vargas had ever actually mentioned a physical size of the things he would be fighting and/or eating, but that was something he hadn't elaborated on. "Um. Uhhh, I'm not sure. Probably not...huge?" Here come the logic gears spinning in Gravedigger's head. "I think if they were really big, he wouldn't send me along, right? And there are other not-us things in the caves that aren't as big? I haven't seen them," he added. "But hopefully not too big."

He wondered if he could turn them inside-out. That didn't really range in what he considered a specialty of his, but he wondered if he should try it. There was a tilt of his massive crocodilian head as he considered it. Maybe if he found something with a short body and large mouth he could reach in and pull the insides to the outside. Like a bag. Ugh, that was kinda gross to think about. "I could try. I don't know how to do that, though. Should I try and practice first? On a Lesser or something?"

buried under broken bones

@V-Chaos-Eleven