Some time ago, an oilstone chrysalis had hatched somewhere close to Pegasus, from which a lumpy sort of creature emerged. He was late to the party - perhaps he should have hatched cycles and cycles ago, but ah...here he was now!! He toddled a bit unsteadily in one direction and another, a little confused and getting used to his big paws, but then he saw the aperture and could not help but be curious.

He wasn't muddled by chaos, but there was still a draw to it through his oilstone. He was Of chaos, although he did not know it.

He blinked slow in the half-light of Draco, looking incredibly lost (he is incredibly lost) but not seeming too concerned about it. He simply had no idea what to do at the moment but seemed fairly unbothered as he looked left and right curiously.

Shortly after meeting up with (some dorks), Snicker had padded down into the oily depths of Draco. They didn't know exactly what they'd find there, but it tugged at their little heart - this is the way.

A shape emerged from the dark, terrifyingly large. They suppressed the instinct to bristle, hiss and run the other way. That urge was useless here, in pursuit of purpose. Greatness!

Instead, it sidled easily up, tail held high as it brushed gently against The Sausage's legs with a mrrrp. It settled further ahead, looking back with glinting eyes. "Hi!! Did you just get here too?"

@Sausage

He looked down as something twisted and curled around his legs. Oh, it was really soft. He did not register any kind of idea of cuteness, but rather looked at it with wide, curious eyes. Another creature. Smaller and lithe and making a weird sound.

Ears twitched and his own tail curiously waved from right to left. "Hi" he rumbled. "Um. Uhh. Yeah. Where is here?" There was a pause. "Why are you little?" Blank, glowing eyes watched the creature curiously, almost blissfully. He slowly moved forward after her, wanting to touch the soft fur again. It had felt really nice and soft.

Without any thought in his head that it might be odd or inappropriate, he lifted a might paw to grab for the creature, to lightly squish it in his grip. Not maliciously - just chasing that softness. A kind of pet, but a bit of a rough one.

@Snicker

The Sausage stared back with pretty, orange eyes. They liked his eyes, Snicker decided, like priceless little gems in his sockets, perfect for stealing and hiding away.

"Why are you big!?" They meowed, raising a paw as if to measure him against it. "I'm the smallest of them all. That makes me special." Special-er than you. Understood?

Snicker did their best to not flinch away at the huge, rough talons headed their way. The immediate discomfort kept them from purring or doing any of the cute cat signs that this was enjoyable - to be quite honest, it was not - but they stood stiffly and kept eye contact.

"And! I have NO clue where we are! Isn't it exciting? We get to find out together!" They were collecting soooo many new friends and siblings. They must be the best at it. "What's your name?"

@Sausage

He blinked, suddenly looking down at himself. "Umm. I don't KNOW why I'm big. Isn't others big?" He looked up and off into the distance of Draco, where shadows crept along the walls. Large shadows. And then down at Snicker, who was little. "Oh, okay. That's cool!" Yes, it must be very cool to be special! He look at the little guy with a bit of wonder and awe in his eyes, as if he was starstruck at meeting someone who was special!

"Oh! You're right!" How exciting, finding somewhere new! He wondered if anyone had EVER found this place before! Besides the ones that were already here. Had anyone ever wandered in through those doors? Besides the one that stood outside of it? Probably not!

He blinked again, taking a moment to respond to the question posed by his new friend. "Name? Uhhhhh don't know what that is." Nobody had been around at his hatch to tell him anything. So, you know...he truly just didn't know a single thing.

@Snicker

Snicker could see that pretty light behind his eyes brighten - yes, gaze upon your clear superior. This is the closest you will come to greatness.

His superior had begun to knead the floor. "And... If you be friends with me, you can be special too!"

But a friend needs a name. They tilted their head, blinking rapidly. "You don't? That's weird. You're weird. You can be.... Ummm..." Their head switched angles as they thought long and hard.

"You can be Chunky. Snicker's friend Chunky."

@Sausage

This poor, foolish little valkhound looked down at Snicker with wonder, excitement, and a shining joy in his eyes. The corners of its mouth, ever crooked into a smile of its own, pushed harder up as its tail swung happily behind it. It swung so fiercely in his happiness that his entire back end began to move with it.

"Oh, that's so cool!" He didn't know that it was so easy to be special! He hadn't wanted to be special, really, he was content just being him, but it sounded very very exciting to be as special as his new friend!

He watched brightly as Snicker looked right and left, viewing him from so many angles that they probably had seen more of him then he had himself. He tilted his head at the name, rolling it over and over in the dusty, empty attic of his mind, and then nodded. "Okay then. I am Chunky. Snicker's Friend Chunky." It was a good name, right? He thought so. Because a friend had given it to him! Which reminded him - "So...what's your name?"

Completely oblivious.

But he was quickly moving on, or really back, to the whole special deal, looking quite excited about it. "What do you do when you're special? Is there a thing you do?"

@Snicker

Snicker liked how wiggly its new friend was. Genuinely! It had found a fellow enthusiast in doing some random bullshit with your body. It flopped to the stony ground, rolled onto its back, and looked up at Chunky from behind its little white paws.

"Snicker. Like the laugh."

In moments they rolled back onto their paws, casually flexing their natural dexterity. "And! Special friends... They..." Their eyes swept over the ceiling.

"Special friends go into the dark cave together. And the special-er friend walks in front of the other. Do you want to be the special-est, Chunky friend?"

@Chunky

Chunky leaned over his new friend as they rolled over, intrigued by the weird movements they were doing. He, meanwhile, just sat his but down to be more comfortable as his tail continued to smack against the ground happily. "Oh! Like a, um, one of these?" And he really did his best attempt at a snicker, which was quite...odd sounding. Definitely didn't sound like a proper snicker but he tried his best.

As for special friends, he stepped back when Snicker flipped back to their paws, but leaned in with anticipation, probably getting a little bit too close. He nodded, fervently. "I DO want to be the special-est friend." He wanted to be a GREAT friend. He could prove to Snicker that he could be the best friend ever!

Without any sense of fear, his head raised towards the rest of the dark cave. "This dark cave? Ok. Lets go into the dark cave together, Snicker-friend!" And he would step right over the little cat-ferret and start trudging further into Draco, glancing back to make sure he wasn't getting too far ahead.

@Snicker

The Sentinel guarded the gate.

It was in the title. His job description. It was also his name. So he'd been aware of arrivals, if not particularly concerned about any threat posed by them. Still, after awhile, the idea trickled in that these seemed to be children, and should probably be supervised, in case they decided to do something incredibly stupid like eat the Black Spire. (There seemed, according to rumor, to be some of that going around right now.)

That being said, he wasn't much of a parental figure. So instead of introducing himself, he just sort of listened to them chat.

Their childish conversation drifted in one ear and out the other, barely acknowledged in his consciousness. Something about special... ness, and chunky, and laughing. It didn't matter, as long as "eat the Black Spire" wasn't in there anywhere, probably.

At some point they might notice him trailing along. He wasn't far. He wasn't close though, either--at least, not at first. But he gradually got closer, halberd in hand, until he was practically looming. Leaning in, listening absently, observing these two. He'd swear one looked... familiar. The face, mostly. And the everything, actually.

But that was none of his business. His business was to make sure nothing terrible happened to the kids, and that they didn't do anything terrible in turn. Admittedly they weren't his children. And The Sentinel had always been a questionable parent, at best, but... his heart was in the right place.