Blood pools around the creature's feet. It puddles against the cave floor and warms him; the creature finds some comfort in that warmth, and curls its body around the growing puddle of red mud. It holds its knees at first, tucking its head against its chest so that the front of its face could rest upon the knees - and it simply sits, making tiny pitiful sounds, until the world begins to drift around him.

There is so much blood --

He thinks he feels something familiar through the fog of his pain, and looks sleepily around himself. It is in these moments that he notices the cloud drifting towards him. Or maybe it isnt the cloud - obviously that would be too tiny for any creature to see - but it is the magicka. He senses it, as he did while within his shell.

It drifts towards him - and just out of view, he sees a small figure that seems vague and distorted, familiar but not. The beast reaches one bloodied hand out, spreads his fingers, and a dull glow spreads through the warm blood. It is instinct which directs the hybrid to counter the magicka, and a childish arrogance which prompts him to try and disspell Bevy's energy with his own.

The ensuing failure prompts an eruption of strangled wails and shrieks, as his many voices fill the air with a new array of pain.

The backfired spell causes Teyouma II a pain throughout their body so intense that it causes them to vomit. Their nubile immune system has been compromised and they will likely develop a cold over the next few days.

;; tw: suicide wording in here, please don't read if you're not in a good spot, honestly you shouldn't read this thread at all if you're in a bad spot gosh

enna
sweet and soft
ooc ;; gasp


The creature began to scream, as she reached out to help, and through the shrieks she could make out a laughter. A cruel, echoing chuckle, one that seemed to bounce and vibrate through the blistering sounds of agony. Despite the feeling as though she was slipping out of her own sanity, the poor bird hopped forward, closer to the howling, disfigured and dismembered monkey.

Yes.. Yes.. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!! And endless chant. The laughter belonged to this voice, she thought, or perhaps her own, she couldn't tell the difference. As much as she tried to think, her mind was swarmed with the invasive voice, her own voice, the voice of a murderer. No. A mother.

"Makyna!! Anyone, please, help! Hurry!" The bird shrieked over the noise, a warning call that any Maji Walezi would know. If she could just get help, she could save him. Kill him, save everyone. Save. Kill. It was the same.

Enna moved quickly now, her talon stepping into the glistening, almost glowing blood, and then she threw her wings up. With one fierce flap, she threw her body into the one-Teyouma, now tortured soul. Her instinct had her own body swarming with bacteria, good or bad she couldn't begin to tell-- harmful was good, she had to save him, destroy him, healthy bacteria from a mother of his own blood. She could save him, kill him. Fix the mistake, erase it, wipe clean, start new, heal the wounds, be the mother she knew she was.

"Teyouma! Child, dear, love, it's Enna!" Her voice came through, screeching, desperate to get a response, to get an answer. "Let me help you, I'm here to help you, I can fix this-- it's alright, it's alright now." Yet even more words filled her. Do you forgive me? I'm so sorry. They were unspoken, but they swelled in her tone and her heart as the voice continued, yes, yes, yes! Yes! Yes! Kill It, yes! kill It, just like you did before. Yes! Kill It, yes, save them. Kill yourself. Yes!

perfect strangers in the night
here we are come together ~ <3
to the world we'll testify

@Makyna or any other Maji Walezi member (or injured folk stayin at Pisces for the moment)

Bevy is screaming.

The realization slapped the owl awake, left him blinking large, green gem eyes as he listened, as he hopped to the ledge's edge. As much as everything in him was screaming for him to just launch into flight, he couldn't; he had to pause, to triangulate the sound, to plot an unseeing flight path. He knew Pisces well enough not to fly into rock, and his hearing was good enough that--yes, yes, there.

Something else screaming. Someone else, hurt from the dragon?

He knew that she had been aiding injured Gembound since the fight with Raheerah. Perhaps one had gone wrong? Maybe a new one had come in? There. He leapt off, glided forward, the screaming rushing toward him, filling his ears, and he tumbled in beside Bevy in a confused blur of feathers. He quickly pulled himself upright, clicking his beak and turning, all ragged staggering. Before he even spoke, his mind was reaching out, tentatively brushing those near to see who was there.

"Bevy? What's wrong?" Dark asked, his voice musical and soft despite its urgent note, a counterpoint to the harsh inhaling screams of Teyouma that made the newborn sound even harsher by comparison.

He could sense Bevy there--he could hear her, even if he hadn't--and he could sense something else, a stranger. He didn't need to be psychic to hear the pain in its voice, and in his rising fear and his concern, he reached out, trying to croon a gentle melody into the young one's mind, something infused with peace, and warmth, and quiet contentment. He could not be of any medical aid--especially not blind, as he was (and perhaps that was best; perhaps it was best he not see what monster had been birthed)--but he could try and calm them down.

Surely Bevy and her patient both would benefit from a little bit less panic?

________________

While it is impossible for the naked eye to witness the cloud of bacteria itself, the creature felt a sudden and inexplicable change to the air; as if the tendrils of his own magic were being burned away, recoiling with great surprise, and then Bevy's magic scattered across the surface of his outstretched arm. He could feel a tingling sensation as her magic spread across him, like there were millions of tiny mouths taking tiny, insignificant bites - but adding them all up, it felt as if he were being covered in something, and he gave a shriek as he recoiled. Crossing his long arms, his bird-like hands and long fingers curled around the narrow curve of each opposite limb, and then he began to scratch.

Claws raked across his arms, as if to scratch meant to be free of the sensation - but coupling the awkward motion with the pain in his body from ripping off his extra limbs, and the babe was experiencing a mess of things all at once. Pain, adrenaline, the obsessive urge to peel off his own skin -- and then, suddenly, relief. Bevy's magic changed, annihilating the sensation and even repairing a bit of his flesh. The cuts and gouges across his arms and upper back began to softly knit together, repaired by good bacteria - but it did not last. It would take much more power, or perhaps time, before the new hybrid was fully mended; and Bevy's bacterial flow could not help him with all of that.

While this occurred, Bevy was screeching at him. The sound of her voice grated in his head, rousing something akin to a memory there, but that made no sense. He was new, he was fresh, having never witnessed life in these caves nor any life prior to his emergence. But the name she shouted - Teyouma - he knew it was his. He was familiar with it in a way that was unexplained. Yes, that was right. She was right - but how could he be this Teyouma, if he was a newborn?

He rocked on his heels, curling his body in to a fetal position with knees tucked up in to his body and long, aching arms, reaching around to hug himself. His arms were so long that he could place the palms of his hands on the opposite shoulder, fanning those claws out around either side of his body. The babe stared down at the dirt, oblivious to the second bird as the other gembound glided effortlessly on to the scene. Teyouma's screaming had died down to a mixture of piteous moaning and tired crying, though no tears fell from his red eyes; his many voices wheezed and groaned, as if unsure of what sensation to lock on to. Teyouma was oblivous to Dark as they arrived, but anyone witnessing the scene would notice the increased calm in the newborn following the owl's arrival.

enna
sweet and soft
ooc ;; gasp

A forced sense of calm washed over Bevy, and it had two incredibly strong, yet overtly polarizing effects. The first was the screaming that hit her brain, a mashed up burning of images that flooded her brain. Blood, everywhere, broken bones and the smell of burning. A distorted memory of a hyena's laughter intertwined with the haunting words of a bone reading. It was hard to understand the words with the screeching, screaming pain that seemed to fight against the foreign mind, against the calm.

... But Enna? She welcomed the warm, familiarity of the voice. She knew her baby anywhere, and it filled her with relief. She almost blocked out the squirming, horrible thoughts that had dug into her brain like an infestation. "Oh, Dark!" Her voice rang out, barely thinking as she flew through her actions, "Dark, can you contact Makyna? I need her help! A baby gembound just-- just tore his-- wings off--" she tried to explain, her tone shaking with her own feathers. If she was thinking just a bit more clearly, perhaps the small bird would have omitted the gruesome details, keeping her baby owlet from knowing the horrible truth so suddenly-- she would have sheltered him, under any other circumstance-- but not this time. She was barely holding it together, her mind assaulted by a horrible thing that she knew was just as real and just as true as her own.

The mother bird called out only this, before she tried to do what she could to help, tearing leaves and vines from her feathers, trying to get them to grow faster so she could pull together enough to fix the wounds of the child. "Shhh, shhh, little one. It's alright. I'll make the hurt go away, it's alright... Just hold still, little one," she began to coo between violent tugs of plant matter from her wings, hopping and fluttering and stumbling around the newborn. Her own blood began to drip from her dark feathers, but she hardly seemed to notice in her enormous, frantic effort.

perfect strangers in the night
here we are come together ~ <3
to the world we'll testify

@Teyouma II @Dark and other Maji Walezi members (or injured folk stayin at Pisces for the moment)

Dark listened.

He heard.

He heard the crack of bone, the cries, Bevy's frantic words. He felt himself filled with the same peace as he had been. He knew what little powers he held: the power to contact minds, and the power to impart messages. Words, feelings. Emotions. He remembered filling Raheerah with peace, filling him with nightmares. While Bevy's frantic tone should have perhaps terrified him, it instead steadied him; she was in a panic, so he had to be the one to remain calm.

With a soft coo he hopped forward, taking the perhaps foolish step of trying to gently preen Teyouma, to croon soft hoots to him and reassure him. He was half-absent, very gentle, at the same time doing as Bevy asked: trying to reach out with his mind, to contact Makyna. As his mind drifted, searching the cave, he spoke gently--still trying to cuddle right up against the new baby, if it allowed him to.

"Bevy knows everything. She'll make you okay again," he reassured the stranger. He couldn't see him, but he could hear him; still, he was surprised at the other's apparent large size, hearing it so close.

Then he felt his mind snap into place, felt the magical lock of his mind with Makyna's. She was easier to contact, than some; perhaps it was because she had reached into his mind, before, in return.

Makyna. Dark. Come to Bevy, please. Quickly. At her place. Hurt baby. Need help.

He was quiet, for a moment, before speaking aloud once more. "I've told her," he said softly.

________________

@Makyna ; @Teyouma II

The feeling of relief and calm began to ebb as soon as Dark's attention drifted to other things, and Teyouma's mind resumed what it had been doing this entire time: trying to make sense of the world around him. He was new, but not new, here but not here. Staring off in to space, with his skin twitching as soon as Dark began to preen at him. The owl spoke again and Teyouma, more coherent and present than before, heard the words and began to mentally drift - disassociating due to confusion and his rising pain levels.

Reacting more to the pain than to Dark's touch, Teyouma's blood began to glow again. Invisible life sprang up across his body, spreading from the bloodstains, and reaching as if sentient and malevolent, for Dark. With that beak sliding through his messy fur, the owl was already being afflicted to some level of toxicity - but the monkey's magic wasn't strong enough yet, so the microbes that accompanied that taste of sickness only ended up receding.

The magic rolled off of him in a wave of shine, and vanished as quickly as it had come. The exertion seemed to rouse something within the newborn. With a sharp intake of breath, Teyouma turned his bright eyes upon Dark - seeing the feathery lump that was the owl, then the feathery lumps of blood all around him, and seemed to snap. Suddenly Teyouma's teeth were bared, and he was reaching with his long birdlike fingers - not for Dark, but away from him - and he was up, stumbling and running, away from both of the birds.

At first he couldn't stay up on all fours, and fell right back down upon his chest. The sharp blow of his ruined limbs against the ground made him squeal; Bevy was reaching for him now, trying to tend to those wounds, and seeing her only made him react more violently. His shrieking voice pierced the air and his body arched away from her, refusing treatment, refusing involvement. The babe threw himself towards the shadows in an attempt to escape.

[Exit Teyouma, unless someone shows up and wants me to stick around? IDK.]

enna
sweet and soft
ooc ;; gasp

Bevy lurched forward, after the child as it fled. "Teyouma!" She cried out, flapping her wings hard in an attempt to fly after him-- but something was wrong with her wing. She went to fly and her body nearly rolled over on itself as the feathers refused to catch on the air. She had, in her violent efforts, pulled out a few vital flight feathers, and promptly crashed into the lichen and moss.

She scrambled to her talons, her voice calling out wordlessly. Her red eyes searched for her child, but he was already gone, disappeared into the thin mist of the cool room. She cried out, her voice screaming, begging for the baby to come back, but grief took over and so her words were drowned out by the sorrow. In her head, there was a mutilated mix of sobbing and laughter, the sound of crunching, breaking bones and crashing waves on rocks.

That was her baby. Her last attempt at making things right. She had failed, she couldn't fly, and there was blood-- Dark had touched her baby. The feathers-- the anger, the bacterial magic. Fear gripped her abruptly again and she turned to her little, precious owlet. He seemed unusually large, dwarfing her in his presence. "D-dark, oh, Dark, are you okay? Oh, he's gone now-- Dark, I've failed, he'll die-- Dark, I can't fly, my, my wing..." Though she said words from her very beak, they seemed to slur and stutter together like a scratchy, broken down record, her breaths wheezing in and out of her frightened, tiny form.

"I'm so sorry sorry sorry-- I've made a monster, Dark--so-sorry-I-I'm sorry..."

perfect strangers in the night
here we are come together ~ <3
to the world we'll testify

@Dark

He tried to take off after Teyouma, listening, but the stranger had vanished with a clatter and he immediately knew it was futile. For an instant he considered following anyway, listening, trying to pursue by sound alone, but flying fast was dangerous for the blind, even for an owl.

And Bevy... Bevy seemed near to hysteria, crying out for him.

He turned toward her, still oddly calm, soothing, stepping forward and speaking softly.

"Bevy, Bevy--Enna-Bevy--you wouldn't make monsters. You help, remember? What ha... What... What hap..."

Just then, the toxins from Teyouma's feathery fur hit him, starting as a tingling in his beak. He paused in his speech, distracted, clicking the black hooked beak and blinking his gem eyes in confusion. A moment later he was retching, turning, trembling as he hawked up bile and bits of fur from his last meal, crying out in pain as his stomach twisted.

Forgotten was Teyouma, forgotten was poor Bevy; all he could feel was the agony in his wrenching gut as his body rejected the poison. All he could feel was pain, and fear.

What's happening to me?!

________________

@Bevy