The avian wheezed and wheezed for breath, feeling himself weakening with each and every step. His stone just constantly kept the field of little oxygen about him, as if trying to get him to just stop. Beneath the obsidian mask, Azazel's carmine gaze dulled. His eyes became glassy as he felt tears prick at his ducts. Heh. It was a good thing that birds couldn't cry... or could they? He blinked, and a bit of water slipped from his eyes and went down his cheeks. The Bone King's chest tightened and he felt as if he were being constricted by a python. Any minute now, he expected, his lungs would burst and he'd be dead.

Warmth flooded him.

A gentle paw lay on his back, and he didn't even struggle. It was almost comforting.

He felt like he was back in his chrysalis.

Warm... comfortable... protected... all things he'd felt before his stone decided to throw him into this cruel and harsh world.

Azazel's struggling and thrashing stopped as he shut his eyes and lay limp on the earth. He sighed deeply, and his stone finally let go of the spell.

As he went to attempt another breath of air... he could truly feel it. Oxygen rushed into his lungs. He wasn't dead.

Or maybe he was.

But he couldn't be.

He was just so warm. Weakly, the avian looked up to find a beak full of pearly white fur. Azazel couldn't help the stupidly giddy smile that spread across his face. "Thank you, Kerberos," he breathed out after a long silence. He wriggled slowly from underneath the cerberus's paw, and looked up again. "I... I'll listen. I'll wait."

table code © rasta 2015

@Kerberos

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Slowly, the ringing in Kerberos' ears faded and Aza'zel began to breathe again. The bird looked up at him as the air finally settled and quietly, he finally seemed ready to listen.

"Thank you," he whined, giving the ave a lick with a massive, slobbery tongue. "Soon, Arkrael and many other gembounds... Leon, Cancer... They will attack Hasira together. Arkrael is a good alpha, she saved Cure. She can save Ashtoreth, too..." "I'm just afraid, if you go alone... Then Hasira will have you right where he wants you. He'd kill Ash before your eyes, just to see you suffer. He is a cruel creature, one who will stop at nothing to see carnivores hurt."

"If we wait, perhaps we will find an opening to swoop in and save Ash. But don't go alone, okay? Don't try to save her alone. If he has Ash under his hoof when we strike, he could... Do the worst." The dog let out a gentle whimper and smothered Aza'zel in a few more puppy kisses, just to make sure his leader knew he was sorry for hurting him, for fighting when the Bone King was certainly Alpha.

In the meanwhile, he split some attention towards healing the pain in his body.

{ FIGHT STATISTICS }
KERBEROS v. AZA'ZEL
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE

{ ATTEMPT }

~ heal up after that scuffle

{ DEFENSES }

~ defenses are dropped

{ INJURIES }

~ prior injuries;;

• in good condition!

~ current injuries;;

• torn claws
  
• damaged hearing
  
• bruised side

@Aza'zel

The Bone King didn't even care if he was being licked by the cerberos' massive and slobbery tongue. He was now soaked in thick saliva, but at least he was warm and feeling a bit more comfortable than before. Azazel looked down for a moment, sighing deeply and closed his eyes, listening to Kerberos as his voice rumbled deeply. The Ave remembered... all those cycles ago, first meeting the great guardian. The puppy had been slobbering all over the bones of Canis, and Giggle herself had adopted the cerberus. Bones grew up alongside him. He wondered for a moment what having a father could have been like. Would he have ended up differently? Would he have been a crueler Gembound?

Smiling again, he chuckled weakly. "It's alright. I... I don't know what got into me. I was just so worried... so afraid. I just hope that Ashtoreth is okay for long enough to let us bring her back." Carmine eyes dulled over slowly with grief and pain. "I just... I should have been there to protect her, of all the Bonebound. I'm her father, for bones' sake!" He choked on his own words, feeling it tighten up. Tears stung at his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. Instead, he snuggled deep into Kerberos' thick and plush fur.

@Kerberos

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

"I hope she will be okay too," the canine whined softly, so glad that his leader had finally come around to sense. This whole thing scared him, especially after their last blunder against Gertrude. Aza'zel had nearly died trying to protect his home, and quietly Kerberos thought that if he had never met that blasted bird none of that would have happened.

That was a private thought, however. Unlike his next immediate thought, which he whispered softly to the bird. "We all did the best we could," he told the bone king softly, his eyes bright as he touched his nose to the king's beak with affection. Followed, of course, by a huge slobbery lick.

"I should have stopped Liora and Ashtoreth-- I was supposed to be guarding the door. I... I failed too."

@Azazel