______________ The voice faced away. A soft padding, clicking claws. The little-voice rang out again, toward him now--bright, intent. The fluffball owlette paused, wings out and hanging to steady himself as he staggered to his feet out of his egg for the first time. He looked toward the voice, staring--even opening his eyes for a split second. That did nothing. He may as well leave them closed. And so he did. His fear fell away as something else took hold. He didn't know what it was, but it drew him toward Little-Voice, and Dark entirely ignored the thrashing, frothing fox and the Soft-Paws nearby. The little owl stumbled forward instead, wings smacking the stone as he made his way with a short, frantic burst of speed toward Little-Voice. He reached where he thought she should be--where his sharp hearing had placed her--and stopped abruptly, leaning back and flapping to avoid falling back down again. Carefully, he spread his fledgling wings, raising his left foot, extending talons delicately out toward Bevy. Like the blind creature he was, he seemed to be trying to interact with her with his other senses--touch, to begin with. The movement was slow, even gentle, particularly when compared to his sudden bumbling rush--he seemed almost to want to clasp foot-to-foot with the bird, waiting, staring with closed eyes at Bevy. ((post Attempt--)) Dark stood with foot outstretched. Something tingled in him, and he tried to focus on this, this sense of 'other,' of magic, but it was gone before he could do a thing, leaving him in a blank, empty state--foot still outstretched toward the Little-Voice. ______________

Deep yet ragged breaths wracked his small frame as he shuddered with each passing convulsion. Thankfully, the intensity of the powerful visions were ebbing away and he found the fogginess on his brain lifting, the spores were settling and the temporary effects they caused were dying with them. Honestly, he was both exhausted and exhilarated from the terrifying surge of adrenaline he had experienced. Both from the images and the fact it was him that had done that. Even if it had been unto him. He was just a good a target as any but he hadn't yet noticed the presence of Saudade.

post roll edit
Though he was in a compromising position, he could now gain a clear view of what was unfolding in front of him. A leggy looking creature had entered, sporting the same pointed jaw that he too carried, he could only imagine what monstrosities it housed so he stiffened. Weak and dizzy, he held back the bile that was clawing its way to the surface and lifted his head to gaze at the newly hatched fuzzy creature. Baby birns weren't really known to him, it looked like nothing he had seen but also had the same thoughts along the lines of "I could eat that, looks yummy." Bevy was attempting to defend it from the large-leggy-fox and while he wished to join them, he had to put his head back on the ground to stop himself from vomiting.

This was certainly embarrassing, he had been attempting to brainwash and corrupt the minds of the birb and the baby. All he'd done was fuck himself up and now he was lying here like roadkill. Not sure what was the better idea, remaining still or indicating he had survived the terrifying ordeal he raised a forelimb into the air before letting it flop back to the ground. Head tilted, he couldn't hold it back anymore and retched up everything that made up the contents of his stomach.

Absolutely delightful. The side effects of poisonous hypnotic shrooms and having no idea what one is doing. A gurgling noise emerged from the back of his throat straight after and he shivered.

[[ always with the posting with the wrong accounts.... mADI U LEAVE ME BE U HEAR ]]

Bevy was absolutely alarmed when the tiny owlet came rushing forward. She certainly couldn't let the puffball touch her, because her feathers were covered in nasty toxins that could hurt such a young baby. She shuffled back, eyes wide, when the baby gembound flapped upright and then… Interestingly… Held out his talons. She tilted her head, wondering why he was keeping his bright, shiny green eyes closed, but it was hard to tell why.

"Careful," she peeped, but she wasn't about to turn down his offer to touch her. As long as he didn't touch her feathers it would be alright. She spread her wings to balance and hopped a bit closer, raising her talons to his. Her head tilted to one side as she wondered what the baby was trying to do… Maybe some magic, or something? It was hard to tell though, since the young one had yet to speak.

She had to convince the chick to try and chirp up something. It was so difficult trying to understand someone who was still so young, unless they came out of their chrysalis screeching and howling like some critters did. She couldn't help but wonder what gave some gembounds words right from the get go and not others.

Her talons intertwined with the other birds, her eyes shining in their rainbow, incandescent glory. "Hi little one. I'm Bevy. Can you talk?" She had said this before, of course, but sometimes with babies you just had to repeat yourself until they understood, right? Her eyes flashed back to the two canine-like animals with wariness… She didn't know them, but she also knew that not all gembounds were kind or friendly.

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He nearly fell over, at first, mind still shocked into blank emptiness by his swarming magic. Magic he had been, thus far, unable to control. The blind fledgling gathered himself, gently and delicately clutching his taloned foot around Little-Voice's slender one, holding. He had wanted to... to what? He had some vague idea that touching the Little-Voice would teach him things, show him things. It hadn't, it had just filled his mind with buzzing.

And now?

All else aside, something about the fellow bird's touch was soothing. Ignoring the paw-steps to one side, and the ragged gasping of the Big-Voice behind him, the owlet opened his eyelids to expose the bright green gems within, gazing blindly toward Bevy. Like any young bird just-hatched, he thought, in an instinctive sense, that he had found a sort of mother.

She spoke. What had she said?

"I'm Bevy. Can you talk?"

The words flitted briefly through Dark's mind, like birds in the dark. He squawked.

"Talk."

Then, he gripped slightly more tightly--holding "hands," or rather feet, with the other bird. Eventually he gently extracted his taloned claws, setting both feet back down, still staring up with blind, blank emerald eyes.

((Roll edit--))

"Bevy. Little."

He didn't understand much of what he said, only parroted the words, but he knew, at least, that these two were important.

Especially that first one. He mulled it over in his mind, committing it to memory, forever to be associated with Little-Voice. He gently squawked it again, pondering its meaning.

"Bevy."

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((ooc note: sorry Saudade, for skipping over you; if you want to insert something later on go ahead, I was told you're adjusting to a new job and might be busy!! Good luck :) ))

Bevy was quite honestly afraid for the strange, green eyed bird. She didn't know if the canines were hostile-- but they had not offered friendship or said anything kind or reassuring to her and her flighty bird instincts took hold. She was glad the small owl seemed to understand her, if only a little. It would take time-- it had taken her time. Fair enough.

She gripped his talons back when he squeezed and when he finally let go she stumbled back to two feet and regained her balance with a little bit of flapping. She shook out her feathers and did not even give the two carnivores a glance-- they needed to leave. And quickly.

"Mhm, Bevy. Now listen, little one, we need to leave. Stay close to me okay?" She had the suspicion that the poor thing was blind, and while she did not want to touch him with her feathers, she hopped as close as she dared and glanced down the ways to her right and left. The hatchling probably couldn't fly-- that was the difficult part.

It was then that Bevy got a dreadful idea. She did not like it at all, but she knew she had no choice. You see, it would be hard enough to move quickly with another bird who was lost. It was harder that he could not fly, and possibly impossible since he was blind. She could certainly not lead the way and leave him vulnerable. So she spread her wings and summoned her magic, all whilst chirping softly, "this way, this way, come on now."

And so it was like that that Bevy lead the little owl away from danger, hopping along beside him, too afraid to look behind them.

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The newly-hatched blind owl listened intently as the Little Voice spoke. Almost as soon as he recognized a tone of--concern? Fear?--concealed, but there--he also sensed the soft surge of tingling magic. He wasn't sure what she'd done, but she had not harmed him, so when he heard her tiny claws start to click, click, click away over the stone, he followed.

He hopped, then hopped again, wings held unsteadily out for balance. He could not see his path but he didn't need to; he could hear Bevy tackling it first, and guess where to put his own taloned feet.

As he went, oblivious to the danger behind him--and to any danger the poor fox might be in--he forgot everything but the stone underfoot and Little-Voice. He felt calmer, safer, following her--and vocalized it in the only way he knew how, cheerfully hiss-squawking her name.

"Bevy. Bevy! Bevy, Bevy. Bevy."

He didn't really know other words yet, so as he followed the toxic bird off down the cave tunnel, he continued to just happily parrot her name. The fox and the maned wolf, assuming they did not follow, would likely just hear the clicking of the blind owl's talons and the quiet repetition of the single word, fading off down the tunnel:

"BevyBevyBevyBevy. Bevy..."

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Bevy was so relieved that the young owlet seemed content to follow her, and even more relieved that her spell had worked. She could practically sense (as she wasn't going to waste energy actually using white sense) the bacteria that floated behind them in an invisible wall. As far as she could tell without daring to look, they were getting away and neither sketchy gembound was following them. It was with this relief that she sighed softly and began to enjoy the way the adorable ball of feathers chirped her name. She wasn't sure she could bring him all the way back home just yet, not until he could fly perhaps.

"Bevy bevy bevy bevy bevy," she tweeted back softly, their voices fading as they traveled out of the tunnel, into the bright, welcoming white light of Orion. She stared down the dragon statue, so big and ominous, and was glad that the tiny chick couldn't see it. She told herself over and over again that it was rock, that it would not lunge down and eat them. It was hard not to be scared for them, but as they came into the comforting "starlight" and out of the tunnel full of strange shapes and twisting stairs, Bevy thought it might just be okay.

;; bevy exit :D lemme know if you want to start up a new thread whenever~