He rolled his head around on his shoulders while she rolled around on the ground, groaning and snorting out blood, and when she stopped gasping and snorting, he tackled her with his nose, making her spin and roll over twice, grunting and groaning once she stopped.

He just walked towards her, feeling his blood simmer down. Seeing her beaten and downtrodden did wonders to calm him down, and his vision wasn't all red around the edges anymore. He was getting tired, and when he raised his hooves to stomp on her again, she snarled and rolled out of the way and kicked him in the other side as she did so, and he staggered, feeling the wind go out of him.

ROUND: 9/9
ATTEMPT: Fight
DEFENSE: None
INJURIES: Bad hips(previous)
Half-blind eyes(previous)
Sore side from healing burns(previous)
Seriously sore and bruised chin, bitten tongue in two places
Bruises everywhere

She had kicked him to make him back off, and she managed to shakily get to her feet to tackle him one more time, making him fall to the ground, and it took too much out of her. She could barely see by this point, she was swaying on her feet. Everything hurt, from her eyelashes to her toenails, and she was having trouble breathing through all the blood in her nose and she just wanted to curl up into a ball and go to sleep.

So when Nettle rose up, she didn't notice and when he kicked the feet from under her and when her head hit the ground hard, she fell unconscious easily, letting the dark eat her up.

She was tired of fighting.

ROUND: 9/9
ATTEMPT: Fight....ugh, everything hurts
DEFENSE: None
INJURIES: Bruised Back
Bruised ribs, almost gaining a hairline fracture
Seriously dazed
Minor internal bleeding
Bruises everywhere
Teethmarks on leg
Bleeding nostrils
Extreme fatigue

[Origin Cave]

Character: @Deadnettle Age: +2 (2 Cycle) Magic Level: +3 (Brawler) ROUND 1 Attempt: +14 Penalties: -# ROUND 2 Attempt: +16 Penalties: -# ROUND 3 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -# ROUND 4 Attempt: +20 Penalties: -# ROUND 5 Attempt: +4 Penalties: -# ROUND 6 Attempt: +10 Penalties: -# ROUND 7 Attempt: +14 Penalties: -# ROUND 8 Attempt: +13 Penalties: -# ROUND 9 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -# Total: 110

Character: @Feverfew Age: +2 (2 Cycle) Magic Level: +3 (Brawler) ROUND 1 Attempt: +18 Penalties: -# ROUND 2 Attempt: +1 Penalties: -# ROUND 3 Attempt: +15 Penalties: -# ROUND 4 Attempt: +10 Penalties: -# ROUND 5 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -# ROUND 6 Attempt: +15 Penalties: -# ROUND 7 Attempt: +11 Penalties: -# ROUND 8 Attempt: +2 Penalties: -# ROUND 9 Attempt: +8 Penalties: -# Total: 92

WINNER: Deadnettle

He watched her just collapse, and suddenly everything he'd been holding inside of his stomach and his rib cage expelled from him in one long and heavy exhale. His legs wobbled and he fell over, tired now, tired in his very bones, now that the adrenaline of the fight had worn off. Everything in his was sore and his mouth tasted absolutely horrible with its hot metallic taste, and he spat out what he could before letting himself fall over onto the ground.

Now that he wasn't pumped up to fight, he oddly was devoid of anger. He was just tired.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep, faintly thinking in his tired head that he should probably apologize to her when they both woke up.

They were both awake some time later, just laying on their backs with their heads together after some painful scooching and wriggling and laughing groans at all the bruises. They stared together at the ceiling for a long time without speaking, watching the stars up above twinkle with their cold gaze as the terrible things that happened below.

After the silence became too long in Fever's ears, she said softly, "I was an idiot. I'm sorry, Nettle."

"I just...wanted us to get stronger, you know? And once the fight started and you were crying and flopping around I couldn't just say I hurt you for practice, and I wanted you to take it seriously, and I didn't even know what seriously meant."

She turned a little, looking at the arena's columns. "Serious means...willing to kill. And I shouldn't have forced that on you. I was wrong."

Nettle was quiet for a while, listening to her, his heart clenching like a fist. He wasn't angry anymore, just hurt. "You should've...talked to me, Fever. You should've asked first. You do that a lot, just run and jump and get yourself in trouble, and...I get hurt for it," He said slowly, letting the words come out through that clenched fist like trickling water. It was difficult, being so unused to talking, but he needed to say it. He couldn't see the stars up there anymore, they were just blurry lights in the distance, and that hurt him. He liked looking up, and he couldn't see clearly anymore.

He felt her uncomfortable guilt, and he continued, "It's okay to make mistakes, but you need to remember the consequences, Fever. I know you don't want to hurt me. But you did. Just...try to talk to me in the future.

We're all we have, you know?" He said quietly. "We're twins. We shouldn't fight. And I'm sorry for hurting you too. I was angry and mad, an-and I didn't know how to let it out."

She laughed. "I'll live. Got a few bruises and some sore ribs and now I know that blood tastes really really bad, but you didn't hurt me as bad as I hurt you." Her voice trailed off into melancholy towards the end.

"I'll never forgive myself for that, you know?" She said, her teeth clenching. "You are my twin, and I...did that to you."

"Don't," Nettle replied, sounding tired. "If you let it, guilt will turn into hatred, and we can't have that between us. I forgive you, Fever. That's what's important. I will never hold it against you. I'd die for you, Fever."

Fever leaned back, her head hitting the ground with a soft thump, and her chest constricted. "I would too, Nettle. Always. Siblings till the end?"

"Siblings till the end."

He hadn't been out long, just a little bit to see the state of things around the cave. There wasn't too much going on, briefly he'd gone to Eridanus but even then he couldn't see anything different. No preparations or anything so he was heading back to Orion. His hooves echoed down the lonely halls as he neared his destination. The dilapidated buildings came into view as well as the "stars" overhead. He turned towards the throne... only to see a strange spectacle on the forum.

His two "children" were fighting each other or had been fighting. Now they lay on the ground, beaten, bruised, broken. While he was happy that they were sparring he was quite upset that they had done so much damage to each other. He needed them not to be dead! They had to be in fighting shape at all times! What on earth was the matter with them?

He could feel the anger burning at his chest, staining his gem an angry red color but quickly he let it was away. Patience. He needed to have it. So, with an exhale to expel the emotions he stepped towards the forum and right up to his children. His eyes said he was disappointed as he looked down at them. "And just what happened here?" His voice boomed out at them, a father chastising his youth for doing something naughty.

@Deadnettle Feverfew

He looked up to see their father hanging over them with a really disappointed look in his eyes, and both him and his sister got up as quickly as they could to properly bow to him and pay their respects.

"W-welcome back, Papa," He said quietly, looking at the ground. "Fever and I were sparring."

He looked over to her, waiting for her to take over. Talking this much was starting to make him uncomfortable.

She nodded at Deadnettle, then looked up at Papa. "I thought that we needed to fight each other to get stronger so that once we came across any carnivores, we could kill them, because we haven't fought anything before, and...."

She looked down, shameful. "We got really hurt in the process. If it wasn't for that little black cat-healer we would've been in a lot of trouble. But...we got stronger...I think."

She was absolutely covered in bruises and blood was still staining her bottom lip and her chin, along with teethmarks in her leg, and Nettle was just an entire mess of scars, from across his eyes to his side.

She hoped Papa wouldn't yell at Nettle too much for all of this.

"I...it was my idea." She added, hoping to protect Nettle for once. He shot her a look, and she hesitantly smiled back.