Azar watched in horror, confused by his teacher who he thought was so great. 'What?' He whispered, 'is he dead?' The fox carcass surprised him as he watched hopelessly, wishing he could have saved this helpless creature. 'Did you kill him, Astaroth?' Murmured Azar, prodding the dead fox. 'Are you going to teach me how to do... how to do this?' He prodded the fox again, the fox who so resembled him. His little head was spinning, his heart pounding as he watched, breathless. 'Tell me, Astaroth,' he breathed, 'was this you?'

@Astaroth

Astaroth watched the fox motionless, his expression betraying no emotion. While he felt a twinge of guilt, he felt empowered by the fox's fear. "Yes Azar, I did this. He wanted it. He told me to fight and he wasn't taking no as an answer. So we fought. And he died. If you are smart, you will never have to fight anyone. You will never have to kill. Though you would do well to learn to fight, to defend yourself." He looked at the fox, he felt slightly guilty for the horror he could see in the eyes of the fox. He pushed him to the side and stepped between him and the carcass. "Though I didn't mutilate him this bad. That was the scavengers. If you die, the rats come from everywhere, the bats, even the deer at times, will feed on your corpse. And you will be bones. Those ones will crumble, the strips of remaining flesh will wear away, the scavs will take your gem. The point of this listen is to say, don't, die. Or this is what you will be. You don't have to kill. But you need to know how to, to protect yourself. I will not teach you now. But sometime. I will have to, before you're gone from my side."
"Speaking."
Thoughts.
tags: @Azar
notes:

Azar gave a little yap as he eyed his teacher with pure horror. 'Seriously, Astaroth?' He whimpered, 'a dead creature? A poor, helpless dead creature? It had a life, Astaroth, it was alive!' His nose twitched, his black-tipped ears pressed against his face. 'It was happy, and now look at it! It deserves happiness, Astaroth, even in death.' He pressed his muzzle against the ground, his voice muffled by the floor. 'Why do we have to die, teacher? Tell me why we have to die.' And, although Azar understood perfectly that this animal could never come back to life, he found himself wishing it would.

@Astaroth

Astaroth looked into the eyes of the youngling. "Not all of us have to die. If we're smart. then we can live for long, long amounts of time. I myself have met with one creature who called himself lore-keeper. He told me everything he knew of the caves and I became wizened on the best way to survive. Think. For. Yourself. When you see someone in an impossible situation, don't help them, they have to decide the best way to survive. If someone eggs you onto fight, so long as you can win the fight, then do so, because otherwise, they will come back stronger one day, and may kill you at last.Be wary of everyone, and everything in these caves. You know not the dangers they hold. Many. Many dangers." He brought his voice down to a low rumble so they would have to come closer to hear. "There are those who are wicked and kill for sport, there are great creatures of stone with kill all in sight, there are those who come in the night silently, and kill those in their sleep just so they can." He raised his voice back to normal. "And even for those that death isn't permanent, those pose a risk. But if you stay by me, I will protect you. You will want for nothing, and will never go without, and most important of all. You will stay safe." Astaroth looked at the fox blankly, though a small smile played on his lips.
Thoughts.
tags: @Azar
notes:

Azar
It's a new world
It's a new start
And it's alive with the beating of a young heart

Azar blinked. He supposed that Astaroth had a point, that not everything could be saved. He wondered when he would die, if someone would mourn over him. He knew Kielo would; that was someone. Azar lifted his muzzle proudly.
"I'm not going to die any time soon, Astaroth,'' Azar said, a look of pure determination etched onto his face as he spoke. ''I'm going to survive and make everyone happy." Azar grinned as he said this, and he hoped Astaroth would support his wishes. Any good teacher would. But then again, any good teacher would avoid showing their young pupil a dead animal. Azar frowned as he realised this, but shrugged it off a few moments later.
"Astaroth is a good teacher," He thought, trying very hard to convince himself. "And I do mean what I say; I do want to survive. I only just hatched, though, so what do I know about things?"
Azar gave the carcass another cold glare. He wouldn't grieve, although he really wanted to. He promised it, though, he promised it nobody else would end up like it did. He'd save everyone he could.



"Speech."
"Thoughts."

@Astaroth

Astaroth snorted derisively when he heard the fox's wish. "Well, that's very noble of you, impossible, but noble. It's impossible to make everybody happy Azar. You would have to kill those who were unhappy with the things you did to make others happy to get even close to that. Everybody is different and everybody wants something different to be happy. If what you want to be happy is for everyone to be happy, then you will never be happy. This world is full of suffering, the best thing to do is to accept that and move on. Then you can actually attempt at happiness. One day I wanted the same as you, and not being able to make everyone happy made me miserable. I tried to help people, and they hurt me, this scar on my face, was left by them."
Astaroth said this slowly, choosing his words carefully. He had originally meant to make the fox worship him almost but he felt almost.. concern for it. He actually wanted him to be happy.
"Speaking."
Thoughts.
tags: @Azar
notes:

Azar
It's a new world
It's a new start
And it's alive with the beating of a young heart

Azar blinked. Perhaps he was too young to understand his teacher's twisted logic. "I bet I could make you happy, Astaroth." Azar flicked his black-tipped ears and grinned. He knew his goal was an achievable one. "Just because you failed, Astaroth, doesn't mean I will. I'll make the world happier for both of us, so we can both be happier in this world. That sounds reasonable, right?" Azar meant it, too, he meant everything he said. He was even more determined now to put things right in the world, make sure everybody was happy with one another. Some may say that it's a stupid thing to wish, but Azar was sure he could do it. Of course he could; he was Azar, after all. "Just you watch, Astaroth, we'll both be standing in a perfect world that we created before you know it! Trust me!" Azar's bushy tail wagged furiously as he recalled his first few minutes in this world. His destiny, from the moment he opened his eyes, was to protect the world and everyone in it.



"Speech."
"Thoughts."

@Astaroth