The plagued horse was stepping quietly through the dim glow of Polaris, his dull black coat soaking the colors of the cave's crystals, the faint pus slicked over his hide reflecting them in brief, faint flickers. He was heading back through, moving up toward the Spire, pacing with absent, drifting thoughts.

He knew what he was doing; and he knew why. No one else did, so far as he knew, but there had to be others who had been summoned to his call, no? There should have been.

Mortis, perhaps, though he wasn't sure where the fungus horse was, now. But were there more? Mm, perhaps it does not matter...

He stepped quietly forward, and paused at the edge of the river, staring down. He was looking for fish, but barring that, he could--as with Pisces--attempt to plague the shore. But first-... Were there fish?

A buzzing in his mind, the flicker of life below, white-gray in the darkness.

There. I will see if I can give them my gift. Perhaps I can. Perhaps not. But I must try.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@χάος

Her birth place- an amphibious habitation of a cavern haven with sectors that were like dorms for the many residents smelt by that blue indigo tongue. The tongue that belonged to the baby serpent who slithered over tawny terrain. Polaris newly birthed an Anaconda. A masculine specie. Her specie. But little was known about her forsure- the females dominated her kind as she'd grow unknowingly well past the length of her manly opposites. Eating everything was always a thought. A monstrosity because she was possible calamity. But truthfully attitude had been everything in life. She'd come to be aware of this; her attitude determined the actions soon to be. What temperament could bring was hopeful.

She's been strolling the land for some time now. But the slithering was something that required all her muscles- their participation crucial in her step. But gliding on uneven surfaces were hard. She had no arms to crawl about and ever these stone glaciers. Perhaps there was a way around this? Her goal was to get out of this long cave as she need food. Prey was else where so it seemed.

The legdes of stones she glided on went ignored. Afterall, she didn't hatch in water. Unknowing of her aquatic niche, she's unappreciative of the water itself finding that it took up spacious areas. Near the lagoon like chambers of water stood a blackened thing that was suddenly seen afar. Cháos pauses when she sees the vibrant color of brighter red that radiated a meter far. The thing seem to be intrested in the water.

The child, a naiive thing, chose to ask an innocent inquiry to what probably looked unsavory to others. But being the young minded girl she was, Cháos thought nothing of a public oddity. So far everyone looked different. So then, she nears the stallion rather cautiously- her eyes surely beaming bright at the blackened one.

Meeting nice to satisfactory creatures here, she's off on her skepticism. No more such a distance away, she keeps a few feet to herself as noticing just how big this lanky stallion was. "Iz the v'ater safe for me?" Yes, was it safe for this little snakelet? She stares up at his yellow gloom- her question genuine.

Fish, then. I can--

The words broke him from his thoughts before they had much began, and he swung his long head down to stare unblinking at the newly-hatched snake. Her question--he considered it, eyeing her over. She was young, that much was clear, despite her size--or at least, he thought so. Young, and green.

Some distant sense of pity stirred him, there then gone, and he flared his nostrils. His words came rasping and hollow, distant, in a sense.

"For now, it is safe," he answered. "Soon, it will not be. Drink now if you are thirsty, little one. Soon death will have its hold, here. I am sorry," he added, his tone indifferent.

He took several steps back, hooves clicking on the stone, to make room so that the snake could take to the water if it so desired. He made no attempt to harm the creature, to strike out at it--that was not how death would claim these caves.

He was not a monster.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@χάος

Subtle. His voice a coo and somehow relaxing the youth. His attention was attentive and delicate but he somehow kept way of the mysterious detachment. As if he'd been a gentler one with the visage of unknowism that people ran from. Not Cháos.

The blackened stallion moved to guide her access of the water he claimed was fine for not a second too long. What was going to happen to it? Unquestionably, she was heedful of his advice.

Slithering quickly past his larger bony hoves, she slowly leveled her skull while she let her mouth kiss the water. She drank before going back to the stallion that she'd peer once more at. She smiles, eyes glittering her appreciation.

Cháos has urges once more to use magick- as if she'd been the godhead superior to make both awards & punishments for the gembounds here. He seemed to look fine but she wouldn't deny the fumes of malady. Quietly, she focuses while linking to the prokaryotic world.

She does this subtly, intention to slightly highten his good bacteria. Not necessarily healing him but taming anything that had gone possibly out of tact. The positive bacteria grew with ease surprisingly; feelings of expansion taking her for a brief moment as she drew from within him. Rather adjusting was the word. She did so not knowing she'd help the stallion fight off the malady he peacefully carried- not healing it but taming it for him as if assuring he wouldn't infect himself. Had she helped?
'

Khloros observed, wholly motionless, as the snake slithered past. He observed, too, as she drank her fill; and he continued to watch as she looked back to him.

There was the faintest sense of magic--subtle, but present. His ears pricked, and he stared; his own power flickered, and he saw rather than felt, with that snow-falling grey static in his mind, the shift in bacteria, the movement of it.

She was not harming him, and of this, he took note. And her magic was as his; this, too, he noted.

"You are," he rasped hollowly, "as I am. A tender of life or death. What brings you here? What is your name."

Perhaps fate had sent her to him; perhaps she was to be his ally in his mission. Perhaps she, too, was a bringer of death.

Or perhaps she was a mender; he could not tell merely by looking at her. Green, emotionless, bright. Alive. Still, he made no attempt to attack her, nor any attempt to tamper with the water, or its fish, just yet.

It may have its uses. It may have its purpose; the question is, does it align with my own?

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@χάος

His voice is modest. She paid highest attention as she heard defying words of who she was. Had this been her capability? A tender of life and death? It sounded as an ominous gift, really. Striking her of temporary fear that only needed guidance. Sometimes her gift was overwhelming and frankly barbaric with its abilities. Had he too felt that way?

Intrigue takes over as she nears him. She's curious and wants to hear more. His wisdom is noticed if not recognized. Inquires leave his onyx maw as he too grew curious. Cháos, more familiar with English everyday, spoke. "I z'ive here for now. I am Cháos." Obedience was exercised as she spoke only to reply what was asked.

Cháos doesn't bother moving as she wouldn't leave now. An ally indeed, potential seed to carry the deeds of this horse were likely. And she would not know this. As an innocent friendship deemed to be planted soon. One that could most definitely promise a fated partnership.

@Khloros

Khloros looked at the snake for a long moment after she spoke, and then turned his thin head to stare at the water--where it lapped at the shore; where faint mist condensed onto the stone. He contemplated, for a moment.

She may perish. But then, she does have the ability to survive it. Is she too young to understand..? I can try to explain it.

At length he looked back to her, regarding her with a steady stare from his ghostlight eyes. He again spoke, careful to choose his words in a simplistic manner for the little one.

"Chaos. I am Khloros. I carry death." He took a couple slow, clicking steps forward, lowering his head down quite far so that his soft, velvet-black muzzle was in reach of the snake. He did not touch, however; and should she flick her tongue, she might sense the odor of rot and disease that wreathed his emaciated, pus-slicked body.

"I do not know if you know much of these caves. We are born from stones; we die, we return to the caves. We are reborn. Over and over; again and again. It is a cycle that must be broken. I am bringing death, to end it. The pain must be ended." All of this was spoken mildly, matter-of-factly, as if it were true. Khloros looked to the water, thinking, and then to the snake once more.

"The water will be unsafe, soon. The fish, dying. You may live a little longer, should you use your power. It will preserve you, for a time, until there is nothing left to eat," he explained. He bore the serpent no ill will, nothing personal to her.

Slowly, he stepped away again, lowering his head to the water. This time, it took effort. The fish rose to meet him, looking, perhaps, for food--and he brushed his snout over them. But their slimy scales protected them, or perhaps the disease did not take easily to fish. Still, his plague was magic, and soon enough he felt, and saw, the grey-black shiver of disease taking root within them.

Go, and serve death, as I serve you.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@χάος

So he's been alive for a while. Did it matter that she felt like she hadn't? Occasionally flickering her tongue, she knew the words of this stallion had been no joke. Had this place, these caves, not been home? So many questions but none leave her fangged mouth. She'd listen.

Instead of seeing this for the murderous maddness it was, she understood somehow. His weariness, she did not want to feel it. And he spoke of a way to prevent this: defying death. A cure, yes. He presented her a cure. And her heart accepted it.

Such derangement to possibly connect with his omen but she did. Both of them blasphemy to the world around them now. "Canz I help?"

@khloros

Khloros was still and silent for a moment.

Unexpected.

Slowly he turned back, watching Chaos. Help? ...Was she capable of that? He stepped closer, offering a soft snort of thought. Warm air--sickly though it was--expelled down toward the snake.

"...Is that what you wish?" he asked, at length. He could not help but feel some faint misgiving; could a thing so young truly understand the implications of what she asked? "Others will see you as enemy, perhaps. Try to kill. Harm. Do you understand?"

His tail lightly swished, once, a long black switch of a thing tangled and matted with gore, and he eyed the young Gembound.

I am in the right; this is my purpose--but she has the right to know. She must be fully aware.

"If you are sure, I can try to give you the disease I carry... the death. And you may carry it too. You may pass it to the rest. To the rats, and the fish; to the water and the earth. So that the cycle of pain reaches its end."

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@χάος

He cares. Very much about certainty. Hollow questions and confirmation being made, it all went quickly. She was asked to be condemned; a pact asked in her agreement to take on this. The 'cure' she'd later call it.

All the same, he introduce power to her. Doctrinaire almost and she would sit willingly in the throne to do as much as control. A task this stallion didn't mind doing. Thus, she seen his strength to do such a job as to bring the world to a literal end.

He's thorough very much and she trusts him. Quickly but definitely. He had reasons she understood. Her view was not yet distorted by the emotional waves of irrationality that hovered over the choice to be alive or not. Both were indifferent. She chose nonetheless.

"You may give me 'ze 'cure'." And she would do just as he asked. Truly, she felt as if she was helping these gembounds. Surely an escape was to be appreciated in the long run. "Khloros. Will you protect me az long az you are alive?" If so, she would go far and long for this Khloros.

@Khloros