Wilder emerged from the tunnel the led to Canis, prancing delicately and proudly through Orion, every so often looking behind her to see the glowing blue of the ring around her neck. It was so pretty! She didn't mind that it wasn't pink - blue was a really nice color too! It reminded her of magic and of the stars above her head. And of the little friendly wisps that she liked to make.

She headed towards the Throne, knowing that that was probably the best place to find Pride. At least, that's what she had heard. That was where the Sinful Seven were and he was part of that. As she approached, though, she slowed down and paused. If she was going towards the Seven, then she might...run into her. She hadn't known at the time who the lizard was, but apparently she was one of them. Not the most coveted member of the Sinful Seven, but her name gave it away. She shuddered, remembering the horrible spell that had seared through her limbs. She hoped that the lizard didn't find her...but if she did, Wilder wouldn't show mercy this time. The thought of using her magic to hurt, though...it was kind of scary.

She pushed the thought aside for now. She was on a mission! She didn't want to leave Blackberry waiting for too long. When she reached the steps leading to the Thron, she began to climb them with haste. It was a ways up but if she found Pride at the end then it would be worth it. "Hello? Pride?" She meowed into the air every so often. She didn't want to get all the way to the top only to have missed him halfway there.

@Pride

The stag turned, peering toward the call. He wasn't quite at the Throne, but he wasn't far off, either, and it only took him a minute to gracefully trot toward the voice.

He remembered it, he thought--the cat from the dark cave--and vaguely he wondered what she could possibly be doing here. It took him a moment, too, to pinpoint her small, dark shape in the larger stone structures.

"Wilder, wasn't it? You're looking for me?"

He came to a polite halt some twenty feet off, pausing with hooves neatly set before him, peering toward her.

@Wilder

Wilder's ears perked at the sound of the chiming voice and turned, a smile spreading across her face at the sight of the graceful white beast making his way towards her. She flicked her tail and bounded forward, meeting him halfway. Although he paused some distance from her, she closed the distance until she was standing right at his feet. "Hi, Pride! Yes, it's Wilder! You remember me, right? I'm Squick's host!"

Although she didn't prod the mind of the little worm inside of her stomach, she did raise a paw and tap it against her belly. She was sure that they'd like to talk to Pride...but maybe later. "Anyways, I came to say hi! And ask you a question because you seem like you would know!" And she had almost opened her mouth to ask him directly but then she remembered the way that Blackberry had reacted to his name.

They didn't like each other. Hated, really. If she asked directly about Blueberry then he might not say. He might see her as the enemy too. She didn't want that. She paused, perhaps for far too long, before she came up with a more carefully worded question. "I just wanted to ask...back at the meeting, with all the leaders and such, the Bloodberries were mentioned. I've heard of them, I mean who hasn't, but what happened? I couldn't find anyone that knows."

@Pride

Pride winced, a little, at this.

How to explain the murderous monsters to one who seemed to have the mind of a young child..? It was not that Wilder was stupid, but she seemed so friendly and naive.

"Ahh. That is--a grim tale," he began, mildly. He looked around, then headed toward the Throne, nodding to the platforms around its base. "Let me rest while I tell it--are you well? And how is Squick? he went on, glancing down at the cat.

As he reached the smooth stone, he stopped. Legs folded and he lowered himself down to lie there. And, ever-watchful, the stag cast out his mind in an attempt to ensure that no one else was lurking. The mention of the Bloodberries had put him a little bit on edge... and Blackberry was still unaccounted for. After a moment, he settled his mind on Squick, but he could find no link, there--and that worried him, a little. Maybe the worm was sleeping--or perhaps it was no longer with the cat?

@Wilder

Wilder's whiskers twitched with interest. She had heard a good amount of grim things from Blackberry herself but now, she realized, she hadn't heard the story from someone else. Pride would most certainly have a different version of the story to tell.

She nodded silently and followed him. "I am good! Squick is good too! I helped it find a gem so it could make its own host! We will meet it soon." She, honestly, had almost all but forgotten about the pearl she had left with the Bonebound. But it had been a full cycle hadn't it? Once she had this mess cleared up and she had a moment of time, she would go and find it and let Squick meet its child.

She settled down next to Pride, resting herself on her stomach and curling her paws underneath her stomach. Her tail rested flat on the ground, although the tip curled slowly as she waited for Pride to speak.

@Pride

M FOR SOME GORE

Pride exhaled softly. He curled himself inward a bit more, making himself comfortable, before nodding to Wilder. The news of Squick seeking to create his own host bothered him, just a little--he hoped the parasite wouldn't see the creature as its own property, so to speak, and would recognize it as a separate being. Hell, what if it rejected him..? He pushed the thought away with a slight shake of his head--Squick had always been friendly and pleasant, and he couldn't imagine that scenario amounting to anything worse than hurt feelings, really.

He turned his mind to the task at hand, looking quietly to Wilder for a moment.

"With the Bloodberries, there is a lot to tell, and none if it is very pleasant, I'm afraid. I know that there is a goose--Blackberry; she may even still be alive somewhere within the caves. I warn you now, if you find her, do not go near her--come straight back to me, to us, and warn us. If she ever resurfaces, she has to be killed before she begins all of this all over again." This warning quietly, sombrely given, he continued.

"The goose Blackberry was, from her hatching, mad. I am told that she tried to fight everyone she met; and at some point, she lost. She lost badly. She returned to her chrysalis, and was mutated into a monstrous form that matched her monstrous mind."

As Pride spoke, he reached for his magic, turning his head slightly to the empty space between Wilder and himself. Though he always kept one ear out for an intruder, he focused for a moment on his magicka--trying, as he so often did when storytelling, to create imagery of his tale. It took some effort, but after a moment, there was Blackberry--or a flickering, half-translucent image of her. It wasn't as good as he'd hoped, but it was there--her stomach-teeth, her heavy scarring, the thornlike protrusions along her neck and back.

"I am told she was always maniacal and savage, but that her near-death simply gave her a reason to lay blame for it on others. That she justified her viciousness--though she'd been the one to start her fights--as "revenge," except it was revenge on everyone in the Caves. Innocents. Lessers. Children." The image shifted, and now it was one Pride had personally seen:

Blackberry moved the mouse forward and pressed down on its hind legs with the bottom of her talons. With the other, she gently laid it on the mouse's backside. Slowly, using her sharp, cruel claw, she began to run it down the rodent's back, cutting a thin line in its skin where blood quickly welled. The mouse squealed as she cut into it, shallowly at first, but then once she reached its back, she suddenly stabbed into its body, snapping its spine. It screamed out as blood poured down its side. The rodent's thrashing beneath the mad goose's talons, even though its screams were silence in this image, was clear. "She delighted in pain. She enjoyed it; loved it. She claimed it was good, and not bad--to cause pain, and to feel it. She sought others out to torment them, to try and kill them. What she told me, a youth who had never caused harm to anyone, was that she would enjoy turning my white pelt red with blood."

The image shifted. Now Blackberry lay nesting beside two vague shapes--Elderberry and Huckleberry, as close as Pride could get to what he imagined they'd been like newly-born. "When it came right down to it, though, Blackberry was just a goose. She had little magic, and wished to tear things apart with claws and beak; so to strengthen her mad crusade, she began to create--and kidnap--children. She raised them to hate. To believe that all the caves were their enemies--their victims. Those that she killed, she took their stones and raised children from them, all twisted and afraid and full of hate. They were all damaged, those children--broken in their minds and hearts. They were raised in battle, tormented, beaten--Huckleberry there believed that he was a terrible child, a terrible person, simply because he did not want to inflict violence. He was bullied into it, in many senses--and so were many others."

The image changed slightly, Pride's patient tone overlaying a vision of the moose hybrid lying sobbing on the rock.

"There were never enough of us to attack them all at once. But one day, I suppose in a bid to take over the caves as a whole, Blackberry led these "bloodberries" in an attack on Eridanus." The image again shifted, and this time a few times as Pride spoke--depicting Jayberry, tearing into Enka with blood on her grinning muzzle; Elderberry flailing toward a black hole; Rift and Sebastian attacked and bloodied, mid-battle; Blackberry, her mad face honking with a wide-open bill, wings spread, overlooking it all like some sort of ungodly monster. "They assaulted everyone they could find--the helpless, the harmless--and drove many into their chrysalises. Those of us who could, fought them, fought back--one of them was killed, and a few of them sent into their stones, as well. A couple of them escaped. Those who survived--the children, really, still children at heart and still victims of Blackberry's madness--were kept behind in Eridanus, where they still are for the moment, so that we could ensure they were taught how gembound truly treat one another. How kindness works; to ensure they aren't a threat to anyone else in the caves any longer. And I suppose that means the bloodberries' story is over--or, at least, we ought all to hope so. But it would not at all surprise me to learn," and here Pride's gaze grew distant, "that the mad goose is still lurking elsewhere in the caves, trying to recruit children to her side once more. Or to forcibly create her army again, from scratch."

If only we could find her, and put an end to it once and for all, he thought, letting the final image slip away.

He looked to Wilder, solemn and apologetic. "I know it is not a pleasant story--but it is important that we gembound of these caves never forget what it means to face a bloodthirsty tyrant... nor to let one grow in its madness and power until it causes such pain to innocents throughout our world."

@Wilder

Wilder watched Pride as he began his story, initially delighted in the fact that he used visual magic to show her the story. The image of Blackberry surprised her a bit. She had only seen the goose in the shroud of darkness so to see her, even if it wasn't fully clear, in regular light, was a little shocking at how...horrible she looked.

So she watched and listened, silent, the interest on her face slowly melting into uncertainty. Blackberry had blamed herself, she'd hated herself and she'd told Wilder how bad she had been but...she didn't realize how bad it really was. Watching the image of the moose hybrid made her shiver and wonder if Blackberry was being honest about how much she had loved them. Pride was making it sound like she'd never loved them at all, like they were only there to fight her battles for her, to kill at her command. If that was the case and all she cared about was bloodshed...then what was she doing trusting Wilder?

Her eyes were glued to Pride's magic but no horror or fear was present on her features. Only uncertainty, confusion, and conflict. She didn't know what to think. Who should she believe? The stories were so drastically different. One painted Blackberry as a monster. Insane and out of control, manipulative and dangerous. The other...she was bad, yes, but Blackberry's version made her seem like she wasn't in control of herself or perhaps that it was something that she had left behind. That she was different and changed. Wilder very much wanted to believe that that was the truth, that the goose was changing, but after seeing all this, she wondered if that even was possible.

And what of Blueberry? He was the one that Blackberry talked about the most, the one that Wilder was sure, absolutely sure she wasn't lying about. No one was a good enough actor to simulate the emotion and loss that she could feel from Blackberry. The words were coming out of her mouth before she could stop them. "What about the moose? I thought he was important too. I thought she loved him." She tried not to look at Pride, focusing on the image of Blackberry that still shimmered next to him. She hoped that she had not said too much.

@Pride

Pride blinked. The moose? Ahh, he'd almost forgotten about him. Past that, Pride knew almost nothing about Blueberry, except that he'd been Baneberry's (and likely Elder and Huckle's as well) father, and that Bane, at least, had been deeply devoted to him.

"I'm afraid I know little about him. I know that one of our own (at least, at the time) hauled his corpse back here--long after they'd made enemies of the caves, mind you--and that they'd fought, and he was diseased. Past that I do not know." The disease bit was a lie, but Pride hardly even considered it. It wasn't a lie that would've been important to keep up, except that if Baneberry found out, she would be hurt; that was reason enough, in his mind, to continue it. "As far as 'love,' I'd never heard that; I suppose three of the children appeared to be moose and goose so perhaps they made young together. IF that were the case, however--if she loved them--then they would not have become what they had. Huckleberry-... He was damaged, as I say. He is still very broken and has little recourse to anything but to cry and wail and generally fall apart," Pride went on grimly. What that hybrid's "family" had done to him had not been fair, though Pride still held it against Huckle that he'd returned to them, and still worse, attacked innocents at their behest.

"Others may know more about him. May I ask what brings this up? The questions about the Bloodberries--and Blueberry in particular?" Pride found himself curious, tilting his head.

@Wilder

Wilder wasn't aware of most of what Pride said. As soon as he said the word "corpse" she knew that it was all lost. Blackberry had been right - Blueberry was dead and gone. She remembered that spark of hope she had seen just as she was leaving. When she told Blackberry that she would find Blueberry or find out what had happened to him, she had come back to life. The goose had been dead, devoid of vitality, but when she had been given that hope she had momentarily been revived.

And now it was Wilder's job to kill her again.

Her ears drooped and she looked at her paws. She didn't want to imagine the look on Blackberry's face when she told her that not only was Blueberry dead but those that she hated the most had killed him. That one glimmer of life and hope...gone. Wilder had never met Blueberry but the way Blackberry had talked about him made him seem...nice. Gentle. Better then her, at least, although perhaps not completely innocent.

She was ripped out of her thoughts, though, when she realized that Pride had asked her something. She jerked up to look at him and tried to remember what he had just said. He'd asked her why she had come here? Honestly, Wilder had simply hoped that he wouldn't ask that question and that she could get through the conversation without having to explain herself but it seemed that she'd have to come up with something quickly. "Um...I was just curious I guess? Everyone knows about the Bloodberries by now and I just wanted to hear about them from someone who'd know!" She nodded, forcing herself to perk up again, put her ears were still pulled back with unhappiness. And in the back of her mind she was trying to figure out exactly what she'd say to Blackberry.

@Pride

Pride inclined his head, a little, antler-tines sweeping the air gracefully.

"Understandable, and I suppose--unfortunately--I know more than most. Avoid them, if you see them--the goose, or the black wolf Jayberry. The latter is... evil, there is no other word for it. Blackberry I think is simply insane, mad; but the wolf is genuinely sadistic. They both enjoy inflicting pain, but..." Pride recalled all-too-well Jayberry's disgusting words, spat like venom between her fangs, to Enka and to the others in the battle. He wanted to rid the caves of her almost more than he did Blackberry.

"If you see them, don't try to talk to them, or you may get badly wounded or worse. Just let one of us know, yes? Someone of the Kingdom, or the Seven--let us know you saw them." He paused, for a moment, in no hurry to rush off; idly he groomed the fur above his right forehoof, before asking another question. "Was there anything else, while we're both here, that you needed?"

@Wilder