He was awake.

He was awake, and it was time for him to begin.

Bones rattled softly at his passage, his clawed feet pushing them away indifferently with each stride. His head swung to and fro, taking in the mounds of bones scattered through Canis. Were there more than he remembered..? It was hard to tell. But flashes of memory--gruesome memory; blood and gore and bone and screams--came to his long-dormant mind, and a curl of a smile twisted the corners of his jaws.

Is that-... fresh scent I smell? The monster paused, one forelimb dangling midair. He slowly set it down, considering. Possibly only those still passing through, from the Trial. But then... they're all back there, aren't they? Worth investigation, at least.

Vargas began to prepare. Surprisingly quiet and graceful for something his size, he paced along the narrow walkways worn into the rock around the bone fortresses, and scouted out a potential site. Here, he decided, after several long moments of this.

It was something of a dead end, steeped in half-shadows: buildings of bone curving the space between into a canyon. Vargas neatly leapt onto the fortresses on the left of this walkway, and crept into the place where the cave roof curved over close above. Then he slipped so that he was halfway along--so that he could come in behind some hapless prey that might make its way down along the passageway. So long as it weren't winged, it'd find him behind it, with no escape. Though even wings had their solutions.

Silent, he prepared the ambush site.

The shadows deepened, the space between the piles and even among the bones growing blacker, the darkness somehow thicker. Vargas himself slipped into the unnatural shroud, hiding his own luminescent glow with magic, snuffing out the light around him.

Then he lay quiet, for a few moments, and listened.

Good.

Now, for the lure. With any luck, some kind-hearted fool of a victim would follow this lure, creeping into the walkway between these fortresses, off toward the dead end--and then Vargas could slip from the shadows to drop in behind it.

Then--one way or another--he'd get his answers. This usually wasn't hard, though some fought more than others. His jaws unhinged, opening wide, still smothered by darkness--but a sound came out quite unlike his own voice.

Rather than the deep, calmly-measured growl, bass and broken by occasional chuckles, what came forth was the terrified, small cry of a Gembound in pain. It wasn't formed of nothing: it came from memory, a victim cornered long ago, pinned by the bones of its allies and begging for mercy. For aid that never came.

"Help me! Someone--anyone! Please help--oh caves--... It hurts, please--!" It sounded faintly distorted by the echo of the fortresses, thin and wailing, and Vargas sat back--falling silent--to see what might take his bait.

@Aure

Aure, bless his little heart, was kind and selfless to a fault --- at his bravest when another's life was at stake.

A thin call, almost hoarse with its frantic pleas, stole through the fortresses. Ears pricking toward the source of the sound, the glided over. Circling once or twice, he conjured up a bout of magicka and supposed that being at eye level would be better... A cool flame trailed him as he descended into the ribs of the dead, talons clicking hollowly against long-dried bones. Bright eyes scanned the shadowed recesses of the fortresses, wary as the cries for help faded into a soft murmur with no additional sound.

Magic, perhaps? His wisp bobbed forth, towards the source of the sound, following his line of sight.

A chirp, soft and rather useless: "are you still there? I can help you. Make a sound, okay?"

@Vargas

Ahhhh... and there it is.

Shadow-shrouded eyes flicked, tracking the descending wisp and its feathered master until they dropped out of sight beneath the fortresses. Vargas could hear the clicking of talons over bone, and it was this he honed in on as he crept slowly to the roof's edge.

He waited, falling still, patient, his gaze intent and his jaws twisted into a slight grin. When Aure reached a point just below him--and a little beyond--Vargas turned and leapt. He aimed to pounce his massive body into Aure, not to crush him but to pin him.

This little one had things to answer for... unless he himself was another, unknown Overseer. That would be awkward.

Slowly, Vargas moved to flip Aure onto his back--so he could see him, better, and so Aure could see him. Still, despite his size and his many claws, he was careful not to harm the far-smaller Gembound. Not yet. His voice growled out. It was deep, smooth; it might have almost been soothing were it not for circumstances.

"And who are you, little one..? Where is your Overseer? By what right do you wander this cave..?"

And then he waited, to see what excuse this tiny creature could possibly hold.

@Aure

A shadow descended upon him, swallowing him up in seconds before he could even begin to notice. Aure let out an involuntary shriek as a heavy weight fell upon him, bright eyes going wild in his skull as he flailed and tried to look for what had attacked him. It shifted slightly, only to move him onto his back and to bring its face into full view: a monstrous being with acidic-green eyes and far too many teeth for him to be comfortable. Immediately --- on instinct --- his stone began to work its magic, and he almost didn't recognize that this thing was talking to him.

Nothing came to his aid, and the wyvern began to squirm, legs kicking uselessly at the much heavier creature's hind legs --- like that'd make it move.

Breaths coming rapidly, tiring rapidly in the face of this enormous creature, Aure stared up wildly. Who was he--- Overseer? If he wasn't really focused on surviving this encounter, he might've thought back to Naskital and his offhand use of the title. Instead, his beak began to move a mile a minute, distracted as he tried to think of how best to get out of this--- talking, apparently: "m'name's Aure and I don't know what an Overseer is even if I've heard of it before and I live here because that's... something people do. Am I supposed to have a right to be here? Living isn't enough?" Ears flattening against his head, he tried to figure out which set of eyes to look at. "Are you an Overseer?"

@Vargas

Vargas shifted back, just a little, so that his hind legs were well out of Aure's reach. As the hybrid spoke he remained silent, though the six eyes along his horned protrusions definitely seemed to widen.

"...They LIVE here?!" the monster cried, his tone shocked and distinctly horrified. "How many, and where? Are they unworthy?!" The massive head thrust downward, sniffing at Aure, though still a few feet off.

Smells of feathers, Vargas thought unhelpfully, distractedly. Another thought struck him, and deep concern rose within him.

"You are an adult, are you not? And you do not know what an Overseer is?" There was uneasiness in his tone, now--urgency, even distress.

Vargas shifted his weight--still not enough to harm even a bird-boned creature, but just enough to hopefully keep the hybrid pinned to the ground. Yet even so, the massive predator didn't seem about to attack--though he didn't really seem not to be about to attack, either.

@Aure

Alright, so, something must've been up with anything he said, because the pair of eyes he was looking into widened --- actually, they all did. As soon as he finished talking, trailing off uneasily, the monster bellowed, clearly shocked and ducking its head with audible sniffing. Pointedly not giving a census report, Aure grimaced and kept hacking away at his magic, answering a question with a question of his own, "uhm, unworthy of what?"

Even as inky frills began to sprout along his flank, audibly squelching as they broke underneath the added pressure keeping him pinned, the wyvern stared up in shock. He squirmed minutely, looking for at least some wiggle room and the chance to maybe not be at this thing's mercy. "Yes... to both of those things," Aure chirped, bright eyes switching to yet another pair of eyes to look at, "um, are there supposed to be Overseers?"

Then, a rather stupid thought came up to him --- he couldn't really think of this guy as just Monster --- "uh, what's your name?"

@Vargas

Vargas narrowed his eyes again as squishy black sprouted all over Aure. He quickly whipped both limbs back, and instead brought down the massive blades of his forearms, intending to slam them down so that Aure was relatively pinned in the gap between the two largest. At least this way, he wouldn't have to worry about losing his grip on the hybrid.

"STOP THAT," he snarled, voice turning ugly and guttural. He cast a brief glance around, and then looked down to Aure again. "Unworthy! Weak, malformed!" Vargas cried. The sense of urgent unease was growing ever-stronger, a net seeming to tighten around his mind.

"I am Overseer Vargas! How many others live here?" he demanded again, more loudly.

@Aure

To say Aure flinched --- when armblades were brought against his body, holding him in place with the promise of very sharp edges --- was an understatement. He yelped sharply, bright eyes glinting wildly in the half-light as he seized up. Above him, the monstrosity snarled and spat, and the wyvern swore he could see a droplet of acidic-green saliva approaching his eyeball. Disgusting. Tucking his wings close to himself, huddling in his slimy mess of himself, Aure simply nodded.

Unworthy, the word rolled distantly in his mind, though it scattered like a bunch of marbles as Vargas continued to bellow and demand things of him. "I don't think... they're weak and malformed. None that I've ever seen --- um, I've heard stories about people fighting Raheerah in Polaris or... some creatures across the caves and being led some Masked thing..." Pretty strong, it seemed. Not weak, imperfect as Vargas would suggest.

As to how many others lived here... "I don't know for sure but... there's a lot. There's got to be hundreds across the caves, at least. Some are in their chrysalises but--- a lot of them are wandering around, though, living and stuff."

@Vargas

For a long moment, Vargas was still, silent, contemplating Aure's words. FIGHTING him..? Surely that must have been a test, but--would the Masters...? And being led by?! Is Hag-rteho starting a following of his own? Astraea didn't seem to think so-...

Abruptly, the great beast pulled himself away, jerking his arm-blades off of Aure and seemingly allowing the hybrid his freedom. Then again--

"Do not leave, yet," he grumbled, for a moment further lost in thoughts.

"...How many here in Canis?" he asked, at last, all six eyes shifting to watch Aure. "You... chose to live here?"

@Aure