Were Azizos not tangled up in his brother's antlers, he might've nodded, "yes - it's not far. Do you know the way? Out of here by the carvings, through the blue room, and into the misty tunnel." The smell of musky decay and age-old dust could lead the rest of the way, even as Tunnel K was a straight shot through. It would be difficult to get lost along the path he'd offered, unless Attikias fell through the stairs (rather than up and down.) Amusedly, the lion-stag thought that wasn't a possibility to worry about.

Pale eyes looked on warmly as the man had his first, if not tentative, experience with the offered fruit. Despite having blunt claws, he seemed to carve through the thick skin easily and get to the slick-smooth fruits inside. "I'm glad you like it. I can show you others, if you'd like - eugh," Azizos grunted as he pushed his hooves against the ground, struggling away from his brother's antlers and wicked ways, "I am not getting comfortable, you vile being! I'll vanquish you and your dark serpents!" With all the dramatic flair in the world, the kirin stared upwards at their interlocked antlers and gave a calculated twist. As his head came free and his neck found sweet relief, Azizos stood over Arsu with a loud "hurrah!"

Blinking, returning to paying attention to Attikias, the lion-stag flopped down at his brother's side. He leaned shoulder-to-shoulder, and that was his last bit of silliness for the moment. "Mercurius might like that, I think. He has bluer eyes than us, a large mane, and spiraling horns like his eyes." There weren't many like him in the caves, if at all. The old man wouldn't ever have a problem with doppelgangers, unlike someone.

Attikias, it seemed, had to do most of his growing up and learning alone. His answer for what he valued wasn't immediate, and he spoke of the simpler things in life, natural fears and aspirations. Azizos couldn't fault him for that; he shared the same outlooks on 'big giant things' and learning. It was a matter of not allowing that intimidation to settle in, to take on the world for what it was and what it will be.

Arsu essentially said all that he himself would have, so Azizos merely took the backseat, purring, "I value this time spent together, too. Bonds formed last through the ages." In that moment, the lion-stag wished he had something to offer - and not another fruit. No, something material, formed by his own magic like Arsu's gentle influence of good health or his nurtured flowers.

Ah!

"A moment, please," and the kirin was off, a ways into the undergrowth and shielding his eyes with low-hanging leaves as he worked at his magic.

Hm. Nothing.

Azizos focused a bit harder on the hunk of black stone he'd uncovered off to the side. He did so with a wary sort of restraint, nosing the stone onto its other side and pacing away some distance. If it exploded, at least, he could avoid having it on himself. The lion-stag couldn't imagine that the heat of a thousand suns would feel nice on his skin. His daily dose of light was enough to keep him warm.

This time, the stone did spark and wind up being a glob of... well, plasma. White-hot and capable of burning holes into retinas. Barely keeping track of where it was on the floor, Azizos hid his gaze in the cover of thick leaves.

Waiting a few moments - and conjuring up a sizzling noise as the rock-plasma likely burnt a hole through the ground - Azizos chanced peering out from behind his makeshift shades. Narrowing his eyes until they were nearly closed, he mentally mimed a hand grabbing it, shaping it, pressing it against the smooth stone much like a glassblower might. Given that it was white and definition-less and just debatable that it could be held, there wasn't much precision.

His hold on it was shaky, by the time he finished tumbling it around and finessed it to the icy-coldness of the Eyes. Emerging from the underbrush a few feet from Attikias and Arsu, the lion-stag guided the plasma-glob into the waters. Everything surrounding it bubbled and boiled, sizzling for a few seconds before falling eerily quiet. Dredging it out, Azizos inspected it and offered it up to Attikias.

It was ugly and misshapen, pock-marked black like a piece of basalt. The shape of it resembled an idol or effigy of some greater deity, rather than the intended target. There was also the matter of it being a good one and a half feet tall and solid rock; unwieldy to be carried, in layman's terms.

An attempted gift, nonetheless.

@Attikias

ATTIKIAS
violence for violence
is the rule of the beasts

Attikias's eyebrows came together. "I don't." He couldn't believe he wanted to be like him at some point. "When I met him, he asked me for my number and- I don't remember his name, but I know he called himself an Overseer." A visible shudder shook him as his tail twitched unhappily. "Weird guy."

He continued to eat the fruit, finishing it off quickly as Arsu begun to speak. Their fathers- perhaps he could meet them someday. A protector may have much to offer a person like him.

"That sounds... Wonderful." He rolled a little to run a finger idyllically on a flower. "I guess I kind of missed that. I never got really raised by anyone." He shrugged- a wholly humanoid expression, his tail curling around a calf. "Stories're nice. I'd like to... Get some to tell people, someday." Rather awkwardly spoken there, but he wasn't really well versed on flowery speech.

A nod was given at the directions. "Yeah- I think I've got it." He'd been close there before, right? When going to Monoceros. Yeah. Though, he chuckled under his breath at the play-fighting, propping himself up again to watch.

"I'll try to find him." He committed the words to memory- blue eyes, spiraling horns. Right. Now, what was a lion? He'd probably look like them, at least. "And- I think I'd like more of this. Just... Relaxing. Not worrying about things." He plucked the flower he was fiddling with and cradled it into his hands before watching Azizos head off into the unknown.

Attikias twisted and quickly shielded his eyes at the blinding light. Ach- bright! He blinked hard, the light leaving traces of itself on his eyes. When he pulled away his hands, he saw the rock fall down just close enough to run a shock through him.

"Cripes, that thing's huge," he mumbled, gripping at his bare chest. "Is that for me?" He was amazed, surely- he saw through the crudeness of it, more in awe of the fact that he'd inspired something like this. Taking care, Attikias pulled himself up using the statue's shoulder, his eyes glued to it. "It's amazing! You did really good- I don't think I could even carry it." He tried- hooking his arms down, he grunted and tried to pull up with an awful form, stumbling before dropping it back on the ground. "See? I can get it if I try, but- hoofgh, you did a good job."

He patted at the side of its 'head', grinning to the kirins.

@Arsu

Arsu turned, as Azizos broke free, to peer quizzically after him. Amusement laced his tone as he spoke--glancing with humor, too, at Attikias, as if the elf must share the joke--"What dark serpents?!"

He pulled his legs in and settled more comfortably as his brother wandered off, and the sizzle of magic played background noise to his thoughts as he politely listened. Overseer. Stories. Mercurius. And when all was said and done, a gift was being presented.

A slightly too-large gift. He debated growing vines around it--but he'd already grown some of those. Surely the elf could, with prompting, weave a bit of a carrier for them? "You could break free some vines and weave them to carry it," he suggested, coming to his feet, unfolding long white legs from their tangle. He reached his nose forward, attempting to touch the strange figurine. He didn't know exactly what Azizos had intended, and he didn't want to make it flare brightly--it might ruin whatever effect he'd been after. But a gentle, ethereal glow; that always added a little something.

The magic flickered out, reaching for the stone, an unasked-for addition to his gift. "-I hope that's all right?" he added, looking a little worriedly between Azizos and Attikias.

He hoped he hadn't overstepped his bounds, and tampered too badly with the gift.

note: i brainfarted here and used glow instead of bauble. buying bauble retroactively to make up for it
@Azizos

Were they in our universe, Azizos would've been greatly concerned that this Overseer had asked for the man's number. He was still concerned, but in a different sort of way. Numbers? In what land were numbers required, instead of a name? Perhaps, the Overseer was part of a newer group in the Caves. (The cruel irony of how wrong he was stood out like a thorn.) The lion-stag glanced over this, if only to add gently towards the yearning for parents - "there's always opportunity. I believe we all help to raise one another."

After all, growth could really be found when you were with another, yes? Even now, as Azizos worked to make a messy sculpture of Attikias that really ought be smaller or in manageable pieces, they were progressing - changing. In the words of Arsu, the blades were at work.

Oversized ears flickering up and around his antlers, the morning star watched as Attikias stood and inspected the statuette with pure awe. "I tried to make it in your likeness -" Azizos admitted quietly, fluting, "but my shortcoming may be in that I was not able to look at it once. Thank you, regardless." Truly, the blackened thing was little more than a twist of stone with some vague shape to it. It looked like a cursed effigy, or a statue one finds in cursed woods belonging to the Unseelie. The intent was there well enough, judging from the man's reaction.

But, of course, it was fundamentally still a boulder, which was fundamentally an impossible weight. Azizos's mind immediately flitted to a sleigh - if his magicka failed him - and Arsu seemed to have similar ideas. "Perhaps - we could weave a sort of ramp or fashion a board from... hm, logs? Or, I could attempt to carry it with my magicka," the lion-stag offered, rattling off, "but my grip would be shaky, at best." His mouth pulled taut into a line, jaw working at his teeth.

Pale eyes glanced over at the statue as it glowed with Arsu's own contribution, an approving nod and bump of the shoulder offered, "it wouldn't be our gift to him without that perfect last touch." The addition of baubling made it a little less than ugly-as-sin and less worthy of an entry in the SCP Database.

@Attikias

ATTIKIAS
violence for violence
is the rule of the beasts

"Dark ssss-erpents!" Attikias joined in, wiggling his fingers like he was casting a spell on Arsu. When he suggested vines, he glanced down, grabbing his lips between two fingers as he thought. They might break unless they tied them in a certain way- and he really didn't know how to do that just yet.

He gave a good-natured laugh at the admission. "I think it looks just like me. Can't you see the resemblance?" He bent down so his face was next to its, grinning as he held out a palm under his own then under its in comparison. Spitting image, he'd say!

"I think I've got an idea," he spoke when he finally stood up. "No magic needed. Lemme-" He tilted it back and wobbled it a little. It was almost like it was shuffling in movement, rolled back and forth. He nodded to himself, getting it in his head how to move it, and let it down to lean on top of it. It'd get tirign, but at least he didn't live far from here.

The glow was nice, too. Giant night-light time, then! "It's great!" The man exclaimed, clapping his hand down on the effigy's 'shoulder'. It started looking more and more like some sort of sacrificial altar piece, but without religion in his mind, he simply thought of it as a great first attempt at crafting.

"You guys wanna come back to my place?" He shoved his head behind him, into the woods. "I think I can walk this there, and we can make some conversation on the way. It's not the prettiest- but, hey, you're free to put some flowers 'n' stuff around it."

It might take some time to get there, but he'd make it eventually. He was already starting to roll it this way and that to get the momentum going.

@Arsu

Arsu laughed, flutingly, at Attikias's hand-under-face comparison of himself and the statue. And laughed again when the elf spoke of coming to his home--how it was not far.

"Well that solves the problem of moving the stone, at least," he said, pushing gracefully to his feet. "My brother must've foreseen this, in his wisdom-" he actually winked "-since he can carry it with his magic alone."

He looked to Attikias. He was tempted to offer the fellow a ride, but realistically speaking he might be too large; he probably weighed half Arsu's weight, if not more. "Which way is it, then? -And as a gift, if you like, I can grow any sort of plants you like at your home? Large leaves for shelter or shade, roots or fruit for eating, flowers for decoration, if you like." He spoke in an easygoing, contented way, briefly shaking himself to brush the dirt and leaves from his coat.

At least Attikias knew how to make light of a situation from dark serpents and cursed objects. Azizos gave a little bell reminiscent of chiming bells or the resounding strum of a harp. The gesturing and framing between the man's face and the effigy's was amusing, to say the least — and the kirin was pleased to know that it was genuinely liked, and said as much: "I'm grateful!" With a pompous (but clearly joking) toss of his head and stomp of his hoof, he added, "I am the greatest artist in all of the land. My crafts are never too unlike their subjects!"

Even if it was entirely too large for someone to reasonably shove it around without magic.

But, again, Attikas knew how to make light of a situation; he had already considered that he could just roll the statuette around towards wherever it was that he lived. It'd provide ample time for Azizos to gather and refocus his magicka, and he could carry it the rest of the way. Pale eyes meandered to his brother's, clearly intrigued by the thought of going to a stranger's place so soon after meeting him.

It was clear that the lion-stag held few reservations and was even less wary about outsiders. Attikias gave a particular vibe that he just couldn't help but to place trust in. "I think ahead about everything, dear brother of mine," the kirin flaunted, tail slashing limply through the air once. "But, of course —- I didn't think about how heavy this statue would be. Stone isn't quite as light or wieldy as wood." That much was obvious, and Azizos admitted it with a light laugh and embarrassed bow of his head.

He cantered lightly, confidently towards the elf, ears flickering forwards. "I can - make mist in your home" Azizos was a temporary fog machine, it seemed.

@Attikias

ATTIKIAS
violence for violence
is the rule of the beasts

"The most divine!" Attikias tried to sound fluting in turn, but only came out like an over-excited Super Bowl fan when his team just won a game.

Maybe a bit too loud. He cringed for a second before laughing, pleased with the situation. "Hey, it's fine. I need a workout, anyways." As if workouts were a regular thing, but at least he knew the concept of them. "Haven't gone for a walk or anything lately other than to here, so, we're good." (He said this with a grunt as he continued to walk it forward. It was slow going, but he was starting to get it.)

He paused, pointing with a couple of fingers to the north - north-west. "Not far that way- the trees are a little thin because they're close to the pond, I think, but it's not near a wall or anything."

He realized, now, that he'd have to contend with roots. Uh oh.

Putting it out of his mind as to not worry about it, he raised up the stone a bit higher and hopped it over the offending plant. "Ah- I don't need any more gifts, really- only if you'd want to. Like... Making it into a garden, like your dad does, sounds nice, but it sounds also like somethin' tiring." Plus, he'd have to take care of all of the little plants after he got attached to them all! He chuckled, though, at Azizos's offer. "Maybe you can make it super creepy there, but I might have some nightmare if I wake up to mist every day."

On he walked as he chattered, tail swaying.

@Arsu