Aquarian's emergence left Pride frozen, staring, his prey-beast instincts sending his heart into hammering fear. But--despite its... vocal nature, it seemed harmless. Hell, Dragon seemed to be friends with the thing-? And it's more than just a thing, isn't it..? That's a Master, if I recall. Or, at least, Dragon thinks he is. Damn. Wonder trickled through him--and then he realized the others had been speaking. Planning.

Pride tilted his head in acknowledgement, and his silver gaze--looking a dark grey in the dim light of Cetus--shifted to Dragon. He glanced up at Dread, then back at the alligator.

"Ahh--no. I don't think so, at least," though of course he'd acknowledged their similarities in the past. He assumed that they simply were the same species; Raheerah was well-spoken, an anguished and vicious creature. Dread was...

...Dread was simple. He was childlike, in a sense; he had things he wanted, and he did 'stuff' for them, and wasn't particularly complex about it. There was no roaring domination or keening sadness or embittered rage. Unless one took his 'stuff,' of course. Then again, perhaps that's what had provoked Raheerah so. But Raheerah was intelligent, and Dread was... well, anyway. "Dread aids the Seven, for payment," he explained. "We will follow your lead."

He turned, then, moving with any of the others who began to trudge through the mud--or slither, perhaps, in Phlegethon's case.

The War on the Hive will now begin. Members of the assaulting force must post to describe their approach. Members of the Hive may roll to detect the approach in advance! There is no posting order, HOWEVER, each character may only post once and then a GM post will occur.

Hive members not currently in Cetus may return once the Hive members in Cetus have detected their approach. Please do not write your character as already being in Cetus if they would not logically be here. Instead, they may return, and arrive at the entrance to Cetus on the following timeline (and then must wait for the next GM post before entry):

Pisces, Polaris, Eridanus: characters here may arrive at the entrance to Cetus 2 rounds after the round in which the Hive members detect the assaulting force.
Orion, Monoceros, Canis, Hydra: characters here may arrive, at the earliest, 4 rounds after the attackers are detected.
Fornax: if coming by land/tunnel, these Hive will take 3 turns. If by sea, only 2 turns are required, but they must pause and await a GM post before leaving the water.

@Dragon (Pride, Dread, Giggle, Sergei, Legion)
@Aure (Phlegethon, Eythan, Nassir, Orthoclase-Alpha)
@Aries (Septiezal, Opal Three-Seven-Six)
@Selenite-Gamma (Serek, Pallas)
@Zyros (Aquamarine, Zelk, Tethys)
@Lamia (Azrael)

Phlegethon waited until they were all in agreement before coasting along in Cetus's shallows. It kept its head out of the water, as sort of an aberration in the otherwise murky depths - so it wouldn't lose the rest of the pack. It did have to hit land once or twice, but it could shuffle along with some amount of difficulty to the next bit of water.

Once it drew near the taste of rot and decay, the oilslicked hybrid paused, settling more in the water. They were some hundred and twenty yards off, but this was as close Phlegethon would take them all while above the water's surface. The veil of fog and mist could be a security blanket for being spotted, if they hadn't already. It hummed once, twisting its head back to the rest of them, "it was ahead."

Then, silently, it vanished beneath the water and skulked towards the water's edge it used to deliver food from. It did not come up, remaining quiet and attentive at the bottom of the relatively shallow swamp.

Omen went off into the sky, and Aure nearly followed if not to offer quietly, "I can remove fungus from any of them, too, but I'm not as - good as it as my mother." Nonetheless, it'd work for removing larger threats from the board while they all tried to get to the heart of the fungus, right? If there as many big Gembound as Serek said, anyways...

Bright eyes turned to the acidic green eyes boring into him from a head reminiscent of a certain Vargas, and he considered for a moment. If it was here to just take orders from others, and was so massive and armored... "Orthoclase-Alpha - right?" It nodded minutely, but not without a slight narrowing of eyes. "Protect Giggle," Aure called, indicating to the hyena in question, "so that she can get as close as she needs to cure some of these - infected Gembound, and even us, if we get infected."

Then, as they all moved out, Aure trudged along quietly. He trusted Phlegethon to know when to stop, and took to the air when it did. The young King climbed until he nearly brushed against Omen, chirping at the Caller softly and circling carefully around Dread. "Can you see how many are down there? I'll count how many are infected and find where we should aim."

Could it be as simple as just taking one pot shot at the center? No... there might be someone in there and the rest would scatter.

Regardless, he searched below, focusing on only large clusters. The distance smudged his vision, but he could make do anyways. Aure hovered in place for a moment, noting a central mass and smaller nodes(?) that stood stock-still short of one moving rapidly through the branches and skidding to a halt and going still, too. He turned towards Dread - and Omen, "there's - a lot of them, but I see two big ones, like Serek said. They're surrounding one mass - Mother, I think."

Alpha just grunted and nodded along with all the necessary narrowed eyes and distasteful grimaces at being ordered around by these fuzzy little things. At least it had something to do, and wasn't being told to just "do whatever's necessary." What a useless order that'd be. What in the Caves would whatever's necessary even entail in a situation like this? Killing was apparently considered uncouth by these folks. They were only looking to incapacitate.

Whatever the case may be, the orthoclase could prove itself as a walking meat shield. Alpha glanced down at its sibling, extending a forearm so it was somewhat climbable, and grumbled, "come and watch ahead. Look for red." Whether or not Gamma obliged, Alpha stared down at Giggle for however long it took for her to move, and stayed at her left side as she did, flank and glow darkening until it was completely shrouded in shadows.

No use in stalking around if it was glowing right through the mist, right? For once, Alpha was sulking along silently and stealthily, mirroring the movements of the whole group.

Howl had done little but stick to his routine. His routine was kept order and cleanliness. So long as he clung to it like a lifeline, endorphins and feelings of bliss fluttering through with every passing minute. He felt awake and alive in the few moments of consciousness offered to him, between the long spans of blackness and comfort.

So, as part of his routine, he slingshotted deftly through the trees, arms swinging in a practiced rhythm and not faltering once. Mismatched eyes moved to and fro, but not once did he stray from his path. Such a path was completely opposite of the approaching Gembound, and not a single thing seemed to be amiss as he returned - perching on a rock and falling completely still... flat on his face.

The mud's presence on his face was wrong, and he started for the water, scrubbing furiously until his skin was raw.

The great bear had lost a little weight. Not a great deal--Mother needed him, so she said, to remain strong. To remain her beloved protector. And so he'd eaten, often enough--gone fishing here and there, or crunched the bones of fungus-infected carrion.

Now he lay outside the den, lazily chewing on a femur, cracking it with his heavy molars. His skull seemed to move and pop as he did so.

His attention was... lax, for the most part. He was alert, but in a vague, bored, half-aware sort of way, as he always was. Their senses certainly threaded out through Cetus, among the Lessers there, but it was in a passive way and most of them hadn't been able to infect the birds. Legion had gotten a few, mid-air, but mostly they were deer, cave rabbits, and spiders, which would flee at the approach of strangers. So far he'd seen nothing through the link, and nothing disturbed the dark and misty tedium that had eclipsed his former life for the last few cycles.

Crunch. Lick. Swallow.

In the distance, something-... Some strange sound, or odor, perhaps, drifted to the bear. He lifted his head, broad snout snuffling loudly, small beady eyes peering uselessly into the swamp. He wasn't tensed, or worried--not yet; there was always something or other moving about out there.

Yes-... it was a smell. Something acrid. Fire? I smell something, he called, along the link, though there was no urgency to it. It was a dutiful warning, but little more.

Reign
He who is to be a good ruler
must have first been ruled

A war.

When he became one of the Seven, Reign had never intended to fight a war.

He was not one for fighting. Lithe, long legged but only muscled around his shoulders, and still weak from spending so much time in his Chrysalis, and his magic had never been too reliable.

But he was one of the Seven, and so he would serve them to his dying breath. He may not always agree with them, but they were the closest to family he'd ever have. So, head held high, crown gleaming, he followed them to Cetus.

He strode along with Pride and Nassir, muscles exhausted from the muck, but determined to prove himself--with their Lord gone, they all had to do their parts.

And then--a monster, bellowing, loudly, before diving back down, and what a use it had been. Dread was bellowing ahead that it couldn't see, and so he pulled for his magic and, for once, it came at his bidding, sparking along his fur.

The swarm was settled along the broken tree, along its rims and the hole that looked down on the swelling grandeur of Mother from above. She near filled it, now--the tree--and other bits of her were found throughout the cave. Legion, then, lay observing, resting, their myriad component mites mostly asleep along the wood.

I smell something. Sergei was a sombre beast, slow and stoic, and he rarely called any sort of warning. Legion was far more nervous a thing, and at an insistence from Mother he rose up, a thousand fluttering humming bugs forming into a shapeless brown-gray haze.

This cloud swept forward, and Legion flew out into the mist: beginning to canvass Cetus, looking for whatever Sergei had detected. Most likely, they knew, it'd just be a Lesser drawing too close, or one of the Children of Rot drawing near. But it bore looking into--at Mother's insistence, and at their own concern.

Legion found not the main and marching group--but he did find something: something dark, slipping toward them along the waterways, before it vanished beneath the surface. They--the Hive--recognized it as Phlegethon, of the Children. Perhaps it was nothing, then? But there were other shapes--dark, shifting through the fog, and though Legion couldn't make them out from here, worry trickled back along the link.

One of the Children comes, they warned, their Queen shivering with nervousness. To us, or just this way, we do not know. There are others. Should I look closer?

Giggle trudged onward, through the muck; at first she levelled a few swear-thick complaints, but then she set her jaw and stared, dark-eyed and sour, into the mist. It was hard to see very far, and her mind cast out in her stead--along Omen, and along her own magic.

When at last she sensed it--even vague, as it was--she faltered so hard that she slipped and fell face-first into the mud. Her face itself she managed to twist upward, but her body: chest, throat, was soaked in black mud. Her eyes were wide, and her hoarse voice, half-whispered, came loudly enough.

"Ahead. I sense it. Bones-... it's huge," she warned them, turning to stare, awed, at Aure.

Surely they won't miss just a little? The warning of the bones still rang through her. She needed some. She had to keep some-... but would she get the chance?

The spotted hyena lurched off, swifter, toward what she saw: a pulsating mass, blurred but huge. It was hard to pinpoint it, exactly; her magic hadn't been precise. But it was large and it was... ugly. "This way," she rasped, glancing back at Orthoclase-Alpha (and she had to admit she was pleased it would be her bodyguard; the beast was fucking monstrous) to ensure that it was close behind.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr