The brutish child hoisted itself up onto the stone, craning its neck down and staring into the otherwise empty space behind it. Eyes narrowing, it gave a few extra sniffs and some idle pawing. There certainly wasn't anything invisible here. Alpha twisted its head towards the Overseer as he spoke again. It thump!ed heavily onto all six limbs again and padded back over, calling quietly, "I watched others. They saw, I look."

Alpha committed this lesson to memory with a few nods of yeah, I'm following along, particularly the bit about killing whatever is weaker than them. That would come into play later - with a particular dog. The Overseer went completely bright, coated in the glow of his eyes and quills. Seeing as the child was just a child, it didn't think anything of Vargas's predicament or resulting coverup. It just nodded, grunting in mild agreement. Very wise words of advice, sir.

They were to initiate a hunt - where everyone was either predator or prey. It was up to them to decide which they were. The orthoclase's quills rattled with anticipation, a certain eagerness gripping it and riling it up. There had been a few impromptu sessions of hide-and-seek between it and Gamma, but nothing officiated by Vargas. It had always hunted the little creature, but it wondered what it might be like to be the one hiding.

It didn't have any further questions and started to scuttle towards the fortresses, giving its hatchmates a passing glance.

Rather than try to balance on top of the bones of fallen shelters, Alpha simply shuffled through them with a great clattering. It meandered this way and that, until stumbling upon a particular patch of bones where it could stand up to its elbows in the bones but lie down and be completely submerged - which it did promptly. Shifting side to side so it felt completely covered by the musty rot, the orthoclase mustered up its magic once more, blending in like it was simply the shadows of bones beneath the pile.

Garnet-Delta's ears swiveled this way and that as Overseer Vargas spoke, and it felt a twitch of pride at noticing that it had been a trap. Perhaps it was too obvious-- it seemed like none of its hatchmates fell for it-- Alpha investigated, being large enough to not worry much about the potential danger, but it had received praise from the Overseer for doing so.

Its tail twitched impatiently. It wanted that praise... And it seemed like it would have a chance to earn it, as the vibrantly glowing Overseer gave them a new task. A challenge. Delta was small, and hunting its equal-sized or larger siblings would not be easy. Still, it knew it could hide, and it new it could seek.

It seemed important to lay a trap, then, did it not?

The cat-alien spread its wings at the word go, and began to pad onward toward the Bone Fortress, stalling for only a moment as the Overseer asked if they had questions. No, it thought, before starting to dart further into the shelters. It needed a place where it would have the advantage... A place to perch. It moved away from the others, using their heartbeats like a compass. The sound of bones rustling and clattering as more clumsy gembounds traversed the broken shelters began to fade behind it as it made more distance between itself and the others.

It would have no trouble finding the others no matter how well they hid-- and it assumed the same of at least a few of its siblings. It scrambled up a half-standing arrangement of bones to get some height, twisting around to squint behind it, but the fragile arrangement made a horrible cracking sound and it fell back down on to the dusty floor half-buried in bone fragments. Time was running out to find a good place to hide, and though it had moved away from the others, it was not the greatest of starts.

Ruby-Beta nodded at Vargas’s speech. Good information, all of it, but it simply had no interest in rising to join the others. Gosh, they had so much energy. Not that it really envied them. This all seemed like a lot of work. Almost bleeding out from a paw wound was a lot of work and they were still feeling kinda woozy though so it wasn’t like they could just hop up and join, even if they wanted to.

It irked them a bit, though, that they couldn’t follow the Overseer’s commands. It respected him, more than anyone else. More than Alpha or Palefur or even itself. He was strength. Power. Maybe not the most, ah, respectable figure right now, glowing a bright, embarrassing shade of green, but it assumed that this was all part of the training. After all, the Overseer did not just fail.

If he told Beta to do something, it would do it, no matter what. But this was training and Beta’s paw was still hurting and its head still hurt from the blood loss. So it took the L this time, laying like a cat on the ground and watching the others scuttle off. ”Sorry, Overseer,” it rumbled. ”Would join if could, but would do more harm then good. Will strive for better.”

As the Overseer began to step away, it hauled itself to its feet, limping after him. ”I join you, Overseer? Want to observe, not sit away.”

@Vargas

Gamma was still in its stance, beginning to grow slightly uncomfortable as it shifted from leg to leg. Its eyes moved from its sibling to its Overseer when he spoke.

"Was- Nothing was there," it corrected itself quickly, tail flickering. "When check with magic, no need to be aggressive." It didn't realize that nobody had known it had checked, more assuming the others could do it too.

It helped to help it know where Alpha was, after all. And Alpha always seemed to find it.

The selenite nodded at the permission of killing. Of course- it had assumed as much, really. There wasn't much it could do, being so small, though. If given the chance, and given the reason? If anything went against its way of life, of its family, then it would heed the Overseer's words.

Being 'brightly visible' gave it thought. Its sandy skin stood out in the reds, here- would it need to learn how to change its color like Vargas? Its ears flicked this way and that as it studied the swirling stripe over its side. Hm.

A hunt. Its eyes turned to Alpha. Would it be hunted again? Its jaw clenched and set unhappily. But- no. It was off, too. It looked forward to being the hunter, this time.

Tail swaying with stimulation, Gamma watched as the Overseer stalked into his surroundings. It had no questions. It wouldn't be able to grab Alpha's neck, but given the other opportunities to win, it certainly had its mind set straight. Giving a hard glance to its siblings, it sprinted off into the bones as well, clambering at first until it got used to the terrain.

It wasn't quiet going. There were too many places it passed up, hoping to find something better, until soon it was darting around too much in the open from spot to spot.

It found a hutch of bones. Given the timeframe, it had no choice but to take it, leaping in and finding the bones clattering around it, falling in place. A femur broke against its spine, a half-skull stared ominously into Gamma's eyes, but it crouched low in wait.

Even if its dusty tail was clearly visible, flicking in what it thought to be covered air.

Vargas listened, long tail sweeping briefly to one side as he focused on their words. Few as these words were, they were reasonable enough.

Ruby-Beta, too, showed common sense in not wanting to endanger itself further; yet it would benefit from watching the others, he knew. "Yes! Come, then."

Vargas cast his mind briefly toward his magic, seeking to darken Canis for their little test, but nothing happened. Unsurprising, really; it seemed he still hadn't gotten the hang of things after his sleep. Ahh, well. Working in light would provide its own challenges.

The Overseer paced up along the dust-coated rock, aiming for a high vantage point, ignoring Ruby-Beta behind him--it would follow, or it would not. If it faltered he might try again to stop its blood flow (if it even still ran) but for now, he hardly gave the child a thought.

He counted a few moments, instead, and then--when the last vestiges of movement from the scurrying, hiding young ones had faded--he called out into the cave.

"BEGIN!" he bellowed--scouring the rocks and bones with his many eyes.

@Orthoclase-Alpha @Garnet-Delta @Garnet-Epsilon @Selenite-Gamma @Ruby-Beta

Ruby-Beta followed Vargas up to the vantage point, eyes fixed on the creature in front of him. It was strange - it didn't really seem to care about much, but it found itself feeling ashamed, unable to follow the Overseer's orders. As far as it was concerned, Vargas was the only one worth following, the only one worth obeying. He was big, brutal, powerful, and Beta looked up to that. Not that it wanted any of the responsibilities that came with that Overseer title, but it certainly respected him.

It settled next to the Overseer, cradling its injured paw in front of it, looking around for the other siblings, occasionally glancing up at the Overseer. It didn't make any comments for now, only waited for the others to begin their training.

"BEGIN!" rang the call, and Alpha fell as still as possible, covered well by the bones and cloaked in enough darkness to seem like a mere part of shadows cast. It barely breathed through either its nostrils or mouth - and inadvertently caught nothing but dust in either.

Alpha inhaled sharply, trying to fight down the urge to sneeze it all out. It needed to be quiet, stealthy, work as an ambush predator rather than something with any meaningful endurance for chasing. That seemed about right. Acidic eyes glazed over briefly, pupils trying their darndest to focus on some semblance of magical peering into circulatory systems.

Nothing came along its vision, and the pile of bones it hid in started to glow faintly, almost imperceptible at first.

Vargas watched, and offered advice, here and there. He paid close attention to who did what. To strengths, weaknesses. To resourcefulness, and to mistakes.

When all was said and done, and the mock-hunt was over, he praised them, and urged them to greater heights. And then he left, leaving them to be watched by those who had time for such things; he'd come back to train them, and that was enough for him.

exiting due to inactivity

During the mock-hunt, it'd gotten bored and antsy - preferring to be on the giving end rather than receiving. The whole idea of it hiding was stupid, anyways: none of its siblings, bar Beta, could get a proper grip on its neck without finding a bunch of quills in the way. Alpha'd gotten up and lumbered around, reaching out for signs of life through magic, catching a few stray siblings and staring up at the ceiling in annoyance while one remained pointedly out of reach.

It was all a draw in the end, and the orthoclase set to gathering up Gamma specifically - and shambled off towards the Warren for a phat nap.

;exit

Ruby-Beta sat by Vargas through the training. This was nice - not having to do a ton of work but still pleasing the Overseer. If only it could really get out there and prove itself to him but, well, there wasn't much to do about that for now.

He listened to what the Overseer had to say to each of them and when it was all over, it got to its feet, limping away back towards the warrens behind the Orthoclase. It needed to do something about its paw or at least rest it so that it didn't end up with permanent damage.

*exit