Hecate winced, and then her eyes sprang wide in horror as the poor bumblebug beside her erupted into flames.

"WHO-?" she cried, shocked, and being an owl-creature. She turned, trying to leap clear, terrified. For a moment she was tangled, nearly falling from the web, its sticky strands clinging to her. She cried out again, piteous and afraid, smelling and feeling the heat singing her feathers, feeling the frightened thrashing of the Bumblebug as it died behind her, and then she came free--and winged away, not waiting around to see what would happen next.

This cave was awful.

exit Hecate

cw for mild gore

Deli

Deli smiled at the bumblebug at first, expecting nothing but a harmless prank blown its way, or even something that affected them...but they weren't expecting a surge of magic and for the poor thing to be engulfed in a blaze of white-hot flame. Their smile evaporated instantly as it squeaked, backing away as their ears drooped back. "W-wait...I didn't mean to...I'm sorry..."

But there was no reasoning with a swarm of very very angry bees. Screeching, they scrambled back, trying to escape the cave as fast as they could. They didn't get far, though, before the first stinger stabbed into their back. With a howl of pain, they fell forward and that was the end of it. The bees swarmed, stinging right and left, leaving Deli no room to even breath. Each stinger was like a sword stabbing into their body, ripping open huge wound after wound and it only took a few seconds before they passed out from the blood loss. The green serpentine gemstone rapidly began to cover them, encasing the dog and protecting their dying body from further harm.

*exit lmao

---

One second, the bee was there; the next, it had completely vanished in a ball of blinding light.

Alpha screwed its eyes shut, then turned its head away when eyelids weren't enjoy to keep that out. There was a suspicious cooking sound coming through the air, and a distant BZZZZZZZ! starting to rumble in its head. The thing wasn't worth a fight anyways -

Oh, here comes a whole swarm.

The orthoclase shuffled back a few steps, and found that the massive insects were headed in only one direction. Upon realizing that that direction was, a strange noise wrenched out of it. It was some sort of cross between a yelp and one of its shriller barks. Another one came, and another. Before it knew it, it had its head thrown back in a full laugh at Deli's expense.

Even as the dog was vanishing into a chrysalis, it wheezed.

Shaking its quills out, Alpha took notes from the owl fluttering out of sight. It plodded back to whence it'd come, having no trouble peering over the tall grasses and finding Orion once again.

_____
It did encounter a peculiar problem upon emergence, though: wanting to inspect the axinite had led it to realize that the gem was, in fact, nowhere in its mouth to be spat out. All that was left was a vaguely salty taste and chittering laugher.

alpha points and laughs and leaves

"I-I dunno!" Oka said, stifling sobs. "I was trying to grow it, and...I dunno i just spat fire!" Oka said, not realizing they'd just dropped the best album the caves would ever see.

"Maybe...maybe that weird altar ruined our magic. Maybe I cant make plants grow anymore." Oka decided to cut their losses, and feel their way to another blade of grass, attempting to dig it up with their mouths and blackened, burning tentacles. Oka strained against the large blade of grass. It took Oka minutes, but they uprooted the large plant, and it toppled onto them with a smack. Their mucus took much of the blow for them, but it still left them with a throbbing spot on their forehead. "I can't grow it,maybe, but we can take it back!" Oka said. "I'll just plant it, and it'll grow!" Oka assured themselves. They felt along the stem of the grass, taking small nibbles of the tasty thing until they reached the end of it. Oka grasped it tightly in their mouth, and began the long arduous task of pulling it back to Eridanus.

@Qisziux

Oka is exiting with BIG grass

Her magic rattled in her head, her head spun is it tended to do, but there was no banana and she sulked for a moment, but she couldn't help but to squeal as the Bumblebug burst into flames, thrashing and squealing, and she balked, scrambling back off of Deli and into the grass, staring in horror as bumblebugs flew for the dog. She would have gone to help, to try and step in, but they were big and she hadn't any useful Magic, so she stared in horror, huddling close to the ground, as they collapsed, swarmed and stabbed, and she feared they would truly die, but to her relief, they fell into their Chrysalis, and so she turned tail and fled, eyes wild with terror.

"Sometimes you need a second chance,"
'because you weren't quite ready for the first.'

-exit Luster-

He didn't notice what his Magic did, could only watch in horror as the Bumblebug burst into white flames, thrashing where it was trapped, squeaking and dying in a very painful way, the cheetah's fur standing on end.

He balked, stepping back, and turned to Asteri, nipping his shoulder, "Come, cub!" before turning and sprinting out of the room with all the speed that was afforded his species, wanting to get far, far away.

@Asteri

Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire
The ensuing fight is short, quick, and absolutely terrifying to a little leopard cub such as Astéri, who is probably only about the size of a Maine Coon. Even the cheetah he’s hiding under towers over him; he can only watch and tremble as the spider is literally ripped apart before his very eyes.

And then—and then, the fight continues, and Astéri has no clue who dealt the first blow but the big bumblebug trapped in the spider’s web evaporates in a huge haze of flame that leaves him wide-eyed and awestruck. He’s never seen anything as powerful as that before—what magic was that?

The impending buzzing of what sounds like hundreds of wings but what must really be only in the double digits makes him not want to stick around to find out. Even one of the force of giant bumblebugs that follow has a stinger big enough to impale him through.

No thanks, no thanks—he may want to be a protector but that thing is terrifying!

With a call from the cheetah above him and a light nip to grab his attention, his protector bolts, and that’s all the cue Astéri needs to get out, too.

No thanks, no thanks, no thanks!

He’s small, though, and the cheetah quickly outpaces him, bolting out of the door—and Astéri, terrified, even more so without his impromptu guardian, hesitates.

Distantly, he hears something: "Bud, where are you?"

Dad!

Astéri changes directions in an instant, running towards the sound as fast as he can. “Dad! Dad!”

He ends up all but crashing into the elf, winding himself around his legs and trying to poke his head between them to see what’s going on behind him, clearly trembling. “Dad I found this room and went in and everything is giant and there was this big big spider and I managed to spit fire at it, liquid fire, and then there was this other big beast which was bright green and all glowy and had four eyes and lots of quills and it got mad at me and then it—it ripped the spider in half and then a bunch of other big bugs came and they’re really scary and—”

He takes a deep breath, finally running out of air for his ramblings.

“—and I wanna go home!” he cries out, curling tighter against his dad’s legs.

@Attikias

There isn't much warning that Asteri is rushing at him other than the thundering rise of footsteps. His attention, really, is stuck on the rock- what? That's... Not what he intended. Inhaling softly, Attikias shut his eyes and heard the clatter of the pebble hit the ground just as his legs knocked together with a skull hitting them.

"Asteri!" His voice is startled as he wheels around. Ah, the elf let out a soft sigh, crouching to place his hands on his son's cheeks when he recognized the pleading face there. He let him ramble, attentive, but drew him close slowly to create a protective shield. A beast, and magic... "Shh, sh..." He coddled the leopard, running his knuckles behind an ear. "C'mon. Let's get out of here."

As much as he wanted to explore more, his son took priority. "I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner." He wasn't at fault, but it was the thought of the message that counted. Gingerly, he reached forward to grab Asteri and lift him up, letting the kid ramble with a nod and a hum here and there. He had no clue about what this place was, but...

Maybe it was best to avoid it, for now.

@Astéri
;exit Attikias

Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire
Astéri settles into his father’s arms, and, slowly, slowly, his trembling stops. His dad’s voice soothes him, makes his heart finally stop racing, and as they turn to leave the room of giant things, of too many bugs and other monsters, he breathes a sigh of relief.

Dad’s here. They’re going home.

Everything is okay.

;exit Astéri

Qisziux's eyes widen, "Wouldn't that hurt? Are you okay?" He asked, concerned.

The thought of the altar effecting his ability to do magic sent a surge of bitterness through him, but he had to admit it made sense. He hadn't been able to cast a successful spell since he visited that strange altar. But then again, he hadn't spat out literal flames like Oka, he was just unable to get any results at all. Maybe you're just horrible at magic. A stray thought suggested, but he pushed it away. It HAD to be because of the altar, right?

Whatever. He'd figure out how to cast spells again, even if the altar had nothing to do with it.

Qisziux was jolted from his thoughts when Oka spoke again. "Yeah! You can always grow things without magic." He said. Maybe he could figure out a way to make light without magic, too.

He watched as Oka began to pull the grass back out of the cave. "I can help!" He said, quickly making his way over to grab the other end of the grass.

"Spoken Words."
Thoughts

tags: @Oka
notes: Exit thread

coding by wulf for template purposes