Guarding. Protecting.

They were interesting concepts, in theory; but Pride was coming to realize the trouble with it. Protecting Gembound... The only real threats in the caves were other Gembound. The Masters, perhaps. The fungus... spread by other Gembound. But mostly, just... bullies.

It wasn't a good realization. The knowledge that to protect others, you had to fight yet others still.

Pride had come to grasp that this was what caused him some measure of stress; that there was no faceless villain out there that needed defending against--or if there was, he hadn't seen it. Instead, the Seven--if they were to be protectors--would need to build their strength, to become feared throughout the caves not as bullies themselves but as a force that bullies would have to contend with.

I want every Gembound to know--if they think about harming, killing, stealing--I want them to think, 'ah, but then the Seven will come after me... maybe I shouldn't, he thought.

And from some distance away, along his mental link, his familiar scoffed at this. He was being silly. He should just eat; drink; and live. ...But his familiar was only a hare; he didn't expect her to understand such things.

Nassir had reassured him, some. The leopard's talk had been... surprisingly helpful with gathering some form of insight. And maybe that was a form of guardianship, all its own. But for now, Pride was worried about a related problem: numbers. They hadn't enough; and Dread's help had to be bought. It was only a matter of time before either the dragon began to demand more than they could pay, or he refused to help altogether... or someone on the wrong side paid it. No; the Seven needed numbers of their own.

Idly, Pride lay down before Orion's Throne, and sent his magicka into the air; his intent was to create a dancing, sparkling display, a replay of the events in Cetus. The sweeping breath of the dragon; the fleeing Hive members; the march of the Bonebound on the nest. It had been a battle--grim, but a battle nonetheless--and it was what was on his mind, right now.

Quietly, as he lay there thinking, he watched the display--transient, faint, dipping and coming and going--but it was there, at least. And it took his mind, for now, off other things.

Syphyl

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She was growing hungry, there was no question about that. Her small, sharp little teeth weren't meant for fruit, fungi, or grass. She'd tried it all, and none of it tasted right to her. She needed meat, but she didn't know it yet. She knew she enjoyed watching the smallest creatures scurry, and watching them rumbled her belly.

So she went in search of food, wandering aimlessly through the cave. She had no destination, no knowledge of where she was heading. She just went, forward and out, away from where her shell had hatched. Her purple eyes looking beyond, around, and forward.

Her eyes caught sight of the sparkling colors and, entranced by them, she wandered. Toward the light, toward the colors. Her eyes so caught up she missed the creature that had summoned them completely. It wasn't until her tiny paws were almost upon the large man that she stopped, realizing. Her ears flattened and she scurried back in fear, this creature reminded her of the one who placed the flower upon her head (which was still there, for the record).

She let out the smallest of mewls toward the ungulate, another word she simply came to know but not know. More knowledge obtained without a source as to how. Such a strange world she lived in, how confusing and fascinating all the same. And beautiful, yes, it was definitely beautiful.

Which made her look to the colors again, beautiful in their own way. They were fading in and out as they moved, and she realized as she watched more that they were telling a story. She sat back on her back feet, watching the story with her mouth held open in awe.

Would this deer tell her a story? Would he tell her what this meant? She had missed some of it, so she hoped he might fill in the gaps. She had a thirst for knowledge, to know more, to know the meaning of it all. To understand.

The more she learned, the hungrier she got. The desire to learn was so intense within her, that she might even put herself in dangerous situations to obtain more. Anything, and everything, was without limits to her. She needed to know, wanted to know. She needed to give herself some purpose.

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"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

tags: @Pride
notes: N/A

coding by wulf for template purposes

Pride turned, peering quizzically at the near-silent approach of the cheetah cub. The images flickered and went out, unsustained at his loss of attention toward his magic.

This was--a cheetah, yes. Zothra's-? He studied it, briefly, as he stood, inclining his head and cautious not to move too quickly, nor approach. He didn't want to frighten it off. It had spots, he noticed--no stripes, like Zothra, or like Reign. It seemed, though, that cheetahs were drawn here--to Orion, perhaps to the Seven.

He spoke gently, head tilting curiously to the side, his voice clear. And it was newly-enough born, too, that he tried to open a link to its mind: to impart meaning behind the slow words. That was how he'd learned to speak, early on, and he'd found it useful for communicating with the very young.

"Are you all right, little one-? Do you have parents, or a name?"

Along with the words came clear, defined concepts--the magic working better than he'd hoped. "Are you all right?" brought with it warm concern; "little one," the concept of small things, an image of the cub herself. "Parents," the idea of adults, caring for their young; a "name," the word that identified a thing.

He hoped that it would be enough for her to understand.

@Syphyl

Syphyl

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She frowned a bit as the lights went away, looking from the lights to the massive ungulate before her. She was so tiny compared to him, there was no way she'd ever grow to be as big as such a creature! Little did she know.

When the voice came into her head, her eyes widened with curiosity. How strange, what a strange and wonderful way of communication. She could truly feel the words, and their meaning, as the voice spoke to her. She had no way to do the same, so she opened her little mouth and spoke the words the best she could.

"Hun-ry." She managed the word for 'hungry,' the best she knew how to speak. She was stuttering a bit over her own words, not certain how to speak. Her throat hurt from the strange words she barely knew.

"Hun-ry!" She repeated, looking up at him with wide eyes. Yes, little Sy was hungry, that was all her mind could focus on now that the lights were gone. Her sharp little teeth showed to him as her short tail flicked behind. It wouldn't be many cycles yet before her tail would grow enough that she could run properly.

A gembound without a mother nor father, she was born like many in this world. Lost, confused, and learning how to survive. She closed her eyes, focusing on food. Trying to focus on their heartbeat. And her power manifested itself, but it was not what she intended. Nothing came from it, just a simple and faint heartbeat for a brief second, before silence. Nothingness.

Her eyes opened and she mewed again.

------------------------------------------------

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

tags: @Pride
notes: N/A

coding by wulf for template purposes

@Pride

Pride stepped down, delicately approaching the child, offering a half-closed eyes expression meant to be reassuring, as close a thing to a smile as a stag could manage. He reached down with his snout, leaning to offer her the briefest touch of nose to her head, and then swept past with slow, graceful strides of long legs.

"Hungry, I understand," he responded, and made for the ruins a little in the distance. Then he paused, looking up: considering. His senses extended out, seeking prey for the child to eat--bats, perhaps, up in the ceiling, or rats or mice closer by. He did not kill deer, nor rabbits; he was one, and his familiar the other--but other Lessers he had taken. It was part of raising children, and it had long been part of his aiding a friend, a carnivore, whose leg had been badly-wounded. She had relied on him; he had learned to hunt. It was somewhat distasteful, but he was always sure to kill cleanly, quickly.

"Have you ever eaten, before? Hunted? Or will this be your first meal?" he asked, kindly, though his words no longer came with mental imagery or aid.

Instead his magic was searching the roof above, looking for something to bring down--something for the little one to eat. And he found it: bats, though distant. He could barely make them out, but he prepared nonetheless, tensing himself. "You must find small enough prey--by scent, often, though as a cheetah you will use your speed, when you are grown. We have a cheetah in the Seven...

Pride trailed off, concentrating. He could explain 'the Seven' later on; for now, the kid had to eat, and he aimed to provide. He just needed a moment, before he struck, to focus his magic.

@Syphyl

Temperantia felt lost, after losing Mother. The idea that they might not have been the one thinking. That it was Her. Not them. Temperantia felt...angry. Confused. Relieved. Ashamed. A light went off, in the sky above. Temperantia's gazes flicked up. It brought up the memories from so long ago. The fight, played out once again. Before their eyes. And it brought a single emotion up to the surface. One that was simple enough to understand. Burning hatred. Temperantia barely thought before following the display of lights.

And at the center, Temperantia found a single deer with a ghostly white coat.

"You." They said.

Temperantia floated closer to the throne. They felt a tumult of emotions. The gembound had trouble parsing them, after so long with her. They felt hatred, pure hatred for this creature. They had worked with the other deer. The one that had destroyed all those lessers, Mother's family. Temperantia felt fear. Fear that perhaps Pride could will Temeperantia's destruction. But, beneath both emotions Temperantia felt relieved.

It was a creature they knew. One they could recognize, some semblance of familiarity after they were ripped away from Mother. Pride had never been Temperantia's main goal in the midst of the attack. They didn't know whether to thank them, or quest for the gembound's destruction. Temperantia's gaze slipped down. They finally noticed. There was a child here. A few of Temperantia's eyes focused on the smaller gembound. Temperantia paused in it's menacing T-Pose flight.

A small cheetah. Temperantia could not serve justice. Not in front of a child. Temperantia would be just as cruel to do so. And was any gembound that could be gentle with neonates be cruel? It went against Temperantia's entire understanding of right and wrong. Perhaphs...Perhaphs the deer wasn't evil. They settled on one thing. Easy enough to say, to understand.

"You were there. With Mother. Explain to us what happened, once the child is gone. We would like to understand." Temperantia settled into a gentle, rocking float. They brought their wings in close, and watched the pair.

@Pride
@Syphyl

Temp just chillin

Lights. Lights!

The hybrid scrabbled to her feet, blinking sleep from her eyes, wide awake, and reared up on her hind legs to swat at the lights; perhaps what they showed should have scared her, but she wasn't focused on what they showed, but on the sparkles, on the lights. The lights that she chased, following as they danced and moved, moving closer and closer to Pride from where she'd curled up to sleep, whining sadly when they disappeared.

But she perked up plenty when she saw a familiar white creature, decently taller than her and near-glowing in the dark, and bounded forward to slam into his leg with a yell of "Pride!" recognizing him from the few times she'd met him, from Mama's stories, and stretched up to rest her paws on his legs, "Have you seen Mamazon I can't find her and I miss her."

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

Reign hadn't returned to Orion.

The war had shaken him--seeing those Lessers slaughtered, that poor kitten killed in cold blood. He'd stayed in Eridanus, basking in the life there, untouched by the war, Lessers everywhere; on the ground, in the trees, in the air. But he had to return eventually, and so return he did.

And just in time, it seemed. Lights danced in the sky, and cold fear ran through his veins when he recognized the scene played out, Gembound fighting and burning and exploding, and he reeled, shuddering, and broke into a sprint, wild eyed as he skidded to a stop near Pride, barking out "What is wrong?"

@Pride

She stumbled along behind Pride, her little feet not nearly as good at keeping up with his long strides. She wanted to explain to him that no, she had not eaten yet, but words were hard so she simply continued to mewl at him as she was confused.

It was then that another creature came forward, its focus on Pride. Her eyes wide, she watched as the older gembound came close. Her fear rose again as she crouched down some, the smallest of cries coming from her throat as she feared.

There was such movement around them, so many gembounds appearing quite suddenly, that Sy didn't know what to do. She had never seen such a collection of individuals, and she worried. She skittered closer to Pride, feeling safe with the deer. He had spoken to her, had tried to help.

She didn't understand what was happening, so she stayed close. Feared. Worried. Wondered what was going on. She wondered, just wondered, how many more creatures might arrive.


"speaking!"

Tags: @Pride

His sudden light show had, it seemed, attracted more attention than expected. He turned, blinked, and drew slightly closer to the cheetah cub, careful not to let anyone... attack her, trample her, whatever. Not that many of these were threats.

Pride looked back up at the ceiling, briefly, closing his magic for one of the little bats. The magic was unfamiliar to him, one he'd only tried out a couple of times, and it decided--as magic so often does--to backfire.

"I remember you," he was in the middle of saying to the-... the floating ring; "What is it that you'd like explAAAAAAARGH," and down he went, crumpling to his pristine, white knees.

He wasn't sure what he'd done, but it felt as though his heart was roaring through his body, his muscles seizing up. He was dizzy, a moment, and then found himself lying on his side, and blinking.

"B-backfired magic," he managed to wheeze out. He knew how it must look--the white stag, leader of the Seven, rolling around on the ground like an idiot and oh, that poor child-

"Could someone--perhaps--get the cub some food? I seem to have. Ahhh. Done something--I'm fine, don't worry," he added, Syphyl's way.

"Reign--nothing's wrong, I'm sorry--I was just thinking, I did not realize it was visible and-... Luster? I do not know where Amazon is. Perhaps resting-?" Pride assumed that, after her illness had been lifted, Amazon had gone about exploring the caves as she'd always dreamed of.

He hoped that was the case, at least; the alternatives included having been eaten by wallcrawlers during the invasion, if she'd been asleep. Though-... he doubted that they'd like her stone.

@Reign @Temperantia @Syphyl @Luster