The days following its provocation of every dragon in these caves were tragically uneventful (for it, in any case.) Without the stimulation that waging combat against Dread had given it, Alpha'd grown restless. Energy made its quills prick, drove its limbs into aimless pacing motions. It was all to make it stir-crazy in Tunnel P and Canis's embrace. But, the wise decision reached in its head - to not leave for a while, or at least until it'd healed and found some form of countermeasure against massive, fire-breathing serpents - had to stick.

Exoskeleton with most of its integrity back and (it hoped) some magic developed, Alpha was up to its old antics... trawling the rooms for beasts to fight. Wariness lined its entry into any cave, always cleared away by a brief glance at the life signs within. Nothing entirely too large and bestial came up, except in the way of Monoceros. Elyon - and several others - lurked.

The orthoclase, though, did grow tired. Maybe a habit of staying awake for three days straight and conking out at whatever place it was in wasn't entirely healthy, but it was apparently sustainable.

All the ice and cold around it was imparting some weird feeling of needing to hibernate. It lumbered down the length of it, eyes closing for a moment in preparation for another jaw-cracking yawn. Lifting its head to let all that useless exhaustion out, Alpha licked at its muzzle. Twisting, shaking its quills out, it pondered rather intelligently, wind comes from this way. Gaze moving to the end of the intersection, it spotted greenery.

Plodding towards it all, it sniffed. Not at all riddled with the same musky scent of Cetus's flora, nor the dry odor of its home's few scrub brushes. The cave's mouth smelled more like the grove in Canis, dewy and earthy. Oddly familiar, and perhaps not too unfamiliar to sleep in.

In a suspiciously catlike manner, Alpha nosed its way into a nook formed by a pair of gnarled tree trunks and the moss crawling over them. The canopy was low enough to obscure its back half, and it could just about position so it was generally out of sight (except for the front) and lying against the wall. Its own body heat would warm the space up soon enough. When that did happen, the kaiju'd already flopped over onto its back, head straight out, and rather deep snore punctuating every breath.

It wasn't in deep deep sleep, but it sure seemed like it.
@Vivilene

i need someone now to look into my eyes and tell me
The first time Vivilene even came close to this tunnel, she darted back home. She picked up a pelt blanket, the brindle hide of a jungle deer, and re-emerged back near the tunnel, sniffing.

It was cold, and Vivilene didn't like the cold, she decided.

She tugged the blanket further around herself as she stepped out past the bent trees, curiously. Vivilene was on a never-ending quest to discover All the Flowers in the Caves, but she was unsure if any would even be here. It was too cold-- if she were a flower, she wouldn't live here. She'd live somewhere closer to Eridanus.

Still; if there were a chance of fire-proof flowers existing, maybe there were cold-proof flowers, too.

For the time being she decided to keep to the moss (she was not putting her hooves in snow), snaking around the walls of the cave, and the tree-trunks. The flowers she found were nothing she hadn't seen already, but she did stick a few pretty white ones away into The Satchel for prosperity.

Eventually, she paused. She had come to a nook by two trees, with moss overhanging. There was something... in there. Not a flower, probably-- it was making snoring noises and what might have been a pale brown log was heaving underneath breaths.

Was it a monster? It looked like it. It had a weirdly-shaped head and too many eyes that, perhaps thankfully, were shut. Did monsters sleep?

.. no, she decided. Monsters slept in big gemstone prisons.

And this one was warm. Good things were warm, surely, especially when they were in cold places. The hybrid stepped forward, sniffing curiously, and then began to settle down next to the great big snore-log, legs curling up next to it.

She'd stay just for a while, until she warmed up, of course. She nodded a few times to herself to confirm this as she raked her fingers through the green quills on the creature's neck.




"girl you know you gotta watch your health"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Do kaiju dream of sheep?

Scratching the surface of a dream, perhaps - but more of a hunted-down and eaten sort of sheep. Prey chased without the hindrance of cave walls or ceilings. Its dream was just it and whatever manner of beast it was after, running through an endless hall, uncaring of the scenery because - clearly - the only way was forwards.

One of Alpha's legs twitched, an involuntary movement from dream-running.

Its breathing hitched as it managed to finally, finally land its quarry. Jaw dropping open slightly, a massive glob of glowing-green drool slid down its muzzle, getting treacherously close to its eyes before it was swiped up by a tongue.

Snoring once again, the beast settled... and rolled onto its left side, right foreleg sprawling out as it stretched... right over the poor cervitaur. It wasn't trapping by any means, but surely some shocking sudden proximity.
@Vivilene

i need someone now to look into my eyes and tell me

Oh... it was dreaming.

That was nice. It licked it's muzzle and Vivilene smiled a little, wrapping her arms around the maybe-monster and closing her eyes. A nap sounded good, too-- but unfortunately, before she was able to even get comfortable, a heavy leg plonked right over her.

And, as Vivilene often did, she panicked.

A great wheeze marked the beginning of it. The limb was too heavy for her to move away, no matter how hard she tried. She could have gotten up if she wanted to but frankly-- she did not. It was warm here and she was quite set on taking the fattest of naps.

She shifted underneath the kaiju's limb, weakly, and then went still to concentrate. She tried to cast but something stopped her-- likely the fear, as it always did. She wouldn't be able to ask it to shove off.

The small hybrid wriggled uncomfortably, extending a hand over to poke at the sleeping increasingly-likely-monster to try and get it's attention. Maybe if it noticed it was starting to crush a small child it would move.

That's how maybe-monsters worked, right?

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Vivilene's wheeze stole over its own snoring for a moment, and it went still - listening even while conked out. She didn't make any other sounds (for obvious reasons) and it went back to sounding a bit like a freight train lying by the cave entrance.

Its claws twitched, though, and it made to shift its other forearm from where it was squashed. Impeded by a something that was also wiggling away and pushing at it, it grunted. A small hand pressed against its inner elbow.

Alpha snorted awake, gangly limb immediately twisting off of the cervitaur to bear its rising weight. It rolled onto its stomach, bracing on the other leg pulled underneath itself (sort of like a half-loaf.)

Head swinging around, searching, it just twisted to stare blearily down at the child(?) that'd decided to snuggle up to it. Caught in the liminal space between sleeping and waking, the orthoclase just... continued to look at her, trying to catch up.

Finally licking away the last bits of drool that'd been dripping down its face while sleeping, it grunted, "what are you doing?" The reflection of its otherwise pupilless(-seeming) eyes shifted as it tried to parse where the hell it'd fallen asleep at.
@Vivilene

i need someone now to look into my eyes and tell me

Wheeze. It seemed to expect her to talk back, and that was particularly difficult when you were incapable of such. Cotton gathered in her throat, and she found that it was particularly difficult to even try to explain the situation.

Her previous spell failed but she could, at least, try to explain before the thing ate her (though, maybe if it hadn't already, maybe it didn't want to?).

Vivilene was too gangly and scrawny to be of any good snack, anyway, surely? All bone and hair. Maybe the smallness and the thinness was keeping her alive. It should be noted that Vivilene wasn't entirely sure if she liked this one or not.

The hybrid took a breath. This time, thankfully, she felt the twinges of magic flaring up within her. With it game a faint sliver of relief-- relief that she could try to explain --as she reached out to Alpha. Fingers of magicka grazed the back of its head like tree branches, murmuring; "Resting. It's cold. You're warm."

A pause, before she continued. "What are you doing here? Why are you sleeping in the corner in the cold? Are you lost?" Her questioning-- though incessant, interrogating --were gentle, softly-spoken, if you could consider telepathy a way of speaking at all. "Do you need help?"

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Vivilene was right in her assessment; she was too small for the orthoclase to bother with chasing down or grabbing to eat - and she looked too... different to consider killing outright. For one, she wasn't brown, covered in shaggy hair, sitting on just four paws. If anything, she looked a bit like Elyon, albeit less heavily armored and generally viable for combat. From all of the demeanor, it assumed she was a child, too.

Not that made much of a difference, it was going to tell itself.

Alpha's eyes narrowed, but as a precursor to another dazed yawn. Its tongue swiped lazily over its jowls as it tilted its head up, listening idly as the centaur 'spoke.' If it'd actually been looking down, it might've panicked at the whole... telepathy thing, hearing voices but not seeing a mouth move.

The orthoclase twisted its head to stare down at the kid, eyes half-lidded with the sheer amount of mental gymnastics it was going through to come up with any sort of a response to... all that. It huffed (or was it snorting?) at first, "do I look like I need help?"

Dryly glancing at itself, Alpha grumbled, "I'm exploring the caves. I don't need help." Simple as that.

Phantom fingers carded through its quills, and it added, "don't touch me again."
@Vivilene

i need someone now to look into my eyes and tell me

Vivilene's ears flicked at the snort-huff, wide eyes blinking slowly. She was trying her best not to panic; large monsters could smell fear and really, Vivilene didn't want to be accused of, at the least, being stinky. At the worst, being eaten.

The cervitaur shifted on the spot for a moment. Don't touch it-- got it, didn't need to tell her twice. Not just for the sake of common decency; Vivilene wouldn't want to be touched after explicitly saying she didn't want to be either, but for the sake that she could, again, definitely get eaten.

How did people keep their cool all the time? How did they not break into panic? When the thing snarked at her, what was she meant to do? What would her sisters have done, her brothers, her fathers? When it clicked, her response was lightning fast, barely a few seconds after Alpha had even finished the sentence.

"You look like you need a lot of help," she snarked right back, the words gentle despite their tone.

It should be noted that she regretted the words as soon as they came out of her... head? She looked away, nervously, half-anticipating feeling sharp teeth on her skin, and then looked back. Confidence, she half-told herself. This is what kept most people together.

Vivilene had no confidence-- but she could at least try to fake it. "What parts of the cave have you not seen yet?" she asked, her words steady. "I can show you Eridanus, if you'd like. There's fruit in there to eat and more comfortable places to rest."

There was also her father to hide behind, and Vivilene was suddenly unsure how long she could keep this act up for.

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Large monsters could not smell fear, but the stinky (by its standards, not well-acquainted with the smell of dirt and plants) little cervitaur was basically shaking in her boots. Which...

Which is why it reared back slightly as she bit back, without moving her mouth or hesitating. The second part wasn't as world-shattering. Eyes going wide, head shaking back a little bit like a dog in absolute disbelief during a What the Fluff? challenge, it tried to grapple with how that worked. Vargas'd used magic like that, right? But he was just imitating Palefur behind a rock -

"How are you doing that?" To explain what that was, it gestured vaguely towards Vivilene's face. Helpful.

It did, at least settle down again, still beary-eyed and half-listening. "I don't know," as far as explorations went, "I can look at Eridanus by myself." Alpha paused, blinking slowly. Trying out this cave's name was fine, but... "what are... fruit? Lessers?" It was so caught-up in the euphoria of a hunt that for a moment it forgot there were more than just carnivores out there.
@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

It seemed alarmed-- not necessarily by her snapping at it, but more by the way she was talking. Maybe it hadn't noticed that her mouth wasn't moving the entire time. Which was unfortunate, but that seemed more like it's fault than anything else.

Still, she did settle down just a little. The process was repeated; reaching out, casting, talking gently into the Orthoclase's head-- "I can't talk," she barely murmured, a voice missed too easily in a crowd, even if it were the equivalent of whispering into Alpha's ears (but creepier). "I keep trying but it feels like I have something stuck in there."

Truth be told, she never really bothered to figure out if there was or not. She could eat and drink fine; her father even said it might be easier if she had a nice, long drink first, but it could never come to fruition. Sometimes it hurt just to even make noises, and Vivilene didn't really like those days.

The cervitaur looked over Alpha for a moment. "Maybe," she agreed. Not everyone had to be guided around like she did, sometimes. "But everything is nicer when you do them with friends. Don't you ever get lonely when you explore on your own?"

And fruit-- well, it must have been like Asteri and Volta. A carnivore, was it? Something that doesn't really like fruit, just meat and things to kill. Vivilene restrained an anxious shudder, her mind focusing on a new Quest: find this monster some fruit. "Wait here," came a breeze of a voice, and then the small deer-person was bounding off into Eridanus.

The child was gone for a total of ten minutes. Just ten. In that time, to the passerby, she could have been spotted grabbing different types of fruit, as much as could fit in her satchel (not a lot), and then bounding back towards the coldest tunnel, gripping the fur blanket around her shoulders to make sure it didn't fall off.

Click-click-click, came her hooves when she returned, skidding along the nook where she had left the Orthoclase. In a hurried-- excited? --movement, she took the satchel off her little head and settled down in front of it, cervidae legs curling up underneath her torso. She pulled it open, and one by one, began setting an assortment of fruits down.

"A mango," was first-- oval-shaped, green at one end, red at the other, and yellowish in the middle. She set it down and gently nudged it to the maybe-monster. Up next was "a papaya," longer than the mango and much greener. The third, and last (for now), "a peach," a fuzzy, warm colour of pinks and reds and oranges melded in together.

Very knowingly, she pointed to the last of the trio. "This one has a rock in it, so be careful. It can hurt your teeth," she instructed. "Try them. I have more for you in my bag."


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Orthoclase-Alpha