Hunter was starting to enjoy himself, hand clasped tight around his father's big, worn palm. "It's a treasure hunt!" He agreed, eyes lighting up in the darkness-- so glad for his father's magical torch. He stormed along side Attikias, and one moment was bouncing with joy and waving his spear about (probably too recklessly for how dark the shadows were) and then next...

"AAA!" Hunter squealed as he tumbled down into a hole with his father, landing with a squeak on the stone floor. "Oooow..." He wriggled back to his feet, and squinted up at the walls, wondering how they hadn't noticed such a big hole. "You okay, dad?" He asked, as the blue lights in Polaris began to flicker on and trickle their glow overhead.

With a stubborn frown, he cupped two hands over his mouth, and called, "Vivi?!" The sound echoed up the hole's walls, and with a grunt, he untangled his limbs from underneath him and then lunged for the wall, trying to scramble up the edge. He quickly found he definitely couldn't climb with a spear in hand, so he fastened it to his back with a rope, and jumped for the rock face again. For every foot he climbed, he slipped down several more inches, but eventually through tenacity alone he clawed his way up to the lip of the hole.

Panting, he peered up as his sister walked over, casually, with a huge six-legged, toxic neon green glowing kaiju trotting along behind her.

"WHAT IS THAT!" He barked, his thin fur puffing up along every inch of his body like a freshly blow-dried noodle. "Vivi!!" He scrambled the rest of the way out of the hole, pulling his spear from his back. "There's a monster behind you! Get behind me, I'll protect you!" He hissed, eyes wide and spear pointed toward Alpha threateningly.

Mind you, it was hard to be intimidating when you were just a little, upright noodle flailing a stick with a rock on the end about.

@yall nerds

He was busy slipping on the amulet as the floor fell from him again sucking in both him and his daughter with a yelp from his end. His gasp was cut off as he thumped on the ground below and stumbled in place. "Crap!- Hunter, you good?" His hand was against a wall, and the lights were coming back on. "I'm good, I'm good," he insisted quickly despite the pain arcing up his legs.

"The lights're back on," stated captain obvious as he tried to pull himself up beside Hunter, cautiously watching to make sure his daughter didn't fall. A few times he'd found his hand clipping on a hard rock, or he lost his grip, or he slipped just as Hunter did, but when he came over the edge he didn't particularly notice Vivilene. Not yet. For now, he brushed off his legs and made sure the amulet was still there, looking down to investigate it in the light. Hm.

He was busy placing the fake fire-light in his bag as Hunter cried out, snapping Attikias's attention forward. Already, Hunter was forcing himself forward, and Attikias's heart flared with panic. "Oh, shit!" Maybe this was a friend-

Wait. The description, the eyes and colors, all of it screamed of the monster that haunted Asteri. "Vivi-" He choked before kneeling down. She seemed happy, but his lungs strained with the heavy breathing he gave his body. "Vivilene, come here. Now," he begged, frantic eyes going between her and the monster. Slowly, he was reaching for his spear, shaking with self-imposed danger.

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

For a moment, Vivilene was confused. She looked between Hunter and Alpha-- of sure was a monster, sure, but it seemed nice enough. It liked fruit. She bleated at her sister and tapped the edge of his spear-- put it down --before her attention was, instead, taken by Attikias.

She didn't like his tone. It seemed dadlike on the surface and something else underneath. Something that she definitely didn't like. It made her anxious, as most things did, but somehow... worse. Vivilene was faced with a question she wasn't entirely sure she'd considered before. Did she do something... wrong?

Moonlit eyes flitted backwards to Alpha, but she could have started crying right there and then. She looked forward again, to Attikias, and then slowly moved herself forwards.

A shaky breath was drawn in as the moonstone gem glittered against dark skin, underneath the shawl. The words projected were heard only by Attikias, though they bore no real tone-- nothing to give away the anxiety boiling in Vivilene's gut.

"It's nice," she told him. "We ate fruit together. It's a monster but not a bad one, it's my friend."

Oh, if only she knew.

The cervitaur planted herself next to her father and stepped around with a click of hooves to face Alpha again, arms wrapping the shawl tighter around herself.

"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@Orthoclase-Alpha

The smaller of the creatures they'd approached jumped up immediately, shrill voice echoing and calling out a name. All the words filtered out of its attention span, acidic eyes narrowing on the spear with distaste. It was a crude weapon, it could be dangerous (though more to the noodle than itself, really) and it made the kaiju's quills stand on end. Vivi (name?) was taking care of that, at least.

Meanwhile, the man was kneeled down, reaching - Alpha growled, then gave a harsh roar, but otherwise stayed behind some invisible line away from the clan. Glassy spines crowded around the spear's shaft, serrated and too sharp to safely grab the weapon quickly. It paced back and forth twice, and stared intently at Vivilene.

Clearly, its fruit-giver wanted it to stay for something. But, what? Did she have fruit on her person? It sniffed, picking up only the nauseatingly strong scent of sugar around it. Snorting, the orthoclase paced again, staying on the move and quickly deciding - it's not worth staying around.

Alpha adjusted its grip on the unnaturally heavy link, gave a ringing growl around it, and lumbered off towards Orion again.

exit for inactivity (and because i'm thorsty for magicka sorry gang)
@Hunter