Beta was about to try again once it had gotten its balance back, but before it could even take a step, it felt something slam down on its muscles. Not something physical, but some kind of magical force locking all of its limbs down in place. It tried to struggle and break free from it, but it couldn't move an inch. "The HELL?" It tried to look down, but only its mouth and eyes could move. "What did you do to me? The fuck is this? Some kinda magic?"

It blinked. Damn, if it had this kinda magic, it'd be easy as hell to capture people. But it doubted it was easy at all to perform. And as it stared down at the little cat it chuckled. Of course it would be a cat. Beta wasn't exactly sure how it felt about cats, to be honest. Most of its siblings were part cat, but it had never liked its stone giver. She was so serious and pretentious and just. Kind of a jerk. It hadn't exactly been sad to hear that she'd failed in the Trials - she wasn't worthy. Of course, that had tarnished its own reputation...

But that was besides the point. Maybe this was a good thing! It could report back to Master Vargas about the strength and power of this little cat that's smaller even then Palefur! It chuckled a bit at that and stared at her. "My designation is Ruby-Beta. And I was just practicing. Didn't mean to hurt you or anything, but thought it'd be good training. Did my idea work? Were you surprised?"

As she listened, she narrowed her eyes a little suspiciously, but tentatively released her grip on Ruby-Beta. Did that mean that it was part of those...those Sentinels or something that lived in the tunnel nearby? They all had strange names like that, right? She tilted her head, a little confused. "If you needed to train, why didn't you just ask me? I'd be happy to train with you."

She trailed her paw over the ground in front of her absently. "You know you don't have to randomly attack people. If you want to train, just ask. Most gembound are pretty nice - they'd probably be happy to train with you."

At the question, she blinked slowly, a bit surprised. "Uh, well, yeah! Yeah, you surprised me a lot, actually. I totally fell for your whole "I'm injured and dying" thing. That was pretty good, but its kinda underhanded, if you ask me."

It was relieved when the grip of magic disappeared from around its body and quickly relaxed, sitting back, with no intentions of trying to escape or fight this cat. The aggression had settled, after all, and it wasn't like it was going to surprise her by attacking again. Besides, what if she decided to be less merciless next time and just blow it up? That would suck.

Her suggestion to just...ask actually took it a bit by surprise. "Really? Just...ask people? Just walk up and ask someone "Hey can I hunt you?" and you think they'll say yes?" Although, to be fair, Master Vargas had gotten that panther to run, so it supposed that it wasn't impossible. It shrugged. "Well I guess it doesn't matter to me. I get training either way, you know?" It chuckled. "Although I suppose asking first isn't as dangerous!"

Its tail switched behind it and it did its best smug smile. "Yeah, its underhanded. But if you win the fight, it really doesn't matter, does it? But that's just my opinion. You'll help me train? Then run, hide. And I'll hunt you."

It was a lot more conversational then she'd expected it to be, but she listened politely, smiling. "Yeah, I think so! I mean you basically just said that to me and I'm offering to help train with you. Is that so hard to believe?" Her smile faded a little bit, but didn't comment on the creature's obvious disregard for the safety of other creatures. She had to remind herself - not everyone thought the way she did.

When it was ready, though, and told her to run, her ears went up. "Oh, run right now? Uh, okay. Alright, so like hide and seek! Sounds like fun!" She turned and scampered off, trying to take a quick dip into the future, to see where Beta would look first, but the magic failed on her. A little lost, she just kept running, away from Beta, hoping that just running would get it confused.

Beta watched as the cat scampered off, sitting and waiting for a moment to give her a headstart. Didn't want to make this too easy, after all. Once she'd disappeared over the bonepiles, it counted down from ten before rising back to its feet and following at a moderate pace. It checked the air, following her scent path, occasionally seeing little pawsteps on the ground or in places where it was muddy. It was a bit difficult to track through Canis, with so many obstacles and such a strange smell, but it managed to keep on trail, following her scent persistently.

She ran, she kept running, but she still had a sense that it was still following her. In face, a couple of times, when cresting a taller hill of bones, she glanced back and saw its purple form still following her path some distance behind. She needed to either escape or throw it off her trail. For once, she wished that she had Aure's fungi magic, so that she could, perhaps disguise her own scent with the scent of fungus. That would probably work, but, for now, she just kept running, trying to give herself a boost in speed.

Beta was getting a little tired of just chasing like this. It wanted to hunt but there was just so little cover here. It knew that she could see it sometimes, as she went over the taller hills. It needed to convince her that she was winning. So it darkened the area around it as it kept moving, not caring too much if it fell behind, but now, if she looked back, all she would see is a shadow.

Wilder just kept pushing on, pausing only for a moment at a high point to look back. But now, when she tried to find where Beta was, she couldn't see anything. No, there wasn't anyone following her anymore. She was a little skeptical - surely it was better then that, but she figured that she had just gotten far enough ahead.

She changed directions and hopped down, moving more towards the center of canis, off of her trail, until she found a little dip in the ground that she quickly slipped into and curled up beneath a pile of bones and rock. It would be very hard to see her in there, black pelt rendered invisible by the shadows of the cave.

It needed to pick the trail up again now that it had fallen behind. It could no longer see her occasionally ahead, so it opened its senses again to try and stick to her trail, which would hopefully lead it to her. If she'd just diverted her path, then it would follow. If she'd gone to hide, then it would flush her out.

The scent was easy to find. Beta was getting used to the stale air of Canis and was able to distinguish the cat's scent from the many other smells in the air, following it along the trail until it diverted. Narrowing its eyes, it turned and trotted after her.

Wilder crouched in her hiding place, using a small crevice between two bones to look for Beta. She saw a flash of purple and her heart began to race. It had found her. She needed to do something, quickly, and quickly flared up her magic. A second Wilder split off from her body and slipped out of the hole, turning around and sprinting as fast as it could across Canis. Wilder just hoped that Beta would take the bait and follow.