Warrior was a little bewildered.

He had an intrinsic knowledge of language, but some words still escaped him. 'Hands' gave some sort of image of... of limbs, but he couldn't quite resolve it past that, and so he peered to Haven with faint confusion. "Uh, what are hands?" he asked, still running his mind past all the limbs he knew, struggling to remember. Surely he'd known-?

And then, in confusion--"If you're keeping it, why are you leaving it there?" he asked. This was doubly confusing, to him. It felt as though a faint wire mesh had been dropped around his mind, as if everything wasn't quite making sense, but should be.

Long pale head swung back toward the Throne. "Anyway, uh--I wanted to check that thing out, next," he said, eyeing its distant shape. "Want to come with me there, too?"

@Haven

"Hands! Hands are very useful! They have a few fingers, which are like really long paws, and a thumb! A thumb allows you to grasp things and pick them up."

She lifted one of her wing claws and sat down, splaying the digits and showing off the three fingers, thumb, and palm that she had, before lifting a foot to demonstrate with one of her hind feet, which was similar, with a slightly shorter thumb that rotated much like a bird's, able to turn completely backwards so she could grip onto cliff faces or tree branches.

Haven looked at Warrior with a grin, "If we're going to be moving a lot, I don't want to drop it or lose it, so I mark this place with my scent so I can find it later and take it back to my nest when I'm able to. If we head somewhere else, I can pick it back up and make the journey there before stashing it away again."

She looked towards where Warrior was facing, standing on her hind legs to peer into the distance, brows furrowed as her throat expanded with a screech. She brightened, tail started to shift along the ground.

"Yes! Let's go let's go!!", she crowed, taking flight and looping all around Warrior, chirping and trilling in excitement.

@Warrior

Scent-marking and caching were relatively unknown to Warrior; the only thing he'd ever 'owned' was a single piece of diamond that he'd quickly granted life to. But it was an interesting concept, and he eyed the pile curiously. "That makes sense," he offered, before turning and trotting off.

Hooves clicked along the stone, tail swishing. He covered the distance between Tower and Throne relatively quickly, but it was still some distance; he spoke as he went, curious about what lay ahead. "So-... Do you know anything else about these caves, Haven? Like, who made any of this, or why--or where we come from, maybe? It seems like there's, hm. A lot of society, I guess it is, out here. But in Hydra we just sort of--find things out for ourselves. I only know I was hatched there, and I know about Hydra itself, but that's it," he finished.

The Throne loomed ahead: ancient stone that had once been red, surrounded by its crumbled walls. The skeleton of a large reptile lay draped across its back, staring down at any who approached, half-encased in the diamond that kept it there--and near the throne, a large white creature lay, seemingly asleep, antlers branching from its head.

"What's that-?" Warrior asked, more quietly, hesitant now to approach--his trot slowing to a walk, and then a standstill.

I rolled for whether Pride was home and it was yes--I can plonk him in for a turn or two next posting round?

@Haven

Haven drifted next to Warrior, wings spread and legs dangling down lazily, "Hm... I don't know a lot. You could call me sheltered, I suppose! I haven't done much exploring on my own, so I guess we're learning together! I've heard of 'Masters'! Apparently they're old, from the whispers I've heard."

But that's all she'd heard. Whispers as she'd flown from place to place, barely paying attention to her surroundings as she coasted on warm updrafts. What she did pick up were ingrained in her brain, snippets of information that were useless in a lot of situations.

She slowed and landed, stopping in her tracks as she stared ahead. The picture that unfolded in her mind was... terrifying. Not the deer, of course, but the massive beast that lay encapsulated in diamond. Why?

"... Are... are they just napping there?", she asked, peering around Warrior to focus on Pride's warmth, "Um... hello?"

Cautiously, she made her way forward, nose first, bumping it into the deer's flank, "Are you awake?"

Well if he wasn't, he was now.

Of course! I'll never turn down a Pride encounter :)

@Warrior

His ear flicked at the distant sound of wings flapping, his head coming up with groggy blinks as the first of Haven's footsteps approached. The nudge took him wholly by surprise, before he was fully awake, and he came up with a bounding leap and a bleat of alarm, slamming first into the Throne, then stumbling back and away--nearly falling.

His familiar bolted off into the dark from behind him, out of sight.

Pride was several full, instinctive stag-bounds away when he turned, a sharp swivel kicking dust beneath cloven hooves, bringing his antlers down in a sharp sweep for anything that might have been--but wasn't--following him.

His head came up more gradually, then: eyes wide, nostrils flared, flanks heaving with alarm. It had not been a pleasant way to waken. But upon realizing these weren't attackers, he seemed more relieved than angry, exhaling and blinking a few times, and drawing himself up.

"You are--not here to attack me, I take it..." he began, looking between them.

Running up to thump a sleeping thing with knives on its head didn't seem like a great idea, but Warrior had time to interject only "I don't think that's..." before it was done and over with. His own prey nature had him startling back in response, ears flattening, head raised, wincing; but he didn't go far. He hadn't been that shocked; it was just sort of... empathetic.

"No! he hastened to assure Pride. "Sorry, my friend--this is Haven; she seems quite nice. She is blind," he explained, glancing to her worriedly. Then, more quietly, coming up alongside her: "I think you scared him--he was sleeping."

"My name's Warrior. I live in Hydra, I'm just--exploring other caves. Do you--want us to leave you alone?" he asked, uncertainly.

@Haven

Haven squealed as the deer bolted away, flapping her wings to shoot away. She quickly swooped forward, fretting over Pride.

"Oh my goodness- I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!", she said, waving her wing claws nervously, "Are you okay?"

She looked at Warrior when she mentioned his blindness, a giggle rising up, "Um... I think he can tell, Warrior."

Haven floated back towards Warrior and sat beside him, feeling guilty about startling the deer, "Um... I'm Haven."

@Pride

Pride glanced to Warrior as he spoke, and then to Haven--the explanation, well, explained a lot. Blind--oblivious to distance-

The white stag flinched uneasily as Haven swept back toward him. "Ahh-... a bit of personal space, please," he told her, backing up a few swift and clicking paces.

Still, it was politely said; he wasn't sure if a blind creature would have much concept of the thing. Perhaps she used touch, to see-? "I do not mean to be rude," he hastened to explain, this thought on his mind, "but most are uncomfortable with close physical proximity to a stranger." Particularly prey creatures with predators, he thought, a little grimly. "But no, you needn't leave altogether. My apologies--my name is Pride. I am with the Seven, we who would be protectors; though I fear our numbers have fallen, in recent cycles--unfortunate losses. If there is something you need, perhaps I can help you--or were you merely exploring, here?" he asked.

He glanced over Warrior, again, the 'I'm from Hydra' clicking home more properly, an expression of taut, reserved pain gripping his face for a moment. The pale fur, the phosphorescent eyes--he'd already seen that, once, in another who had come here. "You were part of the recent 'trial,' I take it-? Did you speak to, ahh... Sora--she visited me recently--or to Fireheart or Nassir? They were of the Seven," he explained, a little more quietly. Still, 'from' Hydra-? Was that even possible?

And Haven--she was an interesting thing. Dragon-like, but not; alien, yet floral in a sense, like flower-petal wings. "Are you from Hydra too--Haven?" he asked, after pausing to remember her name.

He watched, listened, uncertain and mostly just standing in place. The Seven. Ahh-... Fireheart, Nassir... He grimaced.

"Sora... I don't know all their names, but I think she was one of the ones that were--brought in? They were terrible; they did not help one another at all. No-... that's not fair. Some of them did--and they died. The rest left them to die--Nassir, Fireheart, myself, others--we tried to save them. We did save a few, I think. But when I confronted them, when we all woke up, later-..." He paused, his own expression mirroring Pride's--taut, unhappy--and he shook his head. It did no good to say terrible things about those, even if they had been awful to one another. "They were... traumatized," he said, reluctantly, at last. It was mostly a lie; he hated them, really. He also couldn't quite remember which one Sora had been; his memory flicked between the black bird, the Morganite, and Sora herself, as he tried to remember. "But the ones who survived--they were out only for themselves, and maybe they'd be dead otherwise, too--like the ones who helped--but... I don't want to speak ill of them, and I hardly know you. But I would not risk myself to help the ones who lived," he added, darkly.

He paused, then, bitter, and shook his head, already regretting his words, anger stirred in his chest.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to barge in and bring this up--it's good to meet you, Pride, and... Nassir and Fireheart saved a lot of Gembound in there," which was a hollow, empty assurance. The trial had been too chaotic--he had seen them helping, but that was it. Though, he could say--"I think without Fireheart, we might not have made it." He left out the part where it was purely by chance: they'd needed fire to progress, and the wolf had been the only one with any.

But it didn't really do to clarify.

Warrior glanced to Haven, then, regretting, too, dropping this heavy conversation on what had been a pleasant bout of exploration. "Sorry, Haven. I don't mean to be dark," he told her, quietly.

@Haven

Haven backed up and hung her head, fiddling with her hands gently. He wings drooped against the ground and she mumbled another apology, dragging her wings around herself like a blanket. She felt awful. First startling the poor guy, then making him feel uncomfortable in her presence- was Warrior uncomfortable? Was she too forward, too touchy? Doubt surged up rather suddenly, and she felt awfully overwhelmed, neck shrinking back.

"Um- I'm not. From Hydra, that is," she said, voice quieter and her overall demeanor like she was walking on eggshells, "I hatched in Pisces, with my hatchmate."

Then the conversation turned horribly grim.

Haven stared at the two of them, mouth slightly open and down-turned in a rather horrified expression. She waved her hands around, distressed and having not even an inkling of how to deal with such an emotion. She'd been having so much fun, wandering and flying and exploring- she even found something for her hoard, and then this happened.

The reasonable response might be to ask the two if they were okay, if she should leave, but then again, Haven didn't understand reasonable responses to most things. She honestly felt like crying. Her wobbling lip definitely suggested that she was seconds from doing just that.

@Pride