Bloodstone lay curled up within one of the many crevices among the cliffs of Orion, having been there for a while since fleeing the 'meeting' with Lord Dhracia and Vargas. They lay mostly hidden within the cave, having been so desperate to hide that they just stuffed themselves as far in as they could go. They'd been hiding a lot, recently, unable to escape the terror that was that poor creature turning to sludge in front of them.

Koi had been quiet since then, and so had Hellfire. Luci could barely stand the quiet, but it was clear they were affected too. But at least they could have their names now.

Their tail poked out of the crevice rather obviously, thought they didn't notice. Hopefully no one would trip over it.

@Azrael

Some of the gembound that had taken part in the battle against the golem had went forward to explore the new cave that had opened up in the wake of its destruction, but...not him. Mother had shaken him up too much, her influence trying to oppress his mind once again had rocked him to his core and...he couldn't let them see that. Any longer near the others and he would have broken and they would have seen him vulnerable, weak. And he couldn't have that.

He'd spent some time alone in Polaris, letting out his anger and pain by burning some rocks - that was always good stress relief - but he'd grown weary of it after a while and was now dragging himself back to Canis. Forgraves and Banshy were probably worried about him.

Well, perhaps not Forgraves. He knew he could handle himself - and, besides, he had a life of his own now.

His thoughts were mostly empty as he traveled through Orion, but he couldn't help the flick of his eyes as he looked right and left, in case anyone tried to sneak up on him, anyone that smelled like rot or had clots of white across their body, anyone that would try to infect him again. His hightened awareness ended up landing one of his eyes on...something, sticking out of one of the crevices. Eyes narrowed and he paused. Was it one of hers? If it was, he would destroy them.

So he turned, creeping forward, spinning magic across his body, but the darkness failed to come. It got...a little bit darker, but not dark enough. Fine. Whatever. He could do this without anything. He stopped some way away, glaring at the thing and rumbled, "Who is that? What are you doing there?"

@Bloodstone

The hydra jumped, slamming their heads off the ceiling and snarling in pain. The tail retracted and three sets of yellow eyes shone from the darkness, the beast trying to push themselves further into the space.

"There's no one here, go away!!", Hellfire yelled, earning a smack from Luci.

"Idiot! They already saw us and you yelling, 'there's no one here!' just tells them we're here anyway!", the star-speckled head snarled.

Koi snapped at the two of them and hissed, all three of them curling at the back of the cave.

"Go away, please," Hellfire finally said, "We just wanna be left alone."

Koi bit him again and frowned, "That's not true- I thought we wanted to make friends!"

Luci burst out laughing, "No! Stupid! We don't want friends-"

"I'm confused!", Hellfire helpfully piped up.

Luci groaned and dragged a hand down their face. This was stupid. The person outside could be out to kill them and they were arguing over something utterly stupid!

@Azrael

To say Azrael was confused was an understatement. He thought that the singular tail had belonged to just one creature, but he could see more then one set of eyes staring at him from within the cave. Well, that in itself wasn't unnatural, considering he also had three sets of eyes, but he didn't also have three voices. And they sounded like they were...arguing with each other.

He blinked. A second later, he opened his senses, not going in to intrude on their personal space, but curious to know how many were in there. And, to his surprise, he was right - there was only one creature in there. He could only feel one heartbeat...yet three voices spoke to him. He made a grumbling sound, dissatisfied with this information. "Are there three? Or one? I sense one but you have three voices. How?" He paused, looking around. Why were they in there, anyways? Hiding? But he hadn't sense any other creatures around nor...any kind of danger at all.

He looked back at the cave, eyes narrowed suspiciously. It...didn't seem like they were with Mother - Mother had always told them to make friends, to infect others and bring them in. "Who are you hiding from? Is Mother in there?"

@Bloodstone

"We have three heads, stupid-"

"SHUT UP!"
"SHUT UP!"

Hellfire peered out of the hole and at Azrael, eyes narrowed, "We don't have a mom."

Koi lifted her head to peer out next, while Luci turned and sulked, ears down. This was blasphemy!

The hydra finally seemed to settle down, wary of the person outside of the caves. They were currently trapped and feeling very very uncomfortable, so maybe they could ask them to back up so they could get out?

"Excuse me?", Hellfire asked, "We'd like to get out, please."

So polite...

Slowly, they crept forward, nearly on their belly with how low the cave was. They struggled to squeeze their body out, their wings not helping as they wiggled and squirmed, grunting and groaning as they finally slid out with a pop!

They tumbled to the ground with their heads all over the place, Hellfire completely backwards and Koi and Luci off to the side. They stood and Hellfire blinked, looking around.

"Hey, where'd the guy go?", he asked, before Luci reached up with a claw to turn his head around.

"Oh- hi!", Hellfire said, proceeding to wave with the same paw, "Are you going to kill us? Did Vargas send you?!"

Luci growled suspiciously and Koi rolled her eyes in exasperation. They were so dumb...

@Azrael

Three heads? That was a new one, but Azrael didn't question it, considering that he had four arms and six eyes, and he'd just got back from battling a large stone bear that was also fighting...whatever Azigh was supposed to be. Strange things existed in these caves and it wasn't a surprise that three-headed creatures existed too. He was more concerned about the "Mother" thing, wondering if he should believe them. But a quick sniff of the air told him that there was nothing but the smell of the creature - no rot or anything. They were probably safe.

He stepped to the side, giving them room to tumble out, snorting with amusement at the state they ended up in, with their heads all twisted in different directions. "Over here," he rumbled, just before the middle one's head was forcibly turned. He gazed over the creature curiously. It looked like a dragon - a rather small dragon - save for the triple heads. Surely a creature like this shouldn't be hiding, but fighting instead. The one chasing their attacker, instead of cowering away.

He crossed his arms across his chest and frowned. "Vargas? The big purple thing?" he snorted. "NO. I take orders from no one. I am Azrael. Why do you think he is trying to kill you?" He'd never spoken to Vargas directly, but he'd thought of the beast as trustworthy - he'd fought the golem, and Mother, and his spawn had helped cleanse the hive.

@Bloodstone

Hellfire blinked and looked down and away, shrinking back.

"We left. Um... He and Lord Dhracia were with us in the tunnel outside of Hydra- they... they melted a Gembound who spoke out against them and took her stone. I-it was horrible!"

"We left because we wanted to protect Gembounds... but we weren't. They wish to protect the caves but they don't care about the individuals who aren't strong," Koi said, growling a bit.

The three heads turned in all different directions, ears pinned, each of them disgruntled. Luci just looked... angry.

"... I can't believe we left,", he growled at them, "We had safety and a purpose- but you two had to be wimps and ruin our chances of any of that. Now what, idiots?"

Both of them went to retort, but their words came out stuttery and didn't make any sort of sense. Luci was right. For once.

They went quiet and turned away, frowning.

"They thought he might try to kill us for ditching," Luci said, "But he gave us a second chance. If we beg. He won't kill us. We don't matter enough for him to kill us. We did matter and protecting his spawn was important!"

He glared at the other two with hate, but underneath that shield was hurt.

@Azrael

Azrael grunted, eyebrows furrowing as he listened. They were young, obviously. Meek. Innocent. Melted a gembound? Azrael had seen worse. Azrael had done worse. "Lord Dhracia?" he interrupted loudly. "Who is that?" Sounded like this "Lord" thought very highly of themselves, but Azrael didn't really like the idea that someone thought of themselves as some kind of ruler. There was no ruler of the caves. It was a free for all and that was how Azrael liked it.

He listened to the rest of their complaining, a large frown on his face as he considered. He wasn't very good at being gentle, unless he was talking to a kid (which, despite their relative youth, this was obviously not a child anymore), but he tried to at least not be directly rude. But he couldn't help but let out a small snarl after Luci was done speaking. "BEG?!" Perhaps his voice was a little too sudden, a little too loud, but the word itself was revolting, disgusting. Like he couldn't even stand hearing it in his presence.

Fire began to build in Azrael's chest as his relatively relaxed posture fell away to something more tense and intimidating. The glow in his chest and eyes suddenly became more intense as fire burned and glowed within his heart. "You do not BEG for your lives, you FIGHT for your lives! You are not some quivering rodent under a hunter's claw! You are...I don't KNOW what you are but you have three heads!" He growled low, tail thrashing occasionally behind him. "If you do not matter to him, then he should not matter to you."

@Bloodstone

The three flinched back, belly pressed against the floor.

"Lord Dhracia was... a woman. Tall, skinny, with pale skin, bird's feet, and a deer's ear. She had long hair on the top of her head and pale blue eyes... she was powerful," Hellfire said, shuddering, "She killed a Gembound without touching it. The aura she gave off was evil, it made me want to puke my guts..."

The three flinched again, nearly cowering as he growled and snarled, spitting his words at them. They were... frightened, to say the least.

"... We weren't going to," she said softly, "Vargas is... big. He serves Lord Dhracia and we don't want to serve him if he serves her. She's terrifying."

The heads went quiet, traumatized by the events of what had occurred in that cave. How they felt like if they moved they'd have their heads plucked from their bodies, the gruesome death of that Gembound, the birth of that child and the reveal that Vargas served that witch.

@Azrael

Azrael frowned, the glowing flame disappearing from within his body. He looked down at the creature - down, as in they were pressed to the floor - and snorted. He kneeled down so that he was closer to them and grunted. "Stop cowering back. I'm not gonna hurt you unless you hurt me." If Bloodstone stood up again, he'd follow suit - otherwise, he'd crouch in front of them.

This was interesting information, to say the least. Azrael didn't want to admit that any opinion of Vargas was wrong without having formed it himself, but Bloodstone had at least convinced him to reconsider what he thought of the creature. Perhaps he wasn't as benevolent as he'd seemed before. Perhaps he was as Bloodstone was saying - in league with an evil creature, who fancied herself a Lord and killed Gembound for no reason.

He crossed a pair of arms over his chest. This thing was struggling, obviously. Tormented. Haunted. And they reminded him of himself, after he'd been freed from Mother (although he'd been far more angry and violent - so it was just in a different way). He snorted again, almost thoughtfully. "Then don't go back to him. Go home. Stay away, if he makes you upset or puts you in danger. And if he tries to hurt you, I'll BURN HIM."

@Bloodstone