Nerium
there is no such thing as harmless power

The air shimmers and warps with heat. The orb-light high above the sands beats down with relentless force, scorching everything below it with dry, feverish intensity. In the north, howling winds whistle through carved mesas, winding ravines and canyons carving snakelike paths through the stone. The faintest trickle of water drips ever-so-slightly, barely audible above the screaming wind, even tucked within the mesas themselves.

And, below, pink-red tones stark against the yellows of the sandstone and clay, lies a single chrysalis. Tucked away in the shade of the canyon by chance, the glare of the sun shines starlike against it. It looks almost like a perfect treasure.

It is safety. It is home; a gemstone womb for the neonate within, whose hollow gemstone is all she's ever known.

It is far too small for the gembound growing within, now. She sleeps, still, but it is with her body pressed tight against those smooth gemstone walls, each sleeping breath she takes and every rise and fall of her chest only further serving to weaken the chrysalis.

Its shattering is quiet, at first. A subtle crackling, crunching sound; cracks spiderweb over the ruby shell, expanding and growing slowly, but steadily.

And, then—with one particular shift in her sleep, an unconscious kicking of a talon, the chrysalis breaks.

The little bird's awakening to the world comes in the form of the report of shattering gemstone and her falling to the sandy ground, knocked rudely from her sleep by hatching.

She flails with downy limbs, talons kicking at the air for a few moments as pink eyes blink up at a nearby ravine wall, before she finally finds her balance and rolls onto her feet for the first time.

The chick flutters wings and glances around, head turning this way and that, birdlike and curious.

The world around her is so… big.

♥ I speak. ♥
♥ I think. ♥

❥

Movement attracts predators, and Hydra was quick to leap on opportunity.

Within seconds of her hatching, the bird would find that she had... company. It was beautiful, truly; a shimmering cobalt blue striated with paler sky-blue streaks, each bristle glimmering in the orb-light. Three feet across, the Spire Spider moved in a slow, hypnotic dance to and fro, its abdomen rising so that the mesmerizing patterns on its back seemed to catch the eye, to lull the eagle back into a dreamless, eternal sleep. Forelimbs rose, as if directing some invisible orchestra, as the Spire Spider approached.

Hypnotic as it was, the Spire Spider was still a predator--still anathema to survival--and instinct, willpower, would war with fascination.

Nerium must roll to avoid the Spire Spider's hypnosis. Failure to do so will result in her being hypnotized, and further danger.

@Nerium

Nerium
there is no such thing as harmless power

There is a skittering, tapping noise coming towards her--like many legs on stone. The chick raises her head and turns, curious. Something expectant creeps into her expression; a deep-set instinct written into her head, something that says 'the first thing I see must be something to take care of me, right?'

Indeed--she turns her head, and the sight before her quickly entrances her. The flickering, shimmering pattern of blue on blue is enticing; as the baby bird watches, her eyes begin to cloud over, and her head begins to sway from side to side, downy wings rising as if imitating the dancing movement of the spider itself.

A single, cloudy thought flashes through her head as the little bird dances alongside this spider, unknowing of the danger she's in. Pretty...

♥ I speak. ♥
♥ I think. ♥

❥

Itri had been trudging along through the desert when he had come upon the newly hatched chick. He was newly hatched himself, and when he spotted a dancing newly hatched gembound it was a sight to see. Wait... was that spider? Being young, the instinct had not yet been embedded in him to take care of only himself. So that meant saving the chick. How did he know that the spider was not actually friendly? He didn't. But he was going to help. By putting himself in between the two, and cutting off contact. It was a good thing his scales were hard.

The waddling young pangolin's sudden interruption threw the Spire Spider off for only a moment. Two tiny things, both potential prey--but it only needed one, really. The abdominal-sway dance began again, entrancing, the shimmering bristles hypnotic in their glinting.

Itri will need to roll to resist hypnosis, or face further danger. Nerium may act as she sees fit, though any action relating to the Spire Spider and its hunt may of course incur consequences.

@Nerium

Nerium
there is no such thing as harmless power

The cloudy entrancement in her mind—the near deification of this spider as she devotes all of her thoughts to the beauty radiating off of its abdomen, dedication rising out of a twisted version of instinctive, parental love—pops like a soap bubble. She registers movement, scales—a complaint begins to rise in her throat as her line of sight with the spider is abruptly cut off, but, then, she thinks about it.

She remembers—beauty, yes, the spider is really, really pretty—but also... fangs. Big fangs, and lots and lots of legs, and instinct crashes into her beautiful daydream as she makes the connection between the spider and a predator.

A young voice peeps out from behind the pangolin—"Don't look!"

It's—it's a monster. A pretty one, a gorgeous one, even, but something deep inside her knows that getting entranced by it is... is dangerous. Even though she's fascinated by the thought of it, she doesn't want the gembound who walked in front of her just to save her to get hurt!

"Look—look 'way!" she warns; trying to get a grip on the pangolin and tug him away from the danger in front of them.

♥ I speak. ♥
♥ I think. ♥

❥
@Itri

With the chick safely out of the way of harm, Itri was about to turn away when the spider's dance started up again, and he was pulled in by its beauty. It was so... nice. He walked closer, when he heard the faint sound, a warning? And there was the faint tugging on his tail.

He turned away--the hypnosis broken--but the Spider had drawn close enough, now. A lunge, and it leapt, fangs bared, for Itri.

If the little one did not manage to dodge, it would land a hit. The venom of the Spire Spider was almost a mercy: a deep trance, where there would be no pain...

Or Nerium might attempt to take this strike in Itri's stead.

@Nerium @Itri

Nerium
there is no such thing as harmless power

She can hear it, even if she's not looking at it. The spider's legs, striking against stone; the way its bristles rustle with the wind as it leaps—lunging, its direction unseen. That doesn't mean she doesn't know it anyways; after all, what else would be in the area for it to hunt besides the scaled creature that had saved her life?

But—but, she remembers the cloudiness in her head, how powerless—utterly defenseless—she was against its shimmering dance, and...

...no matter how much a part of her wants to repay the favor, no matter how much a part of her wants to just—spare the other from its terrible fangs, she hears the spider leap for its prey, and for the first time in her short life, the little chick knows fear.

She's terrified of the thought of stepping into Itri's place.

And, so, with her heart pounding in her chest and horror in her eyes, she turns. She turns and starts to run, run—running as fast as she can on little legs, running for her life.

Who could expect a child to risk their life, after all? Even for another child... that's simply how it is in Hydra. Ruthless to both prey and survivor.

♥ I speak. ♥
♥ I think. ♥

❥
@Itri

Itri looked back, to see the chick that helped him break out of the hypnosis, but then she ran away? He had helped her! And now she was running away! Oh well, guess that was how it was in Hydra, right? But there was another sound, that of the Spire Spider starting to strike. He mustered all the energy he could in his short stubby legs and leapt to the side.