Polaris.

He had been told of this place.

The Spire here, with its towering, shimmering rainbow turquoise, was both welcoming and foreign to him, like some glorious city that belonged to another, enemy culture. The magic that emanated from it felt familiar and yet wrong, and he kept his distance, peering up at it from a hundred yards away or more.

It was power, but it was the sort that threatened to burn at him, and he stood patient as he observed it, as if waiting for something to happen.

What is it? he wondered, the tick of his thoughts aligned with the quiet sound of the dark metal pocketwatch that hung around his neck. How was it put here? When, and for what purpose? Does it serve a purpose as does the Black Spire; is it a similar, or something else?

"It is but stone, and yet it is power," he breathed, aloud, pondering the mystery.

In one hand he held his halberd--dark metal that gleamed uneasily in the Spirelight; this was some two feet taller than his own seven-foot, gangly height. He was still an adolescent, not quite at his full adult size, and his half-bipedal stance left him leaning on it for support. He had been told to explore, to fight, to broaden his knowledge and horizons; it was unclear how staring at the Spire for an hour or so would help with that but the Sentinel seemed intent upon his 'task.'

@Dewberry

When Dewberry arrived at the Spire, she found that someone was already there.

She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. Polaris was the central room, after all, and the Spire was basically its center magic-wise. It made sense that others would also seek it out. This one was a black, spined, glowing-eyed creature, as tall as Father had been but perhaps less solid looking with their gangly limbs. They kept a safe distance from the Spire, which was probably wise. It crackled with so much energy that Dewberry wasn't sure whether it would strengthen her if she came closer or simply fry her into a long snake-cheeto crisp.

The creature was very focused on the Spire indeed. They stared at it, watching with an eerie stillness, and Dewberry wondered if they would even notice her. She didn't know if she wanted them to notice her. Their appearance was doubtlessly terrifying, with its overabundance of spines and teeth, and it would probably tower over most Gembound.

But Mother had also looked scary, hadn't she?

Spikes along her back, sharp talons, terrifying stomach-teeth. But Mother had lifted Dewberry out of her chrysalis as gently as anyone could have. Mother had let Dewberry sleep curled up in her soft down, let her travel wound around her neck and shoulders.

She missed them. She missed them even though she had Azure and Dip and she was grateful, really she was. She loved her sisters just as fiercely as she had loved the Bloodberries. But who could ever replace her own parents? Sometimes, (like now), she could not stop thinking about them. Or about the way she'd lost them. Which was the real reason why she was here.

So yes, she probably did want this one to notice.

"Do you feel its energy?" she asked quietly, slithering to a stop several meters away from the Sentinel's feet, just in case it might step on her. She continued, louder, in case they hadn't heard her well or at all. "I think my magic feels stronger here. It's a nice place to practice. Do you think we borrow from its power, or we all borrow from the power of the surrounding land?"

@The Sentinel

The Sentinel's head seemed to turn only a fraction, the glowing eye at his 'ear' structure already facing Dewberry's way. In silence he listened as she spoke, considering each and every word, even as he studied her.

A strange creature, to be sure. Small, slender, long. He wondered what her colors would look like in neutral lighting; as it was, the Spire's illumination seemed to highlight shocking blues along her length.

Ahh, but her question. It was not far off what he'd been pondering, himself, and he turned his head that fraction back toward the towering gemstone itself. "I do not know," he answered, hoarsely, after a very long moment of silence. His voice was a whispering rasp, more air than true tone, guttural. "The Sentinel feels its power, yes; but is it where power comes from?" A lingering silence, and then he turned himself wholly to face the tiny snake. His head cocked slightly to one side. "I have been sent to learn: to explore, to seek knowledge. To obey these cycles, and to understand how others fight. To grow stronger." A long pause, again, as if the hound were trying to explain how all of this linked together.

"I have come from another stone." His halberd gestured up at the Spire. "As this one, but black, as I am. Have you come from here?" And then, after another moment of study: "Will you show me how you fight?"

Straight to the point, then; and he seemed little ashamed or shy of addressing a total stranger in this way.

@Dewberry

The black creature stared with its ear, and Dewberry stared back, just as unblinking. The hound was gentler than his spines and teeth implied, which was more or less what she'd hoped for and expected. Maybe he wasn't when he fought. Maybe he liked fighting. His words did seem to suggest that. But he hadn't immediately attacked her. He was talking to her, and he was more-or-less polite, which was something.

"We could find out," Dewberry mused. "It would be a possibly risky way of finding out. Definitely a bit stupid. Grab some of it, move it somewhere else, see what happens." And just hope she didn't get magicked into overcooked snake barbecue in the process, right? She wasn't seriously considering the idea, of course; that would indeed be stupid. But it was an entertaining thought. Something to distract herself with.

She could also distract herself with this. Showing the Sentinel fighting, that is. It was probably a good choice anyway, since she'd come here to practice magic in the first place. "So long as you don't chop me in half with that thing," Dewberry agreed, eyeing the halberd in his hand. It was meant half as a joke, since she didn't see him as the type to kill Gembound in practice fights. Or maybe she was just too trusting, but who could know that ahead of time?

She reached out with her magic, trying to curl it around one of the black hound's back legs. Creatures that moved on legs were tall and big, but being high off the ground also meant they had a longer way to fall. Before she could pull, the spell faltered for some unknown reason. The most probable was that Dewberry was just that out of practice - twenty-some cycles encased in her gemstone couldn't have been good for her magic skills. But wasn't that one of the good things about magic? You couldn't see when the attack started, when an attempt failed, unless it was some particularly spectacular failure. Not that Dewberry was planning out any ambushes, but hopefully it would come in handy this time, provided the Sentinel didn't have his own magic to sense her attempt.

Round 1
Attempt: trip him with telekinesis
Defense: asking him very nicely not to cut her in half
Injuries: none
@The Sentinel

The Sentinel hesitated, for a beat. How to spar with something so small, without injuring or killing it-? He was unsure, and unaware of the attempted attack; instead he was thinking about how exactly to proceed.

He could go on the defensive, he supposed, and see how it was that she would strike. He could not imagine such a tiny thing being a real threat, but he knew far too little to be sure.

The Sentinel took up a fighting stance, raising the halberd crossways before him. "I am ready," he rasped, as if in invitation to attack.

Despite his lack of worldly experience, Vargas and Chaos-Two had taught him the basics; and he planted now one foot ahead of the other, each spread as wide as his shoulders. One hand lingered gripping the middle back of the halberd, the other more loosely at the fore.

It was a good defensive stance, though how it would fare against a teensy agile snake remained to be seen.

Round: 1/5
Attempt: Assume a strong defensive stance
Defense: Attempting to stand all defensive-like
Injuries: --

@Dewberry

Dewberry backed away slowly, slithering in a continuous, curving motion and always keeping her eyes on the Sentinel. Perhaps a little misdirection, to start. She was bright, so maybe she could use those stripes to her advantage by pretending they were warning colors. "I don't think I should bite you," she said with as much worry as she could muster. Sounding worried turned out to be disturbingly easy, and Dewberry noted that her heart was racing. The Sentinel seemed honorable enough, but who could say if he wouldn't accidentally step on her once they got to the fighting?

"But you're pretty big," Dewberry observed observantly. He was very big. "So I don't think my venom would kill you anyway." Also entirely true. Her venom couldn't really hurt anything bigger than a small frog anyway, which was why she wasn't going to even try to bite him.

She reached for her magic a second time, but it seemed to have a mind of its own, wiggling out of her grasp and yanking on her own tail. Dewberry lurched as if dragged by an invisible hand, sliding along the stone floor toward the Sentinel.

Exactly where she hadn't wanted to end up.

@The Sentinel

Round 2/5
Attempt: trip the Sentinel
Defense: backing away haha what's defense
Injuries: only to her pride

The Sentinel waited, uncertain. It seemed Dewberry was charging for him, now, if--awkwardly?--and he again hesitated before pushing down his halberd with a thrust. He attempted to use the spike to simply flip the little snake over and away a bit; it was difficult to fathom how to do much more without outright harming it.

But he was wary, now, at its mention of venom. A potentially deadly bite, from something so small-? He would have to remember that. Strange to think something tiny could be deadly.

But it makes sense. It cannot be wholly helpless, or it would not be alive, he reasoned. Surely something would have eaten her by now, otherwise?

At least he had the halberd: with that, he could try to keep her deadly bite at bay.

Round: 2/5
Attempt: Flip the snake?
Defense:
Injuries: --

@Dewberry

Oh no. Nonononononononono-

The Sentinel wasn't going to stab her! She wasn't going to die! She didn't want this to be her fate, to always remain powerless and helpless as bigger Gembound fought their battles and left her with nothing but bitterness. Dewberry hated it so much. Hated being smaller and less dangerous and irrelevant, hated being unable to do anything to help - whether it was her father or herself. Struggling against the spell that had dragged her forward, she threw herself to the right and pushed the Sentinel's halberd in the other direction.

Pointy things aren't good for snakes, she thought hysterically. Get it away from me.

Unfortunately, her magic just wasn't cooperating today. Despite her best efforts, Dewberry was caught by the halberd before the magic even responded. But when it did, it was a spectacular response, as if the spell was eager to make up for its previous failures. The halberd slipped under her belly and flipped her over, but it was a hundred times more dramatic for the magic involved. Dewberry rose up, up, and up, flipping head over tail at least half a dozen times before spiraling back to earth and landing headfirst. There she stayed, dizzy with the impact of the landing. It might have been comical if she didn't feel like crying. Good thing snakes couldn't shed tears, because if the Sentinel saw that too she might just die of shame.

Round 3/5
Attempt: push the pointy end of the halberd away from her
Defense: slither in the opposite direction of telekinetic push
Injuries: bruises from the spectacular acrobatics show, dizzy/stunned

@The Sentinel

He felt the tug of something on the halberd, something that sent the snake spiralling skyward far faster than he'd intended.

Bewildered, he stepped back, slipping again into a defensive posture. This, however, was not a very good one, his confusion leaving his weapon a little loose in his hands and his footing uneven.

What was the snake doing-? She hit the ground hard enough to make him wince; was this some sort of... flying... confusion attack?

"The Sentinel does not understand these tactics," he informed her, and awaited her next move.

Round: 3/5
Attempt: Resume defensive stance
Defense:
Injuries: --

@Dewberry

Dewberry took a shuddering breath, feeling like - well, like her own magic had just taken her on a telekinetic roller-coaster ride and then tossed her on the cave floor. But as far as physical injuries went, it could be worse. She could have been stabbed. She could be bleeding or about to chrysalize, but she wasn't, and that was something, at least.

At least this was practice, not a real fight. At least no one's life was at stake. At least Azure had promised her love, no matter what.

She grimaced as well as a snake could at the Sentinel's words. Of course he didn't understand the "tactics"; there had been no tactics. Had the words come from someone else, Dewberry might have assumed she was being mocked - but even from what little she knew of the Sentinel, she was pretty sure he was being serious. "They weren't tactics," she forced out past her pride, because even if it hurt her to admit it she at least owed the black dog an honest answer. He was only here to learn, and she couldn't go about teaching good Gembound how to critically fail at fighting.

There was nothing to do but try again. It seemed silly to reach for her magic when it had failed her so badly, but Dewberry had nothing else. No venom, no fangs, no huge body and muscles to constrict the Sentinel with. Magic was all she had, and if she was to become strong, magic was the only way she could get there. If this was rock bottom, and it sure seemed like it, she would just have to climb her way back up.

His legs first, then the halberd, she decided. A huge Gembound with spines and teeth was dangerous even without a weapon, and it would be easier to disarm him if he was tripping over his own feet. Once again, Dewberry extended her magic and tugged at the Sentinel's hind leg.

@The Sentinel
Round 4/5
Attempt: pull his leg from under him
Defense: nah
Injuries: bruised and dizzy from backflips, maybe more idk we'll see how this roll goes lmao