Aksha listened with a furrowed brow to the cat’s explanation of things. He seemed to have a hard time talking, finding the right words, and the mean side of her wanted to make fun of him for it. But she already felt bad enough about how things had gone earlier, so she settled for smirking every now and then. (Truly, she was a bitchy baby at heart, though whether she learned to overcome this had yet to be seen). There was something annoying about the boy. The way he was always so… joyful or something. Oh, right, cos that makes me seem nice! she thought to herself immediately afterwards. Wow, I gotta get some social skills…

She turned as he circled her, eyeing the bag, as well as the cat who carried it. Behind the ‘glasses,’ he had really pretty eyes. Not that that meant anything at all to her, really. She’d only been born like a week ago. She just knew that she really, really liked that particular shade of blue – the same shade as his stone – gem – whatever. She was curious when he mentioned that he collected rocks. Not so much in that she would ever do something like that, but she wanted to know why he did. But before she could ask him, he had bounded a bit of ahead of her.

"Come on, aren't you thirsty? I know where some water is!" He sounded impatient.

Annoyed, she huffed and followed him, forgetting her other questions for the moment. “Fine, fine. Let’s go, I guess.”

@Bartos -- Uhhh, exit, I guess? Orrrr do you wanna keep going? Or start a new thread? I'unno. I'm fine with any.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to linger on his glasses and bag too much. While they were an interesting subject for sure, Bartos was too concerned with getting her something to eat and drink. That would definitely put him in her good books. It wasn't as if Bartos was completely determined to achieve that - it was merely a byproduct of his ultimate goal, to get to food and water. His mind worked in mysterious ways, but once he had a destination in mind, the cat was determined to get there through any means possible. It was a great agitation if he couldn't accomplish those goals. So she finally agreed to follow him, grumbling as she carried on behind him. Bartos laughed and spun away from her, bounding a few more paces.

Long fluffy tail snaked behind him as he paused and looked out over the streets that criss-crossed before them. The crumbling buildings surrounded them on all sides, both welcoming and guiding them to their goal. Just beyond the street they wandered, Bartos knew there was a spring - the water was murky at best, but it was drinkable. It lie just behind a flat, low-lying rectangular building in the East. Once his mind was made up, the cat bounded forward again, often looking over his shoulder to ensure that the tasmanian devil was following him. On one such occasion, Bartos' clumsy paws had tangled up in themselves and the cat stumbled, tripping face-first into the ground. Again. He really had to watch where he was going.

Slamming into the ground with an OOF!, the cat immediately picked himself back up and shook his head, only to take note of the moisture gathering on his upper lip. A familiar sensation. The smell of blood. He wrinkled his nose and brushed his paw over his nose, taking note of the smear of crimson in his fur. "Ech!" The cat scowled and glanced back at his companion. "Ah- er- woops, I was too busy lookin' at ya." He chattered and laughed. The nosebleed starting back up again was only a minor concern to him. He shrugged and bounced off again, leading her down the street towards the spring.

@Akshayaa

Aksha was following the kitten as best she could. He insisted on bounding ahead of her and being fast about it, but she was not a fast Gembound. She went everywhere slowly unless she was running from something. She was rather weak physically, so she saved her energy by trudging, not prancing around like he did. She sighed as she followed him, refusing to hurry to catch up. If he got too far ahead of her, she’d just wait and he’d have to come back for her. Yeah. It would be his fault.

Everything was fine, and then suddenly he took a dive towards the ground and slammed his face into it! She let out a sort of laugh, because it was funny no matter what, and then immediately followed up with, “Are you okay?” She did make an effort to catch up to him this time, whatever maternal instincts she had taking over at this point. He grinned back at her, and that’s when she saw the blood all over his nose and lips and chin. “Holy shit.” Not really an elegant reaction, but she wasn’t very elegant herself.

“Ah- er- woops, I was too busy lookin’ at ya,” he said, and she raised an eyebrow at him. Looking at her? Why? Was there something wrong with her? And he hadn’t even been looking at her? He’d been leading them… somewhere. Or maybe he’d turned to look at her and she hadn’t noticed? She couldn’t really concentrate. The sight of blood was making her queasy and it was getting all over his lighter-colored fur and it was ugly and gross. She grimaced as they continued on their way…

@Bartos

When she asked him if he was alright, the cat merely laughed and nodded; even after she'd exclaimed at the sight of his blood, he shrugged it off and charged on. If there was one thing Bartos seemed completely oblivious about, it was pain and the implication of injury - sure his nose was bleeding now, but it was hardly of concern to him while he was making his way towards the spring. The cat marched on, this time his tail elevated high above his rump and twitched ever so slighty, the tip bobbing with each proud step. His pace had slowed to allow him security in looking back at her every now and then without the risk of tripping.

Finally they had rounded the flat building and embedded into the wall was a small depression from which yellow-tinged water flowed. Bartos didn't know why, but he'd noticed that in deeper parts of the stream flowing from the spring, the water became red. A phenomenon he'd have to later investigate. For now, the cat stopped at the edge and looked back at the devil, whiskers twitching. "Here we are! You can drink up stream, I need to take a bath!" The cat's expression was startlingly chipper and he grinned before plunging himself into the water, jumping into the shallow stream and proceeding to splash everywhere.

@Akshayaa

Akshayaa took one look at the color of the water and was instantly turned off to the idea of drinking any of it. It looked like there was blood in it or something. “Ewww,” she exclaimed. “I’m not drinking that! What the hell is all the red stuff? Don’t you have any cleaner water?” She knew she was being picky, but she couldn’t help her paranoia. What if she drank it and got sick or something? How was she supposed to know that it was safe or not safe to drink? And after seeing all the blood on the cat’s nose, the red color of the water just made her queasier.

She sat down – and then screeched and skittered backwards as water splashed her. The kitten had decided to jump into the stream, instead of wading in like a normal Gembound. She couldn’t decide if she liked this boy or not. Sometimes he was fine and other times he was damn annoying. “Ugh! Thanks!” she complained. “I don’t need a bath!” She backed up some more and then shook like a dog, trying to get all the water out of her short black fur. At least it wasn’t long and thick like his fur. That would make it even more of a challenge to get out!

@Bartos

Bartos had barely heard her complaints before he'd thrown himself in the water, landing a perfect belly flop against the surface as waves crashed outward from him. The cat pawed around in the water, scampering along the bottom while his head craned back above the surface. He ran circles in the water, enjoying the feel of the coldness up against his sides and his long fur splaying out around him, the crimson leaking from his nose slowly washing away. With a snort, another glob of nose blood ejected into the water, and Bartos slapped at it, dissipating it and too sending another splash in every direction. The tasmanian devil, however, didn't seem to appreciate his splashing. The cat twitched his whiskers and turned to face her, tilting his head. "Did you slake your thirst yet?" The boy snickered, paddling over to her.

The edge of the stream was shallower, but that didn't stop him from lingering along the edge and sitting his head on the dry ground while the rest of his body remained submerged, looking up at her. As he realized something, the cat reeled back, again sending a splash of water all around him. "Hey! I don't know your name! Mine name's Bartos. Whats yours?" He asked, returning to the edge. Once he had spied the gem embedded in her throat, he couldn't help but zone in on it, tilting his head once more. It sure was pretty. Too bad it was attached to her.

@Akshayaa

Aksha had completely forgotten anything and everything Bartos had said to her in the last like thirty seconds because she was too busy being super fucking pissed that he kept splashing her with water! The first time it had mildly annoyed her and she had shaken the water from her fur. The second time, mere moments afterwards had caused her annoyance to turn to frustration. Now, though. NOW she was just ANGRY. This stupid fucking cat was retarded apparently! Did he not realize that not everyone wanted to splash around like he did?! What was his problem? And now she was soaking wet, standing there in front of him while he splashed around even more.

With a sound of unadulterated RAGE, she charged straight at him, intent on – she didn’t know what – shaking him hard like a ragdoll sounded good. But before she could even take another step, she slipped on the wet floor and face-planted to the ground. Being so short, she didn’t have very far to fall, so it didn’t hurt too badly. But she was a baby, and it had frightened her more than anything else. She blinked hard and gasped a few times on the ground, feeling sharp pain in her snout, and then it began to dull and throb. And that’s when she started crying and screaming and throwing the biggest tantrum she could pull off! That bastard fucking cat! Now she really hated him!

@Bartos

Instead of receiving an answer - to either of his questions regarding her thirst or her name - she had merely yelled at him. Like, a straight up roar of unrestrained fury, which could have soundes frightening had she been larger than his foot. Alas, she wasn't, and Bartos merely stood and stared at her stupidly before she lunged at him. Her attack caused the boy to flinch and splash away to avoid being jumped on, only she didn't quite make it to him. He watched her slip and crash face first into the ground, a sight that - and he didn't know why - made him burst into laughter. Bartos cackled, reeling his head back as he continued to paddle in the water.

Then she started to cry. And he wasn't quite sure what caused the sudden mood change, but it felt like he shouldn't be laughing anymore. His laughter slowly died down as the devil's cries erupted into a fullblown tantrum, and all he could do was continue to stare dumbly at her. "Are you... Okay?" He asked tilting his head slowly to one side. The cat paddled back to the edge of the stream, stretching his head towards her.

The cat’s laughter didn’t help at all. In fact, it only made the Devil angrier and angrier until her whole body was hot and she felt like she was going to explode! The emerald at her throat glowed and hummed with energy, like she was about to release some sort of energy from it, but once again, she failed. And because her body could not release all that pent up anger, she suddenly became very dizzy and her head pounded like nothing else! This was just like that time with the birds in Eridanus. Was she really the one causing the earth the tremble as it had those few times?

She groaned and collapsed to the ground, covering her head with her little rat-like paws. “Owwww,” she complained. “Uggghhh, my head.” And then that stupid cat had the audacity to lean towards her and ask if she was okay. “Get away from me, you fucking asshole!” she yelled at him, only causing her head to pound even more. For one so young, she already had quite the potty-mouth. Releasing streams of curse words was one of the ways she felt better when she was angry or in pain. And no one had yet explained to her that the words she used were bad. She’d stumbled upon them quite by accident, almost instinctively.

She grimaced, and then, ignoring the cat, she crawled forward, leaned her neck over the edge of the water and drank heavily. It tasted… pretty alright, considering its coloration. Or maybe she was just so thirsty she couldn’t taste whatever was wrong with it. Either way, the water helped to ease her headache a little, though now her hunger was put into sharp focus, her stomach growling loudly. Oh, how she wished she were back in Eridanus with her mangos and other fruits that she didn’t have to hunt and kill. Coming here had been a bad idea… A really bad idea.

Even he could feel the swell of magic that erupted from the devil's throat gem, and inherently the cat expected something to come from it. The air felt like it simply vibrated with magical energy, yet nothing had happened, leaving Bartos to stare with confusion at the little critter as she groaned and slumped to the ground, clutching her head with her paws. Whatever she did, it clearly didn't work. He had the mind to let her know that it had failed and suggest that she didn't do it again, when she suddenly turned her rage towards him. Shouting at him with a flurry of swears, Bartos recoiled (again, accidentally splashing as he did so) and flattened his ears against his head.

He didn't mean to make her mad. In fact, this whole time he'd been trying to help, extending the kindness with which he had first been treated by Kerby. Somewhere along the way he must have made a mistake, but Bartos didn't understand how. He did everything he had to do to be helpful, so why was she suddenly unhappy with him? The cat frowned and backed away from her further until he clambered onto the opposite edge of the stream, hovering low to the ground. From there he watched her drink, and decided that she didn't need him. Without his help she managed to drink the water, and he obviously only made her mad, so maybe it was time to go.

He couldn't think of anything else to say to her. Bartos merely crossed the stream again, walking in a wide arc around her towards the bag and glasses he left on the ground. Clutching them in his mouth, Bartos quietly made to slink away.

@Akshayaa