The hatching of the Fire king.

All life starts as something small, so small that many times it goes unnoticed by the world it's involved in. And this time, deep in the confines of the caverns, a rock tumbles and gives way to a jewel at the bed. With hardly any light invoking about the ground it seemed to dance and shimmer in the hopes that with the rocks giving way, no harm would come to it. This small and hidden gem was the size of two ostrich eggs. Though maybe to some travelers this egg may have be overly large or even tremendous in size. But in truth, it was smaller than that of its original origin of its fore parents. But non-the-less this precious closed off to the world, the bundle of hope, shined ever so brightly. Its shell was a remarkable hue of blood oranges and reds that seemed to dazzle the eye of any passer. For days, it was laid under the ground baking in the soil and waiting for it to be breached and allowed to breathe and wake.

The caregivers unknown as they resourced their own life forms to give passage to this now growing gem beneath the earth. Months past and the gem started to wiggle from the soil and more and more of its body started to shine and breathe. Gugg.....squish sounds echoed deep behind the shell as tiny movements were noted to start.

Stirring sounds and tiny murmurs now can be heard only a week after its emerge from the soil. It's almost time. The cloak of fire and red lights seemed to line the egg as if protecting the outer shell along with the membrane it was wrapped around. crack! came the sound and at the top right corner, it gave way. One week and five days later this small, precious, dubious life form was coming for its first breath outside its gem. A hiss of swelter released as the crack gave way to more space and a gentle mass of smoke filtered around its mass. The incalescent rose within the confines it was seated in as the gem shook and a tiny sound of something breaking free, something being unleashed. Sounds of gurgling purrs released and heavy bouts of inhales and exhales soon struggled to break forth what was left of its 'chains'.

The ardor of the cavern room rose with all the heat that now was released from the precious egg shell that held the new life form. A mass of solid black fur could be seen just between the darkness and the light shimmer of orange and reds of the shell. Eyes so sanguine it could start a famine just by coming into contact. With a tiny peep of a groan and wiggle of the shell rolling free and breaking to allow the ebony mass free. The Fire King was born.

Nemesis kept getting drawn to this stupid tunnel. She had been squashed by a massive white furred dragon here, and beaten up by a tiny brown noodle as well-- frankly, if it wasn't for the delicious moss, she was pretty sure she'd have to be an idiot to keep coming back.

And yet she just couldn't help herself. The moss was sweet, and she was a lady suffering from a massive sweet tooth. She had been wanting to bring her daughter, Hestia, here... But it was a bit of a ways, and the over protective mother was afraid of the danger. She didn't want to risk losing the rhino turtle ever again.

Her heavy steps practically shook the earth of the narrow tunnel. She barely fit through certain parts of this small space at her full size, but if that jerk of a dragon, Baratheon, could fit then she definitely could. Even if she ate all the moss in the tunnel--

snap

A noise broke out through the walls, echoing down the thin chamber. She turned her frilled head towards the noise, snorting out hot air from her nostrils. With a low grumble, she forced herself towards the sound. Unfortunately for her, midnight blue gaze landed upon a rather painfully familiar frame. A baby lion. She had met more than enough lions in her life to know she hated their guts but this one was freshly hatched, bits of gemstone still scattered around its dark paws.

"Hey, kid," she practically barked at the baby. "Welcome to the caves." The words felt awkward in her teeth, but she forced them out regardless. She could at least try to be nice. It was a child after all. She was supposed to be the mama rhino... But boy, she really just could not stand lions. Maybe because she fought them and could point out multiple scars from the encounters, but at least there was one thing she knew about the felines:

It was really easy to beat the absolute living crap out of their scrawny, pathetic frames.

@King

Birth of the Fire king.

The earth shook with the gravity calling forth another soul, a soul unknown to the child. Sanguine blades opened to pool at the darkness before something slithered and pushed its way closer. It sounded so large that perhaps it was going to crush him. The fear the invoked upon himself was so great that it caused what was left of the shell gem to shiver at his sides. Something was coming and it was bigger than he was. What would it or what could it be that was so large it forced the soil before him to shiver as much as he did. He was a newborn and new nothing of the world he was just placed in.

Feeling the nerves prickle at his neck and arms his sanguine blades dance down at the shards before him and quickly moved to pick at them before he felt the twinge in his chest.

Something glowed, something pinched and whirled about there, it caused him to stammer in his seat and suck in the hot bubble of air that surrounded himself. Then just as his eyes had adjusted to the dark, adjusted to the loudness of everything. it appeared the voice was loud at first but then dimmed to a dull ring. What did it say? The words couldn't click to him at first as they sounded like a loud bell had gone off near his drums. The creature was large and inhabiting of the space that was once his own but now was shared.

Ebony flocks rose and fell like tidal waves upon his skin before finding that the nerve endings were still too new for him. Adjusting as the large thing came closer, he stayed in silence. Fear was taking over of the unknown before him.

What could it want from him? The child knew no words, knew no one, knew nothing of anything that surrounded him. And yet it stood there - its lips quivered and wavered with the unknown speech patterns it held. Oval ears rounded at the top of his skull to try and figure out each sound. But all was too much for his mind to comprehend. His body told him to hide, to go find shelter where this giant couldn't cross him. But then again, the horns and unknown shaping of its head kept him still. He wanted to know more about it his instincts told him to learn.

Nemesis knew how to be soft and cuddly and kind. She had raised a whole swash of children, she had a frail, delicate girlfriend who she gave the sweetest of kisses to whenever she could summon the courage... But even with that huge baseline of experience, the massive rhino simply stared dumbly at the lion cub from a good rhino-length way, holding her head high (no one liked having a horn pointed at them) while she listened to the deafening silence.

The black cub was practically quivering with fear. This almost surprised her, though in a way it didn't. She was used to lions thinking so highly of themselves, yet here was one that knew how to cower and look positively harmless. Of course he did though, considering he was just a new hatched baby. She stood there for a long, dumb moment waiting for an answer, but when it didn't come, she decided she might as well try to bridge the gap.

Maybe, just maybe, all the lions she met were just raised wrong. Maybe she could show this kid how to respect big tough rhinos and their spaces and y'know, not walk around like he owned the place. She dipped her head only a fraction, still keeping the point away from the child, and slowly stepped forward.

"Right, you must be a slow one. No worries, kid, I ain't gonna hurt you. My name's Nemesis, knight of the Merrymen, guardian of Monoceros... And well, this isn't Monoceros, so don't worry." The big lug probably could have left it at that, but as she drew closer, she found herself yammering on about a bunch of nonsense to fill the dead air. "This is just some dumb tunnel with tasty moss that I like and well, sometimes I come by. It's not like you're going to eat my moss, so what do I care? I don't."

When she was more like the cub's length away from the cub, she started to kneel down, slowly crashing to the floor so she was laying down. She blinked her dark navy eyes at the boy for a moment, trying not to sound like an idiot to the baby. As if he would be able to tell she was an idiot or not. Lions were just so presumptuous, as far as she knew.

"Well kid, why don't you try and say something? Do you got a name? Something to go by? I used to go by Fire, so hell, don't take fifty hundred years to decide. You can change it, nobody's gonna give a toss. Just pick something."

@King

The Fire King speaks

There was just something odd and peculiar about this creature that stood so tall and mighty before him. The words that clung to the air smacked his drums over and over. Suddenly the ground quaked and the child would stiffen backwards as the hackles rose against him. The horn that was dangerously before him swayed away and he could see the color of the large horned animals eyes now. Fear slowly began though to subside when it kneeled and swayed itself to talk once more. But when his mind tried to register it all - it would draw a blank. Sanguine blades guided up and around the facial structure before his ears caught on some of the words. Square canvas drew to the right and cocked upwards as if the creature were confused. Some words just didn't register properly.

The tassel-less tail would swamp around the ground before clinging at the child's side. Oval ears perked at the mention of speaking anything or even naming. That was something his mind could register at least to some degree. A degree in which was so small but enough for him to understand just a bit of it all.

Naming? What was a Naming? Eyes cast downwards before nose wrinkled and relaxed numerous times before sanguine caught upright. Toes curled and unlatched from his chest before calming to the floor beneath his tiny growing mass. Thought process began as eyes wandered to and fro before coming back to land on the now laying horned animal. Confused and trying to understand what was needed - he looked for help and guidance to what his 'soul' would tell him. Just as he was about to look away to the distance something hummed inside his chest, a warmth fled from him and he felt as if something was embracing him. Something inside him told him the words, whispered to him on what to say. How to say it. Slowly the pieces of letters formed in his mind. The gem on his chest seemed to warm the flesh there.

Moments passed and soon the tiny lips pursed and caused the child to stammer as oddly sounding words..or chirps and hums were sounded off as letters. " Kkk..nnn...ggg" his mind told him and showed him the symbols...but he wasn't there enough yet on how to say it correctly. If only that voice could speak for him..tell this one before him what it was telling himself. But then it recalled to him. He could create the letters formed in his head on the ground.

With the remaining shards he placed them to write "K.I.N.G".


OOC EDIT @ 2/27 1:19AM: Shit i forgot to tag you... @Nemesis

Nemesis watched, silent as a crypt, as the cub worked through speaking for the first time. He seemed to have a downright terrible time with it, and she let out a sigh. Knng. Not exactly the best name, was it?

And then the lion did something remarkable. He wrote his name down using the shards of his chrysallis. How he managed to do that but not speak frustrated the clumsy footed rhino to no end, but she craned her head and squinted at the letters.

"King? What, you want to go by King? That's--" Absurd. She held her tongue, meeting his eyes, half wanting to tell him that he was a carnivore and the only carnivores that claimed kinghood were arrogant, horrible jerks. Well... The herbivores weren't much different, but the Stag King she knew-- Hasira-- was a reasonable fellow. He protected her far away children in Orion.

... Nemesis let out another hasty sigh. "Alright, King. Fair enough. It's a bit tacky, but so was Fire, I suppose. Maybe you'll think of something better some day," she told him. "A fair lot might want to kick your... behind, for calling yourself "King", but to hell with them." She didn't really know if she wanted to encourage him to grow up like all the other lions she knew, but hey, maybe he'd get the idea that he didn't own everything even with a name like that.

She glanced down the tunnel and then looked at him once more. "Well, with that settled... Guess it's time for you to figure out where you belong. This is a tunnel, it leads to a place called Orion, where the King of Herbivores-- it's just a title-- lives. His real name is Hasira, and he'll probably try to kill you. The other way is Polaris, and it's a fine enough place. It leads to a bunch of other areas, including Monoceros, where I live." She figured that was just about enough explaining.

"So I guess you better get exploring, or whatever."

@King , sorry for the delay ;o; i was busy getting my driver's license these last few weeks