blood pumped through the ocelot's veins. the heat of the caves had set him wild--he felt like a cub again! he'd never known the caves could get this warm. his dark brown eyes peered beneath the tree, stung slightly by the light of the foggy caves, water reflecting like snow on the horizon.

nevertheless, rui turned tail and gripped the tree with his claws as he crept down to the trunk of the tree, hopping form branch to branch effortlessly. his back, his throat, his face, his paws all burned restlessly. he wanted to move, to train.

he leaped from the trunk onto the leafy ground quietly. attempting to slip on a shade, rui felt a pang of pain along his spots. it only spurred him further. he would try again.

notes: training thread for rui but feel free to join in anyway! perhaps he could use a sparring partner

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"speech" / thoughts

cat by benspark / table by wulf

ignoring the pain along his body, rui loosened his body and did his best to slip into a shadow once more. if this were to happen in combat, he would have died--all the more reason to train harder. his throat tightened at the lingering burn.

this time, although not without a slight initial sting to his freshly wounded skin, the shadows enveloped him completely, as intended. rui breathed a sigh of relief, and padded off further into the forest. maybe he could do some hunting--he had just napped, after all. it wasn't as if his stomach was full. there would be no waste of food tonight.

dropping open his jaw, rui padded across the leafy ground silently in search of prey. the pain had nearly vanished, now. this hadn't been the first time rui had been stung by his own failed magic, and he'd been neglecting to train for too long. he narrowed his eyes at his own laziness. he ought to have known another spell by now, now that he had fully grown. it was embarrassing.

but it wasn't like he was going to use his magic primarily for fighting, a little voice piped up within him. yes, rui hadn't decided to forego his own physical strength for magic--not that the element of light had much offensive use, anyway--but... still, he thought he ought to learn as much as he could, in case he needed. his shadow spell had given him enough of an edge, and now that he relied on it as much as he did, it would be stupid to just let himself get gobbled up because he neglected to prepare adequately.

he had ought to do some physical training today as well, thought rui as he caught a whiff of a cave mouse.

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"speech" / thoughts

cat by benspark / table by wulf

Yuma From deep within the underbrush a small figure gazed upon the training ocelot. Blood red eyes wide with what may have been wonder or curiosity- it was tough to say for sure with the entity behind them. The aye aye crept forward with ghostly silence lest he lose track of his target of interest in the cat's movement through the trees. The silence didn't last long though as shadows gathered around the cat's form. "It has become one with the darkness." Yuma softly proclaimed in observation of the spell. "This one is like the inverse of the golden one. I wonder though; does it consume moving objects as well?" His words were aloud, but not directed at anyone save himself. It was as though he hadn't considered, and still wasn't considering, the possibility that his observations would influence the behavior of this one.

Tags: @Rui

ears trained for the slightest sounds of movement from a mouse, the voice of an observer pierced the silence, sending rui's head up high and the sound of tiny furless feet scrambling off into the unknown. he summoned his most viscous growl as he looked around in alarm, a loud sound like the moan of a motor erupting from his throat.

he did not speak, did not ask who was there. instead he dropped open his maw to sniff the air suspiciously. he had learned long ago that strange gembounds were not to be treated as friends. as much as he hated to admit it, he would be an easy target for many more predatory gembounds in the cave.

the scent wasn't something he'd smelled before--definitely not a larger cat, which was... good, if he was being desperate here. it certainly wasn't coming from the trees... rui slipped behind a nearby tree and climbed to the second branch, eyes scanning the area quietly.

notes: @yuma whoop i forgot to roll for rui's hearing i probably should have done that before smelling, my b

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"speech" / thoughts

cat by benspark / table by wulf

Yuma Yuma ducked down with a grin as the cat-creature changed its behavior pattern, letting out the most interesting of noises. It was nothing like what he’d heard from the canines he'd stalked before and nowhere even close to the noises made by cave deer. Such an unhappy noise perhaps, was this one who had thought? If so the encounter would be even more fun that he had initially expected it to be! The last time he had let himself be seen early, and even though he'd given the other a magnitude of gifts it had attacked him viciously. That part had been slightly unpleasant, but mostly because his body was too frail to play that game for very long. No, this time he'd start the game out with one of stealth. The aye aye closed his eyes and moved his ears to comb for the sounds of the big cat somewhere above. He softened the howling of wind moving through his face and tried as best he could to make the pounding of life essence inside him quiet down. His body flattened in the underbrush, covering his shape as well as possible, and he sank into a state of barely even thinking; simply existing on the cave floor. ((whelp, I forgot to add in roll at first too XD))

Tags: @Rui

the branches of the tree shook slightly with a cold wind, but all rui could hear was the pounding of his own heart as he zoned in on his surroundings, nose working to detect his intruder. it was definitely a gembound; the scent was too unlike anything else he'd smelled in his four cycles in eridanus.

clearly, the creature was smaller than he. how much he could not tell, but the smell of its blood pumping was clear and quick. he thought he had a pretty good idea of where it was coming from--below him, relatively to his front now, but somewhere hidden among the brush. it was time to make a decision. either he would be ready to fight, or he would not be. he was high enough off the ground now he thought to prevent the creature from springing up and attacking him from the ground, as long as it wasn't another cat, but rui was fairly certain it was not.

still shrouded in shadow, the cat let out another rumbling growl, letting it mingle with his voice in a crackling hiss as he spoke into the darkness, "who are you?"

no one was better at climbing trees than he was. if it came down to it, rui could fight back. his tail tip lashed in silent anxiety as he waited for a response.

notes: @yuma

"speech" / thoughts

cat by benspark / table by wulf

Yuma His deception was a failure, by the sounds around it seemed his target had found his location. That was not too unexpected; while he was quiet now his careless words earlier had given it the advantage. Yuma ceased his concentration and opened his eyes, craning his neck upwards and out of the bushes to peer straight at the sounds above. "Why, I am no one in particular." he spoke with emotionless words, as though the question had been asked in a perfectly natural situation. Blink once, twice; first impressions were a wonderful thing and something that could be improved by breaking up a gaze. "I could be a faceless other who resides outside your interest. I could be an ally who seeks only to see your aspirations see light. I could be a rival, here to steal away any chance you have at glory. Perhaps even, like I was for the red wolf, I could be a demonic servant of the horror of shadow and flame." The stunted creature, no larger than a rabbit, sank his head down again and emerged from the undergrowth entirely before continuing his wide-eyed gaze. "I am none of these things, or perhaps all of them. The question I must ask in return to you is... Who should I be?"

Tags: @Rui

out of the brush popped the head of something dreadful, big ears and wide, pinkish red eyes. rui bit back a gagging sound as he caught its visage, doing his best to keep his cool. but as the thing spoke, the bubbling feeling inside him rose again.

"cut the crap," he barked irritably at the aye-aye, eyes narrowed from behind the trees. its long, flowery words were going to give him a headache. 'demonic servant of the horror of shadow and flame'. if one could internally spit, rui would've.

nevertheless, the ocelot was unsure what to think of the creature before him. did it pose a threat, or not? he absolutely didn't know, and the uncertainty dampened his irritation for a moment, before it flared it up even more furiously. if he was going to have to fight, he wished the creature would just say so and stop messing around!

the obvious choice here was to simply leave, but as rui shifted his paws to turn around, he realized the creature would probably just follow him. it seemed he was trapped here until the situation was dealt with. internally, rui mourned the good times when he wasn't dealing with this shit.

"look," he said, sitting down on the branch, even though he was pretty sure the other creature couldn't see him. "i-... i'm not looking for a fight, i'm just trying to do some hunting, alright? stop creeping around me like that. i'm not looking for a fight." perhaps he was being stupid and hopeful. reasoning wasn't what he was used to, but this was weird, this thing was weird, the whole situation was weird, what even was that thing! god, he wished he could get the image of it staring at him out of his mind! those beady red eyes could break right into someone's soul!

he felt stupid to be in this situation, he wanted it over as soon as possible.

"okay?"

notes: @yuma sorry for the wait! and for rui's attitude lol

"speech" / thoughts
cat by johnathan parker-jones / table by wulf

Yuma Yuma's head tilted as the unknown one spoke his peace. It was still somewhere out there, holding a voice which shifted down from one of the many branches above. Gaze rolled around the possible locations as body stayed perfectly still now. Was it acting hostile? So strange that new creatures so often reacted that way to him. Was he not being polite? This time he'd even gone so far to actually ask who he should be rather than just obtain a temporary identity based on the flow of conversation. From the creature's words it seemed Yuma was facing down a hunter. Master of stealth and the silent kill. Or perhaps a master of stamina and the long frightened death? Scenario after possible scenario ran through the aye aye's mind as he continued to scan the trees for a body to put with the voice. "Why would you insist so that you are not looking for a fight?" his soft prodding voice rang out again. "Do you fear for your life? Do you shy away from the pain of spilled blood?" Then again, perhaps it was much simpler. Perhaps this unknown one had knowledge of a truth that Yuma had found for himself some time ago. A note of excitement, or maybe intrigue, crept into his voice. "Are you fearful of conflict because this hunting engages your interest so? I do not mean to creep as you say. As I assured you, I am but a faceless passerby, whose presence should be beneath your concern." Yes he had said that, exactly that. He may have mentioned other possibilities but in Yuma's mind he was now to be a background character, a spectator in the stands, a watcher in the shadows.

Tags: @Rui