We’d been heading down the pathways of the tunnels for a few hours now, Mia occasionally directing me to take a turn, but otherwise we remain quiet for the most part. There’s a kind of serenity to walking like this, just together with one another. It’s a nice experience and reminds me of the times I went hiking with Anya, though the hikes were a little more exciting, being able to see a lot of nature and various critters; the caves aren’t exactly dead, but the occasional lizard or bat just isn’t quite the same.
I turn to look towards Mia, her eyes are roaming around a lot of the time, almost like she can’t see, and yet her steps are as sure as ever. “What’s the matter little one?” Her voice is low and quiet, barely travelling far enough to reach my ears.
Scurrying over next to her, I lift myself with my tails to be able to whisper more easily. “Just curious about how you’re seeing. Or not seeing but sensing? I can’t quite tell.” She nods with a small smile.
“Observant. It’s mostly my magic doing the sensing, the vibrations in the air and the ground aren’t that hard to detect, not anymore at least; just think of my halo as a sort of antenna. I could also produce some light, but that’s not exactly the best thing to do if we want to stay undetected.” I tilt my head slightly at her words, my eyes moving to her halo, to me it was still bright, though it doesn’t seem to actually shed any light, nor heat.
“Can others not see it? It’s so bright to me.” Mia continues to move down the tunnel and I join her, this time keeping pace instead of going ahead.
“No, most people can’t see or sense others’ magic the way you do, at least not usually.” She pauses for a moment before continuing. “I can hear water, our resting place shouldn’t be too far then. We’ll just have to follow the stream through a few more caverns.”
I make a low sound in acknowledgement and try to listen for the water. It’s quiet, and still rather distant, but it’s there. I’m not too sure about already resting, but Mia knows the caves better than me, and she might be more tired than me too, so I just follow her lead.
The next time we stop is when Mia raises her hand and freezes in place, her expression twisted in concentration. I look around us curiously, trying to spot what has her on edge; the river is rather close by and we’ve been following it for about an hour now, and the camp is still a few caves away.
I almost make a startled sound when Mia kneels down next to me, one finger on her mouth to signal silence. Brushing my nose against her other hand I show her my understanding. She gives me another smile before pointing towards the side of the cavern’s exit. It takes me a few long moments to pick out what she is pointing at, but eventually I spot it: some kind of octopus-like creature is hiding against the stone, probably waiting in ambush for any unsuspecting prey.
While she can’t tell me what she wants me to do, I can take a pretty good guess. We’d been planning to get me the opportunity for a hunt, and here it is presenting itself. I give her a smile she can’t see before quietly slinking away towards the water. The rushing sound of it should help me hide my steps a little better. My magic suffuses me as I move closer and closer to my target, the comfort of my camouflage brings with it a sense of serenity, like I am in my own little world, merely an observer to the outside world, watching what I want. That sense of serenity almost comes back to bite me. I barely manage to jump away to the side as a tentacle pierces into the stone where I stood just a moment before. The octopus has spotted me and designated me its prey, a game two can play though. My jump carries me all the way to the wall on the other side of the river, my paws shifting in but a moment to offer me the grip I need as I quickly advance alongside the near vertical cave wall.
The octopus creature doesn’t sit idly by though. With its ambush failed, it takes a few long moments to remove the limb from the stone before it starts to climb alongside the wall towards me, its tentacles easily sticking to the rockface. Its range is much longer than mine, as befitting of its size. A size I severely misjudged on my original approach, thinking it about the same size as me. Now that it is moving though, I can make out the entirety of the octopus’ body; almost three times my size.
The air ruffles through my feathers as I quickly approach my prey, closing the gap as quickly as I can. It doesn’t take long before another tentacle comes piercing towards me, though this time I am prepared and dodge it with barely a deviation from my path. In turn, the octopus stops in its tracks, instead waiting for my approach as it rears up and lances two tentacles towards me this time.
My magic does as it should though, and clears up my perception. Just as the attacks are about to impale me, I leap once again, this time onto my target's appendages. My paws shift alongside the movement, growing vicious claws that tear into the flesh beneath them, giving me plenty of grip, and the first blood in this fight. My opponent though isn’t defensive, it raises its body and lets out a wail without sound, penetrating deep into my consciousness and causing me to reel.
When my head clears I am barely hanging onto the tentacle I had been running across, though I am not fully shaken off quite yet. After a quick assessment I can tell that the octopus’ has several tentacles poised to strike the moment I clear its body. An opportunity I decide to give it as I release my claws, allowing myself to drop through the air. Only a moment later several tentacles are racing towards me at breakneck speed. Just before impact I reach out towards the wall, tearing into the stone with my claws to arrest my momentum as the tentacles crash into it right beneath me.
I release my hold and jump onto the tentacles once more. Stuck in the wall- at least for a while- they present me with the perfect approach on the main body. As I get closer, the octopus raises itself for another wailing attack, but this time I am near enough to do something about it. My tail lashes out from behind me, splitting into half a dozen halfway through, each having grown serrated edges, allowing them to pierce deep into its body.
I pull myself closer towards it with my tails. The octopus is squirming and bringing its tentacles to bear against me in a bid to stave me off. However, it has little success. I bury my claws into its flesh as I rip my tails free of its body and swing them to meet my opponents strike.
Tail and tentacle meet in a bloody and painful display. Were my tentacles made of flesh and bone, and not just mostly muscle and magic, I’d have broken my tails in that clash. Instead I get out of it with the last tentacles bisected halfway through, and a lot of pain on my end, one of them having grazed my side, almost making me lose my grip, my tails are battered and wounded, though if need be they are still usable. I shove the pain aside and close the last bit of distance towards the main body. The octopus has no visible eyes, but the wounds my tails left leave me plenty of room to expand on.
My claws start tearing into its flesh, blood flowing around and onto me as I dig in. I continue until it finally stops squirming beneath my assault, its body going limp and falling from the ceiling; I hadn’t even noticed we moved up in the cave. I brace myself against the impact, though it is cushioned by the mass of my victims body. My tongue licks across my face, lapping up the blood still staining my entire body. It tastes rich and much less metallic than I anticipated. It’s a taste I want more of, a taste suffused by magic as I feel it flow through me. I scan my surroundings and yet find nothing, except one presence, but I know this presence is not prey, it is friend.
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I let out a dissatisfied sound. The other presence is making noises; talking I believe, but it has to wait. My magic knows there is more left to do, it guides me, it lets me smell the truth. The blood is merely a conduit, a sorry excuse for what truly matters. My eyes turn towards the body of my foe, and I can see it, the glowing core of magic deep in its body. I can smell it, hearty and full of life, it smells of the earth itself, a smell that makes me salivate in hunger. I tear my way through its body and towards my prize. Its heart is so close thanks to my previous work, it only takes me but a moment. Unhinging my jaw I swallow a heart that is the size of head. It enters my body and magic runs rampant, and yet it is quickly starting to be consumed by my own magic, magic that wants to begin its work. But I can not let it start yet, there is more. The magic knows of it, but it is too eager to change.
It takes all my willpower to suppress the magic's desire for the moment. My claws go back to work, further up, towards the brain. It is another prize. It does not smell hearty, it smells sweet, like a dessert, and as serene as the rain. This, too, I swallow whole; and I know the magic will listen now if I wish for it to stay calm. I do not. I let it suffuse me once more, let it claw at my insides with the same burning desire as before. I feel my tails move on instinct, spinning and weaving around me; and then darkness takes me.
As Ada is assaulted by several tentacles at once, Mia almost reaches out to help her, though she hesitates. After all, they had decided that Ada should be hunting, and risk was part of that. It would not do if she helped her everytime she ended up in a bad situation.
Mia’s concern is quickly replaced by a different kind of worry, as she watches Ada deflect the tentacles in a reckless, almost suicidal, clash of appendages, just to then proceed to tear into the main body, drinking up the octofiends blood in the process. “Ada, it’s dead. Are you alright?” Mia ignites a light as Ada ignores her and continues to claw into the body, until she reaches the heart and swallows it whole. A shudder goes through Mia’s body; they had determined that Ada likely would need fresh kills for her diet, but this type of focus is not the usual; it’s a blood frenzy, not something most people experienced.
And yet, despite the single minded focus on violence her new friend is displaying right now, she can’t help but be proud of her for her first kill. It also helps that she doesn’t feel in danger. Ada merely spares her a short glance, it feels different but just as charming to Mia. Ada’s eyes have turned into slits and the crimson feels alive in a way it doesn’t usually. However, that short glance is enough to convey to her that Ada still recognizes her enough not to attack her; not that she’d have succeeded with that anyway.
She continues to observe as Ada claws her way deeper into her prey’s body, until she finally reaches the brain. It’s an odd choice for her to go for it, brains tend to not be very mana heavy. “We can cook the rest, it’ll likely taste better that way.” Her words once more fill the silence, and aren’t met with a response. Brightening her light, she steps in closer as Ada finishes gorging on the brain. It’s a bloody display and her entire body is stained in the thick liquid still flowing from the octofiend, though it doesn’t seem to bother her. Besides the occasional dart of her tongue lapping up the blood on her face.
Ada stops for a moment as if she is searching for something. When she clearly finds nothing, her tails start to move. Despite their battered and wounded state they are still mobile. A black liquid starts to seep from the tips of them as they reach out and touch an invisible barrier in the air, coating it in the liquid. It quickly spreads, and before Mia loses sight, she spots a few connections form between Ada and the cocoon. It takes her a few long moments before she moves again, shocked by the display.
The liquid is familiar, or rather, it is not a liquid, it is some form of organic compound, one that everyone that lived through the Genesis is familiar with. The same compound that sprouted in the skies and covered entire cities, consuming the unlucky ones, and changing the lucky ones. And here it is again, an occurrence she had only seen once in her life, summoned forth by someone she newly met, someone that had been stuck out of time. Summoned forth and woven into a cocoon at that, its outer shell pitch black with the occasional red veins pulsing through it.
Mia extinguishes her light and sits down a few meters away, outside of the still gathering pool of blood. The fight had caused a commotion, and it is only a matter of time till unwelcome guests stumble upon them. She closes her eyes and spreads her awareness, stretching it thinner and thinner until she reaches the campsite they were heading for, covering just as much distance in the other direction. There is movement congregating for them. She could fight them, if need be, but causing an even bigger commotion would only lead to more problems. There are still a few minutes before the first beasts reach them.
She opens her eyes and heads back to Ada’s cocoon. She could leave her here. She won’t, obviously, the girl was too trusting and likable to abandon her like this, even if there is more to her than she anticipated. Transporting the cocoon might be an issue though. The tunnels weren’t large enough to accommodate her dragon form, and she can’t use her rings to store living beings. Instead, she reaches into her magic and spreads it across the surface of the cocoon, slowly lifting it up in the air. It takes her a few long moments before finally separating it fully from the carcass, part of the cocoon having latched onto it.
Telekinesis is not a magic she uses often, as it taxes her magic more than most, but she doesn’t really have a choice here. She can only hope to have enough left over to seal the campsite once they reach it. Mia takes a last look around before starting to head towards the campsite. The beasts were closing in faster than anticipated, so she decides taking it slowly is not an option. She picks up the pace as she readies herself for a running fight.
Her steps echo down the tunnels as she moves, making herself a clear beacon for the hunters. About two thirds of the distance, the first beasts finally catch up to her. It’s a quick weasel-like creature that is quickly dispatched into a bloody splatter on the ground with a small exertion of her magic. By themselves, most of what is coming after them isn't a threat. The sheer number, however, will pose an issue without access to her superior form.
She dispatches the next few attackers just as easily, their remains offering a slight bit of distraction to her pursuers. Mia finally reaches the entrance to the campsite, a hidden door in the side of the tunnels, similar to the one hiding the entrance into the tunnel system. The magic is much the same, at least in this state, so a quick twist of her own lets her open the door for them. Stepping inside, she quickly pulls in the cocoon after her, placing it off to the side of a small pond in the campsite. The area isn’t particularly large, just enough to accommodate a small group, though it does have a fire site with an air purification enchantment, left there by the group of scouts that initially found it.
Turning around towards the door, she lets her senses expand a short way in either direction. The next attackers are still a few moments away, long enough to fully seal the campsite. Quickly getting to work, she directs her magic into a prepared enchantment circle around the entire cavern. Valerie had drawn it a few years ago, hiding and fortifying the place against any potential intrusion.
The enchantment snaps into place just as a mole-like creature leaps for her jugular, its body crashing into the barrier instead of into her. There’s a clear moment of confusion for the creature, surprise at the barrier as well as its prey being suddenly gone.
Mia finally lets her body relax, the tension having crept into her during the chase, amplified by her concern for Ada. She turns towards the woman in question, or rather, the cocoon she is in and steps closer. It feels odd to her, to see this substance again. Even most Genesis events, outside the Genesis itself, did not have it make an appearance, and yet, here it is, called forth by Ada in a manner that seemed almost instinctual.
She reaches out a hand towards the cocoon, but hesitates for a brief moment before touching its surface. She doesn’t sense any particular danger from it, the entire thing seeming almost inert, if not for the occasional red lines crossing along it. Lines that do remind her of the lines crossing along Ada’s body every time she seems to feel an intense emotion, yet these seem more like a heartbeat. She crosses the last few centimeters, placing her hand on the surface. She’s met with warmth and a rush of lines crossing along the surface, forming a pattern she had seen before when Ada was excited for something. A smile creeps onto her face. “You’re still in there then, yes? Do I need to worry?” The egg remains inert for a few long moments, before she feels a pulse go through it, like the beating of a heart. “I’ll take that as a no, that you’re fine. I have enough food for several weeks, but it would still be nice if you don’t take overly long in there. It does make me worry a little.” She brushes her hand across the surface in a caress, and is met with another pulse, a slower more considered one this time, before taking her hand off of the cocoon. “I’ll go get settled in, I’m still here.”
