i like the madness

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

It isn’t something she can even judge, given the way her return and departure had separated them. There’s no horse in this race for her and ultimately, she decides with the swift fierceness that he had almost always accepted her own relationships, flashes a soft smile at him at his distinct answer. “If you’re happy then I’m happy for you. And her.” She decides, before the conversation shifts to her regrets and upsets, her withdrawnness, her tail wrapping around her leg as she crosses her arms.

He doesn’t judge her immediately, but the question of whether she’d go back, she shrugs a shoulder and shakes her head. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She offers softly, still undecided on whether he’d even want to hear from her again. If she were in that position, would she want to hear from the one that had abandoned her? “Do you think I should?” She asks, seeking out his opinion, lifting her masked iceberg gaze up to his face again, seeking the advice of a father figure over the subject.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

A solid breath unfurled from his lungs again; and though he wouldn’t give voice to it, it likely stemmed from relief. “Thank you,” followed on a softer murmur and half smile, content in lingering upon those circumstances and choices, before the changes and alterations in subjects. That was enough.

The uncertainty in all the other shifts, including leaving loved ones behind, had already struck its cord with him in rings of familiarity and brutality; eyes flickering over her face, mind churning through his own predilections. If he’d been abandoned again, and left to presume someone cherished was dead and gone, would he want to hear from them? Would he want to know they were safe from harm, even after before pulled away, discarded and tossed aside? His jaw clenched, a shrug unwinding from his shoulders before they threatened to stiffen. “I do not think there is an easy answer for the situation.” He swallowed, struggling to remove the feathering of his jaw, head tilting vaguely to break apart the taut synapses. “Do what you are comfortable with.” If that was nothing, if that was something – given time and space, pragmatics, and survival.

After a moment, he rummaged back through his bag, pulling out another satchel of treats – considering she could taste and eat them now, handing over the portions of her once favored indulgences. “For you.”

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

There isn’t an easy answer for it, and Kiada knows that just as much as Deimos does – but what she doesn’t account for is just how similar it was to his own experiences, some of which if she’d realized it sooner, she might not have brought it up in the first place. So she takes the conversation shift for what it is, nodding her agreement as to what she was comfortable with, before continuing. “I will figure something out.” She murmurs softly, as if to give him closure on that subject and not her own.

But then, iceberg eyes are watching as he withdraws, pulling out a satchel of treats once again, and the second that he goes to hand them over, she immediately unfolds her arms from her chest and draws nearer to him again, reaching out to take the treats and without any hesitation takes one and shoves it into her mouth, downing the treat in no time flat with a soft sigh slipping from her. “You have no idea how much I missed these.” She murmurs around the next bite shoved in her mouth.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

They were all piecing things back together in their own ways; navigating through hazes and mazes of war preparations, the battles, the crusades, and then the aftermath – what to do with relationships, with people they trusted and loved, with situations they’d never intended to alter and change. Taking the notions for what they were worth, he nodded, permitting the rest of it to close away and depart for other means and measures, times and places.

Her reaction to the treats was enough of an amused distraction anyway, given the way his eyes widened and a small chuckle wound through his lungs at her immediate zeal. Content with the knowledge of her regained senses, and then some, his head tilted vaguely. “Do you need anything else?” A broad term and inquiry, but the Sword wasn’t certain of what she required any longer; too lost in the changes and necessities for each newfound reconstruction of her entity. He paused, considering, a mind always churning in semblances of directions and possibilities. “We can always go hunting.” Gods knew he couldn’t return to Halo empty-handed; and it could be like old times sake, vicious upheavals in their own rights.

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

Did she need anything else? It was hard to say with the sweet taste of the treats on her tongue, not quite enough to stave off the primal need for a hunt but certainly enough that for the first time in a long time, the young woman felt normal. So normal, in fact, that she continues to snack on the treats like she hasn’t eaten in years. “Hmm,” she pauses, the treat swallowed as she thinks, but when he suggests a hunt? Her iceberg eyes snap back to him with playfulness.

“A hunt sounds nice. I have a shift again but I don’t think it works with the attuned bond.” She hasn’t exactly tested it, but the shift felt different enough from attuning that it seemed quite unlikely it would share the rest of the perks. “So if you don’t mind hunting with a lial that can’t talk back, it sounds fun.” She teases lightly, turning away from Frey’s Breath completely so they might head back toward more open ground, where creatures unsuspecting may be waiting for their attack.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

The Sword was usually quick to offer – his strength, his power, his creation abilities, to anyone beloved in his own accord. Waiting for an answer led to more speculations rooted in his gaze, a furrowed brow beginning to arch at the curiosity, or the amusement, of her treat-devouring, before the hunting notions were snagged. A snort followed through on her statement – a speculation squandered and ended as soon as it had begun to grow roots in his mind. They’d been hunting enough before that they knew each other’s methods; he wasn’t overly concerned. “Does not sound like a detriment to me,” meant as a tease, with the slight smirk curled along the corners of his mouth thereafter.

Following, considering, he placed his bag further up his shoulder, the details and notes of Monster Hunter’s journals returning to the surface of his memories, of lials and their potential for destruction. “You may lead, if you want,” instantly shifting thereafter to the familiar paws and size of the hellhound.

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

“Oh, I’m not complaining.” She offers him with a crooked smile, already starting to lead the way through the tunnels. She waits until they’re about the middle of one of them before she shifts into her lial shift – her long body sliding against the flat, rocky paths of the lava tunnels with relative ease – after all, this is where the shift was found, where it was native. It’s like she’s made for it as she slips along the corridors until they reach the opening – a glance back from a slit pupil toward the hellhound as if to ensure that he’s ready.

Knowing that he is, she drifts further out, unsuspecting as a predator of course, but nothing more strange than that, slipping toward the edges where she knows that there’s some smaller prey for some old times sake. So initially, she lets her body warm, the lava running through it getting hotter and hotter as she stalks, and while there’s little to no other options for a bulk of prey for them to take down, there are a few blind rats scampering about. It’ll do for now, she supposes.

So when she finds one within her speed and body reach, she shoots like a bullet toward it, attempting to smother it with the heat of her body to take it out rather than use her sharp teeth.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

This felt normal; and though he wouldn’t forgo or forget the time lost between them as they set off on different paths, the fact that the trails converged was enough for him. A diligent nod slipped through his hound frame, and then he was following Kiada as a lial.

He would’ve studied and examined the shift a bit more, but they were instantly on the prowl, and the predacious efforts of his soul unfurled, unraveled, bit by bit, step by step. Even if their prey was simply the ever-present and irritating swamp rats, the goading proportions, the carnivorous efforts, sated the roughened edges of encompassing upheavals.

While Kiada used heat and warmth, the Sword’s strides swept along the walls of the cavern. Speed, agility, and size made up for the surprise of the rodent almost immediately in his clutches, listening to it whine quickly, and then cease altogether as fangs collided with spine. Keeping it in his mouth, much like a stuffed toy, he jerked his skull towards her, indicating if she was willing for another round of massacres.

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

She manages to overheat the blind swamp rat, alongside with crushing it a fair amount – collecting it into her jagged, lava rock-esque mouth just about the time that she finds Deimos’ own nod with his own pray lodged between his teeth. And who is she to deny this little game? She can’t help herself, of course, wide maw parting to devour the swamp rat before she begins to move again, scouting out another set of pray out in the Climb.

The pickings out here were slim, but she finds a small grouping of core crows next, picking over a fresh kill and fighting and squawking with one another. She lets her slit gaze drift back toward Deimos before she tries to time it with him, launching herself at them at the same time Deimos can in the hopes they both might catch the birds off guard. Only, Kiada with her speed is quick, she isn’t quite quick enough to crush the bird – clipping its wing and tearing out a feather in the meantime, which spurs the Lial to huff her annoyance, looking for Deimos to see how successful he was.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

They’d always been a seditious sort of brethren, kin and comrades in brutality. So with the devouring and consumption of the swamp rat, by all accounts he took the notions as more opportunities to assault and annihilate. Assimilation into predacious efforts, into emboldened parallels, never took much from him – easily lured into the old days of carnivorous contemplations and efforts. Placing his prey within his bag still drooping around his neck, the chase was back on.

Gore crow devastation didn’t bother him either – even with the familiar echoes of meat! and eyes!, as if the birds stood a chance against someone of their caliber and experience. Corresponding times amused him; there would’ve been an inkling of a smirk had they been in human forms – instead there was a brief bark, a sentiment of when his muscles were bunched, coiled, and set to unleash.

And though Kiada only came away with feathers, his mouth cracked down on a wing, clipping the bird entirely as it squawked and cried out for its flock. Only a moment more, and its bones were diminished in his jaws, another for the food storage in the Citadel. He beckoned Kiada onward with another nod of encouragement, for more demolition and ruin.

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

Frustration burns through the harpy as she comes away with feathers, spitting them out of her lava-esque maw and shaking her head, leaving a crown of black feathers behind. She turns, then, having already given their position away to spy Deimos finish off a gore crow he’d latched onto by the wing, and with the nod of understanding between them because they can’t speak to one another in this form, she’s happy to try and fix the misjudgment of before.

Shuffling over the rockery toward him (she looks exactly like those videos of bearded dragons trying to run on a hardwood floor), she manages to get up beside him once more, trailing through another tunnel in the hopes they haven’t given their positions away to the next series of gore crows. She waits a moment longer, superheating her body a brief second before she lunges, praying that she has more luck with it this time.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

Perhaps it was still very wise that neither of them could speak to one another – at the present moment, the Attuned bombardments from his mind would be ones of laughter. From the obvious pouting, to the disassembled, bizarre movement across the cavern floor, his soul brandished only sources of amusement and juvenility.

And he’d missed this.

Though he didn’t say it – or give rise to the notions – he followed along her wayward path, intending to snag at more grow crows, placing the last one back amidst the other fallen prey. Never one to shirk opportunities for violence, they meandered along another tunnel, and when the moment struck, he watched as she took it. With heat and potency, a lunge sure to meet with some manner of chaos.

For his efforts, the Sword launched towards a very loud, obnoxious individual (meat! Eyes! echoing against the walls was more than enough of a cause), teeth bared, sharp, and ready to ensnare.

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS

do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,

She does end up having more luck with this attempt, the crow taken by surprise with a quiet and muffled shriek of Meat! as her body collides with it, heating up to the point where it’s both so badly burned and suffocated that she devours the creature, feathers and all – little care in the world of anything else.

She doesn’t really need to save them, and she doubts that Deimos would want the ones she’s charbroiled to bring back to Halo, anyway. So once she’s devoured that second gore crow, her attention flickers back toward Deimos, waddling her way across the rocky surface toward him, long nose nodding as if to say you get to pick now, because she lacks the Attuned bond in order to convey it.

the world fears you

KIADA

i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty

The gore crow was annihilated just as efficiently and readily as the other portions of its brethren – stuffed within his jaws as he turned to watch her own rampant display. Hers was par for the course in brutal portions of fire – burnt in the infernos, and solidified to nothing at all, save for ensuring her stomach wasn’t empty.

A snort rampaged through, before he released his prey amidst the others in his bag.

Perhaps one more would ensure a worthwhile amount of food those in the Citadel, and so when the pause came, his head tilted vaguely, amused he’d been given the lead. With a predacious movement, he lowered his hellhound nose to the ground, snagging at an assortment of scents, most foreign, some known properties scattered along the rest.

Picking up on another collection of rats, likely further down the bending cavern, he gave one sharp bark, before hastening off with an obvious smirk to his canine inclinations.

or your stubbornness?

DEIMOS