Companionship had been fun for a time but Dragonheart’s attention had shifted. He had decided that instead of having a friend that cared nothing for his passionate speeches (or so it seemed, it was honestly hard to tell) and had the same facial expression regardless of what intimate activities they were performing, he was going to be a collector.

He’d met a different kin and this one liked to collect bones. Which was honestly quite disgusting but he could appreciate the effort to have an interesting hobby.

Pretty stones, he had decided, was a fun thing to collect. They could be fancy and smooth, or jagged and rough. And he could leave them in a nice pile that nobody was going to steal.

Or so he had thought.

Incinerate had found his barely formed collection and one particularly nice grey rock was now in the brute’s mouth, being pushed around by a gross tongue and liberally coated in saliva. The bigger buck held eye contact as he violated that poor defenseless stone and Dragonheart hissed, tail curled unhappily.

Finally Incinerate spat it out onto the ground between them, with a big wet ‘BLAGHT’.

“So,” he said, rolling his shoulders back to show off his muscles, “this is what you’ve been wasting your time with.”

Dragonheart didn’t reply. He stared at the stone. It had been so nice.

(@Jun  i'm sorry???)

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]Sleepless hardly ever left her bower - and now that she could See ThingsTM through another animal's eyes from time to time, she pretty much never had to again.

If she ever left her bower, it was invariably because Bitter End had dragged her out for some bizarre and mostly unnecessary reason, and today was, too, the case.

Except Bitter End didn't even have the decency to drag her out in person.

She'd told her to meet up at a certain time in a certain spot.

And now that certain time was here, she wasn't.

How typically Bitter End.

Not very far away, Sleepless could hear the beginning of some weird - and, honestly, sounding quite unpleasant - conversation.

Maybe that was where Bitter End was, because there was often weird and unpleasant conversation wherever she was.

Sleepless wasn't sure she wanted to find out, but she also didn't want to be stuck here waiting forever.

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ncert2.png[/imgright]This sucked.

She'd already used up her sense projection for the day.

Curling dejectedly into herself, Sleepless unfurled eight spindly legs as a spider, and skittered cautiously closer.

@Ruriska (Oh no...)

“Why are you here?” Dragonheart bothered to ask, already rethinking this collecting nonsense. Rocks were no longer of interest to him. Maybe friends with deadpan expressions who didn’t put his things in their mouth and ruin them forever were better.

Incinerate flexed again (‘yes, I can see your muscles, brother, you don’t have to remind me every few seconds,’ Dragonheart thought bitterly) and grunted, “Mum wants you.” He eyed his brother up and down, a mean, calculating look. “You gonna bring your precious rocks with you? I’m sure she’ll love them.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Dragonheart declared halfheartedly, already playing out the conversation with his mother in his mind. Cold Commands probably wanted him to take part in some sort of war scheme. She was still determined to turn that silly tribe feud into a bloodbath.

“Oh yes, you are-” Incinerate began and then stopped abruptly. “I heard something.”

Dragonheart rolled his eyes. “You’re hearing things.”

But Incinerate was staring at the bushes and listening intently.

@Jun

Spider Sleepless was freaking out inside because what the swamp this was not Bitter End and both of these bucks sounded like bad news, especially the one who was staring into the bushes like he was going to stomp a spider flat.

She considered quickly skittering away in the opposite direction, but this would be a really short RP if she did it was too late now, she was too close to make it look natural...and she had the slightly irritating Legendary sense that there was still work here to be done.

Instead, she skittered up a tree, doing her best impression of a giant spider that had been spooked by the sudden argument.

@Ruriska

Neither of them had been expecting a giant spider but only one of them reacted to the arrival with any measure of calm.

“Oh,” Dragonheart said, dispassionately. “I guess you weren’t hearing thi-”

“HORRIBLE!” Incinerate cut off his brother vehemently, staring at the spider with murderous intent. He stood quivering, lips curled back in a snarl. “I’m going to DESTROY it.”

Dragonheart stared at his brother.

“FIND ME A BIG STICK!” Incinerate demanded. “We’ll smack it down and then SQUASH it and then BURN it.”

“Orrr,” Dragonheart suggested mildly, “we just walk away and leave it alone.”

“No. IT NEEDS TO DIE.”

@Jun

It was at that moment Sleepless decided she needed an alternate Legendary form that was not a spider.

It was also at that moment Sleepless decided she should be more judicial with her sense projection quota, and that she should never leave her bower again, so it was a very productive moment.

She scuttled higher into the tree, hoping that they wouldn't be able to conveniently find a long enough stick to get to her.

@Ruriska

“Look,” Dragonheart said as the spider scuttled higher, “you scared it.”

“STICK!” Incinerate demanded, now beginning to stomp in a way that suggested that if it wasn’t the spider under his hoof soon it would be his brother instead.

“Alright, alright,” Dragonheart grumbled.

He shuffled about in the undergrowth as Incinerate huffed and puffed impatiently, eventually coming up with a thin stick of medium length that might be good for poking but certainly not for whacking things to death.

“That isn’t big enough, you fool!”

“I am aware,” Dragonheart replied tartly. “Just watch.”

He maneuvered the stick sideways in his mouth and approached the tree. With a muffled ‘excuse me’, he attempted to poke the spider and coax it down so Incinerate could squash it and they could get on with this waste of a day.

@Jun

Sleepless tried to scuttle higher.

But she was not a real spider, she was Sleepless.

And she was also freaking the frick out.

This was not what she had signed up for.

There was only one thing to do - largely because she was losing her grip.

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE BABIES!!! she screamed right into Dragonheart's brain through spider telepathy, YOU GOT A DOE PREGNANT AND I'M HERE TO GIVE YOU A BLESSING!! BLESS YOUR CHILDREN. MAY THEY BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY AND STRONG OR WHATEVER AAARRRGGHHH THIS SUCKS -

- the last because she had been telepathically screaming all that as she was falling, and now she had fallen straight onto him.

@Ruriska

There was a lot of screaming.

Dragonheart was screaming because a spider had just yelled right into his mind and given him the inside brain equivalent of ringing ears - and also because said spider was currently on top of him with Incinerate was coming right at him with deadly intent.

And Incinerate was screaming because the big spider was moving and he hated big spiders.

“I WILL KILL IT!” He roared, barreling towards his brother like a rock rolling downhill.

“THIS SUCKS,” Dragonheart agreed as they collided. He wished the weird talking spider luck and had a vague thought for the ice-touched doe that had briefly been his companion before he hit the ground and blacked out.

@Jun

Incinerate's ad hoc aim was Dragonheart's loss and Sleepless' gain, which was a good thing, because if that amount of force had met a spider, it would probably go splat.

So she jumped up and scuttled. She could at least scuttle. She scuttled very quickly, as fast away as her spindly spider legs could carry her.

Good luck, dragon-tailed buck. Good luck, and to your kids too.

Perhaps she should have also added, "and not fatherless," to their blessing.

He probably wasn't dead.

Probably.

...Sorry, kids.

But you know who would be if Sleepless caught them within the next five minutes - that friggin' Bitter End, that was who.

END