Ymiden 30th
Cuau had woke up that morning with one specific goal in mind; he wanted to make a connection with the spirit following him around. There had to be some way for them to communicate. So far they had done so in vague feelings and flashes of images. She practically shoved her emotions at him, desperately trying to connect complex ideas to make him understand. There had to be a better way than beating him over the nose with her feelings. He paced around the woods, flicking his tail, thinking. She could sense the storm of emotions in his thoughts, and unsurprisingly she appeared. Cuau gave her a look. They were about the same size, and the way she looked at him....he wasn't sure how to read her.
"Alright. Since you can't speak Common...you can clearly understand it...you've got to find a better way of speaking to me. I can't have you shoving your feelings in my head. Mortals don't like having someone else in their skull. I can feel you rooting around in there." Cuau tapped his skull. "Instead of shoving it, just...be gentle with it. Introduce the ideas. Don't bash me with them. Im a mortal. We're the most emotional beings on the planet."
Legba snorted. She lifted a lip, sneering a little at him. She clearly didn't think much of the idea of subtlety. From what he could gather of her rumpled feelings, she felt the only way to get a mortal to understand her was her current method. Cuau sighed. He reached up and scratched the back of his neck, looking at her. "Well you've got to stop. Try reining it in a little. What do we do for one another? There's a bond here. I can feel it in the back of my skull. It's like a living thing. It's how you're speaking to me. How I can...feel you so closely."
Legba grinned. Oh, that was disturbing. When she smiled she could pull her lips back impossibly far. It was strangely mammalian, and gave her a sinister look. He wasn't surprised to see the inside of her mouth was colored a bright turquoise. She was so colorful, like some exotic bird. Slowly, he watched as the plants along her back, jaw and tail slowly curled up and away into her skin. Only nodules of thick, fleshy plant life were curled up against her skin. The emotions along their bond had shifted a bit. She was less relaxed, more in her element. There was something distinctively predatory about her. Her claws, her body shape. She was built for jumping and attacking.
Cuau smirked. "So you're to be my war companion?" he asked. The approximation was close, she reassured him. They had a power neither of them were using, and it all came from that bond. A power she wanted to show him. Cuau nodded, and gestured to the forest around them. They were deep in the wilds of Desnind, where they wouldn't be bothered. She could set the entire place on fire for all he cared. Instead, she turned around, and disappeared into the bushes. He followed her, using his arms to shove away the thick foliage. While he was making noise, it looked like she hadn't been there at all. All he saw were flashes of orange and turquoise to tell him his creature was still present.
A bird, startled by his disturbance, flew up into his face. Cuau acted on instinct. He snapped his head forward, and seized it in his jaws. He only grabbed it awkwardly, as both of them had been too fast for the other. His teeth had closed on the bird's leg. He shifted his jaws up with a jerk of his head, settling his razor teeth against its warm body. He was ready for the satisfying crunch when Legba appeared.
Stop. Hold.
Her wants were clear. He raised a horny eyebrow and held the struggling, shrieking bird. It was getting irritating fast; its wings were buffeting his face. She wanted him to feel the bird. To feel the life he held within his jaws. To feel deeper than just fesh and pulsing heart. She wanted him to feel what knitted the bird together. The fabric of what made it real. The animal had no soul. It woudln't benefit them, and they would recieve no ether from it. But still she instructed him to bite. Not with his jaws. With ether. With that crawling, dark ether that was as predatory as both of them.
Cuau closed his eyes, and obeyed. He felt the aberrant ether crawling through his very teeth. Twisting around his gums like he'd thrown up thick, syrupy worms. They burrowed into the bird, and tore it apart. Its body struggled wildly, though its colors greyed and its legs kicked uselessly. He could feel the tiny claw curled up on his tongue start to thin and wither. When he pressed against it experimentally...it crumbled like ash. He spat the bird out, but instead of the heavy thump of feathers and flesh hitting the ground, the body practically disintegrated. It was withered, like it had spent weeks in the sun.
Cuau spat furiously and wiped his mouth, looking at Legba. That was their power. If they did that to a thing with a soul...a mammal, a human, another ithecal, or even one of the less common races...they would be granted ether. They would disintegrate the soul of the thing they had captured. It would take a while to build this skill, but he felt her reassurance that if he did, they would become powerful beyond any two beings in Idalos. Aberrants were feared and hated. They were power, answering not to Immortals that cared nothing for them but maintaining a bond with a creature from the Beyond. Cuau grinned wickedly.
"Show me more."
