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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 15:51:38 GMT -6
The meat slid from sight in an instant, any distaste that the meat might have caused the fire beast by being refrigerated rather than warm and fresh not apparent. As it swallowed the lump of meat, a chunk as large as her fist sliding down its throat without hesitation, a comparison she had no wish to confirm, she maneuvered the sack to rest in front of her and kicked it over to spill its contents. Now, if the cross would just eat, they could get onto the final part of the lesson.
This the crossbreed was only too happy to oblige her in, snapping up the dirtied meat with the same hunger it had consumed the cleaner on that had flown through the air. It gorged itself on the meat, though one or two pieces were made to smoke before it ate them, the crossbreed hesitating as if it planned to chew on the smoke instead. 46
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 15:52:02 GMT -6
It ate slower as a minute dragged on, Haix unwilling to move and risk letting the crossbreed think her some toy or eager playmate, the crossbreed picking at the morsels that had spilled from the mouth of the bag. Haix was staring at it, keeping her arms up and legs bent, and so she almost lashed out at the halfbreed when it decided to look at the source of the chatter while it ate. There was nothing of the stalking predator in it as its head rose and its legs straightened, forcing Haix to look up at its head to catch the glimmer of some emotion in its eye. She need not have looked up to watch the crossbreed chuff and nod its head, beginning to prance to the side of her while keeping its slit eye locked on hers. When it stepped in the mud, it recoiled, reversing direction to try circling her again with the same amount of bobbing. 47
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 15:52:13 GMT -6
It stopped a few seconds later, close enough to be touched by Haix had she been willing to move, a hissed warning in her mouth as she recognized the mischievous gleam the crossbreed had in its eyes. A second later, completely disregarding her barked command, it opened its jaws an lunged for the arm, jaws clicking shut on air as Haix turned from the attack, her other hand instead spinning to meet its face with its fragile cargo.
The explosion of water had the reaction that words alone did not, that the chiding she barked out at the beast would not have had. The contents of the balloon were nothing more than water, but it screamed as if she had poured acid onto its face, rearing up and back a few steps with a scream and slamming its hooves back down on the dirtied meat with none of the playfulness it had shown earlier. The run now was frantic, the crossbreed a ball of flame that raced along the sides of the cage. 48
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 15:52:23 GMT -6
Haix stepped carefully over the forgotten meat, pulling another balloon from the bucket as she moved away from the walls. The crossbreed rand for a solid minute, looping the cage so many times that it pounds a flat path of dirt where it stepped. It generated such heat that even Haix could feel it when the crossbreed passed her, a dry wind that cracked and dried the mud beneath its hooves when it passed by the gate.
It began to slow a little later, stopping completely to stare at Haix once more. It approached her this time with a great deal more caution, the prancing step no longer so high. She let it get closer, taking to it all the while, without so much as a snarl when it circled her. When it came close enough without snapping, she scooped a piece of meat off the floor to offer it, her bent body the sign it had been waiting for as it rushed to kick at her with its flaming legs, the sound it was making an invitation to play. 49
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 15:52:37 GMT -6
It managed to burn her then, the water balloon splattering with a hiss against its legs as she threw herself away from the hooves. This time, while ignoring the halfbreeds run around the cages, she slapped a few of the cold balloons against her arm, the scales there luckily not blistered or blackened. The heat she had felt then was not an attack, or her arm would have resembled the less burned parts of the lerrel.
The next time, it allowed her to grab the food and throw it to the crossbreed, another time later after being hit with a few more balloons it took a piece from her hand. The lunges eventually died down, the beast recoiling now not just from the balloons that would slap against its plates but also the hisses and barked words of displeasure the lizard made.
It took a few more days of this , the last resulting in no balloons thrown at the crossbreed, before Haix was willing to decide that it might retain some training she would give it. 50-((Now able to be trained. Levels counted.))
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 22:58:08 GMT -6
For the next crossbreed, the old cage would not do. It was not just that the cage was much too small to house it, its size meant to be able to hold all but wiurn comfortably. The size of this thing however was larger than the bat-winged reptiles, and its form would strain the metal poles of the grid, possible damaging the halfbreed itself assuming one could get the beast within the gate. For even the gate was too small to admit the halfbreed, something Haix was fairly certain of just by looking at the mass floating in front of her. Then there was the other issue that had eliminated the old cage as even a faint possibility, the simple fact that the beast was aquatic. To place it in that cage would be to dry it out and kill it, the wire mesh powerless to stop event the tiniest flow of water. 1
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 22:58:54 GMT -6
Besides, with the flaming halfbreed still being housed in the cage, hunting down what grubbles were hungry enough to show their faces, there would have been no point to test how long it could stay out of water even had it fit. Instead, the halfbreed floated in a slightly too large tank meant for those keeping pliathor, a fitting place to keep it as the beast could claim to be descended from that particular species. Despite it being smaller than the giant sea serpents, it had easily adjusted to the tank, or it had so far as she could tell.
The base of the tank was clouded with dirt that the creatures roots had dug into, the lights hanging far above it mimicking the brightness of the sun. The tank itself was almost green with algae and other green life, the tank having been left without any deep purification as it waited for the beast that was to live in it. 2
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 22:59:15 GMT -6
The tank itself was not set fully into the ground in the form of a swimming pool but had thick glass walls that ran half of its depth into the air. Ladders would allow Haix to climb up and watch the creature from above if she wished, with narrow platforms attached to the edges to both limit what spilled onto the floor below and give her a place to walk along. For now she was satisfied to watch the beast floating in the tank, not moving except for the slight currents of the pumps as its roots anchored it to the ground below. It was a bit hard to see it through the patches of glass not covered in algae or the tiny snails and fish that had come with the haphazardly gathered plants and dirt. What she could see only left her to ponder the puzzle the little information given on the species had presented her with. How to get the attention of a living tree that needed nothing more than water, dirt, and light? 3
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 22:59:30 GMT -6
She had looked over her notes before coming into the room. Pliathor ate meat, and were deaf to all but the highest pitched noises, the latter a failing that this species was not specified to have. Nyssa were a bit closer in appearance and consumption, though she could faintly recall feeding a young oak nyssa bugs and fruit as rewards for obeying new commands, an act confirmed to be real way to feed nyssa by the notes on that species. So, considering that both of them were at least capable of consuming food, it stood to reason that a crossbreed of the two would be able to ingest something through a means other than its roots.
Then again, had one of the creatures it had been crafted from been a custom, that could mean nothing at all. But why would it have a mouth if it was incapable of eating anything directly? 4
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 22:59:43 GMT -6
She circled the tank, trying to find a good place to stand and watch the beast for any sign of movement, any hint of it paying attention to the fish or plants that shared tank space with it. This was one of the crossbreeds she had been happiest at the time to obtain, a literal living island that was more than capable of defending itself if she needed it to. And unlike the species the lab had released and had never grown past their supposed infant stage, this one truly was the size of a small island. Once she was able to gain its attention and train it, she could bring it down through one of the rivers that branched off from the main one, a living based she could return to after a hunt, or a safe place should the roles reverse. She looked forward to testing out the branches on its back especially, perhaps even setting up a place like her old home. 5
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 22:59:55 GMT -6
The only thing they would really need to be careful of would find sneaking up on them difficult, as a pliathor might ignore the mass of roots and bark as being inedible, and she doubted its siblings would fight even if their masters ever bothered to bring them out. It apparent lack of interest in the life swirling around it certainly suggested its kind was not one to revel in fighting or play like the fiery crossbreed she had been dealing with.
Finally finding a good place that allowed her sight of what she thought was its head, the light above silhouetting the stubby feature. This time, remembering how long the other lazy cross in her care had taken to do something worth watching, she pulled out a small book detailing tidbits of information regarding different kinds of armor and weaponry. The armor portion came complete with images detailing how to properly wear it. 6
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 23:00:07 GMT -6
With her attention focused primarily on the book, glancing up at the halfbreed rarely to confirm it had not silently dived down to her level or begun to rampage, Haix did not notice the small school of fish that had began to swarm around one of the thinner tendrils. The murky water might have hidden them from her sight regardless as the small school, consisting of less than ten fish that were a bit smaller than the majority of the others who swam in the tank, darted around the root without any obvious purpose. That they stopped by the root might have drawn her notice had they been closer, though there would have been no easy way to tell what they were doing, the simple explanation being that they were trying to hide from the tanks other inhabitants.
The slight shift of the crossbreeds body caused the root to twitch, and the tiny fish moved onto another. 7
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 23:00:19 GMT -6
This continued on for sometime, the movements of the crossbreed always subtle enough that there was no obvious slosh of water to grab Haix’s attention, nor were they large enough to cause any other reaction in the tank that might have hinted to her that she missed something. The motions of the crossbreed never obviously increased in ferocity, the simple twitch of the root enough to send the fish scurrying away to nibble on another root, which then might spasm for a second longer than the first, then a second time when the fish were particularly reluctant to move on to the next.
She was watching as their silvery bodies passed by the root nearest to her, its length splitting before it reached the floor. The fish dived down to where it met the dirt, the motions of the crossbreed too subtle to scare them away that far down. Haix had already looked away by the time they made that clear. 8
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 23:00:29 GMT -6
The twitches and spasms were nearly nothing that far down the root, and Haix looked upwards at the crossbreed as it became apparent even through the murky water that the root was shaking. Interested, she put the book down with a piece of paper to keep its place, standing up to press her face against the glass to make out what was happening. A look at the crossbreed’s main body revealed nothing to her beyond that it was now moving slightly, and looking down into the depths showed her that several of its roots had come free of the dirt. One of these was split towards its end, a school of overly ambitious fish chasing it up from the cloud of dirt. Making a note to avoid placing those sort of fish in its future habitat, or at least to remove the ones that were chewing on her crossbreed, Haix was about to turn back to her book when the crossbreed showed what kind of speed it was capable of. 9
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Post by Alma on Sept 2, 2019 23:00:46 GMT -6
The roots, which had been up until now dug deeply in the dirt or had been pulled out to avoid the attentions of the fish, whipped through the water with surprising speed and accuracy, wrapping around the bodies of several of the fish on the first strike. The other fish swam and darted away, but other roots came free and snared them as well. It held them like that for a moment, their tiny silvery bodies flailing in the constricting grasp of the tendrils, then little patches of darkness erupted from their bodies, clouding them from sight as the tendrils dragged back into the mud on the bottom. A glance upwards at the crossbreeds silhouette showed no sign of exertion, or even that it had noticed what it had done to the fish as it continued to float as if nothing had happened. Haix was very glad she had not simply jumped in with the beast and harried it until it did more than float. 10
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