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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:11:14 GMT -6
Farida, in the instant between stumbling and a complete slip, had caught herself. Rather than dig her claws into the moving stones, which would have left her laying outstretched on the ground like a fancy fur rug, she shoved the foot she had just lifted up against a larger rock. The rock did not go rolling away as the others had done, and Farida had a moment to breathe as she carefully replaced the paw that had slid out beneath her earlier.
After that moment, a weight not unlike a small boulder struck her hind legs, and the temblor balgor collapsed to the ground with a grunt of surprise. Hektor growled back, a rumbling that the temblor balgor could feel through her side as she hit the ground she had just so narrowly avoided a moment ago. Rumbling herself, the temblor balgor kicked out with her legs, trying to turn onto her side so she could better fight her sister. The custom balgor tried to stop her sister from doing so but, with her claws sheathed, the striped hide twisted under her paw pads.
It was a vicious-looking fight, both balgor snarling and rumbling, the temblor roaring in defiance on one occasion when the custom balgor had gotten her teeth into the mane near her throat and would not let go despite how she batted and kicked.
It was in this tussle that the miasma balgor had bumped against the metal bars behind her, and those sounds echoing around her that led her to believe she was under attack.
Then again, it was not as though Alma had much time to spend in it.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:11:24 GMT -6
Hektor, her mouth still full of white hair and her ears ringing with the roar of the temblor balgor, did not instantly realize that the roar had not come from the balgor she clung to. Had their style of play been any less violent, she might have noticed that the temblor balgor’s throat had not shaken as the noise tore through the air, or that her paws felt no vibrations beyond the labored breathing caused by a game nearing its end.
Farida, on the other hand, had not only noticed the roar had come from a source other than her opponent, but also had seen the sudden movement of something lurid green and black outside of their cage as her face was not buried in the mane around her sister’s throat. She ignored the painful tugs at the fur around her throat as she stared at the other creature, the intruder that had come into their territory and roared as though to claim it.
The custom balgor tried to drag the neck of her sister down further, hoping to claim victory in this bout of play, when Farida made a noise that was not quite a snarl, nor a whimper, but contained elements of both. Taking that to mean she had won, Hektor released the throat of her sister, nuzzling the neck fur to see if she had accidentally harmed the temblor balgor. Such injuries did happen sometimes, when one of them clawed at the other in the heat of the moment, or another swung their tusks carelessly.
Alma grabbed her book and some earplugs.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:11:37 GMT -6
Usually, if the wound was not so serious, they would resume their game a moment later, the thin scratches leaking barely any blood before sealing themselves. Other times, if a puncture had occurred, they would try to clean the wounds and wait. The human would usually be there the next day if not sooner, and she would put things on the wound that caused it to seal with amazing speed. Still, they rarely played soon after that, the white things the wounds were bound with and the mad-sounds from the human making it clear that they were in trouble. Removing the bandages too soon, something they had done a few times when they limited their movement too much, only resulted in them bleeding more and the human trapping them away from one another until the bandages came off.
Hektor did not smell any blood, and was about to latch back onto her sister’s throat when she heard a second roar. This time she turned her head, aware that her sister had gone as still as the stones that made up the ground, looking to see what had grabbed the temblor balgor’s attention and what had decided to roar at them. The last time they had seen something capable of it, one of them had nearly been bitten in half by a massive beast, and Hektor had no interest in trying the experience herself.
What she did see was confusing at first. It was green and black, but it looked like Farida did other than that.
Alma slid the earplugs in place, then started to jog back.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:11:50 GMT -6
A challenger? Here, in their own domain?
Playtime forgotten, Hektor snarled at the intruder, a rumbling building in her chest that was matched by that of Farida’s. They had claimed this domain an eternity ago, this place encircled by the shiny cold-stone bars. They hunted prey together here, taking down any beast that dare set foot where they could reach it, and would have taken others as well if only the bars had not stopped them.
That the massive dinosaur that had waddled around their cage grazing on carrots had terrified them at first was long forgotten, only the annoyance that they could not get out and rip it to shreds for daring to meander around them remained after all that time.
But this one had roared. It was a creature like them, and it had roared, so that meant it wanted to challenge them. Hektor and Farida could smell the challenger now, the scent like their own but with a bitter tang to it. How had it taken them so long to notice the other balgor creeping up on them? It did not matter now. Together, both balgor opened their jaws and let forth a stream of noise that might have deafened even Alma through her earplugs, the noise a threat and a boast. It called on the intruder to see them in all their strength, to know that this land was theirs, and that the challenger could never hope to hold it. They would never flee before some upstart when they had held this territory for so long.
Alma was sure the way felt longer going back.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:12:21 GMT -6
It was moments like these that made or broke plans. Had Alma been there in the room, she might have kept the two balgor somewhat calm, might have called off the entire training attempt as she saw how the miasma balgor quailed before the combined might of the temblor balgor and the custom. She might have assumed that the balgor would never allow a newcomer into the bond she had worked so hard to enforce between the two.
But Alma was not there, and the moment was left to the balgor. Both Hektor and Farida watched the miasma balgor as they roared, and had the miasma balgor gave into her fears, the two would have launched themselves at the cage bars at the instant she panickedly tried to claw her way out. Though they might have calmed down later, the two balgor might have seen the miasma balgor as little more than a prey animal that happened to look similar to them, something to chase and take down. So while they may have appeared to be calm as Alma slowly introduced the two, it would have been the calmness of a predator studying its prey, and Alma would have been at a loss to figure out why the pair, after appearing so calm and used to the miasma balgor, had decided to rip it to shreds.
Thankfully, that did not occur either. Though the miasma balgor wanted nothing more than to flee, to force her way through the bars and get away from the pair that had deafened her, she had grown up caged.
Alma kept up her pace, not wanting to leave the balgor alone for too long.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:12:35 GMT -6
She did not so much as know there was no escape from the inside of her cage as instinctively felt there was no chance of her escaping. To her, the bars of the cage were no less substantial than the steel floor beneath her paws, and so she took the only other option her mind presented her with. The miasma balgor roared back at the two balgor, her single roar nowhere near as powerful as the dual one had been, but more than enough to set the metal of her cage vibrating beneath her paws.
All she wanted was for the two balgor to back off, to leave her alone until the human returned to take her back to her nice cage, the one with stones and weeds and her favorite sunning rock that never seemed to get too hot and was the perfect size for her to hang her feet over the edge. She wanted only to be left alone, for the two balgor to realize she did not want to be there any more than they did and to let her wait in peace until she could go home.
The roar communicated none of this.
It was an angry sound, one that said she was not afraid even as her legs quivered, one that told them to run when it was her that was alone. But instinct warned her not to appear weak in front of the two balgor, and she obeyed it without question as her roar faded away.
Alma was slightly worried that the cage holding the miasma balgor might not last.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:12:56 GMT -6
Both sets of balgor stared at one another. The fur ‘wings’ running along the miasma balgor’s back had stood up as she roared, an attempt to make herself look bigger even though she was alone. When neither the temblor or the custom balgor roared back, the miasma balgor merely held her ground, waiting on tensed legs for what response the pair would give. If it was to be a roar, she would roar again, and again and again until her throat was dried and her roar but a wheeze. If it was to be an attack, their bodies slipping through the bars as she had been unable to do, she would meet them with tusk and claw and acid-dripping fangs. She refused to die easily, especially if the sound of such a fight might draw the human back to get her out of there. The human would come back, would it not?
She worried about it as the other two balgor stood motionless. Would the human be able to find her in this new place, a place without the sunning rock or her scent marked on the larger stones? Was the last time she had seen the human to be the last time she ever did, listening to it’s babbling nonsense that was somehow soothing as she ate?
The miasma balgor roared again, barely noticing the other two balgor flinching at the sound. It was a call this time, a sound that the human surely could not fail to hear wherever it might have been.
Alma had tested it thoroughly, but one never knew with lab beasts.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:13:08 GMT -6
This roar could not go unanswered, and the two balgor roared so that their voices drowned out the echoes of her own. Once theirs died down, she would repeat hers, a call for the human to come find her and help her get back to her domain, but the other two always responded with the same ear-splitting racket as before, their combined roars easily overpowering the ones she could make. And the quality of hers only continued to drop as they roared back and forth, hers growing weaker as theirs sounded as strong as it had the first time. Either that, or her hearing had not quite returned from the loud noises.
Her throat and chest hurt more with each rumble, and she coughed once the pair’s most recent roar had quieted down to a more reasonable level. A second attempt triggered another cough, the sound no more impressive than the first as she hacked and felt as though her acid had dripped down the back of her throat. She did not dare to look away from the pair watching her, not even as the trough of water beside her beckoned to her with the promise of soothing the rough patches in her throat. There would be time enough for water once the human had come to rescue her from this place. She could not know what they would do once she looked away.
Despite knowing there was no way to know what the two balgor would do next, she was nevertheless surprised when the white one took that moment to yawn.
As Alma neared the room with the balgor, she could hear the roars.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:13:27 GMT -6
It was in impressive yawn, the sharp white teeth of the temblor balgor standing out against the pink of its tongue and gums, its mouth held open long enough that the miasma balgor might have been able to count its teeth if she knew what numbers were. It went on for almost too long, then the mouth slowly drew closed and the lips slid to hide the sharp teeth once more. While the mossy one continued to stare at the miasma balgor, the white balgor blinked once, eyelids moving with glacial slowness before the balgor turned its attention to a small tumbleweed. With a huff, its interest in the miasma balgor apparently forgotten, it dove after the weed, sending the ball of plant matter spinning away from its batting claws. It was back on its feet in a blink, charging after the ball while it rolled, and batting it in a new direction when it spun to a stop. It rumbled one of those times, though the miasma did not dare to look beyond the mossy balgor that held her gaze. The noise was somehow not intimidating, though any sound would have been hard pressed to compete with the ear-rending noise that their combined roars had managed to be.
Was this some kind of trick? She knew to keep watching the two balgor, picking out the movements of the white one from the edges of her vision as she stared at the mossy one. Was the noise done? Were they going to leave her alone?
Alma sighed, and slowed down.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:13:48 GMT -6
The miasma balgor doubted it. The roars had not struck her as empty threats or an invitation to linger, her ears just now ceasing their throbbing from the sheer power of the sounds. The roars were a warning, a challenge, and she could not respond properly because the bars trapped her there, kept her from leaving the territory apparently claimed by the two balgor. She could smell the scents from there, musky ones that only barely reminded her of her own, and knew not to attempt to mark the cage. She was more than willing to let them keep their territory, so long as they let her keep her life.
And where was the human? Was it so far away that her roars could not reach it? The miasma balgor felt a pang of loneliness. The human had been the only non-prey she had seen consistently in all her years of life, and to suddenly be so far away from it saddened her. She hoped it was at least safe wherever it was cowering, with plenty of prey to keep itself fed until the miasma balgor could find her way back.
Hektor was growing bored. The new balgor had been a shock, and the roars had awoken the need to defend her territory alongside Farida, but then nothing had happened. They had roared for a while, but the other balgor had made no attempt to close with them, and she knew she could not fit through the bars to challenge it.
Alma had no interest in watching both balgor yell at one another.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:14:09 GMT -6
And now Farida had found a new toy, one of the plants that shriveled into a ball that was terrible for chewing or eating, but made for a great thing to chase and fight over. She could hear the temblor balgor playing with the toy while she stared down the dark balgor. The temblor balgor even knocked it over her tail once, her tail whipping to the side as she felt the rough plant brush against it. Hektor wanted to play, but the issue of the other balgor had not been resolved yet.
The miasma had a similar want, though hers was for the water trough rather than any game, her cage as devoid of toys as when she had woken up there. But her throat hurt, her breathing starting to feel as though she had tried swallowing one of the thorny plants in her enclosure, and she lacked the stamina to keep feeling the same crushing fear she had felt when she had first seen the other balgor.
Remembering the white balgor’s actions, the miasma balgor slowly opened her mouth in an exaggerated yawn, letting her eyelids droop down slowly. When she opened them, her mouth had already closed, and her eyes were pointed at the water trough in her cage rather than the mossy balgor that she had been exchanging stares with. She padded her way over to the water trough, daring to not look at the other balgor as she dipped her head down and began to noisily drink.
Thankfully, the roaring seemed to stop as the doorway came into sight.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:14:25 GMT -6
And that was the end of that for Hektor. Bored of the new balgor, especially after it had displayed just how bored it was of the whole procedure, the custom balgor herself yawned, turning away to see where Farida was chasing the ball. She usually could snag it as it rolled on her tusks, and then it was a small matter to keep it away from her sister’s seeking claws and teeth for as long as possible.
This time her sister had anticipated her. Farida had laid down with the ball of weeds in her claws when the misma had gone to drink, and nipped at it as she tried to find the true stem. The plants all had them, a single point that made them easy to hold while attempts to steal it would only rip the thinner rough branches away. When Hektor turned to her, Farida clamped her jaws over what she thought was the core, branches scratching at her jowls as she sprang to her feet. She rumbled at the custom balgor, a challenge that the other balgor had no hesitation in taking as Hektor leapt at Farida. The two ran and played happily for a time.
The miasma balgor had screwed her eyes tightly shut as she drank, lapping up the cool water. It stung at first as it traveled down her throat, but it soon numbed the pain, and yet the other balgor had not attacked her. She had heard them, but those were not sounds like the roars they had faced her with.
Alma waited outside for a moment, but heard little through the earplugs.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:14:36 GMT -6
The miasma balgor was the first to notice the new scent.
She raised her head from the trough, the pain reminding her that it was not completely gone as she took a deep breath and the air scratched its way down her throat. But there was something else in the air, something beyond the scents of the two balgor, and this one a great deal more welcome. The misma balgor turned to look at the doorway, no longer concerned by the presence of the other two, for she knew she would finally be able to go home. Why else would the human be here, with it’s weirdly floral and chemical scent, if not to lead her back to her old cage?
Hektor had more important things to worry about than the return of the human. Her sister had proven far too adept at keeping the ball of weeds away from her, darting to one side when she closed on the other. Any attempt to reach out with her paws was met with her sliding across the ground as the temblor balgor pranced away, the ball of weeds still held firmly in her sister’s mouth. So Hektor tried to use her tusks, stabbing into the ball of weeds whenever she pulled up alongside her sister, the temblor balgor having made a misstep needing to turn as they came too close to the walls of the cage. But the branches of the weed did not catch and hold where her tusk had caught them, instead slipping over them as Farida put on a sudden burst of speed or change in direction.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:14:58 GMT -6
The miasma balgor was the first to see Alma as she reentered the room. Had the miasma balgor not already been pressing herself against the bars closest to the doorway, she would have flung herself there with joy in her heart. Finally, the human had returned! And while the human carried no food that she could see, no tantalizing smell of raw meat hinting at an unseen cart either, she was not hungry enough to be saddened by the lack. There would be time enough for food later.
Alma, quite unlike the miasma balgor whose name she had yet to decide upon, was less than pleased to see the massive balgor pressing its face between the bars. Clear liquid dripped down its chin in a worrisome amount, and Alma wondered just how much acid the miasma balgor could produce. And whether or not it could fling the spit at her. The creature was not spitting at her as she entered the room, and though its tail was held high in the manner she assumed meant it was ready to fight it made no move to harm her, only grumbling and making a higher pitched sound that put her in the mind of a complaining child. “Happy to see me, ain’t ya?” she asked it with a small smile, careful not to come within range of its claws.
With her earplugs in, it was harder to guess at her own volume, and her voice carried to where the temblor and custom balgor had continued their game.
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Post by Alma on Jul 4, 2021 21:15:13 GMT -6
Hektor was the first to notice, sliding to a halt and sending stones skipping away from her as she heard the familiar voice. Farida continued to run a few more meters with the toy in her mouth before she realized her sister had stopped the chase, only risking slowing her run to a jog as she looked back to see what Hektor was planning. She had enough of a lead that she could easily avoid any leaps the custom balgor could make, but keeping said lead was important to keeping the ball of weeds firmly in her mouth. And even though she was tired now, not the tiredness of the meat that had numbed her tongue and spread through her head but the normal one of protesting muscles and shorter breaths, she was not willing to give up the ball just yet.
Seeing the custom balgor staring off at something that was not her or the ball did put a damper on that will, and she strolled closer, ball still in mouth, to see what it was Hektor had seen. Af first, she believed it to be just the strange balgor again, the intruder having done something to challenge Hektor. Then she saw the human, their human, approaching the strange balgor and the ball of weeds fell from her mouth to bounce across the floor.
The miasma balgor barely noticed the other two balgor, barely noticed the strained tone of the human either as it approached her. This was her chance to go home.
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