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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:52:04 GMT -6
Uneasiness morphed into annoyance, and Hektor snarled at Balboa, the miasma balgor seeming a just target for the feelings that refused to leave her. It did not morph into a complete rage, and so the custom balgor had been willing to content herself with a single swipe at her sisters legs, the claws carefully kept hidden. In Balboa’s panic, the blow was a strike of the large-eyed beast, another of its ilk right behind her, and so she struck out with her tusks.
Seeing her sister turn on her, the glint of the dagger-like tusks as they swung towards her head, Hektor’s annoyance turned to surprise. A tusk struck deep into her thick mane, scraping the skin underneath as Hektor kicked at the ground in an attempt to dodge. She saw the eyes of her sister, larger that they had ever been and focused elsewhere, heard Balboa’s pants as the miasma balgor opened her mouth wide and let a river of drool fall from her mouth to sizzle on the plants below. Hektor swatted at her sister as she backed away from the acid, her own eyes widening in confusion.
The girl outside the cage cursed, looking over to Alma, to the book held tightly in gloved hands. When her words failed to gain the attention of her employer, the girl called out a command to the thundergug. With a hint of defiance, it, waiting a moment for the carrot in it’s mouth to vanish, then lifted up its feet and began to stomp.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:52:58 GMT -6
The noise shook the room, shaking the inside of chests so that even Alma’s earplugs could not keep it muted, sending all three balgor cringing regardless of how uninterested they were in the thundergug before. Farida picked her bone back up, ears flat against the sides of her head as she snarled at it for interrupting her meal. Hektor roared after it, letting loose her fury and confusion and unease all at once, pointing her muzzle at the thundergug while keeping her eyes locked onto her nearer sister. And Balboa flinched away from both sounds, her eyes focusing on Hektor as she heard the reproach in the roar. Had she almost attacked her own?
The girl gave off her own imitation of the thundergug as she stomped her way over to Alma, kicking the reading woman in the shins when she did not immediately look up at her. A gentle kick, more like what could be charitably called a hard nudge for the payment was not yet fully in her pocket and the law looked poorly upon those who assaulted their men, but enough that it made the scarred woman curse and look up. The girl mimed pulling out the earplugs, and swore at Alma the moment they were out, still gently, of course. Alma was instructed to watch her beasts, that the girl would not be held responsible for them mauling each other because Alma wanted to save a few credits, and then she had stomped back to her post to read her own magazine.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:53:59 GMT -6
Annoyance melted into disinterest as Balboa cringed before Hektor, the custom balgor satisfied that the miasma balgor had decided to halt whatever silliness had gotten into her. Then Balboa moved, a still-legged run that sent her stumbling over other bones that had been scattered along the cage and marked with teeth. Hektor readied a snarl, lifting her lips to show her teeth, when she realized Balboa was starting at something beyond her. The sprint had ended as suddenly as it had began, the miasma balgor’s legs quivering under it at it coughed a pathetic roar. The noise caused Farida to look up at the pair, and Hektor turned her own her to see what the miasma balgor was trying to warn them of.
She did not see anything beyond the fat beast. Farida returned to her bone, but Hektor looked for a few seconds more, trying to pick out what threat her sister had seen. Was it hiding on the cage bars, lurking somewhere behind the lumbering plant eater? The miasma balgor just stared, making her pathetic coughing roar as Hektor walked up beside her.
It took her longer than it should have to realize the fat lizard was the threat, and Hekotr began to huff her amusement. That thing? She yawned deeply in Balboa’s path, leaving her eyes closed for added insult. Then, seeing Balboa’s eyes dart onto her instead, she turned her back on the beast, flicking her tail once in its direction as a wave, and lazily walked back to her bone.
Alma watched, glancing back the the girl and their magazine more than once.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:55:22 GMT -6
She chuckled as she watched Hektor walk away, the balgor seeming to walk a little taller as she watched, a little slower as though to give the path she took careful consideration. There was no sign of injury in the custom balgor, Farida showing no signs of injury as she chewed on a bone that held no significance to Alma for a moment, and Balboa was quivering as expected. What had the girl been on about?
But that question did not hold her attention long, her gaze sliding back to the bone, and then down to her book as the thoughts returned. She would listen, she decided as she returned to a fantastical description of an island filled with talking birds, not seeing as Hektor slumped slightly before plopping back down next to the bone.
Balboa had thought to watch the great beast while Hektor fled, holding it off for a few precious seconds before fleeing with her sisters to a place free of giant-eyes monsters. But the exaggerated motions of the custom balgor had caught her eye, kept her glancing away from the beast to stare in open-mouthed shock as Hektor displayed how little she cared about the beast. She turned back to glare at where it had been, turned her head more to find it walking as it chewed on some orange bone with plants growing out of the end. She dared to look at her sisters again, both giving all their attention to the bones they held, not even glancing up when a particularly loud crack from the beast sent Balboa hopping back.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:56:14 GMT -6
Fear remained as constant a companion to her as it had the day she first set eyes upon her sisters, but now curiosity came to fight it. It was weak, a prodding that sent her creeping along after the thing only when she could no longer see the great drooping shapes it had for eyes. But her sisters had seen the beast, and they had scoffed at it, turning away to focus their attention on bones as if the thing out there would not smash their own. Balboa stalked after it, weeds catching on her mane to dull its vibrant green with that of their own as she held herself close to the ground. Her legs protested every step, tensed and ready for her to leapt up and run from the beast and her sister’s foolishness. But she followed.
She watched the beast dip its head down, grabbing mouthfuls of green and purple and gold along with other colors. She sniffed for a scent of blood, for a sign of what manner of creature the beast now fed on, but all she could smell was the crisp smell of broken green plants, the dusty scent of dried weeds that would snap beneath her paws. It took a second circuit around the cage, legs protesting the exercise rather than her curiosity this time, before it occurred to her that the beast ate plants.
Was that why Hektor gnawed on the bone without so much as a look at the thing shaking the plants around her with every step? Was that why Farida turned her back on the thing as she sought a better place to lay down?
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:57:05 GMT -6
Plant eater. Now that she knew the scents, she could recognize them. There was still the musky smell that came from the things pebbled hide, but the smell of gas, of something that ate only that which did not bleed, was apparent. It was like the beasts they had hunted together, though larger than any trumpeting snack. And its eyes, those eyes marked it as larger than even the beast they had taken down most recently, the large one that they had feasted on together instead of one claiming it for herself. No, it would not eat her, and she started to follow it a little taller, mane no longer dragged against the weeds. What did she have to be afraid of with this beast?
Then came a shrill sound that made her snort as it hurt her ears. Her sisters turned to look at the source at the same moment she did, picking out a human that was not theirs. Farida and Hektor turned back to their treats, but Balboa took a step towards it, wondering why a human, a wrong human, would wander into their territory. She could see the correct one if she turned her head, their one, but the intruding human was staring a challenge. She would gladly meet that challenge.
But the ground began to quake as the beast reminded her of its presence, and all the knowledge that she had gained dropped away. It was a plant eater, but it was big and fast and the sound of its feet as it charged around the cage made Balboa want to collapse to the ground in fear.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:57:46 GMT -6
She did not.
She curled her tail around her shaking legs to protect them should the creature burst through the bars and strike with its tusk to cripple her, the tops of her ears pinned themselves to her skull as she watched the beast with wide eyes, but she did not collapse. She watched it run, finding herself unable to look away, and her eyes passed over the lounging forms of her sisters, Hektor too busy to even give her a look. The creature began to slow, and she stood taller, legs no longer shaking in a quake of their own. Her sisters were not afraid, so why should she be?
Another shrill sound came from the wrong human, but Balboa’s newfound bravery did not extend to her looking away from the behemoth. And when it started to run away, shaking apart her very world, she cringed much like she had done before. But she held herself a little farther from the ground, her body shaking a little less out of fear. And if she still watched the thundering beast with eyes held open wide enough that one could imagine the whole orb popping free, who would judge her?
Alma watched now, finger held between the pages of her book to mark where she had been reading. She could remember most of the tale so far, the story every bit as swashbuckling as the cover had promised, and the constant shaking of the floor had prompted her to see how the balgor were doing.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:58:39 GMT -6
Hektor and Farida were proving how well they had learned not to be frightened of intimidating beasts, or at least, not if there was a wall of metal bars between them. The custom did glance up every once in a while, mostly quick looks at the miasma balgor before dragging her prize out of Balboa’s path. Farida showed no interest in thundergug or balgor, her interest in the bone replaced by some ball of weeds that had escaped Balboa’s attention.
Balboa was the only one reacting strongly to the horned beast, though Alma swore the miasma balgor was getting better. Balboa still cringed at every run, stepping back when the markings on the thundergug’s head were visible to her, but she seemed to sink a little less towards the ground each time, seemed to recover a little quicker each time. The miasma balgor started to follow the beast after one of these, her cringe on that occasion being little more than draping her tail across herself until the larger beast had passed. It was a slow jog that the beast easily outpaced when it was given the command to run, and the miasma balgor had fallen behind as it took off on its circuit.
But, with the corners of the cage and the turns the wall required, the thundergug always slowed. And during one of these runs, the whistle of the girl making Alma regret having taken out her earplugs, the miasma balgor began to chase the thundergug, bounding after it with all of her speed.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 9:59:22 GMT -6
The need to hunt sang in Balboa’s heart, gave strength to her tired legs. The goliath, the beast, the plant eater was fleeing from her, and she chased it with almost the same zeal she normally approached the trumpeting things with. They ran together, prey and predator, the beast gaining ground on the straightaways only to lose it at the corners. What should she care of size as her paws slapped against stone and plant, the prey in sight and running as was natural.
She heard the word human make more noise, ignored it. For her human, the one who fed her and brought them toys, she might have stopped to hear the sounds, puzzled out a meaning from their repetition. This one warranted no such honor.
But the prey was turning, its mighty eyes looking down at her with the same pitiless stare as it stomped its feet, sound crashing against her in waves. Her legs felt weak again, wanting to fall beneath her as though she was a gutted trumpeter, but she tried to hold them still, matching the glare of the beast with a weaker one of her own.
And when she worried that she would fall, she found a warm body pressed to either side, felt the rumblings in their chests that invited her to do the same. Together they opened their jaws and let forth such a sound that she could not hear the beast’s stomping, a rumbling that surely could shake the ground more violently than any stomp.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 10:00:12 GMT -6
Had she only started paying attention now, Alma would have thought the thundergug unimpressed by the balgor’s display. It snorted, the sound loud enough that Alma could easily hear it as she pulled her fingers away from her ears, then turned to resume its walk. However, Alma had seen it pause in its attempt to crack the concrete beneath its feet, the way it leaned back without ever taking a step as though the roar was a physical force it had to fight its way through.
The balgor had seen it too.
Balboa hung back the farthest of the three when they took to chasing the beast around the perimeter, falling back half a step whenever the girl called out a command and the beast faced them with its crest, sometimes charging at the bars to send the balgor scattering away from the bars. But it always stopped before it could collide, and the balgor never fled far, watching the thundergug from a small distance with calculating eyes. Then the thundergug would turn, and the balgor would stalk along behind it.
Hektor was the first to lose interest in the chase. The custom balgor let her sisters pass her as she stopped by the trough, drinking her fill before walking to a comfortable-looking spot and laying down. Farida soon copied her, drenching the lower part of her mane as she drank and finding a spot near Hektor to lay down.
Both were asleep while Balboa panted, swatting at the cage bars when the thundergug wandered near.
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Post by Alma on Jul 9, 2021 10:00:57 GMT -6
But the miasma balgor’s interest in the thundergug began to fade as her energy waned, and soon she was reduced to watching the thundergug as it stomped along the outside of the cage, fresh as it had been from the moment it had first gotten there.
Which, Alma thought, was a convincing argument to pick one up. Her current beasts of burden would not have been so fresh after hours of thundering around a course, and the idea of obtaining something new easily shoved aside the thoughts of the beast she had lost.
The girl called out one more command, and this one had the thundergug walk up to the cage, crest in full display of the panting miasma balgor who sat there. When it reached the bars and stopped, beady eyes regarding the balgor as Balboa’s focused on the lurid eyes of its crest, the balgor just yawned. Then the thundergug was away and the miasma balgor was on the move again, this time in the opposite direction. Her leisurely stroll ended at the trough, the miasma balgor lapping up her share of the water, and then she went to lay down by her sisters.
“Aight, think they’ve got it now,” Alma said, standing up and dusting invisible dirt off of her pants. The girl got up as well, calling the thundergug over as they made their way to the doorway. Alma escorted the pair out of the kennel, exchanging minor pleasantries and complimenting the thundergug’s endurance, though the girl made some barbed comment about her needing to pay more attention to her balgor. She let it slide, more puzzled than annoyed, and paid the girl before the pair left.
[Balboa-Hardy End?]
[Balboa-17.0, Hektor-41.0, Farida-41.0, Alma-257.9]
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Post by Alma on Jul 10, 2021 1:00:39 GMT -6
“Crunch.” It was a simple word, a simple command that demanded one simple act from the balgor. Alma had expected Balboa to pick it up fairly quickly as it was the creature’s primary way of dealing with the toys and beasts in her cage, the human banishing that last part of her thought with a shake of her head. She had brought just as many stakes as she had before for when she trained the pair, the half-melted toys that she had to constantly clear of the the cage evidence that the force of the miasma balgor’s bite was not all she had to watch out for, and had carried them to where Balboa lay chewing on a bone. Alma had pushed the first of the stakes through the bars, prodding the miasma balgor and earning a rumble as she called out the word. But the miasma balgor had not been the only one in the cage. [Balboa-Crunch Start]
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Post by Alma on Jul 10, 2021 1:01:16 GMT -6
With a few less whole stakes than she had brought in, Alma dropped the last of them by the quarantined Balboa, the miasma balgor separated from the rest of the cage and her sisters by a large steel gate. “Aight, let’s try that again.” Alma laughed at the memory of the other two balgor shoving aside Balboa to crunch at the sticks, the miasma balgor only sitting and watching Farida and Hektor breaking the stakes in half, jaw dropping as she saw the treats they were thrown.
“Now yer gonna get a chance. Crunch!” Alma poked the stake through the bars, wiggling it around in the air by Balboa’s head, the miasma balgor only staring at the bar in confusion. “Come on now, you saw the other two. Crunch!” The miasma balgor leaned forward to sniff the stake just as Alma shoved her hand through the bars, resulting in the stick clacking against her tusk. With a rumble of annoyance, Balboa bit it.
[Balboa-Crunch 2]
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Post by Alma on Jul 10, 2021 1:01:52 GMT -6
The miasma balgor had not understood the game at first when the stick had come through the bars, watching in confusion as her sisters had broken the sticks and been given treats. Even now she was unsure, and so her bite was a light one as she tried not to ruin the stick with her full force. It was their human’s stick after all.
“Close enough,” Alma said as the balgor released it, the stick hissing as it spat a small stream of smoke from where Balboa had bit it. The stick broke along the tooth marks as she tried to pull it free of the cage, so Alma tossed her end to finish hissing on the concrete. A quick and happy “Good girl,” accompanied a thrown treat, the miasma balgor catching it with a look of surprise. “Yeah, it’s that easy, lady. Jus’ gotta break the stick fer a treat.” Alma picked up the next stick. “Just with maybe a bit more force this time? Dunno how dependable yer acid’s gonna be.” [Balboa-Crunch 3]
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Post by Alma on Jul 10, 2021 1:02:45 GMT -6
“Crunch,” Alma ordered the balgor as she stabbed the stick between the bars, and Balboa nipped at the stake again, gently closing her mouth around the other end. Alma was not sure what the miasma balgor intended as she held the stick, whether the beast would try to pull the stake deeper into the cage or simply let the acid do its work, but neither would be right. She bellowed, “Crunch,” and the balgor did just that with wide eyes, shattering the weakened wood in a small showed of acid and splinters.
More praise and another treat followed the successful attempt, the balgor almost appearing to be thoughtful as she slowly chewed the lump of meat. Alma waited until it was gone, then picked up another stick to jab at the balgor with, giving the same command of crunch as the stick passed through the bars. It took another few seconds of cajoling, the stick wiggling and the command repeated in a weaseling tone, before the balgor crunched the end of the stick as she had done the others. [Balboa-Crunch 4]
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