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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:26:24 GMT -6
The beast inside of it had its jaws open as if it was trying to consume the world, prancing in very much the same way as the custom had been. However, where the custom had shown off its skinny tail and rear end, this one had its blue eyes focused on the doorway. Alma fancied she could make out the pupils as they dropped down to look at her sprawled out on the ground, the white fur and grey stripes surrounding them only serving to make the eyes seem to glow.
“Farida!” The temblor balgor tilted her head back upwards to roar at the door as Alma laughed. “I spent all those credits on a fancy ghost, and yer the one I went with?” Farida roared again, ignoring the giggling human. “Wha, I’m not worth roarin’ at? Only interested in my large carts, huh?” The custom roared, interrupting Alma’s words, the temblor balgor waiting until the echoes of the first had faded away to respond.
Alma pushed herself back and upright, looking at the pair of carts that had turned out not to have been a waste. “Time to get to work, carts. They ain’t going to be brotherly, er, sisterly without a good meal.”
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:26:35 GMT -6
It was not fair to play favorites between the two, but Alma figured any fancy custom she had purchased would be fine waiting a few extra minutes. And, well, she could trust Farida to go after the cartful of meat instead of the humanful that would be pushing it. Alma grabbed the nearer of the two carts and pushed it into the doorway, calling out in a cheerful tone that the roaring balgor had no respect for, “Hey, Farida! Got ya some nums.” The balgor glanced at her as she entered, turning to roar at the doorway again as Alma was ignored. “C’mon now, you get food first. That’s gotta make you happy.”
Alma walked along the massive bars until she came to the gate, watching the balgor as she continued chatting away. “Fancy cage, yeah? Got this nice minigate, just big enough to slide this-” Her words cut off as she grunted, the edges of the cart catching on the edges of the gate. The sound of squeaking metal and the smell of fresh blood finally seemed to distract the temblor balgor from her unseen enemy, and Alma redoubled her efforts as Farida drew nearer. “Get in there, you stupid metal bastard.”
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:27:01 GMT -6
With one last shove on the last grunted word, the cart screeched into the cage, wheels promptly catching on some rock or weed, and meat sprung from it like rats on a sinking ship as it tumbled onto its side. Farida was at it a heartbeat later, her back to Alma as the latter wrestled the smaller gate back into place. When the lock clicked and the a quick rattle of the gate proved it to be firmly stuck in place, Alma looked up at the balgor. Farida glanced down at the meat, then back up as the custom’s roar erupted into the room. Alma pleaded with the balgor as she saw Farida tense up. “C’mon, yah two must have been roaring for literal hours by now. Just ignore her. Eat the food.”
Farida turned her great square of a head towards Alma, and the human swallowed. “No, not me. The food,” she said, pointing at the overturned cart beside the balgor. The beast moved closer to the cage bars, sniffing at Alma as the latter pointedly stared at the food. With a loud sniff, Farida raised her head to let off one final roar that Alma was not certain the earplugs did much to stop, then turned to start eating the spilled meat. She did not react to the roars that followed.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:27:12 GMT -6
Watching the balgor eat reminded Alma that she had rushed over without even a piece of cheese, and she turned away from Farida with a sudden burst of energy. Right, she would see that the two of them got their first part of the meal, go eat, then she would go do some chores and enjoy her newest story outside to birdsong.
She grabbed the second cart, noticing that the roars of the custom seemed oddly quieter. With a small prayer that the temblor balgor’s final roar had not managed to break through the defense of the earplugs completely, Alma pushed the second cart into the other room.
Where the temblor balgor had seen and dismissed Alma, the custom seemed to fixate on her the moment she stepped into the room. It, or rather, she, roared with her eyes firmly locked on Alma, her head tilting downward a moment later. The custom balgor’s lips raised in a strange grin, tongue sticking out as if to taunt Alma, and it made a huffing noise as the cart rolled closer. Then her face dropped into what Alma thought of as the normal expression for balgor, or at least the one that was not accompanied by painful noise.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:27:25 GMT -6
Alma might have been happy about the quickness that the custom balgor had stopped roaring compared to Farida’s if not for the balgor’s choice to follow her path along the bars. The custom balgor reached the mini gate at the same second she did, and paused there as her eyes darted between the balgor’s claws, the gate and the trolley full of meat.
She took a few steps forward, and the balgor followed. A few quick steps back saw the same result. Bracing herself behind the cart, Alma pushed it as hard as she could, trying to take off at a run to the next gate, only to find the balgor easily trotting alongside her the entire distance. The cart refused to let her easily change whether she went forwards or backwards, a chunk of meat wobbling it’s way free after a hard turn that saw the trolley balanced on only two wheels. Alma walked back to the gate nearest the door, informing the custom that, “You ain’t gettin’ any food unless yah give me some space. Go roar a bit. Please.”
The custom showed no interest in obeying, watching the meat as the cart squeaked over the concrete floor. Alma paused to pick up a fallen chunk of meat.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:27:36 GMT -6
She was holding the slimy pink thing at arm's length, trying to hold it by the piece of bone it clung to when there was a loud ringing noise behind her. Alma jumped, spinning back to see the custom balgor swatting at the bars separating her from the meat with outstretched claws. The sudden movement startled the balgor, and she roared at Alma. Panicked by the large roaring thing with big claws, Alma shouted and acted purely on defensive instinct, and threw the piece of meat at the balgor’s gaping mouth.
And missed. Horribly. The meat went sailing over the custom balgor’s head, spinning through the air to slap against on of the larger rocks in the cage. The balgo watched the meat as it went, seemingly too surprised to snap it out of the air or pounce on it the moment it hit the rock. The balgor looked back at Alma with what she interpreted as absolute confusion, and she struggled to gain control of the situation. “Uh. Yeah! Go eat that.”
It was not the most inspired speech, nor was the hand waving in the direction of the meat very commanding, but the balgor turned away from her all the same. She mentally begged Farida not to start roaring again.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:27:58 GMT -6
The temblor balgor made no sound, at least as far as she could tell with the earplugs still in place, and Alma shoved the cart back into position by the gate. Alma could hear the custom balgor snapping the bone as she ate, and the speed with which she got the gate open was nothing less than a blessing as she saw the balgor start to stand back up.
With a threat to the cart, the metal carrier of meat slid through the mini gate with none of the problems of the first, even managing to roll a few more feet before it crashed and spilled meat everywhere. The custom balgor had hopped back when the cart entered, and Alma had a quick giggle as she yanked the gate shut and locked it. The custom looked at the cart and its bounty of meat, then back at Alma, the latter shrugging and saying, “Better eat. Have a feeling you’ve got a lot of-”
Whatever she thought the custom had a lot of was drowned out as the temblor balgor started roaring once more. The custom roared back, spraying food as Alma skipped back out of range of the projectile slime, then the balgor ducked her head down to snap up more of the meat.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:28:18 GMT -6
“Right. I’ll leave you two to it.” The custom ignored her, glaring at the open doorway as if the other balgor could be forced to appear in it by the custom’s will alone, then ducked down her head to the spilled meat. The custom balgor angled her body so that her head was always facing that doorway while she ripped and tore the meat to a swallowable size, one paw resting on the upraised cart as though she thought the other balgor might come and steal her ‘kill’.
Alma had a moment of silence for the cart, wondering how she would manage to retrieve it. Customs were known to warm up to their owners a little faster than their more common counterparts, “Not that I think you’re all that common, Farida!” she yelled back as the balgor in question roared, so there was some hope that she might be able to retrieve it in a day or two. Nothing in the pocket guide hinted that balgor ate anything other than meat, and the metal had a decent chance of surviving any curious gnawing.
With one last glance back at the two doorways, Alma left the pair of balgor to their shouting match and meal.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:28:30 GMT -6
Alma had a lovely day other than the fact that she had to return to the kennels every few hours to ensure the doors had not slammed shut and cut the two balgor off from one another, or that the two balgor had not manifested some unknown elemental power and had escaped to fight the other one. The first few visits were quieter than the beginning of the day had been, the balgor only having roared three times on her most recent check up. Two of those belonged to the custom, the first quieter than the normal, chest-vibrating roars Alma had come to expect, the second making her glad she had decided to wear the earplugs despite the balgor’s becoming less noisy. Farida responded to that one with a rumble of her own, and Alma watched as the custom tilted her head to one side as the echoes of the response faded. When the custom chose to wander off to the far side of her cage instead of roaring back, Alma figured she could move onto the next step of her plan.
Just in case it was a one off though, Alma took another few hours to enjoy her current book and some fresh fruit that had recently popped back up in the trading posts.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:28:43 GMT -6
It was night before she returned to the balgor again, pulling along a flat cart with two carefully paper-wrapped packages that were larger than she was. A look into the first room, the cage containing Farida, revealed the temblor balgor to be a white lump snoring on some rocks, the rasping noise barely audible through Alma’s earplugs as she walked closer. “Hey, Farida, you awake?”
When there was no response to her whispered question, Alma went back to the hall and dragged the cart into the room with her. The first package was slid off the cart slowly, Alma dropping to her knees as she lowered a flat edge of it to the ground. She untied the twine holding the paper in place, ripping away the paper to reveal the gleaning mirror and metal stand beneath. It took another minute before the stand was propping up the mirror on it’s own, and yet another one of the stand scraping against the floor before Alma was pleased with the angle.
With a glance confirming the temblor balgor had slept through the whole thing, Alma pulled the cart back into the hallway, leaving it there as she stepped into the custom balgor’s room.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:28:54 GMT -6
Hektor, as Alma had decided to call the brown and green furred custom, was curled up by the first gate. Bits of her mane hung out of the cage, the brown hairs sliding silently across the metal as she snored, and Alma silently welcomed her good luck.
The cart was brought in, the second mirror taking less time than the first before it was properly standing, but Alma took an extra minute with the position the mirror faced. She repeatedly walked close to the sleeping balgor, eyes darting away from the sleeping beast for only a second or two to see what was shown in the mirror, then tiptoed back to angle it slightly more or less in a given direction.
When she was done, she could see the white blob that was Farida, the temblor balgor’s likeness suspended in the mirror as the custom balgor’s would be in the other. It was not the perfect solution to letting the pair meet for the first time, that would have meant letting the two meet as kittens and not as fully grown murder cats, but it was the best plan she had. Alma just hoped the balgor would appreciate the work,and get their roaring done before she needed to return.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:29:07 GMT -6
With Farida and Hektor fast asleep, Alma decided it was her turn to get some rest. With one last small adjustment to Farida’s mirror, it’s base sliding just enough so that it did not show as much of a blank wall, Alma left the area with her cart. The cart was deposited back with the rest, sliding out of sight to wherever the magical kennel thing stored them once the metal door slammed down, Alma made her way back to the control room.
The hammock and a slice of pie awaited her, and she leaned against the wall to untie her boots. They slid off with blessed ease, reminding her that the overpriced things had been worth every credit, and she walked over to the control panel. With one last look at the status of all the cages and beasts she owned, she turned the clock display back on and walked over to the heavy door that separated the control room from the rest of the kennel. The thick, soundproof door.
She stared at it, mumbling for a moment as she tapped her chin with one hand, the other one cradling her elbow. She needed to be sure she had a good night sleep, did she not?
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:29:17 GMT -6
With the door shut, the only sounds Alma could hear in the little room were the buzz of the lights, the slight hiss of the vent, and her own voice as she twisted the earplugs free with a sigh of relief. The pie was delicious, the hammock not nearly as uncomfortable as the floor would have been, and the book she read was just engaging enough that she was tempted to stay up and read past her current chapter. When she eventually fell asleep, it was one she felt was well deserved.
Of the two balgor, Farida had gone to sleep first. She had grown up in the cages, never having seen the true sky, and the faintly antiseptic smell that hid beneath the dirt and plants was almost comforting in its familiarity. Finding out another of her kind was nearby had awoken a mix of instincts, and she had both called out to the balgor whose scent she could barely catch and warned them away from her territory. The guide handed out on her species said that her species was a solitary one, and she did want to keep the intruder from her patch of broken stones.
And yet, she was lonely.
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:29:27 GMT -6
The roars from the other had been just as strong as her own, trumpeting to the tiny world she lived in that they had claimed this land, and for all others to leave or face them. Farida had tried, roaring her own challenges and ownership of the cage, but the other balgor never came to face her. The bars, her window into the pale rooms beyond her home, kept her from meeting the challenge of the intruder, and they both had demanded the other come out to face them over and over again.
Her throat had begun to dry as the human appeared, the woman who she remembered from her early days, Farida’s first thought upon hearing the tap of the human’s shoes against the tile that the other balgor had finally responded to her challenge, and she had tried to make herself look as intimidating as possible. But it had only been the human, and though the meat her human had brought her had been a welcome meal, she was disappointed that the balgor did not come to face her.
Eventually, her roars had become half-hearted, her throat sore and her chest numb from the constant rumbling there. Why wouldn’t the other balgor come to face her?
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Post by Alma on Apr 17, 2021 23:29:37 GMT -6
The other stayed as fierce and angry as it had been at the start for a good while longer, but Farida had given up trying to get out and face it. She roared back randomly, when the roars of the other were more like a question than a challenge, but otherwise batted at balls of uprooted plants, chasing them around the cage like a kitten with a ball of yarn. The roars of the other had gradually grown less threatening, and soon the other would rarely roar at all. She called back those few times, once roaring unprompted herself to confirm the other still waited nearby, and it responded a heartbeat after her own.
Then she had gone to sleep, and now she had just woken up, stretching out her front legs and back as she yawned, the expression quite similar to that of her roar. Then her hind legs were stretched out behind her, one at a time, and she looked over at the door to see a thing. She took a step back as she first saw the thing, a rectangular doorway that showed a space like her current one. When a quick bat at the bars did not brush them aside, she lifted her tail and turned away as though there was nothing less interesting than something outside of her cage.
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