"Let's Play a Game!" (Thomas McTavish)

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Surpy joined her friend on the ground, crossing her legs and folding her two pairs of arms in her lap. Her feathers remained rather poofed, still nervous.

"Modesty, of course. Pride gets you killed." Her eyes watched as the Acolytes escorted the Champions to another hut where they would be allowed a rest. She then looked at Thomas again. "How are your champions doing? Training well, I'm sure. Ah...And your caves are impressive! What were those glowing stones? So shiny. I wouldn't mind some to brighten up the trees here.."

She giggled. Shiny things were fascinating. Birdlike, perhaps. She hummed to herself momentarily, imagining the canopies aglow with dots of light, like the distant stars but more tangible. Ahh, it'd be beautiful.
 
"My champions are doing well. Having trouble with strategy, though. They like to rush in and conquer their foes quickly, forgetting that the Daemons are faster and stronger than them, and then they lose the fight. Lots of improvement needed there. Otherwise, they're fine."

He tried thinking of a name for the stones he had placed in his caves for light, up until this point not having a name for them. "I'm thinking of calling them Dragoneye Stones. They're crystals that absorb radiation from the sun, then emit it through the caves, the collected energy moving from crystal to crystal all throughout the network. I can have my people dig out some and then your people can bring them here and use them all over your tree village. Which, by the way, is quite impressive. I would never have the patience or level of imaginative intricacy to weave the vines and branches like you have here."

He sat up, smiling.
 
Pride swelled in the Avatar's breast, her feathers fluffing. She smiled and looked up at the branches, the vines. She hummed quietly.

"I've been thinking about colorful things in the middle of all of this training... Like... Flowers. Or birds. Or flower-birds."

She nodded, and pulled a few leaves close to their seated forms. She shaped the leaves into petals, then wings. Wings that looked like petals. Then the colors flooded in, bright pinks, blues, purples. The feathers became a more defined shape, a beak protruded from the face, brilliant yellow eyes staring from either side of the orange beak. It let out a squawk, loudly, and hopped around, testing its wings.

"Have you created small creatures for your caves?" Surpy asked, touching the young flird with one of her four hands. "I'm sure with the glow-stones, you could have so many interesting, glowy creatures!"
 
Thomas tapped his chin, thinking. He reached into a bag he had brought with him and pulled a small piece of Dragoneye Stone from it. He crushed it, turning it into dust. he added a small amount of water and turned it into a glowing clay-like substance and began molding. Inspired by Surpy's flower-bird, he took some of the surrounding wood and combined the two to make an odd little creature with wings of skin given structure by long fingers on hands. It had holes in the sides of it's head for hearing, large eyes and flat teeth in the back, chisel like teeth in the front, and four sharp fangs on the top and bottom jaws. It's chest glowed, pulsating with the beat of it's heart, with glowing, bone protrusions from it's back. It had two shorter arms under the pits of it's wing arms, and clawed legs. He plucked a small fruit from a branch protruding nearby and gave it to the creature. It bit in and began sucking the juice from the fruit, then ate the dry flesh and squeaked happily.

"Think you could make some kind of fruit to grow in the caves so that these may eat them? The flowers would look pretty in there, I think." he asked his friend, petting his new creation.
 
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"Cave fruit?" Surpy tilted her head, then looked up at some of her own fruit. She reached up and touched just one, then leaned down and scooped some leaves and dirt into a neat pile. She looked up at Thomas. "Do you have any more of that glowing stone?"

As she waited, she began forming the fruit, a pear shape. Sharp edges, almost like stone. Something that can protect itself, blending into the caverns. It would probably grow from roots, something that could reach far into the dirt and stone. She began working more leaves and dirt, creating intricate root systems, more of these fruit, and an anchor for these roots to cling into the ceiling with. She looked up, almost expectantly, for the Dragonseye Stone powder.
 
While she had been forming the odd fruit, Thomas swept up the remaining Dragoneye Stone powder and pulled another small piece of the stone from his bag, crushed it and mixed the two. In his hand was a glowing pile of dust. He handed it to her as she looked up, a curious look on his face as he looked at the strange, sharp looking fruit. His new pet looked at it, as well, seeming to be stuck between the thoughts of "what is that?" and "how can I eat that?". It flapped it's wings and looked up at Thomas, then back to Surpy and her new fruit.
 
Surpy smiled, and took the dust, sprinkling it over the fruit and the roots. The result was simply a sparkling, not a constant, or pulsing, glow. It shimmered softly. She smiled, dusted her hands off, and held up one fruit to Thomas. It looked hard, but, to demonstrate, she dug a claw into the flesh of the fruit. It gave easily, and a pale pink juice began to seep through the tear in the skin. She offered it to the creature.

"How's that?" She asked, smiling.
 
Thomas watched as his pet gleefully took the fruit with it's short lower arms and drained the fruit, and ate it. It squeaked gleefully and waddled over to Surpy, nuzzling against her hand.

"Perfect. These will look great in the caves!" said he, picking a few and placing them in his bag. He stood and dusted himself off. " Alright, I think it's time to get back to work. Call your Champions in."
 
Surpy nodded, standing. She moved to the door of the hut, letting out a series of trilling clicks. Her Champions returned, followed by the acolytes. They seemed rested, prepared to continue. They stood where the training 'grounds' were, prepared.

Surpy returned to Thomas's side, folding her four arms in her lap. "They are ready to begin again." She gave a nod, her lips tilted in a smile.
 
Seeing the champions ready and well rested, he called up the illusions again. It seemed the Champions didn't back off this time, instead taking a more prepared fighting stance. Thomas nodded. He let out a growl and barked, and the Daemon illusions attacked, one at a time, each defeated quicker this time. He made them attack over and over again, repeating until they defeated each flawlessly, and occasionally two at a time. They worked well together and alone, analyzing the mistakes of the others so they did not repeat them.

"Take a five minute rest, and then we begin the Hellrun condition training, first without Daemons today, so you get used to the conditions, and then with next practice, so you can learn how to fight properly in Hellrun."

He let them rest, watching as his pet flew around, to land on his shoulder, and squeaked happily, then hopped over to Surpy's shoulder. He smiled.

"Alright, stand in the center of the room."

When they did, he raised his hands, bringing up illusions of the cold, hard, grey stone walls of Hellrun. Here they would stay and explore for an hour or two each day, practicing being quiet and making fire in caverns, making themselves comfortable with the conditions they would face in Hellrun.
 
The feathered Avatar was pleased, so excited. She watched, clapping her hands as each Daemon was dispatched, and her champions triumphant. There were a few that were lagging behind a little, but they all did well. She was distracted by the flying creature that crawled onto her shoulder, and she giggled as she pet it. Her Flird, as she would later call it, was hopping about, shaking its petal-feathers. It chirped, much like the Second Race was able to do, and curled up. Once curled, it looked like a brilliantly colored flower. Camouflage!

Surpy watched as the walls rose in the hut, leaning back in surprise. "An hour? Will the hut be large enough? It won't hinder the illusion any, will it? Being such a small size?"
 
Thomas thought a moment. That had never occurred to him.

"Good point. I'll take down the illusion, and we'll go down to the ground to do it, make it bigger, and more like the actual Hellrun."

He waved his hands down and the walls fell. Grabbing his bag, he walked to the door way and dropped down, landing just as he did when he jumped from his high cave. "Come on!" he called, and waited for Surpy and her Champions to reach the ground.

Once they were all there, he positioned them in pairs, and raised the illusion again, this one several times larger than the one in the hut. Since night had fallen, it was colder, as well, and darker. It would be worse in Hellrun, though. He called into the Labyrinth, manipulating his voice so he could be understood, and told them that they will spend an hour in there, and then he would let the illusion drop. He stepped back and started tracking the time.
 
Being on the ground was something her people weren't terribly accustomed to. And the potential predators made her nervous, for her Champions. But it didn't seem like anything would be bothering them, and the Hellrun duplicate was erected as night fell. She waited with bated breath, her eyes staring at the walls that she didn't care to see around. Stealth was one of her peoples' strong points, though, so she wasn't terribly worried about them. Moving through branches was a tricky deal, so moving silently was something they were good at doing. Too many shaking branches attracted the attention of unwanted predators. The feathered Avatar stood near Thomas, staring blankly at the walls.

"Your champions will do the same?" She asked softly, still wary of the 'outside world'.
 
Thomas nodded.

"If I'm correct my Priests are having them do it now. I taught them a little reality manipulation, so they can create the illusions well enough. And, quit worrying about predators. Nothing will enter a place that reeks of death like that in search of prey."

He sat down in the soft sand, continuing to stare blankly at the walls. "They'll be fine, if they don't go insane. Then we have a problem. I doubt they will though, your people are very intelligent and well controlled."
 
Surpy remained standing for a moment longer, still staring at the walls. Then she decided to sit next to Thomas. She dug little patterns in the dirt with one claw.

"Ah... Thank you. I suppose I should spend some time getting to know your people better, as well. They are very... Pretty to look at, from afar." She giggled. Honestly, she'd only seen the First Race when they were created, and every now and then when they hunt. The first time seeing them up close were when she journeyed to the caves. "So, Thomas... Are you enjoying it here as much as I am?"

She looked at him again, finishing her drawing. Just swirls, mimicry of vines in the sand.
 
Thomas looked over to Surpy, watching her draw in the sand.

"If you want to get to know my people, you should visit the caves sometime. The way the light reflects on the Dragoneye Stones at sunset is magnificent, it casts a lightshow on the walls all throughout the network." He looked at her as she looked up at him and finished her drawing. "I am. This was a very good idea, Surpy. I couldn't have stood the boredom any longer if we hadn't." he laughed and shook his fur. "It's a lot of fun, creating a world." he said, smiling.
 
The four-armed avatar smiled and looked away. To distract herself, she began drawing in the sand again. This hour was going by so slowly.

"I'm sure you would've figured something out. I'm definitely not the only one to have thought of doing something like this. It would've come to you eventually." She trilled, very sure of this. "Although, I don't know why more of us up there don't do this. Living as a... corporeal entity is exhilarating. It's exciting, to see things differently, from a solid perspective. To actually... touch things. To feel the sand, the leaves, the bark, the stone.."

She sighed, then laid flat on her back, staring up at the stars.

"It was so quiet up there, nothing but ourselves. Nothing to interact with, to effect directly. Nothing to really be proud of. This way, at least, we have a legacy! Creatures that will populate a whole planet, and grow, and develop, and change. And we get to watch it all, and be a part of it as long as we'd like!"

Her attention suddenly shifted to the towering walls of the illusory Hellrun. Her brow creased, and two of her hands clenched as she sat up again. Maybe it was that motherly intuition hitting again. She just felt like something was terribly wrong with one of her Champions. She chewed her lip, eyes searching the wall as though it would tell her what was happening.

"I don't believe they are prepared for this just yet.." she murmured quietly, smothering her intense desire to crash the illusion and rescue her 'baby'.
 
Thomas nodded. Something did feel a little off about the area. He Made the illusion transparent from one way, so they could see in and watch the Champions, but it remained the same for the Champions themselves. The tall, dark stone faded to become crystal clear glass, seen through almost as easy as the air itself, the glint of the moonlight and lack of wind being the only indicator of it's existence in the sand.
 
Once able to see, it was evident that her Champions hadn't made very much progress at all. They had a single torch, and a few were huddled near each other, staring into the darkness at things they couldn't see. One had been separated from the group, and was definitively curled in a ball. Surpy bit her lip, looking away.

"How much longer do they have?" She asked softly, looking back at Thomas. It pained her to see her people struggling so.
 
"Twenty minutes. I can drop it early, though, if you wish." he watched them, and it made him sad. He knew it was horrible in there, he created it, but only they knew what was going on in their minds. He knew that the mind can amplify problems and fears all too well.
 
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