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 Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:31 am
Ever since the journey to Christmas Town, Petro had been looking forward for his enrollment to go through. He'd managed to keep in touch with some of the students he met on the trip through Groanspring but there was just something about being able to interact face to face. He'd just finished moving in and with that out of the way, the next item on his itenerary was to familiarize himself with his new surroundings.
Briefly, he instructed his pet starsier to stay put and keep an eye on things. If anything suspicious happened, Petro trusted the winged creature to quickly find him and alert him.
Petro had no idea that just a few feet from the Monster Dorms, he would encounter something suspicious. He heard a rustle nearby, and tensed when his bare skin felt heat. The sudden change in temperature made the tikbalang wary and had him heading towards the temperature anomaly to investigate. Bare feet quietly tried to sneak up and brown eyes widened when he discovered the source.
It was a strange creature that was radiating heat. Then he heard it growl and the strangest feeling that he'd heard that sound somewhere before. Perhaps it was because he'd been reduced to FEAR particles that scattered his memories of CandyCane Lane. But the tikbalang knew he did not like the suspicious feeling he got from being in the creature's presence.
So when it trotted off (and yes, Petro spied the charred piece of wood in the creature's mouth), Petro followed it. Who knew what the creature was up to!
-----
It had been one of those days where DC was too energetic for Amrita to handle (though she couldn't handle him on a lazy day, either), and so she had done what she did on occasion. She took his charred pencil, and stuck it to the nearest slime-like monster. DC saw it as a game, and Amrita saw it as a way to get herself DC-free for a while. Win-win, really!
DC found the pencil near the monster dorms, and the growling Petro heard was the purring from the proud little fire beast once it freed the pencil from the slime...admittedly with a nice little breath of fire. If he was aware he was being followed, he didn't seem to mind at all, and continued trotting on his merry way back to the Undead dorms.
Luckily, Amrita was not inside the dorms, but rather outside of them; she was sitting on a broken pile of rubble that was probably a wall at some point, a book open on her lap. DC let out a loud keen to alert Amrita of his presence, and after jumping with her eyes wide in pure surprise, she frowned at him, too focused on the mini fire beast to notice Petro.
"G-Go away!" She muttered to the creature, who was creeping forward like an excited puppy, the still hot pencil in his jaws.
-----
For a rather tall, barely clothed, monster boil, Petro was doing a good job of being inconspicuous. He kept his eyes trained on the heat-generating creature while maintaining a safe distance. If that thing suddenly turned on him and attacked, well, Petro wanted enough time to prepare to counter. He continued to trail after it, realizing he was near the Undead Dorms and wondering what in Jack's name did it intend to do here. The last thing he expected was to have his hearing assaulted by the creature's loud keen. His hands flew to his ears as he grit his teeth, muttering a curse beneath his breath.
With a shake of his head, he lowered his hands in time to hear a familiar voice tell him to Go away. He knew that voice, didn't he? He was about to do as asked when he once again located the beast and saw it was stalking up to Amrita! Even if the small ghoul's face was only half-fleshy, Petro could see she did not look pleased with the thing. His lips pressed into a grim line and without thinking of the consequences of his actions or whether or not there was an alternate explanation (as he is won't to do), Petro shot forward.
There was a rustle of fabric and a trampling of grass and Petro promptly planted himself between the still-approaching heat beast and Amrita. "Back off," he growled, hands balled into fists, eyes narrowed dangerously, and stance poised to attack.
-----
Amrita and DC had tunnelvision towards each other for entirely different reasons...Petro was able to be very inconspicuous, lucky him!
There was a little stare down between the Undead ghoul and the Fire beast; Amrita looked less than pleased, and DC looked extremely happy; well, as happy as he could. The playful growls and tiny whines sounded terrible, there was no ounce of cute in any noise the cat-sized beast made. However, both were extremely surprised to be interrupted; DC's head tilted, and Amrita found herself staring at a bare back, and hearing a voice she was pretty sure she recalled. ...Petro?! Her joy over seeing the boil again was quickly extinguished as DC started to make his move.
Soon enough the fire beast was over the initial surprise, and took the sudden appearance of the mostly-naked boil as a threat to Amrita. The charred pencil was dropped and the surrounding area seemed to get a little warmer the brighter the veins of lava on his body became. He had started to really growl; it was distinctly different from the terrible purring noises, and it made him sound several times bigger than he was.
Amrita recognized this of course as she'd heard him do it before, and almost instantly she had hopped off the pile of rubble, her book falling uselessly to the ground. She wasted no time in grabbing Petro's arm in her backwards hands, at least trying to pull him back from the fire pet. A difficult task for such a small girl, but she didn't want DC to hurt him!
"NO, DON'T!" Her clinging to the taller boil was enough to make the little beast pause for a moment, though he was clearly unhappy and was soon back to that terrible growling. "D-DC...S-stop! Calm down!" She was trying her best to command the pet as Professor Malcolm taught her, though it didn't seem to be working; Petro still had 'THREAT' practically written across his chest.
-----
The boil considered himself capable of being inconspicuous, especially if he was going to be a future Scout-slash-Hunter for his herd when he came of age. Of course back home he had more foliage with which to hide in and he knew the lay of the land. But even at a disadvantage, hiding was the farthest thing on his mind because as far as he knew, he was right to assume the little beast posed a threat to the undead ghoul. What with the veins of lava on its body becoming noticable, the air growing hotter, and the more dangerous-sounding growls it was making. Combined with his memory of Amrita's adverse reaction to fire and the few snippets he'd read on Groanspring about some beast terrorizing her, Petro wasn't going to let that thing get any closer to her. The tikbalang had his mouth set to a grimace, his brows knitted together, and his eyes glared daggers.
Petro's Game Face. It was so clearly on.
With the ball of one bare foot, Petro pawed at the ground. If this thing wanted a fight, it was going to ge-WHAT JUST GRABBED HIM?! Confusion briefly flickered across his face when he felt hands grip his arm. He angled his head towards the source briefly to find it was Amrita before his eyes darted back to the fire creature. Again, he positioned himself to be between Amrita and the thing, not coming any closer to realizing that said thing was the undead ghoul's pet. Yes, even despite the fact she had mentioned DC's name and was looking at the beast while commanding it to calm down.
"'M not gonna let it hurt y'," he promised to Amrita. He'd failed to protect her from whatever it was that made the big wall of HOT in CandyCane Lane. This was his chance to make up for it and by Jack he was going to make it up to her! "Y' want to get to Amrita, y' gotta go through me," he growled at the cat-sized beast, at least as much as an equine-monster-in-human-form could growl.
-----
DC didn't recognize Petro. As far as the Death Charm was concerned, the boil that was placing himself between him and his owner was a threat...and it didn't help that the tikbalang's bare foot was pawing at the ground, or that the sounds that escaped the boil were warning growls.
"P-Petro, r-really, just, stop, please!" Amrita urged, her voice growing more and more panicked, pulling at his arm in another attempt to get him to listen to her. It seemed, however, her attempts were useless.
The Charm's veins grew red hot, his head rearing back with a deep inhale; with it's mouth slightly open, one could easily see the lick of flames between his jaws, dancing around his sharp teeth. DC didn't have the firepower that his parent did, but it was still a decent amount of flames he released towards Petro's legs, his feet in particular; if he couldn't run, he couldn't take Amrita away!
Amrita noticed the flames then, turning all of her attention from Petro to DC with an absolutely terrified scream, clinging to the boil who had saved her from the fire in Christmastown.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:24 am
Petro mistook Amrita's pleading to mean she wanted them to run from the thing. He was about to tell her he'd hold the beast's attention while she got away when DC opened its maw to reveal: FIRE! The monster boil didn't need to remember Amrita's adverse reaction to it. The scream coming from the undead ghoul was more than proof.
He felt the small ghoul cling to him and would have scooped her into his arm when it became evident that the flames was aimed at his feet. "RUN AMRITA!" he yelled, wrenching his arm free to push the vetala out of harm's way. Having Amrita close to him would only endanger her and Petro was not going to stand for that.
Actually, he wasn't going to stand at all. He lunged for the beast, jumping over the flames but not soon enough to completely avoid the minipet's attack. Fire burned the soles of his feet but he bit back a cry of pain, focusing instead on keeping DC occupied while Amrita got away.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:44 am
As it had happened in Christmastown, Petro managed to save her from the fire. Granted, instead of picking her up and carrying her everywhere, he pushed her. Stumbling to the side, she hit the ground, managing to catch herself with her hands before her head hit the ground; the rest of her wasn't so lucky, but she could barely feel it. One thing ran through her mind, in varying pitches: Fire.
DC, however, was further enraged when this mostly naked boil pushed his owner. The stupid spike-headed thing pushed her! Rolling his shoulders back, he took the lunge of his foe as an opportunity to run under his legs and to get between the crazy attacker and Amrita.
Sadly, Petro's Bahag got in his way.
His awkwardly angled chin caught the end of the boil's loincloth, the very bottom tearing just enough to get stuck on the middle spike of his jaw; the rest of the cloth did a wonderful job of blinding him. Once the initial tug, DC just stopped in his tracks. Just...stopped. There were a few stll moments before he began to flail about; his wings, tail, front legs and head thrashing to try and free himself. Luckily for everyone involved, no more fire spewed from his mouth.
Amrita was still practically useless, and very behind on this sudden change of events; she was still too busy going FFFFFFFFFFFFFFIRE
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:49 am
The monster horse felt rather than heard the faint sound of his bahag ripping. His landing compromised by the sudden, unexpected yank from when DC snagged on his clothing, Petro's arms shot out to break his fall. There came a grunt as palms and knees impacted against the ground, and righted himself onto his feet during DC's temporary period of confusion-induced stillness. Much to his regret as pain shot through Petro from the sole up and he ground his teeth to hold his tongue. "Anak ng tipaklong..." he hissed beneath his breath. If only the ground had been cool and damp as opposed to dry and baked from the heat. Then the sharp, awkwardly angled jerks at his waist began thanks to the little beast flailing about with its face wrapped up in Petro's bahag.
Using the rest of his loincloth as a makeshift leash to keep the struggling minipet away from the undead ghoul, the mostly naked boil took this opportunity to glance to Amrita. Oh Jack, what was she doing on the ground? He didn't push her that hard, did he? WHAT IF HE HAD HURT HER?!?! Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, NO!
"Amrita?! Amrita, y' okay?!" he asked, eyes wide, tone more than a little alarmed and bordering on horrified. Clearly, he wasn't doing a very good job of protecting Amrita. She shouldn't pay for his inadequacy!
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:10 am
The threat of fire was over, and Amrita was coming back to herself, slowly; it was Petro's voice in the end, over the confused and irritated growling of DC, that she clung to.
"I...I...I'm okay. B-but, Petro, l-let him go!" Amrita urged again, knowing that DC would likely stop this attack on her friend if Petro stopped first; she didn't know where this burst of belief and trust in her (still unwanted) pet came from, but there it was.
When flailing stopped working for him, and especially once he was being held back with a leash-like thing, DC was running out of options. With the enemy having captured him, who knew what the boil would do to his Master?! Working on instinct and with every intention on saving Amrita from this obvious threat, the miniature fire beast started to bite the boil. His burnt feet, his shins; anything he could get to, really. His bites started getting harder and harder. The only thing preventing him from breaking skin was a well timed cry from his owner.
"D.C." Amrita cried out next, someone had to stop! "Stop it!"
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:21 pm
Petro would have stared at Amrita in confusion when the small ghoul asked him to let the beast go. He didn't see the logic behind such an action, perhaps he would if he had the time to think about it. Or if Amrita explained it to him. (Whichever came first.) Later. Because at that moment, the monster boil was too preoccupied with the numerous bites that were getting harder in pressure and more painful each time. It may be small but it was fast, Petro begrudgingly noted. Under different circumstances, Petro might have even liked the little thing.
Except they weren't under different circumstances, and so DC continued biting him and Petro continued his attempts of subduing the ghoul's minipet. It was only when he heard Amrita command the thing to stop did it occur to the monster boil that DC could have drawn blood from the first bite. And that everything else it did after could have easily done severe damage. Maybe, maybe it wasn't trying to hurt Amrita? Just him?
The tikbalang crouched low, shielding his legs with his arms, and with one sharp tug, untangled the bahag from DC.
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:03 pm
The moment DC was freed from the bahag, he stopped biting. He shook his head, snorted, and lunged forward to be closer to Amrita. From there he turned, his back arched and wings flared possessively, growling low at the Tikbalang.
"DC." Amrita stressed again with a frown, her little body shaking and her voice trembling despite every attempt to keep it flat and in charge. The second warning made the creature sit down and caused his personality to do a complete one-eighty: he sat down, ears perked, eyes wide, tail flickering and wings drooped almost lazily. What? He wasn't doing anything bad. Nope, he was a good boy, protecting his Mama!
"S-stay there!" The little Undead was getting to her feet, moving awkwardly around the fire pet to rush to Petro the moment she could; DC looked on in a confused stare, his head tilting and a low growl emitted from his throat again. He was watching Petro...the moment the boil stepped out of line again...
"I'm so, so sorry!" Amrita wailed to the mostly naked boil, on her knees and looking at the bitemarks and singes that littered his skin. "W-we have to...get you to the nurse!"
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:36 am
When DC lunged towards Amrita, Petro nearly followed suit. He was poised to scramble forward and he would have tried to tackle the creature (unaware of the potential hazard of wrestling with a fire-pet but that wouldn't have stopped Petro from trying either way) when it promptly turned to growl at him. He met the minipet's stare head on, but as the monster horse no longer regarded DC as a threat to Amrita, his gaze was not as hard nor as hostile as it had been the first time.
Still eying the small beast, Petro decided making any sudden moves might make DC attack him again, and so he slowly sat down. He wasn't bleeding, thank Jack, but his calloused feet had certainly seen better days. It occurred to Tro, just then, that he hadn't thought to bring a healing salve. That was, quite frankly, stupid and overconfident of him.
The undead ghoul was suddenly by his side and having her fussing over his injuries made Petro embarrassed. "'S not y'r fault. 'M fine, y' don't gotta worry," he tried to assure her, a hand lightly tapping one of the bitemarks as if to demonstrate the verity of his claim. He was, of course, ignoring the throbbing pain of his singed skin.
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Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 6:58 am
"But I AM!" Worrying, of course. The little Vetala fretted over the bite marks and singed skin of Petro's feet and ankles, not wanting to touch them not definitely not wanting to leave them alone. It was an awkward stance to be in for sure, and in the end she just fidgeted, what was left of her lips twisted to match her torn expressions.
"I'm so, so sorry! DC's never really done that before I'm so sorry let me take you to the nurse!" While it was a giant step forward to admit that DC hadn't actually hurt anyone yet (though she was still pretty sure he fully intended on doing it on a large scale one day), she was more concerned with helping the monster boil who had saved her so many times before.
Once more, her backwards hands were on his arm, trying to pull him up to his feet, not even thinking about how painful somewhat burned soles could be.
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Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:54 pm
Petro never liked to see a ghoul upset over anything. It just never sat well with him no matter who she was. And he especially hated to see a ghoul upset because of him. "Naw, 's not y'r fault. If it was, I'd say so," he stated good-naturedly, letting the small ghoul help him onto his injured feet.
His wince was minute, barely even there if one was paying close attention. At the mention of the nurse, Petro frowned, "This? 'S nothing. Really. Been through worse. 'M just gonna walk it off."
Pride, perhaps was the real reason why the monster boil didn't want to go. It had been only a few days since he had moved his things in and already he'd been hurt? What kind of a warrior did that make him?
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