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Normally... civilians didn't try and pet Youma. It had mostly never occurred to him that anyone would be insane enough to try, since for the most part, they tended to be pointy, sometimes drooly, and generally unpleasant.

But apparently there were always exceptions. And this, apparently, was a red letter day for exceptions. The youma in question might have even passed for cute... if you couldn't feel the aura radiating off it... or you chose to ignore the fact that the wide, slowly blinking eyes like an photo warped baby seal were also matched with claws the length of his thumb and a mouth that only looked like it stopped in the normal place. Then it had yawned. And it was not only bigger than it should have been but had so many teeth it looked like an drain pipe lined with jagged edges, and the twitching of its tail and slight wiggle of it's rump suggested that whatever it had in mind was not good for the small girl that was wandering toward it.

God, how old WAS she? Where the hell was anyone else anyway? How the hell was he supposed to? God the kid was going to get her face eaten or think he'd just murdered a cute kitty and he didn't really see winning this, even as he moved closer, hand outreached to try and either grab her attention or to intercept the youma.

"Hey.... I don't.... Kiddo don't pet the kitty, Kitty's sick and might hurt you. How about you back up and I'll..." How the hell did you make dusting a youma sound less dead? "...See if I can use some magic to make it go home."

This was probably the kind of thing that got you some very mixed karma points, but goddamnit kid....

"Kairatos... my name is Kairatos. You can call me Kai. I'm a knight of Mars." He tried to keep his voice soothing and interesting. "Technically my magic will... send it someplace where it can rest for a while. But Sick animals can hurt people, and vet's don't have the magic this one needs. Neither do I but I can send it to someplace that can. And I can show you my own friend. Although he's... harder to pet. His name is Asterion. it means Star. Would you like that? I mean hes not small and fluffy but I'm fond of him."

His was trying to keep an eye on the youma, which was now eyeing him with somewhat less relish than it was the girl, but both of them were locked in a position of trying to pretend everything was fine... so... it was probably smarter than it looked. He wasn't sure that was a good thing.

"Because that's where I get my powers from. So I can protect people... like a soldier." He winked, which was hard, without taking his eye off the youma. "Besides myths got one thing wrong. Mars was a woman, and a brave one. And Asterion is a bull, but he can be gentle. But I'm afraid you can't pet him, though he'll let you look. It's just the way he is. Could probably make s'mores with him if Had any stuff for them though."

The youma had narrowed it's eyes, staring at him and the sandwich now in what looked like an open dare to try. Go ahead. Feed it the sandwich. Or dust it. It wouldn't care, it would be back, and he'd have traumatized a kid. It's claws worked in and out and it made an odd sound somewhere between a growl and a purr, smug and predatory.

He was going to pay for this on every level if the damn thing made him dust it when the kid was watching. And he wasn't sure that Asterion wouldn't make it worse, but he had to try, gripping the small vial around his neck to call out the bull.

God this was going to backfire. It was going to backfire so hard. But hey, she'd live, even if it was while screaming to her mom that he'd, what the hell was that movie? Driven unicorns into the sea or something. God. The last time he'd run into kids it had been Ixion setting his boot on fire. And he was summoning an -actually on fire bull- to distract a kid from a murder-kitten.

The burning red bull flicked his ears as he appeared, taking a step or two and turning his head in the direction of the youma and blowing out a loud snort.

"Yeah that's why you can't pet Asterion. I can't pet Asterion either... Why would I make him do bad things?? He's my partner!"

Well it had definitely backfired, just not in the way he'd expected, and now he was more or less splattered with questionably stored sandwich. Ugh.

Asterion, more or less oblivious to everything except the fact he wasn't getting orders from his knight, simply tipped his broad, burning head slightly and flicked an ear, turning a slow gaze toward the youma cat creature, which apparently experienced a sudden thrill of self preservation, backing up slowly to try and retreat while the knight was distracted.

"Because in the City on Mars a long time ago... they bred bulls to be immune to fire because that was the ... sphere the... element Mars wielded. And he's kind of... the spirit of those bulls...." The youma had switched over to just growling, not caring to be interrupted and consider it's odds. "It's not a cat, it's mimicing one." he admitted with a grimace. Smart damn kid, even if he had peanut-butter and.... was that peach? it smelled kind of like peach... sliding down his armor in the wake of the sandwich, and he was pretty sure there was a smear of jelly and crumbs on his cheek. "They don't eat peanutbutter..." he narrowed his eyes at it, trying to decide if he should summon the net. "They hurt peopAUGH!"

The cat-thing darted forward, deciding to take it's chances after all, knowing the worst Kairatos could do to it would both upset the child and do nothing of permanence to it. It made something of an (potentially ironic) bull rush, swiping Kairatos' leg where it could, and made for the girl, unhinging that alarming jaw and dashing for her. Kairatos shouted, and suddenly there was a massive hoof hitting the pavement with a slam that scattered a spray of ash in all directions.

Kai stared at it for a couple moments, opening and shutting his mouth for a moment as he tried to figure out what to say. 'sorry my bull smashed the evil cat thing'? 'Sorry I'm bleeding into my boot'?

"...That's why." He finally floundered. "Kid maybe you should go home..."

At least he could get that suggestion in before she kicked him in the shin and screamed.

"He's still on fire hon..." Oh god this kid was going to give him heart palpitations. He had no idea how to predict anything she was doing. "If he can stop neither of us have figured out how." He fingered the scratches on the back of his leg with a wince, making a note to get some bandaids on those before Lena had a look. Maybe he could blame Jo and Voyager. New catnip toys could make them go a little nuts...

"You're ok?" He asked again, as Asterion nosed the ashes and scattered them about, distracted. "You're not hurt?"

((thanks for EATING MY POST Gaia!))

"It's going to be worse than a scorch..." Kai winced, trying to keep an arm or something between Giulia and the low licking flames over Asterion's body. "He can walk part way back with us but he's not really... I can't ride him either. And he only sticks around for about a minute before he goes back home anyway, there's more magic there, which is what he needs."

He wasn't sure how else to explain it, when he didn't even know if 'Asterion' was actually Asterion, or if his past life father had summoned him, would the bull have been white, like his bull? Or Black?

"I don't have a gardener so never had to worry about loosing one. Sounds awful."

What on earth had this kid SEEN before this?

"It doesn't really hurt him either? He's just using my magic to be here instead of there. But I've got less than there does, so I can only ask him to come for that long and then he goes back regardless of what either of us want. And I can't do any other things that would require that energy either. And I don't have a garden. We've got some potted plants but we don't have the time or money to spend on a large garden."

He moved to pick her up gently, to let her sit on the shoulder across from the pauldron, and use one of it's raised horns as a handhold, which he assumed would be more comforting than his arm alone.

"The world can be tough. It's got as many beautiful things as it has monsters, and not all the monsters and bad things are easy to spot. People tend to want to protect others, especially kids. They forget you don't just get smart when you hit a certain number of turns around the sun."

He'd been trying to do that too when he'd told her what Asterion was doing to the youma, but if she hadn't figured out that wasn't entirely true... well... they could cover that little betrayal later.

The bull plodded calmly beside them, a large heated wall of strange noises between the low hiss of flames and the sound of hooves on pavement.