He'd been lost for a considerable amount of time and given he didn't have access to the passage of the sun he couldn't even fathom how long it had been. All he knew was that his paw had gotten worse and he was hungry. By the process of elimination it had been several days since he had started to explore the caves. In hindsight he should have listened to his gut on this one and exited the area when he had been given the chance, but he had been overruled by his own arrogance and he'd paid the price.
He could be comforted in the knowledge that the Al-Siq were at least intelligent though and he was confident they would have left. The pride might have been brave in some respects, but civilians knew better than to push their luck. If they hadn't gone home then they would have been avoiding the area at the very least. Hopefully the wound would heal in Satsu's paw in the future, but for now Adar'Malik could do nothing more than attempt to navigate his way out.
...Suffice to say that he had found nothing further in the caves.
The entirety of this investigation had begun to feel more and more like something or someone was messing with them. It was certainly divine, and it certainly wasn't benevolent. For all intents and purposes it seemed like the mythos of the Al-Siq was beginning to leak into reality beyond their borders. For want of a better description, the destruction and devastation caused by warring deities had lay waste to much of the Al-Siq and now it seemed that it had been reborn in some cataclysmic form here.
Wonderful.
He'd begun to suspect he was never going to find his way out of the caverns when he finally caught sight of a dull and unusually shaped glow. It had come in the form of ornate, ruinc lines that he was certain he was hallucinating, but the closer he drew the more they came in to focus. Perhaps this was one of the sources of the light?
"You seem out of place," A small voice spoke.
It was the first coherent voice he had heard in a some time beyond those of the research party and it gave him leave to pause. With his lips pursed he fixed his gaze on the glimmering runes and shook his head.
"You are not the first," it continued and then there was movement, the runes shifting as whatever seemed to possess them went from one spot to the next. It was then that the molten eyes peered towards him and while they didn't seem to emit much light, they were in striking contrast to the unusual pale-pink sheen of the runes.
"You are aware of where I am?" Adar lifted a brow, he'd spoken to more bizarre things. Quite frankly talking to floating eyes was about standard when one spent the majority of their time within scourge warrens. Afterall, it was so dark down in those networks that their glistening eyes were about the only thing you could see!
"I am aware of many things, they throw things down here. They do not want them," there was a cluck of a tongue and then a paw seemed to search for him, finally pressing against his leg. Ah, but they always managed to find the one that he would prefer wasn't touched.
"A bone pile." It was a statement rather than a question and from a logical viewpoint, Satsu's injury made more sense. Whomever he spoke to had released a small chrr of consideration at what he had named it, but it didn't necessarily seem to agree with him.
"Maybe," it said finally. "But you are not bones," there was another pause. "Not yet, much too strong to succumb for now." The eyes peered at him once more and then the entity patted at his paw again. It didn't seem that the creature was deliberately causing him pain, but in this darkness, he wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't see well either. Glowing eyes or not, even Scourge vision wasn't perfect in the dark, simply superior.
"You will come with me," it said at last and the eyes disappeared as the entity turned round and quietly began to pad away. Whomever it was knew where they were going, they walked with confidence and despite their small stature he was inclined to follow. Consequently it wasn't long before the larger lion was padding after the entity... and into the light.
He blinked rapidly as the sunlight assaulted his eyes, taking in a sharp breath of pain. His preference was to wear folds of fur or tattered leaves to protect his eyes after extended periods of time in the dark but he wasn't afforded the luxury on this occasion. Nevertheless as his vision began to recover, though it would remain blurry for a while, he took note of the creature beside him. Small stature or not there was clearly something different about her, and eventually it dawned on him.
...This little entity had wings.
He had found something divine.
She seemed to have a fairly blank expression as she regarded him, only pausing briefly to examine the paw she had kept patting in an unapologetic fashion. If she had any guilt over the unintentional assault, she didn't seem inclined to show it at the moment.
"You are entitled to my gratitude," Adar'Malik wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth, though she seemed to care little for his expression of thanks. It was strange, but she didn't seem to exhibit much of anything.
"Hm?"
"My thanks?" Adar shook his head and raised an eyebrow as he examined the little creature more carefully. Not only did she have wings, but she even seemed to have horns, most peculiar.
"I do not know what that is," she tilted her head to the side and then shrugged. It resulted in a rather confused mortal staring after her for a moment or two. How could someone not understand the concept of gratitude? Even he who had experienced it so rarely knew what it was and how it functioned as a social concept.
"Have you ever been given something before, without the other expecting to receive something back?" He said finally.
"No," she was being honest. Her mother was Greed and based on the manner in which both her parents had functioned, Greed did not provide something for nothing, it simply wasn't her way. Based on what Waste was, she'd never be the apple of her mother's eye and might have found herself at odds in the future depending on what path Di Yi chose to walk.
"Never...?"
"Nuh uh."
A silence followed as Adar regarded the cub for a period of time.
"Do you have a name?"
"Maybe, do you?"
"I do, but generally one is not exchanged without receiving the other." It was Di Yi's turn to pause and then the cub seemed to view his reasoning as valid.
"I was not given a name... Because of what I am. I have been looking for one I like, a better one."
"You had to be referred as something."
"Mmmm...Waste, it is what I am, I think..." She wrinkled her nose, an expression he could just about see. "So, perhaps that will suit?"
"It will do," Adar murmured, it wasn't his place to name her. "I am Adar'Malik."
"Adar'Malik," she repeated and gave a nod. "Why were you in the shadows, Adar'Malik?"
"Exploring," he replied. "And you?"
"Looking for lost things," she admitted. She wasn't the deity of the lost by any means, it wasn't her duty to find and reunite individuals with lost items, but she often felt the need to locate something that had simply been thrown away. If it was forgotten, discarded or no longer wanted she tended to have the sudden urge to find it.
Discarded things were...her things.
They were her.
"And you found them," he seemed a touch amused. "Though probably not what you were expecting," he acknowledged.
"Mhm, normally they do not move," She agreed. "Were you forgotten?"
"No."
"Left behind?"
He considered this for a moment and then nodded, but he did it with a caveat. "I was, but only because they knew it was the only choice they could make. To follow me in would have killed them."
"I see..." She blinked. "Who are they?"
"My comrades, we are from the same pride."
"I see, I see..." Another pause. "Is it far away? Most things that are left behind are left by those who end up far away."
"It is yes, but not so far that I cannot go back."
"Mmmm...Why are you so far from home then?" she puzzled over this, though she knew that she was technically far from her own divine home. She'd been born during a period of divine strife and this was the grand sum of her knowledge of the war in heaven.
"Searching for answers."
"Find them?"
"No."
"So more searching then..."
"In time perhaps," he shook his head. "But for now it is time to return home and regroup, then find those with better knowledge of the strange events and bring them instead."
"So you will stay for a while then," she pursed her lips. "Or leave straight away?" She didn't seem to know whether she was coming or going, whether others would remain in her presence for long or not. At this young age her domain was as fluid as she was and until she gained her strength, she probably didn't know her backside from her nose... Alas, Adar couldn't necessarily provide guidance for this. If he thought the caves were out of his depth, guiding a tiny divine being to self awareness was definitely out of reach.
"Sleep for a small number of hours, then walk home."
"Ah, maybe I will find the rest of your paw while you sleep." She murmured thoughtfully, causing the lion to look down at his paw abruptly. Sure enough, over the course of the last few days it seemed the paw that had been bitten within the lake had become emaciated and lost several claws. The only small favour he had was that the toes were intact.
"What...?" He did well not to shriek and shook his head as he lifted his paw to inspect it more closely. What the hell had bitten him and how had he not been in more agonising pain, had all sense of touch left him in that region?
"I will search for your paw," she patted his leg reassuringly, oblivious to his stupified expression and then promptly wandered back into the shallow cave network she'd found him in. Adar could do nothing more than stare at his paw in the meantime, maybe he would need more than a few hours to recover and sleep...
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