The Cave

Adeline turned the flask back over to Kartiel's request, still coughing a little.

"Be my guest- that's one nasty concoction." She passed over the container, which was still about halfway full.

Maahes just continued to watch awkwardly from the side, mainly because he was sure that the spells would lessen the likelihood of James possibly murdering him - or, at least, hating him from the rest of the time they were together. But there was a second, alternative motive to his distance. He had seen the looks that the horned man had been giving him, and he doubted getting any closer would be a good thing. The guy was still terrified of him, and he really didn't want to reveal the truth in front of all these people.


"Are they okay?" Reyes asked, pointing at Kendrik and Jaron as they walked away from him and Thytes. Kendrik seemed to finally be coming out of his drunken stupor, but Jaron had suddenly become oddly twitchy. He'd have to ask about that later, and hope that it didn't have something to do with what he had said earlier.

He didn't address how they had Thytes had been whispering to them when he was standing only a handful of feet away, likely because they were talking about him. He didn't know how he felt about that, and thought it was best to ignore it to avoid causing a problem.


Kartiel eagerly grabbed it and chugged as much as he could down. This then resulted in him promptly spitting it out onto the road they were on, but it was totally worth it. "You know," he said, wiping away the liquid clinging to the scales around his mouth. "I've technically never been legal in either one of my lives, if that stuff was just alcohol. I died at nineteen, so that'd put me a few years under the one in the states. And then there's my current age, which is younger than that, but I think I'm legal if you add them together. It would work like that, right?"

"Uh- sure." Adeline smiled and pretended that she knew what he was talking about. Of course, this resulted in her dwelling a bit on what he had said.

"I haven't been keeping track of my age- how exactly does one tell this sort of thing?" She frowned, "or is my number just lost to me forever?"

Thytes waved dismissively, laughing. He hoped that Reyes hadn't heard him being rude earlier. It was so frustrating being around the hound sometimes, especially when he poked at Thytes's hopes. "They should be," he said. "Jaron just had too much sugar - more than he has had in a few years, I would wager - and I've seen Kendrik drunk a few times in the past. He does not handle alcohol well, as you might imagine. Give them some time and they will either walk it or sit it off. So, what happened here? Were you hurt?"



The hound and the fox did try sitting down, but it soon became obvious Jaron couldn't a. sit up straight, or b. relax. After one too many times of Jaron accidentally shaking Kendrik's head off his shoulder, Kendrik stood up and helped Jaron up. They walked over to the man that Thomas seemed to hate for some reason. Kendrik could relate to being hated.

"What's yer name?" said Kendrik, stopping in front of the man. He leaned forward, but Jaron caught him and pulled him back. "And what's yer deal?"

James, now with both food and more water, quietly kept to himself as he consumed the two. Now that they'd given him some space, the tenseness in his expression began to relax a little - though, his resting face was nearly just as angry.

Kartiel turned and stared at her. How did she not know what her age was? It was relatively easy to keep track of. "Well," he said, holding the bottle back out to her, "you start with when you're born and count how many years it's been since then. If you don't know when that was, I guess you probably could go from the first age you remember - maybe when you were five, or six or something like that, and then add on the years since then."


"Just a little," Reyes admitted. "Kartiel accidentally teleported onto me. But it's nothing that my body can't handle. It's been through a lot worse before."


"My name's Leo. It's short for Leonardo Cartwright," Maahes said. He was surprised that someone was actually talking to him, seeing that James was the only one that he knew here. "And I, uh, ignored what my friend said and brought him here when he was asleep. So right now he's not exactly all that happy with me..."


Lucifer hesitantly sat down near the man, too scared of the terrified expression on his face to get any closer. But he wanted to make sure that he was alright, and sitting down beside him was the best way to do that.

Adeline nodded and strained to remember- she had really split her life between before and after the Slaughter. As she mulled, she absently grabbed the flask from Kartiel and took another swig. She immediately coughed and spit it out again.

The trouble was, she thought while wiping her mouth, she had never measured years. She was only able to rely on events that she remembered moon cycle by moon cycle.

"I've got it! I'm eleven- no, twelve." She grinned proudly, "which is pretty old for my kind... I think. I've outlived everyone I knew, at least." She mumbled this last part quietly.

Thytes laughed. "I cannot say I am surprised," he said. "You seem like the kind of person to be caught up in scrapes. Not that you would start them, of course." He raised his arms, showing an assortment of small scars scattered among the fur. "I have been blown up, shot, stabbed, and thrown around battlefields. I consider injury almost mundane at this point."



"Figures," Kendrik said, nodding. "I'm guessing ya've got to find some way to make up fer it. I've done stuff like that before." He grumbled out, "And it's happened to me a bunch," before picking his voice back up. "Anyways, nice to meet ya, Leo. I'm Kendrik, and this is Jaron."

The fox grinned and let go of Kendrik's hand, reaching out to touch Leo's jacket. Kendrik gently grabbed the hand. Jaron got the message. "Sorry," he stammered, drawing out the o.

James gave Lucifer a wary glance, but let the guy sit. Lucifer had helped him after all. He'd quickly finished off the soup, eating with a speed like he didn't know if or when he'd get his next meal - and then proceeded to finish off the water quickly. With one final gulp, he set the bowl down and let out a slow sign as he leaned his head back against the wall.

If there had been any of the drink remaining in his mouth, he would have promptly spat it out at what Adeline said. "You're twelve?" he repeated. His eyes widened as he looked her over. He guessed he could see it, but still! He had expected her to be older. It just seemed like that would be the case with her personality and what she was, though he admittedly knew little about the other glass people.


Reyes studied the old scars for a moment before looking back up at Thytes. He absentmindedly raised a hand to his chest, the thought of past injuries conjuring that particular one from the depths of his memory. "I don't have any scars to show for them, but I've been through the same things to." He looked down at his chest, then up at Thytes. "I was shot on the battlefield back during something my country calls the Civil War. I'm not sure if you've had those where you live, but it was horrible - families found themselves pitted against each other, fighting over if a persecuted, enslaved group should be equal to the rest of the country. I was lining up for a shot when someone got me through the chest."


"It's okay," Maahes hurriedly assured Jaron, not wishing to upset him or his companion. He didn't mind getting touched by complete strangers. It was certainly weird the first time, but people on other worlds could get surprisingly hands-on when they ran into someone from another part of the galaxy.


Noticing the wary glance, Lucifer wisely remained exactly where he was. He stared down at his lap and made himself look as small as he possibly could. It was an art he had mastered long ago. "Are you still hungry?" he asked. "It might not be a good idea to eat too much if you haven't eaten recently, but I don't want you to still feel hungry..."

"I- I was created fully mature.." she went on, a defensive tone creeping into her voice, "and was conscious for years before that."

She dumped out the rest of the alcohol and stashed the flask back into her bag, frowning. All her years were an accomplishment, she thought, however few.

"Oh my," said Thytes. Reyes's story sounded a bit more impressive than his; perhaps Thytes could talk about his heart problems, but that wasn't likely to amaze him. "I was in at least one of those kinds of conflicts myself. Nasty businesses, those. How did you not receive a scar?"



"He does that sometimes," Kendrik said. "I think he just likes yer jacket." As if to prove that point, Jaron reached a shaky hand out and pinched the edge of the jacket, rubbing the fabric between his fingers.

"Wow," Jaron stammered, looking up at Leo. "Where'd you get it?"

“I haven’t eaten in a while,” James replied, his words coming out more harshly than intended. He was thankful, really. But he was also still hungry, though he knew he should wait before scarfing down another meal.

“So... thank you for the offer, but I’ll wait for this to settle in my stomach first,” he added.

"I just didn't expect you to be so young," Kartiel hurriedly said, noticing how defensive Adeline was getting. "The twelve year olds I know tend to be a lot less mature. Trust me. I know. I was stuck with them for a year, and it was absolute torture."


Reyes took a deep breath. He had expected that Kendrik would have said something about his bizarre healing abilities, but apparently he hadn't. Which meant he would have to tell Thytes, and that was never a fun thing to do.

"My wounds heal themselves," he said. "I don't know why or how, but they do. That shot...That shot during the war should have killed me. I know it did. But I was still able to walk and move around, and, when I went to look at it that night, it wasn't even there. It's not just wounds, either. I-I can't die. I should have died decades ago from natural causes, but I'm still alive."

He decided to wait and see how Thytes responded to that before revealing that his name wasn't even Reyes.


Maahes stiffened at the question. It was one he had never gotten before, and he was pulling a blank on what he should say in a situation like this. He hadn't bought it. He hadn't technically made it. It was just part of the guise. He had thought it into existence, but he was supposed to be human! He couldn't tell Jaron that.

"I got it on a planet I visited," he settled on after a noticeable moment of hesitation.


Lucifer nodded, fiddling with his pencil as he waited for James to say something else. He wished he had his sketchpad with him. That would make this silence a lot less awkward, and there were plenty of good things to sketch. He could conjure up another one, but he had already had five different ones back at his house because of situations exactly like this.

But the urge to draw eventually won over common sense, so he uttered the words to a spell to make a new sketchbook appear. He stopped fiddling with his pencil and started looking for something he could sketch. He eventually decided that the building across the street was a good start. He did want to draw some of the people there - they would be really interesting models - but he didn't want to bother them by asking if he could sketch them.

"That sounds like an interesting experience." She cracked a smile and fiddled with her bag, "human children have always fascinated me- of course, I've never witnessed one grow up, but the changes are incredible. Internally and externally. It's almost like they become different people altogether."