The massive, deep green paw flexes by his head, talons easily as long as his hand emerging and scouring furrows through the earth of the den. Casually, Elidibus pulls his outstretched arm closer to the relative safety of his body.
How irritating, that merely scouting had led to this. The people in this border region of the Twelveswood were few and far between, and those with the sight to notice his brethren even more so. The passive protection of the so-called elementals had barred his sundered brethren, but the brief burst of aether had been too unusual to not investigate....
It… would be a hassle, to abandon this body when there was still the chance of getting more use from it. The coup he had been instigating yet had a starring role featuring its face. And yet, for how long would this animal’s fascination last? How long must he wait before it lost interest and wandered off into the woods, never to trouble him again? Already this was more work than he’d put into this body’s hair in the combined months he’d had it.
He says as much to the beast, more for his own benefit than for it, doing what little he could do to keep his mouth out of the dirt. His lips are still brushing it.
Barely an inch from his eye, a pale grub escapes from the clawed furrows, wriggled its way back beneath a scrap of rough bark. He watches it, detachedly, because he is not the vessel and does not especially care what happens to its long term functionality.
Seemingly in response to his comment, the beast pauses in its attack upon his hair, and makes a low, chuffing sound above his head, before vigorously returning to its self appointed task.
His hood is haphazardly pooled around his shoulders, having been delicately taken between the rows of blades in the creature’s maw and pulled to just barely fall loose. Taking absurd finesse and care with the act, when taking his entire head off his shoulders would have come far easier to the immense creature that was now roughly grooming his exposed hair. Spined tongue sweeping through his ruffled mess, running as deep as a comb’s tines.
The distant sensation from the body's scalp is… tickling, perhaps. Yes. That was the word tied to this sensation. Elidibus supposes he doesn't mind it.
Briefly, Elidibus wonders what species it is. It was a green unlike any native coeurl or torama…. It had also far longer fur than them, a shaggy coat instead of a sleek covering.
The fur brings to mind a creature he faintly recalled seeing an eternity ago, in the testing grounds of…. He can’t remember the name, but the sunlight had felt so warm upon him. Why…. Of all things, why had he managed to recall that. Because the person he’d been standing beside, had discussed it with….
The memory slips through his grasp, fading like mist before the sun. Above him, the creature abruptly lets its head fall beside him.
He tilts his head to see, looking for any injury tiring it, and instead meets a single large, orange eye, angled back to stay fixated upon him. The pupil, slit in the manner of felines, is in a rather round state. Did that mean anything…? Elidibus suspects it might.
“Surely you must grow hungry eventually.” Elidibus says, evenly. Meeting the beast’s intense gaze, and the odd intelligence within. “Am I to be sustenance, played with and stashed away for your later whims?” This vessel, at least. He would be long gone, soul fled back to the rift. “Or will you grow weary of me and sate your hunger elsewhere? Devour those lesser beasts that call this wood home? Perhaps even turning towards those that call themself people? How much bloodshed it must take, to satisfy a beast of your size.”
Ignoring his taunting, the beast merely chuffs again, and lazily nudges him with a massive paw.
As it turns out, the beast does not grow weary of him. Instead, it simply carries him along in its mouth when it goes to hunt. It stalks along, his slowly fraying robes hooked firmly between razor edged teeth, akin to how other Coeurl variants were known to carry kittens. And yet, that is presumably not the nature of the creature’s intent towards him, as kittens were left within the safety of nests, or with others of their pride. He's not sure why he remembers that, either.
All his knowlege means is that he knows naught of its intent. He ponders this as his legs slide limply over branches and bushes, the creature winding and wending its way through the forest. The only sound at its passage is from him, and he wonders why it is so fixated upon keeping him, even as he decreases its chances of catching prey unaware.
At last, it slows. He cannot turn to see it, but from the shifts in its posture, he knows it is gathering its hind under it, ready to pounce.
His vessel makes a choked sound at the speed at which it’s suddenly moving. The creature bats at something, and an animal’s startled squeal is wetly cut off.
Clumsily, it drops him from its mouth, and slaps a paw down to pin him there.
While the creature’s focus is on devouring, Elidibus strikes. He tears at his robe, leaving mere shreds in the creature’s claws. Leaping backwards and up, floating in the air yalms backward, and swiftly pulling at the magical threads by which he will teleport away.
His cast, swift as it is, is Interrupted by a massive paw slamming into his chest, the heavy blow batting him into a solid trunk. Mortal bones crunch at the impact, breath flees his vessels chest, and as he flinches, the ground comes up to meet him. The next thing he knows, the paw has returned to pin him, sharp talons growing from their sheaths and sinking into the wood around him. Two flex forward around his head, brushing against his cheeks, so close to his vulnerable flesh that he can’t even turn. Lower, other talons were sinking through his robes beneath his shoulders.
Looking up, Elidibus meets massive, orange eyes, set above a red-dripping maw. He smiles, thinly, as a deep rumble in its chest makes the vessel's bodily hairs stand on end. "You will not keep me here forever."
In response, the creature only growls again.
It was strange, how pleasant it was to be pressed against the massive, fluffy, intensely vibrating chest, Elidibus mused. How calming. Even with the risk of being ripped to shreds and devoured by that fanged maw.
Was it something about its aetheric signature? Had he known the person who’d made this line of concepts? Was the warmth in his chest a reaction towards yet another ancient ill-advisedly implanting an affection override towards another person they cared for? Was that why the creature was so fixated upon him?
He remembers it very faintly, that fad. Complaints about it had made their way to the conversation, arguments ranging from how it was disgustingly partial, to how it was opposed to the very ideals Amaurot held in their stewardship to the star, to it as a mere trinket of acceptable affection between citizens of Amaurot.
He... doesn’t remember what the convocation had ruled on the matter. And so he sighs, and lets his head fall into the fluff. The odd feeling of safety is… unusually conducive towards good quality sleep. More than for the vessel, Elidibus finds himself tempted to sleep, for the first time in….. Well. He's not sure.
It doesn't matter. And so it's especially surprising when the next thing he knows, the sun is in an entirely different location.
…The fluff against him is still purring.
Elidibus loses yet more time. And yet, when he wakes (How funny it is, to be waking once more, to realize that he had slept), he finds his head…. Cleared. There are projects coming to mind that he had utterly forgotten about, for… Centuries, perhaps. One or two that are mere years out of date, and which he may yet be able to salvage.
Thoughts whirring on how to address them, he does not react as the creature yet again begins to groom his hair. Had he truly been in such a suboptimal state? It only seems obvious now, when he has come out of it. But why now…
The creature's tongue drags roughly over the vessel's ear, and it flinches.
Elidibus, on the other hand, does not care. What he does do is lay still in quiet contemplation, and tilt his head up to look at the creature's eyes. His irritation from before is gone, in its place is calm measurement.
"I must attend my duties." He says, watching it for reactions.
And indeed, the creature responds to his words, as if they meant something to it. Responds with a quiet, mournful rumble, and agitation flashing in its eyes.
Hah, Elidibus thinks. It listens better than multiple of his coworkers.
"And if that distresses you… I could take you with me."
The creature goes still for a moment, bright eyes wide, fixed upon him. For a moment, Elidibus is sure it's about to bite his throat out. And then in the blink of an eye, it's rolling over to lay upon him, chuffing and delightedly rubbing that heavy muzzle and face upon him.
Hm. More evidence of its intelligence, even if… "Ghhhk-" …It was overly enthusiastic.
"…If." He says, forcefully, and the creature freezes. Good. Growls quietly, which is less good. "…You will behave yourself. I cannot tolerate interference during matters of import." Once again he meets the creature's burnt orange gaze, although he has no idea what color his vessel's eyes are. Grey, probably. Proximity to him tends to wash vibrancy away.
It's still growling, but it nods its massive head in a rather spoken-like gesture, and then roughly drops down on his chest again, making the vessel wheeze.
"Good." Elidibus says, ribs twinging distantly, and worms an arm free to pet at the short hairs of its forehead.
When he steps through a portal, the creature following after and slinking into hallways of dark crystal, a collar of white and gold rests twined around its neck.
Peacefully, it follows him to what could be called his quarters. The place where his soul rests, in the scant times when he is not needed. And then it looks so lonely there, the room empty around it, that Elidibus finds himself Creating a bed for it to rest upon.
A week later finds him trapped upon that same bed, sunk into rumbling fluff. A hearth now takes up some wall space, soft coverings scattered around the rest of them, and a food dish and water fountain reside in a corner.
Well, Elidibus thinks. He has done the preparation work for the next five years of the various plans. Technically, the only thing to get up for would be to check in with Nabriales and Halmarut for the third time this week, regarding their planned intervention next year in the pro-war political faction in that kingdom upon the Ninth…
The creature rumbles, and starts grooming his hair again. With a sigh, Elidibus resigns himself to pleasant captivity.
Barely a day later, he's in a meeting room and slapping the sullen creature on the nose, until it begrudgingly spits up their current Nabriales. Wet and in shock, the man does naught but stare, and then teleport to the far end of the room, behind every single other attending member of the Convocation.
Elidibus doesn't say it, but with the creature lurking behind his chair, the rest of the meeting is the quietest and smoothest he's had all millennia.
