[Mature] Acquiring the Totem: Ryon

[Varthakh]

5th Cylus 717

It still didn't make any sense, he'd gone and passed competence with his magic over the space of two trials. How was beyond him. Perhaps he'd just used Becoming so frequently that the spark had decided to blow out and boost his power regardless of how long he'd been working at it? he shook his head, this was all much too confusing for him. He'd needed to clear his head, so had went for a walk through the woods outside of Andaris' walls. The recent past events were disturbing, things were starting to fall apart - or so it felt. He was changing both on the inside and out, he was still coughing up blood as his health deteriorated for no apparent reason, Rey had been acting... Strangely... He sighed. The city was different to Uthaldria and Warrick, much different.

With his hands in his pockets, he considered that he could probably take on a few more totems under his arsenal. And with his bear totem being damaged, he might very well need a strong predator to take its place, temporarily of course. No way in hell was he passing up his bear totem so easily, he just had to find a way to fix it - or find another bear. He considered the types of totem that he could learn with his new ascension of skill. Reptiles, it would be reptiles. He wondered what it would be like to be a snake, to drag his body across the ground as they do. For a trill, he contemplated dropping to the floor and squirming like one such creature, but decided against it.

On a whim, he decided to use echo and gave the air a sniff while focusing his being on the wolf totem. There came the scent of something he hadn’t smelt in a long time. "Eric?" He asked out loud, following his nose with a jog to the source of the scent. He put his back to a tree and poked his head out to peak. Echoing once more, he focused his being on his eagle totem and granted himself the microscope vision of the creature, scanning the woodlands about him. In the distance, he saw him - Eric, in Ryon form. Fridgar sighed, had he really come all the way up here to check on him? Perhaps tell him off for not writing.

Shaking his head, Fridgar stepped out from behind the tree and ran toward the Ryon with a smile, glad to see his mentor once more - perhaps he'd be able to help Fridgar with his strange fluctuating power. "Eric!" Fridgar called out as he approached, the Ryon turned its head to him. "Eric, it's me, Fridgar! it's good to see you again, how-?" He was cut off as the Ryon roared and widened its stance. Something didn't feel right, there was something more feral about Eric than usual. "Eric, it's me! I know I haven't shaved, but you still recognise me right? YOU TAUGHT ME FOR SIX ARCS YOU STUPID BASTARD!" He roared, not seeming to realise that the Ryon was not at all Eric but a wild animal.

The Ryon roared once more and began to charge toward him - "FINE!! LETS THROW DOWN, YOU FUCKING PRICK!!" he growled, gripping his wolf and Lothar totems. "Blend" He spoke in his head with a quickened ether, unleashing into a new form, his leathers were assimilated into said form as they were made of an organic material, the cottons too. He braced for impact with a deafening roar, sounding across the woodlands outside of Andaris.

[Varthakh]

'Eric' charged him at full speed, pouncing at the last second and sinking it's claws into his shoulders. Fridgar growled at the sudden pain, not having expected his teacher to hurt him. With the strength of his Lothar and wolf forms combined, he pressed against the massive weight of the lion with a widened stance, but found himself unable muster much else. His eyes met the Ryon's "Errrric?" he spoke through a growl. The Ryon merely threw its body to the side and Fridgar with it. He fell to the floor with ease. The Ryon followed with, sinking more of its tremendous weight into him.

'This isn't Eric' He finally realised as the beast snapped at his jugular. Looking at the beast with that in mind, it was so obviously not Eric. Fridgar passed it off as his own stupidity, perhaps he missed his teacher and just hoped that this Ryon was him? Whatever his reasoning, he would have to think about it later. He had a lot on his plate right now.

No matter how hard he pushed or channelled his adrenaline, he couldn't shift the 800lb lion. What was a Ryon doing in Andaris woods anyway!? He hadn't seen one since leaving Warrick, perhaps the south was just as cold as higher north during Cylus. Whatever the case, he had to do something about it! His arms shook as they threatened to give way under the massive weight, he couldn't hold the beast off much longer. He quickened his ether, preparing to unleash once more. The Ryon fell into him and bit into the side of his head. Fridgar roared with pain as he initiated the transformation. Another blend unleash, he fused his lothar and damaged bear totem.

The transformation felt different with the damage to his bear totem, like elastic being stretched further and further. The stretching eventually stopped with a snap, and with it came an immediate headache - he'd triggered another mutation. His eyes opened with the Ryon still chomping the side of his head. A fierce growl rumbled from the back of his throat as his senses focused on the Ryon. With his now superior strength, he reached up and slashed at the Ryon's throat with his claws. Its mane protected it from the slash, but the impact still sent it staggering from his bleeding head. Despite his headache, he spun his body until he was on all fours and faced the Ryon. Once it had re-assumed it's battle stance, he charged for it and full speed, colliding in a flurry of fang and claw.
The forest fell silent at last, the howling of the winds had even calmed for the trill that the Ryon's carcass hit the floor. Fridgar stood, drenched with blood and covered in open wounds. A large gash lay indented across his chest along with various other scratches, all drawing blood at his abdomen and shoulders. Deep bite marks littered his right arm, all oozing blood slowly. Various sets of claw marks decorated his thighs. Under his thick fur, bruises of all sorts dotted his body. A blow he'd taken to the shoulder worried him, he rolled it twice forward and twice backward - it would hurt in the morning, but wasn't much of an issue for now.

His foot planted itself on the Ryon's limp body as a sign of his dominance. He shattered the deathly silence with a roar to the blackened sky, declaring himself the true king of the jungle. Blood ran down the side of his head from where he'd been bitten, but he didn't care. This moment was glorious, he hadn't even needed to chrysalis mid fight, though he probably should have now. Refreshing his current form, he cast Chrysalis in minority to prevent over stepping and merely stopped the bleeding of the open wounds.

His yellowed eyes fell to the warm body. With the mutation of only being able to consume fresh meat, it was for the best that he took advantage of his kill while it was still edible. Without looking around, he dug into the fallen Ryon and sated his hunger.

[Varthakh]

The body went cold within bits, Fridgar had his fill. He hadn't eaten like that in five trials, suffice to say that the beast was satisfied. Sure, he could consume cooked meat, but it didn't taste right. Fresh from the kill was moist, pleasantly warm, full of flavour, he'd not tasted anything so glorious pre-corruption or post-corruption. Fridgar growled, sinking his massive claws into the remains of the Ryon and lifted its lighter weight over his shoulder, had he not eaten most it, this feat would be difficult.

Why was he carrying his kill back home? Rey could surely make a decent meal of it. And he needed another large predator totem... The creature would make an excellent addition to his arsenal. With an aggressive grunt, he burst into a run, making a straight line for home. Blood leaked from the creature, but not because it's heart was still beating, but by the aid of gravity. The thick red fluid matted his pelt, a sensation he'd grew to hate but would have to deal with for the time being. The Ryon's half eaten body bobbed atop his shoulders as he ran, the snow provided pleasant cooling and prevented overheating during the run.

Within bits, he'd arrived home; Rey'na's cabin in the woods. A quick glance to behind him revealed a trail of blood in the snow from where he'd been running. It wasn't his problem, people should think twice before following a trail of blood and giant footprints into another animal's territory. Animal's? He meant Lothar. People should think twice before following a trail of blood and giant footprints into a Lothar's territory. He roared hard at the house, asking for Rey'na to come and open the door - no response, she must be out. Fridgar sighed in a low growl and released the Ryon with one paw, opening the door himself. He ducked underneath the door frame at a sideways angle and stepped inside, closing the door behind him with his hind paw. With a gentle snarl, he lowered into a lunge and placed the Ryon carcass in the middle of the floor, loud and proud for Rey to see when she got home.

He gripped the creature by its giant paw, then by its elbow with his other hand. After a deep breath, he pressed. His hands shook with strain, but the Ryon's arm gave way eventually, snapping at the joint. Using his claws, he cut around the breakage and loosened up the appendage. From there, he lunged forward and snapped his powerful jaws into the breakage, severing the limb with one fell swoop. He carried the large chunk of Ryon into his room and set it down on his workstation. Without realising that he was still in were-bear form, he got to work on making the totem.

[Varthakh]

With the claw of his index finger, he tore down the forearm of the beast. The flesh split apart with a ripping noise that made his ears twitch. Using his middle and index claws, he held the flesh apart and fished the bone from the creature's appendage with his free paw. He hung the paw from the crude drying line he'd made back when he acquired the eagle totem and allowed the blood to drain into a bowl with the aid of gravity. The bone he'd acquired was too big, he needed to resize it. He held the skeletal fragment by either end and put it in his jaws at a horizontal position, then pressed into it with the grizzly bear's naturally strong jaw with his own added strength.

The bone splintered and shattered into fragments down the middle, he placed the two end parts on the table. he dropped his jaw and tilted it downward, tempting gravity to take the bone fragments from his tongue before losing his patience and scraping them off with his claw. He then realised that he couldn’t spit and looked to his paw, he was still in werebear form. Fridgar shrugged, what was the difference between this form and the Fridgar form? Apart from the significant strength difference, of course, not much. He used a sanding stone to make the bone fragment and appropriate size, using his necklace for reference. While he did, his eyes fell upon his bear totem, it was fixed to his surprise. Little did he know the true price of his overstepping hadn't been the storming headache, but a new mutation in his head. Once he'd sanded down the bone appropriately, he used his hand drill to bore a hole through the top.

While the blood drained from the paw, he would tend to his wounds. He couldn’t wield a sewing needle with claws, so had to turn back into a Lothar. To do so, he focused his being on the structure of his Fridgar totem and initiated the transformation, taking the long road of two bits to transform without using Chrysalis, he didn't want to risk another overstep. From there, he stripped and beheld his wounds. He soaked a bandage with the sterilising alcohol from his first aid kid and resealed the vial, then dabbed at the giant gash to clean it. He growled through closed teeth at the sting, but pressed on regardless. Once satisfied with the sterilisation of the wound, he proceeded to stitch himself up, or at least attempted to.

It was difficult, very difficult. Especially with the growing excitement of the sting of each time the needle entered his skin. Excitement? He meant Discomfort. By the time he was done, he'd messed up the sowing about a dozen times and had to unthread it a few loops and start again he carefully pulled the wound closed and tied a knot in the thread. He bandaged up the bite marks on his arm with alcohol-soaked wraps. He had to stitch up the wounds on his thighs, as he'd been cut to ribbons down there. Having learned after his first two dozen attempts on his chest, the process went a lot smoother on his thighs.

When he'd finished patching himself up, he approached the blood bowl without dressing. He'd collected enough, and the paw's remains looked somewhat dry. He added 1/10th of the mixture as glue and mixed into a thin paste. Using a brush, he applied the glue-blood mixture to the underside of the bone he'd prepared. He ripped the hair from the Ryon paw and pressed it to the glue, holding it for a bit or two while the glue set. He untied the knot of his totem necklace and slipped the thread through the hole he'd bored in the totem before tying it once more. Now came the fun part, testing it out.

He focused his being on the latest addition to his totem necklace and initiated the transformation. The process took a good two and a half bits to complete, but the form he was becoming was a mammal, the animal group he'd started with and practised for the past six arcs. he stretched out his body with his eyes closed, adjusting to the gait of the creature before opening his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the perfect night vision of Ryon, very useful. He padded around the room a bit as he adjusted to being a quadruped once more then approached the door, letting himself out with his teeth into what would have been the pitch black frozen woodlands, but he could see perfectly. With a look of curiosity, he roared into the woodlands, echoing his challenge for all nearby to hear.

He widened his stance and broke into a run, bounding through the snow to test the new form, it wasn't all that different to the bear in terms of weight and size, perhaps a bit bigger, but evidently not as strong. Regardless, he couldn't wait to show Rey'na.

[Pegasus]

Fridgar

Points!:

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: NA (solo thread)
Structure: 5/ 5

Knowledge:

Becoming: Blending techniques
Becoming: Transforming whilst in pain is much more difficult.
Becoming: Chrysalis techniques
Becoming: Ryon totem
Medicine: Cleansing wounds
Running: Through the snow
Surgery: Basic sutures
Unarmed: Slashing with your claws

Loot:

The remains of 1 ryon.....+ 1 Ryon Totem!
Injuries: Claw damage to chest, shoulders etc - 10 trials to fully heal.
Injuries: Bite to the head + arms - 10 trials to fully heal, runs the risk of getting infected.

Fame:

None - because no one saw it.

Magic:

These points MAY be used for arcana

Overview:

General comments. Careful with you font / align tags - there are some unclosed on your second post
Story "I know I haven't shaved but you still recognise me, right?" I laughed aloud at that! An interesting and well writted story ~ I very much enjoyed how you used the story of gaining a totem to consider Fridgar's mutations and mental state.
Structure Well written, no issues.

Please do PM me if you've got any questions