[Hhhokay so apparently its fairly difficult to write in first person view so Imma tread along with third person.]
------------------------------------
Fluttering after the speedy guard, the moth couldn't help but yawn tiredly. Ermine, the guard from before, had happened to awaken [Name] at an ungodly time, yet they were too tired to question why. Perhaps their Lorde had requested something of them, but damn, even they were too tired to give two shits. And considering that this was the same moth that made a fool of yourself, he hadn't said a peep about this small 'quest.' Growing drowsier, you found yourself drifting off to sleep, it was a bit of a struggle to stay awake even though you had actually gotten enough rest. Suppose that that new bed was a little too well made. The armored moth navigated through the halls like it was nothing. Speeding up and down the halls with such grace, and steeply turning at every corner. He was in no hurry, rather he had simply wanted to give the new moth a bit of a scare, however unbeknownst to him, they uh-. . . if this was an in game skill that'd be amazing, but while in mid flight they had actually fallen asleep. Good gods, how they managed to keep up was just a mystery.
As soon as the speedy moth had begun to tread to a stop, he bright his nail back so he could turn back to see if the other hadn't lost him, however once he had done so, the moth themself harshly made contact with the armored other. Though it hadn't quite hurt Ermine, considering that [Name] was of fluff, slamming and rolling over the guard with an echoing thwap, and hitting the ground most definitely caused some pain. With that pain met their awakening. To get a better image of this, think of it like this. You're a line leader with a few others behind you, but you're running and you just suddenly stop so all the other people behind you don't have a chance to slop down and ultimately you all slam into each other, or perhaps its a little more like running with a balloon or two in hand, abruptly stopping and having the dang thing tangle you up in its strings and lightly having the ballon thunk against yourself.
Yelping in surprise, Ermine had nearly been dragged down with you. Your descend into the ground had actually been oddly graceful. Spiraling into the floor, those whimsical lavender wings, which faded into a beautiful jade, sprawled out in the air. Spinning and whirling, buuut thats just the descend. How you look now makes you look like you'd been hit by a semi and been blasted into a wall. Lying on the marbled floor, entangled in your wings, a tired groan escaped you followed by some shuffling.
Wasting no time, Ermine hastily made his way over to the pile of . . . m o t h. Having already dropped his spear like nail from just a bit ago, he'd worry about it later. It wasn't like anyone else was going to run into him in the halls at this hour. "Oh dear, are you okay?" Quietly asking, the mortified guard slipped in some nervous laughed. [Name], still waking up from their daze took a moment to process what had happened. Their memory was just a bit murky but they got the gist of what had happened and started into a sheepish laughter themself. A warm flurry rose up from their chest and right up to their face. "Im okay, but are you? Good lorde, it really should be me who should be apologizing."
"No no, I shouldn't have been walking so fast." Wait that was a walk? Holy crap. If this is just a walk, what would his run be like? Just thinking about it makes your head spin. 'Or maybe you should've let me sleep just a little longer.' huffing, you shake your head. "Alright, alright. I accept your apology, but uh-" Struggling a bit, entangled in your wings, your managed to tug your arm out and hold It out to the other. "-a bit of help, please?" Looking down at their pale hand, the guard tilted his head downwards a bit, taking a moment to take in the situation he took the assistant by the hand and helped them up to their feet. The assistant has been assisted. Much like before, but now with more control, fluff and armor met once again. Reaching contact with the cold, slick feel of the armor, Ermine had actually smiled when he had taken [Name] by their soft, delicate, and stout claws. Effortlessly, the sheepish male pulled them forward in one swift motion. Thanking the other, while adjusting their stance, the Radiance's assistant began to pat down their wings once more. "So, care to explain why you decided to drag me out of bed so early, Woosher?" Your previous formal demeanor shifted into one of a more playful, friendly one. "Well, I had overheard that the Radiance had wanted to gift you a nail, so it'd be a good idea to teach you some ways to defend yourself with it-" Speaking as if he had recited this before, he began to stammer a bit at the end and had ended up cutting himself off. Shaking his head momentarily, then tilting it, he seemed surprised at that last statement. "Woosher?"
Asking, fairly confused, you looked back up at him momentarily then focused your gaze on back at where you had been directing your stubby feelers. "When you walk, you make this 'woosh' sound- but uh, besides that. Thank you, I'd really appreciate some dueling lessons." Once you had completed tidying your appearance, you tucked your arms back under your wings and crossed them. "Ah, well its no problem." Thinking to himself, he couldn't help but smile a bit to himself. It was nice to be around someone who wasn't all that rowdy. Their politeness and kind demeanor was something that the moth had really appreciated. [Name's] joy was almost contagious. Usually the fairly reserved moth wears a nervous smile, but never a joyous one. His excitement for training the new moth had nearly made him forget his own nail. Before setting off, he gathered his weapon and began to trot off. Trailing behind empty handed, the sound of their conversing and laughter echoed down the halls as the two had entered through the palace, and down to one or the training platforms that awaited the moths.
------------------------------------
"Um- oh dear- you're okay, right?"
"Y-... y e s?" Was all the terrified assistant could manage to muster up, wings puffed up and feelers held up to cover [Name's] face, confusion and fear struck them like a butcher knife chopping into an ant. Acting as if you had just woken up to find a convicted murderer in your house, you honestly had no idea what to do in that instant, just moments ago you'd woken up and processing this all was like downloading 10 seasons worth of Naruto into an outdated laptop. Just moments after entering the platform, a blur of red pretty much fell out of the sky and attacked Ermine for a brief moment. Well he hadn't actually landed a hit on Ermine. Amazingly the moth had summoned two nails. One had shot forward and just barely missed Ermine, the other hovered besides the moth as he descended. Fainting from the near hit and sudden spook, now lay a pile of armor and moth, leaving you to quiver and panic before the flustered other. As he inched towards the fainted moth, the other who was colored to an apple red awkwardly pushed and nudged at the assistant's friend while in a squatting position. Because Ermine had fainted just a few feet away from you, the mysterious other was getting closer and closer to you. There really wasn't a way out of this without dying. Trying to get back into the kingdom meant getting past the attacker, and jumping off the platform meant you had to bet on your soul that you'd land on another platform and not plummet into the great unknowns, or even worse, fall into the nightmare realm. Looking back up at the other, fear struck being caused them to flinch and take a step back. Raising their arms up in defense, they rose up slowly and waved their feelers. "Calm down! Calm down, I'm one of the Radiance's guards. Please, this is just a misunderstanding!" Laughing out nervously, his shoulders bounced lightly which caused his silver shoulder pads to clink over his armor.
"Then what in the third realm was all that?" Stammering, you gestured to the nail which stuck upright from the platform. Some few cracks trailed away from the point where it had struck the ground, yet there were so many in the floating platform already. Now standing upright, he clicked his feelers together, fidgeting. "I hadn't expected anyone to be here and you two startled me, please do except my apology. Really I didn't intend any of this to happen." An awkward laughter escaped from the other, it sounded a bit muffled, almost echoing out from his red helmet. It almost sounded like he was talking into a bucket. Stepping over Ermine, the stranger reached over and plucked his nail out from the ground. Taking a step back forward, you couldn't help but stare at Ermine and the guard with a concerned expression.
He probably wasn't lying. His nail-- er, nail's were identical to Ermine's, and his armor was fairly similar. Except Ermine's wasn't red, his was silver yet it had a pink hue. This fool who had ambushed your friend had a set of armor that was colored to an apple red, the horn like pieces that were atop of his helmet jutted out from the sides like an elongated crescent shape while your friend's curved upward. Similar ye it had their striking differences. Breathing out a breath, the moth shook their head and cautiously treaded towards Ermine. "He's fine, right?" Asking, you bent down to level with the fainted moth. As still as a statue, you could see the chest piece rising and falling. "Mhmm, yeah this happens, he'll be fine." Shooting back with another reply, his tone appeared to be less troubled yet it still had its relaxed yet cheery tone. Craning your head to face the other, he happened to have his gaze set on you already. Cocked to the side, you could tell that he was pondering a bit. This caught [Name] off guard a bit, almost made them feel fairly creeped out. What the hell was he starring at? Breaking out of concentration, he jolted in place. "Ah- sorry. I just haven't seen you around these parts of the palace before. You must be new, correct?"
Asking, the guard tilted his helmet wearing head to the side. Antennas straightening up once more, a fairly surprised, yet pleased 'oh' escaped you. You hadn't really expected that, well you hadn't actually expected much at all to be honest. Most of the guards you'd seen here were either fairly quiet, like Ermine, or super rowdy around particular guards. Fooling around and roughhousing , well that is if there weren't any authoritative around. Around strangers they were polite, stern, and just generally scary, but they mean no harm! Though this guard, they gave off more of this optimistic, friendly vibe. Like one of those camp counselor types who'd be all sunshine and rainbows, but a lil toned down. Nodding their head caused those fluffy antennas to bobble back and fourth. "I'm the Radiance's assistant." Even with that helmet on, you could tell that the other's eyes widened beneath the shadows that blanketed their face. Frantically, he jetted his gaze back at Ermine and then back at you. An audible, wheezed out "Oh shit" escaped from the guard. A small chuckle escaped from the moth, shaking their head they countered the panicked guard's tone with a fairly calm one. "Hey now, don't worry, I wont tell her about this." Starring at you for just a few moments, his shoulders slumped and a hefty, relieving sigh escaped the moth, "Good gods, I owe you one, thank you [Name]."
"Don't sweat it, say I never caught your naAME HOLD ON-" Getting up, you had began to brush back your wings, though hearing your name being slipped out from the stranger caught you off guard. Head snapping back at the other with a shocked expression, he erupted in laughter. "Word gets around fast here! My name is Xero, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Xero, eh? Like the number- perhaps its a nickname though as a birth name? You've heard stranger, it wasn't quite all that odd.
After just a bit of time, [Name] and Xero managed to drag the single, unconscious guard towards the doorframe. Letting him lean against it, the two moths happened to hang about the floating platform. Not a single soul had entered the training arena so Xero and the moth had the whole place to themselves. The guard stayed behind to accompany the assistant since he still felt fairly guilty after that incident. [Name] eventually adjusted to Xero and was starting to get along fairly well. What happened before still spooked them, but Xero hadn't seemed as bad as they had previously though him to be. Once Ermine had awoken, he'd found the two moths play-fighting with wooden dowels. Perhaps Xero had tried to teach the other some lessons but seeing where they were now, this didn't turn out the way he planned so. But considering that Xero never intended on running into anyone else this morning, this could've gone worse. Though taking into consideration that Xero wasn't all that new, this could have gone so much better.
It took a while for them to realize that the quiet guard had been awake. It was once only after Xero had knocked [Name] onto the ground and pressed one foot against their back, Xero held up the wooden dowel in victory as the servant moth played dead. Clapping from the doorway, Ermine cheered quietly and even whistled. This caught Xero so off guard that he had actually accidentally pressed his foot into [Name's] back a little too hard and had actually stumbled off. The assistant wheezed when a sudden force pushed back on them, even jolting up a bit and scrambling to get up. "How long have you been awake for?!" Shifting in his place, Ermine's gaze diverted off to the side. Xero dropped his beaten up, wooden dowel and assisted the assistant up to their feet, helping them flick off the pebbled and dust off of their wings. Thanking him, the guard shrugged in reply. "Mmmm up until you dropped the practice nail off the platform." Cringing at the mention of that moment, your fluffy antennas twitched in that moment, Xero breathed in a deep breath and spoke out as he exhaled. "You're going to have to get that later." Xero whispered, "Yeah I know, I know." responding back without glancing back at your new friend, they started to break into a small bit of a nervous sweat. "Actually scratch that, it's probably in the next realm." Clearing your throat, you took a step forward. "Anyways, how're you feeling?" Diverting the conversation, Ermine stood up, tilting his head a bit. "Fairly normal, slightly dizzy but fine."
"Sorry about scaring by the way." Piping up, the guard in red apologized, Ermine simply shook his head and held his claws up, waving him off. "It's fine. What is this, the tenth time?" A creaky, high pitched 'eh' escaped from Xero, holding his feelers up, and doing a bit of a weighing motion, the male replied in just the same voice. "Maybe a little more." "Good gods Xero!" Snapping your head back at the guard, he held his claws up. "Its so easy to scare him, I can't help it!"
Watching the assistant scold the delightful warrior from afar, the soft spoken guard simply crossed his arms and shook his head. A light chuckle escaped from him and echoed lightly out from his helmet. Watching the event escalating, Xero made a fatal mistake of slipping out a stupendously stupid comment and froze in place. Watching him freeze up, [Name] was quiet, too quiet. Wings puffing up and extending out, they were getting ready to pounce and Xero was already running off. Screeching, a trail of apologies ran out from the running guard. Flying after the other like an enraged vengefly. They may be no good at hand to hand combat, but god were they good at head diving. Who knows what Xero had accidentally spoken of. Perhaps it was when the Radiance sent out a team of her knights to explore the depths of Hallownest when he had scared Ermine so badly on duty because he had jokingly picked up and placed a decaying shell on his helmet and called it his 'second head', or perhaps the other time where Xero had been roughhousing with another guard nearly slashed the Radiance, she hadn't been hit nor did she notice but the reserved guard simply fainted at the sight. Watching the whole scene unfold, Ermine slid down the frame of the door and took a seat, maybe it'd be a good idea to just wait this one out once more.
Besides, they looked like they were having fun. [Name] may be no good with handling a nail but maybe they'll end up teaching themself some attacks involving their flight... nah Ermine is just amused and'll teach them later. [Name] honestly looked like a kite made of newspaper and was struggling to stay up in the air. This was just amusing to him. Plus, the two looked like they were having fun, even though [Name] was probably going to maul Xero... whoops. Eh, he'll be fine. It's Xero. Whats the worst that could happen.
-------------------------
-------------------------
[Good lordie this is a long one ":D
I uh- don't quite know what to put here again. Xero was pretty fun to write in, but I might need to figure out how to get the hang of his personality a bit, whoop-- Also, here's a thingy. Xero, Kagekao, and Genji have the same energy, iS IS JUST ME OR DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL IT--]
[7/19/19]