Reminiscing

His father had always driven him not to turn his back on a fight. Pushing forward had been rewarded, standing down punished. But now Azure didn't seem to want fight him for real, intent on telling him of old dalliance. He avoided Bas' first strike, and his son let him. So long as Azure avoided falling into a proper fight, Bas wouldn't push the offensive. He hated his father, but he loved him too.


He fell into a rhythm, stalking in opposite motions to his father, as Azure turned his energy into prowling. Bas grimaced as his father spoke of pinning venom down. Not something he wished to hear. But he saw the pain in his father too. He still didn't understand why his father had left. Why he'd given it all up to walk away. He didn't care about the abstract side-stepping his father did. Why did it seem that Azure wanted to tell him everything except why?


As Azure struck, Bas called his bluff. He didn't engage, but watched as the motion struck the air where he had been. Still, Azure avoided a full entanglement. 

"Was it worth it?" He asked softly instead. "Walking away, and losing mum. My siblings?" His voice was a whisper, without that first surge of rage to power it.


When Azure struck again, Basilisk misplaced it for another faint, and was punished with his father's fangs in his cheek. He snarled with rage, and unexpected pain as he aimed to hook a spurred leg behind his father's, in an attempt to catch his father's flesh on the spike.