[Redd]

“Run off with the random Chaos into the desert they said. It’d be fun, they said.” Harutte pitifully complained, kicking a clawed foot into the grey sand.

John sighed, twisting his neck around to look at the unhappy dog Chaos, resting his chin on his feathered shoulder. Harutte planted his six legs into the ground, narrowed his two sets of eyes and flared his frill up at John in a warning. It was all bravado and he knew better than to stare at it if he started glowing. You’d think, a Chaos built like a cross between a canine and a frilled neck lizard, with a heat resistant hide would have enjoyed an excursion into Wilt’no, where he’d be able to stretch his legs without being seen by humans, but this one had complained every step of the way.

[Redd]

John sighed and swung his head back around, dropping his wyvernian body down onto all fours for better stability on the loose sand and resumed walking.

“Even better, go into the desert with the strange Chaos who got my friends in danger and worked with that bitch! Good job Haru, very smart. Now you’re gonna die here as some sacrifice to weird-ass fish Chaos gods.” The Chaos continued his tirade, though John could hear him resume walking.

Small victories he guessed.

[Redd]

“Please. What I did got you set free. Where I took them granted them enough power to take on Yinziel. I only got them captured because they were ready.” John huffed, flicking his ears back, unable to hide his distaste.

“Does that help you sleep at night pirate?”

“I heard you were part of some particularly unsavoury activities Harutte.” John shot back. “A Chaos doesn’t easily earn that name. Now will you actually shut up and help me work out why there’s no color?”

[Redd]

“We could go into your name Jorumunnde but I think that’s pretty cut and dry. Or is the saying ‘cut and run’?” Harutte snorted, but left it at that. He paused for a second in thought, and then his demeanour instantly droops. “Y-yeah, there’s one… time I saw this happened. It was Them though, the Hierarchy.”

“Hah, maybe they’re finally retaliating for us killing one of their little toys. Or losing one of their generals, I’m not too sure.” John shrugged, but stopping, planting his butt on the ground and coiling his tail around him. “You’ve seen this before then?”

[Redd]

“Yeah, they’ve got one creepy bastard who take color from his surrounding. I didn’t quite stick around to ask questions, I hope you understand.” Harutte responded sarcastically, looking up at the bigger, furred wyvern. John blinked his many cyan colored eyes down at Harutte, before turning his antler-crested head skyward in thought. “He’s usually followed around by these two brats though, and you’d hear them if they were here so.”

Plus they'd... probably remember him and that... wasn't necessarily a good thing. His ability to charm didn't last forever and when people came out of it, they were usually mad.

[Redd]

John sighed and nodded, part of him wondering what in the hell happened to this Chaos to bring him so close to one of their Hierarchy but with the warning he received about Haru’s golden friend, he decided against asking.
For a while, they walked across the empty, grey wasteland in silence. It was an odd juxtaposition of  intense heat bearing down on their reptilian bodies, mixed with flat, cold greys that really was rubbing John the wrong way. If they could find color soon, that would be great.

“So, why did you do it?”

[Redd]

John raised an eyebrow and twisted his head back again.

“I mean… I only heard what Faen-” John flinched at the mention of the golden one’s name. “- told me, that you turned them in and then fled. You claim to be innocent but you see how that looks, right? Not quite the best look, considering you then also kidnapped me on your weird-ass ghost ship and hauled me out here.”

John couldn’t resist the urge to pull himself up on his haunches and press his claws into his temples, the gesture picked up from too much time among humans.

[Redd]

“Look mate, it was either them or my crew, okay? You know as much as I do, Yinziel was looking for powered Chaos, back then I wasn’t powered but most of my Chaos crew was. I had a choice, sacrifice all of them and walk free, or find those guys and find a special stone in the desert and return them to her.” He responded indignantly, mane fluffing up as his fur began to stand on end.

“So screw me, I chose the latter and told my crew to scatter so she couldn’t find them. I could have sabotaged the group and deliberately screwed up some of the temple’s trials -” Well, he kinda had accidentally done some dumb stuff (putting on a cursed mask, stuck his hand in a booby-trapped jar…) but that was accidental!

[Redd]

“- I could have attempted to interfere with those suits but I didn’t. I chose the most passive one that was in there. Then, I could have taken the stone, I had reinforcements literally right outside the door but I chose not to.” he continued hotly, tail flicking in annoyance. “And lets not forget how psychopathic your friends are!”

“What? My friends? You knew them better than me! Some of them seemed okay though, just a bit rough, my group was the same.” Harutte countered. Though, yeah he didn’t really have strong thoughts either way on Tamoriel’s group. He only had ever run into two kinds of Seraph, murdery and not murdery. Tam sorta… fell into the latter. And Chaos were Chaos.

[Redd]

“Hmph. They would have killed me. Or chained me up, or given the game away to Yinziel. They’re mad at me now, sure but as far as I know, no one actually died.” John shurgged. “Plus from what you told me, your lot seemed a lot… more mild. Two Seraph, a Human and a snack.”

“Yeah we lost the only other Chaos fairly early on. Plus the Dweller kept trying to be friends with me so it made shit a hell of a lot easier.” Harutte chuckled, recalling much more… turbulent times.

[Color Harvested]