Brutes Prompt 1- Gydeon

After bidding  the friends they made amongst The Forgotten goodbye and farewell Gydeon and Cailu set off on the next step of their journey. After getting hooked up to his traveling cart and making sure everything is all packed up Gydeon glances over at his traveling partner then asks "So who's up next?". Cailu ponders for a moment before nodding to himself and turning to Gydeon, stating "The Brutes should be the next stop for us, they're not too far off and they're a key part in the daily lives of the clans, as underappreciated as they are they're one of the many keys to keeping everything working as it should. They are experts on the true meaning of Hard work and unafraid of any kind of battle, be it with others or against a monumental task-they'll take anything on with confidence. Many of the other clans make use of these traits”  Hearing that Gydeon perks up and glances at his harness and Cart, both looking worse for wear after his previous  and other past adventures "You think they could repair or upgrade my kit for a good price? it's a fair bit worn out after all I've put it through?" Cailu nods and Gydeon sets off with a pep in his step, looking forward to their next stop.

Days pass as Gydeon and Cailu travel, pausing to greet and share stories with fellow travelers as they slowly work their way over to the cavern the Brutes reside in. After the grueling journey Gydeon perks up as the faint sounds of metal hitting metal echos and the smell of forge fires faintly wafts from ahead "Come on Cailu! We're almost there!" Rushing ahead even Cailu can feel excitement

When they get to the underground City Gydeon can't help but to let out a gasp in awe, fires blazing high and bright, Metalsmiths crafting and appraising each other's work, others pulling carts laden down with raw and finished materials to their final destinations, as well as some selling finished products. However, instead of a warm welcome Gydeon and Cailu find themselves receiving nasty glares, growls and hard stares. Looking over at his companion Gydeon asks as quietly as possible "what's up with these guys? they're even more unfriendly than the Forgotten." Unfortunately it wasn't quietly enough as a large female Haedian nearby whirls around snarling in offense "Rude and foolishly outsiders dare to ask why we aren't falling all over ourselves to please you? Seems like you soft-pawed surface dwellers are all the same" and at that Gydeon bristles and growls "there's a difference between common decency and that asshole- And I'm also not soft-pawed, I've seen my fair share of hard work and fighting"

The other sneers "Oh yeah tough guy? How about this, I'll apologize if you win the next Collection Competition tomorrow how's that? If you lose you have to leave and not come back, go and bother other clans who don't have as much work to do as we do" Puffing up Gydeon nods "Alright however if you lose your apology needs to be in front of a crowd of others just tell me when and where so I can beat you." A tense stare down ensuse before eventually the female agrees with a scoff before turning away "As if, anyways the competition will be in the morning tomorrow at the south-west Cavern, be there or else you'll regret it."

With that she stalks off and Gydeon can't help but to seethe before Cailu give him a nudge and the pair attempts to continue on and find a meal and a decent place to stay the night, fortunately before long they find a small inn with a friendly enough atmosphere after the show-down in the morning. It seemed like Gyds verbal showdown with the mysterious female Haedian turned some heads with the way looks and whispers followed them, causing Gydeon to become even more annoyed and snappish, noticing this Cailu tears in to their room for the night "Don't worry about it my friend- I'll have dinner brought up to us so we can take the night to recover and be at the top of our, or more accurately your, game since the task they saw fit to give you is a difficult one." Upon saying that he turns around to get the aforementioned dinner and Gydeon gets to work doing some unpacking while waiting for his companion to return, all the while mulling over Cailu's words, perhaps he did let his temper get the better of himself this time, he's never been the most patient and tolerant of personal attacks and it's something Gydeon knows he has to work on. But as the saying goes what's said is said and what's done is done. The moment he gets the last few things situated hhe can hear the door handle click and open up, Cailu entering with two large bowls of mouth-wateringly good smelling meat stew of some sort "Eat up-- if what the competition is what I belive it is you will need it." Ears perking up Gydeon asks as he waits for Cailu to set the food down, barely holding back a stream of drool and using what little self control he had in not wolfing it all down on sight and failing spectacularly "What even did I sign up for? From the way everyone and their mother are acting it seems like I might have bitten off a lot this time." Gydeon asks inbetweenn bites of his meal.

Upon hearing that Cailu nods and starts serving the pair of them "I deed it'll be a tall task, on the surface it's a relatively simple one- Gather as many golden stones as you can before the time runs out. Unfortunately it's a bit more complicated than that, for one there's no rules about taking them from others and starting fights, in fact the only real rule is to not cause severe permanent damage. Which as you can tell leave much open to interpretation." the headian pauses to take a bite of his stew, ignoring and leaving Gydeons aggressive inhaling of his own stew unremarked upon, before continuing "The flip side is of you do succeed in this you will be given respect and treated as one of them by The Brutes. I have a feeling my practice at healing magic will come in handy" Cailu adds that last part almost to himself with a concerned from and Gydeon can't help but to be touched, the Vayron nudges his friend and tried to cheer him up "Let's head to bed so I can collect the most stones anyone's ever collected before then! I'm going to make her eat her words!" with that the haedian loosens up with a laugh and agrees, both of them heading to bed to greet the next mornings trials well rested

When the pair awaken the next morning they collect everything in a

rush and heads out to the challenge field, Gydeons steps quick with excitement and anticipation while Cailu are more evenly paced and reserved, steps tempered hy caution and knowledge. As they approach the meeting place they can see a crowd of others forming and seemingly several contestants standing off to the side pacing and each putting on and adjusting a plain brown canvas bag, seemingly eager to start getting the events rolling, and in between all of this he catches a glimpse of the large female who started all this the other day looking upon the contestants. She glances over and sees Gydeon and gives him a genuine, albeit a bit nasty smile, and bellows out "It seems out special guest of the hour makes it just in time! Let's see if his bite is able to back up that barking of his! Shall we get ready to get the party started!" the croud whoops and cheers and Gydeon finds himself being infected with the energy, howling as he rushes to the front with the others "Just tell me what I need to do to make you eat your words!" at his proclamation the croud of headian growl and one closer we by hisses "How dare he speak to you like that Zarod!" but she only laughs and tosses Gydeon his own canvas bag that matches the other's "Like I said before let's see if his words can be matched by action!" turning around and facing the contestants the female haedian- Zarod- booms out "I assume you guys know the deal but let's go over it again for the newbies out here- the goals are to collect golden stones in any way possible before this-" she pauses to tap a strand looking machine, part clock part unidentifiable mess of tubing and horn like protrusions "-Goes off in 30  minutes, the only rules are No permanent damage or killing, if that's found to happen you'll immediately get disqualified and punished depending on the severity of the offense. Now see we ready to begin?" Gydeon and the rest nod eagerly, and seeing that Zarod's grin grows and she flips a switch on the strange object and starts to count down "Get Ready Then! Three....... Two....... One....... GO!" The machine let's out an ear shattering bellow and everyone darts off,  ducking and weaving and pushing against Each other.

Gydeon doesn't take a second and immediately pushes off himself, following their lead, and quickly covering more ground. Strong claws and muscles letting him get a strong grip on the smooth floors as he starts his frantic collection of golden stones. Gydeons world narrowing becoming that singular focus as the noise of the croud becomes background noise, quickly scooping up golden stones as fast as he can when suddenly a force comes crashing into him from behind and he feels claws rip into his side. Snarling he turns around and defends himself from a large red and green haedian, using his sharp teeth and claws to retaliate and doing his own damage, letting out his rage and frustration and taking the opportunity to show off that his build was the way it was for a reason and quickly taking his opponent down and taking their own pouch of golden stones as a trophy ad they slink off, knowing that the battle was lost and going to lick their literal and metaphorical wounds. "20 minutes left!" Zarod voice booms out unnaturally loud and Gydeon freezes for a moment, not expecting the announcement and gets his butt in gear and the cycle repeats. Get stones, start a fight, win lose or tie, fortunately the former is the result for Gydeon more often times than not, although a small haedian managed to get him good with their wing spade and Gydeon can feel the paralytic poison try and slow him down even though he resists the best he can. Fortunately he has a decent collection of stones and after watching the through trashing Gydeon meets out the other contestants start to avoid him. "FIVE MINUTES''

"FOUR MINUTES"

"THREE"

"TWO"

"ONE!!!!"

Suddenly a deep booming ring goes off and everyone starts to rush back to the main area to see what the totals are and to get their wounds taken care of.

Cailu hovers over and personally patches Gydeon up quickly- the Vayron was one of the contestants that were worse for wear. Covered in gashes bites, claw marks and ripped out fur from the others teaming up and trying their best to slow him down and make him lose

Yet despite that fact Gydeons chest is puffed up with pride and the crowd looks at him with a growing respect for his ability to handle himself. Even Zarod looks at him begrudgingly impressed as she announces "EVERYONE LINE UP! Let's see the the points be tallied" she and a couple other referees go down the line one by one and take the bags, counting out each stone and leaving them in a pile in front of their respective then moving onto the next . Some piles big, some smaller, but slowly and slowly they get to Gydeon, the final competitor, and he feels tense anticipation as they count his stones . They go back to the Zarod and they talk in hushed whispers and she nods and pulls out some medals

Slowly she walks past everyone before stopping in front of the Red Haedian that first attacked Gydeon and placing a bronze medal around his neck "In Third place with 37! Ardent! She had a rough beginning but more than made up for it in the latter half" Gydeons Heart Pounds, rising himself for not keeping count of his own collections specifically. he eyes Ardentd pile and calms down when he realizes his is definitely larger but unsure by how much

looping around she stops in front of a very small purple haedian with white mask like marking on their face "In second place with 43 it's Darian! Fast like lightning and sneaky to boot! many had their bags lightened by her and didn't even notice!" He swallows, excitement and dread curling through his stomach

looping around and weaving in between everyone before stopping before him "And finally! It's Gydeon in first place with 51! So that means I owe him an apology, I assumed he was like all the other outsiders. Soft and unused to hard work and fights, but I see now he's just as hard and as tough as a worker like you and me! and for that I must give him the recognition he earned ."  and with that everyone starts yelling and cheering crouding around Gydeon, suspicious looks and whispering insults stopping as he's proven himself more than enough to be treated as one of them. The celebration continues on for a while and he walks over to Zarod and smiles "I also owe you an apology- I was also a bit rude myself, could we perhaps get a fresh start on the right foot? My name is Gydeon and I'm an adventurer from the contenent of Thedale and I was tasked with adventuring these caverns and figuring out the cause for the strange events surrounding the opening of your tunnels, along with getting to know and learn more about the clans who call this place home" Zarod laughs and nods, "I that case I am Zarod, the Matron of the Brutes. We are Hard workers and warriors, We pour our blood sweat and tears into everything we do" she pauses and studies Gydeon again before adding in a serious but firm manner "However you still have plenty to prove to me, after all just a few fights and a win aren't enough to earn you true respect down here." He nods in understanding "Just tell me what I need to do to earn that respect and I'll do it! you better believe it"

a small genuine smile pulls at the corner of the haedians mouth "That's exaclty what I like to hear!"

-To be Continued-