Ary tries to look at whatever it is that she's looking at, rather than at her, completely missing any sort of sign of how she's really feeling.
She appears absolutely dumbfounded by what goes on between Horgus and Anevia... but then a frown crosses her face. Old friends, and new ones.
"We need to calm down, and keep a level head. I trust Anevia completely." she states to Horgus. "And there's nothing wrong with being private in your faith... there are times that I feel a lot more comfortable talking to the Inheritor in my head than out loud... that doesn't diminish my faith, does it?" she tries to smile at the upset woman.
"Besides... if not for her, that spider probably would've taken a bit more of my neck when it bit me..." she said as she scratched where the wound had been... it suddenly felt hairy.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Valaria fights the urge to slam her head against a wall in frustration. Does the idea of working together for their common survival mean nothing to the noble? The accusation of thieving and spying makes her groan out loud. "Arg," she groans. "Alright, before we get into a fist fight in the middle of a holy shrine, perhaps we can step back a bit." She physically moves between Horgus and Anevia, meaning they will have to go past her if either tries to get physically aggressive. "I know everyone is very tense right now, but this kind of argument gets us nowhere."
"All of you have been at each other's throats at least once since we got down here, and you're included in this too Aravashnial. Don't think I've forgotten how Horgus got on your case last night. So instead of taking snipes at each other while the rest of us try to figure out what in the Abyss your problem is, how about we get everything out in the open now so we can figure out how to work together instead of fighting constantly?"
She takes a deep breath, not wanting to get angry and make the situation worse. "Horgus, you've called Anevia a thief and a spy. You've called Aravashnial a conspiracy theorist. Anevia's now called you a coward. Perhaps we can get explanations for why you all seem bent on fighting with each other when there's clearly history here that the rest of the group, the group that needs to work together to survive I might add, knows nothing about."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Aravashnial sighs, standing in the doorway to the antechamber.
"Fine. Whatever. I've got nothing to hide," Anevia says, glaring at Horgus. "Iomedae knows my sins. I survived that damned fall and I credit my Lady Desna's blessing with that, so if the gods like me I don't really give a damn what anyone else thinks."
Horgus blusters, but he doesn't interrupt.
"Alright. I was born in Nidal...that's kind of far away from here. Which is on purpose, I guess?"
"I was born into the thieves guild there, kid of the leader, all that. Anyway, the Silent Shroud..uh... they're basically the constabulary in Nidal. Except they're different than up here, more like ol Prelate Hulrun would be with his witch hunts if he worshipped death and darkness instead of the lady of valor, I guess is a good way of putting it. Right, whatever. When I was ten, the Silent Shroud showed up and murdered my whole family, I barely got away."
"So I got the Hell out of Nidal and ran north. Fell in with some shady people. Did some things I'd rather not talk about. Uh...anyway...I was with this new crew and we were looting some abandoned shrine to Aroden in the River Kingdoms. But… the whole thing was a set-up. The guy who hired me was actually some bounty hunter hired by the Silent Shroud. He had been tracking me for ages, and just wanted to get me alone so he could slit my throat, chop off my head, and take it back home."
"So I'm all tied up, on this table, pondering my life to that point when... this half-orc paladin just… busts in! She was tracking some other guy in the River Kingdoms, big-deal cultist...anyway that doesn't matter. What matters is... She saved me." Anevia chokes up, and starts to cry. She buries her head in her hands. "No one’s ever given a s~~$ about me before, not even in the guild. I tried to pledge myself to her service, but she said, ’You’re welcome to travel with me, but you owe me nothing.’. She taught me about the Inheritor, and how it doesn’t matter to her who you were only who you are. And I followed her all the way to Kenabres, and...we….we fell in love. We were married, in the Cathedral of St. Clydwell. Oh, blessed Iomedae, Irabeth. I don’t know if I can keep going on without her."
Li'an sticks her head back inside to try and get the others moving and catches Ary and Anevia talking. Anevia's announcement that she needs to rest her leg sets of Horgus, drawing a grimace from Li'an. Before she can interject, however, Horgus manages to belt out some fairly significant background regarding the two of them, which she'd been unaware of.
She what had been said over in her head as Valaria and Ary tried desperately to diffuse the situation. His accusations about Anevia's past incensed her, since it seemed in many ways that her own reasons for joining the Crusade were not so different.
Anevia's forced confession only further angered Li'an. "Are you satisfied Horgus?" she said raising her voice, for once showing true anger at the situation. "We all have our failures Anevia," she said, looking at her sympathetically.
She turned to face Horgus again and reached around behind her, drawing Lleuad and holding it out so Horgus could see the blade. "This is Lleuad-a'r-Sêr. It belonged to my father before he died by my hand. I've devoted myself heart and soul to the crusades since then." She paused for a moment before continuing, her eyes locked on the portly man's eyes. "Tell me, is no one allowed to atone? Are we forever forbidden from striving to correct the mistakes of our past?" The look in her eye showed she was dead serious in questioning him.
Ary frowned slightly, as the story broke out... but as it went on, she couldn't help but smile, slowly. It probably looked more than a little insane, given the situation. She finally leaned back against the wall.
'I'm beginning to wonder if being a runaway and a thief is a prerequisite for little girls to worship you when they become big girls.' she thought in Iomedae's general direction.
As her story took that last turn, wondering about whether or not Irabeth was okay, she wrapped her arm around her (if she'd have it).
"Thank you Anevia," Valaria says. "I thought I picked up a Nidal accent earlier, but I thought I was imagining it. I guess that explains a lot." The mention of the dark country makes her shudder internally. It's one place she swore to avoid if at all possible.
She turns to Horgus. "Alright, so she admits to the sins of her past. I'm not expecting your life story. Gods know everyone has some things they'd rather not talk about, but a reason why you think she's still a thief, or a spy for gods' sake, would explain a lot."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"You're lucky for having escaped, Anevia." says Markus, approaching Anevia as well. "It appears you have the blessings of Desna as well as Iomedae. I wish I could say the same." Markus exhales before he begins his own confession. "I'm from Ustalav, a scarred land of peasants and roaming undead. The city where I studied is under the thumb of a vampire. My mother was raped during my conception, and she died hating me."
"I came here, to the Worldwound, to die. I figured it would be better than nine hundred years of cursed half-life, but apparently even the destruction of a city can't take me along." Markus sighs and sits down, suddenly very tired. He looks at Aravashnial and Horgus. "What could possibly motivate you to be so nasty to the only people for miles who want to look out for you, who want to ensure your safety?"
Somehow, his story only serves to unsettle those around them. Instead of making them more comfortable with his admission of self, his story is just uncomfortable, and Markus' stuttered telling of it doesn't help.
"Mage..." Ary trailed off, seeming lost for words to help the situation. Now wasn't the time, anyway. The air needed to be cleared.
"And you wonder why I call you gloomy," Valaria deadpans to Markus, trying to break the tension with a joke and hopefully keep Horgus from getting angry while she's trying to get a straight answer out of him.
Anevia leans into Ary's arms, crying into the taller woman's shoulder. She listens to Markus and turns her head towards him, rubbing her face as she does so.
"Damn, Markus, that's some heavy s@++," she exhales. "Yeah, I think that's got me beat. My family wasn't....affectionate. Their attitude was more or less, you sink or you swim, that's how life in Nidal goes. But if it wasn't for my mother's quick thinking, I wouldn't have been able to smuggle myself out of the city. So I'm really sorry to hear that. You ever think instead of throwing away living for another bajillion years, maybe you can spend that time making the world a better place?"
Aravashnial's shoulders slump, slightly. "I am sorry, Markus. And to you, Lord Gwerm, though I've already told you this, in person I might add," he adds with a little irritation. "Nothing I've learned about the cultists in this area suggests that there'd be much of a connection between necromancy nor Ustalav with their goals. I remain firm in my belief that they have infiltrated our upper class, however."
Horgus looks unfazed by Anevia's sappy story, but when Li'an addresses him, he is visibly intimidated.
"Hmph! Was a thief? Load of cockney. You broke into my home, thief."
Anevia looks exasperated. "Yes, obviously, Lord Thick-Skull. That was the point of the story. I have a very particular set of skills - mostly pertaining y'know, to breaking into people's homes and stealing all their things. Well, turns out those are useful skills for the Crusades. When you were accused of consorting with demons, it was my job to look through your crap to determine if that was true. I mean, it was suspicious. As far as we could tell from our initial investigations, you attended no temples, so the idea that you might worship demons wasn't too far-fetched. I found nothing. But I did find a nice, well-maintained shrine to Abadar - so it puzzles me that you never went to his services. "
Horgus turns red. "Lies. Out with it, woman. The sword. You stole the sword."
"What in the Abyss are you talking about?" she responds, wearily.
"I bought Irabeth's sword from her. Her family sword. She was saving up for something, she said," he gloats. "Then the day after the transaction it goes missing! Obviously, she had you steal it back, swindling me!"
Anevia pales. "What? She sold her sword? I didn't know that." She pauses for a moment, before a look of understanding crosses her face. "I see."
Horgus scoffs, not believing her.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Demons defeating the Crusaders means the end of the world, right?" scoffs Markus. Anevia was preaching at him, something that he's far too used to and far too tired of. "Why do you think I chose to come here, specifically? Danger lies everywhere but only Mendev is defending the rest of the world from imminent destruction."
On top of being condescending to him, Anevia was being judgmental of Horgus, even on top of apparently him being proven innocent of his crimes. "You two need to stop, right now. I used to think that you needed to just put your feelings aside until our imminent death was a little bit farther away, but now I think this needs to be addressed."
"You two are on the same side. Both o you support the Crusades, you both want the other to live, you both call the same place home. Stop arguing! You don't actually have any conflict, neither of you have done anything to the other!"
Ary looks back and forth between the two... she appears dumbfounded, as various scripture runs through her heads. The exact implications of a crusader, let alone a paladin of Iomedae literally selling her sword are sizable. She simply looks to Anevia, waiting. She won't press, like the 'where are you really from?' question, this requires tact. But the confusion is written all over Ary, who usually works so hard to maintain appearances.
Then is sundered from her thoughts by Markus.
"I... think I want all of this to play out to the best of our abilities. It needs to be worked out, because if it comes up in the middle of something important... or if it comes down to trust versus distrust..." Ary shakes her head. "Lives may be lost later if we don't solve our problems now." and then her tone changed, as if she were quoting something from memory, "I will guard the honor of my fellows, both in thought and deed, and I will have faith in them." and then back. "We can't be at each other's throats and have each other's backs at the same time." she gives Anevia's arm a squeeze.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Valaria groans. "When did we become judge and jury for these three?" she thinks as she rubs her temples. "Well, I suppose I asked for this. I just didn't think it would be this complicated." "Alright. So, let me see if I've got this straight, just to make sure I'm not missing anything."
She points to Aravashnial. "So, Aravashnial thinks that cultists have infiltrated the local upper class and from context, I'm guessing he suspected Horgus." She then pointed at Anevia. "So you used your skills to 'investigate' his home and see if there was any proof due to there being some circumstantial evidence that he could have been involved with a cult, but found that he follows Abadar, which makes sense for a merchant." She points at Horgus. "However, a sword that Anevia's wife sold to you, a sword that seems to have been very important to her, disappeared from your house around the same time and you blame Anevia for it going missing, thinking she stole it back." She takes a breath and tries to keep everything straight. "But Anevia didn't even know the sword had been sold apparently and not only that, she proved that you're an innocent man and kept you from being suspected of cult activity in a city run by a man famous for his witch hunting."
She groans and rubs her temples again. "Someone please tell me I'm not the only one thinking this is a massive series of misunderstandings. You're all on the same side and unless Anevia did steal the sword, which I seriously doubt, no one even did anything wrong. Aravashnial was trying to protect the city from a threat from the Worldwound even if he wasn't sure who was involved, Anevia was following up on his suspicious because that's her job with the crusaders, and Horgus honestly thought he'd been wronged by Anevia when she'd actually cleared his name of wrong-doing. Is this honestly something still worth fighting over?"
"I was under the impression we were getting along again, let us work together to get to the surface, then if necessary we part ways, we need each other now for practicality sake."
With a frustrated sigh Hrut moves to a corner and makes sure his supplies are where they need to be and goes through his things.
"And I don't think Avi was wrong about some portion of the city being infiltrated." she turns her attention to him, he's been quiet for quite some time, after all. "So... what made you specifically think it was the nobility?"
Anevia turns a little pale and looks at Markus, apologetically, "Hey, that's not what I meant. I'm saying that the reason that you do something matters, right? Seeking out dangerous situations because you want to die is a little different than facing one to save the world. But yes, Valaria is right. This is stupid, I'm sorry for getting all emotional and starting all of this." She looks distant, and sad.
Aravashnial thins his lips. "I've lived in this city for a very long time. I believe that infiltration into the ranks of the actual crusaders is unlikely, due to Prelate Hulrun's inquisitorial group. However the nobility possess a fair amount of power, and are also under less constant scrutiny than actual high ranking members of the crusades. It seems logical. And after the...recent events, I do not believe that the demons could have attacked the city from below so easily without a significant number of spies already within the walls."
Horgus huffs, still thoroughly offended by all of this.
Markus' frown grows into a scowl, and he expels a lot of breath, growling in frustration. "Near-death situations aren't enough for you people, apparently." He gets up and jogs just outside of the temple, strongly resisting the urge to yell.
Personal disagreements were one thing, but apparently these people just couldn't let things go. G@+$!~mit.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Valaria sighs again and looks at Horgus. "You have a right to be a upset at having your privacy violated," she says. "But can you honestly fault her intentions? And given the circumstances, is it worth holding a grudge over when we're in a situation like this?" She finally stands down, trusting them not to escalate again. "Actually, if the theft of the sword bothers you so much, perhaps Anevia can help you uncover the real culprit once we're out of this mess, assuming they're still alive after the attack up in the city. Given that it was one of her wife's family heirlooms, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd be interested in retrieving it from a the real thief."
Markus's explanation of his background as well made her sure she'd done the right thing in making her own. "He's come to make something of the curse he was given, whatever the cost might be," she thought, gaining further respect for the Dhampir.
Li'an sheathed Lleuad when she saw she'd gotten her point across to Horgus. She decided to keep quiet for the moment afterwards, allowing Horgus and Anevia to continue their back and forth. The entire situation was definitely odd, why would Irabeth sell her sword? She wouldn't believe that Anevia had agreed to steal it back, but she could see why Horgus might reach that conclusion. She knew she couldn't really contribute anything else without causing problems. This sort of mediation was so far beyond her, that even at her best she'd likely just end up making the situation worse. Therefore she was quite relieved to see Valaria had a good grasp of the situation and the mastery of words necessary to make use of it.
At Hrut's expression of frustration, she looked at Horgus and Anevia, and then back at the Ulfen. "Ary is right that we can't have each other's backs with this just simmering under the surface," she thought. "I suppose it's like a poorly set limb, Hrut. Sometimes it needs to be re-broken to allow it to heal properly," she said to him. Or at least she hoped that would be the outcome anyway.
"I...what? Yeah, of course," Anevia responds to Valaria. She seems distracted. "Yeah, we'll try and figure out where it went to...but for now we need to get to the surface!" She stands up and moves out of the temple, watching Markus, sadly.
Horgus nods at Valaria. "Well, yes, seeing as I paid a high sum for the blade, I would like it in my possession," he says stiffly. "I would not be surprised if the Nidalese woman 'mysteriously' recovers it very quickly once we're on the surface," he sneers, and crosses his arms.
Valaria just shakes her head slightly, figuring that it's the best she's going to get out of Horgus. "Well, I guess we've settled that the best we're going to, given the circumstances," she mutters. "Alright, shall we get a move on then?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ary seemed about to say something, then shrugs slightly as Valaria suggests they move on. All of the talk had sent her into a cascade of memories into the past... and unlike the others, she wasn't at all good at sharing her own weakness. There's a certain selfishness in strength.
She moved to gather her things, letting Anevia gather herself, and drew her sword, moving over to the Anvil. She knelt before it, resting her sword point down. "Thank you for watching over us throughout the night, Torag." she said aloud, and then rose, heading for the door. 'I will honor my fellows.' she thought, feeling somehow lessened for what she hadn't had the strength to say.
Val and Li'an take point, moving slightly ahead of the rest of the group down the tunnels, just far enough for Li'an to see using Light from the main group.
The passageway goes on for another 40 minutes of travel, at a gradual rise of elevation.
Valaria stops as the room comes into view. "What is this?" she murmurs under her breath. The stone figures seem to almost be standing vigil over the passage, but their expressions make her uneasy. She snaps her mouth shut as she sees the dark creature hanging to the ceiling. "We need to be careful," she whispers to Li'an. "Because I have no idea what that thing is, but given our luck so far, it wants to eat us."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
From seemingly out of nowhere, yet another argument breaks out, more fiery than any before it. Ehren is as quiet as a mouse during the verbal joust between Anevia and Horgus, all but certain that nothing he could say would settle them down. He could handle himself in a real fight, but never before had he ever seen such a heated argument. Just when he expects things to get violent however, they instead seem to take a turn for the better.
They have all been through so much, even before all this, he realizes, his expression solemn throughout the discussion. Somehow, he felt even younger than before. For a moment he is tempted to share his own past, but he quickly decides against it. It is just as well, for things eventually seem to settle down again... for how long, he was not sure of.
The cavern they'd walked into was a departure from what they'd seen before. Apart from the temple, most of the stone had been unworked, yet now this passage looked more like a hall lined with statues of crusaders.
While Li'an was initially drawn to the statues, before she could approach to take a look she spotted something on the ceiling. Li'an looked up at the creature, trying to determine what it was. She'd certainly never heard of a cave octopus before.
"I think you're right," she responded to Valaria. "Perhaps we should we let the others catch up before pushing further into this room? Assuming it's going to attempt to eat us is probably the best course of action."
Li'an turned to the group trailing behind them and gestured forward and up at the ceiling where the creature was to let them know something was up there.
Ary hung back with the others, contemplative, until they slow down suddenly, she looks up, and whispers to the back of the crowd, "What's going on?" before turning around and watching what's behind them more carefully, now that they've come to a stop.
Noticing that the scouts have slowed,
"Perhaps there is some trouble up there, maybe I should go up and take a look at what is going on."
Hrut moves up to the women with no attempt to be quiet since he is glowing everywhere there is no point...
"What are we stopped for?"
As the others approach, Li'an looks back through the room. She felt like she was missing something as peered around the room, but couldn't quite figure out what she'd missed.
She turns back to the group to answer Hrut's query. "There's some sort of black octopus up there on the ceiling." Li'an looked back up over her shoulder at where she'd seen the creature. "Are any of you familiar with something like that?" she said, gesturing up towards the cave octopus again.
Valaria looks warily up at the ceiling again.
"There's a weird dark squid thing on the ceiling in the next cavern," she says softly as Hrut approaches. "Considering how friendly everything else down here has been, we're expecting it to attack if we get too close."
"I don't know anything about underground tentacle monsters, sorry. How big is it?"
"I cannot even see that high, tentacle monster you say?"
Hrut turns to the following group and motions them to come up slowly so we can try and stay together in one mass.
"She says there is a tentacle monster up there, have any of you heard of something like that underground? Hrut asks no one in general in the trailing group.
As Valaria looked up at the creature again, Li'an answered Hrut. "Yeah, it's right up there where Val was..."
"Wait, that's not right, Val's not looking at the same spot I was," she thought to herself. Yet after focusing for another moment on where Valaria was looking she managed to spot one of the creatures.
"There's two up there, we were looking at different ones..." Scanning the ceiling more carefully this time, she was eventually able to make out another pair of shadows amongst the crags and crannies in the ceiling. "No... Three... Four. I think there's four of them up there," she said, pointing them out to Valaria so she could verify.
Valaria squints a bit, having trouble making out the shapes near the edges of her enhanced vision. "Oh, let's see... oh. Yeah, so we have four weird cave squid things that may or may not want to eat us. Today is starting well."
"There are many strange creatures underground... and above it," Ehren says to Hrut with a frown, "I'm afraid I'm not quite familiar with all of them. But if it has tentacles and isn't near water, it probably isn't... natural."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Now that they're talking more about what's going on up ahead, Ary begins to look around the area they're in. Remembering the Cockroaches that endangered Horgus, she focuses her attention on the shape of the tunnel they were in, and any crevices that might be nearby. It was exceptionally unlikely that something was going to attack from behind them, unless she'd missed something.
It was still probably better to guard her less defensively-equipped allies, though. The mages could almost assuredly use her more than Hrut, and his troop of amazons.
Markus takes his leave of the back group and moves up behind Hrut, peering into the cavern and seeing the flappy creature. "I might know something, let me see..."
"Hm." Markus says, frowning. "Apparently not. I can't remember it if I've studied it, but something tells me that I never have. Seems like an uncommon creature."
He looks at the others up front. "Do you think they're intelligent? I can scare them off if they are."
"Don't know yet," Valaria says. "They could be ambush predators, waiting for us to get close. Or they could be intelligent and this is a trap. But that's kind of ruined since we spotted them already. I hope they can't fly. That would be a pain to deal with down here."
"Sounds like a small nest of darkmantles," says Aravashnial, quietly, not one to miss an opportunity to show his knowledge. "They are subterranean predators that drop from the ceiling onto their food. And yes, they can fly. They are not mindless."
"So... could they squeeze into this tunnel to grab us? Will they try to drag us back up with them?" Ary asks, from the rear, still focusing on what she can see around her. The tunnel isn't quite tall enough to see out to the Darkmantles from where she's standing.
"Horgus, Rocky? Mind moving up a bit? I'd rather be able to reach someone if things go badly." she says, still not personally moving up, as she's holding up the rear.
"So we have a small pack of these darkmantles just waiting to dive bomb us as soon as we pop out of the tunnel." Valaria sighs. "Still not as bad as the flies. At least here we have a chance to try and get out into the cavern and not get caught in a bottleneck." She frowns, then turns back to Aravashnial. "Alright, so anything else important to know, or is that about it?"
She taps her fingers absently against one of her knives, clearly lost in thought for a moment. "It these things are waiting to ambush us, we need a plan, otherwise they'll have a distinct advantage when they make their first move. Any thoughts?"
"Thank you for the insight Master Aravashnial," she said.
Li'an thought for a few moments and laid out a plan: "I say we have Hrut and Ary lead the way. Ehren and Markus can fall back with Horgus, Aravashnial, and you, Anevia and I can move in quickly as we start seeing them come down from the ceiling towards Ary and Hrut." After finishing she looked at the others and added, "Hrut, Ary, is that ok with you both?"
Thinking for a minute longer while she waited for a response, she spoke again. "It also occurs to me that if we had ranged weapons we could attempt to harrass them until they came down, but I don't have anything that would work on me."
"Third Option: Maybe trick them into diving out, if we have a way to do that? Once they drop, folks with ranged weap..." she looked amongst the party for a moment. "I should have made some slings out of that tent, though. Hindsight..." she shakes her head. "If we can get them down for a bit, Hrut, Ehren, and Anevia can probably get some good chunks out of them with their stuff. I don't think it'd be wise for Val to throw her starknives, though. Anyone else have any ranged capabilities? And anything we send into the room is probably just going to die painfully."
"But yeah, I'm good with being bait, if it's what we need." she says. "But if I might be the one getting grabbed, someone else should take the healing potion." Then she stopped for a moment, "Oh... and if anything happens to me down here, do your best to get my shield back to the Crusade. Bigger fan of that second one, though." she segued.
Anevia counts through her quiver. "I have one...two...three...four arrows. If you want me to, I can try."
Horgus edges down the tunnel warily towards the main group. "I don't like the sound of these things," he grumbles.
"I'd definitely appreciate that. Sadly... I haven't owned a bow since I left the farm." she shakes her head. "If Hrut and I are going to stay in the way, it might be better we both keep our shields handy, anyway. Oh, and Mage! If you can do that fear thing on a Darkmantle if one of us gets grabbed, that'll be awesome!" she calls as she moves towards the front.
Horgus wasn't really listening to much of the strategizing conversation - this was an area in which he understands little - but when Ary moves out towards the cavern he panics. "Ary? Wait, what? Where are you going?"
"Going to where the danger is." she smiles at him. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'm gonna make sure the monsters can't get to anyone." Being a hero was always easy. It was the little things that were hard.
"I think we should move forward to block the things, when everyone fires into them. Sound good, Hrut?" she digs into her belt-pouch, taking out the pair of potions, "Who wants to hold onto these?"
Ehren puts one hand into his pocket, making sure that the stones he picked up were still there.
"If they're ambush predators, then they've already lost their greatest advantage," he remarks, before reaching out to lightly touch Ary's shoulder.