And They Call it a Mine! [Private]

Seran’s eyes drifted over to the fullbringer, and then down to his hand where two orbs of blue stone twirled around continuously. He had noticed this behavior before in other humans; the need to occupy the hands with some mundane activity. The habit was curious, and often associated with a need to focus mentally but not physically, as though human hands had their own mind that needed distraction so they would not bother the brain. Seran very nearly smiled. If hands were so easily distracted they probably were not very smart. His eyes returned to the Gage’s face.

“Are you planning on making jewelry? I didn’t take you for the accessory type.”

He followed the fullbringer’s gaze out to where the black hounds were busy feasting away at the rock fragments knocked from the wall. Occasionally one of the arrancar would toss a piece into the air, causing the creatures to leap into the air and fight over the stone as though the toss made it more enticing.

“Do you like my pets? Animalistic Demi-Arrancar, made by tampering with hollow development prior to the mask being shattered. Everyone else has taken to calling them ‘black hounds’. Those ones are just puppies though.”

As if on queue, the ground beneath their feet began to vibrate softly. As the shaking slowly increased, the arrancar working on the chamber halted their work, looking around at the walls of the cavern.

“That’s definitely Garm. Nobody else shakes the walls like that damn mutt.”

Seran frowned.

“About time.”

Then, just a quickly as it had started the vibrations ceased. Seran’s eyes drifted downward to the center of the rugged floor, and the eyes of the arrancar followed. With a echoing crunching sound, the center of the cavern cracked and split open, revealing a furry black shape, greyed somewhat by the powered rock-dust and pieces of quartz covering it. One massive clawed paw appeared, then a second, and for a moment Garm struggled to free himself from the hole he had punched in the craggy floor. He freed himself with another loud crunch, dislodging a few more fragmented pieces of stone, and proceeded to shake himself violently, tossing the contents of his thick coat across the area. The smaller black hounds scampered around, gathering up the discarded stones, the puppy analogy making more sense now they were compared the full grown alpha male. Garm was not big by the standards of hollows, but to a human he would look to be the size of a large full grown bear, with the puppies only the size of a big dogs romping around his legs. Garm ignored small versions of himself biting at his heels and lumbered over in front of Seran and Gage. He gave one large sniff in the fullbringer’s direction, but seem fairly uninterested, opting to slump down into a lounging position with his big head resting on his paws.

“Finally eaten your fill of rocks huh? I was starting to think I’d made a living, breathing, black hole.”

The black hound responded by yawning loudly, his mouth of glowing green teeth opening almost 180 degrees. Seran crossed his arms with annoyance.

“Did you find anything interesting? Or are you just just going to pass out in the middle of the work area to sleep off eating an entire mountain worth of quartz.”

The black hound grinned…. Or snarled…. It was very difficult to tell sometimes; then arched his neck and opened his mouth again. But instead of another yawn, the hollow coughed loudly, and a large……… something…….. Popped sickeningly out of his mouth and onto the floor in front of Seran, still dripping with saliva.


The mod soul paused for moment, somewhat taken aback by the display. His arms unfolded, and he crouched down next to the strange object, looking it over for an entire minute before speaking again.

“In your professional opinion Gage….. what exactly am I looking at?”