The Child Of The Desert [Open]

Another day in the endless wastelands of Hueco Mundo. Another day where he had to survive in order to pursue his goal of knowledge. The snail of lava slid across the endless dunes, feeling the wind on his face, a cool breeze that felt more like a warm pat against his features. Sliding at a rather unnatural speed for a snail-like creature, the Adjuchas pressed on, looking for another unfortunate soul to eat. He pitied his victims, but he had to learn. In this world, he must put himself first, and others later.

As the creature continued to slide, his mind began to turn the gears on his philosophical thoughts. What was his past like? If he were a human, was he, perhaps, a father? A brother? A son? A nagging sensation that gnawed at Magma's mind, something he couldn't get out of his head even if he tried. He had to continue pressing on.

Suddenly, he heard a wail. The wail of a child. A human child. That was unusual, no, it was impossible, there were no children in Hueco Mundo. A strange sense of concern washed over Magma, and he moved further and further, sliding faster, until he got over a dune and saw, in the middle of a smooth patch of white desert, a child, crying her eyes out. Judging by the skull-like helmet on her head, she was one of those Hollows who tore their mask off. His eye noticed her helmet was cracked, but it was something that wasn't of his concern. She was, for all intents and purposes, a lost child.

He approached the little Arrancar, doing the best smile he can. "Why, hello there. What're you doing around these parts?"

Nel turned rapidly on the spot from her incessant wailing. Tears still pouring comically down her cheeks, she regarded this strange hollow with exuberant eyes, her crying briefly abated, but her lower lip still wobbled. She thought he looked like a big cartoon snail- and under any other circumstances she might have laughed or punched it or done something but she was all alone and her brothers weren't there for her, so she was simply a little fightened- and not in a good masochistic kind of way, either.

"W- w- its a Eth-cargo!" she quailed. "Nel'th justh lookin' for her bwotherth!" she said, her lisp exacerbated by her distress. "I know ya wantth ta eat Nel but Nel won't let ya!" she said, standing firm. Suddenly, a lady with big boobies appeared fell from a garganta in the sky. Nel screamed- it was an arrancar! In her distress she began flailing, her crying having resumed. "It'th an awwancar aaaaaaaaa Eth-Cargo we gonna dieeeeeeee." she sobbed, leaping up and attempting to grapple herself onto the snail-like hollow's shell, somehow simultaneously gripping on as tight as she physically could and also flailing her little limbs about with incredible vigor. "Eth-cargo gogogogo the awwancar'th gonna get uth!" she told him, sitting bolt upright upon his shell and pointing her hand away, as if commanding the hollow to ferry her away.

She arched an eyebrow at the frantic ravings of the child, the hollow pormising that she won't be hurt. She sighed slowly, turning her attention back to the black horizon. "If I wanted to attack any of you, you wouldn't have noticed right up until this blade was around your throat.." She said, looking up at the snail. The arrancar on its back and trying to use it as a mount to escape this wrath that Nel figured Lillith had. She held the scythe up with an indifferent shrug, before putting it down on her lap again. She chuckled slowly at the hollow calling her 'maskless'.

"Maskless?" She smiled gently. "Whatever happened to Miss?" She asked, shrugging at whether they meant harm or not. "You couldn't even if you tried." She said with a cunning smirk. Even if they would try something, she'd be long gone already, just darting forward and she would immediatly be beyond their reach. "I am merely resting. You needn't fear me." She said slowly. She'd rather be alone, rest without having a hollow and an arrancar staring at her. Then again, conversation was nice once in a while. And she was quite interested in how, not this arrancar, but the hollow felt. Arrancar don't need to eat souls to sustain, yet, hollows do. That might be an interesting topic for later.

This was definitely a strange encounter, to be blunt. Magma kept on his toes, well, as much as he had toes (he didn't), and Nel on his shell made the encounter even stranger. Luckily for him, it seemed that the Arrancar woman was willing to negotiate, although he wondered what kind of Ressurreccion she had. Granted, given the kind of power he could sense radiating off her, she was far beyond his current abilities, and the scythe she held was something that could easily butcher him and Nel. To the snail's indignation, Nel began to start pointing and yelling at the Arrancar. He gritted his gums, knowing that the female wasn't kidding. He could fight her as much as he wanted, but he accepted the fact that they had perhaps come across something of an apex predator.

The Arrancar's pride, however, combined with Nel's sudden burst of bravado, caused a faint temper to surge in Magma. He didn't like that, especially the way she told him he couldn't hurt her if he tried. And yet, he knew that she was right. And Nel could easily get them killed. However, the Arrancar was at least reasonable, and even seemed rather passive, so the snail simply nodded.

"I understand. Sometimes, we come across the oddest things in this wasteland. But, Maskless, I must ask you, whereabouts are you from? Perhaps it may be where this young Maskless comes from," and to Nel, he turned to her and gave her a stern stare, "And child, quit down."

To cease her behavior, he began to raise the heat in his shell, not enough to burn her, but enough to give her a warning signal.