ORIGIN - release the wolverine

One moment it was nothing but a golden stone shimmering under the tunnel lights, the next it was awake and trapped in darkness. It was warm in here, and comfortable, but there was no air, a predicament they took only a moment to figure out. Instinct took a second to kick in and they began to struggle against the walls of their chrysalis until they felt it begin to give.

A moment later, the tiger's eye wedged against the wall broke and out tumbled a ball of sticky brown fur. Violet eyes blinked open, the sudden burst of light too much for the new child to handle, and those two bright orbs disappeared immediately with a tiny squeal. Chunky, uncoordinated paws lifted to rub at its face, as if the sudden sensory overload could be cleaned out of its eyes.

It suddenly realized that it was cold. That didn't feel right. It had so much fur, but every bit of it was soaked through with amniotic fluids, letting the cold seep through and into their skin. They shivered against the cold stone floor, wondering what they were supposed to do now. They were alone - was that normal?

If one was counting, Catalpa had been alive for... about five days.

The kitten herself sure wasn't. She was too busy bounding up and down the length of Pisces, sticking her little nose into every crevice she could find; discovering new and exciting things like bugs and waterfalls and slip-sliding on unseen patches of ice. Her fur is messy and unkempt and the tip of her tail is all wet but she doesn't care—why would she, when the world is so vast and undiscovered and exciting?

Today, she's found something new: a tunnel. This is an incredibly interesting discovery in the little kitten's eyes, considering she's never seen anything like it; she's seen big cave (Pisces) and very small cave (little dens dug into the dirt; small crevices) but not... medium-sized cave.

Well, nothing to do than to bound down it at full speed!

She gets about a third of the way down the tunnel, heart racing in her chest from exertion and excitement, before something even more novel catches her little eyes; a crumbled bit of stone, and... a creature. An animal.

Considering this is the largest animal she's seen so far—the smallest being little rats and fish in Pisces' ponds, the former she's successfully hunted and the latter she's attempted to hunt to little success—this obviously warrants a full stop.

And stop she does, skidding a little in the slick iciness of the cave before she manages to fall completely back on her haunches, wide blue eyes taking in the little pup that's shivering and blinking in place with nothing short of fascination.

She doesn't speak quite yet—too new to grasp the idea of conversation or even greetings—content to observe in that wide-eyed, childish way.

@Jenani

It took a few moments for the pup's cognitive functions to really start working. The cold held back any mental processing as they came to terms with these many brand new sensations. The feeling of breathing, for one, of air against its fur. Cold air against fur clogged with a heavy, transparent fluid. The sight of snow and ice piled atop each other. Of stone underneath its paws, biting cold seeping into its body through the pads and claws and travelling up their legs, like frost over stone. A fascinating experience, but a fairly unpleasant one, as it spent shiver after shiver down their spine until they were full-on trembling from the cold, as Catalpa would find them.

They were focused on why does it feel like this? I don't like this. Make it stop. and wondering why that wasn't working, why they were still shivering, when it occured to them that maybe they'd have to actually do something. Standing there in the same position and willing to cold to disappear wasn't going to help. They'd just get even colder.

So they looked up, about to take the next step in their life when eyes settled on a newcomer and they suddenly forgot about the cold. Because this wasn't a rock or snow or ice. Although it certainly looked the color - all white and...spiky? No, that wasn't the right word. Fluffy, came the word a moment later. Still, fairly similar. But it was still different, because something bright blue and sparkling gazed at them intensely. And not in the way the rocks and ice looked at them, without sight or care or knowledge. There was intelligence there, akin to their own. Their body moved, even though they were still. They breathed, they twitched, they blinked, they were alive, just like Jenani themselves. That was new.

It was more fascinating then the cold, then the stone, then the snow and ice. They stared back, equally wide-eyed, wondering what this meant. Did it mean anything? What were they supposed to do? They wanted to make contact, from one intelligence being to another. But how? They didn't know how to communicate. Speaking wasn't even a concept yet, but there had to be a purpose to having the knowledge of knowing.

And, almost as if it were a wish granted to them, they instinctively jerked forward, just one step, and opened their jaws, letting out a high-pitched squeak that was so sudden that they startled themselves, flinching back, eyes wide with shock.

That was new.

@Catalpa

She watches the wolverine.

She watches as they sit there, breathing; trembling, even, from the cold, and Catalpa wonders why they're trembling. Shouldn't their fur be keeping them warm? That's what hers does. It's cold here for her too but it isn't nearly as cold as the other Gembound seems to be experiencing. She's always running around a lot and exploring and sometimes it even gets a little hot from all the running around she's doing. Running around makes her warm.

Wait. Well—well maybe that's the problem. Of course they're shivering, bad; they're not running around! They should be running!

But instead, instead they're just… kinda sitting there. Sitting there and… looking at her. She meets their eyes with their own, narrowing hers in confusion. Slowly, she tilts her head one way, then the other.

Why are they looking at her so much? Is it because she's interesting?

She bets it's because she's interesting.

Finally, finally, the other begins to move—Catalpa leaps gently to her feet, taking a few steps forward herself. She can't deny; she's curious about the other creature, too. They're… different. They're shaped different. They don't have the same vivid blue eyes as her. They aren't… they aren't the same color as her.

Squeak!

She startles at the sudden sound, eyes wide.

They don't make the same sounds as her!

Not that she's made many sounds so far in her life. No, she's learned that it's better to be quiet, to sneak up on things; to watch things without them noticing her, or to pounce on edible things like fleeing mice.

So, for the first time, she opens her mouth, and…

"E?" she says, trying to mimic the little squeak the other had made.

@Jenani