ORIGIN

The wishing stone had sounded sad.

That was impossible, right? How could they tell emotion from the chiming of a little rock—but then how could it have sounded welcoming in the first place, or given Yellow that vision, or—

So many ors raced through Yellow's mind as they scrambled away from the stone, traveling in huge leaps (and once they reached Eridanus, swinging from branch to branch). They hadn't even thought to thank the stone, and wouldn't until much, much later. Their mind had become a one-track freight train, crashing through all unrelated thoughts as it sped toward exactly one thing: find Sebastian.

(He's just in his gem. Sleeping, like the lemur had slept many times before. Perhaps the wishing stone had been sad because it would take Sebastian a long while yet to wake up—but Yellow would wait. They would wait by his gemstone, and be there when he woke.)

Eridanus was too big. Too many trees, too many sprawling ferns, too much area. They had only a vague idea of where the location they'd seen in the vision might be, and there was only so fast they could search as a 20-inch lemur. A big, broken tree. Had there been burn marks? They didn't think it'd looked like anywhere Draconua had burned down. That narrowed it quite a bit, actually, but Eridanus was still a rather large place, even to only search a portion of.

Mother, Yellow thought distractedly, swinging to build momentum and then leaping to another tree. Can you help me look for my brother? They shared all their thoughts with Mother, and the vision back at the stone wouldn't have been an exception. Did Mother know where it was? Were there siblings nearby who could help, and if not that was fine they wouldn't disturb their other siblings, maybe Sebastian wouldn't wake soon but they just wanted to be by his side again, they could keep looking themselves until they found him—?

@Yellow

Holds

no

one

in

it

The words came one after another. Yellow listened to them numbly, and scurried on according to Mother's directions. They didn't quite comprehend their full meaning yet, but they could feel their heart dropping, like a little arboreal creature falling from the treetops after a misjudged leap, even as they pushed past an ancient fern and came to the broken tree. That was wrong. That wasn't supposed to happen. If the stone was empty, then Sebastian—then where was he?—that was… bad...

Slowly, they began to dig through the leaves for their brother's ruby. The motions hid the slight tremble in the hands. Dark fingers brushed aside a layer of wet, decomposing leaves, and—

There. A dark red gleam. Ever so softly, the sifaka swept away the rest of the leaves and soil covering it and wrapped their fingers around the stone.

The fact they could pick it up said it all. That it was so light, so small, not rooted in the ground… Yellow stared at it blankly, clutching it to their chest. They had survived two fires. Their stone had grown around them, but they had gotten back out, and they were here. Solid, existing, alive.

How could it be possible that their brother wasn't?

They blinked slowly. Their face convulsed. They began to cry.

The more they thought about things, the worse they felt. Everything they'd said to each other before, every moment they'd spent with their head leaned against Sebastian's soft flank, every time their brother purred.

And if I get into trouble, you can be the hero and save me! And I'll bring you pretty things.

That was what was supposed to happen. They'd looked forward to sharing the magical fungus, the holiday gifts, and their welcoming new family with him. How was it fair that they couldn't now? How was it fair that Sebastian had been a hero, and saved them, and wasn't here now? Heroes were supposed to also have happy endings! How was it fair that they would never lay beside their brother again and eat sparkling bananas with Mother and Pallas and everyone else?

They should... they should take this with them. Chest heaving with another sob, Yellow wobbled onto their feet and took a few steps. They'd spent so long without any idea where their brother was. Now, even if he was gone, they wanted that gem, that last remnant of him by their side.

"Ow!" they blurted suddenly as their toe hit something hard in the undergrowth and kicked it all the way to the surface of the leaves. Rubbing their eyes hard to clear the blur of their tears, they looked down at something green and... sparkling?

Chrysoberyl. Small. Empty. Their brother's brother, Rift.

Yellow's stomach twisted as they picked it up, careful to shift their weight so it wouldn't aggravate their throbbing toe. Were they both here when... when whatever it was happened? When something, some calamity came, strong enough to wipe away the lives of the two cats forever?

They picked up this stone, too. Though they hadn't been as close with Rift, Sebastian definitely had been. It just felt... right to keep the two together, even when all that remained was their stones.

But they had a nagging question in their mind now, something to go along with the grief and love and confusion and anger at the unfairness of it all. Something had done this terrible thing to two good people, and they didn't know why.

They had to go back to the wishing stone.