ORIGIN - Fractals

Pages: 1 2 3

Anyone is welcome to join anytime, but this will be solo until then

Wilder's return to Gemini was met with a number of bad memories following in her wake. The failed fight against Order and how her magic had eluded her, as well as the memory contained in a stone. The knowledge of birth and awakening, of fire falling from the skies of Let and the death that had come with life in the caves. The still carried the stone around with her, in the little pouch carried around her neck. And while she'd used magic to see into the other stones, this one she had yet to return to, out of fear she would see more of the horror that had been the Great Awakening.

But she returned for two purposes and one she focused on now. The once beautiful cave had been completely overtaken by that disgusting fungus of Mother and she meant to purge it. Or, at least, do what she could where she'd failed before.

She walked through the crystalline cave until she came upon some of the fungus she was looking for and immediately stepped into the middle of it, using a violent jolt of magic to rip it out of its roots, leave it with no sustenance to continue growing. It was only a small patch, but it was a start.

Once upon a time, Wilder had been equipped with a number of flame-based spells. She remembered a day long ago in which she had spat flame in Canis, angry with herself, angry with Pride. But the knowledge of such dangerous magic had been sealed away in the back of her mind. She didn't need such weapons at her disposal.

But she still had a few remaining, more attuned to what she was used to, although it wasn't like they had been the most reliable. She swallowed heavily and took a deep breath before narrowing in on a patch of thick white fungus growing out from the crack between two rocks.

She pushed the magic forward, but she felt that hollow emptiness and her body suddenly began to feel very weak. Ever since the trial with Emuh, she'd felt like she had no energy at all. She let out a gasp and felt herself sliding to the ground, suddenly feeling exhausted. Alarmed, Vaati raced to her side from where he'd been shivering in the shadows, and nudged her back to her feet.

Grateful, she took a few moments to lean on him before pushing off again.

She tried again, focusing hard on the fungus and willing it to burst into white-hot flame. But, again, even though it felt more promising to her this time, the magic still eluded her, the weariness making it impossible to make the spells manifest. "I can't do it," she breathed hopelessly.

Leaning back on Vaati, she sighed. "I'd hoped that...the trial and transcendence and everything would have made me stronger but...it's just made me weaker." Vaati's nose twitched and she felt him move next to her, propping her up better as she started to slide just a little bit. She felt his thoughts gently touch her, reassuring that it was only temporary. The feeling would go away, it had only been a few days since then, after all.

Despite her feelings of dread, she nodded and stood up taller. She would just settle for spells that weren't so taxing.

Dread hadn't really been informed of the aftermath of the battle in Leo--he'd stumbled upon the mess of white by accident, instead. It irritated him--annoyed him. It was a reminder of the stuff that Bone had turned to (in his mind, a kid going through a bad phase) and it smelled bad and anyway, he'd fought it before so therefore it was Enemy.

He'd stumbled into Gemini, too, by accident. Not that he was lost, he'd just taken a detour and found the fungus swathing the mirror-like crystals, here. He hadn't spotted Wilder, yet--and had no idea that she, too, was working to remove this infestation. He also did not know the serendipitous link of her considering the post-trial changes to her magic--questions he might be able to answer, should she think to ask them. Dread's focus was just on the ugly white stuff everywhere, and as he thudded down in dusty landing (this place was too maze-like to safely fly in) he looked around.

"FOUL INFESTATION!" he decreed at last, a screeching roar, before shaking himself in irritation. The torrent of fire that ignited the air and wisped fungus away in drifting ash was enough to light his quarter of the cave, the light reflecting off the crystals and setting them aglow in orange for a moment. If Wilder had somehow missed the echoing roar, this at least was a hint that an ally was near. Though she might not trust herself with flame, Dread could bring his own to bear, as a partner in cleansing this mess.

@Wilder

She was readying another spell when she heard the distant wingbeats. She froze, turning and expecting some monstrous lesser come to guard the fungus from her attacks, but the black shape cutting across the bright crystals of Gemini was so much worse then she imagined. She squaked with terror and threw herself against the wall, hoping that it wouldn't spot her (of course it would - she stuck out like a sore thumb) and avoid whatever spells it threw her way.

But the bellowing voice, immediately marking it not a very very large lesser, echoed through the caves and made Wilder pause. Even as the flames spilled over the white fungus in what would usually be a terrifying display, Wilder pushed off from the wall to watch for a moment. He was...helping her? He hadn't spotted her yet, which wasn't surprising, considering her size, but if he was here to clean this up too, then she was grateful.

"Thank you!" she called out to the dragon, bounding out of the shadows to continue her own fungus destruction. But the magic she called didn't come to her, the exhaustion still holding her ability to cast anything back. Her tail lashed with disappointment and she clawed at a particularly large bit of mold in her frustration.

@Dread

The sudden voice snapped Dread's head around, smoke rising from his nostrils as eyes narrowed to find the source. After a moment, he spotted Wilder--a black spot against moulded white and gleaming crystal--and he rocked back down to wing-walk over toward her.

As he came, he realized that he recognized her, and his neck arched, fins rising in excitement. "I REMEMBER YOU," he declared--and maybe in some other world, 'mother of my child' would have meant something a little more than a passing trade. "MY STONE HAD A BABY." He came to her, settling in, seemingly unconcerned by the swathes of hanging fungus; it was conversation time. She looked the way he remembered, except--was that a rat? He studied it briefly, decided it was hers either way (be it friend, familiar or food) so biting it or something was off the table, and looked back to Wilder. "SHE IS CAT AND DRAGON." Conversation over, apparently--or at least the topic was switched, as he looked around. "IT IS GROSS. THE FUNGUS," he clarified hastily, lest Wilder think he meant their child. He tipped his head, eyeing her sidelong. "ARE YOU DESTROYING IT?" It didn't look like she was, but she had thanked him, so--maybe she wanted it gone, at least.

He turned, canting his head to study the fungus up higher and around them. Then he lifted a wing, in an awkward and unfamilar gesture, unfurling its vast leathery breadth to try and cover Wilder and her pet/friend/food. "CAREFUL," he advised, before inhaling and calling upon his strongest magic. His head tipped back, jaws snapping wide; a gout of skyward flame seemed to ignite the air.

Heat roiled, smoldered, and then began to cascade down in a rain of searing fireballs: flames that crashed hissing into high places, igniting clots of web all around them in smoldering embers. Dread's wing remained in place to protect Wilder from the onslaught, but when it finished, his expression was satisfied as he looked around. "IT CAN BURN," he explained, as if that hadn't already been obvious.

@Wilder

She heard the dragon approach and turned to face him, a little shocked by the excited body language he was exhibiting, taking an instinctive step back out of caution. She wracked her memory, trying to remember exactly where she'd seen him before, and why he looked so damn familiar, until he answered it for her. Eyes widened with shock as she remembered that distant memory of offering life for a crystal from his collection. How a piece of his stone had "dropped off" and she had "fixed it". Apparently fixing it meant making a baby.

"Oh!! Of course!" She had never gotten his name, unfortunately, but it felt kind of awkward to ask now, considering that they had technically made a child together. "That's wonderful! What's her name? Does she live with you?" Remembering that she did, in fact, have another biological child was both exciting and terrifying. How horrible her other children had turned out was something she had never been able to get over and perhaps she never would. Had this same misfortune carried over to the dragon-cat that Dread had raised?

Well, it wasn't her problem and he did not seem bothered by the child - proud, in fact, by the tone of his voice. She noticed his gaze stop on Vaati and she glanced back at him, who had crouched fearfully under the dragon's gaze, hiding himself unsuccessfully behind Wilder. "Oh, this is my familiar, Vaati." She hoped that he hadn't had been considering eating him - if so, perhaps that would stop whatever thoughts he had. She reasurred the terrified rat with a hushed thought and rolled along with the change of topic, looking around as well at the white-infested crystal. "Yes - trying to, at least. My magic is...weak right now." Dread, at least, was having success - she was thankful for that.

Nervous for what he was about to try, she shuffled closer as he offered the wing for protection, Vaati following close behind her paws, and almost squeaked with alarm when fire rained from the ceiling. Her eyes were wide as she watched the sheer power of his magic decimate a large swath of the fungus in their area, burning it to nothing right before he eyes.

Determined, now, to at least do something right in front of the dragon, she stepped out from under his wing once the onslaught had ended and turned to focus on a burning bit of mold nearby. With a flick of her magic, she lifted it from the ground, relieved that it came almost effortlessly. She swung it around to an area that the fireballs had missed, dragging it against the diseased ground to spread the fire further.

"It does burn," she agreed. "Although we should be careful not to spread the fire too much or we'll be caught. Although I'm sure you can fly away from it." She eyed his wings and wished, for a moment, that she had a pair as well. To fly would really be nice.

@Dread

"SHE IS BUG! SHE IS GOOD," he added, though he meant she was 'doing well' rather than 'morally upstanding' as per Wilder's silent pondering. "SHE IS SMALL AND BLACK AND LOOKS LIKE A CAT. LIKE YOU. BUT WITH WINGS AND SPINES. SHE LIVES WHEREVER." The rat was given only a cursory glance, seemingly accepted and dismissed.

After Dread's flames faded, he turned, withdrawing his wing and looking at the additional add-on havoc that Wilder's magic wrought. He huffed his approval, and turned to exhale further flame breath at a far wall.

"CAUGHT-? I WILL CATCH THEM!" he answered, again too-loudly. "THEY CAME TO LEO. THERE WAS A FIGHT. WE WON." Every part of his statement would be questionable if examined by the facts (well, except for the fact that Order had indeed come to Leo, at least) but Dread spoke with firm certainty, and a challenge in his voice he rarely displayed. "THAT IS MY CAVE," he added, smugly fierce, pegging that challenge as simple territoriality. Admittedly... Gemini wasn't 'his,' though. In fact, he didn't really like this place, and as he looked around he wondered about it.

Gaze tipped down, after a moment, for ember eyes to regard Wilder with a question--because he knew that he was sort of dumb, and that other Gembounds were usually somewhat smarter. So maybe she knew what Gemini was all about-? "WHY IS THIS CAVE GIANT CRYSTALS?" he asked, with confusion entering his voice. "IS IT USED FOR SOMETHING?" Wilder was smart--right? Surely she would know!

@Wilder

Bug, huh? Wilder had to admit, the name was a little silly, but if it was a cat like her but with dragon features, then it probably be more charming then strange. A small smile broke her neutral exterior, her features lighting up just a fraction. She didn't feel as fearful anymore with the dragon breathing fire all over the place - it was hot in here now, yes, but he was a good shield and wasn't aiming the flames anywhere close to her. She continued to fling the fungus around until it had burned into nothing.

"Caught by...oh!" Ears perked and she gave a short laugh. "I don't mean caught by them I mean caught by the flames. But...yes, I think they might notice us starting a big fire here." She wasn't surprised that they'd been in Leo. The force they'd encountered in this cave had been much smaller (as in the size of the defenders) and she hadn't recognized them from the fighting in Canis. The main force must have moved ahead.

She drooped for a second, realizing what that meant - what they'd fought in this cave had only been the backup force. And they'd still lost. "They were in here too. I helped fight them, but they drove us out. There were not enough of us." She did wish that Teosar or some of the other stronger gembound from the sanctuary in Canis had been able to help them, but she could understand that they needed to stay and protect the weaker ones. She wondered if he was still there, somewhere.

She could suddenly feel a burning gaze on the back of her head and she looked up, bright pink meeting burning amber. She blinked and tilted her head, surprised by the question. "Why is it...you know, I don't actually know! I don't come here often so I don't know much. But...I can see if I can learn something real quick. Hold on-" She trotted out from where she was next to Dread, avoiding the burning fungus, suddenly quite curious herself. Why was this room made of mirrors and crystal? Was there a reason? Or simply a bizarre creation of whoever had dug out these caves in the first place?

She reached out to touch the crystal wall, calling on magic to show her the past.

@Dread

Dread glanced around, thinking this over briefly. "I DON'T THINK THERE'S ENOUGH TO BURN," he explained. Not that there wasn't fungus everywhere, but it was the sort of mold that just wisped away into ash rather than roar into a conflagration. "THIS STUFF IS WEAK." Not strong, like firewood. He inhaled, intending to aim another full-throated blast of flame at another clump of hanging fungus, but found that nothing came; he huffed and hissed, shaking himself as soot and smoke spilled from his jaws instead. He'd need to rest a moment.

The dragon then wing-walked over behind Wilder to see what she was doing.

"HOW MANY OF THEM CAME HERE?" he asked, finding his curiosity piqued. He was not normally much of a strategic thinker (if it was an enemy, he set it on fire, and that was usually that) but now he found himself wondering if there was a far larger army than he'd realized.

Pages: 1 2 3