ORIGIN - she said, turn around, girlfriend, and listen to that boy's song

it was like being born again. hot air rushed around the orange shell, wind racing down the dry track of the gorge. it danced around the egg, deep bellow, cheering her on.

the shell had grown large around her adult body, and it had equally grown thick to protect its host. now that her magic had grown developed, her gem seemed to know instinctively to put everything into protecting and repairing her. the process had been steady for the last half of a cycle... but, to the beast inside, it seemed forever.

she knew she had become strong enough now to come out once more... but she was scared. her heart was loud, the fire in her chest roaring. she had heard, a long time ago-- perhaps in a dream-- the call of her princess, but it felt so distant. she felt alone, and weak. a child again.

it had been a few days in that she had heard the silence. it had terrified her. the darkness of the shell, and the endless silence. she had been mostly unconscious through it, but somewhere along the line, nemesis had come to realize something:

the twister had grown quiet. the winds were not strong anymore. it was why the signal that came to her now scared her. once again she could hear the rush of wind-- but was it the dragon? had the beast of fire done this? her days in the shell had been full of nightmares when she wasn't conscious in the black, unable to speak or move or... or breathe. that dragon of fire haunted her.

she had to come out now, however. she knew she did. the wind begged it of her, the flames inside of her desperate to burst and gobble up the air greedily. it had been so easy the first time.

yet now, she hesitated.

I just moved this from ny aw to here because... Because.

Magdalena didn't know what had become of Nemesis. She feared her friend would be gone forever, preserved for eternity behind the orange crystal that had grown over her body and trapped her there. Every day she lay by the side of the crystallized rhino, speaking gently to the ghost of her friend, telling her over and over again the story of how she had been brave and protected Delphine from the beastly dragon Baratheon, and how much she missed her, and how deeply she wished that she could be here. Magdalena never thought she'd find herself missing the rhino so much, especially when Louie had first brought her to the Merrymen. She thought the only one she'd ever need was Louie. She depended on him to help her, to teach her and show her how to be strong, but... it had always been Nemesis. And without her now, Magdalena was lost.

The white dog remained curled beside the chrysalis, her back to the glistening orange crystal as her muzzle lay upon her paws. Straw eyes closed against the rest of the world, and for the moment she merely listened, searching for that telltale sign that her friend was somehow still alive. Every now and then, she liked to imagine that she could hear a heartbeat burning through the rock and gemstone, or feel the chrysalis shifting with the rhino's great breaths. It was all she had to reassure herself of her friend's existence, it was the only hope she had to cling to that maybe she would come back.

With a small sigh, Magdalena had opened her eyes and lifted her head. The silence settled eerie over them, and the girl turned her muzzle slowly, shifting her body until her nose grazed the surface of the crystal. She lingered there, taking in the smell that reminded her of the rhino, the feeling that she could foolishly pretend to be no more than the rhino's jagged stone emerging from her brow. Magdalena hesitated before drawing away from it and standing, only to recline back onto her haunches and slide onto her stomach. Her insistence upon clinging to the chrysalis wasn't healthy - hunger burned in the pit of her gut, but she shrugged it away, lacking the will to do anything about it.

...yet, there was stirring, gently, outside of the rhinoceros' shell. she sensed it after a moment, the stir of a breath outside-- a shifting of weight. something was moving outside. someone was here.

perhaps she had only imagined it, in the ruffling of the wind outside. nemesis was not a creature of curiosity, preferring to stick to what she knew. she was like a great boulder: hard to get moving, impossible to stop once she started. if only it didn't take such a great effort to start.

still, inside the gem began a soft, but vibrant glow. the gem upon her forehead which had, thankfully, remained in tact, began to rouse. if its host would not try to escape, it would goad her into her second birth.

the chrysalis grew hot, heat boiling up inside of the egg that was meant to protect her. the flames of her magic stirred a new life into her, but also threatened to snuff her out. a mild sense of panic began to stir in her as her magic churned, threatening to boil her alive if she dare stay inside the shell much longer.

with that said and done, the once-rhino began to struggle in her chrysalis. it was time to escape, to be free once more.

after all, with the great twister quiet, who would protect the merrymen?

Considerable time had passed since he had found Magdalena beside the gemstone which he had later discovered was in fact Nemesis. With assistance from Dark, he had been able to put two and two together and come to this conclusion. Although last he had seen of any Merry Men members, he had been in possession of two eyes. Now, he was down to one and he had to learn how to navigate his home without it. It was proving to be a more difficult task than most but he was thankful that it hadn't been both eyes melted off by that damn Raheerah beast.

Exhaling deeply, this would be among the first time he had ventured back into Monoceros since his injury. His first attempt, he had merely torn off his facial mask and then scurried back to Orion. Licking his wounds in peace, he had learned much about the inhabitants of Origin Cave and he had indeed met others who he had coerced into joining. But at the heart of every group were the founders, the beginners, so it was time he check on that big lump of rock where their powerhouse slumbered peacefully. Meandering towards where she was, he was not surprised to see Mags there and he didn't address her directly.

Instead, he turned his attention to the egg, with no words other than his eye widening as the heat from it began to seep into the air, the ground and begin to make him feel feverish and warm. Fear, intense fear washed over his body as his newly found aversion to fire was realized and he hastily scrambled backwards, bumping into the rock behind him. He kept the expressionless look on his face as his body language gave it away with sweat that wasn't needed. Nemesis was being reborn once again.

"Magdalena, when she emerges I can imagine she would be less than pleased." Although he didn't know her as well as Mags, he knew the confusion and fright on the gemlings faces when they were born the first time. More concerned for his own safety, he didn't want to see Magdalena smooshed as he required everyone for his master plan. Besides, having another prokaryote was always useful.

@Nemesis @Magdalena

Magdalena heard the approach of the fox. She knew he was heading her way before he had even reached the location of the chrysalis embedded in the wall, but she didn't say anything to him. The princess was unaware of the changes to his face - sure, there was the slight smell of cauterized flesh that still clung to him, the smell of blood and pus and fresh scar tissue, but weren't those the typical smells that accompanied one whose magic was of bacteria in the first place? She didn't think anything of it. She didn't even think anything of it when the fox approached the chrysalis and seemed to ignore her completely; her head shifted and swiveled, following the sound of his feet. She tuned in to his presence as well as he focused on the blazing orange chrysalis until a throng of heat suddenly washed off its surface.

The heat, though, Magdalena was used to. Every now and then it would roll from the crystal and remind her of the creature that thrived inside of it. Each time a new feeling. A new hope that one day the creature inside would emerge again; not only that, but it was a quiet reassurance that she was not alone. Magdalena did not recoil from the sensation as Louie did, but his fretful voice and the sudden fear smell wafting from his skin suggested that maybe she should have. "Why? I have remained loyally by her side," She answered quietly, uncertain as to why the fox expressed concern. Would Nemesis not be pleased to see her?

As if on cue, there was the sound of struggling from within the orange outcropping. Magdalena twisted her head around to look at it, but the heat that sweltered from the crystal increased; it nearly burned her skin before the dog unfolded her limbs and stood, backing away from it. Blind eyes scoured the chrysalis, traveling upwards until her head angled towards the ceiling. "She moves." The dog whispered in awe; she could feel it, the ground trembling beneath her paws. Trembling in the wake of the monster within.

@Nemesis

the voices.

she could hear them. it couldn't be that awful dragon: she could hear the king and princess outside. she struggled, the glow of her gem blindingly bright in the cage of orange crystal. she kicked and pushed, the heat sweltering.

magdalena. MAGDALENA. she was there, just outside, waiting. she knew the princess was waiting for her. fighting against her shell, she tried to lift her head, to tear open the prison with her horn, and found herself stuck. something was wrong.

she struggled, but exhaustion simply from the heat washed over her. it was so hot, trying to bake her alive. she was so close... the princess... was she okay? nemesis longed to cry out her name, but her head was crammed up against her limbs. she was trapped. a great groan came from her as she tried to wiggle enough to kick and flail her way out.

magdalena was waiting for her!!

@LOUIE OI

That intense heat was actually beginning to make him feel sick and he wondered if it was screwing with his bacteria count. Certainly could be as he found that most thrived under hot conditions and he made to slink away from the pair. Claustrophobia set in and he began to pant, he wondered if moving to higher ground would help but he remained on the same level. Mags asked why she should be scared and he wanted to smack her upside the head, "Have you never seen a gemling hatch?". Shaking his own head, he backed away and when the creepy blind girl mentioned her movement he shuddered. Though he was quite excited that she was emerging finally, he couldn't say he was keen on her erupting out like some burst zit.

It did begin to move, actually he could feel it now as the ground shook and trembled with the rhino's rapid movement. Not entirely sure if he should, he backed away slowly and attempted to try something, he had felt it almost birth within his mind and he wondered if this would indeed help. They were pretty fucking tough though so he doubted it...

... Particles of glass, some sand that had been super heated (it helped that Nemesis' chyrsalis was like a damn furnace) began to be pulled from the earth as Louie concentrated hard. Rocks and earth and all that fancy stuff was not his specialty and he found most of his energy put into just getting it to do the right thing. As they whipped through the air, he was careful to avoid accidentally harming Magdalena as he got the barrage to slice and tear away at the crystal around Nemesis. Hopefully, it actually did some damage and helped her out as he wanted her out and her tantrum of being reborn over with as soon as possible.

@Nemesis @Magdalena

the world shook. sharp noises rang through her ears, piercing her senses. she tried to scream but her throat was thick with mucus, and she found herself coughing and gasping. The prison was a struggle: her body was simply a vessel for the passenger that was her gem... And her gem was exhausted trying to bring her back to life. Her massive body was a lot to work with.

Still, her desire to live was strong. She fought regardless of how weak she was. She kicked and struggled, the cracking of what could have been mistaken for sleet on her protective shell ringing in her ears. The noise was driving her crazy, but it was helping her hard gem crack and break around her.

...crrrrrRCKkk. the gem fractured down the middle, heat rushing out into the (only relatively) cold air. wind swirled through the air, once-sand spiraling through the air in glass shards. the vortex died as quickly as it came, the heat equalizing as the vibrant orange shell fell apart.

the beast that was birthed from the shell looked quite similar to the old nem. a huge chunk of shell seemed stuck on her head, caught on something hard to distinguish at first. her body seemed to have finally grown out to her full form, tall and built like a barrel. the skin looked thicker, with huge, leathery scales along her back.

the first distinction one would notice would be her tail. as she stood, trembling, her tail swept wide, knocking away shattered bits of shell. it was a huge, long tail, thick but tapering to a smooth point, more like a lizard's tail than anything. it seemed absolutely out of place on the rhino.

... Finally, with a coughing, sputtering, panicked gasp, Nemesis flung her head and tossed the chunk of wulfenite off of her head. She noticed, first and foremost, that her head felt distinctly heavier. Her heart pounded, her body hot and slick with mucus and sweat, as she swept the area for Magdalena. At first, her eyes fell on Louie-- the fox. What was he doing here? Sand and glass fought for her vision, her skin scratching in the storm. What was he doing?

She opened her mouth to bark at him when her deep blue eyes found the form of white-- so much closer than she expected. Fear swallowed her words as she stumbled down to her knees in front of the princess. She tried to quell the heat in her heart as she reached forward with her nose, careful not to bump into the dog suddenly. The storm seemed to carefully peel around her, as though it knew she was frail and delicate.

She sniffed at Magdalena carefully, her breaths ragged and panicked.

"Princess, are you alright?" Her voice begged, soft, gentle, desperate to hear her friend's sweet voice. Her face had been greatly changed, sporting a wide frill behind her ears and two new pronghorns flanking her ears. She could feel the difference, but she had no idea how mutated she was-- there was just a small, quiet relief that Magdalena couldn't see, and wouldn't care, if the Dragon's wrath and turned her into a hideous monster.

They would simply be able to share the wonderful, beautiful moment of reunion. She had lived, she had survived. And Magdelena was still alive, still... Still breathing. They were both alive and Nemesis was fixated on this wonderful fact. Her princess had waited by her side, waited for her to come back. Not even Louie's harsh attitude could ruin this for her.

At the fox's words, Magdalena sent him a pointed look - except, those hardened straw eyes lingered somewhere just above the fox's head, and her expression was delivered more in the tautness of her lips than her unseeing gaze. I've never seen, she wanted to clarify, but the rolling heat and the monstrous groans of the chrysalis kept her from speaking. They distracted her, pulling her away from that hardened look she sent Louie. Her head shifted and she faced the chrysalis, stepping back again. As much as she wanted to embrace the chrysalis and feel the crystal crack away and the familiar warmth of her Fire roll out, she knew it was dangerous. Louie's behavior alone could tell her that. Magdalena was acute in her sense of self preservation, and she would hang back instead while the fox attempted to slice the chrysalis open.

Winds seemed to whip up all around her, but they held the grit and dirty feel of the twister. For a moment, Magdalena had caught her breath, reveling in the familiarity of the sandstorm that picked up and nearly consumed the chrysalis. It cracked and groaned still until all at once, a massive rift was wrenched down the heart of the chrysalis and it split in two. She couldn't see it - she could feel it.

Suddenly, with one final blast of hot air, it all leaked from the chrysalis which now shattered into several pieces, revealing what had been incubating inside this whole time. Unseeing, she stared; for the first time, she could isolate the being in a light of sight that fed nothing back, but she felt she knew what she beheld all the same. The swell of bacteria that had cultivated inside of her all this time was eager to reach out, amassing in an invisible form only tangible to the dog. Her breath wavered, and her legs shook, fearful that maybe this wasn't the Fire she had been seeking all this time.

But the rhino's fury had subsided. All at once the massive beast had caved in, dropping down before the dog with a heavy tremble. She could feel short huffs of air and almost couldn't believe how she was suddenly so close to the one she feared she lost, and the silence of the air gently opened into her voice. Magdalena blinked and slowly lowered her head, her nose reaching out to probe the jagged topography of her stone. She moved down along Nemesis' snout to the tough, tapered horn on the end of her nose, then up again, along her cheekbones and thick skin, across the brow, up and up until she met the loam of her ear - and then another horn, one that wasn't there before. She sniffed and poked at it, then maneuvered her nose up behind her skull, where the frill flared out unfamiliar and strange.

There, Magdalena hesitated. A twinge of uncertainty lingered just in the back of her mind. It only took a second before she pushed it aside, and faith had convinced her that she was still exactly the same. Everything was where it should be, only this ordeal had given more to her - more to explore. More to know. And that was just fine.

The dog withdrew and pressed her forehead against the beast's massive nose horn. "You have not changed." She whispered. Her lips twitched before they slowly drew into the thin veil of a smile.

@Louie