ORIGIN

Wolf-Rayet limps out of its den, eyes blinking up at the sparkling lights. They seem to dance and shift, disorienting taunting the poor little culpeo.

"It hurts," it whimpers, as the nausea and hunger gnaw at it. It doesn't know what is causing it, that it's simply Rayet's unlucky draw in life. There is no way for it to know that the stone that gives it its life is also taking it away.

Either way, it needs to eat, even if the thought is not appealing. Sniffing the dust filled air, it tries to find something, anything.

There's nothing. The silence is deafening.

Rayet whimpers, as the hunger pangs bear down on it. There has to be something, right? It patters between the columns and building, hoping for something, anything.

Luck can be cruel sometimes.

Where is everything????

There was nothing to eat. Nothing at all. It couldn't find a single scrap...

It huffs, glaring at a random pebble in an attempt to get some bit of anger out, as if the pebble would feel it and spontaneously make a meal appear because it felt so bad. That is not what the pebble does, but instead it flies away, knocked aside by the culpeo's sparking magic.

That made it feel a little better, if not a little drained...

The burning and nausea, however, was getting too much to bear. With a whimper, they turn, struggling back toward its den.

Rayet just wanted to sleep... The magical exertion was the final nail in a gemstone coffin that was due any day now. They'd curl up in its little home, falling away as the stone claimed it.

Maybe they'd have better luck next time.