ORIGIN - Hidden Treasure

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Azure was resting at the center of Orion's steep valley, lying half on her side and half upright in the manner of a deer or horse. Her attention, though, was on the ruins just up ahead and to her right: more of what had probably once been old buildings.

Gathering dye and jewelry materials was always an ongoing task, even if there weren't that many who came to her with requests. It was still nice to keep her mind occupied.

She shifted in place, beak parting and eyes squinting to let out a big yawn. She'd only woken up a couple hours ago, and "woken up" was still pretty generous. She was having a quick rest after flying here, before setting into the blackened and crumbled stone ahead. She was also well out in the open, but that much didn't really occur to her; few Gembounds ever came here, anyway.

@Sair

Sair

Sair had been around, wandering the caves as one does, taking mental notes with no ability to take physical ones. Their memory would have to be enough. At least, until other options became possible.
Distracted by some distinct pattern in the 'stars' above, Sair almost did not notice the other, still as they were, despite the openness of the area. She was yet another unique creature, some hybrid of things he both had and hadn't seen before, with almost similar shaping to his own.
"Beautiful isn't it? The history?" The horse let out a gentle, wistful sigh. There was so much to see, so much to have seen. Such a shame to have been born this late, after everything.
He made no attempt to hide his presence, ambling toward the base of her perch from where he had sat among the rubble. Their size difference was striking, even with the distance. Hopefully his lack of expression wouldn't cause any strife.

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Azure

Azure startled, turning and jerking in place before coming too fast too her feet. She hesitated, glancing around briefly as if somehow assuming Sair must be speaking to someone else she hadn't seen. Nobody else, of course, was there and she mentally chastised herself for the awkwardness, trying to gather herself to speak... reasonably. Normally.

"History-? The... ruins, you mean? Err--hi," she added, unsure. The introductions were meant to come first, right? Before conversation? "Who are you?" Her question was blurted, a long-latent wariness rising in her despite her attempts to seem normal and polite. She hoped Sair could look past that, at least.

@Sair

Sair

Awkward was not a feeling Sair really knew. Sair has been nothing but intrigued by everything around them, including the various ways others had spoken to him in the past. It was no bother to them that Azure spoke in broken sentences, and he waited patiently for her to gather herself before offering his name.
"I am Sair, and you are? But yes, I do mean the ruins. Do you know much about these structures?" He prodded gently, attempting to gather some information to start on instead of rummaging about blindly trying to complete his mental puzzle.
He made some space, not that there wasn't any, in an invitation of sorts. Conversation would surely be easier if he wasn't straining his neck.
"I didn't mean to startle you."

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Azure

Azure didn't think Sair's behavior warranted an apology, but somehow, it helped to hear it. That, and the few steps back to give her room. It soothed prickled nerves, ones that somehow feared immediate violence of the sort she'd once herself been a part of.

She pushed all that aside, now, and offered a shaky breath and a nod.

"Thank you. I'm Azure. I don't mean to be jumpy, either, but I appreciate the space." Thankfully, he was shifting the conversation a little, or at least offering another and far less uncomfortable path. She ruffled her feathers, then settled them as she studied the ruins thoughtfully. "I'm not sure anybody does. Not unless they're one of the really old guys. The Masters, or whatever--and you know what, I don't know that anybody's ever asked them? Maybe you could be the first," she suggested, with wry humor and a glance back at Sair.

"But I think they're very, very old. Older than most of us alive. They were like this when I hatched... I'm not sure if you're older, or I am, but I'm not, uh--young?" She shrugged. She hadn't really counted the cycles and even if she had, didn't know how they factored into the age of the caves. "But the black parts--the burned parts, you see over there?"

Azure stepped forward a few steps, ambling toward the ruins and nodding toward a swath of buildings. It looked like someone had taken a great black paintbrush and run a streak through the crumbling stone, and where it had passed, the rock was... softer, rounder, in places. Like it'd outright melted. "That was a dragon attack, pretty recent. A fight between the Masters, from what I've heard since."

She remembered it, the flash of jet black scales and molten glow of Raheerah, the bellows and the flame.

"Not as much cool stuff is left in that part. I think he burned it all," she said.

@Sair

Sair

Sair mimicked Azure in her soothing gestures, shaking out his mane and turning away to remove the pressure of eye contact as he looked towards the specified ruins. It was a shame to lose pieces of history to something as petty as a fight, but impressive nonetheless that it was one of these 'Masters' that caused the damage. He would be careful in their presence, he decided, but he absolutely had to find them.
"Masters? If they are anything like the Three Kings, I would stop at nothing to hear their tales." Sair may have been full grown, but they still had much to learn about the world around them. An endless amount, seeing as the world kept changing faster than he could study it. To be the first... the thought made him shiver. To make history, rather than just study it? What a dream.
"I am still new." He admitted openly, not ashamed but seemingly almost sad. "I've grown fast in the few cycles I've been awake, and I've been spending all this time... Catching up, you could say. I know so little of the caves, both past and present."
He made some distance again, this time for his own comfort as he turned his attention towards less charred rubble. He dug around for a bit, stopping to study part of a mostly intact brick before he returned to the conversation.
"But I will learn it!" He declared, pivoting once more towards the matter of importance at hoof. "Now why are you here, Azure? Scavaging for... cool stuff, as you call it?" He chuckled.
Sair did wonder what would enrage someone enough to melt stone in a literal sense, but decided it was not an important topic for the time being. He had relics to be finding and puzzles to be solving, and 'cool stuff' might very well fall into that category!

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Azure

Azure gave a short, inelegant laugh. "Honestly not sure that dragon would've had much in the way of 'tales.' Seemed the more burn-first, ask-questions-later kinda guy." Terrifying, in other words, though she wouldn't bluntly say as much.

She glanced over at Sair's admission of a young age, surprised. "I didn't realize," she told him, then hesitated. She wasn't the best at offering reassurance but more than that, wasn't the best at breaking bad news, and this was gonna sort've be both. "If it's... any consolation, and I'm sorry if it's not? But I don't think anybody has the whole story. From what I know everyone started just... waking up here, and it's always been like this. Since they woke up," she clarified, nodding out at the ruins. "You'd have to find Masters to learn more, I guess. They're the only ones old enough to know."

She ruffled her feathers again, arching out her wings to stretch them. She seemed more at ease, now, with Sair's presence--not so much on edge.

"Yeah. Gemstones, mostly, but I can make those, so other things too. I think Gembounds used to live here. Some still do--I do, but farther back that way," she added, nodding back to the west. "But I make... jewelry, dyes, things like that. I could dye a cool pattern on you and use magic to make it permanent," she offered, only half-joking, with a humorous glance Sair's way. "Or make little things out of leather and gemstone, and decorate them like that. Most of my stuff's back home," she added, "but these ruins are okay for finding new materials in. Or... well, old, I guess."

@Sair

Sair

"What a shame. I suppose not everyone can be friendly in such a vast place. But... seemed? Have you seen the one who did this?" MasterS insinuated that they were a collection, a group who might know each other. If he could find just one... He had to be able to find others.
"I guess that's both comforting and disheartening to know. At least there are some, but to rely on only tales? I can only hope those I meet are truthful." He sighed, the weight of his goals heavier than they'd ever felt. He likely would never catch up, and that truth would be hard to accept, but he could at least gather answers for others like him. It was all anyone ever wanted really, to leave something behind after they were gone.
He huffed into the silence he had left, cursing his unstable mood. What was up with him today?! "But again my mind wanders, worrying about things far beyond me. I will learn what I can, and pass it on to those who listen. That is my task." He smiled, twitching his ears towards some non-existent whisper before summoning a little ball of light to chase some shadow away. It was dim, but it did the job well enough. "I have no home myself, at least not yet. With nothing to carry my finds, I must take mental notes and move on I'm afraid, so I have nothing to store. I don't suppose you have much experience with less... decorative crafts?" It was a long shot, but with nothing more to his name than his magic and a blanket, what harm was there in asking? At the very least, jewelry could serve as a bargaining chip.
"As kind as the offer is, I can't imagine myself with splotches of blue or stripes of yellow. Maybe another time." He laughed whole-heartedly, trying very hard to imagine a colour or pattern on himself that was not already present. The only images he could conjure were messy and bright.

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Azure

Azure turned to listen, and something about that first question froze her up.

All through Sair's comments and questions, she just watched him. She heard his words, but her mind-... that was elsewhere.

'Have you seen the one who did this?'

Her memories pitched backward, tumbling four years into the past. Four years, but she could remember each thudded, heavy wingbeat--each screaming roar of the dragon--as though it had been mere moments before. She could feel the heat, still, burning at her hindquarters. Smell the ignited feathers, and feel the shattered antler (since regrown) atop her head. Hear and see the terrors of other Gembounds fleeing through the ruins like rats. And hear Raheerah bellowing, telling them to do just that-... Calling them rats, telling them to watch as he destroyed them all.

When Sair had finished, she gathered herself, forcing a faint tremble to still. Then, without expecting it herself, she burst into laughter. Almost at once Azure was struggling to get control of herself, shaking her head apologetically. "Sorry, I'm--not... I'm not laughing at you. Just-... You asked if I saw the one who'd done this-? I was here, and uhh. Yeah. It was a lot of roaring, telling us he'd wipe us out. Calling us rats. It wasn't--that long ago. I don't know. Fifty cycles-? Maybe?" It was a nice, neat estimate, a whole number, and Azure was unaware that it was perfectly accurate. "Anyway, he melted rock. I saw it because I lived here, at the time. But he melted a lot of those buildings. You couldn't even leave through one of the tunnels. There was melted rock, which is... hot? And it glows. And he'd set rock on fire. Yeah-... I saw it," she added, with an amused shake of her head. To her, it was a way of reinforcing the idea that Raheerah was not the best Master to consult for information. He'd just wanted to kill them all, and he'd have done so if Nemean hadn't--probably accidentally--distracted him and fled elsewhere.

"If you want a friendly one, I've always heard there's one in Pisces that's okay. A big bird in the water, there." She turned away, eyeing the ruins, pushing aside memories of fire and soot. "Anyway-... Sorry. I got distracted." I have a lot of memories. It was important to remember the good ones, like sitting quietly with Dip, laughing and drinking tea while they worked on their crafts. That steadied her, some.

"As for a home, there's lots of nice places in the caves. Maybe not... here. Really, I should travel more, but there's a lot of other caves with nice stuff, if you haven't seen 'em?" she added, firing him a friendly glance. "As for carrying stuff, there's... things, for that. Baskets, bags. Dip--friend of mine--has a wagon we use, sometimes. A big... wooden thing with wheels. It's heavy but it lets us put lots of stuff on to pull it all around," she explained. "If you wanted something like that, I could probably make it for you-? Not the wagon-... the other stuff," she clarified. "Or I could make containers out of gemstone, but that's... heavier, less flexible. More protection for whatever's inside, though. Is that what you meant by 'less decorative?'" she asked curiously. "Dye goes on the backburner, though. Got it," she added, amused.

@Sair

Sair

Azure's change in attitude did not go noticed, but it did pass without comment. He was not in the business of causing grief as much as he was in the business of studying it. So, he watched with stolen glances.
"It sounds like rats would make better company." He attempted a joke out of truth, delivered flat but with a smile all the same. He could imagine the terror, the chaos... How many had been lost that day? Surely they weren't all so lucky. "Pisces, you say?" He made a mental note of the name, hoping either for directions or to hear it in passing in the future. He was starting to find comfort in winged gembounds, an odd specification but an honest one. It was a dangerous thought for a researcher to indulge, but bias came with sentience he supposed. It wasn't his fault that he'd been blessed with some rather kind company of the sort.

"It's only natural not to gravitate too far from home. But if you're looking to explore, I've only been to the North myself. And here." He paused for a moment to think, toying with the little wisp of magic he had summoned. "I did not like Ursa, but Polaris was kind. Boring, though, for a home. Cepheus had some beautiful greenery... But you might like Pegasus best." He spoke slowly, thoughtfully, mulling over what little he had seen of the locations in his first cycle. "Lots of elevations and perches and plants. I think I'd prefer somewhere with fewer lessers, though. Somewhere dry, to keep my future collection safe. I think that's why I gravitated here." He let out a sigh, looking out towards the charred remains. "But then again, I would need to eat. I'll have to explore much further before I settle."

"You know, I don't think I have had this long of a conversation with anyone yet. We keep turning this way and that, so much so that you've even managed to distract me from my original studies! Now I'm all caught up in this Master business, and I still haven't answered you about your crafts." He flashed a grin at Azure. "A bag would be lovely, if you would? I can, of course, gather some materials for you in return; I would not ask a favour for nothing after bothering you for stories as I have." If not for his lack of hand-like appendages to do such intricate work, he might have asked to see how it was done. He did make note of the wagon idea, however, in case he found a gembound with the capability. It would be beneficial on longer expeditions, once he did settle.

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Azure

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