ORIGIN

Hatching was supposed to be a meaningful experience to most, wasn't it? Not for Mojag. His escape from the pink prison that was his chrysalis was as anticlimactic as it comes. Beak chipped at the walls of the rhodochrosite womb for what seemed to be an eternity. It was a rhythmic and catchy beat he tapped out, anyone passing would be interested to hear the music of a not yet born gembound. He wanted out, done with this cramped up room of muffled noises and sights. There was things to be done and viewed… marveled over. Finally his ceaseless tapping cracked through the thin spot in the wall. The fissure popped: webbing out like branches on a tree from the impact of his beak. One more quick stab and half of the chrysalis was shattered.

The hatchlings eyes adjusted painfully to the bright and active world around the dirt mound where his chrysalis had been perched in center of. "Brahh??" he quacked out, confused by the noise that came so naturally from his throat. Opening beak up and raising his head up to the ceiling, "AAAAH?? GRAAA BRAA KAA?" Random nonsense flooded the air. Gemless birds fluttered by to stop and stare at the annoying thing that was birthed into their forest. Mojag tilted his blue eye up to return an expectant gaze, weren't they going to greet him now? Isn't that how it worked? After all that work he put in just to get out of the clustered womb to chill with the outside birds… He waited… and waited.

Since her violent encounter with the pale dragon, Delphine had remained within Eridanus to rest and heal from her wounds. It was a slow process, hindered furthermore by her immobility, boredom and isolation. The first few days to a week had been spent practicing her linguistic skills and magic. Nothing that would expend her energy more than necessary and even more so, a sure-fire guarantee of absolute boredom. Then she forced herself to walk again, ignoring the wretched stretch of newly-healed, sensitive flesh along her spine and shoulders. It was tedious and frustrating. A cruel act on Time and Fate's part in toying with a child's patience and sense of perseverance but alas, the young filly was born with a stubborn streak and she forced herself through her adversities. By the second week, she'd explored nearly all nooks and crannies that Eridanus had to offer and inadvertently expunged any form of entertainment she could have derived from the place.

Post-Roll Edit:
So it came as no surprise that when she woke this day, she was faced with the sobering knowledge that there was nothing left for her to do. Except, today was different. She could feel it in the air; a barely present but electrifying energy that coursed through the emerald sentries and reverberated within the ground. All at once, Delphine was plunged into a world of magic, where what she saw was not the corporeal forms of life but the very energy that flowed through them. Within this kaleidoscopic world, there lay a rhythmic beat that fluttered stronger than the rest, something she herself had never been met with yet she knew. She knew it to be the birthing of a new life and therein, her own heart shuddered with anticipation.

Without a second thought, Delphine stood and carefully made her way through the underbrush. Following the still rhythmic beating, it'd taken her a moment to realize that the nearly melodious tune was not a sound resonated from her heart but from the source of the new Gembound. Her steps quickened and her heart raced ever the more until she broke through a bush and there, lain upon the ground was the source of energy that had brought the jungle to life.

It squawked and the young filly froze. How small and dainty the avian creature was, smaller even then Adeyemi and the owl had been. Slowly, Delphine lowered her head to the ground, her ears flattened along her crown. She nickered, low and soft, to announce her arrival before words sought passage through hesitant lips, "Hello. I-I am Delphine." She took a step forward, stopping only when there was but a few feet of distance between them. "Welcome to Eridanus."

Mojag ruffled his soft, juvenile feathers as he waited for response. A little dot of fluff sitting on top of a cracked open pink shell. The outside world was chillier than anything he had imagined. Too blissful to expect much of a difference besides, well, having copious amounts of friends to adore him. Blowing his feathers out in this way seemed to help insulate his body heat, giving him some relief to the climate shock. Peeping every now and then, his heart sank when the birds above in the branches lost interest one by one and disappeared into the dark forest canopy.

So lost in the abandonment that was happening, the kookaburra didn't notice an approaching shadow revealing itself from the maze of trees. He screeched in alarm when the mare spoke to him, despite the words being gentle and welcoming. Bobbing around in circles for a panicked second, Mojag ran to each wall of his shell and bounced back when his pointy beak made contact. Eventually he squatted low down to the bottom of the bowl and peer up in terror at the larger beast with a wide orange eye. Shivers went through his body involuntarily, even after he calmed down enough to realize she wasn't going to hurt him (yet).

Words! She had said words. Mojag somehow was able to understand the language, but was he capable of replicating? "What's up?" he said cooly in his small voice. "Del...pheeeeen. Mojag?" He offered with a slight shrug of lifted wings.