ORIGIN

The days wore on, and Magdalena was once again finding the strength to leave the confines of Monoceros. The wicked twister, her home and her kin, had faded away into silence leaving everything far too still and stagnant. The dog was dependent on the sound of the twister to guide her through the room; with it, she could know where the platforms ended and began, where the flat ground would give way to the raging storm in the heart of Monoceros, where the canyons would begin to dip down past the surface into walled ridges. Without it, her blindness became a vulnerability, much more than it had ever been before. Her only saving grace was the cultures of bacteria that festered in the friends she had infected, and knowing where they were near always.

Of course, knowing where they were and being able to reach them was a different story. Vague directions summoned the sway of her nose, but she did not know if they were within walking distance or if they were high upon the ledges that towered above; would she need to climb mountains to find them, or should she accept her fate and live on the platforms below? Today she chose not to bother her groupmates with her unseeing dependence; her paws instead took her to a different direction, finding herself leaving Monoceros and exploring the singular tunnel that led to it. A tunnel fitted with staircases that Magdalena had by now learned not to stumble over, and fragments of past lives - armor, pottery, the likes of which relics lay strewn haphazard across the floor still.

Idly she reached out with her magic, searching for a sign of anybody else in the tunnel, but nothing came back to her. The feel of energy weakly extended out into the cool tunnel air and fell away, betraying her mild distraction. If anybody was here, she was certain she'd hear them.

Fleur huffed, stumbling through the tunnel, cursing her own bad luck. It seemed that whenever she wandered off, the tiny ball of snow-white fluff managed to find the closest tunnel, getting hopelessly lost in the process. Still, the tutoring of Diamondfang had given her a sense of adventure, a sense of purpose: to hone her strength, and show her teacher that she was worthy. With this in mind, Fleur continued on, rooting though piles of broken and crumbling rock, idly gazing at the runes carved into the tunnel's ceiling. It wasn't long before the skunk reached a staircase, and she stopped, red eyes glaring down into the unknown, preemptively baring sharp crystalline fangs at anything that dared to attack.

For now, the staircase - and whatever lay below - was silent, and so Fleur hesitantly began to travel downwards, tiny claws clicking on the rock. It seemed to go on forever... but considering how stumpy her legs were, it could've been rather short. When she reached the bottom, the fluffy beast sat with a grunt, grooming at a dust-covered foot with a grimace, peering about curiously. There were noises up ahead, footsteps, and Fleur bolted up, almost slithering into the shadowy edges of the route, travelling along where she could be at least partially hidden.

It took a few minutes to catch up to the sounds, but by the time she had, a voice pierced the silence, taking the skunk by surprise and sending her backing up to the tunnel wall, whiskers twitching. Thankfully, there were only two figures, and she knew one of them... Mag-something? Oh, Magdalena! Yes, the upset guardian. The other wasn't familiar, and Fleur's eyes narrowed - was the white dog under attack? She felt a certain kinship with the older girl, mostly due to their shared coat color. Creeping closer, ears pitched forward, the skunk stopped with an amused chuff a few steps away from the fox, sitting with a grunt.

A baby Louie. Wonderful. The fox unsettled her, a bit - while Diamondfang held an air of ruthlessness kept in check about her, Louie just seemed to want... well. Anything bad, really. Fleur tried to stay closer to her mentor than to him, regardless of the fact that he, as well, carried the tell-tale smell of sickness. "Mag," she croaked in greeting, muzzle turned towards the other Merryman with a small smile, before turning back to the kit. "Little... one." Her voice was rough with disuse and trauma, as always, but she did, at least, attempt to look friendly.

Nemesis had been... trying not to be too clingy. Yet, she couldn't help but trail after the hound when she left her home... More so, the once-rhino had felt restless since hatching and exploring the cave was something she felt the urge to do. There were dangerous, horrible things loose in the tunnels, and if she could stomp out those who threatened her friends before they got to Monoceros, well.

She heard the sound of new voices, voices she didn't know, and she rushed down the tunnel towards Magdalena. Where had she gone? Hopefully not too far-- there were potentially dangerous things here and if Maggs got hurt, it would be all of her fault. "Princess!" She cried out, slidding to a stop when she practically trampled over two absolutely tiny gembounds. She blinked, bowing her head to sniff at both Fleur and Roka, struggling to recognize either of them.

"What's happening? Who are these? -- Are you okay, Maggs?" Nemesis implored, tail twitching and feet scuffing at the earth as she tried to process the scene before her. Who was this tiny Louie, and what on earth was the white thing?

She hadn't realized just how close she was to another Gembound, but when that delicate, childish voice suddenly rang out, the dog found herself tilting her head down to stare in vaguely the direction from which it had come. "Hello." Magdalena answered gently, a patient smile beginning to spread upon her lips as she searched for the source. From the echo of the voice through the tunnel, she must have been nearby and Magdalena was willing to wait for the child to find her. There was no ill will in the fragile, thin dog - she meant no harm to somebody so innocent, but it seemed perhaps her friends thought differently.

The first to arrive after the child spoke was the small skunk that had come in with Diamondfang. Magdalena had only truly met her once, but that memory was a haze and felt distant, almost... unreal. She'd been too distraught to take notice of anything else, her mind strung up on finding Nemesis, afraid that she would never be able to reach her rhino friend. She was happy that that skunk had remembered her name, but Magdalena found herself clamoring to remember hers in turn. "Hello." The dog greeted with a small nod, and listened further - the telltale stomp of her Fire would lift her heart, and it was only a matter of minutes before Nemesis had come barging down the tunnel, calling for her and demanding to know what was happening.

Magdalena turned her head, angling her body to embrace the arrival of the rhino. "I am fine, Nemesis, thank you." She said, soft and kind as ever, side stepping such that she could press her shoulder into Nemesis' hide while she turned her gaze back to the other two, younger Gembounds. "They are friends." Was all she spoke, choosing to remain cryptic in hopes that the skunk would re-introduce herself, this time to Nemesis, and the babe would speak up with her own name. Magdalena had only come to the tunnel to enjoy a walk. Her purpose had never been for recruiting or reconnaissance, but now that Nemesis was here, her purpose had become clear - to keep the Fire low and responsive, allowing the rest of the group of immerse themselves in conversation.

A bubbling of bacteria had begun to crawl up her throat, but she quietly cleared it and swallowed it down again. Not now, she thought, distracted. Maybe later.