ORIGIN

Eventually, she did reach the end of the Breach. It was a shame, because it meant she had to climb back up, and back into the sweltering heat above.

She supposed it was her own fault.

With a burst of flesh and oil, wings sprouted from Elayne's back. There wasn't enough clearance to properly fly here, but the extra lift they offered made it easy enough to aid her climb up the ravine's cliff, back to the surface.

If only the air wasn't so stifling and still. A good updraft would have been nice to soar on, and would let her cover more ground... Alas, it would take more energy than simply walking in this sweltering environment, so instead she continued on foot.

She kept her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary as she scoured the sparse landscape. This particular area was especially flat, with very few cacti blossoming up out of the earth. There was, however, a splash of orange that caught her attention.

Elayne stopped, crouching down to investigate. She brushed off the dirt and dust that the object was hidden in: it appeared to be a perfectly smooth disk of stone: orange-red and smaller than her palm.

It wasn't as impressive as the first stone, but it had a nice color... And she supposed there were three of her spawn, so it made sense to have a gift for each of them.

She brought forth another tendril, and pulled it in close to her flank.

stone found: serandite
this one is a round, polished serandite :3

That meant that she needed to find one more little trinket for the last of the spawn. With a hum, she continued on her way, flexing her wings to fan the oiled sweat from her body. She continued to follow the sparse plant-life, leading herself to an outcropping of cacti that reached, impressively, to rival her own height.

She had to carefully maneuver around the prickly plants, but it seemed like a good place to find a lost-- or hidden-- treasure.

And it seemed as though she was correct. A few bones (picked clean by scavengers? Imagined up by the Dreamer? Left from before the change in terrain?) littered the ground among a particularly dense thicket of cacti, and a glistening blue rock stood out among the dusty white remains.

The deep rich blue oozed loyalty. It glistened where the light hit it. A naturally smooth crystal structure... A perfect gift for a wide-eyed newborn. It was lumpy and misshapen, but it was hard to notice with how beautifully it shimmered.

Elayne reached a tendril in, plucking it free from its grave. The cactus that stood protecting it pricked at the oil-coated tendril, but the pain was minimal. It was worth it for such a beautiful stone. Even though it was likely completely worthless. It didn't matter. As long as there was a believed value, that would suffice.

found stone: azurite
a natural crystal formation

Elayne hadn't found what she had come here for yet, however. There was supposed to be something special, something genuinely worth traveling all up and down this accursed, stifling desert. Maybe it had been a lie. A waste of time.

Or maybe she was too late, and someone else had found them first...

Well. She hadn't come all this way to give up now.

It couldn't be much longer. She had searched almost all day. Much longer, and she would have to make her journey back home. She wasn't about to give up, of course, but it was reasonable to set... something of a time limit.

Night would set in eventually, and that was a natural stopping point. It would give her enough time to make it home, to make it back to her offspring before they hatched.

... but that would be giving up, wouldn't it? And she simply didn't believe in failing. Specifically, she didn't believe in her own failure.

A chain awaited.

White gold, sparkling in the desert light, a slick Oilstone set into a single link. It was jewelry, by looks. Something that could be wound around one of Elayne's muscled legs, or perhaps wound twice around her head like a circlet.

And if the Shapers were asked? They had no idea how this had gotten there.

There was no true sense of Chaos from it. It lay within, yes--waiting to be tapped--but its nature was wholly unknown.

A gift, abandoned... or was it?

Perhaps it had been left here just for Elayne.

The question was... what did it do?

At long last... The thing she was looking for. The oilstone, preciously embedded into a platinum chain. It was as though it had been made for her-- of course, she did not know what properties it held. She did not know that it would share visions of her failures and successes to the other holders, nor that it would show her others in the same way.

All she knew was that it was a destiny she had forged for herself. With a face-splitting grin, she took the chain with one paw, and with a few tendrils, tied it in a loop around her forelimb.

It was time to go home with her treasures, and await the birth of her spawn.