ORIGIN - River of Possibility

"SPEAKING" and THOUGHTS

The almost newborn gem bound had a goal in mind. She had just emerged from her chrysalis, learned to stand after falling, and got a taste of something she could not digest, and something enjoyable.
After her first successful hunt, Dionysus started to walk and stumble towards the Riverwalk, following the sound of the water with curiosity. Every step she took, walking started to feel more natural and her need to think about it was fading into the background. She yawned. Her eyes and paws getting heavier and heavier every step she took, her body getting tired, sleep being more insistent by the minute. She, however, refused to sleep like a child who had more important things to do than follow her body's natural requests. She had to reach the strange consistent sound. She had to get there before succumbing and finally lying down.
Then, suddenly, the ambiance changed. She saw the ground different from the rest, marked by the passing of many other creatures, she found a path. The sound of the water getting louder. She found the fence adorning the water, and looked at the transparent and inexplicable thing moving in front of her. The air felt more humid, but she felt too insecure of the weird event happening, the water moving, the currents, that she decided to not approach whatever that was.
She instead decided to follow the path, step by step, her breath becoming heavier and her yawning more like a common occurrence. She then noticed a strange rock formation with an area that looked perfect for lying down. She looked at it. It was big. Maybe too big for her, and very tall for her to reach. She decided to curl up next to one of the corners of the stone formation, lying over the ground and gave up to the tiredness of her body.
She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

For cycles now Waker had been a wanderer, an apprentice on a lengthy educational trip throughout the sprawling cavern system, far out of earshot from the rough-voiced but kind instruction of her Shaper guardians. Used to an ever-changing landscape and weather crafted by magic, many green eyes might not have perceived the rooms she passed through with the ordinary awe of the typical Gembound, but they were surveyed with a healthy heaping of respect belonging to an architect in training. She admired the work that must've gone into the myriad biomes, each aesthetic presented wholly distinct from the rest. Most of all, she marveled at any evidence of living she encountered, whether the dens of Lessers or the ruins of those whose bones were long buried and flesh decayed away.

Jackal face curtained and concealed by dark, muscular tentacles, she crept along the well-worn pathway built into the cliffside overlooking this tunnel's winding river. Silent other than the occasional soft snuffle of a hidden nose, the unusual hybrid explored. Suckered limbs picked every so often at the rope fencing, giving it a gentle tug to test its sturdiness as much as guide her along the riverwalk, sight so obscured by the unfortunate arrangement of limbs and head she'd been born with. When at last she'd been satisfied by her examination, the creature drifted closer to the woodland side of the path, quickly noting that, every so many steps, she collided against solid stone formations.

These, she noted, were all shaped similarly despite the mild variations in texture felt out. Presumably they'd been crafted for the same function. Each seemed crafted out of the cliff as much as the walkway had been, carved until separate rectangular prisms emerged. A section had been cut out of each, too, creating a space to possibly sit on as well as a surface to rest one's back against.

A chair, she mused, reminded of the furniture her home's barracks had possessed. However, these lacked the qualifying legs to consider them such. Curious, but she supposed it made sense. They appeared to have been built for utility only, convenient spots to allow one's legs to recover from a walk. No need then to include the ability to transport them elsewhere.

Waker continued onto the next in the long line of structures built into the cliff, jaw slightly ajar as she inhaled the scents of the forest and river. But a closer smell wafted toward her also, drifting into her mouth and tickling at nostrils. It was quite foreign from whatever wildlife she'd sensed much earlier in her journey. Interest piqued by the strangeness, she followed it to the source. Still blinded by the limbs shrouding her face, beside what her nose informed her of, only the sound of even breathing alerted Waker to the presence she'd crawled near. A pause ensued as she considered how best to greet the unknown being. Slowly, hesitantly, a tentacle reached out and prodded at the young quoll's flank.

@Dionysus

"SPEAKING" and THOUGHTS

The Tiger Quoll had laid unmovable with only her soft breathing and, every once in a while a little twitch for the resting mammal causing movement. Unaware of what dreams are, and with a mind still blank, she had drifted into the state she began. Inexistence, in a conscious sense.
How long it has passed, hard to know, but something new, a new feeling, disturbed her sleep. Something touched. Dionysus' body was so small, that the prodding shifted her slightly from her place. It felt rather hard, but gentle at the same time, with a texture she could not make out. She whimpered slightly in confusion and protest, then slowly opened her eyes when her ears started to register the sound of unfamiliar breathing. She uncurled slowly, more in confusion than in fear, then looked in the direction of whatever reached out to her.

Her eyes widened at the sight of something so big. Was it a tree? She thought to herself remembering the Wisteria Grove, but the color did not match, and as far as she knew, trees are just there. She tried thinking a little bit more, maybe a rock, but as far as she knew, rocks did not move either. She looked at the being in front of her for a few more seconds, attempting to categorize it inside, or close to, anything she had seen so far, but to no avail. She had to make a new category specifically for the tentacle-being. She finally stood slowly and approached the creature. In an attempt to smell it, she touched the tentacle that just prodded her with her nose and took a long and hard whiff, loud enough to be heard by the gembound in front of her. It was an intriguing and unexpected situation.

After she finished her thorough investigation, she decided to take the next step. Literally. She placed one paw over her tentacle, then the other one, while sitting down, attempting to limit the weight she placed on the tentacle. She waited for a few seconds before giving a low, soft grunt of frustration and excitement, gauging for a reaction from the being.

@Waker

Worm had been in and out of the nearby tunnels for some time now. Passing through Pegasus and luxuriating in the beams of light that it offered. Beyond the usual happenstances, rowdy gembound and unknown creatures, life had been good. Still and dry compared to his emergence in Pieces. Blissful, even.

It was on one such cliff side chair that the kitten current sprawled upon, lithe and languishing as he stretched upon the warmed stone. Enjoying the heaviness of the heat seeping into his joints and muscles. The distance monotonous sounds of the river flowing, far enough away that he need not concern himself with getting wet.

It was the odd sounds of movement that stirred him from his catnap. Something large, but not quite footfalls. He was certain it was movement he'd heard, even if he wasn't certain which kind. Worm rolled onto his belly, his eyes blearily watching the direction it was coming from.

Then.. had that been grunting? A singular grunt, he was absolutely certain.

Strange.

Yet more than enough to spur the feline onto his paws...

Worm was outright proud when his paws landed on the path with little more sound than a soft 'fwoof', and he could creep his way forwards to peep his head over the top of the steps. Where he spotted two individuals, one very tiny and the other quite large.

Alarm bells rung loud in his head, the big one is going to eat that little one! I should tell it to run! Yet the fear of being caught himself, kept his mouth shut and his paws still.

So, Worm watched. Spying on the two's meeting from his perch, big saucer-round eyes watching in stunned fear; a deer in the headlights.

@Waker @Dionysus

The creature shifted beneath her prodding limb. Waker's ears twitched as hearing, even mildly hampered by the tentacles concealing her, detected the telltale signs of the stranger awakening. Awkward and uncertain, the unusual hybrid stood there, listening to the sound of this other being gaining her bearings after sleep. Then a low whine of confusion bubbled up from lips when light pressure settled onto the tentacle that she'd poked with.

Was this a greeting back? She supposed it could be. Certainly when she'd lived with the Shapers, they'd welcomed each other's presence with coarse language and hard slaps on the shoulder, a show of camaraderie through an exchange of words and physical touch. But in that single example the difference lay: this wasn't her family, and therefore she hadn't the faintest clue how to proceed. What would a stranger expect from her in response?

As anxiety mounted, the tentacles unoccupied by someone's paws on top of them wiggled a little, their tips rhythmically slapping the ground. Waker sucked in an apprehensive breath before carefully trying to pull away the one tentacle she'd reached out with. She leaned back until her mantle and the useless hindquarters attached to it flopped into a resting position, allowing her head to no longer be forced to stare at the floor. Once granted this freedom, she thrust her snout through the mass of tentacles surrounding her, at last better able to look at the other Gembound.

Bright green eyes blinked, readjusting to the presence of light as well as regarding the quoll with a sense of wonder. The difference between them in size was unmistakably stark. Born late alongside her siblings, she'd never had the opportunity to experience life consciously at a more juvenile stage, her entire development into adulthood spent within her chrysalis. Add on how isolated her life had been thus far, and witnessing an actual child ended up quite the novelty for her.

Slowly, jaws peeled open to reveal numerous rows of sharp teeth. "You're smaller than most of my meals," rasped Waker, the obvious pointed out in poor wit.

@Dionysus

"SPEAKING" and THOUGHTS

The creature pulled back, causing the quoll to be pulled slightly ahead before she removed her paws and rested them safely on the ground, watching the being almost without blinking. She heard every sound, and looked at every movement with earnest curiosity.
She watched as something she could understand instinctively appeared. Eyes. She watched as Waker blinked and whined slightly. That made sense. She made more sense to her internally. Then something new and exciting happened. Voice. Words. Talking.

This was the first time the baby quoll had ever heard any kind of speech or communication. She noticed that beings could speak, and that rule applied to herself, she assumed. Her eyes widened in amazement at the new possibility that was offered to her. She understood what the creature in front of her was saying, at least some words; however, she did not understand the intent of her comment. "Meal" She thought to herself, the only word she could not completely understand yet. She decided to ignore said word and use the rest to think of a somewhat logical answer. She opened her snout, and repeated "Small" excitedly thinking and talking about herself, her voice somewhat harsh and clumsy, then yapped "Big. Rock" towards Waker.

@Waker @Worm

Worm made a faint noise as the large one said something about 'meals', a straggled noise of alarm. So the big one was going to eat this little one! He couldn't stand for that, no matter how scared he was.

In, what he considered a valiant effort, Worm stood and began to retch. Then, when the cat next opened his mouth, a jet spray of water left it and arced down the steps. However, the kitten had failed to realise just how far away he was from the others. By the time the water reached them, it had lost most of its pressure. Casting more of a gentle rain onto the large gembound (and most of it landing on the steps). Truthfully, the whole display could be seen more as a pathetic attempt at play than an attack.

"Don't--" Worm's voice cracked and wobbled. He grimaced then continued. "Don't eat them! You can't! That's mean!" Worm yelled at the larger one, his argument and conviction about as strong as his muscles (which is to say, they were weak).

The whole kitten trembled as he looked one loud noise away from fleeing the scene entirely.

@Waker

"Rock?" the misshapen hybrid repeated, confusion tilting her head. The child had clearly pointed out their size difference with the first couple of words, opposites that they were, but now she was lost. What relation did anything mineral have to do with either of them, let alone her?

She turned a tentacle inward and pointed it at herself. "I... am not a rock? No?" And perhaps she would've ventured further into a puzzled attempt at communication if not for the sudden sensation of cool droplets sprinkling upon her pebbled skin. Ears pressed back against the high pitch of another voice crying out from somewhere behind her, and Waker, not wishing to retreat behind her tentacle curtain again and lose sight of her surroundings, struggled to turn sideways in a vain attempt at catching the source of the unexpected rain shower.

The misunderstanding of her observational remark widened Waker's eyes. Far from the best at explanations, especially not to anyone young, the quick pleading barks she sent into the air probably did little to convince them otherwise of her malicious nature. "Well, uh... Wouldn't they be a little too small for me anyway? Besides, I already ate."

It wouldn't help that, as a carnivore, her last meal had been a deer unfortunate enough to wander away from its herd and into readily grasping tentacles.

@Dionysus