ORIGIN

A whole cycle had passed and somehow, Delphine had never thought to wander or perhaps even find this room that spanned before her. She was almost thankful for her loss when her emerald eyes drank in the sight of the mist-filled jungle. Although it was brimmed with foliage and in many ways, a counterpart to Eridanus, it bore none of its better traits. Hesitance made her second-guess her decision to explore the region but her desire for wanderlust won out in the battle of the wills. She stepped forward, her muscles taut with tension and her lips pressed thin with distrust. "It's just another room..." She whispered, feeling foolish for having to reassure herself but knowing nonetheless that it would ease her nerves.

Her first steps through the mist brought a shiver to her adolescent frame but she pressed on, forcing herself through the dense forest. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a dark pool of water and cringed inwardly. As it was she had an inherent aversion to water but to see it in such an unnatural state did nothing to ameliorate her concerns. It made her wonder what Meredith would think of the place. She knew Tillie would despise it in all its frightening grandeur. Wordlessly, she continued onward, barely making observations where she was normally far too eager to do exactly thus. She preferred even Canis to this purgatory.

The great horned owl swept through the icy tunnel, ferns from Eridanus clutched in his talons. He intended to pad his new nest with something soft, something fresh and fluffy; he was getting relatively good at following his spatial memory (and the memory of the brief visual image his magic had offered him) in landing in the correct tree.

The tree was just inside Cetus, as would be necessary; a blind owl could hardly navigate a forest, so he'd chosen the first tree he'd found. This meant that when flying into the swamp, he could go right to his nest, not having to dodge other trunks and branches on the way.

What did this mean for the black horse just wandering into Cetus?

All she would see was a dark owl sweeping perhaps uncomfortably close overhead--close enough, maybe, to even feel the wind from his passing. Yet his wingbeats were oddly noiseless, silent, and as he swept up toward the darkness of the branching tree, he simply disappeared into the shadows.

For a moment Dark padded his nest, rearranging the ferns and clicking his beak contentedly. There was something pleasing about having his own little safe place to live, his own little home, alone to himself--even if he couldn't see it.

But something distracted him: the beating of hooves, quiet, as if some large creature were walking through the mud.

The owl hadn't yet learned to be afraid of strangers. Instead he listened, for a moment, then launched down from his nest, spreading wings and drifting down to meet this stranger.

He could hear where the ground was, hear the acoustics, the gentle lapping of water puddles in mud, the rustle of grass; the hearing of an owl was sensitive enough as a baseline that the rustle of a mouse could be pinpointed in the pitch black a hundred yards away. This was enhanced by his blindness--but still, when he landed, it was rarely a safe landing.

Now was no exception. He wasn't injured, thankfully, but he did land badly, his momentum sending him tumbling and spinning through the mud until he was slowly pulling himself upright right before Delphine's hooves, ruffling his feathers.

Hopefully the horse would not stomp him reflexively...

"Hi?" he chirped up, blinking large, blind gem eyes toward this stranger, and--hopefully--new friend.

________________

To her credit, Delphine did not flinch when an owl flew by nor did she think too much on his presence but that there were creatures who perhaps did call this place home. How anyone could fathom such a dank place thrown in shadow and umbra as anything more than limbo was beyond her but she also knew that her judgment was unwarranted in the matter. She who so loved Eridanus could not possibly deign to impose some such adorations upon another. It was not unlike her distaste for Monoceros yet Magdalena was able to call the place her own home. So it was she would reserve her judgments and continue her descent into the throes of darkness, her eyes slowly but surely adjusting to the overcast region. She knew that much of her reservations manifested from her mind and that if she were able to separate herself from her fears, perhaps she would be more openminded about Cetus but as of this moment, the adolescent found herself unable, still, to accomplish this.

A rustle sounded from above, echoing dauntingly and amplifying the haunts that lurked in the corners of her self-perpetuated delusions. "There's nothing there, it's all in your head." She murmured, her voice trembling in an open betrayal of the tumult that lay within. And then it happened. Piercing, green eyes that darted straight toward her before descending into an aerial dive to the floors brought the mare to her hind legs as she screamed into the damp space before slamming upon the ground. She barely missed the creature, a notion she would soon be thankful for when its small voice anchored her beating heart and catered to her call for logic.

With muscle still taut with apprehension, Delphine warily peered down upon the owl. It took her a few moments but when she found the courage to speak, it would be with a voice that trembled still from her initial fright. "H-Hi..." She took a step back to afford them both space but along the way her head had dropped, ears pinned against her crown. "Who are you?"

Its voice--her voice--came from high above. A tall friend? Regardless, she sounded friendly, and Dark was immediately bolstered by the idea, his slight fear forgotten. He hopped forward, cheerfully holding one taloned foot out as if expecting a hand--or, rather, foot--shake, hooting gently.

"I'm Dark. I am an owl," he added, in friendly explanation. The last person to have met him hadn't known what he was. Maybe he should elaborate? His mood content, he decided to do so. "I'm a bird." He said this cheerfully, as if somehow the stranger might not know what a bird was.

"I'm blind, so I can't see you--can I touch you? Who are you? What are you? Why are you here?" His good-natured contentment sent him into a flurry of questions, while he all the while clicked his beak, holding his foot out toward Delphine.

He stared up the whole time, too, wide green gem eyes blank and unseeing.

________________

The more the creature spoke, the more reassured she was but in spite of this, the tension would not fade, at least not in the instantaneous way that she would hope. She nodded when he introduced himself. "Hello Dark, I am Delphine." She stopped, her words trailing off into the ends of uncertainty. "I am a horse." It was a statement added shortly but hesitantly thereafter her own introduction, one she had never before told others because she had thought it an inherent knowledge. Though upon further contemplation, she realized then that perhaps not everyone knew what they or others were. She cleared her throat and cantered her head to one side, "I've met others like you, other birds that is but there was one other owl. Her name is Willow, have you met her before?"

Her eyes widened perceptibly when he admitted to his condition and she flustered, "Oh, oh! Of course! Please—" Delphine extended a foreleg, delicately placing her hoof within reach of the avian creature. The gesture was altogether lost on the adolescent but she was not averse to the notion of catering to the owl. "I'll lay down, if it'll make things easier." Slowly she folded her legs beneath her, her one foreleg still extended outward. "I was just looking around, I've never been here before." The young mare admitted before arching her neck forth to bring her muzzle to Dark's behest, gently exhaling a plume of warmth along him. "I've seen you before, you know. During the time when that phoenix came from the waters, in Pisces."

( @dark )

Dark glanced up at the horse, blindly, but hopped closer as he listened. He could hear her speaking, and hear her voice coming closer to the ground, and the crunch of dry grass and squelch of wet dirt as she lowered herself down. Dark gently placing a taloned foot on the extended foreleg, clicking his beak softly.

His eyes flared up suddenly, the gem glowing bright green as he called upon his magic, trying to connect his mind to Delphine, to see her. To truly see her. The magic found nothing, though, and he found his mind swimming a little. He decided to try with physical touch, instead, gently feeling over a bit of the horse--but she was quite large, and after feeling that she had long, strong hard forelegs, he immediately gave up.

It didn't matter all that much, anyway; he hopped away, turning to hoot gently at her.

"I did not see you," he answered, with just a hint of humor. The owl almost seemed to smile up at the horse in the murky shadows as he continued. "I heard the voice of the thing that came from the water. What's a phoenix?"

Without pausing to allow for an answer, he continued, ruffling his feathers up contentedly, settling a few feet in front of the horse, facing her. "I've met Willow. She helped me look for something. She is an owl, I think." He clicked his beak again, then let out a startlingly loud, abrupt hoot--then blinked and looked around, as if he'd startled himself just as much as anyone else.

________________

A brow arched curiously as she watched Dark's already vibrant eyes glow with his use of power, reveling in the thrum of energy that faded as quickly as it came. It was a rush of energy that similarly coursed through her, tempting her own pool of magic to wake but she resisted. Suddenly her gaze shot downward and if she could have, she would have blushed at the owl's rather sardonic humor. A small laugh escaped her lips and her head shook, "No, I imagine you did not." She mused with a coy smile. "It's the thing that came forth from the waters of Pisces. He was beautiful; a royal shade of blue with streaks of yellow. I believe he is a bird too, not unlike you except he's bigger and how marvelous he was." Delphine wished desperately then that she could somehow make Dark see what he could not, to somehow illustrate in words or imagery the creature that had summoned forth.

"Perhaps one day I could show you, for now you'll have to settle for my description. It's not much to go by but..." She hoped it was enough though it seemed the owl was without halt as he progressed onward. "Why yes, yes she i—" Again she was shocked into silence as the mare recoiled from the sudden cry emitted from Dark, worsened only by the fact that he looked as confused as she did. "A-Are you alright?" The inquiry came in a hushed voice and in that moment, she thought the owl belonging a place as this, eerie in his minute gestures.

( @dark )

The owl ruffled his feathers, peering blankly up at Delphine, for a moment.

"...Yes." He immediately hooted again, making himself flinch, almost as if he were hiccuping. "I know blue. I think. And I've seen yellow. What's a... a horse? What do you eat?"

Then, as an afterthought, the owl tilted his head about ninety degrees to the right, so that it were almost horizontal as he faced Delphine. "You don't eat owls...?"

Dark stared at Delphine, for a moment, as if pondering. And he was. It was only just now occurring to him, and in a slow trickle of thought, that he had no idea what to do if she said "yes." After a moment, he interrupted his own train of thought with a spurt of panic, suddenly squeaking--"Please don't eat me."

________________

Of her many encounters in Origin, she definitely deemed this one the most peculiar of them. It was not necessarily bad as opposed to strange for she herself had never thought it necessary to describe a horse. The only other blind Gembound she'd met certainly had not inquired to her appearance or species for the matter. A small hum passed between them and her gaze wandered but before she could elaborate on her thoughts, the owl was once more embarking on a tangent of his own. If her brow could arch any higher than it already had, it would.

She did not mean to laugh, certainly not at the expense of Dark but nonetheless it came through as a chime-like chortle and she leaned forward to gently nudge the owl. Once, twice. "I don't eat owls." She paused and rubbed her nose against him to give him perspective of what her face looked or felt or seemed. "Horses don't eat owls, at least that's what I've seen of my own kind. We prefer grass and the likes." Her lips pulled back and she nipped fondly at the ends of the owl's feathers, careful not to bite too hard but enough to let him feel the dull edges of her incisors. "See? Harmless. What do you eat? You don't seem like you have any teeth."

( @dark )

The owl froze as Delphine's flat-edged teeth nibbled him. For a moment he seemed terrified, yet the moment she pulled away and spoke, he seemed to immediately forget--or perhaps merely dismiss--the fear.

When she asked her own question, he again tilted his head rather awkwardly far. He seemed to have to think.

"...I don't know," he admitted, as if his previous conversation hadn't been strange enough. "I've never eaten grass? But I hear things that squeak and run and I jump on them and squeeze. Then they stop squeaking, and I eat them." He explained this cheerfully and matter-of-factly, as if he somehow weren't aware of the fact that mice and rats were living things, that their squeaks were pain and fear, and that he was killing them.

"Like this!"

The owl spoke again abruptly, then turned and started stalking--a bit over-dramatically--through the grass. He imitated hunting, as best he could: listening, prowling, far more like a cat than a bird. Then he froze, and suddenly, abruptly, pounced.

The owl leapt into the grass, both feet springing him into the air and then slamming down talons-first in a surprisingly quick blur of speed. He then looked around and at Delphine, almost as if proud of himself, though naturally this had been a dry run--no mice involved.

________________