ORIGIN - Wandering Ashes

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( Trying out a self-thread )

He had wandered away from Leon and Grimm, feeling confident enough to explore on his own, but now that he was alone....he hesitated. There was so much space, it was still so cold, and wet, and he felt so lost, even though he knew the way back. He knew how to get back to familiar surroundings, back to his family, but the path ahead diverged into the unknown, and that both made him afraid and excited all at the same time.

This new area was...very blue, like a very specific theme to the tunnel. The water, the dampness to the air, the cold breeze, the very distinct smell of earthiness coming from multiple far away directions, all of it somehow fit together. He knew Pisces behind him had a lot of water, so it had to go somewhere, right?

He pursed his lips and walked slowly, looking all around him. Maybe one of the other rooms wouldn't be so cold.

His gem in his chest flared a little as he reached for that quiet balance he achieved before, when he was playing with his brother Grimm. Not too hot, not painful and sparking, and not too lukewarm, but just right. His whole body warmed up a few degrees, and small embers floated off of him, following him like little fireflies. That was much better!

"Speech"

As he continued walking, he heard a small sound, a pitter-patter unlike the constant drip-drip of the walls and small rivers running down them. He turned, his head snapping to focus on the sound. He didn't know why, but he needed to find it.

There. He locked eyes with a teeny-tiny thing with tall ears and whiskers - what was it? A-A rabbit? The rabbit froze, staring at him with incredibly wide eyes.

"Hey-" He started to say, but then it bolted off! Wha- how rude! Not even a hello? He ran after it, saying, "Hey, wait! I just want to talk!"

The rabbit hid behind white, salty-smelling stones and small pillars, running even faster when he spoke!
My name is Fir-" He slipped on a water puddle, his front legs giving out from under him, but he got up just as quickly and resumed the chase, falling a little behind. The rabbit was running in no apparent direction, simply trying to escape from him, and he could barely keep up. "My name is Firenze!" He shouted at it, growing impatient. "I just wan-wanna talk!" But the rabbit never spared him a glance, and kept choosing little hidey-holes to squeeze through, and kept dashing out from under them. "S-slow down!"

Was this thing stupid? Why not speak up and just stop him? Why not pick a really good hole, one he couldn't reach, and just stay there? His breath was coming raggedly now, and he was getting tired and annoyed.

"Speech"

There- the rabbit was within sights, and his hackles were raised as he ran. This was getting silly, he would just catch the rabbit and- and talk some sense into it. He just had the need to catch it, to pin it down, to- to- finish introductions at the very least! He shook his head briefly, his steps faltering. Right. Talk sense. That's all!

As he kept up the chase, he made the rabbit trap itself into a little nook of the tunnel, one with no easy to reach shelves (it had done that not ten minutes before in this silly chase, just hopped up and up and jumped right over him to run even more) and it turned at him, its eyes wide, its breath coming in rapid shallow pants. He had it cornered and walked to it slowly, so that it wouldn't bolt under his legs (it had done that too, earlier), and said, "Just calm down, I just want to talk."

But still it wouldn't say anything, and it looked right past him, edging to move past him, showing its intentions so obviously. Was-was it not able to talk? Was it stupid? He frowned. Maybe not all gems could talk.

It mad another mad dash, and without thinking, he darted to catch it, grabbing its neck between his teeth, and it gave a mindless scream in his mouth. Immediately, he dropped the rabbit, but by then it had gone limp.

He licked his teeth, tasting the blood. His stomach rumbled. He lowered his head and started tearing flesh from bone, reveling in the warm gush of blood that just tasted so good, and ate as much as his stomach could contain.

It wasn't until he was done and he had backed away, red all over his mouth and chest, covering his glittering gem in his chest, that he thought about what he'd just done. He killed someone- without even knowing who they were, or what their name was.

Panicking, he ran back into the main part of the tunnel, searching for another small gem to ask questions - maybe they could tell him? A rabbit, another rabbit- he needed to speak to one! He wasn't a murderer!

"Speech"

He ran all over the tunnel, shivering, the warm blood over him cooling in the damp, cold, humid air, and giving a rather nasty smell, but still he couldn't find a fellow rabbit. Where was one? He needed to ask!

He glimpsed white fur, just a glimpse, through some stones collected close together, and scrambled towards it. "Hey! Hey! Come here!"

Once the new rabbit, this one seeming smaller than the one he had just eaten, saw him, with the drying blood all over his front, it dashed away as fast as it could go. "No! Wait!" He cried, running as fast as he could after it, but it was much faster and much more desperate, making crazy zigzags and scrambling up walls just to get away from him. It made incomprehensible sounds, to him, and made incredibly stupid decisions in running away, it seemed to him, and finally darted down a deep burrow out of sight.

He shoved his long nose into the burrow and shouted, "Hey!! Just talk to me! I don't want to hurt you!"

He could hear its shallow breathing deep into the burrow, and thought that it didn't connect to anything at the end- how foolish! If he was really determined he could've just dug the rabbit out of the hole!

He back out of the rabbit's burrow, snorting with disdain, shaking off the dirt attached to the now sticky blood on his mouth. That...well, that told him what he needed to know, he supposed. There were gems that just didn't talk or think like they did.

He sighed, looking back at the tunnel, noticing all of the claw marks and dust settling and splashed water all over the place just from chasing these silly rabbits.

"Speech"

He walked over to a particularly large, clear puddle of water, and dipped his mouth and paws into it, immediately making the puddle turn a deep opaque red. He then used his now clean paws to get the stuff off of his chest, grimacing. It didn't smell or taste so good once the blood was old.

Firenze shook any remaining water off of him, and then gave a good shiver. In the chase, he had stopped using his magic, and now that the rush wore off, he was cold again. He wanted use his magic to warm up again, but...he hesitated. He felt like it would burn him again.

Well, at least there were puddles to douse himself into if it went wrong again! He chuckled to himself and tried to make himself warm. He shook, and with it, instead of water, came floating embers. It kind of stung a little, since he had used the same spell not too long ago, but he did his best to ignore it. He was being careful and not using too much, so he would be fine! Heat radiated off of him, and he relaxed. He was clean, he was full, he was warm. All was good.

Now he looked around the tunnel. It was so quiet! What should he do now?

"Speech"

He bit back a yawn, and got up to explore the tunnel. He didn't exactly want to leave it just yet, feeling....well, not afraid per se, not at all, but feeling.....cautious. There. He didn't want to just rush into things, now did he?

He sniffed behind rocks, seeing little scurrying mice here and there, and deemed them the same kind of un-smart gems like the rabbits. Maybe the smaller they were, the dummer they were? Who knows.

Firenze smiled. Leon would know. Grimm, he had no idea, since Grimm seemed about the same age as him, but Leon would definitely know.

He yawned, his mouth spreading wide. His eyes were growing heavy. He looked around. The silence, the warmth, the full belly, and the soft, clean feel of his fur was beckoning him to sleep. Maybe he could put together a little bed to sleep in, since it was so quiet. He doubted anyone would interrupt a nice nap.

He walked around, growing more and more tired as time passed, and searched for things to make a soft bed. He tired tearing up moss, but all he got was a mouthful of dirt and broken greens which tasted just awful. He tried gather leaves, but carrying them in his mouth only produced a teeny little pile. With a frustrated sigh, he tried digging into the moist dirt, and dashed the dirt away when all it did was bubble up with water. Water! Ugh! He wanted to get away from the water and the cold!

With a sigh, he did his best to calm down. His anger was making his magic flare up, and his skin was starting to tingle and burn. He shook himself, embers coming off like dander, and simply chose a nice clean(ish) rock to lay against, and curled up as tightly as he could. With his nose buried in the folds his legs made, and his tail tight against his back, he fell into a deep sleep.

"Speech"

In his dreams, images floated on by, scenarios played out, vague, unimportant, ghosts that touched him but passed through and onwards. He felt like he was searching for something, as one dream started and ended, he knew each one wasn't what he wanted. It was just a far away, see-through desire, one that felt near him like a breath on his neck.

What was it? Outside of his sleep, his legs twitched, he huffed, he was running, searching, making low, broken sounds. What was he looking for?

The dream flowed again, flawlessly, as if this was always what he was seeing. He was leaping, running, playing with someone, someone who meant a lot to him. He was laughing, reeds and rushes touching his feet, his fur, his cheeks, as he passed by, weaving through and with his companion. They were obscured by the tall grasses, but he caught flashes of white. Their laughter was higher pitched than his, light and bubbly, and sounded different than everyone he'd met so far. He knew he was a he, and he knew there was...a she? So this was a she?

He tried to catch her, but she kept slipping away and away from him. He tried to grab her, but she slipped away like liquid, like cold water, cold to the bone, leeching away all of his warmth. All he got for his efforts was a glimpse of pure purple before he awoke to shivering. A harsh cold breeze was coming towards him, and he blinked blearily, looking towards the way he had come, the way the wind came from. How on earth did Pisces get so cold so quickly? He yawned, lazily getting up and tucking himself away from the wind in between some pillars and stones. The embers that lulled him to sleep were dead now.

"Speech"

Firenze settled down again, but the breeze rustled the top of his fur, and he was cold again. He didn't want to leave yet, he needed to fall asleep to catch her again. His eyes were still heavy from being so abruptly awakened, and his limbs were still lazy, but she eluded him, his focus too much to let it go and fall asleep.

He moved around multiple times, feeling half sleepy and half restless, settling and unsettling, till exhaustion took him away. How many hours passed, he had no idea. Time didn't seem to pass in this tunnel, with these restless dreams.

He flipped through the images with a half kind of determination constantly dogged by distractions, trying to find her, losing her, seeing the fleeting image of white, only to encounter something else.

He found himself in field again, the field of tall grasses, only because he forced it, and time seemed paused because of it. He was so focused on this aisling, this vision, that he didn't want it to fade away - but he couldn't let it progress, either. So he ran through the still grass, the wind no longer running through, and he tried to find her.

But he tried too hard, and focused too much. The dream faded away to a pale grey, surrounding him, suffocating him, with pure violet down at his feet. He dove into it, diving deep, swimming in it, drowning in it, till he woke up again with a gasp.

His breath was ragged, and he leaned back, noticing that it had gotten even colder while he was asleep. He peered out from behind the stones he slept between, and saw white flecks coming from Pisces. He grimaced. He wouldn't be going back there yet. No cold for him.

"Speech"

Who was she? He huddled to himself for warmth, staring at the endless white in Pisces far down the tunnel, falling towards him, like beckoning hands. The laugh, the violet, the white, the longing. It haunted him, the ghost in his dream. She taunted him, pulling at his heartstrings, and he felt longing towards- towards nothing. She was nothing, a dream, less than real. She was in his head, and nowhere else, and to think of it that way made his heart hurt. His magic flared, the pain in his heart clenched and gripped him like she was the one with her claws in his heart.

"Leave me alone!" He barked, his eyes scrunched tight, the gem on his chest flaring up. His paws and his legs flared with heat, and his skin burned, it burned, it hurt, the moss and the damp around him sizzling and bubbling and turning to ash. "Leave me alone! You're not real!" But he could hear her laughter, taunting him.

He got up. He would find her if it was the last thing he did. He gritted his teeth, sizzling, ignoring the pain. Every step he took, ash in the form of his paw print left clear marks in the damp earth.

"Speech"

He wandered down the tunnel, biting his tongue, pain in his feet as he made each step. Was this pain self-inflicted? He knew he brought up his magic, but he felt like his heart was the true cause. When it hurt, he wanted to lash out. He wanted to hurt. Whether it was someone else, or himself, it didn't really matter. Especially since, at the moment, there was no one here but him.

At the end of the tunnel, there were multiple exits, and the ghost of laughter flew by him, disappearing. She wanted him to go, to follow, to find her, but- but which way?

He didn't want to go the blue way, not at all. It felt cool and calm and angry and hot all at the same time, like a boiling battle, and he wanted to stay clear of it. That left the musty, muddy way, or the green, humid way. Both felt like water. At that, he sighed. Like he really needed more water.

He looked around, and picked up a rock with moss on one side. Moss up, mud, moss down, green. With that thought, he tossed the rock up in the air.

With an incredibly dull and uninspiring journey through the air, it landed with a solid moss down side with a damp thump. So, green it was.

He decided that if he couldn't find her in the green room, he would come back here and just travel to the mud-smelling room. From there, he would continue on and make it a matter of elimination, come what may.

"Speech"

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