ORIGIN - Coming Out Into The Dark

In a crease of a rock, a rough block of red jasper sits. At first there is a sweet cracking sound as the deep red chrysalis starts to break open. A tiny mew is radiated from the centre of the crystal and brick red fluff pokes through the splits. It shudders. Two oversized paws lunge out of the chrysalis, causing the rest to shatter. Out tumbled a small rusty ball.

Ruine was free.

Her fur was spiky and brightly red, it rustled violently in the breeze. Well, she wouldn't call it a breeze, it was more like a constant gust. As she stretched out a bit, her awkward body was clear to see. Ruine was an intermediate between a newborn and a cub, her large black ears were folded backwards and her eyes were barely open. She could still see however, albeit she didn't quite understand what she was seeing. Cream rocks climbed upwards steeply meeting a platform above. The stone curled downwards and met her small body, she seemed to be inside a small alcove in the side of the gorge.

Ruine stood up, sniffing the stale air and tried out her inexperienced legs, they felt longer than they needed to be. Due to the fierce gales, she wobbled around and tried to protect her face from the whipping wind. She flexed out her small paws and extended her tapered claws until they started to grip into the uneven ground to stand steadily. As she did this, something under the dust of the floor moved. It was long but thin, about the size of her arm, an off-grey colour and stank life death. She recoiled backwards into the harsh rocky wall in confusion. Looking at it from a distance, she knew what is was. A bone.

Confused, Ruine peered with apprehension at her surroundings. It was gloomy. She was in a trench, that continued into the darkness. There was splittings and side paths all around her. It was like a labyrinth. The dust was being whisked up into the air, slapping the rocks with threatening lashing sounds. She felt strangely at ease. And interested.

Her little legs didn't give her much time to think, she was off. Leaving the lonely bone and her chrysalis fragments behind. Her whiskers probed the way, and her feet felt cushioned by the sand and the bone lumps. She loped with her back to the wind, but she continued to feel the flogging of airborne rocks, pebbles and sand. She winced at each gust. It hurt. A lot. Pushing through, Ruine continued to burrow furiously her way further into through the gorge.

Left. Right. Into that gap. Through the hole. Left. Up into that niche. That recess looks alluring...

Magdalena seemed to have a penchant for hunting down the freshly emerged; perhaps it was her acutely powerful canine nose, or the equally powerful magic she used to detect the cultures of living things in her home, or maybe it was even her natural draw towards the young and impressionable. Whatever it may have been, whe was suddenly aware of the presence of another Gembound in the area and it wasn't a member of the Merrymen. Her ears twisted forward, as much as they could go after naturally flopping against her head, and followed the pull of the stranger.

The beckoning led her closer to the twister. Her Fire had been pleased to see the return of the twister, and even Magdalena had felt some peace in her heart knowing that her home's hallmark trait was restored. But feeling the stranger so close to it offered her misgivings towards it safety. No, no it wasn't safe at all. But by the time she approached the twister, she had lost the babe's trail. "Hello?" She called out, her voice no more than a fragile lilt against the roar of the twister. "Come out, it isn't safe here." Magdalena sniffed and swiveled her head to and fro, searching with all but her eyes.

@Ruine

Ruine was now steaming towards the center of the room. She couldn't run that fast, and kept stumbling over little rocks that had buried themselves into the ground. The strong winds that were bashing against her flank didn't help either. But she was so excited. At some points she swear she heard another being behind her, but the overwhelming sound of the wind blocked them out for the most part. She was far too focussed on seeing the middle of this maze.

The roaring sound was only getting louder and louder. She skidding around a corner of the path to see a clearing that sloped upwards. In the nucleus of the clearing, there it loomed. A twister that stretched to the roof of the room and danced like a rabid rabbit across the floor. It was grabbing stones and sand into itself viciously. Ruine was in complete awe, she stopped dead in her tracks and watched it. Gritting her teeth, she dug into the ground like those little rocks to stop herself from falling over. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to go up to it; it seemed very angry. But it looked so interesting.

A soft voice floated above the bellowing of the twister. "Lo?" Ruine was confused. "Com... Is... Her." She frowned in annoyance. What was that?! Was it the twister talking to her? The caracal glanced around, she couldn't spot anyone. It had to be the twister. Against the batterings of the sand and the blasts of air. She started to take a tender step further towards the twister. The sideways force against her weak body was so strong, but she was so determined.

@Magdalena

Magdalena was hopeless without the pull of her magic - she could never hope to bypass the roaring of the twister to find anybody lost in the winds, and yet she knew the babe was there, somewhere. Magdalena was still a safe distance from it, but the winds were still strong enough to pull at her curly, soft fur, beckoning her further towards the twister, attempting to drag her in. She didn't want to know what would happen if she dove into the winds and possibly lost her footing - the fragile dog couldn't survive being picked up and tossed around.

Yet... She had to help. Whoever this was may tread too close, and they may lose a life too soon. Magdalena inched closer, trying to sniff at the air but their scent was swept away in the breeze, and she couldn't isolate their bacterial pull. "Please, come back." She spoke out again, swiveling her head to and fro. Curse these blind eyes - if she could see, then she'd know where to go. Frustrated with her inability (and too determined to call for help), Magdalena only continued to edge closer to the spinning twister. "Are you there? It's not safe! Follow the sound of my voice!" She called out, but even now she feared she might be too late. The dog hesitated and anchored herself to the rock.

@Ruine

Ruine was knocked over to the side, like a ragdoll being tossed from a child's hands. She grunted with pain as her back slammed into the ground. The rush of the twister ripping through the air was gentler here, she must have been thrown to the other side of the clearing by its force. The young caracal slowly opened her eyes, and rolled over, wincing, she could see a faint white figure over in the corner, grabbing to a rock. A voice radiated from the blurry ghost-like thing, ah! It wasn't the twister that had been speaking.

It made more sense to Ruine now, and she wearily got up onto her feet. A gust nearly made her fall again, but she was curious to who the figure was. She carefully padded as far away from the angry twister as possible, and stayed to the edges of the clearing. Occasionally shaking and cleaning out her face from the dust devils that sprung around her.

As she got closer to the animal, she could see her clearer, it was a thin canine. Wipsy-looking, and if she had to guess what a ghost would look like, she would have said like this gembound. Ruine felt very wary of approaching this creature, and decided to hide in a crevice of a rock to observe it further.

@Magdalena

*laughs* i didnt take forever. what are you talking about

She couldn't know that the babe had been swept off her feet and taken hostage by the twister that raged above; she didn't, until she heard the sound of a body slipping against the rock and air leaving her lungs. Her ears twisted and pushed forward, listening, probing for the sound - desperate. Magdalena's brows furrowed slightly and she pointed her nose upward in an attempt to find the smell again, but it was useless against the constant whirling of the tornado. She was effectively useless in saving the small child, so all she could do was hope that she had somehow made it out alive. "Are you alright?" Magdalena called out, turning her head slightly, but her unseeing eyes could do little in the way of locate her. The twister felt like it was growing stronger, seeking to pull her in. She huffed and stepped away.

If she received no response, then she would have to decide that the babe had been devoured by the tornado and likely didn't survive. If that was the case, then Magdalena would have to go out and find somebody with working eyes to track down the body of the child. It was a sad fate, an avoidable one even, but one forged in accident none the less. "Please tell me you're alright. I'm only worried." She called out again, but even her hope was beginning to fade away.

@Ruine

Haha don't worry about it c':

As she watched the other gembound, Ruine became more aware of her body. She hurted, the pain seemed to radiate from her back. The young cat turned to lick away her injury with annoyance, but with no success. She sunk to the ground and messily nuzzled the dirt around into small patterns. Her flank was getting hotter and hotter as her body dealt with the shock of the fall. The safety of her alcove was comforting, and she could see the majority of the clearing.

The dog started to make sounds again, curious, she listened with focus. She wasn't sure if this animal was safe to approach. The dog walked away from the danger of the whirlwind a bit.
Once concentrated, Ruine's sensitive ears managed to pick up some of what the animal said, "Please tell me you're alright. I'm only worried." The caracal was slightly shocked, the dog had been talking to her the whole time! She shifted her weight backwards to get up, but the pain scampered across her torso. Maybe the canine would come over to help her? She said she was worried.

Ruine attempted to speak, no words came, but a mixture of a grunt and mew escaped her small lips. "Hy!" She tried to grab the seemly friendly soul's attention as she scrambled on the floor, trying to heave her little body up onto her feet.

@Magdalena

She paused. The silence wore on, and she was so tempted to turn and leave, to seek out another member of the Merrymen so that they could locate the carcass and extract it from the twister before it began to smell. Or worse, it was grabbed by the tornado and eternally suspended, and they would have to suffer through the entire room reeking of decay out of their reach. It would be especially bad for Magdalena's sensitive nose... her eyes narrowed slightly, and she was about to angle her body away when the voice suddenly touched the quiet. Her folded ears twitched and shoved forward, her head snapping back in the direction of the noise. It was alive.

Her tail gave a few short wags, relieved that she wouldn't have to be dealing with a carcass, relieved that she wasn't too late. Her legs churned beneath her and drove her forward, cautiously feeling the wind tug at her curly fur. More sounds followed, the sound of scrabbling feet on the ground. Her brow furrowed slightly. The more she followed, the more she felt the wind rebuffed against the walls - she was nearing the ledges, wasn't she? "I'm coming." She spoke out, swaying her head back and forth as she sought out the voice. "Please speak again." She reached out, hoping to find the creature, but her magic faltered again. The twister was too much of a distraction.

@Ruine