ORIGIN

Macawi was in Orion once again. This place with a hundred glowing stars stuck in the ceiling. They seemed to rain down the sides of the walls, too, white and glistening. She would have loved to lay on her back and count the ‘stars’ for hours, but she was here on a mission! She needed to start her fortune telling, which means she needed something to hold all of her trinkets in. The beaded-and-feathered ropes in her headdress swung next to her eyes as she trotted further into Orion. This trip could take a while depending on how long it took to find a proper holding-thing.

Macawi bobbed and weave between crumbling ruins, and into some of them – at least the ones she thought wouldn’t come crashing down onto her head. Most of the rooms no longer had ceilings, though, which was good. Macawi had been born here, she remembered. And she had met her Big Pig friend here. She hadn’t seen him in a month now, and she wondered where he had gone after she’d left him hanging like that. To be fair, he hadn’t seemed to want to play all that much, so she didn’t feel bad about leaving…

Hmm. There was nothing here. Best check elsewhere… The coyote turned around and looked left and right, wondering which way to go now. On a whim she went left and padded silently between the buildings, wondering what in the Caves had ever lived here before. Maybe… nothing had lived here? Maybe these buildings were like trees! And they grew! Hahaha! Macawi let out a heartfelt laugh. How silly! These buildings didn’t feel alive, but there was definitely some… essence left behind, like there had once been a great many creatures here… She wondered where they had all gone. But enough about that! She was here to find a holding-thing!

"Speech"

The little coyote would have been content to wander around searching for a bag forever. She tended to just get lost in places, exploring inside and out, and suddenly realize she hadn’t seen another Gembound in a week. It was a strange thing, to be alone for so long. But being how she was meant she didn’t mind being by herself. She sang to keep herself busy, looked around for hidden treasures in each area she came across. She was a gypsy after all. Gypsies never stayed in one place, with the same person, for too long. However, it seemed Fate had other ideas about how long she’d be searching for a bag.

She wandered into yet another dilapidated building and suddenly there it was. It was old, and there were a few small holes in the sides of the leather bag. There were years of dust and dirt caked onto the already-brown surface, so that it almost looked black. She’d need to clean it up a bit, but it was definitely the right size. She stuck a paw under the shoulder-strap and then sort of shimmied it onto her body until it was fit snugly against her side. A spider angrily crawled out of its now-disturbed home and skittered down Macawi’s fur and onto the floor, running away to the nearest dark corner. “Sorry, friend,” Macawi said, and laughed. “You will just have to find a new home.”

The coyote looked around, wondering what to do now. Well… now she needed to fill her bag with lots of trinkets. She turned her head this way and that, looking for little shiny things on the ground, or things that looked interesting, and the tassels of her headdress moved cheerfully. Hmm… That was an idea. Maybe she should Bauble her headdress!

"Speech"

Macawi bent her head over the ground and placed her front paws on the tassels of her headdress, pulling it off. She spread it out a bit with her nose, and then lifted up to look at it, studying each bead and feather, and trying to decide which one to Bauble first. There was a long black feather that hung down farther than the rest, and it stole her interest. She placed a paw on it gently, so as not to ruin it, and focused on her Magic. She waited for a full minute, but nothing happened, so she let out a breath and pulled her paw away.

Sometimes her Magic failed her, and that was okay. Macawi wasn’t exactly patient, (she was too hyper for that), but her general excitement meant that she never really felt disappointed by anything. If something didn’t work, then that just meant it wasn’t supposed to work right then. There was no point in forcing it. Though now she wondered what to do… Perhaps just that one feather didn’t want to be Baubled. Perhaps some other part of her headdress needed be Lit first. In her mind, all things were alive in some way, and if that feather wasn’t being Lit, then maybe it was because it didn’t want to be. This type of thinking was partly the reason so many thought she was insane. But that was totally okay with her!

"Speech"

The little coyote moved on to another part of her headdress, figuring that just because one of the feathers didn’t want to be Baubled, surely there was something on here that wanted her Light. She placed her paw against a section of beads, hoping that some of her Magic would seep into one of them. But once again, her Magic decided to fail her completely. She let out a sigh and decided that maybe her headdress just didn’t want to be Baubled today. She would try again later. But then… what now? She’d found her bag… As she stuffed her headdress back on her head by awkwardly holding it against the ground and then twisting her head into it, she thought about what to do next.

Well, she supposed she had to go find things to fill up the bag now! She shook her head a bit to get the tassels of her headdress to lie normally, and then went off to see what there was to see! Maybe she’d find some little lost treasure in one of these dilapidated buildings. Or maybe… Orion was haunted! And she’d talk to a ghost! One never knew what one would find in this Cave System…

[Exit Macawi]

"Speech"