ORIGIN

      Baroque. It was a word that had two definitions, one generalized towards the Baroque era of music (which, by the way, was an excellent period of music, kudos to the composers of that time!) and the other applied to gems such as the one he was bound to. Applied to gems, a Baroque was a defective pearl, misshapen and worthless. The hybrid would think above both definitions. He liked to believe that his name meant different, in the sense that he was different from the rest of his siblings. They took after both their sire and dam, happy and cheerful (with a little grain of salt tossed in by Leon, the saltiest bear alive), but Baroque was one who stepped outside of that zone. Here he was, a quiet and observant fellow (well, not yet), and one who preferred to suffer in silence rather than to allow someone to aid him. The amalgam was independent from the start, as his parents would soon find out.

      This was the story of a little escapade the creature went on:

      The cub always was a curious one, and it had been only days since he emerged that he decided he'd plot an escape from the obnoxiously loud crash of the waterfall and his mother's incessant licking and grooming. Sonata and Cadence seemed to enjoy it, but boy did Baroque hate it. He liked it just the way it was! With that memory in his mind, he reached up with one clawed foot and mussed his own mane to a frizzy mess once more, cyan eyes glinting in the half-light. Perfect.

Baroque had waited until Mother was busy grooming his sisters and Father was out doing whatever it was that he did, and scampered away as fast as he could (barring the fact that he was quite clumsy on his massive paws) and found himself within a cave. The roar of the falls was very distant now, and it had been replaced by the chiming of water dripping from stalactite to stalagmite. There was sheets of white stuff that the cub quickly found out was freezing cool. In fact, the whole tunnel was cold and wet. But that compelled him to go deeper into the tunnel. No Mother or Father to stop him now, he'd run deeper and deeper into the cavern... and there was another light... this time, blue. "How did I get home?" he lamented, throwing his head back and mewing plaintively for a moment before he stared deep into the cavernous opening. That didn't look like home. It looked like a whole new cave!

Excitement and new energy surging through the already exhausted cub, he trotted gleefully into the room. It looked like there were a million stars in the blue stone. It was magnificent! Long obsidian claws clicking on the stone, he clambered onto a rock outcrop and gazed out beyond the ledge he stood on. So big! It had to be his! He didn't see anyone patrolling like they did in Pisces, so that meant that there was nobody living here. Best to assert his dominion over the cave, he reared back, forepaws lifting from the ground. Stamping them back on the ground, he gave his best roar. "RRRRRRRRAOW!" Not intimidating at all.

Cyan eyes gazing out at the blue room, he smirked with glee. A low clicking noise came, and he turned around to see a great shadow looming over him, a large rack of antlers glistening in the light of many lightbulbs. "Quite a mighty roar for such a filthy carnivore."