ORIGIN

Her treasure hunt, so far, had been less than sucessful. She loved her friends and she valued her friendships, but of all friendships she valued the best one she'd be the best ever at was her relationship with Caravaggio.

It was no secret that the cow was going to get her some sort of gift - he didn't seem the subtle type. Or, at least, he was bad at keeping secrets. White made a mental note not to tell him any actual important secrets. Regardless, she had to be prepared for the gift, and present him with a gift too! This was clearly how friendship worked.

She had decided Orion wasn't going to work out. Perhaps another day, she'd go there with Caravaggio. On a date- wait, no. That's how you catch cooties. The crow-dog's muzzle crinkled as she hobbled through tunnel J carefully. She vowed to never be infected with cooties.

The hybrid was thinking particularly hard about cooties and other diseases that the dreaded boys contained, when she didn't even notice the pile of junk at her paws - to which she promptly tripped over.

With a squawking bark, the creature fell forth and landed on her face, turning to stare blankly at the pile of garbage. She thought, for a moment, before the idea clicked, and she hobbled forth to sniff the pile.

Her eyes flicked up, staring at an empty space in the air for a moment. "Oh," she muttered to herself abruptly before she began to dig through the pile of relics.

Nothing particularly interesting came up for her. She had, however, found a piece of scrap metal that seemed particularly shiny. She pressed her little pink nose against it, sniffing it briefly.

And then she nodded. Here would be a good place to find gifts for people, and this shiny thing seemed perfect for Oliver, though not so much her strong cow-friend. She picked up the piece of metal in her mouth and hobbled to an empty area to place it down, tilting her head at it.

It wasn't shiny enough, she decided as she reached out to touch it.

A fluttering feeling of joy washed over White as the piece of metal began to light up and shimmer yellow-white. She sat down, admiring her work for a moment with her ears pricked and a smile crossing her muzzle.

"Oliver will love it," she called into the empty space, looking down the tunnel at whoever she was speaking to. "I can give it to him and he'll love it and we'll be the best siblings ever."

She nodded, continuing to stare at the piece of metal.

Perhaps she felt like whatever- or who ever -she was talking to had responded as White got back up and headed towards the pile again, neck extending out to sniff around the pile.

She cast a quick glance back towards the glimmering piece of metal before she hobbled onto the pile, dusty paws shoving pieces of dull and dirty metal and what looked like metallic torsos, dented and scratched until rendered useless.

She licked her jowls. The perfect gift had to be somewhere in this tunnel.

White spent a while rummaging through the pile until she found a rock. Not so much a gift, but something for herself now. It was smooth and clean, almost precious. At least, it would be if it weren't a rock.

The hybrid picked up the rock and trotted towards Oliver's present, placing it down next to his scrap of metal. She nodded, at length, and turned again. The pile she had been going through didn't really have much else in it, so she decided to go ahead and try a different pile instead, in hope for better results.

She quickly found something. She leaned down and yanked it out, yelping at the weight and allowing it to drop on the ground next to her. White stared at it for a moment, bewildered.

The thing she had unearthed had desperate claw marks covering it, but what it was was still pretty visible. A stone slab, with something carved into it - patterns she didn't really recognize and a figure - some strange, bloated, mutated figure - with little sparkles in their over-sized, swollen eyes.

White blinked quizzically. What was this garbage?

Needless to say, White had spent the next half-hour staring, bewildered at the slab. She had looked at the patterns, skimming them front-to-back and then back-to-front, but she had no idea what they meant- if they meant anything at all.

Eventually, she turned her head away from the slab and began sniffing around the pile again. Perhaps the slab was a relic of good luck? With a paw half-raised and ears flickering, White craned her head back to stare at the slab.

If it were a good luck charm, she think she'd rather leave it here.

Soon after digging, she found something else interesting. She noticed her paw had somehow managed to dodge the horribly sharp object and she supposed that was for the best. Her father would yell at her if she got hurt by accident and when it was entirely her fault.

Carefully, she yanked it out and dropped it on the ground next to the stone slab, carefully inspecting it. It was worn, tusk-shaped and rusted over. She tilted her head slowly, licking her pink nose before she nodded to herself. "A thing for Fisher," she declared to the air.

She picked up the knife and carried it towards her own growing pile of gifts, placing it down next to Oliver's shiny. She nodded, admiring her perfect little gifts - perhaps forgetting for a moment she was here to find the one true gift for The Bae.

A tiny contented sigh left the crow-dog's maw as she turned back to the pile with the 'lucky charm' still lying next to it. As she passed the stone slab she stared at the images in front of it. Through the claw marks she could make out the bloated figure holding some sort of relic.

And then the fabrics covering it's body... faded? Ripped off? She was unsure what the hell it was, but she sure was intrigued. The carvings in the lower part of the slab showed the mutated thing facing against another mutated thing. She was confused. She decided to leave it alone.

She hobbled to the pile and began to dig through the garbage once more.