ORIGIN

Inside one of the few intact 'buildings' of Orion was a dimly-glowing chrysalis; small and pale green. It was hidden away, unnoticed and untouched by all. The creature inside was no doubt completely unaware of the atrocities that happened in this area; but it would no doubt be for the best.

The creature inside only saw darkness. It wasn't an uncommon thing; many saw blackness when they first opened their eyes. The thing inside the chrysalis however, did not realise that this was in fact, going to be what she saw for the rest of her life.

Regardless, the sense of claustrophobia began to overwhelm her and shortly after opening her eyes, she began to thrash around in the cramped space. Her skinny tail - or at least, she assumed it was a tail - shot up and pounded against the wall of her prison. She felt the stone crumple under it, but she didn't see the light flooding in.

She slowly began to clamber out, hitting her head off the edges, but the long strands coming from her nose shifted and touched the walls; of the ruined building and of her chrysalis. She paused, briefly, perhaps in understanding, before she abruptly stopped moving, standing and staring with blank eyes into nothing.

Darkness. Nothing but the stuff, everywhere, and the creature inside its tiny egg gave a frustrated yelp, raising a fist to strike at the walls of its chrysalis. The gemstone cracked - and dirt poured in, soaked up by the yolk, the baby scrambling to get away from the earth.

As her luck would have it, her gem had been buried under stone and dirt, a good foot below the other beast. All sound was muffled, had been since the stone began to grow, and the little Gembound snuffled to herself, struck out again - opened another hole for dirt and rubble to pour through. She would need to escape, and quickly at that.

Thankfully, the cracks met and began to widen into a sort of hatch, and she squeaked as gemstone joined the mix of yolk, mud and rock. Scrambling, the babe dug upwards, closing her eyes as she shoveled through Orion's landscape, finally breaking through the top layer with a triumphant bleat, wiggling her way to the surface. She shook herself like a dog, raised shaky paws to rub the earth from her eyes, and yipped again, climbing up onto the nearest half-crumbled structure and glaring down at the ground, sure it would try to swallow her up again.

A noise split through the air, and the colugo flinched, permanently wide eyes turning to stare in its direction. Whatever was out there could wait until she wasn't frozen at her perch, in her mind.

She flinched. Her head shifted and she concentrated somewhat. There was a scratching somewhere near by, but she didn't dare move from where she stood. She stopped and she listened, briefly hearing the sound of dirt being shoved out the way, and then silence.

She felt her head lower, eyelids blinking over the gemstone eyes. Her neck fully went down, until her whiskers touched the ground. She paused again, perhaps waiting. She suddenly felt a soft heartbeat in front of her, erratic but somehow comforting.

She stepped out towards it, feelers extended, as she carefully attempted to touch Eko's nose, before she got closer and touched noses with the little creature. ".. Hello," she said quietly.

There was a... thing. A really big thing, sitting in front of a broken egg, and the colugo froze in her beginning exploration, almost fleeing back to her first perch. But it didn't seem to even see her, stepping forward blindly, long wiggly things sprouting from its face moving to... well. Wiggle around.

It was, without a doubt, the strangest thing the colugo would ever see. Markings littered its black body, seeming to glow in the dark of Orion, eyes unmoving. In fact, they looked shiny and faceted, matching the beast's chrysalis. The babe was, despite herself, intrigued - and maybe wanted a better look at those shiny false eyes.

What she didn't expect was for it to keep moving, close enough to touch their noses together. She let out a startled squeak, felt a rush go through her from her eyes to her toes, soft brown coat turning a deep blackish chocolate, almost blending into the rock she gripped. "U-uh. Hi? You're like, real close there," the colugo commented, eyes even wider than usual.

The baby dragon didn't seem to notice the colugo change colour; but she could definitely hear fine. She lifted her neck back up, snout still angled at the sound of Eko's beating heart. a singular "Oh," leaving her throat.

She turned, and then she carefully shifted around the colugo; until her long, thin body coiled around Eko, snout still pointing towards her chest. She paused and tilted her head. "Who are you?" she asked, a forked, illuminated tongue lolling out briefly.

Thankfully, the dragon backed off just a little, snout still angled towards her... well, her back, really, but then again, she was beginning to suspect that the black beast couldn't actually see. Regardless, the colugo took the time to scamper down from her stone perch, grimacing at the feel of dirt beneath her strange, awkward paws. She wasn't exactly meant for the ground, but if she could just get to another building - the thought was cut short by the glowing hatchling coiling around her, nose finding its way to point directly at her chest. In an instant, the glider's fur rippled, changing to a dark, shadowy black, lacking the reptile's glowing markings.

A tongue rolled out, millimeters from slapping onto her face, and the colugo flinched, almost forgetting to respond to the query. "Uh. Um. Oh! I'm Eko. And you're... very close. And glowing. Besides that, who are you?" Her tone was flat, but curious, one tiny paw reaching up to bat at one of the creature's feelers. "Why do you have noodles hangin' off your face?" She wiggled, and her other paw popped free, both moving to pap at the dragon's nose. "Do you have shinies for eyes? That's weird. But kinda neat."

She didn't seem to care that she'd just insulted something that could eat her in one bite - but then again, Eko didn't seem to care much about anything. Besides being disgusted by the ground, of course.

"I'm Lichen," she said carefully, a feeler jerking slightly, swinging back and forth briefly before it lifted and pet Eko on the top of her head. She wasn't entirely sure what they meant by 'glowing,' or what it even was, but regardless, she seemed to be asking about the whiskers extending off her snout. "I don't know. It helps me see. It's dark here."

Little did the dragon know, she was, in fact, illuminating the small dark room green. She moved her head down until her chin touched the cave floor as she felt the touch on her nose, gemstone eyes staring, unblinking, directly at the colugo. "Shinies? For eyes?" she asked, eyelids closing over the green gemstones briefly. "I don't understand."

Her tail thumped briefly off against the floor. Lichen wondered to herself how this thing could see so well in the dark, or what she kept asking about her. It was almost as if Eko knew more about the dragon than she did herself.

The forked tongue flicked out once more, feelers lifting to continue petting the top of Eko's head.

"Lichen?" Eko blinked, snuffling and saving the name for later. The colugo startled at the feel of the face-noodles petting at her head, but soon relaxed, too curious to be afraid, peering up at them and managing to bat at it a few times, fascinated. "Help ya see? Neato. It's not real dark in here though," she observed, reflective gaze peering about Orion. It was a little dark. Maybe. If you didn't count the glowing ceiling and the green light of the dragon's markings.

Speaking of Lichen, she was moving again, massive head resting on the ground, and Eko managed to wiggle out of her grip enough to perch on her tail, paws on her scaly nose for balance. "Yeah, your eyes, Lich. They're crystal. You know, like what we were stuck in?" The reptile's tongue flicked out again, feelers returning to pat at Eko's head, and the lemur let them be, reaching out a claw to tap at the glowing forked appendage. "Maybe it's dark in here to you because of the shinies in your eyes, yeah? Makes sense to me," she preemptively defended.

"I mean, you're also, like, glowing, so I might be totally wrong here. I've been trapped in a rock for forever, and then the ground tried to eat me, which was not cool." Her long, fluffy tail swished, coming around to bat at the dragon's snout. "You're cool. And big. We should stick together. See if we can find a brighter place for you."

Throughout, though her vernacular dipped into whiny kid territory, her tone remained the same deadpan, vaguely amused timbre. It would probably be mildly concerning to most, but considering Lichen was a dragon, Eko didn't worry about it.

The dragon's head tilted again. ".. No? It's black," she said quietly. She listened to Eko, however, and decided that the idea of crystals replacing her eyes would, in fact, stop her from being able to visually see. A whisker twitched in consideration. "Why are there things in my eyes?" she asked.

Her head tilted the other way. She had no idea where she was, really, but regardless a feeler moved to wrap around Eko and lift her up onto her forehead before it dropped again and the dragon lifted herself to her claws.

Her whiskers shifted as she began moving, touching around the doorway of the abandoned building. "The ground tried to eat you?" she asked abruptly as she practically snaked out of the building, lifting her head as the sisters came out into the open.

"That seems strange," she said, looking around. It was darkness, still, but she could hear Eko's heart settled up onto her nose. "I don't think I can see," she added.

Eko shrugged, dumbfounded. "I dunno! Maybe it's a sign, like you're supposed to find shinies. Or maybe the shinies just like, crept into your eyes while you were sleepin' in your egg. Or maybe they're part of your egg! Creepy," she mumbled, shivering for effect. Still, she didn't exactly have more than theories. "I wonder if I have a shiny too?" The colugo thought it over, twisting around to stare at her back, then raising her feet to poke at them, before relaxing and shrugging again. If she did, she couldn't see it.

"Maybe you're really special, so the shinies chose your eyes to hide in," she threw out, jumping a bit when one of the dragon's face-noodles reached out to wrap around her middle. In an instant, she was lifted from the ground, flailing in mid-air, and she yelped, almost moving to wrench out of the grip - before she was unceremoniously dumped onto a black, scaly forehead. Panting, it took the little glider a moment to reply, wobbling as the dragon's head moved with her question.

"Yeah. I was in my egg, and I was thinking to myself about how boring it was, so I punched it so hard it broke. Then dirt poured in, so I had to dig myself out. The ground totally tried to eat me for dinner. Or breakfast. Or maybe lunch. Or brunch! I'd be a delicious brunch," she decided, nodding and reaching out to clamber out onto Lichen's snout for a better view as the reptile stepped out into the open room of Orion.

"Well, if you can't see, I'll just tell you what I see, then," Eko assured, harrumphing and plopping down on her draconic sister. "This place, wherever we are, is big. Real big. We were in a... structure. It was all crumbly. Now we're out in the open. The ceiling is covered in bright lights that are shiny. Also, you're still doing that glowing thing."