ORIGIN

Lichen wasn't so good at the 'seeing things' yet, though she had a feeling that she actually never would be. As she crept forwards, she could hear the heartbeat of Eko sitting somewhere in her feathery crest. She could hear other ones too, smaller and much more rapid - rats. She was terrible at hunting, but that was only to be expected. Lichen much preferred the taste of wild mushrooms she could smell around in the caves, anyway. She found, however, despite the fact there was seemingly two gemstones stuck in her eyes, she wasn't too back with bumping into the walls.

This was purely thanks to the lightly-illuminated whiskers extending out of her snout, however. She made her way with her body close to the ground, tail lifted so that the only sound she created was the soft 'clack clack clack' of her claws, whiskers extended out. At times, they would barely graze by a wall, and the thin dragon would shift out of the way; scuttling across the room.

Eventually, she found a new place - some sort of extension to the room she and Eko had been born in. She paused at the entrance, awaiting orders from the soft heartbeat coming from the top of her head.

Eko lay nestled between the softly glowing feathers of her sister's crest, half-asleep, used to the swaying motion of the dragon in motion by now. Nevertheless, the change in light as they entered the tunnel roused her, and when they came to a halt she yawned, stretching, clambering down from her perch to rest on the end of Lichen's snout, rubbing at her eyes blearily. "Why'd we stop, Lich?"

The tunnel swam into view, and she hummed, gaze darting about. "Ooh, sweet. New place. It's like... not a room, but a pathway. Kinda narrow. Totally covered in gross green stuff, and pretty bright. I think there's an exit at the end of it," Eko added, narrowing her eyes at the distant vision of Polaris' entrance. "You should be good to walk straight, long as you don't try n' fly, sis."

An idea hit her, and she snapped her fingers, grinning. "A brilliant idea has, as always, entered my brainpan. Stretch out your face noodles, dude! They're long enough, they might be able to touch both sides at once. Then we won't like, fall or trip or something."

Lichen paused, for a moment. "I can't concentrate," she said quietly, blank eyes staring into the tunnel. She listened to Eko for a moment, trying to visualize the tunnel in her head. But Lichen hadn't really seen anything before - which make it more difficult. So, instead, she tried to concentrate once more.

The tunnel practically opened up to her - showing her the corners were bacteria was crawling around and festering to the walls. Slowly, she made her way inside. "I'm okay, now," she murmured as she slithered along slowly and carefully, whiskers left limp.

"What's on the walls?" she asked gently - the tunnel was practically crawling in tiny things, seemingly dying and multiplying every few seconds. She shivered somewhat, snout angled forwards in fear of seeing the tiny things on her or her sister.

Eko hummed, a rare frown crossing her face, absently standing up to peer into one of Lichen's gemstone eyes. "Can't concentrate? That's no good. Hungry, maybe?" Thankfully, her sister seemed to recover again, moving forward steadily. "Or not," the colugo hummed brightly, moving to pat a limp face-noodle.

"On the walls? Uh. Like, the green stuff? Well, it looks like... um..." A word popped into her mind, and she snapped odd, too-long fingers once again. "Moss! Brainpan don't fail me now. It's like, soft plant-stuff, dude! Shouldn't hurt us," Eko added, looking far too curious to test the theory. "There's light, too, but I can't see where it's comin' from."

Job seemingly done, the colugo hop-walked back up to her main perch, just before Lichen's glowing crest, illuminated green in the tunnel.