ORIGIN - In my Head, in my Mind

"Fritz?" Cayenne called, keeping her hands on her backpack straps and her footsteps steady. This was the third time she'd come into this room of chaos and craziness, something important happening in this room every time she'd been here. She had a feeling of trepidation and nervousness as she walked in, wondering what would happen this time.

"Fritz, are you there? ......Louie?" She called first for her young little friend, then for her teacher, wondering if by now he would be in the mood to actually teach her anything. "Louie? I'm here to be taught...if you're here."

The words left her mouth and she wanted to bite them back. There was no guarantee he'd actually be here, and even less of one that he'd actually be helpful. But it was worth a shot, wasn't it? He helped her discover the cleansing spell that helped her tremendously, and she wanted to know more. The wind whipped at her fur and her hands and she shivered.

@Louie

The move back home was interesting. No he didn't need permission to do so, he was the founder of this place he could march back in and just pick up where he left off. That was what he had done for so long. Last time he'd been officially declared a loner was when he was a child. Absentmindedly playing with a minute shard of glass that had happened to be a part of his own vortext creation, he pricked his ears at the sound of his name on the wind. It was a miracle he had even caught it, the wind was so violent, swallowing anything that tried to pass through its chaos.

Shifting his weight, he rose to his feet and gingerly tip toed around the shattered pieces to avoid lacerating himself. Her voice was so innocent, immediately recognizable among the strong female voices of the Merry Men. Much like Penelope's, but she chose to whine and mope about her own lost sight. Shame that one couldn't train that out of a pet. "Cayenne, it's been a long while," almost a month, but who was really keeping track of this sort of stuff. Maybe she had known he was out of commission and that's why she left it till now to come and visit.

A lemur with a backpack was certainly an interesting sight, he snorted in amusement at the sight of her as he appraised her appearance with two eyes instead of just the one. "Travelling I'm guessing? I don't know what you think is so important it needs to be carried with you constantly." Besides if something need to be carried he just used his mouth for that. Although maybe a satchel would be helpful...

She blinked and turned to see him, and her brows shot up. His eye was scarred just as she remembered it, but...he had an eye there now! Her mouth was open slightly, then she shook her head and blinked. "How did you....heal your eye?"

He must be really powerful to do something like that - even she had no idea how to fix such a thing. Healing skin was one thing, the flesh already knew instinctively how to do it, and she just helped it along, but to make a new body part out of nothing? Renewed respect for the cold gem sparked to life in her chest.

"U-uhm, my pack," She said, startled. "It has my medicinal herbs, bottled water, honey, and cloth to wrap wounds, among other things. My needle and thread...things like that." She said, staring at his eye and his scar tissue around it. "I carry it in case of emergency...which for me is quite often."

@Louie

So the eye was noticed immediately, and her shock was laughable but he didn't laugh. Instead he shrugged, he wouldn't lie about his healing talent as he frankly did not possess much of it. Being able to increase the good bacteria within someone was only something that could do minimal healing. "I withdrew into my chrysalis when I was badly injured for other things," Louie felt no need to elaborate further on the incident. "Thus, my body was able to heal. The eye thing was... certainly a surprise." It frankly shouldn't have happened. Whatever being was watching over Origin cave had seen fit to help him.

Explaining what was inside the pack, he was intrigued by the assorted collection. "Fascinating that you carry it with you everywhere. I don't see much point in lugging around extra baggage if I don't need it." This whole conversation was going along rather normally, the fox just watched her closely as he tugged mentally on the string that he'd harpooned into Penelope. "I came across a strong bit of magic just recently. I've never experienced it nor seen it before." Despite being within the presence of Booker and Baratheon, he couldn't remember either of them explicitly explaining what was the deal with the connection between the two. "I think it'd be interesting to demonstrate to you, I think it could help me teach you a lot better and we'd be able to both practice and become stronger in our craft."

Wanting to be more... hospitable, he nodded his head towards the platforms. "Up there is where I keep the majority of my stuff. Mushrooms and the like as well as whatever other stuff I want to have around." Not requiring her to answer, he just turned around and began pacing back towards the base of the elevated walkways.

Cayenne frowned. Went...back...into his chrysalis? That was what happened with the bat, Tal'at, wasn't it, when he retreated to the safety of Bog's chest and formed there, putting poor Bog's life in danger. So that was why...Could anyone do it? If that was the case, why didn't everyone retreat back to their shells to heal if they got poisoned or electrocuted or badly hurt?

It must be in case of life-threatening circumstances, she thought. Huh.

Her frown deepened when he commented on her pack. "Well...I need it. I need everything in here, otherwise I wouldn't carry it around." She felt herself be on guard around his calmly spiked words, and her hands tightened around her backpack straps. He was mentioning other forms of magic that he'd never seen before, and she raised an eyebrow. She wondered if it would be as beneficial and invasive as the last spell he showed her.

She gave a mental shake. Don't be so cycnical, he's actually going to teach you, ridiculous cat. She told herself. And when he walked off to show his home, she sighed a little and followed him.

"I know almost every plant spell...." She said to his back. "I know more than most. But I need to branch out, now. I need to know more than the cleansing spell you showed me. If you'd teach me."

@Louie

There was no silence as they walked, as she expressed her recent findings of her own magic and he just nodded absently at her words. Particularly touchy about her back, he made no more comment on it as they ascended the dirt paths that saw them dancing on the edges of falling to their deaths. This first platform was not his den, but it served as a good place to train. More a communal area, it was where most of the Merry Men passed through to get to the bottom of Monoceros and venture out to the caves beyond. He closed his eyes as he focused on gently tugging at the string of purple that was his arcane servant. It was taught, strong now that he had come to grips with it and he just nodded along with each of the gentle tweaks.

Alright, they could begin now.

"Plant spells are good, I mean, I haven't seen many examples of them being used but I imagine it promotes growth and life. Just as fire promotes death and destruction." Memories of the battle with the great dragon flashed across his mind but he made no further mention. It was just common knowledge after all. "You managed to pick up fauna cleanse well. Before I show you the newest and most grand magic I have acquired, I have another spell that might be useful for you to learn..." Tail sweeping under himself, he sat down and drew in a long breath. This was something that had saved him from death that day. Without it, Hasira would have strung up his corpse to rot in front of all the other carnivores. So that he could be laughed at. Mocked. Shamed as being the weakest among the caverns. It wouldn't last like that for much longer.

Back on point, without really looking for attention he pulled up his paw and bit down on it before pulling back, breaking the skin. Blood welled at the minor cuts, it wasn't extensive but enough to show what he was actually doing. Louie exhaled as he felt the flow of magic almost beginning from his tail tip as it traveled up him in a long wave. There were sparks, almost like live wires firing off at the connections that never made it to his splintered gem. The ones that were left connected and there was almost a ripple of energy that ran over him as his body revitalized, his pupils constricted and then dilated and he felt refreshed. On his paw, the skin had healed over.

Since there were the few glitches, it wasn't perfect. It was rough like a scab rather than already at the point of being new and fresh pink skin. It was the first scar on his new body and he snorted slightly. There would be a lot more where that came from. "Basically, a spell to heal oneself. I've never really tried to transmit it to another. I'm not sure if it's physically possible as it feels like all the magical connections are internal." That's what it felt like to him anyway.

Not really sure if she was keeping up, he waited for her to respond. Face still with his eyebrows pulled together, but he wasn't frowning for any particular reason.

She sucked in a breath and winced when he bit down on his paw - she had demonstrated much the same with her wonderful Gigatsuhali, but doing that and seeing it done was incredibly different. And she watched his gem glow and saw the blood slowly shrivel and be replaced with scabs that slowly formed over the bite marks, and Cayenne watched with ever growing eyes, feeling her fur stand on end with pure unfiltered excitement. She was right, Louie was a buffet of knowledge, she knew all along, because she had never seen anything like this before.

She blinked and shuddered and looked at all of the cuts on her fingers that she'd collected from daily use and picked one, a long cut along the side of her pinky finger she'd gotten from climbing, and she turned the excitement to a determination in her guts. Her gem on her opposite ring finger glowed...

And she felt it, felt the determination reach her hands in electric waves, felt the rush of magic and energy filter from her gem to her skin like bubbles rising from the deep sea, and her hands felt so calm and lovely, like she was washing them with the softest herbs. Her skin felt rejuvenated and on her hands every one of her cuts healed with fresh pink skin.

She blinked in shock, then she smiled and half-chuckled and showed Louie her hands and laughed like the giddiest little kid saying, "L-look! I did it!"

@Louie