ORIGIN

It all started with a ribbon of consciousness. It was not yet roused, but simply weaving through the thread of space that was existence. Eventually, the surreal mind began to pull away from its slumber, as if being awoken by an alarm clock. That was the last of the darkness.

A state of awareness flowed into the gembound as she emerged from her chrysalis and inhaled her first breath of life. All at once, her senses were unlocked and a flood of messages overloaded the infant mind as she witnessed her environment for the first time.While the darkness of the room shrouded most of her vision and left much to be desired, the ceiling sparkled with radiant light. The cave's famed quartz crystals populated the walls like a million stars. While a beautiful rarity, they proved to be too bright for the newly hatched gembound, who tightly squeezed her eyes shut.

The gembound had the form of a grizzly bear cub and umber fur covered her disoriented form. Identical to the crystals in the room, sprouting from her shoulder was a quartz jewel. While the cub was still getting used to her body, minutes passed and thought began rolling into her brain. This was all so confusing, what was she doing here? Like all creatures, she was experiencing hunger and thirst and it thoroughly frustrated her. Opening her maw to rid herself of her annoyances, she called. "Reeerrrr!" The newborn's sound echoed throughout the chamber, magnified from Orion's vast walls.

Surprised by her own noise, she shut her jaw. Instinct began to beckon and inform the young bear that she needed to move. The restlessness in her stomach spurred her to get on all four paws, and so the newborn began trailing along crumbling structures, searching for something to satisfy her new hunger.

It took only seconds for the cub to start nosing the ground - instinct was a powerful force, refined and developed over generations. Though she was in the era of gembounds, the impulses still guided her actions. She had noticed Louie, but had not payed too much attention to the animal. Child's mind could only occupy a few simple tasks at a time. Littering the floor lay a few cragged rocks, which were commonplace for most creatures yet foreign to the hatchling. Once taking notice of the objects beneath her, the wobbly cub lowered her neck to them and tasted the rocks with her tongue.

Not edible, she realized. Suddenly hearing a noise from the other creature, she turned to him in surprise. The sound was like the one she had made earlier, but different. There were words. Pausing everything she was doing, her rounded ears quickly swiveled forward, her attention fully homed onto the fox. Slowly she unhinged her jaws and loped straight towards the male. It was not intended to be threatening, however one might perceive her actions as such due to the suddenness of it.

As a newly emerged and having no respect for boundaries yet, she practically tried to get up in Louie's face. Although she was not yet familiar with her prey instinct, eventually her hunger could drive her to experiment.

In this moment, however, all Giada cared about was making her boisterous voice known. "Gaahhh, gah, giahh!" Came the loud yet pathetic cries of the bear cub; it was just the first attempt at words but it was likely to make any creature surprised at her outburst. Though the cub was darn determined to answer the stranger's question. "Giadaaa." After the last attempt, she gave a snort of approval and raised herself from her quads. Then raised a paw to her chest. "Giada."That was her name. Giada.

Finding herself drawn to the other gembound like a cat to a mouse, an open-jawed grin appeared on her jowl. How she was just itching to paw and grapple at the other being, but unfortunately all her keen advances all seemed to result in him crouching and moving away.

Being the only other gembound she's ever seen, she was paying close attention to him, more than she probably would have to anyone else, which didn't spell out good news for Louie. Mirrored in her deep copper pools was his reflection, as she had locked her stare upon him. She was trying to figure out what to make of him. The odors of the environment were dank and tinged with a slight muskiness but in the fox she sensed heat and life rising from his core, a sharp contrast to the rest of her surroundings.

Giada observed him clamber onto the rock, and again, short sounds came out as he spoke. Louie. That was the name he bestowed on himself, like Giada had done just moments before. Tilting her head the umber bear heavily descended back to all fours. "Louie." Came the guttural growl. Her tongue naturally swiped the outside of her muzzle, flashing pearly ivories. "Hungry!" A rumble resonated on cue, attesting to her response.

Giada's attention held onto the gembound’s actions, still watching every move he made. The fox stepped so lightly. Different from her own lumbering strides, his pads scantily made a sound even as he swiftly disappeared behind the corners of the shambled buildings. Suddenly alarmed, her nostrils flared as she realized she had lost sight of him. Where did he go? It was impossible to use her vision to see, as he had been engulfed by darkness. Now upset, she rose back to her bipedal state and silently looked out into the pitch black chamber.

The grizzly bear was quite a simple creature, driven by urges and impulses. Tendencies made her not only difficult to reason with, she also concerned herself only with what stood in front of her. As soon as she realized she couldn’t find him, she became content to wander the area. In the short amount of time that Louie was gone, she investigated the rubble of collapsed structures.

When he returned her eyes locked on his carried bundle, proudly visible in his teeth. Ears perked, she immediately moved forward. Oh, and now it’s on the ground. Bending her neck, the bear’s large shoulders shifted with each stride until she came upon the dead rat. Giada’s charcoal nose found itself against the prey, turning it up with her snout so that it’s belly faced her.

With prey being a new concept for the young bear she noticed the rat was not animated like herself, and soon figured out that it was dead. What exactly death was, she was not sure. It still carried a distinctive musky scent; she could only describe it as a pungent animal-odor. However a more powerful smell easily oppressed the rat’s body - blood. Pupil‘s dilated, excitement triggered through her body to awake the most carnal demands of her brain.

She wrapped her muzzle around the rat’s upper torso, voraciously sinking her jagged teeth into its skin. Pulling back, neck arched, she ripped a large piece of pink-red meat right off the creature. As metallic liquid surged into her taste buds her right paw held down the food while she ravaged it into chunks. It took no time for her to swallow the savory meat and within seconds, Giada was feeding upon the rat’s other half like a hungered shark. Everything else Giada had done before was unrivaled compared to this. This was what she was meant to do - she was meant to eat.

After she was finished with her meal not a trace remained of the creature, save for a few droplets of the crimson iron-tasting blood. Giada had eaten the rat's bones and all. Opening her jaws, her pink tongue swiped over pearly canines in a satisfied manner. With something in her belly, her hunger was eased. She found eating to be an incredible sensation, one that she never though she'd ever get tired of.

Now, she sat herself onto the ground, legs splayed out in front of her. She was more relaxed now and sniffed the ground where the rat had been before. Giada moved her amber gaze to see what Louie was doing.

Giada simply nodded her head to Louie because she wasn’t aware of the awkward lack of conversation. Tilting her head at his next words, she pondered the question by fixating herself with the gem under his jaw. A shiny jewel that she didn't see before. The bear hadn’t even thought about leaving and let alone know of anywhere else she could go.

When he asked if she wanted to come with him, her gaze lifted and the bear felt her stomach bubble up with excitement.

As the first gembound she has ever met, she was inexplicably attached to the little fox. She was not a moral creature by nature, so their meeting was one that was perhaps for the good of Origin Cave. Because she felt a sense of loyalty to Louie, at that moment he was the only one who could keep the young bear in check. Giada didn’t yet realize this was the beginning of a friendship, but she did know she was willing to follow him wherever. “Okay.”