ORIGIN - Headed straight for the castle

Nyx Dawnwalker you can be something else,
something distant, sharp as the stars

Nyx Dawnwalker.

A grown Fallow Deer, once small, wearing her strengths hidden && her weaknesses open - is now a being of pride, all long legs, thin frame && her head held high. She's ready to face them again. It's been long enough.
Her eyes gleam like heated onyx as she steps onto the familiar plains of Polaris, standing strong && unafraid as she's waiting for her friends to come back. They must wonder about where she's been, naturally && finally she's ready to give them the answers they'll demand.

She was training - in more sense than one. Nyx Dawnwalker was born as a frail little thing, smaller than all of her friends, weaker than them && definitely a hinderance to them, should the need to use her powers arise. But she's mastered her powers, mastered herself.
Nyx had always been the runt of the litter && ashamed at her lack of strength where her friends showed prowess && pride. But on her journey through the far reaches of their cave, the Fallow Deer learned many things.
Nyx learned not to be ashamed of who she was.

&& it showed now, in her every step, her every smile.
Sometimes, Nyx realized, she'd look back on that time alone && long for it again. The silence had been as wonderful as it had been torturous. There was pain in being alone, but she had made a choice && sticking to it had proven to be the right choice. While Nyx was still the same Gembound in her core, the packaging was new. Would her friends recognize her? The new her?

Would they even want to see her again?

"Hear me roar."

table by lisa

it's a game called circle and I don't know how

Gembounds had come and gone, but Fisher had survived. He had thrived in Polaris, along side his two best friends. The wiry noodle had caused death, and reverted it-- Deus' gemstone was nestled in his den, growing, coming back to life. He had set things right, and today, he was ready to prepare for the next disaster. For the caves were not always calm and quiet, no. More often than not, disaster struck violently, taking life in the shadows and breaking those who stood too close to the light.

When Deus returned from the dead, Fisher wanted to be ready. Arkrael had prepared him a suit of armor, and although it was cycles old, it held firmly. The metal adorned his body and hid his gem and most of his scars, his pelt a battlefield that he wore with pride. He could feel the electricity dance on his skin to the metal, a storm brewing deep inside of the mustelid. It was hard to turn his attention from the Spire, but he knew practicing there would lead only to disaster. Today, he would find a remote, quieter part of Polaris, to hone his skills.

Fisher had the feeling things were about to break once more. The caves were on the precipice of being cast into hell and he could feel it in the air, in the way things had slowed down once more. It was like a tidal wave, the way the caves worked, and when the surf pulled back its farthest-- that, that was when the tsunami hit. Though the ground was stable under his feet, as he bound through the cracked stone floor, he knew the storm was coming.

Something caught the attention of the bounding, metal-laced noodle and he froze, fur puffing up under his armor. The site before him caught at his throat like a perfectly thrown lasso. There was a towering gembound just ahead, a pale creature that he had only remembered from vague, shadowy memories. In his ears, there was a dog barking, a distant memory. The static in his fur surged and he tried to calm his heart.

So many gembounds had gone missing as of recently, so for any of them to return... It simply didn't make sense. But this was not any other deer that he knew-- no, Clover had turned into a demon, and Hasira was a monster that had been put down-- no... This was someone from the past, someone who should have been dead.

But the dead never stay dead here, Fisher caught himself thinking as he stepped forward, dumbfounded, struggling to find his voice. It had been so long since the time of darkness when he had been born, when he was just a tiny noodle struggling to understand the world.

He could not remember her name but he remembered her voice, telling him not to bark so loudly. He remembered playing with his first barkfriend, and he couldn't shake the playful woofs from his mind. The dancing hooves and paws as they played, three bizarrely different creatures in the dim glow of crystals, back before the generator has been brought back to life.

If she was here, perhaps the other... Perhaps his very first barkfriend... had also returned. Were they returning, all those that had first been lost?

As Fisher's magic worked to soothe his nerves and slow his heart beat, the noodle held up his head and stared out from under his helmet, voice cracking as he found the words.

"Is it... Really you? It's Fisher, remember?"

@Nyx

Nyx Dawnwalker you can be something else,
something distant, sharp as the stars

Nyx felt the static in the air, sparked by some power that was more than the Spire. It was a familiar feeling, a distant memory from before.
Long ago, so many cycles, when she had been but a tiny thing, afraid of the shadow she cast in the dim light of her own birth.

The electricity in the air set her nerves alight && the doe was torn between comfort && nervousness.
Meeting with her old acquaintances was something she'd put of for far too long, but now-

No, she owed them this. She owed them answers && she would give them. That was the burden she had to carry until she could find her way back into her life.
Not her old life, but her new one. She'd left her old life behind when she cut ties with her friends. Those gembounds were the only thing that Nyx would allow into her new life from her old one.

The voice, albeit hesitant, cut through Nyx' thoughts && pulled her back to the reality. She turned, thin legs carrying her, unwavering, a little closer to the armored gembound.

❛ Fisher. ❜ The doe said, voice as smooth as alabaster && marble. Her dark eyes were kind as they found the smaller creature.
❛ Of course I remember. ❜ Memories of softer days, innocence in every word && action flashed in Nyx' eyes, calling forth a smile.

❛ Yes, it really is me. ❜ Nyx said, nodding her head. Her thought threatened to summon waves of other memories, more recent ones, but the doe focused on the there && then.
❛ I must apologize, I should have told you I was leaving, even if only for a time. ❜ A long time, though.

Either way, Nyx was a little surprised that Fisher remembered her. They hadn't ever been that close ( sadly ) && the last time they'd seen each other had been cycles ago. Nyx had been much smaller then && nothing but a shade from what she was now.
She towered over Fisher too, at least more than she used to.

❛ Hear me roar. ❜

table by lisa

it's a game called circle and I don't know how

Fisher perked up at the sound of his name rolling off the tongue of his grown childhood memory. It was different now, but it help the same gentleness even in the maturity of the tone. Though she towered over him more than she had even as babies, the fear that Fisher had once held for hoofbeasts had faded with age. It didn't matter how large the danger, he could fight back. His confidence was much more solidly grounded these days.

That, and Nyx was a friend. Her soft smile, a gentle apology. More than he had gotten from gems he had considered closer friends, from those who had actually abandoned him. It struck him hard, and in response, he could only laugh softly. "No, no, it's fine," he replied through his chortle. Grinning up at her with pointed teeth, his copper eyes shimmered under his metal adornment. "Things like that happen 'round here all the time. Have you seen our other friend?" The question escaped his teeth before he could catch it, which was perhaps for the best.

After saving Deus, it was only right that he worry about his first barkfriend. His nose dipped down, gaze flickering to his forepaws. "I fear that something horrible befell Isaac... The caves take so much," he voiced his worries to the deer, expecting her to understand the ache in his heart. He had made many quick friends in his youth, and so little of them had survived the first of dangers that the cave had presented.

He shook his head, realizing that it was likely a sore subject. If Nyx had been elsewhere in the caves, how would she know about Isaac? "There's not much use worrying, I suppose. You came back, after all! And look how big you've gotten! I mean, wow. You used to be a tiny little thing!" Fisher came back, teasing and taunting, bouncing on his paws around her hooves and flashing another grin, as though the miserable subject had never come up at all.

@Nyx

Nyx Dawnwalker you can be something else,
something distant, sharp as the stars

A warm, fuzzy feeling ran through Nyx's veins when Fisher accepted her back so easily. How did she deserve such a kind friend? Despite their differences, the fallow deer had always considered Fisher a good friend.
Sure, they hadn't gotten along perfectly back in their younger years, but there had always been potential. A potential for a close friendship, which they could finally grow into now, as grown adults.

❛Isaac?❜ Nyx asked, thinking back to the last time she'd seen the dog. The memory of Isaac sparked others, of a nameless wolf - Nyx's first friend. But the memory of them was long broken.
Isaac, though? Him Nyx remembered.
❛No, I'm afraid not.❜

Scrapping a hoof over the ground, lost in thought, Nyx had to fight the wave of memories flooding her conscience. So many friends she'd left behind && so few she'd found again.
What had happened?`
The atmosphere in the Caves was different now && Nyx was afraid of waking some slumbering beast by asking about it. She'd have to accept the change of her surroundings, just as her surrounding had to accept the change in her.

The smile on Nyx's face grew brighter. ❛Why, you've grown as well && look at the dashing figure you cut in your armor.❜ The doe complimented honestly, nodding her head at Fisher.
It was so easy to talk to him. It had always been, Nyx reflected, even when their language had been limited to the simplest of exclamations && sounds.
Oh, how I loathed him && Isaac barking all the time!

❛How have you been in my absence? Did I miss anything big?❜ Nyx eventually asked, hoping that she didn't touch a sore subject with the question. Fisher could, if he chose, avoid talking about saddening big events ( like those he'd hinted at before ) without Nyx ever knowing.
She wouldn't even be mad. There were things better left unsaid, sometimes.

❛Hear me roar.❜

table by lisa

@Fisher

it's a game called circle and I don't know how

The answer had been the one he had expected, and he brushed it off. No sense in worrying-- no matter how much he wanted to worry and fret over dead ghosts and memories.

Nyx did, however, strike a cord with the noodle. His face lit up immediately as she praised his figure and his armor, puffing out his chest with pride. She went on to ask him how he was, and immediately it was as though the flood gates had been cut loose.

"I've been wonderful! Why, so much has happened since we last met-- it's been cycles after all. I don't even know where to start," he began, with a laugh. "Perhaps it's best I start with the fantastic story of how I and dozens of other gems, defeated a humongous dragon that had taken over the Spire!"

For emphasis, he nodded towards the brilliant blue glow nearby. The pillar of crystal was a landmark that you simply couldn't miss in Polaris, and also one of many great stories that Fisher had. His whole life revolved around that throbbing shaft of magic, but hey. Private life aside...

"It was a distaster, the likes of which the Caves have never seen since. Raheerah, a massive beast of fire and brimstone, nearly as large of the Spire itself, had taken claim over Polaris. He attacked anything that moved, a beast of chaos and destruction more than anything else."

Fisher grinned, tail lashing behind him. "Gems for miles around had gathered. The Children of Rot, a group of swamp dwellers in Cetus where I was born, had come to the call. My friend, Black-- oh, man, you'd love him." Fisher puffed up, squaring his shoulders and making a flat expression as he spoke, "He's a big serious dog!-- and, well, Black and I had overheard them and had tagged along. Maji Walezi from Pisces, the waterfall place, was there too... And well, me and their huge grizzly bear leader, Leon, had this bet that I would totally kick more dragon tail than him."

He was snickering now, leaning back on to his haunches so he could raise his paws into the air to gesture. "Anyway, there was this huuuuge deer and an even bigger bird calling the shots. I don't remember their names, but I guess they're some big deals or whatever. The deer lead the charge. There were dozens of us, like I said, dogs and felines and deer and birds and reptiles of all sorts. You've never seen so many gembounds in one place!"

"So, Mister Deer charged forth, and Black, the clever brute, summoned this massive shadow to cloak us. It was like a giant black fog! Leon and everyone else started running off in different directions to get the drop on him, right, and you know what I did to the smug fucker who decided to perch on the highest point in Polaris?"

The noodle held his paws before him, pads facing one another as he only half-focused on showing off. A tiny bit of static ran off one of his claws, but he tried to coalesce his own magic to add a bit of... spark to his story.

"I'd been practicing, you see. With just a bit of effort, I made stormclouds gather in Polaris... A real storm, rumbling lightning and everything... And as we broke out into battle, before anyone could so much as mutter a battle cry, I called upon everything I had and--"

CRRRCCKKK!
Immediately, between the noodles fingers, a loud clasp of thunder broke out between his paws. He fell backwards at the sudden, minature-explosion, and then promptly began laughing his tail off, gasping for breath.

"Hahah! WHAM! Hehe! He got CREAMED! The idiot, I got him so good!" He cackled, wiggling about on his back-- only sort of stuck because of how the armor was. The story would have to wait, because he was absolutely dying from the memory. It had been his proudest moment, well, proudest moment of battle glory anyway.

@Nyx

Nyx Dawnwalker put on your war paint

The light in Fisher's eyes served to get Nyx hooked on the story he was telling even before he muttered the first word. The excitement of others still sparked her interest. The empathetic part of her was something she just couldn't bury or leave behind, however much she tried.

The dragon he talked about, though, she knew it. Raheera. "I remember Raheerah." Nyx admitted one Fisher finished his story. "Me and Tamelyn once stumbled upon him." The old Nyx would have shuddered at the memory in fear, but the grown-up fallow deer just wondered about her past companion. They had spent a great deal of time together.

"But what a great story." The gembound praised, smiling at the excited story-teller now lying on his back. She stepped closer to help him, nudging him with her snout so he rolled over, back onto his stomach. Fisher's fur tickled her nose when she did, causing Nyx to giggle.

"I wish I had been there to see it. And to help." The deer added, mood a little dampened. She should have been there to help. To help protect her friends. Wasn't that the duty of every good gembound?

A shame Nyx would never get rid of, but dwelling on it wouldn't be of use either. "But with you there, I'm sure the fight was over before it really started." Fisher's magic was impressive. The power in his paws, in his small body was admirable, something Nyx was still striving to achieve. She wasn't jealous, really, it was more envy than anything else.

"Listen to me."

table by lisa

@Fisher