ORIGIN

A lone stone stood out against the underground steam's gentle pull, it's cyan tendrils wrapping around the chrysalis's tall, solid figure and pulled back. No matter which direction the water tried to tug the turquoise rock, it refused to budge. A dull glow pulsated random intervals, sending an unknown message out into the inky darkness of the room. This was the most action seen from the stone in the month of time it had been sitting in that very spot, anyone passing by would have mistaken it for the numerous other rocks scattered everywhere the eye could see. Now it was unmissable, even a faint hum could be heard if one put their ear up to the freezing cold turquoise. chrysalis. Not an ordinary stone at all!

A few hours passed and the lights started to dim from within the gemstone, but life didn't die there. Just when things were getting uninteresting a loud snap followed closely by a series of crunching could be heard over the whispering water. A large crack split the turquoise in two, half of it's mass falling into the stream where it abruptly sank to the bottom. The other half fell back onto the stream's damp shoreline, the remaining piece was hollowed... something stirred from the center of the turquoise bowl. A desperate and pathetic noise came from the critter inside as it shook from the cool, sudden atmosphere it found itself in. He cried endlessly, with varying levels of frequencies. Calling out for what, he didn't know; his infantile brain could not figure out what had just happened to the warmth. He wanted it back, back NOW.

It was at this point that Leon was starting to get hungry. He'd never experienced the feeling before; somehow, the chrysalis had kept him content. He didn't really understand how or why, or what this feeling was and why he never felt it before. It was new to him and came completely out of nowhere. For the past little while, since his emergence, he'd been relating events to other similar events that had happened already in his short lifespan. But this? It was an entirely novel feeling, and he didn't know how to correct it.

He and his new friend settled into the comfort of silence. But as the hunger set in, Leon was beginning to find himself restless. He wandered through the room, poking around rocks and fungi - none of it looked appetizing, and he had a feeling that he'd know what he was supposed to eat when he found it. In fact, he'd know that he was supposed to eat it at all. Right now, he really had no idea. He was simply looking for a way to make the sensation disappear. In his search he wondered if Rohan and Teyouma would experience it too - but until he found a solution, he didn't want to bring it up.

His search for a cure had come to a halt when the silence of the room was suddenly shattered, replaced by a piercing cry. The wailing was sudden with the onset of crackling stone. Leon raised his head, curious, and followed the noise. At this point he was beginning to guess it would belong to another creature like him. The bear stumbled along the rocks until the sound of water met his ears, and the wailing got louder - then he saw it, the tiny, fresh animal laying in a turquoise shell. Like the rest of them, it had a similar stone on it, embedded between its eyes. He didn't know what kind of sound this creature was making, but he didn't really like it. "H-hey! Stop that!" Leon called and awkwardly galloped towards the little thing. "Stop doing that! It's noisy!" He added as he ran closer, thumping his paws on the ground to try and get its attention.

Teyouma had slept for the majority of the wandering, waking up only when he was nearly suffocating himself upon the nest of fur that grew from Leon's back. On occasion he'd startle awake to the noises of the caves, but over time the monkey adapted to them. Until, of course, the pair of critters was faced with the wailing of a newborn Gembound. First it was the noise which began to pry sleep from Teyouma's mind; then, the jostling of the running bear. Nobody is a deep enough sleeper to handle their bed running amok. So it wasn't really the newborn's fault that Teyouma was awakened, but more so Leon's, for forgetting that the baby was clinging to him so desperately. By the time Leon had stomped his way over to the creature in the bowl and begun to demand its silence, Teyouma was wide-eyed and awake, staring at the surroundings as if he had been fired out of a circus cannon without permission.

At first he only saw the back of Leon's head. Then, as he crept slowly forwards and rested between the bear's ears, he could see the ground. There was a stone bowl with a big creature - not as big as Leon, but bigger than little Teyouma - and it had three eyes. Three eyes, and one heck of a voice. Teyouma didn't know how to feel about this. He had never been afraid before, or anxious, or anything of that sort. He liked the sound of the creature's squawking and screeching, though. The noise filled the space and echoed across the walls, and only seemed to get louder as Leon tried to speak over it. Teyouma sat like a crown of flesh upon Leon's head, trying to keep his giggling contained - but failing pretty thoroughly at it. What fun! What fun! Oh!

But was this Rohan? Was this the friend Teyouma was supposed to be meeting? He forgot about the noise for a moment and swooped down from his roost, curling his tail around Leon's neck as he slipped and flipped his way down, half acrobatic and half flailing, and then scurried closer to the screaming, unhappy Gembound. When he was face-to-face (and really face-to-face, since Teyouma didn't know what 'boundaries' were, and likely never would) he reached up with one of his long fingers and booped the creature on the nose. "Rohan?" He asked, with a curious tilt to his head.

Over the shrill cry that escaped his jaws, Bravo couldn't quite hear the larger animal approach his turquoise crib. It wasn't until the other's gallop and call did the kit simmer down. He pressed himself further into the broken chrysalis, afraid that he meant to do harm. Paws were heard smacking the sandy beach which sent an echo to surround them, the raccoon began to whimper quietly again.

His eyes had begun to adjust properly to the darkness that surrounded the gathering and he was finally able to make out the shape of the stranger. The awkward size of his paws to the rest of his body would symbolize a younger creature just like himself, but larger than him still, and scary. It wasn't until a tiny head popped up between the bear's ears did the whimpering die completely. This creature was petite and begged at Bravo's curiosity. It's swift actions made Bravo sink further into his bowl with new found alarm, but he remained quiet just like the bear had demanded. "Rohan?" it's voice was just as small as it's body, and Bravo sniggered at the sound. He didn't know what this meant at first. Language was an interesting thing for new gembounds… And the words slowly began to register the later into his cycle he got--even if it was just minutes. The fog from his chrysalis hibernating state was parted, the word made sense now. Not a word at all, but a name.

"No, not that," Bravo replied slowly, testing the words on his tongue. He didn't know why he knew how to communicate but it felt right. "Bravo!" he added, clicking his teeth a few times in satisfaction. This sounded like the right word to dub himself.

Oh, did the crying hurt his ears! They rang as the raccoon's shrill wails echoed off the walls and filled his head. Leon found himself whimpering too, until the raccoon began to quiet, obviously intimidated by the large bear that had come charging at him. He shook his head, only to remember that Teyouma was still with him. The bear blinked and tried to look up without moving his head, and in the very edges of his field of vision did he see Teyouma shifting above. Alright, so the monkey was still with him, that was good. It leaned forward and bopped the bear's nose, questioning Rohan? to which Leon gave a slower, delicate shake of his head. "No! This isn't Rohan."

The raccoon very quickly confirmed that it wasn't Rohan. Leon had nearly forgotten about the thing once it stopped crying, looking back down at the animal. It was a Bravo, and it seemed to speak a lot better and a lot faster than he or anybody he met so far did. Impressive! Or maybe he had hatched a long time ago and he just liked sitting in that big bowl. Who knew? The bear had by now forgotten its previous crimes, smiling widely at the little raccoon. "You're a Bravo? I'm Leon, and this is my friend Teyouma. We're looking for my other friend Rohan. Do you want to help us?" He asked, leaning in close to the raccoon and sniffing him.

Excited to have finally met the critter called Rohan, Teyouma almost missed the response - from Leon as well as the new Gembound. But when the answer didn't mesh with what he expected, the monkey pouted, and then scurried back a step. He all but fell backwards, tripping on his tail, and collided awkwardly with Leon's feet. When Tey looked up at his friend, he was still frowning.

"You're a Bravo? I'm Leon, and this is my friend Teyouma. We're looking for my other friend Rohan. Do you want to help us?" Leon said, his attention glued upon the Bravo. Teyouma was very abruptly introduced to the feeling of jealousy, feeling it twist in his gut, and sour his usually chipper mood (since he was too young to have had any other kind of mood). The monkey crossed his pale arms and crossed his legs, refusing to budge while Leon and Bravo talked.

Bravo's tiny ears rotated on top of his equally small head, listening to all of the sounds of the room. Almost too much at once, his wailing had deafened out all other noises of life in the cave. Now there was the gushing of the stream next to his bowl and the distant scurrying of a something in the distance. His wide turquoise eyes darted to the scene of the noise, but only shadows were respondent. It was probably nothing but an gemless field mouse, but the kit didn't know that. A shudder went through his body and he sat frozen for a moment forgetting there were others looming above him.

Leon and Teyouma... sadly just as the words were echoed in his head, Bravo forgot them, far too distracted worrying about the scary thing off in the foliage. He stared blankly up at the bear, eyes adjusting to focus on the closer shadow of his figure. The faint glow of mosses surrounding the damp shoreline reflected off the obsidian stone embedded in his shoulder. Bravo slowly reached up and touched the bridge of his nose, feeling the round and cool stone latched securely to his skull. He tapped it, a hollow clicking sound was made, then pointed at Leon's shoulder. Words didn't make sense here, he didn't really know how to put it into a sentence. Somehow the two were alike but at the same time very different.

Eyes swiveled to catch a glance at a retreating Teyouma as he stumbled over his own tail. Bravo chattered a laugh again, mostly to himself. This monkey was funny. He liked him, but just like that there was something amiss. Teyouma's body language was guarded now and Bravo had a tingling sense something was up. "Eeeeuuuuhh," Bravo drawled out, not really sure what he wanted to do. He was curious to put a face to the only name he remembered from this entire conversation: Rohan, but at the same time the monkey's sudden coldness set him aback.

When the creature tapped on his own gem then pointed at Leon's, the bear turned his head to catch a glance of the jagged obsidian peak embedded on his shoulder. He moved his arm a little, causing the obsidian shard to swivel, but otherwise it didn't move much. "Yeah! Kind of the same thing." Leon had been too busy watching the baby raccoon to notice that Teyouma was on a collision course with his paws. When the monkey stumbled back, Leon raised his paw and looked down, squeaking quietly. Thankfully, it didn't look like Teyouma was hurt too badly, so he snorted gruffly and lowered his nose to offer a reassuring nudge to his friend.

Leon glanced back up at the raccoon, only to find he was somewhat hesitant to join them. Maybe he just didn't know what looking for Rohan meant. Well, it meant adventure! But maybe the raccoon didn't like adventure. Leon smacked his lips together, thoughtful. If he couldn't guess what Bravo meant, maybe he should ask him! "What's wrong? Don't you like adventure?" The bear asked, tilting his head from one side to the other. He was of course completely oblivious to the coldness between Teyouma and Bravo, as Leon was so often oblivious to such things.

Then, he had an idea. "I know! Let's just look in here, first. You can see how you like adventuring. If you do, then you can come with us when we go somewhere else. Does that sound okay?" Leon leaned in closer, excited. Now this was a good idea, and he hoped Bravo would agree. He wanted to make a collection of other creatures to find Rohan and show his friend just how many new friends he made!

The fat-bellied Bravo tapped at his stone, and then Leon shifted and flexed his own, somehow. Teyouma was still being a grump, but he watched this - and grew more interested with each passing moment. The stones reflected and refracted light, and the shine appealed to him; however, upon noticing the similarities between the two creatures, the monkey felt out-of-place. He looked at himself for a moment. Studied his legs, his hands, turned to look at his butt, and even inspected his tail - but there was no pretty thing coming out of his own skin.

Leon spoke of adventure, but the concept went right over the baby gembound's head; he was more concerned with finding his shiny. But when nothing could be found, he cried out softly, and retreated to the comfort of Leon's warm fur. At first he burrowed against the bear's legs, and then in the next second Teyouma was climbing back up to Leon's back, where he had been resting. Without a word to either creature, the gembound found his roost and sulked. He didn't know what this feeling was - this sense of inadequacy - but he knew he didn't like it. It wasn't fair that he didn't have a shiny too!

Bravo stared blankly up at Leon, he wasn't exactly sure what this "adventuring" thing was he spoke of. But he couldn't deny he was interested in giving it a shot. There was the three of them, what's the worse that could happen? If something were to try and eat them, it'd have to choose between them and Bravo easily decided he'd eat Leon before himself. More to him! An innate sense of fear of being snatched up was brought into life just as he was born from his turquoise chrysalis. He hadn't witnessed the horrible act of something being chewed up and swallowed, but there was the fuzzy feeling that it could some day happen to him. Bravo gulped.

"Maybe..." he replied, slowly, uneasiness apparent in his demeanor. He really didn't want to let down these other creatures, who were being far less cowardly than himself. Then again, how long have they been living? Bravo shivered as he came to a decision, "Okay." It was a a simple reply, and he tried his best to seem sure of it. Watching Teyouma search himself over made the raccoon kit slightly uncomfortable, yet amused. What was he doing? A soft cry was made and the primate was shimmying back up onto the bear's back.

Taking this as a sign it was time to crawl out of his turquoise crib, Bravo said a silent goodbye to his first comforting piece of home and his stone glistened slightly to life before resuming it's hibernation between his eyes. He looked up at Leon, hopeful the bear was prepared to lead the way.