ORIGIN - choice kingdom

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The journey to Cetus didn’t often take this long. In fact, it was usually fast and easy, and Ghanyarah had memorized the tunnel paths between rooms that connected to Cetus like the back of his foot. He was resolved to move slower and more carefully this time around due to the precious cargo nestled on his back. He didn’t know how she was still hanging on, and to be honest he wasn’t completely certain that she was still even attached to him, but he hadn’t seen or felt her fall off, so he trusted she was still there.

Ghanyarah made his way back into the swampy room, intending on depositing his payload - the tiny, neonatal bat - at his tree. He had taken a piece of her broken chrysalis too. He intended it as no more than a keepsake, knowing that circumstances could very well separate them as quickly as they had been brought together. The chrysalis would remind him. It wasn’t anything like the real, living thing, but Ghanyarah found that having any kind of reminder was better than having nothing at all. It was how he felt whenever he remembered Gracie, and Netil, and saw Netil’s shattered chrysalis still cradled in the roots of his tree, wishing that he had something of Gracie’s too. He had missed his chance to get a keepsake, but Ghanyarah wouldn’t make that mistake again.

He never believed himself to be sentimental. Emotions were for the weak, and the smarter, and the ones who wanted more in life than just to survive. Ghanyarah had placed himself higher than them because he didn’t waste time with such trivial pursuits. Well, that used to be the case. When he no longer had everything he used to, when he realized he had taken it all for granted, those wants came seeping in. Like a silent, wicked shadow, the pain of loss nipped at his heart and his memories vaulted back to images of when he was with other Gembounds. He found himself missing. But Ghanyarah, ever efficient, sought to quell those feelings as soon as they rose. He knew he couldn’t fight them, so he would manage them the best he could.

First, find new Gembounds to fill the void. Then find some kind of reassurance if he lost them too.

This little bat would be the first in what he was sure to be a long series of trials engineered to ensure he was no longer plagued by those painful, cold clouds of loneliness. He wanted to say he was confident in his plans, but in truth, he wasn’t. She hadn’t said anything yet. She hadn’t assured him that she would be his friend too. He just had to trust that she would assume the role like he intended her to.

When he arrived at his tree, with the faces of his friends staring emptily and crudely back at him, Ghanyarah tucked the labradorite shard in among the remaining slivers of morganite that once nursed his lost and only son, Netil. Then he slid onto his back and defied all former caution, attempting to twist his head around and sneak a peek at the little bat. It would be okay if she fell. The ground here was soft with its layers of loam and leaf litter.

@Lituus

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Hearing all the sounds of the large reptiles' movement rouses her ever further from slumber. She knows her body is no longer enclosed within the safety of the stone shell, but still has no desire for the waking world around her. So she sheltered herself, hiding her head within the folds of her wings as if that would protect her from anything and everything. How silly she was. At least her pulse had slowed.

What was this scaly thing, and what was it doing?

The beads of her eyes blink open as the lizard moves, craning its neck to get a look at her. Somehow, someway, she shifts with his movements and meets his gaze with her own. Silent. Staring. Chest puffing in and out in steadily slowing breaths. Breathing- she was still getting used to that. And getting used to whatever this thing was she'd found herself clinging to.

Everything was terribly blurry. Bats were not known for their eyesight, after all, and she would be no different. Shapes could be made out- he was close- but her incessant clicking sound would give her a much better picture of him. Was she echolocating his face? Yes she was.

The clicks cease after a few tries and she lets her wings extend below her. A single foot yet clings to his scales while the bat stretches her meagre wingspan, nose flicking this way and that to get a 'look' at its surroundings. Objects in the distance were even more indistinguishable. Not that it bothered her. To her, this would become normal and all she would ever know. That aside.. what were these awkward appendages even for? Wings still spread, she tries to inspect herself, curling her body inward as the impossibly long and thin fingers of her wings flutter and curl in aggravation.

She flaps. And flaps. And flaps. ... until she accidentally dislodges herself from the curve of his scale and rolls unceremoniously to the soft padding of the earth around them. The crunch of leaves and grass as she collided with them was hardly existent, but they shift beneath her panicked movements. Jerking to her 'hands' and feet, the bat rights itself and shuffles about in a small circle, wondering where its perch had gone. Silly thing did not even consider looking up.

Not until she saw the shifting of its arms or tail. Or the flick of its tongue. There was something beside her-- she had almost forgotten. Looking up, her oversized ears finally unfurl to their fullest length, where they would remain thereafter, now reasonably dried from the fluid that had been glueing them to her skull. Words still cease to be. Instead, her pulse increases once more-- something innate in her screaming at her to flee. But flee she could not.

Would not.

She felt an attachment to this creature that had delivered her, and even if it were dangerous, wouldn't it have eaten her already? Though it was... much larger than her, there was a gentleness to it. It made her curious. She wanted to know more about it... though her wonder and bewilderment would not have been obvious in the rather blank stare she wore, peering hopelessly at the larger being. So far up she looks that her head nearly sinks into the fur around her shoulders, truly making her look no better than a damp ball of cotton brown. With two giant ears. And wings folded against its sides.

You would think words should have come then, and yet they did not. Stuck in her throat they were. Scared, she was. Or perhaps, shy.

(See: Tiny Little Bat◥)

spread your wings

earth element - lituus - vesper bat
tags - Ghanyarah

The reptile was struggling to strike a good enough pose that would allow him to adequately examine the bat on his back. Komodo dragons tended not to be too flexible in that respect - he had a lot of fat and muscle, but he was terribly squat, and his legs weren't long enough to support him should he try to reach further than his body allowed. He was straining to catch a glimpse of her, and when he did he realized that she was lifting her head and had opened her tiny little eyes to peer back at him. She was so diminuitive that she could have disappeared in a shadow or been mistaken for a stray leaf. Her smallness felt an allegory for how minuscule his own problems likely were. Solitude. It was a fool's concern. He guessed that made him a fool.

Ghanyarah tried to stretch closer, his snout hovering just out of reach of her, but as she started to move he withdrew. He couldn't understand why he was so fascinated - something so small and precious was a rare find perhaps. Ghanyarah shifted slightly and let his head rest on the ground, tilting it slightly to watch. She was unfurling herself, stretching her wings out at her sides as if feeling them for the first time.

The whole time his long, thin tongue flicked tentatively from his lips, following each action. She flapped and flapped again, a light rustle in the silence, until she had unintentionally dislodged herself. When she fell into the dirt, Ghanyarah perked and shifted, curling his body around where she sat so that he could look at her directly. He prodded near her with his nose, but evidently she was alright, righting herself as she stared back up at him.

He wanted her to speak, so viciously curious was he about who she was and what she was like. But the quiet between them felt treasured and special. There was some kind of primitive understanding, a mutual acceptance he felt. Maybe he was imagining it. If it was real, then it was something that truly moved him and he would deign to admit that he'd be disappointed otherwise. He couldn't know of its authenticity until she told him, and he craved validation and success in his endeavor. The reptile lowered his head back into the dirt and slowly, a rumble began to build in his chest. Like the purring of a cat or the coo of a dove, his was a guttural growl of mild affection, probing for response.

@Lituus

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Time passed by; fog and air thick with silence and anticipation. It was palpable, yet not discomforting. The beauty of their silence would only be known between them, in this moment.

Once his head was on the ground, somewhat more level with her own, the juveniles' pulse finally begins to slow. There was nothing to fear here, no. Except for that rapidly flicking tongue! What was that? She twitches away from it... only to realize that it was a part of him, and once she undersrood it was not keen to eating her, she jumps at it-- to no avail! How quickly it slipped in and out of his mouth. Just like... like...

Like something she knows, but has not truly experience. Like a worm?

A genuine smile graces the tiny curve of her lips at the aimlessness of her efforts to catch his tongue, and ceases her attempts soon enough. Elongated, claw-tipped thumbs come out in front of her, one at a time, inspecting them. Flexing.

What would her first words be -- if there were any at all? Nothing still, just a sublime, innocent jubilation overtaking her expression as she returns her attention to the reddish hues of her caretaker. No sound still, only an excited exhale, mouth opening to display tiny rows of teeth. Her eyes crinkle in response to the expression-- awkward, but endearing Twas far too large for her face, it was, but the signs were clear: she was happy! Membranous wings spread in an attempt to flitter herself onto the bridge of the mighty reptiles' snout.

There was such mirth in her eyes, regardless her success or failure. They very well should have been precious gemstones all their own as she gets herself situated in her new position...

After roll...

Dark wings clumbsily slap around the giant's mouth. One, two, three times! Yet she cannot get her footing and ends up rolling off of his head and back into the foliage. She makes a small noise of complaint and spreads her wings wider, inspecting herself as she flap-flap-flaps some more! Would she ever get used to these awkward things? Goodness!

spread your wings

earth element - lituus - vesper bat
tags - Ghanyarah

The heat emanating from her tiny body, though small, was consistent. He felt reassured by her presence and was content to lay and watch her, even finding amusement as she began to paw at his tongue with her clawed wings. It felt something like a game; after a moment, he wasn't just tasting the air around her, he was teasing her, flicking his tongue and then calling it back to his jaws. The forked tongue would poke out between his lips as though in temptation, then retreat, then flicker and vibrate and retreat once again. Her smile bred one on his own maw as well.

He didn't expect her to suddenly lunge for him, and her movement caused Ghanyarah to jerk backwards. She fluttered like a stray leaf in her attempt to leap for his snout and he felt her wings briefly against his face before she fell away again. There was a small swell of guilt, thinking that if he hadn't recoiled she wouldn't have crashed into him and rolled away, but mostly his concern was for the fact that she had hit him and fallen back to the ground. Ghanyarah grunted and leaned forward, bringing his head in close and tilting it to inspect her with one eye. She seemed to be alright. The reptile lowered his head back to the ground, closer now, inviting her to clamber onto his snout this time.

Had Tal'at had so much difficulty flying when he emerged? Ghanyarah hadn't been there at the time. The giant gemstone that protuded from his face must have given him some difficulty, so he couldn't understand why this little bat, who lacked such a disability, couldn't grasp the concept of flight. Was there something wrong with her wings?

There had been silence between them for so long, since the beginning, but his curiosity was torturing him now. The low rumbling persisted in his chest. He needed to let her know that she would be fine if she couldn't fly, so finally, he spoke.

"It is alright." Ghanyarah said quietly, fixing his sunset gaze on her.

@Lituus

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A low rumble recollects the bat's attention to the long, scaled beast at her side, and the words that spoke-- she hadn't expected them. Words? 'It's all right,' it said. Of course it was. Why wouldn't it be? Looking over a fuzzy shoulder, large amber eyes gaze at the creatures nose. As if it were some kind of invitation, she crawls on over and climbs on, none too clumbsily. Tiny, hooked thumbs latch onto scale and nasal entrance alike as she attempts to make quick work of this tongue-flickering mountain.

Soon enough, a slight weight rests on the bridge of his nose, and she lay's on her belly there, content. Small, dark wings cling around the sides of her wide perch to keep her balance.

"Where.. are we?"

The words escape her, soft and slow. Her slightly feminine tone, akin to a child yet awoken from slumber. Where everything was still bleary and disorienting. She saw trees. Leaves. Earth. Whatever this thing was. A reptile of some sort? Tis as if she had known them forever, seen in past dreams, yet she did not truly know them. She knew what soil was, but had not felt it until now. She knew what wings were, and perhaps experienced the sensation of flight in a recent vision, but didn't have the slightest idea how to use them. Everything was oddly new in a way she felt like it shouldn't have been.

It was wrong in a way, and she felt more odd for it. Incomplete. Stupid. One wouldn't think to blame a babe new to the world for being ignorant and inexperienced, yet these feelings were hers, and she, suddenly, felt a strong urge to reclaim them. As if they had been stolen from her. There is an impeccable thoughtfulness in her eyes as she lifts the swell of her fuzzy chest on the joints of her 'hands', peering over to look the reptile square in the eye. Such consciousness there was in her.

"Who are you?"

Another question. And another, and another. She resigns the ones following to her mind, at least until the kind beast had anwsered her first. Who am I? The thought crossed her, and that bothered her even more. Part of her felt like she knew the answer to that, somewhere deep down- as deep as the trenches of the cave itself- but could not conjure the thoughts or feelings that would help those things resurface. How terribly bothered she was. Discontent and apathy showed in her expression then, as all of these things were hitting her; mercilessly, like an unending wind, lifting your wings away into skies uncharted. ... The sky? She didn't know what that was. How could she. How could any of them.

spread your wings

earth element - lituus - vesper bat
tags - @Ghanyarah

He patiently waited as she slowly crawled up onto his nose. The sensation tickled him, and had he movable skin he would have wrinkled up his nose at the feeling of it, but he could only sit there and resist the urge to twitch and shake his head. Ghanyarah was practically going cross-eyed trying to watch her until she came to rest on his snout just ahead of his eyes. It was difficult to keep focusing on her, and when he shifted his gaze elsewhere, she turned into a large fuzzy blot on his nose. He flicked his tongue.

Her voice had him trying to look at her again. As he had thought, it was female, slow and croaky and young with newborn weariness. He wanted to smile, but he was so afraid that the slightest movement might send her toppling off of his snout, so he remained still instead. "Cetus." He said slowly, barely parting his jaws to speak the words. "My home." His tail flickered, flopping in the soil as though to gesture to the tree that loomed over the both of them. The crude drawings were barely recognizable to anyone that hadn't seen the Gembounds they represented in life, except for maybe Ghanyarah's own portrait. He glanced at it and decided that he would need to draw a new one.

When she moved, it was to encompass the gaze of an entire eye such that his vision began to blur. Her body occupied one eye while the other was still free to see the world around them, rendering his sight incomplete. Ghanyarah blinked a couple times, adjusting to the strange image fed to his mind. She wanted to know who he was, and in kind, he wanted to know who she was. But there was a lot more of him existing than there was of her. "My name is Ghanyarah. I live alone. I used to have friends, family, but they are gone." The reptile answered, caring little if the name was too long or complicated, or if his backstory was too much. There were Gembounds who referred to him by other names. Sometimes it was a shortening of his name - Yara - other times it was something completely different, like Pops. He didn't care for nicknames. It had been quite an ordeal for him to find his name, and he wore it fully with pride.

"What is your name?"

@Lituus

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Many a thought continue to swirl in her mind. His answers are a salve, at least, and the discontent eases in her youthful expression. Large eyes blink a few times more, then settle on the large, rosy eyeball of her host. "Cetus? ... Your home?" The bat parrots everything he says, tasting those words for the first time. An impossibly slight fleck of multicoloured stone rests at the base of the bulbous mounds of her nose. Her eyes are spread wide apart, and two giant ears remain erect and attentive. "Ghanyarah." Her mouth opens and closes a few times; her own tongue flicks out to touch the base of her snout, subconsciously mimicking him. "You sound awfully lonely, Ghanyarah." The bat hangs ever lower over the edge of his snout just to peer more directly into his eyeball. Her claws keep her from falling. Clingy things they were.

Her head lifts to the tree nearby, catching sight of something blurrily carved into the bark. Wait, no. Faces could be vaguely made out. "Alone? You're not alone!" she grins, looking back to him for a small moment. She pulls herself back between his brows and climbs higher onto the dragon's skull, fumbling around the gem only to make quick work of the length of his spine, after a few slips, so as to move closer to the carvings. She finds them utterly enchanting, and hugs herself to the webbed spines of his back in her observation. Squinting and pointing at them with an elongated thumb. "See?"

Speaking of, the rosy membranes beside her catch her attention. They were kind of like hers, weren't they? The bat looks down at her own self and opens a single wing, just to compare it to the structures that he had. Would that she had scales. All the had was... messy, baby fur. "Why is everything so white?" In references to the heavy fog littering their surroundings in a cloud.

Distractions were all around her, but tried keep the majority of her attention on Ghanyarah. A thumb reaches up, high, in attempt to grasp the lowest peak of the webbed structure. Her weight would be so slight that it probably wouldn't cause it to bend overmuch. In her desire to continue scaling this mountain...

... she manages to succeed. Tiny claws hook over the top of the webbing and she peers to whatever was on the other side of his body. Her her feet hike up under her so she can hang upside-down from him. There we go. Much more comfortable! Her wings fold inward, hugging the sides of her body as she points her nose back at him.

spread your wings

earth element - lituus - vesper bat
tags @Ghanyarah

Well it seemed all he needed was a few words to turn the once silent baby bat into a chatterbox. Ghanyarah flicked his tongue with satisfaction hearing her echo the words he himself had slowly articulated, hoping that at least her brain was developed enough to make sense of them. She bounced them right back, appearing to process what he had told her. Then she repeated his name too, much to his delight reproducing each syllable with childish ease before flicking her nose with her own tiny pink tongue. He grinned.

Then she tossed something at him that instantly tightened his heart. Ghanyarah's grin faltered as she pointed out that his situation sounded lonely. That was something he'd been feeling incessantly for... how many cycles? Practically the only feeling that took precedence among his thoughts? Every now and then, he'd swallow down a spike of anger, but for the most part it was feeling sad and sorry for himself that he had nobody to really talk to. The Gembounds he used to enjoy were gone. He felt like it might have been his fault, partly because he had been attacked by that witchy dog from the swamp and gone away when his friends needed his protection most. Ghanyarah being awfully lonely was an understatement.

The bat tested her words out, realizing suddenly that he wasn't alone. Ghanyarah had drifted back into his mind and snapped back to her when she started to climb further up his snout onto his head. Her weight was minimal, but even so, he lowered his head slightly and rolled his eyes back to try and see her, to no avail. Just barely he could see her extended digit gesturing to the tree and tilted his skull to examine the sketches. She couldn't believe that the sketches would actually keep him company, could she? They didn't talk! They didn't observe him with awe or quiver with fear. If anything, they served as a reminder and made him feel worse.

Ghanyarah huffed and looked away from the tree, but this time he didn't understand what she was asking. He didn't know what it was that was white around them. Usually ice and snow were white, and he'd far prefer ice and snow ever since growing his new fins, but there was none of that here in Cetus. The air had a pale translucence to it, the humidity condensing into a fine mist that wove through the trees. As he was examining the distance, he realized that she had climbed atop his fins and hung herself upside down. He could only guess that she'd been talking about the mist, and so he reached out for the water around them, attempting to push it aside.

With a slow sweep of his head from side to side, Ghanyarah tried to condense the mist further into bubbles of water in order to clear the air, but there was just too much of it around them. What mist he did affect he could see swirl around like a thin smoke, catching sunlight and curling into itself, briefly dispersing before more mist filled the previously empty space. "Mist." He pointed out, neutral towards what was practically a failure. Maybe it was better as a demonstration. "It is water in the air. Water, like my magic."

@Lituus

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Whether or not she truly believes the drawing could keep him company remains to be seen. Though possessed of a particular awareness, her sense of logic may have not quite been all there. Ghanyarah's first words to her doubtlessly inspired her own, and glad was she to have found the voice that had been stuck in her throat.

If her eyes weren't already wide with wonder, the sudden manipulation of the mist before them only inspires further awe. Was it him.. or just a trick of the air? "Mist and Magick..." A dark wing extends at her side-- a stretch-- as her tiny, big-eared head looks around at the curling mist. She knew what these things were, didn't she? Familiar, but.. foreign. His explanation of the cloudy phenomenon did not quite compute, however, as she neglected to touch back on it.

"What is your magick like? Is it fun?" And there she goes, shooting off questions one after the other. "Do I have magick too?" Her wings flutter with anticipation, or perhaps just to get his attention. Was she sticking his tongue out at him? A queer thing, she was. "What are these things for? Are you some kind of fish, Ghanyarah?" Really? Yes. The claws of her feet shimmy her down the length of the webbing, closer toward his shoulder. Fish didn't come onto land, silly bat. Part of her may have realized that seconds later, but the words had already been spoken!

The stimulation beginning to flood her would have been fur-prickling to anyone else, but somehow.. she manages. By keeping her mouth active, more than likely. It is helping distract her of all the aural input she was receiving. Sensitive ears could pick up.. just about everything in their immediate surroundings. The movement of insect wings fluttering here and there. Shifting leaves. Rippling water. Beetles crawling across the soil around them. She licks her snout again before pointing her attention back to him.

OOC: Bless this lizard.

spread your wings

earth element - lituus - vesper bat
tags @Ghanyarah

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