ORIGIN

The wolf inside her shiny yellow chrysalis awoke, and while still barely awake, her Magic escaped her without her knowledge. Suddenly, from nowhere, the sound and feeling of multiple heartbeats filled her ears and her chest. For a moment, her own heartbeat was lost to her, and her ears pulled back along her skull at the sound. Suspended in amniotic fluid, nestled inside a faceted chunk of tourmaline, she instinctively began to push with her little body, fueled partly by the sound of a hundred tiny heartbeats, which had kicked her adrenaline into gear. And then, she was sprawled on the ground, sucking in air for the first time. Her light brown eyes opened, and then squeezed shut again at the light, and she yipped in surprise and annoyance. On wobbly legs, she pushed herself up, unsure, yet, of her balance.

It was only a matter of time before the robed figure made its way toward Eridanus. Exploring the area as it was, certainly it would have eventually been drawn to such a plant-rich room. It stood in the entrance for a moment, hands lifted and burying themselves into the thick fur of its neck, taking in the gaping cave structure with awe. One hand lifted to its mask, which it lifted only slightly from the bottom, so that the air could reach its slitted nostrils purely. So crisp.

It ventured further in, running its hands gently over the plant life as if they were old friends. The large mushroom in the center of the room was very intriguing. As it moved under the shadow of the silver cap, the creature paused to view the yellow chrysalis which it had come to accidentally witness. Indeed, it did come to these sections to study the life here. What had caused such a stir in activity, and how were they spawning? Just like this then, out of a lone chrysalis? It crouched beside the stalk of the mushroom, wrapping its arms around its knees. Though the eyes of the mask were one shape, and the eyes of the creature itself were a deep black, it was watching intently.

The chrysalis cracked open, and out slid a child of the cave. A pup. The figure leaned on its hooves, watching as the small canine stood itself up. Ah, the cave was producing them itself? Looking around, the figure could not confirm or deny a parent had been here. How had the chrysalis spawned? It looked back to the pup, its head tilted. Did it not have a Mother? Even the figure itself had a parent.

It rested its chin on its palms, elbows resting on its knees as it continued to view the pup curiously. What was brand new life like in the cave, then, if it was birthed alone? There were caretakers before. Were they still around? It had so many questions.

The pup had not yet noticed the presence of the strange creature nearby. She was far too focused on attempting to take her first steps. She wobbled some more on unsteady legs and then lifted one paw into the air to move it forward — and promptly toppled over, booping her face on the ground, tumbling head over heels, so that she ended up on her back, staring up at the ceiling of the Cave. And that was when, at the edge of her vision, she noticed the other creature in the room with her. Immediately, she scrambled back up onto her paws, adrenaline keeping her legs from crumpling, though they trembled fiercely.

Despite her terrible fear, a fear that told her to run away and hide and never show her face again, she forced herself to hold still. This was her first interaction with another being. And even though she was terrified, she was also curious. She did not move towards it, she could not make herself stop being completely afraid, but she did not move away, either. She cocked her head to one side, then the other, in curiosity, wondering who and what the creature was, and why it was looking at her.

It was fascinating that the new life was already initially programmed to teach itself things, like walking. It watched the pup try and take its first steps and fail, tumbling onto its back. Long ago, they instilled these sorts of things in new creatures too, but they did not start as such young children; and anyway, it was not the job bestowed upon this creature. This one managed other things, but it did know new life was matured and could walk, fight, and die the moment it was born.

Its eyes glanced at the chrysalis for a moment. These were brand new children, starting from the beginning. A shuffling from the pup caught its attention, and it looked back toward the newborn. The young wolf was seemingly startled, having just noticed the presence of another being. The creature shifted its cheek into the palm of its hand, tilting its head more, and waved toward the pup innocently. Its eyes closed happily in the open spaces of the mask. It meant no harm. It didn't know how to communicate with such a new life, but it created things too. It took great care in the living plants it looked after as a hobby, but its job was creating and maintaining items. Still, each thing it created - plant or item - was like a child to the figure. It loved all its creations.

It moved its hands in front of itself, put them together, and watched as a blue light grew within them. When it began to bring its hands apart, a copy of the pup formed in the space between them. It was ethereal and light blue in color. It was not a plant spell, but a creation spell unique to the figure's own line. The conjured pup twirled and yipped, and was playful in gesture. It turned to the real wolf pup and greeted it with a smiling face and wagging tail. Behind it, the figure had gone back to resting its elbows on its knees with its chin in its palms, watching with a smile (the only indication being the raised look to its eyes). It could do nothing more than try and communicate like this for now.

The pup wasn’t, at this point, quite sure of what to make of this strange creature. She didn’t know what a wave was, without hands of her own. Had the creature a tail, and would it have waved said tail, she might have understood its gesture as friendship. But she didn’t know what those waggling fingers were, let alone why they moved in such a way. She stared at its hand for a long time after it stopped waving, and then startled a bit when it moved to bring its hands together. Glowing blue light accumulated between its hands, and the pup stared in wonder at the light, forgetting her fear for a moment, and rooted to the ground in curiosity.

But suddenly there was a glowing, moving creature that was yipping and running around, getting closer to her. She could not even register that this ethereal pup was a wolf (even if it wasn’t a real wolf), let alone that it was a copy of herself. Her fear had just shot through the roof, and now she was scampering away on unsteady puppy legs, trying to get as far away from the yapping creature and its creator as she could. She saw a nice patch of undergrowth up ahead and curled up underneath it, turning quickly to look out at the world from her hiding spot. She had no idea if the blue-thing or the thing-with-fingers had followed her. She could only hope she’d be safe where she was.

Failure! The real wolf pup, having been curiously watching him, was absolutely terrified of its conjured copy. The masked figure rested its face in its hand, tapping its fingers against its forehead. So the cave was giving life to new creatures, but they did not recognize their own species it seemed. Perhaps it was just this one. The cave had all sorts of life in it, anyway. Its face slid upward in its hand, peering over its finger toward the underbrush the young wolf had scampered to. The ethereal creation had come back to sit had its creator's feet, but right now the it was trying to figure out a way to communicate properly. It had not heard the language of these ones yet, so it did not know how to speak to them.

It patted the conjured pup on the head. Maybe the other would just like something more simple? The figure closed its hands around the ethereal pup, and slowly the light faded. It assumed not having to watch the dissipation of the familiar would probably be less scary. It shifted forward onto its knees, and stretched itself along the ground until it was laying on its belly in the grasses and plants under the cap of the mushroom. It rested a cheek in a propped up hand, while the other hand twirled around a piece of plant matter. Its hand began to glow green, and soon the plant was a blooming flower with wide petals that were pink on the outside, fading to orange on the inside. It was large, probably the size of the pup's face.

It idly grew more plants, smaller than the large flower, but they also began to bloom into various flowering types. Some of them looked like tiny fruit trees. The creature did not look back at the hiding pup, but instead tried to let her come out when she was ready. Its garden was glowing with its magic, and the creature poked at the air occasionally, creating tiny flying lights: conjured fireflies, but smaller than normal. Unlike its previous conjuration, these firefly specks were yellow.

OOC: Short post is short.

The pup was still scared, even as she watched the scary blue-thing disappear in the other-thing’s hands. The loudness of the conjured creature had startled her and she was still determined to stay right here under the plants where no one could get her. Curiosity slowly overcame her as the thing-with-hands laid down and flowers began to grow. Even more curiosity piqued when little sparks of yellow light shot from the creature’s fingers. The pup lifted her head from the ground where she’d been crouching, ears pushed forward. Some part of her began to forget her fear, but her legs refused to budge. She whined, conflicted. She didn’t know if she could trust the masked being or not.

It could hear the wolf pup whining, but it did nothing more than continue to grow its miniature botanical garden. Had courage been lost to the cave children? Since these ones did not have parents, they were not created with the image most ideal. There were those before each responsible for putting the pieces together. It could recall an instance it had been told of where a rebellious act led to two escapees from the cave; and it started with one of them refusing to put chaos into the newborn they were creating.

Its hands hovered around the growing plants. A mini cherry-blossom tree began to curl up from the center, twirling around the flower in the middle. The tiny tree wrapped around the stem of the flower and branched outward, just below the petals. Its branches reached wide and bloomed a pale pink, almost lavender. Soft, glittering sparkles fell below it, imitating falling petals. It had been shared such an image, and it grew such trees in its own garden, but life size; but never did it see these naturally in the cave. The figure knew they grew on the surface, somewhere.

The small pup’s legs began to wander out into the open again, slowly but surely. Her tail remained curled around her back leg, ears flat against her skull, mouth closed. But she was curious enough now to make her way back towards the stranger and his odd magical plants. She didn’t know what Magic was, and might not ever truly understand it. To her, in this moment, her own Magic was as natural to her as breathing. And just as one cannot control one’s breathing without becoming aware of it, the pup had no control over her Magic. Watching another being sprouting a tree from nothing was fascinating to her, mostly because she had no idea what was going on.

She stopped a few feet away from the masked figure who was laying in the ferns and grasses of Eridanus, but she wasn’t focused on him. She was staring at the tree that was continuing to grow, brown eyes taking in the beauty of its pink blossoms. Her ears pushed forward in curiosity, mouth opening and closing in a series of short, inquisitive whines.

Finally, the pup came out on its own to inspect the garden. The figure continued to let the garden grow, so that the pup could explore where it wanted. It was not very expansive. The pup seemed most interested in the tree that had started to grow in the middle. This was only its inherent plant magic, so there was nothing extremely exciting it could do with that, unlike its creation magic. It rested its chin in its hands, observing the newborn for a moment, letting it grow more comfortable in its presence.