ORIGIN

The whole journey back from Eridanus had Leon on the verge of tears. He hadn't meant to hurt Makyna. He never wanted to hurt her, he only wanted to play fight, just like she wanted. They only meant to practice sparring so they could be better at fighting, and look what had happened? Leon had seared her chest with four burning claws, leaving smouldering scorch marks in his friend's thin skin. They fled Eridanus quickly after that, and Leon had to make sure Makyna got back to Pisces safely before running off to be on his own. He couldn't bring himself to be by her, for fear that she would be angry at him, or afraid of him, or want nothing to do with him. With his temper running high, he couldn't risk hurting her or anybody else again.

The bear got as far as this tunnel before his limbs had given out, weak from shame. He had clambered onto a low ledge, where the rock wall swept into a platform just above the main tunnel, and there he collapsed onto his stomach, covered his face with his paws and let loose a few quiet sobs. How could he let this happen? He was an awful protector! He didn't deserve to be Makyna's guardian or best friend or anything! What kind of a protector hurt the person they were supposed to protect? The bear sniffled and once his crying had eased away, he tuned into the silence. There was nobody else here, at least in this part of the tunnel. He was alone. But it was familiar.

The dim light, the cold humidity. Leon blinked tearily and slowly sat up. He could remember this place. It felt like forever ago... through his tears, he looked around; it was obvious that many Gembounds had passed through this tunnel to get between Polaris and Pisces, but none of them lingered very long. Traces of shattered chrysali were still interspersed along the tunnel wall. Obsidian and a shiny blue opal. "Rohan," He blubbered quietly, sniffed and wiped the tears away with his paw. It had been forever since he saw his brother. Where was he now? Had he vanished because he knew how destructive Leon could be, too...? The sight of the shattered chrysali, a reminder of his long lost kinship, only compounded his feeling of loneliness.

Leon let loose another small cry, hid his face, curled up against the wall and simmered in his own pathetic sadness.

The lioness had helped him more than she probably realized. How many people ventured down into a trench anyway!? He still donned the chest armor and carried the bones within his mouth, but hadn't made it back to the beast to deliver them yet. When Makyna brought him to the place that Leon was supposed to be, the bear wasn't there. Rohan told her where the creature would be if she wanted to check it out, but he wanted to spend some time roaming the tunnels now that he had the chance again. So he set off, subconsciously heading to the only place he really knew. The armor was not as uncomfortable as it had been earlier; but even though he was used to wearing it now, he still didn't really like it. It made him walk a little funny and he couldn't go particularly fast with it.

As he neared a bend in the tunnel, he stopped to take a break. He set the bones down and stretched his jaw, then tried to stretch his body. It was an awkward maneuver but he managed to work around the armor just fine. He was looking at the bones then wondered if the beast could help him make something to carry the chrysalis pieces in. It had very movable hands and fingers. If Rohan helped it get back all these pieces of things it was looking for, would it want to help the wolf out in return? Wouldn't someone have had to crafted these pieces of armor, anyway? He pushed the bones around with his paw as he thought idly. How would he even ask it such a dumb thing? Would it even be a cause worth helping? He was just being selfish and wanting to carry around pieces of his chrysalis, and that of his brother's; but was it something someone would want to help him with?

"Rohan," a voice said quietly.

He looked up, startled. The hairline along his back had a hard time raising under the chest armor, but his tail filled out just fine. There was nobody near him, so he cautiously peeked around the bend and noticed a familiar, if not larger, brown body slumped over a short distance from him. Leon! he thought excitedly, scooping up the bones in his mouth quickly before nearly tripping over himself as he tried to burst into a run. Running with the armor wasn't exactly an option, so he just kind of quickly waddled with his legs spread far out. As soon as he got close enough, he dropped the bones onto the floor and skip-waddled toward his brother. But something was wrong! Rohan skittered to a halt before his balled-up friend and felt a cold emptiness sink into his chest.

Why was he crying?

"Leon?" the wolf called softly with a tilted head. His low-hanging tail was moving side-to-side very slowly and his ears had laid partially back. He hadn't quite experienced sadness yet.

Leon had since flopped onto his side facing the wall of the tunnel, his back to any travelers that may have thought it appropriate to pass by. Perhaps he was selfish in that he didn't really care about anybody passing through; more so, he hoped that nobody would, so that he would get the tunnel all to himself. It would be a little bit embarrassing to have somebody stumble upon him and see him like this; and yet, Leon couldn't fix himself. Every time he tried to think of something to cheer himself up, his thoughts just branched to something else and made him feel even worse. Every thought about Makyna just left him feeling hollow and angry and ashamed. He really just wasn't having a good time, and it was difficult to pick himself up out of it. How long would he sit here and wallow in his sadness?

Not long, at least, by himself. A couple moments after he had mumbled Rohan's name then started crying again, a familiar voice echoed through the tunnel. Leon's paws fell away from his face and he blinked at the wall. It sounded like... like Rohan. It wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him, was it? It wasn't just some kind of memory magic? Maybe it was Makyna calling out to him. The bear turned, partially rolling onto his back so that he could look over his shoulder. Yet there he stood, his knight in shining armor - quite literally.

The white wolf had come waddling over, carrying with him a metallic chest piece that seemed completely and utterly alien to Leon. He stared at Rohan, dumbfounded at his brother's sudden appearance. It was as if he manifested there completely at the sad whim of the bear, and Leon didn't really know what to say. For a couple seconds, he continued to stare at Rohan, making sure he was real. He certainly appeared so, but... he simply couldn't believe how he seemed to just... appear out of thin air. "Rr.. Roh..an...??" He asked again, rolling over completely so that he was laying on his stomach, head raised to peer tearily over at the wolf.