ORIGIN

Long limbs carried her through the undergrowth, the tips of leaves gently stroking her flanks and whispering as they fluttered behind her. Through vague beams falling through the canopy she could see the path ahead, a path she'd walked many times towards a burbling stream. Silently, she slid beneath towering mushrooms and ancient, gnarled tree trunks until the undergrowth began to thin. Her enormous ears pricked up, however, as she heard the sound of another creature passing close by.

Raising her head tall and proud, she turned towards the sound, her tail twitching curiously as she peered intently through a sheen of quartz which hid the glitter in her eye.

The dice she carried by a thin cord in her jaws clinked softly with the slightest of movements, and her curiosity, and boredom, got the better of her. There had been so many creatures in the caves recently; she hadn't seen any greaters in cycles upon cycles, but now they all seemed to be emerging at once. It couldn't be a bad thing, Fate decided; finally, she had the chance to do more than throwing her dice. Predicting creatures would always be more challenging than predicting the way a dice would fall, relying heavily on individual personality and emotion. Dice throws, on the other hand, she had finally mastered. Studying decisions and questions, or the the way a cave deer fled was the logical next step.

What kind of creature could it be, moving in the shadows just beyond her? Would it be a carnivore or herbivore? A canid or feline, or cervid or equine? She couldn't hear hooves, so it must be something with paws... and it sounded hurt, by its irregular strides. Raising her nose, she sniffed and found that she could smell burned fur. And the scent of wolf, too. Her tongue lolled out between her jaws, some questions answered but her mind clicking over the various possibilities all the same.

Raising herself tall, Fate listened once more to the sound of the other creature, detecting which way they were moving. She changed her course, and slunk after them, following silently in their tracks until she could see the pitch-black backside bobbing just ahead of her.

She could see now that it was a canine like herself. Unlike herself however, she thought with amusement, it was rather short compared with her looming figure on stilt-like legs.

But it wasn't as though she was hiding. Only following.


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Fate drew to a halt as the strange wolf whipped around, perhaps masking fear with anger. in their voice was a growl, and her head tilted slightly. her jaws opened, pink tongue poking out between sharp white fangs. Behind her gem, her eyes were sparkling with amusement, but other than that, her expression was unreadable. Even at their full height, she was easily a head taller than them, thanks to her long, stilted legs and so she positively loomed over them; an amusing thought, given that she was only a cub the last time she'd met another wolf. Still, Fate wasn't bored enough to be aching for a fight, so she decided to play it safe. With a small yawn that hinted at a complete lack of fear, she sank down onto her belly and folded one paw over the other, though her head still rremained bolt upright and the black mane along her neck remained stiff.

Ears like satellite dishes twitched slightly and she eyed them closely, giving nothing away. She dropped her dice with a small clack next to her chest in between her forelegs, thus giving her room to speak.

"My apologies," she purred with a bow of her head. "It was well into my cubhood since I last laid eyes on a Gembound in such prime condition. I simply had to sneak in for a better look."

Fate watched closely for a while but was unable to risk a glance downwards at her dice. But alas, one had disappeared into a mouse hole, causing Fate to hurriedly drop her muzzle and yank it out.

Argh. I suppose that can be called a 1, then.


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Fate chuckled quietly, half to herself, and dropped the die again, more carefully this time, between her forelimbs. Without glancing down, she knew that they showed the numbers '3' and '6.

"As they say, every scar tells a story," Fate said with a whisk of her tail, and frisk in her voice. "Or, that may just be me. Some don't see the value in such things, but I'd say that it's a waste not to."

It appeared as though the maned canine was pleased by the compliment, although it was hard to be sure. She decided that she liked this black one. As much as Fate appreciated solitude, there were some things oneself simply couldn't provide. "You could say that, m'dear," she said, an ear flicking and eyes glancing away beneath the dark cover her gem gave. "Solitude grants many gifts- From what I've known, greater Gembounds always leave deeper scars. Is that right?"

She could afford a closer look at the burns they bore- her gaze lingering on each one, wet nose drinking in the scents.

She pricked her ears at their question, letting out a chiming laugh. "I'd say I'm just used to it, but I'm quite sure it's a matter of closeness. Press your muzzle to mine and you may just see my eyes."

Her tail once again flicked, her muzzle crinkling playfully. An invitation, or a warning?

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Fate couldn't help but feel amused by their advances, and knew then that she had them wrapped around her finger. She hadn't meant this as a test, but somehow, it had become one. Fate's tail twitched again, and with a flash of white teeth in a grin, she allowed them to draw close in. She hardly dared to breathe, feeling their breaths on her sensitive whiskers.

She gazed back at them, looking deep into their eyes to see if she could tell what they were thinking- what they were about to do. She ingrained their eyes into the very heart of her being, reading their motions like a map, and learning.

It may have been hard for the other wolf to do the same, but perhaps he would able to catch a glimpse of what lay behind her gem- eyes of pure, pitch black, like orbs of tar, with no iris to speak of.

Finally, Fate decided that she'd had enough, and broke contact with a mischievous yawn, stretching her jaws wide and sighing deep and long, pink tongue stretching out. She kept her gaze on them all the while, although it was nigh imposssible to tell.

"Straight to the point, aren't we?"


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Fate's tail twitched, and she still rested coolly on her belly with paws folded over one another. One paw toyed with her dice, rolling them over to display each pattern of dots."Oh, please," she purred, but not without smugness. "Beauty means nothing if you have to be so close to see it. On the other hand, I learned much from your eyes."

Of course, there was nothing she'd learned that she could say with confidence and full truth, but she had looked hard and she firmly believed that, like the physics governing how they landed, there were ways to use the eyes to predict one's actions, too.

As they asked her name she smirked, turning her gaze down to the paw, always toying with that dice. "You may already know my name," she teased, coyly. "...And if you don't, well... perhaps I'm not worthy of it after all."

Her ears pricked, and she tossed the dice with her paw onto the ground before her, watching keenly as they rolled and came to a halt at a tree root.

The number is 9, a 4 on one and a 5 on the other.

Fate carelessly kept on tossing, like a cat playing with a toy, her gaze turned downwards as she carefully took note of every roll.

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