ORIGIN

There were several things Kera had decided not to question in her life so far.

The first, why water was wet. It has no business being wet. Land usually doesn't have to be wet.

The second, why she had to eat meat while others, like Kielo, ate plants.

The third, why the hell three galaxy-birds wanted rocks.

Kera had no business dealing with the petty (and unexplained) arguments of birds, of all things, and she had been ready to let them go about their business while she-- an organized and very busy wolf puppy --focused on trying to get the lights back on. Someone had to.

That was, until, Kera realised one very important thing about the reward. Wings. Kera made an immediate list of pros and cons of having wings. The cons went thusly: it was a waste of time. It had no value. Kera did not actually need wings. Flying brought her closer to birds. Kera hated birds. It's a waste of magic. It's likely hard to fly a wolf through cave tunnels. Kera was fine with walking and running. Kera was probably better at walking and running than she was at flying.

The pros: they were WINGS.

This was enough to have Kera plunging through Polaris and squinting through dim light. She needed yellow or gold ones-- the colour of her precious light --to pledge allegiance to the bird that resembled the light the most. As much as she distrusted all birds of all shapes and sizes for her previous two betrayals, if she had to pledge allegiance to any bird, it would be to the one that had some semblance of light.

Half-running, half-searching, Kera began her frantic hunt for.. yellow things.

Nothing yet, but it was hard to see-- not to mention there were probably other gembounds looking just as frantically as she was. If they had taken all the gold stones first, Kera wouldn't get her golden wings.

There was no way in hell she was missing her opportunity for wings.

Unable to find anything in the main area of Polaris, Kera ran toward the crystal river instead, sniffing around the riverbed before wading into the rushing water until she was about belly-deep.

Kera did not mind swimming, or water. She was good at swimming, believe it or not. She liked to swim, and practised it in the dim light of Polaris. She did not expect anyone to even bother looking in the near-black water for stones. She wasn't sure if she would even find anything in there, but it was worth a shot.

Wading into the river was cold, but Kera did it anyway. This was the sacrifice of a true hero. She took a moment, staring into the rushing water, to consider her life choices.

A moment or two later, she decided that, yes, this was the reasonable thing to be doing about two weeks into her life.

Lunging forward, jaws snapping, Kera's entire face went under the surface of the water, where she did indeed find rocks. She scooped up as many as her maw would carry, and then rose again, thrashing briefly, to move to the river bed.

She practically vomitted the rocks back up and started picking through what she'd found, using the dim glow of the rocks around her to look through her findings.

There were no yellow rocks.

Damn.

Back into the river she went.

If the wolf puppy knew any real swear-words, they would all tumble out of her mouth as she waded back into the river. There was very little that could convey the emotion of going into ice-cold water other than a good F-word, or a "shit, that's cold," and so on and so forth.

The words that did fall from the wolf's tongue weren't exactly eloquent, however. "GIVE ME YOUR ROCKS, WATER," she bellowed at the surface of the river before plunging her entire face back into the icy water.

With another mouth full of an assortment of rocks, Kera carried them back to her pile of other, not-at-all-golden rocks. She dumped them unceremoniously and began searching through them.

And there it was. A yellow stone.

Hell. Yes.

Those wings were as good as hers. She'd be the best light-bringer these caves had ever seen-- not that she wasn't already, of course --but how many rocks did she have to deliver to the bird?

Kera did not know. She picked up the golden rock and buried it in the mud by the river before plunging herself back in to continue looking for more.

Screaming into the water seemed to have somehow helped, considerably, because when Kera's face was launched into the water again, all she bit down on was wet sand and mud. She recoiled, head exploding out of the surface of the river again as she spluttered and spat out sand.

Needless to say, she hadn't found any rocks.

The puppy took a moment, washing out their mouth in the rushing water, before moving upstream until she felt more rocks under her paws. Here would probably yield better results-- given that there was something here, this time --but she needed a moment to brace herself.

She briefly considered giving up, until she considered the thought of other people flying around while she was land-bound like some peasant. Kera refused to be the weird one. She would have wings like the rest of them.

She'd have the best wings.

A moment after bracing herself, Kera's head was under the surface of the water once more. Half-choking, her jaws gathered up as many rocks as she could before she resurfaced, wading through the cold river and vomitting the rocks back up onto the shore.

She nosed through them for a moment, and found a second yellow stone. She wondered if two would be enough-- how many would everyone else gather? Kera did not know. She decided to search through the river a little more before looking elsewhere, too cold to continue being in the water for too long.

Nosing her precious rock to safety, under cover, Kera turned and went back to wading through the water, finding a nice pile of rocks to search through on the riverbed before once more plunging her face into the cold.

With a fourth pile of rocks in her mouth-- along with the foul taste of dirt and sand and mud --Kera moved back to shore and dropped the rocks down. She nosed through them for a moment before discovering another golden rock.

Good. Good, good, good, good.

Good.

Scrambling back out of the water, Kera shook herself dry with a long whine. With three rocks, Kera was sure the wings were as good as hers-- for sure, at least --but in the off-chance it wasn't, Kera decided to look through Polaris more.

She had also decided to look through the tunnel leading to Orion, in case there was more to find there.

She shook herself again before picking up her prized rocks, heading downstream to collect the third, and then looked around. Where next? The spire, perhaps? There were plenty of things to see around there, but it might be raided already of everything it has.

With a sigh, Kera resigned to searching along the walls instead, sniffing quietly with her mouth full of stones.

A moment or two of sniffing around the-- thankfully dry --grounds of Polaris, Kera discovered a blessed fourth rock. She had to adjust the rocks in her mouth already, a little awkwardly, to pick it up and carry it.

She wouldn't be able to do this for much longer. She'd have to bury them.

The thought of burying them and them being found and stolen made the wolf grimace, but it would have to be done. She shook herself again, whining, and began to dig through soft dirt on the cave floor.

She dropped in the golden rocks and smoothed over the dirt with a longing grumble, and onwards she went, nose to the ground, looking for more.

Nothing yet, but Kera wasn't sure what she was expecting-- not yet. If Polaris was a fruitless search, then she'd check around the Spire before leaving for Orion again to deliver her four rocks to the yellow-bird.

Moving away from the walls and lifting her head from the floor, the puppy half-bumbled, half-ran towards the tall glowing... thing, in the centre of Polaris. Kera wasn't entirely sure what it was-- or what it was named --only that she was fairly certain it was, in fact, a thing.

She slowed down as she came to the base, breathing heavily, with her nails clicking against the cave floor. Weary, she began to search along the base of the spire, sniffing quietly around, for more yellow rocks.

Kera had paced around in a circle, sniffing for something she didn't know the scent of, around the spire, but found nothing. Perhaps all yellow rocks had been reaped already, by other greedy gembounds?

Other greedy gembounds who had taken more than one rock and left nothing for others.

Other greedy gembounds that had taken, say, four.

Kera was unaware of the irony.

Forgetting her own plan, Kera lumbered off elsewhere, mouth open and tongue lolling out as she looked around, frantically searching the grounds of Polaris for another yellow rock. Where else was there to check?

There was the generator-- which she knew absolutely nothing about --and the dam, which she was sure was dangerous. Kera did not want to die this day. Not yet. Not before she got wings.

Kera decided to make her way to the generator, but not before searching around the cave floor and behind rocks for... more rocks.