ORIGIN

Black was scrabbling on the stone, trying desperately to drag himself away from his own failed spell, when the lightning struck. The sudden removal of the force pulling him back sent him flying, tumbling over the stone, and the CRACK of thunder sent him scrambling further, low to the ground and with his short hackles on end like a bristled brush.

The dog turned at a safe distance, crouched and wide-eyed, tail tucked, staring at the generator.

His shock quickly receded as he realized what had happened, and somehow, it seemed perfectly and entirely natural. He stood straighter, catching his breath, and padded back a few paces toward Winter and Kera. The blinding nature of the light had him squinting after so long in the darkness, but it was, after all, what the white wolf had wanted. Surely it would have been what White would have wished, as well. He attempted to draw the rest of his magic around them like a cloak, to dim the so-blinding brightness. All around the three, the light rapidly dimmed, darkness falling over them as if a shadow were passing overhead, but he did not return it to full blackness.

He barely noticed the strange, blue wings flickering around the snake's back; he wasn't sure what it meant, and so he simply noted and then disregarded it, for now.

"It is back where it wishes to be," Black rumbled, staring at the generator and its contained storm. His tail wagged once, briefly. "It is no threat. It has not harmed us, and it has made its presence known." Something in the black dog's mind had attributed sentient qualities to the storm, and for whatever reason, he was absolutely certain that it was a thinking, sapient being.

Clearly, if it had wanted to kill them, it could have, but it hadn't; it had indicated that they should fix the generator, and now it was within. They had, he presumed, done well. But what were the storm's motives?

"Be wary," Black barked, voice loud... to the storm, "that you do not do too much. It is very bright," he added. Again, addressing the generator itself, and the power within. He supposed the storm already knew better--perhaps it was just excited to be home.

He then turned, looking to Kera, and to Winter. "I believe the stone was a hero who fought the dragon, a hero which did not speak. It may be best to revive it. Perhaps one of you can do so. If you cannot, I know how." He stared at the pair, intently, fully expecting both to have every idea what he meant despite their apparent youth--and as if expecting them to have the maturity to make the decision.

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The wolf pup's eyes briefly flicked towards Winter. I owe you my life. She did, but Kera did not feel the boost in ego that she should have. Too concerned with the generator, the glowing-too-brightly lights, Kera's attention was instead drawn to the cluster of bioluminscent mushrooms that had grown in front of her.

Her ear flicked towards Black as he spoke. She glanced between the overloaded generator and the dog with the faintest of frowns. "It might break the lights forever," she warned. "It's made the lights too bright."

Her idea-- to toss the topaz back into the generator --was quickly forgotten and dismissed. It likely wouldn't have helped anything regardless, and so instead she simply paced towards the stone and (if Winter didn't guard it) moved to nuzzle it quietly.

It was a hero. "It didn't speak?" She asked quietly. "It might have been prey, but I don't know how to revive it."

She turned her head back to Black, expectantly, "how do you revive someone?"

Black stared down at the stone.

"You must impart yourself into it. your life essence. Perhaps you are too young," he added thoughtfully. "But when this is done, the stone cannot be moved. It must be done somewhere safe. Far from the Betrayer's eyes. Or she may do with it what she sees fit. Let us take it from here, and give it life; I will guard it as it grows. Should Raheerah return, we may need its aid once more." Black considered, briefly, that Nemean had deliberately placed the stone there that they might find it and give it life once more. But surely, if it were hidden from her, it could hardly be manipulated to do her bidding?

Perhaps the stone could not even be revived. They would need to take it away, and try it; this was the only way to find out.

He glanced back up at the storm once more, and then down at the white snake, waiting to see if it was able, yet, to move.

"Carry that one. Perhaps it is cold."

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Winter was listening to what Kera and the dog were saying, but she was unsure she understood. She did not know anything about the topaz, only that it had been jammed into the generator and she had pulled it free. She did not know anything about giving it life. She didn't even think she was old enough to even try, nor was Kera. But she was confused how it was going to help them.

She also realized that the area around them had gotten much darker, so she lifted her head, no longer blinded. She looked at Black, confused. "How will that help us? And what are we going to do about the generator?"

She looked at the topaz and wondered. Was it really a gembound? Or the remains of a gembound? Could she revive it? Or Kera? Or Black? She didn't know what would happen, but she certainly wanted to see.

When I speak.

When I think.

Kera shook her head. She didn't know, exactly, what Black meant-- but she would keep a mental note of it for a time when she was older. "I arrived not long ago," the puppy said quietly, eyeing the topaz again. "You can take it into one of the tunnels outside of this place. The one between here and the crystal-room isn't travelled very often and there's a bit we can put it into where it's hidden."

Tunnel N. She had lost a fight there and since used it for sleeping. If they were going to revive some fallen hero, she would be alright with giving it up. She would help protect it, and perhaps her friends would be alright with protecting it, too.

Anything to stop Nemean, really.

Her gaze moved towards Winter. "If it can't be moved after it's been revived then the Betrayer can't use it to block up the generator again," she explained. "I don't know what to do with it. It might break the lights and I don't know if it's possible to fix it."

Her eyes flicked towards Black again, opening her mouth to speak-- to ask the older gembound what they should be doing, but something stopped her. She instead dipped down and picked up the topaz in her mouth, silent.

Black turned to respond to Winter, but before he had a chance, he felt the staggering power of the entirety of the storm hurtle into him. It was a shock, bright, like lightning filling him with its energy, and the lingering sense a moment later of a being within him, one not himself, left him standing, shaking with the intensity of it.

He listened to it rasp its wheezing words from his own deep throat, felt its use of him, and fear briefly spiked in him. He tested, and found that he could still think, move, speak; and so the fear fell away. He considered. He had known the storm to be sentient, and to not wish to truly harm them--at least, that is what he believed--and now, if it needed to communicate with them, and if he were able to allow that, he saw little reason to fight it.

Not that he could have, anyway. He stood more upright from his braced position, and looked to Kera and to Winter, speaking in his dignified, rumbling voice, though the trembling born of exertion remained.

"The storm is within me," he declared; and then, to the being within, he spoke aloud further, looking off into the distance. "Vaatraah. I am darkness, and the void; I am Black." He felt that he should explain his motives, his purpose--and so he rapidly organized these thoughts, and spoke further. "I am a guardian. I watch what is, and I watch for the Betrayer."

He paused. Considered. He looked to the little ones. "Should I lose control of my form, you must flee," he decided. He was not all-powerful by any means, but with a physical body the creature--the storm itself--might be even more dangerous. Not that it had been before, but he didn't want to be responsible for their deaths.

Just in case.

To the creature within, the alien twinned being sitting oddly alongside his own consciousness and soul, he spoke further: "What do you seek?"

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With the gemstone still in her mouth, Kera began to back off as she saw the lightning hit Black. The pup had expected to see him laying there, limp-- like dead prey --but he was still standing. She shook her fur out, watching. With the flick of an ear, she backed off further and set the topaz down on the ground and plonked herself on top of it, protectively. "What do you mean?" She asked as she tried to get herself comfortable with the gem pushed hard against her chest.

When Black spoke for the second time she was more confused. She hadn't realised until now-- but she didn't know either of the other gembounds. Her gaze flicked between the dog and the snake, briefly. "I'm Kera," she said. "I was born to help turn the lights on."

I'm gonna turn the lights on didn't exactly work as an introduction anymore.

She continued to watch Black for the time being. She wondered-- if briefly --how they would know if he lost control of his own body. He didn't seem particularly active or mobile-- but what would he do, and what would the storm do that was different?

She frowned. "Is Vaatraah your name, or is it the gem's name?" She asked the storm within Black. A part of her wondered if the word 'Vaatraah' was mere noises-- the first thing it could croak as it inhabited the dog's body. "Where did you come from, and why did you keep trying to hit things?"

Curling herself around the topaz stone, Kera rested her head on the cave floor and watched warily, unblinking, as she waited for some sort of sign to flee and take the gem with her.

Winter flinched as the generator released a huge bolt, going straight for the dog. Her hood flared and she stood straight and tall, fear running through her like electricity. She shivered at the voice. She didn't like it and the way it used Black's body both disturbed and infuriated her. She hoped that the dog hadn't been hurt too much by the power surge. Incredibly, he looked okay; at least, he didn't crumple under the incredible energy.

But this confirmed that the storm was sentient. She had felt it on her very first day, the storm above. It had eyes, somewhere that they couldn't see. The storm had known she had hatched. And now it had a voice as well.

She wanted to know about it. Why it was alive, where had it come from, how could they stop it. She dropped down to the ground and very carefully made her way towards Black. She did her best to fold her hood and make her seem as not threatening as possible. When she would get close enough, she would carefully touch his paw and try to get as much glimpsing memories as possible, hopefully from the creature inside of him.

When I speak.

When I think.

Black stared down, pendulous ears pricking up, but made no move to retreat as the snake touched his large paw.

Whether she saw anything from the storm remained to be seen--but of him, she might see much.

A vast black dragon, wings filling Polaris, the ceiling shuddering as flame filled the air. Another dragon--this one white, furred--and blood, blood everywhere. A great sea-beast, erupting from a dark cave full of water, three hundred feet long and all screaming and great lamplike yellow eyes, and a group of Gembound--all young--on the shore facing him down. A dozen briefer, more unclear images: a brownish wolf peering at Black. A pile of stones, unclear from context. A black crow holding something glowing in its talons, and a white, winged and feathered dog bounding away toward the Spire. A great stone throne in the near-dark, under a carpet of star-glittering cave ceiling.

Should the storm show anything of its own, it might be hard to pick out what memories belong to Black, and what are the storm's.

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