ORIGIN - [QUEST] K A K U H M [II]

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Faelan watched with a mixture of joy and dread as the small black poof safely made it on to the plateau, and the rock that had cleaved free hit the horse right in the face. The Gembound's lanky, fragile form crumpled and then tumbled down the slope until it lay in a heap on the floor. Whenever the Gemling didn't move after a minute, he rushed over to check on it.

As soon as the broad-chested lion got close to the filly, he could hear her ragged breaths. She was alive, if nothing else. He realized too late, once he was looming over her in fact, that he had no idea what to do. The desire to help was there, he just didn't know how. Faelan gazed down at the ebony foal in concern, his eyes like huge golden saucers.

Finally, desperate to know something, anything, Faelan blurted out,"Are you okay?" Out of desperation, he picked up a large pad, and gently prodded the filly in the back.

Llamrei

The filly groaned, closing her eyes as she tried to get her bearings. The world still spun around her and, if she was capable of it, it was likely she'd have vomited. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she was a horse, a species incapable of vomiting, and even stil she had nothing on her stomach.

Vaguely, she heard the pup say something, voice cocky. King of Origin? Could one just... declare themselves that? Whatever was a King, anyways? It sounded important.

The filly, upon hearing a deeper voice much too close for comfort, and feeling something touch her back, open her eyes. Her heart skipped several beats at the large, muscular thing in front of her, and she screamed shrilly, as though she were being murdered. She didn't know why it scared her so badly, but it terrified her.

Scrambling to her feet, ignoring that she couldn't see straight, she took off at full speed, scrambling up the slope with surprising speed, too frightened to worry about falling. Upon reaching the plateau, she kept running for a few strides, before skidding to a stop, wide-eyed and frantic.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

@Kavish
@Faelan

Kavish turned again, looking down. Dumb lion, wait, a LION! Oh jeez.

"Hey peasant, get your butt up here. Help me explore." Kavish commanded. He needed someone to protect him.

@Faelan

Faelan's claw no sooner pressed into the foal's tender side, then she bolted up and lurched forward at the same time. The young Gembound moved so fast that she appeared as a screaming blur to the much older lion. All he could do was watch with his maw agape as the long-legged filly scrambled up the slope with panicked ease.

The shrill, piercing cries buried their way into Faelan's head, making his teeth ache and his heart race. Why had the little Gemling been making those noises? What did she, and the small black poof, need that was up there? Too many questions to ask flew through his head, and the faint echoes of the screams as they faded into the valley nagged at the lion. One question in particular finally stuck out from the whirlwind of others.

Were the two Gembounds going towards something, or away from something?

Faelan snapped his maned head about to look behind him, and saw the same trail of disturbed dirt and dust that he had followed here. What had happened here, he wondered as his heart raced along with his thoughts. The stress of the situation tapped into his already present magic, though not in the same way it did before. Instead of barely managing to do anything at all, his magic exploded like the filly had.

He was consumed so suddenly by the deafening grating sound, that he roared in surprise and pain. It was as if every rock around him was shifting, pushing against each other in a contest of strength. Faelan squeezed his eyes shut and hunkered down, his ears giving way from grating to ringing. The ringing overrode everything Kavish said, and every noise besides that. It was all he could think about, an unconventional solution to his problem of having too much to wonder about.

Llamrei

The filly's head dropped low, as she stood gasping and trembling, too-long legs spread wide. What had that been?! It had been big, and muscly, and had had very sharp teeth and claws! She'd felt the point of its claw on her back!

Llamrei stood, wide-eyed, as she heard the dog speak to the beast, trying to get over her rush of adrenaline.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

@Kavish
@Faelan

Bumping this to be currently timed — after the conclusion of "Nine Lives: The Generator"

A crack of thunder announced the arrival of the pair; Senka's body rose from the shadows behind the group while her sister's unstable lightning body snapped out of the air like a flash, the two of them watching the intrusion of their home mildly. Vahi's stone was still inside somewhere and Senka was determined to retrieve it to give her sister a vessel to house her energy within—but what were these Gembounds doing in her den!?

Thick shadow engulfed the entire corner of Orion they sat in, sucking all of the light and sound away from them, followed by a multitude of eyes popping up on the walls, floor, and ceiling—she would see them! Everywhere! Vahi's crackling body sparked like a glowing, phasing mirage in the void Senka had created.

"Get out!" Senka demanded, the sound echoing from everywhere.

While the pair of cats were reappearing in Orion, Black was charging heavily and slowly--panting--through Tunnel I. His paws scratched over stone, pendulous ears pricking at the sound of thunder ahead, eyes squinted against the new bright light of the returned orb-glow.

He'd lost them.

He hadn't been able to follow their scent, and they'd moved far too quickly for him to actually chase. But he had questions--so many questions. Something about them disturbed him greatly. When he arrived in Orion, however, he heard the voices far ahead, the southeast corner of the room shrouded in pitch black. He slowed, panting, but headed toward this, pendulous ears pricked up.

It took him some time to cover the distance, and when he did, he found himself confused. Was this here before..?

There was a... hole, in the wall, of sorts. And a plateau? He slowed further, creeping carefully, not calling out nor rushing ahead. In fact, with glances at the eyes, he rumbled a soft and quizzical growl to himself and tried to further steep himself in darkness. Shadows swarmed over his body, his black coat fading into the shadows of the stone around him, and he stared ahead.

Something, here, was greatly amiss.

Silent, he lowered himself to his belly, head low, and tried to merely crawl closer, behind the entire situation--listening, and observing, from the darkness.

________________

The filly's head turned this way and that, trying to figre out what was going on. Her ears flattened at a sudden loud BOOMing sound, leaping nearly a foot off the ground. She wanted to run, desperately, but she feared falling off the plateau and falling down the incline, and breaking a leg. Llamrei was still young, but even she could tell that her legs were fragile, and would break easily.

She whipped around, seeing a figure appear from the shadows. And then, if that wasn't bad enough, a figure seemingly made out of lightning. She made a pitiful sound, scrambling backwards, only to nearly run clear off the plateau as eyes began to pop up on the wall behind her.

"P-please!" she whimpered, shaking her head. "We don't mean any harm!" Unfortunately, her magic would work against her as, in her panic, her eye caught on a rather large rock. It went flying through the air, launching towards one of the eyes.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

The shrill ringing inside the lion's ears finally faded to a dull throb, and the pain from the sudden cacophony inside his head ebbed to a tolerable level. Just when Faelan thought he might have a moment of peace, a sudden BOOM shook the air above him and the rock below him. He tensed as the air condensed, and then watched with wide, frightened eyes as shadow swallowed up all of the nearby light.

The "stars" of Orion no longer shone overhead, leaving Faelan alone with the eyes in the darkness. His own golden orbs stared back in horror and shock. What is this!? He thought frantically while his tufted tail whipped back and forth behind him. The tawny brute wasn't left to wonder for too long though, or at least wasn't given much time to think over it. Seemingly out of nowhere, a booming voice commanded him to get out.

Completely forgetting that other Gembounds were close, Faelan assumed the voice meant him. His already rising fear soared through the cave roof at that assumption, sending an instinctive call out to his magic. The primal, uncontrolled power lashed out at the closest floating eye, sending a shockwave through the ground just in front of the lion. The rock trembled for barely more than a second before going still again though.

@Kavish

Zeno

The storm was gone, but the mystery still remained. Though he'd looked high and low the dam had revealed no meaningful information directly pertaining to the storm above. It had been an interesting sight though, and Zeno had tarried there far too long exploring an area which had previously been inhospitable to living creature like himself.

The small gemless bat fluttered through the tunnels and eventually arrived in the room of his birth, the majestic room of a thousand stars. As was his custom he turned to follow the wall at an upward angle, gaining significant altitude so the ruins below sprawled out like an expansive mural reaching almost as far as the eye could see. This was not anywhere even close to the greatest height he had ascended, but it was enough that he was out of sight of others and able to take in the view for what it was; a gift of beauty that the light was allowing once more.

In one corner of the room, however, the light coiled away in fear. This felt deeper than just a gemmed one playing around with their magic. This was something unusual, something significant, something he had to investigate. Though there was likely nothing he could do to help, it was his station in life to watch. If he turned away from this duty he had assigned himself them for what reason might the caves have gifted with thought and speech and reason at all? Without duty what more was he than an oddity among the his fellow gemless cave bats; a greater gembound in the body of a lesser? Whatever purpose it was for and whatever mechanism it used he was assuredly a greater gembound, and that status carried with it a distinct responsibility.

So the small bat dove down into the darkness, into the void to join his fellow living beings in a world of horror under the omnipresent gaze of the walls. For the moment he chose to take advantage of his lack of any visible gem and continue to play the part of a lesser, finding an outcropping of rock with no eye on it and landing upon it upside-down. He would watch for now, listen, and try his best to understand the meaning of this abandonment of the natural order.

Know yourself
"Before you try to influence others"
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