ORIGIN

Asimona looked up with surprise when she heard a voice coming from nearby. The voice was calming, soothing, and resonated with some strange new feeling within her that existed next to her own calm confusion. But there was nobody nearby that could have spoken so close like that. She looked at the pearl - was that what had spoken?

Perhaps it was a gemling. But the voice hadn't come from the ground, but from everywhere. Strange. She closed her eyes and tried to retreat into where she had felt the strange mix of sensations before and found herself feeling the mist of the waterfall room once again. Somehow, she was linked to someone standing in the room. She didn't know who they were, or how it was happening, but perhaps the flower had something to do with it.

She came to the conclusion that they were the one speaking. She wondered if they would be able to hear her back. "Hello, I'm Asimona. Some gems call me Asi. Are you in the waterfall room right now? And do you know what's going on?" She shivered, wondering if the other dragon was somehow tied up with this. He had also come with strange phenomena, of others not being able to see him. She wondered if this would be the same thing. She cast a weary eye around, making sure that he was nowhere nearby.

Asimona nodded. "Yeah, this certainly looks like a bone room." She wasn't a huge fan and deeply desired to be back in the waterfall room, Pisces, as apparently it was called. However, the memory of the red dragon still lingered heavy in her mind and she felt another jolt in her belly as if he had just brushed past her. But he was nowhere in sight and his presence was nonexistant in this place. Was he still in the waterfall room? Was he where Rina was?

Then she suddenly remembered that they were connected and she could probably feel every emotion that washed over her. She tried to pull herself back into where she was, wondering if there was any way to block her away from that particular side of her. But she so far had no ideas. "Oh, no, I'm fine, but thanks for asking."

She looked around, suddenly wanting to leave the place. It was so open and murky and just disgusting. Maybe go to Pisces? Perhaps if he was there, and he attacked, she and Rina could fight together! From her brief time in her body, she had seemed like a strong bodied creature. But also, she wanted to join with her so that they didn't have this weird distance conversation. She'd rather talk to her face to face.

"Hey, why don't we meet somewhere? So we can talk this out? The pearls the flowers left behind have to mean something, but it probably won't do us any good alone, even if we do have the mental connection."

Asimona looked back at the entrance to the cave where she had entered. "If Pisces connects to the room of stars, then we could meet in there. I think its the only room that connects to this one." She tried to think back to what she had seen of the room. It had only been a fleeting look as she flew by, but she remembered seeing a tower somewhere near one of the tunnels. "Maybe at the base of the tower?"

Yes, that was a good idea. A specific place to meet the other end of this strange connection. The looked down at the pearl with wonder. Such a small thing had created such an incredible power. She carefully reached forward and picked it off the ground, wondering how she was going to carry it. Not in her claws, she didn't think she had the stamina to fly all the way through the cave. Not in her jaws, she would certainly crush it.

Then she had a strange idea. Without really thinking, she dipped the pearl in the puddle of water left behind by the flower before pressing it against her forehead. She projected her magic, more focused then it had before, and felt the water freeze against her skin, barely a cold nip to her insulated hide. The pearl stuck fast, perfectly frozen onto her.

Happy and proud of her success, she wiggled her shoulder around and the pearl didn't move. With a wide smile, she opened her wings and took off in the direction of the tunnel.

*exit