ORIGIN

Fira seemed to have developed a habit of hibernating every couple cycles or so, and couldn’t figure out how to avoid doing it. Nothing in the Cave captured her attention anymore, which seemed to be the cause of her continuously falling into a Deep Sleep. This was maybe the third time she’d awoken to a chrysalis surrounding her. She could tell because it was completely dark upon opening her eyes and the sound her breathing echoed. Maw sit sit was not see-through like some other gemstones, so she always awoke completely blind. Feeling bone-weary already, she took a deep breath and sighed for a long time. Then she pushed her body against the form of her cocoon and broke out into the world. She blinked hard, squeezing her eyes shut. She had not expected the lights to be on. They’d been off for… well, for a very long time, so far as she could remember. She didn’t know how she felt about them being back on, truth be told.

She sat with the pieces of broken maw sit sit around her and wondered at the brightness of Polaris, having forgotten how colorful this place was…

Fira sat and stared for what seemed like hours, and then came back to her senses, feeling as if she’d once again awoken after a long, long nap. She shook her head, trying to keep herself vigilant, but the task seemed far too difficult. Ever since Destiny had died, it was as if she simply wanted to go away forever, but she hadn’t been able to pull together the courage it took to end her life — to be with Destiny forever. So, instead, she slept eternity away. Gembound did not die of old age. There was no such thing as old age in the Cave. But when you did not truly live, could you really call the acts of eating and breathing living? It was more like… existing, and doing so while you didn’t want to.

The leopard picked herself up and found that her paws were carrying her towards the river, a place that had filled her younger cycles with joy, but now were only a reminder of death and depression. She sat down along the bank and stared into the water, her mind wandering once more. She had vague, dream-like memories of nearly drowning in this river… and Destiny had saved her. She sighed, her whole body heaving with the breath, and continued to stare passively into the rushing water.

Fira lay down then, at the river’s edge, wondering where her children were. She’d briefly come across Joy at some point, but had then gone back into her chrysalis. It seemed she simply wasn’t destined to live a fulfilling life now that her wife was gone. She snorted at the irony of the word destined. Destiny’s name had been a cruel joke, she realized that now. Some horrible twist of fate had caused the platypus to name herself something that would come back later to bite them both in the ass. The leopard placed her chin on her paws, feeling tired — exhausted, even. Bone-weary. And useless. Her children clearly did not need her, as they were both off somewhere else. Destiny was dead and gone, and Fira was feeling that she outlived her welcome here in the Cave…

She closed her eyes against the rush of the water and seemed to fall into a deep sleep, as if to return to her chrysalis yet again…

……

Much later, Fira’s body had gone cold and rigid, all life having left it some time ago. From a distance, she looked like a cat taking a nap at the river’s edge, and until the process of decay took over, that is what she would look like for a while yet. She’d lived a semi-fulfilling life, having a few cycles with her wife, the platypus, Destiny, and having two beautiful children. She regretted not having spent more time with them, but now it was too late. They would have to find their own way in the world. The river continued rushing onward, oblivious to the loss of life at its bank.

[End. Exit Fira into death.]