After some undisclosed amount of time had passed in the comfortable orb that was Tala's home, an itch began to pester her. This was not an itch she could scratch, however, and the desire to leave this place started to overwhelm her thoughts. She tossed and turned quite a bit before, all of a sudden, there was no longer a barrier between her and the rest of stuff. She was shocked and just stared at all the cold and ice and open and alone-ness. A stark contrast from her warm, enclosed home.
Instinct told her to cry out and look for her protector. But what protector? For all she knew she was born from who-knows-what and ended up who-knows-where. Instead, she remained quiet and slowly emerged from her chrysalis. Her black fur stood out against all the ice and an immediate sensation of anxiety overtook her thoughts. She scrambled to her legs, clumsily fell to her face and let out a small yip in frustration. Alright, one step at a time. Tala lifted her head but remained laying down. She needed to get out of the sight of any regular passing. True, not many probably made it down this way with how cold it was, but the instinct was still there to be safe and preserve her life.
Slowly she found her way to a standing position and darted her pale gray eyes around anxiously. Looking up, the ceiling was so far away...so very far away. A strange ache started to culminate in her head.
EDIT: The world seemed to vibrate around her, but abruptly stopped. She started to become fatigued and decided to sit back down and take in her new world.
"Speech" Thoughts
There were so many things to do. So many things she could explore. To sniff at and learn. Yet, all this growing she-wolf wanted to do was get herself home. Back to Eridanus where she had hatched amongst all the soft, spongy moss. Where all the ferns grew and vines dances across walls and rocks alike. It was the one place she truly felt at ease in. Of course, that was to save the fact that if Tamelyn was around any place Arkrael may have been at the time she was at ease. She guessed that was just how it went when you had your hatchmate and best friend around.
A soft smile curled the edges of her muzzle and her tail gave a quick sway in it's otherwise slow swish to and fro as she walked. The tunnel was cold. Arkrael knew this, but luckily for her she had fur. Fur that seemed to be growing thicker and thicker with each passing day. Yet...- How did one know when a day had gone by? She knew what it meant, understood the phrase, but there were no indications within the place she resided in to ever give such such signs. It was one of the few things that Arkrael would find herself vaguely pondering about.
The ice would be tricky for this she-wolf if she had not several times before traversed through it's slippery depths. It was the tunnel that connected Orion(her second favorite place) and Pisces. Each had their own unique beauty that Arkrael favored over the rest, but even still it was nothing like Eridanus. She definitely could not wait to get back to her home. Her heterochromia eyes lifted, gazing down through the passageway and studied the walls that were alight with glowing foliage and even along the ceiling lights glimmered and glistened just bright enough. She remembered when the light had been restored to the caves. It had been a grand day indeed. And all thanks to her hatchmate Tamelyn. At least that's what she assumed. There had been others there, but Tamelyn(in Rae's mind) had done most of the work.
With a shake of her head, Arkrael cleared her thoughts and soon picked her pace to a leisure trot. She was full of energy. So it would be silly to travel at such a slow pace. Then another thought occurred to her. She could practice her magic! Normally she was standing still, focusing her entire attention on casting her spells, but this would give her a fine opportunity to practice something a little more distracting; like moving across ice. This time she didn't close her eyes, but she did set her mind to focus.
Post Roll Edit:
The oh so familiar sensation overwhelmed her nigh instantly. A tremble down her spine. The vibrations withing her stone upon her chest that brought instant warmth to her very soul. The humming it emitted as it started to come to life. How long, before her hatching, did she listen to the gems hum and the earth to vibrate all around. And then he felt it. A tug in her chest. A sensation that overwhelmed even the vibrating of her stone.
A gembound
Paws skidded along the ice in surprise. Multi-colored eyes beginning to widen as shock quickly threw her off guard. She skidded a good few feet on the ice, but even then managed to stay perfectly balanced on her paws. There was a gembound here! Somewhere in this tunnel there was one. A new one. She wasn't sure how she knew it was new, but it was. She could just feel it. A wide grin grasped at her muzzle, exposing her growing sharp canines in her sudden excitement before she took off in a sprint down along the ice. Or, really it was just a quick walk. She knew if she started running there would be a good chance she would go sliding right past this new creature.
Soon enough she saw the form. It's dark silhouette first forming until it's features were soon visible the closer Arkrael got. To her surprise it was all too familiar! A wolf! It was another wolf! An excited yip escaped the she-wolf and she picked up her pace just a bit more so she would get to this new wolf all the faster. Not only was she a wolf! But she was a fellow black painted wolf! Albeit, Arkrael had silver mixed within her pelt, but that was besides the point. "Hello, little one," She smiled brightly at the pup. Arkrael was only a cycle and some odd days older than this pup, so she was only slightly bigger. Regardless, this pup was still small to her so it only felt right to call her such until she learned this wolf-pup's name.
It wasn't long before Tala's presence became known to the organic world; one aside from ice and rocks. As she sat in her dumbfounded new state of being, another creature approached her rapidly. The anxieties in her head grew, but she didn't want that thing to happen again. That thing that made her head hurt. She focused on the world in front of her and realized that this creature looked like a bigger version of herself. Well, from what she had seen. Both had dark fur, legs, a tail, ears. At the sight of this animal's stone, Tala strained her gaze as far as she could down, but there was no stone where the other had one. This creature spoke to her but not in an aggressive tone at all. Tala cocked her head to the side, straining to take in this new information. Upon determining no threat, she yipped in approval of this new acquaintance.
And yet what else was strange to her, was that she seemed to understand these words in concept for the most part. There was no way for Tala to know how far in development she was, but the language was one of her own kind for sure. That was no surprise though, they seemed enough alike. She decided to stand up, legs awkwardly splayed apart, and attempt to mimic the sounds. "Hello" turned into "Errrooooooooo". That was good enough. She was satisfied, even though she got a bit carried away. The wolf in her turned the greeting into a drawn out howl-hello of some sort. For all she knew, hello was some sort of a threat, but the kind tone in the others voice convinced her that was not the case. Perhaps this was her protector that was checking on her hatching after all this time? She had no idea. It was plausible that they would look alike, right? Maybe she came here to teach her how to participate in life correctly.
"Speech" Thoughts
The howling response of a word was like heaven to her ears. For the longest the only howling Arkrael would ever hear was her own. That, and her little hatchmate's deerhowl. Tam had a gorgeous howl, even if she were a deer. It was nice to hear a howl from a fellow wolf though. It nearly made her lift her head and give off a joyous song of her own, but she stiffled the urge and slowly eased herself down to rest upon her haunches. She studied the girl over. Looking for a stone that had to be somewhere on her. Arkrael had sensed it. Felt the gem's own personal vibration patterns it let off when Arkrael had used her gem sense. Even if the others did not realize their stone spoke to her.
The she-wolf grinned again. She could not quite spot this ones gem at the current moment. So it was either on a part of her that was hidden from her view, or was deep within her being. Either way did not matter in the least to Arkrael. "My name is Arkrael. What's your calling?" Audits pushed forward in her curiosity. Displaying her eagerness to hear this new wolf's response. Her tail gently tapped against the icey ground. For a moment her heterochromia eyes danced down to the ground this new wolf sat in, curious to see what kind of gem it was they had awoken from. Seeing the colorless, yet very shiney shards scattered about the pups paws her curiosity seemed to grow a bit more. Slowly she reached out a paw and gently batted at the closest shard to her, studying it for only a moment before putting her focus right back to her, hopefully, new howl-friend.
Calling...she recognized the meaning. Somehow, in her so very young being she understood! It meant someway that others would identify her by verbal means. Knowing this information would allow rapid communications between the two parties and be able to talk about others without them being in the direct vicinity. So what was she to tell this new being? Tala thought that her calling must be Arkrael. Important information noted. Now how would Tala respond? She knew her name. Another instinct for sure. The "T" sound was a bit hard for her remedial speech patterns to spit out right away. "Alllaa?" No, that's not right. She crinkled her face into a frustrated grimace. The "R" sound was much more natural for her wolfie self. "Raala." Nope, she shook her head and met eyes with Arkrael, trying to show her that Tala had not quite gotten the name thing down, and that this information was not "up-to-date accurate" so to speak.
She looked at the ground and pounded her front right paw in frustration. Argh!
POST ATTEMPT EDIT
Since her sight path changed from Arkrael to the ground in front of her, pieces of ice, rock, and Tala's chrysalis pieces abruptly flung from Arkrael's direction to Tala's paws, and then to her left side as she switched her gaze. In a fit of confusion and fright, Tala jumped backwards and the disruption stopped. Her heart was pounding, eyes widened. Her confusion turned to irritation. Those things came from Arkrael's direction! Why would she do such a thing?! Her tone sounded so friendly before. Instead of continuing trying to pronounce her name, she stopped, legs tensed up and eyes filled with hurt. She stared back at Arkrael.
"Speech" Thoughts
Arkrael could do no other but smile as the new pup was trying to speak her name. She was about to console the poor thing when she began to get frustrated, but when a strange sensation made her fur stand on in Arkrael froze in her spot. Her eyes swung down, watching as things moved from where they had previously been stationary. What? Her gaze jumped right back up to Tala when she leaped away and looked at her as if she had bared her fangs. Her brows furrowed as her ears swept back to rest against her skull. "What?! No. That wasn't me!" She exclaimed, shaking her head at the idea of it as she scooted back some from Tala.
Not only would she never cast her magic against someone to harm them unless they were attacking first, but she was just not able to move stuff like that. "I can't do that. I can only..." She paused for a moment as she tried to think of the best way to explain to her. Her paw rose and covered her gem that proudly stood out from her chest. "I can feel others. That's what I do. It's how I knew you were here...I sensed your gem..." Arkrael didn't want to scare this new wolf, or kill off the chances of ruining what could be a grand wolfy friendship. Yet there was really no way she could prove that.
If only there was something she could show her to make Tala to believe her. Maybe if she tried to use THAT spell...It would move things yes, but maybe Tala would understand when it did move things it brought the metal ore to her. IT didn't send it out towards others. She would try, and she would hope it wouldn't scare Tala. She closed her eyes, quickly focusing on something she had only accidentally ever used once.
Post roll edit:
Just like the way her stone hummed and vibrated in a certain way when she used certain spells, this certain magic too had it's only unique feeling. It was a deeper vibration, causing the humming to sound all that deeper. Things began to move around them, wiggling free from their confines of the stone and ice all around. The Metal ore reacted instantly. Scrambling and bouncing along the ice floor as it all gathered towards Arkrael, slowly crawling up her legs and spreading out to form a helm over her skull. It spread even more down her spine, reaching out in a strange armor that would protect Arkrael's back should she be under attack. Even more ore continued to gather around the front of her legs in small bits of magnetized metal creating small plates of armor starting up from the top of her paws.
Heterochromia eyes opened instantly as she search Tala's face for a response. "See. If i move things...it comes to me. It wont hurt you..." She gave a curt not, trying to confirm her words to the pup in front of her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I don't want to. I'd like to be friends," She seemed to be blabbering now. A little put off guard by the sudden fear Tala was showing towards her. Especially when Arkrael was by no means trying to get such a reaction from a fellow wolf.
Arkrael seemed upset, but not angry. Her words were almost soothing, if Tala hadn't been so worked up. She watched patiently as things gathered around her acquaintance. With a mixture of calming words and non-hostile materials being drawn to the wolf, Tala started to understand that either what happened was an accident, or that she didn't do it. Did Tala do it? She squinted her right eye in contemplation. Perhaps. The strange explaination seemed to satisfy the youngster and she straightened up her posture and nodded. Yes, this situation was okay now. If she was going to make friends, staying pensive was no way to do it. She stared blankly into space in front of her and concentrated. "Tala," she declared.
Arkrael's name was quite a step up from her own, but the adrenaline and accomplishment didn't stop her from trying her new found language. "ArrrRRRk" Again, she got caught up in the "r" sound. It was just so natural and fun! Her eyes lit up. "Arkrrrrrrr." She actually liked the sound of that! Why couldn't one of them have a name with just Rrrrr? Perhaps her name was just Ark or Arkr? Tala knew that some words were familiar, but others would come in time. Tala only had syllables. "Tala...Arkr?" She pointed her paw at each respective owner.
The stone was another strange thing. Arkrael pointed to hers, but Tala didn't have one where Arkrael did. She started searching her body, turning around in a circle in the process. She though she caught a glimpse of something near her backside but couldn't tell. "Gem..." she mused quietly and sullenly. Perhaps she didn't have one. "Callings arrrrrrre Tala, Arkr. Oh, Gem. No hurt. Be friends." She spurted out most of her new vocabulary. Accomplishment! She was picking up talking quickly. Now what though? Speaking was obviously important but what about the rest of things? She sniffed the air to catch a whiff of her partner and the area surrounding. Cold, for sure. Arkrael had a warm and comforting scent, probably because of Tala's bias towards those of her own kind and recognized that there was no need to feel threatened.
"Speech" Thoughts
Arkr. Such a silly way to say her name, but it only served to amuse the older she-pup. She gave a nod as she slowly released her hold on the magic that could summon the strange ore from the ground. If Arkrael was more focused on the fact she had so successfullly pulled of a spell she had only learned in the heat of a rage, she would feel incredibly proud of herself. A soft laugh escaped Arkrael when Tala began to spin round and round. Nearly causing Arkrael to go dizzy at her repetitive motion. But as Tala did so, something glinted and caught Arkrael's eyes. There! There was her gem!
Almost instantly Arkrael rose to her paws and hopped over towards Tala, her armor finally completely falling from her fur and the ore absorbing back into it's surroundings. She waited for Tala to stop her spinning before she bravely reached up a paw and tapped the diamond upon the pups rump. "Your gem is here!" She turned a broad grin to Tala before gazing upon the gem that belonged to Tala. It was colorless, but it sure was pretty with the way it sparkled with the lights and glow of the foliage surrounding the two.
The other female's approval reassured Tala that she was on the road to success! Woo!
At the moment Arkrael dropped her newly forming armor, Tala jumped in surprise but quickly relaxed, assuming that this was another thing that would not harm her. Arkrael tapped Tala's gem which caused her to sit down immediately. She strained her head to see where this gem was that Arkrael had referred to, but it was difficult to see. It was a decent size, probably around the size of her companion's paw. She never would truly be able to see it wholly without seeing it in a reflection, however. She didn't even know what she looked like yet, really. For all she knew, her eyes could also be different colors like Arkraels'. "My gem..." Tala turned her head to her wolf partner. "My gem... is important?" The tone in Arkrael's voice made it seem very important indeed! Maybe that's what caused those small shards to move before.
This sure was a lot to take in during Tala's short time on this planet, or whatever she was on. Or in. Tala strained her neck to search for an entrance or exit. Perhaps there were others like Arkrael and Tala out there? An entire world of black wolves just waiting to be found! Each with a different gem and power, apparently. "I want..." Tala concentrated hard to form words, "to know more."
"Speech" Thoughts
Were gems important? The question seemed to stump Arkrael for a moment, so she took this time to sit back on her haunches and ponder about it. Yes. They were most definitely very important. Arkrael nodded and turned her heterochromia eyes towards Tala. "They are very important..." Again Arkrael lifted her paw and touched her pawpads against the gem embedded into her chest. She didn't know the full extent of their purpose, or why she felt like they were probably the most important thing about a gembound, but she did. She smiled when Tala expressed that she wanted to learn more. Arkrael couldn't blame her one big. In fact she absolutely agreed with the statement. There were still so many things within the cave that had yet to be explained. Especially the gems that donned every newly born creature that awoke within it's depths.
"I still don't know much about the gems...but I do know...that when I use magic...I can feel my gem as if it comes to life. It sort of...vibrates. And hums it's own song during the time of magic being used. I don't think all gem's do that with their gembounds. That's just how mine feels to me" It's how it had always felt. Even when she was still deep in her slumber protected by the much larger opal back in Eridanus. She had always heard the vibrations of the cave. The unique frequencies that each gem would emit through the ground and walls alike. They had always sang songs that Arkrael had grown so fond to listen too. She wasn't sure others could hear it, the songs of gems and the earth all the same, but Arkrael would only pity them to know they could not hear the beauty that the earth that surrounded them held.
Soon Arkrael set her eyes on Tala again. A warm smile flitting across her muzzle. "I can teach you what I currently know...and then after that perhaps we could learn together," She left the offer open. Allowing Tala to make up her mind on what she wanted to do. She would definitely be most happy to teach this pup how things went within the cave. How to hunt properly, how to track things when it was needed. Perhaps, even though they definitely did not share the same element of magic, she would be able to help Tala learn her own.