ORIGIN

High above upon one of the many spires in the area a small bat landed, unremarkable in appearance but possessing a spark of sentience behind its dark brown eyes. Zeno had been to this place before, had seen this creature before. Like him she was a solitary one, but the similarities between them appeared to end there. With an appearance unlike any lesser gembound and a stone upon her neck declaring her worth to the world she should have been by all accounts a part of the society that had formed between the speaking ones of the caves.

But still she continued to hide away. Still she kept herself carefully hidden from the others. Like the black dog this was an individual that broke the assumptions Zeno had formed about the world. The bat had taken for himself the role of an observer, a gembound to fade away into the background as life rushed by. That decision had been partially informed by his failures, however. Was it the same for this reclusive greater?

Perhaps the idea was idiotic, but the small bat had to know. He would receive no insight from his rock pretending to be as any other bat. His presence would not be welcomed, he could guess that much, but curiosity's pull was too strong for reason to overcome.

"Dweller of the fog," he projected, his core warm as the power within reached out with invisible hands, "I seek your counsel."

His mental voice was as soft and respectful as he could manage, carrying with it a reverberation as though coming from all directions in the fog at once though it never passed the ears.

"May I approach?"

Of course the answer is going to be no. Zeno chided himself mentally, immediately regretting his impulsive decision. Who was he to intrude? Still, what was done was done. He would have to follow through lest his actions cause undue anxiety. Perhaps some good would come from this yet.

Zeno instinctively held his body close to the rocky surface of the spike as the cat below him reacted with surprise and fear. He should have known, he should have stayed quiet. He had let his self-centered musings interrupt the tranquility of another. She had looked so calm before, successfully casting aside contact with the others. Even if he had just been passing by there had been no need for him to break the moment.

"I am here." he spoke softly out loud before his fear and embarrassment could convince him to disappear into the fog once more and leave the situation behind.

His eyes scanned her pelt, noting the arcing ripples of electricity rolling through her fur. Between her size and power he would have little recourse if she decided to attack. The spire he rested on was tall but no so tall that she wouldn't be able to see him or climb to the top where his unassuming form lay.


"I am sorry." his words rose again, slightly louder than they had been before. "I am no one of any importance, just a passerby."

As those words left his mouth a sharp twinge arose in the back of his head. This was wrong, something was wrong. He spoke pure truth but something in the structure and tone of those words felt deeply off. He had meant no malice and felt no ill, but for every iteration of rolling the spoken words through his head he felt a similar emotion to witnessing the plague horse's wheezing victims.

Why?

The small bat relaxed a bit as the countenance gembound before him shifted. He still felt embarrassed, that part hadn't changed at all, but at least it looked like there wasn't going to be a fight. Now came the difficult part; how could he articulate what had prompted him to break his silence?

"I have seen you before, many times." he finally replied after mulling it over for a few seconds, "Every time you are alone, and most of the time you are hidden in the fog."

A few more seconds of silence passed as the words just refused to come. Zeno himself stayed perfectly still as he thought, his dull brown eyes starting at a patch of ground a few feet in front of the feline. "Why is it that you avoid the others? You are large, you are strong in magic, and you have a gem to declare your worth to the world."

Zeno's gaze drifted even further away from the target of his speech, a maneuver he mentally justified as filing away the surroundings for refreshing his own knowledge of the save's layout. "There is nothing wrong with being on your own, of course." he added on quickly, "But most others I see who cloister themselves away do so for a definite reason, such as to pursue a mastery of some kind or to process something that had been troubling them. Those who don't tend to get bored eventually and just..."

Actually it was probably best not to go into those details. Even now he had a vast mental map of the hidden crags and crevices throughout the cave which contained the gems of hibernating greater ones.

Zeno's head tilted ever so slightly as the gemmed one spoke. Predators? Monsters? Could she not be considered one of those herself being a carnivore who hid in the mists? Most greater ones were passive though, most cared only to have a life of peace or fun or friends. There had been a group arise recently that sought that through battle, but even they could be avoided with some effort.

"You are a greater one." the small bat spoke plainly as the figure below bore her teeth at him once more. "It is a rare gemmed one who would fall to cannibalism."

Assuming, of course, that she acknowledged him as a greater one as well. He was small, he was gemless, he was invading her territory. Zeno began to back off behind the spire as some of this realization hit him.

"I mean no insult." he continued on, deep primal fear attempting to grip at his measured words. "You are everything that I cannot be. It simply seems strange that one would choose to live as I do when they are capable of so much more."

Zeno fell fully silent as the bobcat before him replied, hanging on to every detail he could of her tone and posture. She was completely serious, she fully believed that her worth and stature were so little that avoiding others was the only option. That left him with only one rational conclusion- he was the one that was wrong.

The fact that he was gemless, the fact that he was small, by the example of the brave gemless dog and the timid gemmed cat these had no impact on worth or ability. He had suspected as much for a long time, even supported the idea in his surface thoughts to some extent, but this was the first concrete proof to counter the idea that had set itself so deep in his psyche.

The question was turned back on him, and for once he did not have an immediate answer. Silence fell between them as the small bat looked again over the feline. She was alone, but this too had been a life she had chosen, and a role that she played well. "You are correct that there are dangers, but except for the rare occasion those dangers can be talked to and reasoned with. I have seen greater gembound band together and overcome impossible odds, defeat colossal foes, and have experienced a time where a gembound restored splendor to the caves after one hundred lifetimes of hopeless darkness. I tried every single day to lift that misery, to restore the light, but in the end there was only failure. The only result the realization that it was above my station. Therefore I watch, I wander, I learn, and I carve out a silent path that one day I might be of some use to someone."

Zeno's chest hurt, emotions within banging against the mental barriers he had set up. Yes... that was the origin of his vigil. Trial and error had taught him to be as he was, and he had only assigned logic to it after the fact. There had to be more factors at play, but how could he discover them?