ORIGIN

The journey to Eridanus had been long and painful for the nameless pup. She had moved slowly with a broken hind leg through the tunnel, but luckily her travelling companion, Pride, had been mercifully slow so that she could keep up. Once they had entered, they took shelter near two pools of water-- the Eyes --and Aster fell asleep.

When she awoke, hours later, she picked herself up and left the shelter of ferns and stone, ignoring for a time both Pride and the pain in her leg as she moved towards the Eyes, standing between the pools of water for a moment before approaching one and staring downwards into it.

Slowly, the borzoi sat down onto her haunches, grimacing as pain shot up her thigh and spine, and watched. She could see her reflection a little more clearly here than she could in Polaris. She studied herself-- the way her ragged, fairly matted fur curled around lanky limbs and how her eyes were too big for her face.

She looked different to the other borzoi she had seen; their gems were different. She looked different to Pride, though they had their similarities. She wondered if it mattered. She did not know if it did.

For a long time, she only sat there, staring into an Eye in silence.

Pride had slept, as well, only a fidgeting nap this time after his longer sleep in Polaris. Now he woke, a stretch, a yawn--and a realization that the place in the nest they'd burrowed out of the moss nad ferns was cold and empty. Aster was no longer here.

He sniffed around and stood, ears rotating to catch sound--but nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. There was no scent of recent predator, no blood. Perhaps she'd just... hobbled off to pee. Hesitant, he sent his mind out, seeking the familiar link.

Pride was well-practiced with magic, even at his young age, yet the link to one he could not visibly see was very difficult to establish. He sought her, the familiarity of her mind's touch, yet even so it was only the briefest brush before it faded. All he managed was--Are you there? before it faded.

Things would be much easier if she had a name, he reflected; somehow, trotting around Eridanus calling for "Crippled black dog?!" seemed... uncouth.

Silent he waited, shaking his coat free of leaves and dirt before listening, quiet, and flaring his nostrils. He caught her scent, still relatively fresh; perhaps he could track her down?

Aster turned her head from the pool of water to stare towards the general direction of the shelter, blinking very slowly. "I'm here," she replied, without being there at all. Before the link faded, she showed Pride the image of the Eyes and staring into the water.

Though, she wasn't very sure if he got it, or even if he would know where to go. Slowly, the dog pushed herself back up, grimacing as she dragged her leg briefly against the grassy cave floor, and hobbled forth.

She moved slowly to the shelter again, bleary-eyed, quiet as she went. Slowly. Eventually, a few minutes after the link broke, she saw the white figure of the fawn in the distance.

"It's.. nice, here," she said quietly as she approached. "There is... water. I was watching it." The dog slowly lowered herself down onto her belly, sighing tiredly, and set her head down on her front legs.

"How.. much of this place, have you seen...?"

Pride turned, the briefest flicker of the image in his mind. He did not, however, know where the Eyes were--and as it turned out, he'd shifted to face the wrong way.

There was the crackle and rustle of twigs and leaves as Aster limped her way toward him and he rotated back, peering toward her. How much did he know of this place..? He considered.

"I have seen much of it? There are many little brooks. There is a place with ferns, and a great set of bones that runs through it. I have seen a giant mushroom far away but I haven't gone close. There is plenty to eat, plenty to drink, plenty to hunt. There are predators, here--like yourself I suppose--but... large. Fully-grown. They speak, and neither ate me." He stated this in an attempt to explain that they were not a danger--but then realized how ridiculous it sounded, and his ears flushed a slightly darker shade of pink as they flicked back. "Though that is-... obvious," he added, a little more hushed.

He eyed Aster over, for a moment, worried and wondering about her leg. Was it healing? Was the movement merely making it worse? "How are you feeling? And how is your leg? --And where is this water?" he added, as an afterthought. He, himself, could do with a drink.

The dog shut her eyes, listening to Pride and mulling over his words for a moment. "Brooks," she whispered quietly. Like 'creeks,' this was a good word. Unlike 'creeks,' Aster had no idea what the hell this was supposed to mean.

"We can... look around," Aster murmured. "Look. Watch. See. I can... I can show you how to see things that.. have happened?" Her eyes grew a little wider at this, at the realisation that she might be able to share the things she can do and see with Pride.

The dog pushed herself up to sit, ragged tail thumping off the cave floor. "That's good," she said in response to Pride's lack-of-being-eaten, not entirely realising how obvious this might be. "My-.. My leg is fine."

She had to take a moment to reconsider this. It still wasn't entirely responding and it still hurt, but not nearly as much as it had before. After some long sleeps and a journey, it had almost began to feel.. normal. "I think... I'm used to it? The.. pain," she said slowly, considering. "But it's.. fine. It's okay."

With this, the puppy pushed up and began hobble-limping towards the Eyes again. "This way," she said, hushed, as she turned to show the pools of water to Pride.

Pride eyed the leg doubtfully as Aster spoke. Was it "fine," already? Mended so fast--was that how broken bones worked? But she was now saying that she was merely used to the pain, and this worried him.

Did this mean she might die?

Still, she was moving off, pushing back through the underbrush, and certainly didn't look very dead. With a soft huff of thought he followed her, pacing along with gentle thuds of his little hooves.

As they came within sight of the Eyes, he checked. His own silver eyes faintly widened, nostrils flaring somewhat at the sight of them. They were wide, almost metallic in color, near crystalline. How beautiful, he thought. And to think that I have never been here.

Slowly, he picked his way down, moving to drink briefly at their surface--but the water was cold, bitter cold, and he pulled back just a little.

He turned to Aster beside him, blinking.

"It is beautiful water," was all he said.

The puppy slowly sat herself down by the Eyes as she returned to them, staring down, and then turning her head slightly to peer at the reflection of Pride in the water. "I like them," she said quietly, silent for a few beats longer. Then, as if Pride hadn't noticed, "there's two of them."

With this, Aster nodded slowly, lowering herself onto her belly again. A slicked-back ear flicked as she disturbed her own wounded leg, but for the time being, she ignored it. "What.. there are other things here, to see," the dog murmured. "What.. do you want to see, next?"

For a moment she turned and began grooming at her ragged fur, wide eyes searching through Eridanus for a time. "You... bones," she said quietly. "Like... the ones in Canis..?" She turned her head back up towards Pride-- his actual face, this time, instead of the face in the water.

Pride looked down, gazing at his own reflection. He was struck, abruptly, by how beautiful he was. Shining white, with glittering crystalline gems at his throat and flawless pale eyes. His neck was slender, his face unsullied by filth or scar, a sort of purity wreathing his entire image.

He glanced, then, at Aster. She with her velvet black fur, its details lost to shadow without the light shining off it, her gems lit with a cobalt reflected so deep they seemed illuminated from within--and with eyes to match it. If he was purity and moonlight, then she was the mystery of the night itself, and something about this satisfied him.

Gradually, he became aware that she had spoken, and a hurried glance back through his most recent memory revealed her words.

"Yes, but as if they belonged to one great, long being," he answered thoughtfully. He turned to look at her, then. "If you wish to explore, then I will follow, and I can show you the way there if you want. But I do not know if there are other things in this cave that might be dangerous. I had planned to... remain hidden, until you can run. You--can run, yes?"

She was a 'dog,' right? Can dogs run?

Aster only waited, quiet, for Pride to reply, barely even noticing, to begin with, that he was taking his time doing so. Aster herself often took a long moment to reply to things, too, after all.

"I'd like to see it," she said quietly, thinking, imagining a great mass of bones in a long pile. She had seen rat bones, but she wasn't entirely sure what a complete skeleton was supposed to look like. "Can you.. show me?"

She gave a little grimace as she pushed herself back up to her paws, both from the pain of her injury and the reminder of her leg, provided to her by Pride. "Not now," she said quietly. "I could run."

She didn't run often, however. It was fairly awkward enough with her lanky, stilted limbs. She hadn't tried running with her injured leg, but she didn't have any particular intention of doing so now.

It would probably hurt.

"You can.. stay hidden, if you want," she murmured. "But I think... we can... defend ourselves, if we're attacked. I think. We'll be okay."

"Many others have magic," he warned. "We are not alone in that. And many others are much larger. The ferns... the plants. They hide us but they can hide larger things, things that might leap out and kill before we can--before we can make magic," he finished a bit lamely, kicking himself for not having spoken more slowly, chosen his phrasing better.

For a moment he drank deeply, slaking his thirst, despite the bitter cold; he then raised his dripping muzzle and spoke further.

"But I will go with you. Alone is more dangerous." Lifting his head haughtily he turned, stepping neatly back along the ferns.

The fawn moved quietly, instinct guiding his steps so that he moved quietly and delicately among the trees. From time to time he paused, freezing in place or with one hoof hanging mid-air, to listen. At other times he paused, neck outstretched to take some scent or other. But thus far nothing seemed dangerous, and each time he glanced back, he waited to ensure Aster was keeping up.

Only after some travel did they reach the fern trench at the room's center, the huge ribs jutting up from a deep rift within the earth.

"There," Pride offered softly, and stepped aside so that Aster could see.