ORIGIN - Paragon

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The young white deer picking its way through Eridanus seemed to be moving... oddly. It seemed familiar with the place: stopping periodically, lifting its head to swivel ears and take scent around it. It picked its way, adjusting its course as if it knew, by its cautious pathfinding, where to go.

Yet, too, it seemed unfamiliar. It was taking that scent very slowly and carefully, moving each step with an odd precision.

Pride was a common visitor to Eridanus. He had a small den, of sorts, here that he shared with the black dog Aster. Her leg was wounded, and unable to further help her other than having set it with magic, he could do little but protect her as best he could (not that she was incapable of protecting herself; both of them were skilled casters), and hunt for her.

Unfortunately, it looked like that might have changed: the spindly-legged white deer was gazing about with eyes hazed over with a milky hue. They blinked, and stayed wide, but seemed to see little, or nothing; he appeared to be making his way by memory, by scent and sound and by the touch of ground beneath him.

Also unfortunately, he was entirely lost.

"Aster?" he called out softly. When there was no response, he reached with his mind, searching through the vast cave for any sign of the puppy's familiar link.

He could find nothing.

As he broke slowly from the thicker underbrush and down the steeper bank of a creek, other injuries became apparent. Shallow gashes over one leg, a cut at his collarbone, scratches over his back. The blood from the leg and chest had been washed away already, the fur there wet where he'd waded through a familiar brook, but his back was still stained and smelled of blood. The cuts across his back were quite shallow, but they were there; he'd clearly been in a fight.

Carefully he picked his way through the open. Faint fear gripped him, which he fought down: not for himself (the bird had only really angered him, with its madness, rather than caused any real injury) but for Aster. What if he could not find her? What if she waited for him, and he never returned, and she starved? He hoped she could use her magic to hunt, as he had been doing for her.

What if he did return, but his sight did not, and she starved anyway..?

Ignoring the pain in his right foreleg, he pushed onward, crossing the creek and picking his way blindly up the other side.

The puppy awoke with a slight start as she heard her name being distantly called out, but she made no rush to get herself up. Living with her recovering leg was... difficult, at best. There were days where Aster could barely haul herself up to get a drink from the nearby creeks, and other days where she could hunt and eat on her own perfectly fine, with the use of her magic.

Today, it didn't hurt too much. It would be enough to get herself out of the den for a while. For a few moments, however, she took a moment to stretch out her lanky limbs as she waited for Pride to come into the den.

... but he did not.

The thought of the fawn somehow getting lost in Eridanus seemed very unlikely, which meant that something must have happened to him on the way over. Perhaps he'd been attacked, ambushed as he suggested may happen within Eridanus, and was laying dead or dying somewhere.

A slicked-back ear flicked as the dog stared out into Eridanus for a moment before lifting her crooked muzzle, sniffing the air. There was a stale Pride-scent, but nothing to indicate that he was.. even anywhere close.

The dog took a long breath, beginning to focus quietly on reaching out to Pride through her magic-- but even then, Pride was either too far away or the spell just simply didn't work. Either was a valid possibility. This meant that it was time for Aster to try and haul herself up to all threes, keeping her recovering leg a few inches off the ground.

She had grown fairly accustomed to moving in such a way where she didn't have to put pressure on the leg, though it did mean she walked slower than ever. Which was not particularly a thing you wanted, when you weren't sure if you were on the search for your friend, or your friend's dead body.

Regardless, Aster began limp-hobbling out of her den, lifting her head again. "Pride?" She called out at only half-volume, staring for a moment towards the Eyes before moving in the exact opposite direction into the trees, wide-eyed and sniffing the air carefully.

@Pride

if there's a shadow hanging over our fate

we won't forget that deep inside we're the same

jinsei

Quietly, the kudu began to branch out from Pisces and explore the rooms nearest to the waterfall room. Since his meeting with Bartos and the young cub Apzohra Swiftwater, he had been intrigued and interested to meet others. Jinsei had become more accustomed to his adult body, also: he was more graceful in his steps, held himself with a more regal tone. He may grow just a tad in his next cycle to come, but a fully grown greater kudu—ah, something he definitely had to grow into, but he was seeming to get the hang of it.

Eridanus was a nice place, much more earthy and warm than Pisces. The lush vegetation was soft underhoof but he adapted to this quite easily. He took small samples of several things to taste; some he liked, some were bitter, and some he could not decide if they were meant to be eaten. This knowledge he tucked away for the future, perhaps to ask Bartos of such things later. The feline seemed to know a great deal about many things, at least.

"Aster?" came a soft call, and Jinsei's large ears flicked forward to listen. He stopped in his slow movement through the brush, but only the sounds of bubbling water filtered back.

Void-like eyes scanned the surroundings, keen now for others rather than just the varying plantlife around him. The green sheen that shimmered within his eyes was almost brighter here, as if reflecting off of the green of Eridanus. Nearby, the red-stained white coat of a stranger shifted through the waters of a brook. Jinsei felt the breath catch in his large lungs. Most of all, he was curious.

Jinsei followed, quietly, but his large body brushed against the large ferns and leaves of plants; he could not avoid making noise. He was heavy, too. He entered the creek and found that he sloshed in the water, so he stood still and tried to reach out to the stranger.

Focusing on the other's location, Jinsei tried to ask, "What has happened?" However, just as he had done so, a second voice—faintly, perhaps the same magic as his?—startled him.

"Pride?" He listened, again; but nothing else, again.

Also, he could not see anything that might have actually said this. Maybe he had heard it himself...

He began to slowly continue through the water, keeping a safe distance from the injured white creature that reminded him somewhat of himself, but smaller and... different. If it did not turn around and address him, he would follow quietly and see where it was going.

Pride lifted his ears, pausing with head up. He thought he heard Aster, for a brief moment--far in the distance. He stood listening for a long time, but heard nothing, slender neck held high.

At length he turned, shifting direction a little and heading right, up the bank and into the thick brush. His graceful steps, blinded or not, took him slowly through the ferns; he could make out just enough of shapes and colors so as not to walk face-first into the shadows that were tree trunks.

As it turned out, the faint voice he thought he heard was, in fact, a bird, and as he grew closer he realized this.

He also realized that he was now hopelessly lost, and as he slowly rotated his head, listening and smelling for a time in silence, he knew that he had no idea where he was.

Oh dear.

He lifted a forelimb, hoof dangling uncertaintly, then set it back down. "Aster?!" he called out again, melodic voice ringing out over the birds.

@Jinsei @Aster

The lanky dog continued hobbling along Eridanus at a sluggish pace, ears perked and eyes staring unblinkingly into the ferns. In the distance, she heard Pride call out again, though his voice was mingled with birdcalls.

It was enough, however, for the puppy to slowly limp closer to the fawn's general direction.

Eventually, she saw the faint outline of Pride in the distance. "Pride," she called out again at only half-volume. "Where are you going?" What was he doing? Chasing birds? Is this how Pride hunted, because she sure didn't remember him doing that, or even going after birds.

Perhaps it didn't matter. As she drew closer she spotted, however, crimson blood staining the ivory fur on his back. She could smell too, as if just to confirm it, blood. The dog bristled briefly, then shook her fur out.

"You're injured," Aster stated, as if Pride somehow had not been aware of it. She moved forward, briefly pressing her muzzle against the fawn's side before she began grooming the blood off his back. "Was it the rats?"

She was unaware, of course, of the greater kudu lurking nearby.

@Jinsei