ORIGIN

She'd made up her mind. Today was the day she would focus on herself. No Cancer. No Leon. No Amaria. No anyone. Just herself, her magick, and the quietness of Cetus. It was quickly becoming one of her favorite places to come and just be herself. A place where she could be herself and just sing. Today there would be no singing, just her coming to practice what was innately hers. Her magick.

grrrr

After she satisfied the rumbling in her gut, of course. The lioness smiled as she paused in her walking and opened her mouth. Scents flooded over the roof of her mouth. Many of those scents were worthless, plants, bog, bird, but then there was one that stuck out. Squirrel.

The lioness pinpointed the scent and tracked it down, mouth still open as she found where it was sitting. The little creature was gnawing on some sort of nut as it sat in front of a tree. Makyna would have only one chance to attack before it bolted for the safety of the tree and would be out of range.

The lioness tensed her haunches and wriggled her rump, preparing to rocket forward and attempt to catch the squirrel.

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Makyna's hind legs powered her forward in a super fast pounce. Her paws outstretched and her claws extended to grab onto the squirrel before it was able to escape. The creature didn't even have a chance to scream as before it could even do so the lioness had grabbed it and bit its throat, ending its life. The lioness grinned to herself as she stared down at her meal and began to eat, quenching the hunger that rose in her belly.

In only a few minutes she had finished her meal and now was able to focus on other things. Before when she'd come to Cetus she had attempted to climb the great tree and failed. Perhaps she could do so again today and this time be successful. In fact, she wouldn't quit until she had conquered the huge old tree!

The lioness turned and made her way to the Divine, careful to use the tree root whenever she could to keep her paws out of the mud. This had really become an old habit for her, to use the roots and find the best path through the swampy grounds. So much of a habit that she'd learned the best ways to go about this whole thing. What was next was finding the tree and conquering it too!

Before long she made it to the gargantuan roots of the tree and sat there staring upwards. The lioness steeled herself for the climb. Rear wiggling and claws unsheathing as she prepared herself to climb.

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Success! The lioness leaped onto the tree and managed to clutch her claws into the bark and make her way up. It was slow going but steadily she made progress, heading up to one of the lower branches. When she got older and had practiced more she'd be able to climb the tree better but for now this would do. There would be other days she could come and hone her skills more but today she was content with slowness.

The lioness managed to get up to the low branch where she pulled herself up and sat down on the wide limb. If it wasn't so foggy here in Cetus perhaps she'd be able to see all around her but as it was she couldn't see a thing. It was just like a blanket was wrapped around her and hovering over her entire body as she sat up on her branch. That was fine, even if she couldn't see there were other things she could do.

Those things were practicing her magick.

The lioness looked up to see the branch above her, several leaves hung onto it but it was the ripe apple that caught Ky's attention. She'd never tried fruit before but couldn't help but wonder what it tasted like so she concentrated on her magick and focused on the apple.

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The gem on her head glowed as she felt the pull from her reserves of magicka. The apple was pulled from where it hung on the limb and Makyna, using her powers, brought it down to her own branch. Instead of sitting it down on her branch she allowed the apple to hover in front of her mouth for easy access. Makyna's maw extended forward and she took her first bite of apple. The juice drizzled down her mouth and onto the branch. The flavor was definitely unlike that of meat. It was sweet and juicy, not salty and savory like the squirrel she had just eaten. It wasn't bad and if she was in the mood for a snack or desert then she'd probably hunt down some more fruit but otherwise meat was the way to go. Yes. She much rather would have meat.

After finishing off the rest of the apple she released her hold on it and dropped the core to the ground. She watched it drop for a moment before turning her attention inwards. She'd discovered before that she could temporarily freeze time but still be aware of her surroundings... she wanted to know if she could do it again.

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The lioness waited... and waited... but nothing seemed to happen. Was time frozen? She looked around for some sort of confirmation and realized something: if she could move her head then her spell hadn't worked. "Dang it!" She growled to herself. Well, no matter... She could always try again and it wouldn't hurt her to do so. Her spells so far hadn't had any nasty side effects, lest you count the time she had accidentally seen the wrong thing in Majesty's memories. Even so that hadn't hurt her, it was just telling her what had previously happened.

The lioness shook her head. She didn't want to think about that.. it was almost as bad as. Cold. It was cold and snowy and a huge monster had appeared from the Spire. It was a yeti and she was there with Fisher and Deus. They tried to help the poor dog but she ran straight for the yeti and was hit. The blow was too hard to recover from and Makyna knew it. The lioness turned and ran away for her life... tears in her eyes. Gasping for air the lioness shut her eyes against the memory. No. No no. She didn't want to think about that. Wouldn't think about that! Something else. She needed something else to focus on!

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Subconsciously she attempted to cast the spell as a way to help her focus on something else. However, nothing happened. The singing that she usually loved to do with her whisper spell was silent. What was wrong with her? Had witnessing Deus' murder set her off that much? Hmm... murder. A strange new word that had just seemingly come to her. It was an awful word. One that saddened her to think of. However, that's what it had been. Murder. The strange yeti-monster had come to them and killed the poor puppy. Deus had only wanted to escape and accidentally had gone the wrong way, Makyna was sure that the dog wasn't all the way there, and the consequence for her action had been her life. Poor thing. Never again would she get to walk among the pretty caves nor would she get to make any new friends because she... was dead.

Death.

Such a final word. A word that brought with it some sense of peace but when the creature who was killed died it was a shame. Especially when said creature was young and had barely gotten to start her life. The dog couldn't have been but a cycle old like the rest of them had been and she would never get to grow to another cycle. It was a shame... a sad shame. Makyna hoped she never had to see something like that again.

Why was she even thinking of it?

Tears were starting to make her vision foggy in her eyes. These thoughts she didn't want them! Something else. She needed to think of something else... right. now. She tried again with the whisper spell. This time consciously to try and make singing to calm her down.

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There it was. The echoing sound of singing. The words weren't distinguishable. No. Makyna was too distressed for distinct words. All the lioness needed was the sound to help her feel better so she lowered her head down to her forepaws and listening to the calming sound of the music. It made her feel comforted, serene. The lioness found herself humming a tune along with it. No words came to her, not even when she'd calmed herself down. This was just a melody, an instrumental with no singer. The lioness could make up her own words but chose not to.

What she did do was attempt to cast another whisper spell. If she could do one and creature one distinct sound, what if she cast it twice and created more than one distinct sound so they overlapped each other like a choir? Hmm... a choir. That sounded like something that would be fun. To get a group of gembounds together and get them to sing would be wonderful! However, she'd not seen anyone around Pisces that really liked to sing. Except Eeya but she didn't really think he was trying to sing, he voice just came out that way. Water gems were strange.

The gem on her forehead glowed an even brighter intensity as she attempted to cast a second layer of whisper to add onto the sound she'd already created.

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It was a success! A symphony of sound assaulted her ears. Whispers of varying pitch and frequencies were cast together in a beautiful noise. It soothed her soul and heart, making her want to just doze off and sleep but she wouldn't. Not yet. There other things to practice. The ioness slowly allowed the music to fade, one voice at a time until there was only one and that one was eventually cut off too. She loved using whisper. It was like having a friend singing with you, accompanying you with a sweet voice.

Makyna's eyes cast up higher in the tree, looking for another branch. It was hard to tell if there was another place she could climb to because of all the heavy fog. It was hard for her to see a foot in front of her nose let alone another branch to climb to. Then, she had another idea. The lioness looked for the branch she'd seen earlier and located it, just within visibility. Perhaps if she could loosen the branch and pull it off of the tree then use it to carry herself higher. That would work right? She could take the whole limb to her level and sit on it and fly around like she was on a magic carpet! Except it would be a magic tree branch.

The lioness looked up at the branch and poked her tongue out as she concentrated on it.

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Eyes narrowed as she tried to maneuver the branch away from the trunk. Her hold on the branch was rocky at best and as such it was difficult to twist and turn the thing. She pulled, pushed, and pulled again with her mind. Working the branch as if she were actually grabbing. The sound of creaking reached her ears as she tried to work it away from the trunk. She almost had it! She just had to keep pulling and pulling and crack! The branch pulled away sending down a shower of wood chips and leaves that Makyna had to duck her head out of the way to not get anything in her eyes.

However, what she didn't avoid was the little worm that had fallen on her back. The lioness didn't notice the sensation at first and just lowered the branch to her level to look at but then she felt something itching. After a few unsuccessful scratches she turned her head and saw the green thing crawling on her. Makyna had never really been a fan of bugs and now that one had fallen on her back she went into a fit. The lioness let out a screech of alarm and started shaking her pelt vigorously trying to dislodge the thing.
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Oh no! It had clung on! Gross gross gross! The lioness cast around for something she could use to get the bug off but there was nothing! It was either shake it off or deal with it. Or... The lioness thought of a new idea! She walked up to the trunk of the tree the threw her back against it. She felt the bug squish with the disgusting sensation of bug guts through her fur. Ewww... Makyna made a disgusted face as she turned to look at the smeared green thing on her back. Well, at least she could get it off now. She set to work with licking the gross contents of smushed caterpillar from her coat. After a few licks she was satisfied.

Uh oh...

Where had the branch gone? The lioness looked around but couldn't find it in the thick fog. With her lapse in concentration because of the bug she had dropped it onto the ground most likely. Great! Now she would have to climb down and get it! Carefully she began to make her descent from the limb. Using her claws to grasp onto the trunk as she shimmied down, rear in first. Hopefully she was doing this right.

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