SHENGXIAO
PUT ON A SMILE, DO IT IN STYLE
It was a beautiful gem, lying alone between the rocks. Shining of the rainbow, glistening in the starlight. All the colors painted the surface, smooth and perfect as if waves of the oceans had washed away all imperfections.
It was ironic, then, that the creature inside was far from the polished perfection of its crystal's exterior. In fact, one could say it was one of the strangest young creatures to ever step foot. Or, not yet, as no feet had touched the stone just yet.
As if on cue, the moment came in which it would hatch and the eyes of the creature snapped open as wakefulness flooded its body. Using its eyes, it glanced around with disappointment. There wasn't really much to see. It thought that the world would be beautiful, magnificent! But no, it was just this, a fairly colorful shell.
But then, as it moved its front legs, the shell cracked. Intrigued by this new development, the creature pushed again and there were more cracks spider-webbing in front of them. Getting excited now, the thrust themselves against the side of the chrysalis and the whole thing shattered, thrusting them forward and out into the world.
It immediately looked up to take in the wonders, its eyes, which probably should have been closed at such a young age, were wide with interest. The world was so big. The glimmering on the ceiling...what was that? And the rocks around them. Why were they like that?
Too much to take in for the young gembound, it closed its eyes and rubbed at its head with its strange hands. But as soon as it was feeling better, it opened its eyes again and marveled at, well, everything. It wondered if it would go all over this world. Touch everything in sight. Was that even possible?
Explore, explore, explore. For Scorch, it never got dull. These caves had so much to offer, so much to see, so much to gaze at in wonder. The day he hatched, there had been the glowing crystals and moss, and he'd met a spotted cheetah cub (so fluffy). A few days after, a room filled to the brim with plant life and a huge black cat. And now this cave of glittering crystals everywhere! And also the stone structures. They too were fascinating, though they made Scorch feel slightly depressed. Absentmindedly, he reached his head down and parted his chest feathers to check on his fire opal. Hopefully it wouldn't be crumbling anytime soon. There was definitely some history here. If only there was someone to teach it all... Scorch loved stories.
A sound reached his sensitive owl ears, causing him to swivel his head wildly. Sound meant other Gembounds, which meant company! Or food. All this exploring made him hungry. His huge yellow eyes found the source of the noise - way too big to be food. But company was just as good!
Scorch hooted loudly, excited to meet someone new, and approached as fast as he could. "Hi!" he greeted. Seeing the shards of chrysalis nearby, he asked, "Are you newly hatched?" He did not think its appearance odd, because he'd only seen a couple of Gembounds. They were all new to him.
SHENGXIAO
PUT ON A SMILE, DO IT IN STYLE
At first, the young thing did not notice the other coming towards it until a voice rang in his sensitive ears. Their shot up and he whipped around, curious nose sniffing the air and whiskers twitching. His eyes widened with surprise at what was in front of him. It was...well, he didn't know and that made it all the more exciting! He gave a small bounce before bounding up to the owl. As he got close he realized that, despite probably being younger then it, he was considerably bigger then the fuzzy thing.
He leaned forward, all senses alert to try and understand what it was. It did not yet cross his mind that this thing was like him - alive. It was simply a thing. With so many different instincts clashing against each other, they cancelled each other out and the creature was left with little natural instinct to go off of, besides his own as a conscious, self-aware being.
It had made some funny sounds and he tilted his head, a little confused. How did it do that? He opened his mouth to try it, but the only thing that came out was an excited squeak. Still confused, he tried again, testing his vocal chords and going through all sorts of strange noises from a bray to a growl to something in between yowl and a roar. Strange indeed.
Finally, the noises matched up and almost seemed to combine each other as he finally grasped the essence of speech. "WOW!" he yelled out, quite loudly. He had no idea exactly how loud he had spoken so he continued to speak at an extremely obnoxious volume.
"NEWLY HATCHED? YES!! I JUST GOT HERE! WHAT ARE YOU, ALL WHITE AND WEIRD AND COVERED IN FLUFF! AND WHAT ARE THOSE SHINING LIGHTS SO PRETTY?!" He gave a small bounce of excitement as he gazed up at the ceiling, eyes glittering with wonder.
@Scorch
Scorch flinched away as the noise hit him head on. His ears! They huuuuuuuurt! He could barely tell what the other Gembound was trying to say; it was so loud. "Could you... quiet down?" he asked, trying to make the ringing in his skull go away. "Like this," he added in a whisper, in case they didn't know what quiet meant. "I'm Scorch, and, uh..." An awkward moment passed as he tried to figure out what they had said, then looked up to try to see what the lights were. They looked like miniature, not as rainbow versions of the lights in Polaris. "Those are crystals. Pretty, right?"
SHENGXIAO
PUT ON A SMILE, DO IT IN STYLE
The creature snapped their mouth shut at the gentle whisper and question of the bird and they tilted their head in confusion. How was it doing that, speaking so quietly? There were different volumes and levels of speaking? He had no idea! He wondered how he was going to be able to talk that quietly when he decided that there was no point wondering, he was just going to try it out!
He opened his mouth, remembering what it felt to speak and tried to be gentler. "Like This?" His voice still brayed loudly, perhaps not as terribly loud as before, but definitely above a whisper. He decided to go as gentle as possible this time. "Or, wait, like this?" His voice had dropped to the tiniest whisper, almost like a little squeak and even he could barely pick it up. Still not right. He had to find that correct balance between it.
He took a deep breath and tried once more. "Is this better?" Finally, a normal speaking voice and he found that his voice slid into it perfectly. He gave a small prance of happiness at finally finding it. "Yes, much better, right? Oh, it's fun to speak! Ah, so much fun! You're a Scorch? Cool! I wonder what I am? And what I should call myself? Are all feathery things a Scorch? Or are they different? Do you call yourself a Scorch or do you have a different name?"
He continued to babble for a little while, enjoying the feeling of speaking as he looked around the cave, pointing out obvious things like how sparkly the crystals were and that the rock behind them was cool and cracked. There were only silences to take a short breath and he gave no time for Scorch to respond to any of it at all until, finally, he sat down, his eyes shining wide with excitement, realizing that he hadn't heard them speak in a while.
"Are you new too? You're small, smaller then me. Do we get bigger?" He looked down at himself and wondered how big he would get.
@Scorch
So many questions! That was good, this Gembound was very curious. It was a little hard to keep track of them, though. "I call myself Scorch, but I'm sure there are plenty of different birds out there who call themselves different names! Birds are things with feathers and wings, by the way. And wings are these." He stretched out his wings, admiring their fluff proudly. Hopefully they'd grow big enough to fly soon. He couldn't wait!
"Oh yeah, I'm new too. But we get much bigger! I'm pretty sure. Oh hey, we should totally go exploring these caves together! It would be so much fun. And I can show you stuff like-like-" He squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating hard. And when he opened them, there was a small patch of moss near his talons! Oh, this was so amazing. He'd never get tired of this. "Look what I did! I made that grow!" he babbled excitedly. "And when I came out of my chrysalis I saw glowing crystals! And they were rainbow, with lots of different colors! Oh, we should go see that cave together sometime!"
SHENGXIAO
PUT ON A SMILE, DO IT IN STYLE
Oh, so he had misunderstood. This thing wasn't a Scorch, it was a 'bird' and it called itself Scorch. A name. A title. How exciting! He felt that he needed one too, one of each. But he didn't know what he was but he had a feeling he knew what he wanted to be called. There were a few names, but one he thought was the easiest was the one he thought he should go with.
"Okay, Scorch! I have a few names in mind, I'm not sure what to pick, but I think I'll call myself Shengxiao. But you can call me Zody because I like that one as well! Easier too!" He gave a little wriggle, feeling a good finality settle down and, suddenly, he felt more. More than just a new creature from a shell of gems. He was Shengxiao! Perhaps not yet a creature, but he was at least a name.
He widened his eyes at Scorch's proposal and a huge, goofy grin spread across his face. "That would be so exciting! I want to see everything! I want to go all the way up there and touch the lights and I want to go and see all the rocks everywhere and...are there more caves? That's so COOL!!" Excitement was racing through him and his long serpentine tail swung around happily.
He gave a little jump of surprise and fear shot through his heart just for a second and he stumbled back, back claws scrabbling at the stone. But a moment later, he realized that there was nothing to worry about and instead immersed himself in the moss that had suddenly appeared. "You did that?!" Excitement raced through him as he realized that he had just seen magic. "Super cool! Wow, I want to give it a try!"
He took a deep breath and focused, trying to make more moss in front of them. But it seemed his own magic wanted to do something different and, when he opened his eyes, expecting to see moss, he saw nothing and realized that his front feet had turned a lighter brown. Not much lighter, but at least brighter then black. He looked across his own body and realized the everything had turned slightly lighter.
He looked up at Scroch with surprise, wondering what he had just done, his mouth agape. "Did I just use magic?"
@Scorch
Well, wasn't that a pretty name!
"Sh-shunnng-si-shi-..." Scorch whispered to himself, testing out the name. Okay, never mind. He'd just use Zody. Because that was a perfectly nice name, too.
Zody was so excited to explore with him! That was great, they could see all the caves! Explore the world! Make lots of discoveries!
"Yep! I already told you about the rainbow one I hatched in, but a few days back I visited a cave that was, like, FILLED with plants EVERYWHERE!"
There was a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest as Zody called his magic
super cool. It was one thing to think your own magic very cool, but to have someone else tell you that was amazing! Zody closed his eyes, trying to do his own magic, and Scorch watched breathlessly as the fur on his paws lightened before his eyes.
"Wow! That was awesome!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, that was definitely magic! You've got such a cool power!"
@Shengxiao
SHENGXIAO
PUT ON A SMILE, DO IT IN STYLE
Zody gave a small leap of happiness yet again. His legs felt full of energy, ready to race through the caves with powerful strides. He was ready to climb the walls and touch the ceiling and do everything!
A room full of rainbows sounded cool but a room full of plants sounded even better! Was there a room full of glowing rocks or maybe a room full of nothing but air? Or perhaps a room full of...well, he didn't know what else there was yet! There was so much to see!
And the fact that he could use magic and his magic could change his color was absolutely incredible to know! He wanted to just keep using and using magic over and over. He did it again, his fur and skin shifting between light and dark shades and he laughed joyfully at the feeling of magic pricking at his skin. "Say, Scorch," he suddenly wondered aloud. "Think we can do more then this, growing moss and changing colors. What if you end up learning how to grow trees or turn into a plant? And maybe I'll learn to turn invisible or look like something else! That would be super cool!!" The wild imagination concerning magic was too exciting for him and his fur went almost white in color at the thought.
He looked around Orion at first, not really seeing anything but cave and rocks. But that was still exciting! He bet that he would never walk the same path twice. He wondered if the world was so big that every day he moved he would be somewhere new. That would be amazing. Or did he want to settle down and stay still?
No, some instinct in him urged him forward, keep moving, and stay alert. Be smart, survive above all costs. But it was more than that. This was pleasure and excitement. He was ready to go and truly see.
He jumped forward and looked back at Scorch. "So, are we gonna go? Where are we going first?"
@Scorch
All those magic ideas Zody had sounded amazing! Though he wasn't too sure about turning into a plant... Could plants think? If they couldn't, how could he turn back? If they could, then wasn't it creepy what he was doing to them, making them grow with magic without asking their permission first?
"Oh yeah, turning invisible would be awesome!" he exclaimed, distracted by the idea of such amazing magic.
And now they were going to go exploring! Together! Scorch tilted his head in thought, swiveling it to look around the cave.
"Hmm... I used a tunnel to get here from the plant room, and when I came out I saw a huge tall rock encrusted with lots of glittery crystals. Maybe we could climb it! Ooh, I wonder if it's tall enough so that if we climb it, we can see the glittery crystals up there -" he gestured with his wings to the cave ceiling
"- up close! Or even touch them! Wouldn't that be amazing?"
@Shengxiao