ORIGIN

Pride picked his way through Eridanus, dainty hooves gently brushing aside the ferns. He had grown, since last he was here: several hundred pounds of white-furred muscle, and a tall, many-tined silver rack that branched toward the trees. His pale eyes, too, had healed somewhat, and as he maneuvered through the dense wood, he used his sight as well as his other senses in his search.

He was looking for the blue gryphon he'd met here some time ago. He had questions, and he thought that perhaps the scientifically-minded, logical creature might either hold some answers, or be able to direct him the right way. Pride himself had not left Orion since the formation of Envy's group, and he did not wish to be away for too long--but Eridanus was good feeding, and this was, regardless, where he'd last seen Amras.

Perhaps, if nothing else, he'd find Rift--who might be able to tell him where the gryphon was; or perhaps he might find some sign that would show him where the gryphon had gone.

"Amras?" he called out, his musical voice fluting through the trees. "Are you here?"

Pride pricked up his ears at the response, turning and shifting his directon to head toward the call. He recognized the gryphon's voice almost at once, and his tail flicked as he paced through the undergrowth and into the fog.

Now this is curious. Eridanus was generally humid, and often misty, but a fog this thick, localized here, was unusual. Following his instinct, which told him that Amras (being present) must be responsible, he followed the fog to its center.

There he found the blue gryphon perched on a stone beside a pond.

Pride peered at him for a beat, wondering what it was he'd been up to--simply practicing, perhaps? Or fishing? The stag then inclined his head, and all of his many-branched antler tines with it. His voice was still high and fluting, his words precise and polite. "Hello. It is good to see you again. I hope you are doing well..? And--am I interrupting? If this is not a good time, I can return. I simply have some questions about the... wildlife, here--and elsewhere, I suppose. I thought perhaps you might know the answers."

Amras was the most logically-minded Gembound that Pride had met. He held the inquisitive nature and the logic of a scientist, and struck Pride as the sort to pursue empirical evidence and well-formed hypotheses with the same intensity of purpose that others might chase their dinner.

Who knows; perhaps control groups are his dessert.

Pride stepped more fully into the little clearing alongside the pond, glancing with friendly demeanor over Amras. The other's straightforward nature made him feel at ease, and he realized with mild surprise that he felt more relaxed around the gryphon than around many others. He had no responsibilities toward Amras, perhaps; he also felt a strange sort of kinship with him. They were both explorers, of a sort--seekers, aiming to learn more of the world around them, and about their own abilities. And neither, it seemed to Pride, were particularly driven by base urges or emotion.

The stag stepped over to the water, peering in, eyeing his own reflection for a moment before folding his long legs and lying down by the edge.

"Your old sparring partner..?" His musical voice held a politely curious tone. Perhaps this other could also be of aid, then? He glanced to Amras, and then went on, seemingly content in the unnatural fog. "I was wondering; by any chance, do you know what makes them as they are? And makes us... as we are? I have seen other deer," Pride continued, by way of explanation. "And all or most that I have seen have gemstones as we do. Some are sapient, and speak... have names; others are little more than--well, insects, not to sound cold. But they have no capabilities of speech, and seem incapable of reason. I had thought that perhaps they were raised this way, but then I remembered--and am frequently reminded--that so many of us are born with inherent familiarity with language."

The stag eyed the water again as he spoke, but turned once more to Amras, expression quizzical. "I know that you seek answers in magic; that you know much of the caves and their inhabitants. I thought that perhaps you may know more of this than I?" His voice held curiosity and hope; if Amras knew nothing, he would be disappointed... though perhaps they could look into it together. And somehow, he doubted that the gryphon knew nothing. Thus far his knowledge had seemed unending.

Pride peered over with surprised curiosity, mild awe, as the deer of pure light appeared. It glowed like fire, and as it stepped across the water, he stretched his neck so as to get a better look. Only after Amras had spoken did he turn his attention back to the gryphon, blinking.

He assumed the stag was--like Envy's light magic--an illusion, and so didn't think to ask about it; instead he turned his mind to Amras's words, and his spoken-aloud question.

"Hmm. I would think it to be something of the opposite--whatever the cause for our rift may be, it is also the reason behind our ability to cast, and their lack of. Assuming that none of them can," he amended thoughtfully. He'd never encountered a mindless prey creature capable of magic, but that certainly did not mean that none existed. "But perhaps you are onto something. Perhaps whatever grants us the ability to speak also grants us magic. Are they born in stones, as we are?"

This question was asked after a brief moment's pause, in which Pride began to think to himself. What separated the lesser Gembound from those who could speak, in terms of habits? Perhaps the way they were created, or something else in their day-to-day existence, could be narrowed down as the cause?

Pride's eyes drifted over the distant deer; he gave a little nod at the suggestion of sentience and magic being linked to something other. "Precisely what I mean," he agreed.

He then turned, glancing curiously at Amras once more. "If we know little about their origins--then what more do we know of magic? Do you know where it comes from, where we take it from? Its origins?" His tone, again, was curious. "Mind you I do not mean the types of magic, their uses and so forth--though that's all quite interesting to me. I refer more to... hm. Do we know if it has limits, why it backfires, if there was a time it did not exist, if some are stronger with it than others--these ancients, perhaps? If there is something to be learned, we might deduce it from what we already know--or seek to uncover that which we don't. Though I'm unsure where to even begin, on that front."

He lowered his head and began grooming the pristine white fur on his forelegs, one ear flicking. There was much to think about, and he was beginning to worry that perhaps Amras didn't have the answers Pride had hoped he had.