Oct 09 2018, 06:27 AM
Although the gems of Origin Cave might not know it, Tunnel I had never been abandoned... although it may have seemed that way for far, far too long. In fact, there was someone living here, in this quiet tunnel, and she had been for longer than almost anyone in the caves had been alive... almost.
But creeping vegetation from Eridanus had long hidden the entrance to her silent grotto. Well... if one could call it an entrance. For, if one were to tug aside layer upon layer of ivy, they'd simply expose a slab of rock. A bare slab, surprisingly empty of carvings.
A quick knock would reveal it to be hollow; there was, in fact, a room there. It wasn't a large room by any means; just big enough to be spacious, and small enough to be cozy. The room was carpeted by a fine, soft moss, the living space lit by a hanging glass orb, with a bundle of long- dry grasses stacked in the corner- a sorry excuse for a bed, yet carefully, messily woven into something resembling a nest. The curved walls were lined with shelves of rock, too precisely placed and too smooth to be natural. These shelves are stacked high with dried branches and leaves, dull petals and fragrant mixtures in crystal bowls. Beyond the mossy room, the grotto narrows into something resembling a doorway before opening up into another, even smaller room. Your feet here would sink into moist, peaty soil.
The air here was thick with the heady smell of herbs and flowers.
It was a garden, somehow wild yet carefully tended- filled with flowers of every colour of the rainbow. Different kinds of mushrooms grow on another rocky shelf, this one filled with soil, with various cups and frills sprouting from the carcass of a long-felled sapling tucked into the corner between shelf and cave wall. This place is not lit by a physical light, but by ethereal orbs of magic that have been floating there, unchanged for centuries. It was here that she'd waited as, day after day, she tended her garden in perfect harmony, softly humming an ode to her nature in a voice sweet as bees' honey.
It was unclear just how long she'd been here.
She was a strange looking hybrid- chocolate brown fur and pale stripes, with a head and neck that were almost horselike, and a flowing mane of curls falling about her head. Her body was marsupial-like, with a membrane between her fore and back legs, and a long, bushy tail. She tended her garden with a grace and care that only a mother could have, not with magic, but with her own two paws. With her front two teeth she snipped away dead or dying leaves and placed the waste carefully into the pouch at her belly. Sometimes, she'd cut off a branch and gently plant it, covering the severed end with soil.
In this way, she'd kept her garden alive for centuries.
But today was to be the day that her peace was finally shattered. When she felt it her head jerked up, all four ears fanning out and whiskers curling, as she stopped mid-tug with a dying leaf between thumb and forefinger. A thrill ran up and down her spine, a jolt like an electric shock. Her humming fell into deathly silence.
Something had happened. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
In a moment of haste, the creature pushed through her flower garden and scooped the array of leaves, twigs, and dead flowerheads out of her pouch and onto a neat pile at the back of her home- carefully separated by yet more earthen barriers. Then, with all the care she could manage with such haste, she pushed back through to her living space, tracking muddied footprints onto the carefully-laid moss, but paying no heed. To the top of a shelf she stretched her long neck, scooping up a mouthful of dull yellow-brown petals, dried over the cycles into a faintly-floral-smelling crisp. And then another. She added in a crystal bowl of spicy-smelling powder, and then the bowl itself for good measure. Then, like a storm, she barrelled to her blockade and rested the palm of a clawed paw upon the surface of the rocky wall.
It shied away from her touch with the low scraping sound of stone against stone, tearing away the cover of ivy with it. The old mother flinched as though guilt-stricken, and was quite unprepared for the jolt of fear that rushed through her as she caught her first glimpse of the world beyond.
The tip of her tail twitched, ears laying back and whiskers nervously wriggling at the ends- but she still stepped forward, anyway. Nothing would keep her away, not even... Him.
Dropping down onto all fours, the strange creature ran faster than she had in a thousand cycles, maybe more.
![[Image: iwLqvcK.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/iwLqvcK.gif)
But creeping vegetation from Eridanus had long hidden the entrance to her silent grotto. Well... if one could call it an entrance. For, if one were to tug aside layer upon layer of ivy, they'd simply expose a slab of rock. A bare slab, surprisingly empty of carvings.
A quick knock would reveal it to be hollow; there was, in fact, a room there. It wasn't a large room by any means; just big enough to be spacious, and small enough to be cozy. The room was carpeted by a fine, soft moss, the living space lit by a hanging glass orb, with a bundle of long- dry grasses stacked in the corner- a sorry excuse for a bed, yet carefully, messily woven into something resembling a nest. The curved walls were lined with shelves of rock, too precisely placed and too smooth to be natural. These shelves are stacked high with dried branches and leaves, dull petals and fragrant mixtures in crystal bowls. Beyond the mossy room, the grotto narrows into something resembling a doorway before opening up into another, even smaller room. Your feet here would sink into moist, peaty soil.
The air here was thick with the heady smell of herbs and flowers.
It was a garden, somehow wild yet carefully tended- filled with flowers of every colour of the rainbow. Different kinds of mushrooms grow on another rocky shelf, this one filled with soil, with various cups and frills sprouting from the carcass of a long-felled sapling tucked into the corner between shelf and cave wall. This place is not lit by a physical light, but by ethereal orbs of magic that have been floating there, unchanged for centuries. It was here that she'd waited as, day after day, she tended her garden in perfect harmony, softly humming an ode to her nature in a voice sweet as bees' honey.
It was unclear just how long she'd been here.
She was a strange looking hybrid- chocolate brown fur and pale stripes, with a head and neck that were almost horselike, and a flowing mane of curls falling about her head. Her body was marsupial-like, with a membrane between her fore and back legs, and a long, bushy tail. She tended her garden with a grace and care that only a mother could have, not with magic, but with her own two paws. With her front two teeth she snipped away dead or dying leaves and placed the waste carefully into the pouch at her belly. Sometimes, she'd cut off a branch and gently plant it, covering the severed end with soil.
In this way, she'd kept her garden alive for centuries.
But today was to be the day that her peace was finally shattered. When she felt it her head jerked up, all four ears fanning out and whiskers curling, as she stopped mid-tug with a dying leaf between thumb and forefinger. A thrill ran up and down her spine, a jolt like an electric shock. Her humming fell into deathly silence.
Something had happened. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
In a moment of haste, the creature pushed through her flower garden and scooped the array of leaves, twigs, and dead flowerheads out of her pouch and onto a neat pile at the back of her home- carefully separated by yet more earthen barriers. Then, with all the care she could manage with such haste, she pushed back through to her living space, tracking muddied footprints onto the carefully-laid moss, but paying no heed. To the top of a shelf she stretched her long neck, scooping up a mouthful of dull yellow-brown petals, dried over the cycles into a faintly-floral-smelling crisp. And then another. She added in a crystal bowl of spicy-smelling powder, and then the bowl itself for good measure. Then, like a storm, she barrelled to her blockade and rested the palm of a clawed paw upon the surface of the rocky wall.
It shied away from her touch with the low scraping sound of stone against stone, tearing away the cover of ivy with it. The old mother flinched as though guilt-stricken, and was quite unprepared for the jolt of fear that rushed through her as she caught her first glimpse of the world beyond.
The tip of her tail twitched, ears laying back and whiskers nervously wriggling at the ends- but she still stepped forward, anyway. Nothing would keep her away, not even... Him.
Dropping down onto all fours, the strange creature ran faster than she had in a thousand cycles, maybe more.