ORIGIN

He was away from the others.

This was deliberate; he wanted to help, but too many, right now, made him nervous. You are a guardian, his father had told him--but he didn't feel like a guardian.

Quiet, gaze averted from the more cheerful Gembound some distance away, he went about his work. Head down. Tailfeathers low. Crouched, hunched low to the ground. In case another attack came.

Nimble, gentle clawfingers placed another rock down, another in a long line of baubled stones intended to mark the path of the obstacle course. He'd helped last year, too, and at least casting this magic distracted him. From other lights. Blinding, searing.

It took some effort; it took concentration. Shaking 'hands' held the stone in place as it flared up with a gentle golden-white glow, and Oliver moved on. The small basket--a gift from Rift--was full of stones, and he carefully cradled it as he hobbled to the next spot, placing another rock down.

He cast a glance sidelong, making sure the others weren't drawing too close. Anything could happen at any time. Solitude was safety.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

Ayr was just about suffering a horrendous headache when she finished working on a field of tangling plants-- flowers and tall grass and ferns rose from the ground and brushed against her silver coat as she inspected her work with quiet, tired eyes.

It was tough work, but Ayr found it rewarding to know that she was helping the others have fun in some way. The unicorn lifted her head, taking a look around at the other gembounds. Most-- like the cats she'd met earlier --were working together to lift old fences or mark stones by the river's shore, but she noticed one was alone.

Ayr narrowed her eyes, curiously-- but not without concern.

Perhaps he was injured? But he was helping setting up the course, so surely not? Ayr took a moment to carefully pace forward before noticing he was intentionally trying to keep himself away from the others. Shy? This seemed a little more likely, or perhaps he was just particularly flighty.

So, Ayr stood at a reasonable distance-- well within Oliver's line of sight, but not close that she might be causing mild discomfort. "Hello there," she offered quietly. "Are you helping set everything up? Would you like some help?"

Ayr was careful not to startle him. She came up in his vision, it wasn't sudden, and she didn't get too close. And still, when she spoke--despite her gentle voice--Oliver had the audacity to flinch. Immediately, he apologized.

"Sorry. Hi," he added, his own voice quite soft. He certainly seemed shy. For a moment, he stared at Ayr, near-prostrate on the floor, taking in her ethereal silver features. "You're beautiful," he breathed abruptly--and then, again, immediately apologized. "Sorry--I-..." he looked down, embarrassed, and struggled for a moment to form some actual coherent words.

"I'm--helping, yeah. I'm trying to make stones that glow? So the--so Gembound know where to run. In the obstacle course. I helped last year," he added softly, and then felt foolish. Why'd I mention that? He shook his head a little.

"I'm Oliver. Nice to meet you. You could--can you make lights, maybe?" he asked, uncertain. A glance back toward the other group, and he continued with--"Otherwise they're doing--... I'm not sure what they're doing but maybe they need help? I--don't know. I should ask," he added, then immediately failed to explain why he didn't. Instead he set himself back to staring at a rock for a moment, before shifting his gaze back up to Ayr.

She really was beautiful, in a way that touched something instinctive in him. It was like she was otherworldly--sacred, somehow, like the light of a moon he'd never known.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

For a moment Ayr wondered if Oliver had just hatched-- but that didn't seem right. She'd seen baby birds in Eridanus, and Oliver certainly didn't seem like a baby bird. Regardless, she lowered her head a little when the hybrid flinched. Not out of offense, but in a small attempt to make herself seem less threatening.

Perhaps that horn on her head intimidated some, at least.

"Hello," she repeated softly. "You don't have to keep apologizing." Ayr sort of glossed over the 'beautiful' comment-- she'd heard it plenty from Elspet, who said it perhaps thirty times a day, but more importantly, Oliver seemed embarassed about blurting it out. Therefore, in Ayr's mind, it was best to pretend it never happened.

She took a few slow, clicking steps forward. "I'm Ayr," the silvery unicorn said, craning her head a little forward and tilting her head to see-- still trying to keep a short distance, for the crow-dog's sake. "I, ahh... no, I don't think so."

Her long ears lifted, and then flicked back thoughtfully. She'd certainly enjoy learning how to make lights but for now that wasn't entirely a possibility. For a moment she stood, lights dancing off her coat, thinking. "I could make plants that glow," she suggested. "It, ahh, takes a few casts before it blooms and glows, but I could give it a try if you'd like to rest for a moment."

Ayr lifted her head and turned her neck to look towards the other gembounds. "Oh, they're-- also preparing for the race," Ayr explained, her next words laced with soft humour. "One of them blew a hole through the floor so I tried to assign her to marking some stones for the third round of the obstacle course."

She did not ask why Oliver didn't explain why he didn't ask-- instead, she merely answered and remained where she was, waiting, ears flicking gently as she turned her head back and lowered it down again.

Oliver listened intently, and as Ayr approached, too, he stared up at her in awe. He even backed away a pace, though it wasn't (nor did it appear to be) fearful--instead it was a respectful making-way, as if to say that if Ayr wished to move further, he'd make room for her to do so. As if she was more important than he, for whatever reason.

At her mention of the incident at the other group, he blinked. Ear-tufts sprang up and he peered over, his words blurting out without thought, but full of immediate curiosity.

"Blew a hole in the floor?! How'd that happen?" He looked back up to her. "And oh--if you want to help, sure but you don't need to? The rocks should be okay but. It might take awhile to finish it all," he added, a lamenting tone to his voice.

He then looked back up to Ayr once again, and curiosity drove some of the shy reservedness from his features, friendly interest growing there instead. "If you don't mind my asking--which cave are you from? I don't think I've ever seen you before," he added.

Oliver had no idea, of course, that unicorns were exceptionally reclusive beings, and rare beyond measure. He was in a magical cave, and these things had never reached his ears.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

The unicorn stared for a moment, head tilting as he began backing away. She blinked slowly before she stepped carefully further forward, cloven hooves clicking against the cave floor, to bend her head down towards the baubled stone on the ground.

She sniffed it and, for some reason, was surprised to find it smelled like a rock. For clarification, Ayr did not know why she was surprised to find this snippet of detail out.

The unicorn lifted her head again, blinking slowly. "Ahh, magic," she said, before elaborating quietly. "She deemed it a good idea to blow a hole in through the floor-- ahh, it was hot with... very bright, very hot... molten rock, I suppose? It was white, I remember that much, and quite difficult to look at." She shook her head a bit, mane spilling from side to side.

"And I'm here to help-- even if it makes the process a little faster, hm?" Ayr spoke amusedly before she moved down the line a bit, pressing her nose against the bare cave wall. She exhaled a wave of magicka into the ground and from the hard soil burst tough, white-green sprouts, brushing into her nose like dull quills.

For a moment she looked up and down, trying to guide them in a vaguely straight line-- but it didn't stop them from spilling onto the corners of the track. Ayr hummed, quietly, inspecting her work as her ears flicked back to regard Oliver.

"Eridanus," she replied. "I hatched there alongside my partner and I admit to being, ahhh... a bit of a recluse," she flashed a smile his way. If horses were capable of such. "I only explored the tunnels around it while I was a foal, and I only really emerge out of our den when it's very quiet, to wander, or to eat, or to-- more recently --heal what damage those, ahh, berries left."

"Admittedly," the ethereal creature continued, nudging at a stubborn sproutling trying to deviate from it's cluster of friends. "I'm trying to be a little more... social. Speak to more people, and find different ways of helping them." She feared-- though did not voice --that the gembounds in this cave were too weird for her. Too outlandish, or violent, or without common sense. Ayr tried to tolerate it the best she could, and act with politeness as anyone should, but the whole ordeal wore her out.

"What about yourself?" She asked softly. "I feel as though I've seen you somewhere myself, but I may be misremembering?"

Oliver listened intently--politely--and at the mention that Ayr had seen him before, he blinked. The idea that this ethereal, statuesque creature had noticed him--and he'd never seen her--awed him in some magical way. He bowed his head, and if he could have blushed, he would have. It wasn't an attraction, or anything like, it was just-... Well, she was something other. Something--higher. He couldn't have explained it, but it was like meeting one of the Elders--like Tenzin.

Maybe she is an Elder? He thought it best not to ask, for now, instead smiling up at her as best a bird-dog could.

"Um--maybe. I kinda live in Eridanus--there, and Canis. I grow plants," he added, by way of explanation.

As he turned himself back down toward the rocks, focusing on setting another beautifully aglow, he continued. "I try to heal others when they're harmed. And plants, when they need it. And there were--fires, in Eridanus? So I'm growing a garden in Canis--if you know it. Lots of bones, not a lot of life but--I figured if Eridanus ever burns down we'd probably best have a backup..?" He glanced up at Ayr, ear-tufts briefly flattening back to his skull, as if afraid this might sound silly. "Thanks, too--for helping heal it. It's a lot to fix. There's some of us that are working on it together, now--Rift leads it--do you know him?"

Oliver was hardly the sort to shoulder recruitment, but it seemed to him that Ayr should at least meet the 'Kingdom of Eridanus' folks. Her goals certainly seemed aligned, and hey, she lived there. Assuming she didn't know them already, of course.

He looked back down to his stone, but it didn't want to seem to light up. That was okay; magic wasn't always consistent. That didn't bother him.
{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

Eridanus made sense, but Canis was quite unfamiliar to her. She knew the name, but she couldn't quite place it to an image. Perhaps Elspet had spoken of it, or perhaps that one-antlered fawn many cycles ago, but regardless, Ayr shook her head.

"I haven't been to Canis," she said a little distantly. No life and bones sounded almost... sickening to her, in some way. She made a quiet mental note not to find out how sickening it was over there for herself, but she did have to admit that the sound of a garden did sound nice.

"I've been trying to learn how to heal, too," she said, turning her head back to the growing plants. "And I've seen the fires, yes-- Elspet and I, my partner, managed to douse them before they reached our den, but it still took a while for everything to heal. I had a garden outside it." This was added a little more solemnly. It'd been a garden with tall orchids, and lavenders and lilacs-- it was beautiful, before the fires reached it.

Ayr was trying to find new plants, but she did miss the ones she had. They were like old friends, they couldn't quite be replaced.

"Oh, ahh, no," the unicorn responded as she shut her eyes. More magicka was breathed out of her and onto the newly-grown plants. They swayed and began to expand outwards, snaking along her face and through her hair and upwards.

They grew up and up and up, then hunched over and opened into bright, pale flowers that dimly glowed white in the darkness. They were, if anything, good indicators of the track from size alone rather than the dim bioluminescence they provided.

Ayr paced between them for a moment, her pale face nuzzling the buds of flowers as she spoke. "I don't know a Rift-- I know a Mercurius, we met while we were healing Eridanus after the fight," her cheek grazed a dull green stalk before she came stepping back out into the middle of the track, near Oliver. "But if they need my help, I'm more than happy to offer my services-- and I'm sure Elspet would follow. She, ahh... is quite strong. A good guardian." She made a humble, and failed, attempt to disguise a fond smile.

At the mention of Ayr's "partner," Oliver's eyes widened. He assumed at once that the partner must be another, identical creature--there were two of them?!--and he was awed. Her fond smile, too--that he didn't miss, and it provoked a mirrored smile on his own face. He was happy to see anyone happy, and Ayr's joy in particular was wonderful. He looked down at her flowers, then, quiet for a beat as he admired them.

"I'd like to meet Elspet sometime, maybe. And Mercurius--I know him, I think? I think he's one of the ones in Rift's group," he went on. "He calls it the Kingdom of Eridanus but I think it's mostly about. Um. ...Flowers."

Bright blue eyes shifted back up to Ayr, then right back down to the white flowers. They were like her, in a way--pale, glowing, beautiful. Eerie, almost, in their fragile otherness. "These are beautiful. Do you know their names? I'd like to try and grow some, if you know where to get the seeds? I've never seen anything like them before." But then, maybe they were her flowers--special flowers, unique to a creature like her. ...Were there Oliver flowers out there, then? Small and black and maybe soft? He stared through the white flowers, for a moment, pondering the possibility--then shook himself a little, breaking free from his thoughts.

He set himself back to his stones as he spoke further. "If you want to learn to heal, maybe I can help you? What do you know so far?" he asked softly, cupping a stone between taloned 'hands.' This one began to shimmer, softly, a steady golden-white glow--though dimmer than the rest, barely brighter than the flowers.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

Ayr dipped her head down into a nod, whip-like tail lashing cheerfully. "I'm sure Elspet would love to meet you," she said. "She's, ahh, a lot more talkative than I. She's very friendly."

The unicorn moved across to the other side of the track, her head still half-turned towards Oliver, thoughtfully. "I'm unsure if Mercy has ever mentioned a Rift, I'm afraid," Ayr considered. "A kingdom sounds... strange, however, admittedly. Less like we'd be working together and more that--" the unicorn paused, considering her words. A hoof clattered against the cave floor in thought before she resumed. "And more that we'd be working under someone's command, instead of as equals. Does that make sense...?"

She supposed it didn't exactly, but for the time being, while Oliver inspected the tall flowers, she bent her head down to the cave floor. Another cluster of green-white sprouts grew up from where her nose met the cave floor, sprawling out along the edges of the track and a little way onto it as well. Ayr took a moment to nurse the impending migraine drumming the back of her head as she peered back, quizzically.

"Their names...?" She asked, slowly circling back and lifting her nose against the stalk. "Well, if I had to guess, this one would be Anwen, and that one Vesper, and this one, perhaps, Elow--" the unicorn cut herself off, head jerking with realisation that Oliver meant the collective plants' names and not their individual names.

"Oh, I have no idea," she blinked, peering them over. "And, ahh, I'm unsure? I first found them in Eridanus, in my den, when I simply asked for them to appear, and to grow. They're still there if you'd like to visit, one day, or I can try to find some of their seeds for you?"

There was a brief pause as the silvery creature looked between the flowers and Oliver for a moment, her head tilting slowly, bird-like. "Do you often find names for plants?" She asked. "It, ahh, might be useful to perhaps document them within Rift's kingdom, for quick reference, perhaps?"

To Oliver's offer to teach her to heal, Ayr settled herself down on the cave floor, her frail limbs half-underneath her as she got herself comfortable. "If someone is feeling under the weather, I know a spell to relieve them of the, ahh, bad things" she said, eloquently. "I can summon water to wash wounds out, and I can weave roots and things to close wounds or set bones and the like-- but that's about it. "