ORIGIN

Rift was busy tending to his garden. Well, technically, it was no longer his garden, it was the Kingdom's. It was a small group of gembounds at the moment, but he hoped that it would grow. There was much to be done to fully heal this land and to turn the tree and its surroundings into a place that would fully support the Kingdom he wanted to build. But first...he could not leave his garden alone. There were still so many scars, so much healing to do to bring it back to the perfectly balanced flow of life that it had been before.

He was in the middle of carefully removing some of the invasive weeds that had begun to crawl into the edges when he felt something bump into his leg. He tensed instinctively, thinking it was an enemy and whipped around. White fur...he knew no enemies with white fur. After a moment he recognized the little form of Atinneas. The blind little cub that had drifted into their group. He had been a little skeptical, but they had shown no sign of malice or violence.

He relaxed and sat himself down. "Atinneas," he rumbled, "It's Rift. I understand why you do not look. You can't see." He knew he should say what he had planned to say, but he couldn't help himself. "I am...sad that you cannot see. Eridanus is beautiful. But I suppose that you can smell and feel the beauty instead."

Rift smiled down at the cub, his tail flicking with approval behind him. He sometimes closed his eyes and let himself drift into the forest by his other senses alone. The smell of leaves and bark and the forest, the sound of small creatures in the grass, the touch of the warm earth and the branches around him and the fresh taste of nature on his tongue...yes, sight was not necessary to see the beauty of Eridanus.

He was ready to start talking all about what other wonders Atinneas could experience when she pulled it to the one thing that he was trying to push out of his mind. But he understood why - with the scars of the battle still visible on the Earth and on its victims, it was no wonder why she was curious about what had happened. "There was an evil in this forest. We fought it and won but the cost was heavy. The story is long and not pleasant, if you wish to hear the whole thing, but you must understand...I didn't understand for a while when I was your age, but there are creatures in these caves that want nothing more then to cause harm and sow chaos. You won't find any in my Kingdom, but outside of our protective borders, there is evil."

His body was tense, but he found that talking helped. He'd been alone for so long, alone in the forest with nothing but plants and occasionally his brother that he had forgotten what communication could do.

Rift sighed and settled himself down onto the ground. If he was going to tell Atinneas about the attack, about the Bloodberries, he might as well tell the whole thing. Not that he even understand why it had happened, but perhaps the cub would.

"I've lived in Eridanus my whole life. I've dedicated myself to seeing this cave flourish and grow. Plants mean everything to me, anything that grows, anything with life, its precious and wonderful. I didn't understand, when I was a child, that not everyone felt the same. There were accidents, sure, where plant life was harmed, and I got angry, but never before Blackberry had I seen someone with such hatred towards life. She's a goose, was a goose, really. You'd think that even a young cougar like me could take her down, but I couldn't. When I saw her in the forest, tearing up bushes, scratching off the bark of trees, and being destructive for no other reason, I thought I could beat her and I attacked. But she's a monster. She almost killed me then, I don't know how, I don't know why, but before she did she flew off. I never saw her again." He shook his head here, his tail starting to thump against the ground with mild agitation. He had thought about that fight a lot, why it had happened. What was running through her head. Even now he struggled to understand that some people were cruel, just to be cruel.

"I never saw her, not until a couple of cycles ago. I didn't know about her, not at all - she lived in a tunnel far away from the forest so I heard nothing, only floating rumors of a dangerous family growing in strength. I never imagined that she would come back and I could never have dreamed what she would do if she did. But she did come back, and this time she came back with all of her children, whom she had raised from hatching to fight and kill. She was different too - grotesque, deformed, a monster. There was no way I could face them alone so I called for help. There are many that live in Eridanus who know me and trust me and they came to my aid. We met these Bloodberries in battle."

Just the mention sent the screams running through his ears and the taste of blood on his tongue. He closed his eyes and fought back the wave of nausea. He was silent for a moment, trying not to be thrown back into that terrible hell. "It was horrible," he managed to say, his voice hoarse. "I thought I was in a nightmare, but it was real. The clearing was filled with screams and yells. The ground was stained with blood. The field in front of the home tree, my precious garden that I have put my soul into, it was ruined, trampled, torn apart, burned. I saw so many horrible things that day. I did horrible things as well. Everyone did, to protect the cave against those monsters. Before long, many began to fall. Friends that spent their days in peace and spread nothing but love were scarred and maimed. We were never meant to fight but we had to kill. When a gembound is injured bad enough, they will retreat into the chrysalis they hatched from to heal instead of die. The ground was littered with chrysalis when the battle was over and all that remained of one of Blackberry's sons was his gem. I, myself, fell to the goose and her daughter." He touched the solid mask on his face as sorrow overtook his heart. "You've never seen my face," his voice was hushed now, "and you never will. They took it from me. They tore it away. I...I wouldn't say I was particularly beautiful, but it was my face. Now when I look in the water, I don't see my face anymore. I won't ever see it again."

He tried to continue speaking but a lump had formed in his throat so he shut his jaws and waited for the wave of despair to pass. After a few moments he took a breath and cleared his throat. "That's what happened and why everyone was in so much disarray. We all slept longer then we meant to, in our chrysalis. It will take a long time for all the scars to heal. Both in the earth, on our skin, and in our hearts."

Rift stared at the cub a little surprised by the words coming out of her mouth. She was just a child yet she spoke wisely. Of course, Rift knew these things already - he had suffered hurts through his life. He had been burned and beaten, deafened and betrayed. He knew that time healed everything, but time had not yet come to pass yet. The wounds were still fresh and the memories still vivid. However, he did not want to lay any more burdens on the young one. He had told her enough horrors already. "You are kind, Atinneas. And you speak wisely. I'm happy to have you in my Kingdom and I am happy that we have made you feel important."

He looked up into the trees, watching them wave softly for a moment. "We are not important, though. At least not to others. Nobody outside of this cave cares much for the forest. It has been burned too many times by too many ignorant people. But we aren't here to feel important in the grand scheme of things. We're here to protect and provide." He looked down at Atinneas, resting her head against his leg and he smiled. "We are important to life and to each other. That's all that truly matters."