ORIGIN - The art of chewing bones.

It hadn't been the first time Arkrael had found herself within Canis. Or at least near it anyways. She knew others made this area their home so it wasn't at all strange for Arkrael to avoid the place. It wasn't until now that she actually stepped foot into the area. She had explored for awhile, studying all the delicious looking bones. It wasn't until she got to the chambers and traveled through several of the walkways and into a room that was furthest away from where she had entered the chambers did this growing she-wolf come to a halt. A tail had been wagging for the past twenty minutes as she now lay comfortably in the room with one large bone grasped into her front paws. Fangs bit and chewed away at it. Splintering the bone slowly.

It wasn't long before she got to the center of that certain bone and the delicious treat that awaited her instantly pleased the wolf. A deep rumbling escaped her as she chewed a bit more to crack the bone even more. Eager to get to the marrow within. When she did get to it she ate it up in a hurry, happy for the treat that would fill her belly. Well... as much as one large bone full of marrow could. By the time Arkrael was done chewing out all the marrow the bone was clean. Shining white against her dark pelt. She gave several last chews to the bone before she instantly searched for her next snack.

Finding the next bone Arkrael's tail wagged quickly. She crawled closer to it, reaching out her paw as if to swipe it closer to her. Yet it was still out of reach. Her rump wiggled as her hindlegs quickly shifted to brace against the ground. With a playful bark Arkrael lunged at the bone only to realize she had sorely mistaken the distance. She went flying over the bone and went rolling until she hit into one of the walls with a light thud. A soft laugh escaped her as she shook her head. It seemed her mood was kept in a good one. Be it from the snacks of marrow she was finding within the area, or what, but Arkrael was certainly not complaining. With another shake the wolfess edged back over to the bone she had made the jump for and quickly grasped it into her paws and tugged it close where she instantly began chewing at the end of it.

Usui walked through Canis with satchel slung over his back. Ever since he’d discovered yet another magic skill, the lion was keen on gathering more gems for his future work. Canis was a good place for foraging for many gems clung to the bones here and Usui, who didn’t really enjoy the thought of ripping the gems off lesser predators unless the stone was truly valuable, felt that his conscience was less pricked here. He was essentially cleaning the remains of their remains. Tail swished left and right languidly behind him while he padded forward, furry cub body already shedding the last of its baby fur with small, random hair patches appearing where his mane should be. Wandering about, the boy found himself within the chambers of Canis, a place which he didn’t recall exploring.

The air was rather stale in the miniature rooms and so Usui lost no time in getting to work. He concentrated his magic and summoned the gems to him. The magic was highly exhaustive. The cub felt the tension from a multitude of small gems in the bones in the same room as him as they attempted to answer his bidding and dislodge from the bones they were embedded in for a long time. Usui decided that he would like to keep gems the colour of his eyes – green. He padded over to one bone and found the green. Registering the feeling, he then lost his grip on the other coloured ones and honed in onto the green gems. The feeling was lighter almost immediately, and with a snarl he drew them out.

What greeted his eyes now were a couple of gems, some larger some smaller, and all of differing shades of green. Going one step further, Usui forced the pieces to join together. The subtrates fused. He then used his mind to direct the sharpening of the gems. The end result were four sharp pale green spikes, that were rather stunted and thick around the base, which could be affixed to a collar, or armour of his choice. Usui spent a good while more refining and polishing the gem which yielded to him but not without immense concentration. Once he was done, the cub groaned and lurched forward, feeling a great power seep out of him into the thing he had crafted. Although Usui was a master, he was after all still a 1 cycle cub and this had been a great feat on its own. The boy picked up the four pale green spikes which were similar to the shade of his eyes, put them into his satchel, then continued on his way.

He heard several munching sounds and scented a different creature soon enough. Feeling rather exhausted of magic, Usui thought it a good break to interact with someone else. He padded closer to the wolf, a she-wolf it was, and couldn’t help but chuckle as she tackled the bone. Funny, bones weren’t nice to him at all. ”Bones taste nice to you?” he asked almost curtly and looked at the adult gembound curiously.

Paw steps had drawn her attention, but she had payed them no mind. At least, not until a voice suddenly rose up and spoke to her. Her green and obsidian eyes rose up towards the lion and she eyed him wearily. Her tail flicked side to side for a moment before resting motionlessly behind her. She lifted her head up to inspect this feline a little more, her paws still firmly gripping onto the bone she had been chewing on. The question was an odd one, but she did not dismiss it out right. "They are, but... It is the marrow that I prefer," She answered casually, ignoring the tone this feline had used towards her. She glanced down to her bone one more time before scowling for a moment. Shaking her thoughts away her scowl vanished just as quickly as it had came. She pushed herself up to sit upon her haunches and curled her tail around her side.

"And what brings a feline to this place of all places?" She did not spare any sort of kindness towards the feline. If he would come here and pop off as rudely as he had then so be it. She would not be so brash as to make assumptions, not when their meeting had only just begun. It was true first meetings would always hold the highest of opinions, but Arkrael was also not against giving the benefit of doubt either. Arkrael studied him from where she sat. He was definitely younger than she was. Of course there were only a few handful of gembounds that were near the same age as her, with only a good two or three who were older. Her gaze lingered over the gem cuffed around his ear and the tip of her tail bounced up for a split second before settling against the ground once more.

"Arkrael Speech"
"Vazi Speech"

OoC: Sorry for the long wait and short post.

Weary eyes lifted and regarded the lion where he stood. The grey wolf seemed to contemplate his question with a couple of flicks of her tail before raising her head to inspect him. She would see a cub, but not a helpless being. Usui had grown past the stature of an adult large-sized dog and stood around the shoulder of a grown lioness. While his spots had not vanished, signs of future strength showed in the skin flaps and lanky sinews encasing the lion. His jaws were wider and nose rounded as well. "The marrow." He repeated her statement in a matter of fact manner, pondering over it. Never having tried it before, the taste which clung to his imagination was that of hardened, unyielding and distinctively bland calcium. The wolf looked back to the bone with a rather nasty expression, then turned back to him. Usui had half a mind to ask her why her pleasure had turned into such distaste so quickly but she spoke first and to her, the lion gave his strict attention.

She asked him what he was doing, to which he could give a fair response. "I'm collecting gems, for my work," he replied her earnestly and smiled. "I craft things. Gems, metal...you name it." He chuffed gently and swung his tail behind him languidly, then sat onto the floor and eyed the girl curiously. "Name's Usui. What's yours, what do you do?" He had come across gembounds of various sorts and all of them had at least one skill, so he had no reason to presume otherwise. Assuming a similar fashion as the wolf, he curled his feline tail across his paws and tilted his boyish head in her direction.

"Yes, the marrow," Arkrael rumbled thoughtfully as she cast her gaze down to the bone just before her front paws that still held the delectable substance within it's shattered center. Half of it was gone, but there was still plenty for another to have a taste. "If you would like a taste, you could," She offered raising her gaze up towards the lion once again as she pushed her paw against the broken bone and nudged the thing just a little bit forward. She would not completely push it over towards him unless he was interested in trying it.

Her audits perked up with interest as he began to speak again, this time of the things he could do. Gem's for work? Now that was idly familiar and intriguing. "My calling is Arkrael, I bond to earth. I too, can craft gems and the like," An intrigued grin tugged at the corners of her muzzle as she pondered about the situation she was now in. Finally. She had finally met someone who held the same element as herself.

"ArkraelSpeech"
"Vazi Speech"

OoC: Sorry for the shortness.

Usui flicked his ears as she pushed the bone towards him and slowly, his stoic features expanded into a grin. It was hard to find gembounds who were that generous these days. “Well ‘en thankyou, y’e generous.” He lifted his right paw and batted the offered bone towards himself, then bent down and gave it a lick – no taste flooded his senses. Perhaps he’d have to do it just like her. Usui parted his jaws and crunched down upon it. Immediately, the thick, rich taste of marrow assaulted his senses and he actually quite liked it! The youth gave it a few more chews then politely set the bone upon the floor and brought himself back into a proper sitting posture, not wishing to disrespect his present company just for food.

The wolf went on about something interesting now. Earth? “Amazing!” he exclaimed, pale green eyes actually lighting up in sheer delight. “You’re the first earth bender I’ve met, pleasure to meet you, Arkrael.” Feline tail thumped upon the floor as he looked at her wistfully. “Well then, are you collecting gems here as well?” he’d ask politely, then if she so wanted, would offer to stand and walk around the cave with her if she wanted to explore and get some stuff.

A tail moved, thumping against the ground as it began to wag with joy. Arkrael was definitely pleased that Usui had enjoyed the marrow. Now she didn't feel like it was such an odd thing to be asked if she enjoyed it. Or at least, she assumed he liked it from the expression he had given before he had finished off the marrow. The bone was soon pushed away and it was left forgotten by Arkrael. Ears pushed forward, listening as Usui excitedly spoke, his rather handsome pale green eyes lighting up in his delight. It was contagious and Arkrael found herself grinning in just as much excitement as he was expressing.

"Actually! You're the first I've met also," Arkrael suddenly barked thoughtfully. She had know there were many others around the caves as of late. It seemed as if there were Chyrsali cracking open on a regular basis these days. Yet she had yet to stumble upon another who was so familiar with the Earth as she was. His next question left Arkrael intrigued. It didn't occur to her that she could have easily started her gem search around this area. She had seen some glistening around piles of bones before, but she didn't pay much mind to them until now. "Actually no, I didn't even think to do so," She paused a moment as she turned her gaze around the area. "Of course, I really don't have anything to carry them in either. I normally just create my own gems," Her eyes turned back to Usui, lingering on the bag he wore. How had he managed to come across one of those? IT was a curious thing and perhaps Arkrael would have to inquire about it later.

"ArkraelSpeech"
"Vazi Speech"

Tags: Usui
OoC:

The lion was thrilled that he was too, the first gembound she had met who wielded earth magic. It may have seemed like a rather lonely existence for them but it made him feel that they were all the more so thought upon as precious within Origin. Usui nodded his head as she mentioned that it had not occurred to her, and that she would create her own gems. This made him very curious indeed – for the lion did enjoy crafting his own gems but found beauty in the natural creations which Origin had gifted them. Her eyes fell upon his bag and the cub could tell she was curious about it. Maybe she even wanted one for her own. "I craft gems too! I just don’t do it so often,” he replied very honestly. Then with a light chuckle, the cub nuzzled his satchel flap open to reveal the contents. Some pebbles, a couple of gems – the more precious items were hidden deep inside, out of sight. "I got the bag from Tunnel J. Another gembound helped me with it by attaching the string…” and then he removed the bag so it flopped onto the ground gently, "It was rusty, but I made it shiny again and put a black jade bead at the center part.” He nudged his bag forward a little, letting Arkrael inspect it. "Do you craft?” he asked, genuinely curious, wondering what Arkrael specialised in.

Multi-colored eyes watched as the lion pushed open the flap of his bag. It was all too intriguing for Arkrael and she felt herself scoot a few inches closer just to have a better peak at the things he carried. It was surely useful. Audit's flicked before pressing forward as the lion spoke of how the thing was crafted. Soon his question came afterwards and Arkrael flicked her ears back for a small moment. "Honestly, I have not spent a lot of time honing my skills in crafting. I would like to, I just haven't found the time to," Arkrael settled her gaze up toward's Usui's face once more, almost embarrassed by the fact a much younger feline had already learned things about their element that she had not.

"I've mostly just been working on crafting the gems themselves, but I hope to someday turn them all into armor," She gave a curt nod as she pondered over the idea of it. Her magnet spell had brought on the first idea of it. If she could summon the iron ore from the earth around, why would she not be able to attempt something with gems. she shook her thoughts away and returned her gaze to Usui, "I suppose I have some practicing to do." There was a humorous tone in her voice now, amused by her own thoughts that were quickly shaken away.

"ArkraelSpeech"
"Vazi Speech"

Tags: Usui
OoC:

The lion chuckled as Arkrael replied him, oblivious and not minding at all that she was older and might feel embarrassed by his questions. He nodded thoughtfully as she mentioned the lack of time. Perhaps, for Usui was a lone wanderer, a nomad, who came and went as he pleased and interacted with other gembounds when he chose to speak to them on his journeys. He was very free to expand his skill set, not being tied down to a group or to any individual. The cub relished in this freedom. Usui flicked his ears as she mentioned turning gems into armour. "Hmm,” he murmured, imagining it. He’d thought of the possibility, but it seemed much faster with metal. "You know,” he broke out of thought and suggested cheerfully to her, "That’s possible! As long as they have joints or chinks to allow for mobility!” he chuckled and then attempted to conjure up his power to try and demonstrate it to her.

Unfortunately, instead of bringing in the gems to himself, he felt the gems on the bones surrounding him being flung away! This startled the lion, but it was probably something Arkrael wouldn’t really have noticed apart from his glowing gem. He chuckled ruefully and coughed in embarrassment. "Looks like my magic isn’t going to work now. But you get it, don’t you?” he laughed and attempted to bop his head against her shoulder playfully.