ORIGIN

In the silence, Magdalena found herself rolling these thoughts over in her mind. She was struggling to understand - it was a complex idea - yet she comprehended it thoroughly, after all, she was the one that developed the thought. She wanted to know more about it, always, always hungry to know more. To feel more. She was kin with this twister below them, constantly raging and turning and shredding everything, pulling itself apart at the seams only to barely cling to life still. The only thing that kept it going was its own sheer determination.

The roaring winds had come to drown out the quiet, so when Nemesis spoke, suddenly it was loud and she felt so much closer, so much smaller than she had been before. Magdalena pushed her ears forward, nodding while the rhino tried to explain the nature of the twister. Nemesis was fire because of the heat that wavered from her skin and rode on her breath. She was burning from the inside, and that was a hallmark of things that lived, the heat. The dead were cold and lifeless, but not Nemesis. She was alive, as much as Magdalena, as much as the twister. But she continued to explain the twister's function in everything, the Wind; how it could feed or choke, give life or take away. It was a fickle thing, but such was the nature of those living beings. Suddenly, she felt much smaller. She felt so unimportant in the wake of the wind.

Unlike Nemesis, the dog didn't feel so attached to it. She admired it. She didn't place any ownership on the twister for it was not hers to control. It could toss her away in an instant if it so pleased, and like her, it was alive; it had wants. She knew. "Living things will always crave more." Magdalena croaked, pale straw eyes looking through the twister into the beyond. "Don't you?" She added, tilting her head. The twister may not always be with them, but that she could understand. It was the natural way of things, and they would just have to come to accept that not everything was cemented in permanence. Or maybe Magdalena simply lacked the attachment to things so many others had.

Magdalena nodded her understanding. The desire to become stronger was a common one and, because of that, one she could empathize with. The borzoi wanted to be stronger too. She craved the mastery over her element that Louie had; not the desire to manipulate sickness in particular, but the desire to no longer be vulnerable in general. She wanted to be able to defend herself. She wanted to be able to drive others away with her strength and skill, and she wanted others to look upon her with reverence. But that was so much to ask, especially for a weak, frail thing like her - admitting it would almost be embarrassing. "Knowledge." She answered finally. "I want to know."

Magdalena hungered for everything. She was selfish and greedy; she wanted to know what it was like to feel more, to master her element. She wanted the knowledge to control it without fail. She wanted to know what it was like to see, and she wanted to know how to be as powerful as everyone else. Hers was a foolish whim, and she sighed. Nemesis' desire was so noble, and she smiled knowing that all she wanted was to protect them. She could, at least. Hers was an achievable goal. Her smile began to falter, and she settled into silence once more. The gentle touch of the rhino offered her some comfort. It was reassurance that at least Nemesis couldn't read her mind; she couldn't know how deeply Magdalena desired such things. Her wants were no more than whimsical, at least, as far as they both were concerned.

"Do you consider me weak?" She asked suddenly, fluttering her eyelashes as her gaze, could it see, would flicker towards Nemesis' general direction. "Do you think I could be strong like you?" Magdalena followed up, though there was no sense of shame or self-consciousness in her voice. The question was purely analytical, in the sense that Magdalena wanted to know if it was possible, at all, that she could be strong. Nemesis knew more than her - she was alive for far longer, she had experienced much more. She would be able to tell if Magdalena could be strong, or if she was destined to life as a vulnerable, fragile doll, couldn't she?