ORIGIN - at the edge of the world

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Seshat had given Xevir a strong face in the end. She'd tried to act like she would be okay, that she wouldn't have to worry about her new friend while she was out doing...whatever she was doing, but it was just that - a face. She knew it was going to be hard, but she'd drastically underestimated how boring it would be to live alone without moving an inch.

The Spire that had once been a wondrous marvel had quickly become a sore sight, especially once the bitterness had set in. Thinking about it, if the Spire created all magicka, all life, then it was the one that had created her this way. Either by conscious design or not, but it was that thing's fault for making her live her life like this. Just sitting and watching the world without being able to do anything.

She occasionally absorbed the nutrients around her, but found it increasingly more difficult as time went on. After all, there was so much she could absorb from stone and there was only so much here she could take. Sooner or later...she'd have to find a better way to do this. What that would be, though, was beyond her.

And now another problem presented itself - she was parched. She hadn't had a single drop of water in her life, the fluid from the chrysalis having long dried out. And the spell she used to get herself energy didn't do anything for hydration. It became an increasing fear as time went on. Was that how this was going to end? She'd die of dehydration?

But it wasn't like she could do anything about it. All she could do was wait for someone else to come to her or a new idea to pop in her head. And as time went on, she feared more and more that there would be nobody else passing her by - not here, at the edge of Polaris.

@Attikias

He didn't come out of Eridanus much more, recently. It was, first off, cold, and he gripped at the edges of his cloak like a defense against the elements. Second off, he was comfortable in his life, with his friends and family he'd found.

But as he wandered into Polaris, his eyes set on two things. First, the blue crackling way up high, and second, smaller, on the ground- purple. Now, purple things were rare to him- or, at least, living things. Here he was, thinking that this was a hunk of rock.

Until he turned to see its face.

A chrysalis? Instantly, some part of his soul jumped at the idea that they were trapped, and he swung his pack around and away to approach. It wasn't long until he spoke up, definitely close enough to be in talking distance. "Hey, are you okay?" She wasn't moving, but the more he looked, the more he got the sense of carving from her. It was like one of his figures had been uplifted with its own head to look around.

Surely, that must not be comfortable. Chrysalises didn't normally form like that, as far as he was aware.

@Seshat

She couldn't turn her head to look around and didn't, at first, see Attikias approaching. Not until he appeared in her line of vision, his navy skin flickering in the edge of her eyesight. Immediately, her eyes snapped to the side to watch as he came to approach her from the front. She didn't need to call out to him - he'd already seen her and his path led him straight for her.

So she took the time to look him over with curiosity. He was very much unlike her and very unlike Xevir. On two legs, not four, with a strange face and fur that was only on his head. She wondered if the pelts covering his body were his own since they didn't seem to match his skin at all and the way he was moving, the way they shifted on him, was just not...natural.

She blinked inquisitively as he came in front of her and spoke. She wanted to stretch her neck forward and give him a sniff. She even tried before remembering that her neck was about as flexible as the rest of her body. A note of sourness crossed across her expression. "No," she replied bitterly. "I'm kinda stuck." If he hadn't noticed already.

But, really, she was over the moon joyed that she had more company. The days since Xevir had left had been boring and maddeningly slow. Now, at last, was a chance for more company, even if for only a little while. "Who are you?" she couldn't help but ask.

@Attikias

Ah, so she speaks. Still on edge with painful sympathy, Attikias dropped his bag next to him, overwhelmed by the sense that he had to do something.

"Oh," was all he really said. Stuck..? So... So this wasn't a gem creature. This cat's whole body was gem. And yet she breathed and talked to him, at least, so at least her mind wasn't stuck.

He hesitated, lost in his mind as he looked over her when she asked who he was. "Sorry- I'm Attikias. Attik works, too." His hand rested on his chest and he nodded to her. "What about you? And.. How long've you been here?"

His eyebrows drew together in permanent worry for her. Older brother-dad instincts, activate.

@Seshat

Yeah, that was a pretty fair reaction. Seshat let out a small sigh but otherwise tried to make herself look a little more cheerful. Didn't want him worrying about her too much, right? She didn't really want that, for everyone that came up to her to feel pity for her situation. Internally, maybe she did a little bit, but after Xevir had just walked away, once she was bored with Seshat's uselessness, she realized that she didn't want others to walk away feeling like they had to do something. That just giving her company and their name, maybe a story, was all that would make her content.

But that was simply wildly untrue.

"Attikias? That's a cool name. I'm Seshat." The word rolled off with a small purr that she gently forced from her tongue. "I don't know how long I've been here. A few days, maybe? I hatched and fell here and I've been here since then." Ears twitched, trying to point upwards where some of the shards of her chrysalis still remained attached to the stone wall above their heads. Her eyes tried to follow, just generally looking up so that Attikias could see.

She looked over him again. He really was so unlike Xevir that she wondered if they were even the same kind of creature - Gembounds, she'd called it. If he'd come from this cave like her or from somewhere else. Did that factor into appearance? "Where do you come from? Like, uh, do you live in this cave? Or somewhere else?"

@Attikias

Attikias wrong his hands together, squatting down on the balls of his feet. "It's good to meet you, Seshat." He'd forced out the worry from his voice, but it still clenched at his lungs as he watched her. The smile was mirrored, at least.

His ministrations paused when she said how long she was here. Days? Didn't she need to drink, He could feel his velvet fur prickling on his back, tail trying to twitch. He didn't want to look even more like a misunderstanding adult but it was... Hard. He had to do something- as much as she might've not needed it (which, he clearly thought she did), he was worried that this child had just been here for all of her life with... Nothing. His eyes flicked up to the remains of chrysalis and he tried not to pout.

His attention dropped back to her when she spoke again. "Oh- Eridanus." He pointed out to Tunnel I with a finger and a nod. "It's a lot of plants- green and stuff. Really different from this place- here, the.. The air's different."

He looked down to his sandal-covered feet. "Do you need water? Or.. Or food? ... Have you ever even eaten before?" Cripes, that may be going too far on the doting part, and he internally winced, but he couldn't just not do anything. "I have some- jerky in my bag, wait-" and he twisted to pull out dark bits of meat. "It's tough, but you're free to have it."

If she could even eat well like that. She must be eating, right? Drinking? In order to get this far in life?

@Seshat

Eyes widened with wonder and if her tail wasn't incased in a gemstone, it would have been pointed up with faint excitement. "Plants? Green? That sounds...wonderful. I would love to see it sometime." The words were out before she could stop them and it was obvious from the way the light left her eyes that she knew that it was impossible. She'd never see it unless Attikias found some way to carry her away. But the weight of her gemstone around her told her that it was too heavy, way too heavy for someone of his size to carry. He might have been bigger then her, but she knew that even that couldn't account for the weight of a full-body gemstone.

Seshat wasn't a liar. And she wasn't going to shove her needs aside to make it seem like everything was under control - because it wasn't. She was barely hanging on. And she wasn't so insane as to deny her own needs in favor of keeping Attikias from worrying. She valued her life. "Y-yeah. I haven't had anything to drink. But the food thing I'm okay. I figured out how to use magic to eat. It's not filling but it keeps me going at least."

The offer for food had her eyes dilating and her stomach rumbling. She'd just absorbed energy not long ago, but the thought of physical food that she could chew and swallow sounded wonderful. "Ah...thank you." She had to wait for Attikias to put it right in front of her mouth before she could grab it with her tongue and her teeth, chewing down on the tough meat. The flavors filled her mouth and it might as well have been the finest meat to have ever been eaten.

As she chewed, slowly, savoring the taste of real, actual food, tears came unbidden to her eyes, spilling silently down her cheeks. She tried pushing it down because she could deal with her emotions on her own time. She could cry later when Attikias wasn't standing in front of her, but the kindness he was showing to her, the concern for her, even though she was just a living statue, utterly and completely useless, sharing with her something that seemed trivial to him, but meant the world to her...it was so much and her emotions get the best of her.

She cried, despite how little water she had left in her bodies, sobs escaping her throat unbidden. She couldn't stop herself however much she tried. "S-s-sorry, I'm s-sorry," she spluttered through her tears.

@Attikias

He sunk into his shoulders when she mentioned wanting to see the green, but- no. He could do something. "What if I bring some plants to you?" Not now, of course, but it was something to keep in mind.

"I'm glad you can keep going, but you need to drink," he worried out, head tilting. "First, eat." He held the meat to her lips, letting her chew from his hand directly so she wouldn't have to fumble.

He calmed when he saw her chewing, when she seemed in true bliss upon finally eating. He couldn't imagine going that long without eating- never tasting anything, never even drinking. Her mouth must be so dry, now.

The concern grew when she began to cry. "Hey," his voice was low, quiet, and he reached forward with a thumb to wipe away the tears from her fur. "Hey, hey, it's okay."

It wasn't okay. It wasn't fair that life played her this card, yet it had to be okay. There was no way to go but up from here, at least. "Don't be sorry," he continued to coo, bringing his head forwards to place on her own. It was almost the kind of talk a doting parent would give to their child- and, in truth, it sort of was, just without him being her actual father. "This is hard. It's gonna be hard. But you're doing so good, Seshat. You're doing so, so good."

His hands curled around her face and behind her ears, petting gingerly. "I'm proud of you. Here- here, I have more." Moving back from her, he reached back into his bag and brought out the rest of his jerky- really only about a handful, but enough to bring up to her mouth to eat. He didn't shove, per say, but was definitely bringing it close enough if she didn't seem to reject it.

@Seshat

Seshat tried desperately to control her sobs. She didn't want this to become a habit, always just tearing up and breaking down in front of strangers that came up to her, but he was just being so nice and just the act of eating was so wonderful and new to her that it was like a spear in her heart. It wasn't fair! She didn't want to live like this, she wanted to run around and hunt and play not stand and stare forward all day and only eat when someone holds up food to her jaws!

It was not okay, but the soft caress of Attikias's thumb on her cheek sent a shiver down her spine and she felt, for an instant, comforted. Protected. Here was a kind someone, willing to help her, offering to give her a taste of a world she'd never be able to fully experience. It was okay, it would be okay, she could find a way to live like this.

It faded away quickly, back into despair, but his gentle words and soft voice encouraging her to keep going, praising her for making it this far, they helped to lessen the force of her crying. Her eyes were still blurry with tears, her chest still wracked with sobs, but she was calming down, slowly but surely. She leaned into the touch, or at least tried to, the best she could, ears twitching at the nice feeling of being pet. She looked down at the jerky he was offering her and opened her mouth again, gratefully lapping it up and chewing, slowly savoring that taste because when would be the next time she'd eat real food? Would Attikias just leave her when he was bored, like Xevir had done, and never come back?

She hiccuped as she swallowed the last of the jerky and managed to whisper through the tears, "W-why are you being so nice to me? You know I c-can't do anything for you. I can't p-pay you back. So why are you helping me?"

@Attikias

It didn't take long for him to realize that this was probably the first contact she'd ever had with a living being. A whirlwind of dizzying emotions came with that- concern, primarily, with pity and anxiety for her future. No being deserved to live like this.

His free hand stroked behind her ears as she ate, letting her get the last bits of meat and resting his hand at what would be her collar. The squat was uncomfortable, now, and he moved to kneel.

Why was he helping? Why shouldn't he, he'd say, if he hadn't paused, idly running his knuckles at the ridge of her skull. "Because," he trailed off in his words. He was at a loss. It was the right thing to do, it was what good people did, but then would she feel guilty? No- "Because I want to. It's not fair if I left you alone out here, waiting for food or company or anything. I can hunt for myself and I get extra, so it'd just go to waste anyways." His hand retreated. "And don't say feeding you's a waste. Feeding you is worthwhile, if it means I can make you happy." And alive. His hand that'd peeled away tapped her nose-pad in a gentle boop.

While he had begun to formulate solutions to problems, he didn't want to remind her of her situation right now, instead turning to scratching at her jaw.

@Seshat

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