ORIGIN - Bumps and Bruises

Mitis

Mitis had began to wander after she had emerged, and she had spent most of her time alternatingly scare or awed by what she saw. She had be in awe when she first saw the soft, wet, white substance that lined the tunnel leading off from the cave she was born in. Then as she had cautiously nosed through it, wading deeper into the tunnel as she explored the new phenomenon, she had slipped and fell. It was her first real experience with hurt. It had left bruises and small cuts that left her yelping and crying, stunned by the new sensation.

What was even more worrisome was that she found she was not yet coordinated enough to climb back up into the cave she came from. The child was forced instead to continue to progress through the hurtful tunnel. It had been harrowing for her. She spent the entire time with shaking limbs, clumsily and fearfully moving onward. It had seemed as if the tunnel would never end and she wondered if this was what life was going to be like from now on. Wet, cold, and full of hurts.

After a while, she managed to escape the white tunnel, but not without cuts and bruises in other places from other trips and falls. By the time she emerged into Orion, the little lump of fur was cold and exhausted and miserable, but much more cautious. She had no idea if this was a better place to be than where she was and she was already longing for the place she had woken up. At least it hadn't hurt her.

She huddled not far from the white tunnel's entrance, feet tucked beneath her and ears flattened as she looked outward into the new cave, hoping she could get some idea of what to expect if she waited and rested.

Scuttling. Mumbling. Concerns. Casting.

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She had forced herself to leave the blue stone alone for some time, however much it hurt to be apart from it. She had to convince herself that it would be safe without her constant protection. She couldn't just sit there, sitting next to it, and wait for a whole cycle while it grew. She needed to stay fit, healthy, and active if she wanted to be in the best shape to raise the child.

Orion wasn't a stranger to her by now. She seemed to spend much of her time wandering beneath the glittering stones that twinkled on the ceiling, just thinking. About everything - who she had been, who she was now, and who she wanted to become. Sometimes thinking too much...hurt. Sometimes looking at the growing apatite and remembering who it had once been, who they had once been, was too much; so walks like these, where she didn't have to dwell too much on the past she couldn't remember, were nice. Calming. She felt safe, perhaps partly due to the Seven's presence nearby. This cave was defended.

Something caught her eye as she passed, a dark shape set against the paler stone and ice of the tunnel behind it. Curious, she changed her path to approach and slowed when she realized that it was a creature. Something small, and something that looked scared. For a second, the dark fur and canine shape had her thinking of Jayberry, but she quickly put that to the back of her head. Jayberry was much, much larger and looked quite different from this one.

She approached, slowly, leaning her head forward. "Hello? Are you okay over there?" She couldn't see any kind of wounds from where she was, a few meters away, but it looked frightened enough for her to be concerned.

@Mitis

Mitis

Mitis saw the unusual shaped, white, moving thing before it saw her. Lime orbs watched it anxiously as she drew her body even tighter in on itself, though that hurt. She wasn't sure if she wanted it to see her or not, but she didn't have a choice. It noticed and spoke to her.

It took the aard a moment to understand the words that were said. Words were still hard and confusing sometimes. She finally came to understand what it said to her. "Hurt, cold, hungry," she said softly, tasting the words as they came out. She was perhaps too quiet to be heard, but she wasn't certain. She didn't know how well the white thing could hear.

She hoped the white thing was nice. If it wasn't, she didn't know what to do. She probably couldn't do anything about it. It was bigger than her and it talked better than her, so it could probably hurt her a lot if it wanted to. She tensed at that thought, eyes narrowing together as if she didn't want to see it happen if it did indeed decide it wanted to cause hurt.

Scuttling. Mumbling. Concerns. Casting.

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@Nameless

The goose waited patiently as there was a short silence between the two. For a moment, she wondered if it had even understood, if it was just a Lesser or maybe if it was deaf. But it seemed to just take a moment to process and she took another tentative step forward before stopping and sinking down to rest on the ground, trying to look nonthreatening as possible. "Why don't you come away from that tunnel? It's cold there. We can find a nice, warm place for you to get comfortable, okay?"

She leaned over to touch the ground with her bill, a sparkling banana popping into existence in front of her. "Come, I have food for you. I'll look at your wounds, too, and see if I can do anything, okay?"

@Mitis

Mitis

She listened and watched, seeing the object pop into existence. Immediately her ears raised, intrigued. Likewise, her mane fluffed up, not very voluminous due to being damp. She looked between the white thing and the yellow object. Slowly she rose to her paws, head ducked low and ears flattening back out. Mitis shuffled forwards toward the white thing, tail tucking between her legs. It had laid down, so it was not quite as tall, but still tall compared to the juvenile aardwolf.

Mitis would attempt to shuffle forward until she stood perhaps a foot from the white creature, should the white creature allow it. She sniffled cautiously at the yellow thing, keeping her eyes mostly on the white creature. It was kind of pretty. It had a long, pretty neck and its fur didn't look like hers. It was smoother, longer, and Mitis couldn't help but wonder what it felt like. Likewise at this distance, the other creature's face was easier to focus on. It had something attached to it that looked hard, different from her face or the face of the red creature she had met before. Mitis had not imagined that something could look so different from her, and while part of her felt afraid, she was also intrigued.

Scuttling. Mumbling. Concerns. Casting.

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@Nameless

The goose took a step back from the banana so the young canine could inspect it on her own time, patiently settling herself down on her stomach again and watching as it slowly, ever so slowly, approached. She lowered her head a bit and observed the kid, wondering if it could even speak, or if it was intelligent. She'd made that mistake before, offering food to a Lesser, thinking it was intelligent, before it just took her offering and ran away without a word.

She was quiet, patiently waiting for it to say something first, but it was obviously quite nervous and she decided to take a bit of a bold step (although it might not have been that bold) by speaking, gently. "Don't worry, it's food. Can you speak? Do you have a name?"

@Mitis

Mitis

The aardwolf flinched when the white creature rose up, standing still with splayed legs until it settled down again and remained settled for a little while. Then it told her the yellow thing was food. It asked her if she knew how to talk, what her name was. It must not have heard her before.

"I... I'm Mitis," she said, speaking a little bit louder so it would hear her this time. Her voice was still relatively quiet, however. She slowly nudged at the banana, looking back at the white thing. She rolled it over, touching it with one small foot. Then she slowly pulled it toward her, ears pinning down as she took a bite of it. It didn't taste good. Or, rather, it didn't till she began to get to the inside. The exterior was odd, and not tasty like the inside, but who knew when she would get to eat something like this again? She would strive to eat the entire thing, despite the fact that it was quite a meal for a tiny aardwolf child.

She began to chomp on the banana as fast and hard as she could, swallowing chunks of it in rapid succession. She was not only hungry but concerned that something might take it away from her. She had seen some scary stuff happen already. It wasn't a stretch to think something bigger might swoop by and snatch it up. Naturally, she tried to swallow a chunk that was too large and choked. Gagging, with eyes watering, she wretched and wretched.

Becoming slightly panicked she began to gag with more earnest before finally managing to expel the chunk onto the ground. She stared at the wet chunk for a long moment, eyes huge before she finally looked back up at the white thing, coughing a little. Mitis had decided she was finished eating now.

Scuttling. Mumbling. Concerns. Casting.

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@Nameless