ORIGIN - those left behind

Orion had been a particularly beautiful place and he had come to fancy one of the dilapidated homes there; yes, he would build it into a proper dwelling with time. To start, he'd need warmth—his fur was not lacking, but he felt like he could be more comfortable. Some sort of bedding, perhaps. There was a slab inside of his home that might have served as a bed once, but it was uncomfortable without padding. Imre wasn't sure what he was looking for, exactly, but he added it to the mental list of things he intended to seek out.

His wanderings had him distracted, looking at the different pieces and places in Orion, eventually leading him to yet another tunnel. This one was different than the one he had been born in but intrigued him nonetheless. As he entered, he turned to look at the giant beast carved into the rock—he did not know what it was, but it seemed as if it might have been important once. A gentle hand traced the quartz decorations, and his eyes followed the beast up and onto the ceiling where more creatures lurked eternal in the stone.

Idly, his feet carried him deeper into the tunnel, noting staircases and more carvings, but thankfully the ground underfoot was smooth and easy to blindly traverse. Unlike the tunnel he was born into and Orion itself, which had uneven surfaces. Occasionally, he'd come across half-buried relics, things he could not name—shields, swords, other various items—that all looked equally fascinating.

And finally, when he had reached the end of the tunnel after some unknown amount of time, shimmering slit-eyes locked onto the final stone guardian. This one had a bowl between its claws with—fake?—strange objects within it. Before he could inspect it, he could not ignore the sound of howling wind that came from the area beyond, and carefully he peeked inside: he could not see whatever was making the noise, but it was loud enough for him to feel like it was dangerous.

Imre took a step back and instead decided to inspect the offering bowl more. His long arms extended to pull him up and into the bowl, where he sat and tried to pry pieces of the cemented items free. He was, of course, unable to do so. Placing his hand as flat as he could across the items, he tried to feed a small amount of electricity into them—could it be woken with charged magic?

The charge penetrated deep into the offering bowl, and several of the items stirred or whirred; his ears flicked forward as he leaned in to look at them carefully. No matter how much he pried, he could not free any of them; and so, he simply sat and marveled at the strange things he did not know the names of.

@Azure

She came in in a flurry of feathers, the flapping of four wings--and nearly toppled back as she realized that, for once, she wasn't alone here. "Oh!" was maybe not the politest of greetings, and she blinked, eyes taking in this stranger as her mind caught up. She could only really equate him to Attikias, or even Dip: bipedal, with hands and hair. There the similarities ended, for this stranger was furred, with a snout and... far too many nostrils--

"Sorry! I'm Azure, I didn't realize anyone was here." Because I wasn't looking--oops. She hesitated, then, attention drawn to the whirring in the stine bowl. She'd have never, had she lived here all her life, have thought to charge the bowl with electricity--despite sharing that magic, herself. Her beak pointed over toward the sounds, eartufts perking. "... It's never done -that- before," she said, in some surprise. "I didn't mean to barge in on ya, though. I just came to get some stuff." Metal, mainly, for herself and for Dip.

She just hoped she hadn't spooked this stranger too badly.

@Imre

There was a brief moment where he was startled as well, sliding up against the side of the bowl with his hands pressed on either side to brace him—but it was quickly revealed that the creature was no threat. As she spoke and apologized, Imre slowly peeled himself from the wall and brought his hands down, clasping them together against his abdomen.

He nodded at her name, following her gaze into the bowl where he would nod again, prying his hands apart to place them on the edge of the bowl again.

"Yes, curious," he agreed, reaching in to touch at the cemented objects. They were once again lifeless items. His eyes returned to Azure.

"I am Imre," he said with a smile, gesturing to the cave and adding, "what things in here have you come to get? Are they useful?" To Imre, it all looked like old junk and garbage, at least in the sense that they were broken or shattered.

@Azure

The more she looked at him, the more she became convinced that she'd never seen him, nor anything like him. Not in passing, not in distant silhouette. He was... unique, and she tilted her head a little as she regarded him. He didn't seem like a threat--polite, startled at her approach (as she would have been; and she didn't blame him for that one bit), and quiet. Friendly, even--she was pretty sure that was a smile and, given what she knew of Dip, that was meant to be nice.

Cool! It was always great meeting others who weren't murderous lunatics, or dragons.

"Oh!" was her first response, and she immediately mentally kicked herself for a second repetition of the dumbly-blurted word. But the question had caught her enthusiasm, and she turned with a fractional widening of her bright blue eyes to look over the one-man's-trash littering the tunnel floor. "It's--oh, nice to meet you, by the way, Imre." She glanced back with a warm, friendly nod, as she remembered her manners, and then dipped her beak again toward the clutter, to indicate it.

"I have a friend who makes weapons. She's a blacksmith, she says--and there's an eagle here, too, in this cave I mean. He's a blacksmith, too. Both of them use the metal to make weapons, armor, jewelry, that sort of thing."

Azure leaned down, briefly picking past a couple of old and battered metal scraps with gentle flicks of her crow-like forelimbs. "I make jewelry, myself. Mostly just... you know, glowing stones, hanging on twine. Sometimes with preserved flowers inside," she added, and her voice now came a little shy. Somehow, admitting you made 'pretty rocks' just didn't hold up after talking about your best friend who made massive, double-edged swords, but hey.

"We come in here, look for bits of metal and things we can use. It's the only place to really get metal," she explained.

Azure paced over, trying to see into the bowl. "What's in there, anyway--can I see? I'd never really looked, and I didn't know the stuff could move. How'd you do it?" It was asked in a friendly tone, rather than demanding, and she gave the stranger a brief, curious glance as she asked it.

@Imre

He followed her gaze to the things that littered the tunnel, glancing up as she looked back and returning her nod. "Nice to meet you," he echoed, storing the phrase away for later use. It was polite and he liked the way he felt.

Imre remained near the bowl as she spoke, nodding here and there to relay that he was listening, but in truth he was not totally following what she said. One brow raised, conveying confusion, but he listened carefully regardless.

"What is... blacksmith?" he decided to ask with a tilt of his head. "What is jewelry?" A small trickle of recognition bubbled in his mind, and he could almost put images to the words as soon as he said them aloud. "Weapons, armor," he said, and again, felt as if they were familiar. He pointed to the pieces she had moved aside with her claws. "Like that?"

Of course, the pieces in the tunnels were long deteriorated, but he had no other frame of reference.

When her attention returned to the bowl, he nodded, turning to peer inside again with his arms flopped over the edges.

"Don't know, doesn't come off," he said with disappointment, tugging at the cemented objects. "Just charged it with electricity. Some lit up, made sound," Imre commented, pressing his hand to the stone again.

When he tried applying his magic again, it only worked a little bit, with some of the items briefly glowing with light before fading quickly. "Hm," he shrugged, flicking one of the baubles in the bowl. "Oh well." He pulled his arms back and leaned against the edge.

"Do you want help?" he offered, looking back into the tunnel at the half-buried remnants of a time long ago.

@Azure

Azure eyed the briefly-glowing items with interest--and with thought. "I always thought those were meant to say what was in the cave. Since dragons live in here, and ask for stuff," she explained. Granted, she'd never really tried to trade with them, but she'd seen the big pile of junk guarded by Dread and it had seemed logical to her. She thought, for a moment, pensive. "I wonder if it means Monoceros was used to build stuff in? Shiny stuff, stuff that moves. I know Dip says the dry heat's good for it," she added, remembering some vague complaint about damp and rust. "If a place is wet, if the metal gets wet, Dip has to use stone to grind off all the rust."

Another shrug, uncertain, and she turned her blinking focus back to Imre. Oh, right--he'd had questions. "A blacksmith is someone who takes metal, and makes stuff out of it. It's really loud, and usually pretty hot. A lot of hammering and making metal glow red, which makes it soft. I mean, from heat," she amended, but there was slight confusion in her tone. She knew vaguely how it worked, living with a blacksmith and all, but some of the finer details still eluded her. "When it's soft, they can shape it easier. With hammering. Jewelry's, ahh... decoration, like this," and here she pulled her head aside, twisting her beak to expose her throat. Around her neck hung a simple cord and on that, a new gemstone: a disc, polished smooth, with a scattering of glowing dust trailing up through it like a bright blue galaxy. "Decoration. I make it. I could make you one, if you want?" she offered, friendly.

Do you want help?

Azure thought about this. Normally she didn't need it, exactly; but she also didn't have hands, and Imre's might come in--well. Handy. "Um, you don't have to. But if you want to carry a couple things--you could come back to my house and I can make you something in return?" she offered, her tone hesitant. She liked visitors--at least, friendly ones--but, "You don't have to, though. I don't want to impose, or anything."

He's a kid, Azure. Dumb it down a little, she reminded herself. "I mean, if you were busy, you don't need to come. Heck, I could make you a pretty stone you can take with you, instead, if you want."

She eyed the bowl, and dipped her beak in, peering at it. She'd been born with Blackberry's magic--as much as she hated it--sparks of electricity still lurking in her memory. She hadn't used that magic in a long, long time-... but maybe she could still call on it?

She touched her black beak to the strange stone offerings, peering as she sent out a short shock of her own--and it worked--peering at the lights and humming. "That is so cool. And so weird," she breathed. And she wondered: what else in the caves might react like this? And--more importantly--why?

Azure ventured a guess aloud, squinting a little: "I wonder if someone made this 'cause they were very, very bored."

@Imre