ORIGIN

Right.

Azure looked over her 'pouch,' taking a quick mental inventory. So far she'd gotten three seashells--two of which she intended to crush up into dye--and lapis, and some ochre. Good; she could work with that. Her intention was... paint, really, of a sort. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do with it, yet, but did a good artist ever really plan?

Well, maybe, but that was beside the point.

Bones were next, and she had a pretty good idea of where to find those--the dam, unless she decided to go all the way to Canis (and no, thanks, that was out of her way, from here).

So, a couple hours after she'd first arrived in Polaris, her journey brought her full circle, and she was landing carefully atop the crumbled Dam once again. The Golems were... frightening. Unnerving. But Azure had no intention of going down toward them, not when she could pull stuff up toward her. So she did, casting out her mind to try and turn over some rocks, to find the bones of Lessers or even Greaters killed by the Golems, and pull them up her way.

...What she actually managed was to accidentally fling one of the smaller rocks directly at an active golem.

The sudden rumble, the turn of several blank stone 'faces' toward the source of the magic, warned her at once that she'd made a terrible mistake.

"Ha... ahh... ha... hi," she offered--and then quickly took flight.

Fuck that--never mind the bones. I'll find them somewhere else--rather not become part of them, Azure decided, wisely.

Elsewhere, then.

Her flimsy idea of messing around near the golems was discarded, and now she began circling through Polaris once more. Darker crevices, boulders, even the higher crannies along the roof--she searched, shoulders sore, for any sign of bones.

At long last she found the long-discarded remains of a Cave Rat: browned with age, bits of leaf and dirt clinging to them. It was enough, though; a little gross, but she could work with this.

Carefully, she picked up each bone from where it lay abandoned on the rock, and tucked each into her collection.

Right.

Her pouch was almost full, but her wings were damn tired. For now, she decided to keep the baubled stone, to make glow dust out of later; but she'd have to rest before she travelled back.

She wanted to make a variety of gemstones, in various colors--"I can do that now, I guess," she decided aloud.

Azure flew up to a ledge, picking one shadowed and out of the way (but not so dark that she couldn't see that it was empty, in advance) and settling in there, wings half sprawled-out. She sighed, stretching herself a tad. "I've gotta get out more," she told herself, glumly. Was it normal to be tired after only a couple hours' flight?

After settling in, she lay her bill upon the rock. She could form a small outcrop into some gemstone, or other; maybe orange, or blue...

And blue it was. A little duller than she'd have liked, but blue nonetheless, and she plucked it from the underlying rock and tucked it quietly away.

Azure realized that her magic was weary, as well as her body. One more cast, then; one more gemstone formed of rock, and she'd rest awhile and then fly back to Orion. Sleep, maybe, along with rest, in fact.

She picked out another small stone protrusion, touching her beak to this, willing it to be orange, this time, if it could.

Her magic worked, but the color wasn't what she'd imagined. Nor was it one she'd have picked. It was a sort of raucous hot pink, and she squinted at it quizzically for a moment before picking it up and tucking it away.

Okay, then. At least it was something.

Azure looked over the pouch one more time.

She had the three seashells, and some ochre clay; the lapis that could be crushed into ultramarine. She had a baubled stone between her talons, along with a few rat bones, a pink gemstone, and a blue one. All in all, it wasn't a bad haul by any means, but she was tired, now.

Still... she couldn't quite bring herself to rest. Not here.

After a few more moments of lying quietly, staring off at the Spire, Azure tested her wings. Good enough, she judged, to fly her back to Monoceros at least.

At length she stood, flexing out her shoulders, and took flight--leaving Polaris behind, along with its nasty golems. Though, she had to admit, she was grateful for its bounty--and she'd miss its pretty light.