ORIGIN

She really, really wished that she had some more flexible form of pouch. She'd carried back a few snapped-off hunks of quartz, from Orion, and now she was flapping into Tunnel J looking for more things to toss haphazardly into her artistic experiments.

But the 'pouch' she was using was more of a very deep gem-formed cup, laid against her flank and held in place by dried-grass straps twined and tied together. So the quartz didn't really... fit. She'd made quite a stash back at the den she shared with Dip; all her art-stuff (as she called it) was stored there. And she wanted to add to it, now.

She set the star-gems down, cautious, managing not to shatter it. "Carry stuff with your mind, and magic," wasn't exactly the least draining way to move them, but if it worked, well. It worked.

The blue-black hybrid turned her attention now to the metal littering the floor. She wanted two things from the tunnel, things she intended to just grab and stick into her pouch on the way back through to Monoceros: metal scraps, and charcoal. The latter would be easy enough; the dragons burnt prey here and there throughout Monoceros. Granted, they didn't often hunt here--and she wasn't even sure they all used fire--but she knew she was likely to find something.

She began turning over pieces of metal with her beak and talons, and with her mind, looking for anything that might be of use to her.

A few thinner scraps of metal--brassy, and brighter than the rest--caught her eye. Dip can grind this up for me, she mused, turning it over with mind and talon. In her mind's eye she saw shining, glittering metal-dust; she often ground baubled gemstones like this, though she wasn't entirely sure that metal worked that way. But it was something to attempt, in any case, and Azure slipped the brassy rods into her 'pouch' for future use.

Metal acquired, she turned toward finding charcoal, now.

If she'd had a decent sense of smell it might've been easier, she reflected. But she was a bird-hybrid, with a beak, and her sense of smell had been bunk ever since her mutation. She could barely catch the sweet scent of flowers, even, and only then if she had them jammed right up against the black surface beside her nostrils.

So for now, Azure had to search 'by hand.' Which meant, of course, digging through heaps and looking over mounds of scrap for some.

Nothing, though.

...Hm.

She flipped a large plate of metal back over, leaving it alone. Nothing beneath but blank stone and old pieces of metal scrap; nothing she could use. Even the plate itself was battered, dented, eaten away by time and coated in more dust than she could do anything with without a grindstone, herself.

Azure moved onward, toward the mouth of Monoceros, glancing briefly up at the statue that loomed and then turning her attention toward the floor.

Come on, charcoal, she thought, annoyed. She wanted something she could streak black with, draw and so on, but what if there was nothing-? Azure wasn't sure how coal was made, aside from "with fire." She wasn't aware it neeeded organic material--that what she'd likely find, if anything, was burnt wood or charred bones.

She kept on searching, nonetheless, tipping another scrap heap over with her beak, and lifting a piece away with her magic.

It clattered back down before she could lift it fully, and she sighed.

Her magic wasn't really cooperating right now.

A few more pieces of metal were flipped, and left aside. A shattered piece of what looked like a blade, rusted into almost nothing, was gently nudged out of the way. Then Azure gave a short hop--a wings-spread half-flight--right to the edge of Monoceros.

Here she kept on searching, diligent, reminding herself to go back afterward for her quartz.

At last, she found a bit of coal--grosser than she'd imagined; a few charred lumps of... was this bone?

...Huh.

She lifted them, with her mind, afraid to really touch them as yet, and tucked them carefully into her pouch.

Azure turned back, going for the quartz she'd left behind. Carefully she picked it up, and carefully she turned, holding it before her, eyes locked on it.

Her wings spread, and she dared fly back through Tunnel J--and out, into Monoceros, her magic holding the gemstone surprisingly firmly in the air before her, all the way.

Her search was done, for now; now it was time to get crafting.

It was... Art Time.

Hell yeah.