ORIGIN - Little Waves of Blue and Green [hatching]

For any passerby, this particular chrysalis tucked between various layers of ferns by the edge of the even-tempered water might have provided some amount of spectacle in its development. The pure, blue stone had an even color throughout and it was easy to see through it to the developing creature inside. The warmth of it pulsed steadily, and for some time, it would have been quite small -- almost impossible to see, really. The creature within would have grown beyond the usual spawning age for its species, primarily so that its gem didn't crush it beneath the weight.

But now it was time. The creature had been experiencing brief moments of consciousness for the past several days, feeling primarily discomfort, which indicated that it was time to emerge. However, the creature didn't have much strength, so it had gotten to the point where crystal strained against itself and so all it took was a shift and the awkward crunch of cracking stone and the spider-web fractures all the way throughout it before the chrysalis... well, didn't so much shatter as crumble.

With an undignified grunt, the creature inside -- now identifiable as a snail, although her shell was unusually large compared to the rest of her -- tumbled onto the ground and began to chew on a fern directly adjacent to her without really considering if it might have been safe to eat or not. Her eyes took a few moments to adjust, and she looked around with her eyestalks twitching. There was another chrysalis nearby, just close enough that neither of them would have harmed the other during growth and development, and the snail thought to herself that this must have been a fated miracle. After all, how many gembound could say they hatched with a sibling?

Not that the snail really knew any of those words yet. Mostly, they were vague feelings in the abyss, and she waited quietly for her friend to join her.

@tema

TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart
[Image: l87nhNk.gif]

While a snail had hatched nearby with a clear blue gemstone, another chrysalis sat beneath the ferns rather still. It gave off warmth in waves every so often when the lights of the cave flickered, seeming to wait for something spectacular to release its contents into the world.

Though whatever event it had been waiting for went unseen, clearly the creature within had grown tired of the wait. With one sudden kick from inside, a large chunk of the chrysalis broke free and flew off into another bush somewhere. It would take a few more kicks and grunts from the creature inside before the hole was big enough to emerge from, this chrysalis being much larger than that of a snail.

Regardless as to how big the task was for a newly conscious Gembound, the bear cub managed it well enough and rolled out into the light of the cave to make herself known. Not fully aware yet as to what words were, she greeted the snail she rolled up beside with a nudge and grabbed her own bite of the ferns to satisfy her hunger.

The young cub caught site of whatever was left of the snail's chrysalis while she chewed, summoning a vague feeling of... closeness. Closeness to the one who shared her waking moments. How lovely it was to wake from nothing and not be alone.

OOC Notes:

@Sunny

The cracking of a chrysalis and then the feeling of a nose in her skin gave the snail pause, considering with a moment of instinctual terror if she were about to be devoured. However, it seemed as though this cub also ate plants, because she promptly plopped down to do just that.

The snail observed her compatriot, who was undoubtedly much larger. Her neck stretched out so that she could poke her with the smaller protrusions on her face, called tentacles, which provided her sense of smell and taste. The snail made a slight sound that might have been whatever translated to a sneeze before continuing to eat her fern, considering this creature. It smelled different from her, and tasted different from her, with a similar texture to a fern but nowhere near the same taste. However, the creature was warm, and seemed to be friendly -- a good thing, considering the dramatic difference in size. Finally, the snail's language function caught up to some extent, and she declared, "We-are-I, created-kin, emergent from Nothing, into the green-eating of Something!" And that was about all she could manage.

In further cycles, Sunny would learn how to speak like a typical gembound. For now though, her thoughts weren't quite translating into words understandable by most creatures, and were instead coming from some deep-seated instinct towards what she imagined might be how a Lesser thought. What she meant had little bearing -- her actual words were almost incomprehensible, especially if Tema didn't understand language yet, but the attempt at friendliness was hopefully enough.

Then, the creature looked up. There were specks of light in the sky, a few of them flickering awkwardly, and their eyes strained towards the light. Finally, they murmured, "Sunny..." only to pause for a moment and realize just how nice of a word that was. That-am-I, Cave-Light, Sunny-shining, light of day! Light-bringer to created-kin...

@tema

TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart
[Image: l87nhNk.gif]

The ticking at her side while her oddly small friend explored her fur gave the young cub no pause. She was hungry, and so she ate. Life is simple when your head can only hold one thought at a time.

The little one beside her made some vaguely familiar sounds, but they held no meaning to the cub just yet. Kin, however... at least she thought it was kin? She liked the word. It made that feeling of closeness make sense to her in some form or another. She'd call the little thing kin until she had some better sense as to just what the thing was.

When the thing added one more sound... a word, she realized. It was a word. When the kin added one more word to the other mumbled words she had spoken, the little cub stopped her eating to respond in the only way she thought to. The word seemed important.

"Kin." She tried to repeat the one word she understood back, managing a deep grumble that only slightly mimicked the word in question. The failure irritated the cub, but she could do no better at this current stage in development. Perhaps she'd learn about how to shape her mouth properly in future days to come, but for now the grumbles would have to do. She hoped the kin would not fear her deep voice, a sudden worry that made her try to cover her sharp little teeth with her lips in hopes of appearing less... less what? The thought had already escaped her as her stomach turned, causing her to reach for more ferns to fill it.

OOC Notes: Your writing style is really nice!!! I found myself smiling while reading it haha

@Sunny

mild tw: cursed imagery (end of second paragraph)

The rumbling noise that mimicked her words was pleasing to Sunny. The feeling of being agreed with was a new one, and it was like heroin to the little snail. She didn't even really have the words to communicate it (kind of -- the way she described this situation internally was kin-think and life-feel) but it was still a feeling that Sunny was certainly going to seek out in the future.

She observed the animal a while longer -- it ate so much all at once! The mouth had great teeth within it, and the snout was much more defined than Sunny's, but she wasn't alarmed. If the creature wanted to eat her, certainly it would have already -- and she wasn't really the most meaty creature. Mostly she was just... gooey. And, with the consideration of her shell, crunchy. She didn't imagine that the blood (which was taking up the majority of her shell at the moment -- organs would grow proportionally to her body, but for now, she just had an excess of blood that she would end up metabolizing out as she got bigger) in her shell would be particularly nice, either. Then again, perhaps some creatures liked the weird clash of textures within a crunchy-gooey prey who had a liquid core.

The other creature didn't have a shell, though. Or a slime trail. It did have paws, though, and that intrigued her. Having four legs certainly meant it could move quickly, and its fur seemed to serve a similar purpose to slime. Maybe it even left a trail!

Sunny looked at her friend and finally returned to her ferns, looking out absently over the water. There would be time to think later. For now, she had a meal to finish.

@tema

TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart
[Image: l87nhNk.gif]

Silence again. It was pleasant this time, not so empty with the kin beside her. They hadn't flinched from her once, let alone tried to move away. She hoped they wanted to stay with her as much as she wished to stay with them. Perhaps they'd stay right here forever? But of course that was not possible, they would need to drink and stretch their... What might a slimy small creature need to stretch? How would the little kin move?

It was of no importance. If she had to stay here she would, but if the kin moved she would follow. It was just that simple. She liked them so she'd stay with them. She hoped all things would be this simple.

All of this thinking happening while she stuffed her face with ferns, another sudden thought gave her pause. Tema. It sounded sweet to her, easy to think and easy to smile about. Perhaps that is what she was? A Tema. Soft and sweet... she liked it.

Curse her endless stomach, calling her once more back to the ferns. She wondered just how much she'd need to eat before the hole in her belly was finally full, but perhaps there was something else she would need later. Once more incapable of worrying for long, she focused her mind back on picking the tastiest greens to eat. Every so often she'd use her claws to hand some of the best ones to the snail in another attempt towards friendliness, wondering how else she might help the kin in the future.

OOC Notes:

@Sunny

Sunny made a pleased sound at Tema's offerings and took them readily. It was very helpful to have a creature so much larger, who could pick out the greener and softer ferns that were beyond her reach! Surely, Tema would get bigger, too -- just as she would. She wondered if Tema would grow a lot or a little, but settled on her assumption that it would be a lot. That would be the most useful based on her shape. Usefulness was important to Sunny, even if she saw it differently than most might have. Everything was probably capable of being useful -- ferns, dirt, dead stones. Especially gembound, who apparently came in many shapes and had plenty of diversity to spare if Tema was any indication.

But while Sunny did eat more slowly, she also had less space to fill, and so she finished her meal before Tema did. The snail became restless in her silent investigation of the surrounding area. There was water, and a lot of it. Lots of plants. Gravel and dirt. She could feel vibrations which indicated there were other creatures somewhere in this cave, but her eyes indicated none nearby. There were the lights above, the sun-lights flickering here and there. The faint rumble of the waterfalls, their low din permeating the whole room. She looked up at Tema. "When the Green-Eating completes, exploration commences." And so she waited.

@tema maybe end the thread soonish and get the one in eridanus started?

TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart
[Image: l87nhNk.gif]

Tema stopped setting ferns infront of the kin once she'd had her fill, leaving a small pile of discarded leaves from before Tema noticed. Though it took her more time to eat, she was glad that the snail hadn't wandered yet. The snail's words, though still a little hard to make sense of, brought Tema comfort. They were waiting intentionally.

She looked down at the snail once more, offering a nod and a soft grumble in response. She wasn't sure when exact she had sat down while eating, but not she stood eager to go. Perhaps she'd try words again? The little one seemed so much more grown then her despite them being birthed on the same day, Tema couldn't help but try to learn from them.

"Adventure together." Tema flashed her teeth in some sort of a smile at the triumph, the words still jumbled but perhaps recognizable now.

OOC Notes: I'd be happy to make this the exit?

@Sunny

Sunny took the initiative to start climbing onto Tema. "Waiting," she muttered, not wanting Tema to help her lest the much larger creature accidentally hurt her. She could only move about half a millimeter a second due to her size, and the fact that Tema was covered in fur made the crawling and the slime trail somewhat uncomfortable, likely for both of them, but eventually she had managed to get up onto Tema's shoulder and then to settle between her shoulder blades. "Adventure together!" she crooned, mimicking the bear's words but also her tone and cadence to the best of her ability. She strained her head forward to get a good look above Tema's head. Broadly though, her eyesight wasn't the best, and she had no clue where the exit was. Tema was probably in the same boat.

Either way, they'd likely be wandering for a while, but that was no trouble -- eventually, whether by instinct or following other things, they'd make it out. For now, Sunny was happy to enjoy the company and the opportunity to go somewhere else, especially with such a speedy ride! What lovely luck that she'd found Tema in this place, hatched beside her, and made friends so quickly.

Hopefully, they would never, ever part.

/exit
@tema

TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart
[Image: l87nhNk.gif]

Tema stood as still as she could while Sunny made her way up her shoulder and onto her back. Although confused at first, she quickly realized why... the kin was slow. Very, very slow. But that would be okay. Tema would be the mighty steed she needed to be and they would adventure!

But where? That was nothing to think long on in Tema's mind. She had found her kin, birthed from the nothing into the light with such a fated friend... They would figure it out together somehow, even if it meant slimy fur.

And so she went, careful not to bounce too much. She'd hate to lose something so special so suddenly. In fact, she hoped to keep it forever.

OOC Notes: And off we go to new adventures!

/exit
@Sunny