ORIGIN

She was both curious and apprehensive of the two creatures that approached her, mostly of the larger one whose cultures she could feel pulling at her, reaching out for her, so large that it threatened to consume her. Her nose pointed towards them, sniffing and trying to identify them, but they didn't smell like anything she'd ever met before. The little one she was most curious about. The smallest thing she had met was Diamondfang, but even the mongoose wasn't that tiny. So what was this thing? Her attention drifted as the tiny voice began to spoke, attempting to speak her name and failing; then he tried the dragon's name, and then his own. Magdalena's head tilted slightly, ears lifting, and then the dragon beamed at the little creature named Booker. The dragon, Baratheon, spoke soon after and posed a question.

Magdalena blinked dumbly, moving her head slightly so that she could localize the direction of the dragon more easily based on the sound of his voice. "I do not look." She answered after a moment. His own wonder was met with a response bathed in neutrality; rather, lacking in emotion. It had become a hard fact of life that Magdalena could not see, and it seemed others did not realize that until she had to tell them. But Magdalena wasn't bitter about it. Such was life. "What is the creature, Booker? Why is it so small?" The dog suddenly asked, failing to move her snout now that she felt she had pinpointed Baratheon's location.

Book's perch shook as Baratheon talked, and his ears twitched this way and that, trying to predict when he'd had to scramble for tufts of fur and smooth horn. The tiny creature stared at Magdalena curiously. She wasn't quite looking at them, and he wondered if she had something in her eye - or, well, eyes - too. After all, he couldn't see anything but his light friends out of his left eye, and that was only when he wanted to! It would be hard to only see his light friends out of both eyes, he pondered, and chittered in sympathy.

His suspicion seemed to be proven right at her words, and he tilted his head, tapping on the hard rock cutting out of his skull with a free paw in solidarity. "Book-er can't look out of... of... left," he offered, grinning in pride as he managed to string along some of his first words. The steady hum of pain spreading from his left eye had only intensified after he'd hatched, though it seemed to be lessened a bit when he could see his light friends. He frowned at her following question, seeming to ponder it for a few moments, before nodding and tamping his feet on Baratheon's head in excitement. "Book-er is a Booker, silly! And Book-er's are small!" He felt like this was quite obvious, but kept that to himself, settling for scooting down to rest between Baratheon's eyes, paws tip-tapping on the dragon's snout.

"Booker is small because Booker's friends are small," he explained, and then frowned, shaking his head. "Except Bara. Bara is big," he whispered, dropping his head to peer into one of the dragon's enormous eyes. Or, at least, enormous to something as small as he was. "But the other ones are tiny, like Book-er!"

post roll:
Mind made up, the numbat waved a paw in front of Baratheon's eye, pointing from him to the ground so very far below. "Book-er will show you!" Resting back on his haunches, Book closed his eye tight, trying to focus on his light companions. There - spreading out even deeper than before, some climbing up the walls, a few blanketing the ceiling of Polaris! He wiggled in place, clapping his front paws together in wonder. "See! See! They're everywhere! Booker hatched in a good place!"

Booker took a moment to gaze at his many friends with his one good eye, dazzled by the multitude of sizes, shapes and colors. At Baratheon's question, he shook his head a bit, leaning down again to peer into one of the dragon's eyes. "Booker doesn't make his friends, silly! They were just hiding! They're shy," he explained with a self-satisfied grin. "Book - Booker - I," he mumbled, trying out the new tense, "I can see them, when I close my eye." He motioned to his undamaged eye, closing it in demonstration. "They all glow! They're my light friends. Maybe they just needed to know it was okay to come out, yes?"

Apparently satisfied at the rambling, mostly posturing answer, the tiny Gembound leaned back, scooting back towards his perch between Baratheon's horns. He refocused on his other new friend, Magdalena, he remembered, and let out a small chirp at the distress etched in her face. "Book-er helped the... mushrooms?" He tried, remembering the word Baratheon had used. "Yes! I helped the mushrooms! They're everywhere, Mag-da-laaaane-a," he mumbled, fumbling with the longer name. "All different colors, and shapes, and sizes! They were hidden at first, in the ground and in the walls and even in the ceiling! But they came out once they realized we wouldn't hurt them." He motioned to one of the closer patches, more for his own sake than anyone else's. "There's some near your feet, Mag-da," he added timidly, in case she wanted to try and sniff out his tiny friends. He'd noticed that she seemed to try to focus on her surroundings, but if she was doing some sort of spell, it hadn't picked up on the fungi, spores, and fungal mat that thickly littered Polaris with pinpoints of light.

He turned back to Baratheon, a bit lost as to how to help any further. Booker tip-toed to one of the dragon's long ears, whispering into it shyly. "Maybe you can explain, Bara? You can see better than Book-er," he offered with a twitch of his whiskers.

Ears twitching, she listened to the exchange between Baratheon and Booker, listening to the numbat's explanation of what he had done. She was a little relieved when he said that he could only see them when he closed his eye, presumably his seeing eye, or maybe his blind one? Did the blind eye prevent him from seeing things he would usually see? Oh, of course it would, but she couldn't imagine that closing it would increase his ability to see. That just didn't make sense. Still, Magdalena was pretty displeased with her inability to see everything as Booker and Baratheon could. She tilted her head and listened further, only to be told of the mushrooms, and that they were everywhere. She... kind of knew what mushrooms were. She'd encountered one or two a few times before. Louie played with them, didn't he? She didn't like the taste, though.

As he pointed out the mushrooms by her feet, Magdalena instantly pulled her feet back and stepped backwards a few paces, alarmed. She didn't want to be accidentally stepping on the mushrooms, or for them to get on her... Soon enough she had fallen back onto her haunches, thumping her tail on the ground and tilting her head so she could adjust her hearing and better listen to Baratheon, anticipating his explanation. Sure enough, his explanation didn't really help either. He was describing colours, colours that she'd never seen before, and shapes she'd never seen either. But... they tried, and at least that was admirable. "Y-yes." Magdalena answered, at first uncertain, only to smile and nod in reassurance. "The mushrooms are your friends?" She asked, directing this question to Booker. "I, too, have friends." There you go Mag, another thing you have in common. If only you just weren't so weird about it.

At Baratheon's question, Booker nodded, ears twitching. "The light friends are alive like us, Bara! I dunno if they can talk, though," he mused with a tiny shrug. If they could, he hadn't heard them yet... or maybe they were, just not in the way he, Baratheon and Magdalena did. "But they're nice," the numbat added after a moment, smiling. "They always light up real pretty when I look for them!" Plus, they help me see he thought, but didn't mention it out loud. After all, he didn't want his new friends to think he couldn't see out of his good eye, when his left was already so damaged. He knew he was small, and vulnerable, especially with half his eyesight gone, so the numbat held back from sharing everything his friends gave him - he didn't want to lose his big friends if they found out...

After explaining, he sat back as the dragon tried to describe his fungal friends, and encouraged him with a grin, dropping down to peer into one of his eyes. "That was great! Told ya you could explain better." And indeed, Magdalena seemed to have understood, and Booker relaxed at her nod. At her query, he paused, shifting back up to sit on his scaly friend's snout.

"Yeah, they're my friends! Or, well, I like them, and they like me... that's what friends are, right? Like us three!" He smiled at this, clapping his tiny front paws together. At the mention of Magdalena having other friends, he scooted forward in excitement, like a child begging for a bedtime story. "What're your friends like, Mag-da?" His tone was a bit quiet from nerves, and he peered at her shyly. "Do they like the mush-rooms too?" Maybe there were others like him - Gembounds who could see the beauty of the fungi that littered Polaris and, if he had to guess, everywhere else. After all, if his friends could grow on the ceiling, they could probably survive anywhere!

The little Booker explained that his little friends lit up when he looked for them, but that still didn't really help Magdalena. It didn't help at all. She didn't even know what light looked like. There was a vague difference that she could register, a small response from the barely functional optic nerves embedded in her skull and brain - she could tell only slight changes in light; complete darkness in shadows, and a slight lightening of when they moved away, but nobody had ever really explained to her what it was. Magdalena had never brought it up, mostly because it wasn't something she had noticed. When one was blind, it was difficult to take note of anything visual because it was a sense entirely blocked out. It served no purpose to her, so when she did register a change in lighting, it was hardly noticed. Even still, Baratheon had explained it better and she found herself nodding, smiling slightly as the Booker praised his explanation.

Her smile broadened even more when the Booker exclaimed that they were all friends. The three of them. She enjoyed being friends with them, no matter how jealous she was that Baratheon had taken to adopting this tiny creature instead of her. What had her intention been, anyways? To guide him? To teach him? Teach him what? Magdalena was as nubile and naive as the little creature himself. She was useless. The thought made her smile falter slightly, but it turned back up again when he asked about her friends. "I am sure they do." Magdalena answered in regards to the mushrooms. She never really cared to ask. Or find out what mushrooms were in the first place. But for the sake of pleasing the Booker, she could lie. "My friends are strong and smart. They do many great things," Magdalena began, drawing upon memories of the Merrymen. "Diamondfang is cunning and fast, and Louie is charming and intelligent. He is my teacher." She nodded. "Nemesis is... Nemesis is fire, and she is my closest friend. She's the strongest Gembound I know." Mention of the rhino had drawn another smile to her lips.

Magdalena blinked blindly and swiveled her head. "They call us the Merrymen. There is a saying among us, to know which of us are smart and strong, and which of us are strangers. Finis originae pende." She added. This was probably the most she'd ever spoken in the short amount of time that she'd been socializing with Baratheon and Booker. "You should come visit us. Speak our secret; I believe they would be happy to share what they know." Magdalena nodded. It was a quiet invitation for the Booker to at least pursue more knowledge about the Merrymen, and Baratheon too, if he wanted. Did everybody want to be stronger and smarter?

In silence, she could feel a sneeze coming on. Magdalena wrinkled her nose and shook her head slightly, squeezing her eyes shut. The sensation advanced slowly, crawling up her sinuses and situating in between her eyes - and then it erupted from her in the form of a tiny, unprecedented snort.

Post-Roll Edit:
The bacteria expelled from her in a roiling, invisible cloud, bathing the two creatures before her. Magdalena blinked a few times, dispelling the wetness that had accumulated in the corners of her eyes. "I apologize," She sniffled and laughed quietly. "Perhaps that is my teacher's way of letting me know it is time to return..." Magdalena added, wide-eyed as if this had never dawned upon her before. Had he infected her with bacteria the same way she just did with Baratheon and Booker? She dismissed the thought and rose to her paws, sweeping her tail behind her. "I live in Monoceros. You are welcome to visit me if you like, simply speak the phrase and they will know." Magdalena smiled and bowed her head to them, the white howlite wreath upon her skull glinting and catching the light. Then, she turned and slowly padded her way around the rocks, along the edge of the river and away from them.