ORIGIN

Darkness. Light trickled down from above, just barely touching the dark, muddy shoreline of Polaris' river. Sound. Too much sound. The rushing river provided a backdrop of steady sound, and the light caught on a small object, half buried in the muck, as it rocked just a touch in place. A small chunk of dark, muddy opal, its inner shards of white and red refracting the light, twitched in the sand, small cracks crawling up its sides. The child inside struggled with no pattern, kicking and scratching at any side of his prison he could reach. The longer it took to escape, more he panicked, and with a final mighty kick, the newborn tumbled out of his chrysalis, landing belly-up dangerously close to the water.

Short fur matted with grime, Booker tried to focus on his surroundings, distracted by the heavy humidity in the air and the repetitive sound of the river itself. His attempts were thwarted by the throbbing pain in his head - trying to open his eyes brought a fresh wave of nausea, and though he could open his right eye just a sliver, it was useless; everything around him was blurry, and any time he turned his head everything doubled. Struggling to turn over, the tiny creature, so small he could be overlooked entirely, scrabbled at the unsteady ground. After a few anxiety-ridden minutes, he succeeded, and lay on his stomach, gasping and trying to get his eye to focus on anything. Finally, breath evening out, he could make out a little more detail. The river was too close for his liking, but his strength had been sapped by the difficulty of breaking out of his chrysalis, so the little numbat stilled, closing his eye and focusing again, trying to reach out from within and find anything that could aid him.

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There! Something reached back to him... make that many somethings. In his mind's eye, he could see them, lighting up like tiny suns, covering the shore where he lay and creeping up to the banks above. The lights stopped before where he lay, however, and he tried to edge away from the water, crawling up closer to his new guides. He stopped just before the brightest glow and opened his eye just a sliver, blinking in confusion when the light cleared into... nothing. Whatever was helping him to safety couldn't be seen, although he wasn't sure if that was due to the uncomfortable, jagged pain in his left eye.

Still, Booker settled down in place, closing his eye once more, and let the branching pattern of lights in his head lull him back to sleep.

Magdalena had come to like this part of the cave. It imparted unto her a renewed sense of energy that did not come easily to the often sick girl - with her weak bones and fragile lungs, Magdalena was almost always two seconds from falling apart. This room bestowed upon her newfound energy; she felt it, mostly radiating from the howlite crown upon her head, soothing her head and reaching down her neck and throat and into her chest, and she felt stronger. The only two times she had explored this place, she had come with Usui to find Louie, and then she had accidentally discovered another beast only to be rescued by what she assumed to be another creature like her, a dog. He smelled like her, at least. All in all, three of the four beings she'd encountered in this room were benign, and so Magdalena had to assume that Polaris was, largely, a good place to be. Either that, or most of the creatures were so altruistic that she needn't worry about running into somebody with foul intentions. She'd soon enough be rescued, anyways. Did that make her reckless? Well... maybe a little.

The thin, curly furred dog had found herself back in Polaris, following the familiar trail between Monoceros, through other tunnels and rooms until she made her way back to the heart of the caves. The core, it was called. She felt that surge of energy within her and her lips curling into a small smile, tail wagging. The smell of the room was static, like that of electricity on the air. Delicate paws soon found their way to the river, the one she had once followed only to find the winged and talon-wielding hoofbeast, but her ears were attuned to him now. Very few of her bacteria managed to infect him, but some particles clung to his feathers and his fur, and she imagined that soon they would propagate throughout him. If she was lucky, she'd be able to detect him next time.

Just to be careful though, Magdalena paused in her tracks and lifted her folded ears. Her blind eyes wandered ahead of her, landing on nothing in particular. That sense was useless to her - her focus was the detection of life forms through another means.

Post-Roll Edit:
However, as she tuned in to the feeling of churning organisms, the renewal of energy in the core only acted to spike her magic and heighten that sense. As a result, she felt a searing pain in the back of her eyes, causing her to squeeze her eyelids shut out of instinct. There was too much she was detecting, causing the young dog to lean back on her haunches and try to shake the feeling away. She was still fairly close to one freshly hatched individual along the same bank, but Magdalena wouldn't know it. Not yet at least.

Footsteps. Light at first, but growing louder, echoing off of the stones. Book twitched in his sleep, the lights flickering out all at once when he opened his eye. He'd had more time to adjust to the lights of Polaris, and his vision was a bit sharper, so he scanned around his tiny patch of sand, trying to make out whoever or whatever was coming his way. There! A rustling sound, followed by a dull thump. Something had come to a stop just up the shore, and Booker froze, breath coming faster and faster until his tiny body was shaking with it. He squeezed his eye shut tight, trying to will himself back under control, and was almost tempted to reach out to the lights again - but what could they do?

Huffing in frustration, the tiny numbat lifted a paw to scratch at his useless eye, claws catching on the edges of his gemstone and creating a sharp screech. Book flinched in panic, and, thoroughly agitated now, tried again to find the comfort of his light friends.

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Just like that, lights bloomed to life behind his closed eyelid. Booker watched the threads of light as they pulsated and twisted, reaching into the ground only to sprout back up. He still couldn't understand what they were, but they worked a charm to calm him down. The newborn hunkered down, hoping that if he stayed still enough that whatever was nearby would pass him by. Considering he was covered in so much gunk that he almost blended into the shore, it wasn't too farfetched - that is, if the big-rustly-thing hadn't heard his frenzied panic.

Frozen where she sat, the dog had resolved to wait and simply listen. Her folded ears twitched slightly, nose quivering against the cave air. She could hear almost everything - distant golems churning their stone feet and dragging them across the ground, though she didn't know what they were, and the sound of frantic scratching nearby. It alerted her and she straightened, trying to point her nose towards it, but it was difficult to pinpoint. Very soon after, the sound of another's approach had caused her to falter. Her weak legs buckled and she slid onto the ground by instinct. Magdalena feared that she was still out in the open - she lacked a hiding place here along the river, her blind eyes shifting ever so slightly as she tried to get a grasp on her environment.

But as she waited and listened, the sound of shuffling feet soon stopped, near where the scratching had been. And then a voice, cheerful and warm, speaking to something - but who? To her? The dog blinked and raised her head. Her nose pointed up at the ceiling and then swerved to the sides, an attempt to isolate the sound. Had the stranger been speaking to her, she would look foolish, failing to respond while slowly swiveling her head and staring blindly up into the distance. Thankfully they weren't, but Magdalena wouldn't know. Fear had gripped her again, fear that this might be another creature like the one she met the first time. The magicka brewed within her chest and she desperately reached out for an answer.

Post-Roll Edit:
The sense she had honed, primed and practiced, would soon tell her. She felt the tugging and pulling of creatures too small to see. She felt the cultures as they amassed in a form large and a form barely the size of her paw - two creatures. Her nervous mind had passed the smaller creature off as no more than a cave rat - the stranger must have been talking to her. Still several meters away (and obviously hidden from the dragon's view, somehow), Magdalena remained laying on the ground and stared up at the ceiling. "Magdalena. Who - who - who are you?" She answered, a spacy lilt reaching up into the quiet from somewhere beyond. There she waited, holding her breath for some kind of response from the stranger, still oblivious that they were no where nearby and speaking to somebody else.

No, no, no! More footsteps, heavier than the last, getting closer and closer - one by one, Book's precious lights blinked out, shuddering as something very, very big stepped on and over them. Squeezing his eye shut tight, Booker shook, trying to curl up and make himself as small as possible. No dice - the second something kept closing in, and within moments the tiny newborn could feel a gust of breath wash over him. A gigantic, cold... nose? Could that huge thing be just a nose? The nose, indeed, followed just after the sudden puff of air, and Book jolted at the touch, unable to contain a tiny, high-pitched shriek. Struggling in place, Booker finally gave in, squinting his one good eye open just a sliver.

There, framed by a halo of blurred color and light, was a the second something - or, well, the second something's snout. The rest of it towered over him, and he gazed up in shock at the mammoth beast. Another burst of air, and Booker blinked rapidly, tilting his head when the something... laughed? Maybe it's a light friend, too, he wondered. Suddenly, it spoke, and he flinched backward at the loud sound - thought it was quite a temperate volume for anything not quite so small. Little? Well, Book supposed, I'm little, or you're... really, really big.

Book attempted to smile up at the beast, but it probably came out more like a grimace as he tried to suppress the shivers of fear running through his fragile body. "Book... Book. Booker!" The newborn replied, truly grinning when he managed to respond - though the attempt was so small it would be hard to hear even from where the something sat.

Then, another faint sound, almost like another voice! It must have been the first something, and Booker flinched, trying to scoot towards the second something. After all, it asked him his name, and... wait, it had said it's name too, hadn't it? Bara... Baratheon? That was it! Baratheon! Book nodded to himself, managing to roll a bit closer to Baratheon in his weak attempts. Obviously, the big creature was a friend of the lights, and he would protect Book from the first something!