ORIGIN - A World Away

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Warrior flinched at the shattering plate, and eyed it with something like grief where it now lay, irrevocably shattered. How long had it lain in this place--purpose unknown, perhaps once beloved? And now it was... broken.

He looked to Haven, a little sadly--but she could not see the remains. She heard only the joyful sound of breaking, didn't see what remained.

Damn.

Her next question confused him, a little; he hadn't mentioned anything in the middle of the ruins, and he didn't think he'd mentioned a throne. "The... tower-thing?" he hazarded, uncertain. "It's back the other way, but I'd like to explore farther in these ruins, first." If Haven had meant the throne--had heard it mentioned, perhaps, by someone before--she'd find it back the other way, too; this way lay only ruins, and Warrior was already picking his way deeper into them.

Ruined, crumbled buildings--and the scent of fire, again.

"It smells like... burning. Do you know what happened, here?" he asked, voice a little hushed--the empty silence, and dim light, of the ruins was somehow... sacred, or oppressive to him.

@Haven

Haven darted forward to shift through the pieces of the plate, clinking them together and thoroughly enjoying the sound before picking up a piece and taking flight. She set it on top of a roof before returning, in time to catch Warrior's words.

"What else are in these ruins?" Haven asked, making her way forward, jumping over obstacles and then taking flight to perch on top of a crumbling building.

Sniffing the air, she peered around. It did smell like burning, but she thought that it was normal.

"Ah... I'm not sure? Hang on...", she said, before opening her wings and dropping off the building, finding an updraft to take her high above.

Letting out a shrill shriek, she mapped out as much of the ruins as she could before swooping back down and landing beside Warrior.

"The ruins had to be... y'know, ruined by something. I wonder what, maybe the burning smell was a cause of it," she said.

@Warrior

He nosed through the rock, and over the space of perhaps ten minutes' time he threaded his way through the various charred alleyways and over crumbled heaps of rubble. Now and again he'd thrust a head and an arched neck through an empty window or a door-hole, sniffing quietly.

"I don't know, either," he admitted softly. "It's my first time here too, but-" (and he only spoke whenever Haven was close enough, of course, to hear) "-it feels... old, at least. I don't know how old. I'm not even sure I have a sense for that sort of thing. There's glowing rocks in places, but most of it just looks old, ruined. Black, maybe from fire."

The quiet clacks of his hooves echoed through the narrow streets.

@Haven

Haven could pick up his voice from a fair distance away, but she kept close anyway, hopping to and fro, sniffing things and picking up others, occasionally nibbling on something to judge texture, since her body was covered in thick skin and dense dermal plates, meaning that her sense of touch wasn't very good. Her mouth and nose were good at it, thankfully.

"I wish we could like... ask the ruins what happened," she said, "I know magic can do a lot."

The dragon hopped forward and tripped, landing on her front with an 'oof!' She picked herself up and circled around, nose to the ground as she tried to find what she tripped on. She picked up the buabled item and inspected it, touching her nose to it a few times. Just another rock.

"... Warrior?", she asked, turning to face the path before them, "What are we looking for? We're searching for something, and I don't think anything in particular, but... we'll find something eventually. I just wonder what it'll be."

Just something to think about. Something to stoke the curiosity that drove them onwards.

@Warrior

Warrior glanced back, quizzically, at this question--his laugh came soft, amused and gentle. It was... a relief, he realized, to just be with someone; to have a friend, to have no fears or worries or memories pulling at his mind. "Oh, I'm not searching for anything," he told her; "I just want to explore, you know? So I know the caves. Get to know them, get to... familiarize myself. I was told of all sorts of wonderful places outside Hydra, but I hadn't gotten a chance to see them yet."

For a few moments longer he explored the ruins, grey hide taking on soot here and there. Had Haven been able to see, perhaps she'd have noticed the eerie ghostlight glow, the pale form of his body, maneuvering through the darkness. Alas, his spookiness would be lost on her. "I don't know if there's magic that can do that? Mine, uh... sees things that are there, like right now... and moves the ground, gets water for me, things like that."

Hoofbeats echoed as he nudged his way into another ruined building. From time to time, he explained what he was seeing--sometimes forgetting that Haven did not know colors. "This place is pitch black, totally dark. Uhh--not even I can see, I mean." And, "There's vines in this one. Hanging. They look fresh, young? They're pretty, like, um. They have leaves." (Warrior did not know the word for 'ivy.' "There's crystals over here! Oh, they're--stuck to the ground. I guess... growing here? I'm not sure how crystals work."

Eventually, he trotted back to Haven, looking around again. "I think I've seen enough of here? I'm not sure what else there is to find. And... in answer to your question, I don't know what we might find, either. It's not that I don't have any imagination, just-... Well, I can tell you about where I come from, if you want?" A shrug, then, and he turned, winding his way back toward the tower. "And I'll go see the tower, next. And we can look for the--what'd you call it? Throne? Too."

@Haven

"I've been in... Pieces, Fornax, and Polaris, but not for long, and Fronax is so loud that it gives me a headache," the dragon said, "It's all water. Like... an ocean of it. It's cool, but Electrum's afraid of it for some reason? Something about, 'creatures lurking in the deep'. I'll bet they're just more Gembound!"

She contemplated the spells Warrior described, "Lucky... I just amplify my senses more- but I can sense things behind walls, so that's great!"

Haven trotted forward after Warrior, occasionally extending her neck past him to chirp into the gloom to get a picture of everything. She, in turn, would describe stuff back.

"It's a big room- oh! There's a table. And the vines- they smell like the ones in Eridanus! Maybe they were brought here?", she mused.

Hopping forward, she inspected the crystals, booping her nose against them, "Pointy! I wonder how they got here. Maybe they do grow! Like plants!"

She remained near the crystal, batting at it and trying to eat it, at one point, before looking up at Warrior again and grinning, "Throne!! I want to sit on it, like a cool Princess! Princess Haven and Lord Warrior!"

Pleased at her made-up titles, she took to the air, flying around in a loop, repeating the words over and over again.

"I'll follow you," she said after a minute, hovering over him, head and tail down as she flicked back and forth to keep steady.

@Warrior

He reached the tower first, and that was... interesting. It was tall, stony; worn with age, but with dots of quartz embedded throughout. This left it with a glittering aspect, and Warrior stared up in something quite like awe.

"It looks like lights, but I think they're just stones-... The tower, I mean. Can you tell how big it is? -How tall? It's--rocky, there's a hole at the top..."

Warrior circled it, and to his surprise he found a hole at its base. "It's hollow!" he told Haven, and, tentatively, pushed his way in. He could see that there was a way up--steep stairs winding high--but the moment he set hoof on them it felt... wrong. The angle was wrong, the place was too narrow and claustrophobia (despite how many nights Warrior had spent tucked into cave crevices) immediately kicked in. He backed out hurriedly.

"It's... narrow. I think you might be able to fit, and go up and explore it, but I'm afraid that I'd get stuck, I don't think I could turn around, in there," he explained.

@Haven

Haven looked up at the Tower and flew up, screeching at it as she flew around. She returned and landed a bit hard, falling head over heels, ending up with her belly to the sky as she looked up at Warrior.

"Really tall! Not touching the ceiling, but almost!" she said, rolling over to get up.

She shook herself out and darted to the hole, peering around Warrior, "A hole! I love holes!"

Scuttling in the moment Warrior got out, she flipped her head back and upside-down to peer at him, "Okay!! I'll be back!"

Haven inhaled and darted forward, galloping through the darkness (though it wasn't anything new to her). She kept going until she found open space, peering around to try and find something to report back to Warrior about. She poked her head out of one of the spaces leading out, cooing. She could have just flown up here!

She nosed around some more and grabbed the thing she bumped into, before flinging herself out the window and spiraling downwards with a giggle. She caught herself and soared the last of the way down, landing in front of Warrior.

"I found this!", she crowed, dropping the object.

A sword hilt. There were more of them, up there, which she quickly reported.

"There was stuff up there, too, but it was flat, like a regular room, with windows to see out of," she explained.

@Warrior

He watched as she first spiralled into the air, his ears twitching and hooves shifting him back a bit so he could see it all more clearly. She returned soon after, and he struggled not to laugh at the ridiculous image of the playful dragon-creature flailing on her back. It seemed-... mean to laugh; but she didn't appear harmed, and when she went bounding through the door he just peered after her.

"Careful," he warned her, quietly, and when she left his sight he tried to track her with his magic. She kept on, and he could see her red, shimmering form bounding in a spiral higher and higher--and then exiting the tower at the top and sailing back down. Blinking, he watched her arrive again.

When she dropped the sword hilt before him, he leaned down to sniff at it. Pitted and rusted with age--and what was it, even..? Warrior nudged it with his muzzle, tilting his head to and fro, examining it from every angle--but aside from smelling like rust and rock, it offered no clues as to its purpose.

"I don't know what that is. It looks like old metal, or stone," he offered, confused. It was a mystery, like the plates, and the discs, and he peered up at the tower again. "I wonder who made all of this. The... shelters? This tower. And why? Why leave--or keep, I guess?--little pieces of metal in it..?" What purpose did this all serve..?

@Haven

Haven shook her head out and puffed out her throat, the hard plates that lined her throat bulging out as she suddenly sneezed. It was dusty in there, judging by her sooty hide.

She nudged it too, snorting an apology when their noses bumped. She brushed her tail along the ground and picked up the sword, waving it up and down, giggling happily, "It has a grip! For hands!"

She held the sword grip in one of her wing-hands, waving it around like that instead, "Maybe it was a weapon? Or a tool? Whatever it is, it's awesome! I'm gonna keep it."

As Warrior asked his next question, she made her way to a pile of rocks, digging at them and managing to fit the swore piece into the hole. She made sure it was perfectly safe, unable to be seen even with echolocation, before turning back to Warrior and walking back towards him.

"There's a lot of detail in these structures," she noted, "Maybe whoever it was had hands too? Maybe they were dragons! Like me!"

Grinning, she looked up at Warrior, pleased with her hypothesis, "But.. they'd have to have been small. Maybe they were just small dragons. Or just a bunch of innovative monkeys. They have hands!"

They did have hands.

@Warrior

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