ORIGIN - A Rocky Fort

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Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet paced around the area, this was the place she had seen in her dreams. It was the place where she would build a castle. Now this was a pretty ambitious idea for the young pup, an entire castle? But once Comet sets her mind on something, she does not give up easily. The first order of business was to clear the area of ferns, branches, and rocks.
A thought flitted across her mind that she should probably ask for someone to help her, but seeing as there was no one nearby, she decided to do it herself. Although the main problem is that she could only use her mouth to move things.
There were quite a lot of things in the area, but she managed to clear it just fine. She was a bit tired and sat down to rest.

@Sharp

Ah, back again in Eridanus. It wasn't as windy or dry as the Howling Room-- in fact, everything here was pretty damp-- but the environment wasn't the reason Sharp was here, no no! It was simply the amount of things she could experiment with. Vines, leaves, stones, all a lot more useful than plain sand and weeds. Since her first encounter with that beast, Sheng, and the others, her motivation to build was through the roof. She wanted to craft things, invent things, and simply show others how cool she was!

And so, in typical Sharp fashion, the lizard trundled back into the jungle.

She came with her cart, a primitive bone wagon pulled by her own teeth. It bounced and rattled loudly as the lizard walked through, sending little bugs scurrying with it's approach. Her electric eyes scanned for something of use-- a sharp stone, a bendy vine-- and she ended up piling quite a few assorted pebbles into the back of her cart. It was a bit quiet, and Sharp couldn't sense any other gembound near her, but she didn't mind. The caves might as well explode, but as long as she had something to put her claws on all was well.

It came as a bit of a surprise when she stumbled upon a clearing that she swore wasn't there before. The forest floor was nothing but damp dirt in a large radius. Sharp dropped her cart-handle gently and trotted forward gingerly. Was someone here? something? Visions of terrifying monsters flashed in her mind, before she realized with a sigh there was just a wolf pup nearby. Now, usually apex predators like her would get a scare out of the prey animal, but she was so tiny! And young! Just a itty-bitty puppy lying down in her clearing.

Sharp scampered towards Comet eagerly, her horned head straining to stare up at the wolf. "Hi hi there!" she screeched, her voice surprisingly loud for the tiny thing. "I'm Sharp-and-spiky! Do you live here?"

Her head swept back at the clearing, and her eyes lit up in excitement. Without even giving the pup a chance to respond, she continued on: "Hey, did you make this clear-space? What'sit for? Are you making something? Because I'm very good at making things."

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet did a near back flip in the air when she heard a loud voice that was directed at her. She looked up, and didn't see the animal who announced their presence. That was strange, she was sure that an animal said something, but when she dropped her head down, she spotted a lizard. The lizard was very small, and was pulling a rickety looking wagon with rocks in it. She was surprised that such a small lizard talked so loudly.
I'm Comet. she replied, And um, this clearing is for my new castle! It's going to tower taller than the trees! And have over a hundred rooms! I was also thinking of putting a moat around it too. she thought more about what the lizard Sharp had said. I could use some help with making it. My paws are not too suited for tying together vines or building anything, really.
All of a sudden, Comet realized what a big and daunting task this was. Even if this small lizard helped her with building the castle, she highly doubted they would be able to make it. Actually I think this castle only needs one room. she downsized the plan, I was thinking the castle could be built out of rocks which are secured by vines. It shouldn't be too hard. by the sound of it, the lizard was very good at making things, Comet bet the lizard even made that wagon herself.

@Sharp

Sharp smiled brightly at the pale wolf pup. It was a bit funny to cause her to spook, though she didn't bring it up. She introduced herself as Comet-- 'Wait, what's a "comet", exactly?'-- though in her mind she only registered her as "big-fluffy-white-teeth". The lizard wasn't ever good with names.

But ah, a castle! Sharp had never heard the word before, though Big-fluffy's description was clear: something large, made out of stone and secured by vine, and possibly surrounded by a water-ditch. Well, that did seem like a job for her!

"Wow! That sound's really super awesome-cool!" she thunked her large, pointed tail in excitement. "Now, usually I have a cost..." A devilish smirk spread across her scales. "... buut you seem really nice, so I'll keep it small!"

Sharp looked to the edge of the jungle behind her. "I can help you find stones and tie things and make it look all pretty, and at the end you give me a shiny! A gemstone! A glowy one, or a living one, or a normal one-- as long as you give it to me sometime I'm fine. They're sparkly and make me feel happy."

A neon yellow eye darted back to Comet. "Is that alright?"

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet was happy the lizard shared her enthusiasm about the 'castle'. She was not quite sure why she wanted to call her creation a castle, but it seemed to fit right. But, unexpectedly, Sharp wanted payment. Comet was a bit nervous about that because she did not own ANY possessions. Which was a problem. But luckily all she wanted was some stones, which shouldn't be too hard to find.
Yes! Sure, it's alright. Let me find a stone for you. Comet knew that Sharp liked shiny stones, so she kept that in mind as she searched the area. The problem was not that there were no stones, it was that there were no shiny stones. But from the corner of her eye, she spotted a glint. Comet walked over and picked up the round stone in her jaws and brought it back to Sharp. Here you go! Is this enough?

@Sharp

Sharp watched patiently as the wolf pup went to go look for stones. She wasn't ashamed to admit she was always in for the reward, and immediately scrambled forward when Comet revealed a rock. It wasn't a gem, per say, but shiny and smooth enough. After sniffing it over for a few moments, the lizard gave a satisfactory "Okay!" before kicking it back to her cart. She'll collect it at the end of the session.

Now that she was more committed into the building, Sharp cocked her head and thought hard about the request. "Stone is very weird. Does not stick together like dirt or water. We need something more, not just vine..." She thought back to her first encounter with the Collector, when she held together a bone carriage with old mud. "... Mud!" The craftsman seemed oddly enthusiastic about sludge, and she tapped her little feet together in celebration. "I'll go find mud, and you can look for rock or vine! Then, I can bring it back and use to fill the gaps in the rock. Yay!"

And she was off! The lizard weaved into the jungle edge, head perked for any small stream or damp ground. There it was-- a drying creek trickling between boulders. The ground around it was still wet, so she clawed together a large, semi-liquid ball of mud before slowly rolling it down to the clearing.

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet gave a sigh of relief. She was worried that the lizard would not accept the rock, because it was not a gemstone. She guessed as long as it was shiny she would like it. She watched the lizard place the rock into her cart.
Comet listened intently to her words about the castle. She was relieved that Sharp was helping her, she had not seen that small hole in her design. Now that she thought about it, it was a rather major flaw. Then she exclaimed something about mud, which actually seemed to make sense. Comet thought back to how she got stuck in a mud pit before and it was hard to get out and stuck to her fur.
While she waiting for Sharp to get the mud, Comet decided to collect some square-ish rocks. She scouted around the area. Soon, enough she got enough rocks to begin the base. And right on time, Sharp came around with a huge ball of liquidish mud. Great! I will start arranging to rocks. Comet pushed the biggest rocks for the base and slathered mud onto them with her tail. Is this right?

@Sharp

Well, Sharp was now thoroughly drenched in mud, but she didn't mind. Appearances will never get in the way of innovation! It did make her giggle a little when Comet came right around and smeared mud over the base... with her tail. "That is right! Maybe squish a little more between the stones, and it'll be good! Just, uh, make sure you can clean your tail off when you're done!" Good thing they were doing it in Eridanus, where there were plenty of puddles to scrub off in, huh?

The white wolf pup had already started on the base, which was fantastic. Sharp skipped her way to the small pile of stones, picked one out she could easily roll, and pushed it atop the existing row. Back-breaking work, but that was what she liked. She padded down the sticky mud with her own scaled tail before jabbing it in place. The mottled lizard went back, chose another one, and continued in the blissful throes of work. When she was done with the row, she doubled back and tried to smear some mud into the crevices to better hold up. Not as fast as she would've liked, and it was a bit uneven in appearance, but it'll hold up just fine.

She turned back to Comet, grinning. "How d'you like that?"

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet followed the lizard's instructions, and stuck her mud-covered tail into every crack between the rocks. Now they were sealed together quite nicely.
She watched the lizard roll rocks on top and do the second row, which in the end was not too bad. Looks good! Now that their supply of rocks was exhausted, Comet thought of looking for some more, but the 'castle' already seemed to be tall enough for a small pup and a lizard. Anything the size of a deer would probably not be able to fit in, but it was perfect for the two of them.
The next step, was the roof. Let's do the roof now! Comet was no architect, but she knew that using rocks for the roof would not work, and it might collapse on them if not done correctly. So she settled for the next best thing. Sharp, I'll go look for some wood to cover up the roof. How about you collect some vines and mud for the roof? Comet ran off to gather some good pieces of wood. They would need to be long, and sturdy. Soon, she came back with wood in tow, and set to work on placing it over the rocks to make the roof.

@Sharp

It was coming together so quickly! Surprising how fast work flies when you do it together. The building so far was rather squat and a bit low, but still very large for a lizard like Sharp. Hopefully Comet won't ever outgrow it.

The sungazer nodded her head and gave a little "Mhm!" to Comet's suggestion. Vine seemed like a nice thing to look for-- after all, it was everywhere. She just had to find a good patch. She quickly turned away from the build site and scampered over the forest floor, head held high to look for something promising.

There! Some low-hanging vines dangling off a tree. Sharp swiftly scrambled up the base and onto the plant, feeling it sway gently under her weight. She climbed all the way to it's highest connection, wrapped around a branch, and chewed it off with her short, nubby teeth. It fell to the ground in a nice, sturdy heap.

A few minutes later and Sharp was dragging the long rope back to Comet. "Here you go!" she chirruped. "You could put some long log up at the center of the house, so that way we can lean the rest against it! And I'll tie it all together with vine!"

@Comet

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