ORIGIN

It heard from afar, the calling of the creature, through the canopy in the trees. It followed, as it always did, the curious deity, the wandering god, to the voice it did not know, as if it held some secret, some great unknown that it had to unravel. After all, knowledge was its domain - beyond flesh, beyond physical form, there was nothing but the mind and the entropy that plagued its path. The darkness it had glimpsed within the Oil some cycles ago, that it had, perhaps, neglected to pursue. After all...much dwelled in the light still to discover. Why plunge into the darkness before it was time to See?

It did not understand when it looked upon who had spoken. A lesser - a kooru, is what it was called - calling out into the vastness of Eridanus. But lessers could not think - this is what Regalia knows, this is what she has seen. Was this Sunny or was this some puppet, bound to a great hidden out of sight?

No - there, upon the Kooru's back. A creature, small and insignificant, its very heart visible through the shell meant to protect it. Was it the puppeteer? Was it the one that roped in the lesser, had it speak in its name, had it carry it where it endeavored to go? Regalia had to give it credit for its resilience. Even with a body as small and weak, it had found strength in magic and through strength it had Imagined. And so the wistful goddess drifted forward, out of the darkness, out of the shadows, towards where the friends of Sunny would gather.

It did not speak - not yet, but pulled itself free, a wispy tendril of smoke drifting forward, breaking from the mold of the cat-form it was forced (unwillingly) to take, to brush softly against the creature. So See, to Know, to Understand the wielder of the strings, the writer of the plot. For this was an unknown, a blank waiting to be filled.

It saw...the snail, without the kooru. And a wolf in front of it. "If you and your fathers would like a mother, I am findable. Follow the littler slime. Big slime is Oka-snail -- good, but not me." A mother, then - or one that wanted to make a family, wanted to be a mother. Not an answer, but information. The wolf looked dejected and apologized again. "I will not do it anymore." Had this wolf...upset her, somehow? And then she was offering a goodbye and leaving. And the snail watched and Regalia wondered what she was thinking. What are her intentions...

As the memory faded, Regalia pulled the tendril of smoke back into its body. It would watch and listen for now - perhaps answers would come from the one she had watched, from the one that called itself a mother. But she is wrong. There is one mother, one father. And that is me - I am the One.