![[Image: l87nhNk.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/l87nhNk.gif)
Instinct was a funny thing. It's what drove Tema to feed Sunny upon hatching, what drove her to follow the snail so wholeheartedly despite their age being separated by only a few heartbeats, what drove her to call to the seeds hidden below the earth and... well, it led her here.
A faint scent had caught her nose from the tunnel as she explored, trying to become acquainted with the area. Tema could only really describe it as... wet. Like the mist from another part of a cave she had been in, but much less heavy in her lungs. She'd compare it to dew on leaves but much, well, tastier. She wasn't sure how she got something akin to flavour from a scent, but Tema followed it in search of food.
But this wasn't food. It was a living thing like her, albeit scaled and legless. Tema had seen all kind of Gembounds by now though, so this was no surprise to her.
"Hello! Do you have a name?" A voice in the back of her head growled that this wasn't right, that there was no name for this creature, no conscious mind behind those... blank eyes. Her mind kept drifting as she waited for a response, trying to keep it from swimming too far away from her by pawing at it.
Blank eyes. Something about them felt cold, as lifeless as the leaves she had been eating. She didn't have the chance to think before she scooped the slimy fish out of the water and into her mouth, chomping into it. She was horrified at herself, wide eyed as she swallowed the little thing whole and disgusted by how much she enjoyed the taste.
How many times had Sunny complained about bring mistaken for a lesser? Would Tema have eaten Sunny with so little thought if she hadn't grown up alongside her? Just what had she done, taking a life so easily?
The young bear shoved her head under the water, frantically shaking it back and forth to clean away the taste and mess until she was forced to come back up for air. This would be one adventure she'd keep to herself, far from Sunny's eyes.
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Tema startled at the new voice. It wasn't uncommon for her considering how much time she spent in her own head, but the bear was never pleased with how easy it was for others to sneak up on her.
"I wasn't trying to, not really. My jaws were a monster of their own making..." Her voice was shaky for a moment as she shook the water from her face, trying to settle herself and ignore the scent of other fish in the pond. Now that she'd tasted one it was much harder, but she managed to turn towards the newcomer.
"Are you not afraid of lesser-killing?" Tema found it strange that the wolf before her mentioned such a thing so calmly. To be fair the young one had only ever eaten plants up until this point and hadn't exactly seen any of her friends eat anything else, so this was a surprising encounter for her... not to mention she'd never even dreamed of hurting someone. She wanted to help others where she could, not eat them!
Although a late thought, Tema wondered where the term lesser came from. Was it one of those words the world around her put in her head, like when she learned to grow plants from long forgotten seeds, or was it just a word she'd overheard sometime in her two cycles of existence... almost three now if she remembered right.
Ah! There she went again, stuck in her head questioning the universe.
Tema nodded at the first words the canine spoke, brushing them off as it was no big weight on her shoulders. She might not enjoy being spooked, but it was not the other's fault.
What she said after gave the bear more pause, forcing her to sit by the water's edge as her muzzle dripped water back into the pond with tiny splashes every few seconds. Her world was unraveling and yet here was a gembound who had been living in this new world all long, explaining something she should have already known.
"They don't think?" Was all she could say at first, baffled. And yet... it made sense to her, somehow. It would explain why the fish had not responded to her greeting she supposed.
She had felt pretty good physically after eating the darned thing that started this mess in her head, some undefinable craving deep inside her being satiated for the first time. So maybe... it would be okay.
"You can teach me, you said? Can lesser-learning include telling apart the lessers and the Gembounds? I have a snail-kin. I don't want to eat the snail-kin." Tema perked up suddenly, too excited to properly phrase herself once more. What she had meant was that she needed to be able to tell the lesser-like gembounds apart from the actual lessers so that she did not accidentally eat a Gembound akin to Sunny, the snail she had been born beside almost three cycles ago who had been mistaken for a lesser on multiple occassions.
But... she didn't want to eat snails either, so perhaps her wording would be fine until proven otherwise.
Tema seemed to forget her woes entirely at the interest in her sister. She was proud of the little snail and how strong she was. Despite her size she had managed to get past a lot already and make quite a few good friends along the way.
Tema took a deep breath before speaking, something she needed to do to get her thoughts across properly. "Sunny. A fitting name for her, the bright-hearted slime. We birthed beside each other in Fornax. Seeing her almost be..." She trailed off, hoping her reasoning for needing to distinguish Gembounds and lessers came through without the need for her to recount when Sunny was mistaken for one.
"But... Hunting! Distinguishing!" Now, yes, please teach. She shook her head, throwing the last of the dripping water off of her snout and clearing the incoming panic from her mind before watching ths fish scatter. She'd done just fine without Sunny by her side before when they explored separate caves after all. And sure it felt... wrong. Killing, that is. But it made her feel healthy and strong so... maybe it would be okay. If she learned to do it right and didn't shove it in the face of those who didn't feel this need... maybe it would be alright.
Tema nodded, following the canine who clearly knew more of the area than she did obediently. The wolf had been kind enough to offer her some much needed knowledge, so Tema saw no reason to question her. She had even tried to follow when Comet had started to bolt much to Tema's confusion, but she had been forced to stop when she realized just how much faster the canine could move in comparison to herself.
When she returned, the bear couldn't help but flinch at the carcass held lightly in Comet's jaws. She settled herself however, listening to her mentor diligently and letting the information click like puzzle pieces in her mind. She sat for a moment before nodding, looking up from the mouse and towards Comet. "Thank you." The tension in her shoulders visibly disapated and she stretched her neck to relax it as well. "What is next?" She added tentatively. The action of hunting itself would likely always leave the bear feeling slightly guilty for ending a life, but the conversation had already helped her better understand the morality of it.