ORIGIN

For as much exploring as Leon had done in his very short life, it seemed he was destined to go no further than the Core. It was Rohan that kept him there, always uncertain if his friend was okay with leaving, always scared that if he ventured too far, he might never find his friend again. He knew the cave extended further than what he'd seem so far. There were Gembounds all over the place now, more than when he'd awoken, and they came from places that Leon had never seen. They looked so different from him and could do different things, and he wondered if it was because they had come from such different places. The bear wouldn't leave yet, at least not without Rohan - and it was likely that where ever Leon went, Teyouma would follow, too.

At the moment, he found himself alone. The bear sat against the wall, finding comfort in the clammy darkness. It wasn't all that dark here actually, receiving ample light from the broad opening into Polaris nearby. Luminous mosses sprouted along the wall, giving the tunnel entrance a blue-green hue. His mind was wandering, hopping from his friends to other Gembounds he had met to his attempts and failures at what he would come to understand as magic. He couldn't control the heat summoned by his paws, and he was afraid to try it again. The last two times it happened it had burned him. Yet if he didn't practice, it would keep happening. What did he want more - the uncertainty of his magic, but the comfort of not experiencing its pain now? Or mastery over it, should he risk harming himself in the process?

He huffed, unhappy and unable to decide. The bear slouched down, most of his body laying on the ground while his head was propped up against the wall, his paws resting lazily on his stomach. What was he to do?

For a brief moment, he neglected to think about it, ignoring either of those options in favor of simply staring across at the other wall. He watched as wet mosses twinkled against the blue glow of the crystals, and condensation dripped lazily down one of the rocks. It wasn't as humid here as in some of the other tunnels, but he supposed a rather wet draft had wormed its way through the maze of the caves and found itself here. He rather liked being in this tunnel actually. The smell was pleasant for his nose, a nice change from the musty stench of old and dirty rocks, or stagnant water, or dust. He huffed loudly, scratching slowly at his stomach.

The sound of footsteps aroused him from his gloomy thoughts. Leon blinked, glancing in their direction without actually moving his head. There, he could see another animal, small but not as small as some. Its figure denoted that it, too, was but a child. Leon continued to watch him, and as he excused himself to walk past Leon, he frowned and stuck out his lower lip with a complainy whine. The bear huffed unhappily again, nearly content to let the pup pass him by and go on his way. Oh, but Leon wouldn't be satisfied if he just let another Gembound cross his path without getting to know them and trying to make friends. After a while, Leon straightened up and rolled onto his stomach, hobbling after the pup. "Hey, wait!" Leon came up behind him, long claws clicking furiously against the ground. "I'm so bored, will you play with me?"

Maybe the dog would humor him, maybe he'd even make him feel better! And maybe... maybe he could give him the confidence to try his fire magic again.

Unbeknownst to Leon, his sudden decision to run after the puppy had startled the other into automatically assuming he was out for blood. When the dog turned around and asked the bear not to hurt him, Leon skidded to a halt and cocked his head. Why would he ever want to hurt somebody else? He furrowed his brow and glanced aside, thinking on the question. Would he? Would he truly? ...No. He didn't like to see others upset. He liked to see them happy. He didn't like pain, so why would anybody else?

After a couple seconds of thought, he looked back to the puppy and shook his head. "Obviously! I only want to play!" Leon assured him and scoffed. The bear grinned, and after the puppy questioned the idea of "play", he lowered his front half, wagged his tail and barked. Leon interpreted this as an invitation to play, so the bear did what any playful young child would do. "Yeah!" He beamed and ran at the puppy, but before making any contact, he stopped again and ascended to his hind paws. His front paws hung out in front of him, expecting the puppy to do the same. For a bear, the concept of play involved wrestling - he was unaware that canines were a little less dexterous than his own kind, however.

The puppy's idea of play was foreign to Leon, almost alien, watching him drop his chest down and wiggle his rump in the air. But then again, most of the creatures he encountered seem to have one thing in common and that was a really, really long tail. Much longer than his. They could move it and sway it and maybe the whole rump-wiggling thing had to do with that. Leon didn't care though, as long as he was still up for playing - and he was, apparently, as demonstrated by the dog's sudden attempt to stand on his own hind legs as well. Leon grinned and rumbled with encouragement. "Yeah! Just like that!" He said and stepped forward, planning on grappling with the puppy as he would another cub.

Only, the dog didn't seem able to maintain balance. He continued to move back and forward and to the sides, trying to keep himself aloft. He managed to stand up for a good few seconds, even without wobbling before falling back down to his paws. Leon giggled and thumped down onto all fours too. "You did good!" He added, reaching up with one of his front paws to try and pat the dog on the head. Then, Leon mimicked his new friend and dropped his front half to the ground. With his fore-legs bent beneath him, he stuck his butt up in the air and wiggled it. His stubby little tail, too, wiggled behind him with excitement.

But Leon had had enough of the whole mimicry thing. He wanted to play. The bear lunged forward again, trying to land his paws on the dog's shoulders; at which point, if successful, he was going to try and wrestle him down to the ground.

It hadn't taken much for Leon to land his big paws upon the dog's shoulders, and even less so for him to wrestle the canine down to the ground. In fact, it was a little disappointing just how easy it had been at all. Once the two of them were pretty much on the ground, the bear giggled and flopped over onto his side, raising his paws to bat gently at the puppy's face. "Wha?" He blinked, confused at what the dog had meant. Leon thought play was the same thing for everyone?

The bear rolled away, first on his back and then onto his stomach where he propped himself up onto all four paws, then stood on his hind legs to look back over at Isaac. "Play's play! Play's whatever wanna do. That's how I play. How do you play? Can you show me?" He asked enthusiastically and dropped back onto his four paws, galloping back over to Isaac.