ORIGIN

From the dark mouth of Tunnel K, a pair of lights could be seen. They were pale, white edged with a sickly yellow-green, and they bobbed slowly up and down.

From time to time, they even blinked.

At length an unsteady, emaciated black equine foal tottered out into Orion. Here he paused, staring about him in awe. He had known darkness, in his very short life, but he had not imagined the stone structures and the glimmering quartz-lights that edged the walls and ceiling of this place.

He turned to gaze down at the young numbat beside him, snorting softly and blinking down at Booker. His legs trembled with the effort of standing as he spoke.

"Where... are... we?" he asked haltingly, having to think of each word in turn. He clearly expected Booker to have the answer to this question (and likely every other question he might ask).

As before, a string of random words jittered through his mind.

Heaven cannot be Hell. Would Hell go so far as to impersonate Heaven?

Khloros blinked again, shaking this thought away and lifting his thin neck to peer up and out into Orion once more. Eyes casting slowly over the distant tower and throne, and the buildings, he staggered another couple of steps further into the room.

"What... are those...? What... are they... for?"

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Booker followed beside Khloros at a trot, tiny limbs hopping and scurrying to keep up with his long-legged friend. He slowed as they finally exited the long, empty tunnels of Origin Cave into a bright room. The ceiling looked like it was alive with glittering lights, and the numbat gaped up at it, in awe. He'd heard some mentions of a place called "the room of stars," and figured this had to be it. He chirruped at his friend's query, turning his head to look up at the foal. "I think it's called the room of stars," he said, voice soft with wonder. "It's so pretty!"

His hazy gaze wandered over the rest of the room, darting from the huge crystals towering up from the ground to the strange structures popping up throughout. Booker hurried to follow his friend as Khloros proceeded into the room, shrugging as he went. "I dunno! Maybe someone lives here?" The structures looked a bit like a more advanced version of his own hidey holes, the walls made of stone rather than the stalks and caps of mushrooms. "C'mon, Khlo, let's check it out!"

The adventurous spirit of their trip had seemed to have taken hold of the numbat, and, excited, he scurried up to one of the semi-intact buildings, darting in and out of cracks in the walls and rolling stones around the look through the rubble. "Maybe we could find some more food for you, yes?" Or something for your wounds, he thought worriedly. Well, no matter - hopefully, someone in Polaris would help them. If they got there, that is.

Ghostly eyes took in everything, and his mouth was moving again before he could even process everything that Booker had said. He tagged along as he spoke, staggering and stumbling with a new foal's clumsiness.

"Stars? What's... stars?" All words were new to him but for some reason this one, in particular, eluded him.

He stuck his long, slender black head into the crumbling structure that Booker was now darting into, peering about and, quite by accident, illuminating it with his glowing eyes. He thought about this, for a moment--closing one eye, then the other, and making quite sure it was his gaze bringing light to the place. He then wondered why Booker's didn't glow. Damage, maybe, like he'd mentioned? Did non-glowing eyes hurt to have?

He decided not to ask. He didn't want to remind his new friend of his pain. And anyway, what was Booker doing? He watched as the numbat rolled the rubble around, seeming to quickly explore and pick through the rock. Was he looking for more things to grow? More... friends?

Worriedly, Khloros asked another question.

"Do your friends... hurt? When I eat them?"

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

The soft-spoken question made Booker pause in his search, and he scratched at a long ear, pondering for a moment. "Hm. I... dunno! Shiny sparkly things, I guess. I wonder if that makes mushrooms stars?" Having confused himself, the numbat shrugged, wiggling his whiskers at Khloros. "If they look like the ceil-ing in here, though, they must be real pretty!" Booker giggled when his equine friend stuck his head through one of the structure's windows, illuminating the inside with his yellow-green eyes. The tiny creature went back to rooting through Orion's crumbled remains, huffing at a large boulder that refused to budge.

Turning from it, he was only stilled by Khloros' next query, and he turned, head tilting. "Well, no, not that they've ever told me! I ask be-fore I grow them, and be-fore I poke 'em, or sniff 'em, or eat 'em, and I asked be-fore you did, too! Besides," he added, puffing up his fur to let a spray of spores loose on the rubble-littered floor, "there's loads more where each one comes from. Even a little mushroom can make a bunch of itself, just with these spores!"

This explained, he carried on with his search, giving up on the structure with a frustrated huff before moving on to the one just beside it, rooting around for something useful. "I could grow you some more if you're still hungry, Khol," he offered, voice a bit echoey and muted from where his head was currently residing under a bit of fallen wall, tiny body perfect for squeezing into the nooks and crannies of Orion.

Grow things.

It was the second time that Booker had mentioned how he reproduced the fungi, and as he debated whether he was still hungry, the nagging feeling that maybe he could grow something, too, struck him.

"I--... a little," Khloros responded, pulling back from the building as he did. He turnedin a clumsy clatter of hooves, and pondered. "How do... you grow? Them?" he asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure how he knew these things called words, but it more like... like remembering them, than actually learning them.

"They grow... slow? Not so... fast. But you make them. Fast," he said haltingly, trying to get his point across. He lowered himself down, again, folding up spiderlike black legs so that he could rest for a few moments, peering curiously Booker's way.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

Wiggling out of the small tunnel made by the fallen wall, Booker hummed, hopping up on top of the crumbled bricks and strolling closer to his friend. He perked up at the mention of the foal's hunger, opening his mouth to offer his fungal services, before shutting it with a chirrup at the questions Khloros posed. The numbat watched as the foal laid down just outside of the broken building, and he scurried off of his perch, stopping closer to his traveling companion. He nodded at the last words eagerly in agreement. "Yup! Norm-a-lee they grow slow, on the ground n' the walls n' even the ceiling!"

Explaining just how he sped up their growth would be harder, and Booker pondered on it for a moment. "Hm. Well, I close my eye first," he started, clenching his eye shut to demonstrate, "and then I try to... reach out and see them?" Wanting to be able to explain the process fully, he reached out once again, trying to find his glowing friends.

post roll:
The lights behind his eye flickered on dimly, pulsating weakly. Frowning, he shrugged - it would have to do. "So, when I reach out, they look all... glowy? Like little stars! And they're everywhere - even in here, under all the rocks and stuff," he added, tapping on the ground happily. "And when I can see them, I can sorta feel 'em, like a tugging in my chest. Like they can see me too!" Satisfied with the description, Booker released the spell, opening his eye and trying to readjust to the world above ground. "I bet you can reach out too! I dunno how though, 'cause Bara can fly, but he can't see my light friends," he added morosely, hoping Khloros could see what the numbat could.

Khloros listened intently to every word, watching Booker closely all the while. He closed his eyes and tried to "see" the pinpricks of light. But he saw nothing--just darkness, and the faint cast of his own eyes' pale glow.

Opening them, again, he saw Booker's gem glimmering. He pondered this, thinking over what he knew about the buzz of life in his own body. It was there--he felt it--a constant companion. But it was internal to him, not external, and he couldn't see it outside of himself at all.

Could he grow it? And if he could, would it hurt him? He shifted in place doubtfully, peering at Booker.

"I have things inside. I think. Buzzy things. Live things."

He focused on them, closing his eyes again, thinking.

If I can find them, maybe I can reach out to them the way he does to his friends?

He could indeed, he realized, feel the swarm of bacteria in him if only he focused. Were these his "friends," then? Could he... he did feel a link with them, of sorts, as Booker had suggested. Now he had to... to tug at it, with his chest, and...

Pale eyes flew open as the horse foal was wracked with a sudden coughing fit. It lasted only a moment, though, and then his body adjusted, and he was heaving out a plume of diseased air with a hoarse exhalation of breath. It smelled rancid, luckily, so hopefully Booker would not go near it--but he himself was in awe, staring at the thin air before him as he regained his composure.

"Those. Are my friends. I don't think they'd be... be good for you," he added, glancing to Booker. Then he pondered, for a moment.

"Did you know your... eye... stone. Glows?" It didn't glow, exactly--it flashed--but that was the best word the foal had for it, and it was all he could offer linguistically as he lay in his cloud of disease.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

At the mention of things inside himself, Booker's eye widened, and he grinned. "That's so cool! I knew you could do it! I didn't think of your friends being inside," he wondered, mouth dropping open at the possibilities. Thankfully he'd closed it into a smile by the time the foal was coughing harshly, practically retching, and the numbat leapt backwards at the sound, fluff puffing out in alarm. Then, as soon as the attack on his friend had started, it ended, and the foal seemed to breathe out a cloud of hazy air. Sniffing, Book's whiskers twitched - it was the same smell Khloros always seemed to carry, just intensified. Still, he stayed back, wary of hurting the foal more if he tried to intervene.

At his friend's words, he relaxed, grinning proudly. "Told ya you could do it! There must be so many," he contemplated, eyeing the cloud with the familiar spark of curiosity in his eye. "I wonder if you could help them grow and stuff, like me and the mush-rooms!" The hazy cloud still hovered, so Book shrugged, sneezing when it got a bit too close for comfort.

"It... does?!" Stunned and excited, the tiny Gembound bounced in place, whiskers twitching wildly. "That's so cool! No-one told me I was glowy, too!" The numbat tapped at his gem experimentally, but was only met with the normal dull throb of pain, with no glowing to speak of. Sullenly he kicked a pebble, frustrated, before he stopped, struck with an idea. Turning back to his friend, he chirruped. "Maybe it's glowy when I see the glowy mush-rooms!"

"May-ay-be," Khloros replied, having slight trouble with the word. "Try?"

He peered at his friend, and also pondered all of this, briefly. What were his "mushrooms," if not edible? And indeed, what were they even called?

"Don't know what my friends are. Not mushrooms," he decided. They were tiny, like Booker's "spores," yes, but Khloros felt instinctively that they were different. They'd stay tiny, for one thing. "Someone in... glowy-place knnnnows. What. May-y-be?" he asked, hopefully.

He took a deep breath, preparing to heave himself to his feet again, but first he watched, and waited, in case Booker wanted to try and make his stone flash once more.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

Booker nodded eagerly at the mention of Polaris, thinking of the many different Gembounds he'd met. One of them had to be able to help Khloros, right? "I'm sure of it! Once we get to Polaris, there's sure to be some-one who knows what your friends are, and how to call them and stuff! Maybe without the cough-ing," he added, still a bit worried by how the foal's 'friends' had been released. It wouldn't do for the horse to go through that kind of discomfort any time he wanted to use his magic, after all!

The little numbat thought, and thought, and thought, before giving up with a shrug. He couldn't do much until they reached home, but he could help with the hunger issue. "Hey, hey, lemme know if it glows again, yeah?" Book clapped his hands eagerly, grinning at Khloros before clenching his working eye shut, breathing out slowly and tapping his tail against the ground rhythmically.

post roll:
Again, the lights flickered on weakly, and Book hummed, confused. Maybe they're tired? His tiny stomach growled, and he giggled. Or maybe I'm just hungry! Opening his eye, he watched as a small patch of mushrooms wobbled out from the surface. These were different from the golden bells he'd summoned in Tunnel K - their surfaces were a velvet brown, the caps decorated with a honeycomb effect. He plucked the smallest one for himself, chewing off a tiny bit to chew, before motioning to the rest. "They're good too, if you're still hungry!"