ORIGIN

Adonia had heard of a strange place that had an even strange massive structure, with glimmering beautiful gardens. She had been dying to see it ever since she had heard about it. She had let everyone know where she was going, as it was only a wise decision after Mary running off twice without a single word. So she let everyone including Renny know where she was going in case anything happened to her they knew where to look for her or her chrysalis. Brilliant blue eyes gazed up at the outside of the massive beautiful alabaster structure. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. It was a thousand times bigger than her home ever thought of being. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of creatures or gembound might live in a place like this. What possibly could have made such a thing like this?

However rather than actually risk entering and running into someone on the grumpier side of life, the young lioness with garnet button between her eyes made her way around the outside of the palace the whole time her eyes taking in every detail of such a strange thing. It took her longer to walk around the building than she thought it would. But soon the little lioness found herself in a beautiful garden. Broad paws that were much too large for the size of the feline they carried, made their way along the walkways of the garden.

As the girl wandered about this way and that with absolute aimlessness, she found herself coming upon a creature in her path. It was avian in nature, with bright colored feathers. The birds tail drug on the ground like the train of lady’s gown and she was astonished at the beauty of such a bird. However she felt rather dumb for it as she should have assumed that such lavish accouterments would indeed boast a gorgeous bird like this. Curiously the girl approached with a warm smile resting on her muzzle. ”Hello there!” Adonia greeted brightly as she approached the bird.

As Adonia approached and greeted the bird, he seemed startled or at least as if they hadn’t been expecting anyone else to appear. As they opened their mouth to greet her they dropped the fruit they were holding. Adonia leaped forward to inspect the fruit to make sure it hadn’t been bruised. ”Oh my! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you drop that!” The young girl apologized to the vibrantly colored bird. Looking up at the bird from the fruit she offered a warm smile. The girl took note that the bird's stone replaced its left eye.

They both seemed to look up at each other at the same time and they greeted her. They started talking about something called a feast and needing things for it. She just smiled innocently all the while. ”Oh no. What’s a feast?” She asked genuinely not knowing what a feast was. ”But I can help you get stuff if you need it!” What better way to see the gardens than by being shown around by someone who probably knew the place far better than she did. ”I was actually just here to see the gardens, but I really don’t mind helping you.” She offered eagerly with a bright friendly grin that probably showed a little too much teeth.

The girl took note that the bird seemed nervous about her, and she backed up a few steps to seem less intimidating. Though she really didn’t think herself all that scary, she was after all not very big being smaller than her siblings, she found herself to be rather meek. It was why she hadn’t done much exploring before now on her own. She didn’t think she was big enough to take care of herself. Sure she could hunt but that was only mice, anything bigger and it put too much of a fight for her. In any case, she didn’t want to seem intimidating, or like she was going to eat him. She had no intention of hurting anyone, she was just here to explore and see the sights.

The bird seemed to trip over its own words as it began to explain what exactly it was talking about. ”Ohhhh.” So a feast dealt with food, did it have lots of food? All different kinds of food? Perhaps Sprig’s concoctions would be welcome at a feast. Adonia let her smile relax a little so she wasn’t showing any teeth hoping that that might solve a bit of the intimidation issue.

Then the bird was talking again. They explained about what they were looking for and thanked her for offering to help. She nodded once in response to the thanks. ”Oh I’m pretty good at digging, and I can climb so I can get the fruit higher up in the tree!” She offered with a bright friendly tone. She liked helping and making a new friend in the process was just icing on the cake now wasn’t it. As they explained where to go Adonia nodded thoughtfully. ”Sounds good. You want me to climb the tree and drop a few of the fruit down to you?” She asked, offering an idea as she headed toward the tree. She had no intention of eating the bird, not that they knew that. In fact she would much rather have been making friends with them than eating them.

Adonia looked at the bird who stood still seeming to think about something before he answered her on her plan on climbing the tree. Something about them seemed alarmed and worried about something she was unsure of. But then she was young and naive and didn’t see the reason the bird should fear her. Though she herself would never attack a greater gembound without probable cause. There were just certain lines you didn’t cross. Lessers were one thing, but nonetheless she didn’t see why a prey animal should fear her. Though Sun had also told her that she needed to be careful and only take as much as she needed, and even if this bird was a lesser, they were far more than she could eat in one sitting and that was how she gauged what she ate.

Adonia blinked tilting her head to one side as the bird coughed and drew in a long breath. Were they okay? They seemed to be having trouble with something, it was as if they were afraid of her for some uncanny reason, though she had done nothing that she knew of to make the creature fear her. The little lion gazed closer at the bird beak. ”Ohhhh it’s really nice.” She breathed admiring his beak, her eyes trailed down to his feet, and took note of the also sharp claws there. She took a step back realizing that the bird being as large as it was could actually do damage to her if something went down.’

She watched as they hurried away, secretly a little bit thankful. But the young girl followed behind the bird still eager to help. The girl waited below the tree, bright blue eyes watching the tree as she waited for them. She was eager and ready to help. SHe also in a word wanted to try and make friends with this bird creature.

Adonia watched as the large pretty bird flew up into the tree, she wondered why they had gone as high as they had. But she would catch the fruit nonetheless. She had agreed to help her do her best to help her new companion. Even if it did seem a bit dangerous catching hard skinned fruit from this distance, she was sure she could catch them without too much trouble. Giving a flick of her tail the young cub looked around the tree at the fruit thinking.

Then the bird pointed out what she had been thinking about. She wasn’t sure she could carry very many of them. But then it dawned on her rather quickly. Sun used a bag to forage for his fruit, if she could find a large enough leaf she could put the fruit they gathered on them. ”Probably not very many, but I have an idea.” She assured the bird with a thoughtful smile. ”Let me go look for a big leaf we can use it to drag the fruit around.” She tossed her idea to the bird before darting off further into the garden.

It took the girl a few minutes looking around the gardens but she finally found what she was looking for. A plant similar to what she had in Eridanus. They would be on earth known as an elephant ear plant, with very large teardrop shaped leaves. However these were a deep red rather than the vibrant green they would be on a normal plant. Finding the two largest she could she cut the stems of leaves long enough for her and the bird to be able to drag the leaves around without having to bend too far down. The girl returned using her nose to find the bird by scent once more as she carried the leaves in her jaws. The leaves were far larger than she was. Taking her place under the tree once more she smiled up at the bird. ”There now we can gather more food this way!” She assured her companion eagerly.