ORIGIN - don't eat yellow snow

Cygnus bounded forward into the snow, his long legs and natural ability to traverse this kind of environment allowing him to bulldoze through it like a snowplow, leaving a trail behind him that Cerilaine could follow in.

His wisp disappeared after a few minutes, either because he forgot about it or because of the cold. But he didn't notice, instead intent on trying to eat the snow, amazed by how it melted on his tongue.

”It's fluffy water!”, he said, his little tail wagging, ”Cool!”

Literally...

He looked back to the snow leopard to make sure she was following, grinning.

@Cerilaine

Cerilaine had certainly slotted into that trail, enjoying the freezing temperature around her. "This is nice," she purred loud enough for the gallivanting moose to hear, crunching on loose snow and jogging to keep up.

"Water?" She stepped up beside Cygnus as he ate, licking her lips. "Strange." She didn't know water came like this. She knew-- Well, she knew the river. Worriedly, she bent down her head into the snow that stood tall beside him, eventually shoving her way through.

Carefully, she bit it like a piece of food. It nearly melted in her mouth, and she had to struggle to try and chew it back, wincing at the cold on her teeth.

Ow.

Wincing, she shook her head and snorted, her mouth working as she tried to get it to warm back up. "It's really cold," she spoke- not complaining, simply observing. Chuffing and stepping back, she shook out again before staring up behind Cygnus.

"What're those?" Her nose tipped up to the lights, eyes bright as she took them in. "They're like... Lights, but not." She had seen the cave lights up in the tunnel before them, but the aura here was different. Pretty.

@Cygnus

Cygnus cooed as he looked up, craning his neck, ”Don't know. They're pretty.”

He cocked his head and hummed, ”They're like... they're like hills, but light-hills, in the sky.”

A better example would be a blanket of light, but seeing as neither of them knew what a blanket was, it was a metaphor that would have fallen flat.

”Feels like home,” he said softly, at his very best in the cold and the chill.

A small wisp popped up, mimicking the colors of the aurora above, the same color of Cygnus' magic. It glowed like his eyes, like the lights above, and he had it fly up, comparing the wisp to it.

”I wonder if these are part of those lights,” he mused.

@Cerilaine

Ceri nodded. "They are. This place is pretty." She trudged forward somewhat, curling her head back to stare at Cygnus, watching.

"Light-hills works." And she looked back to them. Were they tangible? "They're above those hills, too," she spoke, pointing her muzzle to the mountain peaks. "It's like they touch there. So, maybe not hills? Light..." She hummed, lost for what to call them. "Light-river. Like they're pouring up from the big hills." Her paw came up to trace the largest one, imagining stepping foot on top of it.

She came to look back at Cygnus again as he spoke. What has he said? The words came muffled, that time, but he seemed happy- one ear flicked and she glanced away. Hm. Hope this won't have repercussions for later.

When a faint color cast upon the white snow lit up, she returned to watching her companion, eyes training the magic he'd brought forth. "Maybe," she rumbled back, reaching up to it. They were similar. "Perhaps there's a bigger being around, making all of those that make up the light-river. Or- how big do you think you can make that one? ... Can you control it?" She stepped behind it to follow its movements, watching like a stalking cat, tail-tip twitching as she struggled to figure it out. She couldn't make one, she was pretty sure- even when she supposedly dredged into whatever held magic, trying to conjure up a flame like Cygnus's.

Not that she'd say she was jealous, of course.

@Cygnus

”Light-river,” Cygnus repeated, and smiled again, ”I like that. It's pretty.”

He turned his head to listen to Cerilaine, and then up at his wisp, watching it flit back and forth with his emotions.

”Maybe!”, he said, ”Let me try...”

He, unfortunately, only had the one spell. It was useful in that it provided company and light, but aside from that? There wasn't much else about it.

Cygnus strained a bit, the wisp slowly increasing in size, maybe a few inches in diameter now, instead of a small, floating bug-like thing. It was slower as it moved, as if the size of it made it sluggish.

”Huh,” he said, ”Cool!! Look, it really did grow!”

@Cerilaine

Cerilaine let out a calm, delighted chuff, her head shaking minutely as she gently stamped on the snow. "Light-river, then." She stared for another moment before, then leaned her head to Cygnus, watching him strain- and the wisp take on a stronger form.

Her eyes went wide. "Fascinating," she muttered under her breath, curling about to step closer. "It's neat."

She paused, and her eyes flicked to the side. "I want to try," she decided, her hackles raising as she focused. She hadn't cast anything before. Where should she start? Reaching into her core, first, she shut her eyes as her tail flicked, ears pinning forward as her face tightened.

The wisp flared to life, slowly, as if it were water dripping from the tap. One eye creaked open- had it worked?- it had, and she straightened up, a proud smile on her face. "I can do magic, too," it seemed. Her head tracked the wisp as it flowed aimlessly through the air. "I did it." Her voice was soft and near reverent, the wisp itself floating up to encircle Cygnus's sluggish one.

She paused. Her face grew serious for a brief moment, before she blurted, "How many of these do you think you could have? Enough to fill a light-river, maybe?" She blinked, reaching forward, batting at the wisp after she spoke. Perhaps they weren't limited to this place- her paw had passed through it like it was nothing, and she reeled back, inspecting it.

What were they?

@Cygnus

Cygnus smiled gently and watched the two wisps float around each other, ”Don't know. We could try?”

He bumped her shoulder with his nose gently, as if to say 'congrats' without actually saying it. Words were coming faster but he wasn't articulate just yet.

”Let's make many! Let's make light river... two!”, he said, tail wiggling.

He strained to make another one, a light forming and appearing before going out. He blew a raspberry and looked at the other one, head flopped to one side.

”Didn't work,” he said, disappointed.

He'd yet to get to that point in development in which he could identify failure and accept it. Or even comprehend it.

@Cerilaine

"It might take a lot of magic," Cerilaine gently thought out loud, but she slowly grinned. "Let's try it."

Sitting back, Cerilaine focused on her end of magic, straining to bring another wisp to life. Her paws came up as if she were visualizing it, and her mouth went askew, face contorted in focus.

She let out a loud breath that she didn't realize she was holding, gasping. She had felt the magic spark on her end, too, but there was nothing. An upset rumble rose from her, but she shook her head- if they both failed to make another one, then that must mean that they could only make the one they had bigger.

"I don't think it'll work." They both had tried and failed, after all, so it'd be unlikely that a third try would bring about a new wisp. "Not a problem! Now we know we can't make more. It must be-" she paused, calculating- "... maybe a lot of people who made the light-river, then."

Her paw tapped at her jaw as she thought to herself, ears flat. How many people were there in existence? "I wonder if I could even.." She turned to her own wisp as it continued to bob around Cygnus's.

"Hey! Little guy, can you go up there?" One paw reached up to the light-river, but it hadn't moved, barely acknowledging her to float around her head instead. "No, up." Still didn't listen.

She huffed, grumpily dropping her paws into the snow before laughing at her own seriousness. "My guy's stubborn."

She liked them, though.

@Cygnus

Cygnus nodded solemnly, ”It will. Wisps go away after a while even if I'm focusing, so I don't think it will last long. At least we'll remember we did it, right?”

He watched her try and cast the spell, and then try and send the wisp upwards into the sky. He laughed gently as she called it stubborn, and focused on trying to make another.

A wisp finally popped into existence and he grinned, pointing at it with his nose, ”Did it!!”

He tried to direct them upwards, and managed to get them up a few feet before they hovered there, not going any further.

”Hm. I can't make them go up,” he huffed, ”All of them are stubborn. But pretty!”

He smiled gently at Cerilaine, still hopeful for her, ”Try again!”

@Cerilaine