ORIGIN

It was like sleeping in a tight little box. Every little shift of the body would mean contact with a wall of some kind, a slap against stone or a jarring stab against the rough interior. She didn't know what walls were (or boxes, or claustophobia), but the life inside the crystal was already growing irritated by both things. She kicked and rocked her hips, wiggled her shoulders, pawed at the various inpenetrable obstacles with claws she didn't know were there, and as the hours passed the creature grew more frantic. Unlike the shell a few feet away which housed her soon-to-be sister, the shining yellow of her own chrysalis was opaque; anyone curious enough to try and peer inside would not be so lucky. The exterior was smooth and yellow, like gold, and the glow cast off by luminous crystals made a band of light evident down the center.

As soon as the clear shell of the other gembound began to crack, it was as if that tiny splintering noise was a gunshot at the beginning of a race. The creature inside shuffled and clawed, raking at the interior with those tiny paws with more ferocity than was neccessary - especially since the gembound was still asleep - but as the first shell began to deteriorate, so did her own. Flakes of gold seemed to peel away internally, while a gradual splitting of the exterior surface allowed the cold cave air inside. As soon as it touched the gembound's skin, her eyes flew open - hardly cognizant, but open. Light caught in her eyes for a moment, a bright and clear light unlike the dull glow of resident crystals; her pupils became pinpricks at the center of her iris, but then the light began to dim.

When it was gone, all that was left was the darkness. The darkness and the alienating sound of movement nearby. She did not know that there was another chrysalis - she didn't know that the light had been emanating from her sister's shell quite yet, only that her own prison was suddenly far too small for her. Too small and too tight. The crack which had formed down the center was only wide enough for the girl to snake one of her paws out, so she punched one of her thin limbs through the crack and probed with her claws, her toes wiggling and reaching, but all she could touch was dirt.

She wasn't interested in peering over the edge again until she heard some other noises. She stiffened and listened closely, turning her fresh ears every so lightly this way and that. "What is that?" her conscious asked, cautious of everything that was new in her world. Curiosity got the better of her and she inched ever so barely forward, peeking with one eye over the edge of her chrysalis. There, just a short distant from her, a golden chrysalis sat—"WHAT?" her mind screamed as an arm broke through the shell. Her ears pinned flat as she watched the orange, thin limb grasp around its empty surrounding, smacking around on the dirt.

Oh! Was it stuck? Was it something like her? She was stuck too! What should she do? Her little body wriggled as she contemplated moving closer to the opening of her chrysalis so that she could pop her head out, but she still refused to look down at the drop again. Without knowing what else to do, she decided to call out to the other stuck creature. "Eeyah!" She cried, but couldn't exactly form a word. "Haah uhh," now she was getting nervous. With a gulp, she threw her big paws over the side of the opening and craned her neck juuust barely out of the chrysalis. A small groan escaped her as she squinted her eyes to look down again. "Nooo," she whined softly, looking back to the paw grasping around.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that far down? She didn't know why 'no' came to her, but it was all she could think of when trying to judge the distance. Her depth perception hadn't quite kicked in yet to full force, so it was a gamble for sure. Something compelled her to move; she couldn't leave the other one stuck there when she could clearly get out of her chrysalis at least. That one was stuck! Her claws scraped against the raw diamond that had housed her as her paws clenched. Oh boy, she really didn't want to try that jump! Without dwelling on the thought any longer, she pulled herself over the edge of her diamond womb and went falling toward the ground.

She not-so-gracefully did some sort of flip in the air and her little legs spread out under her with her tail arched high over her back. To her great surprise, she landed on all four of her feet! It took her a moment to register she was on the ground but as soon as she did, the little snow leopard hunkered down as flat as she could. Her eyes flicked from the gold-colored chrysalis with a single arm to the ground right in front of her. How was she... gonna make it over there? Was it safe? "Ooookaayy,"" she said quietly to herself, lifting one paw as slowly as she could, almost as if it weight three tons. When it made contact with the ground again, she continued this motion, slinking along the ground nearly as flat as a pancake. It took her a few moments to finally reach her soon-to-be-met-sister, but she did it eventually!

"Okay!!!" she said loudly than before, popping up from her crouched position like a coiled spring. Now, how was she gonna get the other one out? She peered through the crack over the extended arm. "Aah! Okay!" she repeated, greeting the face on the other side with a wide grin. It was like her! Wow! But... orange...