ORIGIN

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Two chrysalises lay at the bottom of the tunnel. One was smaller, a bubbly-looking dull reddish Fire Agate that had formed off-center at the well-shaped hole. The other was larger, a glistening Rose Quartz dusted by the falls of powder snow that had come and gone over the weeks after the assault.

The tunnel above was six feet wide, and its mouth mostly--if lightly--sealed over by ice and snow. Only dim light sifted down through the thinner layers and few gaps that had formed in the past few days.

Other tunnels ran in three more horizontal directions. All were about six feet in diameter. One--running east to west--was formed of what looked like chipped-away ice moulded into a relatively seamless shape. This tunnel smelled dry, dead, like old bones--and cold. A strange creature, not unlike a deer, was frozen in place: reared back with wide eyes, with glassy white with terror in its face in a horrific sort of statue. This statue faced east.

The other tunnel seemed to be an extension of the hole above: smooth-sided, torn by rotating, gnawing teeth. This one swept down into the north, at a steady decline but easily traversible.

Whichever of the Gembound awoke first, or both if they awoke together, would be met with a new guest, of sorts. This was a strange, glassy, insectoid creature, some seven feet long. It waited at the eastern side of the death-smelling tunnel, and the moment the Gembound hatched, it would wave them over with spindly limbs--and then set off east down the tunnel.

They would be faced with a choice: to follow, ignore or fight the Cleaner, and to choose a path to try and escape the tunnels as a whole.

@Wyvern @Giggle

It was so comfortable in her chrysalis.

Dark. Silent. Peaceful. No overwhelming sensation, no spikes of pain driving through her abdomen, no bruises or broken bones. She did not have to open her eyes, or do anything, really. No responsibilities awaited her while she was inside. She could just stay and sleep forever...

Wyvern tried to turn, shifting to sleep on her other side. Instead, the gem around her cracked and spat her out.

Well.

Reluctantly, Wyvern opened her eyes. It was still dark, and cold--though she did not mind that. There was a moment of bewilderment as she tried to remember, and her sleepy eyes struggled to focus and take it all in. Then it all came rushing back: the hyena's chrysalis beside her, the tunnel carved by the ice worm, the search for Bone, and how disastrously and prematurely it had all ended. And--oh, no. The deer. The deer! Was it Pride, or Tahi-shei? Had one of them attempted a rescue, and been frozen like this? Had Giggle managed to chrysalize, and escape the same fate?

Footsteps. Wyvern's attention snapped to the Cleaner setting off down the tunnel. Not aggressive--but not speaking, either. She glanced back and forth uncertainly. Was it safe...? And the deer... what happened to it? A closer look revealed that it was neither Pride nor Tahi-shei, thank goodness, but it had nonetheless died horribly.

It faced east, the direction the Cleaner was traveling in. The exit? Wyvern wondered. But Giggle was still in her chrysalis, and she did not know the Cleaner. A flash of inspiration, and magic: particles coalesced into a second Wyvern, which she sent trailing after the Cleaner. The real Wyvern waited beside Giggle, hoping desperately that she would wake soon.

@Giggle

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

strong language

Giggle's stone cracked and split apart, spilling her onto the cold floor, moments later--while the Drift-double was off doing... whatever it would do.

"Fuck," she spat, coming upright, shaking herself. She was wet, wobbly, forcing soaked eyelids open like she was a newborn (but particularly foulmouthed) cub, again.

She couldn't remember ever having returned to her chrysalis before, although she knew it happened.

She also couldn't remember exactly what the fuck had happened. It came back only slowly, as she stood there in the cold near-dark, looking around with bleary eyes. They happened upon Wyvern, and she remembered her--and then sort-of recalled... falling.

"Oh, fuck," she breathed, looking around herself.

She didn't remember these icy tunnels--mostly because she hadn't got a good look at them before, well. Almost dying. But she knew that she hated the fucking dark, hated it, and wanted some bones-damned light.

She grunted, focused on drawing forth a wisp, and found to her relief that her magic still worked. It hissed into being and then bobbed there quietly, a phosphorescent blue-green light that served the very unfortunate side effect of throwing the horrific alien-deer statue into stark relief. "Fuck!" she exclaimed, and flinched, scrambling back a couple steps.

But Wyvern--what was she doing here; was she all right? She wondered, for a beat, if Wyvern had been guarding her chrysalis all the time--but then saw the shattered remains of the dragon-bird's own.

"Hey," Giggle offered, her coarse voice kept carefully hushed. She hadn't seen the Cleaner wander off. "Head's a bit fuzzy--did I catch your name? Giggle, if--I didn't introduce-... anyway, are you okay? -Do you know where we are?" she added, padding up hesitantly alongside the near-stranger.

It occurred to her, in retrospect, that she should've checked Wyvern at once for spores--but the chrysalis seemed freshly-hatched, so... no harm there, she hoped.

MOTHER-SISTER?! came the sudden, blaring sense of excited recognition in her mind. Well, it wasn't words, exactly: but the concepts that Omen--her familiar--was suddenly broadcasting at her.

Giggle flinched, and set herself to mentally reassuring her familiar that yes; she was alive, and yes; she would come home.

Just as soon as she figured out where the hell she was, and how to get out of here. Hopefully, the dragon-hybrid had something to offer, there, because Giggle was lost as shit.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

The Cleaner seemed unaware that the creature following it was not the real Wyvern.

It contentedly made its way down the ice tunnel--farther from the light source of the dim break in the snow above, and farther into Ursa's earth.

This went on for several long minutes: the tunnel curving gradually downward, then upward. The Cleaner eventually passed a cross-ways tunnel, and on it went...

The tunnel is long enough that it may take quite some time to traverse. Wyvern may attempt to continue to cast Drift to follow, though this will leave her quite worn out; or she may choose to take another action.

@Wyvern

Luckily, she didn't have to wait long. The fire agate released Giggle only moments after the Cleaner and Wyvern's double had gone from view.

"Hi," she tried, only for the word to immediately be drowned out by Giggle's swearing. A wisp flashed into existence, and the hyena flinched. Maybe I should have moved that statue, Wyvern thought guiltily, but there hadn't really been much time. She took a few steps back, trying to give the hyena some space.

"Hi, she said again, when Giggle had had some time to calm down. "Uh- My name is Wyvern. I - I'm okay." She hadn't been, but the chrysalis had managed to fix all that. Had the ice worm gotten Giggle too--? It didn't seem polite to ask. "We're underground, I think. In the hole the worm that grabbed me made? There was a big ant here a minute ago. I think it was trying to lead us east, but it didn't... talk, or anything. ... Do you know if we should trust it?"

Her double went farther and farther, and Wyvern began to feel the effort of keeping the magic in place. "I sent a magic version of me to follow, and nothing's bad happened so far. But it seems to be a long way... I don't think it's come to an exit yet, either." Trickery? A trap? Or simply a long walk to freedom?

@Giggle

Rounded ears cupped toward the dragon-bird, the hyena's gaze tired but thoughtful--very much a mom woken abruptly out of sleep. Her first instinct was just to drone a confused "uhhh" for a moment after Wyvern finished, but she managed to gather herself enough to not do that.

"Good," she said hoarsely, and shook her coat more free of stone shards and wet. She glanced at the open stone behind her. "Never been in one of those before--not since I was a cub. Don't know about any giant ants," she said, and squinted. Giggs considered, then padded up alongside Wyvern, peering down the tunnel.

"Well, here's hoping my magic works. Lemme see."

She cast her mind out, the magicka flaring up easily enough. Well, that's a relief, she thought, the moment before her mind was drowned in images.

One: plunging through the dark, cold, exhausted. A monstrous giant-clawed beast descending on them--or were they separated, by now? Two: shivering, curled up, lost. The ice was bitter underneath her, and she knew she had been down here too long- Three: A glimpse of daylight beyond, freedom, relief, and the silhouette of a creature against it. Ant? she wondered, allowed, and tried to ignore Omen squalling at the back of her mind. She hastily reassured her again. I'll be home soon, daughter-sister, but you need to let me think.

"Right," the hyena stated, confident enough. "We have to follow the ant-thing. It'll get us out. Otherwise we get lost and die, if I'm interpreting this right. Magic," she explained, with a sidelong glance at Wyvern.

She started off down the tunnel, her wisp bobbing just ahead to provide some green-blue light. "Gives me visions of the future. I see us fucked, really, if we stay. I don't know what the ant thing is but it's heading out, if my sight's right. So may as well follow it," she added.

Then, more somber: "Do you think everyone else made it?" Tentative, she sent that question toward Omen: did the bird know if any of the other Gembound had returned from Ursa?

But the Hallowed Caller's answer was confused, uncertain silence.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Wyvern

Wyvern shivered despite herself. "All right," she said, with almost uncharacteristic haste—but she really, really didn't want to die trapped down here. "I guess we should get going, then."

She started eastward, already struggling to keep hold of her magic. It was a long way out of here... "I don't know," Wyvern admitted softly in response to Giggle's question. "I wasn't…awake very long. I really hope they're okay…" She faltered, clinging desperately at the spell slipping from her grasp. It fell away, despite her efforts.

"No," Wyvern gasped, halting abruptly. The link that had let her track her double dissolved, leaving her horrified. She glanced at Giggle, but dropped her gaze before she could meet the hyena's eyes. "I - the magic. The version of me that's following the ant. It's gone." A choked sob rose up with those last words. Suddenly, the cold and dark wasn't so comforting anymore. The icy walls seemed to loom above them, promising a slow and terrible doom.

"I - I'm so sorry." Wyvern closed her eyes, drawing in a breath that she tried to keep from sounding shaky. "It went… kept going east, I think… do you think you could use the future magic to see what we should do?" She cracked open her eyes, staring intensely at the ground and not at Giggle.

It should have been me. I should be guiding us with magic, not her. She's already gone through so much… what right do I have to fail and have to ask her to take this responsibility?

The pressure should have been on her. It had been on her, and she had failed horribly.

@Giggle

Giggle glanced at Wyvern, a little startled at the sudden No! and accompanying gasp. The rest, she'd been taking in with her typical cynical demeanor--trying not to be scared of the cold and dark, but half-asleep enough, still, to be managing. But the abrupt outburst jolted her a bit, and she felt her fur lift to stand on end. A faint dread washed through her. What now? she thought, worriedly, but Wyvern quickly explained.

"Shit," she muttered, and then--with a shrug--"I can try."

It struck her, though, that the seeing magic was hard. The fungus, though--most living things had at least a dusting. Maybe if she could-...

"Actually. I might have a better idea." Absently, she took two steps forward, her mind and magic (and ears) pressed ahead. Vision glimmered up, and she saw the faint outline of gray illuminated (so to speak) against the darkness. "...I can see it, but we have to hurry, because fuck knows where it actually is. Shit doesn't tell me which path to take, only where the thing is now, so hopefully we can just... use its direction," she explained--or tried to--as she lurched into a scurrying lope.

She did, though, spare a glance back at Wyvern: "Can you make it down these tunnels okay?"

The creature seemed quite large for their diameter; if they had to slow down, she'd need to think of another plan.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

Partway down the tunnel, the poor, oblivious Cleaner realized that its guest was no longer following it.

It paused. Turned back. It eyed the tunnel in blank confusion.

At length, it dutifully turned and started the trudge back the way it had come--back toward Wyvern--and clicked its mandibles loudly as it went. Surely they would find it, this way-?

The pair could find the Cleaner a few minutes down the tunnel; assuming they still chose to follow, it would eye them (two, now?) and simply turn back again, dutifully showing them the way out.

@Wyvern

Relief surged through her. Giggle unlike you knew what she was doing--her magic had found the ant-creature, somehow. "Thank you," she breathed, the images of all the horrible ways to die down here falling away from her mind. We can still make it out of here.

She scrambled after the hyena in an awkward gait, mostly two-legged and crouching but sometimes using her wings to help her along. It wasn't the best position for her back--it would probably hurt once they finally squeezed through an exit--but Wyvern was too grateful to worry about that now. "I'm okay," she reassured Giggle. She would endure any number of bumps and bruises and tight squeezes, as long as they had that light at the end of the literal tunnel to look forward to. Anything was better than dying, trapped, in the tunnel.

It was not long before they came across the ant-creature, again. It came back for us...! "Hello," Wyvern greeted, a bit breathlessly. "Thank you so much for coming back. For showing us the way out." It only seemed right to express her gratitude for the creature, even if she wasn't entirely sure it could understand her.

@Giggle

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Game Master Dark

Wyvern

Giggle

Game Master Dark

Wyvern

Giggle

Wyvern

Giggle

Game Master Dark

Wyvern