ORIGIN

Garnet-Delta didn't have time to try and turn invisible (and there was as much of a chance that it would simply give itself a rash or worse). It didn't have time to line its fangs with venom. It could lash out and attack, of course, but if the mouse was faster than it, it would simply crash into the stone headfirst like an idiot.

It needed something else.

The mouse came out of its hole, spotted Garnet-Delta staring at it, and-- seized. Delta's magic had done something, it felt its gem fire, but... what did it do? It... The mouse spasmed, falling to the ground, squealing out in pain.

It was a miserable sight. Was that how Delta had looked, earlier? A shutter ran down its spine, making its tail twitch.

Even Garnet-Delta only took so much pleasure in torture; it preferred quick kills, painful or not. This was unnecessarily cruel. The poor mouse tried to get away, pawing uselessly at the floor, but Garnet-Delta placed a paw upon it.

A cat could play with its prey, certainly, but not like this. Magic surged to its jaws, filling its teeth with venom to numb the poor thing. A single bite to the throat, and the poor creature fell still. Life faded from its eyes, and the cat sighed.

"There," now they both could be happy. Well, one was no longer suffering at least, and the other-- well, Delta got to eat.

Belly full, the feline had other things to consider now. Garnet-Delta rested comfortably by its freshly cleaned bones, eyes wandering Polaris idly. If its magic had changed or expanded, then... how? What new heights could it reach?

Maybe it would start with something simple. Sensing, via its magic. Could it find anything new...?

Its head ached, feeling a faint tingle. There was something there, perhaps, but nothing it could grasp. Maybe it needed to be more specific, more... Thoughtful, in its approach.

Garnet-Delta huffed. Alright. It would be methodological, then. It reached out with its animal magic, sensing the heartbeats of those alive inside of Polaris. It counted rats, and bats, and distant greaters doing whatever it was that they did. Nothing important, clearly.

From there, it thought about what it could do differently. What could it sense? There were gembound who could sense fungi, or magic itself (something about the idea of trying to sense magic, in a room overflowing with it, seemed unwise), perhaps other elements as well...?

What if, Garnet-Delta considered, it could find a way to differentiate between the lessers with stones and those without? Surely not every rat here in Polaris had a stone attached to it. The mouse it had just scarfed down had no stone to speak of.

It was worth a try. Garnet-Delta focused on the rats that scurried about in cracks and tunnels nearby, chattering away. Delta felt their hearts beating, some fast and some slow.

Suddenly, as it focused, its magic shifted what it was resonating on. It lost sight of the heartbeats of the rats, and instead found pinpricks among them. One rat, a stone buried in its shoulder. Another replacing its teeth, or buried in its hip.

Garnet-Delta froze, ears pricking. It felt the life force from them, the living nature of lesser gembounds. In the distance, it picked up a larger stone. A greater? Its whiskers twitched.

What could it do with this?

Garnet-Delta stopped staring out so far at the rest of the cave, turning its magic in closer to itself to examine more closely. It used its magic to examine its own body, its own gemstone embedded in its throat and the magic that it fed throughout its body.

Could it identify a Garnet, compared to another stone? Could it perhaps use this magic to find Orthoclase, or its fellow Garnet, or even the Oilstones of the Valkhounds? It wondered.

It wondered what a Diamond would feel like with this magic. In its mind's eye, it remembered the Puffin, and reached out, trying to find a diamond in the rough. There were none in Polaris presently, as far as it could tell. Nothing felt so... hard, so strong.

It didn't immediately know the names of the gemstones in the nearby rats, but it organized them into sensations, colors, hardness, of the magic that seemed to flow through them. It wanted to master this new magic; and with its ability to locate a gembound this way, along with its ability to sense the pulses of creatures... Yes, this would work. This would be useful. It would need practice to actually identify others by their stone: it couldn't quite tell a quartz apart from another quartz or anything; but it could memorize the traces of its fellow Forge members, next time it saw them.

Delta made a note to do so, when it had the time. Practice would make its work all the more honed for its task.

Garnet-Delta rose to its feet. Its magic honed in on a particular gemstone lesser-- a cave bat among a small group. Its crimson eyes searched upward, pinpointing the flying pitch rats above. These creatures were not too harmless, and so it considered what it would do next.

It would take things slow, of course. Magical venom dripped into its jaws as it crept along the shadows, watching the bat colony from afar. It seemed like right now they were resting, and it... in theory... shouldn't be too hard to get close.

For now, it observed the winged rats. It had spent a good amount of time among similar colonies. It listened with white-tipped ears to the quiet, distant chatter, and kept its attention focused on one near the edge. If it could get close without startling the whole group, it could probably get a bite on that one without fuss.

Would it work? Well. Even if it didn't, these creatures weren't aggressive and wouldn't be likely to attack back. They'd just flee.

Part two of the magic plan.

Flying Pitch Rats were smart enough to identify their own members, though they wouldn't necessarily spook at another bat-shaped creature coming close. Especially if that individual happened to be using magic to calm the lessers. Pheromones could be replicated as easily as changing one's pelt to black (unfortunately, eyes would still give it away) or mimicking venom, once you knew how to do it. Perhaps it was simply the Garnet's natural affinity to animal magic, the only good thing to come out of its life-giver.

Regardless, it had been a hot minute since Garnet-Delta had tried this particular magic, and once again, it seemed to fail. Emuh's trial had shaken it somehow, and that was enough to make a quiet growl in the back of its throat.

It wasn't going to try to approach without it. It could reach the ceiling a few paces away without spooking, but getting close enough to down a very specific bat among them?

Patience. Garnet-Delta lived and breathed patience. One of its greatest virtues, really. Maybe the only one, unless you counted its loyalty.

A deep breath. The magic inside the Garnet's gem stirred. This time, the faint musky smell of flying pitch rat came drifting off its pelt. Good enough to start with.

Garnet-Delta took to the air, sweeping up toward the bats. A couple of them startled, shuffling about and chattering amongst themselves. That was fair enough, given the sudden burst of movement, but once it reached a ledge where its wings and claws could hook into the ceiling and stay still for a few moments, the lesser bats slowly settled once more.

This next step is tricky. Of all of its spells, this one has bitten him back almost as bad as... well, better not to think of failure. It also has worked plenty of times.

Just because a bit of Emuh's magic has Garnet-Delta frazzled, doesn't mean that this time it will end up with another horrible rash. It won't lose its fur. Its not even going to feel an itch. Willing that into existence, no, DEMANDING it, Garnet-Delta settles into place and holds very still.

Its body shimmers at first, slipping into a dark shade of black, and then further, until it is completely unnoticeable. Not even a shadow cast from the cave lights on to the ceiling.

The next part, being quiet, is something that comes completely naturally to the feline. It creeps closer to the colony of bats, giving away no hint of its own scent or that of danger. The flying pitch rats actually calm as it approaches, with its magical pheromones.

Ohh, stupid lessers. They never had a chance, did they?