Wilder bounced through Canis, giggling and laughing and thoroughly excited. She'd hunted for gemstones before, with Squick, but this would be different now! She had a good spell that she'd figured out that would make the whole process a whole lot easier! Plus, if she found any that weren't strong enough for the merchant, or ones that she wanted to keep herself, well, she could give life to them! Or give them to friends as gifts! Yes, a great present for a birthday or for a holiday - a gem from a long-deceased gembound.

She found a nice, big pile of stuff, bones and rocks and, hopefully, gems as well! Without hesitation, she dived right in and began pulling out things - bones and rocks and, finally, a gemstone! Immediately, she cast her magic into the stone and felt a glimmer of something within. It was strong - not, like, really strong, but there was definitely something there and it might be enough to please the Merchant!

Wilder quickly cleared out a spot to set her gemstones in, laying the first one down before diving back forward and searching some more. She dug through the large pile of bones until her claws snagged on something harder then bone. She pulled out a second gemstone and smiled, casting her magic into it to try and find the presence of life. She could feel something in there, but it was much weaker then the first one she had found. The Merchant wouldn't like this one, probably, so Wilder cleared out another spot and set it in, separate from the first. One pile for strong gems, one pile for weaker ones. Perfect!

After a little while of digging through the bones some more, Wilder found herself not coming up with any more gemstones. It was time to move to a different area, then. She trotted over to the other side and figured she might as well do what she had done last time - go to the top and tear it down piece by piece.

She clambered up to the top of the pile of bones and didn't hesitate - tossing bones and bits of rock away, keeping her eyes peeled for anything that looked out of place. Eventually she pulled something else out of the pile. It looked like a gemstone, but when she cast her magic into its depths, she found nothing. Lifeless. Shrugging, she tossed it away with everything else she had found.

After a while, Wilder managed to pull a fairly large bone out of the pile, which had a gem perfectly embedded in its side. Surely there would be life within this one! Eagerly, he cat stretched out a paw to touch it and sense for magic, but a spark danced between her paw and the gem, which immediately changed to a full on strike as they connected. A bolt of magic raced through her body and she squealed, tossing the bone away as she shrunk away from the pain.

Her eyes were wide and she breathed heavily from the shock. Some of her fur was standing on end, but she quickly smoothed it down as she shook herself out. Backfired magic was something she'd grown used to by now. It was just a consequence of using spells so often.

Wilder took a few moments to breath and steady herself. Using so much magic is such a short amount of time would surely lead to more backfires like that one. She rested for a few minutes before taking a deep breath and standing once again, beginning her dig through the bones.

Again, the next gem she found was stuck inside of a bone. Her brows furrowed as she stared down at it, hesitant to reach forward again, but she got herself to do it. Her paw touching the stone didn't cause a magic backfire this time and, instead, she got a good reading from the stone, feeling the thrum of life within - strong and sturdy. Another worthy addition for the Merchant.

The pit where she was storing the 'good' gems was below. She lifted the bone and carefully tossed it down so that it tumbled in without disturbing the other one too bad.

Bones and rocks were beginning to fly around now as she dug into the pit with an eager haste. She would bring back the most stones! The most powerful ones! The next one to come up, she didn't hesitate this time, casting her magic into it and finding another strong life within. She smiled and tossed it down to rest with the others. She hoped she'd find a really, really strong one soon! The Merchant was going to be so happy!

She was getting to the bottom of this bone pile now - it was mostly scattered around her instead of in a large heap. As she tossed more bones and rocks, she pulled out another gemstone that, upon flicking her magic into it, she found had a strong life force as well. She smiled and purred. Even though she wasn't going to be reviving most of these, she was growing fond of them. They would be good gifts to start the trial!

Wilder glanced down at her pile of strong gemstones. It was starting to get pretty large! That was good, very good! Once she got a very, very strong stone now, she'd head back. She wanted to be worthy of the trials that the Merchant had told them about. She wasn't really sure how searching for gemstones made her worthy or not, but if it would prove to someone that she was worth it, that she was good, then she would do it! Absolutely!

Another gemstone revealed itself to her and she quickly pulled it out, searching for its life as she took it from the pile. Strong life, again. Into the pile it went. How was she going to carry all of these gemstones? Perhaps she should go and find something to carry it in and use magic to float it in. Or...she had seen gembounds with bags and such wandering around. Perhaps she should find one for herself.

She'd finished going through this particular bone pile but now she had the dilemma of how she was going to carry all five of her gemstones back to the merchant. She didn't have hands and her mouth wasn't big enough to carry them all in her jaws. And she wasn't going to swallow any of them either. That was a bad idea.

She trotted over to the two piles (more like 1 pile and 1 gem) and eyed them carefully. She didn't want anyone taking them while she was away trying to find the answer to her problem so she carefully began to pile bones and rocks on top of the gemstones, covering them so that they didn't look out of the ordinary, but she carefully scratched around the rock she placed on top so she would be able to find her way back.

She turned and trotted away deeper into Canis, keeping her eyes peeled for anything that might help her.

She took her time sniffing through areas of interest (which were few and far betwen) until, finally, she came upon an interesting sight. The carcass before her was relatively new, although still probably a number of generations old. Around its body was a satchel made of a leather-like material. It was old and a little moldy, but it was the right size for her, miraculously.

Carefully, trying to be as respectful as possible, Wilder pried the purse off of the bones, cringing a little at how dirty it was. If she was going to wear this, then she really needed to clean it first. Disgusting.

At last, the satchel came free. It was old and dusty, but definitely still in usable condition. She just needed to clean off the dirt and mold that covered its surface.