Tamulus's hut was warm, his arms were gentle, and the blanket pulled over her was heavy and soft. His touch was delicate as he moved her head up to inspect the wound and Wilder let him, still trembling but slowly calming under his care. Everything around her spoke of comfort and safety - so unlike the cold gray cave she'd been in only moments before. It was a serious emotional whiplash, and Wilder was still struggling to understand everything that was happening to her, so she simply sat there and sniffled as her sobs died away, listening to the answers to some of the questions that had been burning since she'd first arrived. A soft purr had started up in her chest as she soaked into Tamulus's comfort, but it quickly died away as her brain went into overdrive.

After he'd finished answering, she was quiet. Shocked. Confused. It was like her entire world had been split open. No, it literally had. The word "surface" hadn't even been in her vocabulary before, not like this at least. She didn't even realize that there was a surface. For her, the world had been only caves. Nothing else beyond those walls of stone. She wasn't there anymore. She had left the caves behind completely. Nothing could have prepared her for that and she was shocked into silence.

She suddenly felt even more alone then before. Everything she'd ever known was behind her. Far away. How far, she didn't know. Deep, deep beneath the ground, apparently, too far to reach by anything but magic. More and more questions were starting to pop into her head and she desperately wanted to ask all of them, but there was so much happening in her head that they were shut and silenced quickly, trying to focus on what she did know and what Tamulus was asking of her.

"He called me..."wilder then the Vaa". Like it's bad. But he was bad." She shook her head, as if it would help her stop hearing his words. "He was...like you, on two legs. But no wings. His head looked like a wolf but I don't think it was real. It didn't move when he talked. He had claws that were cold like rocks and a big cape - like the Collector. He said...his name was Tunglith Verin. He was looking for some "Phoenix Knight" but...what does that mean? Who is that?" She sniffed again, turning her wide violet eyes towards Tamulus. "Why did he think I knew? I didn't do anything - I was just...I was in Pegasus and then I was here and he was yelling at me. Who is he?"

She shook her head again, raising a paw to rub against her forehead. "This is...a lot. I didn't know there even was a surface, but here I am. Is that why my magic didn't work before? And why he's never seen something like me? He called me horrible. And foul." She ended sadly, as if some part of her had, incredibly, believed what he'd said.

She'd honestly barely even noticed the pain in her cheek anymore, besides the distressed ringing in her head at having someone so close to having severed her ties to magic completely, but when Tamulus turned her head to inspect the wound, she realized that she couldn't feel it anymore. Had he been healing it the whole time? She'd been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she barely paid attention to it.

His words were more comforting then they should have been. As if some deep part of Wilder had convinced herself that this had been done on purpose, that someone had pulled her out in response to what she'd done or who she was. That it was something personal. But it was all just bad luck (although she seemed to attract bad luck like a magnet). She finally allowed herself to completely relax, the rest of the tension leaving her body and melting into the blanket. Tamulus stroking her head felt...really really nice. Nobody had ever touched her like that and she found herself leaning into it, purrs starting up again in her chest. She wanted to stay here forever, in his warmth, under his gentle touch. He was someone that didn't hate her or judge her or use her for their own gain. He was someone that simply cared. It was nice, being cared about again.

It was Wilder's turn to listen again, and she shuddered as she wondered what had given him such a fierce reputation. She had said before that it must be lonely for him...but now she wondered if he deserved it. "Why do they call him that? The Black Wolf?" If he wasn't a wolf, then why the helmet? Why the title? She didn't quite understand why someone who apparently hated creatures like her would fashion themselves after one.

At one point, she perked up a bit. "Like us? Wait...are there others out there? I mean, gembound? Out in the Vaa?" She'd assumed, after seeing Tunglith Verin react so ferociously to her and the shape that he, the witches, and Tamulus took, that she was the only gembound to be found up on the surface. Were they everywhere? Had they come up from the caves, or had the ones from the Vaa come down? She shook her head as his question, however. "No, I don't think so. I mean...I'm sure that there's a kind of magic that lets you control corpses. Not that I've ever considered using it." She shivered at the thought. She hoped that nobody would follow through with that idea.

Her eyes followed Tamulus to the wisp as she was quiet for a moment as she watched it flicker. "A well...do you mean like the Spire? Are you like the Spire?" The question fell out of her mouth, but then she realized how foolish it sounded - of course he wasn't like the Spire. He was a living, breathing creature and the Spire...wasn't, as far as she was aware. It was energy and magic and crystal and whispers wreathed around it, but not from it. She'd never fully understood, but every attempt to look further into it had always ended badly for her. (Not the time to think about that, Wilder.)

"Dying?" An ear twitched. "Why? What's happening to it?" She remembered, again, Tungilith, and how he'd spoken of the witches as if they were vile, horrible things. He must not have access to magic, as they did. And he'd never met a gembound before either. Concern etched across her face. "Is it going to leave the caves too?"

She thought for a moment, trying to remember the last wolf she'd met. Sure, she could see how they could be intimidating. But she was confused, if the man had been so surprised by her speaking, then he must not have met another before. Were there wolves up here that were like Lesser Gembound? Odd. She'd really never met one herself in the caves, only rabbits and mice, and a few violent beasts.

She tilted her head, catching the name she didn't recognize. "Jupiter? Who is that?" Now that she was properly calming down little by little, curiosity begged her to keep asking and asking and asking questions. This was a huge discovery! The caves weren't the whole world, only within the earth of another world! Like an egg that would never hatch. She wanted to know more about Let. About the Vaa and Tamulus and the witches and that horrible man, however much she feared him.

She tried to follow along with Tamulus's comparison, imagining the spire as the ocean in Fornax, Tamulus as the lagoon in Pisces, and herself a little puddle somewhere else. She nodded, a little hesitantly. "I...guess. It kinda makes sense. I couldn't use magic because a puddle will dry up on its own." She shivered. Did that also mean she couldn't stay out here for long without being near Tamulus? She had certainly felt very strange in the room with the Black Wolf, like she could never get a full breath of air.

A bit of relief passed across her mind. Magic wouldn't leave. She would never have to be as helpless as she had been before the Black Wolf if she was in the caves. Her tail twitched as she thought for a moment more. "But if its going away, cant you just take more and put it back?" She noticed his eyes drifting and her ears curved back a bit, wondering if it was a sensitive subject for him. Perhaps he hadn't seen Jupiter in a while.

At the mention of going home, she perked up and nodded. "Y-yeah, much. Thank you. But um...can I ask something? Before I go home can I just...see outside? I didn't really get a good look at it but if there's no cave walls or ceiling...well I mean I'll never get the chance to see it again, I think."

She wiggled a bit in Tamulus's lap, excitment finally returning. Now that she felt wholly better and a little more clear-minded, she found herself starving with curiosity for what things looked like out there. She wanted a good look at what the ceiling looked like if there was even a ceiling at all. And what was a world with no walls, no tunnels and caverns? What did the grass look like and taste like, what about the air? She hadn't gotten a good look before and before she went back, she wanted to see it, just once.

She was still as Tamulus carried her out, still enjoying the warmth and security of being held by him, but as soon as they stepped outside and she looked up, she could barely feel anything anymore. Breath swept from her lungs. Eyes widened with first fear, confusion, and then pure wonder. There was no ceiling at all. Or maybe that was a ceiling, high up and blue like that, but then what were those white things? She had nothing to compare it too but puffy fur that was simply drifting in the air, but if that were the case the creature must be huge! And the world...it stretched and stretched forever, crags of familiar stone in less familiar shapes, stretching up towards the puffy white all the way up there and then beyond, something even more gigantic, just hanging there, unmoving. She stared at it for a moment before tilting her ears towards it. "What is that? Up there?" She wondered how far away it was. Higher then the ceiling in Leo? In Fornax or Ursa? It didn't seem possible, but so many things were breaking her definition of what could or couldn't be.

At his question, she let out a small "I'll walk, please!" The instant she was set down she felt a small chill from the absence of Tamulus's warmth, but she brushed it off, becoming enamored by everything around her, sniffing the foreign grasses and plants along their path, trotting after Tamulus while sticking her nose in every bush and tasting every scent she could. The berries she quickly tasted and decided that they were sweet, similar to ones she'd found in Pegasus once. She pulled herself away from the constant exploration to listen to Tamulus talk. "I didn't see outside but...the people that I saw didn't seem very happy. Are they scared of magic?" She'd known gembound scared of magic and she could imagine what fear could do to someone. Twist it into hate and further and further. She was understanding the 'Black Wolf' a little bit more.

Her ears lifted a bit at the mention of the Spire. "Oh...I didn't know it was quite that powerful. I didn't know-" Skystone? She'd seen creatures of Oilstone before, of course, but never of Skystone. Where they opposites? Or similar? She had so many questions, but she didn't think there was enough time to ask them all. She'd have to pick a few.

She was quite for a while, letting Tamulus have a moment to himself after his speech, sitting down beside him and just looking around at the world. It was beautiful, unlike anything she'd ever seen. She couldn't keep herself from looking up. She wanted the memory of this place seared into her brain forever. She never wanted to forget.

At last, Tamulus turned to ask her and she looked up at him, ears pulled back. "I don't know...I'm sorry, I wish I could bring you news of Jupiter but I don't know who that is. Although...you said she's out there somewhere?" Her ears pointed to the stretching blue, and she wondered what Tamulus meant by that. Did she have a twin? Did her gemstone go somewhere else? "When I go home, though, I can ask around, although I don't know how I'd ever contact you all the way up here." It was a sad thought and realization, that she'd never come here again, most likely never speak to Tamulus again. She sighed softly, tail moving around to curl over her paws. "It's wonderful up here. It's so open and...free. I never realized how much the caves feel like a cage. A large cage, maybe, but now that I'm up here I don't know I'll ever be the same." At his other question, she took a breath in. "Uh...a little. It doesn't feel bad, just...different. It feels thin, like I can't get a full breath."

She was silent for another moment before the burning question pulled her to speak again. "You were talking about the Spire earlier. I assume you know a lot about it, or at least more then me. When I hatched I tumbled right into it and it did something to me. I kept hearing this voice say things like "Death is a lie" and "The pain is eternal" and I'd go blank sometimes and crave more magic. It hasn't happened recently, I can fight it back, but...do you know anything about that? What that means or what that was? Is the Spire...alive?"