ᚹᛖᛚᚲᛟᛗᛖ

When her turn was up, Wilder stepped carefully out before the crowd. She'd done this before, a couple times. When she was a child and when she was...hm. The last time had not been her favorite experience. But the memories didn't sting now, in the ways that they had before, and when she cast her eyes to the judge's stand, she didn't fear that she would see Aure and Pride sitting there, like they had last time, only curious to see who was watching. The Overseer (ah, of course) sat and a few others seemed to turn a critical eye down, but she recognized no others.

It wouldn't have affected what she was going to do, either way. Her mind was somewhere else, rather then on who was watching her, who was judging. She had come up with this idea some days ago and had practiced and (hopefully) perfected it. It felt fitting, doing it in front of the Spire, and even a little strange with an Overseer's eye watching her from above. She wondered how it would be received, by those who already knew.

Time to begin.

"I am Wilder," she began, tail raised in greeting. "And I am going to tell you a story, a story that lives in all our histories, although few know its origins." She paused a moment and looked around, beginning a short pace, so that she spoke not just to the judge, but to all who were watching. "These caves are old, as I'm sure many of you know. Its history is that of blood, and war, these empty tunnels once rang with the screams and cries of beasts raised for battle. Monsters, bred and raised to fight, kill, and destroy. Chaos." As she spoke, she began threading magic into her words and lifting from where she paced came the sound of war - screams of monsters, clashing, bodies heavily throwing themselves against each other, roars of pain and fury...it was the sounds she had heard in Canis many cycles ago, and those she'd seen in visions of the old days. The cries of war, the roaring of valkhounds. "And then," she continued through the cacophony she raised, "Rebellion. Death." The roars changed their tenor, to something more angry, raising in volume for a moment, and then... "And then...silence." She cut off the magicka and the space went silent, distant echoes of her mimicry still bouncing around for a moment, before they, too, disappeared.

She let the silence hang for a moment, before continuing her story. "For a long time, there was nothing." Her voice was a little quieter now, softer, in the aftermath of the screams she had raised moments before. "For millennia, these caves were quiet, sleeping. There was nothing but the lingering, fading bloodstains, and the bad memories imprinted on the rocks. A history of violence that may never be scrubbed clean." She took a deep breath, as if to sigh, something mournful as she paused dramatically.

And then she turned with a sweep of her tail, and something light began to sparkled in the air. "But then..." As she turned on the spot, something appeared next to her. A ball of pale blue light that began to unfold and rise. A four-legged creature, with another four arms upon a risen torso. It was a silhouette, its features weren't clear, but it was obviously a centaur.

"Nature turned its eyes upon this forgotten nest." Her voice had risen again, from the quiet, mournful tone to something more hopeful and confident. "It saw our caves, empty, dark, nothing, and it saw hope and potential." As she spoke, the silhouette of Utzotl cantered slowly around her, as if thoughtful, occasionally making gentle motions with its arms, as if painting or running its hand through gently flowing water. There wasn't much of a face to it, as Wilder had never seen their image, but there was something so gentle in its movements.

"Nature itself could do little on its own, so it turned to Wisdom." The silhouette raised an arm suddenly and in the air above it, a pink and gold nebula swirled into existence and, from it, an owl rose. The two images began to step around each other, as if in a gentle dance, with Wilder off to the side, herself walking slowly around them. "With Natural Order creating the foundation, Wisdom - Autonomy - painted her life upon the canvas offered to her."

With the two figures of Utzotl and Hume stepping (and flying) around each other, Wilder's intent was to form a Spire between them, and many small crystalline animals from the ground beneath. But the magic began to slip and fail and she quickly veered herself in a different direction before she lost a handle on the cast she already had going. Her heart momentarily skipped a beat but she stayed on track.

"With wisdom at its side, that which it created was created with thought, feeling, and magic. Nature created the form, wisdom created the wonder."

She had the two turn and face the Spire not far from them, raising arms and wings before the crackling Skystone as she wrapped up her story, as if to raise it from the ground. "Together, they filled these caves with their miracles. Not for war, not for peace, but for the pure euphoria of being."

As she finished speaking, the two figures began to dissipate as the spell ended. Wilder quickly shifted it to that they disappeared into small orbs and stars, of prismatic blue and glittering pink. She was left alone before the crowd to finish her speech.

"They created us, the gembound, and gave us the gift of life without a tether, the freedom to forge our own paths. While they are not here to guide us, we do not need a leash - we are free, because they made us that way. We deserve to live." Hume's own words echoed in the last notes and she took a breath as her show wrapped up. She gave a small bow to the judges and nods to all the audience watching. "Thank you for listening!"

She was disappointed that the end hadn't quite gone the way she wanted, but things very rarely did. It was enough for her, that she had said what she could. She turned and stepped out of the spotlight, hoping that she hadn't crossed a line with that one.