The larimar was rather unassuming, as far as chrysali went.

Oh, sure, it was a beautiful bright blue. That did make it stand out among the ivory bones surrounding it. But it was covered with a thin layer of dust, and it was not large enough to hold one of the towering monsters running around the caves, and it was tucked away in the shadow of several piles of bones. As if when the snake inside had fallen sleep cycles ago, it had not wanted to be out in the open.

How it had ended up in Canis in the first place was a question, but not one the snake would know the answer to. Or one she would think about much at all. When the gemstone around her cracked and crumbled, depositing her into the world outside once more, all she did was hold very still and take in her surroundings. She did not think to question where this was, or how she had gotten here. The stimuli of air on her scales and the shallow water of a puddle touching her belly were a bit overwhelming, but not really clashing with any set expectations of what her surroundings should be like.

Canis was still unnerving, even without the knowledge that she had watched someone die here or that she should have woken in a home that looked very different from this. Some remnant of memory flickered, and told her that this many bones lying around could not be a good thing. Bones meant death, after all. But then, she was unharmed, so maybe it wasn't that dangerous?

A movement caught her attention, and the snake nearly jumped before recognizing that it was only from some kind of fuzzy white caterpillar crawling along the bones. She proceeded to eat this caterpillar, which soothed the tugging feeling in her stomach. She'd thought it was nerves, but maybe some of it had been hunger.

Emboldened by this success and the desire to leave the unpleasant coolness of the stagnant water and shadows behind, the snake slithered out from her shelter, only to be greeted with more dusty rock and bone. Her bright colors--orange, turquoise, and a streak of brilliant shimmering Spire-blue--stood out glaringly against the ivory and brown. Pausing uncertainly, she lifted her head and flicked out her tongue. This place was so big, and she did not know where she should go.

Weren't there others here? Others who moved and were alive and had bright colors like her, who weren't simple caterpillars crawling on ancient skeletons? She couldn't be the only one.

The snake slithered further. "Hello," she tried. "Hello?"

A plain feline greeted her, the green-pink crystal jutting from her neck the only splash of color on her. Though the serpent was not smaller than the Pallas's cat when it came to length, she disliked having to look up at anyone, and she slithered up a larger pile of bones opposite the cat's before she spoke again.

'I didn't see you there.' Well- "Now you have," the snake replied, the barest hint of humor slipping into her voice. And she'd be difficult to lose sight of again, given the brilliant color of her scales. "Who are you? Do you live here?" The Pallas's cat's colors certainly matched those of the rock and bones around her.

And--so did the colors of another cat, this one larger and striped but still monochrome, apart from his eyes and the shining gem at his brow. Half-distractedly, the snake wondered if she really was the oddball here--once might have been a coincidence, but two sparked doubt in her. Why did her colors, orange and turquoise and a stripe of End's Sky (though she didn't know it by that name), differ so much from theirs? Was it because she somehow didn't belong here like they did? And if that was the case, was there a place for her elsewhere, or was this room of bones the entire world? She felt an unexpected twinge of emotion at the thought. There should be more color in the world.

Mostly, though, she was mesmerized by the tiger's gem.

"No," she replied absently to his question, her eyes still stuck to his forehead. Its smooth surface gleamed; its shimmering pink-purple color instilled new wonder in her heart. Her mind flashed back to the larimar shards she'd left behind, and she wondered if the tiger had more of his gem, too--because she'd been seized with a sudden desire to have this gem, it was so beautiful, and she didn't think he'd react kindly if she attempted to pluck it from his forehead.

She hadn't gone far from the place where she emerged, and the larimar laying in the shadows was still within sight. Impulsively, she tugged on a shard with her magic and brought it sailing over. "Is there more of your gem?" Despite her fascination, her voice was as even and smooth, like cool water, as it had been when she greeted Tourmaline. Perhaps she simply did not have a wide range of expression in either voice or facial expressions. "I can trade," she added, by way of explanation.

She'd stopped staring at the tiger's gem in order to use her magic, and now that she looked back at the two felines, she noted a startling resemblance--from her point of view, at least. Both were pale, both were some kind of cat, and both had a contrasting colorful gem. "... are you related?" she asked doubtfully, looking at one and then the other.